Wow. Thanks for the reviews, folks! They REALLY made my day. And in gratitude, I give you part three. There's even a bonus scene at the end. :>

Disclaimer: See part one.

Call It What You Like
By: Mariel

3 - Final Cut

- What-the-Hell -

A tumultuous return from Kobol, disasters everywhere, and things so totally frakked up they weren't certain how they were going to fix them. It all somehow led to the President of the Twelve Colonies and the Commander of the Fleet having what-the-hell sex in his quarters.

No regrets there.

Laura threw down the document she'd been reading, not bothering to watch it hit the floor beside her feet. Bill looked up from his desk. They'd agreed to work together for a few hours, each giving a running commentary on anything of interest in the reports they were reading in an attempt to quickly catch up on what had happened while they'd been gone.

He cleared his throat. "Something wrong?" he asked calmly.

"You need to ask?"

He didn't, not really, so he went back to resolutely looking at the papers littering his desk.

Unwilling to let him go so easily, she continued, "What you see in him I'm sure I don't know. Four people killed. FOUR," she repeated for emphasis. "Martial law was bad enough - I still can't believe he was that stupid - but to run around killing peopl-"

"Saul didn't pull the trigger," Bill interjected quietly. He wished she would get over it already. He had.

Laura wasn't about to be calm or quiet or move on. "He might as well have. What was he thinking? We'll be lucky to ever regain the trust we lost over all this. Gods, if you'd died..." Her voice trailed off, then came back with force. "We've got to do something to restore confidence. We need a plan."

The Commander gave up on the reports. Looking over at her, he decided the evening was in need of a change of course. Rising, he walked over and carefully sat down beside her.

"I'm sure you can come up with something."

She shot him a glare. "Why me?"

"Because that's what you do," he said in a mild tone. "You come up with plans all the time. I usually hate them, but against all odds, they often work anyway. When they do, I congratulate you, you try not to gloat, and life goes on." He looked at her, his eyes warm. "Sometimes I think the more I hate one of your ideas the better it's likely to work, so please, knock yourself out on this one."

Pausing, he crossed one leg over the other, leaned back, and rested his arm along the back of the sofa. Exhaling softly, he added in a low undertone, "Persuade me to agree to your idea, and I'm willing to seal the deal any way you like."

The twinkle in his eye and the raised eyebrow that accompanied it made her ire rise still hotter. Slapping him on the arm, she demanded, "Stop it. This is serious."

"So am I."

Again the twinkle.

Again the glare.

"That's it," she said angrily. "If you're not going to take this seriously, I'm leaving!"

Abruptly, she began to rise.

His hand gripped her arm.

"Now you need to stop," he ordered amiably. "Relax. It'll be okay. You just have to let yourself think clearly."

She turned on him angrily. "I am! Saul Tigh is an idiot who managed to undo everything we've worked to put together. He's a drunken, incompetent-"

She stopped abruptly as he tugged sharply on her arm and brought her up against his chest. "It's not as though we didn't have something to do with what we're faced with, Laura. We put him into that situation, remember, and he just did what he could. Forget him. It's over, and he's the least of your problems, anyway." Adroitly executing the first step in his anticipated change of course, his mouth found its way to the softness of her neck.

Still angry, she fought against him. Pushing against his chest, Laura struggled to put space between them.

He let her go.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

"Kissing a very angry woman," he replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "She's not making it easy, though."

He held her gaze, his face impassive.

She paused.

He waited.

She opened mouth, then closed it.

He thought he saw a weakening, so slowly lifted one shaggy eyebrow.

"Stop it," she ordered.

He continued to hold her gaze. She was definitely weakening. "Can't," he said in a serious tone. "I love it when you're pissed."

A soft snort, and then a giggle trilled in her throat.

A smile gentled the corners of his mouth and warmed his eyes. "We talk about stopping," He exerted more pressure for her to lean against him, and then continued in a satisfied tone, "But I don't think we really want to."

He was right. Of course she didn't want to stop. Who in their right mind would? With things as frakked up as they were, why bother with restraint, or even with common sense? Whatever it was that she and Bill had was wonderful and freeing and the perfect escape. Who the hell would give that up?

Deciding to accept his proposed change in course, she brought her mouth to his, tasted his lips hungrily, and then moaned softly when his tongue slid against hers. His hands moved across her back, then up to hold her head, his fingers tangling in her hair as he probed her mouth and then trailed kisses along the curve of her neck.

This had happened before, and this would happen again.

Wanting more of him, she put enough space between them that her fingers could begin to nimbly undo his buttons. "Why so many?" she groused.

Bill busied himself with the clasps on her suit jacket. He shrugged. "Women find them attractive."

