Chapter 15

Plague

The flu epidemic that ravaged the large refugee camp near Antioch took the lives of an estimated thirty thousand people, nearly a sixth of the camp's occupants. A large percentage of those who died were children, especially infants, and the elderly. Healthy adults who died usually succumbed to swiftly-killing secondary infections, mostly respiratory in nature that could have been cured by antibiotics. At that time all medicines were in short supply due to the destruction of the Colony's large pharmaceutical manufacturing plants near Sovana. The two smaller plants near Delphi were not able to keep up with the demand.

-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War

.

During the weeks following the afternoon that Karl caught Kara with Hugh Connelly, Karl wouldn't let her out of his sight. He insisted that she go with him when he went to play soccer with his friends, and after watching for about fifteen minutes the first day, she got in there with them. They never had a full team and often lost, but it was better than sitting on the sidelines watching them get beat.

She still thought about Connelly a lot. She knew that she could tell Karl to leave her alone and he probably would, but she didn't want to do that. They'd stuck together through too much. And he was right. Hugh Connelly was too old for her. Karl was just trying to protect her.

She was still determined to one day explain their situation to Connelly. She felt like she owed him that much. And she owed him an apology for lying about her age. She had finally been able to understand his anger.

Playing soccer every day meant a trip to the showers afterward, and that, at least, was one place that Karl couldn't follow her. She was coming out of the women's shower building with her dirty clothes bundled under her arm one afternoon when someone behind her spoke.

"Hey, Kara. I thought you'd left the camp or something. I haven't seen you in like a long time."

Kara turned. If the girl's hair hadn't been tucked behind one ear and the six earrings visible, Kara would never have recognized Carrie Warner. The dyed black hair had been cut off, the brown hair shaped into a cute chin-length bob. The dark eyeliner rings around her eyes were gone, too, as was the safety pin in her eyebrow, but she still wore the diamond stud in the side of her nose and the bright blue fingernail polish.

"Hi, Carrie."

"I'm on my way to see my new boyfriend. Come on. Go with me. His mom cut my hair. You really need a haircut. Have you been cutting it yourself?"

Kara shrugged. "Me and my brother."

Carrie rolled her eyes. "I can tell. Jared's mom is really good. She used to be a beautician. I mean like I guess she still is."

"I can't pay her," Kara said.

Carrie laughed. "I'm sure she'll take pity on you and do it for free. I can't pay her either."

Carrie's new boyfriend, Jared Daniels, was a shy eighteen-year-old, who wore glasses. He had dark hair and was a few inches shorter than Karl, but Kara thought he was really cute in a nerdy-looking way. He reminded her of a guy in her math class who had always aced his tests. Jared and Carrie didn't seem to go together, but he appeared to be really hung up on her.

When his mother saw Kara, she said, "Lords of Kobol, child, come here."

She sat Kara on a plastic chair outside their tent, put a towel around her shoulders, grabbed her scissors and started trimming. When she was through, Kara had a layered haircut that curved into her cheekbones. When Jared's mother handed her a small mirror, she was surprised at the difference it made in her appearance. Her hair was short, but she looked like a girl with the soft layers.

She saw Jared glance at her once as he and Carrie talked. She recognized the approval in his eyes. Kara looked away. Something about him at that moment made her think of Hugh Connelly. It was probably his blue eyes.

Later as she and Carrie walked back to D-sector, Carrie asked her if she had a boyfriend yet.

"No. I like a guy but he's too old for me, and anyway I don't know where he lives."

"Like how old?" Carrie asked.

"Twenty-five."

"He wants to do it with you?"

"He did until Karl told him I was fourteen. That really freaked him out."

"I'll bet you're like still a virgin, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Then stay away from him or you won't be."

"I still need to find him and apologize to him for something."

"Go ask up in the admin tent."

"Where's that?"

"You know. At the entrance. Ask them where he's staying. You do know his name, don't you?"

"Yeah. I never thought about that. I'll go first thing in the morning."

"Duh, make that old ho-bag like earn her keep. If he's hot, though, keep him away from her or she'll like be hitting on him."

Kara felt herself blush. "He kissed me. He really knows how to kiss."

