wes overby • galen marek (starkiller) (failsith) wrote in thereincarnates, @ 2010-11-28 20:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | joelle foster, wesley overby |
Who: Joelle Foster and Wes Overby.
What: Wes wakes up at Joelle’s and has no idea why.
When: Very early Sunday morning.
Where: Joelle’s place, DC.
Warnings TBD.
Wes opened his eyes, his brain slowly trying to catch up. The first thing he noticed was that he wasn’t in bed. He was...on a sofa. Blinking blearily, he tipped his head to the side. It wasn’t even his sofa. But that couldn’t be right. He’d gone to sleep at home. At his home. So where the fuck was he now? Unless someone had replaced his furniture with a lot nicer stuff, he was somewhere else. What the hell?
You’re back. It’s about damn time. Back? What did he mean back? What was he doing back? Starkiller was the one that had been gone. Wes sat up quickly, running his hands over his face. It’s been a week. Everyone was gone, all of you. Picked a bad time to disappear on me, too. It took him a long minute to absorb that information. There was an easier way to explain these things to each other, though. Something the two of them had perfected a lot time ago. He closed his eyes again, slowing down his breathing and clearing his mind.
The separate memories merged, piecing together the story of the last two weeks. Starkiller saw what had happened while he wasn’t sharing brain space, and Wes was caught up on what Starkiller had been doing with his body. The connection nearly snapped when they got to the part where Leia was taken by Vader. They’d rescued her, though. Together with a few other Jedi, they’d gotten her out of there. That was why he was there, at Joelle’s home. Starkiller had insisted on staying, just in case Vader or the Emperor had tried anything again.
Snapping back to reality, he stood. Fuck, he didn’t even know what time it was. There was some sunlight peeking under the curtain, so it couldn’t be too early. Grabbing his discarded shirt from the back of a chair, he went down the hall to her bedroom. He hoped she was here, and that she wasn’t about to come at him with a blaster pistol when he knocked quietly.
---
Joelle, on the other hand, hadn’t woken up immediately confused. She’d woken up in her own bed, there was nothing abnormal about that. What had confused her though was immediately upon waking up, she heard Leia’s voice in her head telling her to snap out of it so they could talk. It had taken a moment or two but Joelle had managed to sit up in bed and shake herself into some state of relative alertness, working on rubbing all the sleep out of her eyes as the Princess in her head rattled on. It wasn’t until Leia got to the words ‘Vader’ and ‘kidnapped’ that Joelle really woke up and immediately protested.
“I don’t know what the hell you’re going on about, you probably hit your fictional head on something while you were gone this whole week. That never happened,” Joelle grumbled under her breath, throwing back the covers on her bed and getting up to go inspect herself in her full length mirror. It’s been two weeks, Joelle. You’ve been god knows where this past week, and what I’m telling you is the truth. I’m not making this up. Don’t believe me? Take a look at your wrists.
With an exasperated sound Joelle humored her head mate and held her wrists up to see them in the dim light of her bedroom and immediately winced. Those are called burn marks. Your wrists were bound too tightly, the rope cut into your skin and left marks behind. They’ll take awhile to fade. We were only rescued two days ago. Joelle looked at herself a little harder in the mirror and she couldn’t deny now that she didn’t look different from the last time she remembered seeing herself in any sort of reflection. Her blond hair was a tangled mess though that was nothing new, it always got that way after she’d slept on it. But her eyes were bloodshot and she had dark circles under them, and aside from the rope burns on her wrists she had bruises on her arms and other parts. Like she’d been in some sort of struggle.
In the midst of looking at herself in growing horror, there was a soft knock at her bedroom door that made her nearly jump out of her skin and she suddenly remembered the part about Wes, or rather Starkiller saving them. And something about him still being here? She didn’t even think about the fact that it could be someone else at her door, someone who meant her harm, or even about the fact that she was still in her pajamas. She had to know if what Leia was telling her was the truth. She made a dash for her door and yanked it open, her eyes immediately falling on Wes and her body sagged a little in relief. “... You are here. That... God. That really happened?”
---
She looked pretty rough, but from Starkiller’s account, that was to be expected. They’d been through a lot, even if they hadn’t exactly been around for it. He was sporting a few new wounds of his own, apparently from bumping in to whatever thugs Vader had left to keep a watch on Leia. Nothing serious, which proved that he hadn’t tussled with another Sith, but he’d definitely been in a fight. It was for a good cause, though, so he definitely wasn’t complaining. He’d told Joelle he’d look after her, and Starkiller had kept them both good to their word. At least he knew he could count on him.
