Lee stared at Kara in shock. He rewinded a few seconds in his memory and replayed the scene again. She's Hera Agathon, his wife had said. No, it couldn't be. Hera Agathon was dead.

"Can you say that again?" he requested, trying to make sure he had heard it well.

"The kid who was with Roslin, Isis, is Hera Agathon. Helo and Sharon's kid," she said very slowly so he would digest it at once. Kara was completely aware that, if the situation was inversed, she'd most likely act like that too…

Lee was confused. "But… what makes you say that?" he questioned. What she had just told him involved very serious accusations. No kidding at all…

"For starters, Maya can't be her mother 'cause she had a kid five months before Isis was born and there is no document that proves an adoption. Second, Isis was born in the exact same day as Hera. Third, she looks just like them. Helo and Sharon," Kara explained. "I know this sounds… frakking insane. But I am completely sure of it."

Now, looking back, he could see some resemblance between the kid and them. And, the way Kara had put it, made the accusations sound real. But that wouldn't be enough. They needed proof, someone to confirm it…

"Frak, you think I'm crazy," Kara huffed, waking him from his thoughts.

"No, I don't," he told her immediately. "I'm just thinking of a way to get proof. We can't act without being 100% sure…"

Kara sighed. He was right; they needed some kind of unbreakable evidence or nobody would let them act. But at least Lee had believed her without any hesitation. It was nice to simply know it…

"Cottle was the one in charge of Sharon and Hera at the time, wasn't he?" he questioned. An idea was starting to form in his mind. "If it is Hera, someone faked her death and Cottle had to be in the plan or they wouldn't have succeeded. He would have noticed that the kid was actually alive or had been switched."

"Someone made him keep his mouth shut," Kara concluded. Jackpot, she thought. "Meaning he knows…"

"I'll call him," Lee stated. "Get all the potential evidence you've got and meet me in our quarters."

When he turned around to open the hatch and leave, Kara grabbed his wrist. He looked back at her. "Thanks for believing in me," she told him.

He smiled at her and showed her his wedding ring. "That's part of the deal. And I want all this to be over."

---

Before going to his quarters, Lee went to the CIC and had Hoshi calling the surface of the planet and had someone looking for Cottle. He needed to know if he and Kara were right.

"Transfer the call to my quarters when you get hold of Cottle, will you?" he asked the communications officer.

"Will do, sir," he responded.

As Lee walked to his cabin, he thought about that whole situation. Taking a child from her parents and giving to others? It was barbarian. Unthinkable. He tried to put himself in Helo's position. The pain he had gone through, thinking his child was dead… He wondered if his father was also responsible for that whole story… if it that was true at all. All evidence said yes…

Lee entered the cabin to see that Kara was already there, roaming through a bunch of pages from Maya's files. She looked up when she heard Lee closing the hatch behind him. "Hey, did you manage to contact Cottle?"

"Hoshi will transfer the call here when he gets hold of him," Lee replied, sitting on this sofa. "This is frakking insane," he mumbled with a sigh.

Kara left the papers on the table and took a seat by his side. "You tell me that," she replied. "Taking a kid away, giving her to another… Who could do that?"

"Yeah," Lee said. He turned his face to his wife who was now moving to a lounging position and resting her feet in her lap. She had been right all along. That Isis/Hera seemed to be affecting her, more than he had predicted. He wondered… "Okay, I'm gonna ask you a question and don't get mad or anything. I'm just curious," he started.

She raised an eyebrow. "Why would I get mad about a question? Just shoot it."

Lee took a deep breath. "Do you, by any chance, want kids?" he asked her.

Her whole body tensed. She should have predicted her. Not once, since they had gotten together, had Lee touched the matter that surrounded kids. "Lee…" she said nervously.

"Wait, let me finish. It's fine with me if you don't want kids. Having you… is way more than I ever imagined. I just wondered…" he told her. "Do you want them?"

