Title: This Love
Author: GEM
Date written: 8/17/07
Rated: T
Word count: 1,033
Story Timeline: season 2
Category: Drama
Warnings: tissues may be needed.
Characters: Cottle, Laura Roslin with sprinkles of A/R implied
Summary: Laura has a question and expects and answer.
Author's Note: This was a last minute why not piece. I noticed no one was listed on the 17th many of the people who read Slipping Away asked for a sequel. This is what this sort of is. I didn't have time to have it betaed I went through it myself. Any mistakes are mine.
Laura woke up with a horrified look on her face. "Take it easy, young lady."
Laura was back in sickbay. She remembered leaving after being told the cancer was gone. She went to a meeting with Bill and then returned here. She hadn't dreamt it. It was certainly real. She was alive but how and why? She was ready to die. She was prepared for it.
"What happened?"
Baltar found a cure in the cylon's blood. Don't you remember?"
"Yes, but why? I was ready to die."
"I know. I fought for your wishes but in the end this is better." Jack sat down next to her and covered her hand with his. "You aren't done here Laura. You have a different destiny now. Hell, who knows maybe it's the same one, but for whatever reason the gods weren't ready for you."
"May be they were."
" I don't believe that. If they were they wouldn't have put such a selfish streak in William Adama or me."
"Bill?"
"He cares for you Laura. He loves you even; he's just to stubborn to admit it."
"He's not stubborn Jack, not about that. He's being realistic. We couldn't have a relationship."
"Why not. You compliment one another, you have similar interests and common goals."
"And we fight like two-year olds." Laura smiled.
"You asked me why we did it and I'm telling you. There is no need to get cute young lady. "
Laura nodded her head. She really wanted to tell the gruff doctor that he wasn't telling her the truth. He was giving her the company line."
"The fleet needs you Laura. Baltar never wanted to lead. He spent the hours following your transfer to Galactica trying to find away to save you because we wouldn't be complete without you."
"That's touching doctor but it doesn't answer my question. Why did you allow it to happen?"
Jack bit his lip. Should he tell her the truth or make something up? The truth he decided would be best. She was too good at detecting bullshit."
He dug through his pocket for a cigarette. "If you want to the truth I've got to have a cigarette."
"You drive a hard bargain Jack." Jack smiled and put the cigarette in his mouth. He pulled a lighter from his pocket, which Laura quickly took from his hand. He cocked an eyebrow as she lit it and bent closer, allowing the flame to ignite the cigarette. He took a drag and began to speak. "I met Bill Adama almost forty years ago. He was married then but not happy, he wife was a small version of Tigh without the adultery. He loved Caroline blindly, she gave him two beautiful boys but she was never happy with him. She would have preferred he wasn't in the service. She would have preferred if he would have mustered out, and they had become a true family. The truth was he couldn't do that the military was and is his life. It cost him two marriages and two sons." Cottle took another drag. "But, I digress you asked me why? Well, here's your Gods honest answer. After Caroline and he divorced he shut everyone except Saul, Kara and myself out. He became the steadfast military commander. That is until he met you.
"He hated me the first time he met me."
"Don't be too sure about that. I've heard about your first famous meeting. I think you mistook brash unwavering pigheadedness for compassion. He saw you as an equal of sorts, someone he could identify with but he couldn't get past the fact that you represented the very thing he couldn't stand his superiors. Then the Colonies were destroyed and you became President and that compassion he felt for you was turned into something far stronger.
"Not only did I represent the very thing he despised. I became it."
"Bingo" Cottle stubbed out the cigarette. "He was forced to bury the feeling that you brought to the surface the first day he met you. He was successful for a long time, until Kobol and they all came crashing down on him. He would have survived the attempt on his life, but I think you helped him to recover. When he woke up he was still mad but I saw it in his eyes. I knew that when he was done being mad he would come after you and he did."
"I've watched him spend time with you for the past forty-eight hours. The first time he walked in here he couldn't even look at your bed. He had tears in his eyes and could hardly breathe when I told him how long you had. He spent every waking moment he could with you. He talked to you, read to you, held your hand, and when he had to leave he would kiss you good night."
"He kissed me when I promoted him. I thought it was pity."
"One thing William Adama doesn't do is pity. At the very least it was an impulse, but more likely it was love."
"Okay, so he loves me and can't live without me." Laura's mind was going a mile a minute. I can't live with out him either so what's your story. That explains him but what about you?"
"What about me?"
"Why did you do it? Why didn't you become the voice of reason?"
"Because I couldn't be." Cottle leaned forward on the stool next to her bed. "You are recovering now. You will live a full life and I'm not sorry for it. Each day you're here. I get to talk to you. I get to joke with you. I get to hear you laugh, and I wouldn't trade it for anything."
Laura had tears in her eyes. This man was not gruff and sarcastic. She remembered every conversation she shared while she was lying on her deathbed. She even remembered hearing Bill's voice and feeling his hand in hers. She wouldn't give up on them for the world.
"I guess the answer to your question is we were being selfish and we just couldn't let you go."
"It's not selfishness Jack. It's love.