Welcome back, now to Bill's POV.
And yes, they FINALLY arrive and it's going to be interesting :)

Disclaimer: I only own the storyline and my OC's

13th of May 1803

Laura and Laura

William Adama

When the servant led them in, Bill tried to secretly wipe his hands on his trouser legs. He had been nervous anyway and being late because of another fallen over cart had only made it worse. Lee and Kara did not really seem fazed at all, rather excited about the opportunity of going out. Apparently everybody was already assembled in the drawing room, so that was where they went. Their hosts greeted them first, followed by their children. The young adults formed a group right away, chatting at the side of the room. Where was Laura Roslin, he mused, hadn't she arrived yet either?

Suddenly one of the men, Mr. Ditton, called out.

"Laura, there are more guests, come and say hello!"

For a moment, Bill was speechless about the tone the younger man used with Ms Roslin. Then, Isabelle Agathon moved to the side and he could spot what he had not seen before - Laura Roslin sitting in a chair obviously reading to a little girl. She closed the book and bend forward, whispering something into the girl's ear. The child giggled but nodded eagerly, so the woman got up and took her by the hand, steering her towards Adama. A little smile played around her lips, though there seemed to be a bit of nervousness to be in it, too. She curtsied in front of him, the little girl doing the same in a very wobbly way. It was adorable.

"Commander, may I introduce you to Laura Ditton", she said, her soft voice caressing his ears.

Adama could simply nodd in astonishment, so the little girl was the person Mr Ditton had called out to. He made a hand gesture to point over to his children.

"Over there are my children, Lieutenant Adama and Miss Thrace."

Laura Ditton seemed to ponder for a moment.

"I have never heard the name Lieutenant before ", she stated then, making Bill and Laura both laugh.

"What is so funny?", Kara wanted to know, coming closer, the others following.

"Oh, Miss Ditton just remarked that Lieutenant indeed is a very strange first name", the Commander said, "but Miss Ditton, I will tell you a secret. His name is actually Leopold, Lieutenant is just his title like Commander is mine. It also helps to know which Adama of us is concerned."

The little girl's eyes lit up.

"I understand. It's like me! I am Lila because I am Little Laura and Auntie Laura is Laura because she was there before me!"

He had to laugh again at the girl's exclamation, relieved when he found that Ms Roslin seemed rather amused than concerned or insulted.

"Lila, why don't you go and play while I am talking to Commander Adama?", the woman proposed, her voice friendly and firm.

It had the desired effect, the girl nodded and went back in the direction of the rugs in front of the chimney.

"At least she didn't ask whether your first name was Commander", she remarked dryly but not without humour.

He nodded. "I have to admit, I like Bill, or even William, a lot better", he said, chuckling lightly.

"So do I", his partner blurted out, biting her lips when she realized what she had just said.

To his surprise Bill found that he actually found a flustered Laura Roslin quite cute, as far as one could call Laura Roslin cute. That was basically like calling a lioness cute.

"I am afraid my sons were less happy about the choices of name me and my late wife made, so Leopold ended up being Lee and Zachary was Zak."

It surprised himself that he had so freely mentioned his dead son to a basically stranger, but it somehow just felt right in that moment. In her eyes he didn't seem pity or outrageous curiosity, just genuine interest and understanding. It might as well be faked, but for some reason he didn't think so.

"And what do they call your daughter?", she asked, he found it positively strange that she seemed to accept the family-like relationship he had to the young woman.

"We call her Kara. So what do they call you, Ms Roslin?"

A smile danced around her lips.

"That depends on who 'they' are. But as you found out, for Lila I am Auntie Laura."

"The name suits you", he mused, causing a puzzled look to cross her face.

"Because it is an unusual name. An unusual name for an unusual woman. Beautiful nevertheless. Or maybe because of it."

He stopped himself before he could say more, for example how stunning her hair looked pinned up with those white gold and saphire needles and how much he would like to pull out one after the other to see what she would look like with the auburn waves cascading over her shoulder.

That would be an absolute disaster!

Laura gave him a smile that was borderline shy, looking pleased with the compliment, even a bit surprised. Why was that? Surely she heard such things a lot! After all, Ellen had implied that she was not exactly short of possible suitors. Well, beauty and money could do that to a man. However, Bill was convinced it was not the reason he was so intrigued with her. There was something special, something else there, maybe the person Lila saw all the time, and he would have loved to meet her.

Suddenly a little bell rang, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"I think dinner is served", Ms Roslin said, "shall we go?"

Here we are!

I hope you enjoyed it, I am sorry for possible errors in editing. I am doing lots of writing in my lunch break at work, but I really wanted to note it down because it was already written out in my head. :)

Up next: Dinner talk and trying not to stare... And Robert being Robert