CHAPTER FOUR: A TIMELY INTERRUPTION
"Put it in the empty socket,"
"Where?"
"There,"
Pause.
"It won't go in,"
Anakin restrained himself from letting out a sigh of impatience. He had to remind himself yet again, that Tahiri was not nearly as knowledgeable or experienced in the field of mechanics like he was.
"You're mad," she said, turning to look at him.
"I'm not mad,"
"Frustrated?"
"Maybe just a little," he admitted.
She let the cable drop to her side. "I'm sorry, I'm so stupid when it comes to this stuff,"
"You are not stupid," he told her. "You just need some practice when it comes to this stuff. Isn't that why we've been doing this for the past week? So you can learn how to fix mechanical junk?"
Tahiri giggled. 'Mechanical' or 'technical junk' were the choice of words she often used when describing complicated technology or any part of a ship that didn't have a normal name like lounge or cabin. What she termed 'junk' though, was an important part of who Anakin was, and that's why she had decided maybe it was time she learned the proper names for areas on a ship and whether port meant left or right. Besides, taking an interest into what Anakin had been passionate about his whole life might serve to bring them even closer then they already were.
"Let's try this again," Anakin said in an encouraging voice.
They were only realigning the Falcon's internal communications system because Anakin figured if anything should go wrong, it was not something that would prevent his dad from suddenly taking off if the need arose. Even without it not being one of the more delicate systems, he was sure his dad would have a fit if he knew he was letting Tahiri do some rewiring to his beloved vessel.
He was the one who had suggested that she learn some simple repair methods, after failing to meet her for lunch because he had lost track of the time working on the Falcon. She was just a little upset with him to say the least for blowing her off like that, and the only thing that had saved him from getting his head chewed off was his brilliant suggestion that they work together. She had been completely caught off guard by his proposal, and he wasn't even sure that she would agree to it. Sometimes she could be as unpredictable as the weather. She shocked them both by saying yes.
They started off with small things, like the food units and the environmental controls inside the cabins, and once she had mastered that or Anakin felt she was ready for something more advanced, they had moved onto communications systems.
As much as he enjoyed spending time with her, his idea allowed him to keep a close eye on her. He would never tell her that, of course. He wished to avoid that conversation at all costs.
She was keeping herself closed to him, and when he tried to get through even the most outer barriers of her mind he came up against a solid wall. He wanted to think it had started recently, but he had to be honest with himself and admit she had been like that since her return from the grave. It bothered him that she wouldn't talk to him about it; that she didn't feel like she could confide in him. He had tried several times to broach the subject of her death, and each time she would tell him she didn't want to talk about it or avoid the question altogether. He could get through her defenses easily enough if he wanted to, but he would never do that to her. He could never invade her privacy like that, no matter how badly he wanted to know what she was keeping from him – and Tahiri knew that. The only thing worse than her distance was her strange behaviour. She tended to avoid large crowds and kept to herself a lot. She was becoming what he had been for the majority of his childhood and early teen years. The idea that they had switched roles, that he had become the more open and outgoing one, was a scary one. There was the possibility that they hadn't changed roles and Tahiri was just growing up, but the thought of her turning into a serious, mature person was as unbelievable as the thought of him turning into a chatterbox.
He watched her pick the cable back up and try again to get it to go in, but to no avail. Anakin could see her frustration was mirroring his own.
"Here, let me give you a hand," he said and got behind her. He put his arms around her and grabbed onto the wire.
Tahiri lightly shivered when he got so close that her back was leaning against his chest. "I thought this was the whole reason we came up with the 'no contact' rule," she said as his hands slipped on top of hers. "Because we kept getting distracted,"
Anakin felt his face flush. 'Distracted' was an understatement. He had problems focusing on the task at hand whenever she got too close to him and Tahiri seemed to have the same difficulty. An innocent brushing of shoulders or a simple kiss on the cheek, led to more kissing, until they had both agreed to the 'no touching' rule while working.
