Anders' tip had been right. There was some sort of Cylon medical outpost in the abandoned mental institution. Apparently Kara had been wounded when the Cylons attacked the resistance and they had taken her here. Lee paused at the door, setting himself up for another challenge. He hoped Helo had done what he asked because that was the only way his plan would work.

Anders had planned a full-on assault of the institution when he found out Kara was here, but in Lee's opinion, that was the worst thing they could do. The Cylons would see them coming a mile away. Lee had told Helo his reservations, and they agreed that something had to be done. That was the reason why Lee found himself sneaking out the night before Anders planned to move and Helo was stuck at the resistance base, doing his best to convince Anders not to follow Apollo.

The corridors were empty. Lee decided that was a good sign. The longer he could make it without running into a Cylon, the greater of a chance he had at finding Kara. Keeping his hand on where his gun was holstered, Lee kept moving. She was in here somewhere.

A steady beeping noise grew louder each step Lee took towards the double doors at the end of the hall. He was within twenty feet of the doors when they flew open. Ducking behind the counter of what must have once been a nurse's station, he prayed he was quick enough to escape notice from whatever had entered the corridor.

"Simon, this is getting old," hissed a saccharine-sweet voice. "You said she was the key to this whole project, and yet you've gotten nothing from her."

"It's taking time. Her body is resistant to the treatment," hissed a second voice, this one decidedly male. "And we don't want to kill her."

"You have a few more hours and then she'll give up like the rest of them."

"You don't think anyone will come looking for her?"

"No one will come."

Lee waited until the voices had faded before standing up from behind the nurse's station. The two human-Cylons had said there was someone alive in there. Hoping that was a good sign, he said a quick prayer to the gods that it might be Kara and began to run as fast as he could. The doors swished loudly as he pushed them open.

The room consisted of one empty hospital bed after another. Machines and cords were strewn everywhere almost as if like someone had tried to clean out the whole place in a hurry. The beeping was still echoing through the room, and Lee tried to zero in on where it was coming from. Stepping over a few wayward cords and pushing a chair out of his way, he kept walking.

And then there she was, strapped down to a hospital bed. The machine beside her beeped steadily, letting Lee know he was not too late. There were wires and tubes hooked all over her body, and it was just too much for him. Lee let down his guard as he reached in to start unhooking her. He tuned everything out and just focused on making it better for her. It only took a few moments to finish setting her free, and Lee was glad that she didn't stir to the embarrassment of recognizing what he was doing.

He reached down to feel her wrist, his hands pausing to lightly brush where the bonds had rubbed her skin raw. The steady beat of her pulse underneath his touch put an end to the last of his fears. She was hurting, but she was alive. He could feel the tears begin to fall down his face as he pulled her hand up to his lips. She was cold to the touch.

Lee had no idea why she was the only person left in the facility or why there were no Cylons guarding her, and he didn't care. He was just thankful for this small moment he had been given by the gods. She was alive.

When he felt her hand move slightly in his, he looked up to see her awake and smiling at him through whatever haze the Cylons had put her in. "I knew you'd come for me," she whispered.

Lee pulled the small electrodes off of her face as her eyes began to droop. "You need to stay with me, Kara, if we're going to get you home."

"Lee. Stop." She grabbed his hands with more strength than he thought she had in her. Her eyes fell shut for a moment, and her tongue licked her chapped lips. When she looked at him again, there was desperation in her eyes. "Please go."

"Not without you," he insisted.

"I'm dying," she whispered as her eyes felt shut again. "There's nothing you can do to change that."

"You're not dying, Kara." Lee sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to stroke her cheek. "I won't let you."

"You have no choice, Lee."

"No. I found you. You're alive. That's all I need to know." She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Lee's face broke out in a large grin as he saw that familiar stubborn glare. "I've seen these kinds of machines before, Kara," he explained. "They're part of the artificial fertilization process for women who can't conceive. Whatever they did to you, it isn't fatal. You might be in pain, but if you don't give up, you'll live through it."

"I've seen woman after woman taken away in a body bag from this very room. Whatever the machines did, it pulls away at something deep inside until you can't take it anymore. It killed each and every one of them, that absence. It will kill me, too."

Lee knew how hard life had been to Kara. He had personally witnessed her whole world collapsing in on her years earlier. Now, as he watched her in silence for a moment, the thought finally dawned at him that maybe he wouldn't be able to get her out of here before the Cylons came back. Maybe she didn't have the strength to let him.

Lee's mind drifted back to the one time she had lost the will to live and the lengths he had gone to in order to bring her back. He would just have to do it again.

