Joelle Foster + Princess Leia Organa (notacommittee) wrote in thereincarnates, @ 2010-11-10 18:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | joelle foster, wesley overby |
Who: Joelle Foster and Wes Overby
What: The slightly more overwhelmed Lucas reincarnates decided to stick together. And drink to cope.
When: Wednesday evening, November 10 2010
Where: Washington, D.C.
Warnings: Too much cute.
Joelle wasn’t normally the type to agree to a meeting with someone she’d never met before in this life time. She had meetings with politicians and those related and employed to them on a daily basis but that was all part of the job, normally she’d think twice before going out for a drink with a man she’d met on the internet that only Leia seemd to know. That was enough though, if there was one other person’s judgment she trusted other then her father’s, it was Leia’s. Besides, the past couple days had been more then a little overwhelming for them both. The last thing they’d ever expected coming onto the boards was to find such a widely ranged group of Lucas reincarnates. The first two people to say hi to her had been the reincarnates of Darth Vader and of all people, Han Solo. Aside from her conversations with Wes Overby and the reincarnate of Leia’s brother Luke, it had all been down hill from there. Factor in the added bonus of finding out that Senator Cho was none other then the reincarnate of Palpatine, and Joelle and Leia both were in a right state.
She’d met Wes at the D.C. MTN at seven as they’d planned and from there she’d taken him to a bar across town, one of her more favored locations. It wasn’t exactly upscale, it was actually a little on the seedy side but in a charming sort of way, or at least she thought so. You might not think the reincarnate of Leia Organa would favor the dive bar scene, but she got a certain kick out of it. Besides, it was these sorts of places where you were more likely to hear the most ruthless gossip circulating the White House, even the sorts of places where you might find otherwise respectable Senators and their staff getting up to no good. Joelle always had her eye out for these things, it was part of the job, plus she took a very personal interest in them herself.
Except for tonight, her interest was directed more at the man sitting next to her and the drink in her hand. She was a bit of a light weight, it only took a few drinks to really get her head fuzzy and the martinis here were strong. She’d long ago discarded her button up jacket and thrown it onto the booth next to her, her clothing much more casual then it might have been on any other given day. It was entirely possible she was trying to make an impression on her new friend that was something other then the abrasive daughter of an ex-Senator that every one else knew. If she was going to start socializing with other reincarnates on a regular basis, she’d rather it be with others that seemed to be in her same boat, and at the time Wes had seemed to be just as overwhelmed as she had. “You know I never thought about it before, but this place reminds me a little of Mos Eisley Cantina. Minus all the aliens and freight pilots, though I think that might be an air force officer over there...”
---
It had to be all the interstellar space travel in his memories that made jumping across multiple time zones so easy for him. He hadn’t spent much time in the States since he’d left Camelot and hadn’t needed to be sent to every corner of the globe, but apparently using the MTN was just like riding a bike. He’d managed it without any of the nausea that usually struck reincarnates. Which was good, because Joelle seemed like the kind of woman who would demand all his attention. Just like the princess. He wasn’t exactly the smarmy sort of guy who invited out women the first time they talked, but she’d seemed like she needed a pal. There had been a lot more reunions than he had expected, not all of them good. At least a few of them hadn’t been completely awkward. Starkiller hadn’t been happy to see the Emperor or Vader, but Leia wasn’t so bad. Even if she had been a bit on the bossy side.
He’d loosened up a little when they got to the bar. It wasn’t the ritzy kind of place he’d been half expecting from someone like her. It had occurred to him about halfway there that this might be an odd night. Luckily, it didn’t seem like that would be a problem. They’d started right in on the drinks, keeping it more toward safe topics than diving straight in to their few shared memories. He was okay with that. As much experience as he had with other reincarnates, he still wasn’t sure how to deal with this new round. There were a lot more of them now, and he didn’t know how they were going to take things. He was just glad someone else had come in as a new face around the same time. If nothing else, they could stick together.
“Really?” Wes snorted out a laugh. “I never made it to Tattooine. But you never know, there could be aliens or freighter pilots.” That was the problem with reincarnates. It was impossible to tell who was who, especially when they could mask their force signature. Fucking Palpatine. He took another drink to try to clear the thought from his head. “Hell, we might even qualify as that.”
