The characters that have appeared in previous Star Wars novels are property of Lucasfilm, Ltd. Captain Amaryl Assay, Admiral Tesh Dorass, First Officer Azzeh, and the name of Tycho's droid belong to the author. Any other characters presented here that have never been seen in a Star Wars novel are property of Iris Bailey. Do not repost anywhere without the permission of the author!
Wedge had just finally fallen into a restful sleep when he was awakened by a knock at the door to his quarters. He turned over and put his pillow over his head in hopes whoever it was would just go away.
There was another knock, more insistent this time. He removed the pillow from his face and a growl started deep in his throat. "Whoever you are, go away. I’m armed," he shouted in the direction of the door.
The only answer he received was another knock.
"All right, you asked for it." Wedge rolled out of bed, padded over to the door and punched the unlock sequence into the panel. The door slid open and he squinted at the sudden brightness. He looked out through slitted eyes into the corridor.
There was no one there.
Before he could look further out into the hall, a body came flying around the corner and tackled him at the waist. He fell back, twisting so that he wouldn’t be crushed under the weight of the assailant. He actually managed to twist further than he thought he could and landed square on the man in the orange flightsuit, straddling his stomach.
There was a whoof as air escaped from his attacker when he was sandwiched between Wedge and the floor. Wedge drew his right arm back to strike out at the man, but it was held in midair in a strong grip. He turned and looked into the downcast face of Hobbie Klivian.
Hobbie was shaking his head. "Wes, I told you this was a bad idea. But when did you ever listen to me?"
Wes Janson coughed, trying to catch his breath. With little success as Wedge was still sitting on his stomach. "Yeah, but you...should have seen...the look...on his face. It was worth it." He tried to laugh but it came out a half cough, half wheeze.
Wedge rolled off Wes’ stomach and lay on his back on the floor, his legs bent at the knees. He took a couple of deep breaths, letting the adrenaline fade from his system. As Hobbie entered the room fully, the door slid shut behind him, leaving the three pilots in shadows.
"Now I remember why leaving Rogue Squadron seemed like such a good idea. To get away from you two lunatics."
Wes sat up, rubbing at his belly with his left hand and straightening the front of his flightsuit with his right. "Ah, but we’re no longer with Rogue Squadron, boss, so now you’ll have no idea what direction I’ll come at you from."
Wedge groaned and rolled his eyes. "Hobbie, give me one reason not to kill him right here."
"I can’t think of one off the top of my head. By the way, why are you in your shorts?"
Wedge sat up and gave Wes a rather sharp jab to the stomach. He yowled before doubling over. "Because, until this nerf for brains attacked me, I was sleeping. Unless things have changed since I left the squad, sleeping is still permitted off duty."
Wes clambered to his feet and stood, almost straight, while keeping a safe distance from his former commander. Hobbie leaned over and offered Wedge a hand to his feet. "Well, we actually came by to visit you on friendly terms, despite this child’s actions. We wanted to know if you and Tycho could come to dinner with us tonight. We are only on Coruscant for three days and..."
"Wes wanted to annoy me for as long as possible."
Wes gave Wedge a look of mock surprise. "What, me? Why, you have insulted my honor, sir. I insist on a dual. Blaster pistols at dawn!"
Wedge sighed. He kept a look of frustration on his face, a look that he had perfected while serving with Wes on and off for over a decade. But deep down he smiled to himself. He had to admit that he had missed these two.
Wes and Hobbie left the Rogues not long after Wedge to accept assignments as instructors, training their own squadrons. They had done this kind of work before and hadn't really liked it. Wedge often wondered if they would have accepted their new teaching positions if he had remained with the squadron.
He reached into his closet for his robe. "Not tonight, Hobbie. I’m not good company, and I ship out to Thyferra early tomorrow morning. But maybe I can catch up with you guys some other time."
