There
was a stirring beside Jacen as he slowly made his way back consciousness. He rolled over and put his arms around the
figure in the bed with him.
"Good
morning," he breathed.
"I would say it is 'good afternoon,'" Tenal Ka replied,
turning over to face him.
"Afternoon?" His
mind panicked. Jaina would probably be
looking for him. Then he relaxed. This would be the last place Jaina or anyone
else would think to look for him.
"So, am I correct in assuming that we missed
breakfast?" He said with a Solo
lopsided grin on his face.
"I think you are correct, Jacen my love," she said with a
smile on her face.
He could get use to being called that and to Tenal
Ka's smiling.
She noticed he was staring at her. "What is it?"
"I was just thinking what a beautiful smile you
have. You should use it more often," he
remarked.
Then Jacen nearly fell out of the bed in shock when he
saw her begin to blush. "Tenal Ka,
smiling and blushing in the same day. I
don't know what to do," he said, feigning a shocked voice, "I don't know if I
could handle anymore surprises today."
Tenal Ka laid her head down on his bare chest, where she
could feel his heart beating. "I have a
confession I must make,"
Jacen didn't know what to expect at this, but it most
certainly was not what he got.
She spoke so softly he had to strain to hear her, even
with his force sensitive hearing.
"I have always found your jokes… amusing," she had
promised herself that she would never tell him because she knew he would never
let her forget it. But now, after
everything they had shared, she felt inclined to share this little secret of
hers with him. She peered up at him,
and could see him unsuccessfully trying to keep the amused expression off his
face. Finally, he couldn't contain
himself any longer and burst out laughing, while Tenal Ka patiently waited for
him to finish.
When he did, the first words out of his mouth were, "ok,
who are you and what have you done with the real Tenal Ka?"
"I am the real Tenal Ka," she said in all seriousness.
"I think you're going to have to prove that," he said
with a mischievous grin on his face, and leaned forward to kiss her.
They kissed, and when they finally parted, Jacen propped
himself up on one elbow, so he was facing her and asked, "so, how come you
never laughed at my jokes then?"
"Because if you knew that I enjoyed them, as strange as
they usually were, you would have never let me live it down," she replied.
"Well, I guess I should start telling jokes again – " he
began.
"No, Jacen, please do not. If you tell anyone that I enjoy your jokes, I will – I will be
most embarrassed,"
"I can handle keeping this secret just between us, unless
– "
"No 'unless'," said Tenal Ka, and she kissed him to try
and shut him up.
"Unless," Jacen finally managed to get out between
kisses, "we get married, because if we do, it'll make a great wedding story to
tell the guests,"
Tenal Ka stopped kissing him at that moment, and Jacen
felt the sudden downturn in her emotions.
"What is it?" He asked, concerned.
She didn't speak for a few moments, so Jacen kept quiet
and waited for her to explain what was bothering her.
"Jacen," she said at last, "what happened – what we did –
there are extreme consequences for both of us if anyone finds out," she said in
a serious tone.
"Hey," he said brushing his hand against her cheek, "no
one's going to find out,"
Tenal Ka shook her head. "Jacen, you don't understand – "
"I don't care what the consequences are. We're together now, that's all that
matters," he said in a reassuring voice.
Tenal Ka didn't disagree. She just laid there, enjoying the feeling of being in his arms.
"Zeille wants me to get rid of the Rock Dragon,"
she told him.
"That's what you were upset about last night, wasn't
it?" Jacen said, understanding at last
what had been bothering her.
"Yes, and I told him I would not. Then we both got angry and he left."
"I'm glad you told him you wouldn't. I know how much that ship means to you," he
said, as he ran his fingers through her hair.
Tenal Ka turned over to look at the chrono on her
nightstand and noticed the time. "I
have to go now," she said climbing out
of bed, "if I do not show up for my scheduled meetings people will get
suspicious and start looking for me,"
Jacen didn't say anything. He just lay there in her bed while she got dressed. Finally, he had to ask the question that had
been on his mind since he had woke up. "Do
you regret what happened last night?" He was almost afraid to hear her answer. Afraid that she might say it had all been a
mistake.
She stopped adjusting her reptilian armor and looked at
him.
