Laura Roslin

He's coming back for us.

[onceandfuturepresident]

Laura pulled her blanket higher, over her head, as a cold draft blew in from the front of her tent. She'd need to fix the loose canvas flaps before it started getting really cold. New Caprica was always cold, but it seemed to be falling into a muddy winter.

Her blanket shifted, and she moaned, too tired to protest more. When she pulled it, it didn't move, and a sharp voice greeted her ears.

"Laura, dear, I need you to get up."

She was wide-awake in an instant, icy fear running through her veins. Cavil. She ran a mental inventory of what she was wearing- socks, underwear, two pairs of leggings, and a thick sweater- and any potential weapons nearby- a thin book.

"I need your help, Laura," he said, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"I'm not sure how I can help you with anything this late at night." She could hear Centurions clanking outside as they shifted in the rain. There was no way she could get away unnoticed.

"See, that's where you're wrong."

A terrible thought ran through her mind. Surely not-

"I need some information."

She relaxed slightly. "Unless you'd like a Colonial education, I'm useless."

He chuckled. "Oh, not at all, dear. Not at all."

There was a loud scream not so far away, and Laura jumped. Another scream, from a different location.

"What are you doing?"

Cavil laughed again. "Wouldn't you love to know? You see, our previous efforts to gather information about this community have been highly unsuccessful-"

"You're taking people away." The realization hit her like a load of bricks. People were being spirited away in the middle of the night.

"Well, the element of surprise does tend to aid effectiveness."

"Someday, we are going to crucify you," she spat. "Each and every one of you for what you're doing here."

"My, my. But what would you call your species' attempted genocide of Cylon-kind?"

"That is different. There were heavy losses on both sides. It was not one sided, and now, it's history."

"Oh, we remember very differently." He stood suddenly. "I'm afraid you'll have to come with me."

"No way in hell." She grabbed the sides of her bed, little good that it would do.

"I was afraid of that." The Cavil whistled, and two silver bullethands stepped into her small abode. "Please help Ms. Roslin to the detention center."

They stepped forward again, long-fingered hands reaching for her arms.

She didn't have a chance. Nonetheless, she didn't have to go quietly. She screamed as loudly as her lungs allowed and reached for the novel on her bedside table. It didn't score her any points, but she relished the look of surprise on Cavil's face as she slapped him with one of the few remaining hardcover copies of Kataris.

The centurions grabbed her arms and she thrashed as violently as she could, kicking and screaming.

"You're going to hurt yourself," Cavil said cooly.

"FRAK YOU!"

"Such language."

"GODSDAMMIT!"

She was creating a scene. They all got tangled in the tent flaps as she was dragged out, and she could see lights coming on in other tents and voices rising.

It would probably do her some harm in the long run, but she didn't care. This was the first she'd heard of midnight seizures, and she wanted to give the best warning she could.

"FRAK OFF!" she growled again. This kind of scene was entirely not her norm, but if she could save anyone else from the same fate, she'd do anything.

Her feet never touched the ground. They nearly flew through the encampment. It was dark, wherever they took her, and she was lost until she caught sight of the medical tent, still brightly lit.

"DOC!" she shouted. "Doc! They're taking people! The-" a frigid metal hand clamped itself over her mouth.

Cavil spoke, though this time, his fury wasn't so well hidden. "That's enough, Ms. Roslin."

She craned her head backward as they continued, and in the shadows, she could see the burly form of Doc Cottle waving a hand over his head at her. He had heard her.

Thank the gods.

[wearealsoboats]

on loving a fighter

[onceandfuturepresident]

"Do you want me to walk you home, Ellen?"

[ellen-tigh-blog]

"Home?"

She doesn’t know what ‘home’ is anymore. It’s not the apartment in Caprica City, it’s not Galactica. It’s not the cold, damp tent she shares with Saul - if he is not in lock up. 

On the other hand it is anywhere Cavil’s not. She bites away a tear. Laura can’t know. She wouldn’t understand. She is an upstanding sort. Takes the moral high ground. At all times too - or as far as she knows. She has even managed to keep her lover safe.