"The Council parading you around again, boss?" Wes asked, a huge grin spreading over his boyish face. "What a tough life you lead. Dinner parties, beautiful ladies, parades in your honor. You know, they should really give that kind of duty to a more handsome, heroic pilot."
"They would have Wes, but Tycho said no."
Wes clutched at his chest as if he had just been shot with a blaster. "Oh, I sure have missed you, Wedge. No one can vape my ego like you can."
Wedge sighed again. "Actually, I don’t know if you will be able to grasp this concept Wes, but I’m going to Thyferra to work.
The Major tapped two fingers against his chin and looked deep in thought. "I seem to recall hearing that word before, but I can’t remember what it means." Hobbie cuffed him over the back of the head. "Ow! Why does everyone keep hitting me?"
"Because you deserve it," Hobbie replied, then returned his attention to Wedge. "Come on, come to dinner with us, even if it’s just to keep me from killing this ingrate."
"No, I just want to have some peace and quiet today. Trust me, you don’t want to be around me at the moment. You can ask Tycho, though. I’m sure he’ll go."
Wes and Hobbie exchanged glances and Wedge knew instantly that they were up to something. Wes looked more than a little disappointed. Looks like I just spoiled their fun.
Hobbie was the first to break the silence. "Is everything alright, Wedge? I thought you would be happy as an intino on a bantha being back with the squadron."
"I am. I really am happy to be back. I just need some sleep." As if to emphasize the point, he stretched and yawned. "I would thank you guys for coming by, but I’m afraid Wes would think he was welcome."
"Ouch. I can take a hint. We’re going." Wes moved towards the door, then turned to Wedge again. "But the four of us will get together soon, ok?"
"Yeah," Wedge said with a nod.
"Alright then. See ya, boss."
Wedge reached out and stopped Wes before he could leave. "You are in command of your own training squadron and thirty assorted pilots. Why do you insist on still calling me boss?"
He seemed to give that some thought before answering, and Wedge thought for minute that he might be serious. "Well, to be perfectly honest, I can never remember your name."
Wedge took another swipe at him and missed. Wes tapped a button on the console and, with a grin as wide as an X-wing, was out the door.
Hobbie clapped Wedge on the back, and gave him a half smile. "I have to live with this, you know." He turned and was gone as well.
When the door closed behind them, Wedge was again alone in the dark. He removed his robe, walked over to the foot of his bunk and crawled up it. The sheets were cold again, but he didn’t care. He got comfy and relaxed, even though he could still feel a slight ache in his left hip where Wes had tackled him.
Despite himself, he smiled. The smile faded as he drifted off to sleep.
* * * * * * *
Wes and Hobbie walked away from Wedge’s quarters in silence, Wes still rubbing his belly. They reached a large plaza a couple of levels down and one building over. Hobbie led Wes to a free bench next to a potted plant about the size of a speeder.
"Well, that plan just went nova in our faces," Wes said, running a hand through his disheveled brown hair.
Hobbie sighed, something he did often when Wes was around. "Well, what did you expect? Wes, you tackled him to the ground! You’re lucky that he was sleeping. If he had been in uniform he could have pulled his blaster before I ever would have had the chance to stop him. And then what kind of birthday would he have? He would have spent the rest of the day filling out reports on why he killed a junior officer in his own quarters. Although the words justifiable homicide do come to mind."
Wes frowned, but it did nothing to age his features. He leaned his elbows on his knees and cupped his face in his hands. "So what are we going to do now? We have a surprise party all set and no Birthday General."
"It’s time we moved to stronger tactics and rolled out the heavy turbolasers," Hobbie replied.
Wes’ head came up. "What, you want Corran to go in with his lightsaber burning and threaten Wedge into coming to dinner?"
Hobbie rolled his light blue eyes. "A little obvious. I was thinking of something a bit more subtle. Something that even Wedge can’t resist."
"Money?"
"Wes, you are a juvenile delinquent. How did you ever make it to Major?"