"Lucky you. Jared kisses me, too. He didn't know much when we got started, but I taught him. He's smart. He learned quick. We do more than just kiss now. Like tonight after his mom's asleep, he'll sneak out. We have a place that we meet."

"Aren't you worried about, you know, getting pregnant?"

"Duh. I went to the med tent and got a patch."

"A patch?"

"Gods, Kara, you don't know anything. A birth control patch. There's like a nice doctor in the Med tent. He'll give anybody one who wants it. They don't want any more little mouths to feed. I heard that if you get knocked up and don't want it, they'll get rid of it for you but who wants to go through something like that."

Kara was horrified. "How?"

"Like there's a pill if you find out before six weeks. After that it's an abortion unless you wait too long. Then you're like stuck with having it."

Kara had heard the term abortion but wasn't sure exactly what it entailed. She didn't want to show her lack of knowledge to Carrie again, though.

Instead she said, "There's still women in the camp who are pregnant. I've seen them."

"They're stupid. Who wants to drag a rug-rat around all the time, especially in this dump? Gods, what a place to raise a kid. If you and your guy decide to do it, you'd better go get a patch first."

...

Early the next morning before Karl got up, Kara walked all the way up to the admin tent. From where they were, it was over a mile, closer to two. There were only two people inside. A woman was sitting behind a metal desk near the front. At least Kara thought she was a woman. She looked like a guy, too. Kara had one time heard a word that described people that looked like both. It wasn't android, but it was something like it. Later Hugh Connelly told her the word she was looking for was androgynous. He knew exactly who she was talking about.

Kara wondered if this was the one that Carrie referred to as the old ho-bag. She really wasn't all that old…maybe thirty…maybe even younger. Kara had never been good at guessing people's ages.

The woman looked up from the paperback book she was reading. It looked like one of the romance novels that Karl's mom had liked to read. She had to be a woman because Kara knew that guys didn't read those kinds of books.

"Can I help you with something?"

"I'm looking for somebody."

"Aren't we all?"

The woman was staring at her in a way that gave her the creeps. Maybe she was one of those women Karl had told her about who liked other women. Finally the woman asked, "Does your father have green eyes?"

Her question was so unexpected that Kara just stared back at her. After a long time she said, "My father's dead."

"When?"

"A long time ago."

"So who are you looking for?"

"A guy."

"This guy have a name?"

"Hugh Connelly."

"Any why do you want to find Mr. Connelly?"

"We had a misunderstanding. I need to talk to him."

"What kind of misunderstanding?"

"That's none of your business." Kara was starting to get annoyed. "What's with all the questions? Are you going to tell me where he is or not?"

"You take that attitude and I'm not going to tell you anything."

Behind Kara a man said, "Is there a problem here?"

Kara turned around and saw a tall, grubby-looking man with sandy brown hair.

"Oh, good morning, Leoben," the woman said. Her tone of voice changed completely. It sounded sugary sweet as she greeted him.

The man was staring at Kara in a way that gave her the creeps, too. She turned back around so she wouldn't have to look at him. At least the woman wasn't staring just at her anymore. She was looking back and forth between her and Leoben.

Kara was starting to lose patience. "Is there something weird about the way I look this morning? What's wrong with you people? Just what the frak do I need to do to find out where somebody is staying? Either you can help me or you can't. What's it going to be?"

"Are you sure you're father's dead?" the woman asked her. "The reason I'm asking is…"

"Damned sure," Kara snapped at her. "You think I wouldn't know something like that? I even know who killed him and when."

"Take it easy," the man said. "What's this person's name you're looking for?"

Kara repeated, "Hugh Connelly."

The man went behind the desk, pulled the computer over and keyed something. She saw him hit the Page Down key a couple of times. "E-sector, tent 233."

"Thank you," Kara said sweetly to Leoben. "That's all I wanted to know."

She looked at the woman and gave her what she knew was a smart-ass smile. She got a go-to-Hades look in return.

Leoben walked out of the tent with Kara. "You know where E-sector is?"

"I can find it."

"I'll be glad to show you."

"Thanks, but I said I can find it.

"Come back if you need directions."

"I'm sure my brother knows where it is. He has some friends in E-sector."

