A/N: thanks for all the reviews – I have answered all the signed ones, as usual. :)

Chapter 4

Task Accomplished

"You mean… right now?"

"Why? Is that not what you have come for?" Emily raised an eyebrow at her madly blushing captain.

"Uh… yes, but… probably… we should talk first…" Laurence muttered, bending down to pick up the towel and holding it out to Emily with his face politely turned away from her.

"All right, sir… we can certainly talk," she replied, and Laurence only chanced a glance at her several seconds later, hoping to find her covered once again. She was, however, not wearing the towel, but a simple white dressing-gown that made her look much coyer than she really was.

"So," she continued, lowering herself on the bed, "what exactly do you wish to talk about, sir? You have asked me a favour, I agreed. I believe it's a bit too early to discuss names or anything…"

Laurence caught himself biting his lower lip. "I… thought we should talk about… feelings first." He pulled up a chair and sat down, facing Emily, but at a respectful distance.

"Feelings?" she echoed his words. "I am assuming Temeraire has told you everything I told him, so I doubt there is much we still have to discuss. You know that I love you. There is not more I could tell you about my feelings... sir."

In the dim candlelight Laurence thought she looked not only chaste, wearing the white dressing-gown, but also very vulnerable, and not only physically but emotionally as well. She had just laid all her cards on the imaginary table and did not even expect him to do so, as she obviously believed he had none. He had to prove her wrong.

"Emily," he slipped a little closer, though did not move his chair, so he was now teetering on the edge of it, "Temeraire has indeed told me that you loved me… but he has also made me realise that you too mean much more to me than just my lieutenant…" He took a deep breath. "I am going to be completely honest with you. I am not sure I am in love with you… yet. But I love you a lot as a friend, a comrade in arms, and I do feel drawn to you. This is as close to love as I have got in… many, many years. But I do not want to rush anything… I want to give myself time to learn what exactly I am feeling for you… and for you too, to make me hopelessly enamoured with you. I am sure it will not take long… I already feel so very strongly for you."

Now it was she who was biting her lower lip, her slim fingers playing with the sash of her gown. "Had you… had you not listened to Temeraire and gone to Marian tonight… would you have told her to not rush things?"

He shook his head. "Had I gone to Marian, and had she agreed to help me, I would very likely be in her bed already… But I am here, with you. And I am ready to wait."

"What if I don't want to wait?" she whispered. "I have waited long enough, William…"

Some unknown warmth spread in his chest upon hearing his Christian name – he had not heard it for nearly eight years, since his mother had last addressed him. It had a much nicer ring than 'sir', especially coming from Emily.

"…I have waited eight years for you to notice me…"

Laurence reached out and took her hands into his – they felt unnaturally cold despite the heat of the evening. "Eight years? What could you have possibly loved about me eight years ago…? That was when I was sentenced to death for treason..."

Her lips tucked into a sad little smile. "And that was exactly when I realised I loved you. Up till then I had just respected you and thought you looked nice without a shirt, but…"

"I looked nice without a shirt?" he choked.

"Yes…" she shrugged, mischief twinkling in her eyes. "I remember seeing you by a pond in China, washing half-naked… the Chinese were shocked, but I was gaping at you. Dyer had to shake me to make me come to my senses… But really, William… up till your… 'treason', I had respected you and looked up to you and thought you were the best and handsomest captain ever… but it was when I heard what you had done for the dragons that I realised it was not merely a childish sort of adoration. I was so desperate about your sentence that I barely paid attention to my duties… Why do you think I was just fifth lookout on Artemisia's crew? Because her captain thought I was sort of dim-witted, my mind always somewhere else… how could he have known that my mind was with you all the time?"

"Oh, Emily," he slipped off the chair, and kneeling before her, pulled her into a tight embrace. "I never thought… never even hoped someone could love me so ever again…"

"So, someone did love you once," she whispered into his hair.

"A long time ago," he muttered into her shoulder.

"You loved her too, did you not?"

"I did."

Emily paused for a moment, absentmindedly stroking his hair, as though she were afraid of carrying on. Finally she managed to screw up her courage and blurted out: "Do you still love her?"

He pulled back a bit to look into her eyes. "No. I have not, for many years. She broke up our engagement when I became an aviator and she married someone else. I think I would have been sad, had I not been training so hard with Temeraire. I simply had no time to dwell on the loss, and a few months later I found myself cured of her." Laurence pulled the chair closer and sat down again, his hands once again covering Emily's. Her hands were not cold anymore, but pleasantly warm. "Yes, I could say I was cured… but some hollowness remained, and I did not even hope anyone could fill her place in my heart, ever. I tried… tried to lull myself into the belief that your mother could give me what I had lost, but I had known from the beginning that it was false hopes. When she rejected my proposal…"

"Your proposal?" Emily's eyes widened in shock. "I never knew you proposed to her…!"

