RUNAWAY BRIDE(GROOM): Pt 8

The aftermath of what should have been Lee & Dee's wedding day...

Two weeks later...

There was calm, almost deathly stillness at night, a sharp contrast to the hustle and grind of the day. As the constant rain pitter-pattered onto the sea of tent roofs, the most of the multitudes who toiled day in and day out to make New Caprica a home were asleep in their beds, exhausted, dreaming of the lives and loved ones they once had. The only people awake and out at that hour were young couples sneaking away for an hour of bliss, thieves scanning for carelessly placed items outside the tents, and the men who might have been called a police force.

The third was what she wanted to avoid the most. Most of them had been Zarek's fellow inmates aboard the "Astral Queen", who had transferred their allegiances to Baltar when he became president. Although one could occasionally bribe them, there would have been no guarantee they wouldn't have held her for questioning. She knew for a fact that her successor still kept an eye on her, having grown paranoid of his enemies–both real and imaginary. For now, he was just acting like a corrupt eccentric, hoarding ambrosia and women, ignoring the real problems. The chill in her gut told her, though, that someday, something would tip the balance of his already precarious sanity towards something far worse... She hoped she was wrong, but, so far, her instinct had been correct. Which was why she had taken the precaution of arriving at the rendevous point a few hours ahead of schedule, making sure that she wasn't followed along the way.

As she sat in the dimly lit cabin of the "Leda's Dream", Laura Roslin, former President of the Twelve looked at her surroundings. The former space yacht's luxurious, wood and chrome- paneled interior contrasted greatly with her own shabby little tent a mile away. She sighed as she sat back in the cushy leather chair, stretching her legs out and kicking off her shoes like she used to back on Colonial one. It was reminiscent of the days when she used to walk barefoot around her office after a long day, before settling down on the couch with Billy, who usually had a cup of herbal tea to help her wind down. He'd said that it always helped his mother on the nights when her insomnia plagued her. She suddenly felt a sharp longing such a simple comfort as tea and sympathy. I never in would have thought a million years I would have considered that place home...And now it's in the hands of careless madman. She fought the urge to curl up and take a catnap. No time for sleep,

She looked at her watch. It's almost time. Better get up before I'm permanently glued into this lovely chair. Laura managed to tear herself away and walked towards the front of the yacht. As she entered the cockpit, she noticed that her friend had been thoughtful enough to cover the cockpit windows so as to block out the silvery blue glow of the communication panel from the outside. She sat down in the co-pilot's chair, checked her watch again, and then flipped a few switches on the communication panel. One minute...She felt a little like a teenage girl, sneaking in a forbidden late night phone call to her boyfriend...

0200...It was time. She entered the frequency (the way her friend had taught her how), and waited for contact. A few seconds later, a warm, gravelly voice came online.

"Is that you Laura?"

"Yes, it is. How are you Bill."

"I've been better. And you?"

"I've been worse, especially at two o'clock in the morning."

"I'm sorry about that. I didn't want to chance anybody overhearing us, either up here or down there."

"Mmm. I thought this might be something more than a social call."

"I've heard rumors about Baltar's men monitoring all transmissions around the clock."

"Well, I know for a fact that his wiretap man is busy entertaining a friend tonight."

"And how do you know that?"

"Oh, I have my sources..."

"I bet you do."

Another thing she'd missed about Colonial One–having her late night meetings with Bill Adama. She could see him now, in her mind's eye, sitting on her couch, his uniform jacket half-way open, talking late into the night about politics and the business of command, poetry, and sometimes about more personal matters. There were times, listening to the rumble of his voice, feeling his solid, warm presence, that she wished that they had gotten more...personal. Sometimes, when he'd looked at her, she had gotten the feeling he felt the same.

"Well, as much as I miss the sound of your voice, Bill, I know you're not calling because you miss me."

88888

I miss you more than you think.

Lying in his bunk aboard Galactica, the smoke from his unfiltered cigarette curling around him, Bill Adama listened to the low, female voice at the other end of the phone line. When she was President, he used to note that she had different voices for different occasions. She had the soft, but determined one that she used on him, when she, as Secretary of Education, had tried to persuade him to network the computers on Galactica for the benefit of visitors. There was the clear, concise one that she used for political speeches. The hard, resolute tone came out when she made the tough decisions. She had a motherly one when she was talking to Billy. But the voice that he missed the most was the one they used when they had been alone together. He could see her now, reclining on his couch after a long day of arguing with the Gemenese delegation, her shoes and jacket carelessly tossed aside, with a glass of ambrosia that he usually kept in reserve for days like those. He remembered how feminine she looked, with her long legs stretched out, her auburn hair brushed across her shoulders, the her blouse opened just enough to see a sliver of cleavage. Sometimes, he was tempted to just walk over to her and...well, she was the President, so he never went that far, although, there were moments (maybe he had been imagining it) when he had the impression that she wouldn't have minded. Maybe I should have taken the lead of my own son.

