Fast note: I have a publisher interested in my original Young Adult manuscript, Dragon Summer, which I still need to complete. So, if my postings get a bit irregular on my various stories, please, don't despair. I will get back to them. For example, this chapter was written during my lunch breaks at work this week.

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Dragonlots aka Dana Bell

Chapter 7

Once back in his quarters, Barnabas had time to think over the implications of his cousin surviving whatever had happened down on the planet. The most obvious scenario was that the Colonials had overthrown their Cylon captors and had once again escaped into space. However, from the reports he'd been allowed to study in private, they had done so with a tremendous cost of life, including most of the SG team.

He had no doubt most of the specialists had stayed behind to make certain as many of the Colonials survived as possible. That was part of their training. Barnabas was sorry Jessica had been assigned to the team so late that she hadn't had the benefit of the same.

Angrily he tossed his cane aside. It clattered against the wall and fell to the floor.

Jessica's upbringing had been far from ideal. He still remembered the day Roger had bought the infant home. The senator had been about to leave for his first term in office when his cousin had introduced the baby.

Autumn had been early that year. The many trees had turned their bright orange, yellow, and red their leaves littering the normally neatly kept grounds. He'd come for a good bye dinner his matronly cousin, Elizabeth Stoddard, had arranged in his honor. They'd gathered in the drawing room, the fireplace casting flickering shadows on the papered walls.

Elizabeth had sat in an antique chair he'd recognized as being one his own father had bought in France and shipped to America as a gift for Naomi, his wife and Barnabas' mother. How his modern cousin so reminded him of her! Elizabeth's silver hair was piled on her head and she wore a long gown of black velvet. The edges draped on the floor covered by a Persian rug.

Her daughter, Carolyn, stood in the corner with her latest boyfriend. She played with a bit of her blonde hair, winding it around and around her finger, as she flirted with the man. Her tight fitting fashionable clothes accented her curves and he found he was again grateful to the late Dr. Hoffman for wiping all memory of his vampire attacks from the young woman's mind. She'd almost exposed him and destroyed the new life be was hoping to have.

Unfortunately, the woman he'd hoped to have that new life with, Victoria Winters, had left Collinwood a few months after her sojourn to the seventeen nineties. With the Collins' help she'd secured a position with a family in the Boston area and had written only a few letters after leaving.

His acute hearing had heard the door open and he'd felt the faint chilly draft that had accompanied it. Roger joined them, carrying a small bundle in his arms, wrapped in a bright pink receiving blanket. His sharp face had carried a proud smile.

"Roger?" Elizabeth had stood and gazed puzzled at her brother.

"This is my daughter Jessica." He'd carefully extended the infant for his sister to see.

"And her mother is?"

"Dead." A dark shadow had passed over the man's features.

"Sure it's yours?" Carolyn had a way of saying things that seemed always to mock.

"Yes." Roger pulled the child against him protectively.

There had been no more questions that night and Roger's word had been accepted as truth. Barnabas had learned later from the information gathered by a private detective, that Maggie Evans had been the mother.

In and of itself, that information would not have been troubling. Yet he knew Maggie had had 'second sight' and feared that Jessica had inherited her mother's gift. His suspicions had been confirmed when the girl had turned sixteen. Her gift was not quite like her mother's fortunately, but it had caused some unexpected problems he'd had to deal with.

Like the incident during her eighteenth birthday. He quickly turned away from the memory. It was not something he was proud of and he hated what had happened.

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Starbuck woke drenched in sweat. She pushed away from her husband's warm body and stared around her cramped quarters on the Demetrius. Above her head she'd painted images in wild colors depicting a scene she'd dreamed about as a child. Whether they showed the past or the future, she didn't know. Kara only knew she'd been to Earth and had to find the way back.

"What's the matter?" Sam murmured, turning so his concerned eyes gazed into her face.

"I have to find the way to Earth."

"You will." His finger traced the outline of her cheek. "I know you will."

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"The Deadalus is late," John Sheppard said as he entered Carter's office. He noted the packed boxes as his eyes scanned the now bare walls before they settled on the woman sitting behind the desk. Various items were neatly stacked next to an open box.

"I got a message from Daniel. They stopped to check on that colony that was discovered." Her face held a sad expression.

"Something's wrong?"

"Very wrong."

