\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “It was a nice ceremony, wasn’t it?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nylan glanced up from his console in the dim of base operations, still dressed in his Jedi robes, a half-eaten piece of wedding cake at his elbow.\u00a0 He’d clearly dismissed the officer of the watch when he’d arrived-not long before, it seemed, because the mug of caf sitting with the cake was still steaming.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Jedi Master grunted in response to his cousin and longtime friend.\u00a0 “It was.\u00a0 Maybe a bit unorthodox, but…”<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tag smiled.\u00a0 “What in this day and age and in this crazy family isn’t?\u00a0 Better than what Dal and I had.” ~ Erin<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Mm.”\u00a0 Nylan leaned forward, skimming the scroll of headlines off the Holonet feed that chased down the left hand side of his screen.\u00a0 “Shouldn’t you still be dancing with him?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She shrugged slightly. \u00a0“He’s busy distracting Davil with some engine-speak I don’t pretend to understand.\u00a0 Decided maybe I’d make you dance with me, but Slate said you’d left already when I asked if he knew where you were.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “And this was the first place you came?\u00a0 You know me too well, General.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A slight blush crept across her features, all but invisible in the dim.\u00a0 “You heard?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Crossed my desk to be forwarded on to Alek at Kartuiin.\u00a0 He wanted to give you your old post back completely.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “I know.”\u00a0 She leaned against the bank of consoles, uncaring if the blue sequins of her dress caught on a rough edge.\u00a0 “It’s not ever going to happen, not after what I pulled, and it’s better that way.\u00a0 I don’t want that post again anyway.\u00a0 I’m tired of sending people off to die.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “That’s not what any of us signed up for,” Nylan agreed, tapping something on the console to bring up a new report scrolling across the screen.\u00a0 “Like it or not, it’s part of the job, though.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She was quiet for a long moment, staring off at nothing.\u00a0 “Why us, do you think, Nylan?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He glanced up from the casualty scroll.\u00a0 “Eh?\u00a0 Why us what, Tag?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Still leaning against the bank of consoles, she folded bare arms across the top of them and rested her chin on them, watching him as he worked.\u00a0 “Why do you think they tapped us for Intelligence so early on?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nylan went quiet for a long moment, leaning back in his chair, momentarily distracted from duty on this late night shift.\u00a0 “For the record, they tapped you for Intelligence first.\u00a0 I was just Procurement and Supply.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Semantics,” she snorted with a faint smirk.\u00a0 “We both remember what that really was.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He inclined his head, ceding the point.\u00a0 “Maybe it was Rose speaking well of us.\u00a0 Two kids who knew the streets of Coronet better than any had a right to?\u00a0 Maybe it was just us being able to stay out of trouble.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Ever think it was because of your dad?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The suggestion sent him rocking back in his chair, blinking up at her.\u00a0 “How do you figure?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Look at how many of us ended up with Intel, Nylan.\u00a0 He didn’t train Sony and Mara like he trained us, but he saw something in them that we recognized for what it was later.\u00a0 Where did all of us end up-what’d we all end up doing?\u00a0 We were all Intel by Endor.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “I still don’t see how that has anything to do with my father, Tag.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “You don’t feel anything when you think about it, though?\u00a0 You don’t feel like there’s something there?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He frowned.\u00a0 “No…I don’t think I do.\u00a0 But thinking about Dad…I try not to feel a lot.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Her expression softened, the intensity fading.\u00a0 “You miss him?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “I didn’t know him the way I wish I had,” the Jedi sighed, closing his eyes.\u00a0 “I didn’t even know him the way you<\/em> knew him.\u00a0 I just…I don’t know.\u00a0 I feel something, but I don’t know what it is I feel.”\u00a0 The ghost of a smile crossed over his features as he tilted his head back, face toward the ceiling.\u00a0 “Maybe that’s why it’s so easy to play the emotionless one.\u00a0 Too much practice at it.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “You’re closer to Luke’s vision than any of us,” Tag grumbled, shaking her head slightly.\u00a0 “I’ll never understand why he clings so tightly to the older ways.\u00a0 I wonder what he’d do if he found out about some of the old tenets.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Probably nothing.\u00a0 Sometime in the past ten years, he’s realized that the old ways aren’t always the best ways.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She snorted.\u00a0 “Do you really think that?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He looked at her, righting himself in his chair.\u00a0 “I like to.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “You don’t really believe it.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Not for a heartbeat.”\u00a0 He looked back at the screen.\u00a0 “You got the letter, too, didn’t you?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “I haven’t decided how to answer it.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “I think you already did, in coming back to Intelligence.”\u00a0 Nylan raked his hand through his hair.\u00a0 “I told him I was where I belonged, but thank you for the offer.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tag shook her head slightly.\u00a0 “It was a big olive branch that he extended toward us, but a weak one.\u00a0 A very weak one.\u00a0 He had to know we wouldn’t come.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “He also had to hope.”\u00a0 Nylan looked back toward his screen, then toward her again.\u00a0 “Tell me you wouldn’t pull his bacon out of the fire if it came down to it.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “You know I would.\u00a0 That’s not what we were looking at here.”\u00a0 She grinned a little.\u00a0 “I think he’s finally lost it.\u00a0 He told me once that he wouldn’t want me under his command again even if it meant that he would finally hit the motherload of holocrons and Jedi lore of old.\u00a0 Wasn’t worth the headache.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Apparently, he has<\/em> learned something in twenty-six years.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Even if it’s that small lesson.”\u00a0 Tag smiled.\u00a0 “I’m going to go back.\u00a0 I take it you won’t be joining us?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He shook his head.\u00a0 “No, I’m going to stay here.\u00a0 Sent the officer on watch to bed, and I’m tired of watching the act.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Which act?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “The one that Mike’s putting on with Indy.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tag frowned a little, chewing her lower lip.\u00a0 “Have you really looked at them, Nylan?\u00a0 Really, really looked?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Tag, I don’t need a lecture.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “And I’m not going to give you one.”\u00a0 She straightened from her lean.\u00a0 “I’m just saying…he really is<\/em> still in love with her.\u00a0 He could never evade me the same way he can hide shit from you and Slate.\u00a0 I think maybe this is going to work out, this time.\u00a0 That he’s finally going to do the right thing.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “I’ll believe it when I see it.\u00a0 Which I don’t think I’m going to.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She shrugged slightly.\u00a0 “I guess we all will.\u00a0 G’night, Nylan.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Night Tag.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He didn’t look up from his screen again until he was confident she wouldn’t look back and see the doubts she’d planted in him this evening, how shaken he was.\u00a0 He listened to her footsteps disappear down the hall, chewing the inside of his lip.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nylan Bridger turned back to his console, shaking his head at himself.\u00a0 It was a good thing nothing ever came of childhood crushes, he decided.\u00a0 If something had, it probably would have been the loss of his sanity a very, very long time ago.<\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>