Galen Tyrol lies on the bed. He looks very young, and very tired. He doesn't move, he hasn't moved in an hour, but he doesn't take his eyes off Gaius's face.

"Look, uh, Chief. I'm ... I'm here to ask for your forgiveness. About my presumption earlier. You were right, you know. I hardly knew your wife. I'm sorry. Would you mind if I... just, um..."

He sits down, and looks back into those eyes. They go on forever. Galen doesn't move.

"I know it's hard to... make sense of things sometimes. In my own life, I..."

Not the sermon, not Dr. Baltar. Human language. Remember.

"In my own life, I joined the Fleet as a scientist, as a skeptic. As supposedly a man of reason. Only to have fate turn that all on its head. But I understand now that there is a purpose to it."

Galen doesn't blink.

"We change. We evolve. Maybe we even learn something along the way..."

More Gaius, less Baltar. You are two men, alone in a room, with no one watching. It is possible to speak. Remember.

"I have committed... Unconscionable crimes. And I have been offered one last chance at redemption. Because I chose to accept my fate. Not fight it anymore."

Galen's eyes soften. This is the part he gets. To choose the man you are, that's all he was looking for. To know what that is. It isn't faith Gaius is asking for. Gaius stands to go.

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Chief," Gaius says, and looks down at their picture. They were so beautiful. "She was a very beautiful woman, your wife. I'm also told quite spiritual. You know, I don't expect you to believe me, but... I would very much like to have known her better."

They look at each other, men who have lost something. Gaius turns to go.