Miriah briefed Akaavi on the current situation and what everyone was doing, and they chatted as Miriah cooked. They'd invited the new couple to stay and eat, but they wanted to get unpacked and settled. Devin had only left Akaavi's side for a few minutes at a time. "He's really missed you, 'Kaavi, asked about you pretty much every day." She smiled at her son, seeing the delight in his eyes.
"And I missed this little face too." She kissed his head as he got down to play. "You need another, Miriah. You are a very good mother." Miriah smiled, but looked away.
"I know, it's been on my mind a lot lately. I'm just not sure I want to do it again right now." Akaavi nodded, her friend stayed busy as it was, another child would certainly add to her daily tasks. Cy and Corso had finished unloading their ship, and joined them. After a few minutes, the new couple went to their place and Corso had Miriah right where he wanted her, against him. They were kissing and nuzzling each other when Devin tried to pry them apart, finally getting his dad's attention.
"Hey, Dev. Sorry we were ignoring you, son." He swung the little boy up in his arms, and put him in his chair at the table. Miriah brought his dinner over and Corso sat with him while he ate. She stood at the counter, watching her two men, and was lost in thought when Corso noticed her watching them. Once Devin had eaten all he wanted, Corso let him down and was planning to take him for a bath, but stopped and gently kissed his wife, who startled at his touch. "You were a million parsecs away, love. Everything okay?" He saw her tear up then, and took her in his arms.
"I want another one, Cor, another baby. Not right now, but I do want one. I'm scared, though, that it will be tough on all of us." She put her arms around his waist, holding on. He let go of her and took her hand, taking her with him to the refresher off Devin's room, where his son was preparing his bath toys.
"Look at him, love. He's perfect, smart, loving. How could you think it would be a hardship on any one of us to have another like him?" His voice was gentle, his love for her in every word, and she felt his emotion clearly. Devin took that moment to turn to her and grin.
"Love you Mama," he told her, "Devin sleepy." They laughed, he knew exactly what he wanted, and part of that was for them to do their part. Corso got him clean and dressed for bed, and they joined Miriah in the kitchen for kisses. Miriah took the little boy to his bed, hugging him hard. "Mama good," he told her as he kissed her cheek. "Go nigh-night. Hugs." How, she thought, could you not want one of these? Her heart felt lighter as she joined Corso for dinner.
Maura and Aric were discussing the upcoming Garza visit, Aric glad that she was staying with Sarai and not them. "She interrupts us enough when she's not on the planet. I'd be ready to scream if she stayed here."
"Poor Aric," Maura said, grinning at her husband, "he never gets to kiss his wife, or hug her, or.."
"C'mere, smart mouth, and use it for good," he told her, putting his mouth on hers, backing her to their bed. They wasted no time shedding clothes, forgetting about the upcoming visit and pretty much everything but each other. Only later, when Aric was absently tracing circles on Maura's bare back did he think about the upcoming visit and how it might play out. "Honey, do you think her assistant might be involved? He kinda flew under my radar since it seemed like he was so devoted to her on Alderaan, but that might be his cover. What do you think?"
"I think, love, that you're over thinking again. Just relax and let's see what goes on when she's here. She did confirm that the explosives at the senate building on Balmorra were removed, right?" He nodded, kissing her shoulder. "Then we really just have to wait and see." He grunted, knowing she was right but hating to wait. "I know, you hate to wait, so I'll just have to figure out something to occupy your mind until then." She ran her hand along his muscled thigh, and loved the response she always got from him, loving him.
Magdalane and Felix were relaxing, and Felix was telling her about watching Michi play with the twins and Devin when he realized she was nodding off. He stood and pulled her to their room, her protests weak. "You need more rest, sweetheart. Let's get you in bed and resting, okay?" She watched as he took off her shoes and moved to take her shirt off over her head. When he did, she kissed him, and he could feel her aura caress his skin, the sweet edge of desire infusing it, and it had him thinking of not sleeping instead. She grinned at him, knowing he could feel what she was feeling, and pulled him over onto her, his lips onto hers. No words were necessary, and they finally rested, Felix's arms around her, his hand on their son.
