Long Time Coming

Title: Long Time Coming
Author: Queen-scribbles
Game: SWtOR/KotFE(mild spoilers through chapter 10)
Characters/Pairings: f!Smuggler/Corso, Theron, OCs
Disclaimer: Don't own the world or most of the characters, just having fun
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She didn't want to be here.

Silver slouched in the pilot's seat and glowered at the atmosphere of the planet as they approached. Neither Dubrillion or its reportedly prickly queen were anywhere close to her first choice of allies, even--especially?--having known said queen. But it had been five years, and Risha was apparently doing something right, because the resistance against Arcann was stronger on Dubrillion than anywhere else outside Wild Space. Or, at least, so said Theron and his all-knowing spy network.

She glared harder at the circling cloud wisps. The same spy network that had 'gifted' them the Rattataki anarchist. Theron, she trusted. Kaliyo, she absolutely didn't. And her continued presence on Odessen had soured Silver on any tips the network brought in. She couldn't help it. But she sort of trusted Risha, and it would be good to see someone from her old crew again. It was taking long enough to track down... the one she really wanted back, on the bad nights the doubts whispered that maybe he wasn't around to find anymore; dead or locked in some prison she'd never find.

The bad nights were getting more frequent.

Silver straightened when she heard footsteps approaching the cockpit, wiping all traces of her emotional state off her face and pretending to be intently focused on the landing.

"Everything okay up here, Captain?" Theron asked, dropping into the co-pilot's seat. Corso's seat. 

"Fine," she replied with a noncommittal shrug. "Why?"

"I could've sworn I saw a little mini-rain cloud hovering over your seat on my way up here," he joked.

One eyebrow arched up toward her hairline. "You always been this good at readin' people?"

"Ever since I joined the SIS," he deadpanned. "You sure you're okay?" 

Silver sighed, tweaked a couple things with the controls before answering. "I miss my crew, Theron. I miss Akaavi puttin' fresh dents in the wall practicin', I miss Risha hoggin' the holo to hash out deals, I miss the kitchen smellin' like Wookiee, I miss the clatter and hollered apologies of Guss spillin' somethin' in the cargo hold, and I miss Corso. I miss warm smiles an' nicknames and the smell of freshly oiled guns and just... him." She snapped her mouth shut. A lot more had escaped in that confession than she'd intended when she started talking.

Theron was quiet for a long moment, and she couldn't really blame him. "You know," he began slowly, "I can't really do anything about most of that beyond promise we're tryin' our hardest to find them, but..." he leaned forward in his seat. "The kitchen does still smell a little bit like Wookiee."

Silver huffed a laugh as the corners of her mouth almost reluctantly tugged upward. "Only 'cause you ain't used to it." She sighed, switching to manual control as they made it through the atmosphere. "Sorry for dumpin' on you like that. I think I'm just nervous about meetin' with Risha."

It was Theron's turn to raise an eyebrow. "You think she knows it's you?"

"This is Risha Drayen we're talkin' about. I know she knows it's me. I just hope she's not too ticked about my vanishing for five years."

"It's not like that's your fault-" His muttered defense was cut short when Silver abruptly threw the Angel into a gut-wrenching curve in a bid to avoid the turbolaser blast streaking toward them. It was only due to quick reflexes that he didn't go tumbling from the seat.

A loud clatter and string of what may have been profanity issued from the main crew area, making her think Koth and HK hadn't been so lucky.

"Okay, this is already more interesting than I wanted it to be," Theron groused, reaching for the seat restraints.

"Took the words right out of my mouth," Silver grumbled, stomach lurching as she dropped a dozen or so feet to dodge another turbolaser bolt. "Either these resistance fighters are kriffin' paranoid, or Arcann's getting really aggressive."

"They didn't have anything that big, last we heard," Theron shook his head.

"Great." The comm started buzzing with ground chatter, calls for assistance, staticky and desperate. "Okay, I'm finding somewhere to put down.  I don't feel like playin' tag with a turbolaser, and they need help. Risha can wait." She flicked on the intercom. "If you haven't already, strap in. It's gonna be a bumpy landing."

