Studying the scans became more difficult as he thought he could feel his skin crawl from the Cylon tech swimming through him. "Sure explains the nightmares, doesn't it Bucko," he'd said to himself, but another voice that sounded a lot like Rene mumbled in his ear, "You didn't know about it until Apollo mentioned it."

"About that," he drawled out loud mimicking his new wing mate. "Well, if soaking in that big tub hasn't eliminated them, or they hadn't been made inoperable by all the ambrosia I've consumed lately, then nothing will. Besides, they wouldn't let me walk around with it in me if it was that bad." That's what he tried to tell himself as he headed straight for the Life Center instead of back to his quarters to take the longest turbo possible. Despite his crawling skin, he needed to get back. Two centaurs away from Rene left him anxious to be by her side, especially with the bad news he was bringing with him.

As he got closer to the Life Center, he was overwhelmed with the desire not to be back in that sterile environment that seemed to be haunting his dreams. Seeing those long range scans of the approaching enemy had cranked up the volume on the screams that echoed in his head. Abruptly he halted, reaching out a hand to the corridor wall to steady himself as a shiver ambushed him and shot up his spine, making his hands tremble. Closing his eyes, he tried to breathe through the sensation, mumbling to himself, "I'm on the Galactica. We made it back and I'm okay."

"You alright?" A voice interrupted his meditation, and he opened his eyes to find himself face to face with Avery.

"Frak me, but this place is getting as crowded as a brothel offering free drinks." A hand reached out, and he stumbled, backing away.

"Easy, Lieutenant," a woman's voice said calmly and it took him a moment to realize that Avery was not alone, his wife by his side.

"Oh no, Apollo, you are asking too fraking much," he mumbled as Avery reached for him again. Starbuck took another step back, almost tripping on his own feet.

"Are you alright?" Gaea asked, pulling her husband back. "We didn't mean to frighten you. We had heard about Lt. Jake being injured and we…"

"I'm fine!" Starbuck shouted, before catching the look on Gaea's face. Lowering his voice, he tried to remember that Avery's wife had nothing to do with their capture on Caprica. "Sorry, I'm …fine. Just…" Fumbling for the right words to explain why he'd been leaning against the corridor, eyes closed, he held out his hands to stop Avery from coming closer. "You just startled me. Jake's fine. We're all fine. You? You're fine?"

Gaea looked to her husband Avery before turning back to Starbuck. "Thanks to you and your wife, yes. We wanted to help. Your wife sent us to look after the children."

Wincing, he remembered that about now he and Rene should have been luxuriating in a suite on the Rising Star while others watched the kids for them. Somewhere he had missed the memo that included Avery's people amongst the approved childminders.

"Yeah, thanks, I…" he fumbled again, looking briefly to Avery before putting his feet in motion. "Gotta go." He brushed past them, hearing Gaea call out she was there to help, anytime, but he absently waved at them over his shoulder as he kept walking.

The day was lining up go from bad to worse, as he stumbled into the life center. He was expecting to find Nik and Jake still in biobeds with Rene by Jake's side, but instead he found that Nik was gone, and Rene was pacing outside of Jake's room.

"What's going on? Where's Nik?" he asked, looking past Rene into the room to find Dixon speaking with Jake, but the young man wasn't liking what he was hearing, as evidenced by his glare and clenched fists.

Rene shook her head at him as she kept pacing. "Nik went home and I was kicked out."

Chuckling, Starbuck couldn't hold back his sarcastic reply. "You don't let me in when you're talking to Dixon. It's only fair."

The look she shot him was as hot as a Borellian laser bol. He held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry, I was woken up at an ungodly hour to find out a friend was attacked and had to cut my honeymoon short, then found out some bad news, I'm not in the best of moods."

As she kept pacing, he debated telling her, but if he did, then every Rat would know faster than you could say cheese. He didn't want to ponder the panic that would create as the news worked its way through the squadrons and then the fleet, surely becoming garbled in translation. Besides, they still weren't positive that it was the enemy. Rene had enough to worry about right now anyway, what with Jake and the kids and moving to the Zakar, but he thought he should probably clue her in to the part of the Apollo's plan she played. Of course telling her that, would lead to having to tell her all of it. He was beginning to understand why they had fraternization regulations. It was going to be next to impossible to live with her and not share the day to day details of his new job.

He tried to stifle the sigh that escaped, but it caught Rene's attention as she cocked her head at him. Was that a Cylon drone he heard as she scanned his features.

