A/N: I feel it necessary to preface the rest of this story with the following: I have no idea about what is going to happen in Season 3. I don't know any of the writers, producers, cast, etc from the show. I have purposely avoided reading about Season 3 because I do not like 'knowing' what is going to happen before it does...I just like making it up in my head. I know as much (if not less) than the rest of you. SO. If anything even remotely like what I have written in 'Dark Days' happens in season 3 it is purely coincidental. All I have done is try to imagine what might come next, based on what has come before.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Battlestar Galactica

Dark Days

Chapter Eight

Laura left Lee Adama with Colonel Tigh. Having filled him in on what little she knew about the Cylon occupation, and the current situation, she was slowly making her way back to Cally and Tyrol's tent, trying to bring the fragments of her shattered reality back together in her mind, trying to form some cohesive picture of the world around her.

Everywhere she looked she saw Cylons. One or two of the human variety, but mostly metallic centurions. They stood along the promenade, they walked between the tents, they watched the colonists as they tried to go about their day. The bile in her throat burned, as she remembered the long months of fear and loss, all caused by these creatures...strike that, these machines. She knew the disgust she felt was evident on her face.

For months after the election, Laura had walked around feeling numb, anesthetized. Never having to face the feeling of helplessness shared by so many in the fleet, always having some degree of control over the decisions made, had left her ill equipped to cope with the complete hopelessness of watching the wrong decisions being made by Gaius Baltar. Of being unable to fix what she so clearly saw as that which was broken.

Now, she trembled with rage. She should have fought harder to convince Bill not to go public about the election fix. She should have refused the demand for an election in the first place. She should have screamed 'traitor' as loud and as long as she could after she'd remembered seeing Baltar with the cylon on Caprica. She should have...but she hadn't. Instead she had stepped aside and watched as the pieces broke apart, as the future slipped further and further away from them all. Walking back to Cally and Tyrol, Laura made a decision. She'd learned so much about how to lead these people, and had ample time to review her mistakes. She'd been standing aside for too long now.

She'd heard Colonel Tigh being to fill Apollo in on their plans to organize a resistance, to prepare for the return of the fleet, for a rescue. They would need someone, a person who was not military and had a different perspective, who had ties with the Quorum, and who could help spread information and influence. She was still Laura Roslin, former President of the Colonies. She wanted to be that person.

"Just give her the frakkin medicine, damn it!" Tyrol's voice boomed inside the tent, as Laura approached. Pulling the flap aside, she surveyed the tense scene. Cally's labour was in full swing, the sweat beading off of her forehead. She was looking even weaker than she had two hours earlier, her eyes almost lost in the dark rings that formed around them.

"Doctor?" She could see the syringe in his hand, and wondered what had Tyrol so agitated. The news of the 'medicine' should have calmed him, given him some hope where before there had been none.

Dr. Cottle turned to her and grimaced, obviously frustrated that he was going to have to repeat himself . "I've already explained this to the Chief. She's too close to having that baby right now. There's no guarantee that this is even going to work, it is such a small dose. I'm not sure there's even for both of them." Glancing over at the pregnant woman, he explained, "And Cally won't let me administer the dose to her. I explained that the baby might not get the full effects of the medicine if it is born before the dose is carried through her system. Her labour is going faster than I would have expected for a first time mother. Now she is insisting that we wait and give the baby what it needs after it is born"

Cally added, through clenched teeth, "I'll take what ever is left after the baby is safe...I'll be fine..." she let out another growl as pain racked her body. Tyrol dropped back down on the bed, at her side, looking defeated.

Not enough? Confused, Laura shot a questioning look back at the Doctor. He sighed deeply and walked over to her. "I took as much as I could..." he was referring to the blood sample he'd taken from Isis. He'd been doing tests regularly, monitoring the child's progress, so it had been easy enough to explain to Maya what he was doing. As far as she was concerned all of the babies were receiving the same attention, as part of an initiative to detect and eliminate any possible complications. Babies were too precious a commodity in this new world to risk losing them to sickness and disease. "Laura, they came and took Maya and Isis away, I didn't have time to take more." He kept this last part as quiet as he could.

Still, it was like a shot slamming into her diaphragm, pushing all of her air out. "What?" she gasped. "Who took them"

"Cylons. Frakkin bastards. Three metallics and a man I've never seen before...called himself 'Simon'. Said all of the babies were being brought to Colonial One for inspection and to be counted. Damned creepy if you ask me"

Laura closed her eyes, reeling. She'd left them alone. Maya must be frantic right now. "If you'll excuse me Doctor, I have to find them. I'll bring Isis to you as soon as I can, make do with what you have for now. Gods, is there no end to this?" The name Simon had sent a shock through her. She knew the name, she'd read Starbuck's report on the baby farms on Caprica. The cylon fascination with reproduction was terrifying, but what had Laura's heart pounding was the fear of Isis being anywhere near a cylon. If they ever discovered that baby...she refused to let herself think about what ramifications that discovery would hold.

