Soft Touch
By
mondavis
Disclaimer: I don't own em, I'm just using them.
Pairing: Laura/Adama
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Litmus. This takes place after the episode but before Six Degrees of Separation.


"So are you going to say it or what?"

President Roslin flicked her glasses onto the table and raised both arms above her head in a long stretch. "Say what?" she asked sweetly.

Adama fought the urge to stare at her. She was wearing that silky purple top that clung to her chest most distractingly. "'I told you so.'"

"And why would I say that, Commander?"

Adama sighed huffily and rubbed his left shoulder. "The Tribunal," he said a little testily. "I'm sure you can't wait to say 'I told you so.'"

The President dropped her arms back to her lap and reached again for her glasses. "Ahh. No, actually I'm not going to say that," she told him lightly. Her lips curved into a little grin. "Though, I was thinking of making a recording of me saying it so that you can play it whenever you need to. It's so often, it seems." She finished with a grin.

Adama scowled at her and went back to reading his reports. "Cute."

"I'm sorry about Specialist Socinus, though," she said putting her glasses back on her nose. "He didn't leave that hatch open."

Adama looked up at the woman sitting across from him and frowned. "How do you come to that conclusion?"

She regarded him with what he referred to as her "school teacher" look. "Your people aren't that irresponsible. That causeway led directly to a munitions locker. After what happened to the water tanks, I would assume that you've had everything locked down around here." She settled back against the sofa and looked back down at the report in her hand. "You may be a 'soft touch' but you run a tighter ship than that." She paused. "At least I hope so, or we're all fracked. Regardless, Socinus was covering for Tyrol and Valerii."

For a brief moment, Adama considered asking her how she managed to correctly deduce all of this but then decided it was pointless. She'd only get all coy on him and he hated it when she did "coy". He rubbed his shoulder, trying to work out the kink there. He amused himself with the thought that the headache he was developing was all her fault.

He decided to elaborate. "They were together at the time of the bombing."

"So there's still a Cylon or a Cylon conspirator on board Galactica," the President concluded. Giving up on reading the report, she tossed it back onto the table. "Well, that's just great."

Adama nodded and tossed his own report on top of hers. He noted that the pile of papers between them was probably big enough to cover every inch the ship's hull. Maybe twice.

"Yeah, well, we should be able to start screenings soon," he grumbled, rubbing at his left shoulder. "Now that Baltar's finally gotten off his ass and is working on the detector."

"What's the matter with your shoulder?" the President asked him.

He sighed. "When the bomb exploded, Tigh threw me to the deck … guess I hit it the wrong way."

"Is there a right way to hit the deck?" she queried with a grin. She rose from her seat and came to join him on the sofa. "Take off your jacket and turn around," she ordered. She kicked off her shoes and hiked up her skirt a little to kneel on the cushion. "Turn around," she repeated again with a twirl of her finger when he continued to sit and stare at her.

Adama shifted on the sofa so that he was sideways with the President behind him.

"Jacket," she said plucking at the fabric with her fingers. He undid the fasteners and shrugged out of it so that he sat in his grey t-shirt in front of her.

As Laura set about her task, Adama winced in pain. "Ow!"

"Oh, stop whining," the President chided. "Of course, it hurts; the muscle is bunched. Deal with it."

Adama scowled even though he knew she couldn't see his face. Gritting his teeth against the pain she was inflicting on his shoulder, he wondered why he was so intrigued by her. Laura Roslin was the biggest pain his ass had seen in at least a decade and yet he found himself eagerly anticipating these meetings of theirs; reveling in the nearly hostile banter they sometimes engaged in.

And then there was that alluring scent …

"Did you hear me?" she asked. She sounded exasperated as her hands continued working the knots out of his shoulder.

"What?" he growled.

"I asked you if it still hurts?"

He closed his eyes and assessed. Actually, it felt damned good now. He wasn't sure if it was because she had succeeded in working out the knot or because the pain receptors in his shoulder were completely fried. Regardless, what he felt now was the kneading of her slim fingers against his tired muscles and the gentle palpitation as they relaxed.

"It feels good," he murmured, eyes drifting closed. "You have strong hands."

Satisfied that his shoulders were good, she moved up to his neck and tried not to think about the fact that his skin was much softer than she had anticipated.

"I used to do this for my mother," she told him quietly. "It helped to relax her after-"

Laura broke off, annoyed with herself for almost saying too much. She knew that Adama suspected something was going on that she wasn't telling him. She would catch him looking at her carefully sometimes and he would say little things; asking after her health and if she had gotten enough sleep. She dodged him always, but Laura knew that if she brought up her mother's cancer, he would soon figure out that the secret Laura had been keeping from him was her own.

His eyes opened. "After," he prompted.

"She used to get terrible headaches," she told him, opting for partial truth. "Massages would help."

