Disclaimer: Still not mine.

Author's Note: Heartfelt thanks to all readers, reviewers, and followers. I love hearing what you think and what you'd like to see in the future. Special thanks to Trixxification for her beta!

Chapter Four: On the Mend

"All right, Doctor Adama," Laura smirked. "Where do you want the patient?"

Bill's mouth went dry. This woman was going to be the death of him. She had already tested his limits - sitting so tantalizingly close he could smell the subtle scent of her perfume, running her fingers through his hair, exhaling deliberately on his cut. He had almost jumped out of his own skin at the latter action.

Against his will, Bill's mind had conjured up several highly erotic images that refused to go away - especially now that Laura had taken off her coat. The dark red sweater had a sweetheart neckline that afforded Bill a peek at her cleavage. And now he was tempted by the prospect of touching her legs after he had so clumsily offered to "play doctor".

Gods, her legs go on forever. If only she were wearing a skirt...

Bill shoved his lascivious thoughts away and committed himself to being a gentleman.

"Just sit however you're comfortable," Bill found his voice at last. Laura sat on the far end of the couch and placed her feet in his lap.

"I've been dreading this," She sighed. "I know I have to take the boot off, but I'd rather not see the damage."

"I can help you take it off," He said slowly. "If that's all right with you."

She nodded once, her auburn hair fanned out around her shoulders. Bill's fingers itched to caress those rich red locks. He pushed the urge aside.

Bill cautiously held Laura's right leg on his lap. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her by jostling her ankle. He settled one hand under her knee and bent it at a slight angle. A rush of excitement shot through Bill the longer his hands were on her, even in this capacity.

Concentrate! He scolded himself.

Bill carefully began pulling down the zipper of her boot, moving extra slowly over the curve of her ankle.

"Are you okay?" He asked once the zipper was down.

"Yes," Laura said breathlessly.

Bill kept his eyes on hers for a beat before moving on. He steadied Laura's leg with one hand and began delicately inching the boot off with the other.

"Ah!" Laura winced as the shoe slipped off her heel.

"Sorry," He looked at her with sympathy.

"What's the diagnosis?" Laura sat up a little to glance at her foot.

"It looks a little swollen. Does it hurt when I move it?" Bill lightly manipulated her foot up and down.

"No."

"How about like this?" He moved her foot from side to side with just as much care.

Laura yelped sharply.

"It's probably a bad sprain," Bill said with authority. "But it's better to be safe than sorry."

He grabbed a throw pillow from behind his back and sat it on the coffee table. Next, he tentatively shifted Laura's foot from his lap onto the pillow.

"R.I.C.E," Bill spelled out each letter.

"Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation?" Laura's smirk was back.

"Why am I not surprised you already knew that?"

"I did teach elementary school children, Bill. They twisted a lot of ankles along with those scrapped knees."

"Of course," He said amusedly.

For the first time that night, the silence between them was pleasant and comfortable. Bill allowed himself a selfish moment. He stared unabashedly, enraptured by Laura Roslin's beauty. The flickering firelight reflected in her hair, giving her an ethereal glow.

"What?" She tilted her head to look at him askew.

Bill wondered how she would react if he told her that her current pose was the cutest thing he had ever seen.

"Nothing," He shook his head, thinking better of voicing his adoration. "I have an idea for treating that ankle. Give me a minute."

"Sure," Laura flashed another smile at him.

Bill took the opportunity to compose himself as he wandered into the kitchen. Being snowed-in with this woman was going to be far more interesting than he ever imagined.


Laura stared into the fire. She was amazed at how content she felt, considering the circumstances. Bill's tenderness and concern continued to fascinate her. The gentle feel of his hands on her leg had made her skin tingle with excitement. Richard's touch had never been so attentive or unassuming. The implications of that was something Laura did not want to contemplate.

"I have a surprise for you!" Bill announced his return to the living room.

"Should I be worried?" Laura teased him.

"Not yet," He retorted. From behind his back, Bill presented her with a wadded up dishrag. She raised an eyebrow.

