And the day of the battle arrived…

The last month had been hard for the pilots due to the long hours of training supervised by Starbuck herself. She had taken back the position of CAG despite not being cleared to fly yet. The pilots were as ready as they could be, considering the plan was highly risky by itself.

Sharon had been commissioned back into the Colonial Fleet as a Junior Lieutenant after accepting her part of the plan. She had been given a new call sign: Athena (suggested by hotdog during a conjoint briefing in Galactica) with the purpose of avoiding any confusion with the cylon who had once shot the Old Man, Boomer.

In Pegasus' CIC everyone was waiting for the Admiral's call, which would put the plan in motion. The New Caprican resistance had been informed of what was about to happen and ready to play their part.

Kara stood by Lee's side next to the tactical station. Jamie was in daycare which made Kara nervous – not only because it was the first time she was apart from her daughter for so long, but also because she wanted to have her baby close to her during the mission, she wanted to protect her child if it was needed. But Kara couldn't deny that, currently, the CIC was no place for a two month old infant…

Lee noticed his wife's nervousness and grasped her hand in support. "It's gonna be fine," he told her. "We'll win this."

It wasn't winning or losing that she had been thinking about, but just having Lee trying to comfort her was enough. "We'd better," she replied. If it only depended on the training, gods knew they'd win a thousand times. "Or I swear I'll haunt the cylon's asses for all eternity."

He laughed. "That's my girl."

"Sir," Hoshi said. "The Admiral is on line 1."

Apollo picked up the phone. "Dad," he addressed the Admiral. They could be dead in a matter of hours, so there was just no time for formalities.

"Son," the Old Man replied. "Are you ready for this?"

"As ready as I can be…" Lee told him.

"Remember, if something goes wrong…"

"I know, sir," Lee interrupted. They had gone through that over and over. If Galactica didn't make it, Pegasus would lead the rest of the fleet on their way to Earth. Frak, he didn't even want to think of it.

"No, listen. If something goes wrong, I want you to know that I'm proud of you and that I'm sorry I wasn't there for you when I was supposed to. The gods know you're a much better parent than I ever was. And I'm sure that, in time, you'll be a better commander than I ever was, Lee. Don't let us down," Adama told his son.

That one surprised Lee. It wasn't like his father to say that kind of thing in person, much less over the phone. The man really believed he was going to die… "I won't," he told his father. "But you can't let us down either, Dad. You have to make it back."

"I'll see what I can do," he replied. "Now pass the phone to your wife."

Lee sighed and handed the phone to Kara. She looked at him questioningly. "He wants to talk to you," he explained.

She brought the phone to her ear. "Sir," she said.

"Kara," the Old Man's familiar voice greeted her. "Look…"

"Don't," she said shakily. By the tone of his voice, she knew that a dramatic speech was coming. "Anything you say now is gonna sound like a goodbye."

There was a silent moment and, then, the Old Man spoke. "Starbuck, what do you hear?"

That line again… The man knew she couldn't resist it. "Nothing but the rain, sir," she replied.

"Then grab your gun and bring you cat in," he finished.

"You do the same, Dad," she said. Frak, she wanted the Old Man to survive – she had just opened her heart to him, let him occupy her own father's spot. The hell if she would let him die. "I'll see you later, won't I?"

"I hope so," he told her sincerely. "Tell Lee to get the fighters ready. We'll be jumping in a couple of minutes."

"Aye, aye, sir," she told him before hanging up. "Get ready, we'll jump soon," Kara told her husband.

---

Down in New Caprica, Sam, Tigh and Tyrol were in the shelter behind the school waiting for Galactica to send them the signal saying that the rescue was about to start. They had managed to bring a raptor's wireless communication device there before the toasters had confiscated them all.

Tigh had to spend the last two months hiding in the school's basement along with his wife and Roslin. The former president and the XO were among the top of the most wanted list due to the important positions they held in the past. Luckily, Gaeta had secretly passed that information before the cylons reached them, giving them time to hide. Ellen Tigh ended up hiding with her husband for her own security – almost driving Roslin to madness just by acting like her usual self.