"Each of those women you saw die were nowhere near as strong as you. I don't know how, but they let the Cylons take away their will to live. The Kara Thrace I know would never let that happen to her."

"I'm not the same woman you knew then. I can't do this anymore. There's no reason why I should."

Lee leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "If I have to give you a reason to live again, I'll do it."

"What's the supposed to mean?" she asked.

He ignored her question. Now was not the time to be explaining the past. "I already unhooked you from all the machines. I will not hesitate to pick you up and carry you out of this place, Cylons or no Cylons."

"Lee, you're being stupid."

Lee smiled at her and reached his arms around her, helping her sit up. "And you're being difficult. Now that we know everyone's acting normal, what say you help me a little?"

Kara winced in pain as he swung her legs off the side of the bed. Shaking her head, she fought his hold in an attempt to lay back down. "It hurts too much."

"Pain means you're still alive," Lee replied, slipping his arm around her back. "And there's no going back here, Kara. You either die on me right now or we're getting out of this place."

"Dying's an option?" she said with a laugh as he pulled her to her feet.

"I probably should have specified. Dying is an option only if we both do it at the same time."

"So all I have to do is kill you to make the pain stop?" she winced. Each step was wrecking hell on every nerve ending she had.

"At any point, if you want it to end, there's a gun in my holster you could use on me."

Kara rolled her eyes. "As if I would ever shoot you."

"You've threatened before," Lee reminded her as they stepped out into the long hallway.

"I was never serious, and you know it, Lee."

"Sometimes it was unclear," he whispered, pulling her tighter against his body as she stumbled a little. Once they got back into a rhythm, Lee smiled at her. "See we're doing just fine with this whole escape thing."

"Do you have back-up, Lee? Helo maybe?"

Lee shook his head. "Helo's back at the high school keeping Anders and his men from coming in here guns blazing." Kara faltered in her steps, her grip tightening. Lee instinctively moved his other arm around her. "What's wrong, Kara?"

"Anders is alive? The Cylons told me he was killed when I was brought in."

The tears forming in her eyes didn't surprise Lee. Helo had explained how close Kara had gotten with Anders. Still, knowing that didn't help the sting caused by actually seeing it in her eyes and hearing it in her voice. She cared for this pyramid player. "Anders is fine. Like I said, he wanted to storm in here the second he found out they had you. He cares about you a lot."

"He's a good man," Kara said with a smile. "Not the best tactician but his heart's in the right place."

Lee could hear her struggling for the air and decided they would never make it out of her alive if he pushed her too hard. He braced both of their weight against the wall. "Helo told me just how much your heart is in it, too. It was good to hear that you're happy."

"Anders made me forget the horrors I've seen on Caprica. He was exactly what I needed when I needed it."

"It sounds like there's a 'but' in there."

"But Anders wasn't what I needed to get myself out of here," Kara whispered as she pushed off the wall. "We don't have time for breaks, Lee. Let's get going before the Cylons realize you're breaking me out of the nuthouse."

Lee chuckled as he slipped his hands around his friend again. "We're almost there, Kara."

"Good. Because my side fraking hurts." At his confused look, she gave a small shrug. "They've operated on me a few times. The wounds are still a little fresh."

"At least that's all you're going to be carrying with you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I overheard some Cylons when I was trying to find you. Seems your body has been resistant to whatever they've been trying to do. They said they needed more time. Too bad you're not going to be around anymore."

Lee had expected her to be happy when she found out what he knew, but he hadn't expected her to slump to the floor, body shaking with emotion as the long held-back tears spilled out. He kneeled down beside her, unsure if she wanted him to comfort her or not. She had never had mood swings like this. He was afraid if he touched her, she would lash out.

"Kara?" he asked hesitantly after a minute.

"Oh gods," she whimpered. "You really saved me, didn't you?"

Lee was taken aback when she suddenly looked up with him. Her eyes may be glistening with tears, but a huge smile was plastered across her face. Kara stared at him a moment before flinging herself into his arms and squeezing tightly. Her laughter rang in his ears right before she turned to rain kisses all over him. He let out a chuckle as her exuberance pushed them flat against the ground.

Kara whispered something under her breath before leaning in to kiss him gently on the lips. His hands reached out to wrap around her waist as she pressed against him. The heat between them flared up as Kara opened her mouth and invited him in. He couldn't say no.

Lee knew how absurd it was to be making out with his best friend on the floor of a Cylon stronghold, but he found himself not caring. This felt too good to be wrong.

