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Title: Prologue Golden Apple of Hera

Series: Adventures in VR Land

Author: Selenay

Characters: Laura/Lee with mentions of others

Rating: -

Disclaimer: characters/universe R.Moore and Co. Sel is playing with them gloriously *g*

Spoilers: Spoilers for S2 AU - assumed relationship



Prologue: Golden Apple of Hera


Laura headed out of her office in the hopes of catching Tory before she disappeared on her date with Waverly. They were quite cute together, the two of them had been dancing around each other since the rebellion and New Caprica. They'd finally given in when they were in the relative safety of Colonial One. The only downside Laura could see was between her Aide and her Head of Security, she had no chance of keeping a secret. Well, according to them at least. They had an irritating habit of keeping tabs on her breaks and meals and if they thought she went to long without eating a snack would appear in front of her.

"We've got to get her to take a break." Tory hadn't heard Laura arrive at the door. Didn't take people long to forget her habit of kicking off her shoes whenever she had a chance to.

"I agree. She's been pulling 12+ hour days since we got back." Waverly's voice was concerned and Laura bit back her instant snarky response to the comment about her personal life.

"I vote we get Lee on board. He's got the last meeting with her today. Maybe we can get him to finish up early."

"But then all that'll do is head her towards the paperwork earlier than normal."

Laura folded her arms. She didn't like being read so well.

She was debating making her presence known when her Military Advisor arrived.

Lee had the sneaking suspicion that he'd walked into something. Tory and Waverly were deep in some kind of discussion and Laura, from her stance, looked a little miffed.

"Lee." Tory smiled widely at him. "Just the person."

Uh oh. Tory calling him by his first name and being nice. She was up to something. And more importantly, she had no idea Laura was listening. Now this could be interesting.

Lee smiled. "How can I help you?"

"We need to get her to take a little time for herself."

"By her, I assume you mean the President?"

Laura nodded her approval. The boy learned fast, never volunteer information until you have all the facts.

"Who else?" Tory snapped. "She's been working all the hours the Gods give."

"I see." Lee answered seriously. "As it happens I was planning on asking the President to join me for a VR session on the holosuite of Cloud Nine."

Tory and Waverly looked at each other, then him and burst out laughing.

"Ms Roslin." Waverly could barely get the words out. "In a computer game."

"Never going to happen." Tory was giggling. "There's absolutely no way that you are going to get her to do that."

"Why not." Lee was watching Laura's face and saw the presidential pout firmly in place.

"It's a computer game." Tory made it sound as if it should be perfectly obvious.

"It's a simulation much in the same way that Cloud Nine creates the park scenes, except in these you can interact with them. Most of the classics are available to participate in."

"Riiiiiight." Waverly commented. "There's still no way."

Lee hid his smile; they really had no idea what she was really like at all. They like pretty much everyone else believed the façade. "Would you care to put a wager on that?"

Laura glared at him disapprovingly. Gambling. That was never a good thing. She preferred to save her luck for when she needed it.

"I've got a half bottle of ambrosia." Tory offered.

Laura raised an eyebrow. Looks like her staff were holding out on her.

"I'll match that." Waverly added.

Lee extended his hand. "Deal."

Laura ducked back into her office to consider her options. She didn't approve of betting, but then she wasn't exactly impressed with her staff for trying to organise her life. It was bad enough they tried to organise every minute of her working life without them trying to do the same in what little she had of a personal life, pathetic though it was, it was hers, and hers alone.

Lee walked past the two plotting members of Roslin's staff and found her sitting on the edge of her desk, legs crossed, glasses in her hand circling in time with her swinging leg. He closed the door behind him and smiled at the image she created.

Walking up to the desk, he took the glasses from her hand and placed them on the table before kissing her gently on the tip of her nose.

"What am I going to do with you, Captain Apollo."

Lee smiled, well, she might be acting snippy, but when she called him Captain Apollo in that flirty voice, he knew everything in his universe was fine. In fact better than it had ever been since she had let him in her life.

Kobol

Lee watched helplessly as Laura knelt beside the body of Elosha, apparently not fighting back the grief. Of all the things that had happened recently, this looked as if it could be the one that broke her. She'd kept going through the cancer, the prophetic visions (though he knew she was deeply uncomfortable with the idea) and, even being thrown in the brig hadn't phased her. So this near hysteria on her part was frightening.

He remembered taking her by the shoulders, with hindsight none too gently, and leading her away from the nightmarish scene, pointing out they didn't have time for mourning at the moment.

