\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thunder rumbled in the distance, sun rising like blood in the sky.\u00a0 The rain would come soon, the ache in her knee told her that.\u00a0 She stood by the window and watched quietly as Chase and Slate set off on a morning jog, heedless or uncaring of the coming storm, putting feet to pavement.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Arms slid around her waist from behind and she sighed quietly, smiling up over her shoulder at her husband.\u00a0 “Admiring the view?”<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He smiled back, resting his chin on her shoulder as he drew her back against his belly.\u00a0 “Mostly wondering what you were watching out there.\u00a0 What were<\/em> you watching?” ~ Erin<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “My brother and Chase leaving on a run.”\u00a0 She nuzzled his cheek, closing her eyes and reveling for at least a moment in the feel of the stubble on his face and the scent of him, of his sweat mingled with last night’s aftershave and cologne.\u00a0 “I don’t imagine it’s going to be a very long one.\u00a0 Storm’s rolling in.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mike nodded, kissing her ear.\u00a0 Her arms slid across his, fingers twining with his fingers.\u00a0 He smiled.\u00a0 “What time did Davil come home last night?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “He didn’t.\u00a0 He told me he was going to spend the night at the Drakes’.”\u00a0 Thunder rumbled again, nearer this time.\u00a0 Dark clouds drifted east, starting to eclipse the crimson sky.\u00a0 “I think he said they’d come to breakfast, but with them, who knows.\u00a0 They might just stay home, especially if the storm is as bad as it looks like-as it feels like it’s going to be.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After giving her a squeeze, Mike released her, sighing softly.\u00a0 “Too bad.\u00a0 I had some engineering specs I wanted to show him.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Indy turned, brow arched curiously.\u00a0 “Engineering specs?\u00a0 What kind of engineering specs?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He shrugged a little, slumping into a nearby easy chair.\u00a0 “Just a few designs I’ve been playing around with.\u00a0 Nothing major, really.”\u00a0 He looked toward her as silence lingered.\u00a0 “I thought that it might be a step in the right direction for he and I.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “He’s really angry at you.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “I know he is.”\u00a0 He tilted his head back, sighing quietly.\u00a0 “Pulled every string I could pull to get him off Coruscant and back here after that happened.\u00a0 But you knew that, didn’t you?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She nodded slightly, drifting toward him, hugging herself.\u00a0 “Yeah, I did.”\u00a0 She studied im for a long moment, taking in the look of him in the strange light of the storm-shrouded dawn that shone through the window, watching the shadows play on his tired face.\u00a0 He looked older now than she could ever recall him looking, even in all the years and all the hurts, all the weariness and pain-never had he looked quite this old to her eye.\u00a0 “Dav doesn’t know that, though.\u00a0 No one’s told him.”\u00a0 She sighed a little, looking toward the window again, watching the clouds light dimly with lightning above, listening to the rolling growl of thunder.\u00a0 “Wasn’t just you that pulled strings, though.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “I know it wasn’t.\u00a0 The Wyvern’s father pulled some, too.\u00a0 Senator Bastra.\u00a0 I can’t think of anyone else who was in any position to do it.”\u00a0 He scrubbed a hand over his face.\u00a0 “It was stupid, getting him that assignment to R&D.\u00a0 Can’t believe you let it happen.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “And deny the New Republic one of the brightest engineering minds of the time?\u00a0 Couldn’t do that.\u00a0 Besides, he wanted to go.\u00a0 Who was I to stop him?”\u00a0 She perched on the arm of the chair, reaching down to run her fingers through his hair.\u00a0 “It wasn’t a good way for him to have his illusions shattered, though.\u00a0 I still don’t know what to do about it, and no one I’ve spoken with have had much of any advice on the subject, either.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Like who?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Hm?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 His brow furrowed slightly.\u00a0 “Who’d you talk to about it?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Carlos, Kirghy.\u00a0 Kingston.\u00a0 A few others.\u00a0 It’s not the big secret around here anymore that everyone’s-that I’ve<\/em>-tried to keep it as.”\u00a0 She sighed a little, shaking her head.\u00a0 “I know that you’ve noticed some of the looks.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “That why Carlos didn’t show up to his goddaughter’s wedding?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Indy winced.\u00a0 “Officially, it was because there’s a war on and he couldn’t leave.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “We both know that’s not the only reason, if he knows.\u00a0 Cay’s father never liked me, but this puts a whole new perspective on the dirty looks.