Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica belongs to Ronald D. Moore and the Sci-Fi channel. Star Trek stuff belongs to Paramount Studios. The episode "The Chase " of TNG season 6 is also alluded to.
Chapter 19: Earth
In the month following the Quorum meeting, Jacqueline Laura Adama was born to Zack and Kara Adama. The family was called into Galatica's Life Station to meet the newest Adama. As the others surrounded the bed, Bill lingered by the curtain, unsure if he would be welcome.
Kara looked from her daughter to the faces of her guests. Her gaze stopped at Laura. "Where's the Old Man?"
Laura inclined her head back to the curtain. "He wasn't sure if he'd be welcome."
The blonde woman rolled her eyes. "Tell him to get his ass over here. He's part of the family too."
Hannah cleared her throat. "Language."
Kara snorted. "She's not old enough to understand anything we say yet."
Laura brought Bill into the little scene. He smiled at Kara and Zack. "Congratulations."
"Thank you, sir," Zack stated, still looking slightly pale from the whole experience.
Kara faced him. "Would you like to hold her?"
He hesitated, glancing at Laura first. She nodded and he turned back to Kara. "If you don't mind."
"I don't mind," she said, handing him the wrinkly pinkish bundle. "There is a catch though."
"Oh?" Adama commented, looking down at the sleeping baby in his arms.
"You're only allowed to hold her if you promise to treat her as your own granddaughter," Kara explained.
He looked back to Kara with a warm smile. "You can count on it."
Another month past before the first shift of 5,000 Colonials was headed to Earth for a visit. Laura, Bill, Hannah, and Charlotte watched their descent to Earth from the Starfleet shuttle's windows. As the blue-green clouded sphere became continents and countries, Adama clenched and unclenched his right hand.
Laura rested a hand on his forearm. "Are you alright?"
He sighed heavily, leaning closer to her. "I wish my people had found something like this. All they got was a wasteland. They deserved to find a real home."
She laced her fingers with his. "Maybe they have. When I was in your universe, they were looking for another planet. Maybe they've found it and it's even better than what we're about to see."
"When did you become such an optimist?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"When I met you," she replied, smiling.
"You mean the other 'Bill,'" he corrected.
She shook her head. "No, meeting you made me an optimist. You gave up everything to come here because two people asked you to, and you had no idea what to expect. I don't have the words to tell you how much having you here has helped me."
Bill rested a hand on top of hers. "You've helped me too."
The shuttle passed through the atmosphere, through the clouds, drifing down to a long island. When the shuttle landed, Laura unbuckled Charlotte and picked her up as they exited. The group of 5,000 had been divided into 50 and was assigned Starfleet tour guides.
A young frizzy-haired human woman greeted them. "Hello. I'm Cadet Nancy Wilson. Your tour begins here in Japan."
A woman in the back of the group wearing a blue dress raised her hand. "How many places will we be going?"
"This tour begins in Japan, then proceeds to Guam, Indonesia, Hawaii, California, New York, and England," Nancy explained.
Laura and Bill walked next to Nancy as they passed through the tree-lined path. "Excuse me, Cadet. I was wondering if this was part of your training," Laura inquired.
Nancy smiled. "Actually Madame President, it's part of our preparations for diplomatic situations."
"How do the people of Earth feel about finding other humans?" Bill inquired.
"We're not as shocked as you might think, Admiral, Madame President. Captain Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise discovered a common ancestor between ourselves and other Alpha Quadrant groups. This ancestor traveled through the galaxy leaving its genetic imprint, so it's not that big of a surprise to find other humans," Nancy replied.
She stopped walking in front of a gate. "We are about to enter the Kyoto Gosho Imperial Palace Garden. It is one of the historically preserved places that we will be visiting."
Bill and Laura noticed several plants that were unfamiliar to them. From the weaving trees to the small fluffy bushes with cascading foliage, the place was like nothing either had ever seen. "I didn't expect to find such a different environment here. It reminds me a little of Virgon, but I've never seen a plant like that before," Laura remarked, pointing to tall green bamboo stalks.
"And the architecture is completely different too. Look at that building over there. The edges of the roof are turned up," Bill pointed out.
Hannah walked over to them. "Jake said that Earth is full of diverse cultures with different languages."
"It's amazing how this contrasts to us, that on our twelve planets, most of the cultures were similar and we shared a language," Laura stated.
Bill walked over to a slow-moving stream, seeing long fish swimming in it. "I've never seen fish like those either. Look, there's a yellow one, and an orange one. That one's black. And look at the scales. They have flecks of different colors in them."
"I think those are Koi fish, and the tour guide just told those people over there not to pet them," Hannah mentioned.
The admiral walked over to the bridge over the stream. But instead of focusing on his surroundings, his thoughts stayed with Laura and Hannah. Charlotte squirmed in Laura's arms as she tried to look at everything. Laura hugged her closer while Hannah took pictures with a camera that Ezri had loaned her. I'm here with my family, but it still doesn't feel right. We live together, we work together, but something's not right. I want to give her something more than just what the rest of our people assume. There has to be a way to make this feel real.
Laura's voice drew him out of his reverie. "What's bothering you?"
His brow furrowed as he faced her. "What makes you think something's bothering me?"
"Well, here we are in this beautiful city, on Earth of all places, and you're staring off stoically into space," she pointed out. "Face it, I've learned how to read you; and I don't mean Bill Adama in general, but you in particular."
He sighed heavily, noticing that she had given the baby to Hannah for a while. "I want things to be right. I don't know if what I'm going to say makes any sense but the way things are isn't right. I feel like I'm just living with you."
"I think I understand. The humans here have something called 'renewing your vows.' It's sort of a mock-marriage ceremony where they say the same things said at their wedding and go through it with a reception following," Laura explained.
Bill smiled warmly. Leave it to her to find the solution. "If it's alright with you, I'd like to do that."
Laura smirked, her green eyes glittering. "Shouldn't you be phrasing that a little differently?"
He took both of her hands in his. "Laura, you and I have come so far. When we met, you reminded me of what I'd lost. But now you make me thing about what I've found. You gave me something back that I thought I'd lost."
"And what would that be?" she asked with a grin.
The answer was in his eyes, but he spoke the words anyway. "Hope. Laura, will you marry me?"
She squeezed his hands and kissed him softly. "Yes."
He dropped her hands to pull her into an embrace as she leaned in to kiss him again. A few minutes later, they heard Hannah clearing her throat. "You guys had better hurry up. The tour's moving on."
They laughed as they parted. As they rejoined the tour, his right hand held her left, fingers entwined.
(A/N: I know the chapter was short, but this story is almost done. Once again I'm sorry for the long wait. I've got an epilogue to go).
(My thanks to McGonagallFan, Mamabella, carolann, kywildcat, and Idellis65 for reviewing :D)