Pentathlon Fic #2: Adama/Roslin
Title: Elysium
Wordcount: 535
Summary: Laura and Bill discuss where they'd like to spend eternity.
Author's Note: This may be literally the first time I've ever written dialogue for Roslin, lol. Go easy on me! :D Also, thanks to wicked_sassy for her grumpy encouragement.
They hadn’t spoken for several long minutes, enjoying the feeling of lying in each other’s arms, skin against skin, when she stirred. “There’s something I want you to have,” she said, pulling away.
“Laura,” he began, trying to pull her back to center. So much better to keep lying like this, than to talk about the inevitable. He didn’t want things she was giving away because she was dying; he wanted the memories he could still have while she was alive. But she resisted him, leaning down and fishing in the pocket of the jacket he had so lovingly slid her out of.
“Here,” she said, as she drew something out. A photo. She handed it to him, a photo. A photo of a young auburn-haired woman, laughing in the sunlight. He hardly recognized her. She couldn’t have even been out of her teens.
“This isn’t the way I think of you,” he said. He didn’t want a photo to remember her by at all, didn’t want to think he’d need one. But certainly he didn’t want this-she was breathtakingly beautiful, but she wasn’t his. She lacked the maturity, the grace he loved about her so much.
“It’s not for you to keep,” she replied. “I’ve heard it’s practice among your pilots to pick where you’d like to be placed,” she said. “Where you’d like to spend the afterlife.”
“You don’t need to tell me where to place you,” he said.
“Bill…”
“You’re going to be fine,” he said. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
He could tell by her face she didn’t really believe that, but she offered a half-smile. “Haven’t you given a picture to someone?”
And it was true. Anywhere on the ship would have been appropriate for him. Anywhere with his old girl. But over ambrosia one night… “Saul’s going to put me near Kara and Katraine,” he replied. Kara was back now, but the photo, the request, remained. “If there is an Elysium, if we do get to be young there, I could show those girls a thing or two about who the real top gun on this ship is. Drink them under the table, too, then win the bar fight they’d start.”
“You wouldn’t punch Starbuck,” she said with a smirk.
“Admiral Adama wouldn’t,” he replied. “But Husker just might.”
“I would have liked to meet this Husker I’ve heard about,” she said.
He looked at the picture, and smiled. “Husker certainly wouldn’t have wasted as much time with this pretty girl.”
“I was pretty back then, wasn’t I?” she asked, wistfully. “I didn’t treasure it at all.”
“You’re beautiful now,” he replied, tucking the photo into the book they’d been working their way through, sliding it back into its place of honor beneath the mattress. He drew her close, then, her head against his chest. He thought to himself, not for the first time, how perfectly she fit in his arms.
He closed his eyes, as they settled in for sleep. He was just on the edge sleep when she stirred again, murmured. “Near the third bulkhead, about eye level,” she whispered. “That’s where my sisters are.”
He kissed the top of her head, and they fell asleep.
Wordcount: 535
Summary: Laura and Bill discuss where they'd like to spend eternity.
Author's Note: This may be literally the first time I've ever written dialogue for Roslin, lol. Go easy on me! :D Also, thanks to wicked_sassy for her grumpy encouragement.
They hadn’t spoken for several long minutes, enjoying the feeling of lying in each other’s arms, skin against skin, when she stirred. “There’s something I want you to have,” she said, pulling away.
“Laura,” he began, trying to pull her back to center. So much better to keep lying like this, than to talk about the inevitable. He didn’t want things she was giving away because she was dying; he wanted the memories he could still have while she was alive. But she resisted him, leaning down and fishing in the pocket of the jacket he had so lovingly slid her out of.
“Here,” she said, as she drew something out. A photo. She handed it to him, a photo. A photo of a young auburn-haired woman, laughing in the sunlight. He hardly recognized her. She couldn’t have even been out of her teens.
“This isn’t the way I think of you,” he said. He didn’t want a photo to remember her by at all, didn’t want to think he’d need one. But certainly he didn’t want this-she was breathtakingly beautiful, but she wasn’t his. She lacked the maturity, the grace he loved about her so much.
“It’s not for you to keep,” she replied. “I’ve heard it’s practice among your pilots to pick where you’d like to be placed,” she said. “Where you’d like to spend the afterlife.”
“You don’t need to tell me where to place you,” he said.
“Bill…”
“You’re going to be fine,” he said. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
He could tell by her face she didn’t really believe that, but she offered a half-smile. “Haven’t you given a picture to someone?”
And it was true. Anywhere on the ship would have been appropriate for him. Anywhere with his old girl. But over ambrosia one night… “Saul’s going to put me near Kara and Katraine,” he replied. Kara was back now, but the photo, the request, remained. “If there is an Elysium, if we do get to be young there, I could show those girls a thing or two about who the real top gun on this ship is. Drink them under the table, too, then win the bar fight they’d start.”
“You wouldn’t punch Starbuck,” she said with a smirk.
“Admiral Adama wouldn’t,” he replied. “But Husker just might.”
“I would have liked to meet this Husker I’ve heard about,” she said.
He looked at the picture, and smiled. “Husker certainly wouldn’t have wasted as much time with this pretty girl.”
“I was pretty back then, wasn’t I?” she asked, wistfully. “I didn’t treasure it at all.”
“You’re beautiful now,” he replied, tucking the photo into the book they’d been working their way through, sliding it back into its place of honor beneath the mattress. He drew her close, then, her head against his chest. He thought to himself, not for the first time, how perfectly she fit in his arms.
He closed his eyes, as they settled in for sleep. He was just on the edge sleep when she stirred again, murmured. “Near the third bulkhead, about eye level,” she whispered. “That’s where my sisters are.”
He kissed the top of her head, and they fell asleep.