Author's notes: 10th and final installment AT LAST. I can't apologise enough, I just hope that you don't stone me at the end… "You made us wait a year for THIS?" Merry xmas!

Sixty Seconds Later - Part 10:

'I'm fine.'

'Are you sure?'

'Doc Cottle said I could walk around a little. I even got him to write me a note just in case you didn't believe me. It's on your desk, sir,' Laura said with a cheeky grin.

'I haven't been that bad.' Laura didn't say anything but looked thoroughly amused at this inaccurate protestation, holding her stomach as she walked a slow circuit round Bill's quarters. 'Just don't overdo it.'

'I'm not overdoing it,' she tutted. 'This is the first time I've walked more than five paces since New Caprica, feels good to use my legs. It's not like I'm going to suddenly collapse to the floor - unless the ship lurches unexpectedly. You haven't got any ship-lurching manoeuvres scheduled for today, have you?'

'Not today, no,' Bill answered seriously, flicking through the memos on his desk in an attempt to appear as if he wasn't watching her every move. She really did get a note from Cottle. Hilarious.

She laughed and pulled out the chair she had stopped to lean on, lowering herself slowly but unaided to sit at the table. 'There,' she said, slightly breathless but looking very pleased with herself and not without reason - the ability to take oneself to the bathroom was underrated. 'Tomorrow, laps.'

Bill was still shaking his head at her and chuckling to himself when there was a knock at the hatch. 'That's probably dinner. Come,' he said, turning as it swung open to admit not dinner but Tory, who was looking delighted about something. He looked at Laura who already seemed to have an idea of what was coming, her smile, contrary to Tory's, sliding from her face.

'Admiral,' said Tory, in short acknowledgement of his presence before turning to Laura. 'The Quorum was sworn in this afternoon and it's unanimous: they want you back, Madam President.'

Tory looked as though she was about to burst with happiness at getting her old job back and a week ago Laura probably would have been pretty happy about it too but suddenly she felt everything she stood to lose by resuming her old post. She chanced a look in Adama's direction, wondering if she would see disappointment or relief there. Instead she thought she saw resignation as he looked back at her.

'Pending your acceptance, the inauguration ceremony will be tomorrow afternoon,' said Tory, looking from Laura to Bill and back again uncertainly. 'So … should I call them back?'

Laura broke her gaze away from Bill's, effectively slamming the door shut on that particular might-have-been. The resounding echo was almost tangible. 'Yes, thank you, Tory. Call them back, tell them I accept.'

'Excellent,' said Tory, beaming again. 'I'll come by in the morning to go over the details?' she suggested as Private Jaffy arrived with dinner.

Laura nodded. 'Very good,' she agreed, dismissing the younger woman. A few moments later Jaffy was gone too and they were alone again, stewing in their own thoughts as they set the table.

'I'm surprised it's taken this long,' Bill said eventually, pouring himself a drink.

'Me, too. I think the lack of centralisation is slowing them up,' she said, not because she thought it was important but just to say something, anything but what she was really thinking: This sucks. 'Mind pouring me one of those?'

He didn't even chastise her for drinking, setting her glass on the table as he sat down to eat - not that either of them had much of an appetite left. The little food that did pass their lips went by more out of habit than appeal, something to do to fill the silence, not their stomachs. Anyone walking in then might have wondered who'd died.

Which was ridiculous, thought Laura. They hadn't even discussed any potential relationship, looks and gestures did not a relationship make, and yet something lay shattered on the ground around them, something they had invested their hearts in.

'Another?' asked Bill, pointing to her glass. Well, it couldn't hurt.

'Thanks,' she nodded, beginning to clear the uneaten food as he got up, stacking their plates and cutlery back onto the tray.

An early night was on the cards for both of them - and a sleepless one too.

The morning was gone, it seemed, in no time at all, unlike the night preceding it, and it felt as though Bill had barely walked into CIC than he was leaving it again to have lunch and change into his dress uniform for the ceremony. Tory was still there when he arrived, having turned up at oh-seven-hundred this morning, once again looking like a corporate lawyer in her power-suit, ready to take on the world again, or at least boss it around.

