Starbuck sat in the sickbay's waiting room alone. Lee was in a meeting with all the commanders of every ship in the fleet, so he couldn't make it to today's appointment. He had offered to reschedule it and go to his wife's appointment instead but she considered that it would be too much fussing over a single check up.

"Kara Thrace," an unfamiliar voice called her. Kara looked up and saw a woman with strawberry blond hair wearing scrubs. She had been expecting a consult with Talbot but, apparently, there was a new doctor around. "I'm Erin Decker. Doctor Talbot is away, so I'll be in charge of your appointment today. Come this way, please."

Kara got up and followed the new doctor to the curtained area where she usually had her appointments. "I've never seen you around here before," Kara pointed out, as she lay on the bed.

"I'm usually around only at night," Decker explained as she prepared the machine. "I used to work as a physical therapist during the day in another ship. Now, I'm just Talbot's civilian intern."

Kara nodded. "So, Doctor Decker, what happened to Talbot?" she asked.

"Call me Erin. I'm not a fan of titles. Talbot had an emergency on the planet. His old 'master' called him personally," she said, looking at her patient's records. "According to these papers, you already had the honor of meeting him."

She didn't even need to think to know who Decker meant. "Cottle."

"Jackpot," Erin said. "Isn't he just the nicest, most likeable breathing being?" The sarcasm was clear in her voice.

Kara smiled. "I like you," she decided. Erin Decker was definitely a person she could see herself being friends with or at least trashing people with.

"Thanks," Erin responded with a smile. "In your chart it said that you're 24 weeks along."

"Yep."

"And that in your last checkup, one month ago, you decided to keep the baby's gender a mystery," the doctor continued, pulling the machine closer in order to start the ultrasounds.

"I want to make those asses that are pulling bets about my kid suffer for a while." She shivered, feeling the cold sensation of the gel on her skin.

"That's a good point, but you could always have used the inside information to clean their pockets," Erin pointed out, looking at the monitor.

She's good, Kara thought. "Now, that was a good idea. But it's too late now. The bets are closed. Too bad you weren't here two months ago…"

"Maybe they'll make other bets," she said. Her eyes narrowed at the monitor and she sighed. "Well, even if we wanted to find out the gender, your baby is not cooperating. Crossed legs."

"Oh, my shy little thing," Kara joked with a grin on her face. "A prude like Daddy." It was a fact that, in public, Lee was kind of prudish. The way he looked nervous when she made sex related jokes on front of Helo was difficult to miss…

Erin snorted. "I never thought of the commander that way." She measured the baby on the image and froze the image. "Well, Captain, your kid seems to be healthy. You can clean up."

"Hey, if I get to call you Erin, you have to call me Kara," she said, wiping the gel from her stomach with a towel.

"Alright, Kara then. You need to come back next month for another check up, which will be the first of your third trimester. In the meanwhile, we'll see around the ship. I'll keep my ears open to any other bets that may come up."

"Make sure you do," Kara told her, nodding. "We can share the winnings. After all, you came up with the idea." She was about to leave, but Decker called her again.

"Wait, don't you want a picture?" she asked.

Kara turned around. "Talbot never said the machine could give us pictures."

"Yeah, well, Talbot doesn't give anything to anyone if they can live without it," Erin mumbled. "Kind of bugs me sometimes." She passed Starbuck the photo.

She shook her head. "And here I was thinking that all doctors were a bunch of jerks," Kara said. "See you around."

When Kara exited the life station, the first thing she saw was Lee running on her direction. He looked like he'd been running miles. "Oh, I was hoping I'd make it in time," he said.

"It's okay." She gave him the photo. "I got you a souvenir."

Together, they stared at their child's picture. It was starting to look like a real baby. Every second, their child became more and more formed. In a few months they'd get to hold him or her. "Cute," he murmured, smiling at the picture. "How did you get a photo?"

"Talbot's intern has rebelled and gave it to me. I think I just made fast friends with her," Kara declared. "She's the first nice doctor I've ever found in a battlestar." The last time she had made fast friends with somebody had been when she was five… with one Karl C. Agathon. She hadn't managed to get rid of him so far.

