CHAPTER 2

Laura was logging off her computer and slipping her feet back into her shoes when her intercom buzzed.

"Yes?" Laura said as she bent under her desk to retrieve her right shoe, which had somehow slid quite a bit out of reach of her foot. She sounded irritated and short. She was irritated but not at Billy. Clenching her teeth, she knelt down under the mahogany desk and inched her fingertips over to the fugitive shoe.

Billy sounded flustered and uncertain. "The President would like you to stop by his office before you go." Billy paused. "I think, Madame Secretary, that he meant immediately."

Of course he did.

Laura made an extra effort to sound pleasant. She liked Billy; he was everything that she had been once, before politics had gotten her into its murky clutches. No matter how noble your intentions were, there were games in the political arena that you just had to play. Laura had learned the hard way that there were certain compromises that were inescapable and that every promise had a price. Maybe it would be different for Billy. Laura hoped so.

"Thank you, Billy. I'll see to it."

Grabbing her purse, Laura stepped out of her office, her heels making a rhythmic tapping on the marble floor. She stopped at Billy's desk before proceeding to Richard's office and glanced at her watch.

"It's after five; it's Friday. Anything on that desk can wait until Monday," she told Billy. Her voice was soft – maternal. There was an empty water bottle on his desk. Laura picked it up and threw it away. It wasn't meant as a reproach; it was a nurturing gesture, the kind of thing that a mother would do entering the room of her son – straightening the clothes in his closet or smoothing the linen on his bed. But Billy hadn't yet figured out how to read the enigmatic Laura Roslin and his face fell. Clearly, his boss thought that he was a slob.

"Any plans for the weekend?" Laura asked cheerfully.

"Going to a hockey game tomorrow…with a few friends." After a long pause, Billy asked tentatively, "You?"

"Kara's in town. We have dinner plans tonight. She and Lee are getting married."

Billy beamed. "Congratulations!"

"Thank you. I'm happy for her. Lee's a brilliant lawyer and a good person and it's obvious that he loves her very much." Laura looked faraway for a moment, thoughtful. "I'm sorry, Billy, I'd better not keep the President waiting. But please don't wait for me. I mean it. You're only young once. Start your weekend immediately. That's an order." Her smile was sincere, contagious. Billy found himself reciprocating the gesture.

"All right. Goodnight, Madame Secretary."

"Goodnight, Billy. Thank you for all of your help today."

The President's assistant barely gave Laura a glance as she approached his desk. He had that undefinable quality that every leader looks for in an assistant, namely the ability to make himself completely inconspicuous. There was an unspoken understanding between them. This was not the first time that the President of the Twelve Colonies had invited the Secretary of Education into his office – alone and at an unusual hour. David Brenner, the President's long time Chief of Staff, gave the illusion that it was not even remotely out of the ordinary while they both knew that it was.

"He's expecting you; you can go right in."

Laura nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Brenner." Laura gave the door a polite knock even though Richard's Chief-of-Staff deemed it unnecessary. In the name of professionalism and propriety, she believed that it was necessary.

The President was signing a handful of memorandums that he hadn't had time to attend to earlier. He read every word of anything that passed in front of his desk, no matter how inconsequential. He didn't like summaries and debriefings, although they were necessary for some things. Richard Adar liked to be in control and the first prerequisite to power was being in the know. He was a man who liked being informed. The devil is in the details. Adar liked his little idioms almost as much as he liked the expensive Cassari wrist watch he wore or his 120 thread count suits.

"Come on in," Richard said in answer to her knock, without looking up from his paperwork. He did, however, look up as Laura walked toward his desk.

Besides Richard's taste in fine watches and costly suits, he prided himself on being surrounded by the best. He considered Laura Roslin, with her smooth voice and enticingly green eyes, to be the very best of the best. He could still perfectly recall the first time that he'd ever seen her, one of several piano soloists playing classical pieces at a restored Caprican mansion on the west side. She was never more beautiful, he mused, than when she sat down in front of the piano, hands gliding across the keys as she played shimmering scales and perfectly executed trills with an effortless grace that made even the most complicated music seem simple to execute. Besides being beautiful, she was smart, an articulate speaker who could sway people to her way of thinking, a quality that had been underdeveloped when he had met her but that had become even more pronounced with time and experience.

