WHTMT - chapter 30 - Almost the End

ooooooooooooooooooooo

"Marry me." The words slipped off his lips before he was even aware of thinking them.

Kara lifted her eyes to him in amazement. "Did you just ask ..."

Lee nodded. "Marry me. I love you Kara and I want to be with you for the rest of my life, however long that may be. We've wasted enough time apart already.

She looked down at the sleeping infant in her arms and back at him, then nodded.

"Yes."

Now it was Lee's turn to register amazement. He'd thought he'd have to do a lot more convincing.

"You will?"

"Yes I will." The smile that broke out on his face warmed her heart, as it always had. She'd never been able to resist that charming smile, try though she had.

He crossed the room, sat beside her and put his arm around her, pulling her close against him.

"I love you so much," he murmured into her still damp hair. "All I've wanted ever since I've known you was to be with you - for you to be mine and no one else's."

"You had a funny way of showing it," she teased, face buried in his neck, breathing the familiar and much-loved scent of him. It had always been one of the things that had made her go weak in the knees, and had made it so difficult to live in the same bunkroom with him all those months. Out of all the different smells of the people sharing the room, her nose had always picked out Lee's and it had made her feel terrifyingly weak. She'd always known, given the right opportunity, that she'd give in to her baser instincts and frak things up between them. And she had, but the gods had been kind enough, though they'd been terrible to her in other ways, to give her and Lee a second chance and she wasn't going to waste one second of it.

He chuckled warmly. "It certainly has taken a long time to get to this point, hasn't it?"

"And a lot of pain," she said quietly.

"I never meant to hurt you Kara," he said seriously.

"I know," she answered, cutting off whatever else he was going to say. "And I never meant to hurt you, at least not consciously. I just have a way of reacting on instinct and lashing out when I'm hurt ... and you're one of the only people who can really hurt me."

"I'm glad I'm in such a select group," he said, dryly but not without humour.

She pulled away to look into his eyes. "Only because I love you and what you think of me has always been important to me. Normally I don't give a frak ..." She stopped and covered her mouth. "Oops. Normally I don't care what people think of or say about me, but there a few people, you included, whose opinions matter to me."

"And I think the world of you. I love you more than anything - it's only when I feel like I can't have you or am losing you to someone else that I freak out and say things that hurt you."

She snuggled up close to him. "Well you don't have to worry about that anymore. I'm all yours."

"Speaking of which," he reached a hand over and stroked the baby's slightly fuzzy, warm head, "do you think it's possible you and I could make one of these?"

She narrowed her eyes in a mock glare. "Just because I'm thankful you were here to help me through it doesn't mean you can push your luck."

He sighed deeply. "Didn't think so."

She snuggled back up again. "Someday."

ooooooooooooooooooooooo

"There they are."

"Are you sure?" she demanded.

He closed his eyes for a moment. "Yes, it's them. The baby's been born already."

Her forehead furrowed.

"It's not confined anymore," he explained.

She crossed her arms over her chest. "How is it you can feel so much? I don't ..."

'You've never had a child. It's a part of me somehow ... I can't explain it, it just is. I can feel it like a presence in my mind. I suspect once it gets older I'll be able to communicate with it directly."

Her eyes lit up with understanding. "That's why God wanted us to create hybrids. People who can live and move among humans without being noticed, even by doctors, and yet still retain our abilities and loyalties."

"This one won't be staying with them. She's mine," he growled, a fierce look of determination in his eye.

"God's not going to be happy if you ..."

"i don't care," he interrupted. "She's mine and she will come live with us. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of hybrids on the Farms. He can use those children for his purposes. This one is my daughter and I'm not giving her up to them."

She gave him a knowing look.

"You'd feel the same way if you had a child of your own. I'll face whatever wrath God throws my way willingly for her."

"I suppose ..." She began to daydream, not for the first time, about having a child with Gaius. He'd been completely opposed to the idea but she'd have been able to convince him. She always could ... except now he was gone. And unlike themselves, he couldn't come back to try again.

Her eyes filled with tears.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"There they are."

"Are you sure?" Tigh demanded.

"It's a Colonial signal - ship identified as the Aerilon Moon, sir," the pilot explained.

"Good." Tigh sighed as he leaned back and allowed his body to rest a moment. He hadn't realized how tense he'd been until he sat back and his shoulders protested loudly.

"Sir, another signal!" the pilot said urgently. "It's cylon!"

"Oh frak, why now?" Tigh groused. "Weapons at the ready."

"Shouldn't we try to talk to them before firing?"

"Why? We know why they're here and I'll be damned if I'll let them take or destroy Apollo and Starbuck."

"Yes sir," the pilot said meekly, readying the weapons systems to fire.

There was a tense silence for a few moments as they monitored the cylon ship.

"Frak me," Tigh said, almost under his breath, shaking his head in disbelief. "They're boarding the Aerilon Moon." He sighed. "Make life difficult why don't you?"

"Sir?" the pilot asked quizzically.