"My charm and good looks, of course. How did you do it?" He smiled and Hobbie, not for the first time, came close to killing him.
Hobbie spoke very slowly, trying to clue Wes in to his plan. "I was thinking of employing someone from Special Forces to talk him into it."
"I don’t think Wedge would appreciate it if we sent someone in to torture him so he would come to his own..." His voice trailed off as he finally realized what Hobbie was getting at. "Oh. Oh! Now I get it."
"Let’s go make a call," Hobbie said.
* * * * * * *
Wedge could have sworn that he heard someone knocking at his door again. He dismissed it as his imagination and tried to go back to sleep.
They knocked again.
"I don’t believe this!" He glanced at his chrono and noted that it had been only about forty minutes since Hobbie and Wes had left.
There was another knock.
He stood up, his dark mood getting blacker by the millisecond. He stepped over to his dresser and unholstered his service blaster before heading to the door. He punched in the security code with his right hand and as the door slid open stuck his blaster through the gap with his left.
Right into the face of Major Ajene Tuvora. To her credit, she didn’t flinch.
"Am I disturbing you, General?"
When he thought about it afterwards, he imagined he must have been quite the sight, standing in his doorway in nothing but his shorts, his hair all over the place and a blaster aimed at her head.
It took him a moment to realize that he was just staring at her. It took another moment for him to recognize that his blaster was still pointed at her face. He lowered it immediately and would have holstered it had he been wearing clothes. "Major. I’m sorry. I thought you were Wes. Of course you’re not disturbing me. I...Uh...I’ll be back in one minute. Don’t...uh...don’t go anywhere."
She smiled at him and stepped back into the hallway as the door closed.
Antilles, you are an idiot! He ripped open his closet and grabbed the first article of clothing that came to hand. He quickly jumped into the dark gray flightsuit and his right foot caught in the right sleeve, threatening to send him to the floor. He untangled himself and pulled the rest of it on. Socks were next and then his boots. On his way back to the door he ran a hand through his hair and nearly got it stuck in the tangled mess.
At the sound of the door, the Major turned to face him, and he felt some of his black mood drain away. Ajene was about the same height as he was. Even under her New Republic Special Forces uniform, it was obvious that she had an athletic build, and her figure did extremely nice things to the drab green outfit. Her coppery blond hair was worn short, falling to the nape of her neck in a soft tumble of curls. She had wide, stunning green eyes that sparkled under thick lashes.
She smiled at him and he flashed back to the first time he had seen Ajene. It had been a year earlier on the planet Ddrekak. She had been in charge of an insertion team that had been sent in to obtain and communicate advance knowledge of the planet before the fleet came in to attack the Imperial forces there. Rogue Squadron had been assigned the duty of retrieving the team and escorting them off the planet just after the attack had begun.
He remembered landing in the middle of a road just outside the city, waiting for them to rendezvous with him. He had been flying the squadron’s Lambda class shuttle and the rest of the squadron was roaring overhead in their X-wings.
The insertion team’s speeder raced towards him, Imperial speeder bikes hot on their tail. Ajene had been last out of their vehicle, covering the backs of the rest of her team as they made their way to the shuttle. They then covered for her as she made a run for it. She had come up the boarding ramp under heavy fire, a blaster in her hand, the perfect image of a heroine from a holodrama.
They had gotten off the planet as fast as he could fly and made it back safely to the fleet. En route back to Coruscant, they had met again quite by accident in the officer’s mess on board ship. She had invited him to eat with her and he had accepted. In their long conversation, they had discovered that they had many things in common, the least of which was a love of architecture. The two of them had been friends ever since, meeting whenever their schedules would allow. But he was surprised to see her now, especially at the door to his quarters. Most people didn’t even know yet that the squadron had returned to the base.
"Please come in Major." He managed to keep his voice formal and military. As she passed by him, he glanced down either side of the corridor to make sure that no one saw her enter a superior officers quarters.
