I get such a sick pleasure out of torturing Roslin and Adama. This take place sometime after Epiphanies.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, all belongs to Ron Moore and Sci-fi ect.
"What, in the name of Kobol, where you thinking?" Roslin scolded. She leaned over her desk with her hands spread and her shoulders tensed. She glared down on Admiral William Adama through her dark framed glasses with fire burning in the eyes behind them. Damn, Adama thought, she looks beautiful when she's angry. The old cliché caused him to inadvertently smile.
"Oh, I see, you think this is funny. I am surprised, shocked. You hit, or rather, violently assaulted, a subordinate officer. In front of D'anna Beirs no less."
Adama remained silent as he watched her draw back. She folded her arms across her chest. The tension remained in her shoulders. He knew her well enough to understand this would be a long lecture. Best to let her get it all out, he thought. He remained studying her from his comfortable chair in her office aboard the Colonial One.
"Do you know she is threatening to go public with the incident? Between military coups and accidental killings the public has seen quite enough of the military's brutality…but to have their leader, the symbol of the military within our fleet, behave so irrationally…I can't even fathom what you must have been thinking," Roslin chided.
She could be harsh and intimidating when she wanted to be. Adama often wondered how a woman who could come off as having so much heart could be so brutal and irrational herself.
"Are we done here," Adama finally asked. It seems his words surprised Roslin. Her mouth dropped open the slightest bit and her shoulders tensed even more, if that were possible.
"Just what am I supposed to tell Ms. Beirs?" Roslin responded her tone unrelenting.
"Tell her, it was a senior officer's disciplinary prerogative."
"You attacked him Bill," Roslin said, concern mixing with the anger in her voice, "He's not a cylon or a conspirator. From what Beirs told me you hadn't even met Petty Officer Dwight before today. I would like to know how you justify this as your prerogative."
Adama stood up and turned away from Roslin's visage. Whenever she was in a room she seemed to fill it with a mystical aura that Adama found himself susceptible to. He took one step. Then two. He turned. Her presence was calling his eyes and his senses back to her. She always seemed to be calling to him, whether or not she knew it.
With a deep sigh, Adama focused his eyes on hers. He returned her hard stare with an equally forceful one of his own.
"He said you were a sanctimonious whore who fraked her way to the presidency. He said you've taken to fraking me just like you fraked President Adar. He said the sooner you are assassinated the better off humanity will be."
Roslin not only drew back in shock at the words but the color drained from her face making her appear even more unworldly. Adama was glad she was so taken aback she couldn't form a response. He had hesitated even telling her but decided if he didn't D'anna Biers surely would.
"I felt inventive disciplinary action was necessary," Adama said quite proud of his defense. Let's see her respond to that, he thought.
"That's crap."
Adama was a little ruffled by her statement but he did not let it show. After all, he was a hardened military leader, he could hold his own with the best of them. He had to admit, however, Roslin certainly was the best.
"He made you mad so you attacked him," Roslin replied coolly.
Adama narrowed his eyes. This was a new game she was playing. If she wanted to change the rules then so be it. He was definitely game.
"You flatter yourself," he replied.
That shut her up pretty fast. A little two fast for Adama's liking. He was having fun dancing the line of flirtation and politics with her.
"The point is," Roslin continued after a brief moment, "D'anna saw it and now she's threatening to go public. Next time if you feel like getting inventive, don't do it in front of a nosy reporter." Roslin sat down in the chair behind her desk. Adama saw her shoulders relax a bit so he decided to press his luck.
"Where you?" Adama asked smoothly, not seeing the need to add 'fraking President Adar.'
Her head flipped up quickly and she tossed it to one side to get a clump of thick brownish-red hair out of her face. Her eyes narrowed.
"Was I what?"
Adama studied her expression for a long time. He knew that she knew exactly what he was taking about. He also knew that she knew that he knew she knew. Complicated. Just like their relationship. In the beginning it hadn't been like this. They had their disagreements, their struggles to understand each other but now there was something else in the way. Had he not been the Admiral and she not the president…
"Admiral?" Roslin gently prompted.
