Fic: Descant (chapter 5)
Title: Descant (Chapter 5)
Rating: R
Characters: Kara/Leoben, Laura, Caprica, Boomer, & more
Word Count (this chapter): 2,739
WARNINGS: Non-canon character death. Canon-level violence and themes.
A/N: This is an AU that begins as the Cylons reach New Caprica and before Leoben imprisons Kara, so for those of you whose aversion to Kara/Leoben begins with the canon dollhouse, I hope you'll try this out.
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
One voice screams out, then another. A baby is crying.
Kara and Leoben scramble into their clothes; she cocks her gun as she runs. The screams are coming from a tent near the edge of the encampment, and they arrive just as other members of the resistance are running up. Kara waves them back, flips open the tent’s entrance.
It’s too dark to make out much of the scene inside: a woman is silhouetted, holding the crying child. The screamers have been silenced.
A shot cracks through the air and the woman falls.
Kara turns in shock, her ears ringing.
“I had to,” Leoben says, pushing past her.
Candles and flashlights suddenly illuminate the space as the resistance members and neighbors peer into the tent. On the ground lie the broken bodies of Tory and the teacher’s aide from the school. Kara takes them in with a glance, focused on the rest of the scene: Leoben is easing a baby away from the third body. D’Anna.
In a fraction of a second Kara resumes command, barking out orders to the resistance fighters to clear out the civilians, get rid of the Cylon body, wrap the other two women in sheets until morning. While they get to work Leoben stands in the center of the tent, rocking the toddler in his arms as her small hands cling to his still-unbuttoned shirt.
“What happened here?” Kara demands in an undertone, approaching him.
Leoben stares down at the baby. “I shot D’Anna,” he answers flatly.
Kara blinks in surprise, then lays her hand over his a moment.
He looks up at her, nods once in acceptance. “She wanted the child.”
“Why?”
“She’s our future.”
Kara spares a glance for the baby. It’s big enough to be walking, to be quiet now as it’s held. Her stomach turns. “The cylons want human children now, too?”
Leoben shakes his head, his eyes taking on the otherworldly sureness he has when he talks about her. “She’s the hybrid child. The daughter of an eight and a human.”
“Helo and Sharon?” She frowns. “Their baby died, Leoben. Back on Galactica.”
He smiles down at the baby. “She didn’t, Kara. She’s right here. I can see her place in the stream, her past.” For a moment his eyes seem to glow in the candlelight. “She has a bright future.”
From outside the tent, voices ring out. Laura Roslin pushes her way inside and Kara leaps toward her, reaching out her arms.
“I’m so sorry, Laura,” she says, wrapping her arms around the former president, turning her away from the bodies laid out in their shrouds.
“The child,” Roslin begs, twisting to see past Kara.
“She’s alright,” Leoben says, his voice and expression suddenly hard.
Kara grips the other woman’s arms tightly, her eyes darkening, too. “She’s Helo’s daughter,” Kara says harshly, watching as Laura flinches.
Roslin stares at Maya’s hair spilling out from under a sheet, her face twisted with guilt. She looks frantically at Kara, her voice stern but trembling. “We had to protect her. You can’t let them--”
“From who?” Kara cuts her off, eyes wide and horrified. “That’s Helo’s baby.” She swallows hard, remembering his grief over Hera’s death. Remembering Sharon’s.
“We had to,” Roslin says, her voice growing cold as she pulls away from Kara’s grasp. “She shot Bill. We had no way of knowing what would happen if we allowed her to raise this child.”
Kara looks toward the baby uncertainly, then snaps to alertness as gunfire sounds in the distance. “They’re coming,” she snaps. “Get back to Tigh and the others.” Before Roslin can protest, she snatches Hera from Leoben and ducks out of the tent, slipping away into the night.
*
As the sky lightens Kara kneels by the stream where she once planned to build a house. With cloth torn from her jacket she wipes splattered blood from Hera’s face. Leoben watches from a few feet away, feeling the eddies carrying him along. They will change the worlds somehow, these two.
“Do you think she’ll ever forget what happened?” Kara asks softly, looking toward him. Hera looks at him too, her gaze solemn.
He smiles, lowering himself beside them. “Our lives are shaped by many forces, but--”
“Gods, shut up,” Kara snaps, pulling the little girl into her lap. “When you see things like that when you’re little...”