"I didn’t realize that you may be sleeping at this time of the day. I can come back later if you want." She offered him a cheerful smiled and he suddenly didn’t want her to leave.
"Trust me, after the visit I just had from Wes, I would much rather have you here."
"From the experiences I’ve had with Wes, I can understand that." She moved further into his quarters as the door swooshed closed.
Wedge raised the level of illumination in the room a bit, but still kept it low. He cleared some datacards off a chair in the corner and quickly tossed his orange flightsuit into his closet. "Please, have a seat. It’s been weeks since I’ve seen you. How’ve you been?"
She settled back into the chair and glanced around the room. "Ok. It’s pretty slow in Special Forces at the moment. Not that that is a bad thing, I guess. But you know how it is. Moving around as we do, you don’t make many friends outside of the Armed Forces. So when I found out you would be returning to Coruscant today, I hoped that maybe we could go out and get something to eat. Catch up on each other, if you know what I mean. Unless you would rather sleep, that is."
He smiled and sat in the chair opposite her. "I would like nothing more than to go out for dinner with you, but I’m not sure if you want me there. My mood is thicker than nerf meat today and Wes’ visit, or should I say ambush, didn’t help it any." He sighed and used his thumb and forefinger to rub his eyes.
She leaned forward a bit, looking at him intently. "Wedge, I don’t claim to know you as well as some of your squad mates, but if you ever want to talk, you know that I’m here for you. You don’t have to do the General stands stoically alone act for me." She leaned her elbows on her knees to be a little closer to him. "Come on, what’s the matter?”"
He looked into her green eyes and would really liked to have told her what was wrong. But he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was that had him down and certainly didn’t know how to express it. "It’s nothing, really. Thanks for offering, though." He let out an exasperated sigh. "You know, this is silly. Here I am looking forward to sitting in the dark and feeling depressed when I could be out with a friend. Ajene, I’d love to have dinner with you."
"Good, because I wasn’t taking no for an answer. You know, I’ve really missed you Wedge." She smiled again and he found it infectious. "I have an idea. You get yourself rested, washed up and dressed and I’ll be back to collect you in an hour. Remember, casual is the order of the day. No uniforms. We’ll take a long walk to the restaurant I have in mind. We’ll see if we can’t pep you up a bit."
She stood and stepped over to his door. He met her there and leaned across in front of her to punch in the code. The door opened and light flooded in from the brightly lit corridor. When Wedge straightened again, he found himself nose-to-nose with Ajene. They stared into one another’s eyes and suddenly his pulse began to quicken. She leaned closer to him and kissed him on the mouth.
Her lips were soft and sweet, and the kiss was everything he expected it to be and more. It was gentle, experimental, and he could smell a slight scent of perfume from her. Orchids, he thought mindlessly. She threaded her arms around his neck and his hands found her waist, sliding around to the small of her back. He gently pulled her closer, pressing their bodies together.
After several minutes, she broke the kiss, more from a lack of oxygen than anything else, and started to pull away. But he pulled her to him firmly and returned her kiss with more passion. All of the fatigue he had felt earlier disappeared. He moved them away from the door and it closed again.
Their lips parted, and she pulled away from him again. This time, he reluctantly let her go.
"Well...now I know that flying is only one of the things you do exceptionally well." She sat down heavily in the chair that she had only just vacated.
Wedge still stood near the door, trying in vain to put his thoughts back in order and quiet the desire that had quickly begun to burn deep within him. "Uh, not to sound stupid or to ruin the moment, but what just happened?" He moved over to and sat down on the corner of his bunk, a couple of meters from where she sat.
She smiled sweetly at him. "I am certainly no expert, but I think it was a kiss. And I think we did it pretty well."
"Yes, but I...we...oh, never mind." He ran his hands over his face, feeling tired all over again.
"Wedge, why do you have to have an explanation for everything? Have you ever just let go and enjoyed anything in your entire life?"