"No, thank you. I’m sure I’ll find my way." She coughed raspingly.

[onceandfuturepresident]

Laura looked Ellen over appraisingly. The blonde had a contrary frown on her face, and Laura could tell that any further offer of help would antagonize her further.

"Look, Ellen. Come to my tent, at least for now. It's almost curfew, and Gods know you don't want the centurions after you for that. Besides, Saul isn't home, is he?" Laura looked away. It seemed as though the colonel was always in lockup. In and out, in and out. She was lucky she hadn't been taken yet. She supposed it was only a matter of time.

She reached out and took Ellen's arm, then started slowly down the gravel road to her tent. Her home. They reached it just as the sirens for curfew sounded, and Laura flipped the tent flap back, pushing Ellen in ahead of her, before ducking in and letting the flap fall. 

It was dark, so she fumbled for her lighter and lit several of the candles on the table nearest her. They illuminated the tent, its violet drapes, and their faces with an eerie, flickering light.

"So."

[myspecialdestiny-deactivated201]

Kara smiled, puts her hands on her hips and looked up at the sky.

"Hopefully we won’t have to play the long game," she said. "If Galactica and the old man are still in one piece up there, he’ll come back."

That wasn’t a guess or even a hope. She and Adama (and his sons) had a few things in common, and one of those was hard-headed stubbornness. He wouldn’t leave them behind, not with breath in his body and a ship under his command.

She laughed, just like the old man was here and they were sharing an inside joke.

"Yup. He won’t be able to help himself."

[onceandfuturepresident]

Laura closed her eyes. He'll be back. I know he'll be back. He would never leave us. She remembered leaving thousands behind after the initial attack on Caprica and the colonies, remembered the voices cursing her to rot in hell for eternity. She had left them, so why should Bill Adama be any different? He would know to flee with the survivors, wouldn't he?

It was a disquieting thought. She suddenly felt tense and uneasy.

"Goodbye, Kara. I'll see you around." She made some excuse about schoolwork to grade and slipped away, into the night.

[myspecialdestiny-deactivated201]

Kara smiled, puts her hands on her hips and looked up at the sky.

"Hopefully we won’t have to play the long game," she said. "If Galactica and the old man are still in one piece up there, he’ll come back."

That wasn’t a guess or even a hope. She and Adama (and his sons) had a few things in common, and one of those was hard-headed stubbornness. He wouldn’t leave them behind, not with breath in his body and a ship under his command.

She laughed, just like the old man was here and they were sharing an inside joke.

"Yup. He won’t be able to help himself."

[onceandfuturepresident]

Laura looked up to the sky, as though she expected the Galactica to jump back into orbit before her very eyes.

"I'm sure they'll be back," she said with iron conviction. "He would never leave us here. He's probably planning some hare-brained scheme to rescue us as we speak."

Bill would be back. She could feel it in her bones. He wouldn't leave her, let alone Kara, the Tighs, and half his crew in the Cylons' hands. 

[myspecialdestiny-deactivated201]

"What - like a kid?" Kara asked. She made a disgusted face. "That’s…I wouldn’t put it past them to use a kid." It would be easy enough. Children were easy to manipulate - just threaten their parents. It made Kara’s stomach turn.

What do we do? A topic that was discussed every night in the Thrace-Anders household. The bombings were starting to kill human civilians. If only from a strategic perspective, that nagged at Kara. The human race was now so small, they could accidentally wipe themselves out, if this got out of hand. What bothered her the most was that Tigh was smart enough to know that but didn’t seem to care. And she understood why.

"Make babies," she said. She glanced at Laura and shrugged. "Yeah, the smart move? Play the long game. Increase the population. Write down the shit they won’t let you teach and keep it somewhere safe. Bide our time until we’re strong again, and then rise up." She shook her head and laughed, bitterly.

