10 BBY
Work she didn't enjoy had always been a great distraction. And she hated this work. Duty or not, she had always hated it, and her family knew that. So did the Emperor. It was a distraction all on its own, from what she should be doing, and from what she wanted to be doing. It was a distraction from what she loved. Not that she had had much time at all to do the work she really loved. But now, the distraction was welcome.
Her eyes narrowed in a sardonic squint as an unintelligible shout pervaded through the left wall of her office, the noise continuing as several beings ostensibly tried to remedy the situation. She dropped her pen, holding her head in her hands with a heavy sigh before plodding out of her chair and to the door at the opposite end of her office. She straightened herself out with another deep breath, emptying her expression before stepping out into the hallway of her office's suite.
Her chief of staff gave her a knowing nod, but Maia's expression didn't shift in acknowledgment. She walked the necessary paces before arriving at the conference room two doors down. Without knocking nor giving notice, Maia Tarkin opened the door and stepped inside.
The occupants of the room looked up at her, the excited argument quieting down before one a man at the back left corner of the table cast his eyes downward at the table, dropping his pen, and a woman in the second closest seat to the entrance glared his way.
"It's been seven minutes," Maia jeered. The woman close to the front hesitated, before silencing herself, her cheeks red.
Closing the door behind her, Maia ranged across the conference room until she stood behind the man who looked down, her own eyes skimming the room's inhabitants before settling on the angry woman.
"Really. Seven minutes. What happened, and why do I feel like I let a group of twelve year olds use my conference room?"
The older woman narrowed her eyes before replying. "Do not demean me, Prime Minister."
Maia's own gaze focused, as she stared the woman down. After a silent moment, Maia replied, her tone calm. "Senator, I have no idea what you're talking about. I was asked to allow Appropriations to meet in my suite. I said yes. I made sure you had everything you needed, and seven minutes later, I hear a verbal altercation from my personal office down the hall. Now." Maia paused, tilting her head to the side. "All of that being said, Senator Kuras, you're the loudest of all. So, I ask again-what happened?"
The woman still did not reply, and Maia struggled to not roll her eyes. "Someone. Anyone."
Another man seated down the way folded his hands on the conference table, sitting up and looking over at Maia.
"Chairman Atanna," she prompted, smiling at him.
"Thank you again, Minister, for allowing us to use this space, and on such short notice. We really do appreciate it, and we're sorry that we've disturbed you."
Maia waved a hand. "It's all right, Chairman. I just want to understand what occurred, so that we may fix it and avoid it in the future."
Atanna hesitated, but nodded. "As you are, of course, aware, ma'am, we've been allocating funding for the various requests made by different branches of the military and intelligence. Yesterday, I received the finalized version, as altered by the Imperial Ruling Council, and distributed it to our Members."
"Yes, Chairman," Maia intervened. "I'm wondering what about the new budget upset Senator Kuras so terribly, has Senator Pryscott staring awkwardly at the table, and has everyone else on this committee trying to hide the fact that they're really annoyed with someone."
Atanna glanced at the angry woman across the conference room. "Senator Kuras finds it unfortunate that the Imperial Ruling Council reallocated the bid for the new assault gunships from the Kuat Drive Yards to the Corellian Engineering Corporation," he finished. "And she is getting quite personal with the senator from Corellia," he said, gesturing to Senator Pryscott.
Maia listened, before nodding three times, and looking up at Kuras, her arms extending into a shrug. "What do you want me to say? It's unfortunate. It happens."
"It happens?" Kuras repeated.
"Yes."
A third man sat up at an back right corner of the table. "Kriff! Yes! Sometimes, the IRC shifts bids. That's the way it is. I hardly think it's reason to act like a child. You don't see me throwing a hissy fit, and I didn't get this bid either. Grow up."
"Not the Imperial Ruling Council," Kuras countered, raising her voice once more.
The man in the back stared. "This again."
Maia held her right hand up. "Thank you, Senator Page." She turned back to Kuras. "What are you implying?"
