Kadance

35

"Lift off tomorrow Tommy. Once on board your therapy starts in earnest," Kadance says. She's sitting at Tommy's side holding his hand.

"Good, I've hated this bed rest and baby steps," Tommy says in disgust. "I feel like I'm a thousand years old."

"Well you don't look a day over sixty." Kadance says straight faced, finding it hard to keep the smile off her face but somehow managing it.

Tommy gives her a dark look, "Ha ha, so very funny. Not."

Kadance gives in to her laughter. "Sorry love, couldn't help myself. I know you're only forty." She says brushing the hair off his forehead and kissing it.

Tommy is outraged. "Thirty-nine thank you very much. I'm only thirty-nine. Jayse is forty." He stops and takes a deep breath. He listens to her laughter, but as he looks at her closely he sees signs of her previous tears.

His tone softens, "What's going on Kadance? Why were you crying?" Tommy's question is sudden and it startles her.

Kadance sighs and sobers quickly. She gives him a shaky smile, "Nothing bad Tommy. The boys gave me a present. A wonderful present. It just brought up some memories and I cried, for a long time. I'm afraid I soaked Jayse's shirt. I wanted to make sure I didn't leave it behind so I packed it already. I'll show it to you once we're on board."

Tommy lets it go with that but his curiosity is piqued and it's going to drive him crazy not knowing until after boarding tomorrow. So to distract himself he asks, "We still going to Celeste and then to Luna Two?" He closes his eyes finding himself more tired than he cares to admit even to himself.

"Yes, I cancelled the Holdings ship some time ago. Part of the new contract requires Captain Landon as our transport. No great hardship seeing as how he'd already planned on it. Rueton is not going to be happy about the round about trip back to Gaia." Kadance shrugs, at this point she doesn't care about Rueton's feelings or comfort.

Tommy smirks. "What else did you demand?" Tommy asks, his blue eyes open and watching her intently. Knowing her she didn't ask for much and he's curious just how far she pushed things.

She shrugs again, "Not much, complete autonomy, top clearances, respect and trust." Then she smirks and that grabs Tommy's attention. The other he had expected and was nothing more than she was supposed to have originally. "Oh, and I demanded Lighten to be our liaison. I refuse to deal directly with Command anymore."

Tommy is pleased with that last. Kadance didn't like how Command treated her and he didn't like having Kadance upset. "That's it? Love there is no way Command will believe that's all you want," Tommy says softly.

Kadance shrugs, "Then there will be no new contract." Kadance is totally unconcerned, there are other things she can do other than diffuse the redliners and suiciders. "If they can't trust me, then I sure as hell can't trust them."

"They will trust you." Lighten says entering the room and catching the tail end of their conversation. "I just wanted to bring you a copy before I send it off to Command." He hands her the contract. She looks it over and hands it to Tommy. He reads it over and hands it back. "Is there anything else you want to add?"

"Nope, not that I can see. Want me to sign that now?" Kadance asks.

"No, wait until Command looks it over, then I'll have you sign." He hesitates, "Are you sure you don't want more concessions?"

"The only thing I might want is Landon to be personally assigned to us. That wouldn't be good for any of us. He needs to be free to fight. Especially since once we reach Gaia I'll be grounded for an indeterminate amount of time. Leave it as it stands Colonel. I can get anything else I might need. Quite frankly I don't like relying on the government for stuff. If I buy our stuff then it's ours and I know my boys like it that way."