Author's note…So many Kudos to my Beta LisaZ on this chapter. She is amazing.

If anyone is still reading and you want me to continue, let me know. I am far from done with ideas if you want me to keep going.

"Starbuck's on his way to Life Center with the same treatment regime we started on Rene before she went back. Nobody else looks critical. Now, how can I help?" Paye asked, joining Dr. Salik and the rest of the medical team over Rene's lifepod. She was unconscious but alive. There were lines and monitors connected to her, as well as a probe in her mouth, inserted down her esophagus, which was providing three dimensional scans of her heart.

"You're the infectious diseases expert, Paye, tell me what in Hades went wrong. I thought we'd stabilized her," Salik replied, gruffly, turning the scanner around for his colleague to peruse. "Cardiogram showed ST elevation with abnormal Q waves." He pointed to the tracing, and then back to the current scan. "Echocardiography is showing left ventricular ejection fraction of 52%, severe mitral regurgitation, and vegetation on the anterior mitral valve leaflet. She's febrile, anemic, cardiac markers are orbital."

"Infarct?"

"Coronary artery embolism secondary to mitral valve vegetation."

"What the frak? At her age?" Paye muttered, studying the scan, before growling low in his throat. "Septic endocarditis. Did we miss it?"

"I haven't had time to compare the scans, but I don't think so." He briefed Paye on their treatment thus far. "We've done blood cultures again and are awaiting the results . . . "

"As usual . . . "

"I'm told that there was a time that they used to take days instead of centons . . ."

"Yes, when Sagan was in nappies . . . Tell me you started genetic susceptibility testing?"

"Do you think this is my first day on the job?"

"Well, as you pointed out, I'm the ID specialist. Could the . . . jump, for lack of a better word, could it have mutated the bacterium?" Paye asked.

"Could it?" Salik threw back at him.

"I'm afraid they didn't insert the metamorphic effects of quantum mechanics into my infectious diseases studies, so I'm at a loss. Let me see one of the little buggers. Do we have a slide, Cassiopeia?"

"Can we move the patient to the Life Center and look at the mutating bacteria there, Doctor?" Cassie replied pointedly.

"Spoil sport," Paye replied, checking the readouts on the lifepod and nodding his approval.

"Cassie, I want you to triage the rest of this riff raff. Everyone who can stand needs to go to decon. If they can't stand, put them in a life pod and get them to Life Center," Salik ordered.

"Yes, sir."

As Salik raced Rene to the Life Center, Cassie scanned the crowd of men and children that all seemed malnourished, dishevelled and ill. However, most appeared to be mobile and not in immediate distress. She turned to Apollo, the ranking officer for this rescue mission, for his report on the situation. It surprised her that the calm confident man she knew quite well, having been with Starbuck for several yahrens, appeared to be in shock. His wide eyes were ringed in dark circles almost as if he had been punched. His face was pale and he looked unsteady on his feet. Perhaps it was from having to pull an unresponsive pilot from the cockpit, or maybe it was witnessing the process of resuscitation of his good friend's wife. Or could it be just the simple fact that his old wing mate and closest friend had been placed in a life pod and raced off to the Life Center. Cassie was concerned that Apollo may be suffering from the same infection that was threatening the lives of his friends. She placed a gentle hand on his arm to draw his gaze away from the corridor leading to the Life Center.

"Colonel, they are in the best of hands. You and the others need to be seen to now."

He squared his shoulders as he looked across the bay to the men and children now being escorted from the shuttle. "They've been through a lot," he mumbled before turning back to address his father. "There's someone you should meet."

"I think it can wait son. All of you need medical attention."

A shiver ran up Apollo's spine that ended in his nodding in agreement. "The surface of Caprica is toxic, but it was more than that. Starbuck, Rene and all the children have been in an enemy base. The Cylons put things inside their bodies. We got lucky that we could rescue them in time." Apollo shuddered again before he pulled himself together. "But father, you need to meet the man who really saved us. If you hadn't taken me to see him yahrens ago, we might have been stuck on Caprica, or worse." Apollo began to walk unsteadily towards the shuttle pulling his father and the other pilots along with him. Cassie wanted to call out that it was not a wise idea for the Commander to have contact with those from the surface of Caprica, at least not until they were cleared of contagions, but Adama had already violated the protocol. He would need a full decontamination as it was.

