STORMY WEATHER
Chapter 3
"If you want to share dinner later, I'm here, but if it's too soon, I understand," Jag said to Jaina as he walked her back to her quarters.
"Thank you," Jaina said. "We'll talk. I promise."
But first she needed to make a comm.
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"Are you comfortable, Minister?" the massage therapist asked Leia Organa-Solo.
"I'm fine, but it's been almost five years since I was Minister of State," Leia said, laughing.
"I know, but I guess it sticks with you," the therapist said, feeling a bit awkward.
"You're hardly the first," Leia assured her. There was a chiming sound. "Oh, kriff, that's my comm. Can you hand me my bag?"
The therapist handed her a handbag that was larger than some valises. Leia scrambled around inside, digging for her comm.
"Jaina!" Leia said with delight in her voice. "You're at Luke and Mara's, right? What idiot thing has your uncle done now?"
"Uncle Luke's sick, so Aunt Mara said not to come. She's probably having a lot of trouble keeping him in bed," Jaina said, a telltale quaver in her voice.
"What's wrong, honey?" Leia's Force sense wasn't fully developed, but her Mother sense was out in full force.
"Do you have a minute?"
"Well, I'm sitting here wrapped in a towel at the spa, so it's not like I'm going anywhere for a while."
"Do you have the green mud on your face?" Jaina asked, smothering a chuckle.
"That was half an hour ago. But for the love of the Force, don't go to visual. I've already told you I'm wearing nothing but a towel."
Jaina couldn't help but laugh. Anyone who considered her mother humorless didn't know Leia very well.
"Mom, something happened to me a little while ago," Jaina said. Leia felt her Mother Senses ping up to High Alert.
"You're not hurt, are you? Leia asked, shutting her eyes, and praying that Jaina had not been doing Stupid Pilot Tricks, a game that the pilots in training enjoyed. She'd never been injured doing them before, but there was always a first time.
"No, nothing like that. Well, sort of like that. I mean, I'm not injured, not physically, it's something else."
"Tell me what's going on." Leia signaled to the massage therapist that this might take a while.
"It's Jag."
"What's up with Jag?" Leia asked, trying to keep her voice neutral. In her experience, dealing with children and their issues required more diplomatic skills than the most contentious political exchanges and were at least twice as complicated.
"He came by today. He wanted to talk," Jaina continued.
"And what did he want to talk about?"
"He says the stupidest mistake he ever made was breaking up with me."
"Typical male. They're slow, honey. You should know this from watching your father and brothers."
Jaina laughed a little; her mom could somehow always get her to do that.
"Speaking of which, how's Dad doing?"
"Still winning, last I heard. So what else did Jag say?"
"He wants to get back together," Jaina said, her voice flat.
"Hmm. Sounds like you're being cautious about this. Which is good," Leia reassured her.
"I want to go back to him, Mom. But I'm so kriffing mad at him!" Jaina was half-laughing and half-crying now.
Leia remembered back to meeting Han Solo more than two decades ago. She was exactly the same age as Jaina was now, and her feelings had been a confusing cobweb of push and pull in every conceivable direction. It had made her dizzy and angry and ecstatic and sad and soft and hard...and that kiss...that first kiss…
Calm down, Leia, she told herself. This is about Jaina, not you. Focus.
"You have every right to be furious with him," Leia told her. "He dumped you. And I'd be nervous, too."
"I'm not nervous...okay, I'm nervous...I don't know what I am, Mom!"
"And that's perfectly normal when you're around a guy you love," Leia told her.
"It is?"
"You've heard all about your father and me," Leia reminded her.
"I heard that you fought for three years," Jaina said.
"There was that, but what was behind it was a little more complicated. Actually, a lot more complicated," Leia laughed gently.
"He invited me to dinner tonight," Jaina said. "I don't even know if I want to go to dinner, let alone get back together!"
"Let me give you a piece of advice. Go to dinner. I hope military base food's improved since the war, but somehow, I doubt it."
"It's pretty awful."
"Do it anyway. Dinner's also a good place to talk."
"He took me to the Ressl River to talk. We hardly said anything."
"Food helps. Get off the base for dinner. Take it from someone who spent five years eating military rations. The first time your father cooked for me, I thought I'd gone to another universe. Of course, I was horribly sick at the time, but I can still taste the hot buttered rum."
"I thought you said he gave you food!"
"He did. Made me a lovely soup and some fruit juice. Jaina, honey, you seem as if you want me to tell you what to do, but you really don't. Trust me on this."
"But I still don't know what to do!"
"I will say: go to dinner. I'm sure he'll take you somewhere nice."
"There're limits on a Navy pilot's pay."
"Knowing what I do of Jag, he'll do the best he can. Jaina, advice is cheap, and I'm loathe to give it, but pay attention to your heart. It'll tell you what to do. I only really started living once I listened to mine. You need to have dinner with Jag and the gods know I need this massage. Comm me later, honey."
"I love you, Mom."
"I love you too, sweetie. Now go forth and conquer."