Disclaimer: BSG (2003) and all the characters are property of Ron D. Moore. I merely borrowed his playthings to play a bit in his sandbox.
Enjoy! L
Chapter 2
Some time later, Bill had finally managed to get Sophie on the ground again and was carefully wiping away the traces of tears she had shed because she was scared of not being in control of her situation any longer. He knelt down in front of the little girl and took her shoulders. "Sophie, you know that what you did is dangerous. You could have fallen off that big tree. Next time I want you to wait until I'm with you, okay?" Two pairs of blue eyes locked and Sophie nodded. "Yes, grandpa. I'm sorry. But the squirrel… I wanted to catch it…" Bill stroked over her head. "I know honey, but squirrels are way better at climbing than we are – trees are where they live and hide from bigger animals. And humans." The girl simply nodded her understanding and he got up on his feet again. Sophie took his hand and just as they had started walking towards their abandoned bench, Bill saw that it was occupied now by a woman he knew rather well.
For a second, he was scared that she had seen what had happened and that he would have to listen to reprimands on how to take care of children and how to not put them in danger. But when they got closer, he realized that Laura was sitting there, her nose buried in the book she had started reading the night before. When she dived into literature, she would forget everything around her, so there was a good chance that she hadn't noticed them yet. He was still less than thrilled when he considered the idea that Laura had seen him climbing up a tree to help their granddaughter down again – Bill could only imagine how ridiculous he must have looked and was not keen on having his wife see him in such a state.
In order to prevent him from having to explain himself to Laura, he then leaned down to Sophie and whispered into her ear: "Sophie, can you promise me something?" The little girl looked at him with big eyes and whispered back "Yes, grandpa! What is it?" "Can you promise me that this story with the squirrel is gonna be our secret and that all we tell about today is that we were in the park on the swings and the slides and had a game of hide and seek? Can you do that for me, honey?" Sophie scrutinized her grandfather for a few seconds and then said with a firm voice: "Of course, grandpa! I promise!" The old man looked at his granddaughter with a tender smile on his face, took her hand in his and together they continued walking towards their meeting spot with Laura.
As they arrived at the bench, Sophie who was still sniffling a bit, quietly put both her hands on Laura's knees and peered at her grandmother. "Grandma!" Laura looked up from her book with a rather surprised look on her face and eyed them both with a smile on her face after she had recognised them. "Sophie! Bill! Where are you two coming from? I thought you wanted to wait for me here by the bench?" Bill leaned towards her, cupped her face with both hands and pressed a gentle kiss on her forehead before he explained: "Sorry, Laura – Sophie and I had so much fun over there near the swings that we almost forgot about the time."
Well, it wasn't entirely a lie, to be fair – they had had an amazingly fun time there, he had just left out a bit of crucial information about the last 15 minutes of their little adventure trip in the park. Laura tilted her head to one side, looked back and forth between the two of them, lingering on Sophie's still red eyes, and for one second, Bill thought he had not been convincing enough. After all, she knew him simply too well to fall for cheap lies. But for some reason, she didn't seem to want to press the matter and decided to not ask further. Instead, she put her bookmark between the pages she had just read, threw the book into her handbag and then softly stroked Sophie's hair who was still standing in front of her, eyeing her expectantly as if she was waiting for her to address her rather ruffled appearance. "Darling, are you okay? You look pretty tired!" Sophie scratched her nose and murmured, not looking at Laura: "We've been playing a lot, grandma! I guess I'm really tired…" "Well, then we better go and get you some ice cream and grandpa some coffee, right?" Sophie looked up to her grandmother again, this time obviously relieved. "Yes, ice cream! Let's go!"
Without batting an eyelid, Laura got up, handed Bill the bag they had forgotten there earlier and took Sophie's hand, intending to leave for the café. Bill, who still couldn't believe his luck, put an arm around Laura's waist, pulled her closer to him and whispered in her ear, nuzzling her neck: "It's so good to see you, honey. You have to tell me all about your day on our drive home, you look happy!" Laura, leaning over to him, softly brushing his cheek with her lips, whispered back: "And you have to tell me all about yours, Bill! Especially what made you climb up that tree without me being able to take a picture of you for Kara and Lee…" With a sweet smile on her face, she turned away from the shocked expression on his face, took his hand and they headed towards the café that was sitting on top of the hill in the park, Bill unable to figure out how to react to his wife teasing him like that.
- TBC -