Some time later, Reya woke up with a kink in her neck and needed to go to the bathroom. Grumbling about the unfairness of it all, she extricated herself from her warm blanket and stood up on wobbly feet. She trudged down the hall, her eyes half open.
Adrian stirred, noting the absence of the comforting weight of Reya’s legs. He looked around blearily for Reya but didn’t see her. When he heard footsteps coming towards him, he looked over his shoulder and spotted her.
As she returned to the couch, Reya noticed Adrian’s swiveling head looking for her. She walked back around to her spot and sat back down on her end. Her sleep-addled brain took in Adrian’s form and noted that the didn’t have anything to keep him warm. “Do you want some of the blanket?” Reya offered, thinking to share. Adrian nodded. Reya scooted closer and draped the blanket over his lap. Belatedly, she noticed that it wasn’t big enough to cover the entire couch. Only one of them would be able to make full use of it. She mentioned such to Adrian.
“Sleep closer so we can both share it,” he garbled, half-awake. Reya’s tired brain thought this was an excellent solution to their newfound problem. She decided to lay down and put her head on his lap, intent on finding a comfortable position.
“Do you mind?” she asked.
“Not at all,” he replied. He moved his arm out of the way so that she could settle in. Finding a suitable position, she turned herself inwards and brought the blanket around her and onto Adrian. Unsure what to do with his arm, he opted to simply drape it over Reya’s side and onto her back, holding her loosely. “This ok?” he asked.
“’s fine,” she mumbled as she nestled in further. Giving their actions no further thought, the pair slowly fell back asleep, the movie long forgotten.
----------------------------------------
“We need to increase our patrols,” Jyn said firmly for the umpteenth time. “We can’t afford to be slacking when the Elders are here.” The crew was gathered in their meeting room aboard the ship, seated around a long rectangular table. After finding out that they were going to be visited by not only the general but by multiple Elders as well, Jyn had called an emergency meeting to discuss the protective measures that would need to be taken during their stay.
“We get that,” Tassie said, frustrated. “What I’m asking is, do we absolutely need to start adhering to such a rigid schedule before the Elders come? Doing so risks having us be tired when they arrive, putting us less on guard for when they’re here and need our protection.” Beor nodded from where he sat.
While the entire crew agreed that they would need to work harder while their bosses came for a visit, they disagreed on how best to go about it and when to start. “Yes,” Jyn said. “That way we’ll have had some time to practice before they arrive so that there are no hiccups when they’re here. If we had stuck to my schedules like I originally wanted, we’d all be used to taking up guard detail by now and this wouldn’t even be an issue.”
“If we’d stuck to your schedules, we’d all be exhausted and unable to work properly when we really need to, like now,” Tassie countered. “The same thing is going to happen again if we start too soon.”
“Do we know how long the Elders are going to be staying for?” Beor asked, interrupting Jyn’s next statement.
“No,” Rann said. “General Nessah hinted that she’d try to minimize their time here, but whether that meant them staying two days or two weeks was entirely unclear. I don’t think even she knows what to expect out of this visit.”
“How did Adrian’s existence even get leaked, anyway?” Kell asked, raising a good question. “I thought everybody was under strict orders to keep him an absolute secret.”
“We don’t know,” Jyn said grimly. “What we do know is that there’s a leak somewhere that’s loyal to the Tribunal instead of the General and that they got their hands on information concerning Adrian. This should have been impossible, yet here we are.” Jyn refused to entertain the idea that it was one of his own that leaked the information. Doing so would have been incredibly difficult without being noticed by the others, especially with their new data slates that were specifically designed to only contact the General. Jyn had his suspicions about Irric, but wasn’t convinced yet that he was the actual problem. All he had access to was limited information, making his conjectures questionable at best.
“There’s one other thing that we haven’t thought of,” Beor said, interrupting Jyn’s train of thought. “Where are we all going to sleep?” Everybody paused. “The Elders and the General are each getting their own room, right? Which ones are they getting and where are the people getting kicked out going to go?”
“Some of us could sleep on the ship,” Eimir offered.
