A/N: Sorry for the overly long wait… Life's been far more "interesting" than I should like. But fear not, I have not abandoned this tale. I'm determined to see it through to the end even if that takes years! Ok, hopefully not years… Months, maybe. Anyway, without further ado, the long awaited Chapter 10:

"Come on, Bill." Laura grabbed his hand impatiently, pulling him along. He sped up obligingly, smiling at her excitement. "We're almost there." Then suddenly the trees parted, opening up into a decent sized clearing. To the left a stream cut through the open ground and it was indeed as clear as glass as Laura had said. The ground was coated in soft moss with generous sprinkles of beautiful delicate wild flowers. "Isn't it beautiful?" He could only nod numbly, still in awe of what less than three years ago he wouldn't have paused more than a moment to look at. Finally dragging his eyes back to the redhead who had led him here, he found himself once again overwhelmed by beauty. She was smiling happily at him, her green eyes sparkling with nothing but joy. There was none of the sadness or stress clinging to her expression as there had been constantly while she was president.

"You're beautiful." Her smile turned slightly shy and her eyes drifted away from his.

"Thank you." She whispered in response, before busying herself with setting up the picnic they had packed. Looking back up at him, she changed the subject. "I'm thinking of building the cabin over there." She pointed to the side of the stream and he considered the spot.

"Your cabin wouldn't be very big…" He pointed out.

"As long as it's big enough for two, I won't mind." It took him a moment to realize what she had just said. He turned quickly to look at her again to find that amazing happy smile on her face again.

"Careful, or I might just have to start building this cabin today."

"Would that be so bad?" She asked her smile turning into a smirk. Good question… Would it be so bad? He looked away from her, he had a duty to stay up in the Galactica and watch over New Caprica. The Cylons could find them and there were too few of his crew still in orbit as it was. He looked back at her to see her expression had fallen as she too was thinking what he was.

"One day, Laura, one day." She nodded, trying to smile again.

They ate their picnic in silence, enjoying each others company and their surroundings, neither of them wanting to break it. But as the food diminished the silence started to become oppressive.

"Why don't you walk me through your cabin?" He suggested, standing up and offering her an arm up which she accepted and together they walked over to the spot she'd pointed out earlier.

"Well… There would have to be a big kitchen because—"

"Because you used to love cooking and miss being able to." He finished for her, grinning at the fact that she had mentioned the kitchen first.

"Exactly." She agreed, before detailing all the different kitchen appliances she'd love to have. " Then of course there would have to be a dining room. Big enough for friends but intimate enough for dinner for two. Preferably with a nice big window." He followed her around the small space as she described the dining room as well, then came a living room and studio where she could start painting again. At this point she stopped and he noticed a slight blush creeping across her cheeks.

"You seem to be forgetting two very important rooms." He reminded her.

"Yes, well, those would both be upstairs." She replied, clearing her throat, making him wonder just where her thoughts had gone when they had turned to the bed and bath.

"Are you going to describe those for me too?" He pressed, amused by her embarrassment. She surprised him with her answer though.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise Admiral, you'll just have to wait to find out." He chuckled at that and she beamed at him.

Then heavy footfalls shattered the moment. Whipping round to see centurions stepping out of the trees, he felt a cold hard weight settling in his chest. He felt Laura grab onto his arm and felt her shaking.

"Admiral, we need to leave now." He turned to see Lee gesturing to a landed raptor. He pulled out of Laura grasp even as he was getting ready to tell Lee there was no way in Tartarus they could leave now. Against his will he walked towards Lee and away from Laura.

"Bill!" He heard her scream from behind him but he didn't turn around even though he desperately wanted to.

"Dad, we need to go." Lee urged him on.

"You're right son." The words came from his mouth but he didn't mean them. As the raptor door shut he heard Laura's terrified scream again.

"Don't leave me! Bill!"

"Laura!" He shouted, sitting bolt upright in his rack. It had only been a dream… But it wasn't just a dream, he had left her and all the others, trapped, down on the planet when the Cylons had come back. He hadn't even tried to fight. He'd left them down there for months… It was no small wonder then that Laura didn't want to see him, that he couldn't just pick up where they had left off.

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"Neither of them are opening up…" Eight was concerned, things had not gone according to plan at all.

"Perhaps we should stir things up a little." Five suggested, a smirk twisting his face.

"Oh? Just how exactly do you plan to do this stirring?" Six asked with a slightly disapproving tone, though she already knew what he was planning to do.

