Back in his Q, Adama wondered how often the President slept walked. Part of him hoped it was often so he could see her at night. Part of him knew there wasn't enough cold water in the fleet for all the showers he'd require if this became a regular occurrence.
He recalled how she stood right in front of him and told him she liked his kiss. Brazen fireball…it took all his restraint not to reach out and pull her into another one. Didn't she realize that nightgown was the equivalent of a siren screaming "Come and get me"?
President Roslin settled back into her bed but was too excited to sleep. He admitted he dreamt of her. She hadn't thought of stirring any man since before the attack, least of all Commander Adama. She felt like she just stumbled onto some secret treasure. Maybe the side effects of the medication weren't all bad.
They got through the staff meeting the next morning by avoiding eye contact. Adama focused on the read file in front of him and the President looked intently from cabinet member to cabinet member as they spoke, except for the Chief of the Military. Nothing escaped the staff in these close quarters. Everyone assumed by the way they weren't interacting, not even arguing, the commander and the President had some sort of knock down drag out yesterday over a policy or decision.
Her military advisor was the only one who was close to the truth. Before the meeting, he'd been alone with her in her office giving her an update on the breakaway drills. She took a phone call but didn't motion for him to leave her in private. At first, she leaned forward on her desk as she talked, studying some paperwork. She was all business. Then the conversation turned. Lee noted that she leaned back in her chair, rested her head on the headrest and removed her glasses as a smile transformed her previously serious features. When she started running her fingers through her hair, Lee found himself a bit jealous of whoever could affect her that way. There was no doubt she wished whoever was on the other end was touching her, running his fingers through her hair.
Wrapping up the call, she said, "Alright, Commander. I'll see you in a bit," before she hung up.
Lee looked away from her, feeling a little dirty for knowing the President was attracted to his father. He'd seen his father covertly admiring the President's legs or face or décolleté from time to time but so did almost all the men when they thought they could get away with it undetected. In fact, he imagined the President was weary of looking up from some document at a meeting to find one or two men staring at her as if she were a dream about to happen. He never imagined, though, that she might take an interest in one of them, least of all his rough, cold father.
Adama stayed after the staff meeting to talk to her about the sleepwalking. Once they were alone, he broached, "Madam President, I need to know how often you sleepwalk. I know you don't want to, but we may need to have a female aide assigned to you at night for security and your personal safety."
"Don't worry, Commander. It's only a temporary side effect of some medication. I'll be off of it in two days. I don't need to be watched."
"I think you do. Either that, or I'll have to insist you sleep on Galactica where I can keep you safe."
Laura knew he didn't mean in his bed but that didn't stop the idea from taking up residence in her mind. Before, she didn't like the idea of sleeping on Galactica because she didn't want to be near him and his crew. Now she rejected the idea specifically because she did want to be near him…too much to trust herself.
"Very well. One female attendant, but only while I'm sleeping."
Adama was a bit disappointed. He'd hoped she might take the Galactica option. "I'll send a petty officer over at 9:00."
That night, Adama was again awoken but this time it was by an alarm from Colonial One instead of a phone call. He radioed the guards. "What's happening? Is the President alright?"
"Sir, we didn't activate the alarm. It must have been the President but no one has gone into her room except Petty Officer Bartin and no one has come out."
"She's probably sleepwalking again but check on it any way. Let me know ASAP."
"Roger, Sir."
The commander turned off the alarm. He got up and dressed completely this time. Even if she was only sleepwalking, he would go over to keep her calm. Subconsciously, he also welcomed the idea of seeing her in her nightgown again and maybe getting to hold her if she was frightened.
When the guard didn't call back in three minutes, he radioed. There was no response. He tried Petty Officer Bartin. She didn't respond either. Adrenaline kicked in and he raced over to the other ship. There was no need for a password tonight. The only guard at the door was dead of a gunshot wound to the head. Adama drew his weapon and stepped through the hatch. He scanned the room and saw the other guard sprawled on the doorway to the President's bedroom. It looked like his neck was broken.
Adama didn't have time to examine him. He stepped over him and silently slipped into the President's darkened bedroom. She was on the floor by the bathroom with both her hands over her stomach. Blood spilled out over her fingers and from another wound in her bicep.
"Petty Officer Bartin," he whispered as he knelt over her, "where is the President?"
Through gritted teeth she managed to tell him, "He came in through the crawlspace that leads down to the cargo hold. He was dressed in maintenance gear. Sir, I'm so sorry."