“No,” Jyn said. “We can’t afford to be separated from them. I’d rather all of us stay as close by as possible to protect them in case something happens. The only person that should sleep on the ship should be Adrian. He should be confined back to his cell.”
“This again, Jyn?” Rann asked, exasperated. “He hasn’t given any indication of being violent thus far. Why do you still want him confined?”
“In this instance, he poses a security risk to the upper echelons of our military’s command,” Jyn intoned seriously. “This isn’t about how I feel. This is about ensuring that absolutely nothing happens to the Elders.” Rann looked like she was about to reply, but turned pensive instead. Jyn was right. They couldn’t risk having anything happen to the Elders and the General.
“I get where you’re coming from,” she conceded, “but what about the rest of the time? Do we leave him locked up during the day as well? Only at night? He’s not going to take being confined again well.”
“You can’t seriously be thinking about confining him again,” Tassie exclaimed incredulously. “He’s done nothing wrong!”
“I think that in this case, Jyn’s right,” Rann said. “We need to play it safe, and that means limiting Adrian’s ability to interact with them.”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Confining him is going to sour his interactions with the Elders before he even meets them,” Tassie replied. “He won’t be cooperative with them if we piss him off.”
“He’ll have no choice but to be,” Jyn said darkly, his hand reaching for his belt.
Tassie looked at him, aghast. “You’re going to threaten him? Again? That’s a terrible idea.”
“He has no choice but to cooperate, and he knows it. This time, there will be consequences if he doesn’t.” The look in Jyn’s eyes was utterly serious as he leveled Tassie a stare, making her squirm where she sat.
“I want it to be known that I officially protest to this course of action,” she said. “When this blows up in our faces, I want you all to know that this decision is going to be why.”
“We could always try asking him nicely,” Beor pointed out. Everybody turned to look at him. “If we explain the situation to him first rather than simply threaten him, which I agree is probably a bad idea, then maybe he’ll understand. He’s still not going to like it, but maybe he’ll hate us less for it.”
“You can’t possibly think he’ll hate us over this,” Jyn scoffed.
“I don’t know, Jyn,” Beor said. “How would you like it if we confined you to a jail cell for the unforeseeable future? He’s not going to be happy.”
“I don’t care how he feels. He’s a menace that needs to be locked up, preferably at all times.”
“Of course you think that,” Tassie scoffed.
Jyn narrowed his eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked dangerously.
“Face it, Jyn. We all know that you hate Adrian because –”
“How about,” Rann interrupted, “I go and ask him how he feels about the whole thing.” She stood up without waiting for a reply. “We can decide how best to proceed once we know where he stands.” The others grumbled in assent, which Rann took in stride. “I’ll be back in a little bit. Continue without me and try not to chew each other’s heads off.”
Rann left the meeting room and exited the ship. Stepping onto the grassy field in front of the house, she turned around and went straight towards the front door. Entering, she noted that it was completely silent inside. Brows furrowed, she took several steps further into the house, spotting the holoscreen from where she stood.
Her footsteps resounded throughout the main floor as she walked closer to get a better look. She spotted the sleeping forms of Reya and Adrian curled up together on the couch. Taking in the peaceful scene with a smile, she opted not to wake them up to ask about re-confining Adrian while the Elders visited. It was a rare sight, watching both of them sleep comfortably and Rann knew that they both desperately needed the rest.
Backing up quietly, Rann turned around and exited the house, glad she hadn’t disturbed the couple. Returning to the ship, she made her way back to the meeting room, much to the surprise of the rest of the team.
“That was fast,” Beor said as she sat back down in her chair. “What did he say?”
“Nothing,” Rann said honestly. “I didn’t talk to him.”
“What?” Jyn asked, perplexed. “Why not?”
“Because he was asleep, and I know that he needs the rest. I wasn’t going to disturb him over something that isn’t pressing.” Kell nodded in approval from where he sat, happy to hear that Adrian was finally getting some much needed rest.
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Jyn growled. “You could’ve woken him up. That’s what I would have done.”
“Not everybody acts like you do,” Rann replied, nonplussed. “It’s better for everyone if Adrian isn’t a tired mess when the Elders come. Besides, it might make him more amenable to us locking him up again.”
