This is my very first venture out of the Harry Potter fandom...many thanks to Lady Henrietta for helping me with the BSG timeline (I'm rather new to BSG) and to OSUSprinks, my beta for being excited about this fic ever since it was just a lil' plot bunny running around inside my head. Be warned...there is some fluff gack and sexiness squee ahead, though nothing terribly graphic. I would love to know what you all think about this, so please leave a little comment to tell me what you think!
Disclaimer: Not mine...it all belongs to Ronald D. Moore...is sad
Laura Roslin held her breath as her shuttle landed in the Galactica hangar. It would be the first time since the groundbreaking ceremony on New Caprica that she had come face to face with Bill Adama and Laura was trying, in these final moments, to control her reaction to seeing the Admiral again. If the situation had been different, if she was not about to be reinstated as the President of the Twelve Colonies, she might have given in to her impulses and simply thrown herself into his arms the moment she got off the ship. But she was about to become the President once again and the fantasies about their reunion that kept flitting across her mind had to be quelled.
There was a welcoming party for her waiting in the hangar bay and Laura's eyes quickly picked Bill Adama out of the crowd. Thoughts of running into his arms and kissing him passionately caused Laura to giggle and earned her a questioning glance from her aide, Tory Foster. Laura shook her head at the young woman and tried to control her face, and her emotions, as she drew closer to the Admiral.
Laura had no way of knowing that the Admiral's thoughts nearly mirrored her own. As she walked closer, Bill had the almost overwhelming urge to pull her into his arms, bend her backwards and kiss her in front of all the officers, deck crew and presidential staff present. He had not seen this woman in far too long and all the feelings he had developed for her were begging to be let free. It was all the Admiral could do to fight them off.
As the former president approached the Admiral and all the military personnel present offered a salute, all eyes were on the two most powerful people in the fleet. Unbeknownst to Laura and Bill, everyone in the room was holding their breath, waiting to see how they would greet one another. The same fleeting fantasies that had been pestering them were now running through the minds of the crew. Would he kiss her? Would she kiss him?
The atmosphere seemed promising. The two people in question had not broken eye contact since she stepped out of the shuttle and it seemed almost certain that a warm welcome awaited the president-to-be. The sparks flying between Roslin and Adama were not lost on anyone.
Laura slowed as she drew closer to Bill; for one brief moment, she thought he would indeed step forward and crush her to him in an embrace, but that moment passed.
"Madame President," he greeted her with her title, even though it would be a few hours still before it was official. "It's good to have you back on Galactica."
The gravely voice made Laura shiver, but it also brought her back to her senses. Of course he wasn't going to kiss her. He was Bill Adama, Admiral of the Fleet, and she was about to become the President of the Twelve Colonies and the people they fought daily to keep alive were standing all around them. The fantasies were only ever to be fantasies, regardless of the daydreams the two had shared on New Caprica.
Laura smiled up at Bill and hid her irrational disappointment behind a mask of good humor.
"Admiral. It's good to be back."
He offered her his arm and she accepted it, forcing herself to be content with that meager contact. Both of them were so absorbed in their own dissatisfaction that they missed the collective, if silent, sigh of disappointment from the others present as they left the hangar.
After the swearing-in ceremony in which Tom Zarek resigned as president in favor of Laura, she was led around Galactica to greet all those who had kept the ship running during her stay on New Caprica and to give the crew a chance to welcome her back as the president. Bill watched her begin this tour of his ship before returning to CIC.
Upon entering the command room, the Admiral felt all eyes in the room upon him. The crewmembers quickly turned back to their work, but Bill was left with the impression that they had all been studying him closely. This feeling only intensified as he caught several men and women watching him from the corners of their eyes.
Finally, Bill grew frustrated with the looks he was receiving and turned to glare at his crew.
"Does anyone want to tell me what the hell is going on here?" He growled and watched as the officers turned away.
His own daughter-in-law, Lt. Dualla, however, continued to watch him.
"Sorry sir," she told him coolly, "we are all just a little disappointed in you."
The Admiral stared at her.
"Excuse me?" The danger in his voice would have felled a lesser officer, but Anastasia Dualla refused to back down.
"We felt that your welcome of President Roslin was a bit lacking."
When Adama stared at her blankly, she continued. "You should have kissed her."
Bill's mouth literally fell open in surprise. He choked and looked around at his crew, all of whom were watching him with accusatory glares.
It was simply too much for Bill Adama.
He slammed his fist down onto the console before him and barked at the crew.
"Frack it all!" he yelled. "I should throw you all in the brig for suggesting such a thing! I'm the Admiral of the Fleet and she's the President of the Twelve Colonies! I can't just kiss her any time I please."
Bill glared at his crew, cursing them for voicing what he himself had just been thinking. At that moment, a call came in - there had been an electrical explosion in one of the hangar decks that the President had been scheduled to visit. Adama stared at the speaker in shock, all rational thought gone as he thought about Laura and the possibility that she had been in the hangar when the accident occurred. He would have missed his chance to kiss her, to hold her and tell her exactly how he felt. The bitter irony was so strong that Bill almost missed Dualla's voice inquiring about the President's location.
