This was an exercise in futility.

Before New Caprica, Saul would have been pissed off at the lack of entertainment he was mourning between his CO and the President of the Colonies. At one time, interpreting every gesture, every word spoken, every look exchanged, would have seen him through one of these meetings. The promise of the sport involved in ribbing Bill later on (though he rarely did so) was more than worth the price of admission.

And the touches? He quickly put an end to that line of thought before he got even more pissed off. More often than not, the two had always been just over a hair's breath away from touching each other. He had seen the secret smiles exchanged, as if there was some code that only the two of them were privy to. And once he had finally noticed the touches, he had started counting them to amuse himself during particularly long, boring meetings. Around the time of the elections, the highest count had been twenty-three.

He missed that. A lot. Ever since that gods-be-damned Cylon baby had been thrown back into the mix, Adama had had a chip on his shoulder easily the size of Galactica herself and Roslin had been relegated to pre-Kobol status. The Old Man had simply refused to speak to her unless it was absolutely necessary, which was starting to piss him right the hell off. Bill wasn't the one who had to pretend he didn't hear the catch in her voice, nor the unnatural pauses during wireless briefings which signaled that she had stopped paying attention.

And then the sanctimonious bastard had simply gotten up one day and decided that Roslin had been well and truly put in her place. His attempt to return relations between the leadership had been met with stonewalling, not only from Roslin herself, but Tory Foster as well. For the past few days, Saul had been silently cheering the President in her decision to not roll over and accept whatever crumbs the Admiral deigned to throw her way. But looking at her now, he wondered if he should have forced some sort of face-to-face meeting before this. Laura looked terrible, worse than she had looked at any point during the Cylon occupation of New Caprica.

"Colonel?"

Crap. They were looking at him expectantly. He looked back at them, feeling the sting of embarrassment. "I'm sorry, my mind must have wandered. Could you repeat that?"

If Roslin was annoyed, she didn't show it. "I asked if you would consider sending a group of marines over to Colonial One at some point. The Quorum's decided to start putting together a civilian police force- actually reinstate the police force that had been in place before the Cylons found us on New Caprica- and the people we have will need assistance."

"I could have a group put together next week, with the Admiral's say-so." Saul replied, taking a closer look at her and deciding he was right on the money. She looked awful. Bill would probably kill him in his sleep for even being able to make the observation, but those lines under her eyes had not been there two weeks ago. And he had a feeling he knew why. "If you don't mind my poking my nose into areas that don't concern us, I had a conversation two days ago."

Laura's lips thinned even further. "I take it the conversation was with the Vice-President?"

"Yes." Tigh replied, looking her dead in the eye. He wasn't going to apologize for what he was about to say. "He said you could use some help with the Quorum."

"Why?" Bill asked, looking at the President. Concern and annoyance warred for dominance. He hadn't been hearing anything out of the ordinary lately. And what could have possessed Zarek to get Saul involved in political matters?

"Zarek says the Quorum and the fleet in general have been putting pressure on her to remove the Cylon baby from Galactica." Saul informed him.

Bill turned on Laura, his eyes blazing. How could she keep something like this from him? Not only was this a mess he was in part responsible for, but these were his people being discussed in a public forum. "Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded.

"Because it's not going to happen." Laura replied in clipped tones. Sensing that this meeting would not get back on course after that bombshell, she started to gather the folders. "The Vice-President and I both agree that removing Hera from Galactica would do more harm than good at this point. Relax, Admiral, I'm not about to commit the same crime twice."

"We're back to that, are we?" Bill demanded, standing up and moving around the table. "Laura, you know that all you have to do is tell them that I will not allow-"

"Well, that would cement my base of power in the fleet, hiding behind the Admiral's skirts." Laura snapped viciously. "Either that, or apologize for not being able to control Galactica's Old Man. Yes, that's a brilliant idea for dealing with the Quorum. Telling them they can't do something. Thank you so much for the easy way out, Admiral."

"The fact remains that this is a military matter." Saul said when it became apparent that Bill had no comeback. In fact, looking at him, Saul was surprised to see a small measure of hurt in the admiral's eyes that was quickly masked with frustration at the way the President was acting.

"I'm currently working on getting that through their thick heads, Saul." Laura replied, snapping her briefcase shut. "I'll let you know when hell freezes over, because that's exactly when the members of the Quorum will start taking my word for anything again. Good day, gentlemen. "

She strode briskly out of the office without a backward glance at either of them. Jack, whose mouth had dropped open at the vicious insult the President had hurled at her own self and snapped shut when she left the office without giving either of the other men in the room time to stand up themselves, quickly followed after her. As she moved, almost blindly, through the CIC, Agathon (when the hell had that frakhead appeared?) moved in front of her, causing her to stumble.

"My apologies, Madam President." he said, almost monotone, as he reached over to right her.

She bit her lip to keep from crying out at the viselike grip he had on her arm. Then the pressure was gone as Helo spotted her security right behind her, glaring at him in a damned good imitation of Admiral Adama.

She blinked several times and smiled at Helo, reaching out to pat his shoulder. "My apologies as well, Captain, I should have watched where I was going."

"Madam President?" Lieutenant Gaeta called from the watch station. "Excuse me." he signaled to the ensign standing in back of him and hurried over to where they were standing. "Excuse me, sorry. I don't mean to hold you up."

