Title: Hauntings

Prompt: Dreams

Word count: 200

The night the Cylons returned, he saw her lined up alongside his best friend and his adopted daughter. The occupiers had ordered the settlers to gather for a public assembly. Silent tears streaked the former president's face as she watched his family ripped apart, one by one, by Centurion fire.

When her turn came, she held her head high, smiled reassuringly at her people, and stepped forward into the spray of bullets.

Other nights, she died alone in the grips of delirium. From a fever Cottle could not cure. From drugs they pumped into her fragile body in a fruitless attempt to get information. From being beaten until she plead for merciful death.

The night before he returned for her, a sobbing colonist gently placed her broken, bleeding body into his arms on his own hangar deck.

"Bill, it's alright. Wake up. I'm here."

His eyes spring open. Sweat or tears or some combination blur his vision.

"It's ok, it was just a dream."

He brings his body back under control by focusing on her warmth at his side. He pulls her closer to bury his hot face in her hair.

"No, a nightmare. This, Laura, this is a dream."