Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed. I'm trying to find a consistent schedule for updating but life gets in the way, so here's hoping that I can update every week. I'm so grateful to have a place to share this story, and I hope people continue to enjoy reading it!

Kestra was visited only once by Lee during his recovery. She assumed he was being tended to by Dee, who was obviously in love with him. She didn't need to be an empath to know that. What Kestra couldn't figure out was how she felt about it. She knew she was attracted to Lee but didn't know if it was anything that could develop into love. She and Lee had become close only because he was the only person in the fleet that treated her like a human being. On top of that, Lee was obviously still only using her company at his leisure. She knew he wouldn't come every day, but it had been three weeks with only one visit. However, the logic that her brain presented her with could not compete with the voice in her head that longed to see him. There were days when she thought about contacting him telepathically and faking a need to see him. She had only used telepathy like that in emergencies in the past, and she felt confident that he would come if she called. She also knew that this was a breach of trust and wouldn't help the relationship she hoped to build with him. She had been spoiled by her parents. Their relationship had been practically unavoidable, and they had years to develop their friendship into a romance. Kestra was not experienced with romance, having spent her childhood on an isolated planet. Without Lee's visits this was an everyday train of thought for Kestra, and she was fed up with it. She needed someone in this fleet she could interact with besides Lee Adama. Kestra began wandering around Colonial One aimlessly. She couldn't sit in makeshift quarters for another second and retain her sanity. She liked watching the members of the press and the government leaders rush by on their way, probably to complain about something. It made her feel like the world was still moving forward even though her life had come to a dead halt. She was stopped by one reporter who looked at her curiously.

"Who are you? I've never seen you aboard Colonial One before, and I know everybody," she said rather self-importantly.

"I'm Kestra," Kestra replied tentatively.

"Playa. Playa Palacios of the Colonial Gang. You've probably heard our broadcasts," she said with a charming smile.

"Actually, I haven't," Kestra said shyly. Playa's eyes widened then became suspicious.

"Where are you from Kestra? Our broadcasts reach every ship in the fleet, but I've never seen you aboard the president's ship before," she said. Kestra could tell Playa was becoming suspicious and didn't know how to respond. So she ran. Kestra ran through the corridors and made her way to a small storage room. There were linens lining the shelves and large cabinets against the far wall. Kestra sat in the dark and hugged her knees to her chest. She hated how out of place she felt in this fleet. It only made her remember more vividly what she had lost. She had never felt so alone in her entire life. It was an unbearable cruel trick of fate to allow her to be rescued by a race of people who hated what she was. An outsider. Kestra's musings were interrupted by the door opening. She looked up to see Laura Roslin backlit by the light from the hall.

"What are you doing in here?" she asked sternly. Kestra shook her head and leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes. She was not prepared to deal with Laura Roslin and her skepticism and her cavalier diplomacy. Roslin did not seem pleased by her lack of a proper response. "I'll have my guards escort you out if I need to," she threatened.

"Please," Kestra said in a broken voice, "please just… leave me alone." Roslin's authoritative demeanor fell at the brokenness in the girl's voice.

"What happened?" she asked trepidatiously. She knew both Bill and Lee would be upset if the girl was hurt by someone aboard her ship.

"Nothing," Kestra sighed in defeat, "I'm just not cut out for this."

"What?" Laura asked, now genuinely curious. Kestra had no roll in the fleet, so for her to be overwhelmed was a ridiculous concept.

"You're not very personable are you, Madam President?" she asked. Laura huffed in irritation. Every time Kestra got her to feel a little sorry for her, she went and said something rude like that. "Have you ever tried to put yourself in my shoes? Just try to imagine what it is like for me to live in this fleet."

"I can't afford to imagine what it would be like to be someone else," Laura said stiffly, "I can't be that vulnerable." Kestra frowned.

"So you have no empathy?" Kestra asked genuinely. Laura was taken aback by the assumption.

"Of course I have empathy, just not for things that are not human," she said defensively.

"Do you think it makes you stronger to separate yourself from your enemies?" Kestra asked. Laura furrowed her brow.