"They found us, the cylons." She made a guess, and she read him clearer than he had those scans. The anger in her face drained away as she froze mid step. She pleaded with him, "Please tell me I'm wrong."

Holding up his hands to halt her leaping to any more conclusions, he tried to reason with her and himself, "We're not sure of that. We have a couple of long range scans that look suspicious, and you can't tell anyone I told you that."

She closed her eyes for a moment, and he was pretty sure she was chanting her phrases about fear washing over her as she took a slow breath before opening her eyes again. "But you saw them, the scans? What do you think?"

Wincing he looked away from her. He may not know his own wife very well, but she wasn't having any difficulty in reading his reactions. Turning back to her he said, "It could be anything, the scanners are old and they catch all kinds of felgercarb that turns out to be nothing." He almost mentioned the old transmission they had picked up one time in the Celestial Dome, but he was pretty sure Apollo didn't want anyone to know he thought it had come from earth.

"So what do you think it is?" She asked, but didn't wait for him to answer. "How often are you wrong?"

She had him there, as he hadn't been wrong, not lately anyway. Meeting her eyes, he saw the fear in them that he had hoped to leave behind on Caprica, and suddenly the Life Center was too bright, too white, and he wanted out of there.

"I've been known to be wrong," he said, nodding solemnly, as he fervently wished they could just go back a few centaurs when he was asleep with her in his arms and his only plans for the day was more love making interspersed with gorging himself with good food. "I think we need to get moved to the Zakar in couple of sectons. I'd like to do it in just a few cycles. How do I get all the family together to make this happen?"

She shrugged. "They're scattered on different duties to make up for the time they took off for the sealing. I'm not sure we can get everyone at once. Might have to just talk to who we can and spread the word."

"Okay. Make that happen, now rather than later," he said wondering if Jake might be better left on the Galactica. He had just started his training, and while he was a good medic, the family would benefit from him becoming a doctor. Besides, the Zakar would meet up with the Battlestar sometime in the future and they could transfer him over then.

"Are you serious?"

He nodded and she cursed loudly, to be barked at by Salik to watch her tongue.

"Hey, it's okay," he said reaching for her, but she brushed him off stepping away. He didn't let her go, taking the steps with her, pulling her into his arms, relieved that she relented to his soft, "Hey, don't." She sighed heavily, but he held her for a moment before saying softly, "The Zakar is not like it used to be. Apollo's in charge, and he's the nicest person I know. And I'll be there, so nothing is going to happen, not like before."

"That's not it," she said softly. "They've found us."

Sighing, he wanted to deny her words, but he was afraid she was right. "It was to be expected. You took us backwards. We had just barely shaken them from our tail when we found you and Dilmun."

"It's my fault. Caprica and the scan. I should have sent us forward, or…," she shuddered in his arms, "I had hoped…"

"We're not even sure it's the enemy. It could be one of ours, or maybe yours from Dilmun. And if it is, we'll deal with it. We'll beat them again. We have more ships this time and…" he hesitated unsure if here and now in the Life Center was a good place and time to reveal Apollo's crazy plan, but what would be the right time to discuss evading an enemy bent on your destruction by slipping into an unknown space anomaly possibly sent by the Lords? He kissed the top of her head before leaning down and whispering in her ear, "and we have you."

"What does that mean?" she mumbled into his chest.

He pulled back to look at her. "It means we may give you the keys to that shiny battlecruiser you gave me and let you take her for a trip."

Her eyes lit up before going wide in fright. "It's bad isn't it?"

He debated the answer, settling for a fake smile as he replied, "We're not sure. So let's just say it's a good excuse to try some new things."

Nodding with a weak smile, she accepted his attempt at humor to lighten the bad news.

"Apollo is moving up the date that Cain starts flight training." He expected an objection from her, but Rene just nodded again. Slowly he pulled her into his arms, and she let him hold her. They stayed that way for a centon or two until they were interrupted by Jake's shouting.

"Frak this pile of steaming mong!" Jake was sitting up and shouting at Dixon, but Dixon didn't seem concerned. In fact, the man was actually smiling, which puzzled Starbuck. Riling up Jake was never a good idea. The young man liked to punch things or so he'd been told, still trying to wrap his brain around the idea of the scrawny sewer rat dropping a big bovine like Avery in one move. But then again, he reminded himself, the rats were notorious for not fighting fair, nor caring about consequences. In Jake's damaged state and not thinking straight, it could get ugly and he might actually do some damage, more likely to himself.

