Chapter 24
(Cottle's POV)

Okay, I have to say that I am relieved to see that we have something for Starbuck to do that is not busywork... especially because I know that girl and I know she would have seen through that one from miles away. Unfortunately, now that the minor problem has been dealt with, we have no choice but to tackle the major one and that is not going to be anywhere near that easy.

"Okay, that takes care of problem number one... now for problem number two."

"Problem number two?" asks Bill.

"How many problems are there?" asks his son.

"Depends on how you count them," I reply, shrugging my shoulders. "Anyway, problem number one was figuring out what the frak were we supposed to do with that girl now that she is doing a little better, problem number two has to do with the fact that, precisely because she is doing better, the time has come for us to start pushing and I can already tell you that that is not going to be pretty and that she is going to push back... hard. Let me be blunt here: up until now one of my primary concerns has been not upsetting her but I'm afraid that we have come about as far as that strategy is likely to get us and if we want to go any further we are going to have to change tracks. If we want to help her we are going to have to figure out what the frak it is that we are dealing with here, what the frak is going on in that head of hers, and the only one who can provide us with those answers is Starbuck herself so that's the source we are going to have to turn to."

"She is not going to like it," says Apollo, master of understatement that he is.

"Oh, you can bet on that, and that is precisely why I said that this is not going to be pretty. The problem is that right now we don't even have a starting point here, we don't have a clue as to what it is that we are up against but that does nothing to change the fact that a mistake could easily turn out to be fatal. Physically she may be on the mend but make no mistake about it, emotionally she is still a mess and whatever it was that caused her to try to kill herself in the first place has not been dealt with, not by a long shot. In fact I think it's safe to say that 'it' has only been festering for these past few days and that is not a good thing."

"So where do you suggest we start?"

"Well, we need to grab a hold of one end of this thing somehow if we are to have any hope at all of untangling it and, seeing how the first thing we are going to need if we are going to do that are some raw facts, I was thinking that maybe the time has come for some sort of informal debriefing to at least try to determine what the frak happened to her on New Caprica," I say. "That format should make the experience a little more palatable for her but even if we call it 'a debriefing' to get past her defenses I would still suggest bending the rules a little... or more than a little."

"You have been thinking about this for some time, haven't you?" asks Bill.

"Yes, almost from the moment she made it out of surgery," I admit, knowing that there's no point in trying to deny it.

"And what do you have in mind?"

"For starters I think that the three of us should be present so that she doesn't have to go over things twice, one from a military and one from a medical perspective, also that since there is going to be a medical element to this thing we could probably forego the videotaping and that a report --a very vague report-- could be added to her personnel file instead. Sure, that is not SOP but if the three of us are there that would include almost everyone that is technically above her in the chain of command and she is not likely to be transferred anyway."

"That sounds doable."

"Good, now to problem number three, also known as the real problem."

"The 'real' problem?" asks Bill, sounding somewhat puzzled at that.

"Yes."

"And that would be?"

"The two of you."

"I thought this was supposed to be about Starbuck," points out the Old Man.

"Oh, it is."

"Then how come all of a sudden we are the problem?" asks Apollo.

"Well, let me see if I can explain it to you," I reply, openly rolling my eyes at him. "We are going to be debriefing that girl and that means that we are going to be hearing exactly what it was that the cylons did to her. Now, I may not have all the details but I can pretty much promise you that it's going to be ugly as hell --probably a lot uglier than either of you are expecting it to be-- and she has more than enough on her plate without adding you freaking out to the mix so I need to know that you are going to be able to handle it and keep your reactions and your shock to yourselves."

"Believe me, I know what we are dealing with... we both do," says Bill, looking almost green at the thought.

"Do you?" I ask, not even trying to keep the disbelief out of my voice.

"Yes," he growls, sounding almost offended at that.

"Fine, then let me ask you one simple question: how many times do you think she was raped?"