---
“Oh yes, I wouldn’t be surprised to find a ‘No droids’ sign somewhere around here...” Joelle trailed off with a sly smile, taking another long sip of her drink and gulping it down. She wasn’t one to usually experience something like nerves, but then again it had been a long time since she’d done something like this. Even the other reincarnates she’d fought with in her father’s faction she’d kept at arms length. She’d never made a habit of doing the casual ‘get-to-know-each other’ thing on principle, especially when it came to a reincarnate hers knew. It was nice though, she was actually glad she’d agreed to this, she’d forgotten how rarely she ever talked about anything like this with anyone. Leia had often been lonely during their time together, but it wasn’t until Joelle had started talking to reincarnates Leia knew that she really realized just how lonely the princess had actually been.
She looked up at Wes, the corners of her mouth quirking in amusement at the thought. She often forgot just how abnormal their reincarnates were. Aliens and freighter pilots? Definitely not too far off from the truth. “At the very least we’re more than we seem, comes with the territory,” she said easily, taking another drink and her expression darkening just a little around the rim of her glass as her thoughts drifted for the millionth time to Senator Cho. It had taken nearly all her will power and Leia’s to keep them both from storming into the man’s office the minute they’d found out. Normally it was something Joelle wouldn’t hesitate to do, but this was Palpatine after all and she was no Jedi. She didn’t stand a chance. You would be surprised to learn how much that hardly made a difference to Joelle and her head mate. She settled back into the back of the booth and sighed. “Terribly inconvenient in certain circumstances. Had I known about Senator Cho sooner I might have been more inclined to stab him with a pen in his office while he wasn’t looking. Not that I had never entertained the idea before now. This would have only helped my case.”
---
Wes nodded along. He knew exactly what she meant. No one really looked at him and thought ‘there’s a guy who might kick my ass with a lightsaber’. It had been convenient, back when he was working for Camelot, and it helped him blend in with the mundies now. One of their greatest assets was being able to blend in with everyone else. If reincarnates started coming with visual cues, they were all in trouble. The normal people would probably start freaking out. However, it would be handy to know who they were all dealing with. Sometimes he wished it were as easy as picking out a lightsaber color.
He laughed when she verbalized his thoughts. “Don’t think that would have slowed him down much, luv.” The idea of anyone else facing off with Cho made him uncomfortable. The man had nearly killed him, and he was no patsy. Wes rubbed a hand over his hair, ignoring the sympathy twinges he was getting from the scars he’d picked up during their last go around. “Well, at least he can’t hide anymore. By now I figure about all of us know who he is. As long as nobody runs off half cocked and tries to take him on alone, we may have a chance once he finally drops a clue as to what he’s up to this time.” Not that he’d never done just that, back when he’d been young and foolish. It wasn’t a mistake he’d make again.
“So no stabbing him, pens or otherwise.” He gave her a stern look, knowing full well what the princess was capable of when she got it in her head that something needed to be changed. “Even if you do have a damn good reason.”
---
Joelle smiled a little at that, before giving him a look that clearly said ‘try and stop me’. She wasn’t sure how serious she was about it, but she couldn’t deny that Wes didn’t have a good reason to say that. Obviously he hadn’t forgotten about Leia’s stubbornness either, and it probably wouldn’t help things that when it came to setting her mind to something, Joelle was every bit as stubborn as Leia was. Her mind briefly flickered to her previous conversation with Wes about Leia’s habit of getting too close to the enemy for her own good but immediately pushed those thoughts aside. This wasn’t some galaxy far far away and Senator Cho was no longer an Emperor of any kind. If he tried anything with her, he’d have a lot harder of a time getting away with it.
“There’s not a lot he could get away with if I cornered him in his office. That is, if he wants to keep his job. He may be an absolutely dispicable politician, but he seems quite attached to his position. Can’t imagine why. Must have something to do with all that power,” she added bitterly, giving Wes a sidelong glance as if to reconsider his request before shrugging. “But if you’re asking me nicely, I guess I’ll think about keeping my pens to myself. For now. But if he so much as mumbles the words ‘more money from schools to aid our troops’, I really will kill him.”
Joelle paused, a frown visible on her face as she fell into silence for a moment, seeming to be thinking about something. That was probably rude, but it was easy for her to forget that she was in the company of other people when she had something weighing on her mind. “Do you think he is up to something?”
