"Let's figure out where we are, Karl." Kara commented as her rescue team walked throught the forest of Caprica trying to find Samuel Anders and the resistance.
"Resistance base camp. We're still another click ahead." Helo replied.
"Movement. 11:00." Boomer spotted as the rescue team got down and covered themselves. In the distance there's a lot of movement.
"Friendlies?" Kara asked not knowing who it might be out there.
Helo thought of the first thing that came to his mind, asking who it was. "You got a Samuel T. Anders there?"
"Is there a Kara Thrace there?" A woman's voice shouted back followed shortly by a man's.
"If there is, you tell her she took her good, sweet time getting here." Anders voice echoed through the trees. Kara smiled when she heard his voice. The rescue team and the resistance group meet up and greet one another. Finally Starbuck and Anders hug.
"What took you so long?" Anders asked as he stared into his lovers eyes
"We have marines in raptors. We're gonna get you and your people out of here, okay?" Kara told Sam as she looked around.
"As good as your word, huh?" Sam smiled down at Kara
"Yeah, good as my frakkin' word. What, did you think I was going to leave you here? Now you feel like a big frakkin' idiot, don't you?" She smirked looking up at Sam smiling.
Nothing was going to stop Sam from getting to her and taking her out of that hell hole. She got him out of his, it was time to return the favor. With determination born of desperation and love, he made his way to the court. That's why I felt her presence so strongly when I was here.
He looked up and spotted a figure in one of the windows. He knew in his heart that it was her. He gave her a sign and then sprinted around to the other side of the block. How to get in, get her out and away all without being caught was the one question that played over and over in his mind. Then inspiration struck, there was a way in.
He ducked under a small hole in the fence uncaring that the metal ripped the flesh from his arms and legs as he slid under. There was a delivery door just on the other side and a truck sat there as Centurions unloaded supplies. Guards of NCP patrolled the truck, but they were careless and Sam was able to slip inside as they chatted among themselves. He took a set of stairs that lead up to the upper floors where he thought she was being held and came to the landing with the barred entryway. A long blonde haired woman stood leaning up against the wall. Kara had her arms crossed, staring down at the floor. He let out a small cough; she looked up and ran to the barred wall, reaching her hand out to him as her eyes began to water.
Sam couldn't believe it, he'd found her. He stood for a moment just drinking in the sight of her before he rushed forward and grabbed her outstretched hand. "My Gods Kara! Is it really you?"
Tears were rolling down her face as he grabbed her hand. Her other hand touched his face, making sure that this wasn't a dream. "Yes, Sam it's me. My Gods. Leoben told me that you died, but I didn't believe him." Kara pulled a strand of her hair out of her face and cleared her throat. "There's should be a switch on that side of the hallway. I think that will open this." Kara was jumping up and down with joy inside. Until she heard her name coming from down in the apartment. "Hurry Sam!"
The apartment door opened and Leoben came out. "Kara, what are you …" He looked down the hallway. "Anders!" Rage filled him up and he slammed Kara up against the wall, grabbing her throat and choking her.
Gasping for air, she reached down into her pocket and grabbed her knife and shoved it into his chest. She pushed him on the ground, got on top of him and stabbed him five times, screaming louder with each one. "This time I won't be waiting for you to get back home." Leoben's blood flowed onto the ground, his body died as the cell door unlocked.
Sam had seen some horrific things in the last year and a half but he never thought that he'd see his beloved Kara do something like this. Sam knew that Leoben had been somehow torturing her, holding her here against her will, and that he was only a machine, but to see the blood, red blood flowing out of the wounds his wife inflicted made him ache all the more for her. Yes in the back of his head he knew that she'd probably done this and more in the line of duty, just as he'd done but it didn't make it any easier to see her do it. He opened the cell door and rushed to her side.
"Kara," Sam said placing a hand on her shoulder as she stared down at the dead Cylon. "Let's go. I want to get you somewhere safe," he said pulling her up off the Cylon and into his arms.
Kara took in deep breaths and finally kicked the dead body. Some how this was going to haunt her for the rest of her life. "Where is there a safe place? He'll find me, he's obsessed. He'll never stop looking for me," she said as she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him.
"I'm here baby and I won't let them get you again. You have my word on that. Not while I'm alive," he said as he cupped her face. She looked up into his blue eyes and some how the words were caught in her throat. She missed those eyes so much.
Sam took her by the hand and they ran down the hallway. He was about to turn down the one he came up in. "Wait no!" Kara yelled. Sam snapped his head back. "We can't go down that way." She looked around the hallways; they all looked the same at night time. "This way," she grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the east side of the building. "Cylons don't come down here. Leoben took me outside once going this way." She shivered as she thought of Leoben. "Did you bring a gun?"
