The Charms of Balmorra

An unbearable thirst woke Vette up, she had a very strange taste in her mouth and her throat felt raspy. Slowly she opened her eyes. Her sight was blurred and she suddenly felt dizzy. What had happened? Ah yes… they had finally defeated Darth Baras and Zelaen had invited them to a party in a cantina on Korriban.

Vette dimly remembered that she had drunk at least ten cocktails of different colours. Pierce had made fun of her for not drinking 'real' drinks like corellian whiskey on the rocks… she now remembered that Jaesa had knocked back a bottle of whiskey on her own and had started to make out with Zelaen. But after that she remembered nothing.

Whatever. She had to drink some water before her throat turned even more into a tatoonian landscape. Vette propped up on her elbow and groaned when a dull pain spread out in her head. Only then she realised that something was lying around her waist, Vette looked down and saw that a light-skinned human arm was resting on her. She blinked and tried to process what she was seeing. An arm was around her waist… what the… Vette quickly took a look around, despite her still blurry sight she recognized the Fury's crew quarters and her own bed across the room.

Slowly, very slowly she turned her head to glance over her shoulder to see who was sleeping beside her – she sucked in air when she caught a glimpse of jet-black hair. Vette quickly sat up muttering "shit" under her breath. The arm slid off her and the man in the bed babbled something, but he didn't wake up. She sat on the edge of the bed and looked again. Crap, her eyes hadn't played tricks on her – the black-haired man was none other than Captain Malavai Quinn, resident imperial fanatic, eye-candy and jerk.

Vette stumbled to her feet, feeling nauseous for more than one reason. With horror she looked down at herself and saw that she was only wearing her panties – upside down. Vette now felt like she would puke on the spot, but she pulled herself together and set her sights again on Quinn. The blanket covered his lower parts, but judging by his naked chest he probably wasn't wearing anything under it.

Vette rushed to her bed and her wardrobe next to it; she quickly pulled a T-Shirt and a pair of sweat-pants from it as well as a set of fresh undergarments. Then she took a towel and wrapped it around her body; another glance in the room told her that Quinn was still sleeping; and a quiet snore from the back of the room indicated that Pierce was sleeping as well. Jaesa's and Broonmark's beds were empty.

Vette decided that she didn't have time to think about that; she had to drink something and then take a very long shower. But as she shuffled towards the bath she realised that she had to change her priorities – she started to run and made it just in time to vomit into the loo.

Vette sat a few minutes on the cold durasteel floor, occasionally throwing up into the toilet bowl. Her head felt like it would split, it didn't help that her thoughts circled around the fact that she had maybe lost her virginity to Malavai fucking Quinn! Had he taken advantage of her? She had been drunk after all. No, that wasn't his style… she had consented… somehow. Crap!

She had promised her mother to marry before she would give up the last thing that was hers; she had of course pledged her mother a great many things but this was surprisingly the only promise she had been able to keep… When she was free it wasn't that hard – most men she had met were either jerks or already taken. When she was captured by the Sith she had fully expected to end up as 'Sith entertainment' and losing her virginity and her life then and there, but to her relief she was given to a female Sith and Zelaen had luckily spared her the fate of many twi'lek slaves.

Finally Vette felt that she had nothing left in her stomach to puke and slowly got up to her feet, and drank some water from the faucet. Then she entered the shower and let the water run over her body for some time before she began to wash herself. Her head still hurt, but it was getting a little better – from time to time she let the water run in her mouth so that she could spit out. The bad taste still lingered in her mouth.

Her thoughts returned again to the question if she had slept with Quinn or not. Vette was surprised to register that she really cared – she had expected that she would be more pragmatic about it. If she had someone she really wanted to have sex with she would have done it – she was a grown-up woman after all, but this… Not only had she broken a promise, it had also been with him! Vette groaned. Why had she gotten so drunk? It had been a stupid move!

When she stepped out of the shower she rubbed herself dry with a towel and decided that she had to find out what had happened. She didn't feel different down there, but she had to be certain.

But how in the galaxy would she find out? Perhaps she should just visit a gynaecologist and ask? Yes, that would be the easiest. But first she could buy a … pregnancy test.

