Dee felt at peace when she saw the way the red and blue light sprinkled across the walls of the sanctuary from where the sun came in through the stained glass window. She did not know this church, but like in all temples, she knew that you went to the altar to pay your respects.
She had only walked halfway down the aisle when she heard the chords of a piano echo in her ears. She turned from the path that led her to the front of the church and made her way over to the side alcove that held the musician and his instrument.
"Do you know this piece?" The man asked as his fingers danced across the keys.
"Yes."
"How do you know it?" He asked, his eyes finally meeting hers.
"Laura has a recording of it." Dee answered simply. "It's playing right now, where I am; in their quarters."
"I see."
"It's beautiful." She told him, smiling appreciatively. "That's you playing on the recording, isn't it?"
His only response was a slight nod as he continued to pound out the notes on the piano. "Is it a sacrifice you are willing to make, Anastasia? What they are asking of you?"
Her eyes moistened with tears and she looked around uncertainly. "I think so."
"Yours is not an easy destiny." He informed her without emotion. "You will have to give up something that you cherish."
"If I don't do it, if we stay on the path that we're on……..what I'll be giving up wouldn't be worth that much anyway." She closed her eyes, causing a tear to fall down her cheek. "If I can help my people, my family, find a new direction—."
"That's not enough." He interrupted curtly as he stopped the music. "Your sacrifice cannot just be a noble and righteous offering. It cannot just be to save humanity." He then resumed playing. "It has to be personal…………because you love her."
"It will be because of that." She whispered reverently. "It will be."
"My granddaughter is a Cylon." He said, his voice devoid of hatred. "Many people wouldn't be able to get past that truth."
"I'm not one of those people."
"The two of you don't even share the same blood." He stated, testing her.
"Neither do the two of you." Dee answered, absentmindedly looking over to the tapestry hanging on the wall; emblazoned with the symbol of the archer. "My blood family is gone. There wasn't anything I could do to save them."
"But there is something you can do this time." He told her sadly, finishing his piece. "As a matter of fact, you'll have to. The plan doesn't really work unless you play your part."
"Dee? Hey Dee!"
Dualla drifted into awareness as the same music grew louder in her ears, but she didn't awaken fully until she felt something pelt her forehead. She opened her eyes and saw a young woman with long brown hair, blue eyes and a killer grin sitting on a bed, preparing to slingshot another pencil. "Do it again and suffer dire consequences, Ms. Adama." Dee groaned as she rubbed her forehead and moved off the arm of the couch to sit upright.
"Gods, Dee, I know Grandpa is a slave-driver." Laura laughed. "But if you're this tired, he'd give you a day off if you asked for it."
"A whole day?" Dee scoffed. "I'd settle for eight uninterrupted hours so that I could get some sleep."
"When was the last time you saw President Keikeya?" Laura asked with a teasing voice, looking back to the book in her lap.
Dee smirked in embarrassment. "It's been a few days."
"So maybe you wouldn't just be sleeping during those eight hours?"
"That's not the way a proper eighteen-month-old talks, Laura." Dee giggled. She then narrowed her eyes when Laura put a piece of candy in her mouth. "Stop eating those." She admonished.
"What?" Laura looked back at her innocently. "Mom said I could have a couple."
"Last time I checked, 'a couple' meant two. You've now had seven."
"How did you……?" Laura looked around the room in disbelief. "You were asleep, how could you possibly know that?"
Dee laughed and pointed to her temple. "I know all. I sit in CIC, the brain of the entire ship, most of my day; nothing happens that I don't know about. As a matter of fact, the only reason your grandpa knows everything that happens on his ship is because I tell him about it."
Laura laughed slightly toobut then got somber. "Grandpa's really tired too, Dee."
"We all are." Dee replied. "We just have to find a way to get these constant hit and run attacks to stop." She rubbed her eyes. "Sometimes I think it would be better if the whole Cylon fleet just hit us."
"Grandpa sure doesn't feel that way." Laura told her. "They won't do it, though. Without the Resurrection ship; now that they can die permanently, they're not gonna attack us outright." Laura whispered sadly. "I mean, why would anyone put themselves in a position where they'd die?"