He reaches out to squeeze her shoulder. He sees it for an instant: the five-year-old’s tears as she’s beaten for her father’s failings, the eight-year-old’s hand being slammed in a door.
“Leoben?” Kara’s voice is concerned and he lets go, realizing his grip has gotten far too tight.
“We’ll keep her safe,” he promises fervently.
Kara nods, resting her forehead against the child’s curls. “Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer,” she murmurs. “Keep Hera safe from harm and in your care.” She pulls back and Hera smiles. Kara hugs her tightly.
“Will more of the D’Annas come for her?” she asks softly, not letting her tone betray her worry.
Leoben frowns. “It’s possible.”
She looks at him sharply. “Do you know or don’t you?”
He shifts uncomfortably. “What I see isn’t always clear, Kara. God shows me glimpses of my own path and yours, but others only as they intersect--”
“Whatever,” Kara mutters, smiling quickly at Hera. “She’ll have to stay with us then.” She looks troubled by the thought, but nods firmly. Glancing sideways at him she adds quietly, “Her parents...were some of my best friends. Are...”
He nods. For a while they sit in silence as the sky shifts from pink and purple to pale blue. The baby sleeps in Kara’s arms. Eventually Leoben senses the stirring of tension, of wakefulness, from the settlement. “We should return,” he says softly. “They look to you for leadership.”
“Yeah.” Kara sighs, then stands, lifting Hera in her arms and cradling the child’s weight against her hip. Leoben tries to suppress his smile at the sight of her with the child, at the realization that he’s living another moment he’s long remembered.
Kara rolls her eyes at him and leads the way back toward the camp.
*
The tents are quiet as they approach--it’s still early, only an hour past sunrise, but the silence seems absolute. They’re halfway to the meeting place when Kara realizes: it’s the absence of Centurion footsteps that she’s hearing. She glances around sharply, covering Hera’s head with her hand as if it’s enough protection.
“They’re occupied,” Leoben says softly, as though reading her thoughts. “They’re regrouping. We’ll need to act quickly.”
She looks around and ducks sideways into a tent. Inside Duck reaches for his weapon, then relaxes at the sight of her and tilts his head toward the basement. Kara and Leoben descend.
They’re halfway down the stairs when the shouting reaches them.
“I don’t care what the frak you think you saw, lady, my wife is not a traitor!” Tigh yells over the tumult.
Kara squeezes through the last door and into the chamber, Hera’s arms tight around her neck at the sounds of chaos. She takes in the room in one glance: Boomer and Caprica and a half dozen other sixes and eights--she doesn’t pause to wonder how she knows which are which--are arrayed opposite Tigh and Ellen and Laura, whose eyes leap to the child in Kara’s arms as they enter.
“She’s feeding information to the Cavil!” Caprica protests. “I saw her with my own eyes.”
“Frakking machine!”
“Enough!” Kara cuts them off. “What’s going on?” She directs her words to Caprica, knowing Tigh will have something to say about that later.
“She thinks she saw my Ellen helping--”
“That woman, his wife.” Caprica says firmly. “She was in our facility. She was having,” she glances at the Tighs, “sex. With Cavil.”
Kara grimaces.
“Ellen is a lot of things but she is not disloyal!” Tigh growls.
Kara nods slowly, rubbing Hera’s back as the child clings to her. Then she turns to Ellen, remembering how distraught she’s been since Tigh went missing. Her stomach sinks. She waits.
“I only wanted--” Ellen begins tearfully.
Tigh roars a wordless protest and whirls away.
“I did it to keep you safe!” Ellen cries. “I love you so much, Saul! He told me they’d torture you, kill you if I didn’t!” Her husband has his back to her, and she moves closer. “I’m sorry,” she whimpers.
When Saul doesn’t answer, Ellen turns back to the group. “It’s alright, though. I can do it. It should be me.”
“Do what?” Kara demands.
“We were discussing,” Roslin says in measured tones, “who to send in to break through the jamming signals the Cylons have been sending. So we can contact Galactica.”
Kara’s eyes flare. “It’s out there?”
“Just can’t frakking hear us,” Tigh snaps.
“I can get in,” Ellen says calmly. “Cavil--” she winces, and Kara turns her face away from the other woman’s shame. “He’ll believe me if I tell him I don’t want him to come after Saul. He leaves me alone in his office...afterwards. Goes about his business.”
