Fic: We're Having A Heat Wave (Part 1 - The Tease)
“It’s too frakking hot.”
“Oh for the love of the gods.”
“What? You telling me it’s not too frakking hot?”
“No, but listening to you whine about it repeatedly is almost as bad as experiencing it.”
“Look it ain’t whining if it’s true.”
“That’s asinine. Do you even know what whining means? Or for that matter asinine?”
“Maybe not, smarty pants, but I do know what ass means, and I know just what I’m going to shove up yours.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
“Girls, please! I can’t take this anymore. If you don’t want to help me paint this banner, then you can both just go home.”
“She started it.”
“I most certainly did not.”
“Stop it this instant both of you. You’re worse than my students. Do I have to threaten detention?”
“No, ma’am.”
“No, ma’am.”
“Okay better … because it’s too frakking hot …”
“See!”
“… for whining.”
“No, you see!”
The three women all regarded each other seriously for a brief moment, and then quickly burst into hysterics.
“Um, sorry about that,” Kara offered while still laughing. She was a hothead, but she knew it and could apologize when it was called for. Well, at least she could apologize to some people. Laura Roslin was one of those people.
“Me too,” Tory added while wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. Kara Thrace Anders might be annoyingly childish sometimes, but there was no need to behave like one herself, especially in front of Laura, who she still thought of as her boss.
“It’s okay,” Laura answered, still chuckling herself. “It’s too insanely hot right now to behave anything but badly.”
“Oh come on, Teach,” Kara protested, using her new nickname for the one-time president, as she waved a paint brush in her direction, “when have you ever behaved badly?”
“Plenty of times,” Laura answered.
“Nah, I don’t believe it,” the former pilot responded with a challenging grin.
“Well it’s true. Tell her Tory,” the older woman ordered.
Tory paused a moment, and then she answered in utmost seriousness, “it’s true, Kara, sometimes she even made notes on her presidential memos in two different colors of ink.”
“Hey!” Laura threw a paint rag at her former aide in protest, as the two young women burst into hysterics all over again.
“Maybe you’re not so bad after all, Foster,” Kara relented.
“Gee thanks, though I think I’ve had better endorsements in my day,” Tory laughed.
“I don’t think I like this, the two of you ganging up on me, nor what you’re implying,” Laura complained. Nobody liked being accused of being a goody two shoes, or even worse an old bore, including Laura Roslin. “I’ve done plenty of naughty things in my life.”
“Yeah right. Prove it,” Starbuck demanded, her grin widening when Tory let out an approving whistle at her challenge.
“Fine.” Laura thought for a moment, and then she was struck by inspiration. “After Richard Adar won his first mayoral election, he and several of his aides, yours truly included, went skinny dipping in the fountains behind Caprica City Hall. So there.” She decided to exclude from the report that it was also the night that inaugurated her multi-decade on-again-off-again sexual affair with the subsequent President of the Twelve Colonies, though she was willing to go to the mat and share that little nugget of information to protect her honor (or dishonor as it were) if necessary.
“Not bad,” Tory offered approvingly.
“Oh stop kissing ass, Foster, you don’t work for her anymore,” Kara offered in objection. “Besides, I’m not buying it.”
“Not buying it?” Laura huffed, though her eyes were smiling.
“No way, Teach, you are far too buttoned up for that,” the rogue pilot insisted. “I’m going to need proof that you are capable of that kind of misbehaving.”
“Well unless she builds a time machine, how the hell is she supposed to produce proof that she once went skinny dipping with Richard Adar?” It was true that Tory may not work for Laura anymore, but she was still loyal and old habits die hard.
“Thank you, Tory. Good to know at least one person here has a little faith in my ability to have fun.” Laura laughed as she watched her former aide stick out her tongue at Kara in response to her praise. She was happy the girls had come to help her tonight with this project for the school. She’d needed the infusion of enthusiasm and high spirit their presence brought, because it really was too frakking hot to be lonely and gloomy as well as sweaty.
“Okay, once upon a time maybe you had some fun. Maybe. But that’s past tense,” Kara reasoned. “Frankly, I’ve not seen a whole lot of recent evidence of mischief or frak-it-all fun on your part, Teach.”
“Oh, and is this in your expert opinion, Starbuck?” Laura asked more bemused than offended.
“It is true that Starbuck is the expert in bad behavior. She might have you there, Laura,” Tory laughed.
“Damn straight and damn proud of it,” Kara volunteered laughing at herself. “Look, I’m just trying to help you out here. Loosen you up now that you’re free to be a normal person again. Besides, it’s too hot to be dull.”
“So now you’re saying I’m dull?” Laura considered those fighting words, and she looked forward to putting Starbuck in her place, even if there was admittedly some truth to the accusation, especially in recent years. But who had time for fun when one had a whole species to save from extinction? Of course that was not her problem anymore. Time to start living like it.
“Look, there’s an easy solution to all of this,” Kara explained.
“This should be good,” Tory interrupted.
Starbuck waved her off and continued, getting more excited as her notion took shape. “Word is that it’s going to be even hotter tomorrow. So you say you’re a skinny dipper, Teach, I say prove it. Can’t ask for a better time than a heat wave for a little swim in the style of the gods.”
“Skinny dipping huh?” Laura asked chuckling inwardly. If Kara and Tory only knew about some of her past exploits, including harvesting and smoking that special New Caprican herb on the sly, they wouldn’t be so brash in their talk. Even so, she could use the diversion, not to mention the friends, even if these two were half her age.
“Come on, Teach,” Kara prodded. “I’ll even make it easy on you, just us girls, you, me and the suck-up.”
“Hey!” Tory protested.
“Please, no need to go easy on me,” Laura objected. “But fine, I accept the challenge. Skinny dipping tomorrow. You, me, and the suck-up,” Laura finished, pointing to each of them as she spoke and getting in a laugh at Tory’s expense at the end.
“Hey!” Tory shouted again, this time throwing the paint rag back at her old boss.
Kara howled in laughter. “Oh yes, we’re off to a good start now. So tomorrow, after school’s out, we meet at the pond on the North Ridge. Nobody ever goes there.”
“Fine, North Ridge after school’s out,” Laura replied, while Tory nodded her own assent.
“And no cheating and no backing out,” Kara warned. “As soon as you pass that brush line surrounding the pond, whether you are the first one or the last one there, your clothes come off. Every stitch. No exceptions, and no delay. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Tory replied.
“Agreed,” Laura answered with a nod, feeling younger and more alive already. She was even considering bringing along some of her stash as a gift of thanks to the girls.
“Perfect.” In fact, more than perfect, because now Starbuck had a plan. Laura Roslin was going to have a lot more fun than she was bargaining for tomorrow. A lot more, and she wasn’t going to be the only one.
TBC ... Up Next: The Set-Up!