---
Was she forgetting what had happened to the last round of people who had tried to corner the Emperor in his office? Just because Wes hadn’t seen the movies didn’t mean he was oblivious to how that had gone down. Still, she did kind of have a point. He wasn’t in control of the entire planet this time, and Joelle was a lot more high profile than some scruffy kid from Manchester. She would be a much harder target to hit. That was a relief. He hated to think of what would happen to someone without force powers to defend themselves if Cho came calling.
“I wasn’t askin’ nicely, but if it’ll keep you out of trouble, I’ll pretend to.” He gave her his best ‘no, really, I’m not being an arsehole’ smile. It always have varying degrees of success, though in this case he didn’t know if he cared if it worked. He was just trying to keep her out of trouble. Starkiller felt like he owed her something. No, that wasn’t quite right. There was a connection though, one he couldn’t explain, that came from being some of the founding members of the Rebellion. Maybe he felt the need to look after them better this time.
He sighed, leaning back heavily in the booth. “Honestly, I’d put money on it.” His grin held none of the humor that it had only minutes before. “But I’m jaded and cynical. I don’t see him having a change of heart out of nowhere. The way I see it, he’s lulling us in to complacency. Or trying to. Won’t work well on me, I’m afraid. I haven’t forgotten our last run in.”
---
“Oh, great. A strategic lull. That’s my most favorite thing in the whole wide world,” Joelle’s voice dripped with sarcasm as she took another sip of her drink before deciding to change positions and lean forward onto the table. Her head was starting to feel increasingly lighter and it was about three drinks in that she started to relax in her posture as well so instead of the straight backed position she’d been in most of the night, she twisted herself to lean forward and plant her elbow on the table, resting the side of her head in her hand. Wes was still in her direct line of vision though a cascade of blond hair had fallen over her shoulder and obstructed half of her view which she had to blow out of her face before settling.
He intrigued her. For one, he wasn’t the reincarnate of Darth Vader or Han Solo so he already had a lot more pluses in his column. It also helped that they seemed to be from similar back grounds when it came to the Reincarnate war, not to mention their connections from their past lives. It always interested her to see just how much of a reincarnate bled into its host, and Wes was very much a conundrum to her and Leia at present. She knew Starkiller was in there somewhere, but just from looking at him it was hard to say just where. She did notice the way his grin fell though, and from his general mannerisms when talking about such topics as they were it was painfully obvious that he was a warrior. It was refreshing, Joelle and Leia had always been able to relate more to the rebellious types. Can’t imagine why. “You’ve had a run in with him before...?” There was the fainest hint of concern in her features as she brushed another strand of hair from her face and focused on him. “What happened?”
---
Maybe he had been hanging with the wrong kind of women, but he’d never actually seen a woman get progressively more, well, adorable the more she drank. Usually they just got sluttier and a whole lot looser. The way she slumped over and blew the hair out of her eyes almost made him laugh. It was hard to place the challenging princess he’d known in his last life with the girl sitting across from him. That wasn’t always a bad thing, though. No one wanted to get lost in their reincarnate, get so caught up in their memories that they lost themselves. The differences always soothed him a lot more than the similarities.
“I did. Back when I first got caught up in Camelot.” Wes spun his glass between his hands, debating just how much of the story he wanted to tell. While he did want to impress on her how much this guy meant business, they’d gone out for a nice evening to try to get away from all the drama that surrounded their reincarnates. “Well, I survived. Obviously.” He reached down and lit a cigarette, fortifying himself for the rest of the tale. “But barely. It was almost ten years ago. I was young and foolish, and he’s not the kind of man who likes to be toyed with.” If she really was going to try to start a fight with him, he’d have to show her the scars sometime. That would scare her straight.
Blowing out a cloud of smoke, he leaned forward. “He’s not lacking in any of the Emperor’s skills, I’ll tell you that much. I went on to fight other force adepts, but he was by far the worst.”
---
“Wow.” That was pretty much the most unintelligent thing she could have said in response to that and she very quickly mentally kicked herself for it. She was usually a lot better with words, but you know, alcohol tended to dull the speech as much as it dulled the senses and that had been the first thing to come out of her mouth. The more he talked though, the more she listened. She would have been less inclined to do so if she’d been at all sober. Joelle wasn’t the sort of woman who could be easily deterred by pretty (or in this case, somewhat ugly) speech, but she paid close attention to what he was saying.
