Thank you to Imperfect Being, AdamaGirl, ozzlover and the five guests for reviewing, you guys and your support are amazing! I'd also like to thank nexis44, and ramsesvienna for favourite/following.
Warning: This chapter contains very brief and mild child abuse, if that sort of thing upsets you or triggers you, please do not read.
Chapter rating: T
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
All mistakes are my own. I hope you enjoy :)
19th June
Laura stretched in her chair and looked out towards the garden, pressing a hand to her back, to try and relieve the ache which had formed. Since she was now a bit over five months pregnant, in order to ensure the house was ready for Bill and the boy's arrival later today, she had decided to work from home and enlist Sherman Cottle to help out at the bookstore.
Laura sighed when she heard the phone ringing, and ran a hand over her face before answering "hello, Laura speaking".
"Hi, I'm looking for Bill Adama" the voice on the other end replied.
"He's not in at the moment, this is his Fiancée, whom am I speaking to?" Laura asked slightly confused.
"Oh are you Laura Roslin? This is Amelia Johnson, I'm a receptionist at Caprica City Primary School and I was calling to enquire about the whereabouts of Leeland and Zakary Adama" Amelia told her.
"Yes that's me. Um the boy's mother should have dropped them off at school, Bill and I don't have custody until the afternoon" Laura replied.
"Yes, according to our records that is correct, however the boys haven't arrived for school, and we cannot seem to reach anyone at the number we have listed for their mother, Carolanne" Amelia explained.
"Um okay, well I'll go over to their house, and see what's going on" Laura told Amelia concerned, already moving to grab her keys and handbag.
Laura pulled into Carolanne's driveway and noticed the curtains were drawn and a car was still parked outside. Quickly hopping out of the car she walked to the front door and knocked loudly. The door opened slowly and Lee poked his head out, relieved when he realised it was Laura.
"Why aren't you at school Lee?" Laura asked confused following him inside.
"Sssh, Mommy's asleep on the couch, don't wake her up" Lee said grabbing her hand and moving towards the kitchen.
Laura looked over to find Carolanne passed out on the couch, bottles and glasses scattered all over the coffee table, and broken glass covering the floor next to the window facing the driveway.
"What's going on Lee?" she asked, hands on her hips.
"Mommy had a lot of adult juice last night, and was yelling a lot. Zak and I got scared, when she started throwing things, so we went up to my room and stayed there. She's mad that you and Daddy are having a baby and are going to get married" Lee told her, tears beginning to fall down his face.
"Oh buddy, come here" she said sitting down on one of the dining room chairs and sitting him on her lap, well as best as she could with her baby bump.
"Are you and Zak alright?" she asked, rubbing a hand up and down his back.
"Zak's up in his room, I told him to stay there while I came down stairs, but my arm hurts, it got cut last night when mommy was throwing things" he said holding up his left arm to show her.
Laura's eyes grew wide at the sight of the multiple cuts on his arm and she said "oh Lee, that must hurt a lot, we need to get that cleaned up".
Just as Laura was about to help Lee off her lap, the pair heard stumbling and then a bleary eyed Carolanne entered the kitchen.
"What are you doing here?" Carolanne asked glaring at Laura, her hair a mess and still reeking of alcohol.
"The school called me, because the boys never arrived at school this morning and they couldn't get a hold of anyone here" Laura replied calmly.
"So what, you just had to come here and save the day, while flaunting the fact you're pregnant and that huge rock Bill put on your finger" Carolanne screamed at her "I am doing just fine with the kids".
"I'm just trying to look out for the boys" Laura said, pulling a scared Lee into her side.
"It's okay, I've got it covered, come on Lee, I'll take you to school" she replied roughly grabbing Lee's arm and yanking him towards her.
"Mommy stop, you're hurting me" Lee said loudly, trying to pull out of her grasp.
"You do what I tell you, you hear me?" Carolanne yelled before slapping Lee across the face.
"Don't you dare hurt him" Laura said, as Lee began crying.
"Or what? You're just the tramp Bill's trying to replace me with" Carolanne screamed yanking Lee again.
Laura was about to reply when the trio heard "open up police". Carolanne sighed dramatically, before dragging Lee along with her to the front door.
"How can I help you officer's" she purred upon opening the door.
"Hi I'm Officer Brown and this is Officer Thomson. We got a call from one of your neighbours, who heard shouting coming from your house, may we come in please" one of the officer's said noticing the bottles and broken glass scattered around the living room.
"Who are you ma'am?" Officer Thomson asked Laura once they entered the house.
"I'm the boy's father's fiancée. I got a call from their school this morning, to say they hadn't arrived, and that they couldn't get a hold of their mother, so I came over to check the boys were okay" Laura explained, as a crying Lee ran over to her side.
"Why aren't the boys in school ma'am?" Officer Brown asked Carolanne.
"I slept in okay, so sue me, it's not a big deal, their fine" Carolanne replied loudly, "I certainly didn't need her coming over and interfering".
"How did the little boy's arm get cut, and why's there a hand print mark on his face?" Officer Brown questioned further.
"I don't know, he's a clumsy boy, always hurting himself" Carolanne replied trying to mislead the officers.
"Are you alright little man, did your Mommy hit you?" Officer Thomson asked Lee, not believing Carolanne's explanation.
"Yes" he replied sobbing into Laura's side.
"Okay, ma'am you're under arrest for the simple assault of a minor" Officer Brown told Carolanne, grabbing her arms and trying to bring them behind her back.
