Chapter 2 - All Bets are On
"So, I have a question," began Leia, taking a sip of blue milk as Tycho started dealing the next hand. "Who won the bet?"
The Rogues exchanged glances.
"Bet?" Janson attempted innocence. "What bet?"
Leia looked at him, her eyebrow raised. "I think you know what bet."
Silence, then another exchange of glances.
"Oh, come on. I mean, it was obviously settled awhile ago," she said, gesturing to her pregnant belly, "so what's the harm in telling me who won now?"
The men around the table looked at each other again nervously. Rieekan especially looked like he was starting to regret accepting the invitation to sit in on the Rogues' game tonight.
Leia looked pointedly at Luke. "You can tell me," she said.
Luke's normally placid demeanor was showing some cracks. "Well, Leia, the thing is…."
A light went off in Leia's head. "There were multiple bets, weren't there?"
"Uh, yeah." Luke looked apologetic.
Leia grinned deviously. "Interesting. Well, I think we can start with what the bets were." She looked around the table. "Wedge?"
He looked at her sheepishly. "Well…one of the bets was about when."
"When as defined by what? I mean, how do you decide who won?"
"When…you finally got together. So either one of you admitted it or…we had proof that something had happened."
"And who won that one?"
"Hobbie."
Hobbie suddenly found his cards extremely interesting.
"Hmm." Leia sipped her blue milk thoughtfully. "Janson?"
"Yes, Your Highness?"
"I think we can dispense with the formalities. Care to tell me about another of the bets?"
No, Janson did not. But he was a little afraid of Leia. "Uh…there was a bet about, uh…" He didn't really want to say it. "How far things, uh, went."
"Ah. Well, obviously, things went…pretty far," she said, gesturing again to her belly. "And who was the winner?"
"Wedge."
"Antilles," she said, raising an eyebrow and nodding, with a slight smile. "Well, you know what they say about Corellians..."
Leia had managed to make Wedge blush. That didn't happen often.
"Carlist."
"Yes?" Rieekan had on his best sabacc face.
"Were there other bets?"
"One more that I recall." He grinned. "About what would be Solo's next excuse for staying."
Leia looked at him. "Really? You had a bet about that?"
"The man claimed to be 'leaving soon' for three years," Tycho pointed out. "Eventually he was going to run out of believable reasons to stay."
Rieekan laughed. "I'm not sure anyone was buying his reasons anymore. Thus the bet."
Leia took another drink of blue milk and smiled. Well, I guess I won that one.