"But the last time someone suggested I stop fighting and have babies, I stabbed him in the carotid with a shard of glass." She gave Roslin a deliberately bloodthirsty grin, so there would be no mistaking Starbuck’s readiness to do it again.

[onceandfuturepresident]

Laura was somewhat shocked at Starbuck's open declaration of violence, but somehow, she was unsurprised. The woman had never been one to let anyone stop her. Laura was surprised that Kara had suggested patience, though.

"The long game?" she repeated. "That doesn't seem like you to drag it out." She sighed. "But yes, it would be smart to keep everything quiet and have children.... Children. I can't believe it," she whispered. "Tory brought it up, and.... I wanted to laugh her off, but it had a ring of truth. How else could they know what I'm doing? It's as though every wall has eyes and ears embedded in it."

She bit her lip, thinking. She had laughed at Tory, but with every passing moment it seemed more plausible. The Cavils had visited her several times that week, each successive warning getting sharper and blunted. Don't teach that. No, not that either. Ms. Roslin, we sincerely hope you don't continue down that road. We've warned you already. Twice. Don't do it again.

"Well, Kara, I don't want to keep you. You don't want to listen to the worries of a schoolteacher," she smiled wryly. "However, I will always be here if you need me. Or care to tell me anything," she added softly. "Gods bless."

[myspecialdestiny-deactivated201]

Kara shoved her hands in her coat pockets. There was a definite bite in the air. She chewed on her response.

 After settling, Kara had found that her only applicable skill other than flying planes was fixing them. Galen had taught her how to transfer those to work on the ground, and since the Cylons had come she’d been drafted to do the electrical work that made the power plant possible. Of course, that put her in a great position to collect materials for Sam and Barolay’s improvised explosives.

"Frakking Sixes have me doing maintenance checks on all the ships," she fumed. "I can’t believe I’m taking orders from a Toaster. The only thing that keeps me from socking one of them in the face is that Sam made me promise I wouldn’t get myself sent to Detention." She shook her head and sighed, becoming serious. "This doesn’t sit with me. I’m supposed to fight Cylons, not work for them."

Possibly the thing she hated most about the Occupation was being ordered around by Cylons. It was against her very nature.

[onceandfuturepresident]

Laura smiled, wrinkling her nose at the same time. "Mmm." She crossed her arms and leaned back. "Yes, I know what you mean. Colonial history lessons are censored; I can't mention the names "Greystone" or "Adama;" I say a single bad word about the Cylons, and they fall upon me." She looked at Kara. "I'm pretty sure someone in one of my classes is reporting to them."

It was hard for her to say the words. She couldn't believe them. Surely no one would sink low enough to betray her to the Cylons. However, whenever she brought up any of the touchy subjects at school she could count on a visit from a Leoben or a Cavil the following morning. The last time, the Cavil had told her it was her last warning.

"What do we do, Kara?" she whispered.

[myspecialdestiny-deactivated201]

Once, just a few weeks before the Cylons arrived, Sam stopped her as they were walking by Laura Roslin’s school. It was the end of the day, or recess, and the kids were spilling out of the school tent, bundled up in coats and caps and mittens. Sam was staring at them with a hint of a smile on his face.

"Maybe they’ll have an actual building by the time we…"

Sometimes, Kara almost thanked the gods that the Cylons returned, reminding her that her life was a war, from start to finish. She had always been fighting, Sam Anders and this desolate planet could not change that. Now she and Sam were warriors again, this time in the rag-tag army of a half-mad Saul Tigh.

Kara thought of that, of belonging in the sky, when she saw the President - er, former President, Roslin. Laura? Roslin. She wondered briefly if Roslin had left any children back in the Colonies. She crossed the muddy avenue to join her, the ex-president-school teacher-dying leader.

"Not a bad afternoon," Kara said as she took a place standing beside her.

[onceandfuturepresident]

Laura jumped slightly and smiled when she saw who was next to her. "Not bad at all, Lieutenant Thrace." She turned her face back to the sun. "Too few of this kind of day."

