Author: Regency

Title: No One Else Matters

Summary: The Commander’s wife watches him dance with the President

Disclaimer: The song, “The Way We Were’ is the property of Barbara Streisand, etc. I don’t own anything.

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He asked for her hand. He asked for her hand. She looked at me sideways, but his eyes were always on her. She accepted it and they took to the dance floor, moving together gracefully in the throng. In a few moments, they were little more than a breath apart, smiling over something I hadn’t been there for. A private joke. So many, private jokes.

As badly as they were rumored to get along, they were in truth quite close. They confided in one another; about others and each other. I know he talks to her about me. She’s responsible for this dress he gave me for our first anniversary. I know that, but I wore it anyway.

I know this wasn’t the dress I was to get originally, but that she’d had her eye on the one intended for me and just like that it belonged to her. A birthday gift. He always remembers her special day. To him, she hasn’t aged at all.

I’m his wife and she his boss, but she hasn’t aged a day and my day means nothing. I’d be surprised if he could recall how old I am.

Not that I am surprised. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a wonderful friend and lover. Quite the lover, he is. He’s even a wonderful husband…when Laura Roslin isn’t around. But when she is, he is hers. His attention, his affection, his private jokes. It’s all hers.

The melody spirals and he winds her through the crowd, their bodies flush and their faces alight. She’s smiling and though he isn’t, the joy is there. He finds joy in her eyes; in the way they shine for him and his attempts make her happy.

He’s almost like that with me, but with Laura Roslin there is always more. She had him first, will have him last and I am but a detour before she has him again.

There is a lull in the roar of the partying crew and I look up to see them staring intently at one another. The young ones standing around are watching them, nearly as enthralled as I am. Others have learned not to stare.

He gently turns her out, but immediately brings pulls her back into his chest, where they continue to dance to an entirely new song. This one is inside them. It’s in the way their palms fit scrumptiously together. In the way they know the other’s next move perhaps before their own. It is in the way no one else matters but her.

The world as we all know it could end again, but as long as they can dance in Heaven as here, then all is well.

I wonder if he’d bother to save me in the event of an attack or if she’d be his first thought.

He dips her towards the ground and before securing her to him quickly.

I’m an intelligent woman. I don’t have to ask.

No one else matters. No one except her.