The explosion took Laura completely by surprise.
One moment she had been hurrying along the corridor, late for her meeting with Admiral Adama – her first meeting with him since they had escaped from New Caprica, which only made her hurry more – and the next thing she knew there was an ominous rumbling noise and the ceiling caved in on her.
She wasn't sure whether she'd blacked out or not, but when the shock had worn off she was in the dark, her lower back and right leg were being crushed by heavy pieces of what was presumably metal, and the arm she vaguely remembered holding over her head when the debris had rained on her was resting at an odd angle on a pile of still hissing pipes which seemed to have fallen next to her.
It appeared, she deduced, that she was trapped in a small enclosed space with a broken arm.
Not the best start to her visit, all things considered.
She felt adrenaline begin to rush into her system, which would hopefully make her arm feel a little less painful, and with it came the question of what in the name of the gods could have caused an explosion like that here in the middle of the ship. As far as Laura was aware – although she was, she had to admit, still not an expert on Galactica's layout – she was nowhere near the hull, which was surely where any Cylon attack would have struck. Unless of course they had somehow boarded the ship and planted a bomb... but surely there would have been an alert if that had happened...
"Hello?" she called, suddenly remembering the useful instrument which was her voice.
"Hello?" came a reply almost instantly.
Laura was surprised – and then was surprised that she was surprised. The corridor hadn't been deserted, after all; it would have been more surprising to find herself alone.
Also, that voice seemed very familiar.
"Bill?" Laura called hesitantly.
"Laura?" Bill sounded more surprised than she was. "What are you doing here?"
"I was on my way to see you. What are you doing here?"
Bill laughed. "Well, I was about to head up to my quarters to meet you. I was called down here to deal with a... situation regarding food."
"Meeeeeh."
Laura blinked. "Bill?"
"Yeah."
"What was that?"
"Ah. That was a llama."
"What?" she said. She must have misheard him. Surely.
"The food situation; we ordered pork and instead we were sent three live llamas and a bunch of chickens. Then the floor caved in and now I'm sorta... stuck underneath one of the llamas."
Laura started to laugh, but then had to stop because of the debris pressing down on her back. "Bill? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."
Bill seemed to have no problem laughing, despite his claim of being trapped under a llama. "I'm not surprised."
"Since when do we even have llamas in the fleet?"
"Cloud Nine used to have a zoo – some of the animals were moved for breeding experiments before it was destroyed. Remember?"
Something did indeed sound familiar about this. "And we're eating them now?"
"Apparently. Supplies aren't exactly in surplus right now."
"No... I suppose not." A giggle forced its way to her lips, and she managed to let it out without causing herself too much pain. "Do you know what happened?" she asked when she felt calmer again.
"No. We'll just have to wait for someone to come dig us out, I think."
"Meeeeeh," said the llama, and Laura had to try hard to keep her grin from turning into a laugh.
"It's good to hear your voice, Bill, even if this isn't quite how I envisaged our meeting."
"Likewise, on both counts. I'd already opened my third-last bottle of ambrosia for you when I was called down here. It better still be there when I get back."
"Oh, I hope so. I think we'll both need it." Laura grinned, then realized that he couldn't see her. "That was very kind of you, Bill."
"It tastes better when you share it," he replied.
Laura smiled. "I've missed you, Bill." She tried to move her undamaged arm so she could lean her head on it comfortably, but in doing so she jostled the broken one. "Ah..." She winced.
"You okay?" Bill's voice asked, suddenly concerned.
"Yes, but my arm is broken." Laura contemplated trying to lift the broken arm off the pile of debris it was resting on, but decided the pain wasn't worth it.
"Are you bleeding?"
"No, just... in pain." She gritted her teeth, trying to ignore said pain.
"Alright, hang on a moment. I'm gonna see if I can get to you."
"I thought you were trapped under a llama?" Gods, even with the pain that sounded ludicrous.
"I am, but I think my forward movement is less restricted than backward. I may be able to get to you, I just can't get out."
"Meeeeh," said the llama, presumably in response to being elbowed.
"Try not to make anything collapse on me," Laura said.
"I'm being very careful," Bill promised. This was accompanied by some ominous sounding clunks somewhere right above Laura's head.
Something small, sharp and heavy sounding landed in front of her face. "More careful, please," she said.
"Yes, Madam President." His voice sounded closer now.
Then there was a crashing sound, and Laura covered her head with her free hand. Pieces of deck and wiring rained around her, but she miraculously remained more or less unscathed. Then there was warm, wet breath on her knuckles, and she looked up to find herself staring into the face of a llama.
It blinked, and stuck out its tongue to lick her hand.
Laura laughed – then hissed in pain, having somehow forgotten the large piece of metal currently squashing her back.
"Move out of the way, you frakking beast," she heard Bill muttering, shoving the llama aside.
"Meeeeeh!" protested the llama as Bill's face appeared beside it.
"Bill, be nice to the poor thing," Laura chided.
"Sorry," he grumbled insincerely. "Are you alright?"
"Like I said before, I'm fine." Laura looked at him pointedly, then relented a little. "It's good to see your face, though."
Bill smiled and reached for her hand. He squeezed it comfortingly.
Laura smiled back.
They were dug out a short while later, and Laura was taken to see Doc Cottle while Bill went to find out what exactly had happened. He returned just as she was sitting on her cot drumming the fingers of her unhurt hand impatiently on her knee, waiting to be released.
The llama followed him in.
"Damn thing won't stop following me," Bill said, glaring at the animal.
"Oh, I think he's cute." Laura held out her hand, and the llama willingly trotted over and let her stroke its neck. "Can we keep him?"
"Keep him where?" Bill asked, wearing his all-too-familiar 'the president's gone insane!' expression.
"I'm sure we can find somewhere."
Bill sighed, sensibly giving up trying to argue with her. He held up a bottle. "I found my ambrosia in my quarters where I left it. I thought you might want some."
"That's very thoughtful. If we can find out where Doc Cottle's disappeared to so that he can release me, we can go back to your quarters and share it."
Bill nodded, looked around the room and, having obviously not spotted the absent doctor, sat down next to her on the bed. "That sounds like a plan."
"Good. Did you find out what caused the explosion?"
"One of our boilers exploded. The overcrowding is overloading everything."
"Can it be repaired? Is it serious?" Laura asked. The last thing they needed was to have to relocate the refugees again...
"It's fine. But the sooner we can get everybody back where they're supposed to be, the better."
"I'll drink to that." Laura held out her hand for the bottle.
"I thought we were waiting to get back to my quarters?" Bill said, although he passed it to her without hesitation.
"Well, there's plenty of it. We can do both." She took a swig from the bottle and handed it back.
"If that's the way you want it..." Bill saluted her with the bottle before drinking from it.
Laura chuckled, without pain this time, and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Thank you, Bill."
Bill made an acknowledging noise in the back of his throat, which made her grin.
"Bill?" she said.
"Hmm?"
She kissed him. Then she pulled away, and they smiled.
The llama said "Meeeeeh," and nibbled a sheet.
The End