Alhana-Antilles: I love Tycho, and agree that not enough people write about him. sighs The perils of being a minor character. Glad you think I've characterized him well.

kateydidnt: Glad you like it!

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Title: A New Path

Summary: Tycho Celchu's journey from the Empire to the Alliance.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is, quite clearly, not mine, and no copyright infringement is intended. This story is not written for profit.

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Chapter 21: Girlfriend

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He stared at her, waiting for a shocked reaction that never came. Instead, she asked simply, "Why?"

Because I was screwed up, he thought to himself. Because they should have shipped me off a long time ago. Aloud he said, "It's a long story."

"I've got time." She took off her nerf-hide jacket and sat down on the cot, stretching her legs out in front of her and crossing them at the ankles. Putting her hands behind her and leaning back, she cocked her head to one side and looked at him expectantly. Clearly, the time was of little concern to her.

He smiled in spite of himself. "You're something else, you know that?" And she was. About his age, beautiful but just as lethal. He'd flown against her, sparred with her, and gone to the shooting range with her, back when she'd visited her uncle, before Yavin. She'd bested him more than once, though she'd grudgingly admitted that he was that he was better with a blaster. She'd give him no such satisfaction on flying or fighting.

"I know," she replied with a grin.

And she was always so blasted sure of herself. "I know you know," he retorted.

She favored him with another grin, but then sobered. "So? What's the story?"

He sat down next to her and leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees and clasping his hands. He couldn't believe he was going to get into this at this hour. "To answer your second question, a man named Garm Bel Iblis is the reason I didn't get thrown out. He intervened because he knew I was, ah, having some problems." She nodded for him to continue but didn't speak, so he went on, fixing his gaze on the floor.

"About six months earlier, we were assigned to pull off an ambush. We never should have been given the mission, but they were low on experience squads and we were in the neighborhood." He shrugged.

"Anyway, one of our pilots, a man named Kissek Doran, lost it. He panicked and ran. Piggy and I were sent to bring him back – or shoot him down. If he'd gotten too far out, they'd have picked him up, and an ion blast would have shown up on their scanners. The whole mission would've been compromised and we'd all have ended up dead. Piggy tried to force him down, but he wouldn't stop. So I shot him down. Didn't have a choice." He sighed and looked over at her. "But that didn't make it any easier."

"I wouldn't imagine, no," she said softly, eyes locked on his face.

He gave her a small smile, grateful for the measure of understanding she'd offered, before returning his attention to the floor. "Bel Iblis was a politician back when the Empire was still the Republic, and he helped found and organize the Republic. And for some reason, he was on the ship we were based on at the time. I think we were escorting him somewhere, but I'm not sure. Anyway, he heard about what happened and I guess he decided to keep his eye on me. Because he heard about Kien'tol, and ordered that they reinstate me. I heard a few months later that he left the Alliance altogether, but I don't know for sure. Or why, for that matter."

"He did leave," Jesina murmured, but shook her head. "What happened at Kien'tol, Wes?" she asked gently. There was no condescension in her voice, but there was also no sympathy. And he was glad for both.

"We ambushed the first squadron from the Inhibitor and it was a pretty easy fight – we caught them so unprepared…" he trailed off and shook his head. "But two of them ran. My CO, Commander Harken, told us to let them go, but I went after them. Two-on-two, when they saw us coming, it wasn't as easy. And by that point, Harken figured recalling us wasn't worth it, so he sent my flight's other wingpair to help us out. They were both killed by the pilots we'd gone after. My wingman and I killed those two, but he was killed when Celchu's squadron came in."

He stood as he finished speaking and she startled him by standing as well. Putting a hand on his shoulder, she pulled him around to face her. "I'm not going to tell you not to blame yourself, because I'm honestly not sure you shouldn't. But I am going to say that you need to move past it. Otherwise, you're going to drive yourself crazy. Obviously, Bel Iblis thought that there was something about you that was worth saving, and I know enough about the man that I refuse to believe he'd make the decision to intervene without giving it careful consideration. The man was a politician – he was trained to see things in people. Don't disavow his judgment."

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Jesina leaned against the wall outside Janson's quarters. Well, that hadn't been entirely unexpected, though Bel Iblis' involvement was interesting. Bel Iblis was a legend – he'd closed off Corellia to insulate it from Palpatine's takeover, but had sought to join his former colleagues in forming the Rebellion after the Emperor had tried to have him killed.

His departure from the Alliance had not gone unnoticed by Booster's watchful eyes. Bel Iblis had left because of differences with another of the founders, a woman named Mon Mothma. The woman was known for being rather severe, and for having a personality that could freeze a blue star.

She sighed. All of this explained Janson's attitude toward Tycho – and why he'd finally saved Tycho in the end. It was now…she glanced at her chrono and sighed…0500. They'd spent the last few hours talking about how little his squadron had trusted him afterward, which had precipitated his move to Red Squadron. And then he'd been unable to fly against the Death Star, which hadn't exactly done wonders for his self-respect.