"Don't get too excited," Bill chuckled. "It's a homemade ice pack. There isn't one in the first aid kit. I had to get creative."

"I see…Thank you," Laura said honestly. "Could you help me wrap my ankle so I can put your ice pack to good use?" She held out an ace bandage with an inquiring look.

"I would be honored!" Laura noticed the gleam in Bill's eye as he teased her. She watched him peel off her sock to reveal a swollen, discolored ankle.

"It's a little black and blue, but I don't think it will need to be amputated yet," Bill jokingly appraised her injury.

"You're such a comforting nurse!" Laura giggled. "I'm glad my suffering amuses you so much."

"Only in small doses," Bill replied. His fingers deftly wrapped the bandage around her ankle, never once causing her pain.

"There you go," He sat her foot back down on the pillow and placed the ice pack on her ankle. "Does it hurt?"

"Hmm?" Laura made an inarticulate noise. She was too focused on his eyes again. Suddenly it registered what he had said to her. "It's still throbbing a little."

"Hmm…I didn't find any aspirin laying around but I think I might be able to fix that," Bill's tone a bit mysterious. He walked into the kitchen and returned a moment later.

"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" Laura beamed at him.

"You have no idea," Bill handed her an empty glass and produced a bottle from behind his back.

"Where did you find that?" Laura gasped. She could hardly believe he was holding a bottle of the finest Leonan wine.

"There's a wine cellar attached to the garage. The owners left behind a few bottles on their last visit." Bill popped the cork and poured the dark liquid into her glass.

"Sounds like the perfect painkiller right about now," Laura said playfully.

Bill poured a glass for himself before settling on the couch beside her. The hearty wine warmed Laura's throat as she savored several sips.

"Blackberry wine," Laura murmured. "It reminds me of summertime as a girl. My family always spent weeks at a beach house on Leonis. My sisters and I used to pick wild blackberries in the mornings. We'd bring the berries home and Mom would teach us to make pies, tarts, and jam. Dad would take us all out on his boat in the afternoons. I loved how the sun prickled on my skin even though I always ended up with a horrible sunburn…"

Laura trailed off as a wave of nostalgia washed over her. Her memories were precious but unbearably painful. The fact that Cheryl, Sandra, and her father existed solely in her memory was a devastating reality. Her mother was going to join them soon, leaving Laura utterly alone.

Laura forced her gathering tears to subside. She was more than a little mortified at having shared such a personal story with someone she barely knew.

"That sounds beautiful," Bill's baritone was unexpectedly soothing. "My sons and I took a camping trip to Tauron one summer."

"Really?" Laura was silently grateful for the change in subject. She wouldn't have been able to hold it together if he had questioned her rapid shift in emotion.

Bill nodded. "I wanted them to see the place where they came from. Help teach them about nature and history."

"Did it turn out like you hoped?" She asked, honestly curious. His chuckle caused a fluttering inside her chest.

"Not exactly. Carolanne refused to come with us. My ex-wife wasn't the camping type," He paused, clearly contemplating how much he wanted to reveal about his ex. Laura respected his silence.

"Anyway," Bill took a long pull from his glass. "I took the boys out to the hiking range. They bickered and fought most of the time. Got sunburned within an inch of their lives. Tumbled head-first into a patch of poison ivy. They were sore and itchy for weeks after we got home."

"Oh, no!" Laura laughed.

"I took them hunting one morning," Bill sighed wistfully. "Zak was so proud when he tracked a deer all the way into the forest. Lee wanted to kill it for meat. Zak wouldn't let him…He was a gentle soul. He wasn't a hunter."

The somber silence that passed between them told Laura all she needed to know. There was something painful about Bill's relationship with his sons. She knew that military personnel and their families shouldered an overwhelming burden when separated by months in space. Many of her former students had been the children of military officers. She had seen the strain firsthand.

"Where are your sons now?" Laura asked tentatively. "You mentioned one of them was in a flight accident today."

Bill's shoulders slumped. Laura wished she could take it back. Obviously she had asked the wrong question.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry. You don't have to answer."