He glanced at the floor, then back up at her. "Everything I enjoy usually ends up being taken away from me. My home, my parents, my friends. I’ve learned not to get too close to people today because they or I may not be here tomorrow."
She got up and walked over to him, kneeling down in front of him. She placed a hand on each of his knees, her face taking on a more serious expression. "Wedge, I know you’ve lost a lot in your life and I am sorry for that. But there comes a time when you can’t worry about it anymore. If you keep on putting up walls between yourself and everyone around you, you end up being very alone. And by the time you figure that out, it’s too late. I’m sure you know that as I well as I do."
Her words hit him like a missile, jolting the truth free from the back of his mind. She was right. He had made friends with the people in his squadron and those connected with it, but he tried to keep his distance and had no one to share his life with. Living on the base while most of the rest of his squadron had homes was proof enough. He was alone.
Wedge recognized the word that had echoed through his thoughts earlier. He looked down at Ajene and read the same loneliness in her eyes. He reached out with his left hand and caressed her cheek with his thumb.
She ran her hands up his legs and leaned her fists on the bunk on either side of his hips. She raised her face up towards his and kissed him again. There was force to the kiss, re-igniting the passion within him, as she shoved him back onto the bed. He surrendered himself to her, feeling a warmth in her embrace that he just now realized had been missing from his life.
Wedge kissed her in return as she unfastened his flightsuit, running her hands across his bare chest, and he started on the buttons of her green uniform jacket. His hands ran up and down her back, through her hair and then down across her now bare shoulders. He ran his lips down to her neck, brushing his tongue gently along her throat. She moaned a little and he continued to caress her.
Moving back up to her face, he kissed her again, and he knew he was not going to get the sleep that earlier, for some reason, had seemed so essential to him.
But he didn’t mind.
* * * * * * *
When he awoke, Wedge was a little surprised to feel someone in his bed with him. Then it all flooded back to him and he couldn’t help but smile.
He glanced at the chrono and found that he had slept for the best part of an hour. Ajene still slept soundly in his arms, her breath gently brushing against his neck. Stray locks of hair had fallen over her face and he gently tucked them behind her ear.
He separated himself from her and got out of bed, trying hard not to wake her. In the shadows of his quarters he searched the floor for his dark flightsuit or robe. He couldn’t find either, gave up and headed for the refresher to take the shower that he should have taken earlier.
Wedge relished the feel of the hot water on his skin and just stood there as it flowed over him. But he eventually dragged himself out and dried himself off, wrapping a towel around his waist.
Returning to his room, he stopped and looked around in the dimness of early evening, hand drying his hair with another towel. The quarters that he had been assigned were small by most standards, but he had thought they suited him. Now he realized that living on his own in a one-room apartment on a military base should have been his first clue that something was missing in his life.
As a General, he had of course been offered much more spacious quarters, with more than one room for instance. But he had refused them, opting for something smaller and more...
His thoughts ground to a halt at the word. Intimate. His gaze returned to the woman in his bunk. He had known for some time that he was alone, and that it was his own fault. Since his parents had been killed, he had made sure not to get too close to anyone for fear of losing them. And once he had been given command of Rogue Squadron, he had cut himself off even further. He had built a wall around himself, brick by brick, letting only a handful of people past it. But even those people were kept at arm's length. In order to keep loss, guilt, sadness out of his life, he had blocked out all emotions. He had just pushed everything and everyone aside, substituting loneliness with duty as responsibility after responsibility arose. All he had was his career, and he had effectively made that his life.
But he had blinded himself to that until Ajene pointed it out to him. Now when he looked at her, his life, if he could really call it that, was reflected back at him. He could clearly see the years that he had denied his own feelings for the people around him, constantly withdrawing within himself for protection.