The crewman on the other line replied that the President and her entourage had already left and were on their way back to CIC; the injuries were minor and he was simply calling in to inform them of the situation. No reason to panic.
All eyes were on the Admiral as this was relayed to the people in CIC. More than one person smirked and Adama wondered just how much his face had given away. He glared at his crew and wondered when it had become okay for the men and women under his command to show an interest in his private life and when his feelings for Laura Roslin had become so damn obvious.
"Sir, the President is on her way."
Bill looked to the glass door of CIC and saw the newly reinstated President Roslin approaching, followed by her aide and several other members of her staff. There was a faint frown of worry on her face and he knew immediately that she had heard about the explosion. It was the thought of that explosion and his own brief moment of despair when he thought that she might have been involved, that caused Bill to act as he did.
Forgetting that they were in CIC surrounded by people, forgetting that she was the President and that he was the Admiral, Bill moved forward as Laura entered CIC and did exactly what he had wanted to do when she had first arrived on his ship that day.
Laura felt as if she was living one of her fantasies.
Bill Adama looked up at her with a strange expression as she moved closer to CIC; it was a mixture of worry and something else that Laura was afraid to put a name to, something she liked very much. Then as she entered the command room, he strode towards her and grabbed her waist, pulling her close to him and kissing her firmly on the lips. It was so like a scene from one of her many daydreams that Laura did not even consider pushing him away and instead gave herself over to the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her body close to his.
The feel of his lips against hers, his tongue teasing her own and the strength of his arms as they held her was something Laura could never have imagined so vividly in her daydreams and the sensations they evoked made her positively giddy. The kiss grew in intensity, but eventually they were forced to break it as the need for oxygen overrode their desire for one another.
While Bill and Laura were lost in their embrace, everyone else was left to watch and grin at one another. When the kiss grew in intensity, these grins were replaced with looks of shock and then a gradual wave of cheering and clapping broke out. It was a few moments after breaking away from the kiss before either Bill or Laura became aware of their appreciative audience. Bill silently cursed his crew while Laura blushed furiously. Despite her embarrassment, she did not pull away from Bill's embrace, but allowed herself a moment to bury her face in his chest before sighing and stepping away.
The cheering had subsided and there were now only a few scattered giggles and snickering as the crew watched their leaders compose themselves.
As much as she wanted to, Laura could not simply run away. There were several items of business to be taken care of before she could return to Colonial One and so she resigned herself to the sly comments and stares that were bound to follow her as she remained in CIC. Bill glared at his crew as if daring them to say anything, but he was rewarded with grins from each person. Silently agreeing to simply ignore what had just happened, Laura asked about the explosion and was filled in on all the details. To the Admiral's great surprise, his crew behaved professionally and acted as if seeing their commander kiss the president was merely something that happened as a matter of course. The only change was that they all seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood, even as they dealt with the incident in the hangar bay.
Indeed, Bill and Laura were the only two who couldn't seem to keep their minds on the job. Laura kept glancing over at the Admiral, wondering what had possessed him to kiss her and wishing that he would do so again, and soon. Bill managed to keep his eyes trained on his officers and the various screens in CIC, but his thoughts were on the woman standing a few feet away. He could smell her on his clothes and missed the softness of her lips. He also wondered what the hell he had been thinking to kiss her in the middle of CIC.
She had just regained the presidency and now her credibility had been successfully destroyed by one, mind blowing, kiss. She was going to kill him.
Bill fought to keep a grin off his face as he thought about the kiss; it had been worth whatever hell was in store for him now.
Despite the fact that the crew was being remarkably kind by ignoring their leaders' earlier actions, Bill and Laura suffered, needing to confront one another about what had occurred and to figure out just what it meant. Finally, Laura was able to escape CIC, and though Bill wanted to follow her, he knew that he needed to stay and see to his duties. But his XO smirked when the Admiral reluctantly tore his gaze away from Laura's retreating form.
"Go on, Sir," Helo told him. "We can handle things here, you really should go explain yourself to the President."
Bill started to object to save face, but this was just the opportunity he had been hoping for and so he merely nodded and turned to go.
He ignored the sniggering of his crew as he left and hurried after the President, wondering how he would explain himself and thinking that perhaps he didn't really want to.
"Madam President."
His voice caused her to freeze and Laura marveled at how her body reacted to the mere memory of their kiss. She forced a polite smile onto her lips and turned to face him, noting that, beside her, Tory seemed torn between disapproval and amusement.
"Yes Admiral?" Laura hated herself for having so little control over her own voice; just saying his title, she sounded breathless and hopeful.
"Madame President, unless you are needed back on Colonial One right away, I think there are some things that we need to discuss."
Laura was shocked that Bill wasn't even bothering to come up with a cover story. Then again, there was little point in that. Everyone on Galactica knew what needed to be discussed.
"Uh, well I..." Laura was horrified that she couldn't even form a coherent sentence. Surprisingly, it was Tory who came to her rescue.
