Chapter 24-

Caprica-

She normally never liked being on the basestar. Sure she could project, but if you had the choice between imagining fresh air and fresh soil, and actually having it, wouldn't you pick the real thing? But there was a cylon council meeting in the next few hours and she had to attend it. She was not actually a representative for her line, that honor belonged to a Six who had named herself Natalie, but they wanted her input due to her multiple dealings with humans. They meant well, but sometimes she hated it, she felt like she was betraying Gaius even more when she told them how the human mind would think about a new proposal. Then she felt just plain silly.

The meetings had been held in Colonial one, until the line representative for the Fives had gone missing right after the meeting ended. Literally, he walked out the door and not twenty to forty steps away from the ship been snatched by a human group and disappeared into the night. More and more cylons were disappearing without a trace, humans, for that was the only explanation, were growing bolder by the day. Caprica could see no way to win, and more than once prayed to God a solution would present itself. She was not naive enough to think things would just work out and everyone would just play nice, not after what had happened. Peace would be a long and arduous process.

Just in the last week, a note had been nailed in public places stating all cylon captives would be returned alive and unharmed if all human prisoners were released and all bodies be returned to them for their burial. Cavil sternly denied them what they wanted and a few heavy raiders had taken the toll in what was sure to be the first of many strikes. Caprica didn't know how or where they made explosives, but they were undeniably effective. Nothing the cylons had was safe, not even her church that had been bombed, completely destroyed and defaced with paint by a group calling themselves the Sons of Aries. She had come back after a few days to pray in the little building and had been unable to stop the tears at the sight of the rubble. Was nothing sacred anymore?

The cylon leaders had publicly condemned the attacks and offered high incentives for their capture, but they had gotten no words, tips-offs, or any information since the offer went out days prior. Humans would often turn on each other, squabbling and disagreeing, but one thing they seemed to all agree on was the treatment of the cylons that had destroyed their homes. Why, just this morning an Eight had gone through the settlement and been repeatedly harassed and attacked, found near death when she had managed to escape her attackers who had not been caught, and had smartly worn masks to disguise their faces.

Cavil and D'Anna had high hopes for the New Caprica Police force, people had shown up in numbers, but privately Caprica thought they were fools. Handing these humans power along with knowledge of cylon activities was not smart in her opinion. But still, she had no real power; she was a voice of many. It was not her division of control in the settlement anyways, she had no real power, there would be nothing that she could do even if she did have authority.

Caprica stopped when she heard an unusual noise. She was outside a Four's lab, and while noises were not unusual coming out of labs, this one was different than all the other noises like whirs of machinery and a voice ranting, frustrated at not being able to find something. It was more like a cry to her than a normal lab noise. Something helpless, small and injured, like that one time she had convinced Gaius to stop the car to help a cat that had gotten its tail run over by some other careless driver. Gaius had hated the cat, but until she find a place for the cat he had tolerated it.

Caprica knew she probably should not intervene, it simply wasn't her place, but she simply couldn't help it. This Four was known by many to be a bit odd and there had been talk of boxing him, he had vehemently protested the closing of the farms and begged for more time, more subjects, anything. They set him on creating a hybrid, but nothing had been successful so far. Or so everyone had been told, the high council included because she had asked Leoben once, and he knew absolutely nothing.

First she knocked on the door then told herself that he must have already gone to the meeting or was out and about for some reason. Everyone was allowed to attend if they wanted, but only a few were allowed to speak. Leoben was out again, forcing Landon to take his place, something had come up with Kara apparently. With her knock the crying increased in volume, and she was unable to justify the reasons she should walk away. Something in there needed help and had a reason to cry out.

The cylon model pushed open the door and moved in. There was medical equipment everywhere and it was messy. Different theories were anywhere, drawings and charts of data posted on the walls haphazardly. All the desks and work spaces were covered to and she wrinkled her nose a bit. how did he find anything? It was clean and completely sterile she was sure, but in that mad scientist kind of way, and the blonde felt very uncomfortable. But she pushed on; forcing herself not to forget what was going on.

