Laura took a deep breath, absently marveling at the freeness and lack of pain she felt. It seemed so long since she'd been able to breathe without feeling pain somewhere…everywhere. No pain, no cough….letting out the breath in a sigh, she lifted her face, letting the warmth wash over her. Not the warmth of the sun they'd found…the heat she'd been able to sense, feel as it brought a hint of color back to her skin, despite the shade Bill had rigged for them so they could watch the animals, but true warmth. Warmth that she felt through her body, all the way to her bones, feeling it course through her, pulsing with each beat of her heart.

The last thing she remembered, she'd been gazing out the window of the raptor, looking at all the life below. The animals, so beautiful…the teacher in her aching to catalogue each and every one of them, looking at their characteristics, observing them to learn about them…the leader that was left in her marveling at the bounty they would have to survive with…even as the woman left in her just wanted to enjoy looking at them, the beauty they brought to an already breathtaking panorama. Watching the life abundant below her even as Bill's husky voice lulled her into a more relaxed state until she lapsed into a velvet darkness, the movements of the raptor as he made minute adjustments…the hum of the engine…the love in his voice…the last she remembered.

Taking another breath, she felt the breeze running along her bare arms and legs, lifting the light hem of her sleeveless dress…gods, she'd forgotten what a breeze along bare skin felt like. Letting her hand drift up her arms, she marveled at the softness of her skin, the bones that she'd become accustomed to feeling jutting out as she'd lost more and more weight, now covered and smooth again.

And her hair…feeling the weight of it falling around her shoulders and down her back, she shook her head slightly…Not the shorter, more 'professional and serious looking' cut that Richard's advisors had deemed politically feasible, or the longer, darker way she'd worn it before that, but…she ran her fingers through it, reveling in the layers that tumbled over her shoulders…hopefully in the same red highlighted manner it had grown out while in the sun on New Caprica. Where Bill's hands had run through it, tangling in its length as she'd arched up underneath him…

"Hey." At the soft voice, Laura's lips curved up.

"Now why am I not surprised." Laura remained standing where she was, face upturned to the sun and wind, her mind leaving the New Caprican memory behind, for now. "You haven't done anything foolish have you?"

"No." A hand toyed with her hair. "Forgot what this looked like."

"I haven't opened my eyes yet. Feels good though." She took a deep breath. "What do you hear Starbuck?"

"Nothin but the rain." Kara stepped up next to Laura, mimicking her position. "Feels good, doesn't it."

"It feels." Laura finally opened her eyes and turned her face slightly to look at the younger woman. "Good to feel."

"Yeah, it would." Kara lifted a hand to shade her eyes and peered into the distance. "How much longer?"

"My fault." She admitted. "I just wanted to feel for a bit. To think before I arrived. It shouldn't be too much longer." Laura eyed Kara, a smiled touching her lips as she gazed at her.

"What." Shaking her head, Kara frowned slightly.

"Nothing." Reaching up, Laura tucked a piece of Kara's hair behind her ear so she could look into her face. "Have you been waiting long?"

"I don't know." Kara admitted softly, leaning into Laura's light touch unconsciously. "I don't really know if time has a meaning here. Or there, or where ever I've been."

"Ah." Continuing her light caress of Kara's face, smiling when the tense lines faded as Kara relaxed. Bill's adopted daughter…and hers as well. The lost lamb that never stopped searching or fighting. Tough as nails one minute and needing to be held the next. "So I guess I've been forgiven for trying to shoot you?"

Kara snorted softly. "Well, have you forgiven me for holding a gun on you?"

Laura smiled and leaned forward to kiss Kara's forehead gently. "And I thought it was a drug induced nightmare. Imagine my shock when the gun really went off."

"Yeah. Well." Kara shrugged. "Thanks for not airlocking me."

"No matter what, we couldn't airlock our girl." Leaning against the railing at her side, Laura watched Kara process the last statement.

"Um." She swallowed. "Uh. Thanks."

"You're welcome." She nodded slightly. "Thanks for sitting with me in Sick Bay. And in Bill's quarters."

