The wall holo beeped. Carth considered throwing something at it to make it shut up. Kenna's expression had smoothed back out, and he assumed whatever dream or memory had been plaguing her was gone now. He wanted her to sleep. But he had to either extricate himself from the grip she had around his waist or wait for the holo's insistent chime to wake her up. Since it was possible-if only just-to accomplish without waking her, Carth went with gingerly prying her hands loose and sliding to the side. Kenna gave a quiet half-whimper before latching onto one of the pillows.
Carth smiled to himself as he circled the bed and jabbed the button to accept the call without even looking to see who it was. "Yes?"
It was Dustil. "Hello, Father. I got your message. What did you need to talk to me about?" There was a layer of awkwardness under the casual tone; both Dustil and Carth were still adjusting to being part of each others' lives again.
Sith's blood. Guess it's best to just tell him. "Um, Kenna, actually."
Dustil's expression instantly grew more wary. The fact his father had remarried-and a former Sith Lord at that-was still a somewhat tricky area of conversation with him. "What about her? Is she getting all Sith-like again?"
"No. Nothing like that." Carth almost laughed. "She's, um, pregnant."
Absolute silence and a disbelieving stare met that announcement. Dustil finally blinked. "What? Did...you really just say what I think you did?"
Carth nodded. "Yeah, I did. Kenna's pregnant. We just found out last night." He ran one hand through his disheveled hair. "She passed out."
"She okay?" It actually sounded like he was genuinely concerned, rather than indifferent. That was progress.
"She's fine. I took her to the doctor's this morning, and, um, it gets better."
"What, is she having triplets?"
Carth felt one side of his mouth twist in a wry grin. "Nope. Just twins."
Dustil blinked. "Are you...are you serious?"
"Yes. And everybody's reacted that way. Kenna, me, Mission. It's almost funny. I can't wait until she tells Bastila."
Dustil smirked. "From what I've heard about Bastila, I would love to eavesdrop on that conversation."
Carth laughed. "So would I. Considering Kenna said she flipped out about the mere fact Kenna's pregnant, this news will probably get an even more volitile and very fun to watch reaction."
"Father, would..." Dustil hesitated, sighed, raked his fingersthrough his hair, and started over. "Would it be alright if I...uh, came to visit?"
"Of course." Carth wondered what he'd said that would have given any other impression. "For how long?"
Dustil shrugged. "I don't know."
"How 'bout a week?" Kenna mumbled sleepily, shooting Carth a lopsided, devious grin when he turned to look at her. "For starters, at least."
"And how long have you been eavesdropping?" He tried to sound put out, but she was so adorable half-asleep he couldn't help but grin.
"Long enough to expect listening ears when I let Bastila know there's more than one new Onasi on the way." She sat up and kissed him.
"Do you mind?" Dustil muttered, rolling his eyes.
"Now he sounds like Mission."
"He does, doesn't he?" Carth agreed, kissing her back just for the hell of it.
"Speaking of Mission, how come she got to know before me?" Dustil asked. "Just curious."
"She lives here. She knew what was happening, and pestered me until I told her. Plus, you didn't answer the first time I tried to contact you," Carth reminded his son. "Actually, just about the first thing out of her mouth-after two or three 'that's awesome's-was telling me to let you know."
"Ah. Well, I have to go for now. I'll call later to work out a visit."
"Okay," Carth and Kenna said at the same time.
Carth couldn't help but sigh in relief when they disconnected. "That went much, much better than I thought it would."
Kenna leaned back, propping herself up on one elbow. "Did you think he was going to get really angry or something?"
Carth shrugged, climbing over her to get back on his side of the bed. "I didn't know, honestly, but it wouldn't have surprised me in the least if he was. He was still kind of mad at me when we talked on Citadel Station."
"Mm." Kenna snuggled underneath the blanket and wriggled closer to him.
Carth wrapped his arms around her. "You feeling any better?"
"Eh, a little." She made a face. "My stomach's settled down a tad, and the world isn't constantly spinning. I guess that's an improvement of sorts." She giggled, a sound that wouldn't normally be associated with as important a person as Revan. "I'm going to be a mother." The note of wonder that crept into her voice made Carth's grin widen.
"That you are," he agreed. He kissed the back of her neck, his lips pressing against the sensitive spot that made every nerve in her body tingle.
Kenna couldn't have stopped the breathy moan that slid from her lip had she wanted to, which she most certainly did not. "Carth..." She twisted around to kiss him, catching his jaw instead of his lips because her aim was slightly off. One of his hands slid up and cupped the side of her face, fixing the slightly off angle so their mouths met. One of her hands mimicked the movement, rubbing against the stubble lining his jaw, while the other curled loosely around his bicep, the bare flesh warm under her light touch. She didn't pulled back until the passion brewing in her stomach mutated into nausea. Damn it, damn it, damn it! She swallowed hard, forcing the bile climbing her throat back down. "I can't..."
"What's wrong?" Carth made her look at him.
"Damn morning sickness," she muttered, suddenly near tears and bewildered as to how she could go from on top of the universe and giggling about her approaching motherhood to feeling like the scrapings from a Gamorrean's boot and wanting to vomit inside five minutes. It wasn'tright. "We should figure out a good time for Dustil to visit." It was a desperate attempt to change topics, but Carth let her get away with it.
