A/N: Just a warning this chapter is written pretty weirdly, at least in my opinion. In the series we are around the episode "Epiphanies." All italicised portions are Laura's dreams.

~oOo~

"Did you know Bill was going to get shot?" Laura asks the woman in the cot, "You claim to know everything that has and will happen to this fleet. You knew this would happen!" She exclaims, "You knew the man I love may very well die and you did nothing to stop it!"

"That is not true!" Future Laura shoots back, "I did everything to protect him! I knew that Admiral Cain was going to die; I told him everything I knew about the operations aboard Pegasus. He got so mad and said he was going to stop it from happening. I told him he couldn't stop it and and that he would put himself in more danger. He wanted to save Admiral Cain."

"You know Bill, better than I do, I'd assume." Laura sits in the chair across from the cot, crossing her legs and resting her hands in her lap, "So why in the hell did you think you could tell him something like that and not expect him to try to stop it?!"

"I don't know!" Future Laura glares at the woman in front of her, "All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again. Helena Cain had to die. Nothing any of us could have done would have stopped that, but Bill…" She closes her eyes and covers her face with her hands, "This didn't happen before, everything is different now. How are you feeling? It's almost that time. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, I'm not sure exactly. Have you and Adama talked yet about the cylon child? That decision could very easily upturn your life if you aren't careful."

"What the frak does that mean?" Laura spits, "That child is a danger to the entire fleet. Bill and I talked about it; terminating her pregnancy is the only way to protect the rest of us."

"But what if sacrificing the child leads to your death?" Future Laura questions mysteriously, "You've been feeling rather tired lately, am I right? Your whole body feels heavy, it's causing you excruciating pain just to put on a shirt in the morning, isn't it? How long has it been since the attacks? You can't honestly convince me that you've stopped counting down the days you have left, you know you're running out of time."

"Who do you think you are?!" Laura seeths, bolting out of her chair and clasping her hand around Future Laura's throat, "Give me one good reason not to kill you right now."

"Because then you'll end up in the same position. It's a bit of a problem, isn't it, that in order for you to survive you have to accept that this is what will become of you? That you'll be dying in Life Station one minute and in CIC the next, being persecuted by the man you love for being a cylon? Imagine how difficult this is for me! It must be just as difficult for you! You want to die, don't you? Want to know if you'll wake up somewhere else in a new body, but you're paralyzed. Paralyzed by the idea that you could very possibly be human. That if you take your own life you won't ever wake up. Don't you think I know exactly how you're feeling? I have all of these memories, of Bill and I, of Earth, of New Caprica, all the wonderful and horrible things, I know it all. Maybe I am a cylon. Maybe I downloaded into this body with all of my old memories, or maybe I'm human. Maybe I was put here for some godsforsaken reason, just like you were. Maybe I'm here to keep all of the tragedies I experienced from happening again, even though it looks like all I've done is create more. Maybe we have to work together."

Laura lets go of her throat and sits back down, a look of pure disgust on her face, "Work together? Are you insane?"

"Are you?" Future Laura asks with a grin, "I am you after all."

"Why should I work with you? You've already gotten Bill shot."

"I can save Billy. I can protect this fleet better than you can. I can keep Saul from losing his eye, and Baltar from gaining the presidency. You just have to trust me."

"Easier said than done." Laura scoffs, "And you still haven't answered my question. Why should I trust you?"

"Would you like to hear a story?" Future Laura asks, earning her a cross glare from herself, "Alright, I'll take that as a yes." She nods, licking her lips before speaking again, "Within the next few days, you're going to meet death. It's over, it's done. Terminal illness, no cure, right? Well, that little cylon baby, she saves you. Baltar," she rolls her eyes, "finds a way to cure you using the blood. You dream of him, him and a cylon you saw before the fall. You dream of Richard, of the fight the two of you had when it finally came tumbling down. And you wake up to find Bill by your side, saying he wanted to visit an old friend. That is why you should trust me."

"I don't know any of that is true."

"Give it a few days then, you'll see." And without another word, Laura Roslin, President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol stormed out of the makeshift room in search of Bill.

~oOo~

There were some things Laura wished she'd never have to experience again, like sitting next to Bill in Life Station while he was hooked up to an oxygen tank and hanging onto life by a thread. She had prayed to the gods that after the first time, she'd never have to see something that horrific again, that she'd never have to feel the tightening in her chest every time he struggled to breathe.