John grabbed a chair and pulled it close to the desk. "What happened?"

Quickly she filled him in on the details she knew. John glanced at the floor. Originally Katie Brown had been assigned to the scientific team, but at the last minute, she'd been pulled. He'd have to make a point of telling McKay, even if the two weren't seeing each other any more.

He pointed with his chin at the box on the table. "All packed I see."

Sam laughed nervously. "Yeah."

"We're gonna miss you."

"Well," she stood up and put the remaining items in the box. "Kind of hard to be married and live light years apart."

"General O'Neill could come here."

She shook her head. "He wants to live in his cabin and fish in his pond. We're living close enough I can still work at the SGC lab." Sam touched her belly. "Besides, Atlantis is no place to raise a child."

"I think Teyla would disagree with you."

"Teyla lives here." Carter closed the flaps on the box. With a teasing look she added, "When are you two going to give up and get together?"

Sheppard made a face. "Why does everyone assume that?"

"Because we're not blind."

Groaning, John got up and put his chair back where he'd found it. "Did Jackson say when the Deadalus would arrive?"

"Sorry. No."

"Guess that means we're stuck with you for a bit longer."

"Don't say that like's a bad thing." A smile touched her lips.

He grinned. "Never."

"I still don't know who will be taking my place."

"Knowing the IOA probably some bean counter who'll be afraid of his or her own shadow."

Sam sighed. "Problem is," she lifted the box and added it to the growing stack. "I'm afraid you might be right."

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"She's lying," Roslin told Bill after their Earth guest had left.

"I got that." Adama put his empty cup down on the floor and sat back.

"Whatever she's hiding," Laura stared at her fingernails. They were brittle and tended to break easily. She put her hands in her lap before continuing. "I don't know if it's good or bad for us. I suspect the latter."

"Maybe it's something that only affects her."

"Maybe. Or maybe not." Her eyes held Adama's. "Find out."

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Jessica didn't relax until she was inside her quarters and the door safely closed. Taking a deep breath she sat on the bed and tried to calm her pounding heart by pressing her sharp fingernails into her palms. The pain of breaking skin distracted her and seemed to calm her fear.

Even the Colonials had a mythos about what she and her cousin were. Not that she was like Barnabas exactly, but there were stories, even back on Earth. She'd even seen a movie or two loosely based on the idea. The reality was far different than creative conjecture.

Finally she uncurled her hands and stared at the bleeding imprints on her hands. They zipped closed leaving no indication she'd injured herself. There also wouldn't be any scars.

"I don't know whether to thank you or curse you, Barnabas."

She got off the bed and poured herself some water. Sipping the tepid liquid she paced the small enclosure. There were a number of side effects from what he'd done. Some she'd discovered, others she was still finding out about. Not to mention the talents she'd inherited from her mother. A mother who had died in childbirth and she'd never known.

"At least I don't look like her."

Her father had told her she looked more like a Collins than an Evans. For some reason, that seemed to be a relief to him. Jessica had never been able to figure out why. It wasn't like her grandfather, Sam, hadn't known. He'd doted on her until he'd died about five years ago. She missed him and his unconditional love. He'd also told her stories about her mother, something her father had been unwilling to do.

Jessica put her now empty glass down. She didn't even want to remember how her half- brother David had treated her. After he tried to burn her in her crib, her father had given up and shipped the boy to some special camp in Texas that specialized in problem children. It must have worked since there had been no more incidents when he returned to Collinwood a few years later.

In fact, David had become the model son and took an interest in the family business. Her father had been pleased. So pleased that David's position as the new master of Collinwood was assured upon her father's death. She could live there of course, her so called brother couldn't deny her that, but she knew he still resented her and would make her life a living nightmare.

Her cousin Carolyn on the other hand, had adored her. Jessica had enjoyed being the favored child in David's absence by her father and her Aunt Elizabeth. Cousin Barnabas had been a mysterious absent relative she'd known only through occasional family dinners and newspaper articles.

When David had returned and taken her father away from her, she'd been lonely. Barnabas' kind attention on one of his breaks from the senate had filled a void in her life. Attention she now wished she'd ignored, especially on her eighteenth birthday.

Abruptly she shut down her train of thought. Jessica didn't want to remember what had happened. It changed her whole life and she still didn't know if it was good or bad.