Their on-again, off-again affair would always be too brief, Richard thought now as he watched Laura moving toward him in her impeccably tailored navy blue suit. He had finally gotten her into bed after tragedy had struck her family, when her father and two younger sisters had been hit and killed by a drunk driver while Richard had been campaigning for the presidency. Understandably, she had been completely devastated by the loss. Before that, he had been pursuing her unsuccessfully for years. But she had mistaken his avid interest as a keen professional regard. For all of her intelligence, there was an innocence about her that mingled with her sophistication, and even after all of these years in politics – she was still an idealist at heart. It was part of what made her so irresistible to him. Laura had spoken to him on more than one occasion about how she felt that politics had jaded her, but what she didn't realize was that it really hadn't. She was more savvy, certainly, than she had been twelve years ago, but she was still highly principled. She was principled enough that she had abruptly ended their short-lived but very passionate affair because of Richard's marriage to Lillian, among other reasons that he didn't like to think about. He knew that if she hadn't been so broken up about the loss of her sisters and her father that the affair would likely have never taken place. He realized that he had probably taken advantage of her vulnerability. But Richard was too pragmatic to feel guilty about it. Maybe he had gotten the elusive Laura Roslin by default - but the end result was the same. He had enjoyed every stolen moment that they had spent together.

He wanted her back.

Richard rose as Laura walked toward him. "Forgive me for calling you in so late," he apologized, although he really wasn't sorry. He watched her fidget for a moment with her watch. Richard wondered if she had a date and he felt a potent stab of jealousy.

"Am I keeping you from something, Laura?" he asked kindly; he was the picture of concern.

"Kara's in town. We have dinner plans."

Richard smiled, not because Laura was getting to spend time with Kara, but because she didn't have a date. "Then I'll keep this brief. I know how little time you get to spend with Kara and how precious those moments are."

"Thank you."

"I just wanted to let you know that I let Phil Hawkinson go."

The comment startled Laura, which was exactly what Richard had wanted. He could see the unmasked surprise in her eyes.

"I wish that you would have come to me, Laura, when he was bothering you. I won't tolerate my staff behaving inappropriately." He stepped closer to her, just a fraction of an inch, careful to keep a respectful distance. He had to resist the urge to touch her. He remembered a time when she would have welcomed his touch, and he felt a pang of regret that now she would not.

"I took care of it," Laura insisted with a stubborn shake of her head.

Richard gave her a wistful smile. "Laura, I know how capable you are." He sighed as he knitted his features into an expression of singular distress. "You are very important to me and I just wanted to let you know that I would have taken any complaints that you made very seriously."

"I don't need you to protect me, Mr. President," Laura informed him coolly. "Given our history, there are already enough rumors that you've shown partiality toward –"

"I am partial to you. We've been through a lot together." His voice softened. "And you deserve every accolade that you've received – on your own merits. I understand why you ended things - us - and I would never ask you to compromise your integrity; your principles are admirable. I worry about you - I can't help it. Look," he added with a crack in his voice, "I don't want to make you late for Kara and I know how these after-hours meetings make you nervous. I just needed you to know that – " Richard looked at her with understated longing. "I have your best interests at heart. Shall I walk you out?"

Richard watched her closely. There was a rapid flutter of indecision that flickered across her eyes. Her expression told him exactly what he had wanted to know. She wasn't immune to him, after all. Even after all of this time, she still felt conflicted where he was concerned. He suppressed his satisfied smile. Maybe he'd left his scruples at the door a long time ago but he did care, genuinely, about Laura. Of course, he cared more about himself and always would - but that was beside the point. He wasn't above manipulating her to get her back; in his limited moral compass, it seemed like such a minor indiscretion. With his significant ego in tow, he was certain that he could make her happy. It wasn't as if he didn't care about her. If he played on her sensibilities a little bit here and there, was that so terrible?

"Thank you; I'll just see myself out," said Laura politely. "Enjoy your weekend, Mr. President."

It was only when her back was to him and she couldn't see his face that he allowed his gaze to linger.

Kara and Lee were seated across from Bill Adama at a table for four in a cozy little alcove all by themselves in what was otherwise a very crowded restaurant. Kara had been teasing Lee mercilessly all night that the only reason that they had gotten such a prime seating arrangement was because the hostess was so taken with Lee's "big baby blues." Gauzy lavender curtains adorned the entryway and there was even a fireplace with a warm fire crackling from across the table.

