Fic: Tauron Testimony

[afrakaday]

Title: Tauron Testimony
Rating: M
Word count: 3700
Summary: Laura's testimony before the Quorum of Twelve goes differently than she could have anticipated.
A/N: Thanks to nixmom for looking this over and fragrantwoods for the conceptual inspiration.
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“Bill, do you think this looks okay?” Laura buttoned her jacket and fluffed her hair nervously, then stood up from the vanity and turned to face him.

He shifted Phineus from his right hip to the left and looked Laura up and down. “You look great, honey. Very professional.” He reached down and plucked a piece of lint off the navy skirt she wore, letting his fingers linger longer than necessary. “The Quorum’s gonna love you.”

Laura worried her bottom lip. “I don’t know if maybe I should be wearing a collared shirt.” She looked down at the white wrap top she wore under her suit jacket. She wore the shirt frequently, finding it among the easiest tops to move out of the way when she needed to quickly express breast milk for Cyrus behind the closed door of her office. Laura was actually fairly certain that none of her button-downs even fit across her chest anymore without straining and gapping. If she was going to go that route, she’d have to borrow one of Bill’s.

She turned and looked at herself in the mirror critically. Her vine tattoos were visible, though not exactly on display. Her colleagues in the Ministry of Education hardly noticed her ink anymore. But going before the Quorum was another matter. There would be video clips and news coverage...

Bill shook his head and leaned in close behind her, bringing his lips to the side of her neck so as not to muss her makeup. “You know this shirt’s my favorite, right?”

Laura’s hum turned to a gasp when he bit down lightly. “You might have told me once or twice.” She gasped again, this time in pain rather than pleasure; Phin had gotten bored and decided a sharp tug to a fistful of hair might garner him her attention. “Ouch! No, Phinny!”

“Okay, buddy. Time-out for you,” Bill decided, and practically tossed Phin onto their bed. Phineus, totally unrepentant, bounced happily without giving his parents a second look. Bill tugged Laura closer, no small child taking up space between them.

“You can do this,” he said, looking into her eyes.

“We’re expecting it to be pretty hostile. The staff’s been telling me horror stories.”

He shook his head. “I believe in you. They will too.”

A cry from the corner of the room interrupted what Laura was certain would have been a very sweet pep talk. “I have to go, Bill.” She looked apologetic as she gathered up her notes and stuffed them in a chestnut leather briefcase. “I put a couple of bottles for Cy in the fridge, it sounds like he could use one once you get him up from his nap--”

“I got it,” Bill reassured her. “This is just a normal day for us, remember?”

Sephie toddled into the increasingly crowded bedroom, her red curls flattened from her nap and her eyes still clouded from sleep. “Mama go khorm?”

“Yes, sweetheart,” Laura answered, crouching down to kiss her daughter’s cheek. “Be a good girl for daddy.”

“I go Tsattie?” she inquired with a tilt of her head.

Bill cleared his throat, then picked up Sephie and placed her on the bed next to Phin. “We’re gonna hang out here, muffin.” He went to the cradle in the corner and picked up Cy.

“I tink I go Tsattie.” Sephie grabbed Phin’s hand for leverage to begin bouncing up and down. “Mama khorm. Ma-ma khor-um.”

Laura picked up her briefcase and placed hurried kisses to both Cyrus’s forehead and Bill’s cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I owe you one.”

He grinned deviously. “Maybe I just like having you at my mercy.”

“Hmm.” Laura’s grin told him that she wasn’t entirely adverse to it, either. “Be good, kiddos. I love you.”

“Lub you Mama,” Phin called.

“Love you too, my darling big boy and my sweet girl.”

* * *

The Quorum was as full as pomp and ceremony as she’d expected. What she hadn’t anticipated was that its members bickered worse than her children when there was only one cookie left in the jar and they’d skipped their nap.

They must sanitize this for the broadcasts, she realized. It was a clubby, vaunted atmosphere, reminiscent of the elite prep schools and universities each of the legislators had probably attended with their humble-bragging mockery of one another and apparent disdain for the process they were supposed to be overseeing. The Quorum finally gave the Secretary of Education the courtesy of allowing him to finish his introductions. With the Secretary’s final introduction-- “Dr. Laura Roslin-Adama, former Caprica City Teacher of the Year and currently serving a one-year term as Director of Cultural Programs in the Ministry of Education” --Laura was up.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the Quorum,” she began, her voice strong and clear. “As the Director of Cultural Programs for public schools across the Colonies, I am here today to testify as to the effect those programs are having. There are some marked successes, but so much more could be done with stronger protective legislation and more robust funding.”

“And why isn’t this something that can be dealt with on a school-to-school or district-to-district basis?” asked the delegate from Leonis with a sneer.

