Chapter Six

The water was to be used for washing only. The showers were restricted to once a week and cut from ten minutes to five. Basins of water were provided for daily cleaning necessities. Shaving, was not considered a necessity, much to the chagrin of the entire female population over the age of 11. Kara Thrace got around that little rule by buying and trading for other people's water basins.

Nobody had drunk straight water in almost two weeks. Coffee or liquor (when off duty) was given as an accompaniment to meals. Juice was ridiculously sweet and nearly honey thick in consistency to preserve the water and water for powdered milk was provided only for children under the age of 5 who were past nursing.

The Galactica had an underground water racket that would have made the savviest gangster jealous. Water basins were being traded, sold at ridiculously high prices and even downright stolen from those who used intimidation to get what they wanted.

The crew was reaching a boiling point and Commander Adama was just waiting for the first of the riots to break out. It could not be allowed to reach that level. Something had to be done. He had Lee send out his pilots every day to search for a water source and so far they'd found nothing. Boomer was next on the list and William hoped that this time, Jessica was right and that Boomer would be successful, for all their sakes.

"I don't suppose you could conjure up a vision or something to tell us where our next water source is." He said, looking across the room at Jessica who was loudly banging away at his old typewriter. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I just know that you'll find it. Today. Where, I can't help you there." Jessica replied with a shrug. She was a basic typist. Very basic. No matter how many times William tried to show her how to position her fingers over the keys, she reverted back to using one finger and spent a ridiculous amount of time searching out one letter at a time.

"Hmm, figures. Maybe you could tell me what happened to my razor?" William asked watching as Jessica began to slide a little bit lower on her chair.

"I took it." She replied honestly though she shot him an annoyed look for asking her.

"Really?" William asked with no hint of surprise in his voice. "For what?"

Jessica narrowed her eyes at him and William nearly lost his composure and laughed. "What do you do with a razor, Sir?"

"You know the rule, Ms Talbot. That's another day tacked on to your sentence." William informed her.

Jessica gave a gasp on indignation. "Sir! That's hardly fair, everyone is pilfering razors and water. I gotta say, what kind of Commander would take advantage of a disabled crew member?" She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

"I'm assuming we're still talking about you?" William asked.

"Yes, me. I'm disabled. My brain filter thingamadoogie is broken. I can't lie. That's worse than amnesia." Jessica pressed.

"Ah 'thinga-what?"

"I don't know what it's called, a thingamadoogie, you know."

"Right, well that certainly does sound serious." His voice was gravelly and strained with the effort of trying not to laugh at her.

"Sir, you can see how bad it is. It's not my fault. I shouldn't be punished for that." Jessica reasoned.

"I'm not punishing you because you can't lie. I'm punishing you because you stole. The sentence stands." He said.

"Fine, next time I'll just go steal, Lee's razor. Dammit!" Jessica burst in frustration at having exposed her train of thought.

She went back to typing, if that's what it could have been called.

"Try to get those done by the end of the day." William instructed pointing to the small stack beside the type writer.

"You're kidding me, right?" Jessica asked.

"It would go a lot faster if you would stop reading them." William reminded her as he rose from his chair.

"I'm sorry, but working for you has not been the most stimulating of my career options thus far. I have to entertain myself somehow." Jessica explained. "Where the frak is that damned 'c'?" She burst roving her finger around the keyboard.

"It's not supposed to be entertaining. It's supposed to be boring. It's part of your sentence for shooting my XO."

"Right, right. I got it. Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"No, it doesn't. So stop reading." William ordered.

"I'm just gonna do it when you're not looking so why pretend I won't." Jessica shrugged. "Oooh, here it is." She punched the 'c' key.

"Gods." William thought rolling his eyes.

"Oh, that reminds me, Elosha wants to see me later, if that's okay. She doesn't make sense half the time but she's an interesting person."

The insinuation was clear and William scowled at her.

"You know, you'd be in a better mood if you got all that unresolved anger towards your son out of the way. I swear, the two of you are like cats-"

"Mrs Talbot!" William snapped in frustration making Jessica jump in her chair. She was glad for the interruption of Lieutenant Gaeta's voice over the speaker. A water source had been spotted by Boomer's raptor. Jessica ignored Commander Adama's earlier outburst and they shared a relieved smile.

AN: I'm baaaaaaccck. Sorry for the delays but I've got two stories going at the same time so when I'm not working on one, I'm working on the other so both don't go too long with out updates.

Mae: Thanks so much for your feedback. Can you imagine how freaked out you'd be if you couldn't lie? It's something we don't think about consciously but how terrible would it be if everyone was privy to your every thought. That's been a fascinating thing to play with and something I always try to keep in my mind when writing Jessica. Hark! Here be-eth a new chapter, milady!

Sweet A.K: I wouldn't toss 'Horry' out of bed for eating cookies. (smiles) Thank you so much for always sending feedback. I wuv you muchly. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do about the Baltar/Six thing but Jess will pick up on it. Kara really is just too amused by Jessica and Lee. (laughs) I promise that by the end of Breathe, Jessica will discover that Boomer is a Cylon. She knows something off there but her brain isn't 100 percent yet so it's not clear to her. She's going by instinct right now.

Who's disappointment do YOU think she felt? (grins) I can sympathize with Lee, poor shmuck. He finds a gal he's attracted to and it turns out she's a threat to the wall of defence he's erected around himself. The girl scares him just too damn much.

Albtb: I'm so glad you enjoyed Alive and it carried you over here! I hope you continue to enjoy this as I think it's just gonna get better and better.

Audrey: I hope you've enjoyed all the chapters so far! If you begged for a new chapter today, you got one. (laughs)