"It was high time I retire," Bill Adama admitted, nodding as Kara motioned toward his glass with the stem of the wine bottle to see whether or not he wanted a refill. He gave a gentle wave when she had filled the glass half way.

"You'll stay in Caprica?" inquired Kara.

"Yes. I'll be teaching a couple of flight mechanics classes at the academy. Not active duty, of course, but enough to keep me out of trouble. Mostly." There was mischief in his voice. "The decommission ceremony for my retirement will be on Galactica next week. You should come."

"I'd like that, sir," smiled Kara.

"Under the circumstances," Bill mused with a little gleam in his azure eyes, "I think that you can drop the 'sir.' I kind of think that 'Dad' has a nice ring to it, although be forewarned that you'll be subject to my fatherly advice."

Lee gave a pointed cough. "I'd stick to the sir if I were you and forgo the paternal meddling," Lee teased his fiancée.

"I never meddle, Kara. Why meddle when coercion is so much more effective?" he asked with a gruff grin as he tipped his wine glass back and took a long sip.

"Good luck with that, Dad," Lee told his father. "As you already know, Kara isn't easily coerced into anything."

"Damn straight," affirmed Kara. "A quality I get from my mother….who is never late," she added peering closely at her watch in the candlelight. Lee sensed her worry and brushed his hand reassuringly over hers.

"Traffic's terrible over here on a Friday," Lee reminded her. "And we did kind of spring this on her. I'm sure she'll be here soon. Never mind….here she comes." Lee suddenly spotted Laura as one of the waiters who had been obstructing his view moved aside.

"Oh, my goodness," I'm so sorry I'm late," apologized Laura Roslin as she approached the table in a flurry of cascading red hair in her elegant fuchsia dress. "The traffic was atrocious." Kara stood up and hugged her mother, whispering a heartfelt, "You look fabulous," in her ear. Laura whispered a quick and quiet, "So do you" as the women separated from their quick hug.

"Good to see you, Laura," Lee said warmly. He embraced her and kissed her cheek.

Bill Adama had stood up as soon as he had realized that Laura had arrived. His first, cursory impression of the woman was that she didn't have the shiny veneer that he had expected to find, given her status as a politician. She had an approachable, down-to-earth quality that was immediately appealing.

Kara tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and smiled exuberantly. "Mom, this is Admiral William Adama—Lee's dad. And this is my mother, Laura Roslin."

"Madame Secretary," Bill said formally as he extended his hand.

"Admiral," Laura smiled. She had a strong handshake, Bill reflected. Solid. Sincere. As soon as their fingers touched, the room seemed to come to a complete standstill. The mundane sounds of the room, snippets of conversation and the clang of silverware against plates, faded away. Laura and Bill ceased breathing for a heartbeat of a second. Two deep blue eyes met another pair of eyes —green-grey, vividly green, like the sea after a storm.

Bill released the breath that he had been holding. "We've met before," he said uncertainly.

"Have we?" Laura countered, just as tentatively. Lee and Kara exchanged an amused glance as they watched their parents' awkward exchange. "Please—just Laura," Laura added.

Bill nodded, his hand still clasping hers. It took him another moment to find his voice. "Bill."

Bill suddenly realized that he hadn't let go of the woman's hand and felt like a colossal idiot. Great first impression, Bill. What in the world had just come over him? Of course he had never seen her before. What an utterly stupid thing to say! He relinquished his grip on her hand and tried to recover a bit of his gentlemanly dignity as he waited politely for her to sit down. Kara had to cue her mother with an inconspicuous little tug on her dress. Without missing a beat, Laura sat down gracefully with a tiny hum. Once the ladies were both seated, Bill and Lee followed suit.

"What can I get you to drink, Laura?" offered Bill.

"A glass of Chardonnay. But you don't have to get up; we can wait until the waiter comes back."

"It's no trouble," replied Bill as he rose from the table and made his way over to the bar.

"I'm so glad you could make it tonight – and on such short notice," smiled Lee after his father had gotten up.

Laura smiled. "I wouldn't have missed this for the world," she assured her future son-in-law.