“I am. And it did.” He stepped forward, a little hesitant. She’d looked surprised when she first opened the door, though now she just looked ready to fall over. If she did, he’d try to catch her. “Starkiller caught me up already. Sounds like we had a shite week.” He tried to smile, even if he was still reeling from the things he was only just remembering. It was all over, even if he did still feel like tearing Vader a new one. All of Galen’s rage was seeping over. Luckily, Wes was a lot better at controlling it. “You’re okay?”
---
“Yeah... yes. It certainly seems that way. Leia filled me in. Even with the memories, it’s still hard to...” The word ‘believe’ died on her lips and she couldn’t muster up the energy to return the smile as she leaned heavily against the door frame. It was hard to believe that they had just spent a week literally not there. Where had they gone? They’d probably never know, but in her place, Leia had been kidnapped by her own father and held hostage by him and the emperor. The emperor.
Joelle’s blood ran cold at the same time as color rose to her face. This is exactly what Joelle had insisted to Wes would never happen. How could she have been so stupid? Leia’s memories of their time in captivity were still coming in hard and fast and it was difficult not to wince at each new one. That had not been a pleasant time for her, and Joelle was almost grateful she’d been absent. Before they’d been rescued, Leia had really thought she was going to die. That was a feeling that was impossible for Joelle to forget at the moment.
“I’m fine, I guess, I’m just not sure if I...” Suddenly her eyes widened, and she looked at Wes with a new surge of panic, lurching forward and grabbing onto his arms. “My father. Do you know if my father’s alright? They didn’t go after him too, did they? If they did I’m going to kill them.”
---
He knew how she felt. He wasn’t quite sure if he believed it either. If it wasn’t for his almost flawless connection with Starkiller, he wouldn’t have. It went against everything he’d ever known as a reincarnate. The fact that they were who they were proved that nothing was impossible, but having him disappear for a week seemed improbable. Just when he thought things had settled, that it would never get stranger, something like this happened. He wasn’t sure how much more any of them could take.
When she grabbed him, he took her arms as well, mostly out of instinct. “What? No. I don’t know.” He smoothed his hands up and down, trying to calm her. “I doubt it. They knew you were gone because Vader said something. He...Starkiller knew right away that it was you that he’d taken. Vader was trying to taunt him, and Kenobi. He wouldn’t have needed to take your father to do that.” Wes wasn’t sure if that was comforting at all, but he was trying.
He gave her a soft squeeze. “I can check. You should maybe lie down again. It’s been a long week.”
---
His efforts had their desired effect. As soon as he grabbed onto her, her frantic breathing began to slow to a more normal pace. There was something so resolute, so solid about Wes Overby that she couldn’t help but succumb to him. Which was odd, Joelle Foster wasn’t the sort of woman that was easily subdued by anything or anyone, but from the first moment they’d met Wes had seemed to more or less hold the key to her unraveling. She would never even think about dissolving into any kind of hysterics in front of anyone else.
What he was saying to her was comforting, though she was still having a hard time processing it all. Vader had been taunting them, Starkiller had known right away it was her they’d taken? It all seemed so surreal. The only thing that seemed at all real to her at the moment was the single realization that Wes had saved her. Well, Starkiller, technically, but they were one in the same. Even if Wes hadn’t actually been present at the time, that didn’t matter to her. He’d looked out for her and he’d saved her, just like he’d said he would, when she’d needed him the most.
“... Okay. Yeah. That might be good.” Joelle nodded numbly. It was probably a good idea, she was still feeling dizzy though she was managing to keep herself pretty steady on her feet. Without really thinking about it, she let go of his arms and leaned into him, wrapping her own arms around his neck in the tightest hug she’d ever given anyone before in her life. “Thank you,” she whispered after a moment, smiling to herself as she squeezed a little tighter, completely unaware of the fact that they were both still standing awkwardly in her doorway. “Both of you.”
---
The part he hadn’t added was why Starkiller had known, immediately, who Vader had taken. If it hadn’t been Joelle, there would have been no reason for Vader to say anything to him. That was what had tipped him off. Vader had a history of taking the woman that Starkiller cared about. Just because he had hardly known Leia didn’t mean that there hadn’t been a connection there, a connection that was all Wes’s feelings for Joelle. He cared about her a great deal considering they’d hardly just met. What would have been a minor blow to Starkiller would have devastated his host, and that was why he’d acted the way he had. Whatever else his reincarnate might be, Wes knew that he was nothing if not loyal.