"I'll take care of them, Madame President." There was no sarcasm in the Doctor's voice this time.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lee had not been worried as he waited with Tigh, not even when the Colonel himself started acting a little bit antsy. "It isn't like Starbuck to be late, not with what is at stake here…something must have happened." Tigh had looked around nervously. It was already more than half an hour past their agreed upon meeting time.

But Lee had not softened. It was exactly like Kara, he thought. It was exactly what she had become best at: living according to her own needs, her own rules. Even when she'd still been on Galactica she had bucked the system whenever it had suited her, why would this be any different. "Maybe she found Anders…" Between Tigh and Laura Roslin, Lee had been brought up to speed on what was happening on the planet, including Anders' disappearing act.

"Apollo, it's long past time the two of you worked this out. If we're going to get our collective asses out of this frakked up situation, we're going to need everyone working from the same game plan. Its been a long time since you've been in the sky with Starbuck, but the two of you were unstoppable when you worked together. Even I'm man enough to admit that." Tigh had some idea about what had come between the two pilots, as did most of the people who knew them. Anyone familiar with the Adama family history knew Kara's special place in Lee and Bill Adama's hearts. And he'd seen the distance grow between these two ever since Anders' arrival.

Lee shrugged, his face giving nothing away. He knew that Tigh was right, they needed her. But he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. Kara would have to show up before he had to decide how he was going to work with her.

It was only after he started to notice what was happening in the promenade that he began to worry. A large group of women and children had been gathered, were still being gathered together and were being led up the promenade towards the cylon ships at the head of the city. As Lee watched, he could see more and more women being brought to the crowd, accompanied by cylons.

Women and children. Lee flashed on the horror story that Kara had told him about what she'd seen at the Farm on Caprica. They'd been drinking, and she told the story with her typical bravado, but he'd known she was holding something back. There had been real pain in her eyes. At the time he'd given her the space hold back whatever it was that she'd been holding back. Now he wished he knew, wished he had pushed her harder. In truth he wished she had trusted him enough to let it out. His voice was tight, "We have to find her. Now"

Tigh nodded in agreement, and led the way.

That was how the two men came to find Kara Thrace lying in a seemingly lifeless heap in her tent. For what had seemed like the longest moments of his life, Lee believed her to be dead. It was only as the laboured sounds of her breathing penetrated his panic that he realized he had been holding his own breath. Dropping to his knees beside her, he carefully brushed the hair off of her face.

"Dear Gods!" Tigh whispered beside him.

The Gods had nothing to do with this, Lee thought, the heat of the rage inside of him quickly replacing the icy panic that had gripped him moments earlier. "Help me get her onto the bed"

Tigh managed to find water and a washcloth, and Lee used these to clean Kara up. As he washed the dirt and specks of blood from her face and arms, he surveyed the damage. She'd sustained several blows to her head, dark bruises already beginning to form on her face. He could also see the blackening outline of a hand on her throat. But she was breathing, and as he ran his hands over her arms, hands, and face, he could find no obvious evidence of broken bones.
Frak! How long had she been lying here while he had cursed her for being late to the meeting. Maybe if they had come looking for her a few minutes earlier…

"Had to be the cylons. Mother frakkers!" Tigh was stating the obvious, pacing back and forth.

Lee's jaw twitched. "Go find Hot Dog and the others. Keep your meeting with them, and find out what the frak is going on with the women and children. I'll stay with her." His eyes never left Kara. "We have a lot to figure out, and I feel like we're flying blind. We need to know what it happening out there, what the others have found out. Bring them back here. I have to meet Sharon at 18:30, but I'm not going to leave Kara here alone"

"I'll be back before then." Tigh was reluctant to leave, but both men knew they didn't have much time to co-ordinate a plan, they had to move forward. He hovered for a moment beside Kara, "Starbuck, you always did pick the most damned inconvenient times to duck out. I expect to see you up and in fighting form when I get back!" The strain in his voice betrayed the emotion he was feeling. Nodding at Lee, Tigh slipped out of the tent.

And then they were alone. Lee kept the cool washcloth against Kara's swelling cheekbone, whispering to her as he did so, urging her to wake up. How had they gotten here? How had so much gone wrong so quickly? He reeled at the doubts that were swelling up inside of him. He could hear the sounds of cylons outside the tent, filling the city. He could hear rushed and panicked whispers of people as they passed by the tent. He could not wrap his head around the ramifications of what was happening. He focused on Kara instead.

