CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
GIDGEL'S SECRET

"Wendy, honey, couldja come in here a minute? I need some help with this dress."

"Coming!" Pleakley went into the bedroom to find Leera standing before the mirror, dress half on with her arms folded across her chest as she tried to keep the garment from slipping off.

"I can't quite reach the strings on the back. I just need you to tie it up for me."

"Alright." He started tying up the back of her dress.

Leera made a small sound like a sharp intake of breath and Pleakley stopped.

"Too tight?"

"A little, yeah."

"Hmm, well I can't really make it any looser. I'm nearly at the end of these strings already. I guess you're just too big to fit into this dress now. No offense, heh."

"None taken," Leera sighed despairingly. "Just go ahead and untie it and I'll find something else to wear. That is, if anything around here still fits me."

"I could always whip up something nice and roomy for you out of the curtains!" Pleakley chuckled, then paled from Leera's glare. "Heh, of course I do have some of that zendrin satin left over from that kimono I made you. It's turquoise. You still like turquoise, don't you?"

"I'd prefer something that breathes," Leera muttered, pulling off her dress. "And something that stretches better than this! I think I'm stuck now."

"Oh wait! I forgot to unlace this part here," Pleakley said. "Hold still, I'll get it."

A moment later the dress lay crumpled on the floor around Leera's feet. Pleakley blushed slightly at the sight of his wife, clad only in a small pink bikini top. Leera noticed him blushing and grinned.

"Honestly, Wendy. We've been married for six months now and you still look at me like you're new at this. It's cute, but it's kind of weirding me out. Are you okay?"

"Never been better," Pleakley replied. "I'm sorry, but it's hard not to look at you like that when you're as madly in love with the most beautiful woman in the universe as I am."

This time Leera blushed. "Aww, you're just saying that." She looked down at her belly. "I mean, how in Blitznak could anyone find me attractive when I'm as big around the middle as Jumba?"

"Are you kidding?" Pleakley said, sounding shocked. He reached out and drew her in close. "You're even more beautiful now than you ever were, and I watch you become more beautiful every day."

Won over by her husband's words, Leera melted in to him and tilted her face up to kiss him. He met her halfway, one hand caressing her belly as they shared a long, tender kiss. When it was over, they remained in each other's arms. Leera gazed lovingly into Pleakley's eye, basking in the love she saw reflected in it.

"Why are you so good to me?" she asked, in a voice barely above a whisper.

Pleakley shrugged. "Why not? I love you. And I always will."

"I love you, too," she replied, before leaning in to kiss him again.

"Whoa! Get a room, you two!"

Pleakley and Leera both spun around at the sound of a man's voice. Gidgel was standing out in the hallway, but the bedroom door was open just wide enough for him to see what was going on inside the room.

Pleakley immediately backed away from Leera, burning red with embarrassment. Leera just smiled and folded her arms across her chest.

"We've got a room," she said smartly. "And this is it."

"Well, at least close the door before you guys… you know…"

"Hey, it's a liberal house," Leera replied. "Don't like, don't look." She took a green and pink muumuu Pleakley had handed her and pulled it on.

At this, Gidgel seemed to blush. "Hey, well, I'm not complaining here, but I think that out of courtesy for the faint of heart you two oughtta keep certain affairs behind closed doors."

Leera smirked. "Faint of heart? And who would that be?"

Gidgel shrugged. "Well, I don't wanna say me, but if I walk in on one more love-fest I think I'm gonna need a triple bypass or something."

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that, Uncle Gidge. If you could survive a kurtrizine reactor implosion, I'm sure you can handle a few more unpleasant surprises."

"Why? You got something else planned for me?" he asked slyly.

"Welllllllllll, I was thinking of asking you to help out with the delivery, but if you don't think your poor little hearts can take it…"

"That depends. What exactly do you want me to do?"

"You can cut the umbilical cord. How's that sound?"

"Shouldn't Wendy be the one to do that?"