A sound coming from the wireless turned everyone alert. "This is Husker. The bird is returning to the nest. I repeat, the bird is returning to the nest," the Admiral's voice communicated.

Sam got up from where he had been sitting. "It's now."

"You know what you have to do," Tigh told him and Tyrol. "Anders, we and the marines will take everybody out of the detention blocks and Chief, you and the rest of the resistance keep people away from the viper's targets." As he couldn't act outside, Tigh had been the one in charge of the resistance's planning. "Who's to bring the children and the sick people to hide down here?"

"Barolay," Sam told him. "She'll be on that."

"We won't disappoint, sir," Tyrol told him. Before leaving, he approached his wife, Cally, who would be staying in the shelter during the rescue along with their baby son, Nicky. "Don't leave until someone tells you to do so."

Cally nodded "Okay." He kissed her softly in the lips and his son's forehead.

"Let me finally see some light," Tigh mumbled, opening the hatch that lead to surface. Everybody could tell that he hadn't been happy with having to stay hiding while the other resistance members blew up things outside.

When the three of them went away, the women were left alone in the shelter. Ellen was pretending to sleep on a makeshift bed – she just hated being closed down there. She had come to surface in order to be free, not in closure…

A few feet away, Laura sat by Cally's side. She could see the younger woman was nervous as she cradled her son against her chest.

"You'll see that by tonight we'll be back in Galactica…" the former president told her.

"I hate the toasters so much!" Cally told her. "I had been hoping we'd be able to stop running… but they always ruin everything!" she said.

"Someday," Roslin promised. "This just wasn't the right place for us to settle. Earth is still waiting for us somewhere."

"I hope so…"

---

Half an hour later, the toasters had fallen in the diversion. When the vipers and raptors had approached them, they had turned their attention to them, allowing Galactica to jump in New Caprica's atmosphere. Athena had communicated earlier that she had landed safely in New Caprica and contacted Sam, who would take her to the station where the launching keys were according to Gaeta.

"Come on, Dad," Lee murmured, looking at the DRADIS monitor and waiting for Galactica's dot to show again.

"He's the Old Man, he'll be fine," she said, more trying to convince herself than her husband. Don't you frakking die on us! She screamed to her father-in-law inside her head.

"Sir," the XO said. "Two cylon basestars are coming dangerously close to the fleet. They seem to have detected them."

"Frak," Lee cursed. The fleet had been hiding behind the nebula that caused interference in the DRADIS, hoping not to be found. "Prepare the nukes."

"Commander," Helo said. "The basestars are too far away from each other. We only have time to take down one before it reaches the fleet."

One single basestar could cause a lot of damage, but two could be a lot worse… "Then point the nukes at any of them!" Lee commanded. He turned to his wife. "Tell me you have a backup plan."

"Not unless you find me another battlestar out of nowhere, Lee," she said truthfully. They were frakking doomed…

"Great…" he said sarcastically. "This is just frakking great!"

There was a beeping in the monitors indicated that Galactica had just jumped back. Thank Gods, Kara thought.

"Get me Galactica's actual," Lee told Hoshi. "Fast."

Lee hoped his father's ship was in one piece – they were their only hope to blow up both basestars…

"The Admiral is in line one," Hoshi announced.

Apollo lifted the handset of the phone. "How damaged are you, sir?"

"Not as much as we expected, but we will need a lot of repairing," Adama told his son.

"Do your nukes work?" Lee inquired.

"Yes," the Old Man said.

"Thank Gods," he mumbled. "We need your help…"

Minutes later, both Battlestars pointed their nukes at the basestars and shot, blowing them to pieces. Instead of sending more, the cylon fleet barely moved. Probably planning what to do next, Lee concluded.

A few shuttles with people from New Caprica jumped back to the colonial fleet, but there were still dozens to come…

Now, calculating the Galactica's real damage, it was noticed that its FTL was damaged after the last jump. No FTL, no jumps. No jumps… they might as well be blown up.

