Author notes:

Sorry it took me a while to update this time guys – real life has been incredibly manic and I've been working on a couple of shorter stories too! Thanks for your reviews and comments; they have been helping to keep me motivated

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters below – I am only borrowing them – and will not be financially benefitting from the story in anyway. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 21

"Oh my Gods, Bill!" Laura exclaimed breathlessly, overwhelmed by the huge sense of relief she felt at seeing him - uncharacteristically it took all of her self-control not to fling herself into his arms. She took a few inelegant steps towards him, sidestepping the broken glass, but as she drew closer the rage she saw in his eyes rendered her motionless.

"What the frak is going on?" Bills' eyes were narrowed, droplets of water fell from his rain soaked hair onto the tip of his nose – but he didn't seem to notice. As Laura opened her mouth to explain, the entrance to her small abode parted to reveal the balding head of Saul Tigh.

Galacticas' XO bumped shoulders with the Admiral, who stood awkwardly blocking the entrance - though Bill barely flinched at the contact. His stance was unwavering as he stared at Laura, his fierce eyes demanding an explanation.

"You gonna move over and let me in?" Saul complained, ignoring rank as he wiped sheets of water from his sodden coat arms onto the tents tarp flooring, "it's raining frakkin' buckets out…"He never finished the sentence, temporarily silenced by the scene in front of him.

As he awkwardly squeezed himself into the tent behind the Admiral, his beady eyes flicked from Laura, to Zarek, to the young man tied to the chair and back to Laura again. "So," Saul sneered, "is this what passes for fun down here?"

Laura scowled at Colonel Tigh - deftly surmising by his bloodshot, bleary eyes that he was drunk; thus indicating that the men weren't planet-side on Military business.

"I…I wasn't expecting you," She finally found her voice, but her words sounded flustered and were badly chosen.

"I can see that." Bill said bitterly.

Laura did her best to look unperturbed by Bills' unexpected hostility towards her and she moved to cross her arms at her chest, suddenly remembering that she was still holding a loaded gun. She looked down at the item absorbedly, blinking in bewilderment - as if she was surprised to see it there at all.

The gun felt heavy in her small hand, the metal cool against her clammy fingers. 'I was about to shoot a man…' A sickening feeling started to form in the pit of her stomach, 'What the hell am I doing?'

With a shaky hand Laura placed the pistol carefully on the rickety wooden table and took a step back, her eyes returning to Bills. 'No wonder he's angry…What must he be thinking?'

"Ms Roslin?" Bill pressed her sternly for an answer, taking a step further into the tent and Saul followed suit behind, peering over the Admirals shoulder.

At Bill's formal use of her name Laura stiffened - instantly snapping out of her reverie and inhaling sharply to compose herself, she placed her hands resolutely on her hips.

"I'm glad you are here Admiral." She nodded firmly and using the same professional tone as he, she finally offered Bill an explanation "It was brought to my attention earlier this evening by a parent from my school, that Officer Wilson," She pointed at the young soldier, but never took her eyes from Bills, "was the man involved with the…" She paused, wondering which example to use in their present company, "tent looting incident."

As her revelation began to sink in, Bill's expression quickly shifted from a heated glower to wide eyed confusion, but the look was gone just as swiftly as it surfaced.

He cleared his throat "And the other incidents you reported?" Bills words were intentionally void of emotion. His pokerfaced mask was intact, but internally he was fighting the urge to grab the soldier by the throat; his was mind screaming 'This could be the man that watched Laura in the shower!'

"Yes, those too."

Bill turned his head to look at Officer Wilson who sat squirming in the chair; mottled bruises beginning to appear on his fair skin - most prominently around his right eye socket. The young man shook his head silently, large blue eyes pleading with the Admiral to release him from the restraints.

"You trust the witness?" Bill asked snapping his eyes back to Laura, internally willing it not to be true.

"She has no reason to lie to me," Laura's voice was low and her words measured, but Bill could still detect a hint of defensiveness towards his question. "There is a somewhat twisted irony to it Admiral, but from what my methods have gleaned tonight I am in no doubt – the guard you recruited for me, is the reason I needed protection."