“Don’t,” Saul begs, turning back to them, his frailness and injury after the weeks of confinement suddenly readily apparent in the way he holds himself, the way his face crumbles.
Ellen smiles at him, her gaze pained. “It’s alright, Saul. I’ll do it and then they’ll all see. All I want is to help.”
“Alright,” Roslin says firmly. When Tigh opens his mouth to interrupt she shakes her head. “Somehow we have to let Galactica know we’re here and we’re ready for them. None of the rest of us will make it through the door.”
Hera squirms in Kara’s arms, trying to reach out for Laura and Kara turns away. She stares down at the little girl, then glances toward Boomer who’s still watching them. She catches Leoben’s eye too and nods her head away from the group.
They gather in a recessed corner of the room. Boomer bites her lip, her eyes eager.
“Here,” Kara murmurs, holding the child out. Hera’s eyes go wide, but she lets Boomer hold her, lets her bury her face in her hair. “I need to ask--” Kara flinches. “Is her mother alive? Do you know?”
Boomer nods. “Yes.”
Leoben’s hand rests on the small of her back as Kara sighs in relief. She leans into his support.
“Good,” she murmurs. Then she shifts gears. “I need to go out and talk to people. They’ll be waking up with Cylons in their midst and a lot of them aren’t going to like it. Can the two of you stay with Hera?”
Boomer grins widely. “Of course.”
Kara glances to Leoben and sees his assent. “Thanks.” She turns back to the group discussing the logistics of Ellen’s ploy, and gets to work.
*
Leoben and Boomer retreat into a recessed area at the back of the basement that has been set up as a sleeping area. Boomer settles Hera between them on a cot, stares down at the child in wonder as she rests her head on Boomer’s leg.
Leoben watches the toddler close her eyes, then flutters them open in surprise as Boomer’s projection appears around them.
“She can see it!” his sister says, elated.
He nods. “She’s Sharon’s daughter.”
Boomer looks up at him, nods once, then picks up a stuffed dog from the floor and hands it to Hera, who curls herself around it and falls asleep. “I was going to have Tyrol’s children,” she says softly.
He watches her and senses for the first time the sharpness of the loss she must feel. Having Kara in his arms, the intimacy of it, the connection--for the first time Leoben knows what it is that destiny has promised him, and he can imagine Boomer’s grief. “I’m sorry,” he says.
She glances at him sharply, noticing the change. “What is it?”
He gazes down at the child. “Kara.”
Boomer laughs for the first time in weeks. “You had sex.”
Leoben shrugs. “That and--and we’ll be able to die.”
She sighs. “I know.” Her voice is soft as she strokes Hera’s hair.
“I shot D’Anna,” he says then, as awareness of it swirls through him. “And I can’t feel her in the stream.” His face is drawn in confusion.
“You said Starbuck would lead us,” Boomer protests. “You were the one who said--”
“I know.” Leoben fights to catch his breath.
She reaches over the child, takes his hand. “We should pray for them.”
He nods; his sister is right. And he knows at once that the Prayer to the Cloud of Unknowing came to him all those years ago for this reason.
*
The day passes quickly out among the people as Kara tours the camp, Roslin and Tigh and Caprica and Gaius alongside her, explaining what has happened, convincing them to trust the twos and sixes and eights who need safe passage.
Another six brings word that the Centurions were successfully given free will during the escape, and while the news sends an icy chill through her, Kara is grateful for it when gunfire sounds from the Cylon headquarters and Caprica assures her the Centurions are taking care of Cavil and his followers.
As afternoon fades into evening, Kara walks with Tigh toward the edge of the encampment, the last row of tents. She stops a moment, gazing out toward the graveyard beyond, aching with the realization that she hasn’t thought of Sam all day.
“Starbuck?” Tigh asks gruffly.
“Sam died,” she says quickly. The words still hurt.
He looks down at her, his face creased in sympathy. “I’m sorry. He was a good man.”
She nods once, pushes back the emotions. “It’s what you said, though,” Kara says, flinching, as she begins to move again. “I chose what I could survive. If I’d lost...” she shakes her head. “I loved Sam. But I’m still here.” After a few steps she realizes Tigh isn’t beside her anymore and turns sharply.
