Title: The News
Author's Note: This takes place in the middle of Earning Betrayal, so don't read this unless you've read EB first. :) * * * * * Captain Blood was seated on what could only be described as a cold, metal slab. And Jade being the sensitive person she was took this as an ill omen. Before she could ponder it any further, Barriss Offee entered and let the door shut and seal behind her, She greeted Jade with a soft smile and a gentle bow. “How may I be of service, Captain?” Barriss asked. Jade laughed in her nervousness and replied, “not quite sure. I feel funny coming here when there’s not really anything wrong.” “What do you mean?” Barriss asked. She gracefully seated herself atop an elegant stool, and Jade was certain that this exotic beauty was the only being that could make such an act seem lovely. “Well, it’s not as though I’ve been injured or am so ill I’m on death’s door,” Jade explained. “I just… haven’t felt well.” “What urged you to finally seek a healer?” Barriss asked. “If you do not find it to be a serious condition, then someone must have goaded you.” Jade’s mouth quirked at one corner. “You are indeed wise. It was one of my troopers, Seven. He was beginning to become concerned about my continuing symptoms.” “Can you describe them for me?” Barriss asked. She called a datapad from the counter to her hand and prepared herself to enter everything Jade told her. “Nothing major,” Jade warned. “Just a sort of constant nauseated feeling in the pit of my stomach. I’ve only thrown up maybe twice. And every once in a while I’ll get these pounding headaches.” Jade put her hand above her right eye. “Here.” Barriss nodded as she took all this down. “All right, and this has gone on for…?” “About three weeks,” Jade answered. Barriss entered this as well and paused. “There are several possibilities, so I’ll need to ask you a few questions.” Jade nodded. “Shoot.” “Have you been running a fever at all through any of this?” “No,” Jade said. “Seven took my temperature several times… I was ready to shove that thermometer right up his cloned behind by the fiftieth time. But, no, I never ran a fever.” “Have you been bitten by any sort of creature?” “Not in years.” “Have you been on a planet where you might have been exposed to some native fungi or spores?” “Not to my knowledge.” Barriss nodded pensively, searching her vast, mental library for anything else that might be pertinent. “This next question may sound absurd,” she grinned wryly, “but please be patient with me.” “Well, I am your patient,” Jade joked. “Barriss’ grin spread even wider at this, then she regained her composure and wound up for her last question. “Could you be pregnant?” Jade was very quiet for a very long time. She seemed unable to do anything but stare at Barriss blankly as the question and the following silence hung between them. “I know,” Barriss said, sounding ashamed. “That was rude and sounded accusing, but it is protocol to—” “No,” Jade interrupted. “It’s not that.” Barriss tilted her head forward as she waited for Jade to go on. “It’s…” Jade’s eyes widened suddenly as she breathed a heavy sigh. “I just hadn’t thought of that.” “Then, it is a possibility?” Barriss asked. Jade had gone paler than usual, and the lovely healer was alarmed, thinking the other may faint. “It is,” Jade finally said. “You’ve not been tested?” “It didn’t occur to me,” Jade muttered. “I always used some form of protection, usually when I knew we’d be together. But… aw, damn.” “What?” Jade glanced at her guardedly. “What I am about to tell you is a very sensitive admission,” she said. “I understand,” Barriss said, laying her datapad aside. “This is between you and I.” Jade nodded thankfully and shut her eyes. “Nearly a month ago, my lover was injured in battle. He was tended to and is fine now, but we didn’t think anything would… take place between us with the state he was in.” “But it did,” Barriss finished for her. Jade’s eyes opened slowly. “He’s a fast healer. And willing to endure pain for me. I know how selfish that sounds…” “Not at all,” Barriss said. “On the contrary, that is very generous of him.” Jade smiled distantly, as though her memory had transported her to a tender scene. But she found herself frowning too quickly. “It was not an interlude I had anticipated,” she said. “I wasn’t prepared.” “Would it be too personal to ask who the father is?” Barriss asked. Jade bit her bottom lip with sweet shyness and said, “it might. It would ruin him if this got out.” “If he is as giving and loving as you say, he would want to know. Would he not?” Jade laid her face in her palms. “I don’t know. I mean…” She raised her eyes to Barriss. “This wasn’t planned. There is no way for us to parent a child. We’d be expelled from the—” She stopped short. “I’ve said too much.” “Firstly, we have jumped to many conclusions,” Barriss said, putting up a hand. “I would like to have you tested.” Jade nodded and crossed her arms self-consciously against her midsection. Barriss called for a med droid and unsealed the door to usher it inside. Jade winced at the droid’s glittering eyes. “I don’t have to pee on anything, do I?” she asked. “No, not at all,” Barriss chuckled. “B-7 is merely going to take some blood.” As if on cue, the droid brought out a mechanical arm with a syringe in place of a hand. Jade looked away and hissed when the needle pierced her skin. Within seconds, the sting was gone, and Barriss was instructing the droid to analyze the sample. Jade was shocked by how speedily B-7 was able to evaluate her blood and give the results. Only seconds after the blood had been taken he announced it “positive”. Jade’s arms slid away from her stomach, but her hands lingered, holding it as if it had been transformed into porcelain. She bit her lip to still it’s