"Sarcasm: You don't say, master."

"Worse than this?!"

"Yes, Koth, worse than this," she shot back. "But at least we shouldn't crash!"

"Low blow!"

She flipped the intercom off before he really got going and caught Theron shooting her a bemused smile. "What?"

"You seem to be enjoying yourself."

Silver snorted. "It's called adrenaline, Shan. I'd think you'd be familiar with it. Now shush and help me land my baby as unharmed as possible."

~~~~~~~~~~

Landing was an even trickier prospect than she'd anticipated, but Theron managed to locate the nearest cluster of rebels and they headed in that direction. They were flying low enough she could strafe the encroaching skytroopers before spinning the Angel and landing in a semi-camouflaged ravine. She delegated Koth and HK to watch the ship, soothing protests by pointing out she was trusting them with her baby "and besides, we might need you to come swooping to our rescue. Who's the best pilot on this trip, 'side from me?" Koth looked mollified, sitting on the ramp with his blaster resting across his knees.

A small group of the rebels had waited for them, the rest already darting cover-to-cover closer toward a cylindrical building in the near distance. "S'ppose we should thank you for that," commented the apparent spokesperson, a painfully young zabrak with a white-knuckle grip on her blasters, nodding toward the smoking crater full of droid parts.

"S'ppse you should, "Silver agreed cautiously.

"We appreciate the opening," the zabrak said. "Turbolaser's been taking down our ships for goin' on two weeks now. Some of the outposts are running low on supplies." She cocked her head. "You wanna help us blow it up?"

"Jes," hissed one of the men standing behind her.

"What? They're obviously on our side, and Boss always says not to turn away help."

"You aren't worried they might be spies?!" he pressed.

"Nah. You know I'm good at reading people. My gut says trust 'em."  

"You're sure?" he hesitated. When she nodded, he shrugged. "Okay, then. We needed more bodies in the rearguard. Maybe things'll go our way just this once..."

"Must be an awful trustworthy gut you got, kid," Silver mumbled, raising an eyebrow.

"It's never been wrong," the zabrak shrugged. "And my name's not 'kid', it's Jesa. You're bad as Boss."

Silver laughed. "A hazard of age. I'm Silver, and this is Theron. And shouldn't we be moving?"

"You're absolutely right," Jesa nodded, jerking her head toward the building. "Boss is already inside with Teo and the detonite. We'll make a much better rearguard if we're actually close enough  to do some damage." She made the rest of the introductions as they closed in on the turbolaser.

Silver nodded acknowledgement at each name. "What about this boss of yours? He have a name?"

"Well, yeah. But it bugs him when we call him Boss, so..." Jesa lifted one shoulder in a devil-may-care shrug.

"Prob'ly why he calls you kid..." Silver muttered, smirking, and heard Theron muffle a laugh under a cough.

There wasn't really any more time for idle chit-chat, as they were close enough to the turbolaser for Jesa to motion for silence. They all spread out, taking cover behind boulders, trees, anything they could use.

"Are you sure about this?" Theron whispered as they took up their positions to have a good defensive angle.

She shrugged, "Young as she is, Jesa obviously knows what she's doin'. Prob'ly grew up a street kid in Hutt Space somewhere. And if they pull this off... I mean, the strength of the resistance is why we're on Dubrillion in the first place, right? Wouldn't it be good to meet this Boss of theirs?"

"All good points, and all correct, it's just... something seems... off," he sighed.

Silver smirked. "Your Jedi senses are tinglin'?"

"I don't have-" Theron dropped his volume when Silver elbowed him in the ribs. "No. I just think we should be careful, is all."

"We will be." She craned her neck. "I hope we're close enough. I can barely see the building from here. You aren't pickin' up their channel, by any chance, are you?"

He shook his head. "Nah. My implants can't pick up secured channels unless I'm specifically tuned in. And I figured it might seem suspicious to ask for their frequency, y'know?"

"Good call. I guess we just wait for something to happen, then."

They weren't waiting long. No more than five minutes from when they took cover; a small contingent of skytroopers, led by a Zakuulan Knight approached.

"You start pickin' off the droids," Silver directed, unholstering her blaster. "I'm goin' for the Knight."