"No," she responded instantly. She walked over to him and knelt beside the bed. She reached out for his hand and held it
tight. "I would never want to take back
what we did." She gave him a kiss on
the cheek that lingered for a few moments, and then she pulled away. She grabbed a data pad off her desk, then
walked out of the bedroom and out of the apartment.
It
was amazing how in just a few days Jacen's life had completely changed for the
better. Everything was perfect, and he
hoped it stayed that way. Over the
course of the last few days his relationship with Tenal Ka had blossomed into
something he'd only dreamed of since the first day he'd met her.
He was walking through the Palace Garden now. The gardens had become their secret meeting
place since it seemed that nobody else came here.
Tenal Ka had left him an urgent note, telling to meet her
here this afternoon.
They both knew they had to be careful not to arouse any
suspicion, so they had decided it best not to tell anyone what was going on
between them. That way, their friends
would not have to lie and cover for them. If they were not involved, then nothing would happen to them if Jacen
and Tenal Ka got caught. Jacen knew how
angry his sister would be when she found out he was keeping his and Tenal Ka's
relationship from her, but it was for the best. Still, he found it extremely difficult to keep something like
this a secret from her. Jacen had to do
his best to act as if nothing had changed between him and Tenal Ka. That meant keeping to himself, being moody
and doing anything else he could think of to keep her from finding out the
truth. He hated deceiving her like this
but it was the only way to protect her if someone were to find out about his
and Tenal Ka's relationship. But that
did not make him feel any less guilty about all this sneaking around.
His parents had left yesterday, and he had done his best
not to give anything away. They had
asked him what happened to his face, and he replied by telling them he had
gotten what he deserved. They had
regarded him curiously but did not ask any more questions.
They had asked him if he wanted to come home with them
now, but he told them that he was okay, and would 'tough it out' until his
friends were ready to leave. They had
nodded in understanding, thinking their son still was not ready to give up on
Tenal Ka. If they only knew,
Jacen thought silently to himself.
When he made his way through the maze of exotic flowers
and bushes, he found Tenal Ka was already there waiting for him. By the look on her face and the way she was
pacing, Jacen knew something was up. And that something was not good.
When she heard him approaching, she stopped her pacing
but the troubled expression on her face remained.
It still took some getting use to for Jacen to see Tenal
Ka so openly share what she was feeling with him. Normally, her expression would be a mask and it would take some
deep probing on Jacen's part to get a clue as to what she was really feeling
inside.
"What's wrong?" He asked immediately. No "hi" or " I missed you" because Jacen
sensed things were too serious for that.
She hesitated and Jacen knew that was not a good sign.
He pulled her down beside him on a nearby stone bench,
held her hand in his and sent waves of strength through the force at her,
indicating whatever she was going to tell him, they would face it together.
Tenal Ka used the strength that Jacen was sending her to
help her get out what she had to tell him. "Zeille is making arrangements for us to go on our honeymoon in a few
days,"
Jacen's eyes grew wide but he didn't speak. What was he supposed to say? Tenal Ka and Zeille were still married and
there was no reason for Zeille not to want to take his bride off somewhere for
a honeymoon.
"I have been able to stall him up until now," she went
on, "telling him I had business to take care of in the Royal Court before we
went anywhere. But he confronted my
grandmother and told her I needed time away from all this politics and she
agreed with him." She waited for Jacen
to say something, anything, but he remained silent, pretending to be intrigued
by some nearby brightly coloured flowering tree from Ithor.
She gave his hand a squeeze. "Jacen, say something,"
"What do you want me to say?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized he had
said them harsher than he had meant to. "I'm sorry," he apologized, "but Zeille has every right to take you away
from here. You two are still married
after all. If you keep giving him
excuses about why you can't go he's bound to get suspicious."
Tenal Ka could hear the jealousy evident in his voice,
but he was right of course. Any more
delay on her part was bound to make Zeille suspect that she had other reasons
for now wanting to go away with him. But both her and Jacen were Jedi Knights, and Jedi were always
resourceful, even when they had little resources to work with.
She stared at Jacen hard. "We are Jedi Knights," she said with confidence, "we will find a
way to get through this."