She moved past rows and rows of beds, or incubators, whatever they were. The noise was in the back and she stopped a bit. There was a little girl there, crying. She couldn't be over a year or so, her light white blonde hair was not clean and she was crying, though Caprica had no idea why. Than she saw and got angry. Next to the bed were notes on wondering how she would react to various drugs, or different kinds of stimuli. Simon was experimenting on her, learning what made her tick, studying her. And it made her absolutely angry beyond belief.

"Hey there little one." Caprica reached a hand down to soothe the distressed little girl. "God is surely watching out for you, he sent me to you. I'm going to get you out of here, I promise. Don't worry." After about fifteen minutes she was able to soothe the cries into small whimpers, and she kept stroking the little girl's hair.

She was furious that anything had been treated this way, even if this little girl may turn out to be fully human, there was no excuse for treating her this way. But she wasn't fully human. She was a hybrid if the little plaque next to her with all of her information was to be believed.

Next to a date, and the word female, and the designation hybrid were the girl's parents, Leoben Conoy, Cylon model Two Copy number One, and Capt. Kara Thrace. Leoben was going to be in shock. The entire cylon council was going to react in shock this had been kept a secret. She knew for a fact there had been no announcement, and everyone had been told the experiments failed.

She did some quick math, and realized with a start this child must have been conceived when the farms were still open. The secret had been kept that long. The Farms had even been shut down because they had not been successful. But they had, for whatever reason God had gone into that place and allowed a miracle to occur. So why was the secret covered up?

"I'll be right back little one." Blue eyes looked up at her, innocent blue eyes. "Yeah, I'll be right back, and things will get better I promise. I'll take you to meet your Daddy. You'll like that won't you? He's a good man."

She quickly and quietly left the room after the girl had fallen asleep and bumped into Natalie on the way out. For a moment the two just stared at each other, confusion etched all over the Six's face. The sister Six was surprised to see her come out of a Four's lab and opened her mouth to ask questions, most of the Sixes disliked the fours and vice versa, but Caprica quickly cut her off. "You've got to see this Natalie. It's important, really important"

Caprica turned on her heel and walked back into the lab, Natalie following behind.

Leoben-

He felt all hollow on the inside. Like someone had gone through and made everything inside him numb and feelingless, like nothing at all. He felt truly like a machine for the first time he could remember, moving on automatic on someone else's commands via his programming. Only one thought played on loop through his brain over and over again Kara tried to kill herself, Kara tried to kill herself, Kara tried to kill herself. It played back in his head, like a broken record, never letting him forget, never letting him stop remembering. It was a constant reminder he had failed in helping her. That despite what he had done to help save her from drowning, she just went even farther under the water and had now stopped struggling for the surface where air and safety was. She didn't even want to swim up anymore, she was perfectly content to just go under and stay there. Forever. Gone. Away from him. Away from everything.

Kara was walking next to him, and she didn't move to touch him and he knew better than to touch her without her permission, the last thing he wanted was to scare her away. He knew on some level his touch, no matter how innocent was the same as Jared's, it was unavoidable being they were biological identical. Her arms were wrapped around herself, and the bandage peeked out from under her jacket's sleeve. She wasn't looking at him, instead eyeing the gray wall on the corridor, or the concrete floor, or the ceiling with it's fluorescent light bulbs that ran down the length of the corridor leaving no corner shrouded in darkness. Not that was any way unusual. She walked slower then she had used to, the bounce in her step was gone, as though she was an automaton herself. Just going through the motions, but inside she didn't really care anymore. And no matter how hard Leoben had tried he couldn't make her care. Not about him, not about life, not even for anything he could think of. Kara Thrace had really given up, and the fight he saw in her when he was first acquainted with Starbuck was gone. Starbuck had died in that cell, Leoben realized, and Kara was following her pilot ego. It just had taken her a while longer to get to that point.

He was bringing her to Simon, unsure of anything else he could do. Simon was just a doctor for physical wounds; he could not help Leoben very much on the ones in the mind, spirit and soul. But this was his very last hope. There was nothing else he could do beyond this and pray, he had no other alternatives. And though God worked in mysterious ways, Leoben knew Kara needed a lot more help than prayer could provide her.

