NEW CAPRICAN CYLON MEDICAL FACILITY:

Laura awoke in relative comfort. No longer was there an unyielding surface beneath her skin or a damp chill seeping into her bones. She was warm in bed with what felt like a decent pillow under her head, something she hadn't felt in months. She blinked. Her eyes stung against the bright lights. The cell. She was out, but where was she now?

A blue curtain encircled her. A clinic, she surmised. Not Cottle's. The cylon hospital. Her heart sunk as she looked to her arm and saw that she had an IV in. On instinct she reached over with her other hand and pulled it out with a sharp hiss. What the frak had they done to her? What were they giving her? A chill ran down her spine and her stomach rolled, then she remembered the pain that she'd been in while in her cell. It was gone.

The curtain jerked open and Laura nearly jumped out of her skin.

"You're up," a tall man in scrubs greeted her with a curt smile.

Laura swallowed hard as she stared silently back at him.

"I'm Simon," he announced. "You were pretty out of it when you arrived so I didn't get to properly introduce myself. You should be feeling better now that-" the man paused and looked down to where Laura's palm was covering the stinging skin she'd yanked the cylon inserted IV out of. "Ms. Roslin, did you take that out?" he scowled as he began to walk toward the bed.

"Don't come near me," Laura sneared. "I don't want your help. I don't want to be touched. Just let me go."

"You need that IV. The bag isn't done," he noted with firm practicality. "I'll have someone come in to redo it."

"Like hell you will! I want to leave. Now."

"You were bleeding and dehydrated," the cylon explained as he continued closer toward the room's monitors to read her vitals. "We helped you," he added, matter of factly.

"Bleeding," Laura echoed, confused by what he meant.

"Yes. Pretty severely. Thankfully an Eight found you this morning before you lost too much blood. You know you should have told us that you're pregnant when you were first taken into custody. Secrets only make matters worse."

"Pregnant?" Laura scoffed "What the frak are you talking about? I am not."

The Four frowned.

"Ms. Roslin, despite you being taken into custody at the detention center, I'm here to help you. My brothers and I work as physicians. We're only trying to treat you. You don't have to be afraid of us. At least not here. Especially if you're cooperative," he added.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Laura returned in frustration. "You must have me confused with another prisoner. You've taken in so many of us lately. You'd think as machines you'd be better able to keep up."

"I assure you, Ma'am, I'm well acquainted with your condition after treating you all morning. Were you aware that you have a condition which colonial doctors refer to as placenta previa?"

"What the frak?" Laura deadpanned.

"The placenta is partially covering your cervix. It's common in expectant mothers of advanced maternal age. It can cause bleeding like the episode you suffered overnight. It most likely will correct itself in time, but it will need to be monitored until that happens or it could become serious. You were also badly dehydrated which we think caused some uterine contractions and worsened the bleeding. We were giving you some fluids and magnesium to stop them and get you hydrated but you've removed the line. I suggest you let us continue the dose. As of right now the uterine contractions and the bleeding have both stopped, but we wouldn't want them to return."

Laura looked back at the cylon man as if he had sprouted another head.

"Look, I don't have the slightest idea what you're going on about and I am certainly not-."

"You don't have to worry about us harming your baby," the Four held his hand out, cutting her off mid sentence. "I promise you, we believe children are a gift from God."

Laura's temper was on the rise. Her eyes narrowed and she grabbed at the thin bed sheets clenching them within her fists.

"I don't know what you're trying to pull here. If you're not going to let me go then just put me back in the damn cell. I'd rather be stuck in there than be in here with you playing mind games and injecting Lords only know what into my veins!"

"If you had told us from the start we would have made sure that you had proper water and nutrition while you were being detained. At thirteen weeks you need to add between three and four hundred extra calories to your diet each day."

"Who the frak can find extra anything around this occupied hell hole!?" Laura ranted. "And just knock it off already. I'm really done listening to this garbage."