“What we need is a large-scale campaign in place to change attitudes and break preconceptions on a systemic level,” she answered. “Each of the twelve Colonies and the local governments within agreed, by signing the Articles of Colonization, to submit to a strong federal authority. Over the past twenty years people and families have become more mobile; twenty-five percent of the population of the colonies lives on a planet other than the one on which they were born. Yet old prejudices remain, and are interfering with our students’ education. It is incumbent upon the Ministry of Education to take a strong hand in cultural integration so that when these students go off into the workplace, whether on the planet where they were raised or to a pursue opportunities better suited to their interests on a different world, they aren’t judged by the planet they come from, but by the person that they are.” She paused and took a deep breath. “I have outlined a five-point plan, it’s on the first page of your materials--”

“Exchange programs? Mandatory language training?” broke in the Picon delegate. “You want the federal government to bankroll high school students’ vacations?”

“I’m suggesting a reallocation of funds. One-tenth of the schools’ athletic budgets could cover exchange trips for each graduating class--”

The Sagittaron delegate snorted. “Oh, so an unfunded mandate then?”

Focus, Laura, she reminded herself, sitting up straighter in her chair. “As you’ll see, the first point of the plan is a cultural awareness program that has already been implemented successfully in primary schools across Caprica. It can be taught by the schools’ regular teachers and merely supplements the social studies curriculum.”

“Look, Mrs. Adama,” interrupted the Picon delegate. “I can see from your tattoos that you’ve got an agenda that might be personal. The fact remains that there are parents that don’t want their kids exposed to that kind of thing.”

Laura felt her temper flare. “It’s Doctor Roslin-Adama, Delegate Chalmers.” She pushed her shoulders back, putting her tattoos on display for the entire chamber. Hundreds of eyes were focused on the top of her chest; she let them look. “And you have just illustrated the problem. Children are impressionable. We’ve found a fifty percent decrease in bullying, especially planetary origin-based bullying, in the schools that have implemented the program. Preliminary results are showing that as those students get older, there are fewer conflicts requiring mediation and fewer instances of physical violence.”

“I don’t need the Colonies’ children to be sedated pacifists,” Chalmers said. “Picon is the Fleet headquarters, the Admiralty thinks there should be a greater emphasis on physical education, navigation calculation, and military cadet programs. The children only have so many hours in a school day.”

“I understand that,” Laura ground out, wanting to tell him about her own experiences with the Fleet. “The business of educating children, however, is that of the Ministry of Education, not the Admiralty. And as you’ll see in your materials, each proposal is supported by empirical evidence--”

A few Quorum members flipped through their bound proposals with interest, but before she could continue, Chalmers broke in again. “Doctor Roslin-Adama,” he said smoothly, “this has been a complete waste of our time. The Delegate moves to proceed to the next item.”

Laura looked down the dais toward her boss for direction. Secretary Jack Lostau just shrugged his shoulders and held up his hands in a sign of frustration and powerlessness.

“Motion denied,” said a deep voice from the back of the chamber. “We’ve got unfinished business to cover.”

Oh gods. Bill! Laura could see Colonial security officers hurrying up the aisle behind Bill, looking all too eager for a takedown. One officer's fingers twitched anxiously at the nightstick hanging from his belt.

"You got a problem with Taurons?" Bill asked rhetorically as he approached Chalmers. "Or just anyone who associates with 'em?"

"Excuse me," sputtered the delegate. "Who is this man? Get him out of here. Security!"

"That is my husband," Laura admitted, trying hard not to let the inappropriate giggles burst through her calm facade.

"Captain Bill Adama," Bill supplied, snapping off an ironic salute. "Retired. Sedate pacifist student, now." He smiled at Laura, then glanced behind him and gathered that only a few moments of freedom remained for him to wrap things up. He leaned down close to the red-faced delegate, his bulking shadow cast over the paunchy man under the bright Quorum lights. "And if you ever insult my wife, or Tauron, or tattoos, or any frakking person, ever again, I will make you pray to mother Hera above that you'd had the benefit of the cultural sensitivity training that you're going to vote to include in this year's budget."

He dodged the lunging grasp of a dark-clothed security officer and danced behind the dais. "Honey?" he called in an apologetic whisper. "I'll see you at home, hopefully." And he bolted for the rear entrance off the side of the stage.

"Oh gods," Laura said, her head spinning at how quickly things were unfolding. She had to get out of here, find her lunatic husband...

“Order, order,” the Speaker of the Quorum shouted over the din of the crowd. She tapped her mic, then shouted again. “The floor will come to order!”