"Come on Kara this way," He said taking her to an elevator, not wanting to trigger any bad memories with the stairs. She complied with his command wordlessly, not looking at him at all. Though she followed his command, it seemed like Leoben had not said a word at all. There were no smart comments, derogatory remarks, just simple following of his directions. He couldn't read her emotions, was she ashamed, was she upset he caught her? She was expressionless as a stone, a wall he couldn't get breach, and now he realized maybe he never would.

It was not a comforting thought.

The Elevator ride was tense. One the second level a Three came onboard and nodded slightly at them, "Two." She said, not even acknowledging Kara's presence. For her part Kara just stood in the corner and gazed down at the floor of the lift. They both got off at the first floor. While the Three turned left to a separate elevator, the one that went to the prisons lower floors, with just a turn to the right and he arrived at the centers Medical ward.

There was a Six waiting who had been informed of their arrival. Wordlessly she opened the door and disappeared. A minute later she came out with Four. Simon took her inside, and told Leoben to stay outside. Kara followed the Doctor's motion without even looking back at him. So he was regulated to waiting outside, she didn't even call for him to come with her. He didn't know of a reason she should have, heck, it would probably be better for her to not have any reminders of the Two that had hurt her and killed her husband. He still can't help but feel rejected somehow, pained by her lack of need for him. then again this is Kara, who would die before she asked him for anything, that was just who she was.

The chairs that were outside the heavy metal doors in what resembled to a waiting room, though why there was such a thing he didn't know. Cylons did not wait outside hospital doors for one another, and they did not put humans here. He couldn't recall putting a waiting room in the plans. It has originally been another part of the sick bay. Then he shook his head to clear his thoughts, it was inconsequential. As seemingly required, the chairs were not comfortable, and he soon stopped sitting down on a chair, instead just leaning against the wall, trying hard to not run over to the door, stare through the window on the door at eye level, and find out what was going on inside.

Leoben had been nervously watching the door for maybe five minutes when a Six who had become a nurse shyly approached him. "Two, you are supposed to go up to the main basestar right now. Something important requires your immediate attention." she said quietly, afraid of aggravating him or doing something that would irritate him.

"Can't it wait?" He asked, and proceeded to mummer of few choice words under his breath, a luxury he never really let himself indulge in when things got bad. Landon could handle things fine without him, why was he being summoned then? He had nothing to contribute to today's agenda. Which was lucky because Kara needed him more than they did. This had better be good to be called right now.

"No, the message says it can't. I have no idea what it is about; just that something extremely important requires your attention." The Six said timidly, afraid he would attack the messenger probably, and he sighed and closed his eyes a moment. Of all the times to need him This had better help Kara somehow, or he was just giving Landon the damned seat just to spite him.

"Wait for me to come back and pick her up then?" He asked and the nurse nodded. Resigned he walked back out the door to go find a heavy raider to take him up in the airfield. The Airfield was luckily close by being he had tried to keep the area the cylons used as close as possible. He prayed as he walked along a Centurion pilot, God please show me a way to help her.

Kara-

After being ushered into Simon's office, or lab, or whatever the hell this room was called, she wordlessly sat down on the exam table and her fingers played nervously in her lap. Even after all these years, it was a habit every time she was in a medical facility.

He might as well go mad scientist on her, her mind morbidly decided; it wasn't like she would care if he did. She didn't care about anything anymore. Maybe then she would still be useful for something after all. Wasn't she useless now, couldn't fight, couldn't be anything anymore? Not a wife, not a soldier, pilot, respected officer, a nothing, a waste of space that got people killed. Now, Kara Thrace was nothing more than just a poor and pitiful excuse for a human being, she knew that much. Mama was right. I was just too stubborn to listen.

"So I am told you've hurt yourself." She shrugged, not bothering to find the words to defend herself anymore. She had always had this feeling, hovering on the edge of her consciousness, but something or someone had always been there to beat it back. Whether it was flying or a person to cajole her out of the dark corner, it had never managed to take her this far in this much. Not even while hunting Scar. The dark had always been there, but never overwhelmed her so much like it did now, drowning out the light until she didn't know which way was up anymore.

"I don't know what Leoben expects me to do. I can make sure the wound doesn't get infected but beyond what I know of basic psych, I'm not help to you at all." The Four muttered as he put on gloves, more for his benefit than hers. Kara didn't mind, it was a bit better than the silent stares and Leoben walking around on eggshells like she might break into a thousand pieces any second. He looked up at her seriously "If you ask me he is expecting a miracle."

