Laura pressed her hand against her side and wheezed in a deep breath. The afternoon sun was warm, and she was tired. She was exhausted. She had been exhausted for days, the only thing keeping her moving was the unrelenting terror of being caught. She hadn't complained. It wasn't as though it would have done any good. But she was tired, and scared, and scared of just how stupid she was being.

Jack was probably already dead. That might have even been his plan, to get her to run to where he thought there was safety. She took another deep, shuddering breath. She hadn't seen anyone, not even a Cylon. The chances were slim to none that Gaeta... the Cylon had been telling the truth. That left her alone in the woods.

The sun was about an hour from setting. I could backtrack, she thought worriedly, but I won't get back until after nightfall. She didn't like it, but there was nothing else that could be done. A few more deep breathes and she was ready to turn around.

Except that when she did, she caught a flash of white leather and blonde hair rushing at her. Then her legs were kicked out from under her and she was face down on the ground. A kick to her ribs took her breath away and then she was pulled to her feet and spun around.

Six smiled at her, twisting her hand into the fabric of Laura's shift, lifting her up until she was on her toes. " What have we here? Don't you know that humans are to be within the settlement at all times? What shall we do with such a little troublemaker?" The last was said with a certain amount of grinding anger.

"I'll never do what you want," Laura hissed. The Cylon merely smiled as it revealed a gun in it's other hand.

" We have ways of making you do as you're told," it said softly. " You'll either participate willingly… or we'll make you into a puppet. But don't worry. If it comes to that, you certainly won't keep any awareness of it." The gun was held in front of her face, uncomfortably close. " If you ask nicely, I might even send a centurion to fetch your fallen doctor companion. He might still be alive, you know."

Laura twisted in its grip to no avail. " You bitch!"

" Such language. That's not very presidential. We'll need to clean your mouth up a bit before we let you give any more speeches." The Cylon savagely swung her around and began forcing her to move forward. " We'll just walk back to my transport and get you back to where you can do some good for your people."

"Wait!"

Before Laura could react to the voice, the Cylon pulled her back, holding her tightly and placing the barrel of the gun it held to her head. Not that it mattered, she was too shocked at the sudden appearance of Felix Gaeta. He stepped into the wooded clearing, holding Isis awkwardly with one arm, and a gun in his other hand. A gun that he held to the sleeping baby's head. " I think we should talk, Number Six."

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Cylon smirk, obviously amused. " Number Two, I had wondered how long it would take you to see reason. You can be very stubborn when you're ignoring logic. And you brought the baby. But then, you're a Two, and Twos are very clever. Clever, honest, and… loyal."

After a long moment, Gaeta nodded. " Clever, honest, and loyal…" His hand tightened around the gun. "But you're not a Two, and I'll need some assurances before I agree to come with you."

"You bastard!" Roslin couldn't help it. Six throttled her silent, gripping her with insanely strong arms. "You bitch!" she snarled at Six. Six clamped down on her throat. With her arm, pressing hard against her voice box.

"I'm listening," Six said.

Gaeta gestured to the baby. " You have Roslin. You need her, I know that. But… she made a point of bringing this baby with her. Dr. Cottle told me that the baby was special, but he wouldn't tell me why. I could guess though, and I think you can too. In fact I think you might find the baby more important than anything else." He paused. " And I have the baby. I could just kill her if she's not important." His fingers tightened.

Six was silent for a long moment. " The baby may be important," she conceded. She used her arm to keep pressure on Roslin's throat, making sure that Roslin couldn't say a word. Roslin struggled but it was like trying to get out of steel handcuffs. Six's grip tightened. " What do you want, Two?"

" Assurances," Gaeta said easily. " Assurance that I won't be in trouble. There'll be some trouble. I'm not a fool. You'll be in trouble for activating me when you weren't supposed to. I'll be in trouble for running with the humans. The question is how to do we mitigate our trouble? You need Roslin and the baby. Perhaps this was all your plan. You activated me for the purpose of keeping track of the forming resistance, knowing that I was a trusted member of the society. Ms. Roslin was the target with Isis here as an added bonus. Of course, you told me what to do. That way, you're the one who had the brilliant idea. No trouble for you. And of course, I'm the one who did all the hard work. No trouble for me."

Six considered it. She smiled warmly. "That's a good plan. I wasn't looking forward to explaining to your brothers that you had to be sacrificed. You understand that you will need to repeat this to several people. There will be doubt expressed."

Gaeta nodded. " I have spent several years among humans. Do you really think I can't fake it fairly well by now? Admit it, I should have been found out long before this."

"It's true," Six said after a long moment. " It was assumed that the first sleeper agent discovered would be you. That's why you were never activated, despite the fact that you were positioned more highly than Eight. Your plan is good."

" What's even better," Gaeta said easily, " Is that you can accomplish this without revealing the Two model."

" That is a plus." Six said after a moment. " But you understand that if the child is what I suspect, that the mission has changed?" She let the gun drop, although she was careful to keep the stranglehold on Roslin.

" Of course," Gaeta said easily. " The mission is what God says the mission is."

"Yes…." Roslin could feel the Cylon relax in her arms. The grip was still strong but Gaeta's words had reassured the Cylon, Roslin could feel the minute relaxation of tension in its grip. She tried to relax as well, as if only to lull it into belief that she was going to comply. Six didn't loosen her grip one bit, but Roslin could feel her relax just a little. The Cylon took a deep breath. " Is that all you want?"

Gaeta shrugged. " We're brother and sister aren't we? I just want to be fair. At the same time I don't want to be boxed. That's what I want assurance on."

