Chapter Two

She had relented. The morning after her meeting with Bill Adama, she had planned to go into work as normal, talk to Richard and make sure Billy and Alex were getting on all right. But as soon as she woke up, she had felt different. The sunlight had streamed in from her bedroom window, and it felt like a new dawn, as clichéd as it sounded. Opening her hand, she traced the numbers written on there. She hadn't washed them off, every time she had gone to do it, something in her had stopped.

"Time to get up."

First thing she did was get a scrap of paper and write his telephone number down. She didn't want to lose it; there was still something in her that wanted her to call him. A hot pounding shower awoke all her senses, and pumped her full of energy. Opening her wardrobe, she decided against one of her normal outfits, and decided instead for a pair of black trousers and a shirt with cropped sleeves in plum. Her hair was vibrant that morning, and her eyes shone. She felt confident, happy.

On her kitchen table was A Murder on Picon, still sitting there, the pages crinkled and crisp. She made a note to go to the bookshop she loved and pick up a new copy to read, while placing this one solidly on the shelf as a memory of her mother.

"Time to go to work."

She left the house with a smile.

X

He hadn't slept that night. It was out of character he knew, but he couldn't get Laura Roslin off the brain. Part of her seemed to enjoy their conversation, but another part seemed to want to get out as quickly as possible. She was a mystery, just like the books she read. Going downstairs to his kitchen, he noted what was on his table: an invitation for an engagement party and a copy of Dark Day. Bill had gone to his favourite bookstore in the city yesterday evening and picked up a copy for Laura; even though he was sure he would never hear from her again.

"Never waste a gift," Bill muttered to himself before deciding to head down to the Government building and give the book to her.

Security was what he expected, but after he was searched thoroughly and was revealed to be a Commander in the Colonial Fleet and carrying neither bomb nor gun just book, he was let through. However, he must have gotten turned around somewhere, because he found himself in a secluded area next to a desk outside a large door. A desk that happened to be littered with model vipers.

"Hi, I was wondering if you could help me?"

The girl sitting at the desk turned around on her chair, and her eyebrows shot up when she saw whom it was.

"Commander Adama, sir!" the girl shot straight up from her desk and gave a mock salute at the military official standing in front of her. He gave her a grin, and saluted back. "This is an honour sir, I've read all about you."

"Well thank you, err…"

"Alex, sir. Alexandra Charlton. I'm the President's assistant, sir." Alex gave a smile, extremely happy at the guest who had come to her desk.

"You're interested in vipers?" Bill asked, watching as the girl couldn't help but grin at his words. He also noticed that a girl of about eight or nine was sitting on the top of a raptor in a photograph on her desk.

"Yes sir. My father is a raptor pilot on the Battlestar Columbia, sir," she replied courteously, and Bill then noticed the photo of a man in a pilots uniform standing with a woman and what he assumed to be the young Alex.

"Bryan Charlton? I remember him from when I was XO of the Columbia. You ever flown a plane, Alex?"

"No sir. Always wanted to, never had the chance."

Bill smiled at the young girl in front of him, stuck behind a desk. During the last couple of years of his command, his paperwork had increased but he could always remember the feeling of being behind the controls of a viper. To want but never do…he couldn't imagine the frustration.

"Sorry sir, you wanted to ask me a question?"

"Yes, I'm trying to find Laura Roslin. Do you know where she might be?" he noticed that Alex had turned quite pale at his question. She crossed her arms over her chest and seemed to have trouble coming up with the words.

"Her office is down the corridor, two doors down. Billy should be in the desk out front; he's the perky kid with the large amount of photographs on his desk. Hope that helps."

"Thank you Alex."

Bill couldn't miss the subtle glance she gave to what he assumed to be the outer door of President Adar's office. He gave Alex a nod and moved off into the direction of Laura Roslin's office. He found it eventually, and true enough Billy was sitting at his desk with all his photographs. He also looked vaguely familiar, and Bill believed him to be the one who had accompanied Laura to the Galactica a month ago.

"Hello Commander, can I help you?"

"Tell Laura - tell Ms Roslin that I brought back the book she left at the coffee place yesterday," he explained, before placing Dark Day on the desk and turning to leave the Government building. He didn't want to disturb her, the President was more important than a former Commander, as much as he hated to admit it.

X

When she had returned from seeing Richard, Laura had been surprised to know that Adama had dropped by. She had been even more surprised to see that he had left a copy of Dark Day on her desk for her.

"Did Commander Adama say anything when he dropped this off?"

