"Are you sure it's not your bedtime yet?" Lee asked Kacey. The two-and-a-half-year-old (who still looked a good year older than she was) shook her head with a giggle, blonde curls flying.
"No! I want to see."
"See? What's there to see? You've seen tons of jumps before."
"Not this one!"
"Yeah," Kara defended her daughter. "Not number one thousand."
After three years, the fleet had moved nine hundred and ninety-nine jumps away from the Colonies, nine hundred and ninety-nine jumps beyond the red line. There was no going back, only going forward. They'd had few run-ins with the Cylons in the past few months and their one thousandth jump was currently scheduled as a finale to their Colonial Day festivities. Instead of running from their enemy, they were simply searching for a place to stock up on water and supplies.
"You can't have the flower girl falling asleep in the middle of a wedding," Lee teasingly continued to protest, smiling at Kara. Kacey sighed adorably, exasperated.
"I'm not gonna fall asleep! Promise! Mommy, tell him I won't fall asleep."
Kara laughed. "Are you sure, kiddo?"
"Uh-huh! Everybody's gonna be there: Grandpa and Grandma Laura and Helo and Sharon and the Chief and Cally and Nicky and the Galaxy Squadron and the Star Squadron – "
"Pulsar," Kara interrupted. Kacey was never able to remember the word.
" – and Uncle Tigh and Crazy Ellen and everybody," Kacey finished her list.
"Don't call her Crazy Ellen to her face," Lee told the little girl.
"Why not?" Kara and Kacey asked in unison, sending the child into a fit of giggles.
"Everyone's going to be there," Kacey continued, "So I won't fall asleep. Promise."
"What happens tomorrow after the wedding?" Kara prompted her daughter.
Kacey grinned. "You'll be married."
"Uh-huh," Lee said, "And what happens once we're married?"
"We get to be a family. You're my mommy and daddy forever."
He smiled at Kara. "How'd you ever manage to have a kid this smart?"
Before she could reply, the overhead speaker crackled to life. "All hands, this is the Admiral. Brace for FTL jump."
"The big one-oh-oh-oh," Lee said as they all turned to watch out the window. For a moment, as reality warped, they couldn't see anything, but then the fleet came back into focus.
"That was it?" Kacey asked him, looking confused. "No party?"
Lee laughed. "Yeah, kiddo, that was it. Bedtime now." He reached to take her from Kara, who was still staring outside. "You coming?" he asked his soon-to-be wife.
"Look over there," she told him, pointing out the window. "What does that look like to you?" Lee looked, and froze.
"Oh, my Gods."
"So it's not just me?" Kara asked.
"No."
"What is it?" Kacey asked them.
"Unless I've totally lost my mind, that is the Lagoon Nebula." He smiled down at her. "You want to see a party, kiddo?" Kacey nodded. "There's gonna be a rather nice one when we get up to CIC and tell Grandpa what we saw."
She grinned. "Let's go!"
A thousand jumps away, back on Caprica, a man stood at a window, watching Centurions walk the street below. "Leoben?" he heard a voice say, and turned to see a Simon model standing behind him, a little bundle in his arms. "He's healthy."
Leoben walked over and took the child from the doctor, carefully cradling him. "A boy?" he asked. Simon nodded. "Did the surrogate survive?"
"No…but he was perfectly fine."
"Just like his sister," he mused. Leoben walked back to the window. "You have your mother's strength in you, too. You are a second chance, the light that will show us the way. One day, we WILL bring your mother and sister home."
Fin.
Thank you to everyone who's come along on this little ride and particularly to everyone who's left feedback.
I'm toying with the idea of a sequel to deal with Kacey and Hera/Isis, so if anyone's got ideas that they want to contribute, feel free. At pilotlover's suggestion, I'm also thinking of working on a plot bunny left on 'Beyond Insane'; I'm not sure which project I'll tackle first.