Damn it, she should be tested anyway – who know what kind of sexually transmitted diseases she could've picked up?! Vette groaned again. On the other hand it was Quinn – he was probably disinfecting his hands as soon as he had been forced to touch anybody… although he had loosened up in the past months…

Crap, what if he remembered last night? Had he been drunk? Vette frowned at her reflection in the mirror. Well, he certainly had taken a few drinks as far as she remembered and he didn't wake up this morning so he had been drunk as well.

Vette opened the bathroom door and stepped in the corridor; just in time to see how Jaesa left Zelaen's room. She looked dishevelled and even blushed a little when she saw Vette.

"Morning," Jaesa said sheepishly.

Vette felt heat crawl up her cheeks. What had the others seen? She for once remembered quite lively how Jaesa and Zelaen had smooched in the cantina.

"Morning," replied Vette and awkwardly smiled at her. "Is Zelaen already up? I wanted to ask… uh, when we return to Dromund Kaas."

"She's awake and ... dressed," Jaesa averted her gaze, "you can go to her now."

"Right, thanks."

Jaesa left for the crew quarters while Vette rang at Zelaen's door and entered.

The tall pure-blood Sith sat at her desk and was scrolling through a data pad.

"Yes?"

"Hi boss; I just wanted to ask when we will return to Dromund Kaas – I have some business to take care of." Vette brushed over her lekku and tried to sound as carefree as always.

Zelaen put the data pad down and looked at her. "I just received a message from the Imperial Guard – the Emperor wants me to return to Belsavis to assist the imperial forces in Section X. This might take some time. Is it something urgent?"

"Well, uh, I think I need to see a doctor." Vette quietly said.

Zelaen got up and put her hand on Vette's shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze. "I understand that you aren't exactly fond of Quinn, but I thought that you two started to get along. He is a very capable combat medic and I'm certain that he can help you as well as any physician."

Vette nervously smiled. "Yeah, we're getting along and he's patched all of us up decently. But it's something personal – I think I'll just wait."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Nope, I'm good – thanks boss."

ooOOoo

Vette stood in the galley and poured herself a glass of orange juice – she had planned to eat something, but even the thought made her almost throw up and so she settled for juice. She sat down at the large table in the middle of the room and took small sips.

After a few minutes Pierce appeared and grunted something that sounded like "good morning" before making himself a cup of caf and sitting down across from Vette. He looked quite ill and was still wearing his pyjama or rather the shirt and the track pants he wore in bed.

It was nice and quiet until someone banged a small metallic box on the table. Vette had been so deep in thought that she almost fell off her chair while Pierce grimaced and whispered: "Not so loud, please."

Vette looked up and saw that Quinn had approached them without her noticing him. He wore a pristine uniform and looked as neat as a pin, there was no hair out of place. Only the fact that he was paler than usual indicated that he also wasn't well.

"These pills should help with the hang-over," Quinn announced. He then strode to the replimat and made himself a tea, before he returned to the table and sat down.

Pierce slowly opened the box and took three pills at once. "I think I'm going to lay down for a bit," he mumbled and got up. He left the room, leaving his cup of caf on the table.

Vette glanced at Quinn, if he did remember that something had happened last night he didn't show it. He just read something on his data pad and seemed as calm and collected as ever. Vette couldn't help herself, she tried to imagine… no, it was too strange… she couldn't picture him doing it. Quinn was a good-looking man, certainly he had his share of experience – and yet she couldn't think how they had done it.

Vette had been curious about sex, she had read about it in holo-novels and heard her friends talk about it. One of her friends, Taunt, had told her to have her first time with someone she didn't love because it was bound to be disappointing until she knew what she liked. Under these circumstances it would've been good to do it with Quinn… if only she could remember.

Vette sighted. By the force – how did she end up on this train of thought? Two hours ago she had been terrified that she had possibly broken her promise to her mother and now she was musing about how convenient it was if she had slept with Quinn. Well… he was rather handsome truth be told… and smart. Wait, what did that have to do with anything?

"Is something the matter?" asked Quinn and only now she realised that she was still staring at him.

She cleared her throat. "No, of course not, I'm fine."

"To counter the effects of the last night, I recommend some exercise," Quinn said and continued reading his data pad.

Vette was taking a gulp of juice and almost spit it on the table. She coughed and stammered: "I'm fine, really."

Before Quinn could ask further she fled the galley.