Chapter 2
(Adama's POV)

I'm trying hard not to flinch at Cottle's words, especially because I am all too aware of what --or rather who-- it was that caused Kara to snap in the first place: it was me. I kicked her out of that chair, I told her that she was no longer a daughter to me. I called her a cancer and threatened to kick her off my ship... and then less than fifteen minutes later she...

"It was me," I admit, knowing that there's no way I can keep this to myself. "I confronted her in the rec room about her attitude, said some things I probably shouldn't have but I never thought she would..."

"You weren't the only one," Lee interrupts me. "I mean, earlier today I was literally volunteering to open an airlock for her but I never expected her to take me up on that offer."

"So let me get this straight: you both knew there was a problem, you both knew she was barely holding it together as it was and yet you both kept pushing her? Does anyone here know what the frak happened to her on New Caprica? Did anyone even ask?"

"We assumed she was fine since she was cleared for duty," says Lee, rather defensively.

"In other words, after four months as a POW you figured that because there were no obvious physical injuries there was nothing wrong and then you got on her case for being unable to shrug the whole thing off as if nothing had happened? Are you out of your frakking minds?"

"Wait a sec, doc. If you knew there was a problem why didn't you say something about it?"

"Because I didn't know, because up until I found her in the head I hadn't even seen her," he replies. "Remember, we took some pretty heavy casualties when we escaped from New Caprica. We lost thousands of souls and a frakking battlestar that day. At the time she was examined by a triage medic who determined that the extent of her injuries was a bump on the head and then he discharged her to make room for those who actually needed immediate care if they were to stand as much as half a chance. As for me, as soon as I set foot on the Galactica I was 'escorted' back here and for the next forty-eight hours the only thing in my mind was doing everything I could to try to keep the most critical cases going. It never even occurred to me to track her down after that."

"So you people messed up and my wife just fell through the cracks? Is that what you are saying?" asks Sam.

"Did you ask her what happened?"

"I tried to, more than once --in fact I've been trying to get her to talk to me from the moment I found her-- but she kept pushing me away and just wouldn't talk about it," he says.

"But you were the one who found her back on the planet?" insists Cottle, obviously trying to piece some sort of back history together.

"Yes, she was unconscious at the time."

"Where?"

"In the detention center, though it wasn't a cell, not really. The place looked almost like an apartment, nicer than what pretty much everyone else had down there. We were making our way out when she came to, then she grabbed my knife and insisted on going back. I didn't know what to do but eventually I ended up following her... I didn't really have a choice. That's when I was able to take a good look at the place. There was a dead copy of Leoben on the floor --one I'm fairly certain she had just killed-- and she had a little girl with her. At first Kara said she was her daughter but as soon as we got to the Galactica a woman came out of nowhere and said that the kid was hers. Kara never mentioned it again and I don't really know what the frak that was all about."

"That's all you know?"

"Yes, you know how stubborn she can be," says Anders, rather defensively, and I can help but to acknowledge that he does have a point.

"Okay, so we have Apollo ragging her for being reckless --or more reckless than usual-- the admiral getting on her case because of her attitude and you... you were just happy to have your wife back in one piece. Does that about sum up the situation?" asks Cottle, glaring at us.

"Hey, what is so bad about me being happy to have my wife back?"

"Other than the fact that you obviously didn't have a frakking clue as to what the hell it was that you were dealing with? Nothing."

"What are you suggesting?" asks Sam, glaring back at Cottle... not that that is likely to do him much good.

"I'm not 'suggesting' anything," growls the doctor, not backing down an inch. "I'm telling you that, just like the admiral and the major here, you expected her to pick up right where she left off. You expected her to 'just get over it' and she couldn't do it... but that doesn't really matter. Right now trying to place the blame is not going to get us anywhere. What we have to do is figure out what we can do to keep her alive and I can already tell you that the odds are stacked heavily against her. Going by what you've told me about her recent behavior I would say that chances are that she was deeply traumatized by whatever it was that she went through on that gods forsaken rock and your initial reactions to that trauma may well have damaged the support system she should have been able to rely on beyond repair. That is not a good thing."

"So what are we supposed to do?" I ask, trying to keep things from spiraling out of control here. As Cottle pointed out, we messed this up once already and that is not a mistake we can afford to make again, not if we want Kara to live. We can figure out who messed up how later --after all, there seems to be plenty of blame to go around-- but right now we have to focus on what we can do to fix this.

"To tell you the truth I'm not sure, though in that regard we do have a few days to try to come up with some semblance of a plan," says Cottle.

"We?" I ask.

"Yes, 'we'. She is my patient and the fact that I didn't realize that there was a problem is no excuse."

"And are you sure we can afford to wait that long?" I insist, not wanting to take any chances.

"Seeing how I intend to keep her sedated for at least the next 72 hours, yes. She is resting comfortably now but considering the extent of her injuries she would be in an awful lot of pain if she were conscious and even though sedation itself does have some associated risks, it is still the lesser evil. Right now my top priority is to give her body a chance to heal without having to worry about her mind getting in the way. It may not be ideal but it is the only thing I can think of to enable her to deal with this mess one problem at a time. Once I am reasonably sure that from a physical perspective the worst is behind her and that she is on her way to recovery, I'll start bringing her around but it's going to take a while for the drugs to make their way out of her system and she is still going to be under the influence of some pretty strong painkillers for a couple of days after that, so I don't really expect her to be making much sense in the next five or maybe even seven days."

"In other words we have five to seven days to figure out what we are going to do?"

"Pretty much, but unfortunately --even though the fact that she is sedated will buy us some time to think things through-- for the time being the details are bound to remain more than a little sketchy and that is going to make coming up with a strategy that much trickier."