Chapter Nine – Down Time
Adra walked slowly down the hallway towards the room she and Face shared, not quite sure what she was thinking. In her head, the conversation she'd had with Ryok's niece and all the other instances and memories that had sprung up. So consumed was she within her thoughts, she hardly noticed punching in the password on the control panel. The door opened and she walked into the main room of the apartment, allowing her eyes a moment to adjust to the lack of light.
A figure she knew all too well was sitting at the table, one hand on the table itself, the other's elbow on the table, his face in the free hand. It didn't take the Force to figure out what had happened. She should've known he'd find out, should've paid more attention to the flicker in the Force. Yet she'd been so consumed by her thoughts and the words forming off them that she hadn't realized what should've been obvious. Face had overheard the conversation she'd had with Cerne, that much she knew. The only problem was that she hadn't told him prior.
She stopped moving two paces into the room, her right hand going to her mouth, as if pinching her lip would make the situation better. Face said nothing to her, merely continued to stare at the table. Instead of moving, Adra probed him carefully with the Force, trying to muddle out what he was upset about, pretty simply, what else his reactions were.
The answers she managed to supply for herself weren't the ones she could've wanted. On top of Face's list was killing Grandar, she'd guessed as much before, yet underneath was an emotion she couldn't put her name on. With a sigh that broke the eerie silence, Adra decided to speak.
"Are you really that mad at me?" she asked softly, musing to herself that speaking the question too loudly would cause a reaction she wasn't sure she wanted.
It didn't take more than a second for Face to lift his head from his hands and reply. "That's a stupid question Adra."
Oops. Guess the theory on speaking to loudly didn't work. Closing her eyes, Adra just stared into the back of her eyelids for a few seconds. The only way this conversation wouldn't end in a full-out fight would be by one of them leaving. Since she was closest to the door, Adra took that initiative upon herself, only commenting once before turning to leave.
"I'm sorry Face," was all she said before exiting through the door she'd just entered.
* * * * *
Face heard her words, but didn't reply. He was too wrapped up in his own thoughts about the whole situation. First it was just Kai that was raped, or at least that he knew about, and then he found out that the bastard that lay hand on his youngest daughter did the same thing to his wife. Not only that, he'd been blind to the second bit of that until he'd overheard Adra talking to Ryok's niece. As of current status, he was beyond pissed, though at whom he couldn't level-headedly say. He was going to murder Grandar, that was for sure, but he still didn't know what he was going to do about the fact Adra had never mention that 'little' part of her history.
It was true, he'd never actually asked her for a complete run down of her life, yet of all things you'd think he might've heard about a previous affiliation with any other man that might've resulted in a child. Yet, he knew this bit for certain, Adra hadn't had any other kids but their four.
The room itself was beginning to look a bit old, considering he'd stared at the same things for the last twenty minutes. With a grumbling sigh, Face stood, wondering where he'd go. On closer inspection of his thoughts, he knew. The pilot walked to the door, exiting through it just as Adra had minutes earlier. His wristchrono now read 1947; Kai wouldn't be asleep yet.
However, all his thoughts on perhaps talking to his daughter were hindered in their planning stages. She was not in the lounge, as she had been thirty minutes earlier, and she certainly wasn't in her room. That left, sadly, too many places for her to be. However, that didn't mean he couldn't ask one of his other children to use their all-knowing Force to find out for him.
His search brought him to the spare conference room that Inyri had reverted into some kind of 'studio'. More correctly, it was the official 'Actor's Den' to most Wraiths. Well, that's what happened when he had an actress for a daughter. The girl would sit in the same place for over an hour, working up the most intricate and discombobulating scripts one ever would imagine, then she'd swoop down upon then in the lounge or other and hand out scripts. It was rather interesting, actually.
But that wasn't the reason Face was here looking for Inyri. No, it was to help him locate Kaizan. Inyri, as expected, was sitting calmly in a chair, feet propped on the table, datapad in hand. When the door opened, Face saw her look up to see him.
"Hey Dad," she grinned, putting the datapad aside.
Face nodded to her, offering a smile. Skipping introductions, he jumped straight to the chase. "Can you tell me where Kai is?"