Realigning internal communications was taking a lot longer then it normally would have had Anakin been working alone. But he had never enjoyed himself quite as much when working alone.
"Do you want me to let go?" He asked her, his breath tickling the skin of her neck.
"No," she responded immediately, enjoying the feeling of being in such close contact with him.
It was a strange feeling she still had not quite adjusted to – the need to be close to Anakin whenever he was around – and sometimes even when he wasn't. She couldn't remember how long ago it had started, and it scared her a little. She and Anakin had always been close – as friends – but it was different now. Their relationship was more intense then it had ever been before. It managed to both thrill her and scare her at the same time. He was still her best friend, but at the same time was so much more than that now.
"Tahiri?"
"Hmm?"
"We should probably put this cable back in before either one of us gets electrocuted,"
She felt her own face reddening then. "Oh, right,"
All business now, Anakin helped her snap the cable back into the correct spot.
"You were just trying to put it in the wrong port, that's all," he said, sliding his arms off hers, and sitting down on the deck plates.
She closed the service panel and joined him on the floor. "What's next?"
"Well, the food processing units could use another adjustment and then there's the starboard engine –"
"That's not what I meant, dummy," she said, stopping him in mid sentence, using her childhood nickname for him, which now carried a lot more affection then it used to.
Before he could respond she planted her lips firmly against his.
Anakin recovered from his slightly stunned state enough to kiss her back. Tahiri scooted closer to him and kissed him harder. His hands slipped down to her waist while her fingers ran through the hair on the back of his head. Their kissing intensified, as was usual of late. He didn't think it was possible but he pulled her closer to him. Tahiri gave a little gasp as his body pressed into hers, and let her hands roam down to his back. Without even realizing what he was doing, he had Tahiri lying on her back, with himself leaning over her. They both hesitated. This was new territory for them both, and though it felt natural and right, neither one was sure if they should continue.
"Anakin, you in here?" A roguish voice called.
They both froze, panic evident in their eyes.
"Sith, it's my dad," Anakin whispered. He wasn't sure what he was more afraid of: his father catching Tahiri and him alone in the back of his ship or him finding out he was teaching Tahiri about rewiring using his ship as the test subject. Considering their current position, which would take a lot of explaining, he assumed the former.
"Anakin, are you here?"
"Yeah, just give me a second," he yelled, scrambling to get off of her. He grabbed Tahiri's hand and hauled her to her feet. "Come on,"
He hurried her into one of the cabins onboard. "Stay here until I come get you, okay? I'll go deal with my dad,"
"Anakin – "
Anakin wasn't listening to her. He was already hurrying through the ship to meet his father. If he valued his future, he would have to make sure his dad didn't notice anything amiss – because a suspicious Solo was a relentless Solo, and he did not need that right now.
He found him leaning against a bulkhead near the opening to the lounge.
"What are you doing here?" Anakin said before he could stop himself.
Han Solo gave his son a strange look, somewhere between a frown and a look of amusement. "What am I doing here? This is my ship, remember? But that's beside the point. I'm here because your mom was worried about you missing dinner,"
Dinner? It was that late already? "I wasn't hungry," was his quick thinking excuse.
"Doesn't bother me," his dad said with a shrug, "but you know how your mom gets when she plans one of her 'family nights' and one or more parties neglect to show up,"
"Yeah, I know,"
"Something wrong, Anakin?" Han said, concerned. "You look a little pale. You're not coming down with something, are you?"
"I'm fine," he said a little too quickly. "I've just been stuck here all day fixing things,"
"You should've come get me. I could've given you a hand,"
Anakin simply nodded, thinking the extra hand he did have that day might get him into a whole load of trouble if he wasn't careful.
"What did you work on anyways?"
Anakin opened his mouth to respond, but closed it when he drew a blank. He knew they had been working on something to do with the Falcon's communications systems, but images of kissing Tahiri and what might have happened had his dad not shown up, were still fresh in his mind and he couldn't think any farther back then that.