The old man is standing frozen, tears in his eyes.
“What is it?” Kara asks.
“I could never live without her,” he says, his voice warbling. “I don’t know who I’d be without Ellen.”
Kara takes a step closer, reaches out hesitantly and touches his shoulder. “She’s sure she can do this.”
He stares off toward the Cylon complex. “She’s my wife.”
Kara can only nod.
Tigh turns back to her. “I’m going in.”
“If you blow her cover--”
“One of the skinjobs can take me prisoner,” he says, suddenly full of the command presence that used to fuel him. “I’m getting my wife.”
There’s no changing his mind, she sees that. “Get Galactica while you’re at it,” she says firmly.
With a hint of a smile and a salute, Tigh strides away across the sand.
*
Sometime after nightfall, back in their bunker, Kara rests her head on Leoben’s shoulder, her eyes daring anyone else in the room to make something of it. She’s too exhausted for the glare to have much force, but no one comments.
Her ribs are aching from the long day touring the camp, and her eyes are beginning to fall closed when suddenly Duck leaps upright with a shout.
“We’ve got them! We’ve got Galactica!” he shrieks, drawing all eyes.
Kara’s on her feet in a flash, reads the words on the screen over his shoulder. A sob wells up inside of her. HAVE HOPE. WE’RE COMING FOR YOU. Leoben wraps an arm around her shoulders as relief overwhelms her. On her other side, Laura smiles at her through teary eyes and it feels like the nightmare is about to be over.
Then footsteps clatter down the stairs and Jammer bursts into the room. “It just went up!” he pants. “All the Cylons--the bunker exploded!” He gasps for breath.
Roslin’s face freezes and Kara closes her eyes.
“Did the Tighs make it out?” the former president asks stiffly.
Kara doesn’t look, but she hears the choked sound Laura makes as Jammer answers, and it’s enough. She turns, buries her face in Leoben’s shirt and holds on.
*
Leoben leads Kara away from the others, back toward Boomer and Hera. He lays down with her on a cot, lets her cry until she falls asleep.
He feels the stream flood through him suddenly, as his very existence changes. It is slower now, narrower--the branching paths of destiny restricted to a single way forward. The last resurrection ship is gone.
Chapter 6
Rating: R
Characters: Kara/Leoben, Laura, Caprica, Boomer, & more
Word Count (this chapter): 2,739
WARNINGS: Non-canon character death. Canon-level violence and themes.
A/N: This is an AU that begins as the Cylons reach New Caprica and before Leoben imprisons Kara, so for those of you whose aversion to Kara/Leoben begins with the canon dollhouse, I hope you'll try this out.
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
One voice screams out, then another. A baby is crying.
Kara and Leoben scramble into their clothes; she cocks her gun as she runs. The screams are coming from a tent near the edge of the encampment, and they arrive just as other members of the resistance are running up. Kara waves them back, flips open the tent’s entrance.
It’s too dark to make out much of the scene inside: a woman is silhouetted, holding the crying child. The screamers have been silenced.
A shot cracks through the air and the woman falls.
Kara turns in shock, her ears ringing.
“I had to,” Leoben says, pushing past her.
Candles and flashlights suddenly illuminate the space as the resistance members and neighbors peer into the tent. On the ground lie the broken bodies of Tory and the teacher’s aide from the school. Kara takes them in with a glance, focused on the rest of the scene: Leoben is easing a baby away from the third body. D’Anna.
In a fraction of a second Kara resumes command, barking out orders to the resistance fighters to clear out the civilians, get rid of the Cylon body, wrap the other two women in sheets until morning. While they get to work Leoben stands in the center of the tent, rocking the toddler in his arms as her small hands cling to his still-unbuttoned shirt.
“What happened here?” Kara demands in an undertone, approaching him.
Leoben stares down at the baby. “I shot D’Anna,” he answers flatly.
Kara blinks in surprise, then lays her hand over his a moment.
He looks up at her, nods once in acceptance. “She wanted the child.”
“Why?”
“She’s our future.”
Kara spares a glance for the baby. It’s big enough to be walking, to be quiet now as it’s held. Her stomach turns. “The cylons want human children now, too?”
Leoben shakes his head, his eyes taking on the otherworldly sureness he has when he talks about her. “She’s the hybrid child. The daughter of an eight and a human.”
