Title- Everything that was, will be again
Author- Igore
Part- 11/?
Date- 06/03/2009
Rating - R
Pairings/Characters- Lee, Kara, Anders, Adama, Zak, OC
Word Count- 3192
Category- SAGA!!
Genre- AU Story; Action and angst.
Archiving- The Fallout Shelter, Apollo/Starbuck Fan Fic, KaraLee,
Fanfiction.net, all other's please ask
Warnings- Violence, torture, suggested sexual situations...
Spoilers- All seasons

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are
the property of their respective owners. The original characters and
plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way
associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media
franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

----

They broke into a clearing in the trees, on the crest of a hill looking down at
the cabin. The trees, though were sparse, were close enough together to prevent
any obvious aerial spotting; they also blocked most of the sun from reaching the
ground. Like most pine tree forests, the ground was barren, dirt, pine needles,
and vines the only things growing at this elevation. Clouds obscured the sun,
turning everything grey, and coupled with the shadows of the trees, the cabin
that covered the bunker's entrance looked very unwelcoming.

If Lee wasn't so focused, he might have been depressed.

He had spent most of the time it had taken to return to the bunker answering
infuriating questions. It was probably one of the things that always itched in
the worst way, questions about his family was high on the list. It had been two
hours before Agathon mustered up the spunk to ask if Lee was related to William
Adama. He had to tramp down the immediate hatred that began to flood him. It was
none of their frakkin business and any opinions they formed about it only served
to enrage him further.

The two behind him thankfully didn't pick up on his mood, and Lee made sure it
stayed that way.

He had sat at the fire for an hour, regaled by the pair's fight for survival.
Agathon running from the Cylons, his rescue by Valerii from a mysterious woman,
their discovery of a empty stocked bunker, their evasion of the Cylons,
Valerii's capture and rescue by Agathon, and finally their decision to return to
Delphi to try and fly their way off the planet.

At the time Lee had barely suppressed the urge to laugh at their antics. Instead
he just nodded and retained the guise of an attentive listener. In truth he had
been watching their faces as they spoke, and the ticks and twitches told him
more than the entirety of their story. He had managed in the end, with very
little debate, to convince them to return with him to the safety of the bunker.
By the time they had started their hike back his digital watch read o-hundred
hours.

The trek back had been uneventful. His mental state became a fine razor, taking
in every observation he could glean from his two new guests. Their time on a
ship destined for decommissioning left their military propriety lax. The only
thing that kept them from being insubordinate was the added 'sir' on the end of
each sentence. The lack of a tight formation, and the presence of conversation
and questions made him think they had gone soft. They were obviously used to
questioning orders, cutting corners, trading tasks, and generally getting their
way.

To supply his cool exterior, Lee busied himself with the long list of tasks that
awaited him when he got back. They would have to train the C-bucks so they could
start rescue operations as soon as possible. It would take at least a week to
well them good enough to act as backup in the field.

But it would have to wait till they found someone with comparable engineering
and medical experience before they could risk Nestor or Callisto coming along.
They needed to figure out a good forward base, medical shifts. The list went on
and on. There would be no shortage of tasks, but the most important would be the
whopper of the lie he was going have to tell the whole lot of them.

The moment Lee exposed the fact there was no hope, was the moment the civvies
started lovingly smothering their children, blessedly shooting each other in the
head, to spare them the pain of life without the possibility of life having a
happy ending.

Course that put to question the value of either ending. A bullet from a silver
monster, or the one you love. Or the one you frak. But Lee was not the suicidal
type, a robot's bullet would have to do; and he was going to have to make up one
big lie just to keep the idiots going.

The problem with that plan was the fact there was no lie in his arsenal
believable enough to last past a few months. A resistance movement would create
more problems than solutions. Reasons and explanations would immediately fall
apart if anyone other than his team went out into the field.

