The Woman
by eosaphrodite
Rated T for teens and really immature..errr..adults like me who think they're teens.
Laura was irritated but she couldn’t pinpoint quite why. It wasn’t as if she could blame it on the Canceron representative or because Tory had annoyed her with her hovering. It was those plus a million other issues; in short, it had been one of those days. She was sorely tempted to toss in her ‘presidential hat’ and call it quits. But she knew she neither could nor would. Either by fate or the will of the gods, since the beginning of the end, the future of the colonies was in her hands. And she took that responsibility very seriously. However, there were times…
“Are you going to finish that report or just beat it to death with your pen?”
Bill’s gravelly voice interrupted her musings and Laura peered at him over the rim of her glasses. “How about I beat the person who wrote it to death?”
“Wouldn’t work, there’d just be another report, and writer, waiting. You can’t kill them all.”
“It is a tempting thought, isn’t it?”
Laura tossed the file folder onto the floor and leaned back, stretching tense muscles. She said nothing as she slid her legs over Bill’s, only smiled slyly and waited. She didn’t have to wait long before he ran his hands over the calf of her leg and started massaging gently.
Laura sighed softly. “You are so good at that,” she murmured.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” Bill warned, but there was a playful tone in his voice. “You’re turn is next.”
“Yeah, yeah. You threaten that all the time.” She wriggled deeper on the couch. “Gods this is not what I wanted from life.”
Bill’s smile was grim. “I don’t think this is what anyone wanted from life.” He started on her other leg. “Running for my life in a dying battlestar was not what I was expecting to be doing now. I kinda expected to be retired in my cabin building boats and trying to forget that a red-haired, busy-bodied schoolteacher had turned my battle star into a museum with networked computers.”
“Hey!” Laura jerked her leg from his hands. “You are never going to let me forget that, are you?”
He pretended to think about it. “No. If I can’t forget the first time we met, why should you?”
“I bet you say that to all the girls. Besides, I think you just said that because it was the end of the worlds as we knew it.”
He shrugged. “Believe that if you want. But I’ll let you in on the truth.” He lifted one of her legs gently. “These were 80% of the reason. The computers made up the remaining 20.”
“You’re such a romantic.” She sighed loudly. “If I had known what a pain in the ass being President of the Ungrateful Colonies was, I think I would’ve passed.”
“No, you wouldn’t have. It was your duty and you would have done the same thing. Even knowing what you know now. And anyway, you’re pretty good at it.”
Laura nodded; he knew her well. “I’m a damned sight better than Baltar anyway.” She ignored his answering chime of ‘and Adar’ and continued. “You know, its not a bad run, when you think about it. I was a schoolteacher, then the Secretary of Education, now I’m the President. I’ve had small children tugging at me. Adar tugging at me and now I have all of humanity tugging at me.” She pulled a face, thinking of all the whining she’d been subjected to over the years. Slowly, a wide smile graced her face. “But you know what I like being most of all?”
“What?”
“The woman with you.” She swung her legs around and knelt on the couch beside him. “You are the only person that treats me like a woman. Moreover, you let me be a woman. That’s all I have to be when I’m with you. And I do believe that you’re the only one who touches me. No one else would dare.”
“I’ll touch you whenever you want.” Bill’s comment may have been lighthearted, but he knew exactly what it was like. The only person who didn’t treat him as a deity to be worshipped was Saul. Even Lee had his issues with his war hero father. It was a lonely place to be, made more so by the destruction of the colonies. At least he had the family he’d made while serving in the military; Laura had no one.
“I know and I love you for that.”
Bill looked up at her, his left had sliding up her thigh. “Is that all you love me for?”
It was Laura’s turn to pretend to think about it. “No, but it doesn’t hurt to keep you guessing.”
“You’re evil.”
Laura grinned widely. “I know. But you’ll have to punish me later. I have another meeting in ten minutes.” She pressed a kiss to his lips. “Catch up with you later?”
“Definitely.” He watched while she slipped her shoes on and gathered her papers. “You know what I like?” He waited until she stopped and looked at him. “That you’re the woman with me.”
chipper
grumpy
anxious
creative
surprised