Codename: Life Station

Call sign: Moggie

Summary: WA&LR Something about change and trust, a heart and a President.

Rating: Pg13 / T / Genre: Drama & Romance / Pairing: Commander Adama & President Laura Roslin / Disclaimer: I do not own Battlestar Galactica. / Notes: This is my first attempt at BSG, so forgive the errors. I was also basically sleeping whilst writing this, so I'll correct mistakes when I read it again. lol. Thank you to DeeRich for looking these chapters over.

Chapter One - Colonial One #1

"It would have been nice to have been informed about this before it actually happened." Laura rubbed her eyes, her glasses held in her right hand, clasped between her ring and pinkie finger.

"It was a military matter." Adama sat stoically across from the President, he held out his report on the recent raiding of storage lockers from various ships in the fleet.

"It was a civilian matter as well, Commander." She sighed and pulled on her glasses, taking the report from his outstretched hand, her fingers briefly grazing his fingertips.

"I looked into the matter myself, Madam President," he informed her, waiting a moment as she read the top page of his lengthy report. "As you can see, no one was harmed in the retaking of the lockers."

Adjusting her glasses a fraction, Laura nodded slowly, assimilating the numbers and details the report was clearly giving her. She nodded again as she acknowledged the actions taken to retake the storage lockers and was surprised when the only injury was a sprained wrist, sported by Lt. Thrace.

"I guess you have been listening to me after all, Commander." Laura commented, looking up and closing the report, handing it back with a small smile.

"I listen." Adama tucked the report back into his hardback folder. The stiff board protecting the paperwork within, from stress of bending. "I may not agree, but I listen."

Laura found this amusing. "We do tend to agree to disagree, don't we?"

Adama tilted his head slightly, his eyes focused on the corner of the presidents desk.

"More often than not, we are arguing." She pointed out gently. "Don't you ever get tired of all the arguing, Commander?"

Adama just stared at the desk in silence, listening carefully.

"It's not necessarily a bad thing, you know?" Laura chuckled when all she got in response was a grunt.

Not moving, in spite of breathing, Adama blinked a few times behind his glasses before reaching up and placing his palm against his chest, thinking quietly to himself.

Laura watched in silence, she looked at him, openly, her own thoughts filling the moment. As she watched him, she could see a flash of blood and fear, despair and love. Times not so long ago, when she had followed the scriptures to Kobol, after the news of the attempted assassination and the imminent divide in the fleet, she has come to see how very close everyone has gotten.

This man, this soldier, was loved by his crew, unconditionally. His bad judgement calls in the past had been faced by one crewman or another, one civilian after the other, but in the end, he held sole responsibility, even if he wasn't the initiator.

One thing was for sure, Laura saw something in this man. Not as a soldier or as leader, but as a man. A lonely man, but a handsome, strong and well defined male. Though her thoughts had edged to these conclusions before, she had always stopped them. One crisis after the other left no time for personal thoughts or actions.

But after seeing him again, for the first time since she visited him in the infirmary after his surgery, she had almost burst with happiness at the sight of him. The thought of being divided in the fleet was tough enough, but the thought of losing his friendship and trust was even more unbearable. These were times when it was all they had, and she didn't want to tempt fate so soon again.

Laura had wanted to say something to him about her thoughts, to tell him she valued their friendship, that she even enjoyed their arguments about matters concerning the fleet. It was almost endearing.

She watched him take a deep breath and couldn't help but smile as she leaned forward, resting her cheek in her hand as he lost himself in his own thoughts. "Bill," She called on a whisper, softly breaking into his world.

Adama's cheeks raised as his lips pulled into a line, a closed smile, amused even.

"What are you thinking about?" Laura asked.

He blinked his eyes up to her and tapped his chest, his heart. "I'm thinking."

Her smiled widened. She always found his short responses kind of exasperating, but at times like these, in the quietness of being alone to talk, even if it was a meeting about professional matters, it was nice to be yourself and have good company.

Adama let out a short breath before pulling a longer one back in. "We still have a long journey ahead of us," he began, taking his time. "So far, the days have been long and arduous."

She nodded. "We wouldn't have survived this long without you, or your crew."

He closed his eyes with a small smile. "I sometimes wonder,"

Laura waited, but he said nothing more, only growing concerned at the grimace that flashed in his eyes when they opened and his mouth pulled into a tight line. "Bill?"

Adama took a quick breath, which caught in his throat, causing him to cough.

Even more concerned, Laura quickly rounded her desk and handed him a small handkerchief. "Your chest?" She asked.

The pain in his chest was slowly increasing, and even though the surgery was almost eighteen days ago, spasms of pain sometimes gripped him, but usually only in the gym when he worked out his stress on the boxing bags.

"Bill, you're scaring me." Laura whispered fearfully, clutching the hand he held to his chest. His other hand held the handkerchief to his lips as he coughed.

"I'm-fine." He managed between coughs.

"Doesn't sound it." She snapped, anger quickly taking over the fear that was gripping her. Laura reached for the phone and was relieved when Billy instantly picked up. "Billy, call Doctor Cottle please. The Commander is having trouble with his chest."

"I'm-fine." Adama grimaced. "Stop fussing over me." He demanded, sitting back and squeezing her hand when she clutched his.

"You are one stubborn son of a bitch, you know that?" She chided and chuckled with relief when he smiled.

Adama sighed out a breath and finally managed to breathe more calmly. "I don't need a doctor."

"Bill," She got his attention and raised her eyebrows clearly over her glasses. "Shut up."

He spluttered a laugh and nodded.

To Be continued