"No ma'am, he just said to tell you that he was bringing back the book that you had left at the coffee place yesterday."

"Thank you Billy."

Smiling at her assistant, she opened her office door and stood against the large window that her office had. The sunlight was bright in here too, but it just made everything seem too bright, clinical even. Opening the book, she saw that he had written an inscription in the cover.

To Laura,

Hope you enjoy it just as much as I enjoyed our meeting.

Yours, Bill Adama

Laura watched the clock, and realised after several minutes of being entranced by the hands that it was time for lunch. Grabbing her purse off of her desk, she took the book and went down to the river walk where she began to read.

X

One Week Later

She had read it twice, she couldn't put it down. The bookmark was scraps of paper, gum wrappers, anything that would keep her place marked. Before she even started to read it again, she would absorb the inscription just inside the cover, smiling as she thought about the meeting in the coffee shop.

Unfortunately, work had kept her busy. Richard had kept her busy, so there had been no chance to call Bill Adama and let her know how she had loved Dark Day. It saddened her that her circle of friends had been restricted to just Richard and his wife, which was weird in itself. Sometimes she just wanted to talk things over with another woman, or just spend hours talking in a café over coffee like she had with Bill.

Which was half the reason she was now in her favourite bookshop with Alex Charlton. They had bumped into each other at a deli that Laura liked to go to, and that was when she suggested that they walk together for a bit. Laura was glad to get to know the young assistant, especially as she seemed to be a very interesting person.

When they had entered the bookshop, she had headed straight for the books on technology, right down the alphabet to 'V'. Laura went to the mystery section. Last night while reading a magazine, she had discovered that Edward Prima had another book out. She managed to locate the section, but was distraught to discover that there was only one left. Laura reached for it, but felt her hand brush someone else's, a very familiar someone else's.

"See you've finished Dark Day," Bill Adama announced, and Laura couldn't help but smile at his husky tone. It was a voice that was uniquely him, and although Laura didn't want to admit it she had been thinking about that voice rather a lot lately. It was in fact the voice that spoke Dark Day to her.

"Twice. Thank you very much for it."

"It was my pleasure to introduce Edward Prima to the uneducated." She hit him for that. A light touch, barely hurting him, playful almost. She took him in, he looked the same as the last time she had seen him, but more comfortable around her. That was good. She felt a lot more comfortable around him too.

"I loved it. You should have waited when you dropped it over, I would have loved to talk."

"It seemed that you and the President were in a meeting, I didn't want to disturb."

"Oh gods, we were just talking about the new Defence secretary," Laura explained, and it was the truth. For once they were discussing something of relevance and not frakking. However, before Bill could respond, Alex had joined them.

"Sweet, they've got a copy of the Colonial Fleet's 50 best pilots! Oh, hello Commander!" Alex announced, giving another salute when she saw that Bill was talking to Laura. He grinned when he saw the copy of the book, and Laura could see a meeting of minds between the two. She couldn't imagine where they had met, but she noticed that Alex seemed a lot livelier when she was talking vipers.

"Am I in there?" Bill asked, and Alex flicked through the book until she came to number 9. She then showed him the double page spread with Lt. William 'Husker' Adama and he matched her grin. Laura looked over Alex's shoulder and gave a coy smile.

"Husker huh? You were quite handsome when you were younger."

"Are you saying I'm not now?" They shared another smile, and Alex decided to leave them alone and go pay for her book.

"I was going to call you and let you know that I had read it, but I got so caught up with everything…" She regretted it; she regretted not telling him how much she loved the book and how much she wanted to talk to him again.

"Its fine, I understand. The more pressing problem is what are we going to do about Blood in the Snow?" Bill asked, holding up the last copy of Prima's new book.

"I don't know."

"Tell you what - you can have the last copy if you accompany me somewhere tonight."

"And where would that be?"

"An engagement party. If I don't go with someone I'll end up being involved in drinking games with my already inebriated former pilots. Please, you will be doing me a huge favour. It won't be a date, just a…

"…Favour for a friend. I can do that."

"Good. Pick you up at eight?"

Laura wrote her address down on the palm of Bills hand this time, and she swore her heart began to race the minute her pen touched the soft skin of his palm. Taking the book out of his grasp, she went to go pay for it and find Alex, realising she needed help for tonight.

X

"How do I look?"

"You look fine."

"Alex?"