"You should stay off your feet for a while," Simon noted, with little reaction to her outburst. "Bed rest and plenty of fluids. The good news is we did extensive testing while you were out. We even extracted some amniotic fluid just to rule out any other further and less obvious complications. Thankfully the fetus is quite healthy physically and developmentally."

Laura winced. She felt a sharp pain in her chest and realized that she'd been holding her breath.

"Shut up," she said as she let it out. "Get out of my sight."

The cylon physician shook his head and smirked.

"You should try and calm down. Elevated blood pressure needs to be avoided. I'll be sending someone in to fix your IV," he asserted. "And you have a visitor waiting. She'll be able to tell you when you'll be released."

"Get out!"

The man shook his head and chuckled under his breath before turning to exit the curtain.

Laura felt dizzy. What the hell were they trying to pull? How was she going to get out ? Her heart began to race within her chest and her throat went dry. Were they trying to drive her crazy? She thought back to the previous night. She had been in pain, she recalled that much. Then...then nothing. Had she fallen to sleep? Perhaps she had actually bled out and been found like that. As to why they'd come up with the idea to taunt her with some falsified claims of a pregnancy as an explanation of all things, she had no clue, but she didn't want to stick around to find out.

The man returned without warning. At least she'd thought it was him at first.

"I said leave me the frak alone unless you're here to let me go!" she shouted at a man identical to the last, but donning a different shade of scrubs.

"Ma'am, I'm here to fix your IV. It won't take long."

Laura squinted, realizing her mistake. Another Four. It seemed most of the line worked as medical professionals.

"Back off. I don't want your help and I don't want any of your toaster chemicals! Keep your medicine."

"Ma'am I assure you-"

"Frak your damn assurance! Why the hell would I trust you? Any of you?"

"We have no wish to harm you or your-"

"Stop it! Just stop!" Laura exploded before he could finish.

She'd lost all patience and for that matter she'd lost any confidence she had that she would make it out of cylon custody unscathed this time.

With a disgruntled huff the cylon Four rolled his eyes and shook his head before turning back to the curtain. Pulling it open a bit he leaned part of the way out. Laura could hear him speaking to someone else in low muttered tones. At first she'd figured it was another identical copy, perhaps the so called doctor from before, but as she listened the second voice sounded lighter, more feminine.

The perturbed Four turned back to face her, still halfway outside the curtain.

"Ms. Roslin, you have a visitor. I'll be back shortly and your IV will be inserted for your own safety. Please take this time to try and relax."

"Frak off," she flatly replied, suddenly too overcome with a wave of fatigue to scream at him again.

He disappeared leaving behind a gap in the open curtain. Laura allowed herself to lean back against the pillows as she watched the break in the drapes apprehensively wondering who or what was about to show itself and why.

Sharon Valerii cleared her throat and took a step inside.

She looked up and then locked eyes with Laura Roslin. For a moment neither spoke. Not even the beeping of the monitors and machines seemed to cut through the thick silence.

Roslin studied her with a scrutinizing stare. It unnerved the Eight for some reason.

"Lt. Valerii ?" she finally uttered to the cylon woman's utter shock.

"How could you tell it was me?" Boomer questioned, almost certain that no one had announced her.

"Get out!" Roslin demanded, immediately furious over the presence of the ex-colonial pilot turned attempted murder and traitor.

"Did they tell you I was the one coming?" Boomer tested, still confused as to how Roslin knew it was her.

She'd planned on keeping it to herself, knowing that the former president wouldn't be very receptive to a cylon who had masqueraded as a colonial before personally putting half a dozen bullets into Bill Adama's chest. Roslin somehow identifying her was going to make it all the more difficult to converse.

"You should get away from me," Laura warned. "You're the last one they should have sent in here," she added, intentionally ignoring Boomer's question.

Laura didn't know the answer to it and although she'd quickly shoved it out of her mind, the moment that she'd recognized the former Lieutenant she'd gotten chills throughout her body. How could she possibly discern one from the next? She didn't know but she had. She'd known it was Lt. Valerii almost instantly.