'About that…' Billthought, swallowing hard.

It was only after a great deal of deliberating that Bill had succumbed to asking Baltar to recruit Laura's security. It was her strict instructions for Bill not use his own men that had steered him in the direction of the slippery President in the first place. At that stage in colonisation, everybody he trusted was still confined to Galactica and after the incident in the showers – Laura had needed security and fast.

Although he had every intention of scrutinising Gaius Baltars selection, Bill had been pleasantly surprised - bordering on relieved - when Officer Wilson was recruited for the role. Bill was comfortable in the fact that the young man had a solid service record and despite a recent charge for fighting in Joe's bar, the kid was as clean as a whistle.

As it turned out, Laura was happy with the selection of Officer Wilson too – so her assumptions about how he was recruited by Bill weren't really that important.

'What matters most is that she is happy with the choice…' Bill remembered thinking, deciding it would be best for all involved if he never brought up how the Officer came to be in her employ.

Unfortunately, the soldiers next words made Bill wish he had.

"Admiral, Sir, I never meant to…I was under orders…" Wilson spluttered looking desperately at Bill before shifting his gaze to settle on Laura. "I never meant to scare you Laura. I had to do those things…"

"What things? What the frak is he talking about?" Saul piped up from the behind them, but Bill chose to ignore him.

"Get me off this planet Admiral and I'll tell you everything, I swear to you."

"Bullshit!" Zarek erupted from a darkened corner of the tent where he had been standing, quietly observing their interactions – Laura had forgotten he was even there. "He's playing you for a fool Laura, don't listen to him."

Bill turned his attentions to the Vice President and almost immediately the anger was back as he visually recalled what he saw as he entered Laura's tent. The two of them were standing close - too close - Zarek was leaning in…

Bills' words were delivered through a clenched jaw. "What's he doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" Zarek smiled smugly and took a step toward Bill, crossing his arms at his chest, "I was invited here…Were you?'

The tension was palpable as the two men stared each other down, chests puffed out defiantly - the testosterone fuelled display quickly revealing to Laura the true source of Bill's anger.

"What the frak is he doing here?" Bill questioned her again, his eyes never leaving Zarek.

Laura narrowed her eyes and released a muffled harrumph, incensed at Bill's audacity. 'How dare he demand an explanation from me in my own home?' Laura sensed anger begin to coil in her stomach; it was starting to feel very crowded in her small tent.

"Tom," She masked her annoyance by nonchalantly taking a step towards Zarek and reaching out, she gently touched his forearm - resulting in a sharp intake of breath from Bill. Laura was unsure if it was the bodily contact or the fact that she was on first name terms with the Vice President that stung Bill, but truthfully she didn't care as she had done both intentionally.

Zarek dropped his eyes to look at Laura's hand momentarily, before slowly raising his gaze to meet hers. "Thank you for your help today," She offered him a tight smile, "but I think the military should take it from here."

"Alright," Zarek nodded glumly in understanding, "if that's what you want…" He moved somewhat defeatedly to collect his coat from where it was draped over the back of a chair. As he pulled on the garment he threw a glance in Officer Wilsons' direction. "But my offer still stands."

"I know," Laura felt oddly guilty about dismissing the Vice President, especially after how helpful he had been in securing the antivirals. But regardless of his newly born philanthropic flare, he was still Tom Zarek and Laura had no intention of handing Wilson over to his men to be tortured into answering questions. Whether he was in active service or not, Wilson was first and foremost a soldier and for that reason alone, she would leave it to the Admiral to decide his fate.

Laura watched as Zarek hastily pushed past the military men to get to the exit - naturally Bill and Saul made it as difficult for him as possible. However despite his apparent eagerness to leave, Zarek stopped by the entrance, slowly turning back to face her. "You know where I am if you need me Laura."

She silently nodded her thanks and with her acknowledgement, Zarek pulled his coat collar up around his neck and exited into the rain.

Laura instantly locked eyes with Bill.

"Colonel Tigh," Bill spoke gruffly, not breaking eye contact with Laura who was now staring just as fiercely at him as he had Zarek. "…could you give us a minute?"