“I just hope Luke doesn’t get any funny ideas. She still worries about him, and of course that makes me worry. You know Luke, he’s got the hero bug, it’d be just like him to run off and do something stupid. And if Laura is the same way...” She looked him over as she spoke, as if by simply looking at him she would be able to see any scars, externally or otherwise on his person from the event he’d been describing. She couldn’t, of course. The fact that Palpatine seemed to be as dangerous in this life as he was in his last did little to make Leia and Joelle worry less, or feel any less angry towards him. And of course it made them instantly more concerned for Laura and Luke, who had gotten far too much face time with the Emperor their last go around for her taste. “Well, I’m glad you’re still alive. Somehow that’s comforting to me, despite how not comforting the rest of that is.”
When he leaned forward so did she, almost conspiratorially so, and twisting to the side briefly to reach into her purse she pulled out a cigarette of her own and stuck it in her mouth. Filthy habit she’d never been able to get rid of, she was glad to see someone else she knew shared it. Joelle leaned in far enough to hold it in between two fingers and light the end of it with the end of his, blowing out a thin cloud of smoke to the side directly after wards and leaned back a little. “Guess we’ll just have to be prepared for anything, then.”
---
It said something about all their reincarnates that everyone seemed at least marginally concerned about each others safety. Even Starkiller, who had never been even remotely a ‘team player’, had felt the need to at least warn Leia about the Emperor lurking out there. Wes had gone even further and warned Luke, fearing that Cho would see Laura as another pawn that he could attempt to use against the rest of them. From one apprentice to another, he knew that nothing good could come of just the threat of being used, not when they all had too much of that damned Jedi pride.
“Laura doesn’t seem quite as naively optimistic as her other half. Not to mention she’s in with Camelot. That doesn’t necessarily make her smarter, but at least she’s got back up if shite heats up.” They had other Jedi now. If things did get bad, at least it wouldn’t be one idiot standing up to him this time. He was nearly relieved about that. As much as he wanted to take a chunk out of Cho all on his own, it never hurt to have other people on his side. “Thanks. I’m glad I’m still alive, too.”
His lips quirked in a half smile, holding perfectly still as she leaned in to light her cigarette off of his. The part of his brain that was all Wes and undeniably male couldn’t help but notice how devastatingly sexy that was. How she was. He gave her a long, considering look before Starkiller gave him the mental equivalent of a kick in the ass, reminding him just who this was. Like he could forget. “That’s generally the way to do it. Lord only knows what that wanker is up to, and I’d rather overestimate him than get caught with our pants down.”
---
“No, that is a most undesired scenario by all of us, I’m sure.” Joelle smirked softly around the end of her cigarette and exhaled another cloud of smoke as she settled back into the booth. She felt his gaze on her and curiously, it made her squirm a little in a way that she was not all that accustomed to. No matter. She immediately brushed it off and refocused on him with a smile, tilting her head to the side and reconsidering his last statement. “You tell me. I’m only familiar with him as a conservative, narrow minded political figure head. Though something tells me his approach to politics might in fact be similar to that of how he might have approached his work in CORE. Ruthless, cut throat, admittedly creative in his otherwise painful predictability, but still a very dangerous mind when it comes to achieving a desired goal. Abrupt, manipulative, heartless to the point of cruel, unfortunately intelligent, merciless? Am I warm?”
She stretched out a little in her seat, propping her elbow on the booth she leaned against and cradling her head in her hand. She looked to the side and out into the din of the bar as she took another drag, holding it for a moment before exhaling and resting that arm on her bended knee. Someone like Senator Cho would never even think about coming to a place like this, but she’d be lying if she said that in the past she’d never come here in the hopes of catching him doing something to completely compromise his position as senator. Joelle had hated the man with a passion from the very start, the fact that he was Emperor Palpatine only fueled that hatred. Yoda’s famous words about anger leading to hate and hate leading to the Dark Side suddenly went through her mind but she just rolled her eyes. She was no Jedi, and even if she was, she and Leia just weren’t the types to abuse the Force that way. She knew herself well enough to know that at least. She was irrational about a lot of things when it came to what she believed in, but one thing she never was, was careless. Not when it came to the really important things, like compromising yourself anyway. Leia did have a tendency to jump into things without thinking that far ahead, but Joelle either didn’t share that tendency or refused to admit that she did. Her gaze eventually found its way back to Wes, keeping her voice low when she spoke again.
