"Oh my Gods," that was when it ended – everything about being a human came to an end; all of it.
Laura stood outside the school tent watching, just watching – toasters marching past her; silent sentinels waiting to strike upon any given whim.
But they hadn't. There must've been a reason. She knew that Gaius Baltar wasn't to be trusted; her memory never failed her. But Cylons hated the human race, why didn't they just strike? Where was the fleet? Where were the soldiers?
Where was Kara Thrace?
Gods, Kara!
A bubbling feeling grew in the pit of her stomach – a threat of vomiting urged her to lean forward and cover her face.
This was the end of everything, the end of the human race, the end of Kara, the end of herself – she'd only just begun living.
New Caprica was supposed to be full of new beginnings, or at least that was what Gaius Baltar preached – a new world, a new home; a heap of rock barely habitable.
Of course Laura wasn't enthralled over the situation, but she'd taken the moral high ground – how she would come to regret that. Laura and Laura alone had let Gaius win. Yes there'd been accomplices in rigging the election to her favour, but she was the one with the power to let it slide or slip.
Sometimes honesty wasn't the best policy.
For here in this god forsaken tent she'd sit, day in, day out. She'd pray and hope the gods would listen; New Caprica was hardly Earth. Her life had taken a tumble backward; she had no choice but to sit and watch the people slip into dismay; much like Gaius slip into his own decay, on her old ship, on that hill.
Sometimes she seethed with rage. But who was she to say anything anymore? Laura Roslin, school teacher.
"Laura," there were people who helped her through – they all helped each other through. Cally, Ellen, Galen, Saul, just to name a few. Though it was that same smile and blonde hair that helped her the most. Ever reliable Kara Thrace – Laura was glad she still cared, for some odd reason she felt blessed by it.
Laura looked up from the papers in her hand eyes meeting that of Kara's. She just walked in the doorway, Laura just had enough time to conceal the ambrosia bottle she'd been taking a sly swig from,
"Kara—"
Though Kara Thrace never missed a beat,
"Drinking? Again?" a smirk appeared on those well formed lips. Laura's mouth became dry, "You need to slow down you're beginning to turn like me."
Kara had made her way to the school teacher's desk, and pulled up a seat on the other side. She straddled the chair sitting backward upon it, arm outstretched with a wanton hand gesturing for the bottle; it wasn't the first time the young viper pilot shared ambrosia with teach'.
The erased formalities was something Laura had grown akin to – she found herself very fond of Kara, sometimes more than she thought she should be. Not that she'd ever admit that, not even to herself!
"Bad influence," came her reply as she handed the bottle over to the blonde.
"Ah, but who is?" Kara took a swig, lips smacking, hand wiping across her mouth, "You see I could say you're the one with the bad influence."
"Indulge me."
"Well all these late nights up – drinking," Kara took another swig from the bottle screwing the lid back on afterward.
Laura couldn't help but smile at her words wishing they were at least half true; that would at least mean she didn't have to mark student papers every night – how long had she been reading the same line over and over?
"So, what's this you're marking?" though answering her own question, she didn't have time for. Kara snatched the paper from under her grip, hazel eyes scanning over the text, "A History of the Twelve Colonies – yeowch. Man I hated all that stuff when I was at school!"
"Maybe if you'd paid attention—"
"Oh come on don't give me that – teach'" Kara winked handing Laura the paper, "I was more of a hands on kinda' girl."
Laura blinked mouth feeling dry again; she focused on shuffling the papers in a neat pile – anything to get the inappropriate images out of her head. Gods, she shouldn't and wouldn't be thinking this way about Kara, she was a friend – she was like a daughter for frak sake!
"Yeah," came her feeble response – she thanked the Gods that Kara didn't twig, she never did.
"Hell yeah!" there came the laugh Laura had grown used to, her eyes met Kara's again – the girl seemed an abundance of happiness; or maybe it was all the ambrosia, "Still am and you know it! One of the best Viper—"
The happiness left as quickly as it came; Kara Thrace sat hugging the back of the classroom chair.
Laura knew why.
Laura always knew why.
Laura felt the same sometimes.
"You miss it, don't you?" of course the answer was obvious, the question had been posed more for comfort than anything else.
"Sure..."
That quiet tone wasn't something the former president particularly liked. Starbuck – well – she was Starbuck, not without her problems but she hardly showed it, well not to Laura.
