TM 245. What's the first thing you remember?
OOC: This is AU!Laura, taking place within a week or two after the season four midseason finale "Revelations." This does not belong to any communal AU, unless someone wants to claim this storyline as a partner with one of theirs.
Many, many apologies to admiral_adama for this one. *hangs head in shame*
Bliss.
That's the first thing Laura Roslin remembers as she drifts awake, her head resting against a solid chest covered by the soft cotten tanks she had so often seen before.
There was an accident in CIC...
She rested her head in the crook of his shoulder, tightening her arm around him, eyes slamming shut at the first violation of her peace of mind. She'd been in the middle of a press conference on Colonial One regarding Earth and what was to be done about it. Tom had been standing at her side, with Lee a little bit behind her, both still looking shellshocked enough to start pissing her off. Were she and Bill once again the only ones who wouldn't be given the chance to adjust to the shock before moving on? Counting her lucky stars that the press corps was still in enough shock over the combined one-two punch of the four Cylons and the nuclear wasteland they were currently orbiting that they were relatively well-behaved as she laid out some of the plans she and Bill, with the help of Colonel Tigh and Starbuck, had hastily cobbled together. A console exploded right in his face, Madam- Laura. It's frakking lucky he didn't die there on the spot.
She curled her leg up and around his, sighing into his chest, running her hand lightly up the length of his scar.
She'd never been more frightened in her life when the call came.
The admiral's been taken into emergency surgery, ma'am, there's been major head trauma, I'm sorry I can't talk to you right now you'll have to wait outside for Cottle to get finished he's not going to die ma'am he can't.
The words blurred her mind as tears blurred her eyes. She squeezed them tightly shut against the dead silence of the room. Funny how the loudest sounds were coming from echoes of her own mind.
The trauma, along with the electrical shock he received from the explosion, it's just too much for his body to absorb. His brain is slowly degrading and I can't stop it. I doubt even the best neurologist in the Colonies could do anything against this kind of damage.
A wasting disease...
Lee had surprised her with his enraged denial of Cottle's grim prognosis. He had started screaming at the doctors, nurses, and medics. She supposed she couldn't blame him. If she hadn't been struck dumb, she might have lost it too.
Laura... tell Cottle to let me go home. I want it to be there, with you. How could he possibly think she would agree to anything so foolhardy? But his eyes, beautiful and awe-inspiring even in blindness, had immediately squelched any protest forming on her lips. How could she deny him anything, especially one last wish?
Cottle had been furious. But under the fury and the million and one medically sound reasons for his initial refusal to release his CO from sickbay, there was the guilt and shame at not being able to do anything for him. She had simply laid her hand on the doctor's arm and squeezed it. It's not your fault, Jack. You did your best. His eyes had given her all the response she needed. For him, not good enough. She couldn't agree more, but it wasn't for lack of sheer determinaton.
They had organized an honor guard to escort him from Life Station, the last journey he would take back to his quarters. She had hung back somewhat, respecting the grief of the Galactica crew that had gathered to say goodbye to their father. She would have her chance later. She could scream until her throat was raw, if only she could feel anything at all. There was nothing inside of her as she marched beside a dry-eyed, stone-faced Commander Saul Tigh.
Laura... make him supreme commander after I'm gone. Please. He can do it. I know you and he can do it together.
It was her last act as President of the Twelve Colonies. With the approval of soon-to-be President Zarek and his Vice-President-in-waiting, Lee Adama, she had promoted Saul Tigh to Admiral of the Fleet, preferring to do it in Bill's quarters where he could at least be there and listen, even if he didn't understand all of the words anymore. Afterward, the young female priest who had presided at Cally Tyrol's funeral and Lee Adama's inauguration accepted the resignation of Laura Roslin as President and inaugurated Tom Zarek as President.
Why?
She still hated herself for the fact that he'd had to ask. EVen if the degradation was beginning to reach his cognitive functions at the time, she still couldn't help feeling that he would have felt he had to ask anyway.
Because I want to stay with you.
He hadn't agreed at first.
Your treatments...
Suspended, temporarily. A lie, of course. When he went, her life would drop in value substantially. A part of her protested at her own selfishness, but she couldn't bring herself to care any longer.
The fleet...
The selfish mother-frakkers would have to get along without both of them. Because even if the cosmos played one last joke on her and allowed her to survive Bill by any real amount of time, the Fleet was not getting one more moment of her time.
If she'd looked in the mirror at any time in that week during which Bill had slowly slipped away, she would have been shocked to recognize the look in her eyes as the same look she'd witnessed in her mother's eyes after the crash. Now she could finally place a definitive label on that look.
The look of the living dead.
But it would only get worse.
Please do it, Laura. Can't be a vegetable, not for one minute. Please... do this one last thing for me.
Cottle had left morpha to combat the increasing headaches. It hadn't taken a genius to figure out what Bill wanted her to do. It wasn't really much different than what she had done for her mother, letting her go. Giving her permission to give up and leave her. She supposed that injecting Bill with a lethal dose of morpha would be like letting him go, allowing him to believe that she'd be all right without him. More lies on top of other lies.
It's all right, Bill. Go to sleep. I love you. She had kissed him, softly and gently, as he had done for her in another lifetime.
Let me hold you, Laura. It's my last chance.
They had fallen asleep in each other's arms.