"They're going to need the paramedics, because Husker is going to have a heart attack," Alex replied, and Laura giggled. She couldn't get the image of Bill 'Husker' Adama out of her head, which was why she had not gone to see Richard that afternoon. Laura felt much better for it, and now she was standing in front of Alex and Billy showing off her outfit. She wanted to do both casual and formal so had opted to wear a pair of black jeans with a white top and a pink shirt over that. She had been worried that it would be a bit scruffy, but with her jewellery and her hair down Laura realised she looked good.

The doorbell rang, and Billy and Alex stood up. He was minus his tie and looked slightly uncomfortable standing in his boss's home. Alex was wearing a Battlestar Galactica baseball cap and a leather jacket. Laura stood up nervously and opened the door to find Bill Adama standing on her doorstep. He looked smarter than he had been earlier that day, and Laura found that the Commander cleaned up rather well.

"You look wonderful."

"Thank you, you don't look so bad yourself. Shall we go?"

"Yeah."

Bill nodded and waved to Billy and Alex inside who were going over some paperwork at Laura's for the evening and were going to stay there until she got back. That way she didn't have to bring any house keys, and there wasn't any chance of losing them. She didn't know where she was going; she was putting her life firmly in Bill Adam's hands.

"Whose engagement party is it?"

"Chief Tyrol and Lieutenant Valerii. They were having a relationship on Galactica before it was decommissioned, and now they've made it public. Good lot of the people from the Galactica should be there."

"Sounds fun."

Bill took them over to the small hotel that the party was being held at, including the large open garden. Stepping through the door, they were directed to the party and she felt Bill slip an arm around her waist. She was glad of his protectiveness; it made her feel like she was welcome there.

"Commander! Hey Galen, the Commander's here and he's brought a date!" Sharon Valerii was a very pretty young woman who was wearing a Battlestar Galactica jacket over her dress. She was joined by a young man who immediately saluted to the Commander before slinging an arm around Sharon's shoulders. They looked very much the happy couple and in love.

"Chief, Boomer, this is Laura Roslin, Laura this is Sharon Valerii, one of my former Raptor pilots, and Galen Tyrol, former deck chief of the Galactica. Congratulations to the both of you. "

"Thank you sir."

They left the happy couple to greet their guests, and they headed to the bar. Many more people came up to say hello to the Commander and even offered to buy them drinks. While Bill talked business with a couple of his pilots, Laura chatted with Felix Gaeta, a former member of the CIC crew. Once it looked like they weren't going to be disturbed for a while, Bill brought them over to a singular table where they sipped their drinks.

"Having fun?"

"I am actually. Thank you for bringing me."

"Believe me, thank you. It's a nice feeling to have the most beautiful woman in the room on my arm."

She blushed at that, and he seemed pleased that he had that effect on her. They watched the room for a few minutes before the band finally started playing a song she liked.

"Want to dance?"

"Love to," replied Adama, holding out his hand so he could lead her to the floor. It was a relatively slow song, so Laura linked her arms around his neck and his hands spanned her waist and brought her closer to him. They slowly turned around on the dance floor, oblivious to the chuckling of one Colonel Tigh and Lieutenant Thrace who were standing by the bar with a collection of drinks around him.

"This feels nice."

"Mmm hmm."

They continued to turn on the floor, getting closer with each beat so eventually Laura was resting her head on Bill's shoulder.

"How the hell does the old man score a girl like that?" Bill heard Kara ask Tigh which he responded with a scathing remark. Bill just held Laura closer to him. Any doubts he had about this woman that he now held in his arms were gone.

The song was over before they knew it, and they broke apart reluctantly. It was only then that Bill realised what the time was and decided to take Laura back to Caprica City. She collected their coats while he had a few words with Thrace and Tigh about their conduct. When they were leaving his arm was still around her waist.

The journey was over before they knew it, and Laura released a breath she realised she hadn't been holding. The evening was practically over, but she didn't want it to be. She wanted there to be a next meeting, a next morning, anything as long as she could see him again.

"Goodnight Laura."

"Goodnight Bill."

He leaned it to kiss her lightly on the mouth, but it was enough to leave her wanting more of him, more of his scent and taste. They broke apart and she was about to invite him inside when she noticed his gaze had turned elsewhere. Following his eye line, she saw Alex and Billy standing in the doorway, but Richard was with them.

"Looks like you're needed. Goodnight Laura," he sighed, kissing her on the cheek and nodding at the pair he liked as he left her path. Sighing herself, she walked up to the door to deal with her current problem of her lover watching her being kissed by a man she was starting to fall for.