Dee took in a deep, trembling breath and looked at her meaningfully. "Some things are worth dying for, Laura."
Before Laura could respond, the hatch opened and they both turned to see Kara mope in.
Kara dragged herself over to Laura's bed. "Move over." She groaned and laid down, curled up on her side next to her daughter.
Laura playfully swatted her shoulder as she made room on the small bed. "No, Mom, go get on your own bed!"
"The twenty extra steps would just be too much for my exhausted body to take." Kara looked up at Laura with her bottom lip in a pout. "You won't make Mama move, will you?"
"Of course not." Laura giggled, rubbing Kara's back and patting her head. "Poor Mama."
Kara sighed at the soothing ministration and closed her eyes, her hand idly moving back and forth to the rhythm of the music that was filling the room. "Mmm, this piece always made me sleepy."
"Everything alright out on CAP, Starbuck?" Dee asked quietly.
Kara opened her eyes and nodded sadly. "For now." She then looked over at the book that Laura had in front of her. "Finally, something that I know about! The Colonial Guide to the Signs and Symbols of the Twelve Tribes." Kara got a puzzled look on her face. "Baltar didn't give this to you, did he?"
"Nope, Dee did." Laura answered, smiling over to the couch. "She said I needed to know them."
"Yeah?" Kara smiled at Dee as well, and then looked back to Laura. "Which one's your favorite?"
"Well, I really like the twins—."
"Figures." Dee chuckled. "Look at who her parents are."
"But my favorite is the archer, the symbol of Sagitarron." Laura finished.
Kara picked up the book and opened it, examining it closely. "Uh-huh." She then looked over at Dee and winked. "Teenage hormones kicking in; the archer in this painting has a great body."
"MOM, gods!" Laura laughed, swiping the book back.
"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, Laura." Dee laughed as well. "When I was a teenager, I used to think the archer was pretty hot too."
"That's right, I forgot about that." Kara said absentmindedly. "You're from Sagitarron, aren't you, Dee?"
"Yeah." Dee locked eyes with Laura. "Yeah, I am."
The hatch opened again and this time, Lee walked through. He closed it behind him and leaned against it.
"Hey, there you are." Kara yawned at him, lying back against Laura's pillows. "I'm just giving you a heads up; I'm never leaving this bed again, so you might have to rearrange some things on the schedule."
Lee laughed. "I'll keep that in mind." He grinned sheepishly. "I've got a gift for Laura."
Kara looked at his empty hands and smirked. "You giving our daughter invisible gifts again, Lee? I thought we'd talked about that."
He pointed back to the door. "Corporal Venner's holding it for me in the hallway."
"Well," Dee chuckled at him. "Go get it! We're on pins and needles here."
He opened the door a sliver and just stuck his upper body out. When he turned back, he was holding a meowing, little creature in his hands.
"Oh my gods." Laura whispered in awe, getting off her bed. "You got Boy!"
"Yeah." Lee smiled at her when she came to stroke the cat's head.
"Why'd you bring him here?" She looked up at him, her eyes uncertain.
"He's gonna live here now." Lee answered as he transferred the pet into Laura's arms.
"Really?" She grinned widely and looked back to Kara.
"Really." Lee replied, stroking the cat with one hand and cupping Laura's face with the other. "I had to practically twist Mrs. Knowlton's arm off to get her to give him to me. She didn't want to separate him from his brothers and sisters, but I convinced her that we'd give him a good home."
Kara got off the bed and came to stand beside them. "He'll need a food dish." She said, petting Boy. "Why don't you get the purple one shaped like a balloon that Cally got for you when you were little? It's still in the cabinet." Her eyebrows then furrowed. "You don't still use that, do you?"
Laura rolled her eyes. "No, Mom. I've moved onto 'big-girl' dinnerware now." She walked to the cabinet, kissing the cat on the head. "Come on, Boy. We'll get you all set up."
Kara watched her teenage-looking daughter walk away and then turned to Lee. "Has something in your body changed dramatically in the last couple days?"
