"Madam President, I can't tell you how good it is to see you right now."
Tory had been waiting impatiently at the shuttle bay of Colonial One ever since the Galactica had jumped in, joining the rest of the fleet that had left them behind nearly a week ago. The Vice-President had joined her only a few moments ago, having been told by one of his own aides that President Roslin and her security were arriving. Zarek had done an admirable job of keeping things together throughout the past week. As the other ships had begun to worry, Zarek had been a calm voice in the middle of everything, making twice-daily reports to the press to assuage rising anxieties. He had mentioned everything from the list of jump coordinates Galactica had provided them with to the fact that Admiral Adama had, after all, told them in a fleet-wide address that it might take a few days before the Galactica would be able to rejoin them.
As a result, the fleet wasn't nearly as panicked as it could have been, though there was profound relief greeting the return of Galactica.
"It's good to be back, thank you, Tory." The President offered her a wan smile, then turned to Zarek. "I trust all ships are still present and accounted for, Mister Vice-President?"
"Yes, ma'am." Zarek replied, smiling at her. "If you don't need me, I think I'll catch a ride back to the Astral Queen with that Raptor."
"Actually, I do need to speak with you immediately. Tory, would you give us a few minutes? Jack, why don't you go get some rest? You look pretty much exhausted. The Vice-President and I won't be long."
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you." Jack replied, though Tory was puzzled by the worried glance he shot at her. She looked back at the President, who was staring off at nothing and chewing on her lip. "I'll just see the Galactica pilots off then."
"Thank you." The President then turned to Tory and tried to smile. "I'll need to speak to you for a few minutes once I'm finished with him," gesturing to Zarek, who had crossed the bay to the door to wait for her.
"Is anything wrong?" Tory asked. She wasn't one to beat around the bush and she could see that something wasn't quite right with the President. Something about her eyes, Tory couldn't quite place it. Nor did she know exactly what, but there was something missing. Something vital that made Laura Roslin who she was.
"No." Not even Laura looked convinced by her response to Tory's question. "Shall we, Tom?"
The use of his given name gave Tom pause and he turned back to look sharply at her, coming towards him. "Lead the way, Laura."
"I suppose the first thing I should tell you," Laura remarked as she placed a glass of water in front of Tom, "is that you'll probably be having a number of sleepless nights for the next few weeks. I apologize for that, but I don't think it can be helped."
"What's going on?" Tom asked as she sat across from him at her desk, pouring herself a glass of water. He took a few gulps as she collected her thoughts.
A mistake, it turned out, as her next statement caused a spew of water to stream straight out of his mouth and all over the paperwork on the desk.
"Excuse me?!" he sputtered, jumping out of his chair. "You're resigning? What the hell is wrong with you, Laura?"
"Sit down, Tom." she directed, barely glancing at him over her glasses as she set about mopping up the water from the desks. "It'll hardly be amusing to anyone to watch the President of the Colonies arrested for kidnapping and led away in handcuffs. I think everyone remembers what happened the last time Admiral Adama sent marines over to my ship. At least if I'm no longer President, there won't be such an uproar in the fleet."
"You've lost me, Madam President." Tom sank into his chair slowly. What the frak had gone on in the past week?
"Do you remember last year, well before the elections, the Cylon pregnancy?" Laura asked. At his mute nod, she continued, "Lieutenant Valerii… Agathon, actually… gave birth to a half-human, half-Cylon baby girl. I suppose you also remember that the child saved my life."
"What does a dead baby have to do with you resigning?" Tom asked. He didn't mean to sound callous, but he was already nursing a pounding headache and he just wanted to get the story so he could start talking her out of this ridiculous course of action.
"The baby isn't dead. She's actually onboard Galactica right now with her parents." A small smile appeared on Laura's face and disappeared a mere breath later. When she spoke again, there was a hard edge to her voice. "I ordered Major Cottle to fake the child's death and Tory and I arranged a closed adoption. All of this was obviously done without Admiral Adama's knowledge or consent."
"Why not just have the baby killed outright?" Tom asked curiously. As much as he hated to admit it, that seemed to him the easiest, least messy, way out of that particular bad situation. The baby would never have been permitted to remain with its mother and if current information was still reliable, Tom had many doubts as to the character of the baby's father. He wasn't one to throw stones, but he could read between the lines with the best of them.
"I would never do that to a child." Laura replied, taking a sip of her water and rested her head against the headrest of her chair. Sighing deeply, she eyed him carefully. "Not even a Cylon child, Tom. She didn't ask to be born into this mess. And she saved my life."
"If she'd been allowed to remain with her parents, there's a good chance that baby wouldn't have lived anyway." Tom said. It might be brutal, it might be cruel, it might be hard to hear, but it was also unfortunately the gods' honest truth. He could think of about forty or fifty names off the top of his head of people who would be more than willing to visit the sins of the half-breed's mother on the child. Some of them were on Galactica and could have gotten to the baby very easily. "So you hid the child to protect her?"
"It hardly matters why I did it now, does it? I did it, and I got caught." Laura replied, and Tom cringed at the coldness in her tone. "I'm not terribly good at being a criminal, I guess."
He was so surprised he didn't even hear the snort escape his lips. Then he recalled her rueful reply to his question on New Caprica.
"Just need some practice, that's all." he remarked. "All right, so how did all this come out?"
"The woman we placed the baby with, Maya, she never returned from New Caprica. I had assumed Isis had been killed with her. But the Cylons found her alive. I don't even know if Maya was alive with her." Swallowing hard, Laura lay her hand on the table, touching the photograph of Maya. "The Cylons wouldn't have thought twice of killing her to get to the baby."
"Don't torture yourself." Tom advised. "So the Cylons got the baby. How did you find out about that?"
"The admiral told me." Laura replied.
"How did Admiral Adama find out?"
"One of the Cylons, another Valerii copy, the one we know as the young woman who shot the admiral-"
"Wait, I thought Lieutenant Agathon was the same model as her."
"Mr. Vice-President, I would advise you to not try to understand the Cylons' concept of individuality." Laura replied testily. "It's a headache under the best of circumstances. To return to the subject at hand, Lieutenant Agathon did not know whether to believe this other copy, so she went to the admiral, who came to me with his concerns."
"And you told him what you'd done." Tom replied, though it was hardly necessary to say it aloud. Anger began to simmer in him as he realized what must have happened after that. She wasn't resigning. She was being forced from power just like it had happened before. Evidently, Admiral Adama was a slow learner.
"Yes." Laura replied. "I'll announce my decision tomorrow afternoon, once I've had a chance to tell the staff. I hope you'll consider keeping most of them on. They're all valuable people."
"I won't have to worry about keeping your people on. You're not resigning." Tom replied firmly.
An ironic smile appeared upon the President's lips as she considered the words. Tom could see the irony of the situation himself. Before New Caprica, he would have jumped at the chance at the Presidency, even while he was Vice-President of the Colonies under Baltar. The miserable megalomaniac had never taken any of his suggestions and then had him thrown in jail when the Cylons hit. But Roslin had promised him that he would have a voice as her Vice-President and she had kept her word. It had shocked the hell out of him to discover that he was more than satisfied to just be a voice, rather than THE voice, as he had once so passionately wished to be.
"There was a time when you would have had me shot if it would get you the Presidency, Tom." she said softly, lacing her fingers together on the desk.
"Times change, Madam President." Tom replied, leaning forward. "I won't let you be brought down by this. Anyone else would have killed that baby outright and probably its mother along with it. You let Adama keep her, made sure she was treated as a human being most of the time, and I will not stand by and watch Adama tear you to shreds over this."