[A/N: Happy Easter! Two chapters in one week? Lucky you! 'Rapture' lacks many Laura or Bill scenes, so I had to improvise a little. Though 'Rapture' marks a new start in this fanfiction, as you guys will find in the next couple of chapters and I'm glad we've finally reached here. I've got to admit that I've grown rather attached to little Pandora, especially with the plotline I have planned!]
Rapture
Pandora could sense the tension in the room. Both between Bill and Laura, and the officers. "Disable launching warhead safety" Bill announced, looking at the younger officer as he gave his order. Laura turned her head away from the man, unable to believe that he was going to risk the members of the fleet on the surface - including Lee. What happened to the idea that they left no one behind? Reaching down, she rested her hand on the crown of Pandora's head, the small child resting her head down against her mother's leg, looking fearfully up at her father.
"Saul, please input your firing code" Bill spoke, his voice calm, slow and steady as he gave his next order. Laura shut her eyes for a short moment, praying to the Lords of Kobol that Bill knew what he was doing - even more so, that he knew the consequences. Would he really risk Lee and Kara's lives? As Saul handed over the key, Laura glanced down at her daughter, feeling Pandora's arms wrap in a deadlock around her leg. It seemed even Pandora knew what was going to occur could have deadly consequences. "Fire on my mark" Bill ordered, his voice monotonous as he looked towards the monitors. Laura's eyes widened then, her breathing becoming slower as her mind raced to the worst case scenario. How many of their people were down there? There was more than just Lee and Kara. Though, would Bill ever be able to forgive himself if he played a part in the death of another of his children?
"Sir, the radars are turning back" Gaeta announced, giving Laura a momentary sense of relief. "Not all of them" Bill observed, his eyes fixed on the monitors above. "All but one" Gaeta confirmed, turning around to face the Admiral and the President. Bill couldn't release a nuclear weapon on account of one cylon raptor?
Laura turned to face the man beside her, reaching out to touch the side of his elbow. The room filled with silence, each occupant of room anxious to hear the Admiral's next move."Safety on. Close outer doors" He ordered, resting his hands on the cold metal bar in front of him. Laura silently thanked the Lords of Kobol for the small mercy that had been gifted to them.
Laura pursed her lips as she watched the medics carry the lifeless body out of the pilot's private quarters. "Wait outside" Bill requested, looking at the two armed guards who accompanied the President, as the men left, Laura glanced towards the splash of blood that decorated the navy walls. "Sharon's downloading into another body onboard the cylon ship now, isn't she?" Laura asked, already knowing the answer. However, the man before her couldn't bring himself to look at her as she spoke. "She begged me" Helo admitted, attempting to keep his emotions at bay as he kept his eyes fixed on the door in front of him. Bill couldn't help but think he would have done the same in Helo's situation. If given half a chance to get Zak back, he would have taken it in a heart beat.
"Gods, if you...seen the look in her eyes..." Helo recalled, his mind flashing back to his wife's pleading eyes. "She has important information on her defenses" Bill interrupted the pilot, knowing it was best to treat the situation like any other. "Codes, procedures, the tactical situation down on the planets surface. The cylons have access to all of that as well" Bill listed off, knowing what a woman like Athena could be capable of with a vendetta against the fleet - in particular the President. "She won't betray us" Helo assured, his face contracting with anger. "You know that, it's why you gave her the uniform" He reminded them, the bridge of his nose tightening as he struggled to keep his cool. "She may not have a choice" Bill concluded, looking down at the younger man.
"She'll get Hera and she'll come back" Helo demanded, still unable to look at either the President or the Admiral. "That's rather a leap of faith you've made their captain. If it involved your family only, I would have said it was brave" Laura spoke, bringing the attention of the room to herself again, sounding like a teacher scolding her student for his misbehavior. "You've put the entire fleet in jeopardy, are you aware of that?" She asked, noticing the tears that were beginning to form in the corner of the man's eyes.
Helo stood from his seat, unable to hold his tongue. "If you hadn't lied and stolen our baby in the first place. We wouldn't be here at all" He admitted, just looking at the woman made his blood boil. Bill feared the man may say something that he would later regret.