Lee chuckled and scratched the bridge of his nose. "Are you asking me if I'm still allergic to cats?"
"Uh-huh."
"Yes." He replied. "But Cottle just gave me a shot, and he'll keep giving me shots. One every three weeks until………….." He trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought. "Until he runs out or until she's not—."
Kara shook her head and looked away, the thought bringing obvious pain to her. "What will you do after Cottle runs out?" She asked, ignoring the alternative.
"Suffer in silence." He answered seriously. "She loves that cat and she should be able to see him whenever she wants to. And with all the attacks lately, I don't want her going over to the Greenleaf all the time to visit him."
"It's safer this way." Kara added, leaning against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her.
Dee got up off the couch. "How do the Raiders keep finding us?"
"No idea."
"And why doesn't the Cylon fleet just swoop in and—it can't just be because we destroyed the Resurrection ship." Dee continued.
"The fleet hasn't attacked us because they want something." Lee replied softly, avoiding Kara's eyes when she pulled back from him because of the statement. "The hit-and-runs………..they're just frakking with us."
Kara looked over to where Laura was sitting on the floor, petting Boy as he lapped up water from his new bowl. "There's something in this fleet that they want."
"Yeah." Lee said, looking in the same direction. "But the Cylons are in for quite a shock."
"Why's that?" Dee asked.
Lee turned back and locked eyes with Kara. "Because they don't realize that we'll set the ship on fire before we give it to them."
"It's splitting right now!" Laura squealed as she looked into the microscope. "I can actually see the mitosis as its happening!"
"It's very interesting, isn't it?" Baltar smirked as he adjusted the focus.
"The way the ribosomes lined up was really cool." She looked up from the eyepiece and smiled at him. "I've read about it a thousand times, but I've never actually seen it."
"Books were the central focus for a significant portion of my life." Baltar responded, looking into the microscope. "But you don't fully grasp all that science has to offer until you witness it firsthand."
"See it with your own eyes." Laura agreed. "Too bad there are so many things that you can't see……….they're either theoretical or microscopic or off in some other part of the galaxy."
"And that, Ms. Adama, is why you must take every opportunity to gaze upon the things that you can see." Baltar replied, getting up from the lab table to grab another slide.
"I wish someone would explain that to Mom and Dad." Laura snorted. "Lately it seems I've been living like these cells here." She continued when she saw his puzzled look. "Under a microscope?" She rolled her eyes. "Stupid joke, I know."
"Yes, having overprotective parents must be quite irritating." He inattentively agreed as he prepared another sample.
"Pay attention, Gaius. You're missing a golden opportunity." Six whispered, coming up behind him and tracing the shell his ear. "Teenage frustration is simmering beneath the surface, and you may be just the thing to bring it to a boil."
Baltar's face perked up. "They're being overly cautious? Your parents?"
"Yeah, a bit." Laura chuckled, taking the slide from his hands and putting it under the lens. "They're just doing it because a lot of stuff has happened lately. The Cylon hit-and-runs have just now gotten under control, and the whole thing with me not going to school anymore really threw them for a loop." She looked through the eyepiece. "I guess before, when I was going to school, they could at least pretend that I was normal."
"Is that what they've been telling you, that you're not normal?"
Laura jerked back from the microscope. "No." She replied, suddenly agitated. "Of course not. They're just worried about me."
"Let me help you." Six hummed in Baltar's ear again, before turning to examine Laura. "Worried or afraid?"
"Worried……or afraid?" He repeated.
"Afraid?" Laura shot back. "Why would they be afraid?"
"Sometimes people fear what they don't understand." Six prompted.
"Sometimes people fear what they don't understand." Baltar echoed. "And people like you and me—people like us? We aren't always easily understood."
"People like us?" Laura questioned.
"We're special, Laura." He gestured around to all the equipment in the lab. "This is the world that we live in; this is the world that we feel comfortable in. We're not like everyone else."
Laura sighed heavily. "I'm aware of that; more than aware." She defended. "But just because I'm different, that doesn't mean that I'm going to do something bad."