"I fixed the aft thrusters," he told him. That was the first thing that popped into his head. "You know how they've been giving you trouble lately,"
That last part was true, but since he hadn't actually fixed them he was going to have to now – and hopefully before his dad found out he was lying.
"Uh-huh," Han said, nodding his head. "And they're working fine now?"
"Yes,"
"Well, I'll let you get back to your work and I'll tell your mother you had a good excuse for missing family night,"
"Thanks,"
Anakin had to fight hard to keep his relief from showing up on his expression.
Han went to leave, but then turned back to his son as if just remembering something. "I almost forgot. Your mom wanted to ask Tahiri to dinner, but when she called Tionne said she hasn't seen her all day,"
"Oh?" Anakin gulped, unable to keep the guilty look off his face.
"Do you know where she is?"
"Haven't seen her," Anakin responded before the whole sentence was out of his dad's mouth.
"I just kinda figured she'd be with you," said Han, successfully managing to keep the amused look off his face. "But if Tionne or Kam call looking for her I'll tell 'em you haven't seen her either. I'll see you back at the house, unless you want me to stay and give you a hand?"
Anakin fervently shook his head. "No, dad, that' all right. Tell mom I'll be home in a little while, okay?"
"Whatever you say," was Han's response, and then he disembarked from the ship.
At last, Anakin heaved a gigantic sigh of relief and collapsed down into the self-conforming couch in the lounge. That had been close. Thank the stars it wasn't his mother or worse yet, one of his siblings that had found them. They would have figured out what was going on right from the start.
"That was some performance, Anakin," said Tahiri, coming into view. She was grinning from ear to ear. "I had to cover my face to keep from laughing. Especially during that last part,"
Anakin did not see the humour in almost getting caught together by his dad. "I'm glad you found it so amusing. Next time, I'll let you explain to my dad what we're doing while I run and hide,"
"You're such a terrible liar," she told him, coming over to join him on the couch.
"I think my dad noticed that. I got the feeling he knew I was lying, when he asked about you,"
"Maybe your appearance gave it away," she said, unable to contain her laughter any longer.
He stared down at his rumpled clothes and then ran a hand through his unruly hair. He groaned.
"It could be worse," Tahiri said in an optimistic voice. "At least your brother or sister weren't the ones to come looking for you,"
"And I don't want to press my luck," he said, getting to his feet. "I'll walk you home," he extended a hand to help her up.
She took it. "Uh, Anakin, don't you think we ought to make ourselves a bit more presentable first?"
For the first time, he noticed her messy hair and clothes were in the same wrinkled condition as his own. "Right. I forgot about that,"
They didn't talk about what his dad almost walked in on, mostly because neither one was sure what had happened. It made for a quiet and rather awkward walk back up into the Palace, and when he dropped Tahiri off at home and said goodnight, Anakin had never been so relieved to be away from her.
It was unusual for the Solo home to be so quiet in the evening when the entire family was together on the planet. It was even more unusual for Jaina to be sitting on a couch in the living room area with nothing better to do then flip through the channels on the holovid.
Her mother was upstairs going over the speech she would be giving the senate at the end of the week and her father was out looking for Anakin after he was a no-show at dinner. Jacen was off somewhere too, though she did not have the slightest idea where.
It was nice to have a quiet evening at home for the first time in as long as she could remember. The galaxy was not going to fall apart if she took one night off.
That was when she heard the door chime to the apartment ring
So much for an uneventful evening at home, she thought to herself and went to answer the door. She knew who it was before she even made it halfway there, and that's what caused her to pause briefly before opening it.
"Hey," Ganner said to her. "Can I come in?"
She gestured for him to come inside and shut the door behind him.
"Is this a bad time?"
"No," she said, turning off the holovid. "I was just catching up on some holovision. It's been awhile since I had the time to watch any,"
"Did you get my messages?" He asked suddenly.
She had. Her brothers had given her every holo message Ganner had left for her over the past three days. The last time she had spoken with him was when they had landed on Courscant and she had immediately taken off for the med center.