"Actually, I do miss you (Did I say that?), but yes, I've got a favor to ask of you. It calls for some discretion, though."

"Go on."

"You might have heard that my son took off with Starbuck just before his wedding..."

He thought he heard a delicate snort on the other end.

"I heard. I've even seen a couple of snippets on the public news feed. Baltar, apparently, plays the video over and over again for kicks."

"Son of a --I should have ripped that camera out of D'Anna Biers' hands when I had the chance, but I had other things on my mind."

"Well, I have to say that the Lords of Kobol have a wonderful sense of karma."

"What's that?"

"The bride got publicly dumped without so much as a by-your-leave."

The bitterness was still there.

"You still haven't forgiven her for Billy, have you?"

"No."

"Are you still angry at Lee?"

Silence.

"Yes and no. He was partially responsible for what happened, but I don't think he meant to hurt him. I don't know if he even knew they were still dating. Did you?"

"I don't know. We've never discussed that aspect of his life." He took another drag from his cigarette. "You know, in the past year-and-a-half, we've been closer than we've been in decades, and yet in some ways, we're light-years apart. We didn't see each other every day, but when we did, I got the sense he was just going through the motions."

"So you decided to shake things up by inviting Kara Thrace to the wedding?"

"I wouldn't put it that way."

"I heard that they had a falling out, bad enough so that they didn't speak to each other for months. And, most certainly, she wouldn't had wanted her there. So, did you really want to sabotage his wedding?

He was about to say no, but..."Maybe. I don't know. What I do know is that I love Starbuck like a daughter, and I've missed her. Call me a selfish old bastard. I thought the wedding was a perfect excuse for her to see her again."

"But you still knew what could have happened."

Bill sat up, setting his cigarette down, rubbing his forehead, as if trying to collect his thoughts.

"It's not that I disapproved of Dee herself..."

"Just her relationship with your son."

He paused for a moment, reaching for a thought that had been in the back of his mind since the whole thing started.

"Maybe it was that we pulled her in too close, too soon."

"Excuse me?"

"She used to be sane, someone you could lean on. I felt that from the first moment I met her."

"Are you saying...?"

"What I'm saying that she became a kind of confidant to me." He pulled the cigarette back towards his lips, thinking of how he could word this. "There were very few people I could talk to. There was really no need before the worlds ended, but afterwords, there were things bottled up that I needed to let out. There was Saul, of course, but there were times that I knew he couldn't handle it, especially after Ellen came back into his life."

"And he would tell her everything, and she would use it against you somehow."

"So I started talking to Dee. She was a good listener."

"So what did you 'talk' to her about."

He didn't like the sound of that.

"The pressures of command, my hopes, fears...You know, after you and Lee escaped from the brig and fled to Kobol, I was so enraged, I had all but decided to let you guys rot. Dee was the one to persuaded me to put my personal feelings aside and put the fleet back together.

A pause. "Really?"

"You sound surprised."

"It's just...I never knew about that."

"I never really told anybody before why I changed my mind, so, you're the first."

"It certainly puts things in a different light."

"Anyways, one thing I used to talk to her a lot was about Lee. I'm thinking that's how it started."

"So you think that, because she saw Lee's and your vulnerable sides, she felt she could take liberties with you both? Is that your theory?" Her voice was starting to sound strained.

"I–"

"Look, I'm sorry, Bill. Can we stop talking about her and move onto something more neutral, shall we?"

He wondered if he should have told her what he did. It felt damn uncomfortable, but he felt that it had been the right thing to do, given their bond of trust.

She continued, "You want me to search for your son, and you want me to be discreet about it. What makes you think that I'll have better luck than you?"

"Like you said, you have your sources."

At that moment, he heard another voice quietly speaking to her, sounding vaguely familiar

"I'm sorry, Bill, but my friend tells me that the wire taps may start up again at any moment, so I have to go now."

"All right. But I want to make one thing clear. When I said that I missed you, I meant it."

"I did too."

He stubbed out his cigarette. "Goodbye, and good hunting."

88888

When the line went dead, Laura turned to her friend.

"Thank you, Mr. Gaeta, for your help. I hope that I don't get you into trouble for this."

"No worries about that" replied the President's aide. "Baltar's too busy rutting about at this time of night to give a shit."

"Good. Could you do me another favor? See if you could dredge up some rumors or other information regarding Lee Adama and Kara Thrace?"

"Of course, anytime."