A/N: Future ADA- thanks for reviewing ;-) And something to keep your interest peaked, perhaps… your review regarding part I was instrumental in writing the end of the epilogue… I was sitting on it for a couple of days, endings are so tricky… but well done, you inspired me. :-D
And on we go!
Part III
"Kyp's coming!" Leyla hollered from her bedroom, and Jaina just shook her head at the girl's excitement. For two weeks, she'd talked of nothing besides the impending twelve weeks that she was to spend at the Jedi academy. She went on about her excitement to begin learning about the Force, and the prospect of seeing her year-older second cousin, Ben Skywalker, her Aunt Mara, and Vulcor… and Luke was to return eventually to Ossus- he kept postponing the journey due to problems on Coruscant and elsewhere in the galaxy.
All in all though, Jaina simply suspected that Leyla was excited about the change of scenery from the durocrete jungles of Coruscant to the forests of the academy- not to mention, the excitement of leaving her classes and tutors behind to study what she perceived to be more interesting things elsewhere.
Come to think of it… Jaina and her twin had been much the same way when they were around her age and preparing to go to the academy themselves. She only hoped that now, some fifteen years later, there would be less danger, fewer adventures than had found her and Jacen. Then again, one of their first adventures had been being kidnapped by dark Jedi, and Leyla had already dealt with that, Jaina thought with a pang.
"Are you all packed?" Jag came striding in from the bedroom, clasping his cloak around his work uniform, a military-like ensemble that was similar to his former colonel's garb, but only bore insignia of the Ascendancy and the Fel house, rather than a Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet rank. Leyla called back a quick affirmative, and she could be heard clasping her bags closed.
Jaina's attention was fixed on her husband though. "You're going to work?" she asked dejectedly.
He met her eyes guiltily. "I just got a message," he murmured. "Some sort of emergency situation… I told them I'd come after we saw the shuttle off."
She sighed, not entirely surprised. Ever since the discontent in the Ascendancy had begun to spread- not long after Jag had assumed his new post, to be honest- Jag was summoned alternately by the people of his embassy to look over some new situation, or by concerned officials of governments allied with the Chiss who demanded to know the intentions of the Ascendancy towards their various alliances around the galaxy.
Quite simply, the Ascendancy was fracturing along lines that pitted traditionalists- those who desired to remain isolationist and arrogant, tucked away in their little corner of the galaxy- and reformists, who viewed integration as the path to success and survival, who saw the Yuuzhan Vong war as a prime example of the devastation that could be wrought by a galaxy that was not united and strong. The fact was though, now that reconstruction was largely over and done with, a number of traditionalists desired that the Chiss withdraw from the Galactic Alliance, loosen their treaty with the Imperial Remnant, and sit idly by once more to watch the rest of the galaxy move forward.
And the strongest of these arguments had come remarkably shortly after Jag had assumed the role of ambassador to the GA- making Jaina wonder just how much of it all had to do with the Fel family's presence and standing in the Ascendancy. Surely, one of the gripes of the traditionalists might have some part to do with the further rise to power of the only notable human family within the Ascendancy.
It was a troubling line of thought, but not one that she could really afford to pay much attention to right now; in just a few minutes, Kyp would be arriving and then the four of them would be journeying to the hangar at the Jedi temple, and Kyp was going to depart with Leyla, to take her to Ossus and settle her in. Jaina hated to be staying behind, but she and Jag had decided weeks ago that, first of all, it would be a good bonding experience for Kyp and Leyla, and second of all, not having Jaina and Jag hovering would help Leyla develop the independence she would need when she returned to study on Ossus full time in another year or two.
The chime sounded, indicating the arrival of a visitor. Leyla was out of her room like a shot and slapping the release pad on the door, not even needing to double check to see who stood out in the corridor. "Daddy!" she exclaimed, hugging Kyp tightly before dashing back to her room, leaving a startled Jedi Master standing in the doorway.
Jaina and Jag exchanged wry smiles; sometime in the past couple of years, Jag had become 'dad' and Kyp had remained 'daddy'- but whenever Leyla was referring to Kyp while conversing with Jaina and Jag, she always used his first name, which was how she had known him until she was seven years old anyway. Perhaps she simply didn't want to confuse the situation by referring to multiple 'dads,' and it never bothered any of them that she called him 'Kyp'- after all, she'd only known for a few years that he was her father at all. Nevertheless, the system bemused them all to some small degree.
"How are you, Kyp?" Jag asked distractedly as he read through another message, frowning.
"Better than you, it seems," Kyp replied to the younger man. "The Chiss going at it again?"
Jag sighed. "Like a herd of starved gundarks on the scent of a bantha."
"Ouch." He turned his attention to Jaina. "And yourself, Mrs. Ambassador Fel?"
She rolled her eyes. "My baby is leaving me, my husband is called away to work… the abandonment is already setting in…"
"Mom, I am not abandoning you!" Leyla trudged into the living room, travel case dragged behind her. "I'm just… going on vacation."
Jag snorted. "Vacation? What does an eleven-year-old need a vacation for? I need a vacation!"
"Yes, you do," Jaina swept over and kissed him quickly while Leyla and Kyp exchanged identical looks of faux-disgust at the sappy display. "So sort out these important officials who bicker like small children and take some time off to sweep me off my feet," she grinned. "You know, with Leyla abandoning us and all, we could have a couple nice, romantic getaways…"
"Mom! Ew, I don't want to hear about that. And I am not abandoning you!"