At the same time he wasn't about to spend the rest of his life sitting in that
pit while he could be out there doing something, saving lives. The civvies were
the priority, but they weren't going to tell him what to do. Lee knew if he
spent too much time in that hole he was going to either take a one way trip into
the mountains, or open fire until one of his team puts a bullet to him.

It was another form of suicide, and he still wasn't the type.

Another issue was the couple following him. They had stopped to rest twice on
the journey back, the last one to contact the bunker so that his team could prep
for their arrival. He could tell the two were fit, but their muscles were still
suffering from a stay on a ship with nothing to do and nowhere to go. It didn't
help that Valerii had started vomiting, and that Agathon was distracted with
concern. Normally Lee would call them back to attention, but the cabin was in
sight, and anyone stationed for lookout would be covering them.

Ignoring the hushed conversation behind him Lee activated the radio attached to
his vest.

"Anyone home?"

He managed to signal the two flyboys behind him to slow their pace. It was a
good idea not to come unannounced, no matter unintentional, on a place he knew
was being guarded. Nestor's voice crackled from the headphone nestled in Lee's
ear.

"That you sir?"

He could almost feel Nestor's rifle site training on him. He maintained his calm
demeanor for the benefit of the two following. Finally remembering their
training, they picked up on his caution and fell into flanking positions. They
kept their guns holstered, probably because Lee hadn't brought his rifle
forward.

"In the flesh. Radio the captain and let her know I'm coming down with two
flyboys who both need a medical run down."

There was a moment of unnamed tension before they heard the response.

"Will do sir."

Lee didn't glance back, but could feel Agathon and Valerii relax slightly. So
close to their journey's end, with a fresh bed and some meds waiting for them,
made life a whole lot brighter. The next few steps were silent, the thick air
enveloping them, pressing in at their sides, the sounds of the forest running
through his body. Lee felt the chirp of the bird in his hand as he closed it
around the handle of the door. Opening the wooden door inward he immediately
noticed Nestor greetining at him with a friendly smile. Without pausing, Lee
took long strides into the room. The flyboys followed, almost as if they
attached by leashes, walking right past Callisto who was leaning against the
wall with her weapon drawn.

Without warning the medic took aim and fired. The first shot hit Valerii, making
her stagger to her knees. The sudden action making Agathon turn and catch the
second shot in the chest, dropping him instantly with a loud thud. Valerii was
grasping at her back, trying to touch the impact wound. She managed to stand,
using the table in the middle of the room as a crutch and swivled her head
blindly around the room . Lee was looking surprised at the fact she was still
moving. A second shot from Callisto brought the woman to the floor.

The medic holstered the tranq gun and there was a moment before the three went
to work moving the unconscious bodies to the lift in the fireplace. Finding a
good grip underneath Agathon's shoulders, Lee noticed idly that the door was
still open, letting in the weak morning light. A depressing day indeed. Nestor
was dragging Valerii when he aired the question Lee was currently too involved
with carrying a frakkin heavy ass man to ask.

"How the hell was she able to remain conscious? Thought you said those darts
would take them out instantly."

Callisto grimaced, showing Lee that though she loved the engineer; he was
dangerously close to questioning her skills as a medic. It was as the equivalent
of giving Lee a nickname; and it didn't help that she was currently gripping the
underside of the tall man's knees while helping Lee balance the man to the lift.

"It should have. There's enough anesthesia in the darts to drop two people, so
she should have gone down immediately. Maybe she's on stims, but even then it
would have slowed the anesthesia down only for a few seconds. "

Agathon barely fit on the lift even after they curled him on his side in the
fetal position. Making sure he was clear, Lee activated the lift, and watched
the man descend where he would be delivered into the waiting arms of his Captain
and Lieutenant. Looking at Callisto across from him, Lee could tell she was
puzzling over what the hell had just happened, going over the amount of drugs
used, their ratio and what could have kept the compound from rendering the
newcomer unconscious. The lack of answers causing the frustration to show on her
face. When the lift came back up Lee and the medic situated Valerii, as Callisto
stepped on for the next trip down. He managed to catch her attention before he
hit the button to descend the lift.