He must have tightened his grip on Kara's waist a little too much because the next thing he knew, she was wincing against him. The reality of how much she must be hurting managed to clear his head rather quickly. "Are you okay?" he asked, shifting so they both sat up.

"I'm fine. Nothing a few appointments with Doc Cottle won't fix."

Lee tried his best not to dwell on her casual mention of returning to Galactica. Instead, he focused on getting his body under control and figuring out why she had attacked him in the first place. "So, that was nice," he laughed as he helped her to her feet. His arm slid around her as they started moving again. "Would you care to explain?"

"The Cylons have been desperate to find a way to impregnate human women with their children. That's what you've stumbled upon. Procreation seemed to be their ultimate goal. These farms take hundreds and thousands of female survivors and hook them up to machines to try to inseminate them. If you're lucky, the toasters drug you up enough so that you can't feel what they do to you." Kara reached her hand down to where he firmly held her waist. "You just told me that I don't have a Cylon abomination growing inside of me, which means you were right. I can make it past the pain."

"Told you I'd give you a reason to live," Lee whispered in her ear.

They walked in silence the last few minutes, Lee lost in his thoughts about the lengths he would go to for this woman and Kara thinking about how lucky she was to have someone who cared for her as much as Lee did. The doors leading outside the institution made barely a noise as Lee wrenched them open.

"I'm sorry, Lee," Kara whispered.

"For what?" Lee asked.

She pushed past him into the outside world. The sun reached out to blind her eyes. "I lost your jacket."

"Huh?"

"The one you gave me when Zak died. I had it on me when the Cylons attacked. I lost it somewhere in the confusion of being taken to this place. They moved me around so much."

"You knew it was mine?"

Kara rolled her eyes. "It had Lieutenant Lee Adama stitched on the sleeve."

Lee's mind went reeling. If Kara knew that was his jacket, did she make any other connection between that time after Zak's death and what he had done? More importantly, did she realize what they had done together?

"I want to go home, Lee," she whispered, the determination clear in her voice. "I'm so damn tired of this planet. I just want to be back on Galactica where things made sense."

There wasn't time for him to tell her he felt the same way as the second they were clear of the building, gunshots filled the air. Lee threw Kara to the ground, covering her with his body. All he could think of was he had to protect her. They hadn't gotten this far for him to let her get hurt again. "Don't move," Lee yelled over the gunfire.

"You're crushing me. I don't think that will be a problem," she yelled back.

Lee tried to forget the little twinge of fear he could hear in her voice and just focus on the options they had. Obviously, the Cylons had let him free Kara in order to attack them when they thought they were safe. It seemed the gods didn't want to make this easy on him.

As if the gods heard his small crisis of faith, a loud boom came out of nowhere as a truck skidded to a halt in front of them, spraying gravel and dirt everywhere. The doors flew open, and Lee looked up in time to see Anders jump to the ground. "Let's go," he yelled over the gunshots, helping both pilots to their feet.

Lee let Anders support Kara as the resistance leader pushed her into the backseat. The gunshots still filled the air around them, and one clipped Lee's shoulder, making him fall to the earth. He heard Kara yell his name and looked up to see her staring at him, eyes wide with fear. Anders had his arms wrapped securely around her, and yet she still looked so lost.

Swearing loudly, Lee used the truck to pull himself to his feet. He couldn't have Kara worrying about him in her current state. Settling into the front seat, he smiled at Helo through the pain as the truck kicked into drive. "Nice of you to pick us up."

"I held them off as long as I could, just like I promised" Helo assured Lee, spinning gravel as he pushed the accelerator down.

"And I got her out, just like I promised." Lee glanced at the backseat in time to see Anders place a small kiss on the top of Kara's head. He could feel the weight of what she had gone through in the past two weeks suddenly pressing down on her as her eyes had hollowed out. Tears began to roll down her face again.

"Kara, honey, stop crying," Anders whispered, pushing the tears off her cheek. "You're safe."

Kara shook her head as her shoulders began to shake. Her hands came up to cover her face. The crying only got worse. Lee tried to tune it out and focus as Helo asked him if he was all right. He had barely told Helo that it had just grazed his arm before Anders started pleading with Kara again.

"Kara?" Anders said. He was trying to pull her hands away from her face, but she wouldn't let him. "Come on. Don't shut me out."

Lee couldn't take this anymore. "Kara, look at me," Lee hissed, reaching out touch her knee.

Anders pushed him away. "I have it, Apollo. You did what you felt you had to do so you can stop worrying now."