They all chuckled as Kyp reached over to snag Leyla's bag. "Come on then," he ordered. "Let's get going, we wouldn't want to deprive your parents of any nice time together, now would we?" he stage-whispered while leaning conspiratorially next to Leyla. Once, his eyes darted mischievously to Jaina's, and she just shook her head ruefully and followed him out the door.
X-X-X-X
Jag returned home late that night, and Jaina emerged from the bedroom, blinking sleep from her eyes, to find him sitting on the sofa, elbows propped on his knees, head resting in his hands. He looked up though when he heard her soft steps and smiled lightly. "Come here," he murmured, sitting upright and reaching out to place his hands on her waist. Wordlessly, he guided her down to straddle his lap, skimming his hands briefly over the bared flesh of her legs as her nightshirt rode up.
"Late night?" she whispered.
He didn't respond; instead, he brought his hands up to cup her face and, holding back only a moment to study her features, he leaned in and captured her lips in a searing kiss that was equal parts love and desperation. She kissed him back whole-heartedly, but a nervousness was creeping into her mind, and she wondered what had happened to put him in such a mood.
When the kiss ended, Jag did not pull away. He wrapped arms tightly around her and she leaned in to snuggle against his chest, waiting for him to break his news in his own time, his own way. And for a long time, they sat like that, his hand tracing patterns absently against the thin material of her nightshirt, her listening to the sound of his heart beating against her ear.
"I love you," he murmured, pressing his lips to the top of her head.
"I know."
His arms tightened around her, and he seemed to brace himself before taking a deep breath. "I've been recalled to the Ascendancy- to Csilla."
It was like a kick to the gut. "Why?"
"I don't know. Officially, to discuss the evolving political situation in parliament with the Aristocras of the Ruling Families and military leaders. In actuality…" he hesitated. "I don't know," he repeated.
"For how long?"
"I don't know."
"Are you being replaced as ambassador?"
"I don't know."
"Did they tell you anything?" she allowed a bit of frustration to creep into her voice; it was nothing to the frustration pouring off of Jag in waves.
He sighed. "Not really."
"Can I come with you?"
That time, she sensed a deep conflict, and she knew that he'd been battling with this response all day, knew that he'd been waiting for the question from the moment he had been informed that he was to return to the planet where his parents lived. "I'd like you to."
"But?"
"I… too much is uncertain. The divide among the Chiss people… I want to get the lay of the land before I bring you into the mess that has become the Ascendancy. Between the growing anti-Galactic Alliance sentiment, and the suspicion with which many of them view the Jedi…" he shook his head apologetically. "Until I know that you'd be safe, I would prefer that you remain here."
Her voice was practically a whisper. "I can take care of myself."
"I know," he sighed. "But if something were to happen… if Leyla needed us… we can't both be embroiled in conflict in the Unknown Regions."
The fact that it made sense and was true made it no easier to swallow- especially because Leyla wasn't even at home for the next twelve weeks. "Kyp will be watching out for her," Jaina reasoned dully.
Jag hesitated. "Yes, I know. Look," he tilted her dejected face up so he could meet her eyes, "I leave the day after tomorrow, and it's almost a five-day journey just to get there. Give me two weeks, and if I can't sort out whatever is happening by then and be on my way back here, then you can come to Csilla for as long as I have to stay- or until Leyla is due to return from Ossus. How does that sound?"
"Promise?"
"Promise."
She attempted a small smile. "Okay. But you owe me lots of romantic nights to ourselves when we're back."
"I should have thought that was obvious," his eyes warmed a little and his hand rose, skimming across her back and making her shudder in pleasure, before sliding up through her dark hair, applying pressure to the back of her head as he pulled her to him for another kiss. His other hand snaked under her shirt, making her squirm and whimper through the kiss as he found sensitive flesh with lightly probing fingers. "I need you now," he murmured against her.
"You have me."
He chuckled deep in his throat as he pulled away and met her soft eyes with his own green ones, usually pale and now darkened in need and desire. "Not yet I don't," he whispered, tightening his arms around her waist and standing suddenly, earning a surprised shriek as she instinctively wrapped her legs around him. "But I will- very soon, and in many ways."
A smirk tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Promise?"
"Promise."
And he did. His mouth never left hers as he carried her easily through to the bedroom, up until the moment that he dropped her lightly on the bed, making her laugh delightedly as she reached up to begin helping him out of his uniform.
When he made love to her that night, his troubled emotions shone through as he abandoned his usual sweet sentimentality and adopted a forceful, passionate touch, possessed her with a desperation that did not show on his face but radiated from him in the Force.
Caught up in the moment and responding in kind, it wasn't until much later, as she lay in his arms with her back pressed against his muscular chest, that she realized something that unsettled her; the frenzied way in which Jag had taken her, the need, the desirous desperation… it was new for him, he was always soft-spoken and sweet with her, was romantic without being possessive. It was not new for her though.
It was the same way Kyp had been- each and every time they had been together.
With that uneasy thought intruding on her mind, Jaina lay awake for a long time, listening to Jag's slow breathing.
X-X-X
A/N: That's a level of suggestiveness and innuendo and… description… still worthy of a T, right…? 0:-)