"Well, it sounds like you had some fun without us." Laura said softly, after listening to Adama's story of the events that had unravelled without her there.
"You could say that." He replied, bringing his glass to his lips and taking a sip of Ambrosia. Laura smiled slightly, before drinking her water. It wasn't as good as Ambrosia, but Cottle had told her to drink only water until she was back to full health. He was definitely not happy to see her in Sick Bay, looking that ill. After continuous curses, admonishments, injections and cigarettes, he'd finally disharged her, telling her to get plenty of bedrest and fluids. He assured Bill that she would be fine after a few days.
Bill was sitting on the edge of his rack, nursing the glass of alcohol in his hands. Laura was perched up with various cushions and pillows Bill could procure from around his quarters, resting comfortably in his rack. He had insisted that she lay down as soon as she get back, but she was reluctant and wanted to hear everything, from the daily rationing to the Cylon Sympathisers. They had comprimised, and this resulted in their current situation.
Laura finished the last of her water and reached her arm out to put it down on the small table next to her, but Bill tugged it out of her hand.
"Let me get that for you." He said, and carfeully put it down.
Laura smiled her thanks, and slowly started to ease down, clutching at the blanket draped over her. She let out a long sigh and Bill turned to look at her again.
"I should probably go see Verus soon. We need to work out something between us and the Sympathisers. They're getting out of hand Bill. They didn't listen first time around it seems, so i need something more than just words this time around."
"I don't think you'll have to worry about that, Laura," Bill replied solemnly. Laura looked at him, her eyebrows rising questioningly. "The Pandora didn't make the Jump."
"Was there something wrong with the coordinates?" Laura asked.
"The coordinates checked out fine. We don't know what happened."
"My gods, there were over 200 souls aboard that ship," Laura took a deep breath, not wanting to get worked up over it, "i think i'm going to need something smaller than a whiteboard soon to keep the population count."
"Like what?"
"I was thinking post-it notes." She replied softly, closing her eyes.
Bill laughed quietly, rubbing his face with one of his hands. Laura gave a small smile at his laughter, but couldn't get the thought of about 200 people dying out of her mind.
"Verus won't understand," She said quietly, "he'll blame us of course. If the Press get wind of this..."
Laura trailed off as she heard Bill's sigh and opened her eyes. He was studying his glass in front.
"Bill," she asked, trying to get him to look at her, "what is it?"
He was silent for a minute, obviously arguing with himself over whether he should tell her what was on his mind. Bill then turned slowly and looked at Laura.
"When Tigh called about ten minutes ago," He said, and Laura nodded slightly at the memory. Bill was on the phone to Tigh for a good five minutes, his expression as inscrutable as ever, "he reported that Verus was found dead in his cell. The guard was unconscious."
"Murdered?" Laura asked.
"Looks to be that way," Bill nodded, "We can open up an investigation, but to be honest, there is no way of limiting down the amount of suspects except through setting up a tribunal. You can understand my reluctance."
"Yes, yes i do." Laura replied, "this fleet just isn't happy unless everyone is killing eachother."
"Did you find what you were looking for on Caprica?" Bill asked, abruptly changing the subject.
"I found her."
"Did she have anything to say? Are we heading into a trap at all?"
Laura thought back to what the woman had said to her, and repeated it back to Bill.
"'A disease, once cured, twice inflicted'?" Bill asked, his brow furrowed in concern, "she doesn't mean-"
"-my Cancer?" Laura finished his sentence, "i don't think so. Cottle gave me a check-up just a few weeks ago, not to mention when i went to him today. He would have found something."
"She can't mean that," Bill shook his head, unwilling to even comprehend that Laura's cancer had returned, "she must mean something else."
Laura didn't answer him because she knew deep down that it probably was her Cancer making an unannounced return. Her coughing fits, her recent bouts of weakness, illness. There was only so many times she could pass it off as a cold.
"I don't know what the rest of it means," Adama carried on, oblivious to Laura's train of thoughts, "an unmarked Viper, an eye ..."
"I don't know either," Laura replied, her mind straying back to the conversation, "that's all she said."
Laura said the last few words so faintly that Bill looked at her, worried that she was suddenly going to disappear before his eyes. A stupid thought, he told himself. Laura Roslin was really there, in person.
"Something wrong?" He asked softly.
Laura made a noise in the back of her throat.
"Burgundy died for that," she whispered sadly, "he reminded me of Billy, you know. Both so young, full of life."
Bill couldn't tear his eyes away from her. He knew how much Billy's death had hurt her. He was the only thing closely resembling a family that she had and Bill's calculated risk had taken the young Aide away, so early on in his life.
"He died fulfilling his oath to protect the articles of Colonisation," Bill assured her, "his orders were to protect you and you're here alive. He accomplished his mission Laura and that's all we could have asked of him."
Laura closed her eyes again, realising that Bill was right. However, she still couldn't stop thinking about the young man who was regaling her with stories of his times in a Viper and the rescue off of New Caprica.
"You timed your arrival pretty well." Bill said, breaking the silence.
"Yes," Laura said, trying valiantly to push the current conversation to the forefront of her mind, over the deaths of the many people, "i was surprised you were still there. The basestar was nearly successful in taking you out."
"I refused to Jump." He stated, looking from the glass in his hands to Laura.
Her eyebrows rose in surprise, but she didn't say anything. Best to let Bill get it all off of his chest.
"I would rather risk my entire ship and it's crew than leave you, Kara, Athena, Helo, Racetrack and Burgundy behind." He sighed and looked out across his quarters, ashamed with himself for stopping the Jump and endangering everyone's lives. He didn't regret seeing Laura and the crew that went with her, he just hated the fact that he had put everyones lives at risk for his own personal weaknesses.
"Bill," Laura said softly, trying to grab his attention, "Bill, look at me."
He relucantly obeyed, his eyes locked on her face.
"Anyone would have done the same in your situation- let me finish," She spoke over Bill's objections, "the crew will not hate you, Colonel Tigh will not hate you, no-one is going to take a second look at the decision. You did it, we are here now. That's the end of it. Am i making myself clear Admiral?"
"Yes Madam President." He replied, smiling slightly. She could not look any less presidential than she did right now.
"It's still bothering you though, isn't it Bill? Tell you what, I promise not to go on any more missions without you there personally. Is that adequate?"
"I'm going to hold you to that." Bill muttered, reaching over and placing his empty glass on the table next to hers.
"I don't doubt that you will." Laura said, smiling. She felt a yawn build up in her and tried to stifle it with the back of her hand. Bill saw, however.
"You need to rest now, Laura."
"Yes sir." She whispered playfully, her eyes already closing. It was really quite comfortable in his rack, much better than the sofa that masqueraded as her own bed. Bill insisted that she stay on the Galactica tonight and offered her his own bed as there were no guest quarters available. She had argued against it, saying she would travel back to Colonial One, but he was stubborn. He didn't want to let her go when he had just got her back.
"Goodnight Laura." Bill slowly got off of the rack, before moving over to his sofa. He had placed out some pillows and a spare blanket for himself there.
"Goodnight Bill." Laura said, before succumbing to sleep. That night there were no nightmares, no visions of a Prophet. There was just her and Bill, laughing and having drinks in his quarters.