He thought about Iella Wessiri, Corran Horn’s former partner from his CorSec days. Wedge had been attracted to her from the moment they had met over three years before. When he had finally gotten up the courage to pursue her, Diric, her missing husband, reappeared. It was discovered that Diric had been a victim of Ysanne Isard’s brainwashing. When he attempted to assassinate a prisoner under her guard, Iella had been forced to kill him. She had been a bit of an emotional wreck after that, but Wedge and Corran had been there to support her through the hard times.
During that period, Wedge and Iella had grown close, but he felt it decidedly inappropriate to act on his attraction and they had eventually become more friends than anything else. He had felt it his duty to keep his distance, but was relieved in a way because he was saving himself from the possibility of heartbreak. Inevitably, both their careers took them in different directions, and he hardly ever saw her anymore.
Another opportunity at happiness had passed him by because of his procrastination and reluctance to open himself up to another person.
And here was Ajene. His attraction to her had not been as instantaneous as it had been with Iella. In hindsight, he should have seen what was happening between them. They were two lonely people, desperate to find someone to care for. And they just happened to find one another.
He wasn't sure he was in love with her, and didn't know if it would ever evolve that far. But he did care for her a great deal. However, once again he had not acted on his feelings. It had been Ajene that had initiated their friendship, and now they had become romantically involved, all because of her. She had awoken him to the fact that he needed someone in his life, that something...extraordinary was missing. She had brought life back into what had merely been an existence.
He crept over to the bunk and kissed her gently on the forehead. "Thank you," he whispered.
Hanging his towel around his neck, he walked over to his one window and gazed out onto the great cityscape of Coruscant. Though his room was small, his view was spectacular. The entire world was one big city, with the exception of the mountains and polar caps. Before him stretched kilometer after kilometer of immense duracrete buildings, with the Imperial Palace visible in the distance. He watched as thousands of speeders and other assorted vehicles sped through the artificial canyons created by the tall buildings.
It was about dusk, and the lights of the city were beginning to twinkle. He knew that it was an awesome and breath-taking sight, but all he could do was shiver. He began to feel walled in again. When he looked into those ferrocrete canyons, he saw loneliness and solitude. He began to get depressed again.
"I was wondering where you had gone."
"I didn’t go too far," he said as he turned and enfolded her in his arms. She melted to his body and his feeling of isolation dissolved. He looked down at her and he could see the city lights reflected in her emerald eyes. "Do you still want to go out for dinner or can we stay here?"
She smiled lazily, but then her eyes opened wide in alarm. "Dinner! I completely forgot."
He was surprised by the urgency in her voice. "What’s wrong?"
"Nothing. I just remembered that the restaurant that I wanted to take you to gets really busy about this time." She kissed him on the nose and shoved him towards his closet. "You have to get dressed. Oh, my, so do I!"
He guessed she had just remembered that she was only wearing a sheet from his bed. "Why do we have to go out at all? I think you did a pretty good job of lifting my spirits. We can have dinner here."
"Wedge, I really want to take you to this restaurant. You’ll love it, I know you will. But if we don’t go now, we won’t get in."
She kissed him full on the mouth and for a moment he was sure they would never get out of his quarters. But she shoved him towards his closet again and started to gather up the various pieces of her uniform, throwing them on in record time. "I’ll be back in twenty minutes to get you. Be ready." Then she was gone.
Wedge sat on his bed, one foot in a pair of black pants. He looked around the room and couldn’t help but wonder if he had dreamt it all.
* * * * * * *
As soon as Ajene was out of earshot of Wedge’s quarters, she pulled out her comlink and thumbed it on.
"Ajene to Hobbie."
Relief filled Hobbie’s voice as it buzzed from the comlink. "I’m here, Ajene. I’ve been trying to get you for the last hour. Where have you been?"
She blushed fiercely before she could reply. "Let’s just say that you have one tough General. He took a lot of convincing."
