Last time: Viran somehow got Sasha to run again!

Now: Cien and Op talk.

Chapter 11- Take Your Time

In the late afternoon sun Oppie lounged on one of the blankets after having played in the surf most of the day. Everyone else, including Lana, were still in the surf playing. Viran held Lana in his arms as they moved around, playing some game where one of them had to keep their eyes closed and try to find the others. And he was so very happy to see Sasha laughing and playing in the surf with them. Whatever had been blocking her from getting better had seemed to fade at some point earlier in the day. He had been shocked to come to the surface after spending time swimming through the temple to see her on her feet, and throughout the day he had noticed her pushing herself whenever she left the surf. He felt a sense of relief from that, finally seeing her back to herself after such a dark time for her.

Cien made her way up the beach from the shore, after she had used the Force to send a huge splash of water back at Kyr when he had tried to pull her back in. She walked across the sand with a smile to another blanket that was laid out next to Oppie's own. "Hey Op." She said, as she wrapped a huge towel around her and she settled down onto the blanket.

"Hey, want something to drink?" He asked.

"Yeah, thank you." She said, since he was reaching into the cooler. He handed her a juice he knew she liked and she unscrewed the top. "You okay up here?" She asked him.

"Yep." He replied with an easy smile, looking back at where Sasha was inching quietly higher in the surf as Lana giggled in Viran's arms while they tried to find her. And Kyr was quietly swimming up to try to annoy Viran by touching his shoulder. "It looks like our plan worked." He remarked.

Cien smiled at the sight as well. "Yes, it seems to have." She agreed. "For both of them, really. This trip has helped Kyr a lot too, I think."

"I'm glad to hear that." Oppie said, looking at his brother. Viran had spun around and Kyr was trying to swim stealthily away while Sasha tried to hold back a fit of giggles and Lana laughed wildly. "I feel like all of us needed to have a vacation of some sort. I'm a little surprised we never did something like this before, now that I think of it."

"I think for all of us, the idea of a vacation just seems foreign." Cien mused, and she smiled again, "this was actually the first place I ever came for something like a vacation." She said, looking over at a spot on the beach that was a little further down the cove.

He smiled as well, he could guess why she was looking at that particular spot. "Ah yes, the mystery tans after the Star Destroyer." He said with a smirk.

She looked back over at him wryly. "Well considering how much everyone teased us about it that week we came back, can you blame us for not wanting to tell everyone we spent three days at a beach together?"

Oppie laughed. "No, I guess not." He said, looking over at her smiling at the response as she looked away with a little bit of embarrassment, back at the same spot on the beach. He had to smile just seeing how happy she seemed, as well. It still struck him, occasionally, how far she had come since they had first met, or even since she had first returned with Kyr to join the family. She had been so guarded, so in control of everything about herself. And, in a strange way, so timid about being a part of the family. Everyone had teased Kyr about his tan almost relentlessly, but no one had wanted to tease Cien about hers as they had all adjusted to their shared lives together. But now he could fully tease her and she seemed to enjoy it.

She started speaking, quietly, still looking at the spot, and away from him, but he could hear the smile in her voice. "This was the first place I was happy." She said, "the first place I've ever been where everything seemed right." She said.

"I can imagine." Oppie said with a gentle smile of his own.

"You remember when you came back to tell us we were twenty minutes out from the Bloodstorm on that shuttle?" She looked back over at him.

Oppie burst out with some laughter, "yeah, and I interrupted you guys holding hands?" He said.

She rolled her eyes and threw him a playful look of annoyance. "Yes." She said flatly as Op's laughter died down. "That was a few minutes after Kyr asked if he could bring me here after everything was over." She said a little wistfully. "So he was just keeping his promise, even if it was a few months late." She said with another easy smile.

Oppie smiled and spoke after a moment. "I do have a question about that."

"Oh?" She looked back at him with an arched eyebrow.

"I remember when I was walking back to tell you guys that, I thought we had a stowaway aboard when I heard you laughing. I think it was the first time I ever heard you laugh. I have always been curious what that was about." Oppie asked with a smirk.

She looked at him for a second and blushed, then looked away embarrassed. "Kyr and I were discussing how you guys would react to finding out about us." She smirked a little, "and then you walked in just a few seconds later, too." She said.

Oppie smiled, "well I guess that worked itself out then." He said.

"Yes." She agreed, flashing a smile as Sasha swamped Kyr with a wave of water powered by a blast of the Force to try to keep him away, since Kyr now had his eyes closed hunting for the other three. Both of them watched the game play for a few seconds.

