Commander Antilles was just finishing up a huddle with the pilots in the muster room when Kess came in. The door was open so she let herself in and waited by the wall. She considered if this conversation was going to be more heartbreaking than talking with her father. She tried to put her hands in her pockets until she remembered she wasn't wearing her flight suit, so she just crossed them at her chest instead.

One by one, the pilots filed out through the door beside her in a long procession of high fives and 'good to have you back'. Kess didn't have the heart to correct them.

At the end of it all, Wedge strolled up to her too, but he was far less enthusiastic. His head hung to one side with the knowing grin that he was about to get the bad news. He waited until all the others were gone before he stopped his feet with disappointment. "You're not in uniform."

Kess bounced her shoulder blades shyly against the wall. "No, I'm not."

Wedge rolled his head on his neck and looked away for a minute.

Kess strolled over to close most of the distance.

His eyes found her again. "He told you on the trip?"

"I made him," Kess defended. "I was dying of curiosity by then."

He flattened his mouth and nodded with regret.

"I would have," Kess insisted. "But this thing with my brother, and—

"No, I get it." Wedge stopped her. He shook his head and sighed again. "I get it. You've got things to do."

"You need somebody who's going to be here all the time," she instructed.

"Yeah." Wedge eyed her a long moment and his lips worked with another difficult sigh. "Yeah," he was quiet.

"I'm sorry," she offered.

"I know," he was suddenly awake again, taking this in stride, and grinned friendly. "Don't worry about it."

Kess worried anyway.

Wedge grinned anew. "But I'm gonna call you from time to time because I don't have anyone on my crew that knows how to fix a hangover."

They shared a shy laugh over that.

"Can I ask you a favor though?" She queried.

His eyes smiled.

"Artoo needs some very special repair because of something I did. I need your tools. Can I borrow your Pad after hours to take care of him?"

"Of course." Wedge cringed, "He's assigned to Rogue Group, isn't he? When do you want to do it?"

"After I get the parts. Tomorrow night? Maybe the day after?"

"Let me know." He shrugged and looked at the floor.

Kess could sense it. "What?"

He squinted sideways at her. "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Sure. What?"

"It's none of my business but . . ." he squinted harder. "Is he treating you right?"

"Who, Luke?"

Wedge chuckled. "Who else would I be talking about?"

"Yeah, we're fine. Why do you ask?"

"No reason."

"Bullshit," she scolded. "You wouldn't be asking if you didn't have a reason."

Wedge flattened his mouth, but he seemed to know he wasn't going to get out of it. He set his boot on a chair and dropped both elbows to rest on his knee. "It's just that you're training's been done for what? A month? Month and a half? And no one knows? Not even a decent homecoming when he came back from that last thing? The only people who know you're together are the few of us who guessed it beforehand. . . . Tell me this: if I hadn't kicked you out of the party that night, would have gone to go see him on your own?"

Kess chewed on her tongue. "Probably not," but she chuckled at it. "He trained me too well for that part."

"So nothing? That entire time?"

"Well," she flushed, "Not entirely nothing. But it was nothing enough, if that makes any sense."

"Yeah, it does." Wedge wiped his forehead with the heal of his palm. "He is as dumb as a stone sometimes."

"Relax, Wedge. I've got this."

"You sure? You want me to talk some sense into him?"

"No. He's fine. We've got family complications going on right now that take higher precedence. That's all."

"Yeah, I guess so." But he came back with fervor and stood on both feet. "But if you need someone to knock him in the head, I'm first in line."

Kess turned to go with a smile. "Sounds like there's more to that story."

Wedge walked out with her. "Not denying it, but some stories are better left untold."

With that, he grinned goodbye and turned away to other pressing business.

Kess watched him go. Are they though? She wondered. Kess decided she had suffered too many untold stories already. What she couldn't decide was, for this one, would she hound Wedge about it, or Luke? Either way, this one was low priority compared to everything else, so she set it on the backburner for another time.

Kayla skipped up to her then, carrying a compression unit in her gloved hands. "Hey, girly girl."

"Hey." Wedge and Kayla, she thought. Kess cocked her head to remember a piece of history she'd forgotten. She jerked her head at the pilot now in the distance behind her. "You okay working with him?"

"Who? Wedge?"

"Aren't you supposed to call him Commander now?"

"Well, yeah, but only when it matters." Kayla handed her the unit and Kess took it.

She looked the compression unit over out of habit. "Okay, but I didn't think to ask about it before I suggested your transfer here."

"I wouldn't've taken it if I thought he was hoping for a repeat." Kayla shrugged, "Come on. It was two weeks three years ago. Water under the bridge."

"I don't really understand that term," Kess grinned, "But okay."

"Besides," Kayla continued. "You think he would've asked for my permission to date you if he still harbored anything about it?"

