Rated: T for now

Summary: Another Alternative Universe after Bill and Laura spend the night together on New Caprica

Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica and its characters don't belong to me. I make no money from this work of fiction.

A/N: Thank you to Laura Mayfair and her cat who proofread the story. And all those who reviewed the story.

A/N2: Due to the length of this part I decided to split it in two chapters, this one starts immediately after the 6th.

Zagreus

Part 7

Galactica

Still day 241 of the second Exodus

Laura hadn't trusted him not to be a cylon, Bill hadn't trusted her not to sleep around. It hurt. A lot. Lack of love, change of heart, she could understand. Their relationship came from being forced closely together and they had just as suddenly been torn apart. The only thing that really made sense was the trust they had built in one another. And now he basically told her it had all been in her mind. It hurt. A lot.

"When did you stop trusting me? Did you ever trust me at all?"

"Of course I trusted you!"

"Then why did you believe Baltar?"

"I know you were sleeping with Adar."

Laura froze, speechless. She hadn't been expecting that. Bill waited for her to regain her composure.

"How do you even know that? And what does it have to do with anything?"

"I found a letter while I was sorting through your things before sending them to storage. And it means you're attracted to men of power. Indicates a pattern."

"What? So because I had a lasting affair with a man who happened to be President – a fact that started after we began sleeping together – that means I want to jump anything that holds an ounce of power?"

"You also slept with me."

"Once. I slept with you once after more than a year of knowing you." She got up and started pacing in front of him.

"And I am an Admiral. It's a position of power."

"Seriously? You think I slept with Cain too? You know, before I asked you to execute her. And Elosha, perhaps, she was high Priestess after all. Do you think I frakked Cylons as well? Oh, let's not forget about Tigh, he was leading the resistance. What do you think Bill?! Did your best friend screw my brains out?!"

She turned to him as she screamed. She had never screamed at him before, not when he wanted to leave the fleet to fend for itself at Ragnar, not when he refused to stop looking for Kara, not even when he had thrown her in the brig. But she was done being the polished politician, especially since it was a personal matter where the President had no say. When Bill remained calm and didn't say a word, Laura clenched her jaw and turned back toward the hatch.

"I didn't want to believe you told Baltar before me."

His voice stopped her before she could put her hand on the cold metal. She kept her back to him though, unwilling to see him try and justify himself.

"Baltar, of all people. The man you despise nearly as much as cylons. I refused to believe you could tell him before informing the father of your child. With that in mind it could be me. After that you didn't come. You didn't even write so I figured I had been right. The fact that you kept Zarek on as vice-President when you came back supported that. When you didn't say a single word about a baby and started seeking me out I thought Baltar had made up the pregnancy to tear us apart."

The sudden ringing surprised them both. Laura heard him getting up to answer the phone.

"Adama… Yes, we're coming."

He hung up.

"Cottle wants to see us both. He has some news."

Laura finally turned around and nodded. She waited for him to button up his jacket before opening the hatch. She wasn't sure how she would have answered him had the phone not rung. She understood his point of view but she had more trouble letting go of her anger than William Adama, she always had. She never really let go actually, she merely redirected any lingering resentment to another target. That's what she had done with Zarek: transferring their past animosity toward the mad cylon lover scientist allowed her to deal with her new-vice President on a daily basis. Maybe could she do the same with Bill? Their falling off was in great part due to Baltar after all.

She was walking side by side with the Admiral, nodding absentmindedly to whomever saluted them. Bill was silent as well but unlike her he didn't look like he was searching for words. Reaching sickbay gave her both relief and anxiety: the uncomfortable walk was over but the doctor probably had some news about the child. Bill's presence didn't mean anything: either the boy was theirs and Cottle thought the father might want to know whether or not Laura agreed with that or the tests had revealed something that both the President and the Admiral should be aware of.

"Great, you're both here." Cottle said as he directed them to a curtained area. "Now take your son out of my hands and let me deal with my other patients. He's healthy and about a year old…"

"I know my son's birthday." Laura snapped.

"So he's your son now. That's progress from earlier I guess. Now get the hell out of…"

"Are you sure the tests are conclusive?"

"What do you think I am? An incompetent moron? I even tested you to be sure. The boy is a hundred per cent yours. Congratulations."

He led them out of sickbay, practically pushing them out the door. The young boy was fussing in his mother's arms. They stood there for a few seconds before starting the walk back to the commanding officer's quarters. Once they were back inside his living space Bill took the child Laura was still ignoring and sat down on his couch.

"What's his name?"

"I have no idea."

"What?"

"I hadn't decided on a name yet. I was still supposed to have a month left. I liked Evelyn or Tamara if it was a girl but that's as far as I went. It obviously isn't a girl."

"The cylon said he was called Zagreus."

The boy appeared to react at the name.

"If you've forgotten that it's one of Dionysus' avatars, it's actually quite fitting. Son of Zeus, he was taken because of Hera's jealousy before being brought back to life by Athena." Her tone was emotionless, as if she was just teaching theology to a class of uninterested students.