"Was she still on Caprica during the attack?"

"No, she died a long time ago."

"Did you have any other family?"

"No. There's no one." Her thumbs massaged behind his ears while her fingers cradled his jaw on either side.

"Husband?" he asked casually. Too casually.

Interesting. She grinned. "I never married, but I do think you already know that, Commander."

"Why?" he asked, letting her pull his head back to rest against her chest. The stretching in his achy neck muscles felt good.

"Never found the right man," Laura told him curtly, closing the subject. "Why do you still wear your wedding ring? I know you were divorced from Captain Apollo's mother."

Unconsciously, Adama twisted the band around his finger. "Habit, I guess," he told her. "It wasn't like there was any chance we'd get back together. Ow!" She'd hit the tender spot where his head had hit the deck along with his shoulder.

"Sorry," Laura murmured. "I have another question."

"You seem to be full of them," he put in.

She ignored him. She did that a lot. "Tyrol and Valerii. Why did you let it continue if it was against the regs?"

Adama sighed. He'd asked himself that many times.

"At the time, their relationship wasn't hurting anyone. They were professional about it, even though she outranked him."

The President's hands slipped from the commander's head back to his shoulders. "That's admirable of them," she began softly, "to be able to maintain a romantic relationship and not let it get in the way of their jobs."

"Yeah," was all he said in return as the "thing" that was between them slipped quietly into the room.

Laura marveled at how the two of them could carry on a conversation and argue and even joke sometimes without a thought to any feelings between them other than stress, irritation, and amusement. But then something unseen would change and more and more lately they found themselves where they were right now.

Charged.

From her knees to her chest, everywhere his body was currently touching her own, felt electric. Her hands slipped over his shoulders and down his chest as if they had minds of their own.

"We're back at the bad idea," the commander said softly.

"I know," she said, pressing her hands flat against the muscles of his chest. She was somewhat surprised at the definition she found there. His jacket hid a lot. "How do we always get here?" she wondered aloud.

"Probably because we try to ignore it," he returned huskily. Under her palm, she could feel his heart pounding in his chest. She was sure he could probably hear hers, given the current location of his head.

"I don't think - I want you to know - uh -"

He chuckled. "I don't think I've ever heard you be this inarticulate."

She laughed with him. "You have that effect on me."

"You don't want to know the kind of effect you have on me," the commander returned in a low voice.

Laura closed her eyes and bent until her forehead was resting against the top of his head. His hair smelled clean, like the rest of him.

"We need to address this, don't you think?" she whispered. "We've tried ignoring it. Maybe we should talk about it before we make a horrible mistake."

Adama was quiet for a long, long moment. Under her hands, she could feel his uneven breathing, the rise and fall of his chest and the thunder of his heart beating inside.

Suddenly, he pulled away, nearly causing her to fall over as she had been leaning on him. But he turned quickly on the sofa and caught her as she slipped forward. Her hands ended up back on his chest, but this time they were nearly nose-to-nose with his hands gripping her hips.

"Commander?"

"Madame President," he began, his voice lower and rougher than she'd ever heard it. "If we're going to talk, you need to stop touching me, right now."

A shiver raced up her arms, down her spine and settled low in her belly at the sound of his voice and the look of pure lust in his eyes.

But he was right. Over the past several days, they had danced close to the line; now they were damned near on top of the line and they needed to stop this before it got out of hand. Before they couldn't go back …

With a deep breath, Laura pushed at his shoulders and scrambled off the sofa. She took long steps away from him. She dared not look back at him.

Adama's head dropped into his hands as his elbows rested on his knees. It had been years, years since he'd felt this randy, this damned out-of-control for a woman. Part of him reveled in the feeling he hadn't had since the days of his youth, before he married Caroline. It was back when he had been a war hero who could conquer any woman he fancied. That period of indulgence hadn't lasted for long, only a couple of months really before he tired of it, but it had been a wild ride while he was on it. This heat sizzling through his veins right now, the lust he felt for Laura Roslin harkened back to those days. And the more of these "encounters" they had, the less control he had over himself. She didn't seem to be fairing much better. It was only a matter of time before they did something that they couldn't take back.

"Maybe we should have Captain Apollo or Tigh sit in on our meetings," the President suggested, lightly.

Adama looked up at her. She was still facing away from him. "A chaperone?"

"Well, it seems like we're in need of one," she snapped. Almost immediately, she turned around with an apologetic expression on her face.

"I feel like a damned teenager," Adama said with a sigh. "Except if I were a kid, I'd do what I want to do and say frack the consequences."

She frowned. "You know, we keep talking about consequences. What are they, exactly?"

He looked at her incredulously. "I think you know!"

"Look, I'm not trying to think up ways to justify this," she said reasonably. "I just think we should weigh the pros and cons of the situation, then figure out how to proceed from there."

"Pros and cons?"

