This vignette corresponds with Chapter 28 of Ruin when Jaina escorts Elegos' shuttle onboard the Chimaera.  Jag and Jaina meet up in the pilot's lounge. The dialogue is straight from the book, but I took liberties with Jag's POV.  The book is Jaina's POV.  The last two lines are not in the book, I added them to the end of the scene.  They are my own.  How I envisioned it ending.

This is the last one guys, so enjoy!


THE PRELUDE


Jag halted midway through the door to the pilot's ready room at the unexpected sight before him. Standing with her back to him, staring down into the hangar bay of the Chimaera, was the slight form of none other than Jaina Solo; the petite body, comfortably wearing the New Republic orange flightsuit, was unmistakable. He ventured a couple of steps into the room for a better look. As her profile came into view, Jag realized that regardless of the brown hair plastered to her head in a braid from hours under a helmet, there was an undeniable air of beauty surrounding her.

He paused for a moment and pondered the fortune that had brought her to the Remnant Star Destroyer, when his eye caught the sight of the shuttle in the bay. It was covered in strange growths. Around the shuttle, technicians buzzed about, performing any number of scans and tests. There was an obvious tension encompassing the bay and pervading Jaina's aura.

He took a deep breath and braved some words. "What they have done there is unusual."

Jaina turned to face him as he made his way across the room in her direction. She studied him with a strange disdain he was unable to discern. Jaina folded her arms across her chest and looked back to the deck as she replied.

"Pretty much everything the Yuuzhan Vong do is unusual, as far as I'm concerned. They've spent an hour scanning the thing. I can't imagine there is much more they can learn without cracking it open."

Jag thought it odd she had the patience to stand there for an hour and observe the workings of the technicians, but then he realized everything about Jaina Solo seemed to be an enigma. He moved closer, drawn to her like a magnet, despite the peculiarities of the young woman that made her his polar opposite.

"There isn't. That's not what they are doing." He stared at the reflection of her face in the transparisteel window. Perhaps, if he took a close look again, she would not be the same girl he had imagined in his dreams. The closer look, muted in the reflection, made him more certain than ever she was that very specter. "They don't know what is in there, and they're making sure that if it's harmful, they don't get blamed for releasing it."

"You say that as if it's a bad thing to be cautious."

The comment took him by surprise. Nothing about her had ever given him the impression she was ever cautious. On the contrary, from where he stood, she seemed to dash headlong into every situation. He shook his head at her and at the quandary she represented.

"They know they cannot be certain of what is in there. All they can do is reduce uncertainty to statistically insignificant levels. What they are wasting is time. We are at war. There is no absence of risk. There are times when one just has to do what needs to be done to win." Oh boy, Jagged, you just about summed her up in one mouthful. Perhaps she's not so hard to understand after all.

Jaina turned to look at him, and he was engulfed in the blazing depths of her brown eyes. For a second, he was sure his body had forgotten to breath. "In theory you're only two years older than me, but you're talking like you're old enough to be my dad."

No, I am expressing in mere words what you seem to do instinctively. She probably is her father's daughter, now that I recall Father's tales of the infamous Han Solo. He nodded once as he thought. "Forgive me. I was judging you based on your accomplishments, not your age."

She blinked, and her eyes reopened to reveal a well-kindled fire burning in them. Her voice confirmed that he had hit a nerve. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Something about the venom in her words goaded him to rise to the challenge as if his very being was questioned. Jag's eyes hardened as he responded in an equally harsh tone. "You are a Jedi. You are a superior pilot in an elite squadron. The dedication and skill required for these things are well known. I made the mistake of assuming too much about you."

Instead of rising to his challenge, she mysteriously retreated, throwing him off-guard once again. "I'm reading your tracking data, but still don't have a lock on your target."

Jag sighed. He pondered what it was about this woman that could make him want to shake her senseless and take her in his arms in the same breath. For some reason, he wanted her to understand who he was.

"In Chiss society, there is no adolescence. Chiss children mature early and are given adult responsibilities very quickly. Those of us humans living among them were raised as they were raised. Intellectually I knew things were not the same here in the New Republic, but--"

"You think I am a child?" Jaina gave him an icy glare, worthy of a Csilla blizzard. "You think I am soft or something?"

