Title: Lost and Found
Author: Trialia
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Rating: K+
Word Count: 660
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Bill Adama/Laura Roslin, OFC
Beta:
misscam &
tacky_trampSpoilers: Daybreak II
Summary: She'd never warned him of this. Perhaps she didn't know it would happen.
x
When he sees her again, Laura is just as lovely as he recalls, from the long-ago New Caprica night that's still burned into his mind. He's thought, once or twice, that if he got amnesia and forgot even his own name, he'd still see her face.
He can't take his eyes off her: she sits on the grass, leaning back with her legs half-curled under herself, holding out one arm to receive him, the other hand pressed against her mouth to hold back a sob. Through her smile, her eyes are wet. He remembers the way she looked post-mutiny, gazing at her now. He's never seen her more beautiful.
"Missed you," he husks, throat filled with tears, echoing his words from the last time she'd been gone without warning. The embrace is their tightest yet; there's been no separation like this. New Caprica, the basestar, the mutiny - none of these were anything compared to the pain of losing her completely for so long, to knowing so surely that she could not come back. One hand tangles in her hair when he pulls back, barely, to kiss her breathless, and she untucks his shirt from his pants to stroke the skin at his waist. He groans into her mouth at that, and his other hand comes up to cup her breast.
"A-ah," she giggles, glancing to the side, "not in front of the children." Her fingers catch in the edge of his waistband in a furtive caress, a promise of later. And oh, how he's missed her laughter.
He doesn't even register the little girl who sits at her knee until she's mentioned, and the child wrong-foots him when he sees her, leaving him speechless for a few moments.
She looks to be about three years old, and she has her mother's eyes, pale green and sparkling; her smile is shy. He looks back at Laura: confused, unsure.
Her smile has faded, and the look in her eyes almost takes him aback. He knows she's letting him see this; she can hide when she likes, even from him. There is nothing but love in her face, now.
She speaks to the girl, never taking her eyes off his.
"Kara, honey, say hi to your father."
He can feel his eyes widen in shock, and his confusion is no less profound than it had already been. He looks over at the girl, trying to find confirmation in her face.
Her jaw, soft but square, does not have the length he sees in Laura's bone structure, her skin not quite so fair as her mother's. Her little nose is still a smudge, not yet what it will be when she's grown. She has Laura's cheekbones beneath baby fat, tight red curls and pretty blue-green eyes, but her high forehead is the unscarred twin to the one he used to see in his mirror every morning (when he still had a mirror). He sees it.
"Hi," the small girl whispers shyly. Kara, huh?
He smiles at her, face lightening. My daughter? Always wanted a girl... but...
"Hi," he echoes, putting out a hand to her. She hesitates, just for a moment, before throwing herself at him. She is tiny; she barely reaches his knee, so he scoops her up in both arms, pressing her gently into his shoulder as he turns to look at Laura. The smile he gives her is touched with wonder and pain. He knows, now, how their child came to be here.
"When?" he asks quietly, holding her gaze.
"New Caprica," she replies, her voice just as quiet.
They have a lot to talk about, it seems.
Later, he thinks, reaching his free hand out to reel Laura into the hug, too.
She comes willingly, hugging him and Kara back tightly until the little girl squirms between the two of them.
The words exchanged between them don't need to be voiced.
Never leave me again.
I won't. I promise.
-fin