Twelve days later:

Even though the fleet's internal clocks indicated that it was still early in the morning, the sun was high in the algae planet. Sam hated the stupid planet – it was, first of all, too hot; second, it freaked him out, especially since Chief Tyrol had found some old temple he believed to be the legendary Temple of Five built by the thirteenth tribe 4000 years earlier.

Entering one of the raptors intended for the communications, Sam occupied the ECO seat and worked on contacting Pegasus – he was hoping to talk to Nate before he went to daycare. He waited to hear a sound in the other end of the line, just leaning against his seat and thinking he still had two days down there. The past twelve days had been hell…

"Hello?" he heard a familiar tired voice. As down as Erin might sound, she still made his heart thump faster…

"Hey, it's me," Sam said.

"Sam," she said – her tone sounded like a whisper. "How are things going down there?"

"Good," he responded shortly. "What about up there?"

"The same," she replied, her voice shaky. "You want to talk to Nate?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'm gonna get him."

That was how things had been for the past weeks – he would call and they would make some kind of awkward small talk. The last time they had talked face to face hadn't been great either, with her breaking down in tears right in front of him. Didn't sound like them at all… He missed the old times when they were just desperate to hear each other's voice instead of wanting to speed up the conversation to an end.

"Sam!" Nate yelled through the phone.

Sam smiled at the eagerness in his son's voice. "Hey, buddy. How's it going?"

"I saw animals today!" the little boy said enthusiastically. "Mommy took me to a ship that was full of them."

The zoo cruise, Sam concluded. "So which ones did you like the most?"

The line was silent for the moment and Sam guessed Nate was probably thinking. "The bears; they were huge!"

Sam smiled at his son's excitement. He couldn't wait to see the little boy again. "They are, aren't they? But you might not want to get too close to them or you might lose an arm."

"Mommy told me that too," he pointed out. "She said one of the monkeys looked like me."

"Hum, I've got to see that," Sam said. The little mentions to Erin made him sigh. He missed her. "How's your mom doing?"

"Mommy's sick," his son told him. "She's always throwing up and says it's a bug."

Erin got a stomach bug? That has to suck… Sam thought.

"She tries to smile all the time around me but I know she's sad," Nate continued in an upset voice.

He sighed. So Erin was just as down as he was… and their son was upset because of that…

"I'm gonna tell you something but don't tell anyone, okay?" the little boy asked, lowering his voice.

"Sure, Buddy. What is it?"

"I think Mommy's sad because she misses you," Nate told his father.

That one made Sam's heart break. Gods, why did knowing she was sad have to hurt so much? She had made him miserable for years when she had left unknowingly carrying his child…

"When are you comin' back?" Nate inquired.

"It's just two more days, Kid. I'll be back before you know it," he promised. A decision formed in his head and he gulped. "Tell your mum I miss her too, okay?"

"'Kay," his son said.

"I have to go now, okay?" Sam told him. "Take care of her for me."

"I will. Bye," the little boy said and the line was turned off.

He put the handset back on its place and just sat looking at the ship's ceiling. That time away had allowed him to think of things. He knew a big part of him was still mad at Erin but she was the love of his life – there was no way around it. They had a son, they loved each other and she had done a mistake. A bad one. But she was sorry. And for all that he had decided to give them a shot when he returned…

He just hoped things would turn out well this time around.

---

Erin sat on the bathroom floor after being sick again, thanking the gods for giving her a break long enough to answer Sam's call and to make another to Kara, asking her to take Nate to daycare on her way to drop Jamie there.

She hadn't been that sick when she was carrying Nate. Hell, the whole pregnancy had been great until she fell down the stairs, almost lost her son and was close to die from a placental abruption… Something like that happening again was what scared her the most this time. Gods knew she might not be that lucky if it did…

Outside the bathroom, the hatch opened and closed – she had left it unlocked for Kara to come in. Erin took one deep breath, refusing to be sick again as her friend entered the tiny division, holding little Jamie, who was currently chewing her fist.

"Frak, you look like hell," Starbuck told her.

"Thanks," she said sarcastically. "Glad to know you think so…"

"Let me guess, the algae messed with your stomach," Kara continued. "I keep telling Lee that crap's going to get us killed someday…"

Erin laughed as she got up from the floor. Algae… if only it was that simple. "It's not the algae," she informed her friend. "I'm pregnant."

Kara opened and closed her mouth several times. If she had ever thought her relationship with Lee was kind of messed up, it was clear she hadn't met those two yet. One kid, another on the way and they weren't even together… "Sammy scores again," she mumbled.

"Well, he does have the ability of knocking me up in the most inconvenient times…" Erin agreed, washing her face with cold water.

"When are you gonna tell him?" Kara asked, seriously hoping Erin was planning on doing it this time. She really didn't feel like lying to Sam, now that the two were friendly again.

The intern sighed, looking at the mirror. "When he comes back from the planet. I can't tell him something like this by the phone," Erin stated. "Frak, I should have told him earlier. I found out the day before he left but I chickened out!"

"Hey, don't patronize yourself. I didn't tell Lee right away when I suspected I might be pregnant," Kara told her, adjusting Jamie, who was now distracting herself by playing with her mother's hair. "It's sort of overwhelming. You need time to get used to the idea."

