Set during the episode 'A Measure of Salvation.'
They Tried to Live With Us
"They tried to live with us on New Caprica."
". . . What did you say?"
"They tried to live with us on New Caprica."
"You weren't on New Caprica. To my recollection, you didn't set foot there. So out of respect for the hundreds of men and women on your crew who suffered through that snake pit, I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that. You would serve your Fleet well if you'd remember occasionally that the Cylons are a mortal threat to the survival of the human race."
He's never seen her this enraged.
The President of the Colonies paces back and forth, taking her glasses off and on, off and on. She's obviously trying very hard not to explode. He hasn't moved since he dismissed Helo and Apollo. Maybe he should leave – give her some space. But then again. . . maybe not.
"Laura."
She doesn't seem to have heard him.
"Laura."
He walks to her and grabs her arms, stopping her. She's biting her lip, and her eyes are watery. She's very, very pissed.
"'They tried to live with us on New Caprica.'" She quotes Helo, shaking her head. She looks disgusted. "Is that what they think? Is that what you think?" A tear slides off her eyelashes. She angrily wipes it away.
"No."
He takes her glasses off, which are becoming smudged with tears and mascara, and cleans them. He knows that something happened to her on New Caprica – something even more personal than losing friends, or watching her people suffer. Something that transcends even that.
"He's just trying to rationalize what happened - because of his wife. I'm sure he didn't mean it. He's a good kid."
"Good kid or not he needs to pick a frakking side already. Even his Cylon wife is capable of that much."
He's never seen her so bitter. She looks like she wants to scream; if he didn't know her better he'd say that she might. He knows he shouldn't push her, he shouldn't probe too deep, but there comes a point when bottling up your feelings does more harm than good.
"What happened, Laura?"
She stops and looks up at him, her unnervingly focused green eyes no longer hiding behind glasses.
"What?"
"On New Caprica. What did they do to you to make you so bitter?"
She straightens. Smoothes her clothes. Wipes her eyes. She gives him that fake smile, the one reserved for frustrating Quorum members and Gaius Baltar, and she takes her glasses from him.
"Thank you, Admiral. That will be all."
She slides her glasses back on and sits behind her desk. The Admiral sighs.
"You have to talk to someone about it eventually, Laura," he says quietly, as if he were talking to a startled deer. He continues after a short pause, "It doesn't have to be me."
He wishes those last words didn't stab his heart so much as he spoke them. The idea that there might be someone she feels more comfortable with, someone else she places more trust in than him - it hurts.
When she doesn't say anything else, he leaves.