She kept walking. Thankfully Leoben didn't follow. The last thing she wanted was Karl to see her with another older guy. Leoben was a lot older than Connelly. He was probably as old as her father, maybe older.

She waited until the next morning, got up early again and picked a few yellow wildflowers from along the perimeter fence. She found Connelly's tent without any trouble. She decided that the flowers didn't mean anything except that she was sorry she had lied about her age.

Standing outside, she called his name several times, but there was no answer.

"He's gone to get breakfast right now," the old man sitting outside the next tent said. He was sitting on what looked like an overturned bucket, and he was leaning on a cane. "He always brings something back for me because I can't walk that far now."

Kara went inside, laid the flowers on Connelly's cot and hurried back out.

That afternoon he came to where they were playing soccer. Karl didn't like it, but he didn't make a scene as Connelly walked with her back to the tent.

"You brought the flowers?"

"Yeah."

"Won't that make your boyfriend angry?"

"He's not my boyfriend. He's not my brother either, but he's been my best friend since I was eight years old. He's like a brother. And I brought the flowers to say I'm sorry for lying to you about my age. Karl and I have been looking after each other since the Cylons destroyed Picon and my dad flew us here and a man named Zarek killed him and then we stayed for months in a little house where an old couple lived who had killed themselves. It's really a long story."

They walked for a while in silence. Karl wasn't right behind them, but he was close enough that he could watch them.

"Start over, Kara," Connelly finally said, "and tell me everything."

She was still talking when they got back to the tent, and to keep Karl from freaking out, they stood outside until she finished.

"If you don't believe me, ask Karl," she finally said. "Everything I've just told you is the truth."

"I believe you. Not many kids would have survived what you two just did. I'm impressed."

She shrugged. "We did what we had to do."

"Had anyone even kissed you or touched you before I did?"

She looked down and shook her head.

"I should have realized it then, but I wasn't quite myself at the time. I would never have done anything like that if I'd known you were so young. No wonder your friend was ready to kick my ass."

"He's just doing what my dad asked him to. My dad…he really loved me. To save me he…these men…escaped prisoners...were going to do what almost happened to me in the woods. Zarek was their leader. My dad took them somewhere and they...I know they killed him because he never came back for us like he promised he would do."

Connelly said gently, "The man who killed your father didn't get away with it. I remember reading or hearing something about a trial where one of Tom Zarek's men was convicted of killing a pilot and someone else, too."

"Singer?"

"That was it. Singer."

"But Zarek wasn't convicted."

"I don't think he was even put on trial."

"Good, then that means I get to kill him. He's the one who was responsible."

"Kara, that's the second time you've mentioned killing this man. Don't let a desire for revenge eat at you. You're too young."

She shrugged. "I'm just telling you that one day I'm going to kill him. I don't know when or where, but one day I will. The gods owe me that for letting Zarek take my father away from me. One day I'm going to point my mother's gun at him and I'm going to make sure he recognizes me. He needs to know why he's going to die. Then he gets one right between the eyes. Maybe he didn't pull the trigger, but he's the reason my father is dead. "

She saw something in Connelly's eyes that she didn't understand. "Gods damned Cylons," he finally said. "They're the reason your father is dead. You should be going to school, holding hands with your first boyfriend, going to your first prom, not thinking about killing someone. In some ways you're so innocent, but when you talk about killing Zarek, your eyes are as hard as green marbles."

She shrugged. She knew he didn't understand how she felt about Zarek or her father. But he did understand how she felt about the Cylons. The wind had picked up and she shivered in her sweaty t-shirt. "I'm going to have to go get a shower. Come watch us play sometime."

"I'll do that. I like your haircut."

"Thanks," she said, suddenly feeling shy and looking down at her feet.

"You don't have a clue how beautiful you really are, do you?"

She dug the toe of her sneaker into the dirt. "I'm not beautiful."

He lifted her chin and made her look at him. "Yes, you are…and strong and resourceful and brave."

She was getting that funny feeling again. She knew he was, too. She could see it in his eyes.

"I've got to go, Kara. I'll come see you play soccer again."

On her way to the showers she was smiling. Things were okay with her and Connelly and that made her happy. That and the fact that he'd told her she was beautiful. Maybe she didn't just like him. Maybe she loved him, too.

