Beep beep beep, Ash's alarm sounded rousing her grumpily from her sleep. Wait she was woken up by her alarm that wasn't normal Gacen had normally woken her up by now. Weird, as Ash forced herself out of bed she pondered this, Gacen had been quieter since the incident. Ash had been a little too hard on him in hindsight, she may have wanted to vent at someone and lost sight of her friend. She had felt pretty directionless since the escape, the military didn't appeal anymore it was just carrying out some political figures dirty work. Smuggling was… ok but it wasn't exactly fulfilling.

After getting dressed she went to brush her teeth, she looked in the mirror, man she was a bit of a mess at the moment, at least she was keeping fit. She should probably look for Gacen badger him into getting them a new job to do. Keeping busy seemed like it'd be good for him, they had both been a little directionless since the escape but it showed a lot more in Gacen. She didn't really know how to read people so it made it hard to help, she made her way around the ship looking for Gacen and quickly found him in the cockpit looking at something in his hands.

"Hey Gacen I wasn't woken up by you what gives" Ash was joking of course she would much prefer to not be woken up at 3am because he tripped over the box fort he was making

Gacen jumped as he heard her voice quickly pocketing whatever he was looking at "oh hey Ash I uh couldn't sleep thought the stars would help" he took his feet off the dashboard and swivelled around

Ash sat down in the copilots seat "did they?" as she started setting the ship up for hyperspace

"not really just couldn't get to sleep" he swivelled back to the console "you know how it is"

Ash didn't "so we got a job on the go" make sure to get the ball rolling on that otherwise it would be three days of Gacen proving the ship had an uneven gravity distribution.

"uhhh not yet I was gonna do the usual go to a cantina see if we can find a job it's not like we urgently need to commit to anything right" Gacen leaned back on his chair trying to look chilled out, he did not

"I guess, although i'm not really a fan of those cantinas" it was either a greasy experience full of bad drinks or a brawl, she was only a fan of the latter

"aw cmon it'll be fun i'll do all the talking" his bravado was back now and with a smile he set a course for Port Nowhere

"that's what I'm worried about" Ash said with a smile, Gacen raised an eyebrow at her understandingly

"Bartender gimme a beer" Gacen jumped up onto the barstool signalling to the Gran behind the counter. Ash joined him electing to sit on the stool next to him like a normal person. The Gran made his way over and Gacen began to speak to him in a language Ash didn't understand, great now she had no idea who was saying what

"Ash would you like anything?" Gacen gestured to the bartender

"uh just a water" Gacen repeated it in the language and the Gran left

"alright cool now we wait to see if he can round up anything" Gacen said with a smile "I wouldn't hold you're breath though"

"so what we just wait around till then" Ash was not happy with this development this place smelled like Quesh but somehow worse

"yeah you know we can take in the surroundings this place is teaming with life and energy" Gacen gestured around him to the seedy bar they had chosen full of aliens all in various states of inebriation

"yeah I can smell it" Ash folded her arms, Gacen chuckled to himself

"aw cmon look over there" he gestured to a group of Duros arguing over what looked like a Sabacc game "one of them is gonna end up losing it I'm just betting on which one I'm thinking the one in the white"

"why?" to be fair the Duros in white did seem to be angry

"look closely he keeps closing his fist when he looses a hand and the bruises on his forehead tell me he's been in a fight before. Also the emblem on his shoulder is one of the local gangs meaning he could probably get someone to let it slide" Ash was shocked that was a pretty good analyzation

"wow uh that was pretty astute" Gacen grinned at her "hey when you've been in as many seedy Sabacc games as I have you need to know how to read people" Ash didn't doubt it

"how about those four" Gacen was gesturing to a group of seemingly bounty hunters, 2 rodians, a togruta and a human each with both blaster pistols and rifles, armour wa- Ash stopped herself as she realised she had went into a bit of a military analysis

"what about them, they seem well equipped" Ash was confused about what Gacen was talking about

"yeah you know hardened badasses ready to hunt but.." Gacen paused for a second "they're all pretty good looking too" Ash turned and raised her eyebrow at Gacen "hey you know me I'm pretty much up for anything I'm just saying they kinda look like they would be too" Ash was gonna let him keep digging this hole "objectively I'm sure it'd be a fun experience" what would be a- Ash wasn't sure she wanted to know

"aren't you married Gacen" Gacen looked down shuffling in his pockets for a second and muttered "well yeah I'm just saying in a hypothetical setting"

"I see" from what Ash remembered his wife was the jealous type

Gacen leaned over "hey who knows maybe one of them is your type" Gacen began playfully elbowing her. Ash very quickly became purple in the face

"I- uh we- uh" Gacen grinned deviously at her "you're messing with me aren't you"

"uh huh" Ash groaned audibly at him "although I do wonder I'm sure I could fix you up with someone" someone please end this conversation please "I mean if you want"

"uh no I'm good Gacen" Ash didn't really talk about that stuff with anyone

"oh come on you must've had crushes before" Gacen wasn't gonna let this go

"uh I mean yeah but like not serious" hopefully that would suffice

Gacen's eyes lit up "oh cmon cmon tell me who" oh that did the opposite brilliant

"wha- no"

"alright fine but how about this I name someone and you say wether you think they're attractive, we'll take it in turns to be fair"