Miriah woke up in the middle of the night, a piece of the Garza puzzle floating around in her subconscious, if only she could just get it out. She blinked in the darkened room, feeling her husband's arm draped over her, his warm breath on her neck. She didn't want to wake him, but she knew she wouldn't be sleeping soon. Now, she thought, what the void is it that keeps running through my brain? She shifted slightly, feeling Corso's arm tighten around her. "Mmm?" he mumbled. "Darlin', you okay?"
She sighed and turned to face him, hating that she woke him even though she knew he must have not been sleeping too hard anyway. "I'm fine, sugar, go back to sleep." She snuggled into him, still thinking. He fell back into slumber, his hands in her hair, holding her to him with his leg wrapped around hers. She was thinking about seeing Maura dancing, the walk to the restaurant, how nice the promenade looked with the twinkling lights, and then it hit her. Brock was taken from the restaurant by Bow, who was essentially the law on Port Nowhere. So, there was no official paperwork, just a call to the Republic army post on Thanta II. Then the question was, how did the info go beyond the limited network they'd contacted. No one but the family and Risha even knew they were there, and when Bow handed Brock over, the only thing they'd told the soldiers was that he'd pulled a knife on an unarmed citizen in a restaurant.
She turned away from Corso again, trying to get comfortable and figure out what was going on, and felt him move her hair and then his lips on the back of the neck. The tingle that infused her made her shiver, and she felt him pull her closer. She turned again to face him and was lost in his kiss. "So beautiful, so warm, so soft," he murmured between kisses, his hands arousing her as much as his words. He loved her slowly, savoring each touch and cry from her. When they cuddled to sleep again, he whispered to her, "What had you awake anyway, love?"
She returned his whisper, "Working through the whole information leak issue in my head, it woke me, like there was something missing, something I've overlooked somewhere." She nibbled at the ear she'd been whispering into, and heard his breath catch.
"We're staying awake then?" he asked her, grinning, pulling her on top of him. By the time they slept, Miriah didn't think of the mystery anymore. Morning saw her again working through the details, trying to figure out how the information got to whomever blasted the shuttle out of space, and after they'd eaten breakfast and gotten Devin settled to play, she talked it through with Corso. He paced as she talked, but followed her words closely.
"I see what you mean. There has to have been an inside person, either at the Port or at the Republic outpost." He turned to look at her, seeing the silver eyes he loved lost in thought. "Wonder if one of the others at Brock's meeting had a contact somewhere?" Miriah slowly nodded.
"That's been the only thing I keep coming back to," she said. "But the squad would have had to file the request to come get him, and maybe the spy had access to all incoming comms." She shifted to hug her knees as she sat on the fireplace hearth, sipping her mug of hot chocolate. "His name would have been on the initial request, let's ask Aric or Maura if it would have gone on the report the squad submitted." Corso crossed to the holo, then walked back to her before he'd put the frequency in. He sat beside his wife and kissed her.
"You constantly amaze me," he told her, and then got up to walk to his office, her grin following him. She was still smiling when her came back into the room with a small box in his hand. "I wanted to give these to you for your birthday, but I can't wait. I want you to have this now," he told her, handing her the box. She drew in a sharp breath when she lifted the lid of the box to see moonstone earrings, crafted to match the necklace he'd given her. "It occurred to me, when I saw you before Akaavi's wedding, that you needed more jewelry, kitten." She jumped up to grab him in a hug, and he held her close, lifing her feet off the ground as he did.
"Thank you, sugar, these are wonderful," she told him, sniffing back happy tears as she put the earrings on. She sighed as she felt them dangle softly against her neck. "I love them."
"I love you, cyare." He grinned at her as she hugged him again, then moved to kiss him. Sarai found them there, embracing and softly talking to each other. They broke apart when she came in, but she could feel the connection.
"Sorry, kids, for the interruption. I wanted to see if I can take Devin for a walk this morning, and if you need, I'll bring him to the office after." Sarai was loving the ranch, and exploring the grounds.
"Of course, you can," Miriah told her, and laughed as Devin came running from the playroom to see his Nana. "We need to be going up there anyway, " she told her mother, who was looking at the earrings her daughter wore.
"Those are nice, Mir," she said, reaching out to touch them. When she did, she felt the love attached to them, and smiled at her son in law. "Well done, Corso. " He blushed in response.
