Hair today, gone tomorrow

A/N: Inspired by the season 4 promos. Feedback always welcome.

"How short do you want it?"

Laura looked uneasily in the small mirror sitting in front of her and sighed. "About here" she pointed to just below her shoulder. It wasn't as short as it had been in the past but cutting it shorter than it had been in several years seemed like she was giving in.

She shut her eyes and tried not to grimace as she heard the scissors open and felt the small strands tumble down her back. It's not a sign of weakness she kept telling herself. Just a practicality, especially when more and more was being left behind on the pillow each morning. Not too short though, as there was enough vanity left within her to completely lose one of the few things that made her feel like a woman. There was also the almost silly aspect that completely cutting her hair off would be like giving in to the cancer and everything else that life threw at her. Laura sighed again and relaxed slightly as she tried to stop her thoughts turning paranoid. Don't be stupid, the Gods aren't out to get you.

Tory had also objected to a drastic change in appearance but had done so for less personal reasons. 'It would scare the fleet' she had said and had then gone on to add that the press would have a field day, asking just how bad things were. She had privately agreed on this point, the Quorum and the press were bad enough on a normal day let alone when they were questioning her health and her ability to do her job.

Still, Laura wasn't going to let her aide know that as Tory would have been suspicious given how vocal Laura had been about how she wouldn't let the Quorum bully her into any personal decisions. Those suspicions would lead to an uncomfortable couple of days where Tory would try and figure out the other reasons that would have her acquiesce so easily and she wasn't prepared to go through that. Thus she went through the motions of objecting to Tory's objections.

She opened her eyes when she heard the scissors stop and wasn't too shocked with what she saw. She gingerly raised her hand and twisted an end around her finger. 'I suppose I could get used to this. It's not too different' ran through her head.

Then the straightners came out.

"You have got to be kidding me!" The words slipped out and the woman playing God with her hair merely glanced at her. "It'll disguise the fact it's getting lifeless."

Laura shut her eyes again and wondered where the hell Tory had managed to dig up the harridan of a hairdresser and what was surely the last pair of straightners in the fleet.

Bill looked up from his paperwork when he heard a brief knock on the hatch before it swung open. He saw Laura step through and smiled in greeting.

She smiled back, not quite meeting his eyes. Bill recognised it as a sign of her being nervous and took a second to glance over her before seeing what was different.

"I see you changed your hair." Her hand made a small involuntary movement towards her newly shortened strands and he realised they were the source of her nerves. He smiled again, this time the wide smile that he reserved for the lucky few.

"I like it." He could see the nervousness leave her body and her smile relaxed as she sat down on the opposite side of his desk. She bent down to retrieve her files from her bag and Bill couldn't help but watch the way her hair draped over her shoulders.

She sat up again and he made no effort to hide his gaze. "I really like it." Her eyes darted downwards at his words as her smile threatened to turn into giggles.

They were both still smiling when she finally settled and they began their meeting in earnest.