Family Ties IX

As her chief aide and secretary filed out of her office, drawing the door closed behind them, Laura resumed her seat on the couch and rubbed her forehead, physically pushing at the headache brewing within her skull.

It had started midway through the meeting with Deputy Secretary Rodgers and their respective aides to line out a schedule that would allow Laura the time she needed for treatments and recovery. Though it had been a lengthy talk to iron out all the details, Laura believed the headache was due to needing to eat and not the meeting itself. She’d had nothing since breakfast but her secretary was going to go get her something from the cafeteria downstairs so hopefully that would help. Until then, she wanted quiet and stillness.

Shedding her shoes, Laura pulled her feet up onto the cushions beside her and leaned her head back and shut her eyes. She tried to clear her mind of everything and just relax, think about … Bill.

A smile curling her mouth, Laura hummed softly as she thought of him. It didn’t surprise her any more that when she tried to not think, she invariably ended up thinking about her soldier. The man had moved not only into her heart but her brain and she found she rather liked him there. She liked him, period. And she missed him.

The morning had passed with a blissful sort of normalcy that had left her ridiculously happy as she kissed him goodbye and left for work. She wondered how his day was going, imagined he was enjoying being aboard the ship again, making her wish she was with him. She would love to see him light up at the sight of the hulking bulk of Galactica, walk next to him as he radiated a palpable excitement at feeling the metal decking under his boots.

Laura hummed. Never in her life had she expected to fall in love with a soldier and yet she had, was desperately, head-over-heels in love with one whose boyhood dream still held sway even as he grayed and thickened around the middle — and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Commander William Adama was who he was and she adored him … every steadfast, sexy, passionate, loving, uniformed inch of him.

Gods, she loved how he looked in uniform, got a little thrill every time she saw him in it, every time she touched it to lay it out on the bed. He hadn’t expected that this morning but it had been an impulse, just as it had been on Picon, and she’d decided from his reaction today that she would continue to indulge it whenever the mood struck.

Laura loved when she could make him happy, and it usually only took little things. He was not a man of extravagant wants despite his apparent intent to spoil her completely. He loved books, Tauron ale, a good whiskey and cigarillos. He loved boxing, swimming in the sea, driving her car, and apparently working with his hands if the flower boxes he’d built and put around the house were any sign.

He also loved loving her, which was a good thing because she loved loving him … and making love with him. She wished…

A gentle knock on the door interrupted her thoughts, much to her annoyance, but she called for whomever it was to enter as she looked toward the entrance to her office. Her chief aide, Melanie, popped her head, advising, “The commander’s on line one.”

The news was delivered with a knowing tone and smile, which Laura couldn’t help but return, the interruption forgiven on the basis of the reasons alone.

“Thank you,” Laura replied and rose as her aide shut the door once more.

Making her way over behind her desk, she picked up the phone and brought it to her ear, almost breathless that the subject of her thoughts was on the other end of the line. “Hello, Commander,” she said softly in greeting.

“Madam Secretary,” came his familiar raspy rumble. The connection held a bit of static telling her he was still on Galactica.

Lowering into her chair, Laura asked, “How are things?”

“Good,” he rumbled. “Saul showed up this morning. Flew in from Scorpia.”

“That’s good news,” she replied, knowing he’d been uncertain if Saul would make it today since there’d been no report of the colonel having received his assignment notice as of yesterday evening.

“Yeah. He looked a little worse for wear, said shore patrol found him just before dawn.”

“He all right?” she asked.

“Ellen,” was all he said in answer, reminding her she needed to get the story about that woman one day soon.

But not now. Right now, she wanted to hear about him and indulged her curiosity, asking, “Are you enjoying your ship?”

“Yeah,” he rasped, asked, “You have any trouble getting in?”

She knew what he was asking and it wasn’t about the drive from Port Thetis to the office but the press. Oddly enough, she hadn’t really thought about it until he’d mentioned for her to not let them see her sweat as he departed, then it had preoccupied her the entire ride there. Thankfully, her worry had been for nothing, and she told him so. “Unscathed. I don’t think they were looking for me riding in with security agents.”

There was a pause, then cheekily, “Good. Because I have big guns now.”