“Helo and Sharon?” She frowns. “Their baby died, Leoben. Back on Galactica.”
He smiles down at the baby. “She didn’t, Kara. She’s right here. I can see her place in the stream, her past.” For a moment his eyes seem to glow in the candlelight. “She has a bright future.”
From outside the tent, voices ring out. Laura Roslin pushes her way inside and Kara leaps toward her, reaching out her arms.
“I’m so sorry, Laura,” she says, wrapping her arms around the former president, turning her away from the bodies laid out in their shrouds.
“The child,” Roslin begs, twisting to see past Kara.
“She’s alright,” Leoben says, his voice and expression suddenly hard.
Kara grips the other woman’s arms tightly, her eyes darkening, too. “She’s Helo’s daughter,” Kara says harshly, watching as Laura flinches.
Roslin stares at Maya’s hair spilling out from under a sheet, her face twisted with guilt. She looks frantically at Kara, her voice stern but trembling. “We had to protect her. You can’t let them--”
“From who?” Kara cuts her off, eyes wide and horrified. “That’s Helo’s baby.” She swallows hard, remembering his grief over Hera’s death. Remembering Sharon’s.
“We had to,” Roslin says, her voice growing cold as she pulls away from Kara’s grasp. “She shot Bill. We had no way of knowing what would happen if we allowed her to raise this child.”
Kara looks toward the baby uncertainly, then snaps to alertness as gunfire sounds in the distance. “They’re coming,” she snaps. “Get back to Tigh and the others.” Before Roslin can protest, she snatches Hera from Leoben and ducks out of the tent, slipping away into the night.
*
As the sky lightens Kara kneels by the stream where she once planned to build a house. With cloth torn from her jacket she wipes splattered blood from Hera’s face. Leoben watches from a few feet away, feeling the eddies carrying him along. They will change the worlds somehow, these two.
“Do you think she’ll ever forget what happened?” Kara asks softly, looking toward him. Hera looks at him too, her gaze solemn.
He smiles, lowering himself beside them. “Our lives are shaped by many forces, but--”
“Gods, shut up,” Kara snaps, pulling the little girl into her lap. “When you see things like that when you’re little...”
He reaches out to squeeze her shoulder. He sees it for an instant: the five-year-old’s tears as she’s beaten for her father’s failings, the eight-year-old’s hand being slammed in a door.
“Leoben?” Kara’s voice is concerned and he lets go, realizing his grip has gotten far too tight.
“We’ll keep her safe,” he promises fervently.
Kara nods, resting her forehead against the child’s curls. “Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer,” she murmurs. “Keep Hera safe from harm and in your care.” She pulls back and Hera smiles. Kara hugs her tightly.
“Will more of the D’Annas come for her?” she asks softly, not letting her tone betray her worry.
Leoben frowns. “It’s possible.”
She looks at him sharply. “Do you know or don’t you?”
He shifts uncomfortably. “What I see isn’t always clear, Kara. God shows me glimpses of my own path and yours, but others only as they intersect--”
“Whatever,” Kara mutters, smiling quickly at Hera. “She’ll have to stay with us then.” She looks troubled by the thought, but nods firmly. Glancing sideways at him she adds quietly, “Her parents...were some of my best friends. Are...”
He nods. For a while they sit in silence as the sky shifts from pink and purple to pale blue. The baby sleeps in Kara’s arms. Eventually Leoben senses the stirring of tension, of wakefulness, from the settlement. “We should return,” he says softly. “They look to you for leadership.”
“Yeah.” Kara sighs, then stands, lifting Hera in her arms and cradling the child’s weight against her hip. Leoben tries to suppress his smile at the sight of her with the child, at the realization that he’s living another moment he’s long remembered.
Kara rolls her eyes at him and leads the way back toward the camp.
*
The tents are quiet as they approach--it’s still early, only an hour past sunrise, but the silence seems absolute. They’re halfway to the meeting place when Kara realizes: it’s the absence of Centurion footsteps that she’s hearing. She glances around sharply, covering Hera’s head with her hand as if it’s enough protection.
“They’re occupied,” Leoben says softly, as though reading her thoughts. “They’re regrouping. We’ll need to act quickly.”
She looks around and ducks sideways into a tent. Inside Duck reaches for his weapon, then relaxes at the sight of her and tilts his head toward the basement. Kara and Leoben descend.