"Silver, no," Theron hissed, but she'd already turned on her stealth field generator and started sneaking down the hill.

By the time she reached the group, Theron had already taken out two of the skytrooper droids, and she was just in time to distract the Knight with a scattergun round to the back. Their ensuing scuffle was a near thing. Her reflexes were good, and she'd upgraded her shield probe after fighting Arcann, but she still would have been toast if Theron hadn't scrambled after her once he finished with the droids. Force sensitivity was no help against a surprise double-tap to the back of the head. A lesson the Knight learned the hard way.

Silver fought the urge to kick his corpse as Theron hauled her back to her feet. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," he waved her off. "Lana would have my hide if I let anything happen to you."

"A very good point," Silver laughed. Even as she stowed her scattergun and holstered Sparkles, the turbolaser gushed smoke and flame before collapsing down into the building that housed it. "Well, looks like they were successful. Let's go see if we can get introductions to their boss now."

"Six skytroopers and a Knight seems a fair trade for meet and greet," Theron agreed wryly, nudging a wrecked droid with the toe of his boot.

They didn't make it that far. Even as Silver turned to pinpoint where the rebels had gathered, a single question, sharp with hope and disbelief, froze her where she stood.

"Sil?"

Only one person, one in the entire galaxy, called her that. Oh, please. Please be real, she begged silently as she finished turning around.

And there, kept from her by no more than a hundred feet of road, face mirroring her own frantic sense of hope, stood Corso.

Her feet were moving even before Theron gave her a hard nudge forward. Corso was moving as well, driven by five years of searching, hoping, stubbornly refusing to give up. Her arms around his neck as his circled her waist felt like coming home.

"Stars, I missed you," Silver whispered, breathing in the scent of blaster cleaner and sweat that was intrinsically linked to her farm boy. Her husband.

His grip tightened, and she felt him press a kiss against her hair. "I knew you weren't dead." 

Their moment was shattered by dual cleared throats.

"Hey, Boss, unless you're lookin' for another suicidal fight, we should maybe pull outta here before reinforcements arrive," Jesa suggested, bouncing impatiently on the balls of her feet despite the efforts of the male zabrak now standing next to her to calm her down.

"She's right, Captain," Theron chipped in. "They aren't being careful with their broadcasts; there's half a battalion being mobilized less than a mile away."

Silver rested her forehead against Corso's chest for a moment, cursing up a mental blue streak even as he briefly held her closer before letting go. Really is no rest for the wicked....  

"They're right, Sil," Corso sighed. "I know we both got questions, and lot of 'em, but let's get somewhere safe before havin' at it. Hate t' getcha back only t' lose ya 'cause you're too curious for your own good."

After five years, it was good to hear he still had the Mantellian farmer's twang. Some things never changed. That was one. The way her hand fit perfectly in his was another.

The scar across the back of his hand, however, was new. At least to her; from the look of it, he'd had it for a year or so, minimum. But she didn't really have time to dwell on the fact Corso had an old scar she didn't know about before they were hot-footing it after Jesa and the other rebels, Theron and the male zabrak playing rearguard.

"Jesa's brother, Teo," Corso filled in when he caught her glancing back. "Picked 'em up on Nar Shaddaa and they've more than pulled their weight since."

"How long?" Silver probed.

"Three years," he replied, grinning. "Still can't get either of 'em t' call me anything but Boss."

>>O<<

The rest of the journey to the cave the rebels called home was made in silence. Aside from Silver's gasp of surprise upon seeing the cliff where said cave was hidden, battered by wind and ocean spray. 

"See, the droids can't search this area too thoroughly 'cause the salt water makes 'em rust," Corso explained as they carefully made their way down the entrance tunnel, feet splashing through puddles of gathered water.