Leera laughed. "I doubt if he'll even be able to look while it's being done. Besides, he'll be too busy getting his patooki whipped for putting me through all this."

Pleakley gulped.

"Oh honey, I'm just kidding! You know that, right?"

Pleakley forced a smile. "Uh, right."

"Well anyway, it's time for lunch," Gidgel said. "Your mother and Kirk are fixing grilled cheese sandwiches and lemonade. Should be ready now."

In the kitchen, Pleakley, Leera, Kirk, Gidgel and Vay sat around the table and chatted over lunch. It wasn't long before the conversation turned to the baby and its upcoming birth.

"Well, I asked Uncle Gidgel if he wanted to cut the cord, but he didn't say," Leera was telling Vay.

"I just thought it would be best if the father did that," Gidgel conceded. "What do you think, Kirk?"

Caught off-guard by this question, Kirk fumbled for an answer. "Oh, uhhh— yeah! I think it's the least a father can do, short of delivering the baby himself. I'd a done the same thing if I'd been… well… never mind." He blushed and turned away a little to avoid Vay's eye. "Of course, I'm not one to talk," he added quietly.

"Damn straight you're not," Gidgel growled.

"Gidge, don't talk with your mouth full," Vay said.

"I'm not — " he protested, but before he could finish his sentence, Vay crammed half a sandwich into his mouth. Gidgel gagged a little, then chewed and swallowed it.

"Jeez, what was that for?"

"For being my brother."

Gidgel grumbled and took a large gulp of lemonade to wash the sandwich down. "Yeah. The same brother who tried to give you every last cent he had to help pay Wendy's medical bills."

"Oh, don't start that again!" Vay said. "You always make it sound like I begged you for that money, when you know damn well I didn't even ask once."

"I thought that was because you were just too proud to admit that you needed help."

"Well, I didn't."

"Oh? And I suppose you were just turning tricks for the fun of it? Puh-leaze, Vay, who are you trying to kid?" Gidgel demanded.

"Hey, it was easy work," Vay argued. "And it certainly paid a helluva lot better than my old desk job did, even after my promotion."

"Well, I could have just as easily sold my house and my ship for you, and I wouldn't have had to think twice about it."

"Well, I didn't want you to have to worry about me. You needed the little money you had for school."

Gidgel snorted. "I didn't need to go to school right away. I could have put it off a year or two."

"Yes, but then you probably wouldn't have gotten your degree in time to go to work for the Federation's engineering department. You were lucky enough to get in when you did."

"True, but you really didn't need to resort to selling yourself like that. All you had to do was say the word, and I would have taken your place in that arena."

"Ahem! Do you mind? I'm trying to eat here," Pleakley grumbled.

Vay ignored him. She was too busy laughing at Gidgel's remark. "I don't doubt that at all! In fact, I'm kinda surprised you didn't. I'm sure you would have enjoyed it a lot more. Why, I bet you'd've done it for free if you weren't tight on funds yourself."

Gidgel looked offended. "Yeah, well… who wouldn't want to have a good-paying job that's also enjoyable? It would have been a small sacrifice, but totally worth it. You know I'd bend over backwards for you and Wendy."

"Yes, I know," Vay said, still chuckling. "And you did bend over backwards that one time! I remember that very well." Vay grinned impishly at her brother and he responded with an indignant smirk.

Pleakley, Leera and Kirk, oblivious as to what this implied, stared curiously at the two.

"And what exactly did he do?" Kirk asked, looking very interested indeed. "Please don't spare all the juicy details."

"Oh, it was nothing, really," Gidgel said quickly, before Vay could respond. "I just — did a little shady moonlighting to help out with some medical bills. It was no big deal. Not even worth mentioning, really."

"Oh, I beg to differ," Vay purred. "Gidgel's just too embarrassed to talk about it, but I — "

"Ahem!" Gidgel cleared his throat loudly, giving Vay a threatening glare out of the corner of his eye which went unnoticed.

