The restaurant was themed to resemble the world of Mon Calamari, or Dac as it was also known by on world. The walls resembled the luscious coral reefs and the tables were held up by ornaments that looked like the ancient warriors that faught in the great Dac wars of the past. Green and blue colors were reflected by the spotlights that were surrounding the room and although it wasn't exactly the grandest room Jaina had ever been in, it probably was the nicest she had found herself in the recent past, at least since the war had ended only two years ago.

She didn't want to think about how Mon Calamari really looked now. Although it had not been terraformed by the Vong, it had still taken heavy damage from years of fighting and at one point was the temporary capital of the galactic alliance while Coruscant was occupied. If it had sustained half the damage that Yavin had, she knew it looked nothing like this restaurant was portraying.

Don't think about that right now, she told herself as she tried to shake the thoughts from her head.

These days that was all she did, push thoughts away from her brain for enough time so she could remain busy and try not to think about anything too deeply. It worked for the most part and it wasn't as if she didn't have enough to do to keep her busy.

Between her Jedi duties and her loyalties to the military, she had to admit to herself she was worn thin.

She was just back from a two-week mission to Durro with rogue squadron in which they attempted to help the migrants that had evacuated during the war, relocate back to the planet they had once called home. After nearly two years of re-building it from nearly the ground up, the Gallactic alliance had finally given their approval to start letting the locals slowly move back to their home. However, that meant a tone of paperwork making sure that the individuals who said they were Durro's were in fact from Durro, moving thousands of citizens on giant craters that needed squadrons protection while making the journey and also helping as much as they could in helping everyone get settled.

It was hard work, but worthwhile work where she felt like she was making a real difference. Sometimes she couldn't help but feel like her jedi work wasn't as hands on as she'd like it to be and she felt a separation between herself and the ordinary citizens of the galaxy. However, in the military with her squadron, she felt as if she was just another regular person doing their best trying to put the galaxy back together after it was destroyed from the ground up.

Usually she was with her own squadron, twin-suns, where she commanded an average of fifteen pilots at any given time. She had never really seen herself as a leader, especially when she was younger and reckless. She didn't think she had the patience or skill to not only guide the pilots in terms of flying abilities, but also discipline and responsibility that every member of the military needed to hold in order for them to strive and more importantly stay alive. She didn't think she could handle the responsibility of having other people's lives in your hands with every decision she made, yet instead of collapsing under the pressure, she strived in it.

Yet, she couldn't deny it has been nice to be back with rogue squadron again under the command of Gavin Darklighter, her first commander in the military. He had taken her out of the Acadamy and given her a place in rogue squadron showing her he believed she could make it in the harsh environment of war. They also became closer when the war ended, having more of a friendly relationship as opposed to the more formal one they had before, and both could tell that the level of respect between them had grown immensely.

That's why it didn't surprise her when he asked would she join him for dinner when they had both returned to corscurant following the mission. What did surprise her though, was the fact that when she arrived, she was taken to a table set for four, with her in the chair opposite a three-seater semi-circular booth.

After waiting for almost fifteen minutes, Jaina was about to order a drink for herself when suddenly a neat brandy was placed in front of her. When she turned around to look up at who was attached to the arm that had just gone across her, she was surprised to not see a waiter, but instead one of the heroes of the rebellion against the empire, as well as her old family friend, Wedge Antillies.

"Wedge?" she said almost by instinct. "What are you doing here?"

The smile on his face didn't fade as he looked at her shocked face while walking towards the booth, holding his own drink. However, it was the person behind him who answered her.

"What? We aren't allowed eat dinner too?" said Tycho Celchu, also sliding into the booth. His blonde hair was pushed back with some sort of jell and Jaina was taken back to see him out of his flight suit, only remembering him a handful of times in similar civilian attire.

He was no stranger to her ether. Jaina had known the Colonel since she could remember and his wife, winter had been a close friend of her mother's while they were growing up on Alderaan. In fact, she had practically raised her and her brother Jacen between her birth and two years old, so it was safe to say that the Clechu's were no strangers to the Solos.