An unpleasant blast of feedback reverberated throughout the chamber, causing people to groan and cover their ears. It at least had the effect that the bewildered Speaker had been going for, silencing the crowd.

"I think that concludes my testimony," Laura said brightly into her mic.

"Quorum adjourned," added the Speaker, a kindly-looking woman from Aerilon with a thick accent. "That's quite enough for today."

"Quite enough?" cried Chalmers, mocking her accent. "I have been assaulted! Arrest that man, that...Adama." He shuddered.

"Frak you, Chalmers," the Speaker replied dismissively. "Dr. Roslin-Adama, thank you for your time today. I apologize for the brutish behavior of my colleague here."

"Likewise, I'm sure," called Laura over her shoulder as she fled the scene trying to figure out where to go to find Bill. Her boss gave her a sympathetic, if urgent, wave.

She pushed through throngs of reporters toward the exit. She'd head for the car, she decided. If she didn't see him by the time she got there, she'd try the maglev station and then head either home or to Tsattie's. They only had the one car, so he must have taken the lev-- using his student discount pass, as he so often liked to lord over her whenever they needed a fare--

A hand clapped down on her shoulder as she walked lost in thought, and she nearly screamed, but cried out in relief when she realized it was him.

"Oh my gods, Bill. What the frak were you thinking?" she hissed, even as her arm snaked around him and she pulled him close. "You should have gotten arrested for that stunt."

"Still could, I guess," he said lightly. "Where's the car?"

“This way,” she sighed, looking behind them. It didn’t seem that they were being followed. Still her adrenaline surged, a nervous energy bubbling between them.

Finally they reached the government employee garage where Laura parked each day. She tossed him the keys; she didn’t trust herself to drive right now, whereas Bill seemed almost preternaturally calm.

Easing down into the seat, she tossed her purse to the floorboards and took a deep breath. Just as she finished exhaling, a door slammed and his mouth was on hers.

Unexpected. His warmth was enveloping her, from the heat of his lips and tongue seeking hers, his wandering hands, his own heated limbs as she ran her hands over his chest, neck, legs. His lips moved against hers hungrily; she returned his kisses, preferring them for now to the words they’d have to exchange later. She pushed the thought aside as he pushed up her skirt.

A whimper escaped her lips as he stroked her through her panties and she shifted uncomfortably on the seat, trying to give him better access. Even as she let him feel her up and touch her intimately, the angrier part of her mind that was still processing what had just happened in the Quorum whispered that she should kick him out and let him find his own way home. Torn between ordering him out, straddling him in the driver’s seat, or tugging him into the backseat with her, she just stayed where she was and squeezed her thighs around his hand while she reached over to massage the bulge in his jeans.

He buried his face between her breasts, taking his time kissing the rambling cherry blossom vines intertwined across her chest. Laura’s head fell back against the headrest and her eyes nearly closed in pleasure as his fingers pushed past the damp fabric barrier of her panties inside of her, one finger and then two stroking her from deep within while his thumb circled her clit. His other hand tugged her shirt down and unsnapped her bra cups so that he could tease and suckle her nipples in alternating turns.

“You’re crazy,” she hissed at him as she writhed in her seat. He suckled harder and bit down, then soothed her flesh with gentle laving of his tongue before moving his mouth back up to her chest to the side of her neck, biting hard again, leaving his mark. She continued to let him work out his possessive aggression; she was so close, this was so good, she was so angry--

She unfastened his the button at his waistband with one hand and slipped her hand down his boxers, seeking and finding the hot flesh that was throbbing with excitement and desire. With a twist of her wrist, he grew even more, and began to work his own hand against her flesh more furiously in an emulation, no doubt, of what he wanted her to do to him. More, they both needed more...she felt a few drops of moisture at the end of his dick and started to think about straddling him again. Just a few thrusts would probably do it...she ground herself harder against his fingers.

The sound of a car starting caught Laura’s attention, followed by the brief flash of red taillights behind them illuminating the dark garage. Her hooded eyes flew open, and her entire body seized up, halting the crescendo Bill had been building her up to at once until only a low resonant thrumming remained.

Sensing the change, he pulled his face back from her breasts to look at her. "What?"

“This is insane. I don't know why you're so keyed up, but it's not some post-mission bacchanalia, Bill. Just take me home, please.” She removed her hand from his pants and gestured toward the exit.

Bill groaned in disappointment and reluctantly withdrew his own hand. She tucked her breasts back into her bra and shot him a warning look reminding him that a few kisses and a hurried finger-frak wouldn’t absolve him of his misdeeds.

"Tsattie's there with the kids," he said as he turned the keys in the ignition.

"Good. She can take the twins to the park while the baby naps." So they could fight or frak it out. She turned her gaze from out the window to him. "I'm so mad at you, but my gods, I do love you for telling that motherfrakker off."