Kess glanced up. "What do you mean?"

Kayla shrugged. "Couple months back. South Base Warehouse? When you got drunk and sliced shit up with your lightsaber?"

"I thought you told him to ask me out."

"No." Kayla reared back. "He asked me if I'd feel weird about it. Shipmate respect. I said, 'no I didn't'. Why?"

Kess's jaw was on the floor.

"Why?"

"I think I just figured out an untold story. That's all."

"What story?"

"Nevermind." She lifted the unit up. "Why did you hand this thing to me?"

"So it's looks like we're working," Kayla giggled.

Kess curled over and snickered hard. Kayla laughed harder too.

"Yo!" Wedge shouted from the ladder of Rogue Eight. He pointed hard at the two of them (though a grin was in his eyes.) "Either throw on a flight suit and get to work, or get out of here so my Repair Sup can!"

"Aye sir!" Kess handed the unit back to Kayla, they shared a giddy smile, and Kess turned away.

Kess strolled to leave Pad 14 in a little daze. So. Once upon a time Wedge asked Kayla and then Luke for permission to ask her out. Looking back on her early days in Rogue Group, she could've seen that coming, although she hadn't guessed it at the time. Now Wedge was worried Luke wasn't treating her right.

He cared.

It made her feel good.

But Wedge was right, this was a story best left untold.

"LENDRA!" It was more of a stress than an angry shout, complete with cupped hands around the mouth that shouted it. Han was sitting on the edge of the Falcon's port mandible and apparently had shouted her name several times before she heard it.

Kess strolled over. "What's up?"

Han locked his elbows beside him and squinted, "How come you're not helping Luke with Vanech right now?"

Kess stood below him on the deck and shrugged. "I do when he needs me. He's having more success with Vanech when I'm out of the way."

Han nodded thoughtfully. "Whatchya doin'?"

"I was about to head over to supply. Why, do you need something?"

Chewie rattled off a long sentence from further afar the top of the ship. Kess couldn't see him, but she could hear him. (She didn't understand him.)

Han glanced but he didn't answer. Instead, he flattened his mouth at Kess with difficulty.

Kess could sense the conflict. She was about to ask what was wrong when Han began to climb to his feet and motioned her to the ramp. "You got a minute?"

The three of them gathered in the main bay. Han fell back in the engineering chair, rubbing his eyes while Chewie pulled over pair of datalinks and handed her one.

As Kess looked to find he hadn't typed anything yet, Han rolled his head back upright and blurted it. "We need help."

Kess was careful. She said nothing at first; she just listened.

"We've got a lot to fix in short time and not enough hands. I don't want to pull Ashten's crew because they've got enough to do out there."

"Did he put you up to this?" She accused.

Han blinked. "Who?"

"Luke."

He rattled his head. "No."

Kess sensed out for deceit, but it wasn't there. Han was actually, honestly, asking for help.

Han sat up, "I know he's got you doing Jedi things but if you have time I've got some ideas how to use you so it doesn't pull you away too much from your sorcery stuff."

Kess settled evenly on her feet. "I'm listening."

Han pulled a list from the top of his head of all the things he wanted to fix before they left again. The plan was simple. They wanted to give her a list of independent repairs to work on when she had the chance to work on them so she could schedule the effort around whatever Luke had her doing in the 'Jedi arena'. She'd already been elbow deep in half of these items so she didn't need supervision to get it done anyway, but when Chewie mentioned that, Han added that any supervision was only to explain some of the 'special modifications' so Kess didn't accidentally rewire things correctly when they weren't supposed to be correct in the first place.

Kess listened at length and questioned where appropriate, but the whole time she squinted with distrust that all this was too good to be true.

In the end, Han shrugged that he would, "of course," pay her for it. Kess shifted her chin and gestured with the datalink. "Are you sure Luke didn't put to this?"

Han smiled then, shaking his head at his lap as he sat up. "No. I'm sure Luke didn't put me up to this." He stood and grinned over her. "But my wife won't shut up about it, if you must know."

"Ah."

"Look, we need all the help we can get to be ready for this thing," he admitted humbly.

Kess shifted her boots for the door. "Let me run to supply," she grinned and handed the datalink back to Chewie, "and I'll go home and grab my flight suit."

Han grinned and nodded.

Kess was practically skipping on her way back to the barracks and gladly stepped into her old uniform. She couldn't wear the Lieutenant's dots though, and it she grinned with lament to pluck them off the collar. And yet, when she pulled off Grandma's old wedding locket too, she paused . . . and put the leather necklace back on. It already felt like a good luck charm, so she opted to wear it until this whole mess was over.

Upon return to the Falcon, she brought back a special gift: a T10-38 unit, and presented it in the corridor where Han was working. "I think I'll start with this."

Han laughed, nodded, and gestured his hand tool for her to carry on.