Unfortunately for her she wasn't the boss of Adama's quarters and when she tried to impress upon him the importance of going over another dozen items before the inauguration, she found herself unceremoniously ejected until they'd had time for lunch. Well it wouldn't be proper to let Laura, who was smothering a grin, become president on an empty stomach.

'Doesn't like the word 'no', does she?' he noted, pulling Laura's chair out for her.

'She's a negotiator, 'no' becomes 'make me a better offer' in Tory's world. Can't deny that she gets the job done though. Thanks.'

Bill refrained from offering an opinion on Tory's methods of getting the job done. He wasn't exactly a fan. Well, it hadn't been Laura's idea to rig the election. Then again, he'd wondered more than once whether he had made the right choice in forcing Laura to stand down. She'd been right, hadn't she? Baltar's presidency had been a car-crash right from the start, and if Bill had thought that stealing the election would eat Laura alive then what had he thought watching her people suffer under a cylon occupation would do? Or the bullet Cottle had dug out of her gut? Perhaps Bill should have been the one helping Laura rig the ballot, not Saul. Perhaps Laura was simply returning to where she was always meant to be – out of his reach.

Bill didn't kid himself that there would be much room in her life for him after today, even if that was what she wanted and he couldn't be sure she did. Sometimes he thought there was something there but Laura was so skilled at hiding her feelings, so adept at putting herself second, that he wasn't even sure she knew how she felt. Anyway, it was all beside the point, nothing was going to happen between them now.

He sighed.

'Something wrong?' asked Laura, fork suspended halfway to her mouth.

'No,' he shook his head, digging his fork into the carton in front of him and not really meeting her eye.

'Bill,' she wheedled, putting her fork down.

He shook his head and sighed again. 'I guess I've just gotten used to having you around,' he finally admitted, somewhat against his better judgment.

He could tell that hadn't been what she'd been expecting him to say, even if she suspected it was what he was thinking, and it seemed like an eternity before she smiled a little, looking down at the table and back up. 'I would've thought you'd be happy to see the back of me, I haven't been the most gracious houseguest.'

He shook his head in disagreement, attempting a smile, but was disappointed despite himself. What had he expected? For her to say that she was going to miss him, too? That she didn't really want to go? That she'd much rather stay here, with him? Sounded like an alternate reality he'd like to live in.

'Tory said they're repurposing the Agamemnon for the new government so we'll probably be pretty busy over the next few weeks organising everything,' she said, and Bill knew she was falling back on old habits, using work to guard herself against awkward or painful situations. 'But after that, maybe we could –'

Bill's gaze jumped back to her face. Then again maybe she wasn't trying to change the subject. Was he imagining the faint blush in her cheeks?

'-have dinner? We could make it semi-regular. It would make sense for the president and admiral to meet regularly, discuss conditions in the fleet…' she added, as if she needed to justify it somehow. Maybe because she knew that when she was president again she would have to justify using the president's time for her own purposes, because from the moment she took that oath she would be on the fleet's clock, not her own.

She'd spent half the night flirting with the dinner proposal, one moment thinking that she was in fact flirting with disaster, the next wondering what was so wrong in enjoying Bill's company. They were both adults, both knew the situation, and both were just as lonely at the top, even if only one of them was prepared to admit it.

Bill's answering smile was broad. He knew that for Laura this was tantamount to saying she would miss him, that she liked spending time with him, that she didn't want to just return to the way things had been the last time she was president, purely professional. He knew it was all she could offer him while they held the positions they respectively held, but it was enough, for now. 'Perfect sense,' he agreed.

'Good,' she smiled, looking pleased. 'At least I'll have something to look forward to, after I'm done cleaning up Baltar's mess…'

The conversation moved on to the former president but Bill was suddenly feeling much more light-hearted as they returned to their lunch. He and Laura might not be able to move forward but neither one of them was taking a step back either, relinquishing what they already had. And one day, perhaps, they would have the luxury of controlling their own destinies once more.

THE END

More author's notes: I love getting reviews and respond to most, even years after publishing. If it's here to read I'm checking in on it every now and again, so please let me know what you think!

Working on another BSG story but, in order to avoid leaving you dangling again, I won't be publishing it until it's completely finished. Now there's an incentive to write if ever there was one! It would be a shame for no one to read something I've worked so hard on…

Thanks for reading! Until next time…

Aphelionite