Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.
The admiral and president find the resurrection ship to be a valuable piece of information. She is dismissed so they can talk amongst themselves. Kara returned to her bunk, glad that the military decisions aren't hers.
"CAP, this is Galactica. Cylons in bound on this side of the fleet."
"Rodger that Galactica, CAP returning to your side of the fleet." Lee states over the make it to the other side of the fleet as the rest of the alert fighters are launched. Galactica has been put between the raiders and the fleet. By the time the fighters are in weapons range several of the heavy raiders have landed and are boarding Galactica.
Her heart hammers as she fights off the raiders long enough for the fleet to jump. Galactica plans to jump with the boarding party still on board.
"Galactica, Starbuck. You've been boarded."
"Starbuck, Actual. Acknowledged. Combat landings approved. We're jumping." The admiral's voice comes over the wireless.
"Frak." Kara swears as she lands on the hangar bay.
After combat landings, the deck crews don't retrieve the vipers, leaving them to sit on the hangar deck. Kara is one of the first out of her viper. The rest of the pilots follow her lead and they fill the hallway outside of the small weapons locker on the hanger bay floor.
It looks like half the deck's air had been vented into space when they reach a section strewn with centurion parts and dead or dying humans. Kara sighs and signals the group ahead.
Four decks up, the viper pilots finally peal their EV suits off. Her group is scattered in the hall way when a group of centurion's pass. Kara stares at the toasters, not remembering they were that tall in the museums. She realizes they're on the deck where they're holding Leoben. She thinks about going to him and then decides against it. They wouldn't shoot their own…she hoped. She shot two of the centurions heading down the hall away from where she was hiding. The small pistol rounds did nothing. The centurions didn't even turn around, they just kept heading towards the holding cell. Kara sighed and headed up the hall way, signaling her group to keep moving.
After an hour of hide and seek without affecting the centurions forward movement Kara stopped at a small arms locker to see what ammo was left. She found a few frag grenades and some explosive rounds. She smiled at the viper pilots with her, and a few of them flinched. They knew that look. It meant Starbuck was going to go nuts on someone.
They moved forward once again. Kara got on the wireless and was instructed to take out as many centurions as possible while other crew members protected the air supply. One of the tactics still seemed to basically air lock the entire ship. Kara hung up and headed down the hall way. They sat and waited for centurions to go by.
It wasn't long before the hall way was filled with centurions marching towards the lower decks, trying to get to the air supply. Once the centurions had passed, Kara pulled the pin on the grenade and lobed it. There was a loud bang and then pieces were flying. The centurions that didn't fall turned and opened fire, not truly caring where or what they hit. Kara sent a few explosive rounds into a few of their heads and smiled as they exploded.
It was hours before the threat was resolved. Kara walked the ship without the other pilots taking in the destruction the boarding party had caused. She still had her pistol naked in her hand as she entered the CIC. She put the firearm away and came to stand next to the admiral.
"What do you know Starbuck?" He asks.
"Nothing but dead centurions from deck F to the CIC, sir." He turns to look at her.
"We're having trouble communicating with the marines on G deck. Were you down there?" he asks.
"Yes sir but not for hours now. We left before I called on the wireless."
"Colonel Tigh, send a new batch of marines down to that level and have the report back."
"Sir." Tigh said moving off.
"Permission to accompany the marines, sir." Kara asked.
"Denied, until we know what is going on down there."
Several minutes and small heart attacks later, the contingent of marines reported on the wireless. The admiral put the marine on speaker.
"Sir, situation secure. You need to come see this." The lead marine says over the wireless. The admiral agrees and moves out of the CIC flanked by Kara and Tigh. As they walked into the containment cell Kara noticed the pieces of centurion scattered all around the outside. There were blood stains from where the marines had been either moved to the life station or the body had been removed. The door to the cell was off of its hinges and Kara gasped when she looked in the cell.
Leoben was sitting, without his restraints, with a dead centurion at his feet. His hands were bloody from stopping the machines advances but he was still there. And alive. As she tries to rush in ahead of the marine guards the admiral grabs her by the collar.
"Let the marines do their job." He says. "We don't even know if that's him."
