Title: Today was different

Author: Bellamortsdaughternesha

Summary: Three and twelve, fifteen and twenty-three, twenty-seven and thirty-five, thirty-nine and forty-seven, and fifty-five and sixty-three where the ages where Laura and Bill’s lives merged, and they forgot every time until the last.

Chapter Summary: They finally remember... and today was truly different.

Disclaimer: Any character, situation, or location that is recognizable doesn’t belong to me, at all. Although I wish I could have my personal Adama.

Authors Note: I thought this up today and immediately started writing it before my muse would delete it from my brain. I suppose that it has spoilers for the preview of Caprica and for the miniseries of BSG, however it can be considered AU since I’m dreaming up all this meetings between them. Hope you like them. The character death mentioned is never seen but its hinted or mentioned and it is certainly not Bill or Laura.

~*~
Fifty-five and sixty-three
~*~

Caprica City
0 years before Cylon invasion
Roslin age 55, Adama age 63

From the moment she woke up she knew that today would be different, very different. She wasn’t expecting it to be a good difference, she was dreading the difference. She wasn’t dreading the correct difference though. Today she had a meeting with her doctor before being shuttled over to Galactica to deal with one of those military men she hated. She was dreading the visit with her doctor, she wasn’t dreading butting heads with the Commander.

She got ready slower than usual and very on purpose. She chose the softest suit she had so that she could seem vulnerable to the Commander before she showed her true self and astonish him. She did her makeup as minimal as possible so that whomever she spoke to would concentrate on her brain and not on the plastic beauty that Caprican woman seemed to favor this days. Her hair was quickly put into a conservative up do, one she didn’t like but one she had to have because of her job. She had to look like she was being kept together by her strength even when her strength was almost none existent.

The visit to the doctor had been as dreadful as she had imagined. She had to wait by herself in the open space of his office while he retreated and studied the results of her test. Her gaze shifted to one of the windows where she could see the bustling city. She could see single people walking and rushing towards their work, she could see families enjoying a small walk, and she could feel herself wishing to be out of the single’s group and in the family group. But she knew, she already knew, that she didn’t have time for it.

When the doctor opened the door she couldn’t help but jump. Her heart was beating wildly as he sat down in front of her, and it took all her resolution to not grip the edges of her chair. “…. It has spread…” she heard the doctor say. “…its inoperable…” she had to sit through the whole lecture, she had to make a decision, and she chose to once more to ignore the symptoms and live her life, whatever she had left, the way she wanted to.

With the most dreadful part of her day over she headed back to her office where she would gather her papers, review them one last time, have a final meeting with Richard before she was put in a raptor and taken to the ship that would then take her to the Battlestar. Suddenly the idea of facing the Commander, with this illness in her breasts, was more horrible than she had previously imagined, but she knew that she would pull through, she had to pull through.

The ride to Galactica was more eventful than she had thought, Billy, her recently acquired aid, proved to be much more intelligent that she had given him credit for. They had verbally spared, she had used him as a dummy for the Commander, and he had even made her laugh when his voice acquired a much deeper tone which he assured her was the tone of the Commander.

Billy was a good boy and she would miss him once she was gone… if she was capable of missing someone.

Her fist step into the Battlestar reminded her why she shouldn’t have brought a skirt. The next couples of steps made her regain her strength and gather her courage. By the time she met the Commander she was completely pulled together; Laura the woman with cancer was far gone and Laura the Secretary of Education was residing in her place.

She pushed her hand out even before he turned to look at her. “Commander, it’s an honor to meet you.” She said in a strong voice as she waited for him to turn around.

The Commander did turn around and her breath got caught in her throat. Could this be the man she had been dreaming off for the past years? Could this be the military man that had danced with her during the Governor ceremony? That had made her feel like she belonged? That had made her feel the most beautiful?

“Secretary of Education.” He knowledge her, shaking her hand almost tenderly.

He didn’t remember her. It was as plain as day back in Caprica that he didn’t remember her. She didn’t allow this knowledge to hurt her, after all she was probably just another of the women he danced with. She knew very well he used to be a flyboy, they all started that way. Why would he remember her anyhow? Her hair was much shorter and darker and tightly kept that the first time he had seen her, her eyes had lost their sparkle over the latest news that she had acquired, and her body seemed to be letting go of the fight against gravity.

She was far from the image that he probably remembered, if he remembered at all.

He was far from the image that she remembered of him. His face was different as was his built. He was stronger now both in physical sense and in mental sense. His face was marred with more scars that she remembered and yet again maybe she hadn’t paid enough attention to him back then.

She had to thread carefully.

She looked around, everywhere but him, looking for anything to start the conversation she knew she had to have with him. “You have a nice ship.”

He narrowed his eyes, almost growling at her naivety. “It’s a ship ma’am; they are all built with the standard materials.”

He was not going to make this easy. He knew why she was here, although he still didn’t know who she was, and he already knew what his answer would be.

