Author: Regency

Title: Her Dying Breath

Spoilers: No obvious ones

Pairing: A/R

Summary: With him, forever is a given.

Disclaimer:.

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She’d never made love in the rain. It was hard to believe that in her fifty-one years of life she’d never made love under the thrilling massage of a thunderstorm. That was an experience she’d never shared with another. Perhaps one she never would.

She didn’t expect to share that regret. She never shared it with President Adar, or Elosha, or even Lee. She would forever wonder what provoked her to share it with him.

Bill Adama sat across the table from her, his glass in hand and spectacles discarded to the side. When she said it, she was instantly horrified, but he was unaffected. He said, he had made love in the rain once. It was the day Zak was conceived and that maybe that was a sign that his life would end in tears. It was something he’d thought about many times since.

They went on to share many other regrets, wishes, and hopes. They also spoke of grim reality. Tomorrow might not come. One of them could be killed in battle. A thousand nightmare scenarios waiting to be lived out. Where had humanity’s dreams disappeared to?

Before any decision could be made, before any feelings could interfere, she confessed. I have cancer, she told him. He tilted his head to look at her. He studied her, not unkindly, but thoroughly. She asked him what he was searching for. He said, Death. And that it was nowhere to be found.

She told him it was there, hiding; pretending to be innocuous and unsuspecting. It was lying in wait to steal her last days from her. He took her hand and made it his mission to keep it from doing so. Death would not steal her. She would leave on her time.

I want to live forever, she told him, tears pricking behind her eyes.

You will never die, he whispered, his own voice growing hoarse at the thought of doing anything without her. You will never die.

Those were the words that filled her mind as he led her to his bed. You will live forever in me, he spoke as he pulled her to his chest. He kissed her tears away, but they didn’t stop coming.

Death stepping malevolently at her heels, she pressed her mouth to his to ward it off. No lingering pain would stop her. He undressed her, caressing every inch of skin as thought there’d never be another opportunity. He was life and his touch was salvation.

They fell onto his bed, bodies desperately seeking completion and fulfillment. Their minds ached for a release from the burden. Their souls cried out to forget. Anything not to remember that the world was over and be it by time or cancer, they were both about to die.

He kissed her neck, savoring the taste of the salt of her skin with his lips and its sweet smell with his nose. Her silken flesh was imprinted on his memory. His hands recorded the delicate planes of her back, her hips, and thighs.

She buried her fingers in his hair, guiding his mouth to her throat. She breathed in the scent of his shampoo. Something heady and masculine, and clean. Her thighs encompassed his waist and they were chest to chest.

This was Heaven. If the afterlife was this, then she no longer feared death. He rolled her beneath him, looking into her glittering eyes and kissing her until she thought of nothing else. She smoothed her hands over his sides, guiding him into her like a lighthouse would a ship to shore.

She cried out as he moved within her. It was life. His hips to hers, his gentle kiss, his embrace and touch.

She lived in this moment. This was the moment that wasn’t, because when she was with him, she didn’t die. Every other was one less that she’d live tomorrow. Tonight, she would live forever.

She tightened her legs around him, never wanting to let go. His motion was steady, dramatic, selfless. She gripped his shoulders, holding him closer, multiplying the intensity. She arched beneath him, whimpering softly at the tears sliding down her cheeks to wet the sheets.

He kissed her deeper, the unnatural rumbling in his chest a testament to his own grief. One arm slid beneath her to hold her closer if at all possible. He wished he could take her inside of him and give her life.

She gasped, saying his name in the midst of a sob. She cried as she trembled in release, his body heightening her premature sense of loss. This would be gone soon. His body stiffened above her and he groaned her name in ecstasy, filling her body with the life she could not give.

Satiated, but heartbroken, they eased down together, not speaking with nothing to say.

“You will live forever.”

She didn’t look at him, but moved closer. “I will never die.”

Neither of them believed that.