"Yes."

"Fine. Pro …" He stood and looked over at his bunk. Her eyes followed his. They both swallowed hard.

Flustered and blushing, Laura cleared her suddenly congested throat. "Okay. Let's move on to the cons."

Adama nodded. "Con: professional impropriety. You're the President. I'm your military commander. Like it or not, that makes you my boss."

She gave a short, derisive laugh. "Not that you'd ever act like it."

He glared at her.

"So it's fine for Chief Tyrol and Lieutenant Valerii but not for us?" she asked him, folding her arms over her chest.

"You cannot be using them as a precedent for this. Look how that turned out," Adama reminded her.

Laura nodded with a sigh. "Okay. I acknowledge it would be ten times as bad with the two of us. I do think that we're both professional enough to keep it from affecting our jobs. I don't think we'd be so distracted by each other that we'd harm the fleet." She paused and looked at him expectantly. After a brief moment of consideration, he nodded his agreement. "But to some extent, you and I check and balance each other. If I do something crazy and dangerous, you've got the guns to stop me," she continued introspectively. "By the same token, if you over-step your bounds and try to depose my government, I'll shoot you myself –"

"I'm sure," Adama interjected drily.

"I doubt that would change if we … you know …"

"Played bounce and tickle?" he teased, laughing. Given the nature of the discussion, he found it funny that she would be shy about calling a spade a spade.

Annoyed at being laughed at, Roslin's nostrils flared. "I doubt that would change," she repeated with narrowed eyes, "if I fracked you into next week."

Adama laughed outright and tipped his head to her, acknowledging that once again, he'd failed to get the better of her. Boy, she was a competitor. It was another thing about her that made him tingle below the belt.

Despite herself, she smiled at him broadly. "This is silly. We're adults. We should be able to handle this. I mean it's not like we're not falling head over heels in love - " she paused and looked horrified for a moment. "We're not, are we?"

The commander shook his head and held up his hands. "No, no, no, no, no!" he said. "I'm not! Are you?"

"Hell, no! No way!" she shot back, frowning furiously. "I barely like you."

"Feeling's mutual."

They paused and stared at each other before they burst out laughing.

"This is one of the most bizarre conversations I've had in a long time," Adama said with a grin. "It ranks right up there with 'we need to start having babies.'"

The President laughed and ran her hands through her hair. "And who, pray tell, told you that?" she joked.

"Someone wise," he returned. The look in his eyes turned affectionate.

Laura smiled back at him warmly. "I guess you were right. Talking this to death isn't going to help, either."

"No."

"So."

"So."

He found himself taking her in as she stood in front of him. His eyes started at her bare feet and moved up to her long legs to where they disappeared (sadly) under her skirt, to the slim hips, flat tummy; the curve of her breasts, slender neck, up to the lips that looked so kissable and the darkening greenish eyes.

In his mind, he was already on her; kissing her mouth, caressing her breasts, parting her thighs…

In reality, he stood rooted to the deck, staring at her lustfully.

"See?" Her voice was husky, nearly hoarse. "We've got to do something about this - "

Adama took a step toward her. "There's only one thing we can do." He took another step. He knew it was wrong, he knew that the consequences would be dire. But right now he didn't care. She was right. They were adults. They could muck through the aftermath later. Much later. "Maybe if we just once …"

Amazingly, she seemed to pick up his crazy train of thought. "If it's just curiosity … lust … it would be gone …"

He came within an arm's distance of her, close enough to smell flowers. He reached out -

- and abruptly drew his hand back as the door to his cabin flung open.

Colonel Tigh entered, followed closely by Apollo. Both newcomers stopped short when they saw the two people in the room, but if they had any questions about why the commander wasn't wearing part of his uniform and the president stood barefoot, both knew better than to ask.

"We're sorry to interrupt your meeting, Madame President," Tigh said. "But Commander, you're needed in CIC."

Reining in his conflicting emotions, Adama nodded and retrieved his jacket from where he'd tossed it on the table.

As he shrugged into it, he said, "Madame President, we'll talk later." He moved to stand in front of her as he did up his buttons.

Clearing her throat, Laura looked at his face but not into his eyes. "Actually, Commander, I think we're done for the day. I'll have Billy schedule another meeting later in the week."

Adama narrowed his eyes at her but gave a small nod and left with Tigh.

After he was gone, Apollo looked at her with concern.

"Are you alright, Ma'am?"

She forced a tight smile. "I'm fine, Captain Apollo."

"Were you two fighting again?"

Laura gathered her jacket from the sofa and bent to put on her shoes. She placed her glasses on her nose and turned to look at him at last.

"Your father and I are having some issues relating to each other," she said evenly.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

The President shook her head with a laugh and headed toward the door. "No, Captain Apollo," she said ruefully. "This is definitely something the Commander and I will have to work out by ourselves."

The end.