Speed reading.
By Max
Bill shut the book gently and savoured the feel of the old leather cover between this fingers, the ending had been as delightful as the rest of the book.
He had felt slightly foolish admitting to Laura that he hadn't ever read the end, it was the sort of thing a schoolboy would do, not a grown man, let alone an Admiral of the fleet, but Laura seemed to accept his odd little nuances without mocking him - well not too much anyway.
He placed the worshipped book quietly on the shelf beside the bed and pulled his glasses off his face with tiredness. Pinching the bridge of his nose, in his accustomed manner, to alleviate the slight pain that wearing spectacles all day usually brought. The lighting in here wasn't the best standard for reading, Laura had often complained of it but there was little that could be done. Lighting wasn't of a high priority in these times of trouble.
The gentle sigh beside him brought him back to the real world and he turned his body towards the sound. The smile had reached his face before he could do anything about it, not that he would want to, the time for hiding his emotions with this woman were gone.
"Did you enjoy it?" Bill asked the recumbent form of Laura Roslin.
Head barely visible above the soft blankets pulled up around her body by Bill earlier, she nodded and smiled back at him.
"It was lovely, I never imagined it would end like that," she spoke softly, as she managed to free one of her hands from the confines of the bedding to lay it on the top.
"What a soppy happy ever after?" He laughed quietly.
"No, a romantic hope for the future."
Bill's face turned serious for a moment before it softened as he looked down at the too small figure of Laura, "You see you should never give up hope."
"No," she said wistfully, "I never did."
Bill's eyebrows lifted at the words, "You never did?" He questioned.
"No I never gave up hope of my romantic happy ever after," she smiled.
"Ah," Bill said, as he leaned back to lay beside her in his rack, pulling his side of the blanket up with him. He turned his head to look once again into her face, glad to see a sparkle reaching her eyes as she gazed back at him. "Do I get to be Prince charming then?"
"Of course," she smiled back. "And Gaius Baltar gets to be the fire breathing dragon that my prince slays."
He laughed, "Before I have to heroically get out of bed and don my armour, surely I have to wake my princess with a kiss?" He said as he leaned forward to place a gentle kiss on her lips.
Her eyes laughed with delight as her hand reached forward to stroke his face, "Don't be in any rush to don your armour on my account, Admiral," she giggled, "I had to work tirelessly, batting my eyes and pouting my lips, not to mention the times I have had to cross and uncross my legs in front of you till you got a clue. No... don't go putting it all back on, I have only just got through it," she smiled and her eyes shone in glee.
Bill's eyes widened, "You were doing those things on purpose?"
Laura shook her head in disbelief, "Men. You have no idea do you?"
He smiled at her words before starting up a completely new topic, "I had a thought you know, about the books."
"Mmn," Laura said as she tried to snuggle closer to him in the narrow bunk.
"We need to be careful."
That had her turning her head in his direction in puzzlement, "Why?"
"Because we are getting through these books far too quickly for me to be reading to you just while you're having your treatments, sooner or later someone's going to catch on that I'm not just reading to you in Life stations."
"Bill do you honestly think that anyone out there is interested enough in our lives to notice how quickly we are reading books?"
"Probably not," he sighed.
"I think they should be much more worried about the content of them than how quickly you are reading them, Gods know what anyone would have thought of chapter nine, if you had been reading that aloud in Life stations," she laughed.
"Let me know when you're up for a repeat of the chapter with all the actions," he said smugly, as he turned out the light and pulled his arm around her.
"Oh my hero!"