"Sir?" she called anyway, but was ignored as an older gentleman came down the ramp for the shuttle, reaching out to clasp the Commander's hands. Cassie cringed at the gesture, envisioning the bacteria leaping from hand to hand. Had everyone forgotten the close call before Kobol when they nearly lost all their pilots?

The man appeared to be the healthiest of the bunch as he gripped the Commander's hand firmly. "For Sagan's Sake Adama, I never thought I would see you again."

"Peryton? How in the world? I know you prepared but…our whole colonies destroyed and yet…" Adama seemed at a loss for words as he stared almost in awe at the man. "I should have known you would survive. You had warned us so often about the enemy's motivations and their abilities. We were all fools."

Peryton drew in a deep breath, looking to Adama's son Apollo before meeting the Commander's gaze. "No, I think I have been the fool. I only thought of my survival. I didn't think it was possible to save our worlds, but it seems you have done it. You have outrun the enemy."

Adama's shoulders seemed to sag at the words, "Not yet I fear. I have tried, but not without a lot of help and seeing you here, you are a godsend. So many of our scientists perished and you understand the enemy better than anyone. We need your help."

Peryton shook his head and tried to take a step back, but Adama kept a firm grip on his hand. "I didn't come here to work," the man cast a harsh glare in the direction of Lt. Jake before turning to Apollo, "I came because you said my son might have survived. He was on the Pegasus."

Apollo took a moment to process the statement, confused. He'd not suggested any such thing to Peryton, but Boomer filled in the information, "Bojay is his son."

Apollo's eyes widened in astonishment as he too looked to Jake, the question crossing his lips before he could filter his comments, "How did she know?"

"I don't think she does know, sir," Jake replied. "It's Starbuck that asked. He gets credit for this one. I was prepared to stun the old codger and drag him on board."

"Is it true or not? Is my son alive or dead? Don't you dare tell me that was a lie!"

Adama pulled Peryton closer, beaming. "It is no lie. He's one of my finest pilots and in command of the Silver Spar Squadron from the Pegasus. Let me send for him." Adama stepped away from the group to go to a com station, and his sudden absence left Apollo swaying on his feet. Gage reached out a hand to steady him.

Cassie decided they had delayed too long already. Apollo looked ready to drop and Boomer was being supported by Crius and Nik as he favoured one leg over the other. Max had a hold of a young boys hand who looked frightened and far too thin.

"All right, that's enough congratulating each other for one day," She called out. "I know you are all big tough Warriors, but we have children and wounded that need to be tended to. Colonel Apollo. what are we looking at here?" Cassie's attempt to bark like Salik failed miserably as Apollo jumped and then just stared at her in numb astonishment. She switched instead to the motherly scolding that seemed to work best with pilots, "Apollo, the condition of your men and the children. How are they doing?"

"I think we need a debrief," Gage helped to clarify as he put his shoulder under Apollo's arm to help steady him. Apollo scanned the group of men and children, almost as if lost, before he turned to Jake, relying on the young warrior to reply.

"You'll have to ask my medic. He kept us alive."

The man drew himself up to attention and looked as if he was about to salute the Colonel. Cassie thought she saw a glimmer of a cocky smirk cross his face, then fade into a new air of self-assurance in his posture. She knew from the short amount of time she spent dating Jake, he knew more about the medical field than he let on. He cultivated a facade of ignorance in an effort to remain unnoticed. But it had taken no more than a centaur on their first date for her to realize that Jake had more of an interest in her studies to be become a doctor than in her becoming his girlfriend. Their dinner had consisted of him probing her for medical information and on the workings of the Galactica Life Center.

After a date or two, she began to consider the rumors that circulated about Rene dating Starbuck simply for his status and privileges might be true as she came to suspect Jake was doing much the same with her, getting close and cosy with someone in the Life Center in case the family needed care. As the dates continued, she voiced her concern and suggested a change in his military career to medicine. Once he learned that meant he wouldn't be flying a viper, he seemed to get down to the serious business of romancing her. She supposed he thought he was being clever, but she didn't fail to notice that after each tryst he would borrow medical texts that he would return on their next date. She had finally ended the illusion that their relationship might become more than friends after the ill-fated dinner with the Commander that should have ended with an engagement announcement from Starbuck. Instead, the dinner had ended with Jake fighting with Rene and storming out, then spending the rest of the evening arguing with Cassie while pouring over pharmaceutical texts as he searched for a way to drug his ex-girlfriend into submission. Perhaps the worst part was that all of his suggestions for medications would have worked and Cassie's attempts at relaxing him did not.