"An' it's too time-consuming to have the Knights do," Jesa added as she and Teo shoved aside the rock hiding the entrance they really wanted. "They're needed for more important things, like showboating for Her Majesty." She grinned. "But Dubrillion's queen is made of sterner stuff'n that."

"Yeah, speakin' of Risha, does she know you're here?" Silver asked, raising an eyebrow at Corso as they stepped through the opening and the zabraks let the boulder rock back down.

He nodded. "After lookin' for you had dead-ended 'bout five different ways, one of the first things I did was help get her here. She wanted to be ready for, well, exactly what happened."

"Interesting choice, considerin' you two didn't 'zactly get along."

"It's what you woulda done," he shrugged.

Silver raised an eyebrow, but didn't have time to comment as one of the rebels noticed they were back and hollered for Corso.

He gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry, duty calls. But I'll deal with this as fast as possible, an' then we can find ourselves somewhere private to talk." Before letting go of her hand, Corso gave it an extra squeeze.

"I'm gonna hold ya to that, farm boy," Silver murmured under her breath, watching him cross to the people who needed his attention.

"I'm gonna go ahead an' assume you're the lost wife?" Jesa commented wryly.

"Normally assumin' a bad idea, kid," Silver said back, tone equally wry. "But, yeah, I am."

"He really missed you," Jesa said quietly. "Didn't like to talk it much, at first, 'til I caught him tipsy one night an' got him goin'. Can't say it's been nonstop since, but everybody knows he's spoken for."

"So there's no dreamy-eyed wanna-be for me to chase off?" Silver joked.

"Nope. He's still all yours. Hell of a man you got, but you know that, don't you?"

"Yeah." Silver smiled. "We've had many arguments over which of us is luckier. I've been tryin' to find him, but wasn't havin' any luck. Now I see why. This sort of work is better done off-grid."

"Got that right," Jesa nodded. "Sorry making things harder for you."

"Hey, can't say I'm surprised this sort of thing is what he wound up doin' with himself. Arcann's even worse'n the Empire. And after five years, those couple extra months'll feel like water under the bridge soon enough."

"Lemme see if I can speed up 'soon enough' just a tad," Jesa winked, craning her neck to look in the direction Corso had gone. "This has been a long time comin' for you two, an' I think I can make it happen sooner rather than later."

"You'd be my new best friend," Silver chuckled.

"Gosh, not demanding an organ or anything; you're easy to please." Jesa winked teasingly. "Wait here."

Silver watched the young zabrak work her way across the cave, zigzagging between various tables and small clusters of people until she reached Corso and the Nautolan who had originally hailed him. She could only guess what Jesa was saying from this distance, but it looked promising.

"Uh, Captian?" Theron cleared his throat. "You want me to touch base with Koth and HK, let 'em know what's up?"

"Oh, yeah, that would prob'ly be a good idea," she concurred. "So they don't think we got captured or anything. Just be vague, case someone's listenin' who shouldn't be."

"I'll take all the necessary precautions, don't worry," he assured her. "You just worry about catching up with your husband."

Even as he stepped away to find a semi-quiet place to call the ship from, Corso rejoined her. "Jesa's gonna help Kip," he informed her. "He picked up a new gun recently and has some basic operation questions. She knows that model 'least as well as I do, so she'll be fine."

"High praise," Silver grinned, reaching for his hand. "'Specially comin' from you."

"Girl's got a head for blasters," he grinned back. "Plus, she knows enough about us to know I'm dyin' to steal you away somewhere private."

"Well, what are you waitin' for?" she teased.

"Absolutely nothin'," Corso retorted, and pulled her down a side passage. They didn't go far before reaching his apparent destination. "After you."

Silver smiled to herself as she stepped into the small room--obviously his--and leaned against the wall. "So, I see you're just as much of a gentleman and a slob, even after five years."

He chuckled at her teasing  tone. "Yep, always. Had t' make sure you'd recognize me when you came back. By the way, how is it that you look exactly the same as you did, uh, before?"

She cleared her throat and blinked away unexpected tears. When. "Carbonite," she replied, then snarked, "And what's your excuse, huh, handsome?"

Corso sat on the edge of his bed and shot her an adorable sheepish grin. "Just baby-faced, I guess, Captain."

