Monsie! This is for you. Your review got me to the goal I didn't think I'd attain - and made me feel much better about the whole Too High a Cost thing. Merci beaucoup!

Lessons Learned
By: Mariel

Time, she decides, has somehow telescoped itself, encapsulating years of experiences, perceptions and emotions into just weeks. Laura Roslin is certain of this and is firm in that conviction because, though she has known William Adama for only months, she has an intimate understanding of him, has come to know well the tides of his moods, the storms of his temper, and the sure calm rooted in the depths of his soul .

She's learned, too, the strong pull of the undertow that has drawn her inexorably to him.

She lays stretched out against him now, enjoying the feeling of his strong body lying next to hers. With the soft rise and fall of his chest gently lulling her, thoughts of the night before tremble deliciously through her mind. She moves, then gives a throaty hum as she recognises a soreness from having been well and thoroughly made love to. There are bruises, she guesses, on her hips and thighs where he grasped her too tightly, and a mark or two on her neck and throat where his lips lingered overlong.

Remembering the feel of her nails digging into his back, she allows herself a satisfied smile. He is not unmarked himself.

Yes, she thinks with satisfaction, days, weeks, months, or years, it makes no difference. The end of the world has come and gone and it's been left to them to keep the rag tag remainder of the human race alive and running. It is only natural that they should do this; only natural that they should turn to one another, acknowledge their humanity and their attraction, and express their celebration of both in this physical way.

He moves slightly and sighs, and she looks at him expectantly. When he doesn't awaken, she settles herself to watch him sleep in the muted lighting of his rack. He is not an attractive man, not in the sense she is used to. Not overly tall, his face scarred and his mouth wide, there is still something compelling about him, and has been right from the beginning. There's an aura of natural leadership about him, an inate confidence and a facility of mind that she finds remarkable and appealing. There's strength in him, too, and a sense of tightly contained energy that emanates from him even when he is sitting quietly.

He smiles slightly in his sleep and she finds herself smiling in return. She has fallen for that smile...that shy, dusty thing he brings out so rarely but which so thoroughly captivates her when he does...

She's fallen for his eyes, too. Closed now, she can still imagine their blue depths. They are steady and serious and measure life carefully. They keep secrets close, and hide almost perfectly the hurt she is sure lurks deeply within him. She has also discovered that they sometimes glow warmly, giving evidence that his thoughts are not always on military matters or personal loss. She reaches out to lightly touch him and sighs. Put her in a room with him, let those eyes sweep over her in that way he has - and let him at the same time unleash that half-uncertain smile - and her mind automatically wanders to thoughts of doing to the Commander of the Fleet what no President of the Twelve Colonies should ever be caught considering.

Let along doing.

'Doing', however, has turned out to be such a mutual pleasure she can't imagine ever giving it up.

Pheromones, she whispers to herself, in an attempt to explain their attraction and what they have allowed to happen between them.

She runs her hand lightly across his chest. There is a raw, untamed part of him that fascinates her. Discovering that he brings that to their bed - discovering that what he does to her contains an intensity and passion that takes her breath away - has shaken her as deeply as the orgasms they've shared. Her lips curve. Who'd have thought such a reserved, taciturn, severe man would be so damned enthusiastic and inventive in the rack?

As her body responds to that thought, her smile broadens, then slowly fades. None of this was expected, and it's still new enough for moments of doubt. There are rules, after all, and lines she had carefully set down to avoid exactly this sort of thing.

He, however, has effortlessly crossed all those carefully laid down lines. She doubts he even noticed they were there, which is no real surprise.

As soon as he began his advance, she ignored them herself.

Her body flushes as she remembers that advance. She curses herself at times for her lack of restraint, but cannot regret it. And his hands, she thinks, need to be added to her list of notable things about him. They had been warm and sure and strong that first time, and had skimmed across her skin, thrilling her senses with promises she craved to see kept. There had been few of the getting-to-know-you fumbles that new lovers experience, and once on their way...Her eyes glitter in the semi-darkness... Once on their way, their love-making had been incredible.

Even more incredible is the fact that she is quite sure that love-making has become the correct term to use. Not that she loves him, of course, or that he loves her, for that matter. How could they indulge in that emotion, given the times and their circumstance and the brevity of their acquaintance? But they have certainly become close, are certainly caring, and they definitely love every minute of what they do with each other. There is a remarkable synergy in their pleasuring, and a definite, mutual satisfaction in the discovery that, together, they are good and getting better...

In and out of bed.

He-

Interrupting her thoughts, Bill rolls over onto his side. One arm carelessly traps her against his chest. She can feel his breath against her shoulder, and it sends trembling shivers of awareness through her.

The weight of his muscled arm feels good; its warmth seeps through her pleasantly and lets her know she is alive and he is alive and she knows this will continue because it is just so frakking right and simple and perfect that it blows her mind away. How can two people fit together so well? How could the end of the world bring with it a beginning so perfect it makes her soul hum with contentment? Who would have thought that in this time and in this place and in this situation they would discover what they have with one another? Thinking of her former reservations about involvement on any level, she knows now it would have been foolish to have waited longer to explore whatever this is between them. They have the friendship; they have the trust; why would they not move forward if so inclined? This is a piece of their enevitable. Yesterday, today, tomorrow...she's learned that, ultimately, it makes no difference. It couldn't have been stopped.

As fatigue begins to soften her awareness, she closes her eyes, slowly slipping into that lovely twilight between near-sleep and oblivion. It is then that she feels his head lift up from the pillow and feels his lips brush against her skin. She opens her eyes.

He makes a deep, contented sound in his depth of his throat. "You're awake," he comments in gravelled tones. After nuzzling her neck and inhaling deeply, he settles back again, encouraging her wordlessly to shift so that she lies spooned against him. Mission accomplished, he tightens the arm around her waist and relaxes his head back onto the pillow. "Go back to sleep," he murmurs. "It's not morning..."

She moves softly against him, enjoys the feel of the kiss he plants gently on her shoulder in response, then lets herself relax into his warmth and the way the low, raspy sound of his voice lingers in the air after he whispers, "We've still got time..."

Time. There was a time when, having grown used to dreams borne of hopelessness and loneliness, she would have thought this an illusion. She would have rightly feared that when she awoke, he would not be with her, they would not have found each other, they would not have made love or have ever shared a night in this so-human way.

But now she's learned the most important lesson of her lifetime, a lesson of love and hope that brings with it the confidence she so desperately needs in order to face tomorrow. She's learned that no matter how dismal the future appears, no matter how large the problems faced or how bitter and desperate and seemingly hopeless the battle being fought seems, there is light and life and love to be found in the world around her.

She has found it in Bill.

She smiles and closes her eyes once again. In a cold, hard universe that has dealt them blow after devastating blow, she has learned that dreams can still come true...

Held softly in the arms of hers, she allows herself comfort until, counting his breaths like sheep, she joins him in sleep.

End

I've one more one-shot in store - I'll probably have it fixed up early next week to post - then I'm going on BSG hiatus. I've promised some friends a story or two in another fandom...

But I hope to be back ...

Thanks as always
Mariel