"Well, but you don't have a history of hiding your kid from his father," she told her, feeling guiltier than ever. And she had done it again. "Just… is it okay if you drop Nate in daycare for me? I called in sick today. I'm not feeling so well this morning."

Kara nodded. "It's fine. Sickness really is a bitch," she agreed. "I'm going down to the planet today to deliver then processed food. Want me to give him a hint?"

Erin shook her head. "Just say 'hi' for me, okay?"

"I will," she promised, opening the bathroom's door again. "Good luck with… you know, being sick."

The intern laughed as Kara exited the room with Jamie. Nate came to tell her goodbye a few minutes later and also left, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

She put one hand on her stomach and sighed. How was it possible that she loved so much that baby growing inside of her already and the whole pregnancy thing still felt unreal to her. She hoped Sam would be as good with that baby as he was with Nate. She needed him. Gods, she really wanted some peace…

---

A couple of hours later, Kara had just landed her raptor on the planet. Creepy, desert-like place, was the first thing she thought, looking at the landscape. It was just as unpleasant as Sam had described it in his first report…

"Pegasus, this is Starbuck. Just landed on the planet with no problems," she communicated through the wireless.

"Copy that, Starbuck," Hoshi's voice responded. "Hold a minute, the commander wants to give you a word in private."

She waited a while, wondering what Lee wanted to say from the CIC in private.

"We really need to name that stupid planet," Lee's voice said through the comms. "Helo suggests 'Algaeland'. Gives it a bit of charm."

"I think 'Hellmouth' would be more appropriate," she pointed out. "But tell me, Lee, did you request a private line just so you could crack a joke?" Kara asked in a mock-disbelief tone. "Well, well, flyboy, I've corrupted you. First flying with me against regulations, now violating the communications protocol. I'm proud."

She could hear him laugh at the other end of the line. "Actually, I needed to tell you that Roslin just called, asking if you could go that temple Chief Tyrol found and check it," he informed her. "She's sent Tory Foster to do it for her but she wants someone familiar with the scriptures to be there. My dad is sent Tigh there too…"

"What, now my donut run turned into a frakking field trip?"

"Seems like it, but hopefully it will be a short one… What are the odds of that place actually being the Temple of Five?" Lee told her.

She shook her head – one of her husband's biggest faults, in Kara's book, was not being a believer… "According to the Chief, the odds are pretty high." Suddenly, there was a sound of banging on the raptor's hatch. "Well, I've got company. Gotta go."

"Okay. Love you," he told her.

"Love you too," she responded, before turning the communications off and proceeding on leaving the cockpit and opening the hatch. Sam was just outside waiting for her. "Well, well, if it isn't Sammy, the leader of the farmers," Kara joked. "How's the harvest?"

"Pretty good, we're practically packing the stuff to leave," he told her. "Frak, I need to go back up there and have a decent shower. We have this minimal ship here serving as the latrines. I can tell for sure that the Caprican sewers were cleaner than that…"

Starbuck laughed. "Well, I can tell you that you're missed up there," she replied. "Erin says 'hi'."

Just two days, he reminded himself. Two days from seeing Erin and Nate again. "I talked to her and Nate this morning by the phone. Nate told me she had some sort of stomach bug…"

Kara had to bite her lip to keep herself from laughing. Stomach bug… "I guess you can say that," she told him. She wasn't really lying from a certain point of view… "But I'm sure it will pass. It may take a while, but I'm positive it will."

Sam nodded absently, relieved she would be alright. "We should go get a few guys to get the food from the raptor. I was thinking we could start loading some things in your raptor. We won't need anymore, so you could take them back to the fleet."

"Sure," she agreed. "But I need to pay a visit to that temple the Chief found. Apparently, Madam Pres is sponsoring an expedition there…"

"Oh, I know. Her aide and Colonel Tigh are down on our base waiting for you," Sam said, apparently not please by that fact. "And just so you have a warning, Tigh brought his wife too. Apparently, she wanted to 'enjoy the view'. The damn woman keeps hitting on me right under his nose."

Kara's mind flash backed to a conversation she had had with Ellen Tigh back on New Caprica, during which the other woman had confessed to have a thing for ball players. She had even seemed particularly interested in Sam… Back then, it had been sort of awkward. Now it was simply comical. "I pity you, Sammy. I really do," she told him with a laugh. "Last time she tried it with Lee, I had to threaten her with bodily harm so she would stop… Mrs. Tigh is a fiery one."

He gulped. "Well, better keep my gun loaded…"

She snorted and they walked to the planet base, completely unaware of what was happening up in the fleet at that moment…

---

"Apollo, we've got something in DRADIS," Helo announced, narrowing his eyes at the monitors.

Suddenly, all the unknown spots there turned red. "Frak, it's a cylon fleet!" Lee cursed. "Launch the alert fighters. Keep them away from the planet!"

Helo grabbed the handset of the phone and started shouting orders at someone in the Hangar Bay as Lee simply stared at the monitor. The whole thing was turning into another New Caprica. And this time Kara was down there…

A/N: I know I was supposed to post yerterday but my boyfriend's parents had an accident in the highway and things were a little complicated... They are alright though. His mother just broke her arm, his father got out unharmed. The car, on the other hand, is pretty much ruined. Anyway, I managed to post this chapter now. Hope you like it. Let's just say this is the beginning of the 'final confrontation' in this fic. Remember: 10 reviews will get you a preview in my livejournal, as always.