"Of course not." Six continued, telling Baltar what to say. "And I'm not suggesting that you will…………"
"………..it's just that, sometimes, what people fear is not what you'll do—but what you are." Baltar finished. "Sometimes the part of us that makes us special is the part that they try to stifle, keep hidden. So that they can pretend that we're like everyone else."
"They're not hiding me." Laura pointed out. "I mean, they haven't exactly sent out a press release, but everyone pretty much knows about me now. Just because Mom and Dad haven't…….." She looked away and her voice got soft. "They're not trying to stifle who I am."
"That's commendable of them." Baltar and Six said simultaneously. "And you should give your family some credit, some latitude. If they ever do start--it's not because they don't care about you, it's just…………"
"They're only human after all." Six concluded, smiling deviously at Baltar. His smile mirrored hers as he repeated the statement.
"Well………they're not acting like that, they're not hiding me." Laura shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself as if she was cold. "We're all going to Cloud Nine tomorrow to see the new D'anna Biers documentary; me, my parents, and Grandpa."
"So obviously, they're NOT trying to hide you." Baltar responded, patting her arm in reassurance. "Since it's awfully hard to hide someone in a room full of people."
"Yeah……." She trailed off, lowering her head. "They'll have to empty the theater—for safety reasons."
"I see." Baltar muttered under his breath, but just loud enough so that Laura could hear the disbelief in his voice. "Well, safety is their top priority."
Laura looked up, straight into his eyes, and bit her lip. "I don't really even want to go."
"Well, what do you want, Laura?" Baltar asked, false sympathy dripping in from his voice.
"There is one thing." She replied softly. "But I'm positive Mom and Dad won't go for it."
Baltar looked over at Six and smiled. She was sitting with her legs draped over the arm of his desk chair. The hem of her skirt was riding up on her thigh, and she was fingering the low cut neckline of her top. "Well……..." He whispered, gazing lustfully at his unseen companion. "Sometimes you have to fight for what you want."
"Why don't you ever let me leave the ship anymore?" Laura asked as she pushed around the food on her plate while they were having dinner one night.
"We let you leave the ship." Lee responded, suddenly feeling defensive because of the bluntness of the question. "You went to the Greenleaf last week to visit Ethan and Charlotte at school."
"You only let me go because I hadn't been to see them for two weeks before that."
"Actions Stations were being called twice a day during those two weeks, Laura." Kara defended, taking a bite of food. "Were we supposed to let you go out into the fleet while all that was happening?"
"Life in the fleet didn't stop, Mom." Laura retorted. "Other people got in shuttles and went to other ships."
"We know we were very safety-conscious during that time, but as soon as the hit-and-runs stopped, we eased up." Lee interjected. "You went to the Greenleaf; and then just two days ago, we went to the Cloud Nine Theater to see that D'anna Biers documentary."
"D'anna Biers is a no-talent media whore who will do and say just about anything for shock value. I don't like her and I didn't want to go see that documentary in the first place."
Kara dropped her fork down to her plate. "Laura, don't say 'whore'."
"Why not?"
"Because it's not appropriate dinner table vocabulary." Kara replied.
"I never get to leave the ship anymore unless someone is with me."
"You never left the ship before unless someone was with you." Lee pointed out. "I hope you're not suggesting that you—."
Laura cut him off. "No. I realize that I still have to have the corporals with me, but you used to let me go to school with just the guards watching me. Now I have to have someone else baby-sitting me at all times."
"School was different." Kara corrected. "We knew where you were, what you were doing; you were in a room that was safe with people that we trusted."
"Just tell us where you wanna go and we'll take you." Lee added. "And if we can't do it, we'll find somebody else to go with you. But kids can't just go traipsing across the fleet without adult supervision, not even—."
"Normal kids?" Laura finished his thought for him, narrowing her eyes. "Kids that aren't freaks like me?"
Lee looked down to his plate. "That wasn't what I was gonna say, and you know it."
"I want to go to the Rising Star." Laura told him as she took a drink of water. "They have this place set up with a whole bunch of video games and I got invited to go."