She had ended the dates and allowed him access to all of her medical texts. Recently out of curiosity, she had checked on his progress discovering he had already completed several of the texts. Jake was a more than adequate medic with a specialty in pharmacology. This was likely the reason they hadn't sent a "qualified" med tech to Caprica.

He provided more proof of his expertise as he gave her a quick professional rundown of those that had returned from Caprica. He was detailed and specific on the medical conditions of all the children of the shuttle before pointing to Boomer.

"Rene and Starbuck caught what they got while rescuing Boomer from a sludge pit of a pond. He's just as ill, but his immune system is a bit stronger so he's hiding it well. I treated his leg with crude equipment so it needs to be scanned and mended. Some regeneration therapy would help that wound, but I'm worried the infection might have infiltrated the bone. He sure doesn't need osteomyelitis, so we need to make sure he's clear of it. He hasn't let me at it since he became mobile." Jake pointed to Max and Apollo, "Radion exposure, but otherwise healthy. Me, exposed to it all but so far not symptomatic. Decon for everybody mobile to clear us of contaminants and bacteria. The children need it as well, but a few are so weak that life pods might be more appropriate. Boomer needs to go first, then the kids. You're understaffed. If you clear me first, I can help out with Starbuck and Rene."

Cassie appreciated he'd already triaged the group, and had seen the necessity of getting into decon as quickly as possible. He even assisted her in helping the children who were in the most need into the pods with the calm of a caring physician. His experience as a parent seemed to enhance his ability to deal with the kids. They were able to get the children triaged with Apollo and Max's help and in order or priority and sent off to the Life Center.

She turned next to the warriors who had walked the surface of Caprica indicating it was time they should undergo decontamination and get themselves to the Life Center. She wanted to remind them that they should not be mingling in such close proximity to the other pilots who had flown escort and had not left the protected confines of their cockpits, but she saw it was too late for that directive. Lt. Crius had assisted Jake in the care of the children, and Lt. Nik had his arm around Max, who was also helping to support Boomer. They were all doing well except for Boomer and she was needed elsewhere.

"Boomer, you're next for decon, then off to the Life Center. Lt. Jake, see that you follow. You are right, we need you. Colonel Apollo, can you see to the rest with the medtechs? And make sure all the pilots follow the protocol, even if they don't think they need it. You know what happened the last time," she barked, emulating the doctor, before she turned to rush to help those in the most need. She had only made it a few steps toward the corridor when she felt a hand on her arm.

"I am going first," Jake said, and she almost shook off his arm in exasperation. He was the one who had suggested the order originally, and if he was ever to be a true medic, he would have to learn to put his feelings aside for the good of the many that outweighed the few. But the grim cast to his features let her know there was something he had not included in his short report. "Cassie, I should have told you when I first asked you out, I wasn't looking for…"

She cut him off, "We can talk later. I am needed if you want your…" she hesitated on what to call Rene, settling for simplicity, "friends to live." She tried to step away, but Jake held on tight.

"It's not what you think, Cassie. I'm going first because I can help keep Rene and Starbuck alive and…and calmer. It wasn't normal Cylon interrogation. It was a medical facility. I would suggest sedatives, but with the bacterium's effects," he shook his head before he offered suggestions for other medications and a final word of advice, "soft restraints if you have to. Rene's brain was damaged by a brain scan. I don't think she will know where she is."

She blinked, trying to absorb the information. It did complicate matters on how to treat the patients. She nodded, "Understood," and again tried to continue on her way to the Life Center. Jake's hand moved from her arm, reaching to grip her hand tight. "Jake, I need to go." She tried to shake off his hold, but he tightened in response, as if she was the lifeline pulling him from the abyss of grief.