"Lee is a Lieutenant on the Battlestar Atlantia," Bill ignored her backpedaling. "He's on the fast track to becoming CAG in the next year."

"CAG?" Laura made no attempt to hide her confusion.

"Commander Air Group," He stated. "He'll be a Captain in charge of commanding Viper Pilots on the Atlantia. I was a Major on that Battlestar years ago."

"You must be proud."

"Yeah," He ran a hand over his face, leaning back into the couch. "A faulty wire in his Viper nearly killed him this morning. I'd thank the Gods he's still alive but I gave up on them years ago. I almost lost both my boys the same way."

Laura was speechless. She hoped she heard incorrectly. "Zak…?"

"He died in a Viper crash two years ago."

Tears sprang to Laura's eyes. The intensity of the sadness and sympathy she felt shocked her. She had no idea what it was like to lose a child but she did know how it felt to live with crushing, all-encompassing grief.

"I'm so sorry," She whispered.

"I hadn't seen him in quite a while," Bill winced at the memories. "Our relationship had always been complicated. I didn't even know he was engaged until a few days…after. His fiancée has become like a daughter to me. Kara and Lee helped each other through their grief. He blamed me for what happened to Zak. He still does. And he should."

Laura decided not to ask the question that burned on the tip of her tongue. She let the moment pass, allowing Bill to take the time he needed to collect himself.

"I'm sorry for airing all my dirty laundry," He took a deep breath. "I don't talk about it very often."

"I don't mind," Laura assured him.

"I'm sure it would be far more interesting to talk about you. Where is your family…?" Laura flinched. He stopped mid-sentence, a dawning recognition in his eyes.

"Of course," Laura thought. "He remembers the little fact that every single reporter included in every frakking article during the campaign. 'Roslin recently lost her father and two sisters in a drunk-driving accident' or some other gross oversimplification."

"The car accident? Oh…Laura, I'm sorry," He spoke softly. "I had no idea that was you…"

"It's okay," Her laugh sounded false even to her own ears. "I wouldn't remember me either. Actually, that's usually the only thing people do remember about me." Laura made no attempt to stop the words as they came flooding out. She hadn't been able to talk to anyone about her grief for fear of becoming a burden or appearing needy. However, Bill was proving to be a capable and sympathetic listener.

"It makes losing my mother that much harder," Laura continued. "She won't be around to go to lunch, ask about my day, or come with me on the anniversary of the accident to visit Dad's grave and put flowers on Cheryl and Sandra's. I'll be alone. It scares me."

At that admission, Bill's arms encircled her and pulled her close to his chest. She allowed herself to cry, to feel the fear and the despair she had pushed away by drowning herself in work. His hand rubbed up and down her back. The touch was soothing in a way she hadn't felt in a long time. With her face buried in collar of his sweater, Laura could feel the scratch of stubble against her forehead. She took a deep, calming breath and indulged herself by inhaling his earthy scent one last time.

Laura sat back and tried in vain to stop the tears from flowing, furiously wiping them away with her hand.

"Gods, we're pathetic!" She exclaimed. "Instead of taking advantage of this gorgeous cabin, we're ripping open old wounds."

"It hasn't exactly been a stress-free evening, Laura. Releasing some tension might be what we both need."

Laura gave him a watery smile and hope he didn't notice her blush at the double-entendre.

"We've both been through a lot," She said quietly. It was apparent that she wasn't talking about just that particular day.

"Yes we have," Bill met her gaze. "But you're still standing."

"Am I?" Laura gestured to her lame ankle with a giggle.

"Yes. One way or another, you're still standing," The conviction in his voice stirred her growing affection for him.

"So are you," She said with equal certainty.

It should have been odd for the both of them to share such personal tragedy with a relative stranger. Yet it wasn't awkward at all. Both of them had suffered immensely. Time had yet to heal their wounds. Their grief was so carefully concealed yet so close to the surface. All it took was a kindred spirit to reveal the bottled-up sorrow and guilt. Maybe now they could both move forward on their stalled road to recovery.

They sipped from their wine glasses in companionable silence.