"Come now, sister. It's worth a try, nothing else is working. Besides, if Leoben kills me again, I'll be able to download instantaneously."

"Hmmm." She responded noncommittally. "Fine, but I want a Three monitoring you."

"Don't trust me? I'm hurt."

"You've already disregarded our carefully plans on more than one occasion, brother." Eight reminded him, agreeing with Six that they needed to keep an eye on him as well.

"I think we should also ask Ga—our guest for information. He did have access to both the Galactica and Colonial one, and though neither of them trusted him, he was close to both the President and the Admiral." Six added. Eight was sure that wasn't the only reason she wanted to talk with Baltar, but wisely kept silent.

"Shall I make sure the room stays ready for her return to us?" Eight asked, more for a reason to have something to do than anything else.

"Yes, that would be wise. We wouldn't want anything to go wrong… Five, I'll have a three meet you outside their room."

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"Alright, shut your yaps and listen up. The reunions can wait." Starbuck shouted over the loud chattering of the pilots that she'd called together in the pilots' ready room. The noise dropped down quickly as all eyes focused on her. "By now, I'm sure everyone's heard the rumors about the President… I'm not going to confirm or deny anything at this point, since I don't know any specifics myself, but I visited her yesterday and she looked pretty beat up. We all owe her our sorry asses at least ten times over so I think the least we could do is make sure she's got her home to go back to once Cottle's let her out of sick bay. Her ship was heavily damaged during the exodus and, of course, the sleaze-ball frak-weasel Baltar didn't keep the place very clean. I want everyone to start collecting things that could be used to barter for new parts and all of you to start volunteering off-duty hours to help fix up Colonial One." Starbuck looked out over the crowded and was glad to see numerous people nodding and determined faces. She hefted a large crate onto the table beside her. "All donations should go in here… I want to see this crate overflowing by the end of today. Tell the rest of the crew what's going on and get their help. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" Reverberated loudly around the room, a few pilots even snapped off salutes.

"Good hunting! Dismissed."

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Cottle pulled the curtain behind closed and stretched. His back was killing him and he hadn't had a cigarette yet this morning, today was obviously going to be one of those days. That thought was confirmed when he went to check on Roslin and found she'd disappeared.

"Ishay!" He growled loudly, spinning around. He did not have time to play hide and seek with his patients, and he had expressly ordered that Roslin not be allowed to go anywhere without at least one nurse to keep an eye on her.

"Yes sir?" Ishay quickly materialized from behind a curtain to his left.

"Where the frak is the President?" Ishay froze, her eyes tarting behind him.

"She should be in her bed…"

"Obviously, she's not. I told you to keep an eye on her, to do hourly checks on her vitals…"

"I had Harvey check on her about an hour ago… I'm sorry sir, we're so busy, I didn't see her leave or get a chance to speak with him yet."

"Damn it. Harvey!" He really, really needed to get a different job… and a cigarette, a cigarette would be so good right now. A short, nervous looking young man approached him cautiously. Harvey knew what that tone meant.

"Yes sir?"

"Where is the President?" Cottle ground out.

"You mean she's not back yet?"

"Back?" Cottle's eye brow rose, had he not told them that she was not to be allowed to move unless it was urgent.

"I helped her to the showers a little over an hour ago, she should have been back by now." Harvey explained, as if that should have obviously been what he meant by "back".

"The showers…" Cottle took a deep breath and counted to ten, trying to remember that Harvey was new. It didn't help. "I told you not to let her go anywhere alone. Why didn't you stay with her?"

"She said she wanted some privacy… Which made perfect sense, I mean I am a man and it would have been awkward. And she said she'd be careful and ask someone for help if she needed it getting back." He explained, not seeing why there was a problem.

"And you believed her?" Cottle asked incredulously as Ishay smacked a hand to her forehead, the universal gesture made when faced with stupidity.

"Well, yeah. She seemed sincere and didn't have to much trouble getting to the showers. I mean she's the president and—"

"She a bloody politician!" Cottle shouted, cutting him off. "Which means she's a very accomplished little actress. I told you not to leave her alone!" Cottle stormed off towards the showers, Ishay close on his heels. "I'll deal with you later!" He shouted over his shoulder at a thoroughly confused Nurse Harvey.

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"Sir, she's over there." Ishay pointed to a shower at the end of the row that had a crumbled form on its floor.