"I know. But I need to say it. I'm sorry. I like you I just," he hesitated. She could feel the microns that they were wasting as he detained her with what was essentially wasted words. She had given up any hope for the two of them of being anything but friends, when his words shot through her heart. "I can't stand to lose any one else. I'm not immature, I'm just too damn old to take a chance. The more I take in, the more I lose."

She squeezed his hand and tried to soften her words, "Right now I need to go make sure you don't lose anyone else. Then we can talk about taking some risks. Go get cleared. I need you." She didn't take the time to see if the spark of hope in his eyes turned into a smile as she turned to head to the Life Center. She kept hold of his hand, directing him to a decon chamber before she left him. He was right, his recommendations might be necessary for dealing with the other patients. Plus, if they were going to move forward in any kind of relationship, he needed to understand her chosen profession. She didn't study just to save the one's she loved. She needed to save them all, even her competition and the ones who broke her heart.

The Life Center was brimming with the pods for the children that had arrived before her, each being attended by a medtech. She knew the center would become hectic and crowded as the childrens' parents were decontaminated and allowed in to see their children. It was her job to restore the calm needed to heal. She was drawn to the chaotic scene in the critical care area, as Rene seemed to be crashing and Dr. Paye was attending to Starbuck's pod. Cassie quickly doffed her personal protective equipment and scrubbed, immediately donning a fresh set following protocol for unknown contaminants, as she entered the sealed critical area.

Her ears were assaulted by the shouts coming from Starbuck's pod. Salik pointed a finger at her the moment she arrived. "Get your boyfriend to calm down and cooperate or I am going to have to sedate him! You and I both know that's not a great idea considering his pulmonary status!"

She had seen the Critical Care Center in complete turmoil before, not an uncommon sight when pilots were being wheeled in burnt and broken, crying out in pain, but something about Starbuck cursing eloquently and shouting coherently in a life pod to let him the frak out leant a whole new level of unruliness to the disarray. Dr. Wilker was also there with equipment that was unfamiliar to Cassiopeia. She could only assume it was to help them remove the Cylon technology embedded in the two warriors.

She wanted to bark back that Starbuck was sealed to someone else and Salik knew that, but the crisis didn't warrant the time for that correction as she quickly read the vital signs and the alarms on Rene's life pod. Starbuck may not be her boyfriend any more, but he may not be sealed much longer either if they couldn't get Rene stabilized. Starbuck's screams were not aiding that situation. She suspected that was why he was still in the pod, so that he could be contained and have enough oxygen to assist his labored breathing.

Cassie quickly joined Paye and Wilker at Starbuck's life pod. She glanced down at the readouts, seeing that he wasn't responding as quickly to the treatment that they had initiated as they had hoped. "Did you get a chance to study your mutating bacterium, Doctor Paye?"

"I did." He relayed some orders to Giselle who started changing the life pod settings. "I won't bore you with the details, but the genotype study indicated that the original bacterium we identified has definitely mutated, so Starbuck in theory should have responded to the antibiotics, but it appears that it doesn't mutate simply based on their jump, but on specifics related to the jump. At least Starbuck has no signs of endocarditis."

"That's fascinating, and I would like the details when we have more time," Cassie inserted, truly interested and realizing her life had indeed taken a strange turn.

"Catching the bug, huh?" Paye smiled at her, before patting her arm lightly and turning to head to his next patient.

Starbuck looked up at Cassie from his pod, hope brimming in his eyes as he calmed at the sight of her. "You've got to let me go to her!"

She put on her doctor's demeanor, easy to do since she was wearing a protective mask, and issued a command. "You have to calm down. You are harming yourself and harming Rene. Your cursing isn't saving anyone."

She almost regretted the words as he closed his eyes as if deeply wounded and she saw that his respirations dangerously decreased. "Deep breaths, Starbuck." She reached to increase the mixture of oxygen and medications flowing into his pod. She gave it a few microns, pleased to see that he followed her command and was trying to take deep breaths to get himself under control.

"I am opening your pod, but you are not getting out. I need to tend to you. You are ill and the only way you can help her is by getting well yourself, understood?"

His blue lips mouthed a, "Yes, doctor."

"I need to stop the signal first!" Dr. Wilker halted her hand as she reached for the controls of the pod.