Yet here she was, doing it all over again. It was bad. She knew by the look on Ishay's face when she had stormed into Life Station that it was anything but good. And she prayed, gods did she pray. Now more than ever, she wished Elosha was still there with her, to comfort her and read from the scriptures that they had both so often sought comfort in.

"Bill, can you hear me?" Laura whispers, reaching out to place her hand atop his, "'It's Laura."

Nothing.

"Bill, the fleet needs you. I need you." She sniffles, "Future Me, she said I only have a few days left, and I… I'm scared Bill. I don't want to lose you, or this, any of it. We're running for our lives from our murderous creations and I wouldn't trade it for the worlds. That's sick, isn't it?" She lets out a watery laugh, "Whatever time I have left, I want to spend it with you. I told her I loved you. I didn't even think, it just came out. I love you Bill, and I need you to wake up." She breathes out, leaning in and gently kissing his cheek, "Please."

A soft hum at the entrance to the curtain startles her and she turns around to find none other than Sherman Cottle, looking grumpy as ever, "Young Lady, what are you doing here?" He questions, lighting the cigarette that hung in his waiting lips, "He told me to make sure you didn't leave your quarters. Dammit Madam President, if you get me in trouble with him…"

"He spoke?" She asks hopefully, her eyes glimmering with tears, "When?"

"When they brought him in. It's a miracle he didn't talk himself to death." He states, causing Laura to let out a watery laugh, "And it was all about you too. 'Laura this, Laura that.'" He waves his cigarette in the air for emphasis, "I have never seen someone in such critical condition worrying about someone else."

"How bad is it?" She asks, her eyes never leaving Bill, "How long until he wakes up?"

"We have him sedated right now, but he'll be fine. In a hell of a lot of pain, but fine. The shot to his chest is what did most of the damage, reopening a wound that was hardly a year old. He was just grazed on the shoulder, thank gods, so we didn't have to reconstruct anything. Give him a few hours and he'll be awake again Little Lady." He comes to stand closer to Laura, reaching out and rubbing her shoulder comfortingly, "How are you feeling?" He asks, pretending as though he had no idea the grim date was swiftly approaching, "I can't imagine this has been easy on you."

"No, it hasn't been." She shakes her head and reaches up to wipe her nose, her other hand never leaving Bill's, "But I'm fine, thank you for checking."

He kneels down next to her and clears his throat in a futile attempt to make her look at him, "Are you prepared for everything that's going to happen Laura? I know this is frightening-"

"No, you don't know!" She exclaims, turning to look at him with eyes matching the intensity of the colonies the day of the fall, "You have no idea! Not only is the man I love shot and possibly dying again, so am I. And that other version of me, she said Baltar finds a way to save me! But she also said that Bill didn't get shot! So what if this time it's different? What if this time I die?!"

"She knows how to cure you?!" Cottle asks, standing up as quickly as his aging body allowed, "How?"

"Something about the baby's blood…" She mumbles, reaching up and running a hand through Bill's hair in an attempt to console herself.

"That's brilliant!" Cottle exclaims before rushing out of the room and towards Future Laura's quarters.

~oOo~

How had he not thought of this?! Rushing frantically through Life Station, Cottle can't believe he'd never tried to cure her. She was terminal after all, but in a universe full of humanoid-robots, he supposed anything was possible.

"Doctor Baltar, I need your help." Cottle explains over the telephone, "It's urgent just get here." He grumbles before hanging up and going to find Sharon Valerii.

~oOo~

He had to save her. There was no other option. She was much too important to the fleet (and to the Commander) not to save.

How has he not thought of that before? They were machines, of course they didn't have a blood type! And never once had he heard of a cylon contracting a terminal illness. So they must be immune?

This was the first (and only) time Jack Cottle would be grateful for Gaius Baltar. He could save her, and gods, did she need to be saved.

He cared for Laura, no matter how much he tried to hide that fact. He cared for her like a daughter, and in some ways he had accepted her as a surrogate for his Nasha, the daughter he had lost the day the apocalypse started. Maybe it was her personality that reminded him of Nasha, the way she bottled up her emotions and covered her fears with a strong façade until it became too much, the way she cried when she was certain no one was watching, and her fierce protectiveness for the ones she cared about.

And maybe that's why finding Laura on the floor, gasping for breath had kicked his paternal instincts into overdrive. It didn't matter that she was the President. She shared her soul with Nasha, and Jack Cottle refused to lose another daughter.

~oOo~

"B… Bill…" Laura manages to choke out despite the oxygen tube jammed into her nose, "Where… is Bill?" She rolls around her cot frantically despite the pain it was causing her, "Cottle!"