" I can assure you, Two, that if you return with me, that you won't be harmed." Six seemed amused. " You'll be welcomed, and I like the impromptu scenario you've come up with. You'll need teaching, of course. You don't understand your true nature. There's so much more than you realize."

Gaeta nodded. Roslin wanted to leap at him and tear out his throat with her nails. He was surprisingly nonchalant as he cuddled the baby with more affection than she had ever seen him use before. That made it all the more shocking when he raised his gun and pulled the trigger. She felt the bullet whiz past her face, and then the sickening splash of blood and matter as the Cylon's head exploded. It fell to the ground, and she almost fell with it, disentangling herself just before it fell to the ground in a bloody heap.

Gaeta set the baby down carefully, and stepped closer, the gun down at his side. " We need to talk. This," and he gestured to the dead Cylon, " only works once."

"This?" Roslin asked numbly.

He nodded. " I lied. I lied a lot. I'm not supposed to be very good at it, and I tricked her." He shivered as he took a step closer to her, and she was surprised to see that he was pale and sweaty and visibly breathing hard. He looked at her, and then he held out the gun to her. " I made my choice, about what side I was on, seven days ago. Now it's your turn."

She took the gun. She had an idea where he was going. " What are you suggesting?"

He shrugged tiredly. " You can shoot me. Or not." He smiled slightly. " I never killed anyone before today. I never lied to someone's face, and then shot them. I don't really know anything about who I am or what's true about my life, but I've picked the human side. Now… you have to make a decision." He stepped back, with his hands up. " The baby carrier is over in the tree line, and Dr. Cottle is where you left him. He didn't look bad. If you decide to kill me, you should keep heading west. I saw pilots there. They might have even heard the shots."

" What happens if you die?" she asked. Her finger tightened around the trigger of the gun. It would feel so good, so good to take the rage she had towards the Cylons out on the Cylon standing before her. They had taken everything from her. " The admiral would put you in the brig. You'd be in a cage for the rest of your life, on a leash and in handcuffs whenever you were allowed out."

He shrugged. " I'm in a cage right now, and I will be, no matter what you do."

Slowly, almost despite herself, she lowered the gun. It was time, she realized, to take a chance. Because she wasn't able to kill the man that had just saved her from a fate worse than death. She wasn't able to pull the trigger that would send him back to his own kind to be downloaded and stored. She was surprised to see just how relieved Gaeta looked.

"Hey!" They both spun around at the sound. Roslin could feel tears welling up in her eyes as Bill Adama strode towards them. He took in the scene instantly. "We're trying to pick up all the stragglers we can find. We found some pilots who had wireless… they heard shots. Then we found Dr. Cottle who told us you were in this area. Are you hurt? " he asked as he began to check her. Gaeta shrank back nervously but it was clear that Bill's attention was on her. On her and on all the blood that was all over her clothes.

And she had a choice to make. A choice to condemn a Cylon to solitary confinement on the Galactica or worse, among the Cylons themselves. Or, as Cottle had argued days earlier, she could take advantage of an opportunity. Felix Gaeta was in a cage no matter what she did, that was true, but if Cottle was right, then he was also a source of information. Information on the enemy.

" I'm all right," she said quickly. She gestured at the dead Cylon. " I was with Lt. Gaeta and Dr. Cottle. We got separated when Jack got sick. This Cylon caught me. Lt. Gaeta saved my life, and the baby's."

Both Adama and Gaeta looked at her with shock and surprise. Finally Adama nodded to Gaeta, " Good job, Lieutenant. Only the gods know what the Cylons would have done to Ms. Roslin. Let's get back to the Raptor. We've been sneaking in and getting as many people as we can but it's risky as hell." He scooped the baby up off the ground with practiced ease. " We're so short staffed for pilots… finding this group and you two and Dr. Cottle is a miracle we needed, but we've got to move."

Bill Adama was in his element, Laura could see that. He was a man who needed a crisis to really be alive, and things were very critical if the Admiral was so short staffed that he was personally flying search and rescue, but she tried not to think about that. Not yet. Instead she dropped back to Gaeta, who was still looking dazed and surprised. "You're not free, Mr. Gaeta. You're on parole."

After a moment, he nodded. " Thank you."

She didn't respond. She wasn't sure how she felt about holding the key to his cage.

0o0o0o0

She hated waking up in a new body. It was always disorientating. Worse was the knowledge that she had been tricked. Tricked by a naïve Two that knew nothing about what he was doing. Six considered how pleasant it would be to catch Felix Gaeta and teach him a lesson about defying the will of God. Of course, it wasn't a priority, and she would need to be careful. Two was not likely to allow her to give Felix the punishment he so richly deserved. Even if he had turned traitor.

" Open your eyes, Number Six." She did. She was in the rebirthing tank, as she had known. The surprise was seeing Two, and Two standing over the tank. Twos had an almost extreme distaste for the tanks. When they awakened, they almost leapt up and out and were off in their beloved showers, scouring themselves.

These Twos were glowering at her, another rarity. They both frowned darkly and then one reached down and pulled her up out of the tank. " You ruined our brother," he snarled.

" You activated him without permission," added the other. " You knew that he would need reinforcement and you left him alone among the humans."

" You frightened him and now we've lost our brother." The first Two twisted her arm. "God agreed to let us punish you."

The second Two nodded. " It's a sin to defile one another. God agreed that our punishment was fair."

"Punishment?" Six shrugged. The Twos weren't known for cruelty. No doubt she would be forced to spend more time in their rather dull company. That was certainly a punishment.

The Twos looked at each other and then smiled darkly at her. " We have lost a brother," said the first.

"Therefore Six will lose a sister," the second Two said. " God is just, after all."