Laura kept her tone casual. There were so many things she wanted to tell Kara Thrace. So many questions she wanted to ask. What are you getting into with Tigh and Tyrol? Be careful, if not for yourself, for Bill. You're like a daughter to him. You know that, right? She didn't say any of it out loud, knowing Kara would raise a slew of personal defenses. Finally, she settled for something in the middle.

"How have you been? I've meant to stop by, but you're always so busy." Kara would know what she alluded to.

[onceandfuturepresident]

"Ellen?" Laura called softly into the night. The blonde materialized out of the gloom. She was wearing tall heels that couldn’t have been easy to walk in, and had apparently tripped.

Laura stepped over and offered a cautious hand. She had never gotten on with Ellen after that first catastrophic dinner after the woman had reappeared. She was a little too wild and far too clever for her own good. 

"Why are you wearing those ridiculous heels?" she said with an awkward smile. She could at least attempt to play nice with the Colonel’s wife. "I left all of mine on-" she froze momentarily. "On Galactica."

[ellen-tigh-blog]

Ellen took the offered hand, got up easily and eyed the former president. The schoolteacher. 

"I don’t suppose you have a lot of use for dressing up." She says with a biting smile.

After all Adama is high up in the sky, on Galactica. How she had hated the ship and how she longed for its comforts now. For a clean rack, a working shower, fine ambrosia.

"Some of us still try to make an effort." She sneered a bit.

[onceandfuturepresident]

Laura pursed her lips tightly. This is what you get for trying to be nice to Ellen Tigh. It's going to be just like every other time.

"Some of us would rather not kill ourselves trying to look nice," she said biting, keeping her voice even. She withdrew her hand and crossed her arms. She was wearing jeans and a faded sweater; surely she didn't look as bad as Ellen insinuated. After a moment of silence, she sighed, knowing what should be said. 

"Do you want me to walk you home, Ellen?"

[onceandfuturepresident]

Laura stood outside her tent, reveling in the tepid sunlight. It was bright, at least more so than most days, and she closed her eyes, trying to imagine better times.

The cabin was the first thing that crossed her mind. That and Bill. If the Cylons hadn’t come, who knows what would have happened.

Maybe I could have built that cabin. A nice, small cabin by the lake. I could have lived there and taught the children whatever I wanted. Caprican government, the Pythian Prophecy, maybe even the history of the first Cylon War….

A noise to her left jolted her out of her reverie.

[ellen-tigh-blog]

Frakking high heels… if it had been Saul she would have had to entice, she’d not have worn them. He was easily pleased with a bit of cleavage, a flash of leg, some rubbing and flirty talk.

Cavill made her work for it, made her work for every bone he threw her and she did it. For Saul. But stumbling all over the road - if you could call it a road - was very irritating.

'I could definitely use a drink', she thought as she tripped once again, making her curse loudly.

[onceandfuturepresident]

"Ellen?" Laura called softly into the night. The blonde materialized out of the gloom. She was wearing tall heels that couldn't have been easy to walk in, and had apparently tripped.

Laura stepped over and offered a cautious hand. She had never gotten on with Ellen after that first catastrophic dinner after the woman had reappeared. She was a little too wild and far too clever for her own good. 

"Why are you wearing those ridiculous heels?" she said with an awkward smile. She could at least attempt to play nice with the Colonel's wife. "I left all of mine on-" she froze momentarily. "On Galactica."

[onceandfuturepresident]

Laura stood outside her tent, reveling in the tepid sunlight. It was bright, at least more so than most days, and she closed her eyes, trying to imagine better times.

The cabin was the first thing that crossed her mind. That and Bill. If the Cylons hadn't come, who knows what would have happened.

Maybe I could have built that cabin. A nice, small cabin by the lake. I could have lived there and taught the children whatever I wanted. Caprican government, the Pythian Prophecy, maybe even the history of the first Cylon War....

A noise to her left jolted her out of her reverie.

[frakyeahlauraroslin]