An hour later, back in his speeder, Luke paused before starting the engine and fought the urge to go back to the picnic. A dark voice in his mind tried to tell him there was no harm in driving by to confirm nothing nefarious was happening. Now that he knew who it was, his mind went back to Han's words on the roof of that apartment tower in Coruscant. 'She didn't pursue and he took 'no' for an answer.'

Only now did Luke realize that it was Luke's 'no' about which Han was referring. Wedge had asked the Jedi Master's permission to ask Kess out, back in the locker room, back in the beginning. And damn if that good friend didn't nip his own interest in the bud as soon as he realized Luke was interested too.

Rogue Three was still covering his six, even in this.

"I can't shake him!"

He blinked. The flashback was involuntary, but closing his eyes against it only brought it all back.

"I'm on him Luke!" . . . "Blast it, Biggs, where are you?" . . . An explosion . . . "Good shooting, Wedge."

Luke shuddered out a breath and rested his eyes in his fingers. He didn't think about that day often. Too many deaths prevented that big win from fading as fond memory.

"Gold Five to Red Leader! Lost Tyree, lost Hutch! They came at us from behind— The panic in his voice.

He uncovered his eyes and stared out the window, seeing nothing but flashes of memory, out of order and incomplete. The voices were as audible now as they were when he first heard them in his helmet com.

"I can hold it! I can hold it!" — A crash.

"LOOSEN UP!" — A belch of flame.

"I'm hit! I can't stay with you!" — Wedge was terrified. Who wouldn't be?

"Hurry up, Luke! Wait! . . . WAIT"— Biggs screamed.

Luke was prepared to fly into the exhaust port with his own fighter if he had to. He never told anyone that. Too many people chocked him up as the big hero, but Luke felt himself to be nothing more than a fortunate survivor. It was the teamwork that got it done. Luke just happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right skills for the final shot. If it wasn't for Obi Wan's voice and Han's last minute return, Luke would have died too.

But he didn't.

And now everyone treated him like a Living Legend.

He hated it.

"How did you do it?" She had asked. Her eyes were full of a begging plea for the big hero's guidance.

"Do what?"

"How did you get back to work? How did you conquer everything after that?"

Luke took a deep breath as he pulled out his comlink, and he took his own advice.

"You don't have to have a whole mission plan before getting started on the obvious stuff. . . ."

His thumb turned on the speeder. He pulled out of the parking lot as he spoke into the link with tense energy. "It's me. I've got it. Meet me in the CIC Bunker."

Han jumped onto the project of figuring out Vanech's drawings with an eager rubbing of his palms. They loaded the information into the holo-map, stretched and skewed the sketches to overlay onto their intelligence of the Palace/Temple and Senate Precinct layout. Crix arrived minutes later and dove into the effort as well. There was a new energy as plans for the surface attack hardened with hope.

Luke kept his mind on the project, but a piece of him kept wondering what Kess and Wedge were doing. What were they talking about? How far had the interest grown? Was it still growing now? His aggressive instinct tried to convince him to go pluck her out of the picnic on the excuse that she needed to see these drawings too. (She did, but he'd show her later.) His defensive instinct wanted to block his curiosities from his mind, bury himself in work so that he didn't think about them at all. But that wasn't the right answer either.

No. Luke allowed his mind to wonder so he could face this, and did so without letting it distract too much from the tactical project in front of him. He remembered moments and details that he'd dismissed before. That day when Kess and Wedge shared a smile when she boarded him for take-off. That moment he walked into the Manager's office to find Kess hovered over Wedge shoulder to peer at the same terminal readout. The interest was there. But the action wasn't.

Again, he reminded himself that the problem wasn't the risk, it wasn't them, it was Luke's dark worry about it. So he explored that worry.

Mine? Yes. But only because I don't demand it. She waited. She waited all that time. After all I put her through. She waited for me.

Luke wondered if she knew about Wedge's interest. If Wedge knew about hers. It was so . . . mild. It was there, but it was mild. On both sides.

And now Wedge's mild frustration that Luke wasn't asking her out either made ton of sense.

"Get her out of Rogue Group. Finish this stupid training. Then you ask her out."

With the holo-map glowing up at his face, Luke let out a full smile and murmured. "Man, I owe you a drink."

Han looked over, "What?"

Luke shook his head softly, still grinning through a sigh as he returned his eyes to the map. "Nothing." His shoulders inflated with a new confidence and he stopped worrying about it altogether.

It was well after dinner hour when Luke returned to his speeder and drove him, but in this route, he couldn't get to the barracks without passing by the grinder anyway. Streetlights shined down yellow funnels on the dark sidewalks and sleeping buildings. He wasn't surprised to find the picnic party gone by now, but he suffered a tiny new spike of worry when he found Wedge and Kess still out there, alone.

She was sitting on the edge of one picnic table, and he was leaning his butt against the edge of another, deep in conversation. Luke couldn't help but wonder anew what they were talking about. The emotions emitting from them both were gentle and happy. And they were so distracted with each other that neither noticed Luke driving by.

He parked. He considered. . . . And he pressed his mouth to climb out of the speeder and walk quickly back to the picnic area.

She was swinging her legs and laughing at him. And Wedge was arguing back with a huge smile on his face. What were they talking about? It killed Luke to know. He managed to approach close enough to hear a piece of it before they noticed him coming.

"In space, yes! But not in atmo!" She stressed. "The friction is what does it."

Wedge shook his head. "I am not giving up my Crazy Ivans on the account of your hate for changing a thruster gasket."

"Well, it's a good thing I don't work for you anymore," she laughed back.

Luke nearly stopped his feet to cringe at the concrete. Of course they were talking about fighter repair! Luke felt like an idiot.

They both glanced over to find him coming, and neither yanked down their happiness to hide anything. Luke strolled up with a new grin and sat on the table behind her to join them.

"Took you long enough," Kess smiled over her shoulder. "You missed all the food."

"No, he didn't." Wedge turned back and brought out one last disposable plate. The man grinned friendly as he handed the cold leftovers to Luke.

Luke took it and set the plate on his lap, warmed by the gesture. The two of them continued to talk as he ate.

"I know what I'm going to get you for your birthday next year," Kess told Wedge. "A whole basket of thruster gaskets. Too bad R5 can't change them out mid-flight."

Wedge stood on his feet and dropped his arms from his chest. "Don't need R5 to change them out," he teased as he turned away, "That's what we've got you grease monkeys for."

Luke glanced up to see Wedge waving as he went. "Good night."

"Night, Wedge." Kess shifted sideways on the table to look at the man behind her. "What took you so long?"

Luke saw Wedge walking home, then he looked at the woman who had been waiting for him. He realized now that Kess had only been hanging out until Luke returned, and Wedge kindly kept her company while she did.

His eyes shined at her.

"Oh no," she groaned. "Not another one of those Not Yet looks. You better start showing up with candy or something to justify this idea of yours."

"Something tells me you wouldn't be satisfied with something as simple as candy." He bit a big bite out of the burnt meat and smiled around his chewing.

"Maybe not, but it would buy you time."

He swallowed his bite. "Turns out I don't need as much time as I thought."

She didn't respond to that more than a nod. She never took the topic seriously, but then she already proved to have a well of heroic patience anyway.

Luke smiled more.

"Where were you?" She asked gently.

"CIC bunker," he told her. "Vanech gave us the drawings."

She eyed him with shock, and maybe a little insult. "Why didn't you comm me?"

"You were having a good time." He met her eyes as he took another bite.

She took that in and absorbed the respect of it. "One of these days we're going to have to attend a party together, y'know."

"Soon." He said, smiling fresh, teasing her with it now. "Not yet."