He pulled out a gun and handed it to her. "I brought two," he gave her a ghost of a smile. He couldn't take his eyes off her. When she pulled them down a different way he stopped for a moment and pulled her into his arms. His mouth found her in a desperate kiss. "I know where to hide you if we can just get out of here." They managed to get outside with only a few heart stopping moments and a few skin jobs biting the dust.
Sam took Kara to their hiding place by the most indirect route he knew of. They were both filthy, sweating from exertion and blood splattered, but they were together, and for the moment, safe. "Tell me this isn't a dream," Sam said as he stood in front of her, his hands shaking as he raised them to cup her cheek. "I couldn't survive if I lost you again."
"If this is a dream, please pinch me," she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Yup this wasn't a dream, this was her Sam. She was finally free from Leoben.
Kara heard some cough behind her. She grabbed the gun she had tucked earlier in her pants, cocked it and pointed it at a man in the shadow. "Whoa!" The man screamed back. He stepped out of the shadow, it was the Chief. His jaw must have hit the ground when he saw her.
"Chief?... Sorry I... I picked up a nasty habit over the past four months," she lowered her gun and looked up at Anders. "So where are we? What is this place?" Kara looked around and saw pretty much a bare hideout. "I'm surprise the Cylons haven't found this yet and kicked you up one side and down the other." She wasn't joking either. She walked around and stopped in front of the computer system. It beeped and it scared the crap out of her. "What the frak?" A message popped up. "Is this for real?"
"It's for real. This is our headquarters and we are very careful about who knows about it. And this," he pointed to the computer, "is how you found me." He smiled for the first time in a very long time. It was a genuine smile that held true joy. "It's also our contact with Galactica. Kara, we're going back. They are coming for us."
"Galactica? Are you frakking kidding me?!" Kara let out a deep sigh of relief. "Thank the Gods. When?" Kara's mind was racing with questions. She looked back at the computer and smiled. She hadn't smiled in four months and it felt good to do it again.
Kara was safe now. She no longer had to keep her guard up and protect herself from Leoben. Looking up at Anders she grinned. "Was that you on the Pyramid court this afternoon and evening? Please don't tell me that you have been going around blowing up stuff too." She already knew the answers but she wanted to hear them through his lips.
He wasn't proud of some of the things he'd done, but he knew that something had to be done. "I do help pop as many toasters as I can and yes I was out there today. When I'm there, I was able to feel you near to me. Lords, Kara if I'd known you were so close the whole time, I would have come sooner. Babe I'm sorry. You have my word that I'll never let anything like that happen to you again." Sam said his voice breaking with emotion. His hands were cupping her face, blue eyes searching hers.
"Shh... It's okay. I'm here now," she smiled before placing her head on his chest. "I had a feeling that was you out there. But Leoben told me that you died from the pneumonia." She looked up at him shaking her head, her eyes were beginning to water. "I didn't believe him at first but then the months went by and you didn't come and I... I started to believe his lies." She said stumbling on her words as she choked back her tears. A tear rolled down her cheek and she placed her head back down on his chest. "I'm sorry. Gods I'm so sorry Sam." She looked down at the ground, but then Anders placed his hand on her cheek and making her look back up at him.
"Don't Kara, none of this was your fault. There is nothing for you to be sorry for. Tell me, are you okay? He didn't... hurt you... did he?" He asked. He couldn't ask her straight out if she'd been raped by that blasted machine but that was something he needed desperately to know. He'd not love her less but he'd make them all pay even more if he had.
Most of her bruises were covered by her jacket. It was only a matter of time before Sam saw them. "Yes and no. He didn't rape me if that's what you are asking," she wiped the tear rolling down her right cheek away. "I killed him every time he got too close. That place was driving me insane, Sam. He's obsessed with me. I don't want to go back there, please don't ever leave me."
Gently he thumbed away the tears that fell on her face. He leaned in and kissed her gently wanting so much more but knew that she had to gather her wits about her before he went asserting his rights. "We need to get you cleaned up and rested. Sit down and let me take care of you."
Kara let go of Sam and walked over to the couch. Some of the habits she picked up being with Leoben kicked in. She curled up in a ball on the couch, wrapping her arms around her legs as she sat there. Her hands were still stained with Leoben's blood. She would do just about anything to wash her hands clean. Anders brought her over a mug of tea and sat next to her. "Thanks." She still couldn't believe that she was finally out of Leoben's grasp and back with her husband. "You said only a few people know of this place. So far I've seen you and the Chief. Who else?"
"Colonel Tigh," Sam replied sighing. "I don't know if Ellen knows about it." Sam ran his hand through his hair, a habit he'd picked up lately. "Kara, about Tigh. He's losing it. I know this is war. I've been leading a war on the Cylons ever since we were on Caprica, but some things... I can't ignore them any longer. Not after Duck," Sam's voice broke as he thought about his friend.