"It should be at some point you don't feel quite so horrible, for one thing, beautiful," he pointed out.
"I'm not right now," Kenna protested.
"Not what?"
"Beautiful," she mumbled, picking at the hem of the loose tunic and biting her lip, painfully aware of the dark circles under her eyes and the tousled state of her hair.
Carth smiled at her and gently tipped up her chin so she was looking at him. "Kenna."
"What?" She swiped at tears she felt but he couldn't see.
"Yes you are." He kissed her again. "You're very beautiful. Gorgeous, in fact."
She blushed. "You're just biased."
"Unashamedly," Carth admitted, still smiling. "But we were supposed to be figuring out a good time for Dustil to visit."
"We should probably ask Mission what she thinks, too. We aren't the only ones who live here."
"That's a good point," he conceded, "And I should check and see what the Republic has planned for me in the near future before I make any promises as to when he can come."
"It would be more than a little awkward for him to be here when you aren't," Kenna agreed. "Our conversation on the Citadel was proof enough of that."
"Honestly, though, honey, I don't know how much better it would be if I was here." Carth rubbed the back of his neck. "We're working through everything, but it's not like one conversation fixed all our issues."
"Wouldn't it be great if life worked like that?" Kenna murmured sleepily, snuggling against him again.
He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. "Only in holovids, I'm afraid, love."
"A girl can dream. However, I think I'd rather have other things on my mind at the moment. Seeing as you have the whole day off." Her grin was nothing short of seductive.
"That, beautiful, is cheating, and I'm shocked you would stoop to such levels." Carth kissed her forehead. "But if you want to worry about Dustil's visit later, it can certainly wait."
"Good. Because I keep getting...distracted." Kenna traced one finger across his bicep to emphasize her point, feeling the shudder ripple through his muscles at her touch.
"Like I said, beautiful, that's cheating," Carth murmured as he went to kiss her again.
"You don't seem to mind," she whispered back just before their mouths met.
oOo
Neither of them moved from the bed until they heard Mission come back. The teenager was obviously attempting to be quiet, and just as obviously failing miserably. For someone who bragged about being the queen of stealth, that was more than a little suspicious.
"Dinner out says she's faking," Carth murmured in Kenna's ear.
"That's one bet I'm not touching. You know damn well she's only pretending to be stealthy. I'm feeling sick, but I'm not dumb," Kenna grinned. "And you know dinner out wouldn't end well for me." One of her hands slid down between them to rest against her still-flat-and querelous-stomach.
"Good point. I think I'll go ask her how things went."
"What was she doing, anyway?" Kenna asked as Carth slid out of bed.
"She said she was going to practice sparring, since she had all this energy." He grinned. "Somebody is excited about you having twins."
"Well, that's a good thing, if she's gonna have to live with them." Kenna punched her pillow to shift a particularly stubborn lump to the side. "That's better." She lay back down and watched Carth leave. "Tell her I'll be out later. The nausea's not so bad now. That nap helped a lot."
He read what was implied in that statement and chuckled as he closed the door.
oOo
Mission was putting her vibroblades away when he walked out of the bedroom. "So how'd it go?"
"Huh? Oh, sparring." The Twi'lek shrugged. "Pretty good. I was scared I would hit someone too hard cuz I was so jazzed about the twins, so I just used a practice dummy at first. Then this dude-who'd been watchin' me-said I was pretty good for a kid, and challenged me to a duel."
"Oh. Boy." Carth could just picture the condition that poor man had been in when Mission got through with him.
"Yeah," Mission laughed, "I pretty much wiped the ring with him." She grinned. "Serves him right, too."
"Glad you had a good time."
"It was a good workout." Mission shrugged. "Not as good as w-I used to get, but if it helps keep my skills sharp, I'll take it." There was the slightest edge of...something tingeing her voice, but Carth kept his mouth shut. Whatever she'd been thinking about wasn't something she wanted to talk about, and since he was finally feeling relaxed, he wasn't going to force anything.
"Kenna says she's going to try and get out here eventually, now that the nausea isn't so bad. She had a nap and that helped."
Mission shot him a look that made it plain she knew a nap was not all that had transpired. "Mm-hm."
"Mish, don't start. It was nothing like that."
"Sure. And I'm Chancellor."
He sighed. "She was asleep most of the time."
"And the rest of the time?" Mission grilled teasingly.
"Dustil called back, and we were trying to figure out a good time for him to come visit."
"Oh."
"Don't sound so disappointed," Carth ribbed.
"Oh, I'm not, trust me." Mission made a face and headed for the 'fresher to take a shower.
Carth laughed at her expression before heading to the kitchen to fix something to eat, planning look for something for Kenna as well. If he could find something that wouldn't upset her stomach. The last thing he wanted to do was make her feel worse.
A/N: Sorry it's a little on the short side. And rather late. But I kept getting ideas for Aftermath and not this. If Dustil is out of character PLEASE let me know. In this or future chapters. I've had several people ask to see him show up, and I think I can work him in easily enough, but he's a really hard character for me to write, so if I seem to be messing him up, tell me, and if you have any advice, I'm open to suggestions.