Kara's eyes widened. "How'd you know about that? I was only there when you were asleep and he had to go to the CIC."

"Woke up enough a few times to see you, hear you…" Reaching out, Laura laced her fingers with Kara's. "Feel you holding my hand. And once or twice you curled up next to me in his rack, talking to me about Sam. You're a bit smaller than Bill, and I wasn't sure..." She smiled. "And he told me. I asked him once if it had been a dream. He explained you wanted to. So…thank you."

"You…" Kara sighed. "You remember after New Caprica?"

"When you came to Colonial One?" Laura nodded. "Of course I do."

"The stuff you said…" She bit her lip. "Well, I don't know if I ever said thanks. For letting me hide out there and talk to you."

"Everyone needs a place to hide sometimes." Laura turned slightly and gazed at the river in front of the boat. "Somewhere to hide from everything and feel safe."

"I guess." Kara shrugged. "I just…well, it had been a while."

"A while since you'd slowed down enough to let yourself have a safe place?" She asked gently.

"Yeah." Kara's whisper was almost lost in the breeze.

"Me too." Laura lifted her face to the sun again. "Gods, it feels amazing."

"I miss Sam." Kara whispered again.

"I know." Sliding her arm around Kara's waist, Laura rested her head against Kara's shoulder. "I…don't know how this works for…"

"For Cylons?" Kara joked weakly. "But you're the prophet…"

"Hmm." She squeezed Kara's waist. "I'm not a frakking prophet. I was just…the dying leader? I was a student who became a teacher who ended up President because I wanted to improve the Education system. It doesn't make any frakking sense, any of it. And, I don't know anymore Kara. I think the prophecies were what we made of them. I just…we believe what we will believe. I hadn't believed in some time. Not with any depth…I mean, what kind of benevolent gods take a good man and his daughters and spare the drunken idiot who caused their death." Her free hand reached out and traced Kara's hand. "What kind of gods allows a mother to slam her daughters' hand in a door, overrides the love that mother had for the daughter to allow her to do that." She sighed again. "What gods take a good and gentle soul and leave behind a family that is torn apart because of his death. Is it all in the name of letting us learn and grow…with death comes life and learning?"

"We died." Kara bit her lip.

Laura hmm'd softly and nodded. "Yes, Kara. We have." She gestured to the vista around them. "Yet here we are."

"Yeah." With a sigh, Kara looked around. "Here we are."

"We won't have too long to wait…I think time here has to be subjective. If it exists at all." Laura smiled. "It's meaning is irrelevant, I think."

"Never knew you were so introspective." Kara glanced at her.

"Neither did I." Laura's eyes moved down to rest on her hand, at the band that encircled her finger, gold glinting in the sun. "I've had a lot of time to think lately. To reflect on decisions…judgments…revelations and results. I've made good choices, and not so good choices. I think we just have to remember that who we are, who we've become is a collaboration of all those choices, guiding us…we can go back and make different decisions, but we can't change the impact of what we've done." She looked out at the water again. "It's like…the water. When something strikes it, or moves through it, it causes ripples. And those ripples cause ripples…but eventually we end up on the shore."

"Ookay." Kara frowned slightly. "I guess that makes sense. Sort of along the lines of, what we've done is who we are?"

"Sort of." Laura giggled softly. "I'm glad you're here with me."

"Me too." Her frown deepened. "I'm not really sure how this works…"

"Me neither." She admitted. "This is as far as I've been. I saw Emily meet her family…I saw my mother…and then I turned back. I wasn't ready, and I'm glad I didn't see anyone else…I don't know if I would have been able…"

"Emily?" Trying to remember who Emily was, Kara shook her head.

"I don't think you met her. She was in Sick Bay…I got to know her when I would go in for the diloxin, some of the earlier treatments, when they weren't…I could still get up and move around." A smile touched Laura's lips. "She was…enlightening. She made this trip one night, I was asleep…she was so beautiful when she got to the shore…it would have been so easy."