"I did… half hoping she would refuse," he admitted with a bitter smile. "She and I… we were never meant to be, and I think both of us knew that from the beginning. But after her refusal to marry me, I truly gave up on love. That is why I do not know yet what to make of… us. I have forgotten what it was to be loved by a woman and to love her in return. I beg you for time, Emily… just a few weeks… to get used to the thought."

"And what shall we do in those few weeks?" she asked, cocking her head and giving him a rather unabashed stare that almost made him blush again. But just almost.

"Well," he cleared his throat, "I shall woo you properly and propose to you, of course."

"I hope when you propose, you will not be hoping for my refusal…"

"Of course not…" he let out a nervous little laugh. "I would be honoured to have you as my wife, Emily."

At this her eyes seemed to water, but she blinked back the tears, even if they were tears of joy. She was a Roland, after all… she was tougher than to cry. "Are you… not afraid Temeraire would mind us getting married?"

"Had he minded, do you think he would have tried to play matchmaker against our will?"

"I suppose not… But perhaps he only wanted us to make a few babies, to secure future captains for him and Iskierka, and do it without marriage…"

"I would never consent to you having my children without marriage."

"Because you're prudish," she said with a naughty grin.

"I am not!"

"Yes, you are! But it suits you well… and it is sweet," she leaned forward, gently touching her lips to his.

Laurence caught himself tingling all over once again. This was not the spur of the moment kiss she had given him the previous evening, but full of emotions and full of a tentativeness that was far from characteristic of the Roland women.

Yesterday evening he had been merely the receiver of a kiss, too shocked to even react; tonight he was a willing giver. After only a few seconds of their lips moving against each other, it was obvious for him that she had never kissed anyone before, or at least not as deeply as she did him now. But it was exactly the shyness, the almost awkwardness of her kiss that made it so endearing.

Laurence's heart soared – he had never felt anything so pure yet so perfect. And still, he knew he had to break the kiss, fearing that if he did not do it now, he would not be able to stop, and then all his plans for doing things properly with Emily would fall to pieces. He could not afford to make any mistakes with her. And he would not, he swore to himself, pulling back, panting heavily.

"That was… not a bad start… for wooing me," Emily said, her voice coming in gasps. "Are you sure you want to wait… with everything else?"

"I am," Laurence replied, pushing his own physical needs to the background. "Just a little patience, Emily. I will propose to you sooner than you would imagine."

"Oh, indeed? And pray tell, had you gone to Marian tonight, would you have proposed to her too?"

"Not tonight… Only if she got pregnant. After she got pregnant. Not before it."

"But that is not fair towards her… and not very gentlemanly of you, Will Laurence!"

"I know," he gave her a bashful smile. "I did feel quite ashamed of my plans for her… and I am so glad I did not have to follow them through… thanks to Temeraire. I know I should be mad at him for disrespecting my request…"

"Me too," she chuckled.

"…but I simply cannot bring myself to."

"Neither can I."

He lifted her right hand to his lips. "Shall we go and tell him that we are planning to get engaged?"

"Yes, let's," she hopped up from the bed, heading for the door.

"Er… Emily… Are you not planning to put on something… more decent?"

"Oh, I am feeling perfectly decent."

Biting back a remark of disapproval and allowing himself an amused smile instead, Laurence followed her out the door, down the corridor and out into the night.

The stars were already glinting in the sky, the only real source of light a couple of lanterns hung on strings among the trees at the edge of the dragon grounds.

They found Temeraire close to the buildings, curled under a tree in the light circle of a larger lantern. Around him several smaller dragons slept or chewed on the remains of their dinner, one of them having a quiet conversation with his captain, Alexander Jacobs, the man who had been fortunate enough to announce the news of the Waterloo victory.

Temeraire too seemed to be asleep, but upon hearing Laurence and Emily's steps, he raised his head, giving them a curious look.

"I thought you two were busy making an egg," he said, making Captain Jacobs' jaw quite visibly drop. Laurence thought it was due partly to Temeraire's comment, partly to Emily's less than decent attire; but for some reason he felt amused, not ashamed. Aware of the young captain's presence and remembering well enough how Jacobs and his cronies loved to make fun of him, he gave the man an aloof glance, putting an arm around Emily's barely covered shoulder.

"We will be, soon," he replied to Temeraire. "But we would like to do it the proper way. We were wondering if you would not mind us getting married."