Kuras looked up at Maia, before shifting her gaze to the man who sat right in front of the Minister. "You know exactly what I'm implying. You're very intelligent. Finished university while still a minor and all of that." she trailed off, staring at the Corellian Senator as she spoke to the younger woman.
Pryscott's head snapped up, and he straightened himself out against the chair. "Just cut it. Shit happens. You lost a bid. I've lost bids too, and so has Senator Page. Don't try to turn this into some conspiracy."
Page nodded, calming his voice as best as he could. "Really. Didn't you get the Destroyers? And you're complaining now? Guess what-things aren't always going to go your way. It's a part of the game."
Maia had prepared herself to reply, but stayed silent, smiling as they defended her. Better that than risk something slipping. Her left hand reached up to push a strand of red hair off of her face, and Page's eyes glimmered as he noticed something different. Maia cursed herself silently, before trying to naturally lower her hand and cross her arms behind her back, keeping her expression clear.
"I'm glad we were able to work through this," she said to the group, although one look at Kuras made it clear that she was no more settled than she'd been at the beginning of Maia's involvement.
"Hopefully, it won't happen again, and we can all work through our issues maturely. Unfortunately, I must leave you all. But I hope you'll show my staff the same courtesy you would show me while you remain in this office."
Atanna nodded, standing from his chair. "Yes, of course. We won't keep you. Thank you, again, for letting us use this space."
"Not a problem at all," Maia replied, nodding and stepping closer so as to shake the chairman's hand.
"Say hello to your father for me, Minister," Page called out, his eyes still glittering. He winked at Pryscott, who, like Maia, did his best to keep his expression empty.
"I will, Senator," Maia replied, before nodding at Pryscott, who nodded back-neither one wanted to risk anything after all that had transpired in the few minutes they'd all been in the conference room. They would see each other soon enough.
With a final, curt nod at the other committee members who had stayed silent throughout the altercation, Maia turned, leaving her office.
Her chief of staff looked up at her, grinning. "So?"
"That championing democracy, no brave thing."
"You are your Tarsus Valorum quotes. What would your father say about the Valorum love?"
"I'm leaving."
"Don't try to lose the Blue Guard this time."
"Pass Dahn a note I'll come by right after this thing."
"What exactly is this thing?"
Maia forced as nonchalant a shrug as she could manage. "Don't worry about it."
"What is it?
Maia looked back, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head to the side. "Don't worry about it."
Lunette watched Maia leave and shook her head. "Bye."
Her chest emanated a painful amalgamation of feelings ranging from soreness to outright panging as she paced in the conference room down the hall from the Palpatine Administration's Executive offices. One hand nervously separated the burning red curls hanging over her shoulder as if they fell in a twisted mess rather than the neat curtain they always maintained.
She knew she had to tell them, if only for the purposes of planning the public announcement. But, perhaps because she feared their reaction, she didn't want to. Maia felt one hand subconsciously rise to rest over her abdomen, biting her lip until the metallic taste of blood rested on her tongue. She sighed with frustration at the overly prevalent feeling of helplessness she had always hated. The feeling she had, at school, attempted to ignore through self-immersion with ancient manuscripts, and other such tools necessary for her chosen field of study.
With one look down at her chronometer, Maia realized just how long she had stood in uncertain solitude, fighting with herself in the foreboding conference room about the next step forward. The time had come. And so, despite the urge within Maia to stop-to do this some other time-the young woman pushed open the door to the conference room, nodding curtly to the two Blue Guards flanking either side of the entranceway, who quickly filed behind her as she strode down the hall. Maia and the guards entered an elaborately decorated door to reveal an even larger area with many additional rooms and enclaves of varying sizes. At the far distance, directly across from the door, two Red Guards bordered the entranceway to Palpatine's personal office. Completely focused on her mission, Maia ignored the numerous aides going about the day's work, her purposeful stride now directed towards the office of the Director of Communications.
As she reached out to knock on the door, a resolute man with an unreadable expression on his face lowered his hands, both of which had been propping up his head. He stayed seated at his desk-directly at the initial entranceway to the Administrative Suites area.