That night she dreamed Connelly was touching her the way Prince Olliver had touched his lusty wench. The feeling kept getting better until she finally understood why it had made the lusty wench cry out in pleasure. It was so good that she woke up, aware that she had made some kind of noise.

She heard Karl stir in his cot on the other side of the tent, but he settled. She lay in the dark, heart beating fast, breathing hard, the good feeling finally subsiding.

If sex felt this good, no wonder her father had laughed at her when she had made such a dumb comment that night leaving Picon. If she had known this, she would never have said something that stupid.

Several days later Connelly came to see them play soccer again and again walked back to the tent with her. He started doing that once or twice a week and they talked about a lot of things. She finally told him about the books, about the Caprican Prince and how she had never finished the last volume.

"I've read the trilogy," Connelly said. "It's a great adventure story with some sex and romance thrown in."

"I had just gotten to the part where Olliver was in the garden and saw the princess getting out of her bath. He fell in love with her on the spot."

"I remember that part. A golden-haired princess with emerald eyes. Her name was Esmari. Do you want to know what happens next?"

"No, don't tell me. I want to read it myself. Maybe I will someday."

"Okay, but if you change your mind, just ask me."

...

The next week the soccer games were called off because people had started getting sick. The rumor went around the camp that the Cylons were testing a biological toxin on them, but the doctors said it was just the flu.

That didn't mean it wasn't deadly, though, for a lot of people.

Kara escaped getting sick. She thought it was because her mother had taken her to the doctor every year and had gotten her a flu shot. Karl's mother didn't believe in the shots. She blamed childhood vaccinations for Marie's asthma and therefore Karl never had any of the shots. Then again maybe Kara just got lucky. There didn't seem to be any pattern as to who got sick and who didn't or whether it was a mild case or a bad one.

She knew Karl was getting sick when he woke up one morning and told her he had a terrible headache. By that afternoon he was running a fever and having chills and was starting to ache. She knew better than to take him to the medical tent. It was already overflowing.

Instead she put the covers from her cot onto his and lay down with him to try to keep him warm. She made him drink water during the night and the next day, even when he said he felt like he was going to throw up. The doctors had posted flyers everywhere telling people who were sick to drink plenty of fluids and stay in bed. The first flyers said to come to the med tent to get something for the fever and aches. The later flyers didn't mention the medicine, but on the second day that Karl was sick, she went to the med tent anyway.

An exhausted-looking medical technician said, "We're out of everything. A shipment's supposed to be on the way, maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. Just keep coming back and asking."

She went back and asked for the next three days and was told the same thing. The shipment still hadn't arrived. Later she heard that it came in too late to help most of the people who were sick.

Kara brought soup from the mess tent and fed Karl one spoonful at a time. She made him eat when all he wanted to do was sleep. All she could think about was how she couldn't let her best friend die. Karl was closer to her than a brother. Karl was her family, the only family she had. What would she do without him? She couldn't even imagine what it would be like to be alone in the camp.

On the fourth day, he finally turned the corner. She could tell he was cooler when she felt his forehead. In the late afternoon while he was sleeping she went to the showers for the first time in four days. There was no waiting line at all. That night both of them slept through the night for the first time since he'd gotten sick.

By then the death toll had started to climb.

On the fifth morning Karl woke up hungry for the first time since he'd gotten sick. She was on her way to the mess tent to get them breakfast when she saw two guys wearing surgical masks carrying a sheet-covered stretcher out of the girl's dormitory. She probably wouldn't have looked twice since she'd seen plenty of those covered stretchers in the last few days, but the girl's arm was hanging down and Kara saw the blue fingernail polish.

She walked into the dormitory. Over half the beds were empty. There was a small box on the floor beside the bed that had been Carrie's. There was nothing in it except the fingernail polish, the silver safety pin, and a driver's license. Even though she barely knew Carrie, she felt tears sting her eyes. She put the driver's license in her coat pocket and left.

Later that afternoon Karl was sleeping again and she walked over to Hugh Connelly's tent. She called his name, and he came out of the tent next to his.

"Hi, Kara, come in. I would have come to see if you were all right, but I didn't want to take the chance if you were still well."

He went into his tent and she followed him. She knew what she had promised Karl, but the way Connelly looked she didn't think she needed to worry.