---

Weeks passed and Kara got bigger and less comfortable. At 34 weeks pregnant, she woke up with the sound of her husband's voice. It wasn't loud: he was talking calmly and his words were clearly not directed to her. She slowly opened one eye and saw him leaning close to her now very big stomach.

"…and I can't wait to meet you," Lee murmured, his hand slowly massaging the bump. "But be nice for Mommy, okay? Keep in mind that her kidneys are not punching bags."

Kara smiled. The baby was very active these days and Lee was aware of that. Sometimes, when she stayed awake all night because the kid wouldn't stop moving, she could see a guilty look on his eyes, like he was apologizing. He would be a great dad, like hers had been. He always kept the ultrasound picture in his uniform's pocket.

"Daddy's kind of nervous, you know?" he continued talking to the baby. "I think Mommy is too. Having you around will be something very new, but we'll do our best."

"Mommy's feeling left out of this conversation," Kara mumbled, her voice still hoarse from the sleepiness. "And Mommy wants to thank her baby for finally giving her a good night of sleep."

Lee looked at her with a smile and reached for her face, kissing her softly on the lips. "Hey," he told her. "Good night of sleep, hum?"

"I was already thinking they were a simple part of my imagination she told her husband. Baby Adama is a feisty one," Kara said, patting her own belly. And Decker called the kid shy. More like stubborn…

Lee laughed. "Well, Kara, you have to admit that it was expected. Baby Adama is your kid after all…" He saw a glare starting to form on his wife's face. "Which is a compliment, because you wouldn't be you if you weren't energic."

"Good save," she said. Kara tried to get up from the bed but she quickly realized that it was a nearly impossible task. "Lee?" she asked her husband, who was contently lying by her side.

"Yes, honey," he responded, turning to her, quite amused by her inability to leave the bed on her own.

"Help me up," she pleaded in an almost ashamed tone. He snorted and got up, circling the bed in order to reach her side. He patiently helped sit on the bed and moved her, so she could get up. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Lee told her, kissing her forehead. "Need help in the shower?" he inquired with a wink.

Kara raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, sweetheart but I think I'm a little too big to do that in the shower." Not only was that highly uncomfortable, but also she was afraid of squishing the baby during the act. Erin, who was now in charge of all her consults (because Talbot was working on several different ships at the same time due to the other doctor's disband to the planet), kept telling her that the kid was not made of gelatin, so it wouldn't be smashed that easily, but Kara preferred to taking things carefully.

Lee frowned. "You just want to be on top," he mumbled.

"As if you don't like it…" she pointed out.

When she came out of the shower, Lee was waiting for her in the kitchen/living room/dining room/study with breakfast prepared. She smiled at her husband and joined him by the table.

"So, Helo has been dropping hints about naming the baby after him," Lee told her.

She snorted. Good old Helo… she was surprised his own daughter's name wasn't Karla or something slose. Some big ego he had. "Well, you can tell him to hold his horses, 'cause no child of mine will be named Karl."

"That's what I thought," Lee agreed. "But now that we are talking about names, last night I had an idea for a name…"

"We're not naming our baby Lee Junior," she warned him. As much as she would like their child to inherit his or hers Daddy's features, having two Lees in the same home had to be confusing.

"Don't be silly, Kara. I actually thought of James for a boy," he told her.

Her breath caught. He wanted to name their baby after her father… James Thrace that had mean so much to her. Lee Adama had to be the most perfect and considerate husband she could have picked…

The lack of reaction by his wife worried Lee. "What's wrong, Kara? It was just a suggestion. If you don't like it…"

"I loved it," she interrupted and crushed her lips on his before the waterworks started. For a moment all the universe disappeared, like it always did when they kissed and it was just the two… no, three of them.

---

Hours felt like days when she was bored. Kara doodled on a piece of paper, distracted. Her lack of inspiration allowed her to predict that her 'work of art' would be sent to the recycling bin in no time. Now that she, with Lee's help, had finished setting the baby's room, there was nothing interesting to do while Lee was in the CIC. He tried to spend as much as he could with her but he was still the battlestar's commander.