"Minister," he called, in a voice that, while quiet, demanded a certain respect. A voice that made it quite evident that while this particular man now sat behind a desk, he had both seen and done much in his life, and a knowing tone that implied his constant involvement in matters the Administration liked to keep off-the-record.
Maia turned, now facing the balding man who still sat leisurely at his desk.
His right arm outstretched and rested on the desktop, a stylus flicking back and forth among long fingers, Sate Pestage examined the young woman, his gleaming eyes searching for an opportunity. The corners of his lips quivered ever so slightly as he noticed the almost…troubled look on Maia's face, and the small yet steady stream of blood trickling down her lip. He tilted his head to the side gently. Rather than asking if everything was all right-he never understood what was the point of such questions-Pestage took a different approach. He gestured up to his lip with one hand. "You've got. A little something. Here."
Taking a tissue from the box on his desk, Pestage only now rose from his chair, approaching Maia so as to hand her the tissue. Her mouth open, Maia placed one finger on her lip, her green eyes widening when they saw the dots of blood.
"Oh," she said.
Pestage glanced down at her curiously-it wasn't like Maia to act so lost, nor open with her emotions-before sighing, and beginning to walk back to his desk.
"If you need to speak with Ars, there's no need to knock-go right in," he said, his back still turned to Maia, before standing behind the piece of furniture, both palms securely on its surface, as his cloudy brown eyes focused their attention on her.
Maia turned towards the door once more, muttering simple thanks before she knocked, despite what Pestage had told her about simply entering. After a moment, the door opened, Ars Dangor's body taking up much more space than he otherwise looked capable of occupying. The slight sneer on his face faded when he saw Maia.
"Come in," he said, allowing her in and closing the door behind them both. Maia entered, her hands clasped at waist-length. "I've almost killed myself over the position paper on the new naval budget," he said, turning his back to her just for a moment as he sat behind his desk.
Uncertainty prevailed on Maia's face at the comment. She took a seat across from him, not noticing the blinking red light on the comm unit indicating that Pestage recorded the upcoming conversation.
"Were you working on that," Maia asked. "I'm sorry-I don't want to bother you. Can I help with the statement any?"
Ars dismissed the question with a bat of his hand. "I really have to finish it myself-you understand what I'm talking about." He frowned then, obviously concerned with Maia's behavior. "And. You're not bothering me." He hesitated. "What's troubling you," he asked.
Maia redirected her gaze to the side. "Nothing. I'm just. Out of it, and-"
"Cut the phobium. Tell me what's wrong."
Maia opened her mouth, but no words came out. She cradled her head with one hand, her elbow propped up on the desktop.
"It's not. Wrong, it's just." She sighed. "Ars. I'm pregnant."
Dangor's head snapped up. He squared his jaw as he stared at her for a long moment. "Well. First, have you alerted your parents?"
Maia nodded, her heart rate leveling now that she had let the secret out. "I told mum. Last night. I didn't want to tell dad, so. She said that she would."
Dangor tilted his head to the side, one hand at his beard. "And. Have you received a call from Governor Tarkin as of late?"
Maia shook her head. "I've been on edge just waiting for it."
Dangor rubbed his lips together. "I'll bet."
The comment rested between them as Dangor glanced down at the engagement ring on Maia's hand. "Dahniel Pryscott is the father," he stated.
Maia nodded, reaching up with both hands to push chunks of dark red hair behind her ears. Dangor opened his mouth to ask another question, but found himself interrupted by the opening of his office door.
"So," Sate Pestage began as he entered, closing the door behind him and moving to join the group, sitting leisurely on the desk. "When are you due?"
Maia crossed her arms, saying nothing to start with. "Six months."
Dangor took the information down on a legal pad as Pestage stuck a finger out to pause her.
"Six months?" He clasped both hands in his lap. "Hold on, I'm doing math in my head. Why haven't we found out before now?"
A slight defense formed in Maia's mind, but Dangor spoke before she could, placing a hand on top of Maia's.
"Don't concern yourself now," he told her, shooting a dark look in Pestage's direction.
An almost awkward silence pervaded the office, with Maia staring into her lap, one hand running continuously through her hair. Dangor was the first to speak.
