Repairing Beyond Ambition - Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order fanfic *EDITING*

Chapter 41

"Altheeda."

"Cal."

This was their first exchange since their emotional encounter. It was the following morning and they all had woken up early to prepare for their journey back to Dathomir.

The pair stood in front of each other, extremely rigid and uncertain in what their next actions would be. There was nothing wrong between them; they were quite amicable in their previous discussion, yet at the same time, things didn't feel right. She smiled at him but forced herself to keep it brief and he returned it as quickly as she gave it to him. She moved past him and made a bee-line to her seat in the cockpit and he watched her go.

Immediately, Cere and Greez knew that something was amiss. The two turned to give each other looks after witnessing the interaction and the latero shrugged, clueless. Nobody spoke as everyone took their seats and Greez began to input the coordinates for their destination. Altheeda stared down at her toolbox resting on her lap, drumming her nails against it in hopes it would distract herself from her unsettled state. BD-1 stood in the middle of the dashboard and beeped to fill the air with some form of noise.

"We're taking off now, BD-1." Cere responded to the droid, unable to understand him.

It repeated the series of beeping once again, in a more demanding fashion and the two redheads were wordlessly asked for a translation from the stares they received.

"Later, BD." The female redhead spoke sternly to the little robot.

It then gave a low whistle and leapt to the side to allow Greez to pilot and initiate a transition to hyperspace.

"What's it trying to say?" He raised an eyebrow as he worked the controls.

"He was asking a question." The Jedi explained.

"Are you gonna answer it?"

Cal fell silent once again and Cere had a puzzled expression plastered on her face. The bizarre behaviour from both him and Altheeda was something that she was worrying. The latero grumbled under his breath before activating the hyper drive. Once the tiny dots of stars became infinite stretches of lines that enveloped them, he turned to face them, deciding to press further.

"What's the matter with you two? You're both acting funny."

"Everything's fine." She shot back.

"Yeah." He quickly agreed.

"This needs to stop." Cere butted in.

"What does?" Altheeda asked.

"The denial. We know you both well enough now to figure out that something isn't right."

Cal pursed his lips and she knew she there was no use in avoiding the subject. She wondered why she even tried at all, it was a bit of a silly move on her part.

"BD also knew something was up. I guess I – uh, we owe you all an explanation."

She turned to Cal, wordlessly asking for permission and he simply gestured over to Cere and Greez, ready to hear how she was going to speak about their situation.

"We just... we decided to keep things professional." She spoke slowly.

"Yeah, professional."

"Wait what?!" The latero frowned.

"That must not have been an easy decision." Cere spoke solemnly. "But we respect your choice."

"Speak for yourself." Greez grumbled.

The purring of the ship machinery, now considerably quieter due to Altheeda's work, mingled with the white noise. Cal could feel the guilt that dominated in her body language and it was only making his guilt heavier.