The plan was to begin Tuesday's mission before dawn, since neither the cargo manifest nor the note about the Alba Varden had specified a time of departure for the boat--if boat it was--carrying lot number 8311. Therefore, it was not the light of the dawn that woke Josh and Becki from sleep.
"Wake up sleepyheads," Vickie said as she telekinetically tossed a pillow in Josh's direction. The two had remained in the same positions as last night when she'd put blankets over them to keep out the chill of the night. A slight smile tugged at her face as she headed for the kitchen.
They blinked blearily at each other, stretched, looked around in confusion. "What time is it?" Josh muttered.
"Sunrise is in two hours," Vickie's voice reached them from the kitchen. "We want to be on the river before that happens, don't we?"
"Maybe you do," Josh groaned under his breath as he flopped back onto the couch. He looked as though he could be going back to sleep until, at length, he managed to force his eyes open again. "Ugh," he said, "there must be more comfortable ways to spend the night before a mission."
"Yeah," said Becki, rubbing at her eyes, then wincing. "And remind me next time we fall asleep on the couch to take the contacts out first. . . ."
"Ouch."
"That must have been a really boring movie, whatever it was, if we both fell asleep in the middle of it."
"No. No, we didn't. I turned it off, remember?"
"Oh. Did you?" She blinked and yawned. "I must've been half asleep already by then."
"No wonder you've never seen many movies. The mere mention of them puts you to sleep."
Becki rolled her sore eyes at him. "I can't believe we slept here the entire night," she said around another yawn.
"Awww, how cute," Vickie said in her most sarcastic tone as she walked back through the room. "Y'all look so cozy."
"Well, it's not like.." Josh stammered. He was beginning to blush, realizing for the first time how this could look to their teammates. Suddenly he was glad that the other two weren't there.
He glanced over at Becki to see that she too was turning red. "We were talking about movies, and it had been such a long day, and I guess we-"
"Oh relax, both of you," Vickie said impatiently as she raised a hand to forestall further explanation. "You're out in the middle of the living room. It' s not like you spent the night alone together. Honestly," she said, shaking her head in exasperation.
Josh and Becki traded a look, both realizing they had been more embarrassed than they really ought to be. That realization only served to increase their embarrassment, though, and they both turned even more red.
"So, um, I think I'll go take a shower now," Josh said as Vickie walked away, fighting hard against a new wave of blushing.
Forty-five minutes later, a miraculous amount of time in Josh's estimation since it included Becki taking a shower and getting dressed, too, the team gathered in the living room before going out for their mission. They looked better, somehow, than they had the morning before. Maybe, against all logic, they'd all caught up on their rest last night despite the tensions during the last half of the previous day. He certainly felt more awake and ready to go than a night spent on a couch would normally suggest. Becki's eyes told a similar story. They were bright and clear, almost eager to get back to work. For her part, Vickie seemed awake and alert, though Josh felt a knot of uneasiness in her Force presence. Something was clearly on her mind, but at least now there was no anger tingeing it.
There had certainly been enough of that flying around yesterday. Josh glanced cautiously at Mike, wondering if he should say something about the night before, wondering if it would make a difference. He had no idea what had come over him in the moment he struck the other agent. It was an anger unlike anything he'd ever felt. It came on like a freight train and was gone just as quickly. Twenty minutes later he'd been talking and laughing with Becki. Now, looking at Mike, thinking about the night before, he felt nothing but regret for the way he'd treated him.
And at the rate those regrets were piling up on this mission he'd soon be able to make a little fort out of them. Chief among them was that there were only four people here, rather than the six they'd started with. Vickie believed Crispy was alive and well, and for now that was good enough for Josh. Brad had always been a loner but Josh couldn't help but wonder if there was something more he could have done, something lacking in his leadership that inspired Brad to strike out on his own. Other than having a whole bowl of homemade guacamole dumped on him, of course. So it was happening as it always had - he was forgetting to lead, to set the example for the rest of his team to follow. How many times had this pattern repeated itself?
At least the investigation itself was finally beginning to pay off. The previous afternoon, despite all its frustrations, was the first time he had felt that there might be a conclusion to this mission. They were finally developing some helpful leads. He tried to focus on that, use even the small sense of victory it brought him to wash away the stench of hopelessness and frustration that threatened to settle over him.