"I'm here to help you, Ma'am," Boomer attempted.

"As if being held prisoner here wasn't bad enough. Out of all these frakking toasters you're the one I want to see least!"

"Hey, I saved you this morning!" Boomer contested, annoyed at the woman's combative responses.

"After imprisoning me in the first place!" Roslin bit back.

Sharon paused and bit her lip. Yelling wasn't going to work with this woman. She knew that she would have to curb her own bitterness to get anywhere.

"Look, Ma'am. I know you won't believe this but I still hate myself for what I did to the Old Man. It was my programming. It wasn't me. I didn't want to…"

"Don't! Don't call him that! Don't even speak about him, do you understand me?" Laura roared with her index finger aggressively pointed in Boomer's direction. It was only the heavy sense of exhaustion that stopped her from leaping out of the bed and slapping the cylon right across her lying fraudulent face. "Because of you he suffered in ways your soulless toaster brain couldn't even begin to comprehend. And now because of you and your lot he had to leave us all here to fend for ourselves! If you knew him at all you would know what that's probably doing to him!"

"I loved him," Sharon insisted, knowing how pointless it would be but still finding herself overcome with the need to say it anyway.

"That's the last time I ever want to hear you make that claim," Roslin sneered in response.

Boomer sighed and crossed her arms in front of herself.

"Fine," she relented. "You should calm down. I didn't come to upset you. Simon said you pulled out your IV. I need you to let them put it back in," she said in a calmer and more pragmatic tone.

"They can fight me if they want to," Roslin shrugged.

"Ma'am, I swear that they are only trying to help in this case. And you should know…"

"Know what?"

"Well at this point their primary concern is to ensure the safety of your unborn baby. Cylons are pretty serious about the so-called blessing of children from God," Sharon shrugged. Even once her programming had switched on she didn't quite share the religious sentimentalities of her cylon kin. "But that compassion, I'm sure you can already presume, does not exactly ring true to you directly. They are going to come in here and restrain you or sedate you, whatever it takes, but they will hook that IV up if it's what Simon feels is best for the baby."

"What frakking baby!? Why in the name of the gods are you people doing this?" Laura implored. "If I was expecting a frakking baby, don't you think I would know!?"

"We aren't here to hurt the child. Far from it," Sharon tried to reinforce. "Extensive testing and scans have already been done. There's no use in lying to us."

"I need to get out of here," Laura groaned to herself, putting her cold palms to her heated cheeks.

She was beginning to feel as though she might panic.

"And you will once they are sure you're stable."

Laura gritted her teeth. She leaned back and wordlessly eyed the Eight with searing judgment.

"What?" Boomer said with some annoyance to her voice.

She didn't like the way Roslin looked at her. It was if she were searching for something.

"They, them, we, us," Laura listed off.

"Huh?" Sharon responded, bewildered as to what Roslin was trying to say.

"Make up your damn mind. You refer to the cylons as they or them when it suits you to distance yourself. You say we or us only when your compliance is overtly obvious. You're either one of them or you're not. You can't live in both worlds any longer, Lt. Valerii."

Sharon looked back at the women and bit her tongue hard, unwilling to let Roslin see how badly the statement had gotten to her. They'd come to the planet for integration and to reeducate, she reminded herself. Especially people like Roslin who were unwilling to see the similarity between the two races.

"This is New Caprica, Madam President. There is only this world now. For all of us," Sharon countered, but Roslin only looked back at her with more disgust.
"What the frak happened to Kara Thrace?" the woman abruptly interrogated out of building anger.
No one had seen or heard from Starbuck in weeks. Some presumed that she was dead. Laura still believed that Bill Adama would return for them. It was one of the only thoughts left that still kept her going and brought her hope. Yet the thought that upon seeing him again she would have to tell him that Thrace was gone haunted the otherwise sanguine idea of his return.

