Laura didn't stop walking. The entire morning she had spent her day in meetings with person after person, and she was finally overloaded with it all. Step after step she took as she walked through the corridors of the Battlestar Galactica, waiting for the moment to end. Her eyes saw nothing, her feet felt nothing, and her nose smelled nothing as she passed by person after person, room after room, not knowing where she was going.
When she looked up, she was in front of his door. Drawing in as much air into her lungs as possible, Laura reached out and pressed her hand to the metal. His guards were there, hers were behind her, and she risked a glance to both before spinning the wheel of the hatch and pulling the door open. She had been there so many times that they never questioned her presence any longer.
Shoving the door shut, she looked around the Commander's quarters. Everything was in place as it should be, papers on the desk and small table by the sofa, books on the self and drying linens crossing the rope he tied up between his living area and the rack—always one to preserve when he could, he dried by hanging. She took a deep breath and stepped in further, smelling the spice that was him.
Laura sniffled. She blinked back her tears and wandered over to his rack, ducking below the drying tanks and towels. Rolling onto the rack, her back to the hatch and her knees curled up, she let sleep take over her body. She just wanted to stop thinking.
But she couldn't. She lay there as time slowly ticked by, losing track of everything, that one moment playing over in her head again and again and again. They were on her couch. Champagne flutes grasped in their hands as she strung her arms across the shoulders of her two little sister—her little sister and her very little sister. She choked back a sob.
When the bed dipped down, she wasn't even startled. Two fingers brushed across her cheeks, clearing the tears that had fallen without her knowledge. "Laura," he said, his voice deep and gruff.
She lifted a hand and clasped his, bringing palm to her lips and kissing his skin. Wrapping their fingers together firmly, so that he couldn't let go, Laura turned onto her back and stared up at the man leaning over her. "Bill…" her voice broke.
"I had a thought today." He gave her a quick smile, leaning in closer and pressing his lips to her ear. "This life would kill me if I didn't have you."
She let out a noise in the back of her throat, turning her head to brush their cheeks together. Before she knew it, he was rubbing his lips against hers, applying a gentle pressure and brushing away more of her tears as they fell. Reaching up and grasping his cheeks, she brought him closer, kissing each cheek before his lips, begging him to deepen their embrace. She wanted to stop thinking.
Bill didn't give her any quarter. He pulled back and smiled at her, running a finger along her cheek. "Talk to me, Laura."
She curled her leg up, leaning it against his body and pressing a hand to his chest. "I don't want to talk, Bill." He remained silent and stared at her as she gave him a stern look back; she would win. "Don't give me the great Adama silence."
"What would you prefer?"
"Frak me," she whispered.
Bill raised a brow at her, and she smiled in response, running on finger up his chest and to ship lips and caressing the soft skin. They stared at each other in silence, each with a soft smile on their faces, lips upturned as they drank in the other with their eyes.
"Frak me," she said with more confidence. She reached down and started to pull the buttons through the material of his uniform jacket. He watched her nimble fingers work until she pushed aside the two halves of his jacket and tugged it over his shoulders. Bill moved to assist in pulling it off his body. She fanned her fingers over his shoulders and down his arms, twining their fingers before bringing them to her lips to kiss them.
He let out a wry chuckle when she released his hands and reached for his tanks. Helping out, he pulled them over his head with little assistance from her. Laura traced her fingers down his abdomen until she reached his belt and started to fumble with it. Bill stilled her hands and slid the belt undone and shucked his own pants down to his ankles. He bent over to pull the ties from his boots while Laura played her hands up and down his back, leaning up to press as closely to him as possible.
Once he had his boots and pants off, he leaned back, pressing one arm over her lap and into the mattress. "You look quite overdressed, Laura."
She hummed. "I do, don't I?" Giggling, she shucked her jacket and dropped it onto the ground.
He reached over and took her shoes off, slipping each one from her feet and letting them fall to the ground below. He tsked at her. "Getting in bed with shoes on is not good form."
"I know." She smiled and pulled her blouse over her head, the white material fluttering to the ground as her hair settled around her shoulders again.
One of his fingers slid down her neck and to the tops of her breasts, skirting the fabric of her bra. "Take it off," he ordered.
Laura pouted. "I'd rather not."
Bill's brow furrowed with confusion, but he shrugged it off. "Then the rest goes. It's hard to frak you with clothes on."
Giggling, she lifted her hips after unzipping her skit and slid it down her legs. Once she was vested in nothing other than her bra, Laura waited as he looked her over. Bill stared at her for a long time, his eyes raking up and down her body as she lay flat on his rack. "What?" she asked.
"You make all things beautiful, Laura."
The look he gave her was so sincere that it stole her breath away. She cupped his cheek, sitting up to kiss him properly. Bill ran his fingers through her hair, tugging it away from her face so he could see her eyes. She smiled at him serenely before kissing him hard and scraping her nails down his chest.
