CHAPTER 43 KAT #2
She didn’t bring up Jed as she and Lee started across the Hideaway, not wanting to add to the tension.
She’d run into him earlier, the cadet apologizing profusely for not having found anything that might help Lee yet.
But he’d done more than enough for them already; the rest would be on their shoulders.
“I sent ahead the funds to my aunt this afternoon,” she said, lightly, trying to pull some of the storm cloud away from him before it could fully settle. They may not have the answers yet, but they had done everything else that they possibly could to prepare.
“Oh yeah?” Lee asked, his eyes still fuzzy. He was still in his head.
“Deposited it with the nova-banc as an ‘early advance’ from the Academy. If Vyna sticks to the payment plan, she should be good for at least another six months. After that, I’ll have to figure something out.
But we can cover that when the time comes.
Between your funds and mine, you and I should be able to get by for some time.
” Assuming of course they weren’t caught, arrested, and the hope of the galaxy pulverized before then.
“We’ll make sure she’s taken care of, Kat,” Lee said.
And despite his own afflictions, there was only tenderness in his eyes as his hand brushed against hers.
The warm touch, a light in the dimness. He’d said something to that nature before.
A few times. And for some reason, today she allowed herself to believe him.
The Canteen was just coming to life below them, when Lee stopped, suddenly, as if the imminence of their journey was only just dawning on him. “Did we think of food, yet?”
Kat laughed, softly, letting go of some of her own frustrations.
The nature of this mission was already proving so much more than their usual raids.
Food being yet another factor she hadn’t realized she took for granted until it was on them to organize.
“Whistler and Zane are handling it for us. I actually thought you’d put him up to it…
But Zane reached out a few days ago and said they’d take care of it. ”
Another little miracle.
They were at the Hideaway doors when Whistler breezed through. Tonight he had the twins in tow.
“What next?” Kat groaned weakly, to which Lee only had time to give her a rough smile before their favorite hurricanes appeared.
“We thought we’d deliver this update in person,” Whistler said. And she noticed pretty quickly that his crooked grin was back and in full force once more.
Kiara and Kamata glanced between themselves, before turning to survey her and Lee with interest. And if the twins were bored… that could only mean one thing.
“We finished implementing the program this evening,” Whistler announced. “Your ship and your energy shields are ready to rock and roll,” he howled, before remembering to keep his voice down to a low growling sound.
“We went ahead and created a custom convertor that coordinates with the shield calibration. With a little jerk and a nudge off the dashboard, you’ll have that ship’s shields reconfigured and in the clear whenever your sudden frequency recalibration needs to slip into secret spaces arise,” Kamata beamed, the beads on her dark wire choker glinting.
“It took us a little longer than we’d thought; we had to start from scratch since this one here went and trashed our previous work when you-know-what went down,” Kiara explained, nudging Whistler with an elbow as she sliced a finger over her throat.
Whistler’s eyes just sparkled.
“Anyway,” Kamata continued with a wink, picking right up after her twin’s crude gesture. “All that is really left is a little troubleshooting. A detailing, if you will. Don’t want you guys glitching wherever it is you’re not going.”
“Care to chime in and fill in the blank for us?” Kiara asked brightly, only half-judging as she waited for their lie.
It took Kat several seconds before she could even think, let alone form words with the amount of swelling going on in her insides. She was going to get delirious on all their surprises today. And on this—her crew.
Thank you, she mouthed, hoping it was enough. And from the sparkle still in Whistler’s eyes, she knew it would suffice.
When she was finally able to recover, she choked out a nonchalant, “Where we’re not going is none of your business.”
But the trio wasn’t quite done with them yet.
Not as Whistler threw an arm around both her and Lee’s shoulders.
“I think tonight calls for celebration. And no, you two can’t duck out on us.
Not this time.” Whistler waggled a finger at she and Lee.
“I demand that you take the night off. Both of you. Celebrate. Be free.” And with the twins already discussing options, Kat was fairly certain they missed the last words Whistler whispered. But Kat didn’t.
Celebrate. Be free—with us.
“Not the anti-gravity chamber.”
That was the only resistance she’d laid down before she and Lee had given in. She was pretty sure she needed to keep her feet on the ground for this one.
They managed to wrangle Nikola and Hanna on their way down. And although the latter seemed more interested in joining them on behalf of her current and much adoring squeeze than their company, Kat didn’t hold it against her. Nikola had finally gotten his girl.
And of course, as they took this party below deck, the anti-gravity chamber was the one particular training room not currently in use.
“I heard it’s newly refurnished,” Kiara winked, twirling the dark septum piercing as she motioned for her twin to help her carry the black under-construction-cone away from where it blocked the outer sealing door’s entrance.
“I wonder how that got here,” Kamata grinned.
“Uh-huh,” Kat laughed.
And Lee extended a hand out for her, motioning to the locker room, the suction-soled boots in just her size, waiting out on the bench. “After you,” he said. The quiet words underneath. I got you, always.
They were already laughing by the time all seven of them had crowded into the narrow space, struggling to gulp down oxygen as they zipped themselves into the clunky suits.
They clutched at stitches in their sides, and clung to one another so as not to trip over the door as they stumbled into that main chamber.
And when they started the anti-gravity cycle, her previous inhibitions melted away.
At first she pretended it was just about the gravity.
She raced Whistler through the hoop course.
And pirouetted through the stars with Hanna.
She linked hands with the twins as they spun around and around in an unstoppable loop.
And she met eyes with her boy, with just the faintest freckles peeking through the rose-gold vizor as she giggled and he smiled.
And they began again. Racing, and dancing and laughing, and smiling. Again and again and again.
Someone slipped away at one point and came back with dehydrated green tea ice cream packets which they scarfed down while Lee and Nikola streamed his music down through the ship’s speakers and into the chamber. It was wild and it was invigorating, and she thought she might never come down.
The session ended, and they started up another. But this time she didn’t race. She didn’t rush. She didn’t command. This time she swayed, and she watched, and she drifted.
They weren’t just celebrating the recalibration effort tonight—although it sure helped. They were celebrating them. They were celebrating their friends. Their family. The people that had once been mere cadets, interchangeable members of a squadron. But here and now? Tonight?
Kat knew without a doubt that their mission had only come together because of the people in this room, and those that were not present here this evening. They wouldn’t have gotten this far without them. And she would never forget that. She owed them everything.
And once again, she found her mate. Her guy. Her beautiful, resilient, green-eyed boy. He too had laughing eyes as he caught her around the waist and spun her into him. The session ended, and still they stayed, and he held her and they drifted. Tonight had been for him, too.
Always.
Much too late, and far too early, they made their way on nimble toes and hollowed ears up the stairs of the Heptagon. Inside Lee’s dorm, she continued to dance and twirl on her toes and under his hands, to a new rhythm that tremored up her lungs and beat against her chest.
Until she finally curled into his arms, the replay of tonight a new imprint on her heavy eyelids.