They’re halfway down the stairs when the shouting reaches them.
“I don’t care what the frak you think you saw, lady, my wife is not a traitor!” Tigh yells over the tumult.
Kara squeezes through the last door and into the chamber, Hera’s arms tight around her neck at the sounds of chaos. She takes in the room in one glance: Boomer and Caprica and a half dozen other sixes and eights--she doesn’t pause to wonder how she knows which are which--are arrayed opposite Tigh and Ellen and Laura, whose eyes leap to the child in Kara’s arms as they enter.
“She’s feeding information to the Cavil!” Caprica protests. “I saw her with my own eyes.”
“Frakking machine!”
“Enough!” Kara cuts them off. “What’s going on?” She directs her words to Caprica, knowing Tigh will have something to say about that later.
“She thinks she saw my Ellen helping--”
“That woman, his wife.” Caprica says firmly. “She was in our facility. She was having,” she glances at the Tighs, “sex. With Cavil.”
Kara grimaces.
“Ellen is a lot of things but she is not disloyal!” Tigh growls.
Kara nods slowly, rubbing Hera’s back as the child clings to her. Then she turns to Ellen, remembering how distraught she’s been since Tigh went missing. Her stomach sinks. She waits.
“I only wanted--” Ellen begins tearfully.
Tigh roars a wordless protest and whirls away.
“I did it to keep you safe!” Ellen cries. “I love you so much, Saul! He told me they’d torture you, kill you if I didn’t!” Her husband has his back to her, and she moves closer. “I’m sorry,” she whimpers.
When Saul doesn’t answer, Ellen turns back to the group. “It’s alright, though. I can do it. It should be me.”
“Do what?” Kara demands.
“We were discussing,” Roslin says in measured tones, “who to send in to break through the jamming signals the Cylons have been sending. So we can contact Galactica.”
Kara’s eyes flare. “It’s out there?”
“Just can’t frakking hear us,” Tigh snaps.
“I can get in,” Ellen says calmly. “Cavil--” she winces, and Kara turns her face away from the other woman’s shame. “He’ll believe me if I tell him I don’t want him to come after Saul. He leaves me alone in his office...afterwards. Goes about his business.”
“Don’t,” Saul begs, turning back to them, his frailness and injury after the weeks of confinement suddenly readily apparent in the way he holds himself, the way his face crumbles.
Ellen smiles at him, her gaze pained. “It’s alright, Saul. I’ll do it and then they’ll all see. All I want is to help.”
“Alright,” Roslin says firmly. When Tigh opens his mouth to interrupt she shakes her head. “Somehow we have to let Galactica know we’re here and we’re ready for them. None of the rest of us will make it through the door.”
Hera squirms in Kara’s arms, trying to reach out for Laura and Kara turns away. She stares down at the little girl, then glances toward Boomer who’s still watching them. She catches Leoben’s eye too and nods her head away from the group.
They gather in a recessed corner of the room. Boomer bites her lip, her eyes eager.
“Here,” Kara murmurs, holding the child out. Hera’s eyes go wide, but she lets Boomer hold her, lets her bury her face in her hair. “I need to ask--” Kara flinches. “Is her mother alive? Do you know?”
Boomer nods. “Yes.”
Leoben’s hand rests on the small of her back as Kara sighs in relief. She leans into his support.
“Good,” she murmurs. Then she shifts gears. “I need to go out and talk to people. They’ll be waking up with Cylons in their midst and a lot of them aren’t going to like it. Can the two of you stay with Hera?”
Boomer grins widely. “Of course.”
Kara glances to Leoben and sees his assent. “Thanks.” She turns back to the group discussing the logistics of Ellen’s ploy, and gets to work.
*
Leoben and Boomer retreat into a recessed area at the back of the basement that has been set up as a sleeping area. Boomer settles Hera between them on a cot, stares down at the child in wonder as she rests her head on Boomer’s leg.
Leoben watches the toddler close her eyes, then flutters them open in surprise as Boomer’s projection appears around them.
“She can see it!” his sister says, elated.
He nods. “She’s Sharon’s daughter.”
Boomer looks up at him, nods once, then picks up a stuffed dog from the floor and hands it to Hera, who curls herself around it and falls asleep. “I was going to have Tyrol’s children,” she says softly.
