It was really Wedge's words, calling her a traitor for giving up flying, that convinced Jaina to reinstate her service in the GA military. Considering she was fighting on the side he didn't agree with, that probably wasn't what he intended, but it was too late now. It hadn't been an easy choice. To be honest, she didn't see that there had to be a war, but if there was one, she felt she had to do the right thing and be where she could do the most good. That really was almost always in a ship. So she reinstated her commission and went back to work, donning a uniform and spending her days on base.

That was where she'd been when she felt her parents in trouble. That in itself was nothing new. Han and Leia Solo tended to cause and attract more trouble than anyone had any right to, and Jaina had spent weeks or months at a time before worrying for their safety. This was different, though. This was a very immediate danger, and if she could feel it this strongly, it meant they were close.

But she didn't even have time to do anything to help, because before she could even find out exactly what was going on, she knew it was over. Since by now she had permission to leave base, she sent Leia some reassurance in the Force along with a I'll be right there, wrangled up a certain droid, and set out to find her parents.

They'd gotten the Falcon down in a public landing area by the time she arrived... and Jacen was there. Of course he was. Somehow she didn't wonder how they'd gotten here safely anymore. Jacen had probably done something fancy and slightly scary to save the day like he always did now. She clamped down on her irritation quickly, shielding her feelings. She didn't want her mom picking up on anything if it just turned out Jaina was being a bitch about things.

While she was happy to have them here in one piece, Jaina couldn't exactly be in uniform in a public place and hug her mommy and daddy. She had to settle for shaking their hands. Yeah, she didn't like it, either. Jacen... Jacen was now leading the new Galactic Alliance Guard with a title of colonel- the same title Jaina had, by the way- and she couldn't begin to parse what he felt like to her right now. She ignored Jacen for the moment.

"I'm not going to ask any obvious questions," Jaina said, patting R2-D2's dome. "But I thought you could use some help with repairs." Because after any kind of skirmish whatsoever, the Falcon needed repairs. That was just how things were.

"Thanks," Han said, and unsurprisingly followed it up with, "And why are you decked out in an orange flight suit?"

"Because I'm doing my job, Dad," Jaina said evenly.

"Did Zekk get you back into this?"

The fact that she didn't roll her eyes at that probably meant she was growing up. She'd known this conversation was going to happen, and it didn't do any good to get defensive. "Dad, I'm thirty, I make my own decisions, and you forget what I am sometimes."

Which wasn't to say that Zekk hadn't rejoined right along with her, which maybe lent some credence to those claims of him following her around the galaxy but Jaina was not even going to think about that.

"I never forget you're a Jedi," Han protested. "But that doesn't mean you should get dragged into the Alliance's wars against Corellia-"

"Dad," she said softly. "I meant that I'm a fighter pilot. That's what you forget. I volunteered for active duty because this is my job."

Apparently not wanting to be in the middle of this, Artoo wheeled himself over to the Falcon and disappeared underneath it. While he worked with a few disapproving whistles and clanks, Han continued, "You can't seriously believe the Alliance is right, sweetheart."

"Maybe I do and maybe I don't, but that's not the issue," said Jaina. "I'm in uniform and that means I front up and earn it regardless of my personal views. That's what service is about."

She waited for a moment for an It's okay, I understand that she knew she wasn't going to get. It almost looked by his face that he was trying, but he couldn't quite get there. At least he didn't yell. It was always harder fighting with her dad or letting him down.

"I'd better get back to base," she said finally, ending the silence. "Wouldn't do for me to be advertising that the Solos are back. Watch your six, okay?"

Despite Jaina trying to keep it formal in public, Leia gave her a kiss on the cheek pretty much via sneak attack, and Han followed suit. So he wasn't happy with her decision, but he wasn't angry with her. She could accept that.

As Jaina pulled back, she saw Jacen standing off to the side, looking like maybe he wanted to talk to her, but didn't know how. She never knew where she stood on that issue anymore, and it kept getting more complicated. Should she give in and try to act like things were fine because they both wanted to, or should she keep her distance because she knew she was going to get manipulated and taken advantage of again even if it hurt him? When it came down to it, putting aside her issues to try and make things okay was easier said than done.

"Take care of yourself, Jaina," Jacen said, solving the problem for both of them.

"And you," she said with a nod of acknowledgement, or something.

She started to head off, but only got a few steps before the urge to say something about what was bothering her with him got to her. Putting aside her issues was difficult, maybe impossible, but she couldn't not at least ask. Jaina turned back to say, "You don't feel right to me lately, Jacen. Are you in trouble?"

It was probably horrible of her, but she found she desperately wanted him to say yes. She had such a fear of what might be happening now and she wanted him to say something was wrong, to admit he'd been kind of scary and that he worried about him going dark as much as she did, and she could get over herself and help him, like he did when he found out what she'd done after Myrkr. They'd face it together and things wouldn't turn out like they did in Ben's time and everything would be fine.

Instead Jacen smiled, like maybe he'd wanted her to ask. "Just busy, that's all," he answered.

Jaina so hoped her fears were baseless. The smile was encouraging, and now that she thought about it, it'd been a long time since she'd seen him really smile, but as she headed back to base she couldn't help but feel like they'd just passed up a chance to fix things.


[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Dialogue from Bloodlines by Karen Traviss. Oh, look, book two already!]