New Life, New Caprica ch 3
Ch 3: A Couple's Vow
The nighttime on New Caprica was all encompassing, the little village a star in the deepest reaches of space. Close to the edge of the village, a new tent had been erected, two smaller tents forming a larger home with merely an hour's skillful sewing.
Laura Roslin sat near the fire in the center of her new home. On the cot behind her, her husband-to-be slept, his deep snores giving her cause to smile. She'd soon be badgering him about that on a daily basis.
Laura sighed at the last two words. Happy as she was that he was coming down, with Saul offering to take a long few months with the Fleet, it pained her somewhat to see him separated from his dear ship. And, of course, her unease about their safety was cause to fret.
"You're doing it again."
Laura jumped, turning around to see that Bill had woken and was smirking at her.
"Doing what?"
"Overthinking. There is danger everywhere, Laura. And if it happens, I'd rather be there with you."
"Bill..."
"Laura, please sleep. Your immune system still isn't as strong as it once was. Get in here."
"Is that an order, Admiral?" She teased, feeling the dark thoughts drift away.
"You know it."
She laughed and got up, slipping into bed next to him and immediately feeling warmer than she'd been even with the strength of the flames near her in the hearth.
THREE DAYS LATER
"Oh my goodness...ladies I'm speechless."
Kara, Dee, Cally, and Tori all shared proud grins as they held up their handiwork. The silk of the dress shone in the light streaming through the fire vent in the ceiling and the intricate crochet of finely spun threads that lay over it in light lavender wove around the waist. Two tabards hung across the chest and wrapped around the waist in pure white, offsetting the cream color of the dress underneath. Laura could not believe her eyes.
"How did you ever find the material? And who can crochet?"
"We asked around. Few old grannies had some with them. They were happy to give us some material when we told them who it was for. And Dee can."
Dee blushed scarlet at the last of Cally's words, smiling softly and looking away.
"Starbuck helped...she designed it."
Laura blinked at the Viper pilot, "you design?"
"Not too far from painting..."Kara said, also turning a bit red.
They helped Laura into it and for the first time, standing in front of Kara's mirror, she felt like herself. It helped that the dress hugged her breasts, waist, and hips in all the right ways.
Dee turned to a box beside the tent's cot, pulling out something in a draw string bag and returning to where Laura stood, trying to find any bit of the President she had been in the soft, lovely woman staring back at her. There were her eyes, still sharp and powerful, but she noticed her long lashes for the first time in ages. Her face still had too many angles, but these were smoothed by the peaceful expression and lack of stress. She was Laura Estella Roslin once again, a woman she had long ago resigned to the days before her father and sisters were killed, someone who had never really come to be out of the child. She started when Dee and Cally moved to touch her hair, hands moving away and leaving small little pearls pinned to her long, wild hair.
"Got these from Ellen. Good thing she's a bit vain or she'd never of taken them." Kara quiped, coming to add a necklace to the ensemble.
"Made from Heart, Made from History, Made from Luck." Dee said, pointing to the dress, the necklace, and the pearls. She was quoting an old Aerilon phrase that tied together the love of friends and family, the importance of a past and culture, and the quirks of life.
"This was a necklace my father gave me. Its the sign of Delphi, the tripod the priestesses used to sit on to gain their secrets."
"Thank you, Kara." Laura said sincerely, knowing how close Mr. Thrace had been with his little girl," and someone remind me to thank Ellen. These are gorgeous."
"We about time, ladies?" Came a man's voice from outside. Sam Anders poked his head in and smiled broadly at the four of them, the others having already dressed in their only fancy clothes.
"You look lovely." He added to Laura. She smiled at him, suddenly nervous as the women around her nodded and began adjusting their own hair and clothes.
She was getting married. It really hadn't hit her until then. She was getting married to Bill, she was gaining two children and a name known throughout the Fleet. Her throat constricted and she began to shake slightly.
A warm hand slipped in hers. Laura looked up to see Kara smiling softly at her. She returned it, her nerves beginning to settle.
"Lets get you married, Laura."
"Lets." She replied.
Kara led her outside the tent, where they found none other than Jack Cottle waiting in his dress grays. He took her arm in his and the two began the walk down to the square.
"Here we go." Cottle said softly, startling her out of her haze.
Before them sat nearly all the crew of Galactica and some of the children Laura taught. Her nerves returned in full force as she looked over the crowd and up to where the priestess stood. Bill was on the woman's right with Saul, both in dress grays like Cottle.
He looked like something out of a dream. Younger, even more handsome than she'd ever thought before, face smoother and eyes deep blue in the sunlight. And he wanted to marry her. Wanted to be her husband even though there was no guarantee of her cancer staying away forever; same for the Cylons.
She reached out as soon as Cottle stopped moving, grasping Bill's arm as he pulled her up close. Beside him, Saul also looked younger, and happy as she had never seen him. Her eyes returned to Bill, though, and remained there even as Cottle moved away and the priestess began to speak.
"We stand here today for a momentous occurrence." She intoned, eyes sweeping across the crowd.
"Only a few years ago, the worlds as we knew them ended. And yet among the survivors two people fell in love and still brought us away from danger and gave us hope. For so long they have led us with little thought of themselves. But now we will see them joined as husband and wife, our blessing and thanks our greatest gift to their new lives together. Speak your vows, Laura Estella Roslin."
Laura took a shaky breath, fighting the sudden bout of giggles that threatened to spill into the air. She turned to Bill, her planned vow flying away as she took in the man she was giving the rest of her uncertain life to.
"When I set foot aboard Galactica, I had given up on myself, on my future. There was no fight in me. And then," she smirked at him," then I met the most stubborn man in the twelve colonies. I fought with him on nearly everything, and had to battle for respect from him. And it made me live. You, Bill, made me forget I was ill and reminded me that I was stronger than any illness.
Somewhere between those early days and our return from Kobol I fell in love with you. And now I give my days, every single one of them, to you as my husband."
She faltered, squeezing his hands in hers. The words hung in the air, full of every emotion she'd denied herself.
"And you, William Arthur Adama."
Bill cleared his throat, looking at her as if memorizing everything about her in one look.
"I cannot think of anything that sums up these past few years any better. But I've never thanked you for loving me, even though you saved me by doing so. You did more than I could have believed: I am alive because you convinced me to run, this Fleet is alive, my son is once again happy to have me for a father, and the daughter I never had believes in herself again. Thanks to you. You saved my life and my heart. So I give my days, every day, to you as my wife."
Her raised a hand to her cheek gently, heart soaring with the noise of contentment that it elicited in the back of her throat. Laura could only smile, eyes shimmering, as he removed the gold band from his finger and slid a smaller one onto hers. She in turn took a ring from the smiling priestess and replaced his old band with it. They were married.
"Let none here challenge this joy; Let no enemy mar this day, this great happiness. Let Athena, level-headed and wise, give her grace to this union. Let Eros support their hearts. And at the end of their days, let Persephone welcome them to Elysium, honored and loved. So say we all."
"So say we all," he murmured as the crowd joined in, and lent forward to kiss his wife.