The knock on the hatch woke her from her thoughts – a prospect of some kind of diversion. It couldn't be Lee or Helo because both of them knew the entrance code and didn't have any problem with simply barging in. She got up with some difficulty – her gravity center kept changing due to her ever-growing stomach. Kara wondered how much bigger she would get until the end of her pregnancy. By the looks of it, Helo might very well win his bet regarding a big baby.

Opening the door, Kara saw Sharon standing in there with a smiley Hera Agathon on her arms. Kara and Sharon weren't exactly friends again. But she had to admit that, slowly, they had been developing to a mutual-respect situation, especially now that Hera was in the middle, and Kara believed that maybe (just maybe) someday they'd be able to embrace friendship once more.

"Hey, Hera wanted to pay a visit, I hope you don't mind," Sharon said. Corporal Venner was by the door, acting as her bodyguard.

"Of course not. I was bored out of my skull," Kara declared, stepping away from the door. "Come on in."

Sharon did as she was told and put little Hera on the floor. The little girl ran to the couch and climbed it easily. Even though Hera looked like a regular one year old, she talked and moved like she had the double of her age. Kara suspected this earlier development had something to do with her half-cylon condition.

"Auntie Buck," the little girl said, staring at her bump. "Baby bigger."

Kara grinned. The kid was just adorable and completely fascinated by her pregnancy. Helo was the one who had started to call her 'Auntie Buck' and Hera had followed his lead with no problems. Now, Kara Thrace Adama was someone's aunt, someone's wife and soon to be someone's mom. "That's how it works, Kid."

"How much longer do you have?" Sharon asked. Hera had barely reached seven months of gestation…

"Six weeks but from three on anything can happen," Kara answered. The closed she got to the due date, the more nervous she would get. Part of her wanted to believe that she would go through labor with no problem. It couldn't be very much worse than when she had screwed her knee. Both times. But then, the statistics and descriptions from other women would hit her and she just wished she had some kind of zipper prepared to remove the kid when the time came…

The rest of the visit was spent hearing her 'niece' telling her about her day and, from time to time, listening to Sharon's advice regarding the pregnancy.

---

In Galactica, Bill Adama stood in the CIC with Captain Kelly acting as his XO. He had dismissed Saul Tigh to leave to New Caprica earlier that day. The man was faithful and didn't want to go but it was clear that Ellen wished to be on the planet and he wanted to keep his wife happy.

"Admiral, there's a call from the surface to you," the communication's officer told him. "It's Laura Roslin."

He sighed. It was the first time she called him since he had told her to stop doing it. It had been months and he felt empty inside without her – only the thought of his unborn grandchild kept him running. The only reason he hadn't called Laura himself was his pride, so he didn't have a problem with talking to her as long as she was the one to call.

"Madam President," he said to the handset of the phone.

"I'm not the president anymore, Bill," she told him. "I needed to talk to you."

"About what?" he inquired. Despite acting so cold towards her, just hearing Laura's voice was enough to feel better than he had been feeling for the past months.

"Anything," she told him. "I can't bear the way we've been acting…"

"Laura…" he started.

"Admiral," Kelly interrupted him, looking worried.

"Wait," he told Roslin and turned to Kelly. "Yes, Captain, what is it?"

"I'm not sure," he replied, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the monitors. "Picking up something on DRADIS."

"DRADIS?" the Admiral asked. With all the interference cause by the nebula that surrounded the planet, DRADIS was barely working…

"There it is," Kelly announced, pointing at the monitor.

It was a reddish spot, Adama saw. No words could come out of his mouth. Unaware of what he was doing, he hung up the phone, cutting Laura's call.

"Oh, my gods. It's a cylon fleet. They found us," Kelly murmured…

A/N: Did I say i was gonna update tomorrow? Well, I change my mind. This chapter was merelly a filler - the fun is about to beguin, now that the toasters are back. And once again, 10 reviews will get you a preview.