"Get whatever samples you need after we get them down to the brig, figure out
what she's on before we start working on her."

The soldier nodded, and resumed her mental calculations, the frustration
obviously building. When she was out of sight, Lee kept his thumb on the red
button and turned back to Nestor who had closed the door and reoriented the
chair Agathon had knocked over on his way down to the floor. When the engineer's
attention came back to the Major, he surprised Lee withhis next words.

"Welcome back sir."

Looking at the man directly, Lee saw a young man, youngest of them all, but a
strength in the goodness the kid saw in people. He wasn't imposing, but the boy
had a head on his shoulders that was dangerous for those who underestimated him.
Lee liked the man, even if his laugh was annoying as hell. Lee was genuinely
glad to see him.

"Good to be back."

Nestor smiled and turned back to resume his post by the window. Moving his thumb
from the red button to the green, Lee brought the lift back up to the cabin, and
quickly assessed of the man as he sat in a chair positioned by the window,
Nestor had the scoped automatic to the window sill, resting it on a two legged
stand. If Lee had to guess, Nestor was in the middle of his lookout shift. When
the lift arrived Lee resumed his position, and before he hit the red to begin
his descent, he pulled out a nicety that he thought engineer would appreciate.

"I'll send one of the Bucks up some water and food."

The astonished look on Nestor's face had Lee chuckling on the way down. It was
strange to find humor when they had just taken prisoners. In retrospect it had
been the conversation around the campfire that tipped him off. Their story
wasn't entirely unbelievable, just highly unlikely. Especially compared with the
events he'd witnessed at delphi. If Agathon had been captured, he would be
burning on one of the pyres along with the rest of males his age, instead of
waiting for a strange woman to kill him. And if Valerii had been captured, she
would have been shoved into one of the facilities none of the women seemed to
come out of, rather than being dragged around in a burlap sack. The
inconsistencies mounted, but what sealed the deal was the unlikely coincidences
in what their faces told him.

When doing field work in the Colonial Security Bureau, Lee and his team received
regular training on the subject of Micro Expressions, the universal ticks a face
made when exhibiting certain emotions. Achilla was the best in their team, but
Lee was almost as good, and he learned much from the faces in the light of the
fire the previous night. Agathon was bone tired, stressed and believed every
word he said, his face an open book, likely due to his relaxed tour of service
on the Galactica. But Valerri fluctuated. She was anxious, tired, stressed, and
lying through her teeth. Whoever she worked for, it wasn't the colonies, and
whoever trained her had done a piss poor job. So when they had entered signal
range, Lee had radioed the bunker while on a 'bathroom' break and told his team
to prep to take POW's. But whatever the two were involved in, Valerii had
something to hide and Agathon was innocent, or just better trained, Lee was
going to find out, by any
means necessary.

The lift came to rest with the blast door left slightly open, to prevent
accidental sealing of the hatch. Passing through the entrance, and making his
way down the corridors, Lee couldn't help but notice how quiet everything was.
The bunker was built to house over a hundred people, and with only forty-three
running around the hallways, the place seemed empty. Thinking back to the faces
he'd seen through his binoculars; at the work camp, in the crowds being herded
into the hospitals; Lee knew his mission. The twisting feeling that had started
building when he'd first arrived was beginning to distress, demanding birth.
Ignoring it he continued down the corridor. Soon enough Lee was greeted by a
smiling Dion walking toward him.

"Heard you were still alive sir."

Dion's glib remarks always irritated Lee a little, but to his surprise, all he
felt was a warmth in his chest. Felt that was like coming home.

"Made it back alright, Lieutenant?"

The man in front of him still wasn't used to the new affection that Lee
displayed, his face twitching slightly while his brain caught up to the new
situation that contradicted the expected response to humor. Thankfully Dion
didn't question, just went along with it.