"That is not our top concern right now. His breathing and heart rate is. I have to get him stabilized first and then we can run scans." She opened Starbuck's pod and he nearly bolted into a sitting position so he could see to Rene, but she put her hands on his chest pushing him down. "You're as close as you're going to get to her right now. I promise, if she slips away from us, I'll let you go to her."

He nodded his head vigorously, but his eyes stayed on the doctors working on his wife. Cassie drew a blood sample and ran lines without even a flinch from the notoriously squeamish warrior. She had to keep reminding him to breathe as he would gasp and hold his breath with each new pinging alarm on Rene's pod. He didn't draw his attention away until Wilker reached for the port in his arm.

"NO! Don't fraking touch it!"

"Don't take that tone with Dr. Wilker, Lieutenant, or I'll shut you up in your pod and have Commander Adama launch you into deep space so we can do our job on more receptive patients," Dr. Salik snapped from a metron away, his steely gaze brooking no argument.

"Sorry, Doc . . . "

"That's more like it. Now, describe what it does to Dr. Wilker," Salik said over his shoulder as he returned to dealing with more emergent matters. Rene.

Cassie's professional exterior cracked as Starbuck shivered for a moment before looking to Dr. Wilker with eyes that were flat and dead. "They shoved it in and…and they can flip a switch that makes either my muscles tense, or my nerves all catch on fire. Or they can….shut me off."

"Shut you off?" Cassie was alarmed at the words. Off for Cylons often meant deactivated, as in dead.

"Yeah, they flip a switch and then I can't move."

"Salik said something about the central nervous system," Dr. Wilker spoke to Cassie. "Can we do a scan? Is he able to withstand that?" The words didn't help her to put any confidence in Dr. Wilker. It was obvious he knew little about the human body or the medical field.

"We can do another scan, there's no risk to Starbuck." Cassie swung the equipment over, reminded Starbuck to remain still, but she didn't think he heard her as he flinched in response to Salik initiating a cardiac shock to Rene to get her heart back in rhythm. "Starbuck," she leaned down to whisper to him, "You need to stay still. We have to scan you."

When he flinched again, she read his vitals and decided that a mild sedative wouldn't do too much damage. She knew he'd want to be awake if Rene passed, but she also knew it would be easier to do her job and deliver the bad news if Starbuck was a little less tense.

The scan was frightening as the three wires inside him came into view. One led to his heart, branching off to the lungs as well, another was in his spine, and the third was more a line than a wire, leading straight into subclavian artery. The port itself in his arm appeared to be the transmitter.

"Interesting," Dr. Wilker said in an awed voice. "It's using his nervous system as a power source for the transmitter. See how the wire branches off into almost a type of mesh that has woven itself into his nerves. That is fascinating."

"Yeah, truly fascinating," Starbuck slurred, "Now get it the frak out of me!"

"Oh I don't know if that is possible. I mean, yes, the line in the artery and to the heart and lungs needs to go, that should be somewhat easy, at least for a surgeon, but this…this…did you see that?! Dr. Paye! Come here, if you please, you need to see this!"

Paye appeared in a micron, studying the results with a pinched frown. "Sagan sakes," he murmured.

"What?! See what?" Starbuck nearly bolted from the pod, but Cassie pushed down on him again as she gave him another dose of sedative.

"Dr. Wilker," Cassie warned, "the patient can hear you."

"Oh yes, um, yes, well, the technology seems to be…to be growing."

Despite the extra sedation, Starbuck's heart rate rose, as did the decibels of his demands. "Get it the frak out of us! NOW!"

"Easy now, Lieutenant. I wouldn't suggest moving. It seems to be reacting to your movements," Dr. Paye said. He winked aside at Cassie as Starbuck froze, his muscles tense with the effort to suppress his fight or flight instinct. "That's better. Can you get him prepped for surgery? We aren't going to wait for the medications to stabilize his infection. I agree with the Lieutenant. We are going to have to take the risk as this needs to come out now." Paye left her to the task as he returned to assist Salik with Rene. Cassie could hear Rene's heart rate reaching a solid rhythm, albeit slower than desired.

Salik called out, "I need this patient's medical history right now. Is Lieutenant Starbuck stable?"