When they got to the office, and Miriah explained what she'd been mulling over since the middle of the night, Aric looked at Maura. "You filed those, Major. How much info do you put on those reports?"
"Yeah, they would have had his name on that report." She sighed, knowing that anyone with access codes would have been able to get that information and destroy the shuttle. That didn't get them any closer to who the informant was, but in Maura's mind, cemented the fact that it was someone inside the military structure. She followed Miriah to the kitchen, seeing the sparkling moonstones in her sister's ears. "Does that silly smile have something to do with the new jewelry, sis, or something else?" Miriah grinned at her, touching the earrings with her fingertips.
"Corso gave them to me, said he thought I should have more jewelry," she smiled, remembering his face when he'd given her the box. Maura looked at them closer, "They match the necklace perfectly, had to have been made by the same craftsman. Lucky girl!" She smiled at her sister then, and they rejoined the others in the conference room. Mags and Felix had come in by then, and they briefly checked the holomail while brainstorming both the questions Miriah had raised as well as the general's visit in two days. Magdalane shifted uncomfortably, which caused everyone to come to an alert posture.
"It's nothing," she said, "just this guy moving around." She stood and rubbed her belly, Felix supporting her, his arms around her. Mags laughed. "You all act like I'm almost at term or something. I've got still got four months, he's just a lot more active than Michi was." Felix kissed her then, something of a rarity in public, and whispered to her.
"You need to put your feet up, my love." She smiled at him over her shoulder and did as he said, taking the cup of tea Miriah offered her. "I'd be happier if you'd just rest at home, but I'll take this." Sarai and Devin came in, and after greeting everyone Devin ran to the playroom, and Sarai went to Mags.
"Little guy giving you fits today, huh?" Mags nodded, and Sarai sat beside her. "I wanted to put my two credits into this current mission." At the surprised looks of everyone, Sarai laughed. "Yes, I pay attention to what you guys are working on. And that's what I wanted to remind you all about. There were others around, who might be invisible in plain sight." Aric and Corso looked at each other, there were surely people in the Republic army who were just there, unobtrusive. Aric thought of Garza's assistant again then.
"Her assistant came to my mind last night," he said. "I wondered if I'd overlooked him initially because of his apparent service on Alderaan, but that might have been his cover. It bears more investigation, I mean, who would know more about what was going on with her than him?"
"True," Corso said, "but how would he get the info on the shuttle's passenger? That wouldn't have made it to Garza's office immediately, right?"
"Hmm, you're right," Aric said. He paced, rubbing the back of his neck absently. "It would almost have to have been someone directly involved in day to day ops, someone farther up in the chain than a first sarge. Unless we're dealing with an entire cell, who alert each other on pertinent info. Still, someone would have had to know Brock was working for the Imps to have alerted on his name. " He walked over to Maura, just touching her seemed to calm him and stopped his pacing. He was massaging her shoulders when it came to him.
"There's a transponder station in the same orbit as the Port, right, Mir?" He looked at his sister in law, noting the sparkling stones dangling from her ears, her hair swept back in its customary pony tail. She looked up at him, also following his line of thought, and slowly nodded.
"There is, there sure is. It's unmanned, but they're able to monitor all comms, both data and holo." She sighed. "I should have thought of that earlier."
"We'll let the general know when she arrives here, maybe get someone up to look at that station." Devin ran to his mother then, pointing to his stomach and telling her it was "growly", and she chuckled, swinging him up on her hip, where he gently touched her ears.
"Pretty," he told her, tugging on them.
"No, sweetie, don't pull, they're in Mama's ears." She showed him as she took him to the break room for a snack. The sisters came in with their children, and fruit and yogurt were passed around. Mags saw the earrings and smiled, knowing Corso would have chosen them. He so loved to see Mir smile, she thought.
They were there when Tanno Vik came into the office, a message on his datapad blinking in his hand. He didn't say a word, just handed it over to Aric, who sighed as he read the holonews item. Several explosions had rocked the capitol and senate building on Balmorra, and the government there was in chaos. There had been few casualties, as it was a national holiday there, but the damage was significant. He looked at the other men, who were all watching with expectant looks on their faces. "Looks like the threat level just got elevated," he told them, passing the datapad over. Aric's only hope was that the Senator and her son had escaped.