A guest reviewer made me a question in the last chapter, and I really don't have any other place to answer him/her, so I'm just going to do it here. Yes, English is not my first language. Actually, it's my third one after Catalan (my mother tongue) and Spanish, and I am still learning it.

I'd really like to thank all of you for taking your time to read my story and for reviewing. I really, really appreciate it!


XXIX.

If there was one thing Laura hated about her condition was her constant visits to sickbay. Well, she didn't exactly hate it, but she didn't like being trapped there and she had never liked anyone telling her what to do. She didn't take authority all that well, and Cottle always behaved like he was the little king of sickbay; there wasn't any higher authority than him between those four walls.

Ever since her accident she had been behaving perfectly, but it didn't spare her from her weekly check-ups. Convincing Bill he didn't need to be at all of them had been a tough task. Eventually, he had understood it, or at least he had pretended to.

When Laura arrived at sickbay, she was informed by one of the nurses that the Doctor was busy with one of his patients. At first she sat in a chair, waiting, but she quickly got up again. There were tons of things she was supposed to be doing, even if most of them only involved sitting at her desk reading through reports. She couldn't just be there doing nothing. It was not a thing Laura Roslin would do; at least while she had enough energy to be on her feet without yawning. There wasn't much to do, so she just started pacing around the room. Cottle had told her some walking would do her good, hadn't he?

Soon, she overheard someone talking, and that made her change her direction. As she got closer to the source of the sound, she recognised Ishay's voice. "I'll just come back later when you're feeling a little better." She was clearly frustrated.

Laura stood in her spot, without moving as she heard a woman quickly answering the nurse's words. "Can't you read a chart? I'm not gonna feel better." The woman wasn't in a good mood at all, she could easily notice that, and she could easily understand that.

When the nurse raised her head and saw Laura, she nodded. The last thing that woman needed was being alone, and she had nothing to do while she waited for Cottle. Laura walked through the curtains and looked at the woman in the bed. "Hello" she said almost happily. The woman looked at her, and Laura could immediately tell she had recognised her. If she didn't want her there, she would say so and she would leave.

The woman rolled her eyes and looked once again towards Laura. "Oh… Oh, great. Now the President." The woman's voice was full of sarcasm, but she didn't show any sign of wanting Laura to leave, so she took a couple of steps towards her.

Laura smiled. "They're having me come here every week, and doctor Cottle always makes me wait, managing to make me waste the whole morning in here."

"Just be thankful they haven't put a catheter in you." The woman smiled slightly. "All this, just to… keep me alive for a few more weeks. It's so pointless."

The woman sounded extremely defeated; she had given up. She didn't feel like fighting anymore. Laura took a better look of her and saw it written all over her. Her exhaustion, her paleness, her skinny complexion. Laura easily recognized the woman's illness. She knew what it was like. She had been at that point. She had almost died. So she didn't want that woman to lose any bit of her hope; it should be the last thing anyone should loose. "No, it's not pointless" she said with a thin voice. After that, she fell silent. Suddenly, she noticed the voice coming from the wireless was Baltar's. "And I'm sure it isn't helping listening to Gaius Baltar..." Immediately she moved towards the machine to turn it down, but the woman stopped her."

"No. No, no. Don't touch that!" the woman shouted, making Laura jump. She quickly dropped the wireless back onto the table and looked at the woman is shock. "Who the frak do you think you are?" She looked even angrier than before and nearly on the verge of tears. "Leave me alone!" Laura looked at the woman for an instant before disappearing through the curtains. Maybe it hadn't been a good idea.

Once she was out in the room again, she breathed deeply, trying to calm herself. Seeing that woman like that made her remember that time she suffered from that same illness; she had miraculously recovered, but the cure could have well not worked. She had been lucky.


Minutes later Cottle found her sitting in one of the room's chairs. "Young lady" he said, making her raise her eyes and see him.

Laura quickly dried the wet tracks that crossed her cheeks and looked at the man blushing slightly. She had been caught, but it wasn't too late to pretend it didn't happen. "Cottle" she acknowledged him.

"I'm sorry it took so long…" the man started, but Laura quickly cut him off.

"No. It's all right. You don't have to apologise, there are lots of people in the fleet that need you more than I do" she said with a smile.

"Okay, Ma'am President, if you say so." The doctor guided her to one of the beds and closed the curtains behind him, leaving the two of them alone. "I know you paid visit to one of my patients, Emily Kowalsky… Has it got something to do with it?"

She sat on the bed and caressed her belly with both her hands. "Emily?" she said with a thin voice. "How is she? Is it…" she paused and gulped. "Is it cancer?"

Cottle doubted for a moment, but he finally nodded. "Yes, it is. She's been is sickbay for a while now. It has… spread."

Laura felt a lump form in her neck. She had been right. The illness that once had eaten herself up from the inside now was doing the same to that woman, Emily, and surely to lots of other people throughout the Fleet. "How much?" was the only thing she managed to ask.

"A couple of weeks? A month? Maybe a little bit more…" He sighed heavily and looked at her defeated. "We can't really know for sure… It depends on how it spreads… You know how it can be…"

She smiled sadly and looked at him in the eye. "Yes, I do."

The old man walked towards her. "We're doing all that's in our hands, really. With everyone that comes here…"

She looked at her belly and caressed it gently. "I know, doctor, and I am really grateful for it." She fell silent for a moment while she focused all her attentions on all the tiny movements she felt inside her belly. She followed the path of her little girl's tiny feet with her palms. "I sincerely don't know where I would be right now if it wasn't for you…"

"Oh, come on" he quickly said, trying to stop her. It wouldn't have worked usually, but it did that time.