"anything to move on" Ash sighed

"ok ok ok let's start with an easy one do you remember my old crew mate Corso" Ash was just gonna get through this how hard could it be

"he had an angular face i guess" Gacen seemed underwhelmed by that answer "uh I guess that republic strategist Jonas"

"um yes he was defo a good looking guy" Gacen was far more into this than her "um ok how about that sith girl what was her name Lana? helped out with the conspiracy thing?" wow Gacen was more out of the loop than she thought

"I believe the commanders advisor was indeed somewhat attractive" Gacen looked frustrated

"cmon Ash you gotta give me more than that"

"I'm sorry I dunno she has quite nice hair" Ash didn't think she was very good at this

"sure that'll do" Gacen said seemingly satisfied

"umm how about that Jedi the one with all the tea?" this was actually a little fun she had to admit even if it was just a weird way to reminisce

"huh you mean Kavaraa? I'm very jealous of how pretty she is so yeah defo" Ash couldn't tell if he was joking or not "ooo how about the other one the sith jedi you know dooooza"

"oh god no he was so loud and obnoxious can you imagine" Ash chuckled to herself

"he could literally pick me up like it was nothing it was ridiculous" they both laughed for a moment "haha see I told you we could pass the time" he had actually been right time had passed quick

"haha yeah I guess… thanks"

Gacen looked surprised "for what"

"for cheering me up, I've missed it" they sat in silence for a minute "alright where are the toilets in this place I gotta take a leak"

"oh I would go back to the ship the toilets here are a state" Ash really didn't doubt that and made her way back to the ship

When Ash got back Gacen wasn't at the bar he seemed to be talking to some of the patrons, probably trying to drum up business. As she sat back down she heard

"here's your drink" it was the Gran from earlier as he passed over her water

"oh thanks… you speak basic?" why was Gacen talking to him in another language

"yeah all Gran do and as a bartender I have to know most languages, you're friend was just trying to be discrete that's all" that did make sense but Gacen and Ash knew many languages in common why didn't he speak in one of those

As Gacen spotted Ash he made his way back over "hey Ash bad news on the job front, no decent work is around at the moment looks like we're gonna have to wait a bit" how convenient

"alright you wanna go back to the ship" Gacen nodded and they made their way out of the bar

"man that place smelt like old coaxium fuel cells, I'm glad we're out of there" Ash went to sit down in the living quarters of the ship

"yeah but you gotta admit it has a certain charm" he said with a smile

"yeah I guess" she paused for a second "Gacen why did you speak to that Gand in a language I didn't understand" it had been bothering her ever since they left

Gacen looked flustered "oh uh well he doesn't speak basic so i ha-"

Ash interrupted "yes he does Gacen why are you lying to me"

Gacen sighed and got a small card out of his pocket "I told him not to look for jobs like usual"

Ash frowned that wasn't that bad at least "why is it because of that?" she pointed to the card

"um… yeah this card is a contact of someone I got after dropping of the shipment the other day" Gacen was sitting up straight now looking very serious

Ash connected the dots in her head "that's what sent you on the drunken bender?" oh god what could it be, a death threat? a captured friend?

"yeah `I got told that the contact of the number on this card knew something about the Drayen family" wait what? that wasn't a bad thing that was his wifes family right?

"but Gacen that's a good thing right you'll be able to see your wife right why would that make you so anxious" Ash moved over next to him

"because what if she doesn't want to see me" he said looking up at Ash

"what that's crazy why wouldn't she want to see you" they were always bantering but there clearly was a loving connection there

"why didn't she come looking for me Ash?" Ash was shocked she had no idea

"what?"

"we were in that prison for 5 years none of my crew came to look for me" Gacen sighed deeply "what if they all just moved on from me"

"Gacen it was a pretty secure prison no one could get in" Ash was sure that Risha wouldn't just leave him to die that was crazy

"Theron got in, he's the one who broke you out right? to get someone else out" Ash was shocked she'd never mentioned that

"how did you know"

"I'm not stupid Ash you don't just suddenly miraculously get out of prison after 5 years I looked at the security feed" Ash felt bad she only kept that from him because he didn't want him to know he was overlooked for the escape

"still he's a spy with like one million contacts, it's d-different" Ash didn't know if she believed it but she had to help right

"we had loads of contacts she could've tried but" he paused for a long few seconds "all information about our partnership has been erased"

Ash didn't know what to say no wonder he had been such a state "hey come on I'm sure it's not like that you're probably just assuming the worst" she wasn't sure she believed anything she was saying "maybe she had to disappear due to some bad guy you don't know and maybe she did search for you it's just been erased right?"

"yeah but even so what if she's just moved on, everyone else does and I'm just left here alone again, I'm not sure I can take that again" Ash didn't even know where to begin but she had to get him out of this

"Hey I didn't move on and that's a what if and I dunno about you but I think it's better to turn a what if into a sure thing so you can stop moping around" Gacen looked up weakly "look at it like this either this is all in your head and she misses you just as much as you miss her or I'm going to give her a telling off she will NEVER forget"

Gacen let out a small chuckle "I guess you're right"

"I know I'm right" wow she couldn't believe that worked maybe she was better at advice than she thought "we can call that number soon when you're ready alright"

Yeah…sure thing Ash…thanks"…