Chapter 29 Walls Broken
She hung in a fireman's carry over someone's shoulder.
Coming to abruptly, Kara thrashed until she was set on her feet and she recognized one of the ex-Marine's that had settled with the other colonists on New Caprica. Beside the man, relief and anxiety sweeping his face, stood Galen Tyrol.
"Good to see you, Captain. Now let's get the hell outta here," he said, urging her to join the exodus of fleeing ex-prisoners hurrying along the narrow hallway.
Turning her head, Kara frantically searched for Kacey's blonde head.
"Where is she? Where's my daughter? Where's Kacey?" she demanded, looking from one blank face to the other.
"Who?"
"The little girl that was with me. Frak! Nevermind, I'll get her." She snagged the knife from the taller man's utility belt and, turning against the flow of running forms, she dodged around Tyrol and rushed back towards the apartment.
Kara heard voices behind her calling her name, but ignored them as she weaved her way down one corridor, then another, thankful that she remembered this portion of the route that she been led along so many months ago.
"Kacey. Kacey!" Frantically searching the apartment, she called out again, thinking maybe the child was hiding, "Kacey, honey where are you? Kace—" she broke off as Leoben came down the staircase with Kacey's little hand in his.
"I knew you'd be back. I saw it." He moved further down the steps.
Kara slowly approached the pair, eyes moving from Kacey's solemn ones to Leoben's knowing ones.
"Give me Kacey," she said, voice low with the edge of pleading leaking through.
"Say the words." He stepped between the two blondes.
"Let me take her."
"Say them."
"What words?"
"You know what I want. I wanna hear you say them. And the rest of it, just like I told you." Leoben moved another step down so he stood just above the landing.
"Fine... You win." Kara licked her lips and reminded herself they were just words. "I love you."
He closed the distance between them, moving into her intimate space, and Kara kept herself still, resisting the urge to step back.
"Say it again," he demanded.
Just words. They didn't mean anything. Then why did the breath she took feel like a sob?
"I love you," spoken softly and with an ache that might have meant more than surrender.
"Now the rest."
The ache expanded as Kara let the wall she'd kept erected about her vulnerable soul lower. She knew Leoben wouldn't accept a rote declaration from her, either in words or action. Closing her eyes, she sought his mouth, lips trembling just the slightest as she felt his breath. Then she tasted him. Peppermint, from the toothpaste he used. He deepened the kiss and she responded, feeling his tongue invading her mouth and teasing across her own. Palms cupped the sides of her head and he caressed her ear with a thumb.
She pulled back and met his smoldering gaze.
"Was it everything you thought it would be?" Voice breaking as she felt more pieces of herself fall away.
"That and more." He smiled and shook his head slightly. "I'm never gonna forget this moment."
"Neither will I," she huskily whispered, knowing that her capitulation would haunt her on so many levels.
He pushed her back against the wall, both hands about her head as he claimed her mouth again. Her right hand slid under her sweatsuit behind her back and smoothly pulled free the knife she had taken from the ex-Marine. Stabbing forward, Kara drove the blade into Leoben's abdomen, feeling the Cylon male jerk in shock. As their lips separated, a small gasp of pain slipped from his parted ones as Kara gave the knife a vicious twist…
…and then she thrust blade in just a little further.
Leoben started to fall; he tried to hold himself with his grip about Kara's neck, but, as she yanked the knife free, he finally tumbled backwards to sprawl across the dining room carpet.
Desolate eyes clung to the still form of her tormentor for another moment, then Kara's fingers, one by one, released the hilt of the blade and it dropped to the floor, breaking her from the stasis of shock. Her gaze locked with Kacey's and Kara gusted a breath of relief as she scooped the child into her arms, hugging her close. She started up the staircase as Tyrol and his armed escort stepped through the open door.
"Come on, let's go," she said. Cradling her precious armload she brushed by the men where they stood staring down at the body of Cylon below.