Title: Waking Nightmare
Author: Rina (seariderfalcon)
Summary: She wakes at some point in the night with a frightened moan.
Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica and its characters are property of Universal Studios and Ron D. Moore. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit from writing or sharing this.
A/N: Originally finished in 2012 and posted to bsg_epics for a friendly competition to see who could produce the most comment ficlets for their pairing(s).
She wakes at some point in the night with a frightened moan. Trembling, incoherent, and not entirely cognizant of her surroundings, Laura seems to be still caught in some tangled cobweb of sleep's remnants.
Bill wonders how often she wakes like this as he runs a soothing hand across her sweat-soaked arm. What nightmares she must have as a result of the stress and pressures of her duties? Or were they caused by something that happened long before the waking nightmare they now live in happened?
Forty-something years of military, sometimes on the battlefront, has prepped him to handle these sort of situations, on how to set aside these things. It also helps that he's never been one to become too perturbed by whatever oddities and disturbances his subconscious dredges up while he dreams.
But she's ill-equipped for the life she's leading now. She's living on the run and seeing the horrors of war in a way that was never meant to be seen. They all are and not everyone can compartmentalize as well as he does.
Finally, the reality of her surroundings catches up with her. She collapses back onto the mattress as her body loses the tension-racked fear that races through her limbs.
It was all just a dream he tells her, but then she tenses once more. Eyes darting around the room, she seems to try and recall what just happened, whether she said anything damning in the throes of her delusions.
He kisses her shoulder and murmurs more calming, nonsensical gibberish against her skin.
She settles back into his arms and tries to calm her wildly beating heart, and he continues to remain unaware of the chamalla's affects to her psyche.