"You surround Pandora with guards! Where were the guards when you stole my daughter? We can't get more than four feet beside your daughter, yet you could fake our daughter's death?" Helo argued, stepping towards the shorter petite woman as his anger began to boil over. Pandora and Hera were proof of the hierarchy in the fleet; with the President and Admiral sitting at the very top on their metaphorical thrones. No one other than the Admiral or the President's aides could get within hearing distance of the President's daughter, yet it had been seen as 'justifiable' for the President to fake his daughter's death and ship her off to another woman to raise. Where was the justice in that?
Bill reached out to touch the man's chest, stopping him from towering over the President. While he trusted Helo, there was no telling what the man could do when filled with wrath and hatred towards Laura. "We wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for you, Madame President" Helo concluded, glaring down at the older woman before he turned on his heel and headed to the other end of the room, his hands coming to rest on the back of his head. The tears began to spill over, slipping down his hard cheeks.
Laura stood in silence then, as though recalling her actions on the faithful day of Hera's birth. The child had saved her life, and what had she done? Taken Hera from her parents for the 'good of the fleet'. Though, she wasn't a mother then. If it had all happened again, her actions would have been different. She never would have taken Hera.
"I certainly played my part in bringing us to this moment and there is plenty of blame to throw around and I accept it, and now all of our lives are in the hands of Sharon Agathon, and all we can do is hope that your wife is worthy of the unconditional trust you place in her captain," Laura accepted her guilt and her role in the day's events, but Sharon could tell the cylons everything they needed to blow Galactica and the fleet out of the sky. "and you as well, Admiral" She turned to look from Helo to Bill, though she was greeted by another silence. Throwing a final glance at Bill, who stood with his back to her, Laura turned on her heel and headed out of the pilot's quarters.
It hadn't taken Bill long to figure out where Laura was. His quarters. Her second home. Shutting the hatch door behind him, he stepped into the dimly lit room, his eyes searching out the figure in the shadows. "I knew I'd find you here" Bill said, reaching out to flick on the light nearest to the sofa as Laura looked up at him. It was then he noticed something - or rather someone - was missing. "Where's Pandy?" He asked, shocked to not see the child who had become Laura's permanent shadow.
"Tori's bringing her down from daycare" Laura replied absent-mindedly, staring at the wall of photographs across from her, acting as though she was interested in them. Heading over to the coffee table, Bill lifted the glass bottle and poured the strong-smelling bourbon into his whiskey glass. The smell filling the room around them. "Can you blame them for how they reacted?" Bill wondered, clasping the half full glass of bourbon as he looked absent-mindedly into the liquid. Taking a sip, he allowed it to burn the back of his throat before he gazed up to study Laura as she walked across the room towards him.
"What would you have done - had the roles been reversed and Pandora was Hera?" Laura asked, her curiosity getting the better of her as she sat herself down on the sofa beside him. Bill sat in silence for a moment, allowing his mind to imagine the situation - if he had have been Helo, Laura as Athena and their Pandora as Hera. It was the foundations of his worse nightmares. He had lost Zac and came close to doing so with Lee on countless occasions - could he really go through that roller-coaster with Pandora? He doubted it.
His conclusion was a simple one. "I wouldn't have stopped until I found her, regardless of any man, woman or cylon that tried to stop me" Bill explained, trying to push the nightmare to the back of his mind as he slipped his arm around the woman's back, watching as she dropped her head against his shoulder. He could sense the fear running through Laura's bones as she crossed her arms and turned herself towards him.
Bringing his hand to rest on her shoulder, his fingers curled around her fire kissed hair in an attempt to comfort her. "Nothing is going to happen to our Pandora" He promised with a whisper, hoping for the first time, he was making a promise he could keep. "How can you be so sure?" She wondered, her heart pounding in her chest as she shut her eyes for a moment. Not even Bill's comforting embrace could lessen her fears.
