::Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried:: Ruth 1:17
It was a faint but definite crackling sensation, like electricity deep within his ears. It was both a mix of a soothing humming charge and of tiny persistent kindling sparks, and it was the first sense he had of anything since the utter darkness had taken over.
Bill had no sense of how long he sat atop the bluff before the darkness set in, but he had known when he took his place there beside her grave that it wouldn't be long before it came for him and he welcomed it. He had no intentions of doing anything other than waiting for it to take him. He passed the time between sunsets by talking to her, by telling her stories, and thinking out loud. He did that until it became harder to speak, harder to sit up, harder to breath and then harder to see and when one morning the sun didn't rise he was grateful and surrendered happily to the quiet darkness. He was unsure of what would come next, he was almost certain there would be nothing but the empty black abyss, but even so he was content to end there and eternally rest beside her.
Then the crackling sensation had evolved from nothing and he was just suddenly aware. He was aware of the sound and then aware of the buzzing feeling. Before he could form much more of a lucid thought the darkness was slowly dissolving around him. His consciousness returned to him piece by piece. His first complete thought was of the sensation one has when waking from a dream. That was what this reminded him of, and almost as soon as the thought occurred he could decipher his newly formed environment.
He didn't know why, but he wasn't surprised when he realized he was tucked under the soft quilt of a bed, he wasn't surprised that the bed was situated in a cozy familiar blue lit room, and though his heart was suddenly filled with the bliss of love and completion, he wasn't really surprised when he looked to his left found her tucked in beside him. He was however; slightly surprised to find that they weren't alone when he saw the little bundle nuzzled beside her. Bill thought for a moment and then understood.
This new consciousness was strange but not unwelcome. He had this new notion that though he didn't understand it all yet, somehow all the answers were available to him if he wanted them. He knew he would only need to ask to receive the knowledge he needed. After a life seemingly filled with the oppression of unanswerable questions, this new realization was the epitome of relief. As he came to this conclusion he realized that this was what he had been waiting for and he reached out to touch Laura's sleeping shoulder. He could feel her warmth and smoothness, just as it had been before.
She awoke slowly beside him. In the soft blue light he could see her eyes start to flutter open and when she saw him leaning over her she stayed laying there and just smiled through a yawn as if he had been there all along.
"We knew you would be here soon." She said sleepily.
Bill nodded and lay back down embracing Laura from behind. He settled in beside her as if it were their normal routine. He kissed her neck and behind her ears as he always had, nestling his face into her hair. He could smell her again. He had never been more comfortable or more at peace.
"You know, Laura, I didn't know what would come next. I just knew that without you…"
"I know, Bill." She interjected.
He sighed into her hair, happy not to have to explain his reasons for surrendering to the grief he had been left with.
"I hoped and dreamed that I would see you again, even if I didn't believe it," He continued, "but as I sat there and waited, in all my hopes and dreams and pining… I never…I never dreamed she would be with you…I'm happy she is."
Bill brought his arm over Laura and placed his palm on the little sleeping body she held next to her own. She was warm and soft. Laura smiled, still blinking sleepily.
"At the end I knew," she explained quietly. "I never wanted to leave you Bill, any of you, but somehow near the end, I just knew she'd be here waiting for me and it made it just a little easier to go. And now…"
"And now, were all together." He said kissing her temple.
Laura smiled and Bill felt her inhale deeply with a releasing sigh.
"Yes, now we are all together. All of us, Bill." She confirmed.
And as she said that Bill knew in an instant that wherever they were now, wherever they existed, whatever this was, when he was ready, he would be able to find Zak. He also then knew that when he found his son that Kara would be with him. Somehow, he thought, it made sense that Starbuck was here after all that had happened.
"We came over together…Kara and I." Laura answered without him asking aloud. She snuggled against the pillow and Bill hugged her tightly.
"I'm glad you had each other." He whispered into her ear. She nodded silently.
Bill knew that here he would find all that he had loved but lost before. He thought that he shouldn't have been so happy to know this. To know that most of his children would now be with him, together finally as a family. Whatever this was, as nice as it was; it wasn't life, was it? He thought that he should have been sad when he realized that Lee would be left alone; the last of the family left to go on, but as he thought of his oldest son he understood that Lee's journey was not completed. When it was, he too would join them in whatever this was and that didn't make him sad at all.
Bill inhaled Laura's scent once again. Whatever this was, he considered it paradise.
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Thank you for your time and reading my little story follow up. If you appreciated it in any way please leave some feedback no matter how brief. I'd like to continue writing other BSG fics, but I'll only keep going if I know I'm not alone, so to speak.
Best wishes!
LeoLovesAries