"Yes," she said it like it was obvious, "cylons have no sympathy, and they'll receive none from us." Kestra narrowed her eyes as she tried to figure out this woman who could cry of the death of a boy like Billy but remained unfazed by her own indifference to the suffering of anyone outside her own species.

"May I ask you a question?" Kestra asked. Laura nodded warily. "What is your purpose in life?" Laura's eyes widened at the question. Kestra waited patiently while the president collected her thoughts.

"The survival of the human race," Laura said resolutely after a few minutes. Kestra's eyes widened and then became sad.

"That sounds very lonely," she said. Laura was shocked again.

"Why do you care?" she asked irately.

"Because I've never understood you. You had such compassion for Billy, yet you couldn't be bothered to even try to get to know me," Kestra said, "I couldn't figure you out, but it makes more sense now. I don't matter to you, because I'm not human. All you care about is the survival of the human race. It doesn't matter if you make my life hell along the way, because you can't be bothered by my survival when the survival of your entire civilization is at stake. I can't say I agree with it, but I think I understand it. And I pity you." Laura just stared at her for a moment. This alien had just figured out things Laura had been afraid to admit to herself, but instead of pushing away like she should, she wanted to hear more.

"Why?" she breathed.

"You're lonely… like me. Surrounded by people, but unable to get close to them. You think it will make you weak to care just like you think about the cylons," Kestra said. Roslin knew what she said was true, but she felt the need to defend herself.

"I have a very demanding job, but that does not mean that I am lonely," she said stoically.

"Why do you have to be so obstinate?" Kestra asked incredulously, "you have to be the most frustrating person I have ever met."

"I am merely pointing out the differences in our situations," Roslin said matter of factly. Kestra sighed and tears sprung into her eyes. She blinked them away but not before Laura saw them.

"I am trying so hard," she said tiredly, "to be cooperative with you, for Lee's sake and for mine, but I'm begging you to try just a little bit too." Laura furrowed her brow. "Can't you put aside the president for a moment, and can Laura Roslin find it in her heart to sympathize with any part of my situation. I am stuck on a ship with a woman who despises me, and the only person in this galaxy that I thought I could trust only visits me at his leisure. I am forced to trust him anyway, because without him I would be dead five times over, and so I am indebted to a man who ignores my existence for weeks, ah, weeks at a time. Meanwhile, I spend those weeks alone in a fleet of people who would kill me if they knew I was different. I am forced to watch people interact and love each other knowing that I have been parted from those who love me forever." Kestra had miraculously kept control of her emotions, only letting a few tears fall as she spoke. Laura's stiff demeanor softened throughout Kestra's speech. She looked behind her in the hall, then entered the storage room fully. Roslin sat on the floor across from Kestra, and looked her in the eye.

"Maybe you're right," she said tentatively, "it has been over a month, and you have given me no reason to mistrust you since that incident in the brig, but… what you have to understand is that I can't just trust you because you haven't done anything yet."

"I understand the fragility of your fleet and your society, but how am I supposed to earn your trust if you won't give me the opportunity. You don't trust the cylons, because they attacked your people. Yet you were more willing to keep a cylon aboard Galactica than me, because she was a tactical advantage. Is that all people are to you? You use them for information or power and then rid yourself of them when they've served their purpose?"

"Of course not. That's barbaric," Laura replied. Kestra laughed breathily.

"That's how I described my first impression of our culture when Lee asked me," she said. Laura's eyes widened slightly. "If you want to retain some of your humanity by the end of this fight, you might want to focus on making real human connections."

"What do you mean by that?" Laura asked.

"Don't be afraid to get close to people," Kestra said.

"Why are you telling me all this?" Laura asked defensively.

"Why are you listening?" Kestra asked back. Laura blinked at her.

"I," Laura started to speak, but her words were caught in her throat. Kestra was truly an enigma. She was so insightful that she seemed human. Yet every time Laura looked at her, she saw her more like a cylon than a human. She was different. Unknown. How could she trust anything she did or said? On the other hand, she already seemed to know more about Laura than she could admit to herself, much less anyone in the fleet. Logically her choices at this point were to trust the girl or kill her. "You seem so human," Laura finally said. Kestra smiled slightly.