"I have this horrible feeling, and I can't shift it at all. It's like oncoming storm" Laura confessed, remembering how that feeling had returned when the cylons had arrived in the meeting room. Mother's had a sixth sense when it came to protecting their children, and the way the three watched them was enough to heighten Laura's fears by ten folds.
Bill had made many false promises in his life. To love his wife for better or for worse and to protect the fleet against the cylons. Those were at least two of the false promises he had broken. "Whatever it is, I promise, I won't let any harm come to a single hair on her head" He said, nodding his head to acknowledge the promise he had made the President.
As though her ears had been burning, the hatch door opened cautiously, a small head appearing through it, examining the room slowly in search of its occupants. "Papa!" Pandora exclaimed, pushing the hatch door back fully as she darted into the room, running as fast as her short legs could carry her towards the pair of the sofa. "Speak of the devil" Bill joked, earning a charismatic smile from Laura as he held his arms open in a welcoming embrace as the child rushed towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck as he lifted her up onto his knee.
Pandora seemed perplexed by something. Reaching out, she took ahold of Bill's wrist and turned it around as though searching for something. "Your bracelet?" She asked, looking up at Bill with confusion masking her eyes. "Over beside the bunk" Bill answered, sitting back on the sofa as he pointed towards his night stand. Pandora leaned forward on her father's knee, almost falling off as she tried to spot the braided bracelet across the room. "I see it!" She proclaimed happily before settling back down against her father's chest, looking up amusingly at Laura.
Laura raised an eyebrow whenever the child yawned loudly, covering her mouth with her hand as her eyes closed slightly, her head coming to rest against Bill's chest. "I think someone's tired" The President beamed, getting a silent protest in the manner of a head shake from Pandora. "I'm not!" Laura mumbled, the rest of her speech coming out inaudible against the yawn the left her soft lips. The young girl buried her head against the soft material of her father's shirt, shutting her eyes as she did so. "You can stay here if you wish" Bill offered, turning to glance at Laura. After all, Pandora was half asleep as it was. Shaking her head softly, Laura sighed. "We haven't been on Colonial One as much, and the last thing we need is another set of rumors flying around the fleet" She revealed, earning a nod of acknowledgement from Bill. While he often played 'dumb' to the rumors running around, he was well aware of their existence; especially those regarding Pandora.
Standing up, Bill readjusted the child in his arms. His heart dropped when the phone rang. "It's okay, take the call. I'll carry Pandora back to the raptor" Laura said, reaching out for the child, who muttered and protested at being separated from the man. As Bill disappeared into his office to answer the shrilling ring of the wireless, Laura made her way towards the hatch door.
Colonial One seemed foreign to her now. It failed to hold the comfort and warmth that embraced her the moment she would step into Bill's quarters - it no longer felt like home. Pandora dragged her feet behind her as she headed through the compartments of Colonial One, pulling herself onto the leather coffee toned sofa as she crossed her arms and held her blanket close against her chest. It seemed Pandora no longer enjoyed Colonial One either.
"When can we go back to Galactica?" Pandora asked, bringing her legs up against her chest as she looked up at her mother with pleading eyes, seeming out of place in the Presidential Office of Colonial One. Though there was only so long that the President could spend away from Colonial One before rumors would start running around the fleet. Not that they weren't already. "In the morning" Laura revealed as she lowered herself down onto the plush leather seat behind her writing desk, her eyes remaining on the anxious child. "I wanna see, Papa!" The girl protested, her eyes coated with a blanket of tears as she buried her head down into her blanket.
Laura should have known this was going to happen. They had been spending too much time on Galactica, and according to Tori, it wasn't going unnoticed. "He's very busy, Pandy" She said, hoping to calm the child down. Pandora sniffled away her tears as she slipped off the high leather sofa, moving towards her mother's desk. "You go too?" Pandora muttered, looking on the brick of a breakdown as she looked up at her mother with anxious, fearful eyes. "I'm not going anywhere, you know that" She reminded the child, reaching out to stroke her thin chocolate-brown hair. Perhaps Laura wasn't the only one with a fear? Anytime either she or Bill left the girl, she would automatically fear the worst. Could she blame her? In a time where the cylons could shoot them out of the sky at any minute, and with Gaius frakking Baltar being alive to make matters even worse.