"I can verify that sir." She says.
"How?" He looks puzzled.
"There are a few secrets left to my husband alone. We discussed it briefly after I found out about the resurrection ships." The admiral raised his eyebrows. "I didn't want an imposter to be planted. I'm still in love with the man. If I am going to be kissing a cylon, I'd better be damn sure it's the right one." The admiral smirks at her statement.
"Well then, by all means please verify that we've still got the right cylon."
Kara steps around the marines and enters the cell. Leoben's face looks like it came in contact with a meat grinder. She sighs as her heart rate accelerates at the thought of him hurt. She strips off one of her tanks and wipes some of the blood off his face. One of his eyes is swollen shut. His other eye focuses on her and he smiles. She smiles back.
"Who am I?" She asks.
"Kara."
"Who was I at the masked party a few winters ago?"
"Persephone." He says. The admiral looks at Kara who nods slightly.
"Why did they come for you?" Kara asks.
"They came to take me back."
"How were they planning to do that?" The admiral interrupts.
"I'm not sure."
"Why didn't you go with them?" The admiral prompts.
"Why would I leave?" he looks to Kara. She smiles weakly.
"You could have escaped." He motions to the door. "And yet here you stand."
"I wouldn't be able to see my wife if I left sir. Besides I've been human or thought I was human for forty nine years, why would I want to go live with a bunch of toasters?"
"Why now?"
"I've been divulging their secrets and they know it." He paused. "Also they came to collect Kara, speaking of her destiny."
"I didn't know the centurions spoke." The admiral said skeptically.
"They don't but the whole lot of my model was jabbering about it in my head once they found out we were being boarded. Evidently they'd been kept out of the plan so as to not alert me." He grimaces knowing his usefulness is almost at an end. "I was ok with them coming to take me. I understand that, but once my model started getting excited about taking Kara I sort of lost it." He motioned to the centurion at his feet. The admiral nodded. Kara looked concerned.
"Well, I must report to the CIC and get an action report. There will be marines outside that door, but I think the captain can stay for a little while." The admiral turned and exited before he could reconsider his decision. It must be the way they looked at one another, even after all that had happened, that made the admiral allow the captain to stay.
Kara looked at her husband and winced.
"What did they do to your face?" She asks, using her tank once again to try to clean more of the blood off.
"Well, the centurion didn't stop moving when I ripped its head off. The body kept moving. And it managed to punch me a few times before I managed to rip both of the arms off." He grimaces as she touched his swollen eye.
"Well, thank-you." She says quietly leading him over to his cot to sit on it. She turns her attention to his hands. They close around hers.
"You don't have to do that." He says. "I'll be fine." He reassures her. "Really." He angles his one good eye to look into her eye. She looks at him.
"What did they say about my destiny?" She asks quietly.
"Well." He starts, then makes a face. "First off, you're not going to like it."
"I already don't." She retorts.
"Well, they have been saying that your destiny is intertwined with mine. And that you and I will find a home for both our kind."
"Well that's a tall order. Any clue how they think this will be happening?"
"No. Just that they were giddy to find out that we were married. That's why they've been so fascinated with our relationship. They want you to spend time with them so you can see their side." He finishes, knowing she'll hate that last part as much as he does. Her face recoils at that thought.
"How do they expect to do that when they've destroyed almost everything I love?"
"They believe in destiny, I'm guessing that they believe there will be a miracle and you'll forgive them."
"It would take a miracle." She says absentmindedly.
"What made you forgive me?" He asks quietly. She looks at him. His face is pained and she knows that most of him didn't want to ask the question but that he'd wanted to ask it for a very long time now. She sighs.
"Well, I love you for starters. That made everything much easier once I decided that it was senseless to be angry with you. It's not like you made yourself a cylon. It was involuntarily. And I sought help." His eyes widen at that admission. "Well, over the past few years I have started to feel better about things in my life. Like my mom and Zak, so I figured it would help for this situation also."
"Who did you seek help from?" He inquired.
"Everyone, really. Helo, Sharon, the admiral, the president, even the XO had some helpful, if not hurtful things to add. And then I went to a priestess and finally another headshrinker." She sighed. It felt good to admit to him she'd sought help, that she really was forgiving him, that it wasn't just her pushing her feelings inside.
