Mergers and Acquisitions

by suezahn

Disclaimer: All characters depicted herein are the property of Lucasfilm, Disney, etc. My only profit is in the form of readers' feedback. Please be generous!

Note: This story was originally written in 2000 and has now be revised and updated for consistency with the rest of the Kismet series. Please note that the OC name Kristin Aldritch = Keris Aldric now. I decided the old name was too "Earthy."

The original story was awarded STAR aWARdS Best Long Story 2000.

A very special thank-you to my lovely proofreaders: Erin Darroch and Marjorie Joyce.

Chapter 27

It was late evening in the Serricci base and the halls in the officer's barracks were quiet. Leia made her way down the passageway, stopped outside one of the doors and hesitated, formulating the things she intended to say, then pressed the summons button. There was a long pause and she began to wonder if the occupant was already asleep, but then the door slid open and Lieutenant Keris Aldric appeared. Her dark eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Leia!"

"Hi, Keris."

The older woman's expression of shock was swiftly replaced with curiosity. "What are you doing back so early? Did everything go all right?"

"The mission went fine. A complete success, but…we had to leave unexpectedly."

Keris was studying her face and Leia glanced away. "So, what happened?"

Leia shook her head, begging off. "I know it's late so I don't want to keep you up. I just.… I wanted to apologize. You entrusted me with something and I've let you down. I lost your jewelry. We were forced to leave without warning and were unable to recover any of our possessions. If there'd been any way for me to go back and retrieve them, I would have."

She could detect a crease in her friend's brow—even in the dim overhead lights of the corridor—and it made her feel even more guilty, so she pressed on.

"I'm so very sorry. I'm afraid I'll never be able to replace what it might've meant to you…but I want you to have this." She brought her hand up and held out a beautiful necklace made of three tiers of fine platinum. It shimmered in the soft light.

There was a soft exhalation and Keris tilted her head, her eyes going from the proffered gift to Leia. "This really isn't—"

"Please, take it."

The lieutenant hesitated another long moment, then raised her hand and accepted the offering. "You are going to tell me what happened, aren't you?"

"Maybe another time," she hedged. She knew she looked uncomfortable and it bothered her to know she was so transparent. "It's late."

Keris's expression had grown determined with Leia's last statement, but she nodded her head. "All right, Leia. Thanks for telling me about it and for giving me this, but please don't be too hard on yourself. They were just things."

Leia nodded but knew that was impossible. She couldn't get away from the thought that she was losing yet another gift from Han and it hurt even more than she'd anticipated, but found some little comfort in rationalizing that her own necklace hadn't cost Han anything.

"I also expect a detailed report tomorrow," Keris threw in with a little grin of anticipation.

Leia groaned and held up a supplicating hand. "Get some sleep, Keris. I'll see you on shift tomorrow morning." She turned and started heading in the direction of her own quarters at the other end of the hallway. While her heart felt a little lighter now, something dark still lurked there. Maybe it was feminine intuition, but she had a feeling that this pain was only a prelude.

The End