"I don't wanna ride in the car." Venus said indignantly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Neither do I," Laura said quietly "but it's not for that long."

"Why d'we have to visit Uncle Saul and Aunt Ellen?" Venus asked.

"Because they're daddy's friends and we owe it to him to be on our very best behavior." She said, giving her daughter a look of warning.

"I'd rather visit Aunt Kara and Uncle Lee."

"Venus, that's enough!" Laura said sternly. Although she agreed with her daughter on this particular subject, she was well aware Bill would not be pleased.

It wasn't that Laura didn't like Saul and Ellen, because despite their differences in the past she really had warmed up to them, it was that they were... tiring. Laura could never keep up with the amount of gossiping Ellen did and she especially couldn't handle all the drinking. She was never a big drinker and always felt left out being the only sober one. Although, being the only sober one had many advantages.

"Are you two ready?" Bill asked as he got into the driver's side. Earlier that morning he had insisted on driving and Laura had not argued one single bit. She much preferred riding shotgun.

"Yes," she said with a wide (and semi false) smile. As they pulled away from their home, Laura couldn't help but think about one of their more memorable visits with the Tighs.

"Laura, Bill, it's so good to see y-" Ellen stopped short when she noticed Laura's stomach. She wasn't aware of whether Bill had told Saul about her pregnancy or not, but then again Saul may not have told Ellen anyhow. Ellen stood frozen, openly staring at Laura's distended abdomen.

"Hello Ellen," Laura offered. Anything to stop her staring. Laura was only 5 months along and she already hated people looking at her, Bill of course being the only exception.

"H-hello. I apologize Laura, I just wasn't expecting..." she gestured towards Laura's stomach. Laura nodded and shot Bill a quick look. She already wanted to leave.

Dinner hadn't been much of an improvement. As Laura had expected, there had been quite a bit of drinking involved. Drinking that she was unable to participate in. Not even a little. She sighed, idly tapping her fingers on the table while Saul, Ellen, and Bill did their "catching up". She wished she had it in her to enjoy herself as much as Bill, but there were several things keeping her from doing so. It had been quite an exhausting trip to begin with, and the drive coupled with her pregnancy had been absolute hell on her back. She just wanted to get some rest. She decided it was time to call it night when Ellen made a comment about Laura "losing the baby weight". She knew deep down Ellen hadn't meant it as an insult, but she was not in the mood to indulge her at this point. She excused herself politely and made her way to the guest bedroom.

"I'm sleepy," Venus whined from the back seat.

"You can take a nap sweetheart," Laura said. They'd been driving for a good four hours, so Laura didn't blame her one bit.

"In the car?" She asked, scrunching up her nose. Bill chuckled.

"Yes, you can sleep in the car. You've done it before," Bill chimed in.

"I don't like it," she pouted. Laura twisted around to look at her and she was met with cloudy blue eyes staring back at her. Venus overall resembled Laura more, but she had Bill's eyes.

"There's nothing we can do right now. We're almost there honey." Laura said softly.

Venus yawned and leaned her head against the seat dramatically. Laura was strongly considering moving to the back seat in order to make her daughter more comfortable. She glanced behind her again to find Venus leaned up against the car door, eyes closed and looking as peaceful as ever. Leave it to her to fall for her daughter's act.

"She'll be fine, Laura."

"I know, I know." Laura smiled to herself. Bill knew Laura liked to worry about Venus. In fact, he did his fair share of worrying about her himself. Given everything they'd been through, they felt their protectiveness of their daughter was completely justifiable. Laura held back a sigh as they turned onto the road leading to Saul and Ellen's residence.

When settlement had taken place a good portion of the fleet had scattered in the same general area, but Saul and Ellen had gone a bit further than most. It had hardly effected their friendship in the long run. Laura and Bill paid several visits a year, as did Saul and Ellen. Laura had always been impressed with how quickly humanity had built itself back up after the settlement. If she didn't know any better she'd say it seemed as though the attacks never happened, but she did know better.

"Alright, we're here!" Bill exclaimed, causing Venus to stir awake. Laura repressed yet another sigh. It's going to be a long day.

Laura was sitting up in bed with a book in one hand, and her other resting across her belly. She was hoping to get some sleep, but couldn't seem to get comfortable due to her aching back and the noise coming from the dining room. She started slightly when the bedroom door opened and Bill entered.

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked sweetly.

"I'm fine. Just tired," she replied with an equal amount of sweetness. She didn't want him to get the impression that she was angry with him, because she wasn't. At all.

"How's your back?"

"Sore..." she trailed off. He seemed surprisingly sober now that they were alone.

Without saying anything more, Bill gently moved Laura so that he was positioned behind her and began massaging her back. She gave him little hums of approval and stretched when he hit the most tender spots.

"You seem much more... clear headed now?" She said it as a question. She didn't understand how he'd gotten it together so quickly.

"I wasn't really drunk. I only had one glass, then I poured the rest into Saul's glass when he wasn't looking," Bill smirked.

"Ah, that explains quite a bit. I hope you didn't give him too much." Laura joked, snuggling closer to him.

"I think in Saul's terms that was far from too much."

They both laughed at that. Laura took one of his hands and placed it over her stomach, re-positioning it to where she'd just felt their daughter move.

"She thinks you're funny too," Laura said warmly.

"Good. I do have a wonderful sense of humor after all."

Laura giggled again, feeling him move to plant a kiss on the back of her head.

Upon arriving at the Tigh's, Venus somehow managed to offend Ellen immediately. The second she saw her she exclaimed, "Uncle Ellen!"

Laura was completely unsure if it had been intentional or not, but she scolded her lightly for Ellen's benefit.

"I'm so sorry Ellen, I don't know why she said that," Laura confessed.

"Oh that's alright, children do tend to.. do things." Ellen said, then she pulled Laura into a hug. It was far less tense than Laura had expected it to be, for which she was quite relieved.

"Well come on in, let's get you all settled in so we can do some catching up," Ellen smiled and caught Laura by the arm as she headed off, whispering "we'll have some fun later."

Great. Fun.

To be continued...

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed and followed and such! I'm very glad people enjoyed this! To those who were wondering if I plan to continue, the answer is YES. I haven't decided exactly how long I'm going to continue, but it will hopefully have quite a few chapters. I'm almost done with finals week so that'll leave me with plenty of writing time!