"I told you to frak me, Bill. This is very much not frakking."
He let out a wry chuckle. "Demanding woman."
"You like it. Don't lie."
"Of course I do." He gave her a shove, soft but firm, until she pressed back into the rack, hair strewn out about her. He brushed his fingers over her skin, forcing goosebumps to rise up and her to shiver. "Just a frak?"
"Quick and hard."
Bill bent over and kissed her hard, his tongue sliding between her lips as her hands came up to clasp his face. She moaned and arched her back, moving to settle more comfortably as his chest pressed into hers. Reaching down with her right hand, she found him, circling her fingers together. She plied him with her best attentions, sliding her hand up and down with a twist each time until he was completely hard in her palm.
Kissing down her neck, he let his tongue taste her salty skin, savoring each bit of skin he came across. Her fingers squeezed tightly around him as he moved closer to her chest. He skipped over her breasts and touched his lips to her abdomen.
"I said quick, Bill."
"Soon," he mumbled back and shoved her leg open to touch his lips just above the smattering of hair he found there.
Laura reached her hands up and grabbed hold of the pillow under her head, letting him have his way with her. His tongue circled around her clit, one finger slipping into her body and he curled it instantly. She moaned at the contact, feeling her body relax just as it tensed with pleasure at having him so close.
He worked her. His tongue moved up and down, in circles and side to side as he tried to find which one would get her off. None of them worked. She closed her eyes, the tears starting to drip down her cheeks again as Bill kissed her thighs. Running her fingers through his hair, she pulled him back up to her lips. She grasped his face and kissed him hard, letting his body settle between her knees.
"It's not going to happen this time. I just want you to frak me."
Bill complied. He kissed her once before sliding into her, each sighing once they had a chance to catch their breath. The good thing about being in a rack on a battleship was that it didn't move when they did. Bill's hips pulled back before crashing into hers. Laura let out a breath as he did it once more. Again and again and again, he thrust into her, eyes locked on hers the entire time. Sweat riddled their skin, coating her fingers that she ran up his back and down his chest.
Heat raced through her as he came, filling her with warmth that only he could—familiar and comforting. He breathed heavily into her ear as he rested and calmed his body down; she continued to run her hands over him, giving him the time that he needed. Eventually, he slipped to the side and lay next to her, his hand running up and down her side as she sighed in contentment.
Kissing her shoulder, Bill rested back with his elbow propping his head up. "Want to talk now?"
She shook her head and tears started to spill down her cheeks again—they needed to stop. She needed to stop crying and start acting like the adult and woman she was. Bill didn't reach across to brush away the salty droplets this time; he let them fall onto the sheets of the bed.
"I don't know where to start," she confessed.
"The beginning," he stated back, still warming her abdomen with his fingers. "Seems logical."
Breathing deeply, she huffed. "I saw Doc Cottle today."
He closed his eyes and moved his hand up to the edge of her bra, fingering the small corner of gauze that he could see peeking out from under the material. "Is that what this is about?"
She looked down and let out a noise of frustration. "I started taking chamalla again, and the dreams—Gods, Bill—the dreams are the worst." Laura turned her body into his and wrapped an arm around his side. "They're the worst."
Lips touched her forehead in comfort, and she closed her eyes, reveling in the feel. His hand rested against the small of her back, flat and protective as she buried her face in his neck. She didn't want to move so long as she didn't have to. He waited quietly, just like she knew he would.
Laura cleared her throat, sliding away enough to look him in the eye. "Did you have any siblings?"
He pulled a strand of hair and rubbed it between two fingers. "I did, but I never knew them. They both died before I was born."
Laura nodded and slid her finger back and forth over the top of his scar. "I had two sisters. What's ironic is that it all happened on the same damn day. Years apart but the same gods damned day."
"Today?"
Her head jerked up and down. "My mother only three years before them. At least I didn't have to watch them die." She nuzzled her face once again into his chest and relaxed into the warmth of his body. "I keep seeing them. Laughing and giggling at the baby shower. Just like it was yesterday." She sniffled and gripped him tightly, pressing as much of her body against him as possible. "Dad was driving them home after the shower, and there was an accident. My dad, my little sisters, my unborn—"
He shushed her when the sob tore through her, shaking her body. His lips were on her face, kissing away her tears as she continued to cry in his arms.
"Bill…I have to—I have to tell you something." She pushed a hand against his chest to back away from him, making sure that he looked at her before she spoke again. "I'm going to die this time." When he went to protest, she shook her head. "I'm going to die. I'm going to fight as hard as I can, but you have to understand this. You have to know that when I stop fighting, when I am done fighting, I'm going to need you to be there. I need you."
He held her close as his lips cascaded down on hers in a moment of promise. Laura cupped his cheeks, framing his face, before sliding her fingers through his hair. He pecked her lips quickly as she smiled at him. "We should get some rest—there's court tomorrow."