He watches her and senses for the first time the sharpness of the loss she must feel. Having Kara in his arms, the intimacy of it, the connection--for the first time Leoben knows what it is that destiny has promised him, and he can imagine Boomer’s grief. “I’m sorry,” he says.
She glances at him sharply, noticing the change. “What is it?”
He gazes down at the child. “Kara.”
Boomer laughs for the first time in weeks. “You had sex.”
Leoben shrugs. “That and--and we’ll be able to die.”
She sighs. “I know.” Her voice is soft as she strokes Hera’s hair.
“I shot D’Anna,” he says then, as awareness of it swirls through him. “And I can’t feel her in the stream.” His face is drawn in confusion.
“You said Starbuck would lead us,” Boomer protests. “You were the one who said--”
“I know.” Leoben fights to catch his breath.
She reaches over the child, takes his hand. “We should pray for them.”
He nods; his sister is right. And he knows at once that the Prayer to the Cloud of Unknowing came to him all those years ago for this reason.
*
The day passes quickly out among the people as Kara tours the camp, Roslin and Tigh and Caprica and Gaius alongside her, explaining what has happened, convincing them to trust the twos and sixes and eights who need safe passage.
Another six brings word that the Centurions were successfully given free will during the escape, and while the news sends an icy chill through her, Kara is grateful for it when gunfire sounds from the Cylon headquarters and Caprica assures her the Centurions are taking care of Cavil and his followers.
As afternoon fades into evening, Kara walks with Tigh toward the edge of the encampment, the last row of tents. She stops a moment, gazing out toward the graveyard beyond, aching with the realization that she hasn’t thought of Sam all day.
“Starbuck?” Tigh asks gruffly.
“Sam died,” she says quickly. The words still hurt.
He looks down at her, his face creased in sympathy. “I’m sorry. He was a good man.”
She nods once, pushes back the emotions. “It’s what you said, though,” Kara says, flinching, as she begins to move again. “I chose what I could survive. If I’d lost...” she shakes her head. “I loved Sam. But I’m still here.” After a few steps she realizes Tigh isn’t beside her anymore and turns sharply.
The old man is standing frozen, tears in his eyes.
“What is it?” Kara asks.
“I could never live without her,” he says, his voice warbling. “I don’t know who I’d be without Ellen.”
Kara takes a step closer, reaches out hesitantly and touches his shoulder. “She’s sure she can do this.”
He stares off toward the Cylon complex. “She’s my wife.”
Kara can only nod.
Tigh turns back to her. “I’m going in.”
“If you blow her cover--”
“One of the skinjobs can take me prisoner,” he says, suddenly full of the command presence that used to fuel him. “I’m getting my wife.”
There’s no changing his mind, she sees that. “Get Galactica while you’re at it,” she says firmly.
With a hint of a smile and a salute, Tigh strides away across the sand.
*
Sometime after nightfall, back in their bunker, Kara rests her head on Leoben’s shoulder, her eyes daring anyone else in the room to make something of it. She’s too exhausted for the glare to have much force, but no one comments.
Her ribs are aching from the long day touring the camp, and her eyes are beginning to fall closed when suddenly Duck leaps upright with a shout.
“We’ve got them! We’ve got Galactica!” he shrieks, drawing all eyes.
Kara’s on her feet in a flash, reads the words on the screen over his shoulder. A sob wells up inside of her. HAVE HOPE. WE’RE COMING FOR YOU. Leoben wraps an arm around her shoulders as relief overwhelms her. On her other side, Laura smiles at her through teary eyes and it feels like the nightmare is about to be over.
Then footsteps clatter down the stairs and Jammer bursts into the room. “It just went up!” he pants. “All the Cylons--the bunker exploded!” He gasps for breath.
Roslin’s face freezes and Kara closes her eyes.
“Did the Tighs make it out?” the former president asks stiffly.
Kara doesn’t look, but she hears the choked sound Laura makes as Jammer answers, and it’s enough. She turns, buries her face in Leoben’s shirt and holds on.
*
Leoben leads Kara away from the others, back toward Boomer and Hera. He lays down with her on a cot, lets her cry until she falls asleep.
He feels the stream flood through him suddenly, as his very existence changes. It is slower now, narrower--the branching paths of destiny restricted to a single way forward. The last resurrection ship is gone.
Chapter 6