"The first time I remember genuinely laughing was at an observation Kyr made." She continued quietly.

Oppie looked over at her.

"It was after I recovered. After you three, four, I guess, had gone into the World Between Worlds, and Kyr had been at my side for a few weeks while I was recuperating." She admitted.

Oppie looked at her, trying to figure out when that would have been, then a memory came back to him. "Is that when he was on the Bloodstorm for two and a half months?" He remembered that accidental comment when they had been planning to rescue Sasha from Ikari.

"Yes." She said, looking out across the surf towards where Kyr was, trying to quietly get away from Lana as she giggled in Virans arms with her eyes closed and her arms stretched out in front of her as her father guided her around. "He stayed with me for two and a half months, then. It meant a lot." She admitted, as a mixture of emotions played across her face.

Oppie looked over at her, and then out towards the game in the surf. "You two make a great couple, just like Sasha and Viran, and Kitsu and Illara."

She smiled, "well thank you for not describing us as cute." She said.

Oppie looked over at her incredulously. "Well I'd never say it out loud." And that earned him a sharp, wry look from her as he tried to keep from laughing. "Who said that?" He asked, wondering who would be so bold as to say that to her face.

"Nova." Cien stated, with a good natured roll of her eyes.

"Oh, that figures." Oppie said with a laugh, since Cien and Nova seemed locked in a tease-off whenever he had spent time with them.

She just harrumphed good naturedly as she watched Lana try to tag her mom or her uncle.

"I'm glad you and Kyr got together, though. Both you and he seem so much happier. Same with Sasha and Viran." He said idly. "I remember when they were growing up together there were times when they hated each other, like a brother and sister. Viran would always pick on her." He said with a smirk, "until one day he just sort of stopped. I guess we know why." He said.

"It was funny," Cien said, "the time I…" She hesitated, "when I was in Sasha's mind after we met. I picked up on her feelings for him, but she never thought they were returned."

Oppie nodded. "I overheard Viran admit his feelings to her when she was under from a really, really bad case of the Tarkelian Flu. So I knew he had feelings for her, but I had no idea she returned them either. I knew they were together after I got back from the void, though." He said, and he laughed, "they were holding hands too, when I woke up when I was recovering after. I always think it's funny that's how I knew Sasha and Viran, and then you and Kyr were together, it was you both holding hands and I saw something I shouldn't have." He teased.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Cien said with good natured annoyance as she looked away. They sat in silence for a while, watching the others play in the surf.

"Order 66 was such a terrible day, but I'm glad they were able to be together." Oppie said, watching them play in the surf. Lana had 'tagged' her dad when she realized she could, she had had traded off so that she was now in her mom's arms while Viran was hunting them. "None of this turned out the way it was supposed to, but I think it ended up in a better place, for all of us."

"Yes." Cien agreed, without hesitation. "I never could have pictured myself here, sitting on a beach surrounded by family on a vacation. Talking to a Jedi who I consider a brother, watching my Mandalorian husband play with my Jedi brother and sister. And niece." She said, wistfully. "For all the tragedy that caused it, I am glad for the path that led me here. Especially in my case." She finished quietly.

Oppie looked over at her, "I'm sorry." He apologized for opening old wounds.

She looked over at him, "don't apologize Op." She stated. "I'm surrounded by a family I love because of that very long road. Any reminder of all of that just makes me realize how incredibly fortunate I am to have ended up somewhere I was never meant to be with a family I was never meant to have." She said, meeting his gaze.

Oppie nodded, and looked back down the shore. He realized that was the first time he had ever heard her use the word 'love' to describe how she felt about their family as a whole. "And I am glad you're here with us." He affirmed.

They both sat in companionable silence for a while as the others finished their game, and were relaxing in the surf laughing about something as they waded, talking animatedly.

"I was never meant to have a family either." Oppie said after a while. "The Order, I suppose, was meant to be our family. But we were supposed to abstain from attachments like this. I wasn't supposed to be sitting here talking to a sister about things like this either." He said. And he was quiet for a while, "nor anything else like that." He said quietly.

She looked over at him, but didn't say anything.

"I've sat down, a few times, to write a letter to Captain Messan." Oppie admitted, "but I never have any idea what to say." He said, his gaze looking out over the water at some distant point. "I remember meeting her all those years ago around the office when we were still on the run. She always seemed to shy away from me then, so I figured she didn't like me that much, for some reason. I remember being struck by how intelligent she seemed, even for someone that had just started out and for how young she was. And how much she seemed to care about what she was doing, compared to everyone else in that office."