His arms went automatically around her when she moved against him. He hugged her back, the relief that she really was okay finally coming through. Pressing his lips against her hair, he squeezed her just as tightly as she was squeezing him. “It was our pleasure, princess.” Never big on emotional situations, he was doing his best to lighten the mood a little. Leaning back, he unraveled one arm so that he could cup her chin, tipping her face up to his. He was grinning, that cheeky ‘give ‘em hell’ grin that had gotten him in to a lot of trouble in his teens. “Maybe I’ll actually be around for the next one, yeah?”
---
Joelle laughed softly against him, closing her eyes as she felt him kiss her hair and for a moment she simply puzzled over the curious plummet her stomach took. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant, just curious. She’d never really felt this way before so it was hard for her to put her finger on it. One thing she knew for sure was that she liked the way Wes was with her. He didn’t seem to care that she was a pain in the ass, and she didn’t even mind that he called her ‘princess’. Anyone else would have been verbally ripped a new one a long time ago, but for some reason she’d never minded with him.
When he took her chin and tilted her face up to meet his, all the initial confusion all but dropped away as she swallowed. She was an idiot to think that she didn’t have feelings for him, she did, despite the short amount of time they’d known each other. How could she not? Especially when he was grinning at her like that. Apparently Leia wasn’t the only one who liked scoundrels. “Mmm. Maybe. I’d say there won’t be a next one, but let’s face it, girls like me are always getting into some kind of trouble.” Joelle smiled back at him as she held his gaze. The way he was looking at her making her feel uncharacteristically nervous, especially with how close in proximity they were to each other. She paused for a long moment, thoughtfully, one hand gripping his shoulder as he held her chin suspended in the air before she finally leaned in and kissed him. Probably insanely inappropriate giving the timing, and there was always the possibility that he didn’t feel the same way, but it was hard not to get carried away under the circumstances. Besides, wasn’t this how princesses said thank you? That was her excuse.
---
When she smiled back, he figured he could call it a win. Just going off of Starkiller’s emotionally stunted memories he knew that she hadn’t had an easy time of things. Sure it hadn’t technically been her, but Leia’s memories were in there, too. And they were probably a lot more traumatizing then just ‘get princess, kill Vader’. They hadn’t actually succeeded in that last part, of course. Not with the Jedi crowd all but running the show, but a man could dream. Starkiller was a man of few dreams, killing Vader being his top priority. Too bad Vader was some college aged kid now. If he were back to that after the last week, there was nothing either of them could do. Except seethe silently. There was nothing that could deny them that.
Oh, she was trouble all right. He’d known it the first time she smiled at him. And now she was doing it again, only this time it was even worse because he was still holding her close. “Lucky for you, I’ll be around for it, too.” What, there was no way she was getting rid of him now. Not when he’d even convinced Starkiller to look after her when he was away. Nothing he’d been through with her prepared him for what she did next, though. He sucked in a surprised breath through his nose when she kissed him. It wasn’t a bad surprise. Wes returned her kiss, gently and a little hesitantly. She had just been through a trauma, after all. This could just be because she was...he didn’t know. Tired, desperate, something. His hand moved from her chin, fingers brushing against the smooth skin of her cheek.
---
She almost pulled back when he sucked in a breath, afraid that she’d offended him. She did have a bad habit of jumping into things without thinking, including how they would affect other people. But he didn’t seem to mind, after a second or two he was kissing her back, if possible more hesitantly then the kiss she’d initiated. But that was enough. The smallest sigh escaped her throat at the soft brushing of his fingers on her cheek. After a bit of inward coaxing she took a tiny step to press herself flat against him, gripping the back of his neck with one hand and curling fingers into his hair. She’d kissed plenty of guys, but she couldn’t say she’d ever felt quite so invested in a first kiss. She didn’t even mind the scruff.
Joelle inhaled a breath through her own nose, unwilling to break the kiss just yet and instead she tilted her head a little to the side, still kissing him just as softly but a little more firmly. She was tired, yes. And more then a little at loose ends after the events of the morning, but not so much that she was mistaking this for a temporary moment of insanity. She’d been wanting to do this for awhile, she’d just been too proud to admit it to anyone, even herself. After a long moment she broke the kiss, pulling an inch or two away and smiling sheepishly. “I count myself very lucky... I’d definitely rather you stick around. If it’s all the same to you.”