Boomer sighed.
"That, I honestly don't know, Ma'am."
Boomer wondered herself where Starbuck actually was. It was unsettling that her so-called family still kept so much from her, but she had no place else to go. No one else would have her and so here she was.

"Bull," Roslin griped.

"Look, this time you were never meant to be harmed," Boomer attempted to steer the conversation clear of something she had little to no knowledge of and probably shouldn't be talking about.

"This time," Roslin echoed with a roll of her eyes.

"You were taken to foster greater adherence to the new law...maybe to spread some fear or- or respect for authority," Boomer awkwardly reworded. "That's usually why they take people in broad daylight. To show others what can happen if they don't follow the rules and try to work with us. You're a public figure. High profile. When you're taken news spreads fast. People start respecting curfew and city limits better, at least for a while. It's when they take people in the cover of darkness when it's usually…" Sharon shrugged, not wanting to confirm something Roslin already knew after her previous holds and the stories she'd no doubt heard from others.

"Well great," Laura jested. "At least I'll know when to really worry."

Boomer frowned and decided to move on. She'd been sent for a reason. Arguing was not it.

"I need to talk to you," she began,"about the child."

Laura froze. The child. Looking into the face of Hera's mother, at least one which looked identical to it, already had her on high alert. She hadn't quite realized how much she'd been dreading the possibility, but there it was looming in front of her like a nightmare come to fruition. She stayed quiet, her eyes waiting for the Eight to continue.

"The tests we ran on your baby-"

"Oh for frak sake!" Laura bellowed, before Boomer could even finish the sentence. She let herself fall back on the pillows in a huff, all at once annoyed that Valerii was keeping up the ridiculous ruse and supremely relieved that the hybrid child had not been the topic at hand after all.

"The tests we ran," Boomer repeated in a firmer tone, "alerted us to something rather interesting."

"I'm not interested."

"What we found," Boomer went on, unphased by Roslin's defiance, "was that the fetus has cylon attributes present within its DNA."

Laura cringed and closed her eyes against the absurdity of what she was hearing. Internally she counted to ten, wishing like hell she'd wake up and find that it was all a horrible dream. The detail they were going into was maddening. What the frak was it all for? Her mind was starting to race and she was beginning to break out into a cold sweat.

"At first we were confused," Boomer continued, unsure if she still had Roslin's focus or not. "There were all kinds of speculations initially that maybe...maybe the father was cylon."

Laura let out a sardonic laugh and returned her attention to the clyon woman.

"Not that I care to add to your web of bullshit, but just so you know, I wouldn't frak a toaster if it were the last option left in the universe including all other mechanical appliances."

"Well, we figured as much," Boomer mused, seeming minimally entertained by Roslin's quip. "It didn't make much sense. Especially since the estimated conception date was well before we found you here on New Caprica. But then Baltar-"

"Baltar?!" Laura fumed." So that idiot is in on this too?"

"Baltar was alerted of your condition once the test results came back. Then he…"

"He what? Went back to frakking his sleazy harem?"

Boomer forced herself to ignore Roslins jeering and went on.

"He explained your cure, Ma'am. Your miraculous recovery."

Laura's stomach flipped at Boomer's divlugiance.

They knew about Hera after all. She silently hoped Balter was choking somewhere nearby.

"You were given a blood transfusion from Sharon's baby before she died, before she was even born. Do you deny that?"

Laura looked up at the Eight but said nothing. What good would it do?

"That cylon child saved your life. And even so you couldn't let her live?" Boomer accused.