There was a perceptible pause and she hoped that she hadn’t said too much. She wasn’t sure if Wedge would want anyone to know what had happened between them just yet. Although there were no regulations against officers becoming romantically involved, there had been an unwritten rule against showing too much affection in public. But as the years went by and more and more of the Armed Forces began to settle down, the rule had been pushed into the background somewhat. Wedge had been a military man all of his life and she was unsure about his views on the subject.
"So he’s going to be there?" Hobbie finally said.
"Yes, I’m picking him up in twenty minutes. ETA about forty-five."
"I copy. We’ll be ready. Hobbie out."
She hoped that Wedge would enjoy the surprise party. I just hope that he still talks to me after it.
She headed off at top speed to the turbolift that would carry her down to her own quarters fifteen levels below.
* * * * * * *
Ajene managed to get to her quarters, get ready, and return to Wedge in just under the twenty minutes she had given him.
She pulled at the green blouse she wore, straightening it over her shoulders. It was only when she reached Wedge’s door that she realized that her blouse was fastened incorrectly. She had one button left over at the top. She sighed and knocked.
He opened the door almost immediately and when she saw him, she forgot about the button. She couldn’t help but think that Wedge was even more handsome in civilian clothes and he looked more relaxed than she had ever seen him, maybe due to the lack of uniform and the goofy grin on his face. When she thought about it, she realized that this was the first time she had ever seen him out of uniform.
Well, the second time anyway.
He wore a pair of black pants tucked into high black boots. His shirt was a dark wine red and was covered by a brown nerf-hide suede flight jacket. His hair was combed but still slightly out of control. She decided she liked it that way.
His broad smile quickly faded and he made a stiff half bow at the waist. “Major, how nice to see you again.”
She started at his official tone and change in manner. Then she saw the other officer coming down the hall. She gave Wedge a firm nod and played along. “Thank you, General. I am ready to escort you to your appointment.”
The officer passed and continued down the hall without even a glance at the two of them. Wedge reached into the hall and pulled her into his room. The door closed behind her and he kissed her. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay. I was thinking on the way down to my place that you may have some problems letting other people see us together.”
“How do you know me so well, Major?” He used her rank as a way to tease her this time. She knew it was going to be a while before he was comfortable with her and others at the same time.
This is going to be an interesting evening.
He kissed her again, his hands running up her back. “Are you sure you want to go out for dinner? I could have something brought to us here,” he said as he kissed his way down her neck.
“We are going and that is final,” she said firmly, then kissed him one last time, not knowing if she would have the chance for the rest of the evening. “In fact, we had better be going right now.”
“Ha! A Major giving a General orders.” She gave him a playful punch in the stomach. After rubbing at his belly, he reached out and pointed at the button at the top of her blouse. “You missed one.”
“I know,” she said, and began to unbutton her shirt. As a smile blossomed on Wedge’s face, she turned her back to him and continued to undo and then redo the fasteners. Giving the blouse one last check, she turned to face him again. “Alright, General. Let’s move out.”
They worked their way down to the fiftieth level and crossed between buildings through the connecting tunnels and walkways, never actually stepping outdoors. It took a little longer to get to the restaurant than she had planned, but she was sure that Wes and Hobbie would appreciate the extra time to get everyone in place.
They made it to their destination and stepped into the foyer of the restaurant. After Ajene spoke to the 8MR Maitre D droid, they were led past the other diners to an L shaped room at the back, where she assumed everyone was waiting for them. With some maneuvering, Ajene was able to get Wedge to go in ahead of her.
When Wedge turned the corner, there was an ambush of twenty-five people waiting for him.
“Surprise!”
The yell was nearly overwhelming and Wedge looked stunned for a moment. Then an enormous grin spread across his face. He turned and looked at Ajene and she just shrugged her shoulders. “I thought I would invite some of your friends to join us. Happy Birthday.” She tried an innocent smile, but didn’t quite succeed. He smiled in return and winked at her.
All of his friends swarmed forward and soon she could no longer see Wedge at all.
Copyright June 13, 2001 by Susan Hill.
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