Laura extended an upturned palm across the desk, a hand for Kara to hold on to – which she did. They both shared a mutual smile, their faces both level with one another.
Moments of silence passed like this, it hadn't been the first time they'd sat and stared at each other. As odd as it sounded, it offered a slight comfort, a knowing that between them they were on a level plane; they weren't as fraked up as the rest of the fleet seemed.
Kara was the first to speak,
"Hey, how about we put this bad influence thing into action?"
There came a nod.
"We should hit the bars around this place."
"Oh I-I don't know I—"
"What? It'll be great – you and me and a few bottles of ambrosia!"
"No really—"
"Laura, please – come on let your hair down, just once, just this once."
It all seemed very cliché and in fact it had been. The getting drunk, the one night stand, it all would've been very blasé – it certainly wasn't the first time Laura had been in this kind of situation – if the 'morning after' she hadn't been in Kara Thrace's tent and in her bed.
The days that followed hadn't been very smooth either.
It appeared that neither party was going to accommodate the circumstances, even after a year of 'getting to know' one another, both women decided to run and hide from the situation; much like they'd all been doing since the attacks.
It seemed that maybe they were just as fraked up as the rest of the fleet.
It'd been days since Laura had even seen Kara, even walking around town.
Honestly, she missed her – though as some sort of plus side she'd marked every paper given; only to sit bored and lonely. Even the ambrosia started to taste sour.
It was on a night much similar to her previous evenings that Laura truly began to think. How did she end up such a lonely old woman?
The answer to this, she didn't give a frak about.
She didn't give a frak about much anymore.
Maybe apart from the bottle she nursed in her bed every night.
"Frakking Cylons. Frakking Caprica. Frakking – Starbuck!"
"Laura?"
Maybe she was losing her mind.
"Hello Lieutenant," Laura sat up in bed, wrapping the thin blanket around her cold shoulders. A cold stare directed at the blonde.
Kara seemed dejected.
"Sorry, I should go—"
"No" had that really come from her lips?
Laura's cold shoulder didn't last long.
Kara's footfall stomped on the hard floor; she kicked off her boots and sat by Laura's side. Muscular arms encircled the redhead, and Kara let out a pent-up sigh of relief,
"Gods..."
Seemed her cold shoulder didn't last long either.
"Kara?"
"I thought I lost you. I thought you hated me. I thought I was going out of my frakking mind!"
Laura had been the one to pull back. Eyes focused on Kara's features, of the trouble and the worry and the confusion and—
Laura wished them all away.
In a strange way she and Kara were very alike. Looking at Kara now was like looking at a mirror of her own emotions, she just had a better way of concealing them,
"You'll never lose me Kara, I trust you too much," like the cool tone of her voice.
"I trust you too."
"Hey Sam!"
Samuel Anders picked himself up off the muddy ground to see his good friend Kara Thrace waving at him from the sidelines – man did she look hot even when her trousers were covered with mud.
"Hey Starbuck!" he called back jogging toward her.
He was met by a hug and a warm smile. Man, how he wished he could kiss her – but that was off the record.
"Man I haven't seen you around for a while."
"Yeah, I've been busy," suddenly her pockets felt the best place to put her hands.
Kara knew from the start this was a bad idea. She'd been spending everyday with Laura – it got to a point she hadn't left the tent for two days, even with Laura teaching. Laura had been the one who suggested that they had a break apart; she suggested that she should go meet up with some friends.
'Go be Starbuck for a day,' were her actual words; apparently she'd been warm caring Kara for too long, apparently Laura missed her gutsy attitude.
"Busy? What's there to do in this dump, really?"
Sam shared her point of view. Same hated it here. Sam wasn't buying a word she said either.
Damn!
"Err just been helping out a friend," Kara shrugged, "Come on, doesn't matter, does it?"
The same sceptical look she usually gave to others was being projected to her by means of Sam,
"How about I thrash ya?"
Kara grabbed the ball Sam had discarded and joined in on the 'fun' – yeah, anything for a distraction.
Anything for a distraction.
Laura wasn't used to having her tent all to herself, a certain blonde would usually be chattering away at her; or kissing her or—
She needed a distraction – Gods.
"Laura?" why was it everyone greeted her like this these days?
Laura looked up from the Book she'd been distracting herself with – and fruitlessly too she'd read the damned thing that many times the pages were beginning to tear.
"Ellen, where's the Colonel? I heard he's coming down from the Battlestar"
"Oh Saul, he's not here yet – can't leave his memories behind."