"By whom?" Lee asked, the terror rising in his voice.
She shrugged. "Just this guy that I know."
Both Lee and Kara's eyes shot up at the same time and locked. "How the frak do you know a guy?" Kara almost shouted.
"Is that 'appropriate dinner table vocabulary', Mom?" Laura mocked.
"Quit being a smart-ass and just answer your mother's question." Lee shot back.
Laura sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. "What specifically do you wanna know?"
"This guy's name for starters." Lee stated.
"Shane Michaels. What else?"
"What ship does he live on?"
"The Zepher." Laura replied. "You want a sample of his DNA too?" She added sarcastically.
"That would help, actually." Kara responded with a hint of the same sarcasm. "Does he have ties to any terrorists groups?"
"NO!" Laura shouted in offense. "He's the brother of a girl I knew from school. He was there picking her up when I went to visit Ethan and Charlotte, and we got to talking."
"He's not a student at the school?" Lee inquired softly, catching on to what she was trying to keep hidden.
"Um……. no." She answered hesitantly.
"Why not?" Lee continued.
"Because he's eighteen."
Kara threw up her hands. "No need to continue, the answer is NO. You can't go."
"Why?" Laura shouted.
"Because he's eighteen and you're …………incredibly not."
"This is total frakking crap!" Laura yelled, jumping up out of her chair.
"Don't cuss." Lee breathed out, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation.
Laura got strangely quiet, crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her head to the side. "I'm wearing Dee's clothes now."
Lee looked up at her in confusion. "Huh?"
Kara shook her head. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"You borrowed some of Dee's clothes for me to wear, 'cause we're the same size now."
"What are you trying to say?" Lee asked.
"I'm trying to say that I have breasts! And hips!" She shouted, gesturing up and down her now very-developed body. "I catch guys looking at me all the time."
Lee put his elbows on the table and held his head in his hands. "Oh my gods, I'm gonna have a stroke."
"Well, you've sufficiently agitated your parents." Kara told her as she stood up as well and took a sip of water to calm down. "Was that the point of your little revelation?"
"My point is that I'm not a little girl anymore. I don't look like one, and Shane doesn't see me as one."
"That's because he doesn't know you!" Kara answered, slamming her glass back to the table. "And that is our point."
"We know it's not fair." Lee added. "But we have to be careful of who we can trust, Laura."
"Why won't you let me have any fun?" Laura shouted.
"Oh, Laura, will you grow up?" Lee groaned. He then gulped loudly as Kara and Laura both gave him incredulous, dirty glares. "Sorry, bad choice of words."
"We're not doing this because we don't want you to have fun. We're not doing this to be mean." Kara assured her. "We're doing this because we love you."
Laura lowered her head and chuckled mockingly. "Yeah, I know you do." She looked back up, straight at Kara. "Mommy loves her little toaster baby."
"Frak." Kara whispered, rubbing her eyes.
"I knew that would come back to bite you in the ass." Lee muttered under his breath.
"FINE. What do you want me to say?" Kara shouted at Laura. "I'm an awful mother. I couldn't go to your school recital four months ago because that was the day some idiot war-protester decided to blow a hole in the side of the Daru Mozu. I lie to you and tell you that there's no more dessert when I'm too lazy to walk down to the mess and get it for you—."
"Hey!" Lee perked up. "You told me that yesterday!"
Kara shushed him, but otherwise ignored him and continued. "I don't always check to see that you've brushed your teeth. I cuss in front of you, have an occasional cigar. And yes, I had an inappropriate nickname for you when you were a baby. I'm the worst mother in the world!" She pointed at Lee and then to her own heart. "But have you ever doubted—for a single, solitary second—that your father and I love you?"
Laura blinked and then looked to the side, but her only response was silence.
"Yeah." Kara laughed. "You really are my daughter. I used to shut the hell up when somebody called me on my crap too."
"I hate you!" Laura screamed at both of them as she stomped to the hatch and out into the hallway. "I frakking hate you!"