"You're okay with our son being named by cylons?"

"He's not my son. No matter what Cottle says, he's not my son."

"How can you say that?"

"My child was taken from my body. I have no memories of giving birth; I have no memories of breastfeeding. One moment I was pregnant and when I woke up I wasn't."

"That's exactly what you did to the Agathons and they welcomed their daughter with open arms."

"Sharon saw her child; she spent time with her daughter. Me? I might have carried him for eight month but he died on New Caprica. I never saw him; I never bonded with him… He's not mine."

"You can bond with him now. You barely looked at him."

"I'm the President of the twelve colonies. I don't have time to bond with a toddler. I can't raise a child on the Colonial One, Bill, I just can't."

"Do you think I can raise him and command a Battlestar?"

"Then what are we going to do? We can't just abandon him…"

"We could have someone adopt him, just like you did with Hera."

"Will you stop comparing him with her? And I'm not about to give our son to other people."

"He needs to have someone and if neither of us can do that, we need to find someone else."

She sighed and sat on an armchair.

"I didn't want him. That is I never considered him a possibility and then when I realised I was pregnant I didn't have a choice. You couldn't be there; it was just the two of us. So I started to love him or her, because I mostly thought I was expecting a girl. And then the cylon took me. When I woke up, I didn't have the luxury to mourn; it was easier to just deny I had ever been pregnant. I shouldn't have been in the first place. The odds…" She sighed again. "I'll take him. There's a day-care on Colonial One, I'll get him in. If you want to rename him, do it. But I can't."

"What's your father's name?"

"We're not naming him after my father."

"You loved your father."

"Yes. I loved my sisters too and I didn't want to use their names for my baby girl."

"What baby girl?"

"I spent most of the pregnancy sure it was going to be a girl. I didn't want to know for sure so I thought I was expecting a girl. It's not a girl. Obviously. But I don't want to name him after my father. I don't actually want to name him."

"So you're fine with Zagreus?"

The boy in his arms moved again, raising his face to look at his father's.

"I don't care either way. I don't care if you rename him, I don't care if you don't. I don't care either way."

"How about Billy then? You liked the boy."

"He was like a son to me. I'm not replacing him with some cylon spawn."

"Laura… Do you still think I'm a cylon?"

"Of course not!"

"Are you a cylon?"

"Don't be ridiculous!"

"Then our son is no cylon spawn. And you're not replacing Billy. If you are going to shoot down every name, maybe we should keep Zagreus."

Once again the boy seemed to react to his name. Laura called it again and the child turned his head toward her.

"He seems used to it. He knows it's him, maybe we ought to keep it." She said. "You know, not to mess him up even more."

"Mess him up?"

"He spent the first year of his life on a cylon baseship, his mother clearly doesn't want him and his father is busy commanding a battlestar. That's really not the best start in life."

"If you were so adamant not to have a child, why didn't you abort?"

"It's illegal."

"So is stealing election and you tried to anyway."

"It was one of my executive decisions. One I didn't even want to make but felt we hadn't any choice. And just like you said about stealing the election, it would have killed me inside."

"Then why don't you want to give him to someone else?"

"Because he's the only child I'll ever have. I'm supposed to love him. And I do. But not him, I love the baby I lost on New Caprica. They're not the same person in my mind, not yet anyway."

Zagreus was calm on his father's knees. Bill appeared to be more composed, as if he didn't want to restart the fight they had been having before Cottle's call.

"I will take him Bill. He'll be with me at night, there's no need to scold. I may even warm up to him."

"You haven't looked at him."

"And you haven't talked to him. I'll get there eventually. I just need a little time."

"Take him then."

"What?"

"I've had him since we came back here. Take him."

"I'd rather not."

"Laura, you're a teacher, you're good with children."

"Other people's."

The Admiral sighed again before putting his son on his feet and nudging him toward Laura. She rolled her eyes before holding out her arm for the boy to tumble into. He laughed as she scooped him up against her. He threw his little arms around her neck and hugged her.

"He doesn't appear to have anything against his mother. You will be fine with him."

"I don't really have a choice. We'll be going now. When Baltar wakes up we will have to question him about the cylons. I'll call you tomorrow to arrange it, but now I need to get back to my ship."

"I may try to come and visit."

"Okay."

Laura rose with her son in her arms and nodded to Bill before taking her leave. As she walked through the corridor to go down to the flight deck, Zagreus hanged confidently around her neck.

)-oO,o.

A/N : As always, I'd love to hear what you think. I should post the next one on wednesday.

A/N2: Apparently things weren't quite clear about why Bill was mad at Laura so here is a recap of the event: Laura discovered she was pregnant, she begged Baltar to allow her to go to the Galactica to tell Bill, Baltar refused and told Bill Laura was pregnant with somebody else's child and the next time Cottle visited, he realised that Bill was mad at Laura.

On another note, if you want to know more about Zagreus signification you should check the wikipedia page