"Where are they!" he demanded. He knew she'd probably die from this wound but he had to find the President now.
Bartin rasped, "He took her back down to the hold, Sir. I think he's going to take one of the lifepods."
"Alright. Hold on. The med crew will get here soon and they'll take care of you."
Bartin nodded. "Save her, Sir," she whispered before she passed out from the blood loss.
The commander saw where the grate was still off the access to the crawlspace. He got on his belly and went down head first so he could shoot before being seen. At the bottom of the crawlspace he heard the hydraulic hiss of a lifepod door opening. He poked his head down far enough to see the President at the wrong end of a gun. The man holding it had a detonator in his other hand.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked in an amazingly calm voice.
Adama couldn't shoot him from here because the bastard might set off the bomb or shoot the President.
"I'm going home and you're my ticket. With you aboard, I can take a pod over to my ship and escape with no fear of being fired on. Word around the fleet is Commander Adama can't stand you, but he'd die before letting anyone so much as bruise you. I guess he has an overdeveloped sense of military duty or loyalty or some pathetic idea of honor."
"Home?"
"Caprica."
"Home isn't there any more," she said incredulously.
"It may be nuked, but it's still there. There's nothing out here but Cylons, cold space and certain death. I'd rather take my chances with the fallout. I know there must've been survivors. I'm…I should say, we're going to join them and do what we can to build a new colony."
He was dressed in a maintenance jumpsuit and looked about 40. His manner was that of man obsessed, assured and irrational. President Roslin hoped to stall and decrease her chances of getting shot by getting familiar with him.
"Who are you?"
"Marcus Inev, chief engineer on the Endless Horizon."
"Marcus, you don't need to take me with you. I'll grant you safe passage and you can use a remote detonator for this bomb as insurance."
Adama was inching his way out of the crawlspace during the conversation but he needed to turn himself upright before he lost his grip. Laura saw him out of the corner of her eye and paced a bit in the opposite direction to draw Inev's attention away.
"Thanks, Madam President but I think you're better coverage. The bomb was just to give me leverage in case something went wrong before we got off Colonial One. Besides," he continued with a chilling grin, "I'm going to need some female companionship."
She was repulsed but knew she could use his turn of thought to her advantage. "Alright, Marcus. I see I don't have a choice here. You win."
Basking in a false sense of security, he stepped toward her and said, "I'm glad you see it my way, Madam President." He took another step toward her until there was only room for the gun between them.
She tried to remain cool but her heart was racing and her chest was heaving with shallow breaths. After a second, she realized Marcus' gaze was trained there. He seemed to be enjoying the fact that he made her pulse race, even if it was in fear instead of attraction.
"Or should I start calling you Laura now that we're going to be intimately familiar?" he said in a sickeningly lustful tone.
She'd given Adama enough time to silently slip out of the crawlspace onto the floor. He crouched there in the dark with his gun trained on Marcus but still couldn't fire without risking her life.
The President knew she had to get him to put down the detonator and stop pointing the gun at her so Adama could get a clear shot.
As seductively as she could, she replied, "Yes, we'll be alone for a long time." She looked into his eyes then pointedly looked as his lips to entice him.
It worked in terms of turning him on but he didn't put the detonator or the gun down to kiss her. It just made him want to get out of there quicker so he could do other things to her.
"Get in the pod," he ordered.
Slowly, she backed away from him toward the pod, unwilling to get in until she absolutely had to.
Adama was desperate. He knew if they got in that pod he'd her forever if Inev got her aboard the Endless Horizon and made the FTL jump. He'd have to sacrifice himself. He took a pen out of his pocket and threw it to the far side of the hold to distract Inev.
When Inev turned to the noise, Adama rushed him in a stream of gunfire which sliced the wrist of the hand holding the detonator. Marcus roared in agony as the detonator clattered to the deck and slid under a pallet. Inev leveled the gun at Adama's head causing Laura to tackle him sideways onto the deck. She was able to pin his arms to his sides but he got a shot off that nicked her foot.
The commander shot Marcus the forearm, causing him to scream and drop the gun. Adama picked it up and bent over the President who was balled up next to Inev pressing her hand over her foot to stem the bleeding. Scuffling made Adama look over his shoulder to see Inev had crawled over to the pallet and was reaching under it for the detonator.
Adama scooped the President up and threw her into the open pod. He squeezed in the single-person pod with her and sealed the hatch. He hit the emergency jettison button and they ejected from Colonial One just seconds before an explosion ripped through the hull of the cargo hold.