"Listen to me, Eight," Laura hissed. "That's your number isn't it? No name. Not Sharon Valerii, not Boomer, not Lieutenant, a frakking number," she mocked. "Your monkey in a suit president frakking accomplice took that poor child's blood and he injected it into me without my consent or knowledge. I was dying. I was comatose by then. They gave me no choice, but let me tell you something, Lt. Valerii, Eight whatever the frak you are, had I been lucid, had they asked me, I would have denied that cure and died because I want nothing from you. I know how dangerous you really are," Laura seethed. "I didn't have that baby killed. The child was born too early and she died as a result of her premature birth, but had she lived, you're damn right I wouldn't want her anywhere near me or my people," Laura declared, giving every outward indication that she absolutely detested the thought of hybrid's existence while internally she prayed that she'd be back soon to hug Isis good night.

Sharon's eyes almost betrayed her. She'd expected Roslin's denial but not the ire it came with.

"Well dead or alive, she's closer to you than you think."

"What?" Laura returned, as she felt the blood rush from her face.

They knew. They knew that Isis was Hera. They'd probably already taken her.

"Because you were given the hybrid child's blood your DNA has been altered. It now carries cylon attributes itself that according to Dr. Baltar were not present before your cure, which explains why your unborn child's DNA is exhibiting them as well. Part of Sharon's child lives within you and your baby."

Laura stared back at Sharon. She felt ready to crack at any moment. It felt worse than any chamalla vision or nightmare she'd ever experienced and she was so unbelievably drained of energy, she could hardly process it all.

"You need to tell me what I have to do to get out of here," she pleaded, trying her best to keep her voice from wavering.

"I'm trying to do that, Ma'am."

"Keep me much longer and there will be retaliation from the people. You said it yourself, I was taken to send a message. Well some may fall in line as you hope, but others are going to make you wish you'd never slapped the cuffs on me. Are you ready to arouse that kind of insurgency?"

"Isn't that happening anyway?" Boomer challenged.

"Fine. Keep me here. Speed it up and make it worse for yourselves."

"We can help you. Protect you and your baby. We don't want any harm to come to another cylon child, even if the child is only a very small part cylon."

"Shut the frak up, Sharon! Give it a rest!"

"Do you really not believe us? Or are you just trying to play ignorant?!"

"Of course I don't frakking believe you!"

Boomer scowled.

"You mean you didn't know? You're like thirteen weeks along. How didnt you know?" she contested, now genuinely curious.

"There's nothing to know! It's not possible. Very inventive lie though, I must say."

"Why wouldn't it be possible?" Boomer questioned, causing Laura to look at her as if it were the dumbest thing she could have asked.

"What? Your health? Your age?" the Eight questioned. "You're cured. You've recovered. And my mother didn't have me until she was about your age. It's not impossible. It was actually sort of common back where I'm from on Troy. It's not over til' it's over as they say," she added.

Laura's brow arched and she cocked her head to the side.

"Your mother?" she echoed. "You don't have parents. Remember? You're not from Troy or any other Colonial planet or moon. You told us. That was all a lie. Planted memories or so you claimed."

Boomer swallowed, her cheeks burned a bit, embarrassed that she'd forgotten for a moment. It always made her feel so foolish. She slipped often in conversation and even within her own internal thought often. With the shame it brought grief all over again each time. The constant reminder that her life before wasn't real.

"Still…" Sharon muttered. "It happens."

"Sure."

"Listen, you have to know the unique identity of this child is of great interest to them. They'll want to keep even closer tabs on you now. They may want to examine you from time to time. They're planning on letting you go as soon as you're stable and rested, but if you work with me I may be able to get you out sooner."

Laura shuddered at the prospect of even the thought of being in such a position.

"Work with you?" she repeated.

"Let Simon give you the IV. You already took more than half of it as it is. What difference will it make now?" Boomer challenged. "When you're done I'll transport you directly to Cottle. Not home or to frakking Colonel Tighi or anywhere else. To the medical tent only and I'll release you into Cottle's care. You should still be under observation and if you wont listen to us then maybe you'll listen to that old bastard," Boomer gruffly offered. "Deal? Will you let them come in here? Give you the meds without a fight?"

Laura clenched her jaw so tightly it hurt.

"I don't suppose I have much of a choice."