Okay so I suck at introductions, which is probably why this chapter sort of drops right in the middle of everything... just a quick recap for those of you who don't live inside my head. I'm introducing a new character: Colonel Aurora 'Raven' Jacks. She's an officer aboard Pegasus who just happens to have a bit of personal history with our favourite Commander. The first chapter is set shortly after Epiphanies...
Reviews are thorougly appreciated...
Wing mates
Chapter 1 – Getting reacquainted
"So," Raven said, pillowing her chin on her hands as she lay draped over William Adama's chest. He looked to be sound asleep but she knew him well enough to know he wasn't.
"When do you plan on telling her?" When she got no immediate answer she elbowed him harshly between the ribs, taking care to steer well clear of the small puckered scars.
"What?" He grumbled.
"When do you plan on telling our beloved President that you would like to frak her senseless?" His eyes flew open and he pushed up so fast, he nearly dumped her out of his rack.
"What?!" He snapped. Raven managed to grab hold of his neck just in time to keep from landing on the floor and glared at him for a moment.
"Easy." She muttered, "No need to get upset."
"Where did you get such a ridiculous idea?" He demanded. Raven smirked, shaking her head as she repositioned herself into his lap.
"Oh come on now, Bill." She said, "It's obvious. And even if it weren't, the fact that you just called me Laura was something of a dead giveaway." For a moment she laughed at the expression on his face.
"I did?" He asked. "Oh my Gods, Raven, I'm sorry."
"I don't mind." A wry smile played across her lips. "Much. I know exactly what this is." He frowned.
"Well, that makes one of us." He said. "So tell me, what exactly is this?" Raven smiled lazily as she started to trail her hand across his broad chest, momentarily running her fingers along the pale white scar.
"I believe the appropriate term is 'bunk buddies'."
"Bunk buddies?" He asked, smiling.
"Captain Thrace has a few more colorful terms which I will not repeat here." Raven said. "We're friends, who just happen to frak occasionally. Doesn't mean anything." She leaned down and kissed him, at the same time running her hand down his chest. He groaned into her mouth as she slipped her hand beneath the blankets, towards his crotch
Raven greatly enjoyed frakking William Adama, always had. They had been wing mates during the last two years of the Cylon war. She'd been a hotshot rookie pilot, fresh out of the Academy when she met him, while he already had a considerable number of combat missions under his belt. Back then it had been common practice in the fleet to pair rookies with more experienced wingmen. It greatly improved the odds of rookies living long enough to become experienced pilots.
It had certainly improved her odds. She'd been good, top of her class in fact, but she'd also been terribly green. Only barely twenty years old when she made her first real combat run. It would also have been her last if not for William 'Husker' Adama. It wasn't so much that he'd saved her life that had drawn her attention, it was the small kindness he'd shown her afterwards, dragging her off into a corner of the hanger deck so no one else saw when she puked her guts out and cried like a little girl. He had held her by the cuff of her flight suit, making sure she didn't get any sick on it, and handed her a dirty oil rag with a mild apologetic shrug once she was done.
That first combat flight had knocked much of the arrogance out of her, and even some of her confidence. He made sure to get that back to her though, keeping close to her wing through the next few runs and talking her through the rough spots. That had earned him her loyalty and friendship, something that would last for a very long time to come.
Two years they'd been one another's wing mate, and they'd survived some tough scrapes together. That sort of thing, fighting side by side day after day, would create a connection between even the most unlikely sort of people. It certainly did for them. They hardly had anything in common. He'd been born in a small town on Caprica, the second son of a working class family. He'd joined the fleet because that had been the only way for him to get any kind of formal education.
She on the other hand had been born in Caprica City itself, the only daughter of very influential parents. Her reasons to join the fleet had been incredibly selfish in hindsight. Not a single thought to protecting her fellow man had come into play. She'd simply wanted out of the life her parents had planned out for her, a life that would have included the finest education, which would only have been abandoned as soon as her mother had found her a suitable husband to marry and have children with. Joining the fleet had simply seemed like the only way out.
But in the squad room of the Battlestar Daedalus they'd found common ground. He'd attended war college, a requirement to attain an officers rank, but the knowledge offered there had been limited to what was practical for a soldier. She on the other hand had had the finest private tutors since she was old enough to walk and as soon as she discovered his thirst for knowledge she set about passing what she knew of such fine things as art, history and philosophy.
They'd talk throughout the long hours there were on watch, waiting for the sirens to sound, discussing the finer points of ancient philosophy, ethics, morality and taste. She'd get them both books and they would read them together, talking them through once they were finished.
When she met him he'd already been married to Caroline, with two small boys waiting for him back on Caprica. They became close, but never crossed that invisible line that was demarked by the small golden wedding band on his right ring finger.
When the war ended a lot of people were dismissed from the fleet. He had been one of them, she wasn't. It had been her surname that kept her in the fleet, even though her parents had long since disowned her and disavowed any knowledge of her existence.
They'd kept in touch over the years, through letters, the occasional wireless call and even more sparring visits. Somewhere in between he got divorced and their relationship changed from a close friendship to a close friendship that happened to include a physical element.
Neither one had been looking to make a permanent partner out of the other, it wouldn't have worked. She was in the fleet, doing rotations that were never shorter than six months, he was on and off freighters all the time, hopping from one side of the system to the other. But it had been comfortable, relaxed even.
And with her arriving back in his life on board the Battlestar Pegasus they had pretty much picked up where they'd left off.