Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica belongs to Ronald D. Moore and the Sci-Fi channel.

Chapter 2: Impossible

Bill scooped Laura up into his arms, not bothering to mask the shock on his face. Lee had seen her fall and dashed over to the scene. "Dad, what happened?"

Adama did not take his eyes from her. "I don't know. She threw up and passed out. I'm going to get her back to Galactica. I should never have brought her down here."

Lee walked with him as they headed back to a Raptor. "You know she would've argued if you hadn't."

"Doesn't make it any easier," the older man muttered as he felt the worry in the pit of his stomach. With Laura still unconscious in his arms, he glanced at the bench seat for a way to secure her, planning to fly back himself.

"Dad, why don't I fly you back? I know I'm not in the military anymore, but it would be faster than tracking down one of the others and that way you can sit with her in case she wakes up," Lee suggested.

Bill gave his son a half-smile. "Thank you."

He settled into the bench seat, keeping Laura on his lap. Please stay with me, he thought.

After the Raptor broke through the upper atmosphere, her eyelids fluttered open. "Bill. What's going on?" she asked.

"I'm glad you're awake," he told her with a relieved grin, the heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach beginning to dissipate.

She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to assess if she had been hurt. When she opened them again, she noticed the concern floating in his eyes. "I don't think anything's broken. What am I doing here, in your lap of all places, if nothing's broken? And who's flying?"

Her tenacity caused him to smile. With a few adjustments, she was sitting next to him. "You got sick and passed out. Lee noticed and offered to fly us back."

"So in other words no one else knows we've left the landing site?" she probed.

A sheepish expression appeared on his face. "I… was more concerned with getting you back to Galactica."

Her right hand found his left as she spoke. "As nice as it is to know where I stand with you, we can't let personal feelings let us forget necessary protocol. Saul is going to give you hell for-"

She stopped herself, having forgotten the last several hours for a moment. The normalcy of Saul teasing Bill had replaced the reality in her mind of him being a Cylon. "I'm sorry, Bill. I didn't mean to."

He pulled her into a hug. "Too much has happened the last few days to keep track. I'm just glad you're safe and off of that basestar."

"Me too. What are we going to tell them when we dock?" she mentioned.

"That we need to investigate further," he reminded.

Laura relaxed into his embrace. "In that case, why don't you have Lee inform someone down there of where we are so they don't waste their time on a search party for us?"

Bill smirked. "Yes, Madame President. Right away, Madame President."

She rolled her eyes at his antics. "Facetious."

"And we have our word of the day," he teased. Then he called to his son. "Lee, send a transmission to Helo and tell them that the president and myself are returning to Galactica."

"Yes, sir," Lee called back.

The Raptor docked a short while later. Extracting herself from him, she insisted that she would stand on her own. "I feel better, Bill. I still have an image to present to the public. How would it look for the admiral to be carrying the president around? Other people don't need to know about my health."

"Either that, or they'd suspect me of being a caveman and carrying you off to my quarters," he teased.

She chuckled lightly. "As amusing as that plan would be, I still have my dignity somewhere."

He smiled and offered her his arm. Lee reached for the door switch. "You two ready?" They both nodded and he opened the door.

The small crowd looked eagerly at their leaders for word of Earth, beginning to chatter off questions. Laura raised one of her hands. "I know you all want to know about Earth. I can tell you that no one else is going down until more reconnaissance has been gathered. Now if you will excuse us, the admiral and I need to discuss further exploration of the planet."

Adama and Roslin quickly left the crowd, making their way to Life Station. Dr. Cottle looked up with a start from his paperwork as they entered. "What's wrong now?"

"She got sick and passed out on the planet," Bill explained. Then he gave Cottle the samples of the dirt and the black liquid.

"I feel better though," she chimed in.

The doctor turned the dirt sample over in the vial. "This stuff looks cooked. What was it like down there?"

Adama looked around, then whispered, "Radioactive. Looked like it was nuked."

"That's a real shame. I was hoping we could eat something besides algae soon," Cottle stated.

"We all were. Instead we found something worse than New Caprica," Laura complained quietly.

Cottle glanced at the vials again, then shook his head, glaring at the two of them. "What were you thinking, bringing her down there? Who knows what sort of disease she might've picked up, with her immune system already being compromised by-"

"I'm aware of that, Doctor," Bill mentioned.

Laura cleared her throat. "I'm still here, by the way. And I can speak for myself. I told you, I feel better."

"You let me be the judge of that," Cottle grumbled. Then he called a nurse over. "I want a blood sample from both of you to check for radiation poisoning."

The nurse took the blood while Cottle placed the vials into equipment to have them analyzed. When he had taken the vials of blood from the nurse when she had finished, he looked at Laura. "I want you to get some X-rays. We'll make sure there's nothing else wrong with you."

She nodded. "That's fine."

After the X-rays, Bill and Laura waited in Cottle's office. "I'm sure I didn't break anything when I fell. Nothing hurts."

"How's your back?" Bill probed.

"Fine, it's really…" then she realized it: nothing hurt. She looked him straight in the eyes. "Bill, I don't hurt anywhere. I haven't felt like this in weeks, maybe months."

He studied her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Do you think you could've been exposed to something?"

She shook her head. At that moment, Cottle entered his office. "You two had better see this."

They stood, following him into the X-ray viewing room. Laura gasped. "It's not possible."

"No. I can't figure it out. I'm hoping your blood test will tell me more. Somehow, you're cancer-free again," Cottle informed her.

"That would explain why I feel better," she stated.

Cottle shook his head. "I need to run some tests. We need to determine if something you got into down there is fooling the X-ray machine, or even masking your symptoms. I want you here for the next couple of hours for observations."

"I can accept that," she responded. Then she looked over at Bill. "I think you should go to CIC and scan for more information on that planet."

He held one of her hands in his. "I want to know what's going on with you."

She glanced down at their hands and squeezed his. Then she faced him with a business-like expression. "Admiral, we have a situation that has little to do with me and a lot to do with the survival of several thousand people. You are going to walk out of Life Station and at the very least set out a plan for recon missions."

Sighing, he nodded. "I'll do my best, Madame President."

As Bill left the room, Cottle faced Laura. "You're either the luckiest woman in the universe, or you've been put here just to drive me crazy with mysteries I can't solve."

Laura smirked. "Maybe it's a little of both."

(My thanks to McGonagallFan for reviewing :D)