trembling and looked at Barriss questioningly. “Is it strange that I’m so happy?” she asked. Barriss smiled, observing that Jade was grinning brightly though her eyes were beginning to brim. “It isn’t strange at all.” Jade sighed as the first of her tears slid down her cheek. “I’m going to tell him.” * * * * * Obi-Wan strode the stark, open walkways of the Republic Star Destroyer, looking for the secluded area of the ship Jade had spoken of in her message. She’d carefully instructed him of the paths to follow and where she would be waiting. Away from the crew and the clones… He knew Jade too well to assume her motives were pure and smirked to himself. His train of thought was broken when he felt something tickle his cheek. He jerked his head to the right, feeling a presence in the shadows of the alcove near him. He stepped inside and peeked over his shoulder to see if anyone had noticed, but he appeared to be alone with the lady whose hand was snaking its way up his chest. “Jade,” he whispered, pulling her against him. “To what do I owe the rendezvous?” A soft pair of lips nipped at his beard. “Am I not allowed to call on you when I need you?” “This is a matter of need?” he asked. “When it becomes painful, yes.” His chest rumbled with subdued laughter, and his lips sought hers in the dark. Jade let them join for a few moments, part of her eager to share her news and the rest terrified of what his reaction may be. If she could suspend this moment and stay this way with him forever, always wondering and trapped against his body… But that was the fantasy of a scared, little girl. She was a captain and a woman. His woman. She could do this. She yanked her lips away a bit suddenly, and Obi-Wan gasped lightly, curling a hand to the back of her neck. “Kitten?” he asked warily. “Have I done something I should not?” “No, baby,” Jade said, wincing at her own choice of pet name. “I called you here to tell you something. Something… vital.” Jade could perceive the excitement in him, wondering what riddle she was presenting. “Must I guess?” he asked, his hands roaming. “No, I’ll tell you,” Jade said. She grunted and grabbed his hands to still them. “Obi, I’m… having your baby.” This was a terrible setting for such a revelation. She couldn’t see his face properly even though her eyes had adjusted to the nearly total lack of light. His expression was indeterminable, and his silence only filled her with unease. “Obi, say something,” she ordered, damning her body for its weakness as it trembled. “Jade…” She was ready to begin wailing or slap him across the face she couldn’t see or any number of negative actions, but Obi-Wan had already swept her up. He had yet to find words. The only one that came from him over and over was “Jade”. Even in the small space, he managed to spin around once with her giggling in his ear. “Well?” she demanded with a laugh. “I love you,” he said. “I love him. Or her. Do you know?” “No, not yet,” she said. “Really? You’re happy?” “I’m… stunned,” he said. “But, yes, quite happy. What happened?” “Lion, you know what happened,” she said with a low voice. “You were there, remember?” “I know that part of it,” he cackled. “I mean, how? I thought you…” “I was,” she said. “But that night you started feeling better after your leg injury?” She rubbed his thigh where it had been so badly hurt. “I kind of forgot.” “My word,” he said simply. They let the silence linger so that Obi-Wan could absorb what she had told him. When she felt it had gone on long enough, Jade spoke up. “What do you think will happen to us?” she asked. “And the baby? Obi… We’re in the middle of a war. This was a terrible time for me to end up like this.” Obi-Wan sighed. This was most certainly the bit he wasn’t ready to face. “I can have you put out on maternity leave immediately.” “There’s no sense in that,” Jade laughed. “That’s not what I meant at all. I’m perfectly fit for combat for at least a few more weeks.” “I know that isn’t what you meant,” Obi-Wan snapped. “But I won’t have you flying into battle with Seven and dodging missiles.” “You were fine with it before,” Jade huffed. “Besides which, what about the Council? Think they’ll notice me taking a nine month hiatus and getting fatter by the minute?” Obi-Wan ran his hands down his face. “I don’t know.” “I think they will,” Jade answered for him. She softened before continuing. “I’m sorry, love. I just don’t know what to do. If the Council found out, they’d be furious. And there’s too much work to be done for me to sit out when I could be helping. We’re shorthanded as it is.” Obi-Wan shook his head wearily. “You’re asking me to put our unborn child in peril.” “I’m asking you to give us both some time to think this through,” Jade said. “We may be looking at a future with no part of the Jedi Order in it. If they didn’t try to take the baby, they would expel me. Still…” She put her hand against his chest where his heart laid beneath. “You might still have a chance. A mild suspension could be the worst you’d see from this.” Obi-Wan laid his hand over hers. “You know that there would be no life for me without you in it.” “Dangerous talk, General. The kind of stuff you warn Anakin about.” “You’re carrying my child,” Obi-Wan reminded her. “And the passion between us escalated beyond playfulness long ago. We will find a way to have our family and the Order, too. I promise.” Jade nodded and sunk into his arms, the two standing this way for some time as troops and starships raced around them. The universe turned, the light vying with the dark, and Obi-Wan touched Jade’s stomach. Their fingers laced together there and both knew that soon they would leave their comfortable solitude, and war would become all they knew again. The End
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