"Outside?" Saul jabbed a thumb over his shoulder towards the exit, but when neither Bill nor Laura acknowledged his question - he sulkily conceded. "Sure, why not." He scoffed sarcastically. "I'll go back out into the frakkin' storm, don't mind me," he muttered under his breath as he stepped gingerly out of the tent.

As soon as Saul was outside Laura purposefully strode towards Bill, trying to move as far as she could from the ears of her treacherous prisoner. "How dare you?" She spoke in a hushed tone.

"How dare I?" Bill paralleled her volume.

"How dare you come into my home and demand an explanation?"

"Don't you think you owe me one?"

"What?" She bit.

Bill's voice dropped to a barely audible whisper. "Zarek was about to kiss you."

"What?" Laura restated, this time her voice climbed a whole octave at the ridiculousness of Bills' statement and she looked cautiously over her shoulder at Wilson before she continued. "No he wasn't," She hissed. "He was trying to calm me down - I was about to shoot your damned recruit in the leg!"

Bill straightened his back and his mouth twitched as he acknowledged that he might, in fact have misjudged the situation.

"And whilst we're on the subject," Laura folded her arms and dropped her hip, eyeing Bill suspiciously, "how was it that he came to guard me in the first place?"

Bill ran a hand through his still damp hair 'Here we go…'

"We agreed I would speak to Baltar..."

"About policing the streets - that's right…" She nodded, "but Officer Wilson isn't one of Baltars' goon squad - he tells me that he is an officer from your ship."

"He used to be."

"Used to be?" She raised her eyebrows and drew out her words.

"You needed protection."

"What exactly are you saying Bill?" She pushed her glasses further up her nose and refolded her arms tightly at her chest.

"Baltar…"

"What?" Laura cut him off, her eyes were wide -arms dropped to her side. This time she didn't care that her volume had increased significantly.

"You said you didn't want my men watching you, said it would draw unwanted attention…"

"So you went to Baltar?"

"You didn't leave me much choice." Bill tried unsuccessfully to turn the tables on her.

"And you didn't think that I had a right to know?"

"I was happy with his choice," Bill said defensively, "Don't you think that If I had any indication that…"

Laura spun on her heal before Bill could finish and stalked back towards Wilson. She grabbed the arms of the chair he was sitting in with both hands; her face was inches from his. "Do you work for President Baltar?" She yelled in his face, but he didn't answer.

"Answer me damnit." She tried to shake the chair but his weight held it place, "Did Gaius Baltar set you up to this? Is he trying to ruin me?"

"Gods, are you frakking deaf?" Wilson finally snapped, screaming in Laura's face and she recoiled, staggering back from his unexpected verbal assault. "You need to get me out of here!" He struggled aggressively against his restraints.

Bill and Laura shared a glance before the soldier continued.

"I'm sorry…look I was ordered to break into your tent, to steal your underwear, to scare you in the shower…just get me off this frakking planet and I'll tell you who I'm working for – I promise – I just need to get out of here!"

"Underwear?" Bill questioned Laura.

"Why can't you tell us now? Why is it so important that we get you off this planet?" Laura swiftly moved the conversation on, conscious of the fact that when she had told Bill that somebody had broken into her tent, she had purposefully excluded 'that' part of the tale.

Wilson eyes strayed temporarily to Laura's mattress where months ago, he had personally placed the recording device. "If he finds out that I'm talking to you I'm a dead man," He chose his words carefully so as not to give too much away. Refusing to divulge the identity of the man that he worked for was the young mans' ticket off of New Caprica and he was going to hold out until both of his feet were planted firmly on Galacticas' flight deck. "Frak, he may already know."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Laura paced the floor in front of him, hands now on her hips. "How do we know that you're not going to incriminate an innocent man to cover your own ass?"

"I guess," Wilson frowned. He was trying to conjure something that would work in his defence but when nothing surfaced, he simply shrugged "You're just going to have to trust me."

Laura stopped pacing and chewed the inside of her cheek, looking to the floor as she contemplated the young officers' request. Bill interrupted her musings.