“That still leaves us with the sleeping arrangement problem,” Beor said. While he technically had his own room, he and Rann shared the same one most, if not all of the time.
“Fine,” Jyn said, pinching his nose. “Eimir and Kell can bunk together, you and Rann can go together, Adrian will sleep on the ship. Reya can take Adrian’s room and the Elders and the General can have the now vacant rooms. Happy?” Beor nodded. Jyn looked around the room and found no disputes with his suggestion. “Perfect, problem solved. Now, on to the rest.”
The team continued to discuss rotational shift schedules, sleep schedules, patrol routes and strategic defence points, as well as other concerns and problems they had with needing to guard three VIP guests.
----------------------------------------
Adrian startled awake at the sound of many pairs of boots entering the house. Reya woke up as well, still groggy. She raised her head and asked what was wrong. Adrian located the source of the noise and relaxed. “It’s just the others coming back in from their meeting,” he said. “Nothing to worry about.”
“Oh, ok,” Reya replied in a sleepy tone, returning to her previous position. She closed her eyes and continued to doze. Adrian, for his part, was too comfortable to want to move just yet. He didn’t think he’d be falling back asleep like Reya, but he shut his eyes nonetheless. Moving the blanket to properly cover Reya, he hoped the others would get the message and remain quiet so that they didn’t wake her up again.
Tassie was the first to enter and make her way deeper into the house. She spotted the pair and paused, turning around to address the others. “They’re still sleeping,” she said in a low voice as the rest filed in. “We should keep it down.” The others nodded and crept inside, removing their boots and leaving them by the door.
Jyn had no such compunctions and waltzed right in, not bothering to muffle his steps. While the rest of the group whispered to each other in hushed tones, Jyn spotted what Tassie saw when she entered. Scowling, he loudly spoke to the others “We should transfer out weapons and gear to our new rooms now before they get here.”
Rann shot Jyn a look at his lack of consideration for the others. Reya woke to the sound of Rann quietly admonishing Jyn, who replied back at full volume. She groaned and looked up at Adrian, who also opened his eyes. “Morning,” she said quietly so that only he could hear. Adrian smiled back, still holding her.
“Morning,” he replied in the same low tone. Neither one of them made to move just yet, both too comfortable in their positions. “Did you sleep well?” Adrian felt Reya nod her head as she answered.
“Surprisingly well. I didn’t have any dreams. How about you?”
“Same, actually. This is the best I’ve slept in a long time. I wish we could’ve had some extra time,” he said.
“Mmm hmm,” Reya hummed from her spot.
“—I’m just saying, if they wanted to sleep, they shouldn’t have done so in the main living area,” came Jyn’s voice.
“Think they’ll give us five more minutes?” Reya asked.
“I doubt it, but we can hope,” Adrian replied. The pair stayed as they were, continuing to listen to Jyn and Rann argue, Tassie joining in as well. They used the time to wake up fully until finally they couldn’t take it any longer. Reya stretched where she lay and turned over, throwing the blanket off of the both of them and getting up. Adrian lowered his recliner and followed suit, in no rush to join the others and their squabble.
“Look, they’re up,” Jyn said, pointing towards Adrian and Reya. “Now there’s no need to remain quiet.”
“It’s not like you even tried to begin with,” Tassie shot back. Jyn rolled his eyes and moved to go meet inform Adrian of their decision regarding his confinement
“I’ll handle this,” Rann said, silently telling Jyn to stay out of it. He got the message and stayed where he was, glad that he wasn’t the one who had to deal with their soon to be prisoner. Jyn didn’t care who broke the news to him. He was simply glad that the others were finally taking the threat Adrian was seriously and that he would be confined where he belonged.
Reya rubbed her eyes as she greeted Rann, who looked distinctly uncomfortable. She turned towards Adrian and asked if she could speak to him in private. Reya looked between the two and saw Adrian furrow his brows. Hesitantly, he accepted and the pair left Reya alone. She was approached by Tassie, who wanted to fill her in on the situation while Rann spoke with Adrian.