The Reason - chapter 2

ooooooooooooo

Anders lay on his bunk, hands behind his head, listening to his roommates bickering good-naturedly about being in each other's 'space'. A knock at the hatch suddenly stilled all conversation. He sat up quickly.

"Come in," he called. He scanned the faces of the people around him. Fear was the most predominant emotion written on most of them. He wasn't surprised - they were all pretty jittery given the circumstances they'd lived in for the past half year. Truth be told, he felt a tightening in his stomach as the hatch swung open, but he was the leader of this ragtag group, and a leader had to be strong and show no fear. He stood up to bravely greet whatever was to come. Kara would never let them hurt us, he thought confidently.

"Samuel Anders?" the armed guard asked, looking directly at him.

"Yes," he answered.

"I'm here to escort you to the Admiral's quarters."

"Okay. Hold tight till I get back everyone." There were nods of assent but he noticed the fearful looks were still present.

He wondered as they walked Galactica's corridors, if anyone else was to be privy to this meeting. It would be nice if Kara were there, he thought, but somehow he didn't think it would be likely. Despite Kara's assertions that Anders and his people were to be trusted, he felt the Admiral still had suspicions. They were confirmed as he was ushered into Adama's quarters. The distrustful look was still firmly in place on the Admiral's face, and the armed guard stood just inside the door, gun at the ready.

"Are you a cylon?" were Adama's opening words.

Anders stood in stunned silence for a moment. "Do you really expect me to say yes if I am?" he threw back, a half-smile on his face.

"I really don't know what to expect."

"Kara trusts me, isn't that enough?"

"You may have fooled her too. It wouldn't be the first time one of them has had us completely fooled," Adama said bitterly.

Anders regarded him for a moment before answering, seeing the sudden flash of emotion and the equallly fast removal of it on Adama's face.

"I'm human and so are all of my people. I'd stake my life on it."

"You may have to. But though I'm tempted to trust Kara's judgment, I don't dare. I'm going to need each of you to give a blood sample for analysis."

"Why ...?"

"We have a method of detecting cylons. Or at least, maybe we do ... we've a doctor working on it. Plus, we have a cylon in custody now whose blood we can use as a comparison sample."

Anders brow furrowed and an irritated look crossed his face.

"Don't feel bad son, everyone in the fleet is being tested, starting with all of us on Galactica. You're in good company."

"Well, whatever's necessary," Anders said, face clearing and resuming it's usual cheerful look.

"Now, we need to talk about everything that's happened to you since the cylon attack - up to and including your time with Kara."

Anders smirked involuntarily. "Do you really need to know everything?"

"The explicit details I can do without. But she's barely said two words about her time there and that leads me to believe there's a lot to tell."

Anders nodded, a growing respect for Adama evident in his frank blue eyes. "I don't know the whole story," he admitted, "but I'll tell you what she told me."

Adama listened as Anders told his tale, a growing respect and liking for the young man beginning to sprout. I really hope he doesn't turn out to be a cylon, he thought. Kara doesn't need to have her heart broken again.

oooooooooooooooooo

Kara strode purposefully towards the hangar bay, intent on making herself useful. She knew Anders and Adama were meeting and had hoped she'd be there too, but having not been invited, she couldn't very well barge in and join them. So she figured she'd immerse herself in some mechanical repair work - that always had a way of occupying her mind when she was distracted.

A set of hurried footsteps behind her caught her attention and she turned to see who it was. Lee. He was still wearing that icy-cold expression, and it sent chills down her spine. He'd never looked at her that way before.

"So, I guess you kept yourself busy on Caprica, eh?"

"Mm," she replied, refusing to be baited.

"Wasn't as hard on you as we all thought, now was it?"

"You got something you wanna say to me?" she hissed through clenched teeth.

"Why? Why did you do it kara? Why sleep with a guy you hardly know - he could be a cylon for frak's sake!"

She whirled angrily to face him. "In case you didn't get the message the last time we had this conversation, I don't like being called a slut! My personal life is neither yours nor anyone else's business! And you're the last person who should be making insinuations about my sex life!"