Despite the fact that she knew all of the men better than most since she was very young, as Gavin slid into the opposite side of the booth to Tycho, Jaina couldn't help the nervousness that crept up her spine. She could feel an almost surprise element to the atmosphere, as If the three men had something up their sleeve and were trying to pull the wool over her eyes.

"Of course," Jaina finally answered, eyeing all three of the men. "I just wasn't aware this was a party. What are we celebrating?"

"Our good health of course!" Gavin said in a joyous tone, raising his glass.

Jaina picked up her brandy and let her glass clink with the others before she downed it all in one, which earned a respective clap and holler from her dinner mates.

"Well you are definitely your father's daughter" Wedge quipped, and he put his elbows on the table.

"Oh, she is" Davin agreed. "Curses like him too!"

That earned a collective laugh from the table as Jaina's eyes narrowed at her commander.

"Say's you! If your wife or boys heard half the things you say in the cockpit, you'd be straight into the rathtars hut!"

That earned an even bigger laugh from the table and Gavin put his hands up in mock defeat as Jaina suddenly felt the uneasiness about the evening fade away. She didn't know if that was the brandy or the company, but ether way she let herself relax into the night as they ordered dinner.

Throughout the meal they all exchanged stories about their respective missions and how they had tried and failed to get as much time with their families as they could.

Although Jaina wasn't married and didn't have any children of her own, she could sympathies with the men. She hadn't seen or even heard from Jacen since he went on his self-imposed exile to search the galaxy for answers to the force and her parents had barely enough time to even call her more than once every fortnight.

After her dad decided to take a step back from his duties to the new republic and become a stay at home dad while Leia was head of state, they all became used to seeing each other regularly. To go from being an extremely close-knit family, to barely seeing each other was a hard transition for Jaina to make. Not to mention that they were all still torn from Anakin's death and the healing was far from over. Jaina knew in her heart that she would never be able to move on, but to heal she would need the support of her family and she didn't know if they had the time to come together to achieve that.

Desperate to get away from this train of thought, Jaina decided to stop beating around the drum and get to the real reason they were all here.

"So, why are you all really here?" Jaina asked as the waiters brought the chocolaty desert.

Slightly taken aback by her forward nature all three men looked back and forth between each other. They looked as if they weren't prepared to jump right into serious conversation and had obviously had a plan for the night that Jaina was not abiding by.

When a couple of moments of silence had gone by, Wedge conceded to the change of order and put his drink back on the table, leaning forward to look at Jaina directly.

"Ok, Jaina we have some news." When he spoke, the two other men got into the same position, leaning forward and looking more serious.

"Before the war, I was planning on moving back to Corellia with the girls. They have never really seen it properly and don't even know the culture properly. It pains me to think about and I wanted to be there when they grew up, you know, see the ordinary day to day things, like taking them to school and bringing them in the x-wing for the first time. However, not only did I miss all of it, they didn't get to do any of it, because they were in hiding."

Jaina already knew about this but hearing it with the hint of pain in his voice was heartbreaking.

"So, I have decided to retire" he said in a matter of fact tone.

"We all have" Tycho chimed in.

It wasn't completely out of the blue. There had been rumors that the generals had been planning on retirement, but Jaina didn't think it included all of three of the former rogue squadron leaders, especially this early into the recovery of the war.

"Even you?" she asked in the direction of Gavin, who had been unusually quiet.

"Even me" he finally pipped up. "In fact, that's why we asked you to come for dinner with us."

"A goodbye dinner?"

"Not quite" Tycho said smiling at the young pilot. "Jaina, how long have we all known each other?"

Jaina couldn't figure out what was happening. When in the presence of her military comrades, she tried not to rely on the force too often, as if she was trying to prove that she didn't need it to be on the same level as the people she admired so much. However, at the time she did reach into the force, to try and find some answer. She was met with a cool level of calm from Wedge, unsurprisingly, a steely determination from Tycho and a bubbling excitement from Darklighter.

"As long as I can remember" Jaina answered timidly.

"And in all that time, I don't think any decision we have made has been this straightforward" Tycho explained.

"I completely get that; you guys deserve retirement" Jaina answered sincerely. "All of you."