"Maia, I want you to relax. Try to hold your ground with your father when he calls." He hesitated. "Unfortunately, this cannot be kept private. We'll have to plan a disclosure." Ars rose from his chair, quickly filling a flimsiplast cup with water and forcing it into the young woman's hand.
Pestage waited a moment before addressing Maia himself. "Expect a Senior Staff Meeting at some point this afternoon. Tomorrow at the latest." Maia nodded, sighing as she nodded her thanks to
Dangor before draining the cup and placing it into the garbage can at the side of his desk.
"I'll. See you later then," she rose from the chair, moving to exit Dangor's office.
"Mai," Ars called out, waiting for Maia to turn. "I mean it-relax. Whatever you do, don't overstretch yourself."
Maia hesitated, once more feeling her hand subconsciously find its place over her abdomen. "Thank you, Ars."
Dangor nodded, keeping his demeanor calm through the added stress he now felt.
Turning, Maia left his office, quickly joined by the two Blue Guards one more, who took their places behind her. She stepped outside of the administrative suite, beginning the trek down to the senatorial office of her fiancé, Dahn Pryscott of Corellia.
Maia exited the Administration's official suite, adopting the poised air so typical of her usual demeanor. Her brisk walk continued until she arrived inside the main offices for the Corellian delegation.
With only a simple nod at Dahn's Executive Assistant, seated at his desk next to the entrance way, Maia rapped against the door, waiting just a moment before entering her fiancé's office and closing the door behind her, hearing an irritated growl from one of her Blue Guards as she shut them out of the office once more.
"Know better than I, of course, but since you're-" Dahn looked up as he heard the door open, smiling widely when he saw Maia.
Maia tilted her head to the side, nodding towards the comm unit. Dahn nodded, his hazel eyes sparkling out of conflict between his desire to act politely to the other side of his conversation and his desire to immediately hang up.
"Bail. I'll have to call you back in a few minutes."
Maia's face lit up upon hearing the name. Bail? she mouthed. Dahn nodded, waiting for just a moment-Maia assumed that Bail replied during the time.
"Yes, just. Just give me a few minutes. Mai says hello." Without waiting for another response, Dahn hung up the comm, sighing before rising from his chair and approaching Maia. He pulled her into a hug, tighter towards the top of the embrace and looser towards the bottom before leaning down to kiss her forehead, one hand resting over their child.
Maia kept her head in place on Dahn's shoulder, both staying silent as they took in the moment. She remained in Dahn's arms as her head leveled, a few inches shorter than his own. She nodded towards the comm unit once more.
"You told Bail I was here on purpose."
Dahn raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."
Maia shoved him.
Dahn smirked, squeezing her arm and pulling her into a deep kiss. "You should be in your office. I don't know how much trouble you got in, or how Bail punished you when you did stuff like this at sixteen, but I'm sure you're in for it this time."
"I should be in my office? Want to try again?" Her head twisted to the side, a gentle smirk on her face, before she sighed, raising a hand to her hair as she moved to the side, sitting down in a comfortable couch at the side of the room. "I just told the Communications' Office."
Dahn followed behind her with a slight frown. "Without me?"
"I thought more." She paused. "Awkwardness would ensue if you were there. After that meeting before-"
Dahn narrowed his eyes in silent thought before replying, taking the seat beside her. "You didn't just decide to tell the Comm staff."
Maia swayed. "So?"
"So you planned to tell them without me."
"I." Maia quieted herself, squeezing her eyes shut and sighing. "I'm sorry, it-"
Dahn sighed himself, frowning in concern before wrapping an arm around Maia and pulling her against his chest. "Shh. How did Dangor take it?"
"I mean. He seemed a little upset, but rather accepting given the circumstances. He defended me when Pestage started with one of his power struggles."
Dahn tilted his head to the side. "Pestage. Are you all right?"
Maia rolled her eyes at him. "Of course."
"And your guards are out there?"
"Yes, Dahn. The Blue Guard is currently quite annoyed with me outside of those doors," Maia said, motioning to where she had come in. "You know, my dad's paranoia, mixed with the overbearing Blue Guard, on top of Bail's overly concerned parent…ness, in addition to you is a little hard to handle on a daily basis."