How is it that you can have the best of intentions and still manage to pique her wrath? Jag broke eye contact with her, flustered by his misconstrued intentions. In trying to open up to Jaina, he had embarrassingly blundered his way into insulting her pride. Jag fought the blush he knew was building as he held a hand up in defense, before shaking his head, trying to clear it and regain some semblance of control.

"Not soft, no, not at all. You have determination and courage, but you lack--"

"Lack what?"

He frowned, searching for the word his mother always used when she confronted his father about his demeanor. That quality was what Soontir Fel had instilled in all his children, and his mother sometimes resented the Baron for it. He stared at the shuttle as his usually collected mind struggled to find the word.

"You're not grim."

He could see her mouth pop open in the reflection on the transparisteel. For just a moment he imagined what it would taste like to kiss those lips. Such thoughts swept away as she moved her mouth again to speak, almost seeming for once to lack the confidence she brimmed with usually.

"Um, no, I mean, there are times, yes, but being grim takes such a toll."

"It does at that." For a second, the imagined kiss was replaced by the desire to drag her into his arms as she stumbled over her words and tried to regain her footing.

He pointed a finger toward the two men walking across the deck, thankful for the sudden distraction that halted his insane impulse. They were wearing environment suits, but the clear headgear made them easily recognizable.

"My, ah, uncle…when he hugged me at the reception…We'd met barely an hour before, privately, and he was surprised to learn who I was, but in no time after that…Where I come from, there are men that I have never seen smile before, and here he was, in the midst of a difficult situation, and he was happy to see me. Not because I was an ally, but because I was his sister's son. And he accepted me despite the fact that my mother's departure from the New Republic hurt him deeply."

Jaina reached over unexpectedly and rested a hand on his shoulder. The touch was both of fire and ice. His body warmed under her fingers, while chills ran down to his neck and along his spine.

"Wedge is like that. Most people are. Life is too harsh not to take what pleasure you can find in it, and certainly learning of his sister and how her life has gone would be wonderful to him. No matter how bad things might be, a joke, a smile, a pat on the back help break the tension."

Jag was sure his will would break under the sensation rippling from her touch. He doubled his resolve before he lost himself to the power this woman held over him, a power that frightened him to the depths of his soul. Jag raised his chin and steeled his barriers.

"Among the Chiss, celebration is saved until the job is done."

"Even if it is never-ending?"

"If it isn't ended, the celebration is false."

"No, it's necessary."

Jag was afraid to look at her now. Some of what she said made sense, and that simple fact made her even more alluring than before. Jag was certain he would fall into her eyes if he looked into them again. He knew she was studying him, but he kept his focus forward, only seeing the reflection of who she truly was.

Suddenly she withdrew her hand, and it was instantly missed. The loss of the connection forced him to seek out her face again despite his determination. He unwittingly smiled at the beauty before him, not being able to fight the burning desire for her to like him as a man. It compelled him to explain.

"The Chiss, despite the impression I might have given you, are a thoughtful people. Deliberate, calculating, but not above a flight of fantasy or two. They are not averse to wondering where they would be, had life been different. Whom they would have met, how they would have met, what would have become of them."

"And you mention this because?"

"Because…" He hesitated, then looked out at the deck. "I was wondering what Uncle Wedge would have thought of my older brother."

Jaina smiled and looked out at the deck. "The only problems with those flights of fancy are that life never works as cleanly as we'd like. Sometimes a meeting is just a meeting. Other times it's a prelude."

What had she just said? Could she possibly see something more between us as well? A prelude to what? Jag laughed despite himself, overcome with a momentary giddiness at the thought. "Had I said that, you would have accused me of talking as if I were your father's age again."

"I might well have, but probably not." She stared at him through the reflection of the window, returning to the ethereal state of the girl in his dreams. "The nice thing about being an adolescent is being able to make mature decisions when you need them and being able to just flow along with life when you don't."

Jag absorbed her words and took them to heart. For once in his life, he was going to do what his heart told him and not what his calculating brain determined. Jag stepped to the edge of the precipice he was venturing off and leapt feet first. He turned to gaze upon the loveliness of her profile and froze momentarily when she met his stare.

"Jaina, I am heading down to the mess to have a quick bite to eat. Would you like to join me?"

A smile spread across her face and seared into every fiber of his being. "After the day I had, I would love to."

**********

THE END
TKL/zr

Look for the sequel – All Angles – coming soon…