His eyes narrowed. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I know about you and Shevon."

He paled visibly, and took a step back as if she'd slapped him. "What? How ...?"

"You know Lee, that really takes the cake. You have the nerve to call me a slut, and all the while you've been paying a prostitute to sleep with you."

"How did you find out?" he demanded angrily.

Her expression softened slightly. "I was worried about you. You haven't been yourself since your little 'spacewalk'. You've been unaccountably missing for hours on end, late for shifts, distracted all the time - you were even gone an entire night. Yes," she said in answer to his querying look, "I do pay attention. I noticed you never slept in your bunk. So I did a little digging and kept an eye on you."

"Happy you found out about my pathetic little secret?" he asked bitterly.

"That was never the point Lee. I was worried you might ... hurt yourself. Or someone else. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"How long have you known?" His head hung in embarrassment.

"Week or so," she admitted.

"I can only imagine what you must think of me now," he whispered.

"Lee," she said reprovingly, but still he stared at the ground. "Lee, nothing could change my opinion of you." He looked up at her, eyes dark with sorrow. "We all have needs - physical, emotional, spiritual ... Considering the harshness of the life we live, we have to take whatever shreds of happiness we can. You're only human Lee, you need love and intimacy just like the rest of us. I know I can't fully understand everything you're going through, but I've got some idea of how hard it must be for you, being who you are, and what you represent to the rest of us. It's not as easy for you to find someone and have a relationship here where your every move is scrutinized. I don't blame you at all for what you did."

Lee smiled weakly. "I don't understand how you can be okay with this. I mean, if the situation were reversed, I'd ..."

"That's because there's one big difference between us," she interrupted. "I don't judge people."

His gaze dropped to the deck shamefully again. Kara put her hand on his shoulder gently. "I'm your friend Lee, and I always will be. You know you can count on me if you need someone."

Lee pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. "Thanks," he whispered.

"Any time Lee. Any time."

ooooooooooooooooooo

"So tell me, how did you manage to get a cylon ship and fly it here? Have you flight experience?" Anders wasn't sure, but he thought he detected a note of hopefulness in that last sentence.

"Well, we reused Kara's plan on the next airstrip we found - not surprisingly they didn't use the one we originally stole from again. It worked like a charm though and I was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't as hard to operate as I'd thought it would be. She told us the ships were biologically piloted, but she was wrong about the bigger ones. I guess they're meant for moving humanoid cylons because they had fairly normal controls."

"And you figured out how to fly it? That's hard to believe." The distrustful expression was back.

"Not before nearly crashing half a dozen times," Anders said ruefully. "I was sure we were going to die there. Honestly, I think the only reason I was able to fly it was because I was an ace video-game player. I always loved the flight simulator games and I guess that came in handy."

"That's a pretty flimsy explanation."

Anders shrugged. "I know, but it's the best one I've got. It took me quite a while to figure out how to fly it smoothly. There wasn't a soul on board who wasn't puking their guts out for quite a long time." He grinned apologetically.

"Another interesting question is how you found us."

"How we found you?"

"Space is large. Very large. How did you manage to look in just the right place? You could have been searching the rest of your life and not found us."

"That was pure luck. We fiddled with the controls till we figured out how to set the jump drive and then set it to jump as far as it was able to go. Didn't really have any idea which direction to go, so we just picked one and went. Then we picked up a homing beacon - faint but we followed it till we saw a huge fleet of ships. It was either you, or it was them, in which case we were already as good as dead, so we just said to hell with it and took a chance."

"Homing beacon? A homing beacon led you to us? My gods ..." Adama stood up and strode to the phone. "This is the Admiral. Captain Adama, Lieutenant Thrace and Mr. Gaeta to the conference room immediately!" He put down the phone. "Come with me," he said brusquely, striding out of his quarters. Anders followed, the armed marine at his side.

Lee, Kara and Gaeta were already there when they arrived a few minutes later. Lee took one look at his father's worried face and knew something was terribly wrong. "What's the matter dad?" he asked, concern furrowing his brow.

"We have a problem. A big problem."

TBC