"I'll talk to Tigh and straighten him out. Leoben told me about Duck and Nora, at least they are together now. What is Ellen doing around here? She can't be trusted Sam," she looked down at her hands trying to rub off the dried blood off of them.
Sam shook himself and brought over a basin of water and a cloth. He dipped it into the cold water and gently began to wash away the dried blood on her hands. Kara sat there like a vegetable as he cleaned the blood off her hands. "No! Stop." She yanked her hands away from him and tucked them under her arms. He sat there with a blank on his face. Flashes of Leoben returned in her head. "I'm sorry," she pulled her hands back out and let him continue. He looked in her eyes as she bit down on her lower lip.
Sam knew that Kara had been abused, if not sexually then certainly mentally. "Gods Kara, what did he do to you?" he asked, stark pain reflected in his eyes for her confusion and pain. He dried her now clean hands and pushed the basin from him. He knelt between her legs and cupped her tear streaked face in his hands. "Leave Tigh to us okay? You've been through enough for now."
Kara could no longer keep it bottled up in her anymore. She crossed her arms and tears streamed down her face again. "Please don't let him take me again," she looked down at him, "he's evil and cruel. There's something wrong with him, Sam. Every night for the pass four months he would tell me the same thing." She wiped her face with her hand, drying the tears away. "His vision of us together, me holding him in his arms, loving him, embracing him. He would tell me that he was going to bed and would love for me to join him. He's insane. You saw half of what I usually did to him if he got too close. Sometimes I would pretend I was sleep and he would come in my room and sit on the edge of my bed and touch me."
There were very few people that really knew Samuel Anders. He was a rather private person for being a sports star and therefore in the public's eye. But that was before the holocaust, he was still very private but now for other reasons. He couldn't afford to let his emotions out and distract him. But seeing his beautiful wife crying her eyes out, begging for him to forgive her and understand what she'd gone through, he felt the usual facade of calmness evaporate.
Sam gathered her close to him. "Listen to me Kara. You have my word that I'll never ever leave you again. I will protect you from that maniac with my life if I have too. Do you remember what you said back on Caprica? You were willing to kill the both of us if the Cylons attempted to take you back to that farm. Well I want a promise from you now. I want you to promise me that if we are ever separated again that you will use that brilliant military brain of yours to get free again. I will protect you with my last breath Kara, but I need to know that if I fail, you will go on."
Kara looked down into his eyes and nodded. "Yes, I promise." She wiped the tears away from her face and cleared her throat. "Now you have to make a promise that you won't go and get yourself killed. I don't know what I would do if I lost you now. We have been through some hard times Sam. You are my complete equal." She placed her hands on his face, pulling him closer to her. "Promise me," she whispered in his ear.
"I have absolutely no intention of getting killed baby," Sam murmured against her soft hair. "I meant what I said. I will never leave you. I want to grow old with you. I want to see you grow with our children in your belly. I want to feel you against me every night for the rest of our lives. I want it all Kara, I want that dream."
Kara smiled, he knew exactly what to say to put her in a better mood and make her forget about her worries. "I want that too Sam. Once we get off this rock and far away from Leoben, I want it all. I want that house by the lake on Earth. I want you to teach our children everything you know. How to be the best Pyramid player and how to get under my skin. And I will teach them how to...well what I do best." She laughed at the thought.
"You mean how to be the best damn Viper pilot in the universe and how to drive me absolutely insane?" he asked a small smile lighting his features. "I'd like that too. But somehow I can't picture us in an idyllic place like that. You're military. Can you be happy living quietly on Earth? Flying is in your blood just as it's in mine to be a Pyramid player. Can we really have that dream? I want it so much Kara, but can we really settle down to a normal life?"
"What is a normal life now? We aren't normal people anymore, Sam. You were a resistance leader that survived a nuclear holocaust on Caprica and I'm an ex Viper pilot that is somehow special to the Cylons." Kara stroked his dark hair. "I gave up the military to be with you. Remember?" Kara rubbed her neck, her I.D. tags where no longer around her neck. "I could go back into Pyramid with you. Husband and wife, side by side in the game." She cracked a smile and laughed. "Kicking your ass on the court," she laced her finger in his.
"You wish!" Sam flasher her the grin of the man she met almost two years before. "With your knee? 'Oh Sam, careful my poor knee'." He said in a bad imitation of Kara's voice just as he had once before.
"You are right on the edge, Anders. Careful you don't fall off. You don't mess with the great Starbuck." She smiled and leaned down and kissed him. Somehow she forgot that she was hiding for her life in a hideout in the middle of city. How does he do it?