"Thank you, but Tycho doesn't mean the decision to retire" Gavin chimed in, looking almost gleeful as Jaina could almost see the excitement rise in his cheeks.

"Well then what decision does he mean?"

"The decision to appoint you as the new Rogue Leader, effective immediately." Wedge finally spoke.

Jaina felt as if the world had stood still.

She had dreamt of hearing those words since she was a youngling, but ever since the war, she had realized how much she valued guidance and leadership. She had learnt more from these men in the past nine years than she even thought was possible and being part of a team was the best part of flying, as opposed to taking everything on herself like she had a tendency to do when she was younger.

However, despite all she had learned, she couldn't help but admit that she was still rash, and she knew she was difficult to work with at times. That's why this had taken her completely surprise, and she found herself speechless for one of the rare times in her life.

"Jaina Solo, if you accept, we would like you to wear this, to symbolize your new role."

As he spoke, Gavin pulled out a small black box from his pocket and slid it forward on the table towards the petite woman.

The Jedi flicked her eyes from Gavin to the box and back again, before picking it up and slowly opening it. She was met with the sight of a silver ring looking up at her. She had seen a similar jewel on all three of the men sat in front of her, and although they were all unique, they all had the noticeable Rogue squadron symbol looming in the back.

On this particular ring, the Rogue symbol was right at the forefront and was looming behind two objects overlapping each other, one was clearly a lightsaber and the other an ignition stick, clearly in reference to the nickname "sticks" that Jaina had gained throughout her time serving as Rogue nine. She hadn't been the first Jedi to serve in the squadron, but she would have been the first to lead it.

Luke Skywalker had often flown in times of need with the squadron, along with Corran Horn, who had served as a temporary leader for a battle or two during Gavin's injury, her own brother Jacen and a handful of others, but none had ever had the whole squadron at their command, as they were asking her to do now.

Engraved on the inside of the band had her initials and the quote "Red and stealth make Rogues", which was an unofficial tag-line of the squadron, referencing the Red and Stealth squadrons that faught in the galactic civil war against the empire that ended up combing to form the Rogue Squadron and in itself make history.

After a few moments of examining the ring, Jaina finally looked up at the men who she would finally now be on the same level as, officially and unofficially. All of them looking on at her with looks of excitement, joy and genuine pride as they let her mull the implications of this new position in her mind.

"So" Wedge finally spoke. "What do you say Jaina? Or should i say Rogue leader?"

All three men rose their glasses at the statement and Jaina Solo flashed them a smile, which was all the confirmation anyone needed.

Hours later, Jaina found herself in her own quarters mulling over what had happened earlier on in the night.

After officially excepting the promotion, the men let loose on the younger pilot with praise and congratulations in the form of Champaign, lots of Champaign. By the time they were all ready to depart, it was safe to say they were all rosy checked and ready for bed and as they all made their way to leave the restaurant, they all gave Jaina one last congratulatory hug.

"Congratulations kiddo" Tycho whispered into her ear as he gave her a tight squeeze. "No one is more right for this than you are, and I'm not just saying that because I want to get out of the job."

"Thanks Tycho" Jaina replied, giving him an equally tight hug and when she pulled back she flashed him a smile to let him know she had dodged his jibe.

Next it was Gavin's turn and at nearly six foot, hugging him reminded her of hugging her dad as she barely reached his torso. Even still he wrapped his arms around her and made sure he conveyed how proud he was of her not only though the embrace but also through the force.

"If you ever need anything Jaina, we will all be here for you, at any time you need."

She had somehow known that Gavin's message to her would be more sincere and meaningful. After all, out of the three of them, Darklighter was the one who saw firsthand what she had gone through and had built connections to all the pilots that Jaina had watched die, also. He was her mentor and she knew that wasn't about to end with his retirement.

She gave his shoulder a squeeze in appreciation, letting him know that she was thankful for all he had done for her, and pulled back, expecting to be engulfed by the biggest hugger of the lot, Wedge Antillies.

However, before he did, he held up a small black USB key, which looked like a standard issued military code retrieval, mainly used to transmit test runs of x-wings for new recruits. He grabbed her hand and put the key into her hands.