"Laura - a word please?"

She looked up at him sharply and begrudgingly followed, moving to join him by the entrance to the tent. She knew that he would want to address the 'underwear' incident and she had no intention of complying.

"What do you think?" She asked, hoping that there was some small chance that he simply wanted to strategize.

"He stole your underwear?"

"Yes Bill," She rolled her eyes dismissively, "I have secrets too, now can we just focus on what's important here? Do we honour his request?"

Bill stared at her; a tense expression coating his features. He was not ready to drop the subject, but Laura was right, they had to prioritise - so after a few beats he conceded.

"Kids not asked for immunity." He spared a glance towards Wilson. "He's full of crap, we throw his ass back, make him serve his sentence here." When Bill returned his gaze to Laura, his stoic shied was momentarily down and she caught sight of a mixture of hurt and anger darkening his blue eyes.

"Okay," Laura spoke slowly as she tried to recall what had initially brought them to loggerheads; things had spiralled out of control so quickly – a miasma of assumptions, confessions and anger were clouding her judgement. Eventually, giving in to the confusion, she waved her hand in front of her face and took a step back. "Alright…just take him."

She turned away from Bill and removed her cardigan, placing it over a spare chair.

"Colonel Tigh!" Bill barked, still looking at Laura as she crouched to start clearing the shards of broken glass from the floor.

"Sir?" Saul poked his head into the tent.

"We're transporting Officer Wilson back to Galactica for questioning, please deal with his restraints."

"Aye sir." Saul tucked his drink flask back in his jacket and moved around Bill towards their very relieved looking prisoner.

"Thank you Admiral, I won't let you down, I'll tell you as soon as we dock…"

"You don't sing like a frakkin' bird." Bill snarled at Wilson. "You'll find yourself on the wrong side of an airlock."

From her position on the floor, Laura looked over her shoulder and watched as a drunken Saul easily loosened the rope she had used to secure the young officer.

She could feel Bills' eyes burning into her back and when she stood to place the broken glass in the trash she hazarded a glance in his direction noticing that his anger had begun to fade; piercing azure eyes starting to soften with regret.

"Laura," He took a step towards her and she took a step away.

"Laura please…"

"Just leave it Bill," She coldly dismissed him with a shake of her head. "I think there's been enough drama for one night."

Bill stepped to the side, allowing Saul to move towards the exit with Officer Wilson, "We'll be outside, Admiral." The XO spoke hoarsely as he led the prisoner from the tent; Wilsons' arms were freshly secured behind his back.

With a sigh, Laura sank onto the chair that the Officer had vacated and started to unlace her boots. Bill waited patiently until their company had left the tent before he moved to squat down in front of her.

"We need to talk about this - It could be weeks before I return." He raised his hand to touch her knee but she flinched away from his touch.

She wasn't ready to talk to him yet. Bills overreaction to Zarek had highlighted a jealous facet to his personality that she wasn't aware had existed before and the fact that he had led her to believe that Wilson was one of his own men...she needed the space to think.

"Bill seriously!" She scolded, "I don't want to discuss it. I think its best you just leave." She returned to removing her boots, refusing to look at him - if she glimpsed the pain that she knew he was feeling her resolve would crumble in an instant.

"Fine." Bill spat out and abruptly got to his feet. He marched towards the exit, turning only to add, "One of my men will contact you in due course."

"Fine," She toed off her boots "Just make sure that this time that it really is one of your men." She retorted bitterly, her words aiming to mar.

Apparently they did; Bill left without uttering another word.

She felt a burst of cold air hit her now bare ankles as the entrance to her tent opened and closed -Laura was now alone and her small home felt very, very empty.

She rose from the chair and flopped down heavily on her mattress, auburn hair splaying across her pillow as she bit back tears that were threatening to fall.

'Amy, Wilson, Bill,' It was too much all at once.

She rolled onto her side.

Laura was well versed in dealing with her suffering alone and despite how reassured she had first felt when she saw Bill standing in her tent earlier tonight - she actually felt relieved that he had gone.

That was until, she heard gun fire.

Tbc

End Notes:

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