Chapter Ten – Two More for the Count
Adra walked into Wraith base maybe fifteen standard minutes later, her breathing not showing the physical exercise she'd just carried out: running the seven and a half kilometers back to base. She walked past the lounge, not bothering to drop in a 'hello' to Nicola. Instead she sent her a greeting through the Force and went off to her room.
After Adra had taken a shower and put on a clean jumpsuit, she went to the room she'd previously passed. A quick look around it told her that the person she needed was not present. Given the number of places the said person might actually be, Adra knew immediately where to go. She silently exited the way she'd entered and walked instead to the computer room. As she'd suspected, Tyria Tainer was half-emerged under a computer panel. With a small smile, Adra went to sit next to her friend.
Tyria's hand emerged, groping around for another wire. Adra hastily picked one up and handed it to her. Tyria's fingers closed around the offered piece and paused for a few seconds before she pulled it to where she needed it. Adra waited a few minutes then broke the silence.
"You fly a TIE nicely," she said, unable to think of anything else to grace the air with. "I'd say better than you fly an X-Wing, at any rate."
Through the Force, she felt Tyria smile. Then the hacker emerged from her hidey-hole to look at Adra. "I see. So now that you're complimenting me, Tallon, what do you want me to do for you?"
Adra gave a mental groan. In truth, she hadn't even thought of that. No, she wanted to start a conversation the easy way... After all, she was going to have to tell Tyria sometime. Since the news of her being engaged to Face hadn't quite clicked yet, however, Adra was hesitant. Blocking out the wavering ideals from her head, she decided to just go with being direct.
"Alright, here's the deal Tyria. I'm not asking for favors right now, other than you listening. You already know, but I'm not sure you've comprehended, that I'm engaged to Face, yes?" Adra paused briefly, then answered her own question. "Good. Well, here's the next bit of news, in case that much didn't register. I'm pregnant, so if you make a suggestion to me and I snap, don't take it personally."
Tyria had disappeared back into her hidey-hole while Adra had been talking. At the words 'I'm pregnant,' a startled "What?" had come floating out from the workspace, accompanied by a thud as Tyria's head jerked upwards and hit the durasteel, and then a few muttered curses came out. The blonde woman's head reappeared again as Tyria slid back out from underneath the work area.
"Did you just say what I thought you said, Adra?"
Adra carefully nodded, wondering if she could've done a worse job of telling her friend. "Yes, I'm pretty sure you did."
Her expression unreadable, Tyria nodded. "Congratulations." She disappeared back into the hidey-hole. "Could you please hand me the blue wire?"
Happy to comply, Adra picked up the blue wire and gave it to Tyria's waiting hand. The process continued in silence, with an occasional curse from Tyria and occasional offerings of help from Adra. It wasn't until well past midnight that the fuzzy screens had begun working again and the green and orange lights on the computers themselves turned back on. With a satisfied smile, Adra tapped Tyria's knee.
"You fixed it, Circuitry Girl." She heard Tyria give a small whoop of glee and then she shimmied out to inspect her work. Adra stood, feeling extremely tired, and walked off to bed.
* * * * *
Wedge Antilles stood stock-still, shocked at the sight of Adra Tallon and Face Loran standing before him. He hadn't, to his knowledge, sent out a request to speak with the pilots, nor had he asked Face to come over for any reason. The fact that they seemed to be coming on social terms sparked his interest, yet put up his guard. What were those two up to now?
After Adra and Face had saluted, which he returned, he gestured openly to the chairs in front of his desk. As the pair sat down, he followed suit, getting quite comfortable in his chair once again. About to say something to the two, he caught sight of Ari Solo walking down the hall, humming softly. A moment later, Wes Janson followed, doing an overdramatic impression of silently stalking after her.
"Janson!" Wes halted mid-stalk. Ari must've looked around at him because he at once settled back off the toes of his feet, turning his head to glare at Wedge. He continued. "She's a Jedi, and a Solo at that. You won't be able to sneak up on her."
Wes glared at him for a few more seconds then scowled, causing Wedge to grin. It was almost too bad he had to stop Wes's fun. Almost. The thought of Celtic Solo's double-ended lightsaber whipping around to hiss at his throat stopped him from allowing the veteran pilot to continue. Janson sighed and seemed to give in, for he walked off in the opposite direction, shoulders slumped. He'll be back, Wedge thought to himself.
"Wedge."
Adra's voice caused him to look over to where she had been sitting. He looked back to the door controls where she was cuing it shut. She raised an eyebrow at him and he suddenly got the impression that they weren't here to pay a social call or to throw jokes around. Unconsciously, Wedge felt the color rise to his cheeks.
The sarcastic opportunity, however, was too good to pass up. "Adra," he replied, in the same tone.
Immediately he knew that he shouldn't have done exactly that. Adra walked back over to the chair she had occupied moments before and glanced at Face. Wedge's curiosity grew. The last time they had come to see him specifically was when Face had proposed to Adra and he- Wedge- had received reports of it from a source that was certainly not Face or Adra. Wedge himself had needed confirmation from the two. The only thing that could be more shocking than that, he laughed silently in his head, was if they were here to tell him that Adra was going to be having a child.