"Well, that's just great." Kara shouted after her. "Now we're definitely a family. What girl doesn't hate her parents?" She then walked to the open hatch and shouted after her down the corridor. "And don't cuss! You ungrateful little shit!" She turned back into the room, but stood by the hatchway; leaning against the wall with a scowl on her face.
Corporal Venner poked his head in. "You guys want me to haul her back?"
Kara looked over at him and shook her head. Lee rose from his chair, taking his plate to the sink. "No." He replied, still turned away from Kara and Venner. "Just follow her like you always do. Make sure she's alright."
Corporal Venner nodded and ran to catch up with Laura.
Lee finally turned around. "You know what I like about us, honey?"
The scowl didn't disappear as Kara responded. "What's that, darling?"
He leaned against the counter. "When we jump into things, we jump into them at full speed."
"Like brick walls." She added.
"And fire."
"And frustrated-teenager melodrama." Kara groaned, rubbing her temple. "Frak, Lee, go after her!"
Lee took off in a dead run out the still-open door.
"You know you can't run out on your mother and me like that." Lee said twenty minutes later, when he found Laura sitting on the hangar deck floor, her knees hugged to her chest.
"Why not?" Laura said, looking out onto the line of Vipers and refusing to meet his eyes. She pointed back to where Venner was standing by the exit. "I have a marine guard following me wherever I go."
Lee sat down next to her. "Probably because we worry about you when you're sitting across from us at the table; you don't think it gets any better when we don't know where you are, do you?"
Laura shook her head and traced her kneecap. "Are you guys mad?" She whispered.
"Well, we'd prefer that you not act like a spoiled little brat." Lee laughed. "But we understand why you feel like this. You kinda got a raw deal, Laura."
"Except, I didn't really." She finally looked at him, tears forming in her eyes. "I got really lucky; you and Mom have been great. And none of this bothered me before, so I don't know why I feel this way now."
"Well, you had to grow up fast. Literally." Lee chuckled ruefully. "Every kid feels this way, it's just—you feel it ten times stronger than most of them."
"Yeah." Laura sighed, wiping a single tear from her cheek. "I just—I don't know, you know? Of course you don't know, I don't even know." She chuckled sadly. "It's just that Shane knows about who I am—and he still wanted me to go with him. And I don't know how many times I'm gonna find that in my life."
"Sweetheart," Lee began. "This intense, compulsive, all-consuming drive that your mother and I have to protect you with every drop of blood in our veins? It's not gonna go away."
"I know." Laura smiled. "And I don't want it to. It's part of why I love you."
"And we love you." Lee exhaled, gazing out at the planes. "So, I guess that we could, ya know………. try to be a little less strict."
"Does that mean you'll let me go to the Rising Star with Shane?"
Lee looked back to her. "Oh, no, absolutely not."
She rolled her eyes amusedly. "Fine."
"But if he wants to come here, strictly as a friend, and face the Galactica gauntlet?" Lee rasped out reluctantly, scrubbing his hands through his hair. "I guess that would be okay."
"I could see if those are acceptable terms." Laura chuckled, laying her head on his shoulder.
"Does this guy know that your parents and grandfather are in control of fighter jets and large cannons? Just in case he steps out of line?"
"Well, I don't think there are any caves left that he could've been living in, so I'm pretty sure he's aware of that fact." She clucked her tongue at him.
"Come here." He wrapped his arm around her and kissed her forehead. "Your mother wants to talk to you too. She's in the chapel."
"Mom?"
Kara lifted her head and looked over to see Laura standing beside the pew. "Pull up a pew, little girl." She smiled sweetly. "Or big girl, as it were."
"You can still call me 'little girl', Mom." Laura assured her, sitting down next to her. "I'm not gonna freak out on you like I did before."
Kara looked back to the front of the chapel. The altar held lit candles and various religious artifacts. And behind it, the banners of the twelve tribes hung on the wall. "We created this room for you."
"For me?" Laura asked with surprise.
"Well, sort of." Kara chuckled. "Grandpa set it up, with President Roslin's prompting, so that crewmembers could have a place to worship. It was for morale; that was the official reason." She amended. "But we never even thought to have a place like this until you came along. The first time it was ever used—was for your confirmation of faith."
