He strode away from the group, hoping to talk with Rene about what he had planned, and the part she could play by getting out of here.

Starbuck reached for Rene's hand, pulling her to him for a quick embrace. Holding her helped to still the worry that was twisting his guts. None of this felt right, but he knew they had to get moving, they had to do something. He pulled back, but kept her hand in his.

"We're only going a few kilometrons then waiting until night fall. The Cylons have a bunch of kids held in a facility and we are going to take it out under the cover of darkness and then…"

Jake interrupted him, "And then what? Try to get away with a bunch of kids and the Cylons close in on us while Boomer hobbles on a putrid leg, Rene vomits up her guts and you hack up a lung?"

Starbuck wanted to berate the young man for his negative attitude, one the boy wore like his own dress uniform, saving it for special occasions like this one. But Jake's words were a bit too close to the truth. Starbuck's head was pounding and he could feel the tightness settling in his chest. Rather than chew the kid out, he sighed heavily. "I know this isn't ideal, but Apollo will find us with the viper he was going for. Rene will go for more help and we all get out of here."

He didn't expect applause for his rough plan, but he wasn't prepared for the contemptuous frowns on their faces, either.

"Uh huh," Jake said sarcastically, "So how exactly are you going to pull this off? Are you just going to blind everyone with your gold clusters?"

"I have a plan. With the solenite Rene has, and I am assuming you have some as well despite the fact that wasn't on our list of what to pack for this vacation, we can do it. Plus, it will make a nice diversion while Rene and Boomer find a raider."

Jake and Rene didn't even share a look before the two spoke in tandem. "Or…instead…" Rene paused and deferred to Jake to finish the outline of their plan. "Instead, Rene and I take off now, head back to Caprica City and go get a raider. We bring more help and then we can go on this insane quest of yours."

"Insane? You're talking about just walking into a Cylon compound and what, asking nicely for a raider? Is that before or after Rene vomits up her guts?" He threw the younger man's words back at him. Starbuck looked to Rene for some backup, but she stayed mute, her feet planted too close to Jake's. Starbuck couldn't say he hadn't been warned. Crius reminded him often not to get between these two. Max had told him straight out Rene would always take Jake's side. Starbuck thought a sealing would change that. He shook his head, cursing under his breath, "Dammit, coming to Caprica was not my crazy idea, but we're here and this is the situation. It's kids. They have a lot of kids and they are hurting them!"

The words did not have the effect he was hoping for. In fact, it was the complete opposite as both Jake and Rene looked at him coldly. They were oddly unsympathetic to the plight of a group of kids.

"Isn't this why we came here?" he asked accusingly to Rene. She at least had the decency to look away at his comment.

"Yeah," Jake said slowly, "and we got those kids. Face it, Starbuck, there's always more kids. The fleet has a whole shipload of them that no one seems overly concerned about."

"Really?" The word was filled with incredulity and the loathing that Starbuck was feeling after Jake essentially voiced that kids were disposable. Then again, that's how they'd been treated. He'd had his own glimpses of that in the Caprican Child Care System. Starbuck wanted to pull out his hair in frustration, but his hand was holding Rene's at the moment. He squeezed her hand hard to get her attention focused back on the conversation. "I'm not arguing that there couldn't be improvements in the way we look after our orphans, but that doesn't translate into these ones being disposable!"

"I never said…"

"Well, you sure as hades implied it! These kids are in danger, and we need to rescue them. Isn't that why you brought us here? To save people?"

Rene wiggled her fingers, letting him know he was holding too tight. He eased up, but she squeezed back. "Apollo's not back. We have no way to get those kids out of here."

"But he will be. He won't let us down. He wouldn't have left us unless it was a for sure thing."

"Fracking Colonials," Jake muttered under his breath. Starbuck was about to correct him, but Rene pulled his hand, directing him to her.

"We weren't awake when he left. You don't know that it is a sure thing. He won't know where to find us. Plus, Boomer looks like he's calling the shots here and did it occur to you that maybe he's not capable of doing that right now?"

"First of all, you're not giving Apollo much credit. Not only do I expect him to arrive with a ride, but I'd wager my next sectar's pay on it. Apollo doesn't let me down. It's a loyalty thing. He and I are sort of like you and Jake in that aspect, except we've never slept together. Secondly, I trust Boomer. He keeps me grounded when I lose my temper or lose sight of what's important. You might call that 'calling the shots', I call it valuing a good man's opinion. And if you think I should ignore what Boomer thinks because of his injuries, where does that put you, pretty lady? A few centons ago you didn't know where you were or even what secton this was."