"You've been sick, haven't you?" she asked him.

"Yeah, and I've been trying to take care of the old guy in the next tent. He doesn't have anyone. I don't think he's going to make it. He won't eat or drink anything now."

Connelly sat down on the side of his cot and put his face in his hands. He looked terrible. His hair was oily and he looked like he hadn't shaved in days.

"I haven't been sick, but Karl has. I've been taking care of him. He's better." She went over and stood beside him.

"Good," he said without looking up at her.

"Get in bed," she said to him. "You need to rest."

He shook his head. "I'll be okay. I need to go back…"

"Don't argue with me." She made him stand up, pulled the covers back, made him sit back down and took off his shoes. Then she made him lie down and covered him. "Rest. I'll be back."

She walked to the mess tent in E-sector, got soup and brought it back. She woke Connelly and fed him the same way she had fed Karl. She had a hard time keeping him awake long enough to finish the container of soup, but she did. She hadn't saved his life back there in the woods to have him die on her now. Karl and Connelly were the only two people who were alive that meant anything to her.

Before she left, he caught her hand and kissed her palm. He mumbled something that sounded like I love you, but she realized later she hadn't heard it well enough to be sure. She had made it into what she wanted to hear. She leaned over the cot and kissed his forehead. She could tell he still had a fever, but not much.

When she checked on him the next day, he felt better. He looked a lot better, too. His hair was clean and he'd shaved. He thought he had dreamed about her feeding him soup the day before. Neither one of them mentioned the kisses. It was probably better if he thought that was a dream, too.

The old man in the tent next to him had died during the night.

A week later, the daily death toll finally stopped climbing and leveled off. Several days after that it began dropping. She later heard that around a sixth of the camp's occupants had died. She just knew there were a lot of empty tents now.

She also heard a lot of grumbling in her sector's mess tent about how the government hadn't done enough for them, how they had just let the people die. Some people blamed the government, some blamed the Cylons, and some said it was the same thing, that the Cylons were the government now, that President Adar was nothing but their puppet.

Maybe that's why more government officials started coming to the camp. Most of the time they just visited the admin tent and had their picture taken by the media, but one windy day early in the spring, a politician actually came to their mess tent and talked to them. She didn't have any media with her, either.

She was Laura Roslin, the Secretary of Education. Kara and Karl both laughed when they saw the notice posted the day before her visit.

"Education?" Karl sneered. "Who the frak cares about education? They can't even take care of us when we're sick. If it hadn't been for you, I'd have died. Frak the Secretary of Education. Frak the government."

Still, Kara went to the mess tent the next day to hear what Laura Roslin had to say. It was better than lying on her cot all morning. Karl said he would pass.

For a while Roslin talked about the importance of education in general, and then she talked about plans for starting a school at the camp. Finally she asked if there were any volunteers who would be willing to work with government officials. There was some murmuring in the small group that had gathered to hear her, but no takers. The term volunteer probably put them off. As Kara understood the word, it meant they wouldn't get paid for it.

She thought of Hugh Connelly. He wasn't there, but he had been a teacher. He might help. Kara got up and walked up to the front of the tent, to the small platform where Roslin was standing. There were a dozen Marines up there and one of them stopped her.

"That's far enough," he said.

To her surprise Roslin said, "Let her past."

The Marine who had barred her path with his rifle now pulled it back. He made her take her hands out of her pockets and open her jacket before he let her walk around him. He turned as she walked past. Kara knew if she made any sudden moves he would probably tackle her. The Marines were clearly guarding this woman for some reason.

The Secretary stepped down from the platform. "You have something you want to talk to me about?"

"I'd like for you to go with me to meet someone. He used to be a teacher. I think he'll help you."

"We can't let you go out into the camp, Madame Secretary," the Marine said. "We have our orders, Ma'am."

Kara snorted, "I figured you were bullshitting like all the rest of the politicians who've come up here. No one else has ever gone out into the camp either. They stand outside the admin tent and get a few of the orphans together, take a few pictures, and think they've done something really great. I guess they think the rest of us have lice or something."

"I'll go with you," Roslin said

"Ma'am," the Marine said. "We can't allow you to…"

"It's all right. Just follow us." Her voice was gentle, but there was no mistaking that she had just given him an order.