"That's perfectly all right, Lieutenant." Laura said, gritting her teeth. All she wanted to do was get the hell off this ship and back to her own. What was it with these people demanding her attention today, of all days? They had an admiral who could look after their needs far better than she ever could.

"I was wondering… It's just… Captain Thrace…" Gaeta let out a short breath, then inhaled again. "My apologies." He suddenly wondered why the hell he was so nervous. He was never nervous around the President, who always seemed to put almost everyone around her at ease. "Did Colonel Tigh have a chance to speak to you about…" he quickly whipped his head around to check, even though he knew that Dualla was gone by now, "the party to celebrate Major Adama and Lieutenant Dualla's first anniversary?"

"I'm afraid we didn't get around to that." Laura replied, regret seeping into her as she realized she had put this fine young man on edge. Deliberately softening her voice and trying to smile, she laid a hand on his shoulder. "But it does sound like a fine idea. We need something to celebrate."

"Captain Thrace wanted to know if you would like to be involved." Gaeta asked.

"Oh, I'm sure the young people can do just fine on their own." Laura replied. "I'll be happy to attend the event itself if I'm welcome-"

"Of course you'll be welcome!" Gaeta exclaimed, then colored upon realizing he had spoken out of turn. "Uh…"

"Mr. Gaeta, that's very good of you to say, but I have no desire to make any members of your crew uncomfortable with my presence. I do hope you'll let me know a few days ahead of time so I can send a card to Major Apollo and Lieutenant Dualla."

"But-"

"Mr. Gaeta."

Gaeta snapped to attention and Laura froze again at the sound of the admiral's voice.

"Yes, sir." Gaeta scurried away, puzzled by the short conversation he had had with the President. He hoped she would change her mind and as he retook his action station, weighed the positives and negatives of getting Starbuck involved in this one. She'd probably do something embarrassingly public and the fall-out would land squarely on his shoulders. It'd probably be better to talk to Galen and Cally. After all, they knew the President better than almost anyone in the crew.

Felix couldn't help himself a small chuckle as he recalled running into the Tyrols' tent one day to find Nicholas in the act of spitting up on the then-former President. He wasn't sure if he was more shocked to find her baby-sitting, that it was a regular occurrence, or that she hadn't been taken back to detention yet that week. His smile dimmed a bit at that last thought and he shook his head, returning his attention to his station, where it belonged.

"Colonel Tigh, you have the watch." Bill remarked. Grabbing Laura's arm, he steered her straight out of CIC.

He nearly slammed the hatch in Jack's face and probably would have broken his nose if Jack hadn't edged his way through at the last possible second. Mumbling an apology, he brought Laura around to face him.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me?" he demanded. "I had to find out in a meeting from my XO, who in turn found out from the Vice-President?"

"Let go of me." Laura's hand landed on his, which was still gripping her upper arm in an easy grip.

Eyes widening, Jack was at a loss. Even in the earliest days, he never even imagined that he might have to step in before an argument between the two of them became remotely physical.

"Answer my question." Bill commanded. "And lose the chip on your shoulder while you're at it."

Laura's eyes widened and her breath hitched just for a second before quickening. "What the hell is that supposed to mean, Admiral?" she demanded.

"You're still sulking over what happened with Hera!" he accused. "You got caught, you were embarrassed, you decided to be a martyr, and how dare I stop you from doing it?"

"Let go!" Laura tried to pry his fingers from her arm.

"Admiral." Jack took an uncertain step forward.

"Bill, you're hurting me!" Laura gasped, wrenching her arm away from him with enough force to send her hurtling into the wall. Grabbing onto it for a second, her fingers clenched as the coldness in her chest was decimated by white hot pain. She became aware of hands on her, twisting her around and she was met by Bill's remorseful blue eyes.

"Gods, Laura, I'm sorry." His hands slid down her shoulders and arms to take both of her hands. "I didn't realize I was hurting you."

Praying to the gods that she wasn't shaking as badly as she felt she was, she removed her hands from his. "I'm going back to my ship." she said, clamping down ruthlessly on her bottom lip to keep it from shaking.

"Laura, please. Come back to my office, we'll talk about this rationally. I was surprised, that's all. I didn't even know you were still fighting this battle." Bill reached for her arm again.

"Admiral?"

Of all the timing in the galaxy, Starbuck had the worst. And this was the worst instance yet! Gritting his teeth and counting to five, he turned to face Kara. "Yes, Captain?"

"With your permission, I'll walk the President to her shuttle." Starbuck said, nearly bopping on her heels, so excited was she to get a moment to discuss the party with the President. She had finally managed to throw Lee off the trail when Hotdog had come into the mess, doing the worst possible imitation of a drunk as possible. She had high-tailed it out of the mess, finding Sam first. The plan of action they had come up with was crude but effective. They would let Lee have his little surprise for Sam. Only the real surprise would be on him.

She wondered what the President would think. She hadn't gotten to know Roslin as well as she would have liked to on New Caprica, but she thought Roslin was the type to enjoy the joke on Lee.

"Thank you, Captain." Laura stepped away from Bill. "Lieutenant Gaeta said you wanted to speak to me anyway." She wrapped an arm around the pilot's shoulder and started walking away.

Still unnerved by the display he had just seen, Jack started after them. He stopped as he passed in front of the admiral and looked at him.

Adama understood. "It won't happen again." he reassured the guard.

Jack nodded.