She'd complied. Reminding her of her responsibilities was always the best way to ensure she carried on. But she'd withdrawn into herself. So deep, that by the end of the day he was unsure quite how to treat her. And Zarek was picking his time to make little power plays that normally Laura would have slapped down; but in her grief let slide, along with eating, drinking and generally responding.

He'd finally got everyone settled in for the night and fell asleep exhausted, only to wake and find Laura gone. Rather than creating a fuss, he slipped out of the camp, reasonably sure she would head to the river. She had a deep connection to the water element. She had remarked that she thought best when near water, or preferably feeling the water. In one of their chats whilst waiting for her, Billy had told him that she kept a spare change of clothes in the office for occasions when she would walk out in the rain, seemingly not caring if it was summer or winter.

He was relieved to find he was right. She sat on a rock by the river, knees huddled to her chest, arms folded round them, just watching the moonlight sparkle off the water. She didn't even flinch when he put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"We need to get back."

She shook her head. Sighing none too quietly, he took her by her hand hoping to persuade her gently to her feet. Frak. She was absolutely frozen.

"Damn it. What do you think you're doing? You're going to catch your death of cold."

For some reason she found that amusing, her laughter verging on hysteria. "Already caught my death. So no worries there."

At the reminder Lee's temper flared and he found himself shaking her, punctuating the shakes with a command "never say that again."

How they moved from that to frantically kissing was something he would never be sure of. And from there it was only a short step to the whole sex issue he'd been circling round since he first saw her. Admittedly it wasn't the seduction he'd daydreamed of, it was mutual need, grief and the realisation of impending loss. Not pretty, but violent, hard and fast.

After he'd not been sure of how to react. To apologise, to pretend it never happened. This was out of his comfort range.

She'd just smiled, brushed a feather light kiss across his lips and returned to the camp.


Lee gave her his best boyish, appealing look. "Come on Laura, you know you want to try it?" He, better than anyone knew she had an adventurous streak that she usually hid well. "In fact, Madam Prez, I think you owe it to your loyal subjects to personally inspect the facilities to ensure they are up to standard."

Laura gave him her raised eyebrow, haughty look. "Madam Prez?"

Lee grinned. "Yup. Look on the bright side, it's an improvement on Madam Airlock."

Laura opened her mouth to comment, then closed it again lost for words. Madam Airlock, she really had no proper response to that. She sighed; heavily. "So suppose Madam Prez goes along with this hair brained scheme of yours?"

"You mean the very well thought out plan for your relaxation?" Lee amended.

"Okaaay." Laura decided to agree at least in principle to his statement.

"Laura gets half a bottle of ambrosia for her troubles."

Laura instantly cheered up. It might be mean, but if her staff were going to plot against her, then at least she should be entitled to have a little fun at their expense. She was going to have to remind them that once a teacher, always a school teacher and teachers always know what's going on behind their back.

"So when have you booked the session for?"

"We have an hour booked tomorrow evening."

"You were that sure you'd convince me?"

Lee just looked at her. "I was that sure that if I really wanted to do this with you wouldn't let me down."

Laura was just left lost for words and the sentiment, and Lee took advantage of her parted lips.

*****

The next evening Laura called a halt to the paperwork earlier than she normally did, leading Tory to raise an eyebrow in query.

"Commander Adama is taking me to Cloud Nine. Apparently they have a VR machine in the holosuite. He tells me that you can participate in novels."

Laura watched Tory's face in well hidden amusement as her words sunk in.

"You're going to use the holosuite?"

Not for the first time Laura wished she had a camera to record the image. Gods, if Tory could just see the expression.

"Yes. It seems like and interesting idea. I'm looking forward to seeing if the characters in the book bear any resemblance to my imagination." Laura was impressed she said that with a straight face. And more importantly, that Tory was buying every word she said.

****

"I thought you said this was going to be relaxing." Laura yelled accusingly at Lee as she ducked for cover as a hail of bullets wrecked the store they were hiding in.

"It is. This has all the fun and none of the danger."

Laura rolled her eyes. Next time she was choosing the book. "What are we supposed to be doing?"

Lee gave her a 'you're kidding me' look. "We retrieve the map."

"That bit I'd figured."

"Then we use the map to find the lost Golden Apple of Hera."

Laura rolled her eyes again. Lost apple of Hera. That didn't figure in any myths she'd come across. "And we need to find the apple why?"

Lee spoke very slowly as if to a small child. "Because unless we find the apple before the Apollonites do, they will use it to release the daemons."

"And that's bad?"

"Obviously."

TBC

~°~

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