"I am human," Kestra said as if she were explaining it to a child, "seventy five percent of my DNA is human. Most of my physiology and psychology are human. It only makes sense that I would behave like one. I am one… if you round up." Laura laughed at Kestra's last statement, and her own laughter seemed to shock her.

"Then why do you call us barbarians. If you're a human too?" Laura challenged.

"Because civility is not an inherent trait of humanity. Your culture is barbaric compared to the one I was raised in. However, my people never had to fight for the survival of their species. I view you as alien the same way you view me. Not because we are different species, but because our cultures and the circumstances of our existence are so different," Kestra explained.

"Then what would you have me do?" Laura asked, "what do you want from me?"

"Friendship," Kestra answered simply. Laura was truly shocked by this.

"Friendship?" Laura asked skeptically.

"I'm not asking you to restructure your society, Madam President," Kestra said with a smile, "I just want someone to care whether I live or die. I thought… I thought Lee did, but I've come to realize that I was only a way for him to ease his own conscience. He never really cared for me." Roslin's brows went up now.

"I've gotten to know Lee a little since we've been out here," she said gently, "if he didn't care for you he never would have stood up to his father the way he did for your release."

"That wasn't for me," she said, "it was because I made him feel guilty about ignoring me. He only released me to ease his conscience." Laura shook her head.

"Lee likes to follow the rules. He has a very strict sense of morality and adherence to the law. He wouldn't have challenged his superior officer if it was only his guilty conscience in his way. He cares about you too, but he's young. He's trying to prove himself as an officer and to his father. He's got a lot on his mind," she said. Kestra looked up at her.

"Is he trying to prove himself to Dee too?" she asked bitterly. Laura covered her mouth to stifle her laugh.

"I suppose he is," she said on a laugh. She sobered when she saw that Kestra did not see the humor in the situation. "Why don't you talk to Lee about this?" she asked

"I'm not going to tell Lee Adama to stop fucking a woman just because I'm lonely. It's none of my business and if he'd rather fuck Dee than spend time with me that's his choice," she said, "I need to be able to be independent from Lee." Laura's brow had furrowed.

"Fucking?" she asked. Kestra quirked an eyebrow.

"Do you not call it that?" she asked, amused, "um, it's a vulgar term for sex." Laura laughed out loud which confused Kestra. "What?"

"We call it frakking," she said. Kestra giggled.

"That's weird that we share such similar expletives," she said with a smile. Laura nodded. They both fell silent.

"I guess I should stop hiding in here," Kestra said eventually. Laura snapped her attention back to Kestra and pulled herself back into her presidential demeanor.

"Yes," she said authoritatively as she exited the room. Kestra followed her out. Laura let Kestra pass her to head back to her quarters. Kestra turned back a few feet away from the president.

"Thank you," she said haltingly, "for listening, even if you don't like me. I really appreciated having somebody to talk to." Laura was too flustered to respond, so she just watched Kestra turn the corner in silence. Laura was not good at putting herself into other people's shoes. She got so passionate about her own goals that she didn't often think about what her adversaries were struggling with. But since Kestra had brought it to her attention, she had been thinking about it. More than that, she had begun thinking about what it was costing her. She hadn't felt truly human since her father and sisters had died. After that she'd been diagnosed with cancer and then the attack. This was the first time Laura had the time to think about her life. Now that the cancer was gone, she suddenly had a life to live and no idea what to do with it. She had planned on protecting the fleet to the best of her abilities until she died. Now that her death no longer loomed over her imposing it's deadline, she found that she wanted more out of life. She wanted to enjoy her life, or at least what was left of it. She enjoyed spending time with Bill. Laura wandered back to her office slowly. She passed Kestra's quarters on the way there. Maybe she should try to reach out. If she wasn't so guarded, Laura thought she might enjoy the company of the insightful young woman. However, Laura wasn't quite ready to let down her guard, even if Kestra had not posed a threat to the fleet. Yet.