"Exactly," Jake sneered, "which is why we need to get out of here. I need to get her in the air and off to the Galactica as soon as I can or we are all going to be delirious and puking. You can go and do the rescuing and be the big damn hero, but I don't see the point in rescuing those kids just to have the Cylons capture them again, or worse. You haven't thought this through. They haven't thought this through." Jake pointed to Avery and his men.

"None of us claim to be omniscient, Jake. I can sketch together a rough plan, but until I put eyes on the compound, I can only make a calculated guess as to what's going to happen. Sometimes us big damn heroes have to make things up as we go along. Getting current and accurate intel usually helps. I'll tell you something else, being a big damn hero means you don't just find the first ride out of a bad situation when things get rough. And being a Colonial Warrior means you don't run home to your battlestar when kids are being mutilated by Cylons!"

"So, you want us to hike all over these hills on a maybe when I know there's a sure thing back in town? We've done it before. Have you done this before? Frack all this," Jake cursed as Boomer walked up.

"We should get moving," Boomer said, before heading back to check his pack.

Starbuck looked around. He didn't like the dynamics of the team. They were at odds and that never led to success. Jake and Rene were too used to manipulating those in their direct chain of command. They worked together well, a little too well at times. It also didn't help that Jake had a damn good point. Starbuck tried to remember that Jake's true motivation here was the same as his, to get Rene off this planet and into some decent medical care, and then in a few sectars time after the baby was born she could come back and get all of them rescued.

But in the mean time it was those kids who were suffering, and that was the reason why he had joined the Colonial Service in the first place. To help kids and all of humankind. He liked being a hero, and he was actually good at it. Avery had a point, they all had their reasons. Starbuck just wished like hades Apollo was here to sort this out and lead the way, but he wasn't. It was his job now. He tried to take a deep breath and swallowed down the phlegm rising in his throat. Things were fracked up, but their best odds were still with Avery's men, if nothing else for the added firepower.

He squeezed Rene's hand twice quickly as he stepped a little closer to the two. "Listen up, I hear you Jake, I do, but we are not splitting up so you can wind up dead. You are our medic. You're staying with us. Besides, we are closer to a raider on the route Avery is suggesting so…" He held up a hand to stop Jake from speaking. "I agree with you. When we get there, Boomer and Rene are going to get a raider and get out of here. That is objective one. Objective two: saving the kids. And while we're blowing the hades out of their compound, that will be the distraction needed for Rene to get into the air. Agreed?"

Jake looked like he had swallowed something sour and wanted to spit it out. It was Rene's voice, soft and low, that drew his attention away from the young warrior. "Kids as a distraction? That's how you want to do this?"

He couldn't help but lose his temper. It had been one fracked up day, and his head hurt. "No, it's not! I want Apollo to get here with a damn viper and then for you to bring blue and red squadron back with guns blazing. I want all the kids' parents to be alive, these rumors of mutilations to be false, and to be able to tie it all up in a nice bow! But that's not the cards we've been dealt. We have a bad hand, but dammit, we can't deal again just yet. And I sure as sagan's sake am not letting you and your buddy just walk into a cylon city. I've got the gold clusters and I'm calling the shots. You don't like it, fine. I stun you both, have Avery's men carry you. I am not playing games here, Rene. It's an order and that goes for your ex-boyfriend too!"

She quirked an eyebrow at that statement. "So that's how you want to do it?"

"Yes! I want you to agree and follow a fracking order for just once in your life. It's not like you had this planned out, now is it? Had you included us sooner, gone by the book, for Frack's sake, stayed out of a viper, we wouldn't be having this debate while breathing toxic air. But we are here, I have a plan and we are going to do this!"

"Is there a problem?" Boomer walked up, taking his turn to raise an eyebrow. "I thought we were saving the explosions for later?"

"These two want to just walk into Caprica City and ask the Cylons for a cup of tylium and a raider to go with it. Oh and they think they can do it on their own!" He was hoping Boomer could help him talk some sense into Jake so he didn't have to stun the two, but he was prepared to do it if he had to. No way was he letting them just walk off.

"Maybe because we've done it several times before! How many times have you rescued anyone from Cylon slavery? Once, twice or never? Because I would bet it's none. I don't remember you there saving our lives." Jake's voice rose in volume and Rene reached out a hand to him, whether it was to lend her support to remind him to calm down, Starbuck wasn't sure.

"Is that what this is about? I'm not Dante? Well, get over it, Jake, because I'll never be like him. I have listened to your point. You make a good one. And yes, I have saved people from Cylon slavery, and I'm going to do it again before tomorrow. We're Colonial Warriors, it's what we do. Maybe if you paid attention in some of your trainings you would get that! No, we're sticking together and we are doing this, together!" Starbuck turned on Boomer. "You shouldn't have let Apollo go off on his own!"