"Sir...I'm not quite sure how to say this..." That was Face. Wedge looked at the pilot and raised an eyebrow in feigned disbelief. Garik 'The Face' Loran was hardly, if ever, lost for words or unsure of how to put things. Silently Wedge began to wonder if his mental comment wasn't as far fetched as it had sounded moments before.
Adra put her hand on Face's shoulder, having stood up again to pace behind the chairs. All of this had gone by not without notice on Wedge's part. Personally, he thought she looked like a caged tusk-cat. Allowing himself a mental chuckled, he waited for the pair to explain. It looked like Adra would be doing that part.
"Wedge, the reason Face and I came to talk to you is because...jeese it seems like this is all I'm ever doing these days." Adra seemed to stiffen her resolve to go on. Wedge merely sat there, chin propped on one fist, watching her silently. "We came to tell you that I'm pregnant."
Wedge blinked once. Then again. He took a deep breath before standing up. So much for joking, he thought dimly before another all-too-familiar thought came across his mind: I'm too old for this. He stared at the wall blankly for a few seconds then seemed to snap back to reality, as scary as it was. Adra's hand was still on Face's shoulder, only now his was covering hers. Mentally, Wedge was staring in shock, mind wandering slightly to a time when he'd have non-stop arguing with those two in the same room. The state of silence didn't last long though.
"You...you're... What?!" Wedge finally got three words out.
Adra didn't grace him with an answer, merely turned her attention back to Face. "Remind me again why we had to come and tell Wedge?" Face opened his mouth to reply, but Adra cut him off. "Ah yes, I remember. Because then you'd having another person to back you up in telling me- no, wait, ordering me not to fly."
Wedge was inclined to say he agreed entirely. The only reason he's made the deal with Nicola about her being able to fly until she was six months pregnant was because virtually everyone knew what Nicola could do with her fighting skills and there was no one who wasn't afraid of the results, his wife excluded.
Finally coming to a decision, he said, "Well, I suppose congratulations are in order. And the same policy I put in place for Nicola is there for you. If I catch either of you flying after you're 6 months along, I'll turn both of you over to Iella."
"You wouldn't!" Adra stared at him, annoyance growing on her face.
Wedge looked at the Jedi pilot smugly in return. "I would, Loran." With that, he bid them both a good day and then walked to the door before turning. "And I mean it, Adra. Even sims."
He hit the release just as Adra's jaw fell in either shock or horror, he couldn't tell which. Probably the second option, he decided. Instead of gracing her with a reply, he walked out into the hall.
* * * * *
Adra gaped at Wedge. Now that was really, really unfair. No sims? What the sith was he trying to do to her? Make her commit suicide? She halted a string of curses at her lips, not willing to risk Wedge saying that she couldn't fly point-blank. Muttering curses, she cast around the Force for Hobbie and Tycho's presences. Easily planting an idea in Tycho's brain, she waited until she saw Hobbie walking silently down the hallway, a bucket of mess hall 'food' positioned above his head. Adra pressed a finger to her lips as she turned to glance at Face then led him towards the door.
Hobbie was a step behind Wedge and was being perfectly silent. The pilot raised the gloop over Wedge's head soundlessly. Janson had, at some point, come up next to Hobbie, sniggering in a hardly-audible fashion. Adra glanced to the next door to see Tycho muttering something into his comm. Wes bent his head to listen to his own, then tapped Hobbie's shoulder once. The bucket of 'food' was turned over onto Wedge's head and Hobbie and Janson both made a dash for Tycho's office. Wedge pulled the bucket off his head and stormed into Tycho's office, covered in the green-gray gloop. Adra burst out laughing at the sight, the inconvenience on Wedge's part covering her momentary gloom at not being able to work in the sims.
Behind her she could sense Face trying not to laugh. He wasn't silent for long, however. Both of them laughing, Adra prodded Face every now and then to ensure she didn't bump into him as they made their ways, laughing no less, to the docking bay.
* * * * *
Adra and Nicola stared at the screen, Nicola intensely interested, Adra glaring at the screen. Quickly she typed in another password and a smile appeared. Now all they had to do was make sure they could alter some of the files and they would be fine. As she opened and checked the files they would- eventually- need to change, Adra's smile broadened. Wedge couldn't give a court martial over something he didn't know about.
Five standard minutes later, Adra was standing from her chair, Nicola following suit. Her friend looked at her, waiting expectantly for the 'diagnoses'. With a grin, Adra nodded towards the door, indicating they should start off for the lounge so as not to arouse other squadron members' suspicion at their absences.
"I can alter them," she said carefully, making sure no one but Nicola would hear her words.
Adra looked over quickly to find Nicola smiling. "Excellent...screw not flying. There's no way in any of the Corellian hells that I can go for three months without flying."
"I copy, Fighter Girl, I copy." The pair of them entered the lounge and were at once swept into one of the many conversations.