"The child was dead," Six announced without preamble as she moved to stand beside Sharon. The two of them stood on a small bluff overlooking the humans' settlement. The rain had finally ended, but there was still an air of gloom surrounding those that moved about from tent to tent and those engaged in the building of a new city under the direction of the Cylons.
"I know," the dark haired Cylon replied, not even looking in Six's direction. Her focus was unwaveringly on the settlement below.
"There's no guarantee that it would have lived if you'd actually delivered the supplies."
"I know."
"The mother may yet pull through," Six tried again to get some sort of response from her companion. This time though, Sharon said nothing. "The bag was found, eventually. There's still hope that they'll be able to save her….." the blond continued.
"It doesn't matter."
"Were you trying to kill her? And the child too? Were you looking for revenge?"
Six's words hit Sharon hard, almost like a physical blow. None of her questions were different from the one's that Sharon herself had thought of, that she'd been brooding alone on the bluff asking herself. Was she really the heartless monster the human's thought of all Cylons as? She finally turned her attention away from the settlement, looking down to her feet first before meeting Six's eyes.
"I don't know," she replied softly. "When I first left it there and walked away…..I… I told myself that there was no way the humans would accept anything from me. They'd be suspicious, thinking it was meant to harm them. Why should they trust any of us?"
"Sam did when he was ill."
"Sam was feverish and delusional when I approached him the first time. After he started to improve, there was just no way he could deny that I was really helping him."
"And you don't believe the others would see that? Trust that you'd helped one of their kind before?"
"That was one act. But their memories can't see beyond the sabotage of the Galactica, my relationship with the Chief. They can't see beyond my assassination attempt on Commander Adama. If Cally lived, it would be credited as the good doctor's doing, and if she died, it would be laid at my feet, the ultimate act of revenge on my killer."
Now it was Six's turn to be silent. Sharon was right, no matter what the outcome may have been, she'd still be a pariah in the eyes of the humans, in the eyes of Chief Galen Tyrol.
"Do you still wish to proceed?"
"Yes. Our own people broke their word on the truce, after what we went through getting others to join our cause…. We can't let it end now."
"Then I should probably tell you…I've been working on securing a new liaison with the humans."
"I don't believe the President will be of much persuasion. The people seem to distrust and despise him; they'll tell him to get fracked if he suggests an alliance with us."
"Not Baltar, he's a lost cause for us now," Six responded stiffly. The tone of her voice had Sharon looking questioningly at her.
"His aide, who also happens to be one of the Cabinet Ministers, Felix Gaeta. He has ties to the remnants of the military on the planet, and despite his affiliation with the president the people still seem to trust him."
"And Baltar?"
Six didn't respond.
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For what felt like the hundredth time, Helo asked himself what he hoped to accomplish by visiting Sharon. The flight to the Galactica on board one of the shuttles had seemed to pass by as a blur, but now it felt as though his feet were filled with lead as he slowly made his way to the detention cells.
Chances were high that Sharon wouldn't even pick up the damn two-way phone to talk to him, and there was no way the guards would let him inside with her. He used to try that back in the early days after her betrayal on Caprica, but the Admiral had suspended those privileges. At least he'd still been able to visit her, for all the good that had done. It had been months now since he'd last seen her. 'How would she respond?' he thought to himself as he stood outside the hatch that lead into the detention area.
It was now or never. Still moving slowly, he opened the hatch and stepped inside. If the marines were surprised to see him there after such a long absence, it didn't show. He barely paid them any attention though, as his eyes were drawn to the detention cell.
Inside, Sharon paced across the length of the cell relentlessly back and forth. Internally, she'd relived the entire encounter with Adama until her mind became focused on one thought: Hera was alive.
Helo watched her paced and let his mind drift back to the last time he'd visited her here. He'd actually lost track of how much time had passed, but the venomous, hate-filled words she'd thrown at him that day were still fresh in his mind as he watched her. Questions filled his mind.
Did he still love her? Or was he merely fooling himself that what they'd shared together had been real? Could he really be allowing that brief happiness that they'd found together cloud his mind?
His thoughts caused him to hesitate a moment longer, the request to the guards to speak with their prisoner dying on his tongue. Maybe it was better not to know the truth. Damn Dee and her questions about Sharon's attempt on the Admiral's life. He could have put this visit off inevitably had it not been for that.
Before he could change his mind about the visit and flee the detention center Sharon looked up and saw him. She immediately drew to a halt, her mouth moving, a single word escaping her lips, 'Helo.' Although the cells were all soundproof he still understood. There was no way he could leave now.
Sharon moved forward, her eyes never leaving his, until she reached the two-way phone. Picking up the receiver, she raised it to her ear and waited. She was ready to talk to him now. The move kick started Helo into action.
"I need to see the prisoner," he requested, stepping towards the guards as he gestured towards Sharon's cell. The duty sergeant didn't speak to him, just nodded his head in assent. Helo barely acknowledged the Marine, striding forward and grasping the receiver on his side of the cell wall. Raising it to his own ear he suddenly found himself unable to speak.