It was sometime later that Laura came to the conclusion that attempting to do paperwork with a child on her knee was not the best of ideas. Pandora had curled herself up into her right arm, restricting Laura's movement of her writing hand. Just as the woman gave up on her task, she could hear the steady rising and falling of Pandora's chest as her breathing leveled out. Leaning back in her chair, Laura took a moment of unusual silence to examine the child in her arms. Was her constant fear related to the cylons? The one and three models had looked at her as though she was a simple experiment. What would the cylons want with Pandora? Even if she was connected to the President and Admiral of the fleet, and by extension both the political system and the military...it still didn't explain the cylons reaction to the child.
Pushing the dreaded thoughts to the very back of her troublesome mind, Laura stood up from her chair, careful not to wake the sleeping child as she walked towards the cots in the next compartment of Colonial One, their makeshift private quarters. Placing the child gently down onto the cot, Laura could feel Pandora's grip on her arm tightening - even in her sleep - preventing the President from leaving her side. Sighing deeply, Laura bent down and slipped into the cot beside Pandora. At once the child relaxed in her sleep, her tense shoulders dropping as she instinctively turned towards her mother's side, allowing the woman to wrap her arms protectively around her.
Laura looked up as she heard footsteps behind the curtain, her worries disappeared through when a familiar figure stepped into the dimly lit room. "Pity Pandora wasn't awake" She admitted, hearing the light chuckle from their visitor as he dropped himself down on the chair next to their cot. "How is she?" Bill asked, leaning forward in his seat as he clasped his hands in front of him.
"I think she's missing Galactica already, she was asking to go and see you" Laura confessed, her head rested against the firm pillow as she looked up at the man, her lips turning up in a gentle smile. "I came to tell you that Athena's brought Hera back" Relief flooded over Laura at the news. Hera was safe. Hera was with her parents again - where she truly belonged. "I'd like to see her" Laura confessed, uncertain that her request would be fulfilled. After all, she had been responsible for Hera's separation from her parents - the last thing Helo and Athena wanted was her anywhere near their child. "I'll see what I can do" Bill agreed, nodding his head as he reached out to take the woman's hand that rested against her hip. "And there's something else..." Bill began, earning an uncertain look from Laura as raised her eyebrow, her fingers slipping through the man's larger ones as she anxiously waited for his next piece of news. "Baltar's in the brig" He announced, the room falling as silent as a graveyard.
It was Laura who broke the silence. "You best seal the airlocks, they might just come in useful" She admitted, her blood boiling at the very mention of the man's name. Bill moved forward on his seat, clasping the woman's smaller hands with both of his as he looked straight into her eyes. "Don't worry about Baltar tonight, just sleep - we'll deal with him and Hera in the morning." He assured her, after all, there was nothing they could do tonight - not with Baltar out cold on the floor of the brig. "I've never been so tired" Laura confessed, feeling as though every bone in body was tired beyond the point of exhaustion.
"Get some sleep Laura" Bill requested, seeing the dark circles that had gradually started to form under her porcelain skin as he stood up from his seat. Leaning down, he brought his hand to cradle Pandora's head, his fingers resting against her soft hair as he pressed a kiss against Laura's forehead, the woman shutting her eyes peacefully as he did so. "Now, sleep" He said, pulling away as the President opened her eyes hesitantly "Aye, aye, Admiral" She joked with a gentle chuckle, mindful of the sleeping child in her arms as Bill headed back through the compartment, turning around to take in the scene before him. It was astonishing how youthful someone could look - and feel - without having to carry a heavy burden on their shoulders anymore. Laura no longer had to keep the secret about Hera from him. Though he feared that this was the calm before the storm. Bill's instincts were never wrong. He had sensed a shift in the air before the fall of the twelve colonies, he had felt a hole in his heart the moment Zak had boarded that viper and he had known something was terribly wrong when the fleet settled on New Caprica. He had failed to stop the inevitable on those three occasions. He had learnt from his mistakes. No harm would come to Pandora or Laura - not while he still drew breath.