"The Admiral is right," her aide announced to everyone present. "There are no more meetings scheduled for today and I think after such a long absence, it would be best for the president to consult with the admiral. I will let Colonial One know that we will be delayed."
And just like that, Laura was led to Bill Adama's quarters. Once the door had been latched behind them, Laura covered her face with her hands and nearly cried with embarrassment and frustration.
"Laura?" Bill's husky voice caused her to drop her hands and turn to face him.
His expression was so serious that Laura lost it completely and let out a giggle. It was soon followed by another and eventually she collapsed onto his couch in a fit of laughter. Bill allowed himself a chuckle, mostly at how much he loved her when she laughed, and sat next to her on the couch, gently running his fingertips through her hair as her laughter subsided.
Laura twisted herself around onto her back so that she could look up at the man next to her, albeit upside down.
"What were you thinking?" she demanded, her lips twitching as she fought off another attack of giggles.
"I was thinking about kissing you," he told her honestly. "And for the first time, I wasn't able to stop myself from following through with my thoughts."
Laura smiled softly and whispered. "I'm glad."
"Me too."
Bill traced the curve of her lips with his thumb then leaned down and replaced his thumb with his lips. Laura returned the kiss then sat up, forcing Bill to move away. He looked at her questioningly until she seated herself in his lap and kissed his jawline as her hands moved across his chest.
"This is crazy," Laura told him between kisses to his jaw and neck. "The entire ship knows what we're doing in here."
"Then what's the harm?" Bill asked her teasingly as he kissed her just below her ear and rubbed gentle circles across her back.
Laura pulled away abruptly, though she remained in his lap.
"The harm?" she repeated, staring at Bill as if he'd grown an extra head. "The harm is that you are the Admiral and I am the President."
Bill sighed and smiled ruefully.
"That's what I told everyone in CIC."
"What!"
"The crew seemed rather disappointed that I had failed to sweep you into my arms and kiss you senseless the moment you stepped back onto Galactica. I felt much the same way, but I had to remind them that it wouldn't be appropriate for me to do so."
"And yet you did it anyway."
"You didn't seem to have any objections."
Now it was Laura's turn to give a rueful smile.
"This is going to be all over the fleet in a matter of hours; hell, it's probably all over the fleet now."
"I suppose I should apologize," Bill said quietly, drawing satisfaction from the fact that she still hadn't left his lap.
"Of course you should," Laura told him, "but please don't...it would be a terrible blow to my pride to think that you regretted kissing me."
Bill laughed but Laura silenced him with her lips and the two were lost in the other until Laura pulled away once again.
"Since the entire fleet now thinks we're sleeping together," she whispered into his ear and kissed his neck between words, "it would be rather silly not to."
Bill said nothing, but grabbed her waist and stood up, pulling her with him. Their kisses resumed and their hands forgot all restraint as the two moved into his bedroom. But by the time they reached his rack, Laura had only undone half of his uniform buttons. She groaned in frustration and was more than willing to simply rip the military jacket apart and let the buttons fly where they would when Bill stilled her hands and undid the rest of the buttons himself. Laura moved to pull off her own shirt but again, Bill stopped her and gently guided her down onto his rack.
Bill pushed up the fabric of her shirt slowly; kissing the skin as it appeared starting just above the top of her skirt. The kisses on her navel that were gradually moving up her torso to her breasts were lovely, but the Bill's agonizingly slow pace was almost unbearable.
Typical of Bill to drive her insane in whatever he did, and typical of Laura to enjoy every second of her frustration. That thought almost brought on another round of giggles, except that Bill's attentions had left her breathless.
Laura was ready to simply rip off her shirt and then his, but Bill was content to take his time and he savored the scent and taste of her skin as she lay beneath him.
"Bill," she spoke his name, startled to hear that in her need for him, her voice had become throaty and husky, sounding much like his.
Bill noticed this and moved up to kiss her lips, staring down into her eyes for a moment before going back to kissing her stomach. Laura moaned softly as his breath caressed her skin. Her fingers wound through his hair as his head slowly moved upwards.
They were both fully aware of the political and emotional ramifications of what they were doing, but the only coherent thought that occurred to either of them as they seduced one another was that they wished they hadn't wasted so much time and had done this that night on New Caprica.
Bill's lips finally reached her breasts and his iron self control held as he gradually lifted her shirt and kissed the swells of her breasts that appeared above the fabric of her bra. Laura pulled the shirt off completely as Bill gently nuzzled her breasts and then undid the clasp of her bra, letting her sit up enough to remove it as well. Laura took advantage of this to untuck his own undershirts from his pants and she ran her hands over his chest briefly before ridding him of the shirts altogether. Both topless, they held one another tightly, reveling in the feel of skin against skin before moving away again.
Bill ran his hands down her legs slowly as he unzipped and removed her skirt, and then her panties. Laura moved to undo his belt and then his pants, laughing slightly as she was forced to stop and first remove his boots.
Completely naked and tired of fighting all that they had been feeling for so long, they gave themselves up to one another, each lacking any reason not to. There would be hell to pay later, but at the moment they were merely Bill and Laura, and there was no force in the universe that could separate them now.
The End...