“Even if you don’t like it, I may need to keep a closer eye on him. Someone has to, and currently I seem to be the only one of all of you that can get close enough to him without raising a million questions. He couldn’t just cause problems for us, you know. He’s a United States senator, he could make things very difficult on a much larger scale if he wanted. The Agency and Camelot have ties to nearly every world government out there, including the U.S. I don’t trust him to not slime his way into a greater position of power if he wanted, and let’s face it, Palpatine was rarely satisfied even when he was on top.”
---
“Actually, you’re spot on.” Wes hadn’t known the political side of Cho too well. It hadn’t come up when they’d been trying to slice each other in half, and he couldn’t say that he was too vested in American politics. He’d kept up with anything high profile that the senator did, simply because he knew that the man was dangerous, but Joelle had a firsthand view of what he had been up to. It was much closer to home for her, which explained why her description was so apt even before she’d known that he was the Emperor. If his views on gaining power hadn’t changed, they were all in trouble. The bastard was crafty, that was for damn sure, and he’d already gained some respect in the political community. Wes wasn’t sure what they would do if he gained more. Mundies didn’t understand these things, not really, and they were the ones voting for him.
“No. It’s too dangerous.” He frowned down at his glass. Even if she was right, he didn’t like the idea of her being anywhere near him, not now that he knew who they were. There may not have been a universe at stake this time, but they all had their own lives to consider. Being anywhere around him was a risk that he would never ask anyone else to take. But he had a feeling that it wouldn’t matter what he said, that she would trot along and do whatever she damn well pleased despite him disagreeing. Wes sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Fuckin’ hell. Just don’t do anything out of the ordinary. Nothing that’ll make him suspicious. If you can get something out of your normal routine, fantastic. Don’t go out of your way, though. He’ll notice, and then you’ll be in trouble.”
He offered her a weak smile. “And I’ve only got so many rescues in me, princess.”
---
Joelle couldn’t help looking a little pleased at that. She knew how frustrating it was trying to disagree with her, and it took a man of particular stones to even attempt to try. She had to appreciate those that did, and she found herself feeling especially grateful for Wes at the moment. He was a sort of blast from the past that she could deal with, maybe even like. He was actually proving to be pretty good company. And he didn’t necessarily treat her like the reincarnate of Princess Leia, which she could also appreciate. Even if he did call her ‘princess’, which she found herself curiously not minding so much. Well, it was ten times better then anything resembling ‘Your worship’. She inwardly bristled at the thought and she felt Leia sigh, which of course prompted another pang of guilt. It was no secret to Joelle how much Leia missed Han, but unfortunately for Leia there just wasn’t anything Joelle was even remotely willing to do about it.
She reached for her glass on the table and took another gulp, feeling that familiar buzz come back into her head and returned his weak smile with a more sincere one. It did touch her that he seemed actually concerned. “Of course. Won’t do anything that’ll get me in trouble, promise. In fact I’ll do you one better and say I’ll do my best not to ever need rescuing, from any Sith Lords or otherwise. Cross my heart.” She made a motion with her index finger over her chest like she was crossing her heart and took another drink before setting it down to return to the cigarette in her other hand, her voice taking on a more teasing tone then the seriousness of a few moments prior. “Anyway, who knows? Maybe it’ll be me rescuing you. Not all the time, but there were a few times where the men in Leia’s life were clearly the damsels in distress. You never know. I’ll be your only hope if you’ll be mine?”
---
He half laughed when she crossed her heart. They’d be fortunate if she even remembered this conversation, the way she was carrying on. “I’m going to hold you to that.” He didn’t know how good he would even be at rescues in this life. That wasn’t something that he’d had to try yet. Most of his work for Camelot had involved solo missions with a single target. There had never been occasion to get anyone out of trouble, not yet. It couldn’t be that different though. If she ever needed him for that, he would be there, he didn’t have a doubt about it.