"So that's what took 3 months?" He asks trying to control his face. He fails and smiles that she's finally taking his advice. She grins back at him.
"Yes, that is what took me 3 months." She moves closer to him on the bed. "So do you figure anyone is back in the observation room yet?" She leans into him.
"I could give a frak less." His hands move to rest on her hips as he leans into her kiss. He flinches as the cut on his lip stings. She feels him flinch and tries to pull back. One of his hands moves to the back of her neck to keep her lips against his. Her tongue darts past his lips, tasting the blood in the process. She pulls back a little but still kisses him, hands roaming over his chest.
After a few long moments, Leoben pulls back. "We have to stop before I take this too far. I don't need video feed of something more intimate than this leaking out." He sighs, moving his forehead against hers.
"Well, I'd best go help put the ship back together. I just wanted to make sure they hadn't replaced you with an imposter." She kisses his brow and rises to leave. He stands with her and hugs her to him briefly before letting her go.
Kara finds her way down to the hanger bay, where the chief is collecting centurion parts. She smirks and asks, "Any particular parts you're looking for chief?" He grunts.
"All of them." He says picking up an arm and putting it in the cart next to him. "I'll figure something out for every last piece I'm sure." Kara moves around the deck picking up small pieces and some large when she finds them.
It takes the crew a few days to remove all of the parts. There were casualties and services for the dead. Kara stood at attention as they committed over twenty crew mates to space. She felt like all she'd done for months now was attend funerals.
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Kara finally gets some leave a few weeks after the cylons board Galactica. She heads back to the Temptation to spend some time with her crew. It may only be for 24 hours but it's her home, plus her bed is better there than on Galactica. She smiles as she boards the raptor. Athena is accompanying her for a while and Helo agreed to come later that night for a while. The crew had planned a triad marathon for their captain's return.
Copper greets them on the docking bay. He actually hugs Kara and Sharon. Kara looks at him funny.
"Glad to have you, sir." He says. "The crew is assembled in the mess."
"The entire crew?" She asks.
"Absolutely."
"I'm going to take a shower first."
"Do you have your own shower?" Athena asks.
"Yeah."
"Ooh! Then I call second shower." Sharon says.
"We won't be long." Kara says leading the way.
After Kara and Sharon swap out the shower and put clean clothes on (Kara's clothes didn't fit Sharon all that well but they were clean.) they wandered down to the mess. Kara smiled at the scene then noticed an interloper in their midst.
"Mr. CAG. How the hell did you, plus two of your pilots get the same day off?" She asks looking at Lee sitting amongst her crew.
"Well I am the CAG. Plus I hear this is where the ambrosia comes from. I need a break and I'm sure someone else can scream at everyone to get to their CAP on time today. Or I'll just yell at them tomorrow." Kara smiles.
"Shall we get this started then?" Floyd asks setting down a round of glasses and a bottle of ambrosia as Hammer shuffles the cards.
"Frak yeah." Kara says sitting down.
Hours later the cards are forgotten, as Kara and Lee have taken everyone's money, but the ambrosia is still flowing. The crew talks about how it's been to be in the fleet as the smallest carrier. They're preparing the docking bay to receive refugees in the next few days.
"Well then I'm glad we're doing this now." Kara says raising her glass.
"Indeed. Imagine what and audience we'd have with three colonial pilots sitting in our mess."
"What do you mean?" Sharon asks.
"You guys are like celebrities. Especially Starbuck and Apollo. Seems some of the stunts the two of you have pulled in the air together are infamous." Hammer says.
"No one ever thinks about the raptor pilots." Sharon pouts.
"The fleet still loves you; you just don't look like you're going to kill someone every time you fly." Copper laughs as Kara punches him in the arm. "Let's play "never have I ever". Copper says suddenly and with much enthusiasm. This is one of the few times the crew has really met any of Kara's military friends. Copper knows they have stories about her and hopes this stupid game will reveal some of them. "Here I'll go first. If you have done this, you have to drink." He looks mischievous. Kara groans. "Never have I ever flown a viper." Lee and Kara clink glasses and down their shots.
