Thank you to Guest once again! Your reviews are keeping me posting; otherwise I'd probably give up in despair.


4: In Which Children Are Found


Despite her initial velocity, Laura was less distraught than she seemed - at first. She despatched Bill and Tory after the boys, reassuring herself with the recollection that boys did tend to wander off, regardless of her horrid warnings. They usually wandered right back, none the worse for their little adventure.

But this isn't Caprica, or any of the Colonies, she kept thinking, her attempts at optimism notwithstanding. They hadn't been able to spare people to explore the planet thoroughly, and even the best aerial topographical surveys had their limitations. When minutes turned into hours, her imagination went into overdrive.

The other children were no help.

'Maybe they've drowned,' was one cheerful suggestion. It triggered a flood of similar ideas.

'Or they've fallen down a hole and broken their necks,' a thirteen year old put in, sounding altogether too pleased by the prospect. (In fairness, one of the disappeared had woken him that morning by planting a very long and slimy worm on his face.)

'I think they've been eaten,' the youngest camper said, a child who regularly foiled Tory because that efficient young woman had yet to realise that (infantile) appearances could be deceiving, especially when the appearance was as angelic as Ronnie's.

'That's enough,' Laura said firmly, casting an anxious eye skyward. It was starting to get dark, and there was still no sign of Bill, Tory, or their missing persons. 'Let's get the fire started and play round robin.'

The children grumbled at this, but settled down. Their stories were considerably gorier than usual and Laura decided that this was their idea of revenge. She forced herself to sit calmly through tale after tale of horror and suspense, many of which revolved around school trips gone wrong. She did, however, manage to avoid jumping when a dramatic pause was interrupted by the sound of crackling leaves and twigs.

Laura smirked when nearly half of her charges yelled, while she herself rose to meet the newcomers. Her smirk faded when Tory and Bill came forward alone.

'No luck?' she asked.

'No sign of them at all,' Tory responded, looking as worried as Laura was beginning to feel. 'We searched a good mile's radius of the spot the Admiral took them -'

'Could they have been hiding?' Bill suggested, interrupting Tory ruthlessly.

Tory glared at him. 'With all due respect, sir, the less you say right now the more you'll shine.'

Laura's eyebrows shot up and she glanced at Bill. He remained his imperturbable self and she narrowed her eyes at him. 'Tory?'

The younger woman huffed, sounding absurdly like one of their pupils. 'Well, it's all his fault, isn't it? And then he had all these grand military plans... and none of them worked! We're still no closer to finding the little frakkers than we were four hours ago-'

Laura cut off her diatribe by raising her hand. 'I get the picture. Go to the fire and warm up; you look at though you need it.'

With a final dark glance at the Admiral, Tory obeyed, and Laura turned back to Bill, her arms folded.

And said nothing.

Neither did he.

They locked gazes, but neither was willing to speak first.

It was an impasse.

Laura found her lips twitching; this was ridiculous. 'What did you do to Tory?'

Bill's grin flashed. 'I don't think she's used to being given orders.'

Laura huffed. 'I tell her what to do.'

'Yeah, and she tells you what to do,' he retorted. 'She didn't get very far with me,' and Laura broke into giggles that stopped almost at once.

She hummed a sigh. 'What about the boys?'

'They'll be fine,' Bill told her. 'Trust me on this one.' He stepped closer and crooked his arm. 'Shall we go to the fire, Miss Roslin?'

She gave him a very suspicious look. 'You're too complacent,' she remarked as she accepted his invitation. 'I don't like it.'

She did, however, like the warm clasp that enfolded her hand in his.

They settled next to the fire, ignoring how the children pointed and giggled.

'Stop being infantile,' Laura heard Tory scold a couple of especially drippy girls. 'The Admiral and the President are just good friends. Very good friends.' Laura grimaced at that mental image and wondered if Tory realised what she'd said.

'What's that for?' Bill asked, extending his hands towards the fire.

Laura opened her mouth to reply, but her voice died in her throat when she saw the sight she'd been waiting for all day. She was on her feet and over by the returned wanderers before Bill had time to do more than blink.

'Are you all right?' Laura demanded as she moved from boy to boy. The light had not entirely gone; she could see flushed, scratched cheeks and sparkling eyes. 'No-one hurt?'

The tallest of them looked puzzled. 'Why would we be hurt, Miss?'

Laura managed to avoid gaping. 'You ... disappeared, Joe,' she pointed out. 'Miss Foster and I were worried. No-one could find you.'

Joe's jaw dropped and he glanced at the Admiral. 'Find us?'

'Yes, Joe, find you,' Laura repeated with more than a hint of impatience. 'We didn't intend to lose you.'

'You didn't,' Joe said, still looking puzzled. 'We knew what we were doing. He' - he pointed at Bill - 'told us some stuff and sent us off. Our mission,' he continued self-importantly, 'was to branch off by ourselves and see if we could get some fish and find our way back using only basic tracking skills. We did, too,' he finished jubilantly, lifting a huge silver fish and nearly smacking Laura with it. 'See, sir? We did it!'

'Well done, lads,' Bill called.

Laura did not miss the uneasy glance he sent her way, and gritted her teeth. She was definitely going to kill Bill Adama for this, she swore it.