Colonial One: 0200 hrs

Laura was dreaming. She knew it. She had enough experience as of late with dreams and visions to know the difference between a dreamstate and real life. In the dream she was back on Caprica. It was night and she was in a bedroom. It wasn't one she had ever seen before, but she was warm and safe and was in the sleeping arms of someone she knew cared for her deeply.

Though she knew it was a dream it felt so very real. She thought about the power of the mind's imagination as she realized she could almost smell Bill's aftershave on the blankets tucked around them. Letting her dream's eye wander around the darkened room she saw in the nearest corner a white bassinet tucked in the shadows. She watched the moonlight from the window pour in ever so slightly illuminating it. In an instant she felt nothing but joy. She knew

that she wasn't really there and yet she couldn't help but be happy in the moment. She was home safe on Caprica on a soft bed in Bill's strong arms and their child was sleeping close by. She let herself take in the sight and feelings, almost forgetting for a moment that it was only a vivid image in her mind. How lovely this would have been, she thought to herself, in another time, another place. She felt herself smile and her heart swell. Just as she felt herself becoming lost in

the sweet dream she heard a noise from the corner.

Her eyes went to the still bassinet. Sounds of a baby's cry came from the little cradle; softly at first and then louder and more persistent in her ears. She froze, not moving from Bill's embrace and suddenly she was consumed with a crushing sense of anxiety.

'I won't go over there', she thought to herself. 'I can't'.

The crying went on but she refused to walk over to the cradle and look inside. That was too much. What had been a pleasant dream, a nice visit into a life that

never was, had begun to rapidly turn into a source of sheer panic. She had to wake up. She couldn't listen to the sounds anymore and she certainly wasn't venturing near that crib. She tried to ignore the cries from the corner. She tried to will herself awake, to tell herself to get up and open her eyes, but the more she struggled the louder the cries became.

She felt Dream Bill sit up beside her.

"Laura, aren't you going to go pick up the baby?" he asked in a clear voice that should have been groggy from sleep had it not been a dream.

Laura was annoyed that Dream Bill had even spoken to her, distracting from her efforts of trying to wake up. More so she was annoyed by his question. She didn't have to answer him, she reminded herself. None of it was real and soon she would awaken.

"Laura," Dream Bill said more forcefully, leaning over her in the bed. "Laura, go get the baby. What's wrong with you?"

She could hear that he was getting angry with her. For a moment she considered telling him to frak off and go get the baby himself but she decided that she didn't want that to happen either.

"Laura!" He scolded her again. "Get up and get your child."

"I absolutely will not!" she surprised herself by yelling back at him all the while her eyes frozen to the source of the noise and wishing like hell that she would just wake up.

"Why the hell not!?" he yelled again.

"I'm not going over there, Bill. I won't," she refused.

Why couldn't she wake up? Maybe her alarm would go off soon. She prayed that it would.

"So you're just going to let our child cry all night?" Dream Bill said, through gritted teeth, the way real Bill so often did when he was supremely angry.

"I'm not going over there, Bill, because that child is not real," She shouted back at him.

"Are you out of your damn mind?!" Dream Bill shouted.

His stormy voice was now challenging the cries from the corner and Laura felt like she was about to lose her mind. Maybe she could pinch herself, she considered.

"Fine, Laura, if you won't pick up our child, then I will," he told her, swinging himself off the side of the bed and walking toward the sound of the cries.

"Bill Adama, don't you dare!" she warned.

She tried to get out of the bed to stop him, but in true dream fashion all of a sudden she couldn't seem to move to walk.

Her arms and legs felt like lead.

"Bill, don't! Just stop!" she cried out, but Dream Bill wasn't listening.

He walked over to the small cradle and leaned in.

Laura tried to close her eyes but found it was useless. Within her dream, eyes open or closed she could still see. With what seemed like all the strength she had, she pulled the blankets over her head like a scared child hiding from a monster in the closet.

"Now, now," she heard Bill say in a much more soothing tone, "Let's get you over to your mother."

Laura realized the cries had stopped and she felt Bill nearing the side of the bed.

"Bill Adama, I won't forgive you for this so you better just back off!" she yelled from beneath the blankets.

As she felt him lean over and pull the covers off of her she shot up and screamed, right into Tory Foster's frightened face.

"Good Gods! Madam President, are you alright?!" Tory shouted as she shot back a good foot away from Laura's bed.

"Oh my goodness, Tory!" Laura shouted, exasperated and out of breath.

"I didn't mean to frighten you," Tory said holding a hand against her heart.

"Well I didn't mean to frighten you either, but what the hell are you doing here?" Laura asked, still trying to catch her breath.

Tory turned on a dim light and walked back over to the bed.

"I'm sorry ma'am. I just came to check on you. The guard outside; he said he heard noises like you might be hurt or something. He was concerned so he called me. I know that you haven't been feeling well lately. I just wanted to make sure you were alright," her aide explained.

Laura sat up at the side of her bed as Tory went to fetch her a glass of water.

Tory handed the drink to her boss who took it gratefully.

"When I came in you seemed distressed, so I touched your shoulder to wake you and…"

"Oh," Laura winced and ran her hand over her face. Though it wasn't the first time one of her staff had witnessed her during a vision or dream this time carried a keen sense of embarrassment with it. "Well, I'm actually glad you did. I was having a bad dream and believe me I'm relieved to be awake," she admitted.

After another glass of water and about a dozen reassurances that she was alright Laura was able to get Tory to accept that she would be fine on her own for the rest of the night. The aide went back to her own quarters.

Finally alone, sitting up in her bed Laura recalled her dream from finish to start. She remembered the moment right before Tory woke her. The awful feeling of not being able to wake herself from a lucid nightmare; it felt like being trapped in a plastic bag. She ran both hands through her tousled and sweat dampened hair. She remembered the harsh angry sound of Bill's voice and then the heartbreaking sounds of a crying infant. Worst of all she remembered the terror she felt at the prospect of looking into the

face of a child who would never be. She shook her head, trying to force the memory away, but instead recalled the way the dream started off. The loving feeling, the joy and security she felt. The blue moonlit room and the three content souls tucked inside of it. If only it could have stopped there. In that moment within the dream she was actually happy. It has been years since she'd felt true happiness, but she'd known it within that dream for those few fleeting moments.

It was almost enough, she thought to herself, the tiny glimpse of joy. Almost.

If she could have that feeling, just for one night, she mused, she could live off of it for the rest of her life.

The rush of self hatred that usually accompanied such thoughts was noticeably less powerful and it was almost a strange relife not to feel the sense of rage that had been haunting her.

Even without the sense of anger Laura knew that she wouldn't sleep for the rest of that night, but in the time she spent awake she made some decisions. She would make arrangements with Cottle for the end of the week, but first she would go see Bill to let him know and while she was there she was going to ask him for a favor that she couldn't ask of anyone else.