"Just for that?"

She adjusted the panels of her shirt to a more modest appearance than the one Bill had just given her. "Stop fishing. You’re in hot water, mister.” She sighed. “Really, Bill? What happened between 'I believe in you,' and you rushing the Quorum like my personal goon squad? You thought I couldn't handle things myself?"

"Of course not," he said. His voice was calm and measured, the one he used with the kids when they were on the verge of a major meltdown. "I went because I wanted to see you testify about your work, and I didn't tell you because I didn't know whether I'd be able to get someone to watch the kids."

“You completely undermined me. Chalmers was making himself look bad, then your little display just reaffirmed every negative Tauron stereotype he was insinuating.”

“You’ve never minded my Tauron characteristics before,” he said. He absently rubbed the inside of his forearm where the names of their three children resided in perpetuity.

“That’s not what I’m talking about, and you know it,” she said, annoyed at how little credit he was giving her. She'd married him with an exchange of tattoos instead of in a temple, after all. "What you did was completely inappropriate. You made me look unprofessional, and you embarrassed me in front of my colleagues."

"Yes," he admitted without hesitation. "But don't you think the Quorum's going to remember your agenda now?"

"Hmmm." She felt her frown melt away and the tension recede as she considered the Quorum's collective progression from boredom and indifference to horror and even amusement as her testimony had unfolded. "I forgive you, Bill."

He grinned as he pulled up to the curb in front of their small wood-sided house. "Thank you, Laura."

When they stepped through the front door of the house, they found Bill's grandmother on the couch, the baby content on her lap and the two toddlers on either side of her. Their eyes, even Cyrus's, were transfixed on the screen in front of them.

"Hello," Laura called to get their attention. "Did Tsattie let you watch a movie?"

Ruth just smirked as Sephie exclaimed, "Mama Dada on da vid!"

Laura dropped her briefcase to the floor and hurried across the room so she could see for herself. "Oh my gods."

“Oh, gods,” repeated Phin.

“You’d make a good body man, Bill,” Tsattie told him approvingly. “Good presence. Just threatening enough to maintain credibility without crossing the line into assault.”

“Don’t encourage him, Ruth,” Laura said.

Bill’s face held traces of humor. “It just happened twenty minutes ago,” he said. “It’s already on the news?”

“The alert came in while we were watching my stories,” Tsattie admitted. She had a weakness for Tauron soap operas, and Phin and Sephie liked watching with her even though they couldn’t follow the convoluted storylines.

Laura cringed as she watched Bill lean over Chalmers on the screen. The whole ridiculous scene was over in less than a minute, but the commentary kept looping it over and over. Finally she went to the vid set and turned it off.

Sephie protested. “I watch dat! Mama and Dada at khorum!”

“Enough,” Laura said firmly. She leaned down and picked a sleepy Cyrus up from Tsattie’s lap and placed him in the pack-and-play in the corner of the living room. He yawned and stretched, then curled up in sleep.

Phin slid off the couch and came over to Laura. He hugged her leg, then looked up with his big green eyes. “Read me story, mama?”

“In a little while, Phinny.” Laura suddenly felt exhausted. “Ruth, are you up for taking them down the street to the park?”

Tsattie bristled slightly. “Of course I am.” She looked from Laura to Bill and back again, and muttered, “We’ll take our time.”

“Thank you,” Bill said to his grandmother. He sat down on the couch and pulled Sephie onto his lap to help put on her sneakers and secure the velcro straps to keep them in place.

“You need all the help you can get, Willie,” she said, patting his knee. “Your heart was in the right place. But stupid.”

Laura had gone into the twins’ room and come back with their jackets. She helped Phin with his first and then Sephie, who leaped off of Bill, beaming. “Good job khorm, mama!”

“Aw, that’s a nice thing to say, Sephie.” Laura glared at Bill over Sephie’s head; using their daughter as a mouthpiece wouldn’t help his cause.

Ruth stood up and began ushering the twins toward the door. “Come along,” she ordered with a snap of her fingers. “Phineus, you can bring your ball if you’d like.”

“Okay!”

The three of them left and Laura looked out the window to watch them cross the street, hand in hand, Phin proudly carrying his miniature replica Picon Panthers pyramid ball.

Bill stood behind her, his hands wrapping around her waist. “I’m sorry,” he breathed in her ear.

She leaned against him and pushed her hair back behind her shoulders to expose her neck to him as he nuzzled her. “I know.”

His fingers toyed with the button of her blazer, swept upwards to her breasts. “Let me show you how much?”

She hummed and shifted against him. “I believe you owe me.”

Next story: Farewell Freeze