"Helo."
He closed his eyes at the sound of her voice, the handset giving it a tinny sound. The only thought in his mind was 'What the frack was I thinking?'
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"Everything's going to be okay, Cally," Galen said softly, brushing the hair back from her face.
Her face was nearly whiter than the sheets she lay on. She'd been hemorrhaging badly after the baby was delivered; Doc Cottle had given her less than 50:50 chances for making it through the day.
"I'm so….sorry…..about the….baby," she whispered, so quiet he had to lean close to hear her.
"Shhhh…Don't talk, you need to save your strength," he urged.
"I have to……might be the…..only chance…..we get."
"Don't talk like that! You're going to get better. I've seen you come back from worse than this," he tried to reassure her, his voice cracking with emotion.
"Not….not this time…… Wish some…someone had….warned me…..giving birth…..hurts….helluva lot more…..than being….gut shot." She smiled weakly, willing him to laugh at her joke.
He managed the barest of smiles, reaching his right hand down to tightly clasp hers where it lay limply at her side. "You lost a lot of blood that time too, but you got better. You will this time too."
"No….I won't. Not this….time. It's okay…..Galen…..I wouldn't have traded….the last year….together. Not for….anything."
"Don't talk like that, Cally! I'm not going to lose you, not now," the Chief whispered harshly. He wasn't even aware of the tears that had begun running down his face until she reached up and wiped them away.
Her mind was still moving quickly, full of things she wanted to say to him, but didn't think she'd have the strength for. She was so tired, the urge to sleep was almost overwhelming, but she was afraid of it, afraid that if she closed her eyes she'd never awaken.
"It's okay…Galen….it's okay," she whispered again and again, her hand squeezing at his. It broke his heart. He felt like so much of her suffering had been his fault, all leading back to the beating.
His mind instantly flashbacked in time to that fateful moment when she'd come upon him in the midst of a terrible dream. A dream in which he was a Cylon, just as his Sharon had been, and that it was only a matter of time before he betrayed his friends too.
If she hadn't tried to awaken him, if he hadn't awoken terrified and fighting, if he hadn't nearly beaten her to death, there'd never have been reason for his guilt to draw him to sickbay. His bedside vigil had rekindled their friendship, her hero worship, and eventually led to this moment. He felt cursed, everyone he'd ever loved died. He didn't know how he would face it again, not with Cally who'd helped heal the wounds his twisted relationship with a Cylon had created.
"Just rest now Cally," he whispered, brushing a kiss across her forehead. "I'll be here when you wake up." He didn't need to add 'if you wake up,' they both understood the possibility.
"I can't," she whispered, clutching his hand more tightly, a sudden burst of strength that shocked him even as it filled him with hope.
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Inside the Admiral's quarters, father and son still clashed over the concealment of Hera from her parents. Lee had vocalized all the same arguments that his father had felt himself when President Roslin had first revealed her plan. But the bottom line was that he hadn't argued with her, try as he might. That little voice in the back of his mind playing devil's advocate had urged him to go along with it. The Cylons had some sort of agenda for a human/ Cylon hybrid child; why else would they be trying so hard to get their hands on one?
"We have to trust that Helo will understand that we acted in the manner we thought best," the Admiral said for the umpteenth time since he'd revealed the news to Lee.
"Would you have understood it if someone had taken me away from you and Mom? If someone had taken Zack from you?" Lee couldn't keep the tension from his voice as he spoke his brother's name. Zack had been taken from them, but what if they'd never had the chance to know him at all?
"I would have torn the whole of the 12 colonies apart looking for either of my sons," the old man admitted gruffly. "But that's an entirely different matter, you were both human."
"She was still Helo's daughter, whatever her mother may have been."
"Then we'll have to make him understand that we did it to protect her. As long as they thought she'd died, then the rumors would get out to the rest of the fleet that she'd died."
"Keeping any spies from knowing we had the hybrid they were seeking," Lee finished.
"Precisely."
"I understand why you did it, Dad. But I'm not Helo, and that's not my child down on a planet controlled by Cylons."
The intercom began sounding, providing a much needed distraction for the elder Adama. They would never see eye to eye about what had been done with Hera, and all the arguing in the world wouldn't prepare them to face Helo.
"This is the Admiral," he spoke into the apparatus.
"Sir, this is Lieutenant Stahl on the bridge. You wished to be alerted of any visitors to the Cylon detention…"
William cut him off, "Captain Agathon?"
"Yes sir, he arrived at Galactica's detention cells just over half an hour ago. I'm sorry, sir, I don't know how I missed his arrival, the duty sergeant didn't report…"
"That'll be all Lieutenant," William said, cutting the young officer off in mid-sentence and abruptly returning the handset to its cradle. They'd lost the advantage of breaking the news to Helo themselves; there was no telling what Sharon would say to him. He turned to face his son. "We may have a problem."