"Frakking son of a bitch!" Kara cursed, feeling the throbbing in her upper arm. The toaster had actually shot her! She would kill that bastard for it! She bit her lip, keeping herself from giving that bastard the pleasure of hearing her yelling in pain.

Tigh and Sam ran in her direction and kneeled by her side, expecting the worse. To their relief, after checking the wound, they realized it was not that bad, all things considered. She wouldn't have the same fate as Cally.

"It's just a flesh wound," Sam informed her, wrapping shred piece of her jacket around it to stop the bleeding which, thank gods, wasn't too bad. "You'll be fine."

"It doesn't feel fine!" she replied through her teeth in a tone so low only Tigh and sam heard her. What she would give for a one of Cottle's magic pills now…

"Don't complain! You practically dared him to shoot you!" Tigh yelled at her. "Completely insane…"

"This one was just a warning," Leoben told her. "Next time I won't miss the bones and, believe me, it will be a lot more painful."

"Frak you!" she yelled at him.

Suddenly, the light that had been surrounding D'Anna disappeared and she fell to the floor, her nose bleeding. Leoben's attention immediately turned to his 'sister' and he didn't see the Chief picking his gun up from the floor and pointing it at him, shooting him on the head with no hesitation.

There was no doubt the toaster was dead, judging by the mess. Kara couldn't be more relieved, though she was disappointed she hadn't been the one pulling the trigger.

"That felt good," Chief simply said, his voice cold as a block of ice.

Ellen approached her husband with Tory. "Don't you think we should get going? I don't want to stay in this place one more second…"

"I vote yes," Kara said, getting up with Tigh's help. "I hope that frakking raptor has morpha…"

"We can't just leave," Tigh announced. "There might be a few more toasters outside."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Tory inquired in frustration. She was sick of staying there.

"Anders and I will search the perimeter; and see if the coast is clear," Tigh stated. "You stay inside and wait."

---

"Pegasus, Athena. I just jumped successfully into the planet's atmosphere," she communicated. "The place seems to be clear of cylons. I'll go directly to the temple. Kat and Racetrack will be searching for people in the mountains."

"Pegasus here," her husband's voice replied. "Understood. Time is counting. You need to be back in thirty minutes tops."

"I will," she promised.

"Kat here," the other pilot said through the comms. "I see a group of civilians on the mountains. Racetrack and I will take care of them."

"Roger that, Kat," Sharon responded, her attention now turned to a massive building about a mile away. The temple… It took her seconds to reach it and she immediately saw Anders and Tigh right outside of it. "Thank god," she murmured. Seeing them alive was a relief.

The landing was smooth and she hurried out of the raptor to see the two men waiting right outside.

"Frak, we thought you were never coming!" Tigh told her.

"We need to hurry," she said. "This system's star is about to turn into a supernova. How many of you are there?"

"Six, counting with us," Sam told her. "Seven with Cally. She's dead…"

"Frak," Sharon cursed. She wasn't particularly friendly with Cally Tyrol but her death still unsettled her. Poor Chief.

Tigh nodded. "I'm going to get everyone," he said before entering the temple.

"Did you have much trouble?" Sharon asked Sam.

He nodded. "A lot of gunfire with the centurions and Cally ended up being hit. Then Leoben and D'Anna came with two centurion bodyguards. That bitch is nuts."

"D'Anna?" she asked and he nodded. "Tell me about it," she murmured.

"Then some light came, blew up the centurions and put her into some sort of trance," Sam continued. He wasn't able to finish as Ellen, Tory and Kara exited the temple.

Kara was still cursing under her breath in pain.

"What happened to your arm?" Sharon inquired Starbuck.

"Leoben shot me," Kara said through her teeth as she climbed up the raptor right after Ellen and Tory. "Tell me you have a med-kit with morpha. This stings like a motherfrakker."

"I do," Athena confirmed and joined Kara inside the raptor. "Let me help you with that."

Sam stood outside, waiting for the others. What was taking them so long? He knew the answer when he saw the Chief walking out with his wife's dead body. Sam didn't say a word as he entered the raptor and placed her in there. Frak, he couldn't even imagine the sensation. He would go insane if that was Erin. He assumed the Chief wanted to give her a decent funeral, at least…

Tigh, however, surprised him by exiting the temple carrying D'Anna.

"What the frak?" Sam said in disbelief.

"She's still alive," the colonel said. "She'll just die and download again if she stays here. Will be a lot more useful in one of Galactica's cells. We'll take all the information we can. I want to know what the frak that light was."

"Won't that be too much for the raptor to carry?" he asked.

"Nah, a raptor can take up to ten people. There are nine of us. We'll be fine," he said.

"We need to go!" Sharon shouted from inside the raptor.

Sam looked one last time for that hell of a planet. Thank gods he didn't have to step foot in it ever again…

---

Lee sped to the Hangar Bay moments after he fleet had jumped out of the dying system – right after Athena had landed the raptor in Pegasus. Frak, he hoped Kara was in there. Kat and Racetrack, who were already in Galactica, had told him she hadn't been brought by them.

In the moment he stepped into the hangar, he saw her and breathed in relief. She was alive. He thanked the gods over and over as he ran in her direction and enveloped her in a tight hug that made her flinch.

"Ouch. Watch the arm, flyboy," she told him.

The arm? He took one step back and it was only then that he saw the shred piece of bloodstained fabric wrapped around it. "Frak, Kara, what happened?"

"Leoben. The frakker shot me," she told him. "It's just a flesh wound, though."

"We tried to bring her back as unharmed as we could," Sam assured him, stepping out of the raptor. "But it's Kara. I think that says everything."

She groaned and glared at Sam. "Get lost, Anders."