He motioned for her to put her arm out, and so she did as instructed, not even wincing as he wiped the wound with anti-septic. Simon talked throughout the entire process which she found oddly soothing, if cylon doctors could be soothing. The last one she had met had been pretty quiet. But what did she know? It wasn't like her opinion mattered anymore, especially not to cylons. Maybe if it had they wouldn't have killed Sammy.

Kara had stopped caring what the cylons did to her anymore. They weren't going to let her go, and they weren't going to let her escape, by any means. They trapped her in some little frakked up fantasy world, if Leoben was to be believed it was to be a Haven. But in reality, it had been more of a hell for her, constantly watched, supervised, and under someone else's control. And that wasn't even going into what happened with Sam.

"So you got any coping methods?" The cylon jerked her back to the present while he scribbled on his clipboard words she could not read. His creators had even given him the messy, unreadable scrawl of most doctors. Clever. Terribly witty really. She might make a joke about that if she was back on the Galactica and the reigning queen of the pilots' recreation room. But she wasn't, and probably never would be again.

"Drinking?" She asked, muttering her first word in a few days that she wanted to actually say. Mindless, weak pleas in the middle of the night did not count. She had decided that in her mind. Nothing that happened at night counted, she forced the memory down, cutting off its life. It, like so many other memories, would never again live to see the light of day ever again. Only would she relive it when the Gods judged her.

"No can do, sorry, too much of a risk to loose you to the bottle." He shrugged apologetic and Kara closed herself off again, though she would rather not. It was truly pathetic how much she craved for any contact, human, cylon, just anything breathing to get Leoben out of her frakking mind. Something, anything just something else than what her life had dwindled down into. Heck she would even settle for a cat.

She let herself amuse the thought, wasn't like she had much to do besides think about things these days. It would be a little she cat, black and white with short and soft fur and her name would be Starbuck. She would scare dogs away, play fetch and sit up on her hind legs like a dog, and yowl until she was fed food.

Simon's next words pulled her back into the real world. The one she was desperately trying to avoid. "Anything else?" She almost shook her head, but stopped as a thought came to mind and then she shut it off. She had been going to say painting but the last thing the toasters needed was another weakness to exploit. Hell, knowing Leoben he would probably go and 'interpret' every single one she painted. She could picture him in her head, 'This green right here represents your inner turmoil as you push against your destiny.' Yeah okay. Some destiny then, killing everyone you ever cared about.

"No then?" The cylon asked again, and she shrugged him off. "Okay fine, have it your way. There is a bed over there you can sit on, nap on, whatever until Leoben comes back. He got called up on official business, something important that could not possibly wait. I want to check you over again in two weeks or sooner if that looks infected. I'll give you some extra bandages and I want you to gain more weight and sleep more okay, if you need meds to sleep we have those too okay?" The cylon went off and held her gaze until she nodded. She pretended to be annoyed as she stalked over the bed he pointed at and flounced down but privately Kara didn't mind.

It meant she could be alone for a little while.

Caprica-

Natalie had been appalled as she had been, maybe even more so. Caprica remembered Natalie had been among humans in her mission of the colonies, but it was a very different mission. The Six had wanted to have a child, and tried until the end of the worlds to get pregnant to no avail. She left the colony Picon shortly before the world's ended after her second miscarriage.

Upon the sight Caprica had to show her, Natalie set her jaw, picked up the little girl right out of the incubator, and walked into the meeting with the baby in her hands and Caprica at her side. The room grew even quieter, became very still, and began waiting for the next move of the Six, who had suddenly become quite unpredictable and scary. Sixs had an infamous temper, while Eights were slightly bi-polar, a Six's temper was something of legends. When they had the angry glint in their blue eyes, with a set jaw and clenched muscles you prayed you were not the object of their wrath.

"Caprica, send a message to Leoben that something has come up and we need him right now. As for the rest of you, if you are not a member of the council, excluding Caprica and Landon who can stay when Leoben arrives, you are to leave." The words were quick and sure, and Natalie excluded an air of command that would send most people scurrying off to follow instructions.