Tigh turned to him. "It would have been so much more elegant to blow those motherfrakkers out of the sky without a fight." He smirked. "Less messy too, but hey ... we'll do what we have to. Take us in Lieutenant. It's time to join the party."

oooooooooooooooooooooo

Lee and Kara had been snuggling and napping on and off for some time, all danger forgotten, when the warning klaxon suddenly went off.

Lee launched himself out of the bunk and hit the deck at a run as Kara got up much more slowly and crossed the room, picking up the sleeping infant from the makeshift bassinet Lee had set up for her.

"This is Samuel T. Anders. I've come for my daughter."

Lee swore under his breath, vowing never to let the man have her while simultaneously wondering how the hell he knew the baby was a girl. He readied the ship to jump but the comm interrupted.

"Don't try to leave or we'll blow you to pieces."

"You wouldn't!" Lee shot back angrily. "You want your baby alive don't you?"

"I'd rather she die than be raised by humans - even Kara." Kara, now standing beside Lee, flinched at his words. "Besides, we don't die. She'll just be downloaded into another body."

"An adult body though. You still wouldn't have your baby then."

"But her consciousness would be saved," a woman's voice broke in. A very familiar voice to Kara - the blonde cylon she encountered on Caprica and then again on Galactica.

"Frak, we're in trouble," she whispered, shivering.

Lee put his arm around her. "We'll be okay. I won't let them take her. Or you."

"How are you going to stop them?"

He cocked an eyebrow at her, almost playfully. "You didn't think I came with no weapons did you? Just because the ship itself isn't armed doesn't mean we won't be."

She smiled weakly, clutching the precious bundle even closer against her chest.

"We're boarding your ship to come take the child. If we're met with any resistance you will be killed. Even you Kara," he added. "I loved you but I won't let you keep my child."

"Fine, we won't resist. But we need five minutes," Lee agreed.

"Why?" Anders' voice was suspicious.

"For frak's sake, Kara just gave birth! It would be nice to find her some clean clothes before we have company visiting," Lee said, irritation plainly obvious on his face and in his voice.

"Fine. Five minutes. But if this is a trap ..."

"How could it be? Who else is here? Just the three of us."

"Five minutes."

Kara turned to face Lee, face frozen in fear. "You have a plan?" she asked, barely concealing tears.

"Uh ... not really," he said uncomfortably. "Can you go find some clothes, maybe a clean blanket for the baby too?"

"Sure. What are you ..."

He opened a hatch under the controls to reveal a stockpile of weaponry.

"Time to get armed." He pulled a small revolver and gave it to her. "Take this, and hide it somewhere - in the baby's blanket maybe? They'll see it if it's anywhere else."

Kara nodded and headed back to the living quarters while Lee emptied the stockpile and began to hide the weapons around the ship.

ooooooooooooooooooooooo

"I can't believe they're just letting us come," the dark-haired one said.

"I'm sure they're not. They must have a plan. This is Starbuck after all." His face was grim.

"But she just had a baby," the blonde one objected tenderly, eyes sparkly with tears. "She won't be thinking of ..."

He turned on her. "I know Kara Thrace far better than you do," he said angrily. "She never passes up an opportunity when it's there. They will have a plan to stop us."

"Do you think they'll succeed?" the dark-haired one asked. "Apollo and Starbuck are a formidable pair when they work together. It's not often anyone can beat them."

It was almost undetectable but he could hear the tinge of bitterness in her voice - she didn't like Kara and Lee together.

"You were the one he ..." he began, but stopped as she nodded, drawing herself up to her full five-foot-two inches proudly.

"Yes I was."

"Well, maybe when we've got the child and have taken care of her you can have him back."

"You really think he'll want me back once he knows I'm a cylon?" she asked sadly.

"Stranger things have happened." He pulled out two guns and tossed one to the blonde. "You're with me." He turned to the dark-haired one. "You stay with the ship."

She nodded, though she was torn between wanting to see him again and wanting to stay away. Orders were orders though and he was the one in charge so she did what she was told. It was something she'd learned well living with them and it stood her in good stead now.

"Let's go."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Have they spotted us yet?"

"Don't think so."

"We don't have room for thinking. Know!"

"No sir, they haven't,' the pilot faltered. Tigh's commanding, self-assured ways were catching them all off guard.

"Jam their comm transmissions. Odds are there's at least one of them still in the ship and we don't want them alerting the others to our presence. We need the element of surprise in order to succeed."

The pilo nodded and carried out his orders.

"Get your supplies ready. It won't be long," Tigh called back to Ishay and her med tech. She nodded brusquely and began grabbing the cases.

"Is there another airlock on their ship?" Tigh peered through the front window. "Looks like it. Attach on my mark and we go in immediately."

The other person in the raptor, a junior lieutenant, pulled his weapon ready and stood behind Tigh, waiting for the airlock to open.

"Mark!" Tigh yelled and they barged in, surprising the one occupant of the ship who'd obviously seen them coming and was feverishly trying to contact the others aboard Lee's ship.

"Hands up you dirty son of a ..." Tigh gasped as she turned around. "Frak me," he said wonderingly. "Lieutenant Dualla."

She smiled confidently. "That's me."

"But you're dead."

"I was. I'm not anymore."

TBC