"Five Things Wedge Antilles Didn't Do"
Turn Traitor
The café is small and out of the way, but the food is good – not much like Cartann's, but it's hot and filling, and she eats it with relish. They've only been on Etti IV a week, and Cheriss already likes it. The chairs next to her slide out with a screech, and she knows the man sitting down with Wedge is a pilot - Cheriss doesn't even have to look. Wedge leans over and puts a mug of hot caf by her plate, and says, "Cheriss, I'd like you to meet my brother-in-law. I think he can help us."
Get Caught
"So tell me, why aren't you running guns for the Alliance anymore?" Mara asks, and Antilles tenses like a pulled spring. Interesting. Karrde is a smuggler, but even he has standards, and an ex-convict from Kessel isn't who he usually recruits, especially ex-convicts who have a history of impulsive behavior – like revenge killings and getting caught aiding and abetting Rebels. But Antilles relaxes and unclenches his hands and says, "Well, it's been a long time. They've changed. So have I." It's a good answer.
Later, Mara will tell him it's also a truthful one, and Antilles will get the job.
Marry Young
Ailyn leaves Concorde Dawn, six months after her mother left. It's not the longest Sintas has ever been gone, not by a long shot, but it's the longest she's ever been gone without word, and already people are whispering that her mother was dead. Ailyn might have believed them if she'd been by herself – but her husband, who'd gone from dead-end to dead-end, had said, "Well, there's no body, is there? We just need to hire someone better at finding people than me."
So now they were leaving, together, to find her father, and he would find her for them.
Accept Help
Corran comes home from school to find a boy sitting on his doorstep, older and with the look of someone very angry. One of his dad's cases, then. He dumps his schoolbag on the sidewalk and says, "Hey, you know how to play wallball?" The boy looks at him funny and Corran can see he's a little dumb, so he tries again. "You wanna play?" Another look, but the guy gets up. "Sure."
He's good, and Corran doesn't win very often, but at least this guy Wedge isn't moping in front of his house anymore, and that's better than nothing.
Leave Home
Syal went home only once, when she was eighteen and well-established in the soaps, back to the fueling station her parents managed, with the little brother she hadn't seen since he was five. She offered help, but her parents, who had their own honor and pride, refused money. They didn't want to leech off their daughter, even if she offered. But money aside, there was one thing they did want – an education for her little brother, who was eight and already too quick for them both.
So she took Wedge back with her and neither of them ever looked back.