"I'll be right back," Vay said as she got up from the table. She disappeared into the guest room and came back a minute later with what looked like a large spiral notebook in her hand. She did not sit down again, but instead stood at the table between Leera and Kirk. She set the notebook down on the table between their plates. Pleakley leaned over by Leera to get a better look. On closer inspection, they realized it was a calendar, and a rather old one at that. The year on the cover said that it was 22 years old. When Gidgel saw it, he turned red.

"Aw, jeez, I can't believe you still have that!" he groaned, banging his head down on the table.

The text on the calendar's cover read "Sexy Mechanics." Ignoring her brother's protests, Vay opened it and flipped through to Awldjeis, the equivalent of Earth's October. Lo and behold, there was Gidgel, 22 years younger but pretty much the same guy. He was stretched out on the hood of a dark red Muun-Zin cruiser, clad only in a utility belt. He was lean and buff, and his single eye seemed to say "I define the word 'sexy.'" And to make the illusion complete, he was holding up a large, long, and dangerous-looking tool.

Pleakley, Leera and Kirk stared at the picture for a long time, then suddenly Kirk burst out laughing. Leera just smiled sweetly at Gidgel while Pleakley continued to stare at the picture. Gidgel stood up quickly and reached across the table for the calendar, but Vay pulled it away just in time. Kirk laughed even harder.

"Well, that's refreshing," Leera said, still smiling, albeit a little too brightly. "There must be an interesting story behind that."

"Oh, there is," Vay admitted, finally taking her seat beside her brother. She smiled wickedly at him, and he frowned and turned away, grumbling to himself. Ignoring this, Vay explained. "When Wendy was nine he caught the txacchioblerrus virus and got really sick. He might've died if he hadn't received the best medical treatment there was at the time. We had to go all the way to Turo to get it, and he ended up staying in a hospital there for about a week. I was making pretty good money by that time, but it still wasn't enough to take care of all the bills, so Gidgel snuck off and posed for this calendar behind my back and then gave me all the money he was paid for it. That was about 800 gliliix."

"Wow," Leera breathed.

"Yep. And he wouldn't even tell me where he got the money. I mean, first he made up some lame story about finding it in a wrecked cruiser he towed home, but I didn't buy it. Then he changed his story and claimed he'd just gotten a big bonus, but I didn't believe that, either. It wasn't until I went to visit him at work a few months later that I found out the truth. The calendar was hanging up right there in the garage, and it just happened to be Awldjeis, so it was open to his picture."

"Wow," Leera said again, looking at Gidgel in a new light. "What a guy. Gee, Wendy, I never realized you had such a sexy uncle! Hmm, but I guess it just runs in the family," she purred, nudging her husband playfully.

Nearby, Kirk snickered. Vay kicked him under the table and he stopped. Gidgel looked miserably around the table.

"Okay, okay. So I did something I'm not particularly proud of. Haven't we all?"

At this, Leera got up from the table and went over to him. "Maybe you're not proud of yourself for doing that, but I sure am." He looked at her in surprise and she smiled back, pecking him on the cheek.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Woo-hoo! What an update! What a super-duper SEXY update! Seriously, I think I had too much fun with this chapter. Anywho, big news to all me fans out there: I have mucho fan art for this fic, and it's all posted at Fanart Central. There are pics of all my fan characters, including Vay, Leera, Le'Kruune, and even Taisiya, the grand councilwoman's daughter (see original "Pleakley's Story.") I even have a picture of Gidgel from the "Sexy Mechanics" calendar! Check it out at Fanart Central. Apparently FFN doesn't allow links, so you'll just have to find the site on your own. Sorry about that. All my art is listed under my artist name, Nevuela. If you have any trouble finding my stuff, please let me know in reviews and I'll see what I can do to fix the problem.

Anyway, please drop by, have a look, and leave a comment! I'd really appreciate some feedback on my art as well as my story! Advance warning: Some of my fan art is rated NC-17 for nudity and/or sexual content. All pictures are clearly labeled with their individual rating and content, so you should know what you are going to see before you click on it.