"When we decided to look for a new Rogue leader, we all immediately thought of you, but standard procedure meant we obviously had to look at other options too, meaning we had to formally look at all your pro-s and cons, military records, blah blah blah." As he spoke his arms and hands were animated in front of him.

"So, during the process, we had a bunch of recommendations from a lot of people. Pilots, co-workers, engineers and I'm sure a few familiar faces are in there too."

She looked down at the USB and smiled. The thought of so many people having faith in her and seeing that she had the skill and talent to lead the most elusive squadron in the galaxy was so touching that Jaina felt the pride come up from her stomach and straight into a blush in her cheeks.

"They password is Sticks" he said as he finally grabbed her into his arms, hugging her with all his might.

The first thing she did after she got home was call her parents. They already knew it was happening, but she still had to share the celebration with them, even though it was the early hours of the morning and she only spoke to them for a few minutes she was glad they were there for her at this moment. She then recorded a message for Jacen so that he could listen to it whenever he got to his next com stop that he got to every few months and she knew this was something he needed to know.

She then changed out of her clothes and into her pajamas and after unsuccessfully trying to settle down for the night, she decided to plug in the USB and read some of her recommendations.

The first one she read was from her father.

He talked about how he had seen her fly her whole life, from the second she sat in the front seat in the falcon for the first time, to her academy graduation and he had always knew that this day would come, he just couldn't have anticipated it was this soon into her career.

Kyp Durron talked about how he always felt safe when she was at the helm of a squadron, he was in. He quoted direct battles from Twin suns battles and spoke of how there was no one better for the job than her.

Miles Nimina, her chief engineer who she had worked with since the Vong war, said that he had never met a more reliable pilot in all of his years as an engineer and he knew that Jaina would rather sacrifice herself, then she any of her pilots die.

She continued to scroll down the list of contributors.

Horn, Corran

Solo, Leia

Antillies, Wedge

Marita, Pox

The list continued, until she got to one that stopped her in her tracks.

Fel, Jagged

Quickly, she clicked on his name and was met with his recommendation on the screen in front of her. She had no idea what it would say and knowing the colonel like she did, she had a feeling it would be practical and honest, just like the pilot himself.

The words that he had wrote flashed up on the screen as fast as she could click the button and she found herself rushing through the passage, hearing his voice speak as she read.

"Colonel Solo and I flew together for the majority of the Vong war where I served under her command in the Twin Sun squadron. She served with dignity and grace, which I got to see first-hand at my time serving in the New Republic's military."

Jaina had expected this type of language.

Straight-forward, nothing fancy.

He had never been exactly upfront about what he thought of her piloting skills, but before they were ever involved, she knew he was impressed, but never impressed enough to boast.

She always thought she appreciated that in a weird way, that the day she got his upmost respect would be the one she knew she had made it and she always knew she could push herself more when he was cool with her.

However, she didn't realize how much his next words would affect her.

"The Colonel is the best pilot I have ever flown with. She is reliable, skillful and trustworthy.

I would fly under her command at any time, under any regime and with great conviction.

I do not say that lightly, given my situation with my own government, but I do say it with truth. Solo is a leader that flies not only with her talent, but with her determination to do what is morally right. I truly believe that this is an essential component of any leader and the Galactical alliance would be foolish to not elevate the Colonel to the highest status her rank permits and higher than that once she provides the evidence to show she is capable of exceeding, which I have no doubt she will."

Tears welled up in her eyes as her heart lodged in her throat. She loved that man more than she could ever describe and reading his words describing her only solidified how hard it was for her to love him and not be with him.

She had no idea where Jag was, he could have been in any four quarters of the galaxy and she didn't like to dwel on the fact too often. She tried to pretend it didn't bother, but it did. Their time spent together was the best of her life and she hadn't realized what a big gap it

She looked out her window, looking at the vibrant alive city below her. Coruscant never slept after all and she had a feeling she would be the same tonight, with her pure excitement yet broken heart keeping her eyes open.

As she put down her Data pad onto the ground below her, she tried to reach out across the galaxy to find his presence out there somewhere, but as usually she was met with nothing, for the distance between them physically and emotionally was too great.