"Shut up."
"That wasn't very nice."
Dahn chuckled, walking to his desk to take out a wrapped ryshcate from one of the drawers. "Here," he said, handing it to her before sitting down once more. "Better now," he smirked.
Maia bit at the pastry, shaking her head against a giggle. "Much."
"I'm glad," he teased. "Because that's one of that special non-alcoholic batch we made the other night. It would be a travesty to mess with the traditional recipe so if it weren't up to the great Maia Tarkin's standards."
Both heads snapped to the desk's comm unit when it emitted a loud beeping noise. Maia clapped one hand to her ear, hissing as she turned to Dahn. "That is really loud."
"Sir, Senator Organa is here," a voice said through the comm unit.
Maia's smile thinned, her hand cupping her forehead.
"You can send him in, Ross," Dahn replied.
Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan strode into the office, his focused, questioning gaze disconcerting Maia as only he and her real father could. "Aren't those the two Blue Guards who completely failed at protecting Sano Sauro when those alleged traitors stormed that ship of his?"
Maia's eyes darkened. "Sano Sauro doesn't deserve protection."
Dahn's head turned to his fiancé. "Mai."
"Don't change the subject," Bail said.
"What's the subject," Maia asked, perhaps a bit too sharply.
Bail hesitated, a bit taken aback, as a silence filled the room.
"I'm sorry," Maia said.
Bail nodded his head to Maia's stomach. "How's the little one?"
Maia smiled, looking down at her abdomen as one moved to rest on top of her abdomen. "The little one is wonderful. If my lack of discomfort means anything."
"In my experience, Mai," Bail commented, before turning to Dahn. "That usually does mean something. So, dad, you can start to relax."
Dahn didn't laugh, pouring himself a glass of water. His expression morphed into a smirk before he reached into his pocket when a buzz emanated from his comlink. He frowned as he passed the comlink to Maia. "For you."
Maia's eyebrows furrowed as she stared down at the name on the screen before taking a deep breath and placing it to her ear. "Hello," she started, working hard to keep her voice firm, and not give her worry away.
"Where the kriff is your comlink, Maia?"
Maia scrunched her eyes. "Does it matter?"
"Where is it?" He asked again.
"My desk drawer."
"Ah. Why there, rather than with you? Did you think I couldn't find a way to reach you?"
"What the kriff are you talking about?" She winced, bracing herself. She should not have said that, and she knew it.
"Well." Her father paused on the other side, and Maia wondered for a moment if his next words would be tender. "I guess that oversight fits in well with everything else you seem to have done lately."
She winced harder still, wanting to kick herself for even considering it. "Dad, we've been together for four years. We're engaged. We would be engaged even if I weren't pregnant."
Bail placed a hand on Maia's shoulder.
"Don't you dare try to justify this, Maia. We raised you better than that."
As a tear rolled down Maia's cheek, she narrowed her eyes at the melodrama, but as ridiculous as it was, it still hurt. "Y-you? You raised me better than that? Before I left? N-no. You were too busy governing a decrepit planet and landing luxury cruisers on peaceful protestors to raise a teenager at all. W-why do you think I went to live with Organa, for the greenery?"
Her father paused, and didn't speak for what seemed like an entire standard minute, his voice like steel once he finally continued. "Don't you do that. You're our child. You will not manipulate me."
Maia's hand fisted over the comm. "Do you really think that you, of all people, can show me the way I should live my life?"
"Where is this coming from," he demanded. "You are a Tarkin."
"Not for much longer," Maia shouted back. And she hung up on him, placing her hands over the comlink in her lap, her head bowed as she began to shake, the only sound in the room her whimpers, which very quickly gave way to audible cries. It was a bluff. She'd never give up her name. They all knew it. But part of her wished it were true.
Dahn pulled Maia into a tight and possessive embrace, resting her head against his chest and petting her hair down. Torn between the desire to help the woman he loved overcome her duress and the desire to lash out at the man-her father-who had put her into such a troubled state, he decided that Maia needed him more than he needed to voice his own frustration.
