Ficlet: Kiss the Rain
Title: Kiss the Rain
Author: Davnee
Rating: K+
Summary: A quick sketch of the first conversation Bill and Laura ever had about her cancer. Set on Kobol. With inspiration from the deleted scene from Home pt. 2. Special thanks to the wonderful and indispensable unavitasegreta for making this little piece finally work.
The sunlight was fading fast and the clouds were beginning to gather once again. A rumble of thunder sounded in the distance.
"More rain," Laura sighed.
"I take it you've had your fill of this climate," Bill replied as he reached out to take his canteen back from her.
“I’m beginning to understand why the Twelve Tribes left,” she offered with a tired smile that widened as he smiled back. “This weather and terrain just might kill me before the cylons or the cancer even get the chance.”
Laura watched as Bill’s smile turned awkward and his eyes darkened at her words. She chided herself, not so much for having spoiled the easy mood between them, but rather for enjoying just a bit too much the proof that he clearly cared that she would die.
Plenty of people would mourn the passing of the Dying Leader. That was to be expected given that they were believers, but few would miss Laura Roslin. She was ashamed to admit that she wanted to be missed, and all the sweeter if by a rival turned friend. Because that was what they were doing here - becoming friends.
It was extraordinary that it had taken so long, or perhaps that it had happened so soon. She wasn’t sure which was right. But either way, she was grateful to know that she’d finally found someone to trust, to lean on, and to carry the people on without her.
Looking into Bill’s eyes, she noticed for the first time the brilliance of their blue color, realizing that the clouds of emotion now filling them made them shine even brighter. It was then that it occurred to her that she might be as sad to leave this man behind as he would be to see her go.
"I wish you would have told me," Bill said quietly.
“Would you have told me if our situations were reversed? And would it have changed anything if I had?” she asked, her tone mild as she delivered these challenges.
“I suppose not,” he conceded with a rueful nod.
Before Laura could finish nodding in reply, signaling the complicated mixture of vindication and regret she felt for all that had passed between them, he surprised her with his words.
“That’s all in the past. This is a family not a fleet, Laura. We’ve …” he thumbed his chest in guilty admission, “I’ve got to start leading it that way.”
“You’ve changed, Bill,” she observed gently, happily, still adjusting to calling him by his first name.
“Maybe,” he wavered. “I suppose it could just be post-traumatic stress from the shooting. That or I finally realized you’d just keep escaping from the brig every time I tried to take you back there.”
He found the sound of her laughter oddly moving, as if he’d put something right in the world just by making her happy in this tiny moment stolen from the gloom of this godsforsaken planet.
Looking at her with eyes finally cleared of his own stubborn arrogance, he saw that she was lovely. Not just pretty - he’d already figured that out when he held her in his arms for their dance on Colonial Day. Hell, he’d figured that out the first time he saw those legs working their way down the ladder from Colonial One. But lovely. That she sat before him damp and wearied and, yes, dying, took nothing away from his assessment. In fact, it only made her more so in his view. Perhaps lovely was also the wrong word. Magnificent might be most apt, though in her own understated way. Whatever she was, it was with more than a little regret that he realized that he was only now coming to appreciate how much he would miss her when she was gone.
The rain began in earnest, sheets of precipitation pounding loudly on the tarp above them and pouring over its sides. It would seem that nothing left in the tattered remains of their lives was meant to happen in half measures.
“Perhaps it will blow over quickly,” Bill remarked hopefully.
Laura began to laugh again. “Get used to it. This is only the beginning.”
Author: Davnee
Rating: K+
Summary: A quick sketch of the first conversation Bill and Laura ever had about her cancer. Set on Kobol. With inspiration from the deleted scene from Home pt. 2. Special thanks to the wonderful and indispensable unavitasegreta for making this little piece finally work.
The sunlight was fading fast and the clouds were beginning to gather once again. A rumble of thunder sounded in the distance.
"More rain," Laura sighed.
"I take it you've had your fill of this climate," Bill replied as he reached out to take his canteen back from her.
“I’m beginning to understand why the Twelve Tribes left,” she offered with a tired smile that widened as he smiled back. “This weather and terrain just might kill me before the cylons or the cancer even get the chance.”
Laura watched as Bill’s smile turned awkward and his eyes darkened at her words. She chided herself, not so much for having spoiled the easy mood between them, but rather for enjoying just a bit too much the proof that he clearly cared that she would die.
Plenty of people would mourn the passing of the Dying Leader. That was to be expected given that they were believers, but few would miss Laura Roslin. She was ashamed to admit that she wanted to be missed, and all the sweeter if by a rival turned friend. Because that was what they were doing here - becoming friends.
It was extraordinary that it had taken so long, or perhaps that it had happened so soon. She wasn’t sure which was right. But either way, she was grateful to know that she’d finally found someone to trust, to lean on, and to carry the people on without her.
Looking into Bill’s eyes, she noticed for the first time the brilliance of their blue color, realizing that the clouds of emotion now filling them made them shine even brighter. It was then that it occurred to her that she might be as sad to leave this man behind as he would be to see her go.
"I wish you would have told me," Bill said quietly.
“Would you have told me if our situations were reversed? And would it have changed anything if I had?” she asked, her tone mild as she delivered these challenges.
“I suppose not,” he conceded with a rueful nod.
Before Laura could finish nodding in reply, signaling the complicated mixture of vindication and regret she felt for all that had passed between them, he surprised her with his words.
“That’s all in the past. This is a family not a fleet, Laura. We’ve …” he thumbed his chest in guilty admission, “I’ve got to start leading it that way.”
“You’ve changed, Bill,” she observed gently, happily, still adjusting to calling him by his first name.
“Maybe,” he wavered. “I suppose it could just be post-traumatic stress from the shooting. That or I finally realized you’d just keep escaping from the brig every time I tried to take you back there.”
He found the sound of her laughter oddly moving, as if he’d put something right in the world just by making her happy in this tiny moment stolen from the gloom of this godsforsaken planet.
Looking at her with eyes finally cleared of his own stubborn arrogance, he saw that she was lovely. Not just pretty - he’d already figured that out when he held her in his arms for their dance on Colonial Day. Hell, he’d figured that out the first time he saw those legs working their way down the ladder from Colonial One. But lovely. That she sat before him damp and wearied and, yes, dying, took nothing away from his assessment. In fact, it only made her more so in his view. Perhaps lovely was also the wrong word. Magnificent might be most apt, though in her own understated way. Whatever she was, it was with more than a little regret that he realized that he was only now coming to appreciate how much he would miss her when she was gone.
The rain began in earnest, sheets of precipitation pounding loudly on the tarp above them and pouring over its sides. It would seem that nothing left in the tattered remains of their lives was meant to happen in half measures.
“Perhaps it will blow over quickly,” Bill remarked hopefully.
Laura began to laugh again. “Get used to it. This is only the beginning.”