"Had I known he was right, I wouldn't have defended your honor," Adama said and left her office. Spite rose in him so quickly he didn't have time to slow it down, let alone stop it. He stormed down the corridor of the Colonial One.
Adama was jealous of a dead guy. That pissed him off. It also pissed him off to think of Laura Roslin as the other woman. Somehow in his mind she was above that. Adar was a moron. Roslin was a goddess. She deserved better, unless…Did she love him? It pissed him off to think that she did.
"Whoa, dad, where are you going?" Lee asked, stumbling backwards as Adama nearly ran him over. It pissed him off that Lee looked so innocent.
"Never trust a woman," Adama told his son and continued down the corridor on his rampage.
"Admiral," Adama heard from behind him in the corridor. It was Roslin's voice. He was astonished to turn and find her trailing behind him. He stopped merely because he was morbidly curious to see what she could possibly say to redeem her corrupted purity. Lee approached side by side with Roslin.
"Would you please come back to my office so we can discuss this," Roslin demanded. Her high and mighty tone only added one more item to his list of Things that Piss Me off Today.
"I have a shuttle to catch," he replied in a harsh ragged voice. She sighed and put her hand on his arm. That was not something he had expected.
"Stop being so stubborn," she said. Again more of an order than a request.
"What's going on?" Lee asked, and was ignored by both.
"There is nothing to discuss," he retorted with a command of his own.
"I beg to differ," she quickly responded.
"You alwaysdo," Adama shrugged.
"This is about Petty Officer Dwight isn't it," Lee interrupted. The voice of his son seemed to detour Roslin for a moment. Lee had the chance speak.
"With all do respect Madame President, I would have done the same thing had the Admiral not beat me to it. I was there. I heard what he said about you," Lee offered. The boy's dark eyes were stern but filled with honesty.
"What are you doing here Captain," Roslin asked coolly, not taking her own brown eyes off of Adama.
"Coming to tell you just that. Don't blame the Admiral. In my opinion he did what was needed," Lee said. Adama felt swelling pride replace some of the pissed-off-ness in his heart by his son's words.
In her typical way, Roslin nodded her head ever so slightly and drew her eyes quickly from Adama to Lee. The Admiral knew that meant she was about to come down on both of them, hard.
"Yes, I remember. The two of you are knights in shinning armor to the end. I haven't forgotten you wasted more than half of our fuel reserves trying to rescue Lt. Thrace. One life, or in this case, one reputation is not worth causing havoc within the fleet," Roslin rebuked them.
"But drug induced visions are," Adama snapped. He knew it was harsh, below the belt, but finding out about her affair with Adar crushed a part of him. He wanted to crush her back.
Even though Roslin stood perfectly still, she looked as if she might stagger backwards at any moment. A flash of embarrassment swept across her face and then she looked…well… pissed off.
"Let not bring up past mistakes," Adama suggested, "We've both made our share."
"I agree," Roslin began, "But let's include all past mistakes, shall we."
She caught his gaze then as if calling a truce. Adama knew if he agreed he would never get her to talk about what went on with Adar. He wanted to know. He had to know. It wasn't explainable or rational. It was a core need.
"First you come clean. I have to know who I'm dealing with," he replied.
Roslin's cheeks flushed for the briefest moment as she looked at Lee and then toward the ground. When she drew her eyes back up there was a solid wall of anger behind them.
"My personal life is not your business or the business of the fleet," Roslin hissed barely above a whisper as if trying to hide the conversation from Lee.
"It's not the business of the fleet, but it is my business," Adama replied sternly. He was sick of beating around the bush. It was time for all of them to come clean.
"I don't see how," Roslin said, smugly.
"Don't you." Adama narrowed his eyes at her. Again, he knew that she knew that he knew she knew what he was talking about. Complicated.
Roslin's soft features contorted in thought for a moment before she graced Adama with an answer. How many times had he seen that looked of deep contemplation on her face? How many times had the answers she'd come up with surprised him? The decision to run from the Cylons, the mission to Kobol the find earth, the suggested assassination of Admiral Cain. He wondered if this answer would carry with it the same resonance; the same mix of dread and disbelief and respect and admiration he come to expect from his encounters with her.