"I remember." Laura whispered, looking to her hands in her lap.
"Of course you do." Kara said, taking one of the hands. She pointed to a corner of the room that held a glass case. "Do you know what that is?"
Laura looked in that direction, to the object inside the case. "The Arrow of Apollo."
"Yep." Kara gazed at it meaningfully. "And even though it didn't do what we thought it would do, people still see it as a symbol of our faith. But your father doesn't like to come here, because of the Arrow. He doesn't think that a metal arrow should be a symbol of what we're fighting for." She turned back to Laura with love in her eyes. "I'm starting to come around to his way of thinking."
Laura nodded.
"I know that things have been hard." Kara continued. "It's not easy to belong to a family. Sometimes family members, they do things that………….." She looked away to hide the pain etched on her face. "That the other members don't always understand."
"You're not Grandma, Mom. Or whatever you want that lady to be called." Laura assured her, knowing her inner torment. "You haven't done anything that's gonna scar me for life."
"I never wanted to have a child." Kara told her simply.
"Mom?" Laura's voice trembled in fear.
Kara looked back at her apologetically and shook her head. "No, sweetheart, I didn't mean it like that." Her eyes started to moisten. "I just meant—I knew that I wasn't built for it, I knew that I wouldn't be good at it. And I knew that it would just frak up my life and everybody else's, especially the poor kid unlucky enough to have me as a mother." She wiped away a tear on her cheek and smiled. "But now, I realize that I didn't know anything. Because you showed up; this miraculous, amazing creature……. and suddenly, everything that I was so sure of, seemed so wrong. Now I can't imagine not wanting you."
"Wow." Laura smiled graciously. "I don't know that I deserve to hear something that flattering. After the way I just acted, I thought I'd be grounded or something."
"Oh, you will be." Kara said, pausing as Laura snorted in amusement. "But I wanted you to come here first, because I wanted to give you something." She picked up the gift, wrapped in cloth, from beside her and placed it on Laura's lap.
Laura unwrapped the cloth to reveal two cast iron statues. "You're giving me Artemis and Aphrodite?"
Instead of answering the question, Kara revealed something else. "I used to pray a lot. Nobody ever knew how much, including your father. They wouldn't have believed that tough-as-nails Starbuck would pray so much." She chuckled wistfully. "I used to pray for guidance, for direction. I used to pray to the gods to send me a sign that they really existed." She took a deep breath. "But lately, since you were born, I've found that the amount of time I spend praying has been steadily decreasing."
Laura's eyebrows quirked up. "Really?"
"Actually, when you were a baby, it increased." Kara laughed. "I used to pray all the time for reassurance. For the gods to tell me what to do to make me a good mother, to make you a good person." Kara tucked a strand of Laura's brown hair behind her ear. "But that was only when you couldn't talk. Because when you started talking, when you started to become the person that you are………….I started listening to you, instead of praying to the gods."
"Even when all I was saying was 'Boy' and 'Mama' and 'boat'?" Laura winked.
"Alright, well, maybe it wasn't the words that you were saying." Kara chuckled. "Maybe it was just that you were speaking at all. You were the response from the gods that I was asking for. And I didn't need to pray to them as much anymore because, right in front of me--was living, breathing proof that there was good and beauty left in the universe."
Laura lowered her head. "I think you're giving me too much credit, Mom."
"People turn to idols," Kara pointed back to the glass case. "And rusted out pieces of metal—when their lives are empty; not giving them the contentment that they're looking for." She looked back to Laura. "This is an exceptionally weird situation that our family is in, and yet……..I've never been more content."
Laura looked confused. "So, you're saying that you're giving me your idols because you don't believe in the gods as much anymore?"
"Man, for a girl that loves books so much, you sure don't know how to read between the lines, do you?" Kara laughed, but then smiled reverently. "What I'm saying is that I believe in them more than ever, my faith in them is very strong. But I don't need the idols anymore, because you're here. And as much faith as I have in the gods, it's still not half as much………….as I have in you."
TBC