Inyri appeared to be debating fulfilling the request or merely glaring at him- a trick learned from watching her mother. It was always a little bit scary to see Inyri pulling off Adra's expressions; they looked just a little too similar for his tastes.
At last though, the girl nodded. "Yes, of course. She's off with Tynian, and they're in his room." And with that, Inyri went back to her datapad.
From her reply, Face had to wonder if he actually wanted to go to the Afyon boy's room. Then again, the thoughts of what might happen if he didn't were equally horrible. So he turned and left Inyri to her work, passing Davin Fel on his way out.
The trek to Tynian Afyon's room was hardly one that might be called long. He pressed the door comm and then waited. Seconds later- which surprised him- the door slid silently back. The younger of the two pilots stepped back from the door and Face walked in. Inside, the room was sparsely lit, and on the desk, a holodisplay showed what looked like a simulator recording.
Turning back to Ty, Face raised an eyebrow. "Sorry if I'm a bit touchy right now, but I'm not in the mood for small talk. Where's my daughter?"
"Asleep, actually," the boy answered. Face didn't change his expression. Tynian elaborated, frowning slightly. "We just got the simulator holorecording of the Junior Wraith thing Lis and Inyri had us do a few days ago. We were taking the moment to go over it and figure out what we could've done better. Our glorious squadron leaders want it back tomorrow." He shrugged. "Kai just sort of dozed off, so I put her in my bed."
While the whole concept disturbed him on some level that his sixteen-year-old daughter was spending more time with a boyfriend, whom he thought it might be better if she didn't have, he didn't dote on that idea for more than a second. Two years ago he'd promised himself not to do anything that would drive the two of them apart, ever since he'd seen Kai crying over disappointing him. That didn't mean there wasn't some fiber of him itching to hand Tynian an activated explosive.
Finally, Face spoke. "Aha." The pilot looked over to the other open door across the room and saw a shadowed form lying in the darkness. With a smile threatening to turn his lips upward, Face looked back at Ty. "Well, I guess you wouldn't be half bad to talk to over this then."
To the kid's credit, he didn't look overly perplexed. He just pulled out his desk chair and sat on it facing backwards, arms crossed over the top of it. Face took that as an invitation to sit and talk. He chose rather to sit on the couch, and did so in a very melodramatic way. Tynian merely watched him, obviously waiting for him to start. Stifling a sigh, Face pondered how he wanted to begin. Realizing it didn't even matter, he just shook his head and decided to do the logical thing: improvise your script.
"I guess I want to know what your take on this whole affair are," he said, rather lamely, he thought.
That obviously hadn't been what Tynian was thinking this whole 'chat' was about. Nonetheless, the boy recovered from the initial surprise quickly and easily. "I'm assuming you're talking about Kessel and the events that took place there," Ty remarked. Face merely nodded, inviting him to continue. "And I assume you mean other than wanting to kill Grandar."
Well, Face thought, at least I'm not the only one.
"I guess I'm really just trying to get used to it." Tynian shrugged, shaking his head, seeming to banish another thought. "It's just...gah. I don't even know. It's frustrating, but it's not like I'm upset at Kai. It wasn't her fault, after all."
Face nodded, understanding the Jedi's words quite well. "That's understandable."
Ty nodded, then continued. "It's like being on the outside looking in at something knowing you can do absolutely nothing about it. I don't like that feeling at all...especially not when it involves my girlfriend."
Perhaps it was the way Tynian spoke; perhaps it was the words themselves. However, something about it had a really insightful effect for Face. While he still was upset at Adra over not telling him about Grandar, he could specifically relate to Ty. And, in their brief exchange, he also got insight to the particulars of Kai and Tynian's relationship. The universe was by no means perfect for him, but it was looking up.
He and Ty had a few exchanges of small talk before Face stood up from his point on the couch, rubbing his forehead with a hand as he did so. It was definitely turning into a long day. "See you later then."
Tynian merely nodded to him, and with that, Face took his leave. Now if he could think of a way of talking to his MIA wife without making it out that he was requesting an apology, since he technically didn't need to give her one. This was going to be interesting.