Dahn continued comforting her, quieting her cries while whispering words of love into her ear. Bail meandered to the opposite side of the office, pacing with his arms crossed over his chest. He turned a conflicted stare upon Maia, himself torn between the need to be the father figure he had established himself as in Maia's teenage years and the need to leave what was clearly a family matter between actual members of the family. After a few minutes, he couldn't contain himself any longer, and approached the two just as quickly as he had left, squeezing her shoulder while allowing for Maia to remain in Dahn's arms.
"It's all right," Bail muttered.
Holding Maia's head still on his chest, Dahn looked up, locking a desperate gaze with Bail's own largely identical expression.
"Do you have anything important today," Dahn asked her. "I want to take you home."
Maia shook her head against him, picking her head up as she wiped her eyes, trying to stop tears that only continued to streak her cheeks. "I-I can't go," she told him. "A-and. I shouldn't. The Empire doesn't stop r-running just because." Maia gestured around the office, shaking her head. She didn't continue.
Maia dropped her shoulders and breathed in and out. She rose from the couch. "I'm fine. I'm going to go back to my office."
Dahn took her hand. "Let me take you back."
Maia twisted her hand out of his grasp, shaking her head once more. "You're both busy. It's fine. I'll see you later."
"Maia, please-"
"It's fine," Maia repeated. "I'll see you tonight."
And Maia replaced the empty expression, leaving the office and rejoining her Blue Guards. Without turning her back, Maia felt the gazes of both men all but burning into her leaving frame.
Once alone in her office, Maia pressed her back against a wall, folding into herself as she sunk to the floor. Keeping her head up with only her hands, Maia finally allowed herself to break as she hadn't in years, not even bothering to wipe her tears away until she had purged her body of their presence. As if she didn't know what else to do with herself,
Maia plodded to her desk, descending into her chair. After retrieving her comlink, Maia looked through her miscalls: Three from her father, followed by four from one of her two closest childhood friends.
Maia hesitated before turning to her holotransceiver and dialing the long ago memorized number.
Within a minute, the form of a young female materialized in the projector, dark curls cascading over both shoulder, and concerned, light eyes focused on Maia's frame.
The young woman said nothing-her expression, so intently focused on Maia, said enough.
"Dahn told you to call."
"He and Senator Organa are worried about you. I'm worried about you. I can't even imagine the way that kind of phone call would have gone with my father. Tell me what happened?"
"I'm not on your couch, Dr. Motti," Maia said, a bit of a lighthearted edge to her tone. Her friend knew it was forced.
"I didn't call as a xenopsychiatrist. I called as your best friend. So that's Drea. But I believe that that tone more than reflected the Maia Tarkin the galaxy knows and loves."
Maia smiled, hesitating before starting with a frown. "You know the way things are with him. You get it too."
"You feel like you'll never be good enough for him."
"I can't. And that's when I wonder why I even try anymore."
"Go on."
Maia looked up at her. "That's the xenopsychiatrist talking again."
"Okay. One second." Drea closed her eyes for a minute before looking up at Maia once more. "It's only because he loves you."
"He loves me, so he reminds me that I'm not perfect every chance he gets?"
"There's nothing wrong with not being perfect, Maia."
"Well, I was talking of my father's mindset, but while we're on the subject, yes there is."
"Why?"
Maia shook her head, narrowing her eyes. "Because I work in a kriffing male's club. An old human male's club."
"You're twice as smart as almost everyone in that building."
Maia's lip twitched. "How did we get on to this conversation when we were talking about my father?"
"You've already got the people who know what they're talking about calling you the most talented politician since Palpatine. You're in the Emperor's shadow at twenty-five. What's your approval rating again?"
"Drea, there is no part of this that is relevant. You know that none of that is real anyway."
"You're too hard on yourself."
Maia hesitated. "How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Be enough."
Drea scoffed. "I don't think my father expected his daughter to go into medicine. I know he didn't expect my sexuality. But having a brother in the Service probably gets rid of some of the criticism."
