WIP meme
This got too long so I ended up splitting it into 2 posts.
These are my one shots in progress
Designated Survivor
(Last Cabinet meeting on Caprica before the fall)
Adar's chief of staff glared at her. “Tell me, Dr. Roslin, do you think yourself better than everyone else?”
“I wouldn't say 'everyone else' but ...” Making an exaggerated show of looking around at her fellow Cabinet members, Laura responded. “ … if this room is a representative sampling I could be comfortable saying 'most'.
The ripple of laughter that went around the Cabinet room hit everyone except Adar's chief of staff.
He waited until the room had emptied out before addressing her again. “I’m canceling President Adar’s participation in the Galactica presentation. The President has better things to do with his time then spend three days playing grab ass with you on Colonial One.”
Tilting her head, she shamelessly asked. “Better or more important? I know the distinction can be subtle.”
Faith Revisited
Watching Laura run her hand along the inside of her already unpacked overnight bag a second time it was clear to Bill that something was wrong.
“What are you missing?” Bill asked.
“The scarf that Emily gave me.”
Frowning, she asked. “Did I maybe leave it here last night when I went back to sickbay?”
“No. I don't think so. I didn't come across it this morning. Are you sure you brought it with you here last night?”
Here at the ends of the worlds the sudden appearance of anything new was notable and Bill didn’t remember her having a scarf with her last night, but then it had been the middle of the night and what he had been paying attention to was the return of the sparkle in her eye that had been missing for some time now.
After thinking about it a moment, she answered. “No, I'm not sure.”
“Could you have left it in sickbay?”
“I must have.” She admitted.
Tory would be here in half an hour to start the President’s day. Trekking to sickbay and back would eat up most of that time. Despite having slept a stone's throw from the press room while on Colonial One, he knew she didn't sleep well if at all in the openness of sickbay. She had to be tired after being in sickbay for most of the night.
“Let me go get it.”
She opened her mouth for the refusal he knew she was sure to offer. She would insist on doing it on her own and most likely include some biting retort about her not being an invalid quite yet. Instead after a second's hesitation she surprised him. With a nod, she agreed.
“All right. I think I’ll lay down until Tory gets here.”
* * *
Ishay smiled knowingly seeing him draw near. “You just missed her, sir. She left about twenty minutes ago.”
“I know. She left her scarf here.”
“Well let me help you find it.”
Together they stripped the bed she was in and didn’t find it. Ishay went through the bedding a second time while Bill looked under the bed for good measure.
“Are you sure she left it here?”
If not here, Bill didn't know where else it was that she could have left it. She didn't mention any stops along the way. He said as much.
“I'll go ask around. Maybe someone passed by, noticed it and put it aside for when the President comes back tomorrow.”
When Ishay returned empty handed and shaking her head, Bill tried to delicately broach his slightly macabre thought on where the scarf had gone. “The scarf belonged to Emily.”
“Emily?” Ishay repeated.
“Yes. Is it possible that someone found it, didn’t know she had gifted it to the President, and sent it with her?”
“I suppose anything’s possible, sir. You’ll have to check with Emily then.”
Yes.” Bill paused. “Could you?”
“Sir?” Ishay looked confused.
“Could you check with Emily?” Bill repeated.
“Ah … certainly, sir.” As Ishay moved to the handset on the wall Bill stopped her.
“She not still here?”
“Emily?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In the morgue?”
“No one named Emily works in the morgue, sir.”
He was so sure that Laura had said her name was Emily, but maybe he had the name wrong. “The woman who died here last night.”
Ishay sounded concerned, but entirely certain of what she was saying. “Admiral, no one died here last night.”
“The woman with [liver] cancer.”
“Sir, the President is the only cancer patient that Dr. Cottle treats.”
Bill was willing to concede that maybe he had gotten the name wrong, but he couldn't have gotten everything wrong. “She was in the bed across from the President.”
“Sir, you know that the chief of the President 's security made Cottle clear out her entire section of sickbay.”
He did know that. But then -
The Chamalla.
Looking concerned, Ishay started to ask him. “Sir, did the President tell you that -
Whom The Gods Adore
Bill would never be able to do what needed to be done. She was sure of that. As sure as she was that if it had been Billy to step out of that viper she would be equally incapable of action and equally incapable of ever forgiving Bill for doing what needed to be done.
If Bill was right, if it really was a miracle - if Kara really was the gods chosen one, if the gods had interceded on her behalf, then they would just have to do it again because Laura was not going to trust her with the fate of the fleet.
Invitational
(An entry for the MLH with women challenge that I didn't finish in time to submit. I went for the if you want to write Laura with Bill throw in a woman)
There was something wrong with him. Something very wrong with him. He was seventy years old and here he was with an absolutely gorgeous twenty something offering herself to him and …
“Would it help if I -“
“-No.” Bill answered a bit too quickly to be polite.
After another moment of awkward silence, Maya excused herself. “Laura’s waiting at the school tent. Why don’t I go and get her.”
Bill gave a slight nod and turned away as the young girl began to gather her clothes and dress.
He wasn’t really sure he wanted to see Laura after this fiasco. He should probably save face and just turn tail and go. Before he could make up his mind one way or the other, the tent flap opened. Bill looked down at his feet.
He felt her weight settling beside him on the bed a full minute before she spoke. She tried to make light of the situation.
“I’ve been wondering why you didn’t make a move on me the night of the Founder’s Day celebration. At least now I know it’s not just me.”
“That’s not - you were drunk! And high! I was being a gentleman!”
“So what's the problem tonight?”
“I didn’t realize it wouldn’t be you.” Bill admitted. “When I got the invitation I thought -” Knowing how ridiculous it would seem, Bill didn't finish telling her his thoughts.
“You thought -“ she chided him. “Bill, I’m over fifty years old. That ship sailed away a long time ago.”
Stan By Your Man
“You’re wife is giving me the stink eye, Richard.”
“She’s all the way across the room. How do you know she’s not giving me the stink eye?”
“Why is your wife giving me the stink eye, Richard?”
“It’s the dress you are wearing. Just yesterday, she bought that very same dress. She’s giving you the stink eye because now she has to take it back.”
“I think she thinks we’re having an affair.”
Richard chuckled into his glass. “Trust me, Laura. My wife doesn’t think we’re having an affair.”
She knew they were having an affair. He had grown weary of his wife’s constant accusations and finally broken down and admitted to having an affair with Laura years before. So what if it wasn’t true? At least it had put an end to the accusations. Now in their place he got angry silence most of the time and the occasional tearful pleading for him to end the affair.
And it wasn’t as if it was entirely a lie. They were having an emotional affair.