Deception, Day 22 continued…
Bill placed his own drink on the coffee table, and then paused, eyeing Laura with suspicion as he held hers out to her.
"I'd like to think I can trust you with this," he commented.
She looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes. "Would you?"
"Can I?" he asked, dryly – well, as dryly as one can when they're still a little moist from having water thrown over them earlier.
She just shrugged, a slow smile creeping across her lips.
Bill retracted his hand. "You'll go thirsty each time you're in my quarters," he told her.
"Oh come on," she said, giggling, and reaching out for the glass.
So easy to fool, Bill handed it over, and she immediately covered him with the water, biting her lip to stop from laughing out loud.
She saw the anger tense his features.
"Right."
And then she screamed as he flew towards her. She managed to stand from the couch, but he grabbed her round the waist and lifted her from the floor, kicking and hitting at him to be put down.
He ignored her demands and carried her into the head, careful that her flailing limbs didn't hit anything.
"Oh no!" she squealed as she realised what he was doing. "Bill, no!… I'm sorry… I'm sorry!"
He deposited her in the shower stall and turned her round to face him.
She looked at him with apologetic (but laughing) eyes, and asked, "How is this fair revenge?"
He looked down at his water-stained jacket. "I'm wet," he stated, then he switched on the shower, and through her screams as the cold water collided with her, she heard him continue, "You're wet."
He looked victorious as she glared at him through the stream of water, and, of course, she couldn't have that. Her hand shot out and gripped the front of his jacket, and she pulled with as much strength as she could muster.
She was the first to admit she hadn't quite thought it through, when the motion caused him to trip on the edge of the shower stall, and he ended up pinning her against the wall, his head in her chest.
But, he was as soaked as she was, so it wasn't entirely a mistake. In fact, she was having trouble coming up with any reason as to why it was a mistake at all.
He secured his footing, and straightened up, still resting his hands either side of her where she was backed into the corner. She encountered a glare as his eyes found hers, and she simply smiled innocently in response. "I'm wet. You're wet," she told him sweetly.
He glared at her a moment longer and then the absurdity of the situation seemed to hit them both at the same time.
Laura dropped her head to his trembling chest as they both laughed.
When the water had matted her hair against her cheek, she lifted her head again, and brushed it back, looking at a now much more relaxed Bill with a smile.
"What are we doing?" she enquired, softly.
Bill's eyes took in their surroundings before returning to hers. "Taking a shower?"
She giggled, and rested her head back against the wall – where the water hit it less. "People will talk." She echoed his earlier words.
"Do we care?" he asked, and the roughness of his voice, and intensity of his stare sent a nervous ripple through her body.
"Well," she said, and then quietly cleared her throat when the word failed to come out with much force at all, "The polling showed that… the people – "
A familiar voice shouting Bill's name from out in his quarters cut her short. She felt the giggles rising up from her chest and quickly slapped a hand across her mouth to stop them.
Bill rolled his eyes and shut off the water, grabbing a towel as he walked out of the head.
Laura desperately fought against the bubbling humour within her, and, lacking the energy to stand as well, she allowed herself to slide into a sitting position.
She heard Bill greet Saul, and then after a short silence – during which Laura could picture the latter taking in Bill's clothed, yet soaked appearance – Saul's voice asked, "What the frak?"
A squeak escaped before Laura could stop it.
"What was that?"
"What?" Bill covered, pretending he hadn't heard anything. Or maybe he hadn't.
"Sounded like a mouse."
"A mouse? On a battlestar?"
"What were you doing in there?"
"The shower wouldn't work this morning. I was fixing it… Needless to say, it works now."
Several clearly identifiable giggles escaped this time, and tears streamed down Laura's face as she fought to hold back the rest.
"Did you want something, Saul?" she heard Bill ask, and wished she could see both men's faces.
"Yeah… It can wait though. Clearly you're busy." She could hear the smirk in Saul's tone. "And besides, I can't take you seriously like that."
And then there was silence, and a few seconds later, Bill appeared in the doorway of the head, looking as far from amused as Laura was firmly encamped there.
She managed two more seconds and then the dam she had constructed so flimsily in the first place collapsed completely, and she curled into a ball as laughter tore through her body.
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