She started to walk. This explained so much more than just how he'd treated Tycho. She'd only met Janson after his transfer to her uncle's flight group, so she hadn't known the man before Kissek Doran, before Kien'tol. Clearly, both events had had a profound effect on him, and on the way he acted.

She'd wondered before if the joking, the laughing, the constant smirk was a front that he hid behind – a mask of some sort. Now that answer was obvious. Janson was so insecure it was frightening. It really was. If he wasn't sure of himself – if he was as screwed up as he seemed – then what did that say about the rest of them?

Jesina stopped outside the door to the room she'd been assigned. Well, everyone had skeletons in their closet, weaknesses they preferred to keep hidden. Looked like she'd just learned Wes Janson's.

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Tycho looked up at Jesina as she sat down beside him. Something was going on with her, and it bothered him that she wasn't telling him.

She'd been shooting looks at Janson all morning. Narra had let her sit it on their briefing, and she'd spent the whole time staring at his wingman, clearly preoccupied. Then she'd occupied Narra's next hour and a half, and had refused to tell him why.

He'd asked her what was going on – about ten times – and finally exploded when she'd said – for the tenth time – that she couldn't tell him. Maybe he was overreacting, but he didn't think so. They had a history and he felt betrayed somehow by her silence. She was keeping something from him, and it hurt.

He was starting to wonder if there was something going on between her and Janson. Not only the way shed been looking at him, though that was enough. But the expression on her face when she was looking at him – and when she wasn't, for that matter. He'd seen that look on her face once before. And it had been directed at him.

Maybe it was jealousy. He didn't really think so, and he didn't want to think so. He and Jesina had been over a long time ago – before they'd even begun, really. He'd seen her with other men, and she'd seen him with Nyiestra. It was just the thought of her with Janson that bothered him, he decided.

He shook the thought out of his mind. He didn't even know that anything was going on with them, and here he was figuring out reasons to be upset about it. But the way she'd leaned over him on her way to the food station, the way she'd put her hand on his shoulder…. He shook his head and sighed.

"You all right?"

He looked over at her, startled. He'd actually forgotten that she was there. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure?"

He nodded. "I am, really."

"Tycho…"

"Jes, you can't tell me, and I respect that. I do. Just, don't throw it back in my face." He got up, dumped the rest of his lunch in the trash receptacle, and left the caf.

From the end of the table, Janson had watched the exchange and saw the stunned expression on Jesina's face. Slowly, without anyone noticing because the others, shocked by Celchu's outburst, were all staring at her, he stood and left the table.

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He found Celchu in the gym, still in his deck uniform, taking his frustration out on a heavy bag. "Feel like having a go at something that can hit back?"

The Alderaanian rounded on him, sending a fist in his general direction that Wes easily deflected. "What do you want?" he hissed.

"You had no reason to treat her like that."

"Treat her like what?" he snapped back.

Wes sighed. "You had no reason to yell at her," he tried again.

"You don't have to defend your girlfriend to me," Celchu shot back.

"Oh for!" Wes threw his hands up. "First of all, she's not my girlfriend. Second, I don't know where you got that from. And third, apparently I do have to defend her, because you're the one who's supposed to be her friend and you're treating her like dirt. For no reason."

"It's not—" Celchu shook his head. "Forget it."

"Look," Wes said. His conversation with Jesina had been well worth it, even though it had meant he'd missed out on the sleep he'd desperately wanted – and needed. He'd decided that he ought to try to mend some of the riff between him and Celchu. He owed her that much at least for talking him through it all and keeping his secret. "She's doing me a favor. She and I talked for a while last night. It's because of me she can't say anything. And no, I'm not going to tell you, so don't ask. But just…don't take it out on her, okay? She doesn't deserve it." Then he turned and left.

As he walked out of the gym and turned to head to his quarters, he thought about what Celchu had said. Jesina? His girlfriend? Him and Dreis? It was a strange thought. So how come it didn't feel so strange?

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Jesina, seeing Wes leave, stood up a moment later and went after him. She followed him to the gym but held back when she heard the thwack of something coming into contact with the punching bag hanging just inside the entrance. Instead of walking in right behind him, she went around to another door and listened to their exchange. She stopped in the doorway just in time to hear Tycho call her Wes' girlfriend. Girlfriend? Where did that come from?

She heard Wes voice her thoughts to Tycho, and then listened to the rest of the pilot's response, and Tycho's reaction. She saw him shake his head, and listened with wide eyes to Wes' next words. Then, as he turned to leave, she ducked back out and slipped around the corner. Her? Janson's girlfriend? Where in the name of the Force had Tycho gotten an idea like that? And was that why he was acting so strangely?

Then she sagged against the wall. She had been paying a strange amount of attention to Wes since she'd gotten back. If she stretched her mind, she could see how he could have interpreted things that way. Sithspit! One more thing for me to fix, blast it.