As if on cue, Jake was struggling from the bed, his fists clenched, and Dixon wasn't backing away. Letting go of Rene, Starbuck hastily keyed the door to the room open and raced in, Rene right behind him.

"Whoa Jake, what's going on?" Putting himself between Jake and Dixon, he firmly pushed Dixon back shooting him a glare of his own. "He's been attacked. You need to give him some space."

"Lieutenant, you are not needed here," Dixon said, but Jake's words indicated otherwise.

"It's not fraking fine! Nothing is fine! Get me out of here!" Jake implored Starbuck before looking around frantically for Rene, finally spotting her. "Get me out of here!"

Groaning, Jake swung his legs out of the biobed, swaying on his feet. Starbuck turned to grab him by the shoulders before the kid fell down. "Hold on there, brother. I'm not sure if you're supposed to be doing that."

"I don't give a flying frak! Rene!" The kid's voice rose in volume as Rene tried to calm him.

"Right here, baby. It's okay. He's on our side." Adding her hands to Jake's arm, she helped Starbuck hold him up.

Blurry eyed, Jake turned his head, trying to find Rene. Once locating her, he gave her his full focus. Starbuck had no idea what message was conveyed in Jake's glare, but Rene was quickly turning away, reaching for a uniform she had brought as she spoke to Dixon. "You need to go now."

"We're not done here. You know how this works. Processing tough emotions is hard and he needs to work through this." His voice held a hint of command and Starbuck almost spoke his thoughts aloud, that orders didn't work on the Rats.

Slapping the folded uniform into Starbuck's chest, Rene gave him a look that he needed no explanation to translate, he was in charge of Jake while she dealt with the immediate threat. Nodding that he'd received the order, he took one hand away from Jake to grab the uniform, while backing the kid into the bio bed.

"You're done for now," she said as she reached across the small room to guide Dixon to the door. "He won't listen until he gets his way."

"Rene, you know how this process goes," Dixon started to say, but he was allowing Rene to lead him from the room.

Still cursing, Jake's words were almost nonsensical, making lewd suggestions about Dixon and his mother and their extracurricular night time activities, but he slowed the stream of profanities when Starbuck held up the uniform in front of his face.

"Can you do it yourself? I know we're getting close, but this might be a little too close, don't you think?" Starbuck asked.

"I want out of here!" Jake shouted again.

"Trying to help you with that. I'm on your side, buddy. I've always hated this place." Starbuck pushed the kid back until he got the idea and hopped up to sit on the bio bed. Starbuck glanced at the door as Rene was able to get Dixon out of the room, only to be answering to Doctor Salik who had come to deal with the commotion. Feeling something wet hit his cheek, Starbuck spun his attention back to Jake to see that the kid had ripped all of the tubes out of his arms, spraying blood and saline in the process. Starbuck gagged at the sight, pushing the uniform at Jake before pulling away.

"A little warning next time!"

Snarling, Jake dragged the tunic over his head, leaving it open as he pulled on the pants, hopping down and not bothering with his boots. The kid swayed and Starbuck reached out to keep him steady.

"I want out of here!" Jake shouted in his face, but Starbuck fixed him with a glare of his own.

"I agree with you! Take the help, you idiot!" Appraising the young man and the wild defiant look he was giving him, Starbuck decided shouting at him wasn't going to help. He lowered his voice, keeping a firm grip on Jake's arm. "I'm trying to get you out of here, but I need to make sure you're okay. You've got a family to protect. We need you healthy and calm, more importantly calm, or they are not going to let you out of here, got it?"

Jake scrubbed at his face with his hand, squinting his eyes before answering with a shrug and a nod. Starbuck turned to see if Rene had cleared their escape route. Dixon was still there, just outside of the room, but Rene had a hand on him pushing him back while she talked with Salik. The doctor seemed resigned to the early release of his patient as he was trying to hand Rene medications and giving instructions.

"Don't leave him alone for the next day or two. Give him one of these every four hours for his killer headache, and bring him back later today, tomorrow at the latest or I will track him down. I am not losing a good medic despite his best efforts to annoy me."

Nodding along to the instructions, Starbuck added his own comment, "He'll be at our place for now."

Rene turned to him, her mouth literally gaping, "Are you sure? I mean…"

Leaning down, Starbuck picked up Jake's feet one at a time, cramming them into the boots and latching them up for him before Starbuck stood up and handed Jake his jacket.