"Yes, just barely," she replied.

"Lieutenant, does your wife have a history of IV drug use?"

Starbuck closed his eyes and swore softly under his breath before he answered, "I don't know."

"Don't know or don't want to tell me? This is no time to protect her reputation, warrior. Save the lies for her funeral."

Starbuck winced before replying, "Probably. Jake would know."

"Safe to assume then?" Salik didn't wait for his reply, "We may have to perform surgery on that valve. We can remove the wires in her at that time, but we need to get her on blood thinners for embolisms, and that is risky with her pregnancy. I would suggest delivering it, but being a Battlestar, we don't have a neonatal care unit. The child most likely will not survive delivery. Did you two actually get sealed or is that young man out there still claiming that right?"

Starbuck opened his eyes, offering up something resembling an apology to Cassie in his pained expression. "Yeah, paperwork filed and everything. Why?"

"You have some decisions to make since you're conscious and she is not. This would go better if we did not have the baby as a complication, but that is your call, unless someone else is her legal decision maker."

"My call?" He looked to Cassie for clarification.

"He's asking if he should terminate the pregnancy or proceed forward trying to save Rene and the baby."

His eyes locked on hers for a moment and Anguish crossed his features before he pulled his gaze away. He stared up at the ceiling for a micron as if searching for an answer before replying, "I…I don't know. I don't want to lose her but…I don't want to lose the baby. I…" he hesitated.

Cassie whispered to him in reassurance, "If we can't save, Rene, we will make the decision for you."

He gasped and his heart skipped a beat. He closed his eyes in pain before he answered, "Ask Jake. I can't…I won't."

There it was again, the entwining of the two Caprica refugees and the suspicions confirmed. The child might not be Starbuck's.

"He's not her husband, Starbuck," Cassie reminded him gently, "You are."

He took a deep breath, and the readings on his biomonitor became steady and firm. She recognized the look as his soft blue eyes became grey as granite. The fighter in him rose up. "Save them both."

Salik acknowledged the decision as he called out for medications and a course of treatment, "We get her stabilized, the infection under control, then we'll talk surgery."

Starbuck was nodding in agreement, when his whole body seized, his back arching before he slammed back down on the bed of the pod and a curse exploded from him. "What the frak did you do?"

"Just testing a hypothesis," Dr. Wilker replied. "An electrical impulse sent down the wire seems to have made the growth retreat."

Starbuck's pod pinged in alarm as his eyes rolled back and he collapsed, his heart rate flatlining for a micron or two before resuming, but at a slow rate."

"Oops, too much," Wilker explained.

Cassie called out instinctively, "Bradycardia." Salik was soon by Cassie's side, barking orders to raise Starbuck's heart rate. Once the rate seemed to be steady and normal, Salik turned on Wilker.

"We are done experimenting here, at least until we can get the wires out of his heart and lungs, and that line out of his arteries. Paye, get him into surgery. Figure out what the frak that felgercarb is that is in my warriors. Cassie, you assist, but first," Salik pointed authoritatively at Jake, who Cassie could see in the other room tending to the children. "Get him suited up and in here. I need some answers."

It only took microns to get Jake suited up and in the critical care center. By that time Starbuck had regained consciousness, but the fight in him seemed to have been replaced by fatigue as he struggled to take deep breaths, constantly testing that his limbs were still working, flexing and moving his hands and feet. While she continued to prep Starbuck and get the instruments ready, Salik barked questions at Jake.

"This is not the first time I have had that young lady in my medical facility suffering from the effects of whatever it is you two use to galivant around the universe. I'm told you're fairly competent, so what does it do to the body?"

"Speeds things up."

"In detail!

"Uh…yes sir…um…we know it can cause tachycardia and screws around with endocrine system."

"Screws around? Define 'screws around' without pretending like you haven't been reading half of my medical library!"

Cassie felt sorry for the young man. She was well aware of his issues with those who commanded him. She briefly wondered why she was drawn to men with similar sentiments regarding authority, before dismissing the idea of rescuing him. He was a grown man, he'd have to save himself. She had another reprobate to see too.

"We're putting you under now Starbuck."

"No!" his shout echoed in the room before the anesthesia took effect, and his words trailed off to a low moan and then silence.