The Healing process [tag Kyla, J.L, ota.]

[cylon_numbertwo]

Leoben had nearly died, and from what he'd been told his heart had stopped more than once on the ambulance ride there. He had been in what passed for intensive care at the clinic for the past couple days, heavily sedated for most of it. Now in stable condition he was wheeled into a private room. There the nurses and staff told him that the 'robot

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[deathtotoasters]

Kyla hadn't left the clinic since arriving after taking down Six. She hadn't claimed the kill. She had merely taken the shot and then hurried back to the clinic only to have to wait hours for Leoben to get out of surgery. Since then, Kyla hadn't left, and it had taken a told on her to where it made her look a little more like she usually did back home. She had tired, dark eyes from lack of sleep and worry. Her hair was flatter and dull, pulled back into a ponytail that was her constant as a soldier. She had given herself one time to cry when she had been left alone with Leoben in the room and had promised she wouldn't cry again. She had known hundreds of people who had died, but this time it was different. She had never had to face with someone almost dying that she loved. LovedThrough the days she still didn't know how she was going to tell Leoben she had killed his sister. If it hadn't gone down the way it did, Kyla might not have trusted him, but she had seen him take a bullet for her and almost die. He could have just let the

[cylon_numbertwo]

Leoben saw her and a weight was lifted from his shoulders. His hand not connected to the IV reached out for her.

"You're alright..."

Although, perhaps, if should have been her saying that.

[deathtotoasters]

She pressed her lips together and nodded before she walked over to him, pulling a chair with her, and sat down so he didn't have to strain.

"You... weren't, for a long time." Her eyes slowly roamed over the features of his face, taking it all in with quiet worry.

[cylon_numbertwo]

"I'm sorry that I scared you." he frowned, "I was... scared myself..."

It was the first time that he'd faced death without the comfort that he'd simply be resurrected. It made him more thankful about life, but it had still frightened him.

[deathtotoasters]

She squeezed his hand gently, moving closer so that she was on the edge of the seat. "I've seen a lot of people die, a lot of people I knew, but..." Kyla looked at him with a small frown and shook her head. She had never been that scared before.

"I'm glad you're going to be fine. I wish... I just wish you didn't have to do what you did." And that he did it for her made her feel worse. It was the first time she even had a taste of what her parents must feel every time they lost someone. How her parents coped with that was beyond her.

[cylon_numbertwo]

"I wish I didn't as well." Leoben said, "But I would do it again to save you."

He wouldn't make an apology for that. He watched her a moment, just thankful to see her and see her unhurt, unlike himself.

"What happened?" he asked, tentatively, "After I was taken to the hospital.."

[deathtotoasters]

Kyla had known that the question was coming, but she hadn't thought it would come so soon. Guilt flashed for a moment in her eyes and she glanced away to the window briefly before looking back at him. She took a breath. "I went to go find Laura. Your... sister had her on the roof with a gun to her head. She looked really bad."

She felt something heavy on her chest. "I was on one of the roofs next to the hotel, with my rifle... and I had a clear shot."

And she had taken it without any hesitation.

[cylon_numbertwo]

He grimaced. She didn't need to tell him what happened next. Leoben didn't say anything, he just stared at the machine beeping as it checked his heartbeat.

Leoben had expected that Six hadn't survived, and Kyla had been right in her actions, but that didn't mean he mourned his sister less.

[deathtotoasters]

She frowned just a little, watching him quietly, not knowing what to say. The fact he wasn't looking at her was harder than anything else.

"...I'm sorry." It came out quiet. Kyla was sorry he had lost his sister, but not for what she had did. Leoben would probably know that already, though.

[cylon_numbertwo]

"You've nothing to apologize for. Six sealed her own fate by doing what she did." Leoben sighed, exhausted and saddened, "I just wish... wish someone-- myself, anyone, could have gotten through to her. Convinced her that this wasn't the way. But she wouldn't listen to me."

[deathtotoasters]

His sigh broke her heart. Leoben was normally so optimistic that seeing him like this was strange and unsettling. She wished there was something she could do to make it better.

"Why did she even do it?"

Besides being a machine - a thought Kyla felt just a little guilty for thinking right after her question.

[cylon_numbertwo]

"She wanted revenge." Leoben stated simply, "But couldn't see that that would never make her happy. Would never solve anything. It would only lead to more pain..."

[deathtotoasters]

Revenge was such a human thing that it surprised her.

"Revenge for what?" The question came out of her mouth before she could sensor herself. She didn't understand. Wasn't it the Cylons who had destroyed human life and not the other way around?

[cylon_numbertwo]

"For her death." he said, then continued, "Deaths, I should say." Leoben chewed on his lip a moment, "The first happened while we had the colonials essentially our prisoners on New Caprica. A colonial drowned her and she remembered the feeling of that slow death before she was resurrected."

Leoben himself had died countless times while he'd been holding Kara on New Caprica. But he didn't hold the same grudge. At the time he'd seen it as an acceptable burden to gain her eventual love. But each death had been painful and awful to recall. He could see why it scarred his sister.

"Then, when we, the Sixes, the Twos, and the Eights, were attempting to gain a truce between ourselves and the colonials, she ran into the colonial that killed her and let her anger get the better of her, killing the woman." Leoben shook his head, "Natalie, the Six who was leading us, was forced to kill her permanently in retribution because it was the only way we could continue and get the colonials to gain our trust...."

[deathtotoasters]

It was a little hard to understand, but Kyla was pretty sure she followed the whole thing. It was hard, now, to think of Leoben as a model and it was a reminder of J.L.'s words to her - that she was in danger of losing her perspective.

"...She was killed by another one of her own models?" That seemed very... harsh. Kyla associated it with the same idea if she jumped out of her own body and killed herself. She shook her head.

Kyla was happy that when she died, she wouldn't remember it. Death was a painful thing. She wasn't sure how she'd handle it if she remembered. It made her look at Leoben again with sad eyes. He had told her he had died many times before. How he seemed to handle it was beyond her.

"I wish.... I wish things were different." Kyla actually wished they didn't find themselves on different sides, as it were, but it came out the other way.

[cylon_numbertwo]

"Yes, she was killed by her own sister." he nodded, "Perhaps that was another aspect. She resented that the human truce was more important than her life."

Leoben could imagine why that had upset her, certainly.

"I do as well." he agreed, sadly, "But they are not."

Unfortunate, but nothing could be done about it.