Boomer held up his hands in surrender. "He wasn't alone, Max was with him. Easy there, Bucko. We're not the enemy."

"Well I'm beginning to take it damn personal that everyone wants to take off on their own damn missions. Apollo goes hunting some mythical viper, while Avery is intent on dragging me from a pretty pleasant bed. Now we're here in the open being chased by centurions, walking into an encampment straight out of a bad horror vid, and these two want to take their own side trip into Caprica city to hotwire a ride. And you…"

"I am on your side, buddy." Boomer took a step towards him, laying a hand on his shoulder, "Now spill, what's the plan, because I know you have one. Like you said, let's walk and talk. You okay to walk, Rene?"

"Someone is going to have to carry her because if she makes one move from my side, I am stunning her, you got that, sweet heart?"

She couldn't resist the surly, "Yes sir," that was definitely an eight on the scale of surliness.

Jake mumbled under his breath, "Fracking Colonial equine astrums."

"Yeah, I am. I get like that when I don't get my beauty sleep or my friends try to ditch me."

Jerking Rene's hand, Starbuck turned to fall in line with Avery's men, following them up another ridge. He kept hold of her, and she let him stay in his sullen silence until they crested another ridge that gave them a nice view of the valley behind them and the hills before them they still had to climb. He used to like hiking in these mountains. Of course, that was when these hills were filled with beauty and were free of Cylons intent on his death. He scanned the skies spotting a couple of raiders on the horizon. He caught the glint of centurions in the distance, but they looked to be heading in the wrong direction. He waited for a moment so that Jake and Boomer could catch up.

His anger had cooled and as usual, he regretted his words. He looked at Rene, taking in her dirty dishevelled hair, her sweat soaked face, and her fever glazed eyes. He couldn't stop his gaze from traveling down her body to the belly that was growing a little more each day. The loose fit of her uniform let him know she'd lost some weight in the last couple of days, but it seemed to accentuate her condition even more. He cursed himself. What had he been thinking letting her talk him into this? No, he knew that wasn't right. She didn't have to twist his arm to get him here. He'd come along willingly. It had been hard to live with the knowledge that they had left humans behind to be slaughtered by the Cylons. For three yahrens it had been a remote concept, one that was easy to avoid what with the day to day struggle to keep those in the fleet fed and safe. Rene had reopened the wound of regrets when she took him on the visit to Adama's home. Added to that was the fact he just couldn't get out of his head the baby in rags crying in its mother's arms. How many more babes had they left to die? Well no more, not even one more if he had anything to do about it, and most definitely not his baby.

"You okay?" He reached out a hand for her brow, gently swiping back her hair. She was warm, but it could just be from the climb. She nodded and pulled his hand to her belly, placing it flat against her side. He held his breath as he tried to fathom what she was trying to show him, then exhaled in surprise as he felt the kick against his palm. "That's a good thing, right?"

She nodded again as she let his hand go and reached for a water bottle from the pack he was carrying.

Once Boomer and Jake reached them, they shared the water and then he began to outline his plan. He knew the details were rough, but he and Boomer were used to these kinds of missions, standard training at the academy. "We wait for night fall, and Jake and I will head for the mining operations. They are sure to have something explosive or flammable there to add to the solenite charges we have. We get a nice big distraction going, if we get lucky take out most of the centurions as they come to solve the problems we create. Boomer, you and Rene get to their landing field, get to a raider and take off. According to Wylie they usually only have two or three birds on the ground there. If it's doable, I wouldn't say no to a strafing run to destroy the rest of raiders on the ground and split their attention."

Boomer nodded enthusiastically. "If there's no sign of Apollo or Max by then, I'll try to raise them on the comm before we head home. Air support could be helpful if the Lords are smiling on us."

"Good idea. I'll set Avery's men on saving the kids. If we get lucky there will be a cylon troop carrier there to load up the kids. Avery's men have seen them. If not, then plan B will be to get them into the hills and then we head off to where Apollo was going, meet him halfway hopefully. Can you show me on a map where he thought he was headed?"

Boomer brought up the map on his data pad and handed it to him. Starbuck looked around at the terrain, tried to match up where they were in relation to the coordinates on the map. "That's not too far at least. Looks to be mostly downhill as well. I'm hoping most of the kids can walk, although their endurance may not be too good. If some of them need help, that puts a bit of a slow down on us. We may have to make sure we take out most of the centurions. Maybe when we storm the building we can take an IL captive. They might actually bargain for one, but that's getting ahead of ourselves there. I think the ultimate goal here is to save the kids and then just take out as many of the enemy as we can."