She was the only one who had woken up in the morning.
Laura Roslin
Battlestar Galactica 2003
1111 words
Many, many apologies to admiral_adama for this one. *hangs head in shame*
Bliss.
That's the first thing Laura Roslin remembers as she drifts awake, her head resting against a solid chest covered by the soft cotten tanks she had so often seen before.
There was an accident in CIC...
She rested her head in the crook of his shoulder, tightening her arm around him, eyes slamming shut at the first violation of her peace of mind. She'd been in the middle of a press conference on Colonial One regarding Earth and what was to be done about it. Tom had been standing at her side, with Lee a little bit behind her, both still looking shellshocked enough to start pissing her off. Were she and Bill once again the only ones who wouldn't be given the chance to adjust to the shock before moving on? Counting her lucky stars that the press corps was still in enough shock over the combined one-two punch of the four Cylons and the nuclear wasteland they were currently orbiting that they were relatively well-behaved as she laid out some of the plans she and Bill, with the help of Colonel Tigh and Starbuck, had hastily cobbled together. A console exploded right in his face, Madam- Laura. It's frakking lucky he didn't die there on the spot.
She curled her leg up and around his, sighing into his chest, running her hand lightly up the length of his scar.
She'd never been more frightened in her life when the call came.
The admiral's been taken into emergency surgery, ma'am, there's been major head trauma, I'm sorry I can't talk to you right now you'll have to wait outside for Cottle to get finished he's not going to die ma'am he can't.
The words blurred her mind as tears blurred her eyes. She squeezed them tightly shut against the dead silence of the room. Funny how the loudest sounds were coming from echoes of her own mind.
The trauma, along with the electrical shock he received from the explosion, it's just too much for his body to absorb. His brain is slowly degrading and I can't stop it. I doubt even the best neurologist in the Colonies could do anything against this kind of damage.
A wasting disease...
Lee had surprised her with his enraged denial of Cottle's grim prognosis. He had started screaming at the doctors, nurses, and medics. She supposed she couldn't blame him. If she hadn't been struck dumb, she might have lost it too.
Laura... tell Cottle to let me go home. I want it to be there, with you. How could he possibly think she would agree to anything so foolhardy? But his eyes, beautiful and awe-inspiring even in blindness, had immediately squelched any protest forming on her lips. How could she deny him anything, especially one last wish?
Cottle had been furious. But under the fury and the million and one medically sound reasons for his initial refusal to release his CO from sickbay, there was the guilt and shame at not being able to do anything for him. She had simply laid her hand on the doctor's arm and squeezed it. It's not your fault, Jack. You did your best. His eyes had given her all the response she needed. For him, not good enough. She couldn't agree more, but it wasn't for lack of sheer determinaton.
They had organized an honor guard to escort him from Life Station, the last journey he would take back to his quarters. She had hung back somewhat, respecting the grief of the Galactica crew that had gathered to say goodbye to their father. She would have her chance later. She could scream until her throat was raw, if only she could feel anything at all. There was nothing inside of her as she marched beside a dry-eyed, stone-faced Commander Saul Tigh.
Laura... make him supreme commander after I'm gone. Please. He can do it. I know you and he can do it together.
It was her last act as President of the Twelve Colonies. With the approval of soon-to-be President Zarek and his Vice-President-in-waiting, Lee Adama, she had promoted Saul Tigh to Admiral of the Fleet, preferring to do it in Bill's quarters where he could at least be there and listen, even if he didn't understand all of the words anymore. Afterward, the young female priest who had presided at Cally Tyrol's funeral and Lee Adama's inauguration accepted the resignation of Laura Roslin as President and inaugurated Tom Zarek as President.
Why?
She still hated herself for the fact that he'd had to ask. EVen if the degradation was beginning to reach his cognitive functions at the time, she still couldn't help feeling that he would have felt he had to ask anyway.
Because I want to stay with you.
He hadn't agreed at first.
Your treatments...
Suspended, temporarily. A lie, of course. When he went, her life would drop in value substantially. A part of her protested at her own selfishness, but she couldn't bring herself to care any longer.
The fleet...
The selfish mother-frakkers would have to get along without both of them. Because even if the cosmos played one last joke on her and allowed her to survive Bill by any real amount of time, the Fleet was not getting one more moment of her time.
If she'd looked in the mirror at any time in that week during which Bill had slowly slipped away, she would have been shocked to recognize the look in her eyes as the same look she'd witnessed in her mother's eyes after the crash. Now she could finally place a definitive label on that look.
The look of the living dead.
But it would only get worse.
Please do it, Laura. Can't be a vegetable, not for one minute. Please... do this one last thing for me.
Cottle had left morpha to combat the increasing headaches. It hadn't taken a genius to figure out what Bill wanted her to do. It wasn't really much different than what she had done for her mother, letting her go. Giving her permission to give up and leave her. She supposed that injecting Bill with a lethal dose of morpha would be like letting him go, allowing him to believe that she'd be all right without him. More lies on top of other lies.
It's all right, Bill. Go to sleep. I love you. She had kissed him, softly and gently, as he had done for her in another lifetime.
Let me hold you, Laura. It's my last chance.
They had fallen asleep in each other's arms.
She was the only one who had woken up in the morning.
Laura Roslin
Battlestar Galactica 2003
1111 words