"Madam President!" Cottle exclaims, bursting through the curtain, "How are you feeling? Just relax, calm down. You've just been through a traumatic event, you need to rest."

"What happened… to me? Where... is Bill?"

"Gods, you're almost as bad as him." Cottle sigh and massages his temples, "The two of you, I swear. Both struggling through near-death experiences and only worrying about each other. You two are the kind of crap the prophecies are made of." He rolls his eyes, taking a long drag of his cigarette.

Laura looks at him begrudgingly, the light, ashy pallor to her skin making her appear even more frightening, "Oh, go frak yourself." She grumbles, "Please just answer my questions."

"That other you, she was right. I went and found Baltar, and when I came back to get you, you were laying on the floor nearly seizing, choking because you couldn't breathe. We got you into the operating room right away and Baltar was able to synthesise a cure from Valerii's cord blood. Six-and-a-half hours later and here we are Young Lady."

"H… Hours?" She questions weakly, "Bill, is he awake yet? And get me Billy, please get me Billy."

"Ishay, call Billy!" Cottle yells out, "Bill wasn't awake last time I checked on him."

"Let me see her!" A gruff, rocky voice calls out, "Gods dammit let me see the President!"

"I… I think he's awake. I'll be right back Madam President, my apologies." Cottle utters quickly before hurrying away.

~oOo~

He was just as worried for her as she was for him, that was quite something, wasn't it? They had gone from being mortal enemies to colleagues to in love? Oh how killer robots changed things (for the better in this case, ironic, isn't it?)

Somehow during all the commotion, Laura had managed to fall into a peaceful sleep. Maybe it was the drugs Cottle had given her, or the sound of Bill's voice calling for her. Either way, it didn't matter. They were both alive and well for the time being.

Laura was standing in the middle of Caprica city on a busy day, carelessly dragging her toes through the cool water of the fountain below. Someone caught her eye, a tall, attractive blonde woman and a man with scraggly brown hair walking together through the city's centre.

"Wheel me over there, dammit Cottle please!" Bill begged, his usually steady voice wavering unwontedly, "I need to see her."

Was that… Dr. Baltar? And the cylon Gina who also called herself Shelley Godfrey? What the frak? Was this real, had this happened, or was it her subconscious letting her see what she wanted to?

"Commander, she needs her space." Cottle persisted, knowing he was going to lose this battle, "She needs her rest."

"And so do I. But I won't rest until I see that she is okay, do you hear me?"

"Laura, you need to stop the strike. Talk to them, work with them." Then-President Richard Adar begged, leaning back against his desk, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, "Things are getting out of control."

"They're not wrong Richard." She crosses her arms over her chest much like he had and bladed her stance, her eyes narrowing sardonically, "I'm not going to negotiate with them. Our wages are far too low to sustain living on this planet. We're Caprican. We're the most highly educated of the colonies, and we're being paid less than the dirt eaters on Tauron. Look at it from our perspective."

"Please, just wait until she wakes up." Cottle begged

"If you don't take me to see her I will go over there myself, do you hear me?" He hissed, "Take me. Now."

"Commander, you are in no position to try and walk right now." Ishay tried to soothe him, "Wait just a little while longer, please."

"Get me a cigar and maybe we'll talk." He grumbled before letting out a throaty cough, "But I will see the President before the day is over."

"You have to do this Laura." Adar urged, "It's our only option."

"No." She threw him a steely glare, "It's your only option. So you can pocket the extra cubits. We're in Caprica City for gods' sakes, there's more than enough wealth to go around."

"Do it Laura." His jaw tensed and he gazed towards the ground, "I need you to do this."

"And what if I don't? What're you going to do?" She taps her foot on the ground impatiently as she awaits his response, "Throw me in prison?"

After what seemed like hours of complaining, Cottle finally agreed to wheel Bill's cot over next to Laura's. Bill craned his neck to observe her sleeping form, a small grunt escaping his lips due to the pain he was in. She was alright. Knowing that she was alive was worth the pain. With a sad smile he reaches out and covers her hand with his, "Laura, I'm here."

"Do it, or we're done." Adar threatened, "And you're fired."

"You're going to fire me?" She asks outraged, "For doing my job, for listening to the people?"

"I need a cabinet I can work with. This," he motions between the two of them, "it's not working."

"Oh, it was working just fine when you wanted someone other than Irene!" She hissed, "What happened to the Richard Adar that wanted to make the Colonies a better place?"

"What happened to the Laura Roslin that didn't question authority?"