"Maybe we should hit communications before we go for that raider?" Boomer suggested.

Starbuck nodded. "Yeah, maybe, but you could do that from the air once you get a raider."

"One word from the Cylons to a nearby base will have a squadron swarming us before we can even get to those kids, buddy," Boomer said.

"That was Jake's point: I don't want to rescue these kids just for the cylons to call in more reinforcements and take them captive again, or worse. The centurions get a little twitchy on the trigger finger. Their first instinct isn't to take us alive, especially when we prove to be a bit resistant."

"If we need to, then Rene and I can set a few charges on the way to the air field," Boomer said.

Starbuck nodded reluctantly. "That might have to be part of the strategy. If we could time the charges to go off in the petrol dump as well as their communications center simultaneously as you and Rene get to a Raider, you're more likely to get off the ground."

"Then we pull a strafing run as all Hades is cutting loose just to seal the deal."

"I like it, Boomer."

"I'll talk to Avery. He must have some place he's thinking of that he can hide everyone. He seems to know about the mines in this area. Hopefully knows more about them than the Cylons." Boomer gestured ahead of them, letting Starbuck know he was fine, his leg wasn't a problem and they should keep going.

Starbuck dropped Rene's hand, choosing to wrap an arm around her for a moment instead and letting Jake find his place beside her as well. "That work for you, Jake?"

Jake flashed him a perfect pyramid face, raising all kinds of alarms inside of Starbuck. "I know it's a rough plan and relying on a lot of maybes. We'll work out the details when we can get eyes on the objective, but we all have the expertise for this, and the solenite so…"

Jake cut him off. "I didn't grab the right pack." It was not the reply Starbuck was expecting from the young man.

"What does that mean, not enough solenite? That's okay, mining operations notoriously have explosives about, and we can just overload a pulsar rifle or two to get the same effect. It will be fine."

Jake shook his head. "I'm not worried about the solenite. I only have about four more doses of the antibiotics, and two of analgesics. Avery's people took the rest and unless they brought it with them, we need to get to the Galactica."

"Isn't that what we've been talking about?" Starbuck reached out his free hand to squeeze Jake's shoulder, to reassure him with the physical contact that this would work, but Jake sidestepped the gesture.

"I'm going to go ask Wylie if they have the rest of it." Jake strode away from them, headed for the beginning of the line of men.

Starbuck shook his head and looked down at his wife. "You going to help me out with him, or you just going to let the two of us twist in the wind together?"

"Oh I don't know, sounds like you have a team building exercise planned for tonight. Personally, I think you should postpone it and just come home with me." She looked up to him for a moment before turning to follow Jake's progress with her gaze.

Well, it's not like he hadn't been warned, he thought to himself again. What did you think, Bucko, sealing would make everything change overnight? In some ways, it was relief that his life hadn't felt so radically different after signing his name to the certificate. At the time in Adama's office, he had thought that it should have felt more permanent or more binding. He had thought it would change him somehow, or at least how others viewed him. He'd felt that way when he signed for the admittance to the academy. He'd felt changed right down to his soul that day. And yet in Adama's office the morning after their sealing, it had felt just like any other paperwork he'd had to fill out, just another form. He reasoned at the time it was because they'd already had the ceremony the night before, that the signing was just a formality. He had been relieved because when he woke the morning after their impromptu wedding, he'd had a few second thoughts. Was he really ready for all this meant? It had been comforting to know that his day started almost the same as any of his other days with Rene in their quarters. Signing the certificate had been simple and less intimidating than he expected. Not much had changed, but maybe he wanted it to.

He thought back to why they had decided to speed up the change in their status. One, it didn't really change anything, they were already committed to each other. Two, they had this mission to accomplish and wanted things to be legal and right in case things went wrong. Rene's dreams had her scared.

Softly she said, "Don't take it personal. He barely trusts me. You sure about this? There's a lot of unknown variables here, Apollo finding a viper and meeting up with us being a big one. I need a raider to get the rift to work. What if there's only a troop carrier? What if…We know we can find a raider back in town."

Starbuck met her gaze, still seeing the fear in her eyes that she tried to hide from him.