"Of course I would not if that makes you happy…" the dragon said a little dubiously. "But to tell you the truth, Laurence, I never understood why you always insist on people getting married when eggs are involved… Not even Harcourt wanted to marry Riley before you talked her into it… And not even Emily's mother married her father…"

"Because she never loved my father, and Catherine wasn't exactly in love with Captain Riley either… for them it was just physical relations," Emily explained, slipping a possessive arm around Laurence's waist and giving the still appalled Jacobs a withering glance. "For Will and me, it is more than that."

"Oh, all right, then, I think I can accept that," Temeraire nodded. "But pray tell, Emily, if you marry my captain, will I have to call you too Laurence? That would be highly confusing…"

"Of course not," she giggled. "You may continue calling me Emily or Roland… but now that you mention it, I think I love the sound of it: Emily Laurence."

"It most definitely has a nice ring to it," Laurence agreed, pressing a kiss to her temple. "Oh for heaven's sake, Jacobs, close your mouth or moths will fly in!"

"Well, perhaps he does have a liking for moths," Temeraire suggested. "Though I do not see why, a roast cow is much more delicious…"

Captain Jacobs, thoroughly routed without even having said a word, turned on his heels and marched off.

"What a coward," Temeraire remarked, following the shape of Jacobs with his eyes until it melted into the darkness. "So, you are not going to visit Digby now, are you, Laurence?"

"God forbid," his captain smirked. "Thank you for saving me from making a serious mistake."

"You are most welcome," the dragon pulled both humans to himself. "Oh, and Laurence, be sure to bring me one of my talon-sheaths first thing in the morning. The smallest one, if you please."

"Why?"

"It is a trade secret," Temeraire replied cryptically.

Laurence decided not to pry further, he was simply too happy to bother with Temeraire's eccentricity tonight. He was soon going to get married – something he had long given up on, and if the Lord was gracious to him and Emily, he would not fail in carrying out Admiral Roland's orders. Had someone ten years earlier told him he would be so willing to carry out an order like that, he would very likely have taken it as a personal insult and challenged the person to a duel, Corps rules be damned.

"Shall we go to sleep?" he offered. "Tomorrow is going to be a tough day for sure… by breakfast everything will be abuzz with gossip about us."

"Do you mind?" Emily slipped her arms around his neck, rubbing the tip of her nose to his.

"No, not really," he said, barely believing his own words, but delighted to find how easy it was to say them. Kissing her lightly on the lips, he added, "Just let them gossip."

oOo

Covert of Dover, England, 24th August, 1816

Upon not receiving a reply to his knock, John Granby cautiously opened the door and sidled into Admiral Roland's office, only to find her staring blankly into space.

"Er… excuse me, Admiral, I just wanted to ask… Are you all right?"

She still did not reply, did not even blink.

"Admiral?" he stepped closer, getting worried about her. "Has something happened?"

She finally blinked, but still did not look at him, and continued staring into thin air, but her finger jerkily pointed at something on her desk.

Feeling encouraged to have a look, Granby glanced over her shoulder to see a letter written in a highly familiar, neat hand, dated 3rd March.

May it please your Ladyship,

I am happy to inform your Ladyship that your Ladyship's orders have been successfully carried out – well, at least partly. If the Lord allows, my beautiful wife, Emily, will give birth to our first child in early September.

Please be so kind and tell Iskierka that she may have our first as her future captain, however, Temeraire has claim on our second. We have even thought of Excidium: should our third be a girl, she can inherit your dragon after Emily. We are sanguine of managing three at least, after all, your daughter is young and healthy, and thankfully I so far have not had any problems in that respect. Emily even mentioned after our wedding night that she completely understood why you had kept me in your good graces for years. She made me blush.

I must admit I have never carried out any order as happily as I did your latest, and I could not possibly be more grateful, for your order has given my life a meaning, given me happiness such as I had never hoped to find again.

I am aware that you and I have not been on exactly cordial terms for the last nine years, but at least now we can claim to share something: our eternal love for Emily. I hope this will form a bond between us that may lead to mutual understanding.

Yr obdt Svt,

Wm Laurence

P.S. May I now call you Mama?

FIN

A/N: I am currently working on a new fanfic – an alternate sequel to 'Her Captain' – a story, in which it is not Laurence but Emily who receives the orders to produce an heir. Obviously, Emily gets much more 'screen time' in it than in this one, and Laurence will prove to be a harder nut to crack than Emily was in Consequences of Waterloo. :) It is going to be a longer fic than this one, darker and more dramatic, but it will have its hilarious points too. I will start posting it in a couple of weeks. Hope to see you around for that story as well!

Until then, please be so kind and leave a final review for this one! :)