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She isn't expecting him to step out of nowhere and seize her. One moment she's walking in the early spring garden, the next Jag is suddenly there, fingers tight on her arm. Jaina is too shocked by his abrupt appearance to fight back. Why is he here? How did he get here?
"Hello, Master Durron," he says coldly.
She tries to pull her hand from his grip, but it's like iron around her wrist. It isn't painful, just unyielding. She can't fight him in her condition, regrets leaving her lightsaber in her bedroom. Hates that she has the thought about a man she once adored. "Let me go, Jag. Please."
"It's Emperor Fel now," he reminds her, and it unfreezes her. She doesn't need her lightsaber. She's a Jedi Master.
Jaina takes a breath, pulling on the Force-
"I don't care if you're the living avatar of the Force. Unhand my wife before I unhand you."
That makes Jag let go. He whirls on Kyp, face hard and angry, mouth curled in a snarl. But he falters at the expression on Kyp's own features. Jaina steps around him and goes to her husband. It hurts to see Jag this way, but even if he were to renounce his empire this very moment, she could not go back. Would not go back even if it were an option.
She rubs her wrist. "I'm fine," she tells Kyp. "I know you'd dearly love to punch his face in. He's not worth it."
Jag's pale green gaze sweeps over her, taking in her hand on Kyp's arm, the swell of her stomach. "I thought you'd get him out of your system and come back to me," he says. "Then I heard you married him, and I had to see for myself. I didn't expect…"
He looks at her wrist. "I didn't mean to hurt you."
"You didn't mean a lot of things," she reminds him quietly.
Kyp steps between them. He hasn't reached for his lightsaber, but he doesn't need it. They all know that if necessary, Jag would be dead before he hit the ground and Kyp wouldn't even need to move.
Jag is apparently truly realising this for the first time. How he managed to escape the knowledge all these years mystifies Jaina. He straightens, but doesn't take the step back he so clearly wants. "I was hoping to speak to Jaina alone."
"I'm his wife, Jag. Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of him. I'd just tell him anyway."
"You always did," he sneers.
"Not everything. I didn't tell him about how you assaulted me on the Ralroost. I didn't tell him about how you said I had no concept of honour and then begged me to take you back. I didn't tell him about how you manipulated me into keeping secrets that got a Jedi apprentice killed by telling me I would be a bad fiancée for warning the Masters. Not when those things happened, anyway."
Jaina is amazed that, angry as she is, her voice doesn't shake in listing just a few of his sins. She crosses her arms above her stomach. "I gave you years of my life. I don't need to give you any more of my time. Get off this planet now, or never leave it."
She feels a thrum of amusement from Kyp, but his face is still set in anger.
Jag looks between them. Very quietly, he asks, "Did you ever love me, or was I just the less scary option?"
The answer is "both", but she says, "I loved you. But you didn't love me. You loved the idea of me. The Jaina Solo you thought you were with never existed, Jag. All your attempts to make me fit her killed our marriage."
He clenches black-gloved hands, then clasps them behind his back, his posture ramrod straight. "And I suppose Kyp here loves the real you? Knows the real you?"
"Hard not to when we're in each other's heads," Kyp tells him. "But yes. Which is why I backed off. I respected her to make her own choices."
"I see. Of course, you couldn't wait to swoop in and make your move as soon as I was gone."
"I made the move," Jaina tells him. "Kyp would have waited until we were both old and grey. He doesn't try to live my life for me and never has. Jag, you never even let me order my own food when we went out to eat! I had to trick you on our honeymoon into looking for something important because you whined about helping the Jedi. You only stopped when I promised you sex. Not because it was something I was interested in and would help our family, but because you'd get personal gratification out of it. And you just decided, without consulting me, that we were going to move to Bastion. I didn't have a voice. So I gave myself one. I left."
He looks stricken, as if just now realising how tightly he'd tried to hold her. "I…"
Kyp isn't bothered by the relative intimacy of the argument. She's already told him everything by now. Through their bond, she can tell he's proud of her.
"I'm not blameless," she admits. "I let you because I was afraid to be alone and you were familiar. I let you think things that were wrong, and I lied about my feelings for someone else. And I'm sorry for that. But we were toxic, Jag. The first time we were together, we couldn't stay together more than six months without a huge blow out, and that was when we barely even saw each other. We were engaged six weeks when I had to call it off. Are you really surprised we only lasted eighteen months after we got engaged the second time? Thirteen months of marriage was a kriffing all-time record for us."
Kyp thinks, Our last real argument involved lightsabers when you were nineteen.
She sends back, Hush, you.
Oblivious to their mental conversation, Jag says, "I had no idea you were so unhappy with me."
"For a large part, I wasn't," Jaina tells him quietly. "But I couldn't keep doing it. I left for me, not for Kyp. Kyp came after."
Her ex-husband nods. "Which you told me before. I didn't want to believe it. I still love you."
"Part of me will always love you. Kyp knows that. But I can't be with you. I can't be what you need."
"I understand that now. I'll… Take my leave. You don't need to fear repercussions, Jaina. I'm not that petty."
As he turns, Jaina says, "Wait."
Jag stops, his back to her. "Yes?"
"How is Tahiri? Is she still there with you?"
"The Emperor's Hand is just fine. She's here with me. I'll tell her you asked about her, see if she'll come speak with you."
He strides off, and this time she lets him go.
Kyp takes her hand. Her wrist is a little red, but not bruised. "How many times are you going to have to explain to him why you divorced him?"
"I think it finally got through." She leans into him. "I'm sorry you had to hear all that."
"Jaina, you were married to him. I know that I'm not the first man to have your heart. You have a right to your feelings, whatever they might be. I may not like all of them, but they're still yours." He wraps a lock of her hair around his finger. "I just hate that you keep having to explain yourself to him. First when you broke up, then when Tahiri went to tattle on us, and now."
"He's never learned quite as fast as you. Neither did Zekk."
"I've always been a fast learner."
He pulls her close, and she leans into him. She wishes fervently that the confrontation hadn't happened, hadn't shattered what she'd been hoping would be an idyllic afternoon with Kyp.
Her husband kisses the top of her head. "Don't," he says softly, and she realises she's been projecting her distress. "Don't let him win, Goddess."
She huffs in annoyance. "I'm not. I'm just irritated and ... The weather is finally warm enough we can be outside again and I'm not stuck inside, and this happens."
He guides her to what she's come to think of as "their" bench. "Sit. Enjoy the sun."
Jaina looks at the red mark on her wrist. "Yelling at him felt better than it should have. And it brought back so many bad things. I know he didn't *mean* to do them, but..."
"I know." He wraps his arm around her shoulders, resting his chin on the top of her head as she leans into him. "Maybe this will be a wakeup call for him. Maybe not. But you don't have to worry about him anymore."
He splays his hand over the bump of their child. The baby kicks and wiggles, strong enough now for him to feel it. Kyp grins. "She's a strong one, like her mother."
Jaina places her hand over his, stroking her fingers over the scar on the back. "So, I have a short list of names."
"Let's hear them."