They left the mess tent walking side by side, with the Marines behind them and beside them. Kara couldn't figure out what everyone was so afraid of. The people in the camp were about as harmless as she'd ever seen.

"It's a long way," she said as she looked down at the Secretary's high heels.

"I'll manage," Roslin said and smiled.

Kara felt a grudging respect for this beautiful, well-groomed woman whose pantsuit probably cost as much as feeding the sector for a day or two. She was tough. Not nearly as tough as her mother, as Sassy, but anybody who would brave the mud and dirt in high heels was tough, and that impressed Kara.

As they walked, Kara told her Hugh Connelly's name and the background she knew about him. She didn't mention him trying to kill himself in the woods that day. She was especially vague about how they met.

In view of the Secretary's high heels, Kara took the shortest route, even though it went past the refuse dump in the E-sector. Maybe there was another reason she went that way, too. It wouldn't hurt to show this lady what they dealt with on a daily basis. Since the flu had swept the camp, the rats had gotten much worse. She'd see how tough Laura Roslin really was. Kara tried to imagine how the Secretary of Education would relate this day to her friends.

"Dear gods," she heard the Secretary say as they neared the dump and a rat ran across their path and between two tents. "What was that?"

But she didn't scream or stop walking or jump into the arms of the nearest Marine. She'd passed another test for Kara.

Kara already had the slingshot out of her coat pocket. Up ahead another rat ventured out, larger than the last. She stopped walking and the rest of them stopped, too.

The rat was moving fast, and Kara tracked it. She got it with a head shot, accurate and deadly.

The Marine beside her tensed, but he let her make the shot. "Damn," he murmured, "you come see our recruiter as soon as you turn eighteen."

She turned to him with her chin up and said proudly. "My mother was a Marine. She died with the rest of her unit fighting the Cylons back on Picon."

She saw something in his eyes before he nodded slightly at her. She knew that he saw her differently now. There wasn't any doubt in his mind how she felt about the Cylons. There wasn't any doubt in her mind how he felt either.

"You said you're mother's dead. What about your father?" The Secretary asked.

"He's dead, too."

She saw the sympathy in Roslin's eyes, the slight shake of her head that said I'm sorry without a word being spoken.

"Will someone take care of cleaning up that rat?" Roslin asked.

"If they don't, the other rats will eventually get around to it."

Instead of looking horrified, Roslin said, "This is all going into the report I'll send to the President. These refuse piles and rats are unacceptable."

Kara almost laughed out loud. What could the President do about something that was a way of life in the camp? Sign a law making the camps off limits to rats?

When they got to Hugh Connelly's tent, Kara called his name.

"Come in," she heard him answer.

"No, you've got to come out. There's somebody here who wants to meet you."

"Who?"

"Laura Roslin, the Secretary of Education."

"That's not funny, Kara."

He came out of the tent. The look on his face when he saw her and Roslin with a dozen Marines behind them was priceless.

"Mr. Connelly, I'm Laura Roslin," the Secretary said. She stepped forward and held out her hand. "I understand you're a teacher. This young woman thinks you can help me."

He shook her hand. "How?"

"That's what we need to discuss. Would you accompany me back to the admin tent and sit down and talk with me? I've brought some education plans with me. I'd like to get your opinion on them."

As they started walking back, Kara slipped away.

When she got back to the tent, Karl asked her, "What did you do this morning?"

"Went to hear Laura Roslin talk."

"What did she have to say?"

"She wants to educate us."

Karl laughed.

"My feelings exactly. I introduced her to Connelly, not because I think they're going to educate us, but because he needs something to do."

"Good thinking."

That afternoon Connelly came to their tent.

"I don't know whether to thank you or strangle you."

"She seems nice."

"She is. Extremely. She believes in what she's doing. She's so good she's almost got me convinced it can be done."

"So when do you start working for her?"

"Right away. We're going to try to get organized enough to start some classes this fall, maybe late summer."

"You mean I might have to go to school next year?"

"We're going to start with the youngest group of children first, the six and seven year olds, and get them started with the basics…alphabet, numbers, reading."

"That's a good idea to start with the little kids first."

