231 - "Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that's how we've got to live."

[number_eight]

Hera is mine, mine and Helo's. Nobody is going to take her away from me, ever again. Not after everything that happened during that year when I thought she was dead and I had to have my husband kill me in order to resurrect and get her back. No, I've tried too hard. She belongs with me, and I don't care about the visions that President Roslin and Caprica are sharing with me. I did, at one point, but no. Not now.

It was stupid. I thought I could keep her safe by going on the Demetrius mission with Helo and leaving my daughter in the daycare at Galactica.

Maybe Cally was right. Maybe the only way to keep your child safe is for you yourself to watch over their welfare, always.

I was so tired, and frankly, after all that business with the other Six that came onboard, she scared the frak out of me. How did she know Hera's name? What else did the Cylons know about my daughter that they weren't telling me? Then I saw her, my little girl. I'd had another of those projections of the Opera House, with Hera running away into the arms of a Six. I couldn't stop her. President Roslin couldn't… and she was with Gaius Baltar. The Six just picked up my daughter and walked away with her into some light with our former president.

No. No, I was not going to allow that, but that nightmare usually ended with me screaming. Instead, it ended with me waking to see Hera by my bed, saying, "Bye-bye" to me. In that moment, I wanted to wake Karl up and hold them all close to me. Never let any of them go. Had Hera shared the nightmare? I don't think so, because later when I saw her, there were scribblings, over and over and over in her book of a blonde woman and the number "6". Over and over, until it ended with the image of a small girl holding the blonde's hand and they looked happy.

Then she was gone.

I just ran, chasing after my daughter. I ran into Dee, but she hadn't seen her… I saw Tyrol, but he didn't seem interested… every step I took in the corridors of Galactica reminded me of the hallways of the Opera House on Kobol.

I was going to lose her.

That's when I saw the Six before me, reaching out to hold my daughter. Motherly instinct took over. I could get sent to hack (or worse) for what I was about to do, but it didn't matter. Not as long as Hera was safe.

Colonel Tigh told his men to stand down. I told Tyrol to take Hera away so she wouldn't have to see what her mother was about to do, and once he told me she was gone, I did it. The sidearm that I had pulled out and pointed at the Six went off easily in my hands, without regret or remorse. I didn't think about Caprica in her jail cell, or me, or even Helo. My thoughts were only of Hera. Hera, safe and away from the frakking Cylons who have kept trying to take her away from me.

I shot her twice, and I'd do it the same, all over again.

Nobody takes my daughter. Ever. Again.



Muse: Sharon "Athena" Agathon
Fandom: Misc. TV/"Battlestar Galactica"
Word Count: 561 (not including direct quote)