She laughed at the tongue in cheek answer, but upon closer examination, Silver could see the fine worry lines etched into his face, and she was sure the scar on his hand wasn't the only new one he'd picked up. Not with having chosen 'Freedom Fighter' as his career after she was gone. "So, how've you been doin' without me around to patch you up?"

 "I've been... managin'," he replied, eyes dark even as he pushed a light note into his voice. "Some times better than others. I missed you for more reasons'n that, Sawbones, but there were times that woulda come in handy."

"Mm, like here?" She sat next to him on the bed and took his hand in hers, running her thumb over the scar.

"There and other places," he said, quirking an eyebrow suggestively as he leaned in for a kiss.

Silver grinned and obliged, her free hand coming up to curve around the back of his neck. "Are you flirtin' with me, Riggs?" she whispered, lips a bare fraction of an inch from his.

"Can't a man flirt with his wife?" he retorted in an equally playful whisper, stealing another kiss.

"By all means, but you usually don't start it 'less you're drunk." Her fingers dug into his hair and she smiled as he huffed in pretended outrage.

"Bite your tongue, woman. I'm never drunk," Corso protested.

"Just tipsy," Silver giggled, tugging a dreadlock.

"Occasionally," he clarified, tweaking her ponytail. "An' never on duty."

"So, were ya tipsy when you lost my ship?" she teased.

Despite her light tone, he stiffened defensively. "I didn't lose your ship." His eyes narrowed. "But how'd you know I don't have her anymore?"

"Theron's people found her for me," Silver replied. "How exactly, do you not lose a ship and still not have it, then?"

"Oh, good you got her back." Corso's posture loosened in relief.

"Uh-huh. But it does make me a little curious. If you didn't lose her, who did? Risha? Guss?"

"Like I'd let Guss touch the controls, Sil. It wasn't anyone from the crew," he assured her, squeezing her hand.

"Then who?" she pressed.

Corso hesitated, coughed sheepishly. "Tel."

Silver's eyebrows arched high. "This I gotta hear."

"'Bout two years after you... disappeared, Tel tracked us down an' asked if he could borrow Angel. Havoc was plannin' some hit-and-fade op in Wild Space--off the books, of course--an' needed a ship that wasn't registered to the Republic Military." He shrugged. "He's your brother, Sil, an' he made a good case; he still sort-of remembered how to fly her, a smuggler's ship wouldn't raise too many eyebrows, stuff like that."

"Well, obviously something went wrong," Silver muttered. "Or you'd still have her."

Corso nodded. "He wouldn't give me the details--said it was classified--but the short version of it is Angel got stolen while they were on Tenab. So Tel shows up three weeks late on what was s'pposed to be a one week loan with a vague 'it got stolen' and wouldn't go into more detail." He grinned. "He didn't want me to tell you, but I'm of a mind that a man shouldn't keep secrets from his wife."

"And this is part of why I love you," she snarked, leaning back in for another kiss. ""Now, enough about my ship, since I got her back and everything's fine there. Lemme see these scars you picked up without me around t' keep ya in one piece." One hand slid under his shirt and and almost immediately brushed against a ridge of scar tissue just above his hip.

"Yessir, Captain," Corso teased, sitting back and pulling off his shirt. "As you wish. But with one condition: I wanna see any new ones you've picked up, too."

"Deal." She shrugged out of her duster and started unbuttoning her shirt. As expected, the scar from Arcann's lightsaber immediately drew the majority of Corso's attention and concern. It had nearly killed her, so she couldn't say his reaction was unwarranted. However, she was distracted from reassuring him she was fine by the almost-lost-the-limb-level nasty scar that cut across Corso's right shoulder, ugly and pale against his skin. Whispered assurances from both that they were alright quickly turned into showing each other they were alright in ways that made Silver very, very grateful no one interrupted them the rest of the night. Apparently the entire base shared Jesa's opinion that this had been a long time coming. 

It was lucky for them that they did, she mused to herself as she intertwined her fingers with Corso's and pressed increasingly insistent kisses along his jaw, because she probably would've shot anyone who tried.