"Next time you break me out of prison, please don't try to send me into labor," Laura tells Lee with a wry grin.

"Next time?" Lee asks, grinning back. Laura turns her attention to Elosha, taking the woman's hand.

"It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you," Elosha responds, squeezing Laura's hand, "How are you?"

"I'm okay," Laura assures her, looking out the window as they drift through the fleet. Fugitive, she could add that to her resume.


Laura wraps her arms around Kara and holds her tight, pressing a kiss to her head as she closes her eyes against the tears.

"I'm so sorry I asked you to do this," Laura whispers in her ear, squeezing her once more before stepping back. Lee embraces his sister in law for a moment before letting her go.

"Remind me to send you to the brig," Lee jokes.

"Yes, sir," Kara grins before becoming serious, "Lee there's something I need to…"

Both Lee and Laura see red as the Caprican Boomer rounds the corner into the deck. Lee lashes out like lightening and slams Boomer into the wall, shoving his gun in her face, ignoring Kara's pleas until he feels a gun on the back of his own head.

"Both of you, drop your weapons now!" Laura barks. She gives them a moment before commanding again, "Put them down, now!"

Both of the men lower their weapons before Laura orders Boomer thrown out the air lock, she stands quietly as the group continues to yell at each other, only taking interest as Boomer yells out that she knows the way to the Tomb of Athena. Kara pulls out the arrow and shows it to Laura, holding it out across both of her hands. Laura touches the arrow reverently before looking at Zarek.

"Tell them to wait…and find me a place I can talk to her," Laura hands the arrow back to Kara before brusquely walking off in the direction of the cylon.

"Guess we missed all the fun," Kara cracks as she puts the arrow back into it's case. Lee holsters his side arm and pulls Kara to the side, the blonde looking up at him with a worried look, "How is he?"

"From what we've heard, okay. He was still unconscious when we left."

"What the frak is going on, Lee? Laura's here, your dad got shot, I'm sure Zak is probably ready to fly off the handle, where is your sister even?"

"The nugget's safe. We made sure of that. Look…Laura isn't just Laura…she's something more, some leader from the scrolls."

"I know, she told me…That's why I went home. He lied about knowing where Earth is."

"I know," Lee placates.

"Are we doing the right thing?" Kara asks, concern in her voice.

"We are," Lee says with a firm nod, "We are."


Kara drops a duffle and small green back pack in front of Laura. Laura looks up at the blonde before pulling the bag closer, unzipping it and pawing through the contents gently.

"Where did you…"

"I had a little extra time on my hands when I found myself without a ride…I thought I would pick some stuff up. There are some pictures, couple things of extra clothes, some toys and stuff for Aurora, and I went through her stuff in storage and found some baby things…who knows how long we'll be up here and I don't know that we have a ton of that stuff floating around."

"Kara, this is…I can't thank you enough, this is amazing," Laura tells Kara before standing and hugging her, "Thank you."

"Anything for you and the Old Man," Kara says as she hugs the redhead back.

"What was it like?" Laura asks as she sits down, zipping the bag back up, planning to go through it later.

"It's…deserted. Practically a ghost town. You can tell that some people lingered for a while, but probably succumbed to the radiation…they've cleaned out all the bodies, it's just…so still," Kara describes. Laura sighs, trying to imagine the decimation that had taken over their home world.


Laura looks up at the sky as the misty rain drops flutter down over them, listening as a breeze shakes the trees and birds tweet and flitter in the distance. It was the most human she had ever felt in her life, finally standing on ground again, feeling non temperature controlled air on her skin. She listens as Boomer and Elosha discuss the scripture before they find the path they need to take.

"Let's move out," Laura calls, directing the group to start trudging through the Kobolian foliage. She lingers between Kara and Lee as they hike. Lee shoves her off to the side and out of the way as the land mine Elosha pops up, leaving Zarek to cover her as centurions pop up, firing on their group.

Once the crossfire stops Laura steps away from the bluff they had taken cover against, walking over to the body of the priestess who had started the whole chain reaction that had lead them to this moment. Lee puts a supportive hand on her shoulder as she kneels down.

"A price paid in blood," Laura murmurs, finally feeling the tears she'd been suppressing the entire time finally start to break free.

"Come on, Laur…" Lee says, offering her a hand up. Laura reaches over and grabs Elosha's bible, closing it and holding it close to her chest as she lets Lee help her up and they continue on their trek.

As they navigate the ridge the rain picks up. Eventually the group dons their ponchos before starting to scale the steepest part. Lee keeps pace behind Laura, ready to catch her if needed. Eventually they reach a plateau and decide to pitch tents and wait for the storm to pass.

Once the storm passes they pack up and get another stretch in before pausing to reevaluate. Boomer points out the Gates of Hera and they debate whether or not to keep going. Laura sighs as she looks at the sky and the distance they had to cover.

"Let's see how far we can get."