"I'm not even the first to not be in the military. What, because Garoche is dead, I've got no shot?"
"I'm sorry, Mai, I've got to advocate for your father here. I don't think that's fair to him."
Maia shook her head small. "You don't think my father wanted his son?"
"Of course he wanted Garoche. He loved Garoche. And he wants you, he loves you. He's just used to things going as planned."
Her friend and cousin had hardly shifted from her seated position since the call had started.
"He'll get over it, Maia. It's his grandchild, after all. He just needs a little bit of time. Everyone handles things differently. Give him a week or so."
"Okay," Maia muttered. She considered asking how that was working for Drea and Emmy and for Drea's father. And Drea thought about pushing, but decided against it. She kept her gaze focused on her friend.
Maia shifted on her office chair. "So. My daughter."
"You're only three months in, it's too early to know the sex, and there's no way for you to know the gender at all."
"It's about time for me to know the sex. She's a she." Maia rolled her eyes at her friend. For a moment, she managed to forget the conflict with her father. No more than a moment.
Drea smiled. "Third cousin. A girl. When are you going to get back to your intellectual history research," Drea asked. "Publish or perish. Especially when you can get away with researching Force Sensitives by focusing on not the Jedi community."
Maia looked at her. "Are you making a joke? Everyone's pushed me into politics since I was how old?"
"I'm just saying, your 'higher power' or whatever has been there all along-that Sith Lord with the odd name you lecture unknowing victims on all the time. Darth Scourge, or Darth Blight, or whatever?"
"That's Darth Bane I believe you're describing."
"Does it make a difference?"
Maia nodded, raising a brow. "It makes a difference. Next you'll be confusing Darth Revan and Darth Rivan."
"Because I would be the first person to ever do that."
"Sarcasm. How unique, Drea."
"I love you too."
Maia smirked, leaning back in her seat. "And I consider that an appropriate place to cut this off and return to running the galaxy."
"What's this, Mai? Your body language is almost alienating."
"My alienating body language should give us plenty to talk about later."
"Yeah. Plenty."
Maia ended the transmission, her mood considerably lighter compared to when she had originally arrived in her office from Dahn's own. She sat still in her chair for a moment, smiling before she pressed the button on her comm unit. "Lunette," she called out to her Chief of Staff. "What's next?"
"Senior Staff meeting. Sate Pestage called to set it while you were out."
"And you thought you'd tell me this when?" Maia asked.
"Right now."
"Yeah." She sighed, rolling her eyes as she rose from her chair. "All right. Next time you can. You know. Tell me when I first come through the office."
"Next time, you can tell me where you are," Lunette said.
"Yeah. I'll try to start doing that."
"Thanks, that's comforting," Lunette quipped.
"I'll do one better. Do you want to head to the meeting with me? I'm pretty positive that you won't be allowed in the room, but at least you'll know where I am. You can relax with the interns outside of the conference room. It'll be just like old times. And by that, I mean, 'It'll be just like my first year as senator.' "
"Did you just demote me to intern?"
"Hey, no, but now that you mention it."
Chuckling, Lunette hung up the comm unit, opening Maia's office door and sticking her head in. "And off we go?"
"Did you hang up on me? Can you do that?"
Lunette stared.
"I thought that was a one way function."
"Apparently not."
Maia shifted between her feet. "Yeah."
Lunette tilted her head to the side. "We should probably start walking."
Maia shook her head, exhaling down towards her stomach. "You know the way."
A/N: Hello! Thank you for reading. I am an historian working on children's history in early America. I study the experiences of children, how people in early America thought about childhood and how that changed over time, and the intersection of gender and class in the 1600s. Please reach out if you would like to know more about my research.
I would like to warn that this story will include frank discussion of sexual violence. I am a survivor myself, and when I incorporate sexual violence in my work, it is always from the perspective of healing and recovery. If you fear this work may trigger you, please either do not read or reach out for more details. Additionally, this story will include self-injury. Finally, the main characters in my story believe that you can tell gender from a sonogram. Be aware that this is the case for them, regardless of what I myself know about gender identity.
Reviews are very appreciated.