"Well, did you?" Ganner prompted her.
"Yes. But I've been busy,"
"Jaina," he began in a sympathetic voice, "I understand Peckum meant a lot to you, but that doesn't mean you have to shut me out,"
"I wasn't – I just needed some time,"
"How's Zekk?"
She tried to detect any resentment in his voice, but surprisingly his concern was genuine. That was almost impossible to believe considering the usual animosity he felt towards Zekk.
"How should I know? I haven't heard from Zekk since it happened,"
She stopped herself just short of saying she had left him a couple messages but had gotten no response back. She knew how Ganner would react if he knew she had tried to reach Zekk, when she had made no attempts to contact him.
"You should stop worrying about him so much. You of all people should know that he's more than capable of taking care of himself,"
Jaina shook her head. "You weren't there. You didn't see how he looked. It was like something inside of him died too. Peckum was the closest thing he had left to a real family, and he's lost that now,"
"He'll get over it,"
Jaina stared at him, outraged. "How can you say that?" She fumed. "You're making it sound like Peckum's death was no big deal – just another casualty of the war,"
"I didn't mean it like that," he said. "Zekk's grieving right now, but he'll deal with it and move on. It's what we do. That doesn't mean he'll miss Peckum any less, but he'll be able to think about him without feeling that pain,"
"The only way he's going to get over it is if he has help,"
"Has he asked for your help? No. That's what I thought," he softened his voice and added, "I think you should stay out of it,"
"Why?" She challenged.
"Because I don't want to see you get dragged into his problems again,"
"Thanks for your concern," she said sarcastically, "but I can take care of myself,"
Ganner sighed. "I'm just trying to look out for you. Why do you have to make a career out of making every conversation we have difficult,"
"Maybe when someone in your life dies, you won't be the easiest person to get along with either,"
"Maybe if they did, you'd pay more attention to me," he muttered under his breath.
Jaina had no trouble hearing him. She slapped him across the face. Hard. "Get out," she told him, her tone cold.
Ganner didn't need to be told twice. He was already out the door and it had closed shut behind him before the numbness in her hand wore off.
"What's going on?" Leia asked her husband as he got into bed beside her. "That grin on your face has been more lopsided then usual all night." She raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Has Lando conned you into some new scheme of his?"
"Nah, nothing like that,"
"What, then?"
"You know how you sent me to find Anakin? It didn't take me long to track the kid down,"
"And you find this amusing because…"
Maybe old age was finally catching up to her husband.
"He was with Tahiri on the Falcon," he finished.
Leia's eyes widened. "They weren't – "
"No, Leia," he calmed his wife. "I don't even think our son knew that I knew Tahiri was there,"
"But if you didn't actual see Tahiri. How do you know she was there?"
"Sweetheart, our kids are a lot of things, but great liars they ain't. You should have been there," Han went on, his lopsided grin returning. "He went so pale. Then when I told him you asked Tahiri to dinner but no one had seen her, the look on his face was priceless,"
"But I never asked her,"
"You know that," he said pointing to her and then at himself. "I know that. But Anakin doesn't. I didn't know for sure she was there until I brought her up and Anakin practically gave himself away. That and his scoundrel-like appearance. I'm glad I got out of there when I did or else he would have caught on that I knew,"
She stared at him incredulously. "You left the two of them there – alone – after that?"
He shrugged. "Their just kids,"
"They're not 'kids', Han," Leia was quick to remind him. "Their teenagers. With hormones,"
"Trust me. They weren't going to do anything after I left. You taking this way too seriously,"
"And you're not taking this serious enough," she could not believe the whole light attitude he was taking about this. "I think you should talk to him,"
"All right,"
"Tomorrow, Han,"
"Fine, princess," he promised. "Now lets try and get some sleep before another one of our children goes and does something extremely teenage-like and need a good dose of parental guidance,"
This chapter was definitely a lot happier than the other ones. Chapter 5 will be up shortly.