Laura's check-up didn't take long; it never did. They only kept on doing it to be sure everything was fine with her and her daughter. It was more for keeping Bill out of worry than for a real need.

"Everything's alright, young lady" Cottle said as he tried to mask a shy smile. He always pretended to be grumpy and kind-of insensitive, but Laura could see further; he truly cared about his patients. Over the time, he had developed something she would've never even imagined; a soft spot for her. She had been a tough and stubborn patient, she had tried to do things her own way and sometimes she had been just impossible, but all that looked like endearing qualities to him now. The fact that she had become the Old Man's significant other only added up to all her qualities. "I know you've been following my advice, but you should really consider reducing your workload."

Her mouth opened widely. "Even more?" she asked in disbelief. Her workload had been already cut during the last weeks. With her office now next to her quarters, all she had to do every day was go there, sit in her desk and go through the reports. Her meetings had been severely cut, most of them were taken by members of her office and she was only left with the most important ones and with the Quorum meetings.

Cottle looked at her and nodded. "Yes, even more. You should try to take the stress out of you. But, well, I'm only your doctor, so you're probably gonna ignore me… Maybe I should talk with your husband?"

"No" she quickly stated. "There will be no need. The Lords of Kobol know that if you talk with him I'll be forced to spend the next weeks signing reports from my bed, up until the last day…"


After her visit with Cottle finished completely, Laura went to her office. It had taken longer than she had expected and, even though she hadn't really done anything in the whole morning, she was pretty tired. Tory received her and guided her to the desk, where some piles of reports were already waiting for her.

"How did it go?" the younger woman asked with a smile.

Laura sat in her chair and closed her eyes. Her lips curled up. "Well," she said letting out a sigh and caressing her belly, "it went well."

Tory walked towards her. "You look like you could use some hours of sleep right now."

"Oh, I could" the redhead replied letting out a giggle. Her eyes were still closed. "It would be great, wouldn't it? But I haven't done anything today yet… And work's not gonna do itself." Laura opened her eyes and smiled.

The younger woman walked towards the desk and pointed one of the piles of papers. "I've taken the liberty to classify all the paperwork. This pile is has all the urgent matters;" she then pointed another pile, "this one has all the measures that need your approval;" she pointed yet another pile, "and this one has everything that can wait."

Laura smiled widely. "Thank you Tory. You're an angel. I don't know what I'll be doing without you." The other woman shook her head and moved to her corner of the room.

After a while, the younger woman raised her eyes from her own work. "Oh, Madam President, I forgot to tell you I received a phone call earlier this morning. The Admiral wanted to know how your visit to sickbay was and he wanted you to know he would be free at lunchtime. Do you want me to phone or…" Laura cut her off.

"No. Get him on the phone and then give it to me" she said smiling slightly.


Time went by fast, and soon enough it was lunchtime. Laura would spend the afternoon in her quarters with Bill, so she had to take the work with her. "So I guess just pack up everything that's left to do."

Laura raised her eyes from the reports she had on her hands and looked Tory. "Pack up all of these drafts." She stopped for an instant and tried to supress a yawn, but she didn't succeed. "I'm gonna have plenty of time on my hands this afternoon, so pack it up." She smiled widely at the younger woman.

Tory quickly started packing all the files in silence. Suddenly she raised her head, as if she had noticed she was supposed to say something else. "It is nice that you get to spend all this time together. He must be really excited about it all."

The older woman's smile widened. "Oh, yes. He is. And so am I." Laura yawned again, but this time she didn't try to supress it, she only covered her open mouth with one of her hands.

"I really doubt you'll get much work done this afternoon" Tory said with a playful smile on her lips. "If the Admiral sees you yawning he'll immediately order you to bed…"

Laura returned the smile. "You're right." She paused for an instant and brought both her hands to rest over the curve of her belly. "In this matter, things aren't going to get any better in the upcoming months." She let her words sink in and looked directly into the younger woman's eyes. "I'm gonna need you to really keep an eye on things from now on."

Tory looked at her and smiled playfully again. "Don't worry. I'll make sure our friend from Picon sees the error of his ways."

"I'm not just talking about the Quorum, Tory." Laura shook her head. No, she wasn't worried about any particular matter they had between hands at the moment, or about any upcoming meeting. It was much more than that. "There was a time a few months ago when you seemed overwhelmed by the stresses and the pressures of this job." Laura looked at the woman with a serious look on her face. "But lately you've really stepped up. And I'm gonna be demanding even more of that from you in the days to come, because I'm not quite sure of what I'm doing right now. I'm sort of…." She wasn't at her hundred per cent, her hormones liked to turn her crazy and her brain seemed to enjoy playing tricks on her. So yes, she needed someone to check everything to be sure she didn't make any mistake. "I'm just gonna need you to keep a keen eye on every single thing that comes across this desk."

The younger woman looked at the President and saw she was nearly on the verge of tears. She quickly reacted. "I appreciate your confidence, Madam President."

Laura nodded and smiled slightly. "Thank you." Suddenly, the door of the room opened. It had to be either someone close to her or some urgent matter; otherwise her security detail wouldn't have let whoever it was enter. When she saw who it was, a big smile settled on her lips. "We were just finishing packing."

Bill nodded and gave her one of his beautiful genuine smiles. "Don't worry. You don't need to rush. Lunch won't be ready in until about ten minutes."