Disclaimer: BSG (2003) and all the characters are property of Ron D. Moore. We merely borrowed his playthings to play a bit in his sandbox.
Enjoy! C & L
13th December
The „Dance" as they called it was over now, at least for him. She had led him to his quarters, had opened the hatch for him because he winced with every movement of his sore body and had told their security details to wait outside and to make sure the Admiral would not be disturbed.
Now, with the hatch closed behind them, they could, at least for a while, ignore their masks they had to uphold in public and be Laura and Bill again. The Laura and Bill who had been more than just the leaders of the fleet for a night on New Caprica and for so many times after that night. Who allowed a physical and emotional closeness despite their roles.
Carefully, Laura, who was still holding his arm, put her other arm around his waist and was about to lead them to his rack when Bill stopped her with a sigh. "I need to clean myself up first, can't go to bed with all that blood on my face. They'd complain about the additional laundry tomorrow." Nodding with a small smile on her face, Laura slowly steered them into the other direction towards the head.
When Laura let go of Bill who was standing in front of the sink now, he grabbed a cloth and held it under the stream of warm water. Lifting his right arm to get rid of the blood on his face, though, he suddenly hissed and let his arm drop. "Can't hold it up that long, hurts like frakking hell." Laura stepped closer again and gently took the wet cloth out of his hands. "Bill, turn around, please. That's why I'm still here." Facing her and leaning his back on the wall behind him, Bill allowed Laura to wipe the blood off his face, wincing every time she came across a particularly deep cut in his skin. After a few minutes and a last round with a new clean cloth, she took a fresh towel from the shelf behind her and dried his face with careful dabs.
They were still standing close to each other when Bill carefully put a bandaged hand on hers that still held the towel and the two of them locked gazes. "Thank you, Laura." Instead of a reply, she put her arm around his waist and a hand on his arm again to steady him and finally led them to the rack, helping him to settle down. She didn't let go of his hand, though, but remained sitting there and finally spoke again with a quiet voice, keeping eye contact with him. "Anytime, Bill. You know that."