Now more at ease, Bill continued to smoke his cigar while Laura slept. He knew she'd be pissed as hell to wake up and find him smoking around her, but he could care less. He needed something other than Cottle's damned drugs to calm him down.

He watches Laura's eyelids flicker slowly before they open, her emerald orbs worn and tired, "Bill…" She breathes out almost as if she's afraid he'll disappear, "Thank the gods you're alright. Why are you here?"

"Thank the gods you're alright too. I came to and they were putting you on a stretcher and moving you to surgery." He lets out a deep cough, "I just…" He glances away for a moment embarrassed, "I wanted to visit an old friend. What happened to you Laura?" He questions worriedly.

"I was supposed to die today Bill." She replies quietly, to which he rubs his thumb across her knuckles. She glances down at their hands and then smiles up at him, "But Future Me, she knew how Baltar synthesised the cure when it happened to her. I told Cottle and they were able to save me." She closes her eyes and leans back in the cot, letting out a deep breath, "If we had decided to terminate Sharon Valerii's pregnancy, I would have died."

"Well I guess it's a good thing we didn't then." He offers her the biggest smile he can muster, "Did I miss anything else?"

"Well let's see," she opens her eyes and smiles at him, using her 'schoolteacher voice' to fill him in on the situation, "Baltar interrupted and most likely ruined my press conference, the cylon that shot you disappeared off of Pegasus somehow, Saul declared martial law, Cottle complained about everything and…" she paused for a moment, "Future Me was right." Her voice trails off as she finishes the phrase, almost as if she were surprised it were true.

"What does that mean?" Bill asks confused, "What was she right about?"

"She said… that when I nearly died, I would dream about Baltar and this woman when I saw them back in Caprica City. She was a cylon. And she said I would dream about my fight with Adar. All of that happened, just as vividly as it was yesterday. And she told me… That when I woke up you'd say you wanted to visit an old friend. I don't know what to think any more." She sighed as the curtain was pulled back to reveal a very nervous Billy Keikeya.

"Madam President, Commander, I am so relieved that the two of you are alright." He speaks quickly, sitting down in the chair to Laura's left, "I came as fast as I could."

"Thank you Billy." She looked to him, her eyes filling with that motherly pride they so often held in his regard, "How is the Colonel doing?"

"Pissed… er… not very happy. My apologies Madam President. Between what happened to the Commander, trying to control the fleet, and what happened to you, he's been a little on edge."

"Good old Saul." Bill shakes his head reminiscently, "Some things never change."

"Hey, what is going on here?" Cottle bursts through the divider, "The President really shouldn't have any visitors, let alone two." He glares from the Commander to Billy, the latter looking mortified.

"I'm sorry Sir… I… I'll head back to Colonial One." He mumbles and stands up, heading for the curtain when Cottle speaks again.

"Sit your ass down son, you can stay. I'm just taking every chance I have to torment these two."

"Oh, of course Sir." Billy nods, pulling on his suit jacket as he sat down.

"Do not," he points to Laura, "under any circumstances let him," he wags a finger at Bill, "try to get out of that bed. You hear me?"

"Yes Sir." Laura nodded with a sly smile, "I'll make sure the Commander doesn't do anything stupid."

Bill shoots her a soft glare as Cottle leaves them, "That comment was unnecessary, Madam President." He poked, "I would never do something stupid."

"How did you end up with two more bulletholes then?" She questions with a quirked eyebrow.

"I… I'm gonna run down to the CIC and check on the Colonel." Billy interjects before quickly escaping the tense conversation.

"I was trying to do what was right." His face falls and Laura reaches up to caress his cheek.

"I know you were." She comforts him with a small smile, "You did the right thing Bill."

"Thank you. That means a lot Laura." He offers her a genuine smile, "Would you like to read?"

"How did you get a book?" She asks excitedly, her hand leaving his cheek so she could clap happily.

"I think Saul stopped by while I was still under. I've never seen this one before, I don't know where he got it from." He curiously turns the book over in his hands and squints.

"What is it called?" Laura questions, leaning closer to him to try and examine the dark blue novel.

"The Melancholy of Life." Bill reads aloud, "Where did he even find this?"

"Just read it." Laura instructs, more than a little eager to hear him read (which she secretly loved.)

"Okay." Bill lets out a deep breath before opening the cover and positioning his glasses on the bridge of his nose, "I open my eyes and take that first breath. That first breath of frigid, heavy Picon air burnt my lungs. I was alive. But it wasn't a life without her.'"