Zekk kicked absently at a stone as he walked along a
narrow path leading away from the main hanger where the Lightning Rod
was birthed. Jaina and him had just
finished recalibrating the navi-computer, when she crossed the wrong wire into
the wrong port, which in turn caused the shields to short out and the newly
repaired navi-computer to go all haywire.
They had spent all morning fixing the navigational
controls, so Zekk had trouble keeping a lid on his temper when Jaina did
that. Before he knew it, he was yelling
at her, saying she never would have made that mistake if she had been paying
attention to what she was doing. Come
to think of it, Zekk couldn't ever remember Jaina making any stupid mistakes
like that. She could fix the Rod
with a blast shield over her eyes and binders on her wrists.
Jaina had apologized, saying she had been
distracted. Then Zekk, still angry
about the damage to his ship, had said she shouldn't be working on his ship if
she was going to be distracted. Then
Jaina lost her temper and said maybe she didn't want to work on his hunk of
scrap metal anyway, and stormed off.
She had purposely made the comment about his ship to get
back at him for insulting her mechanic abilities, and it had worked too.
Zekk sighed. He
hadn't meant to start a fight with her but they all seemed to be running on
short fuses lately. He suspected the
reason for Jaina's distraction had been Jacen. She felt so helpless, being unable to help make things right again
between her brother and Tenal Ka.
Zekk knew he shouldn't have snapped at her, and he would
apologize to her later, but right now he needed to clear his head. If he went to find Jaina now, chances were
she'd chew him out some more for insulting her repair skills. It was better to wait awhile, then go
apologize when they both had cooled off.
He had no specific destination in mind as he strolled
along, but found his current path leading him towards the Palace Garden. It looked quiet and peaceful enough, just
what Zekk needed right now. It sure was
beautiful enough, filled with all the different types of plants native to about
as many different worlds. Maybe he'd
bring Jaina here later so they could talk. His thoughts were interrupted though, by the sounds of voices not too
far off.
As he got closer, his force-attuned hearing helped him to
identify the two speakers. But he found
it almost impossible to believe that the two of them would be out here
together, alone. As far as he and
everyone else knew, Jacen was too ashamed of the things he had said to Tenal
Ka, and was still angry with her for marrying Zeille, to even talk to her. Tenal Ka in turn, was angry with Jacen for
ruining her wedding. But Zekk's ears
did not deceive him as he wound another corner and could hear their
conversation clearly now.
" – we will find a way to get through this," he heard
Tenal Ka say.
Zekk realized instantly that the two of them were
probably trying to patch things up. He
didn't want to stand around and eavesdrop on his friends, so he turned to walk
away, when he heard something that made him stop in his tracks.
"Tenal Ka, you and I both know that the only way out of
this is to tell Zeille and everyone else the truth," said Jacen.
Zekk knew he should turn and go. This was a private conversation but his
curiousity got the better of him. He
stood at the edge of the bushes overlooking his friends and listened closely.
"Then maybe we should," Tenal Ka suggested.
Jacen shook his head emphatically. "No way. There's no way I'm going to let Zeille use this to embarrass you and
your family in front of the entire Hapan court. And you know he would. He'd do anything to increase his own power and status with your
grandmother, without a single thought as to what would happen to you,"
It grew quiet then, so Zekk peered around the corner and
was in time to see Tenal Ka lean her head on Jacen's shoulder as the two of
them sat side by side on a bench.
"Jacen, we cannot go on like this forever," she said in a
soft voice.
"I know," he replied with a sigh, "I hate all this
sneaking around. And the worst part of
it is having to lie to my sister. She
thinks I'm depressed and angry and probably on the verge of doing something
majorly stupid."
"I hate this situation as well," Tenal Ka agreed with
him.
Zekk's confusion was growing by the second. Zeille using some deep dark secret to
embarrass Tenal Ka and her family? Lying to Jaina? It couldn't
be…could it? Fortunately for him, his
confusion was about to come to an abrupt end.
He watched as Jacen stared hard into Tenal Ka's cool gray
eyes.
"I don't know how much longer I can hide what's going on
between us. I want to tell the whole
galaxy and anyone else who will listen, how much I love you,"
He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her softly but passionately on the lips. The two remained locked in each other's embrace, completely unaware of their unseen onlooker who stared at them in complete and utter shock.