"If we don't, there are a lot of children who will be years behind when the government can get permanent housing worked out. Ms. Roslin is going to get a team of teachers up here from Caprica City. She wants me because I used to be a teacher, but more importantly because I know the camp. She thinks that I'll know what will work and what won't. I just hope her faith in me isn't misplaced."

"It's not. I'm sure it's not."

He hesitated and then said, "I'm going to move outside the camp."

Kara's heart sank. "She didn't mention that."

"I'll be back here a lot, though."

She walked outside the tent with him when he left. He turned and wrapped his arms around her. "I wish…"

She wrapped her arms around him. "I know." He was going to say he wished she were older.

"You just keep saving my life," he said.

"At this rate one day I'll own your entire soul."

"I can't think of anyone I'd rather have it," he said.

"Will you kiss me again?"

"Kara…I shouldn't."

She felt like she was saying goodbye to him. "Please, before you go."

He did, but it wasn't like the other time. He barely touched his lips to hers. It was barely a kiss at all.

The next time she saw him he was walking through the camp with a group of well-dressed people. They had clipboards and layouts of the camp. One of them, a young, dark-haired woman was walking really close to him. He was talking to her and smiling. He didn't even notice Kara.

She felt a painful knot begin to form in her chest.

She would think twice before she trusted her heart to another man. She wasn't being fair to Connelly, she knew. After all, she was the one who had taken Laura Roslin to meet him. Connelly getting this job and meeting the dark-haired woman was really all her fault, but that didn't make it hurt any less.

That night she thought of Prince Olliver for the first time in months.

He would never do that to her.

She was Olliver's golden-haired princess with emerald eyes. She was his true love. One day she would find Olliver with his eyes as blue as the sky at twilight and the wings over his heart. He'd make her forget all about Connelly.

She held on to that thought, her pillow still damp with her tears as she finally went to sleep.

...

After thanking her Marine escort, Laura boarded the small eight-passenger government ship at the Antioch Airport. Her feet were aching, and she couldn't wait to get seated so she could kick off her shoes.

The ship's pilot Captain Russell Russo was waiting for her and welcomed her back on board. He always did that which was one of the many reasons she requested him each time she had to fly anywhere. He was soft-spoken and kind, a little older than she was, and he was a family man, devoted to his wife, six-year-old daughter and three-year-old son. Laura felt like she could always rely on him to get her safely from Caprica City to wherever she was supposed to go and then get her safely back again.

"Tough day, Ma'am?" he asked as he took her briefcase and stowed it in an overhead compartment.

"Very tough." She sat down in one of the front seats in the passenger compartment, kicked off her shoes and massaged first one foot and then the other. "I must remember to bring some comfortable shoes with me next time. I had the most extraordinary experience today, but it involved walking several miles in those." She gestured to the heels.

"Michelle gave them up when she was pregnant with our daughter. I'm not sure she owns a pair now. They don't lend themselves to chasing an active little boy, either."

"Smart," Laura said. "I sometimes wish I could."

"We've got good weather this afternoon. We'll have you back to Caprica City as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Captain Russo."

Billy usually accompanied her on trips like this, but today she had come alone. She'd left him in her office working on the education proposal for the camp's children. She didn't know if she stood a chance of getting the funding considering how the Cylons felt about the camps. But she was going to try. If not, she'd have to take it from another one of her budgeted accounts. One way or another she was determined to help these forgotten children.

Laura sat back and closed her eyes as the ship lifted off. She was so tired right now that in some ways the day was just a blur of jumbled images…the meager group of people who had come to hear her speak…the rats…the teacher who had lost his entire family…and the thin, pretty girl with the beautiful green eyes and deadly aim with the slingshot who had challenged her without the slightest bit of hesitation…or fear.

Laura wasn't sure of her age, probably early or mid-teens, but everything else about her seemed older, even her beautiful eyes had a hardness about them that no child's should have. The only time they had softened was when she was looking at the teacher. Laura had recognized the look. The girl had a crush on him. He had feelings for her, too.

She had slipped away as Laura and Hugh Connelly had walked back to the admin tent. Only after Laura had realized she was missing had she thought to ask her name. Connelly had told her.

Laura filed the name away in her memory and hoped she would be able to recall it later.

Kara.