Grumbles ran through the room as various cylons in various states of shock at the female cylon giving orders, but they all began to move. Some like Eights went wordless, whispering to one another about the baby. Others went close up to Natalie, telling her this violated their rights, a group mainly headed by the Ones and their pet Fives. Natalie simply ignored them all, not making a single noise and only looked annoyed. Once the small group discovered they would make no headway, they quickly made themselves scare as the baby started to cry under the onslaught of noises.

"What is the meaning of this Six?" Cavil demanded, furious she had dared start making orders even though they were technically a democracy. Cavil always seemed to hold the final say, the final word and unless he got trapped by some law, the cylon nation was at the whim of this machine. Though he had never steered them wrong, Caprica for the first time wondered if that was a good thing.

"According to notes in a Four's lab. This child is a hybrid." Natalie glared daggers at the Four, who seemed as shocked as herself. "A four who had worked in the farms failed to report a success, and has been testing the child ever since she was born under unnatural circumstances. She is about 12 months of age, she feels underweight, and she needs to see a real doctor immediately to be sure she has no lasting health concerns from what God-knows she was injected with."

"And you just happened to stroll into a Four's lab now?"

"Does it matter Cavil?" Natalie bit back, some of her anger seeping through her hardened demeanor, "She's a hybrid, our future, and she was being mistreated! Which is absolutely unacceptable! She's a little girl not some frakking lab rat to play insert the substance with!" Natalie was very upset, and Caprica stepped into to explain, hoping her sister would forgive her for it.

"I discovered the child. I was walking to the meeting, the door was ajar, and I heard her crying in distress," She explained quickly and to the One's raised eyebrows "I couldn't just leave her there, so I went to tell the Council but found Natalie first."

"And yet, we need a way to reproduce Six. If you bothered to think with your head you would realize that this child holds the best interests we have, we ought to study-"

"Study nothing!" an Eight interjected over him, furious. Caprica always held the idea that the fact an Eight had fallen in love and gotten pregnant by a human that, successful pregnancy or not, the idea being possible had made them more sympathetic to humans. Or humans that fit in their fairy tale of a family of their own one day anyways. "It's just a baby, who should be with her parents."

"Who are the parents?" Three demanded excitement in her own voice along with a touch of reverence. Threes were some of the cylons who regarded children as a miracle of God, this was sure to be no exception.

"Leoben and Kara Thrace." Natalie answered.

"Awwww the pet human, how quaint." Cavil mocked before Natalie snapped at him to be quiet, as their voices' volume has started to bother the baby. As usual One listened to no one."Come on Six, you can't deny the possibility of that being her parents is cute. I mean honestly, it's probably his dream come true. Now he can really play doll-house."

"That isn't the problem here," Four said, for the first time speaking. "The problem is, how did this escape under our notice for so long, and how do we punish him?" the cylon rubbed his eyes with his hands, looking suddenly very tired. There was one word on every ones mind that came to mind instantly; boxing.

Caprica knew that the increase in boxing was not good. There would come a time when boxing would not be the right answer, or would be impossible as a solution, and they could not come to rely on it. But the idea that anyone could hurt one of their own like that, it was so horrid to her. This baby was their future, why take the chance you might accidentally extinguish the flame with some crazed experiment?

"Four obviously had help; he couldn't have hidden it from our inspector's notice." The Five added to the conversation, "Someone has been screwing up, or has been helping him." There were nods around the table, at the very least they could all agree on that.

"All in favor of returning the child to her parents say aye, all of those not in favor of returning the child to her parents say nay." Natalie commanded and her grin grew on there were only two voices of dissent, nowhere near enough to swing the vote. "The ayes have it, now we can move on to other parts of the meeting, in the meantime where the frak is Leoben?"

The doors opened and a harried Leoben entered. "This better be," he trailed off noticing the infant in Natalie's arms. Natalie smiled softly at Leoben and gestured him closer then she proceeded to hand him the infant. "She's absolutely," But the Two couldn't seem to find the words to describe what exactly it was he was feeling. Caprica remembered him telling her about a little girl he had seen. Was this the little girl he had seen?