If he had asked her that one year ago, she would have screamed 'No way'. But now, she just didn't know. It was ironic that he questioned that right now, considering that, just a day before, she had noticed that her period was two weeks late. But she refused to even consider that ridiculous idea… the slight chance that she might be pregnant. She had one ovary and was on contraceptive shots… the odds surrounding that had to be minimal. That belief mixed with a heavy dose of denial was the only thing that kept her from freaking out. Now, he was bringing it up. The gods were plotting against her.

Kara finally sighed and did her best to clean her mind of that 'crazy' idea. Answer him honestly, she told herself. They were way past the phase of hiding their opinions from each other. "I don't know. I had a crappy childhood, Lee. My model of mothering is based on beatings and yelling. What kind of mother would I be?" she echoed the questions that had filled her mind during the whole previous night. Condemning an innocent child to a frakked up mother…

"A better one," Lee assured her. "Look, my parents weren't exactly a model, too. Dad was never home. My Mom was moody and depressive. Most of the time she forgot me and Zak. I was the one who had to cook for him, make sure he had his homework done or yell at him when he got himself into a fight. She never forgot her early morning drink, though… or the middle morning one for that matter. Spent most of the time wallowing in her room. Still, I believe we won't make the same mistakes, 'cause we learnt from them."

Kara was taken aback by that revelation. She had been with Carolanne several times and she seemed a charming woman. She was aware that the woman had had a few breakdowns surrounding her divorce, but never took the situation that seriously… She was about to reply when the phone started ringing.

Lee got up and answered it. "Hoshi?"

"Commander, I'll pass to Doctor Cottle right now," Hoshi announced.

He waited a few seconds until Cottle's voice came through the handset of the phone. "Major Cottle here," he heard the doctor grumble.

"Doctor, this is Lee Adama."

"Commander, what can I do for you?" Cottle inquired.

"I need you to answer a question honestly," Lee said in a rather calm tone. "Did you help faking Hera Agathon's death?"

There was a silent moment. "Who told you that?" the doctor finally asked.

"Doesn't matter. Did you or did you not help faking Hera Agathon's death? Answer my question, Major, that's an order," Lee insisted.

"Yes, Commander, I did. I didn't agree with it, but I was under direct orders," Cottle answered.

Kara, who watched her husband closely during the call, saw his face harden. She immediately knew that they were right. Hera was alive.

"My father's orders?" Lee questioned, afraid of the answer. If Cottle confirmed that Bill Adama had been the one to order that, Lee promised himself never to speak to him again, unless it was strictly necessary.

"No, the Admiral didn't know anything about it," Cottle said. "Let's just get over with it. It was President Roslin who gave the order."

Lee took a deep breath. Roslin and her morals… "Thank you for your help," Lee told the doctor, hanging up without waiting for his reply. He turned to Kara. "It was Roslin; she was the one who took Hera away. My father doesn't have a thing to do with it."

She was not surprised. The Old Man was capable of a lot of things but he knew what it felt like to have a child taken away. He wouldn't do that to anybody, no matter what. Roslin on the other hand…

"I will call my father," Lee declared. "Prepare a raptor to leave to the planet on my orders. We're finishing this today."

---

As soon as the raptor landed on the surface of New Caprica, Kara, along with two marines, exited and proceeded to the school. Lee had decided to stay in Pegasus as the XO was also away. After a long call to then Old Man, both of them had decided to confront Roslin and Maya. Kara, being the one who discovered everything, would be in charge of intervening.

Before going into the tent where the school was located, she told the marines to wait outside. Stepping inside, she saw that both Maya and Roslin were there along with all the children. Dee was present too, sitting in a makeshift desk, reading from a book. Hera rested on a bassinet by the desk. Kara reached the former president in no time. "Madam President," she murmured behind her.

Roslin turned around and smiled at her. "Captain Thrace, what brings you here? Congratulations on the wedding."

"Thank you ma'am. But I needed to talk to you," Kara told the older woman. She turned to look a Hera's bassinet. "About Hera."

Roslin's smile faded and she gulped. "Dee," she called for Dualla, who looked up and frowned when she saw Kara standing there, "could you take the children outside for a while?"