"Frak." Cottle swore again as they reached her, noticing that she was shaking violently and her lips were blue. He quickly shut off the freezing water. "She's hypotermic, Ishay grab a robe and some towels." They bundled her up in the robe and towels before caring her back into sick bay. "Hot water bottles now!" Cottle shouted at the nurses that had stopped what they were doing to stare at them. They placed her back in her bed and began to place the hot water bottles all around her thin frame before piling on blankets.

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He pulled out of her and she lay there gasping, thanking the gods it was finally over. Then he flipped her over onto her stomach. "No!" She screamed, horrified, struggling against again. He hit her hard over the head again she felt her body go limp. She tried to pull away, but she didn't have any strength left. "No, don't! Please!" And he pounded into her backside as screamed at him, pleading for him to stop. He just laughed at her, before wrapping his hands around her neck from behind and starting to squeeze. She struggled to breath, tears spilling from her eyes. It was too much, she couldn't take this. She thought of Bill, of the few wonderful days they had spent together after the election and before Baltar had ordered her planet side. She tried to focus on how much she had enjoyed those few days but gods it hurt… it hurt.

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Three hours later, after Cottle had triple and quadruple checked anything and everything that in the slightest way related to the president's health, did he finally deem her stable enough to go without his constant supervision. He ordered Ishay to have someone check on her every quarter of an hour. He wondered who the little girl was who seemed to now be following Ishay around but didn't ask, he had something he needed to deal with now that Roslin was out of harms way. He went looking for that idiot boy Harvey.

It didn't take long to find the boy, since sick bay wasn't overly large. He grabbed the boy by the collar and hauled him into his office. By the time he forced Harvey into a chair, the boy was visibly shaking. He rounded his desk, not trusting himself to look at the boy, and instead dug out a box of cigarettes. Lighting one up, he took up long pull on it before speaking.

"Congratulations, you damn near killed the President." He still refused to look at him. Harvey had started sweating by now and at these words had seemed to shrivel into his chair.

"Sir, I didn't mean... I never intended… She told me to…" He tried to explain, stuttering.

"I gave very specific orders not to let her go anywhere alone." Cottle finally rounded on the boy, unleashing a death-glare that would easily rival the Admiral's, if not the President's.

"But she said…"

"She's a torture victim!" Cottle shouted at him. "You knew that. How in tartarus could you even think leaving her alone might be a good idea?!?"

"I-I… She—"

"From now on you are on bedpan duty and when you get off duty you well report to the brig."

"But sir!"

"You disobeyed a direct order and nearly killed a patient!" Harvey was close to tears by now. He hadn't meant any harm and she had been so nice and reassuring. He hadn't even considered that she might not be as fine as she had said she was.

"How long do you want me to report to the brig?" He asked meekly.

"Until I say otherwise." Cottle snapped. "Get out of my office." Harvey practically ran to the door. Cottle sighed, taking another pull off his cigarette, it was definitely going to be one of those days.

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Ishay watched sadly as Harvey carried a stack of used and emptied bedpans across the room to be sterilized. Everything about his posture spoke of defeat and misery. Perhaps when she was done with her shift she'd visit him in the brig and try to soften Cottle's blow. She felt a tug on pant leg and looked down at the little girl that had been following her on her rounds with teetering footsteps. The child was frowning at her sad face and she smiled.

"Come on little one, just let me look in on one more person, and then I'll see about getting you something to eat." The little girl smiled happily and trotted after her. She pulled the curtain aside to reveal the President's bed. She felt a hard yank on her pants again. The little girl was staring at the President with wide eyes, almost as if she recognized her. "Do you want to see?" Ishay asked. When the girl nodded she picked her up and brought her closer to the bed.

"La-La!" The girl launched out of her arms onto the President's bed. The President stirred slightly before opening her eyes. "La-La." The little girl repeated wrapping her arms around the President's neck and crying into her shoulder.

"Isis?" Laura looked down at the girl, shocked to find her here, before lefting her tired arms to hug the girl back. "Shh. What's wrong Isis?"

"La-La go aw-hay. Mama no wakey." Isis wailed into her shoulder. Laura looked up at a stunned Ishay for a better explanation.

"The woman she came in with is in a coma…" Ishay supplied, still confused. Laura focused on Isis again, part of her glad for the distraction.

"Shh, Isis, calm down. I'm here now. It'll be okay." Of course that was a complete lie, Laura wasn't sure if it would ever be okay again.