"Leoben this is your daughter," Natalie made the introduction and the Two gently cradled the little girl and reached down to shift a lock of bright blonde hair away from her face. His hand lingered and softly stroked her hair. The sleeping baby woke up to look at him with curiosity. How quickly things can change, Caprica mused noting the happiness mixed with wonder written all over his features for all to see, how fast things become different.

Leoben-

His brain had shut down. Under the stresses of the past day, he simply couldn't deal with much more at the current moment in time. He was vaguely aware of walking towards Natalie and taking the baby from her arms. He wrapped the blanket a little tighter around the little girl, who felt light, he didn't think a baby should be this light. But reaching down to stroke her hair and watching her open her eyes, Leoben was already loving the baby in his hands.

She was absolutely perfect Leoben decided. Her bright blue eyes were alert and regarded him with curiosity, a curled fist with tiny little fingers to make up one of her hands. Her bright blonde hair was dirty, but he would find out why later. His brain automatically picked out some of Kara's features, she had the same face, it was all Kara but the eyes. The eyes were all his, and who knew, they could even change to the beautiful mix of green gold. A walking breathing reminder of Kara, a fixture that even if Kara did not want to live in the universe, she still lived.

But even more than that, a child was the ultimate form of love two people could have, God would not allow this baby to be created if it wasn't for love. Leoben knew that, and sent a prayer to God, thanking him for his blessing and gift along with the amount of trust that was being placed in him to raise the cylons' future.

"We need to get her to a Doctor," Caprica told him gently, a soft smile on her face. She seemed happy, bubbly, and he wondered way, a pang of regret filled him at being so consumed in Kara's struggles he had neglected his closest cylon family. "Why don't you and I take her down to Simon on the ground complex's Medical center?"

"No, is there one closer?" He asked, starting to really think after the shock that he had a daughter, he really did have a daughter with the woman he loved. Even though no one had said her name, he knew. He could see her face in this little girl. At the looks he received, "I'd rather not spring this on Kara just yet." Leoben explained.

"The basestar's medical facility should be fine, We have an Eight who can take care of her." The Eight spoke up. "I think we should avoid putting her in Four's presence for a while, it might bring back some bad memories. At the very least give her some time to distance it, and make sure this Four was not helped by another" She added. "I'll call her now so she knows she is to be expecting you."

"Alright. Landon please continue to take my place in the meeting for the time being" The fellow Two, normally so bitter about politics nodded his head, either not offering a comment or realizing that the child was more important Leoben didn't know. He could make out a slight smile on his face though, as Landon stuck his hand in the data stream. It was a mark of pride, the Twos had Fathered the first cylon hybrid and he was sure every cylon would know soon.

He could sense Cavil fuming and idly Leoben wondered if the One had known about the child before she was revealed to the Council. Then he decided going after it was pointless, nothing could be proved until later, and accusing now would be worth nothing. Or if Cavil was just mad things had obviously not gone his way and there was nothing he could do about it. He had figured out long ago Cavil was better informed than all the rest of them, and purposefully kept it that way, there was just no way to go about proving it, or even a reason as to why that was. Maybe he was just a power hungry maniacal cylon.

"Caprica, why don't you and Leoben go down to the Nurse and make sure the baby is taken care of." Natalie said quiet, it was clear enough of a dismissal but Leoben stopped a moment. Obviously he and Caprica would not be a part of whatever investigation there was, and that was fine by him. He knew he was too close, and as long as the Four was punished and he could keep his daughter with him, he felt no reason to complain.

He frowned, lost in thought a few moments. The girl needed a name, she couldn't just be, the baby. He'd like to ask Kara, but she probably wouldn't say a word to him. As the euphoria of the news started to wear off he nervously wondered how she would react. But then, all at once, a name came to him, as though someone had whispered it in his ear.

"Kacey," he said, slightly correcting Natalie. "Her name is Kacey." And she nodded in approval, while several cylons returned their hands to the data stream, probably to inform all the other cylons of this new update. He looked at his daughter all the way to sick bay. I have a daughter and her name is Kacey. Kacey Annabel Conoy.

It fit her.

Notes: So tell me what you all think! And I am sorry about the delay and the much longer length of this chapter, I meant to stop it somewhere in there, but I could never find the exact right spot to cut the chapter off, so here it is all together. Also, if LiveJournal is more your thing this fic exists over there with the same author name. Thanks for reading.