Dualla nodde and got up, telling the children to follow her outside. A couple of minutes later, only Kara, Roslin, Maya and Hera were inside the tent.

"How could you do that?" Starbuck asked the former president without exitation. "How could you take that baby away?"

"Baby?" Maya asked confused as she approached them. "Are you talking about Isis?" She saw Pegasus' insignia in Kara's jacket. Laura had told her Isis mother was an officer from Pegasus. "Wait, are you her biological mother? You can't have her back. You abandoned her!"

Kara stared at Maya. "Yes, I am talking about Isis. But, believe me, I am not her mother," she told the other woman. Then, she turned back to Laura Roslin. "Does she even know?"

"What, Captain?" she asked.

"Does she even know that you took that baby away from her parents because her mother is a cylon?" Kara almost shouted.

Maya's eyes shot open. "Isis's mother is a what?!"

"Maya…" Laura started. How had Kara found out? How? Tory was supposed to have left everything spotless.

"I'm sorry," Kara said, turning to Maya, feeling sorry for her. "But the truth needs to come out. Isis's real name is Hera Agathon. Her mother is Sharon Valerii, a cylon, and her father is one of my best friends. They suffered horrors thinking their baby had died when she had actually been taken away from them by none other than Laura Roslin."

Maya was crying, sobbing. Kara felt horrible for hurting the poor woman like that, but things were not right the way they stood currently. She had to know the truth and so did Helo and Sharon. Maya looked at Roslin with a pained expression. "How could you do this to me?! Make me love… a thing. Make me believe it was a regular child, my child!"

"Maya, she's not a thing," Laura replied, shocked by her friend's words. "She's just a little girl! She saved my life for gods' sake!"

"She is an abomination!" she shouted. She looked at the bassinet. "Keep that away from me. And you, Laura! Stay the hell away from me too!" Maya turned around and ran away from the tent, crying.

There were a few minutes of silence. Kara thought about all the pain Roslin had caused trying to keep a child away from her parents.

"Kara…" she started.

"Shut up," Starbuck spat at the former president. She walked in the bassinet's direction and saw little Hera wide awake in there, staring at her with her dark brown eyes and smiling innocently. How could Maya call her an abomination? Half-cylon or not, she was just a little girl that was part of a bigger mess… like she had been in the past but for different reasons. Kara nervously picked the baby up from the bassinet – she had never held a child before. It was not as scary as she thought it would be. So, that was Helo's kid… she wondered how Lee's would look like. Blond hair, blue eyes, hertbreaking smile...

Suddenly, she heard someone else entering the tent and turned to see the Old Man glaring at Roslin…

"Kara, could you leave me alone with Laura?" he requested. "There's someone outside waiting for you two."

She nodded and walked away with Hera, not wanting to witness the confrontation between her father-in-law and the former president. The first person Kara noticed when she exited the tent was Helo, who stared at the baby she was carrying in complete adoration.

"My gods," he muttered as he approached them. His eyes were misty; Kara had never seen him like that before. It was no surprise though, he had just seen his supposedly dead daughter for the first time in months. "When the Admiral said, I couldn't believe him." Karl reached for his daughter and Kara carefully passed her to him. He held Hera close to his chest and kissed her heir, always rocking her softly.

From her point of view, Starbuck could tell that, somehow, Hera knew that was her father. She relaxed against him, resting her head on his shoulder, like she was about to fall asleep.

They just stood like that for minutes, none of them said a word. Finally, Helo kissed Hera's head again and turned to Kara. "Thank you," he simply told her, knowing that he owed her more than he could ever pay in a single lifetime.

A/N: Your pleads (and mine as well) were answered: Hera was found. Thank you for the feedback last chapter, it gave me such an inspiration wave that when I started this chapter, I couldn't stop writing until it was finished and the next one was halfway done (It was 4 a.m. when I managed to stop). Now remember - 10 more reviews and a preview will be available in my livejournal (profile).