"We might need to get you some fatigues, if you plan on keeping this up," Kara comments later on as they walk, both hands on her gun. Laura rolls her eyes as she trudges along.

"Very funny lieutenant," Laura responds as they walk.

"Let's take a break up here," Lee calls out, pointing to the small clearing ahead. They manage to quickly set up a small camp and settle down to take a break. Lee hands Laura part of his protein bar as they sit under a tarp.

"We're almost there," Lee assures her, "We have to be."

"I'm sure we are," Laura nods, taking a bite off of the bar, "How do you guys eat these things, they're like tar."

"Well they are emergency rations," Lee grins. His head snaps up and his grin fades as he hears the rustle of leaves and the snap of a branch. He finds Kara's eyes and signals to her and Helo before picking up his side arm and standing, approaching the edge of his tarp. He holds his hand up to his mouth as he looks at Laura before flipping around the edge, surprised to come barrel to barrel with his father.

Lee lowers his gun before embracing his father. Laura gets up and comes around the edge of the tarp, watching the two embrace. She smiles weakly at Bill as he looks at her, letting go of Lee before pulling her into his arms, crushing her close. Laura lets out a shuddering breath as she wraps her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder. He lets her go silently, approaching Kara with reverence, brushing her hair out of her face before his attention is directed to Boomer.

Laura jumps at Bill's swift reaction to grabbing the cylon around the throat and slamming her into the ground with force. She attempts to pull him off with everyone else with no success until he clenches his chest in pain. She pulls him into her lap as Helo snatches Boomer up and walks her away. Bill takes a deep breath as he feels the pain start to subside before standing up, offering a hand to his wife. Laura takes his hand and pulls herself up, brushing off her pants.

Lee and Laura brief Bill on what they had achieved so far, and what their goal was before Bill claps his son on the back and leads Laura off to the side, sinking down onto a tarp and blanket with her. Laura bends one leg under herself as she sits across from him, their knees touching barely.

"You interfered with a military decision and you broke your word to me," Bill tells her, hurt swirling in his stormy eyes.

"It's the last part that bothers you isn't it?" Laura asks as she watches him, enjoying the fact that he was finally sitting in front of her.

"I forgive you," Bill says, catching her eyes.

"Thank you, but I didn't ask for your forgiveness," Laura points out, a small smile on her lips.

"Well, you have it anyway," Bill tells her. He reaches a hand over and squeezes her leg, resting it there for a moment. They both regard each other in silence before starting to speak at the same time.

"How are you fee…" Laura pauses and laughs, shaking her head. Bill smiles back at her and bows his head towards her.

"You first."

"How are you feeling?" Laura asks as she shifts closer, "I'm surprised you're even here. Last I saw of you, you were unconscious and had two surgeries ahead of you."

"Cottle says I'll live. Supposed to be taking a break from physical activity. Which I'm sure doesn't include a trek up a mountainside," Bill recounts to her, "Or throttling a cylon."

"Um no, probably not," Laura says with a bemused look on her face.

"What about you?" Bill asks, tilting his head as he looks at her.

"I will probably sleep for a week when we get back, but Lee's been taking good care of me," Laura tells him truthfully, "We make quite the pair don't we?" "Yeah we do." The couple looks up as Lee comes over, gear back on.

"We should get going if we want to finish our trek this afternoon," He tells them. Laura nods and pushes herself up before holding a hand out to Bill.


Laura groans as they step out of their raptor and onto the flight deck. Yet, every ounce of fatigue she felt disappeared as she hears her daughter.

"Mama!" Mona turns around and let's go of Aurora's hand when she sees her friend, following behind the child at a slower pace. Aurora barrels into her mother's arms and sobs into her shoulder as she wraps her arms around her tightly. Laura drops to her knees as she clutches her daughter close, her own tears streaming down her face.

"Oh gods, I've missed you so much," Laura whispers into Aurora's hair, rocking her back and forth gently.

"Don't ever leave me," Aurora cries.

"I'm never ever going to leave you ever again…" Laura tells her, with a firm but shaky voice, "I'm never going to leave my butterfly ever again."

Aurora wraps her legs around her mother, not wanting to let go. Bill offers out a helpful hand, holding onto Laura as he helps her stand. Laura stays clutched onto his hand once standing as her eyes roll back into her head and her knees begin to buckle.

Bill grabs his daughter off of Laura, shoving her into Mona's arms before managing to catch Laura before she hits the ground. He lowers her down gently and checks her pulse as he yells out for a medic. Aurora screams and tries to break out of Mona's grasp as she reaches for Laura.

It isn't until the medics load her onto the gurney to take up to Life Station that anyone notices the blood that had pooled at her waist. Mona pushes Bill towards the stairs, yelling at him to follow Laura. She shushes Aurora and follows after them, breaking from the group to take Aurora home. The little girl fights and thrashes, yelling out for her mother as the hatch closes behind them.


[TBC]