Kara anxiously paced her quarters, waiting for Lee to get back. It had been obvious that the ship had gotten a beating, but they had managed to jump. Since the lights hadn't been on before, she didn't realize that the power had gone out, but she could FEEL that something was wrong and didn't want to wait for Lee to find out what.
Knowing that later in the day she was going to regret waking her daughter up, Kara pulled Kacey from her bed. "Mommy?" the little girl asked.
"Everything's going to be okay, Kace. We just have to go find Lee and Grandpa."
"I had a dream," Kacey announced as they went into the hall. "You were wrong, Mommy."
"About what?"
"It not been THAT long since we saw Daddy."
Kara felt like ice water was running through her veins. "Where's Daddy, Kacey?"
The little girl smiled innocently, completely unafraid. "Playing hide and seek. He's 'it'."
Kara turned around and started walking in the other direction. She'd grown up playing that game in order to avoid her mother and her boyfriends; CIC would be an easy guess for a hiding spot. It didn't matter if there really was nowhere to hide on the battlestar - they had to try.
"Kara!" Lee yelled as he pushed open the door to her quarters and ran inside. Swinging around the flashlight he'd gotten from a marine, he saw that the room was empty.
"They here?" a voice asked, and Lee turned to find Helo running up behind him.
"No."
"Okay, we don't know that the Cylons have them. Could Kara have gotten up and left herself?"
"Yeah, but where would she go other than CIC? We didn't see her in the halls."
"We gotta just start looking, okay? We need to find them." Lee nodded.
"Go get those marines that were a couple halls over. When we do find them, a few extra guns might be nice to have."
The Galactica's halls were eerily dark. Slipping into a small access way, Kara held Kacey close with one arm while she used the other to climb down the ladder. Her heart stopped as she heard the sound of centurions walking by below them.
"Don't make a sound," she whispered to Kacey. The little girl obeyed, clinging to her mother.
As the sound of footsteps went away, Kara continued climbing and checked the hallway. It looked clear, so she kept walking. There was an armory on this floor, and she needed a gun if they were going to have any chance. She'd left her sidearm in their quarters, having walked out of the room before realizing exactly what was going on onboard the ship.
Rounding a corner, Kara absolutely froze as she came face to face with Leoben and three centurions. They'd silently been waiting for her, all of them with weapons aimed and ready.
"Hello, Kara," Leoben calmly said. "It's six times now, if you were counting. You can kill me, you can run, but we belong together. We are a family. Now, don't make me do something we're both going to regret," he indicated his gun, which was still pointed at her. "We're going home, now."
"No, Daddy."
Everyone stopped and looked at Kacey. "What?" he whispered, disbelieving that the words had come from her mouth.
"We not leaving," she told him. "You tried to understand love, but you didn't. Couldn't. You no really love Mommy. Real love means you want her happy. Always happy, don't care how. You only want Mommy always with you."
"What have you done to her?" Leoben asked Kara, stepping forward. She just shrugged, although tried to step back to keep space between them.
"You made your dream," Kacey continued. "Made me. But you not walking the path no more."
Leoben reached for her. "Kace, we're going home, honey."
"No, Daddy. Home for me is here now. Here with Mommy." She offered him a smile. "I keep going on my path. You find yours again…Maybe I see you someday."
Kara flinched, hard, at the sound of gunfire, trying to turn away and shield Kacey. Leoben dropped like a sack of wet cement as the bullets impacted his body, and the centurions flew apart. Standing at the end of the hall were Lee, Helo, a few marines, and a lot of artillery. "You okay?" Lee called. Kara slowly nodded.
"That's seven," she muttered to Leoben as he bled out onto the floor. "Are there more still on the ship?" Kara asked Lee as he ran over.
"Nobody's sure yet; we should get you up to CIC."
"Yeah, let's go." She started to follow him down the hall, but realized that Kacey was staring down at the floor, a hand reaching out for her father's body. "Kace?"
She curled her outstretched fingers, giving a little wave. "Bye, Daddy." Kara hugged her closer and kept walking.
It was morning by the time they finished scouring the ship to make sure all the centurions had been taken care of. They'd lost several marines and a few other crewmen that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even though everyone was exhausted, Kara and Lee were still supposed to be on duty, so Kacey got left to sleep in Adama's quarters while they were flying.
Roslin stopped by just before lunchtime to see that the little girl was still sprawled on her grandfather's couch. "How is she?" the president asked, taking a seat in the chair before Adama's desk.
"Alive and still on this ship."
She sighed. "Can she stay on this ship?"
"She's going to be a target no matter where she is. At least if she's here, we have a chance of protecting her."
"Have you considered what happens if we lose her?"
"No," Adama flatly replied. "Because it's not going to happen."
Roslin nearly jumped out of her skin when a little hand landed on her arm. Neither one of them had seen Kacey get up. "Hi, there. Did we wake you up?"
Kacey shook her head. "Don't worry. When the time comes, we gonna take care of ourselves."
Roslin frowned. "Who's 'we', honey?"
She smiled. "Me 'n Hera."
Adama and Roslin shared a look, both extremely surprised. "How do you know about Hera?" the Admiral asked his 'granddaughter.'
"I always known," she replied with a giggle.
"Do the other Cylons know?" Roslin inquired.
Kacey shook her head. "She my cousin." She raised a little finger to her lips as though to say 'shh'. "Secret…Can I have breakfast now?"
"Y-yeah," Adama shakily told her. And at least for the time being, Hera would stay their secret.
Only one chapter left...