It caught her off guard and she giggled, quickly bringing her hand up to her mouth to muffle the sound, fulling expecting that her staff would think her mad or that they were totally up to no good on the phone — which, she supposed they were in some way.

On the other end of the line, his soft, raspy chuckle underscored her own laughter, but like her own, eventually tapered to gentle, slightly accelerated breaths. When he sighed, she inquired, “What?”

There was a pause then, so very softly, “Miss you.”

She melted at his tone, knew his expression was likely that unlikely shy one that really only hinted at how much he loved her and how vulnerable he was with her. It stole her breath, as always, made her ache in ways and places she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to accurately define. To be so deeply loved and adored… to be missed… both had been too long absent in her life — if they’d ever been truly present at all.

“Me, too,” she breathed, her eyes falling shut as she confessed, “I was just thinking about you.”

“Yeah?” It was a rumble, so deep it cracked as if some part of him within had broken opened at knowing she was thinking about him, too.

“Mmm-hmmm,” she nodded even though he couldn’t see her. “Will you be home soon?” she asked, eager to see him despite the fact she herself had a few more hours to put in at the office.

“Not too much longer,” he replied then asked, “You want to eat out tonight?”

She considered it but decided she’d rather eat in. She would relax more if she did and shared her thoughts, asking, “Do you feel like grilling?”

“Think you can handle it?”

“Yes,” she answered. He was always worried about her stomach, but it had admittedly settled as she moved farther away from the diloxin treatment. It was too bad she had another one at the end of the week — but she pushed thoughts of that away for now and listened as he asked another question.

“Saul and Kara?”

“That’s fine,” she smiled.

Silence again reigned for several moments, perhaps even a minute or two, where they just listened to one another breath, the subtle shift of the receiver as one or the other of them moved slightly. With anyone else, she’d have been annoyed and looking for an excuse to end the call. With Bill, it was just plain comforting. In fact, she was fairly certain she could sit there the rest of the day, just listening to him breathe. Only hitch in her plan was the likelihood that she would fall asleep. Just being still with him tended to lull her that way.

A muted burst of static over the line from out of nowhere concealed his sounds and she thought perhaps the line had dropped, prompting her to inquire as the static faded back to expected levels, “You still there?”

“Yeah. I’m here.”

His answer was both assured and assuring, sliding across her eardrum soothingly and making her long to hear his voice without the distortion of the connection. She shook her head inwardly at herself, amused that, after only a few hours apart from him, she was having the thoughts of an anxious, classroom-bound child wanting to go home and play. Still, she consoled herself with the knowledge that he was probably thinking along the same things.

“I know it’s unprofessional of me to confess, but I’d really like to play hooky,” she said softly and heard a low “yeah” of agreement from Bill.

A light knock on her office door spurred Laura to open her eyes. She looked to see her secretary quietly and quickly entering, bringing with her a muffin and bottled water. Laura thanked her, prompting Bill to ask, “You busy?”

Casting a knowing smile at Kate, she answered his question. “No, I’m actually taking a break and Kate’s just brought me a little something to eat.”

Kate returned her smile and retreated the way she came, closing the door behind her, leaving Laura again alone with her caller. She could always count on her secretary’s discretion and expediency, for which she was infinitely grateful.

“She bring you something good?” Bill asked.

She smiled. “Just a muffin and water.”

He made a humming sound then told her he’d feed her well tonight. She knew that he would and pinched off a bite of muffin and ate it as he listed off a number of things he could fix. Between other bites, she told him what she preferred. The muffin wasn’t much but it eased her headache and talking to him of ordinary things eased the stress of the morning. She was thankful for both, especially the latter.

When he asked her if she wanted anything else for the meal, she offered him a tender “no” before telling him of something else she wanted, something that had occurred to her as he talked of eating dinner out on the deck tonight with the colonel and Lieutenant Thrace.

“Will you take me sailing before Friday?” she asked softly. “Just a few hours?”

His answer came quickly, on a soft rumble infused with happiness that she knew came solely from her having asked something of him. And, even though she’d already known what his answer would be, she trembled when she heard it, her heard thudding in time with each syllable.

“Absolutely, baby.”

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