Disclaimer: The Characters are not mine; I'm just tweaking them for a minute.

Warnings: Spoilers sort of, for the second half of season two – some are confirmed, some aren't, but there is some important stuff in the stories that came from spoiler speculation.

Rating – M, still no smut, but some adult situations.

A/N – Thanks for the review! Hope you enjoy this chapter. It's a shorty, sort of a segue way to bring some loose ends closer together.

Chapter 2

Present

She stands when he walks into the lounge. He scowls. He pulls his shoulders back and lifts his head as he lengthens his strides to reach her table.

"I suggest you start explaining yourself right now. I don't like games, and I don't like being manipulated," he hisses at her with teeth clenched.

"If you'll sit, Major, I intend to do just that." Unfazed by his anger, the teacher holds out an arm to indicate the chair closest to him. He sits, reluctantly. She joins him and pulls a picture from her bag. "I'm not playing games with you." She hands him the picture.

It's not a recent photo; in it the little girl is only an infant and is being held by her mother. He feels a pang of sadness that he swallows quickly. Regaining his stiff, angry posture he looks at the woman across from him. "Get started."

"My name is Raisa. I was Gianne's roommate when Paya was born. Her parents and mine have been friends for many years; when she left you, her mother called and asked if she could stay with me. They stayed until a few months after this picture was taken, when Gianne got involved with Shevon." She pauses, letting the first part of her story to sink in. "We also have some mutual friends. That's how I knew you were going to be here today. I apologize for dragging you into the classroom, but I figured it was the only way to get you to talk to me. You aren't exactly approachable."

"Go on."

"I lost touch with Gianne after she moved. She stopped calling her parents and essentially broke all contact with everyone she knew. I had an inkling of the kind of people she was involved with, but I never tried to find her. Gianne was always very private, I don't think she would have been found easily." She pauses again and looks at him for a moment, he looks ready to swing a punch, jump out of his skin and collapse, all at the same time. She feels for him, knows what he has been put through recently. "The next I heard, she had been arrested. Gianne's parents tried, in vain, to locate Paya when her mother was sent to prison. I even went to the prison to speak with her, hoping that she would let something slip. Gianne confided in me a great deal while we were living together, I thought maybe…" She trails off.

"She sold her to Shevon." His voice is cold. The heartless bitch had sold his daughter to a prostitute. Shevon had told him that herself, right before she had one of her goons break three of his ribs. The ever-present voice in his head reminds him it is just as much his fault as Gianne's. His self-imposed emotional filters are failing. He feels all of the rage, sorrow and hopelessness that he's been attempting to suppress since he learned of his daughter's existence.

Six Weeks Earlier

"Paya, this is your daddy." She says as she draws her pistol on him. The little girl sits, as quiet and stony as a statue, and doesn't look up. She blinks and shivers slightly when she hears Shevon cock the gun.

"Surprised, Lee?" she asks, as she walks closer to him. "Her momma and I were friends. I think you know her – Gianne Reed?" He draws in his breath sharply. "You broke her heart, left her alone and pregnant. Lucky she had friends like me who could find a girl some work." She whistles sharply and a group of large, armed men join them in the small room on the Prometheus. "You're a joke, Captain Apollo, and a sorry excuse for a man. Thing is, you know some people who can get me what I want, and you and my very own piece of Adama lineage over there might be worth them giving it to me."

He starts toward Shevon, only to be restrained by the two largest of her companions.

"She's mine, alright. You're girlfriend sold her to me for bail money and a bottle of stims." She nods at a third goon and his world goes black.

Present

"Major Adama, Paya is okay. I've taken her to the doctor and a counselor; she's going to be fine. No one hurt her physically. She's young and very resilient. She's not going to remember any of this in a few years." She sees the pain in his eyes and her heart breaks for him. She sees a flash of relief wash over his face. "She's been with me since the Prometheus. I saw her on the news broadcast of Shevon's arrest and recognized her." She pauses, feeling him out. "She's an amazing kid, Major. I hope you are planning to get to know her. I want to help you do that."

"She doesn't need someone like me in her life." He is looking down. His heart is breaking all over again for the little girl he abandoned. His own father ignored him most of his life, but at least he was there. He didn't even acknowledge his own child for the first four years of her life, and she ended up with Shevon. He was the last thing the poor child needed.

"Major, you are exactly what she needs. The beautiful part of this new world we are living in is that we all get a second chance. This little girl needs a family – I love her like she's my own child, but I'm not her family. You are. It's not too late for you to give her what she needs. I also know that you'll never be able to forgive yourself if you don't."

He takes a long sip of water and nods slightly. He is a tangle of emotion and for the first time in weeks he is acutely aware the pervasiveness of his exhaustion.

"There is more you need to know, Major." She studies him, wondering if he can handle any more news in his current state. "Gianne is not who you thought she was. She was not innocent by any means. What I'm getting at is, well, she set you up. When she got pregnant. Paya is not your daughter."

"What? But you just said I'm her family."

"Paya is Zak's."

TBC