Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, I just play with them.
A month later….
Kara returns to the pilot's bunk room, giving up the private quarters to someone who needs privacy. She needs to be around people, although most are still a little leery of the cylon lover. She takes to spending a lot of time with her paperwork and in the pilots' rec room playing cards and drinking far too much.
She returned once to the Temptation to visit with the crew, but that had brought up far too many memories of him. She spent most of her time there locked in her old room trying not to have a break down. She'd grabbed the few photos she had of their wedding and headed back to Galactica as soon as there was a transport within range.
Today was exceptionally hard to take; it would have been their three year anniversary. Kara doesn't notice what day it is until after her first few hours teaching the nuggets. She stops, realizing the date, when she's filling out a report on how the nuggets are doing. Her face hardens as the pain hits, and then her face crumbles and she's crying. Gods I'm so sick of crying, she thinks to herself. She wipes the tears away and goes to get some food before CAP.
After CAP Kara drags out the last bottle of ambrosia from the depths of her locker. She makes her way to the observation deck, which is blissfully deserted since there is a triad game on Galactica and a pyramid game on the Rising Star. She sits in front of the window sighing to herself as she breaks the seal of the liquor.
Leoben stiffens in pain as he downloads into a new body for the first time. He thrashes in the transfer goo, not understanding that he is in fact alive. He stops when he realizes another person is standing next to the tank. He looks over, dread filling him. It's a copy of himself. He sighs with relief. He wasn't sure he could deal with this experience and another new cylon at the same time. The other two looks down at Leoben.
"We have waited for you for a long time." The two speaks not looking at Leoben.
"Why?" He croaks out.
"Well, we had hoped that it would be with her, but this will do. We've been waiting for you to rejoin us."
"Yeah, I got that part. You still haven't said why."
The two sighs, "We're not entirely sure why you should be here we just feel the rightness of it, do you not?" He asks shocked by even the thought that Leoben wouldn't feel exactly as he did.
"Well, as I've been explaining for almost a year now, I do not feel the same things you and the others feel. I've been human my whole life, I feel human. Hell I'm even sarcastic like a human, so excuse me if I don't "feel the rightness" of the situation. Can I get a towel or something? This goo is disgusting." He wipes as much goo off as he can. The other two looks offended.
"That goo made you into the being you're standing as now."
"That's very nice of it; I still would like to get it off of me." Leoben says standing and waiting expectantly. "Hey I can just walk all around the ship dragging this stuff everywhere if you'd prefer." He carefully steps out of the tub, trying not to slip. The other two moves across the room and fetches a towel.
"You're definitely not what I expected." The two frowns as his eye brows knit together. Leoben laughs. The giddiness of being alive and whole has hit him now and he feels a little out of sorts.
"Well I didn't expect any of this." He towels off the remaining stuff from the tank. "Clothes?"
"Many of us choose not to wear clothes."
"You have clothes." Leoben comments. "I'd prefer clothes for now, thanks. Where are we?"
"A base star."
"Duh, where is the base star? I mean I had to resurrect close to the fleet. Are you still following the fleet?" Leoben can hear the hope seeping into his voice and grimaces knowing he's given himself away already.
"We are currently looking for the fleet; unfortunately they jumped away again as soon as you were killed. Seems they captured two of the two models also. They haven't returned to us, so we're assuming they're alive. Although they may be out of transmitting distance. We're just not sure." The two points over to where the clothes are, Leoben moves to put them on. "The others have called a meeting for you in a few minutes. They all want to hear what you have to say about your destiny."
"So someone knows about my destiny?" He looks puzzled.
"Something more like. You'll be meeting with the hybrid."
"What is a hybrid?" Leoben asks moving to follow the other model down the hall.
"Something between us and the centurions. More knowledgeable than all of us. They see the past, present and future of everything, just not in a continuous stream. Sometimes they'll speak of the past and the future in the same sentence. It is up to interpretation." The other model spreads his hands wide. He motioned for Leoben to go in front of him into a room.
In the middle of the room there was a humanoid looking cylon in a pool of the same goo Leoben had just climbed out of. She was speaking to no one in particular, which Leoben found odd and he stated so.
"We're not sure why they speak aloud. For certain they could operate without speaking but for some reason our parents decided the hybrids should speak." He motions for Leoben to get closer.
As Leoben gets closer he can hear the types of things the hybrid is saying. Most are about the ship and its operations.
"She controls the ship?"
"You sound surprised."
"A little." He moves up closer and kneels next to the hybrid. Her attention is elsewhere.
"Does she know we're here?"
"Yes the light of two twos come closer, end line." She answers for herself. Leoben looks down astonished. He has no idea how long he sits there committing every word to memory. He doesn't even notice when the other two sits across the pool from him, all he notices are the strange words coming from the hybrids mouth.
"Persephone waits to be awakened into Aurora as the light of the two melds with hers, end line. Correct oxygen input by 0.6 parts per billion, end line."
Leoben closes his eyes, understanding part of the message. He smiles as he realizes it also means he will be reunited with her. He just wishes he knew when that would be.
Lee finds Kara in the observation lounge about one fourth of the way into her bottle of ambrosia. She's put it aside and is just staring out at the stars. He comes to stand next to her. She jumps when he speaks not realizing anyone had entered the lounge.
"You ok?" He asks not looking at her.
"No." She says. "Go away Lee." She'd purposely come here to be alone.
"No Kara. You need to talk to someone."
"And you figure its going to be you?" She says heatedly. She swings her legs to the ground and gets up grabbing her bottle. He stands his ground, not afraid of Kara's violent and unpredictable mood swings. She tries to move around him but he grabs her arm.
"You need a friend. I thought I was your friend."
"When it's convenient for you."
"What does that mean?" He scowls down at her as he holds tight on her arm. She rips her arm out of his grip, knowing he's bruised her in the process of trying to hold her. She moves up into his face.
"It means, sir that while I was struggling with coming to terms that I had inadvertently married a cylon, you wouldn't talk to me, look at me, eat in the mess with me. And now, now that the man I love is gone, you're ready to be friends again. Go frak yourself Lee." She tries to push past him once again.
"Just because I didn't understand your choice and didn't want to talk to you about your cylon lover doesn't mean that I'm not your friend."
"Really? Well you could've fooled me."
"Really." He sighs and looks down slightly. "I'm sorry I've been avoiding you. I guess I don't understand how you could come to terms with having a cylon husband. It confused me. Hell it still confuses me. But I know you're hurting. I've seen you in the pilots mess. You're loosing yourself." He sighs and looks into her eyes. "I don't want to lose my best pilot."
Kara sighs and looks away for the moment. She'd tried not to let losing most of her friends get to her but losing Lee really got to her. They'd know each other since academy days and she'd almost been part of his family. Hell most days she was part of the family. Tears come to her eyes as she thinks about all the family she's lost recently. Before she realizes it she steps up and embraces Lee. She feels his shock as it takes him a while to hug her back.
"I've missed you." Kara says softly which comes out muffled against the softness of Lee's sweatshirt.
"I've missed you too." He says holding her tighter.
TBC...