Cien held her gaze on him for a few seconds and then looked away. "That is what struck me about her as well." She said a little guardedly, not sure what to really say in response.

"When we were on the run," Oppie continued after a moment, "I ended up being in a lot of different places, a lot of different police offices, precincts, peace offices, investigation posts and so forth. I met a lot of people during those years. Other officers, other investigators, people in the outposts and cities we lived in." He said, "and she wasn't the first person to ask me out for a drink." He admitted, "but…" He trailed off, "when she asked, I realized she was the first person who ever asked that I wouldn't mind getting a drink with." He finally admitted, quietly.

She sat there at his side digesting that statement, from Op, of all people. "I'm sure she'd still be open to it," Cien said after a moment, wishing she was better at this. She looked out across the water out of reflex to Sasha, wishing she was here. And seeing she was standing there in the surf absolutely frozen in shock after Kyr had just splooshed her with water. Viran and Lana, who was in his arms, were laughing madly.

Oppie shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea how to approach something like that." He admitted with a grimace.

She looked over at him. "Do you want to know the most terrifying moment of my life?" She asked quietly.

Oppie looked over at her. For all the terrible things he knew that she had endured, he could imagine a wide variety of possibilities. But he also knew those weren't the kind of things that she was afraid of.

"I was sitting in a jumpseat, next to Kyr." She said quietly, "and I was trying to figure out how to tell him how I felt about him. Sasha had told me how he had felt and why he had left all those years before. It was because he fell for me. But I had no idea if he still had those feelings for me. Especially after what I had done." She admitted quietly. "And I told him, in some roundabout way, that I can barely remember now, since I didn't have the strength or courage to just tell him directly. And he went quiet. And he told me about this place, and I had absolutely no idea why he was rambling on about this beautiful beach and the starscape above it." She continued. "It felt like he talked for hours, describing this place, and I had no idea why. Until he asked if he could take me here and share it with me." She said, looking away, down the beach towards him.

She looked back towards her brother, sitting next to her in the golden light of the waning afternoon. "I know exactly what you mean, Op. I know that neither of the orders that raised us, neither of our lives, ever taught us how to handle something like that. Both of us can face an army of thousands without flinching, we can face down someone like Dracul without much of a second thought. But when it comes to matters like that, the simple question of whether to get a drink with someone, or to go to a beach with them, that is what scares us. Where they utterly failed us." She said quietly. "I know how terrifying it is to face that Op." She said, looking back out towards Kyr again. "But it is worth making that leap if it is something you do, actually, want. Trust me." She stated finally.

Oppie sat in silence for a while. "I've waited too long." He said with a grimace.

She laughed very lightly at that. "You've spent a little more than a month recuperating physically and emotionally from a traumatic experience." Cien said, looking back over at him wryly. "Kyr and I waited more than seven and a half years before telling each other how we felt, even though we both started feeling that way the first night we met." She said. "How many years did Sasha and Viran wait?" She asked rhetorically.

Oppie smirked uncomfortably and looked away.

"I do remember one thing, from what I told Kyr when we were sitting in that jumpseat." She continued after a while, looking back out into the water. "'Why concern ourselves with what may have been,'" she said, quoting herself, "'when all that matters is what may yet be.'" She finished.

Oppie looked over at her, a little surprised by her eloquence, especially in a matter like that.

"I've kept in contact with her a little these last few weeks." Cien said after a moment, "Kait's not a captain anymore, she got recruited into the marshal's program because of a good word that Kyr, Scamp and Admiral Sulam put in for her, and she wanted to thank me for that." She said, "and she was glad to hear that you and Sasha were recovering." Cien said, looking off into the water still.

Oppie looked back out to the water as well. Having no idea what to say. "Her first name is Kait?" He finally asked after a moment.

"Yes." Cien answered with a slightly amused smile. "Take your time, Op." She said, "recover from what happened. And recover from your life. And when you are ready, take her up on that drink. Or someone else who may come up in that time." She said quietly. "But don't hold back from that if it's something you want." She finally said.

They both sat together, gazing out at the water in silence for a moment. "Thanks ori'vod." He said quietly.

"Ba'gedet'ye vod." She replied quietly.

They sat together for a while while the others started playing some other game in the surf. Viran had used the Force to pull a large inflatable ball over to them from where it had been resting on the beach, and they were tossing it around.

"Want to go join them?" She asked, looking over at him.

"Sure." He said, as they both got up.

Review!