"No we don't. They're a pain in the neck," she retorted, finally sliding his uniform top off his shoulders.

"You just like being contrary," he grunted as he leaned sideways and she pulled at his sleeve. Finally freeing him from the offending garment, she tossed it onto the sofa beside them. Her suit jacket quickly joined it.

Her blouse and his undershirts soon followed.

The rest of their clothes were shed on the way to his rack.

-xx-

They lay in his bed, sated and unwilling to move. It was good to be warm and together and to not have anything needing their immediate attention.

They both decided that the best part about sex - besides the sex itself – was lying together afterwards.

And then the phone shrilled.

Bill grimaced and reached up over his head to pick up the receiver.

"Adama," he said, his voice hoarse.

After listening a moment, he cleared his throat and rasped, "Just a minute. You'd do better to speak to the President yourself." He passed the receiver to Laura with a whispered, "It's Lee." She grasped it clumsily, dropped it between them, and then picked it up with a muffled curse.

"Roslin," she said, relaxing as Bill's strong fingers began to gently caress her head. She closed her eyes, enjoying his touch as she listened to the voice on the other end of the line.

Eventually, she said, "Mmmm... thank you, Captain Apollo. That would be fine." Her voice sounded breathy and languorous, even to her own ears. Trying for a firmer note, she opened her eyes and said more firmly, "I'll be ready to go back in an hour. No," she said, "don't send someone. I'm sure the Commander will escort me when I'm ready." She gasped lightly when the commander in question nibbled the side of her neck.

She pulled back and glared at him while she said goodbye to Lee, then held out the phone for him to hang up. "Never do that when I'm talking on the phone, Bill. It's a very sensitive spot."

Adama paused, then moved quickly to repeat the manoeuvre.

This time, she did not resist. Instead, she inhaled sharply, then let the air out in a low moan as she relaxed against the warmth of his mouth. "Gods, Bill," she murmured. Wrapping her free arm around him, she caressed the back of his neck as she tilted her head up to ease his access. Her other hand still held the phone. "Yessss," she whispered, her voice a warm smile as her body responded to his encouragements. "It feels good."

Reaching out to grasp the phone, he made a low rumbling sound in his throat as he continued to devour her neck. "You taste good," he murmured, his breath hot against her skin. Fumbling the phone a bit, he finally found its resting place on the shelf at the head of his rack and brought his hand back to more useful ministrations.

Neither he nor she realised the connection to CIC hadn't been severed as soon as she'd said goodbye.

-xxx-

Lee stood in CIC, shock and amazement and a few other reactions vying for a place on his face. He remained motionless a long moment, the phone pressed to his ear. Slowly, he brought it down in front of him and looked at it in wonderment. It took another period of thoughtful silence before he slowly and very carefully hung it back on the receiver.

Gods. How long, he wondered, had they been doing that? And had he really needed to hear it? He looked around CIC. Feeling very much like a man who knew way more than he needed to, he decided it was a good thing he was capable of keeping a secret…

Then he grinned.

-xxx-

- Seal-the-Deal -

A worsening situation between military and civilian factions, a sense of frustration, and a last ditch plan. It all led to furtive, hurried, seal-the-deal sex in her quarters in the middle of the day.

Laura had come up with a plan. After much heated debate, Bill had agreed.

They couldn't have said, exactly, how or even why they'd started the deal sealing then and there, but once they had, there was no stopping it. Clothes were moved aside, tongues exchanged, and a quick, heated, shattering orgasm shared.

No regrets there.

They'd barely finished readjusting their clothes when security called to announce the arrival of D'Anna Biers, the reporter to whom Bill was about to allow unlimited access to the Galactica.

When Biers was ushered into Roslin's office, there was no one there to greet her. She stood waiting uncomfortably until first President Roslin and then Commander Adama brushed aside a curtain and strode out of the president's private quarters to meet with her.

While greeting the tall blonde, Roslin was giddy from the pure madness of what she and Bill had just done. Still acutely aware of her body and the man who stood beside her, Laura held herself confidently and smiled broadly at the reporter. To cover his post coital contentment, Adama clasped his hands together and made himself even more closed and remote.

Both radiated an incredible aura of extreme self-satisfaction.

It had happened before; it would happen again.

The sex had been a foolish, irresponsible, and dangerous thing to do and something they were not likely to repeat.

But gods, it had been fun.

-xxx-

Eyeing the Commander and President warily, Biers knew something was up with them. There were items of business floating around in the air between them that she was not privy to, and she felt curiosity about what it was that made the president so giddy and the Commander so tightly reined. Their offer, however, was too good to allow her thoughts to dwell on anything but the free ticket to Galactica she'd been given...

End
Part 3