---
After everything else they’d been through in the last two weeks, the fact that he was standing in her flat shortly after dawn and kissing her for the first time seemed just as unbelievable as the rest. Not that he was complaining. This was a good turn of events. The best. It was just a lot to process after the absolutely mad morning that they’d had. He tried to block that out while he was kissing her. This was all that mattered, this one moment. They could worry about the rest later. There would be plenty of time to sort it all out, especially considering just how much there was to sort.
He brushed a stray strand of hair away from her face as she leaned back. Even looking like she’d been through a tussle, she was still beautiful. If anyone was lucky here, it was him. Apparently he’d picked up Starkiller’s ability to attract women who were way too good for him. “Your wish is my command, love.” He was still smiling when he leaned in to give her another brief kiss.
“Come on. You’re still dead on your feet.” Gently, he started to steer her back toward the bed. There were no ulterior motives here, not now. She really did look like she could use a few more hours of sleep.
---
Joelle didn’t have the energy to argue with him, so she let him steer her towards her bed with no protests. She was definitely tired, though she wasn’t sure she was tired enough to sleep again just yet. If she even wanted to sleep, which she was pretty sure she didn’t. Sleeping would mean missing time with Wes, which she definitely didn’t want. That is unless she asked him to stay. Could she do that? She didn’t necessarily mean anything by it either, other then craving his continued company and simply not wanting him to leave. There wasn’t a set protocol for this and she was having a hard time deciding what to do, she just hoped the frustration wasn’t showing on her face.
She was still holding onto him and therefore walking backwards, so she didn’t see when she finally came to the side of the bed. The sudden collision however soft, immediately forced her into a sitting position and the moment she sat down on the edge of the bed her entire body was relieved. Even if she hadn’t exactly been around for the week’s events, her body certainly had been, so she was feeling the full weight of it all now. Joelle looked up at Wes hesitantly, her hands had traveled down to grasp both of his as she’d lowered down on the bed before she freed one hand to brush more hair out of her face, biting her bottom lip decisively. “What about you? You’ve got to be pretty exhausted, what with all the rescuing. You should... rest too. Stay here and sleep, if you want.”
---
Wes gave her hands a squeeze, blocking out just how tempting she looked sitting on the edge of her bed with her hair all mussed. Her invitation was yet another surprise. It seemed like she was full of them. He wasn’t delusional enough to think that there was some other meaning behind the offer. Even if there had been, he would have turned it down. Now wasn’t the time for that, not in the completely off-kilter frame of mind they were both in. He turned the idea over in his head before coming to the conclusion that there was no reason not to stay in the most innocent sense. Slowly, he nodded. “Okay.”
The moment he sat on the bed, his body seemed to remember that it had been sleeping on a couch for the last two nights. He’d been through some rough conditions before, but he was still a little stiff. Starkiller wasn’t much for comfort. Wes didn’t have that kind of training. He settled in, his bones practically sighing in relief, and opened his arms up to her. With things as freaky as they were, he was just as happy with company as she was.
---
Joelle had never been so grateful that Wes seemed to be a man of few words. Normally that might bug her, as she was usually a woman of so many. Not this time. As soon as her own words had left her mouth she’d realized how they’d sounded. Fortunately, he hadn’t seemed to take them that way, or if he had he’d kept it to himself. She was even more relieved when he said yes, with all the confusion inside her head at the moment she couldn’t stand the thought of being alone with them. No, she’d much rather have his company, for as long as she could have it before they were forced to actually get up and deal with things. Hopefully they’d as least be able to get a few more hours of sleep before having to do any of that. Anyway, it was barely dawn, they were allowed to ignore the day for a little while longer.
She laid down on the bed after him and eagerly slid into his arms when he opened them to her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this affectionate with anyone, she obviously wasn’t all right in the head. She didn’t much care though, especially once she’d curled up next to him and wormed her way into the crook of his arm, draping one of her own across his waist and resting her head on his chest instead of the pillow. The moment her head hit his chest she already felt herself slowly drifting off. “Thanks, Wes,” she mumbled sleepily, half muffled against the material of his shirt. “Wake me if anything important happens? You know, like an apocalypse or someone else trying to kidnap me. Aliens, maybe.”