"What we do know is that we are seriously outnumbered back in town. We know that won't work Rene, that's why we're going ahead with Avery's plan. If we get a raider, well Apollo and his, how did you put it, mythical viper, are a nice bonus. But we can do this without him. I'd rather not, but…" Starbuck hesitated, before he broached a topic they had avoided until now. "Did you dream this? You had visions of what we are about to do, didn't you? I saw most of your drawings and…there were a few with kids, but most…" It was a hard subject for him to discuss. It bordered on the realm of the book of the word mysticism, and yes, while he conversed with men in white who appeared out of thin air on occasion, her dreams were something far different, something from the darker side. Her drawings had been gruesome with scenes of piled dead bodies and flames. He knew she had brought them here to try to make the dreams not come true. So why was she resisting this?

He sighed and finished his thoughts, hoping she had some answers. "He trusts in your dreams too, doesn't he? You wanted to save these people, not just some of them. You wouldn't have brought us here if you thought we couldn't do this, so it must turn out alright…right?"

He gave her his confident smile but it didn't soften her frown. The look of defeat and sorrow on her face almost forced him to look away.

"I…I don't know. I mean…sometimes I know what is from the past and what might be the future, but lately it's hard to tell. Not all the dreams I have come true. Lately, these dreams… I don't know how to explain it but, they just don't feel like mine. And they never worked like that, Starbuck. It's not like I wake up and there are the schematics in front of me, you know. It's just fragments and scenes that don't make sense until…" He felt her shrug underneath his arm. "Until they piece together. It's like getting dealt a few cards and then you draw and suddenly your bad hand turns into a decent possibility for winning the pot, but you still don't know what everyone else has, you know?" She looked up to him, almost imploring him to understand.

"Yeah, I think I get it. We'll just have to muddle through then, and hope like hades either there's a raider there or Apollo finds us. Come on, let's get going. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave." He dropped his arm that was around her to take her hand. He began to follow the path as it angled up the hillside. He tried to resist speaking, but the ache in his chest forced him to say it. "If you don't mind though, could you take my side once or twice instead of always doing what Jake wants. I mean, I did marry you. Shouldn't one of the perks be that you back my bets?"

She didn't miss a step as she replied, "Have I stunned you yet?"

He quirked an eyebrow at her hoping she had forgotten his little jibe a quarter of a kilometron back. He started to apologize, but she cut him off.

"When you can be more persuasive than threatening to stun me, we'll see."

He didn't have a good reply to that one so he followed the advice he often got from Crius on how to make a relationship work. "Sometimes, you keep your mouth shut and try to listen."

They had walked a few paces in silence before Rene said softly, "You don't get to call all the shots in this marriage, pretty boy. You don't like my friends, fine. I'm not fond of all yours either, but you don't see me telling you to not believe in Apollo."

"No, only that he's not a sure thing," he replied. He sighed, shaking his head. Maybe she had a good point, and he squeezed her hand twice to let her know he heard it, because at that moment he couldn't find the right words. What he said softly was, "Apollo will find us."

"And Jake will see me home safe," she replied.

Starbuck mulled those words for a few paces. They should have reassured him as that was his goal too, but something about how she said the word home sounded odd and out of place. He wanted to ask if the Galactica finally felt like home to her, but he suspected he knew the answer to that question. It was a safe bet that it wouldn't be one that he liked.

While his brain was busy with that thought and plotting out a mission, his mouth moved forward without him into dangerous territory.

"So remind me again why you sealed with me and not Jake?"

It had been a while since he'd heard Rene's evil chuckle. While the sound of it fit the strange landscape around them, he didn't quite understand what was so funny.

"Probably the same reasons you're not sealed to Cassiopeia, or Athena, or Noday, or Aurora, or…" she squeezed his hand twice, "or Apollo. You two make a cute couple."

He laughed aloud. Starbuck pulled her hand turning her to face him. "We make a much cuter couple. I will get you home. You can bet on that."

She reached up a hand gently pulling on the beard he was starting to grow. "I may not back your bets, but I have never bet against you. I know that you trust Apollo, but how about we do this right and don't have to rely on that rescue?"

"As long as we can get you to a Raider, we won't necessarily need Apollo, certainly not for a rescue. But with enough solenite and Apollo and Max showing up, our little rescue mission could become a major blow to the Cylons in this area."

"With just the six of us? Wow, I thought I understood the depths of your ego, but I have seriously misjudged you." She tried to make it sound like a joke, but as her eyes tracked Jake through the line of Avery's men, he knew that she might not be teasing.

"We're not alone. Avery and his men will do their part. Listen, pretty lady, they don't award gold clusters for looks…"

"Yeah, they award them for surviving one way missions, much to their surprise…" she interjected cynically.

"Rene, I have the training, I have the know-how, and I have the desire. You have no idea what I can do."

"It's not me having no idea that I'm worried about," she said as she turned away.