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Chapter 9: A Caval's Methods

Laura waited for hours. Or was it days? She had no idea, having soon figured out that the "window" was just a hole in an inner wall. The outer wall provided fake light that confused the people held in the many small detention rooms along the inner building. The light could be changed at any time, and with her frequent need to sleep, she often woke feeling only a few hours had gone by but finding the cell dark.

She dreamed of Bill when she was asleep. Their wedding day, their vows, and her new children keeping her sane despite every attempt by the Cylons to break her with disorientation..

His smile she practiced conjuring out of the darkness when her captors made it night. She knew she would need it when Caval showed up. It felt like three days before the deceivingly serene Cylon showed himself, but when he did, Laura immediately closed her eyes and imagined Bill's face on Kobol, the way he seemed so much softer, more handsome, than he had in the cold sterility that was Galactica's brig. His eyes...

"I see Boomer's attempts were futile. A pity, she almost begged to talk to you first, convince you with good words to simply speak the truth."

"She sort of nearly ruined my wedding day before I knew I would have one and, oh yes, almost drove the Fleet into anarchy. Forgive me for not wanting to listen to her." She spat, surprised she still had the strength to be so bold. Caval raised an eyebrow, clearly thinking along the same lines. He backed up slightly.

"Now, now, Mrs. Adama. There is no need for such, ah, angry words."

"What do you want with me?" Laura replied. It seemed foolish to look to her as a danger when the only powers she wielded were domestic (she had to smirk inwardly. Bill would heartily agree).

"You are a symbol, Laura. The people realize Baltar's incompetence as a leader and you, their holy prophet, warned them. Tom Zarek, their once-VP, refused to collaborate with our peaceful measures."

"AGGGGGGHH!!!"

Laura jumped, eyes widening in horror as she heard the scream. She knew Tom's voice anywhere.

"STOP! Leave him alone! Please!" She cried.

"Tell me where your husband is." Cavil said lightly.

"LAURA! DON'T!!!" Gods, how close were they if he could hear her and Cavil both? And did Tom know that Bill was on the planet with them? Laura shut her eyes. Regardless of the facts, she couldn't, wouldn't, tell this monster anything. Her they might beat, but Bill she feared would simply be executed.

"Laura, really. He's far in space, isn't he? Where did you order him to go? To Earth? Back to Kobol? WHERE?!"

Laura looked up at him calmly, aware of the rage she was going to incur for her love and loyalty. But she was going to make it clear that neither she nor Tom was going to give in. That he was here too gave her hope. Cavil thought she was spearheading an insurgency? Then that was what she was going to give him.

If she ever got out, that is.

"Go to Hades. And rot there."

The blow came so fast she didn't have time to even close her mouth after her words. Stars danced in her vision as the blackness faded away.

Bill's face rose out of the darkness at the edge of her vision and she pulled herself up defiantly, leaning up on her knees.

"You waste your time, Cavil," she spat," I will never betray the Fleet. I will never betray my people. And I will NEVER betray Bill. It's called love, not that you'd know it even if it bit you on the ass."

Cavil turned a ugly shade of red at her words, then smiled serenely at her.

"I see we're working on the wrong person." He clicked his fingers. The door behind him opened and Tom was shoved in, bleeding from a gash on his forehead. Cavil turned to him and the Dorals who held his arms behind his back. He smiled at her the best he could and winked.

Laura hid her shaky smile behind her curtain of hair. Relief flooded her that at least neither of them was alone in this.

"Now, Mr. Zarek. You can tell us how you've been planning these attacks from inside a prison cell, or the Admiral's lovely wife here will feel my...displeasure." For a moment, she caught a look of fear in Tom's eyes.

"The Admiral's lovely wife is going to airlock your ass once this is over." She growled. The words seem to galvanize Tom, who lifted his chin and glared at Cavil.

Cavil turned to her, bashing her shoulder with his fist. She bit her lip to keep from crying out as he took the back of his hand to her cheek. She could feel copper in her mouth as she gasped for air. The room began to spin.

"Tell..them nothing." She hissed to Tom in her most presidential voice,"nothing.."

She hit the ground and went slack, Tom's protesting cries in her ear.

Five days. Five days and no word.

His pilots had taken turns pacing outside the Detention Center in his stead for five long days. Each had demanded to know where Laura was, only to be met with a "she will be freed soon." He hated the word now.

In the bed behind him, Hera whimpered in her sleep and Bill thought painfully of Maya, killed in a Cylon retaliation two days after Laura's kidnapping. The Cylons called it a human attack on their peaceful plans. The humans called it putting Centurions in the middle of a horde of angry and oppressed people and not expecting them to chafe.

"Hush....Hera." He said softly, running his thumb over the child's temple. It seemed to soothe her back to a deep sleep. He knew she missed Maya and Laura, for she had slept little after Laura's kidnapping and, until now, hadn't slept at all since Maya's death. Only his continued presence by her side had kept the little girl asleep.

He reached over her and grabed a book off his usual pillow (for Hera had taken over Laura's) and shutting it. A book of fairy tales had someone been saved during the flight from the Colonies, and he'd taken to reading aloud to Hera to pass the time.

He set it aside on the bedside table, head in his hands.

Hera needed a book.

He needed a Laura.

"Hurry! Get her inside!"

He turned towards the entrance to the tent, recognizing Ellen's voice. She sounded close to tears.

A second later, he knew she wasn't close to tears. She was almost swimming in them. Her blonde hair hung in wet ringlets around her face and her clothes were soaked, mostly due to her raincoat being wrapped around a figure barely able to stand as Ellen guided them in.

His heart almost stopped. Putting a finger to his lips so Ellen wouldn't continue to speak loud enough to wake Hera, he moved forward and helped her close the tent flap.

"Laura?" He breathed. Ellen, one arm free thanks to Bill's assistance, pulled back the hood of the coat. Under it, Laura's hair hung down in her face, a nasty bruise on her right cheek. She was relatively dry, but silent and shivering all the same.

He looked to Ellen, "I've got her. Why don't you go get Cottle, and maybe some dry clothes. You can use my coat." He said. Ellen nodded and marched herself outside again, Bill's waterproof coat bundled in her arms. She shot one last look back at them and Bill thought, distractedly, that he'd never seen so much compassion in Ellen Tigh's eyes before.

Bill turned back to his wife, raising her chin with his hand. Her eyes were blank but for one little spark in them as she recognized him.

"Bill." She whispered, the voice startling him by how much it resembled the one she'd had just hours before her death the first time.

Then she collapsed in his arms.