"What, hey, you can't do that" Carolanne yelled trying to pull her arms away and kick at the officer.
"Ma'am do not resist, it will only make things worse for you" Officer Brown told her, as Officer Thomson came to assist in her arrest.
"There are two boys?" Officer Thomson asked Laura.
"Yes, Zak is upstairs in his room" Laura explained.
"Okay, and where is their father?" Officer Thomson asked.
"He works for the fleet, but he's due back on shore in two hours. Their grandparents also have guardianship" Laura replied hugging Lee to her side, and running her fingers through his hair soothingly.
"Okay ma'am I suggest you call the grandparent's and take the boys to the hospital, to get them checked out. We'll have to take Ms Adama down to the station and call in child services" Officer Thomson told her, leading Carolanne out the front door.
"Come on buddy" Laura said leading Lee towards the stairs "let's go get your brother and pack you stuff, then we'll go get your arm looked at".
"Okay" Lee replied still crying and clutching onto Laura's hand, as they walked up the stairs. They found Zak hiding beside his bed. He burst into sobs upon seeing Laura and Lee, and ran into Laura's waiting arms.
"It's okay bub, we're going to make it all better" she told him, bringing both the boys onto the bed, and pulling them tight into her sides.
"How are they?" Bill asked, as he rushed into the Lee's hospital room, Joseph following closely behind.
"There okay now" Laura said from where she sat next to a sleeping Lee's bed, holding his hand, while Zak sat on her lap. Laura had met Evelyn at the emergency room, while Joseph went to pick Bill up from the base.
"We'll go get us all some lunch" Evelyn said, her and Joseph leaving the room, to give the family time to talk by themselves.
"Daddy" Zak said raising his arms towards his father.
"Hey bub" he replied lifting him up and sitting in the chair next to Laura "how are you?"
"Okay, but I was really scared before" Zak told him, snuggling into his father's arms.
"It's okay bub, I'm going to fix this and make sure you aren't scared anymore" he said kissing the top of Zak's head.
"They've checked them both over, cleaned the small pieces of glass out of Lee's arm, and dressed the wound. They're going to keep him for a couple more hours though, so they can ensure they wound is clean and give him some antibiotics to stop the infection that had started" she told him running a hand through Lee's hair.
"How are you doing?" Bill asked running a hand over her stomach.
"Alright, they're asleep now. It was just hard seeing the boys so upset" she said resting her head on his shoulder.
"I know, I can't thank you enough though for taking care of them, and making sure they were safe" he said kissing his forehead.
"You don't have to thank me Bill, I love these boys, and would do anything to keep them safe" she replied lifting her head to connect their lips together in a sweet kiss.
"I love you" he said wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "I called my lawyer on the way to the hospital and he wants to meet with us tomorrow, to discuss how we want to proceed".
"Okay that sounds good. I think together we should file for full custody" she told him, looking him directly in the eye.
"Are you sure?" he asked her, knowing it was a big decision to be legally responsible for the boys.
"Absolutely, if anything goes wrong, I want to have the same legal rights to help them, as I would for our child" she said rubbing a hand over her swollen stomach.
"Okay, I was going to tell you about this later, but I guess we should talk about it now. I've told you about the ongoing issues I've been having with the signal officer?"
"Yes, every time you're on shore leave" she replied chuckling slightly.
"Well after my 1000th landing yesterday, I got offered a position as the head of viper strategy/management and training for the Colonial Fleet. It would mean I'd be based in Caprica City, and would oversee all training, and work on improvements to the program plus our combat strategies. They also said they would promote me to Colonel, if I took the position" Bill told her.
"Do you want the position? I don't want you to take it, just because you feel like you need to" she asked earnestly.
"Yes I do. I love flying and I rarely get to do it these day in my current position, I'd like to be involved in making sure our nuggets are properly trained and flying to their best ability. Plus I missed so much of Lee and Zak's first few years, because I was away and I don't want to miss any more time with all three of our children" he said placing a hand atop her stomach.
At 3pm Lee was discharged and the family headed home, exhausted after the ordeal they had been through.
"Up you come" Bill said lifting Lee and then Zak up onto his and Laura's bed. Zak and Lee snuggled under the blankets in the middle of the bed, with Laura and Bill either side of them.
"How are you feeling now boys?" Laura asked
"Better now, I like being here" Lee said resting his head on Laura's shoulder and a hand on her stomach, something he'd taken to doing in the last couple of months.
"Good, me too" Zak replied.
"I'm glad you boys do" Bill said pulling Zak into his side and adding "Laura and I are going to see if you can be here with us a lot more often".
"I'd like that" Lee said, before his eyes grew wide at the feel of a kick against his hand and he asked "what was that?"
"That was the baby" Laura said "they can hear your voices now".
"Wow that's so cool" Lee said getting up on his knees to look at her stomach closely.
"I want to feel" Zak said getting up and moving next to Lee, placing his hands on Laura's stomach.
Laura moved her head to the side so she was looking at Bill and reached a hand over. The couple smiled at each other and he kissed her hand gently.
"Based on the preliminary findings of Child Protective Services, I hereby grant William Adama, and in his absence Laura Roslin, full custody of Leeland and Zakary Adama, until such time that Child Protective Services concludes their investigation" the judge said banging her gavel, to signal the end of court proceedings.
I hope you liked it, this chapter needed to happen so they could get full custody. Please review :)