Lee glared at him. "I never stop worrying about her, and it's painfully obvious that you do not have it."

"She's probably just tired from all the shit you just put her through," Anders objected. "We could have spared her this if you had just waited until we could mount a full-scale attack. I've tried to humor Helo and give you the benefit of the doubt, but you've done nothing but frak up what little semblance of normalcy we had here." Anders face lit up in disgust. "You had to come here so you could play hero to her again. You couldn't stand the thought that someone else might be capable of keeping her safe."

Lee ignored Ander's insults. He was too busy focusing on Kara's right hand. While Anders was yelling, she had brought it away from her face in order to grasp his wrist. Her grip was tightening. "Move," he hissed at Anders.

"Excuse me?"

"She needs someone she trusts with her right now. She needs me."

"You just can't give it up, can you?" Anders yelled, pulling Kara in closer. "Her world does not revolve around you, Apollo!"

"If you don't move now, I will make you move," Lee threatened.

"Anders, do what he fraking says," Helo insisted. "He's been through a lot worse with Kara than you have. He knows what he's doing. If he says she needs him, she needs him."

Anders loosened his hold on Kara and was surprised to see her move her hand to intertwine her fingers in Lee's. After a second, Lee stood up as much as he could and let her pull him to where she was. Anders shifted into the front seat without argument. It was obvious to him what Kara wanted.

Feeling her shiver, Lee shrugged out of his jacket and slid it around her. He felt her bury her head into his chest, and he calmly whispered words that meant nothing at all as her sobs finally began to die down. He tightened his hold on the one woman who meant the world to him. Smiling to himself, he leaned down to whisper, "You can keep this jacket to replace the other one." He heard a small, muffled laugh followed by a sniffle. It seemed like teasing was the best way to keep her settled, he decided. "So Helo took me to your apartment yesterday. It had a nice inner-angst, oh-I'm-so-tortured feel."

Kara pulled her head up and wiped at her eyes. "Are you talking about the wall?"

"Mostly, yeah."

"It was a poem I wrote shortly after Zak died. It was something that helped me move on. I always thought of it as my guardian angel, watching over me when I couldn't watch out for myself."

"Why was that?" Lee asked, even though he had a feeling he knew the answer.

"You know, I really don't remember. Something about it was soothing to me."

"Maybe we can convince my father to let you turn the wall of the ready room into another soothing poem."

Kara stiffened and pulled back a few inches. "You really think we can make it back to Galactica?"

"I did bring a Raptor with me."

"That's not enough. I'm not leaving anyone behind."

"There's no way we'll ever get enough ships and enough pilots to take everyone back to the Fleet." Lee looked to Helo, hoping the other man might help convince Kara she was being ridiculous.

"Actually, you're wrong, sir," Helo said. "Boomer showed up while you were saving Kara. She brought a Heavy Raider with her. After the casualties suffered by the last Cylon attack, we should be able to fit everyone aboard both the Raider and your Raptor."

"Anders?" Kara said, turning to look at the man in the front seat.

"Don't worry, Kara. I think everyone's ready to leave this planet behind. Besides, the way you and Helo talked, the Galactica is the place to be these days."

Lee could see the resignation and defeat in Anders' eyes and knew that Kara had made a choice without even realizing it. "The Fleet will be happy to have you."

"Thanks," Anders said with a nod.

Helo started talking about the Fleet's need for more pilots and whether any of Anders' men might be interested, giving Lee the freedom to focus his attention back on the woman in his arms. He could feel Kara relax against him completely for probably the first time in years, and it brought the smile back to his face. "So, Kara, how many more situations that end with you in my arms are you going to get yourself into before you admit how hopelessly in love with me you are?"

"Frak off, Lee," she said, shifting slightly. Before she could stop herself, she groaned as the pain intensified. "Why does this hurt more now that I'm out of there?"

"Because you tackled me in a hallway?" Lee joked. "I mean, that can't be good for whatever they did to you."

"I don't recall you minding it," she shot back, pulling away to glare at him.

"Well, it's the least I deserved considering I did defy the President of the Twelve Colonies to come to Caprica in order to rescue you."

"The President doesn't know you're here?"

Lee laughed at the surprise look on Kara's face. He had forgotten that she had no idea what the Fleet had gone through in her absence. Settling in to the backseat, he slid her in close to him again. Kara's hand reached up instinctively to where his rested on her shoulder, and she let out a sigh. It was the most welcome sound he had ever heard. Smiling, he took a deep breath and began, "Oh boy do I have some stories to tell you, Kara. It all started when I held a gun to the XO's head…"