"Can any of us?"
Ellen sat herself down in a chair beside Laura, who in turn regarded her with contempt. There'd always been something about the woman she couldn't put her finger on. She supposed her intentions were good, but her reputation exceeded her.
"I suppose not – how are you coping Laura?"
That earned a raised eyebrow. Laura leaned back in the chair, placing the book on the floor she folded her arms across her chest defensively; what was it to Ellen how she felt?
"I thought you might have been taking it bad, heck we all are I think. What, with Baltar sitting up in that ship on his high horse while the rest of us live in – this," Ellen continued with a sigh.
Laura regarded her words and knew the woman was speaking the truth.
"Well, I'm fine."
Unlike herself – were any of them really fine? Gods, where was Kara when she needed her?
"Ok," Ellen didn't pry any further but had to add, "A few of us are worried, we haven't seen you around in a while – you spend all your time in this school. Even Starbuck has said—"
"Starbuck?"
Ellen leaned forward resting her hands on her knees,
"Yes. I've just seen her with Sam Anders. She said she's been dropping by to see you because she was worried about you—"
"Worried? I assure you Mrs Tigh there is nothing to be worried about!"
Ellen leaned back once more picking up on Laura's defensiveness,
"Ok I believe you."
Laura stood up picking up the book and putting it back on the shelf. Words being toyed around in her mind; Kara was worried, was that the only reason Kara bothered with her?
Had Kara stuck around because she was worried, because she thought Laura was incapable?
"I really – truly – don't see what business it is of anyone's with what I do with my time," her back was to Ellen, her back would stay to Ellen, "Just because I am the former president does not mean I need to be handled with kid gloves, remember that Ellen. Give my regards to the Colonel on his return – and Starbuck. Tell her I'll be fine without her."
But would she?
Maybe the word had gotten out to Kara because she didn't return that night, or the night after for that matter.
Of course when Ellen Tight arrived in Laura's tent, with her concerns and her worry, Laura's anger flared up. Being independent, being alone for so long it had been hard for her to let anybody in – let alone a gutsy Viper Pilot with an attitude.
Sometimes Laura thought that they'd made a mistake, Kara and she. Other times she honestly missed her – it often felt like a part of her was gone, as sad as it sounded.
In truth Kara Thrace had helped her a lot; she'd have been even more alone without her. In truth Ellen Tight had been right with some of her words, but Laura could cope – Laura would cope. In truth, Laura couldn't.
"Right class I want you all to turn to page nine of your text books and read the passage."
These days it seemed it was just work and work alone. Being a teacher once more was nothing against being responsible for thousands of people.
Hers days were just a blur full of childish questions and answers, with dinner breaks and homework – not a care.
"Sam I better go," Kara groaned with exhaustion and one hell of a bad hangover – Gods if she was fighting right now and toaster snuck up on her, they'd kill or kidnap her for sure.
"Already?"
"Yeah – I need to check on Laura."
"Afraid she'll hurt herself?"
Kara glared down at Sam who lay on the bed. She'd sat up and quickly pulled on her clothes, a promise of forgetting the world for a day was just too good to pass up; even she had betrayed Laura, Laura never had to find out. Laura would understand?
Nothing Sam Anders could say or do would make her think or feel any different. Kara suspected she was beginning to love her teach' – in some weird frakked up way.
"Come on Buck, you've been mothering her for weeks now!"
"Frak you Sam."
Kara laced up her boots spitting out those words.
"It's the truth though," he seemed to be following her, she could feel his breath on her shoulder, "Oh – wait," and his laugh, "You haven't got the hots for her have you?"
One right hook to the jaw ought to shut him up.
Kara stormed out of the tent, running as fast as she could toward the school – across the other side of the 'tent city'.
Gods she had to make it.
"Oh my gods," Kara could see the words roll from Laura's lips, even if she couldn't hear them.
She'd been running, she'd keep running – she would've if it hadn't been for the frakking toasters.
She had no idea what was going on, she had no idea why the Cylons weren't just murdering people, she had no idea why Laura was just standing there.
If she could get past them, f she could just cross the path she'd reach her; she'd kill the metal mother frakkers with her bare hands if she had to. It wasn't going to end like this! It wasn't! It—
"That's her."
"Grab her."
"Quick before anyone sees."
"Yes that's Starbuck the one he wants."
Was.