"Wake up, Dee."

Anastasia Dualla's eyes opened. It was dark in the enlisted barracks, and she was still half asleep. She didn't want to be awakened in the middle of the night by anyone. Still, if someone was bothering, it had to be important. She didn't hear the buzzing of the general quarters alert but that didn't mean that there was no problem. She looked up.

It was Felix Gaeta. " I need you to help me." He said it urgently.

She rubbed her eyes. " Aren't you still supposed to be in sickbay?" She had checked before she had gone to bed. Dr. Cottle had assured her that Gaeta wasn't likely to be up for a few hours so she had gone to bed.

" I'm working on the virus. I need to talk to Sharon. I need your help."

Be nice, she told herself as she slowly pulled off the bedcovers and sat up. He's been under a lot of stress. He was a friend so she had to do what she could to help him, but she had to admit, she was pretty tired and pretty tired of trying to be a friend to someone who kept getting her in trouble. Besides, she was absolutely positive that the last thing Gaeta needed was another extended chat with the ship's resident Cylon. " Lt. Gaeta,… Felix… it's the middle of the night."

" There's no night in space," he said quietly. " There's just a twenty four hour clock that we need in order to prevent us from going crazy. Without a fix on night and day, the average human being goes insane in approximately two weeks."

"That's…. interesting." She took a good look at him in the dim light and felt her sense of uneasiness grow. Gaeta looked… flush with excitement. He looked happy. That was not what she had expected. Somehow she had thought that he might be a little down about the rumor that he was a stim junkie. Or the other rumor that he had gone crazy. She knew he normally was self conscious about how people thought of him. The rumors were the sort that most people would have been very embarrassed about. Mortified even. The last thing she had expected was for Felix Gaeta to be literally hopping with happy excitement at her rack.

Then again, what she really expected was for Gaeta to still be sleeping down in sickbay. "Are you sure this needs to be done right now?" she asked quietly as she started to get dressed.

" I am so close, Dee. I am so close on so many questions…You're the only one I trust to help me." His expression was serious, almost deadly intent, which didn't jibe with the edgy glow in his eyes. He didn't look well, she realized as she shook off the last vestiges of sleep.

"Are you sure that you're all right?" She buttoned up her shirt as she spoke. Now that she was up, she was starting to feel a growing sense of disquiet. Earlier, in the CIC when the commander had order him to see the doctor, Gaeta had looked tired and virtually disconnected from the surroundings. Now he seemed to be trembling even as he stood still. His eyes seemed to dart around every time one of the sleeping crew people made a noise. It didn't seem like a big improvement over too exhausted to think.

Her question seemed to throw him off for a moment. " Dr. Cottle gave me a shot. I feel much better now. Like I'm pulling 10gs in a Viper. Or like thousands of tiny bugs are crawling around underneath my skin." He paused. " You don't think there really are tiny bugs under my skin, do you? I think it's just an irrational sensation."

"No, I don't think so," she said quickly. " Maybe we should stop by sick bay and make sure that you're not supposed to be… feeling like that." She was no doctor, but she suspected that whatever Cottle had given him was not supposed to make him act the way he was currently acting.

" No no, we don't have time for that," Gaeta said quickly. He pulled her out of the barracks and started walking down the hallway. His left hand tugged on her arm, and his grip was surprisingly strong. He started rubbing his uniform jacket with his right hand. " I have so many things to do. We need to stop at the lab first."

"Why is that?" She didn't really care, but acting interested was the easiest way to keep things calm. She had a feeling that it wouldn't take much to turn excitable but still rational into frenzied and paranoid.

" I need to make sure that Dr. Baltar actually tested my blood. He gets distracted easily." Gaeta picked up his pace, and Dualla found herself nearly trotting in order to keep up.

" Tested your blood?" Dualla had no idea where he was going with that. Dr. Baltar was about the last person she wanted to see with a manic version of Felix Gaeta. At best, Dr. Baltar was going to be a complete ass about any request or any sort of weird behavior. And, she admitted to herself, Gaeta was acting pretty weird. On the other hand, Baltar was going to run to the commander like a terrorized little boy if Gaeta did anything other than behave like a fawning student. She had the impression that it wasn't going to take much to send Gaeta over the edge. She didn't want that. The commander was going to forgive a lot if the anti-Cylon virus worked, but she had a feeling that they were getting very close to the unstated line.

Gaeta stopped short. He looked at her with suspicion. " The Cylon detection test…Dee, I thought you understood." He looked hurt. Hurt and suspicious.

Think fast, she told herself. " I don't think you're a Cylon."

It worked. He smiled slightly. " You shouldn't be so trusting. Most of the evidence indicates that I am."

" No," she said, and she knew she wasn't just lying to keep the crazy man calm. " I know you aren't a Cylon, Felix." She knew it. A sentimental fool would be willing to forgive a lot if they thought someone they cared about was a secret Cylon, but she was no fool. If he was a Cylon, then so was she.

She hoped that belief wasn't going to lead her down the path that Chief Tyrol and Lt. Agathon had already trod. She prayed to the gods that she didn't really believe in that she didn't follow that path. There was no way that someone she had known, had worked with, had been friends with was a Cylon. It just wasn't possible.

" I hope you're right," Gaeta said after a long moment. " If I am a Cylon, then the fleet is in terrible danger."

Without thinking, she slapped his face. " Stop it!" she cried, " Stop acting like this is some sort of game. If you're a Cylon, you'll be executed! The commander will feel really bad about it, but he'll let the president throw you into an airlock just to be careful. Even a Cylon dies in a vacuum."

He seemed thrown off by her reaction. " If I am a Cylon, I should be killed. Dee, if Dr. Baltar has lied about my test, I fully expect you to shoot me. That's why I woke you up. You are ok with this, right?"

If it hadn't been for the oddly earnest expression on his face, she would have hit him again. " No," she said in a rush, " I am not ok with being appointed as your executer. You're having a breakdown. You aren't a Cylon. You just think you are because Sharon Valerii has been working you over as hard as you have been working her. This is crazy!"

" Dee, you're the only one I trust." He made it sound like he considered her his only hope, and not the person he wanted to blow his brains out. " You know I'm right. If I am a Cylon, then every human being in the fleet is in danger. It's your duty."

That was true. She had taken an oath, an oath she took seriously. If she knew that someone was a Cylon, she had a duty, a duty to the fleet, and to the human race.

Duty, she realized suddenly, wasn't as easy as being able to follow orders.