"Gladly," he told her, walking away.

Lee was still shaking his head in disbelief. "I leave you alone for one day and you get yourself shot."

"Shut up," she told him tetchily.

"Come on. Let's take you to the life station," he told her in a patient tone.

---

Erin's cabin was silent as a tomb. Nate had eventually fallen asleep and been put to bed. She wished she could do the same – sleeping. But the worry was too much.

She wouldn't be able to raise another child by herself. Not, knowing that she had kept Nate from him during years. Nate… She didn't want her little boy to grow up without his dad. He had just found out he had one…

The knocking on the hatch startled he – thankfully, Nate slept like the dead. Couldn't people just leave her alone? She cursed as she got up and approached the hatch but when she opened she felt like her heart was going to jump out of her chest. It was Sam.

"Thank gods," she murmured before throwing herself at him.

He caught her in a natural move and let her sob against his chest in relief. He kept mumbling calming expressions like "It's okay" or "I'm fine" and his hand roamed on her back softly. They stood like that, at the doorway, for minutes and until he kissed her forehead and took one step forward, closing the hatch behind him.

"Where's Nate?" he asked in a whisper as they sat on the sofa.

"Sleeping in my room," she said, her head now leaning against his shoulder. "Gods, Sam, I thought I was never going to see you again."

"Me too," he confessed. "I swear to gods I'm never going to leave like that. I'm never going to leave you."

"You'd better not," she warned him, straightening up so she was looking him right in the eyes.

Sam smiled at her and pulled her closer so their lips would meet. Finally, he thought. Finally they were kissing with no hate, no pain, no… well, they had forgiven each other. And that felt just like it had years ago when they were engaged – like heaven…

Their lips broke apart and she sighed with her eyes closed. "I told Nate," she whispered, opening her eyes. "I didn't want you to die without him knowing you were his father, so I told him."

One of his hands cupped her cheek. His chest was heavy with the nervousness. His son knew. That made the whole thing official – he was a father. "How did he react?"

She smiled at him. "Like his birthday had came earlier this year. He wanted to know if you were moving in."

"Hum, what did you tell him?"

"That we would see," she told him. "So, are you? Moving in?"

"Depends," he replied, his voice daring. "Are you marrying me?"

She froze and looked down at him. "Are you proposing?" she asked in disbelief.

"That's the idea," he stated. "I know the last time was far more romantic with me doing it after the team won the Colonial Pyramid Championship and the ring but I was hoping you'd say yes anyway…"

"Sam… I," she started. She had to tell him. Now, damn it! She ordered herself. "I'm pregnant."

Now, Sam was the one to who froze. Had she just told him she was pregnant? "Wh… what?"

"I'm having your child, Sam. Again. Just thought you should know because I'm saying 'yes' to your proposal," she told him. He sat silent, just looking at her. "Say something, you ass!" she demanded.

He didn't say a word. Instead, Sam cupped her face and kissed her again. Her cheeks, her nose, her lips. "I love you. I frakking love you, woman!"

"I take it you're happy," she stated with a smile on her face. She had him back. For good.

"You have no idea…" he replied, touching her stomach. "Am I crazy to be eager for some diaper changing?"

She laughed heartedly.

---

"No heavy lifting," Talbot reminded her after patching up Kara's arm. "No flying. No taking all the happy pills at once. No ignoring the doctor. No asking my intern to convince me to let you off the hook earlier…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Kara said in annoyance as she got up from the examining table. "What's next? No frakking?"

Lee bit his lip and covered his face in embarrassment. It was good to have Kara back but her outbursts were still as mortificating as ever…

Talbot shrugged his shoulders. "As long as you don't get creative, frakking will be just fine. Come back tomorrow to change the wound's dressing."

"Fine," she huffed. "Can I go now?"

The doctor waved at the door, telling her she was free to go and Lee followed her out. He couldn't help noticing the way she was acting – too irritable and getting worse by the second.

"Kara, what's wrong? Does that have something to do with what happened on the planet?" he inquired when they entered their quarters.

She was silent for a minute and just kept walking. But it didn't take her long to realize there was no use refusing to tell him. He knew her too well. "Leoben knew I had been pregnant," she said. Lee gasped – the frakker knew about his daughter? "And that scared me shitless. So I lied. I told him the baby was a boy and was dead. I… I can't believe I did that to Jamie…"

"Did what to Jamie?" he asked her in disbelief. She was trying to keep their daughter safe. Couldn't she understand that?

"I said she was dead!" she shouted. "What kind of mother says something like that about her child?"

"The kind of mother who would do anything to keep her baby away from harm," Lee shouted back. "Being a parent involves making tough decisions. Jamie wasn't harmed in the slightest by what you told Leoben. At the very least, she is safe. So don't you hate yourself for protecting her. I would have done the same if I was in the same situation."

She looked at him for a few moments. Maybe he was right… "It still sucks," she said.

"Now, you're just being stubborn," he told her with a smile, crossing his arms against his chest.

She lounged on the sofa. "What if I am?" she said.

He shook his head. "Tell you what, I'll get Jamie. If she throws a tantrum when she sees you, you can keep the long face. If not, we'll test Talbot's theory about frakking as soon as she falls asleep."

She looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "What makes you think I won't keep the long face anyway?"

"I know you too well," he said, before leaving to the daycare.

She was silent for a few moments after he closed the door. Then, the corners of her lips turned into a smile. "You're on."

A/N: Surprise, surprise. It's early. As I got so many reviews asking for clemency, I decided to post today. Only two (or three) chapters left plus the epilogue. Hope you liked this one. Remeber: 10 reviews will get you a preview in my livejournal (link in my profile). See ya.