"You need to jump away with the fleet when all the shuttles arrive," Adama told his son. "Leave us behind. We'll only hold you back without an FTL."

"No way, Dad," Lee told him. "You'll fix the FTL in no time."

"Not soon enough," the Old Man pointed out. "The cylons will attack first."

"What if they leave instead?" Kara asked. A plan was forming in her head. Piece by piece. It was enough to wipe all the fear she had been feeling. Something never tried before but that might work…

Lee looked at her with a hopeful expression. "What are you thinking?"

"We destroy the resurrection ship," she suggested. "I bet they will freak out if we do it."

"If we point the nukes at the resurrection ship, they will attack immediately," Adama told her. "There's no way we can do that."

"So we won't point to the resurrection ship, we won't even use the nukes," she said naturally. "Plus, check how close they are to each other… An explosion in the right place and domino effect will burn their asses."

"And how do you suggest an explosion in the right place without a nuke?" Lee asked skeptically. Only Kara would come up with a plan like that. Blowing a resurrection ship without nukes was damn impossible…

"This may sound crazy, but have you ever tried to jump a ship into another?" Kara asked. She was actually curious to see how that would work. "My bet is on a big bang."

Lee was staring at her like she was completely crazy. "You're beyond insane!"

"It's not the first time you say that," she pointed out. Yes, it was insane. But it was either that or death.

"And she's usually right," Helo, who had just joined them in the tactical station, added. "It's annoying."

"You listen to him," Kara told her husband, ignoring Helo's last comment. "We could use the ship that is docked to us for reparations. The Demetrius. We plan a temporized jump and undock it. Then, here come the fireworks!"

Lee sighed. His wife was insane but something told him that wouldn't love her that much if she wasn't. He hoped Jamie would be that crazy or she would be a handful… "What do you think, Dad? We give it a shot?"

The admiral didn't respond for a few seconds. He was considering the plans. "Why not?" he finally agreed.

---

Like Kara had predicted, not only the resurrection ship but also the nearby basestars were blown up by Demetrius' jump, which made the cylons start to retreat. Their fleet jumped away and a few heavy raiders that had been stationed on New Caprica followed them in no time.

New Caprica was free, but it didn't mean that the toasters wouldn't come back soon… They needed to leave the planet behind, like they had done with the colonies.

"My gods," Kara mumbled, looking at the DRADIS panel where she could see the red spots disappearing quickly. "What a bunch of cowards…" They were just running away because they couldn't resurrect anymore. They were like humans at that moment…

"They are used to have all the advantage," Lee stated. His hands were still shaking. Gods, that last part of the battle had been intense… "Now that they don't, they leave."

"Lucky us…" she said. If those frakkers were not afraid of fighting in equal conditions, they wouldn't have left. Now, Galactica had time to repair its FTL and almost all the shuttles had arrived.

"Excuse me," Mrs. Ivers, an older woman who worked in Pegasus' daycare center, said, entering the CIC escorted by a marine with a crying Jamie in her arms. "She got scared with the explosion's impact and we can't get her to stop crying. I think she wants you, Captain."

Kara approached the other woman immediately. Now that the adrenaline was going down, the only thing she wanted was to hold her daughter. "It's okay," she replied as the older woman passed her the baby. "I was going to get her now anyway."

"Alright. I'll get going then," Mrs. Ivers replied, turning around to leave.

Starbuck walked around with her crying baby, rocking her in order to calm her down. "It's okay," she said, kissing Jamie's forehead. "Mommy's here. Everything will be fine."

Listening to her mother's voice, Jamie's cries started to ease and, soon, the only evidence that she had been crying were her teary eyes.

Kara felt a hand on her shoulder and immediately knew that it was Lee. "Where do we go from here?" she asked him.

"To Earth," he responded, caressing his daughter's chubby hand. "But for now let's just rest. It was a long day…"

A/N: Crazy, hum? Please, tell me what you think. This was one of the hardest chapters I had to write. I mean, wow! Okay, remember, 10 reviews and you get a preview in my livejournal - link in my profile. Be nice and send feedback.