"Yeah, though the civvie Everett was a pain in the ass the whole way."

Lee knew that there were other more pressing matters, he had a laundry list of
tasks to complete, things that were more important than standing in the middle
of the hallway shooting the shit with his Lieutenant. But his emotions had been
clawing at him since he had entered the bunker, trying to tear their way out
from the inside. Bullshitting with Dion took the edge off, Lee didn't understand
it, but it worked. Trying his hand at the humor he'd seen from Dion, Lee
continued the conversation.

"Couldn't have just accidently lost him?"

Dion's response was immediate, making Lee understand that this was banter.

"Nah, his ghost probably would have popped up later and cut into my beauty
sleep."

The smile on the Lieutenant's face was worth the stab at humor. Slightly more at
ease with what was going on behind his eyes, Lee motioned for Dion to follow and
continued his walk.

"How long before we're ready to interview the POW's?"

Dion's face kept it's light from the humor that seemed to permeate the man, but
his demeanor went straight to business. 'Interviewing' as the bureau had long
since replaced 'interrogating' was a serious matter, and would have to be played
right if it was going to be effective. This wasn't their first rodeo, and there
was a proper way of going about prepping and interviewing someone. If everyone
did their job, it wouldn't take long for them to get the information they
needed.

"Got the male rigged and ready in the brig, another hour before Callisto's
cocktail wears off. Doc's right now getting her samples from the female before
we set her up for the interview. Said she should have the results before they
wake up."

The time table worked well. Lee needed both of them in the room when he began to
press them. The best way to press a POW was to place something they cared about
in jeopardy. With the way Agathon and Valerii had looked at each other, Lee had
clear leverage. Hopefully, with Callisto's results he wouldn't be walking into
any surprises.

"Good. Make sure you use the vertical hogtie when you rig the female."

Dion just nodded, understanding Lee's intent. It was a rig that kept the person
continually off balance, and placed the weight on the joints, never allowing the
person to gain purchase or leverage to break the bonds. It usually involved some
kind of stand, in the past he had used an chain link bed frame, or prison bars.
The strongest man in the colonies couldn't get out of that rig. It would also
make Valerii the main subject of the interview, since her reaction to the tranqs
made her the person of higher interest.

They were about turn the corner and head down the corridor that led to the
medical bay when Dion slowed and addressed Lee.

"Giving you the heads up. Captain ain't happy, sir."

Usually his squad sent him into the maw with a smile and a wave, so the warning
came as a surpise. But the situation took precedence over the oddness of this
friendly new dynamic in which he found himself.

"How angry?"

Achilla had been unhappy about sending only Lee and Dion out on the recon. So
the fact that Lee had sent Dion back and continued alon, instead of scrapping
the mission, was going to piss her off. How pissed off would depend on how she
took the news.

"Looked like she was going to kill me when I got back sir."

Lee sighed. He knew that Dion was being literal. Every person in his squad was a
killer. The cold efficiency with which they preformed their tasks usually made
most career soldiers uncomfortable. But with each other they were at ease. Dion
had a unique relationship with Achilla; they were friends that barked at each
other, and it had been that way since he'd joined the squad three years ago.
While they hadn't always gotten along, the threat of death challenged that
friendship.

Hard to be friends with someone when you might have to kill them in self
defense.

"Alright, I'll talk to her."

Dion nodded and headed toward the brig to ready Valerii for the interview. As he
left he threw over his shoulder.

"She told me that she'd meet you at the medical bay."

Lee continued until he was standing in front of the med bay. Taking a breath he
opened the hatch and stepped inside.

AN: Thank you to all that have reviewed, it is like cocaine injected directly
into my heart, no that I know what that feels like... Anway I have written
chapter 12 but my grammar beta is being a lazy butt (she said I could say this)
But please be patient, I am plugging away at this story, and I WILL FINISH IT
*Shaking fist at the sky*. Also POW means prisoner of war, just in case some of
you didn't know.