"There, now at least you look like you're okay. Nothing like a clean uniform to make you feel like a new man. Here, let me," he said as he took the jacket from the kid's hand, wrapping it around Jake's shoulders and helping him get it on as the kid groaned in pain. "Take it slow, and when you're healed, we'll do some sparring, maybe I can show you a few moves I know."

Reaching out to straighten Jake's insignia, Starbuck noticed Rene looking at him in confusion.

"Are you sure? Our place?" She asked, making him realize he had truly taken her by surprise.

"Of course, where else would he go? He can sleep in the middle," Starbuck turned away rolling his eyes at Jake. "You just like cramping my style don't you, little brother?"

Jake didn't bother with words, growling as his reply, looking like he was going to take a swing at him.

Starbuck wanted to bark at him again to knock it off, but he also understood the kid's reaction. A wounded dagget backed into a corner will bite at anything. Slowly pulling his hand away, Starbuck held them up in submission. "Looks like if you can walk out of here, they're going to let you go. Think you can manage that?"

Starting to nod, then wincing, Jake settled for a curt, "Yeah," before turning towards the door, managing to actually make it the two steps before reaching out for the door frame. He looked like he was trying not to vomit as one of his hands held him upright while the other latched onto Rene pulling her to him.

Rene didn't resist his grip, still reassuring the doctor that she knew enough to call for help if needed while Jake wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

She turned to deal with Dixon, but Jake cut off whatever words she was going to say with a resounding, "You don't know a fracking thing and I don't have to talk to you!"

"Son, you really should deal with this," Dixon said, but the word 'son' rankled the kid. Cursing, Jake stepped away from Rene and the grip he had on the door frame, making it only a few steps before he swayed like he was drunk, before taking another hesitant step. Starbuck was impressed that the kid actually made it halfway across the life center before he stumbled. Once again, Starbuck grabbed an arm holding Jake up.

The kid bit at him, "I'm getting the frak out of here!"

Salik grumbled at their backs, saying, "Medics always make the worst patients, even worse than pilots. Get him back in a biobed if you can."

"When were you going to tell me about the Cylon felgercarb I still have in me?" Starbuck snapped at him.

"When it was important!" Salik barked before shaking his head. "Medics and pilots, and that's all I have to deal with. I'm going to get me a transfer to the Senior's Ship. Now, get out of here before I change my mind, on both of your releases!"

Grumbling in his own frustration at how his day was stacking up to be one of the worst, Starbuck tried again to prop Jake up, but the kid jerked his arm away. "Rene, remind him I'm on his side. You can't carry him the whole way and if he doesn't behave, we're leaving him here."

"I am not staying! Rene!"

It was Jake's cry of her name again and she was there by the kid's side. Nodding to Starbuck absently, she reached up to touch Jake's face, whispering to him, "Baby, he's a good guy. He's right. You've been eating well lately and I can't carry you."

Jake swayed on his feet, but Starbuck didn't let him hit the floor, sliding a shoulder under his arm. This time Jake let him, or at least stopped cursing when he realized they were headed for the door.

It was slow going as Jake kept trying to walk on his own, but they made it to the lift with minimal issues and cursing. It took Starbuck constantly talking and reassuring the kid that it was payback for when Jake had carried him on Caprica.

"Not the same," Jake had finally mumbled once they were in the lift. "You're heavy."

"You're not so light yourself, not anymore. Too much ambrosia. You might want to cut back," Starbuck quipped back pausing before they got out of the lift. "Okay, just a few more steps, but I think we need some boundaries before you start living with us for good."

"Boundaries?" Rene had asked, but Starbuck waited until they were down the corridor and outside of their quarters. Leaning Jake against the wall, he motioned for Rene to stand by Jake to help the kid stay on his feet.

"I just got sealed. I am still officially on my honeymoon. And he is your ex-boyfriend and people like to talk. Without that complication, this would be no big deal, but you two don't help the situation either with your own sign language and secret shopping trips. So we need a few rules so I can be comfortable with this, especially since I hear the accommodations on the Zakar are even smaller. Rule number 1."

Starbuck held up a finger cutting Rene off as she cocked her head and asked with a voice full of sarcasm, "Rules? You know we aren't good with rules, right?"

"Call them what you like, but you two are going to abide by them, that's an order."