“Let me go straight to the point.” Laura said gathering her courage to simply blurt what she had to say. “As you know the Galactica is being turned into a museum and it’s my job, as part of being the Secretary of Education, to ensure that my teachers and students are completely safe while they visit.”

“I can assure you ma’am, Galactica can provide that safety.” Bill gruffed out.

Yes, this was the man she had met, the man she had dreamed off, how could she have ever forgotten his voice?

“Yes it can provide the safety its walls have, but what if something where to happen? What if the kids got separated from their teacher? Is Galactica ready to give that sort of protection?” She continued pressing knowing very well they would soon be battling over the network.

Bill seemed to think for a second, his gaze on her unwavering. If she would have been able to listen to his thoughts she would have realized that Bill was trying very hard to place her image in his life, to see why she was so familiar. He was unable to do so but the colors of her eyes were calling to him, and her voice was serving as a beacon to his memories.

“Commander? Is Galactica ready to give that sort of protection?” She reinstated.

He knew Galactica was not ready for it; after all it wasn’t designed as a museum but as a battle station. Even then he was not going to allow this woman, this very familiar woman, to meddle with his lady. Quickly moving out of the room he had greeted her in he tackled the one thing that they were inching towards. “Galactica will not have a network.”

It took Laura a couple of seconds to snap out of her daydream and follow his path. She tried to catch up to him and was grateful when he stopped and waited for her. Unfortunately the guide also caught up to them. “You need to allow us to put that network, it’s important for the teachers and the students; Galactica is far too big for a child to get lost easily.”

Walking side by side a soft scent soon filled Bill’s nostrils. He faltered a little in his step, slowing down, as he found the source of it; the Secretary of Education smelled like old books, lead, and Caprican lilies. He quickly turned to look at her, his side of the issue still being debated even when his mind was in something else. He focused on every little detail. Her hair was shorter, darker, but it was indeed the same hair that had captured him with his softness, he could see that without even touching it. Her eyes were sad, preoccupied, with almost no life left but they were still the green eyes he had lost himself in. This was his goddess! It hadn’t been a dream after all. All he needed was a confirmation of her name and he would know for sure. He tried to remember, and it didn’t take him long, to realize that her name was indeed Laura, Laura Roslin.

“It tells people things like where the restroom is, and…” She continued, oblivious to his sudden realization.

He had to get away, this was too dangerous. Here was his goddess, in flesh and blood, as beautiful as ever. He was no further away from falling in love with her like he had been that day. But he couldn’t allow himself to do that, he needed to keep her away, he needed to hate her.

He stopped abruptly but enough for Laura to see the fire that was burning behind his pupils. “It’s an integrated computer network… and I will not have it in this ship.”

Laura let out a breath of understanding. If the Commander, if William Adama wanted to play this way, then so did Laura Roslin and the Secretary of Education. She was already starting to hate this man, to bury her feelings for him away, to play his game. “I heard you are one of those people.” She retorted. “You are actually afraid of computers.”

“No, there are many computers on this ship.” He quickly told her, defending his views. “But they are not networked.”

He was infuriating her, very quickly. “A computerized network would simply make it faster and easier for the teachers to be able to teach…”

Once more he interrupted her, rudely if she could add. “Let me explain something to you. Many good men and women lost their lives aboard this ship because someone wanted a faster computer to make life easier. I'm sorry that I'm inconveniencing you or the teachers, but I will not allow a networked computerized system to be placed on this ship while I'm in command. Is that clear?” He asked her. She suddenly understood where he was coming from. Not only did he care for his Battlestar but he actually cared for its people, for the people under his command.

“Yes sir.” She said, not wanting to but having to accept that he had made himself perfectly clear.

A ghost of recognition flashed through his eyes but Laura convinced herself that it was just her mind making things up. The Commander had given no other indication that he remembered her. “Thank you. 'Scuse me” And with that he had marched out of her life once more, for the moment.

Afterwards, having accepted her defeat for the sake of the people in the Battlestar, Laura had to accept that a network of computers was probably not the smartest solution to the problem. Making her way to the raptor that would take her back to her ship, her mind was not thinking about other possible solutions, instead her mind was thinking about the Commander and how this was probably the last time she ever saw him. Their meeting, their reunion, had not been a good one.

She was strapped in her seat and awaited for her trip back to Caprica. She hated to think she had lost a battle, just like she had lost many others, and would lose many more, but at least she had gained a new understanding that would hopefully help her in the years, in the months, to come.

She didn’t know, not at that instant, how much that insight would eventually help her. She didn’t know how today was actually different. It wasn’t that she had learned, or finally heard, that she had cancer that made this day different. It wasn’t that she had finally seen the man she had not seen for years and that instead of evoking those feelings long buried, he had evoked the feelings of anger from her. It wasn’t that once more he was gone out of her life.

What it was, what made that day different, was that the worlds as they knew them ended.

Her life, from that day forth, would forever be different.

And once more…. Today was different.