"Ok." Kara says getting the gist. "Never have I ever woken up with a tattoo that I couldn't remember getting." Kara says. She watches as Copper drinks but is surprised when Sharon and Lee join in. "Where is yours?" She turns to Sharon. Sharon pulls her tank to expose her shoulder blade. There is a poorly drawn butterfly on her shoulder blade. Kara bursts into laughter. "What about you?" She turns to Lee.
"I can't show you." He says calmly. Sharon and Kara look at one another before cracking up.
"That's alright; I'll just pay more attention next time we're in the head together." Kara states.
"Alright, my turn." Lee says. "Never have I ever been thrown in hack for hitting my CO." He looks right at Kara. She drinks her shot.
"Never have I ever had sex in a raptor." Floyd says. Kara and Lee both drink, while Sharon just grins.
"Really, never?" Kara asks.
"Nope."
"Never have I ever had sex with someone whom I didn't know their last name." Hammer says, taking a drink herself. Everyone in the group has to drink.
"That's not fair, you drank too." Floyd says.
"Hey if I want to get myself drunk I can." Hammer retorts, refilling her glass.
"Oh I've got another one." Lee slurs slightly, the previous hours of drinking catching up. "Never have I ever frakked the admiral's son." His eyes dance as he raises his eyebrows at Kara. She lifts her glass, salutes her CO with her other hand, and downs her shot. When she's done with her shot, Sharon picks hers up, salutes her CO and downs her shot. Both Kara and Lee look at Sharon.
"What? There were other admirals in the fleet before the attacks you know." She smiles. The phone rings in the mess, Helo asks permission to dock. By the time he changes out of his flight suit and joins them in the mess, things are getting raunchier. Helo takes a shot just to try to catch up. By the time he's settled in, it's his turn to embarrass Kara.
"Never have I ever ended up in hack for getting caught frakking in my viper." Kara and Lee both laugh and drink.
"Never have I ever been caught trying to steal a dress." Kara says looking right at Helo.
"Frakker." He says taking a shot. The whole group loses it.
"You tried to wear it out of the store." Kara gets out between snorts. The group laughs even harder.
"Never have I ever seen Kara naked." Sharon says when she can breathe enough to speak. Her entire crew, Helo and Lee drink. "Geez Starbuck, do you own clothes?"
"She streaked us on a dare." Copper speaks up.
"She did that at the academy too." Helo says.
"Never have I ever stolen something larger than a bread box." Lee says. The crew of the Temptation drinks. Helo looks puzzled.
"Is a dress larger than a bread box?" He asks, far too sober.
"The fact you can ask that means you drink." Hammer says pouring more into his glass. He downs the ambrosia.
"Never have I ever done things in a theatre that could get me arrested." Skid says, finally figuring out something that won't incriminate her in the process. All of the men drink.
"Never have I ever been married." Floyd says. Kara drinks immediately, surprisingly Lee, Hammer, Skid and Helo drink too. Sharon smacks Helo on the arm.
"What? I was 18. I was stupid, joined the military, and married my childhood sweetheart. Months later she ended up sleeping with my best friend." He says sullenly. Kara looks to Lee for his explanation.
"What he said." He retorts. Hammer and Skid shake their heads; they're not telling.
"Never have I ever had a threesome." Helo says looking at Kara. She shrugs. Everyone just about drops their glasses when Skid downs her drink and smiles.
"Never have I ever had a devil's threesome." Kara tests. Skid picks up her newly pour drink and downs it. The group cracks up. "I think that deserves the rest of us drinking in honor of you." She raises her glass as does everyone else.
The night ends shortly after that as people start passing out on the mess floor. Helo and Sharon manage to find one of the new cots set up in the docking bay for the refugees. Kara and Lee are the only two people left awake in the mess. They pass the bottle back and forth.
"Heading back to Galactica tonight?" She asks.
"Frak no. The raptor will be here at 0700 tomorrow, I'll just catch a ride then."
"Thanks for coming. I'm sure the embarrassment would have waited for Helo to get here if you hadn't been here to pick up the slack, so thanks."
TBC...