\u00a0 Even Dalsuna only spared a few words for me.”\u00a0 Mike swallowed, looking toward the window.\u00a0 “Explains the collective cold shoulder last night, in any case.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She exhaled, shaking her head with more than a little regret.\u00a0 “These men have been my friends for a long time, Mike, a lot of years.\u00a0 They’ve spent most of those years watching me hurt because of something you’ve done.\u00a0 Davil didn’t know that until Coruscant.\u00a0 Can you blame any of them for any of it?\u00a0 For being so angry with you for all the indiscretions?\u00a0 For the affairs and the children that aren’t ours<\/em>?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He winced and sighed, taking her hand.\u00a0 “No.\u00a0 I can’t.”\u00a0 He squeezed, then let go, scrubbing a hand over his face and moving toward the window, staring out for a few long moments as the first few fat raindrops splashed against the glass.\u00a0 “Sometimes I wish I could go back twenty years.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “What for?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “To kick my own ass,” he said quietly.\u00a0 “Tell myself not to be a fool.\u00a0 My career isn’t worth more than my marriage and no bed warmed by any woman that isn’t my wife is worth the pain.”\u00a0 He turned toward her, exhaling a sigh, eyes tired and sad.\u00a0 “I am so sorry, Indy.\u00a0 Nothing I can ever say is going to make right anything I’ve done to you or the kids.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “You wouldn’t have listened.”\u00a0 She moved toward him and reached up to stroke his cheek with the back of her hand.\u00a0 “I may not have known then what I was getting myself into, but I knew soon enough what I was dealing with.\u00a0 I wouldn’t have stayed in this marriage if I didn’t love you.\u00a0 That’s never changed.”\u00a0 She shook her head a little.\u00a0 “I’m as culpable for what this has done to our family as you are, Mike.\u00a0 I could have let you walk away a long time ago.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “That was a mistake,” he murmured, looking down toward her but unable to meet her gaze.\u00a0 “You knew it was a mistake, and as angry as I’m sure he is with me for everything I’ve done that’s hurt you, Carlos knew that, too.\u00a0 He wouldn’t have come chasing after me with you if that hadn’t been the case.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Her arms closed around him and she drew close, resting her forehead against his neck.\u00a0 “It was a long time ago.\u00a0 We learned our lesson, right?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He held her tightly, nodding.\u00a0 “Yeah, we did.\u00a0 Never again.”\u00a0 He kissed her forehead, her nose, then her mouth.\u00a0 When they finally came up for air, he murmured, “When I get back to the Sixth, I’m going to put in for a change of theater.\u00a0 If I can leverage us being based out here, with the AFFC…”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Indy smiled sadly.\u00a0 “Command won’t go for that, Mike.\u00a0 You and I both know that.\u00a0 We’re not important enough out here-hell, we’ve already got more than I’m sure they want us to have.\u00a0 It’s only a matter of time before they try to start poaching our ships of the line, regardless of any agreements made with the governor.\u00a0 It’s going to get ugly and you don’t need to be in the middle of it.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He sighed quietly, knowing she was right even as he railed against the idea.\u00a0 “Think Karen has a ship for me?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “You’d give up your fleet for some rickety old crate?”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There was only a bare moment of hesitation before he nodded.\u00a0 “Yeah.\u00a0 I would.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She bit her lip, and for a few long moments the only sound in the room was that of the rain against the windowpane.\u00a0 Indy’s arms tightened around him and one hand slid up behind his head, fingers threading through his short-cropped hair.\u00a0 “I love you, Mike.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 His voice came thickly and tears glittered unshed in his eyes.\u00a0 “I love you, too.”\u00a0 He leaned down and kissed her, tentatively at first, then more deeply, holding her close against him.\u00a0 He knew, as she knew, as they kissed, that they both wished they could go back to the beginning, undo the mistakes and smooth the bumpy road that was their marriage, their love, but even as they each held that heartfelt wish, the impossibility of it weighed heavy.\u00a0 For all the mistakes in the past were lessons learned, all the pain could be eased now.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Somehow, she knew, even in the face of long experience, even as she stood amidst all the broken promises in the near twenty years of their marriage, he wouldn’t break this one.\u00a0 He wouldn’t stray again.\u00a0 His promise to be faithful to her, made so long ago, was made new again in one moment standing by the window as a storm rolled in from the mountains.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This time, he would keep the promise, and so would she–as she always had.<\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>