"Come clean about what? What is going on?" Lee asked filling the tense silence with his curiosity. Although Adama cared deeply for his son, sometimes the boy did not know when to shut up.
"You're father just discovered that I was having an affair with President Adar," Roslin simply stated. Adama visibly saw his son's mouth drop nearly to the carpeted floor of the Colonial One. Adama felt his own mouth do the same. He couldn't believe she would just blurt it out like that.
"An…an affair? You mean you where…" Lee sputtered out the words.
"Sleeping with him? Yes, I was," Roslin replied her tone no nonsense.
Adama could tell she was getting defensive by the way she had cut off all emotion. This was President Roslin they were dealing with, not one to reckon with irresponsibly. She plowed ahead determined to get through another dangerous mine field of words without flinching. His dead respect for her flickered alive the tiniest bit.
"But he was…" Lee sputtered again.
"…married." Adama finished for the boy. Roslin sent a sharp stare to Lee and then to Adama.
"He was, and his wife was a very nice woman. I met her on a number of occasions," Roslin said.
Adama could see she had a little more difficulty in addressing the subject than she was letting on. She lifted her chin less than half an inch but Adama knew it was her instinct when she felt trapped.
"Why?" Lee blurted. From the color in his cheeks Adama could tell his son had let that one slip. In his heart, however, Adama relished the fact that his son was clumsy enough to ask the question he dared not.
"Haven't you ever been lonely, Captain," Roslin asked, not the slightest bit of self pity in her voice.
"You are attractive. There are other men. Men that aren't married," Lee said his teeth clenched. Anger filled his voice.
Adama felt a pang of guilt then. His son should not have been in on this conversation. Adama knew Lee had a soft spot for the President. Like he did with most people he respected, Lee Adama had placed Laura Roslin on a pedestal far above the human capacity to reach. In Lee's mind, Adama knew, Roslin had just taken a violent plunge into the murky waters beneath that lofty throne.
"He was safe," Roslin replied mysteriously. Her response did nothing to ease the tight lines forming around Lee's mouth.
"What does that mean?" Adama asked.
"It means neither of us wanted more than what we had," she stated carefully. Adama lifted an eyebrow. He waited for her to elaborate. After a long sigh she finally did but not in the way he wanted.
"I haven't asked either of you to divulge the details of your personal lives and frankly I don't find it fair that you are asking me too," Roslin said placing a hand to her forehead. She had come down off her high horse a bit. Adama usually found her reasonable at this point in their discussions.
"Obviously, you both can see the political ramifications if this ever got out," she continued pacing slowly between them.
"Did you love him?" Adama questioned directly. Nothing else mattered really. Nothing but that.
Roslin snapped her head toward him. He could see her shock but she hide it quickly. This time it was he that called the truce with a single look. If she answered that one question, he would drop the subject. He could live with that, although, he knew Lee would have trouble digesting the information.
Silence grew thick in the air. Adama waited for her lips to utter one of two words. The first meant there was hope. A tiny barely visible glint of hope, but it was there. He could hold onto that hope harder than anything intangible save the memory of Zak. The second answer would cause him to seriously re-evaluate his relationship with Roslin. The second answer would cause him to question his own heart. Something William Adama had never done.
"I cared about him," she began, a little sadly. Adama felt a heavy sinking of his heart. Maybe brought on by the surgery to remove the Cylon bullets from his chest.
"But, no, I never loved him."
There it was. Hope. The one thing Laura Roslin gave without scruple.
"Lee, we have a shuttle to catch," Adama told his son. Lee seemed about to protest but Adama had already began pushing him down the hallway.
Adama maintained eye contact with Roslin for a few second before he turned. He had always believed that a single look could say a thousand words that the mind and heart weren't ready, able, or inclined to say. The looked he shared with Roslin then gave him more than just hope. It gave him knowledge. He knew that she knew that he knew she knew. Complicated, but, for now, that was good enough for him.
Hope you enjoyed:o)