Rene narrowed her eyes and Starbuck sighed. "Hear me out before you stun me, okay? How about we try something new? Like maybe mutual respect?"

Rene crossed her arms. "Alright Bucko. I'm listening."

Shaking his head, Starbuck ignored her glare and focused on Jake. "Before you enter any room, you knock and wait for someone to say you can enter. We just got sealed and you may interrupt something."

"Not like I haven't seen her fraking before," Jake said crossing his own arms.

"The numerous kinds of ways of how that is so fraked up is the reason for the rule. I don't care if you think you are alone, before you enter the turbo or the kitchen, you knock," Starbuck continued, not wanting to get into the when's and why's of Jake's admission.

"But if no one answers, what is he supposed to do?" Rene asked.

Starbuck rolled his eyes at his wife. Of course she'd take his side in this. "Then he can wait until the count of ten. Or we could take him back to the life center?"

Rene held up her hands, "Okay. Since that's one, I assume there's a two."

"You bet there's a two, and a three. Two, you show just a smidge of respect for the officers that out rank you. Adama is more patient than Apollo and your new Strike Wing Captain."

"New Strike Wing Captain?" Rene asked before Jake made a guess.

"Probably a Colonial equine's astrum or Pallus."

"Actually it's me, and I remember those kinds of remarks when I'm making up a duty schedule," Starbuck quipped.

Rene's glare softened as a smile crept onto her features. "So you got it, finally! When were you going to tell me?"

"Just found out myself, but don't interrupt. We are on rule three."

Rene shared a look with Jake and the two of them straightened up, coming to attention, or at least Jake tried to while they both barked out a "Yes Sir!" worthy of an academy drill sergeant except for the smirks on their faces.

Starbuck wanted to laugh, it was actually a bit heart-warming to hear the two of them using a bit of respect that sounded sincere when it came to him, but the coordination the two were trying to pull off was exactly what he wanted to curtail with his third rule.

"Rule three. No more inside jokes or private communication and leaving me out of the conversation. I'm not going to feel like the third landram tread in my own quarters or in my own marriage."

As predicted the two simultaneously narrowed their eyes at him, before looking to each other, then back to him.

Sighing, he nodded, "I know I am not going to be able to stop you two from all your devious plans. I'm not trying to. I just want in, alright? At least try, could you?"

Rene nodded an agreement, but had to nudge Jake with an elbow to get him to nod as well. It was a start.

"Is there more?" Rene asked, without any hint of sarcasm, sensing that there was more to Starbuck's rules.

"Yeah, there's more, but I think we should work on those first. And if you two can't manage those three, there might not be a point to anymore." Showing the frustration of his rude awakening that day and the knowledge that the enemy was back, the words came out harsher and vaguer than he had intended as Rene flinched. "Sorry," he mumbled. "It's been a bad day."

"I know," Rene answered taking a small step towards him, a hand reaching for his. "I'm sorry we couldn't finish our honeymoon. But we can go the Rising Star another time and finish what we had started."

He wished that were true, but if Apollo's plan was put into action, they wouldn't be seeing the rest of the fleet for a while. Unless maybe they took the Rising Star with them instead of leaving it with the Galactica. He just might be able to convince Apollo of that fact, or he could try to convince Rene to steal it for him. A little miscalculation of her rift and, oopsie daisy.

Rene's other hand reached up to stroke his jawline lightly as a soft smile came to her lips. "Thank you for this," she nodded her head to Jake.

"Yeah, well, he's family and I'd want someone there for me if that ever happened to me. It should work both ways."

Giving him a rare genuine smile, Rene leaned up to kiss him. The warmth of it took him back to the night before, when everything had been right with his world. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer in an attempt to go back in time.

Jake knocked twice on the corridor wall and started counting, "One, two, three…"

Rene giggled into his lips as he rolled his eyes. "It was your idea," she said giving him a wink as he pulled away.

"Fine," Starbuck rolled his eyes. "You two win. Get him in there, on the sofa please, not my bed. I have to go take care of a few things, like our stuff on the Rising Star and finding out when Cain goes for training, and moving the whole family to the Zakar. Never a dull moment. My chore list just gets longer and longer."

Giving her a small kiss, he walked away despite every instinct telling him to race back to his quarters, if for no other reason than to take care of the problem of the itch under his skin and the slight sting of having to cut his honeymoon short, but his scanner was letting him know he had bigger issues to deal with than finding time to be alone with Rene.