Wes had always appreciated a woman who knew how to lighten the mood. Especially when he was failing so hard at it. He’d brought her out to get her mind off of things, not sit around and talk about how screwed they might be. He did laugh then, shaking his head slowly. “Now that would be something.” He grinned at her through a haze of smoke. There were worse fates than sitting across the table from a beautiful woman. Tomorrow they might be in a whole new fight for their lives, but for now things were pretty okay. “Gladly, luv. If I ever find myself in need of rescuing, you’ll be the first one I call.”
Gesturing the bartender over for a refill, he leaned across the table. “Just so long as you don’t tell anyone I was a damsel in distress, yeah?”
--
“In that case, I’m going to hold you to that.” Joelle averted her eyes from Wes for a moment to smile up at the bartender who came over and said a polite thank you when he brought her another martini without her having to ask. It was so very nice when people could just anticipate and didn’t need to be hounded for things. It could just be that Joelle hadn’t spent enough time in the company of attractive men lately but the way Wes grinned at her caused heat to rise at the base of her neck. That was odd. She’d just blame any flush to her skin on the alcohol she was very clearly consuming in front of him. Yes, that was a perfectly reasonable assumption. She was actually extremely perplexed by the way she was suddenly reacting to him but then she remembered how easily Leia could be flustered in the company of scoundrels. This Wes Overby seemed to fit that bill rather well, which she had to admit she didn’t exactly dislike.
With only last drag she put out her cigarette in the ash tray next to her on the table. Without really thinking about it she stretched out her now free hand to brush, almost fondly, a few stray bangs out of his eyes when he leaned forward and smiled at him. Attractive, he definitely was. Laura had been very right about that. She wasn’t going to let that cloud her thoughts any though. Probably. They should probably be a little more professional about this, and this right here was why she usually didn’t go out drinking with attractive men from her side of the galaxy that she’d just met. Obviously they had a strange affect on her. “Your secret’s safe with me. For all they know, you were the dashing rogue who came to the rescue in my hour of need. No distressing whatsoever on your part.”
---
He wished she wouldn’t do that. Now he remembered why he didn’t hang out with drunk women. They got handsy at all the wrong moments. Still, it was a sweet gesture. It would have been second nature for him to catch her hand after she brushed the hair out of his eyes, but he didn’t. Because she was drunk, and this was their very first meeting. It would have been rude. He may have spent his twenties beating the crap out of CORE goonies, but his mum (and his four insane sisters) had beat a lot of manners in to him. They were practically psychic about it, too. There was no way he wouldn’t hear about taking advantage on Sunday if he so much as thought about it.
“I like that story. It’d sell better.” Wes put out his cigarette as well, automatically reaching for another one. Drinking only made his chain smoking a hundred times worse. “I wouldn’t worry about it though, darlin’. I’m rarely distressing.” Stretching out a hand, he repeated her gesture, pushing the hair out of her eyes and behind her ear. Hey, there was a chance that she wouldn’t remember. If she kept on drinking, he was going to have to carry her home. Not that he had a problem with that. He was a dashing rogue, after all.
To keep himself in check, he leaned back, wrapping a hand around his glass. “So, luv, are you having fun yet?”
---
“Are you? That must be nice.” She couldn’t say the same for herself, it was far too easy to get her and Leia worked up. About anything, really. There was always something to distress over, especially in their line of work. If Joelle wasn’t so attached to her job, she’d seriously think about asking for a long vacation. That was unlikely to ever happen though, neither she nor her headmate seemed to know the meaning of the word. She blinked when he repeated her own gesture and brushed her hair out of her eyes and behind her ear. She wasn’t even sure why she’d done it in the first place but she hadn’t been expecting him to reciprocate. She was glad she wasn’t all that prone to blushing or this could have been even more embarrassing for her, but she was relieved when he leaned back. It kept her from doing anything else that could be construed as misguided and insanely stupid. Leia was already doing her best to mentally kick her into a more sober state.
“Yet? Sure I have, I’ve been having fun this whole time. You?” She ignored Leia’s protests and took another sip of her drink, making a face when she set it back down and leaned into the table to prop up her elbow and rest her chin in her hand. One thing she was sure of, she would have no trouble at all getting to sleep tonight. In fact, she was already starting to feel a bit sleepy. That wasn’t good. “You’re pretty alright. You know, for a Jedi,” Joelle teased, a soft, contented smile on her face that maybe told just how inebriated she really was as she give Wes a long, considering look of her own. “I will say this though, before this night is over you might have to carry me out of here. Hope you don’t mind.”