by C.L.Finn

-three-

Three days before the world ends, Laura Roslin wakes up at her usual time and takes a shower. She’s thinking about maybe taking a vacation after Colonial Day, and wondering if it would be a bad idea to invite Gabriel to dinner and give things a try with him again, when she finds a lump in her left breast. She stands in the shower for 15 minutes before she’s able to move, get out and get dressed.

One of the benefits of being a cabinet member is the ability to get an immediate appointment with one of the top physicians in the colonies. He examines her, takes a tissue sample, and tells her he’ll have results in three days. Then she has to wait.

-two-

The next morning she wakes at dawn from a nightmare she can’t remember. Unable to get back to sleep, she pulls on a robe and walks out on her balcony to watch the sun rise over Caprica City. Some days she misses the scent of fruit trees that grow around her small house in Oriana, where she lived before the President convinced her to join the Cabinet. But when she has time to enjoy it, the view of the city from her apartment makes her wonder why she’d want to live anywhere else but here. The sharp lines and angles of the skyline appeal to her sense of order and the morning sun casts a myriad of colors across the buildings that take her breath away a little and make her think, “Look at what we can do.”

Leaving the city to itself, Laura makes a small breakfast and goes to work. Her day is filled with budget meetings, a conference call with the colony undersecretaries, and more budget meetings. She finds herself enjoying the budget meetings more than usual, largely because the budget is intricate and complex and she can focus her mind on the numbers. She has a harder time during the conference call, because she can’t bring herself to care about the petty minutia that is the war of attrition between the colonies for influence and resources. Thankfully, Billy is as efficient as usual, taking notes and providing her with whatever information she needs when her mind wanders.

Hiring Billy is one of the best things Laura has done since she became the Secretary of Education. She hired him straight out of university, despite his youth, after he’d spent some time in her office working on his senior thesis about the undereducated population of Tauron’s mining community. He’d impressed her with his drive and intelligence, and he’d made her like him with his earnestness. As her assistant, he’s organized and loyal and seems to always have exactly what she needs at any given moment.

When her meetings are done, it’s a cup of hot tea and the first draft of a speech for the Galactica Museum dedication that Billy provides. She thanks him and has him make excuses for her so she can skip the President’s dinner party, and she takes the speech and leaves the office on time for once.

-one-

Laura is not entirely surpried at the prospect that she might have cancer. It runs in her family. Her mother died of breast cancer ten years ago, and a cousin lost her own battle with it three years ago. Their approach to the disease had been very different. Her mother was a deeply religious woman and when she was diagnosed, she’d prayed and meditated and left her fate in the hands of the Gods of Kobol.

Laura isn’t religious and she resented her mother for a long time for not doing more to fight the cancer, but her cousin had put her faith in medicine and tried every drug and therapy available and the cancer had still killed her in the end. Laura’s not sure she can put her faith in either the Gods or science, but she’s pretty sure she needs faith in something.

The only woman in Laura’s family that has survived breast cancer is her Great Aunt Lilah. She’s 71 years old and as healthy as she was at 53, when she was diagnosed. Lilah lives in an elder community on Geminon these days and is still working as an artist. She wants to call Lila and ask her how she survived, what she put her faith in, but she’s not ready to say the words “breast cancer” out loud yet. Not until her tests are back. Not until she’s knows for sure.

She thinks about having dinner with some friends, but Celia is on vacation at the Aphrodite Falls and Sara and Judah recently had a child and dinner with them will invariably be filled with stories and pictures of the new baby, and Laura’s not sure she’s up to being appropriately impressed. Instead, she works late and has dinner with Billy in her office. They manage to make good headway on the budget presentation she has to make before the Council in two weeks, and she finishes her speech for the Galactica. She feels much more accomplished than the day before.

When Laura gets home, she goes for a swim. She swims lap after lap, letting her mind clear as she exhausts her body. She doesn’t think about treatment options, prognoses, or best and worst case scenarios, she simply concentrates on the repetitive motions of stroke and kick and breathe and enjoys the stretch and pull of her muscles until she’s sure she can fall into bed and sleep until morning.

-zero-

Laura wakes from another nightmare that she can’t remember. She watches the sun rise again over Caprica City and then dresses in dark red because it makes her feel strong. She wears neutral blue over the red, because she has a full schedule after her appointment with the doctor and it makes her feel capable.

She decides that whatever the outcome, she will handle it. But first, she has a doctor’s appointment and the Galactica dedication, and then she can worry about the rest of her life. However long that may be.

[E-mail] [Back]