Fic: Hard Landing
“It was just a hard landing, Laura.”
“Just a hard landing? I’d call it a crash, Bill.”
“Well, you would be wrong then. Leave it to the experts, please, to make those assessments, and the experts will tell you that it was just a hard landing.”
“And would you be one of these so-called experts?”
“I might be.”
“Well, then I know for certain it was a crash.”
“Hmmph.”
Laura smiled at Bill as she stopped them at the entrance to her tent, steadying her wounded pilot before ducking out of his hold in order to open the flap. She turned back and gently led him inside.
“I think the real story is that you were distracted,” she told him as she maneuvered them toward her cot. “Thinking too much about seeing me and not enough about flying straight.”
“I wasn’t distracted. More like determined,” Bill explained as he sat down gingerly on her bed. “Note where I find myself at the moment, and with my furlough now extended until morning.” He smiled and waggled his eyebrows at her as he patted the spot next to him.
Laura rolled her eyes at him, but nevertheless wasted no time in sitting beside him. “So are you telling me that you crashed your raptor just to get out of meeting with Baltar and to spend the night with me?”
“Not a crash, Laura, a hard landing,” he insisted playfully. “And do you object?”
“Not really, but you just might when you try to make love to me with bruised ribs, a dislocated shoulder and a concussion.”
“Don’t underestimate the pain a soldier can endure when he is properly motivated,” he said, interrupting her and leaning in for a kiss. He smiled against her lips as she kissed him back.
“While I am sure you fancy yourself quite the iron man, Bill, you shouldn’t have interrupted,” she scolded him with a laugh. “If you hadn’t, you would have heard me say that you just might object when you try to make love to me with all your manifold injuries and I say no.”
“No? Come on Laura,” he protested, reaching out for her with his free hand, the other trapped in a sling.
“No arguments, Bill,” she said, scooting away from his attempted embrace. “Now lie down.”
“Laura,” he said, softer and more seriously this time, as he grabbed her hand as she stood, trying to pull her back down to the cot with him.
“Bill, please,” she urged gently as she knelt down alongside the bed, smiling sweetly at him as he kissed the fingers of her hand.
“Okay,” he relented, as he looked at the emotion flashing in her eyes. He’d obviously given her quite a scare. In truth, he’d given himself one too when the thrust stabilizers went out on him, and he had to bring his raptor down without lateral controls. He’d already lived a long and mostly good life, but it seemed like the best was just getting started. He’d definitely not yet made love nearly enough times to this amazing woman to be ready to punch his ticket. Proud as he was of his fancy flying today, he now had too much to live for to relish those kinds of ego trips. “But only if you lay down with me,” he insisted.
“No funny business?” she asked with a brow skeptically raised.
“No funny business,” he promised as he kissed her hand again.
“Okay, lie down and make room,” she ordered, helping him lay back, and then easing herself alongside him, lying sideways so that she could fit on the narrow cot with him. She kissed his cheek, and then settled her head on his uninjured shoulder, resting her hand on his chest, finding reassurance in the strong and steady beats of his heart.
He reached up with his good hand and wound his fingers with hers, pulling her hand up to his lips and kissing it before letting it rest again over his chest. He stroked her wrist with his thumb once their hands settled there. “You know, Laura,” he explained, “it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than a crashed raptor to ever take me away from you now that I have you.” He’d never been more sincere in his words in his life.
She smiled against his shoulder, unable to stop the few tears that gently slid from her eyes. “I thought you said it was just a hard landing,” she finished with an accusing giggle meant to cover her tears. The relief, the happiness, the exasperation, and most of all the love that she felt for him in this moment together made her feel more wonderfully alive than she could ever remember. She never wanted to let him go.
“That’s right. Hard landing. Thank you for the correction. Can’t get anything past a teacher apparently,” he finished, knowing he should ready for her retaliation for that one.
“Hey,” she protested, as she looked up at him, unable to keep from smiling as she saw the wideness of his grin. She rested her head back on his shoulder, and offered a false grumble. “I can’t believe I have to put up with the likes of you.”
After a few beats, he drew her hand up and kissed it again. “Thank you for putting up with me, Laura.”
“Well, you are just lucky I am a patient woman, Bill Adama,” she huffed, before hugging him tight enough to her to hopefully give him a little jolt of painful emphasis. “And it doesn’t hurt that I’m madly in love with you.”
“Well, in that case, they don’t come any luckier than me,” he replied, his heart singing loudly over the complaints of his sore head, ribs and shoulder. “And, by the way, I love you too, Laura Roslin.”
“Good,” she told him as she sat up and leaned over and kissed him gently on the lips.
He reached up and cupped her cheek with his hand as he looked into her eyes. “And I promise to never, ever leave you.”
“Even better,” she answered softly, tears welling in her eyes again as she kissed him once more. Before the kiss could turn urgent, she lay back down beside him. “But don’t think that just because you are lucky, that means you are now going to get lucky.”
Bill laughed as he held her tight, her body warm against him. “Oh well, can’t blame a guy for trying.” He was happy enough now to feel no more pain, for Laura was the best medicine he could ever ask for. Indeed it was true, they didn’t come any luckier than him.
Finis!