Relief washed over him when she finally stirred, letting out a low groan, a tear squeezing out from under her fluttering eyelids. "Kara…" his voice was low. He held her hand in his, cursing once again the toaster that had done this to her. When he found out who…

"Kara, c'mon you have to be strong…you have to wake up"

Her eyes opened, and he could see her struggling to focus on him, panic and pain settling simultaneously into her conscious mind. Suddenly her whole body tensed, and Kara tried to sit up.

"Frak me!" she winced and lowered herself back onto the bed. "Lee, what the frak are you doing here?" Her voice was a cracked whisper.

She sounded weak but she sounded like Starbuck, so he let himself relax a little bit more. He choked back the things he really wanted to tell her. How sorry he was that he'd let his hurt come between them, that he'd just let her walk away from Galactica and from him. That he wanted to gather her close to him and hold her, keep her safe, and that he wanted her to need him. Instead he attempted to comfort her with a wry, crooked smile. "I'm here to save your ass, as usual. What happened to you, anyway"

Shifting uncomfortably on her bed, Kara's hands flew to her throat, remembering. She closed her eyes, and Lee watched helplessly as her face registered the pain of the memories. "Oh Gods…Sam. Lee, the frakkers have Sam. I've got to get out there…" She started to roll off of the bed, trying to get to her feet. Lee gently pushed down on her shoulder, rolling her back onto the bed.

"No you don't, you're going to stay right where you are." Kara wasn't pushing back, he realized. That could only mean that she was in even more pain than even he realized. "Now slow down and tell me what happened"

She held his gaze. Keeping her voice as steady as possible she sighed and started, "It was Leoben. He was waiting for me when I came back." Lee fought for control as she filled him in. She gave him all of the details up to the point where she blacked out, about their conversation, about the fight. "I thought that he was killing me, Lee, at the end, I really did. Gods, for a moment I was almost relieved…" She closed her eyes again, shutting him out, shutting the pain out.

"What do you think he meant when he said you were going to save them"

"I think he's full of shit, that's what I think. Leoben fraks with your mind, that is what he's good at. He did it to me before, made me believe I was destined to play a part in finding earth. Told me I'd find Kobol. He's just playing another mind game." She gratefully accepted a cup of water from Lee.

Lee turned that thought over and over in his mind. The cylons were here for a reason, and if he could figure out what that was then he'd be a lot closer to finding a way to undermine them, closer to finding a way to defeat them. "He might be frakking with us, but he sought you out, he took Sam and he came after you. Why? I mean why bother? Let's face it, they've won. What kind of help could he possibly want from you"

"I don't know, Lee, maybe he's just getting his kicks. Maybe he gets his jollies finding new and interesting ways to screw with my head. What does it matter why"

It just might, he thought to himself. He watched her as she wiggled all of her fingers in front of her face, and stretched out her arms, testing the extent of her injuries. "How do you feel now"

She gave a sarcastic laugh. "Fine. I'll be fine. I don't think anything's broken…except maybe my head. How do you feel about sewing me up so we can get on with this 'rescue'…I have what used to pass as a med kit over there by the stove, not much left in it now but I think there's still a needle and thread, maybe even a bandage"

Lee retrieved the kit and set to work on her head. He worked quietly for a few minutes, but finally he said, in a quiet voice, "Kara, I…" he didn't even know where to start. He'd been separated from her physically and emotionally for months now, but the past 24 hours had changed everything. "I know that things between ushave been"

She stopped him there. "Don't. Not now. I can't handle this discussion right now, Lee. I have to focus on Sam, on the cylons." She pleaded with him with her eyes.

He stared back at her. "Ok, but I have to know one thing. Do you think we can work together, despite everything?" Hell, did he think they could? "Can we be Apollo and Starbuck again"

She smiled sadly, taking his hand in hers. "We've always been Apollo and Starbuck, Lee. That hasn't changed. And if I had to choose one person to be on this planet with me, fighting next to me, it would be you…you know that. When we're done kicking cylon ass, if you still want…well if you are still interested…" her voice faltered as she met his gaze, "If you still want to have the other 'talk' then I'll be there, ready to talk"

He sighed, and nodded his understanding.

She closed her eyes, falling back down onto the pillows. "Now explain to me again what you're doing here. I thought you were on Galactica"

And for the third time that day, he explained the recon mission. When he was done he knew he had to fill her in on the most recent development with the cylons. "Kara, there is one more thing. The cylons appear to be gathering up women and children. They were taking a large group of them somewhere earlier, I don't really know much more than that"

Kara froze and went pale, her eyes filled with renewed panic. Lee watched her fighting to control her fear, and his heart broke for her again.

"Tell me how we're going to do it Lee…tell me how we're going to kill those mother frakkers"