"Yeah, but the Old Man wouldn't have…" Kara took a breath. "I guess everything happens in time, in its own time."

"Kara?" At the uncharacteristic hesitance in Laura's voice, Kara looked at her. "Kara…I don't know if I can do this. I mean, I know I have to do this…but…I feel unbalanced. I'm missing…"

"He'll be here." She rested her head on top of Laura's, her cheek warming in the sun drenched heat of Laura's hair. "In his time." She ran her hand down to touch the ring on Laura's hand. "That's proof of it. Either he sent it with you, or you brought it."

"I wouldn't take it while…" Laura sighed. "Not…we knew what we had. Our family," she squeezed Kara's waist, "knew what we had. It wasn't the godsdamned business of anyone else. Any other time, any other place, I would have married him. But who we were, what we were, we needed the focus on surviving…"

"I wanted what you had." Kara admitted softly. "I came close with Sam…Lee and I were, well…we…"

"I know." Turning, Laura cupped Kara's face, her thumbs running lightly along her cheeks to wipe away the tears. "Confusing."

"Yeah. That's about right." She managed a weak smile. "You and the Old Man could have a whole conversation with one glance, one touch. Lee and I…we had moments. We were better as friends. It just took us a frakking long time to get there."

"Well, I had to get thrown into the brig to start to figure out on a personal level that Bill was more than a uniform." Laura wrinkled her nose, "and then even after we'd started…it took me getting myself abducted on a Basestar to admit that what we had was more than a deep friendship and mutual respect. That was the first time I told him…what we'd both been telling each other physically and with action, but wouldn't admit out loud. That hatch opened, and all I wanted to do was to collapse into him, wrap him around myself, and tell him. So I did." As a bird soared overhead, she glanced up, a tear falling from the corner of her eye. "And what did he say? About time." She laughed softly. "Gods…I miss him, but I want him to live while he can. I know it won't be for long, relatively speaking, but he'll build a cabin there…I'll start one here. Somehow."

"I'll help." Kara offered with a shrug.

"I'd like that." With a final wipe of Kara's face, Laura stepped back. "I want to see my sisters first…my parents…Billy…"

"Oh." When Kara's face fell, Laura raised an eyebrow.

"You'll stay with me." Tucking her arm through Kara's, she gazed at the shore that was just coming into view through the mist. "Unless there's someone else…"

"I'd like to see Zak." She admitted softly, "my dad…but…I don't know…I mean, I knew Billy sort of, and there's Dee, and Kat…"

"We'll see them." Nodding, she smiled faintly. "You do however, have to promise to not get my baby sister into too much trouble. I'm almost nervous to put the two of you together."

"I'll behave." Kara grinned then let out a shriek as Laura elbowed her. "Hey!"

"I'm going to hold you to that." She giggled and pulled Kara closer. "It's going to be okay, Kara."

"Promise?" As the boat approached the shore and silhouettes started appearing through the mist, Kara pressed closer to Laura, insecurity rising again.

"For all intents and purposes….." Laura rested her head against Kara's again. "You're Bill's and mine. So yes. They will accept you, and yes, it's going to be all right. I promise. And he'll be here soon. Not a prophesy, his promise."

As the figures on the shore came into focus, Kara started to smile again. "So, until the Old Man gets here…"

"It's just you and me." Laura nodded toward the shore, "and all of them."

"Yeah." As she started to recognize the figures on the shore, her eyes widened. "Frak. Laura, that's a lot of people."

"They're here for both of us." Letting her hand slide down to lace fingers with Kara's, she tugged her toward the steps down to the main deck. "Ready?"

"Frak no." Kara breathed out as she followed, stumbling behind Laura. "Laura…wait."

"Kara." Still pulling the younger woman, Laura laughed, reveling in the energy she felt coursing through her after the past months and years of her body growing weaker, betraying her. "Come on."

"Boom, boom, boom…." Kara muttered as Laura pulled her down a plank and onto the shore, both of them surrounded by the rest of their family and the sunlight.