"So Mike and Vickie will take the Rive Droite, Becki and I the Rive Gauche," he was saying to the group. "We'll head downstream from Ile-de-la-Cité to set up surveillance so we'll be sure not to miss the Alba Varden if it goes by us.
"If you spot it, get everyone there right away. We stay out there 'til we find it or it's not Tuesday anymore. This is the best lead we've had all week, and I really don't want to lose it. Any questions on the plan?"
There apparently were none. Realizing he was pacing back in forth in lecture mode, Josh took a seat that put him on the level of the rest of the team and dropped his voice to a more conversational tone. "Guys, I know things haven't been great the last few days. Yesterday was. . . well, something I don't want to go through again. I know some of us are having trouble trusting each other, but we can't afford that right now. We have a mission to do here, now, and as much as I'd like for us all to be great friends I'll settle for just being able to work together and get our job done. This mission is too important. We haven't talked much about it, but we all know what could happen if we fail. We can't let that happen. So for now we need to put whatever differences we have aside because, like it or not, we have to rely on each other to get this job done. We just can't be as petty and as childish as we were yesterday."
Then Mike coughed, to get the others' attention. They looked at him, half-expecting another outburst; instead the Brit looked at his team-mates, and managed a watery smile. The dark circles around his eyes spoke of a sleepless night, but Vickie for one drew hope, bizarrely, from his white shirt and blue jeans. The trench coat and dark clothes were nowhere in sight, and that meant that Mike might be in a better mood that the day before.
Mike sighed, and then began to talk. "I guess I owe you all an apology. I've been feeling, well, off, for a while now, and what with all the stress of the mission, I wasn't in a very good mood yesterday. I'm sorry I took my feelings out on you. It was unworthy of me, and I should have found a better way of voicing my concerns. I guess I don't take nearly dying too well."
Vickie smiled at the weak joke. "Do you still have those concerns?" she asked. Mike closed his eyes, as though he'd hoped to avoid the question, but answered after a short pause.
"Yes," he said, looking down at the bare wood floor of the apartment. "But I can put that to one side, for now. I may not agree with the way this mission has gone, but Josh is the leader, and I'll follow his orders." He looked up briefly at Josh, before lowering his eyes again. "Any other issues between myself and members of this group," his eyes flickered to Becki, "well, they should wait until we get clear of here."
Josh nodded, accepting the compromise. He looked around at his colleagues. "Any other business?"
The others shook their heads.
"Good, let's go."
The foursome, dressed warmly, for the winter chill was going to be very prominent on the river, exited the apartment building into the early dawn. Vickie was the last to exit, tugging at the sleeve of her jacket.
Becki and Mike continued forward, both keeping some distance between them. Josh hung back to let Vickie catch up. "Hi," he said as she joined him.
"Hi."
His hands were shoved in the pockets of his jacket. "I wanted to apologize for yesterday. I don't know what came over me."
She cocked her head to look at him. His features seemed calmer, yet she still felt that twinge of fear emanating from him. "We all have to deal with it at one point."
"The Dark side?" he asked.
She nodded. "It's not easy."
"That's for sure. I mean, I really have no idea what happened. One minute I was standing there and the next, I'd punched Mike. I've never done anything like that in my life."
"'The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded'," she quoted. "But the Dark side is more powerful."
"You've never told me about your bout with the Dark side."
"There are only three people who know. And only two are from this galaxy." Her mind traveled back to New Hampshire and her solitary confinement aboard the Red Home. "I hadn't known for long about my abilities. So, I was very open to the Dark side.
"Brad had left hurriedly and I was blamed. Ok, it really was my fault, but..." she paused and exhaled. "Wedge put me under house arrest and sent me to the Red Home for confinement.
"Hours upon hours alone in a quiet room is enough to drive anyone crazy. Especially me. Corran had told me to meditate. Well, I'd been having a hard time with it, clearing my mind, but I finally did and that left me wide open."
"The Dark side decided to make its presence known," Josh said knowingly.
She nodded and looked towards Mike. "It attacked me at my soul. My deepest fears it presented to me. Failure, fear, loss of control. And you could never imagine what brought me back."
"What?"
"That little voice inside my head. That one part of me that eventually became real."
"Kelly."
She smiled. "'Your insight serves you well.' She begged me to not let her disappear. That's a good thing, I guess. My clone would have been identical to me instead."
"And that would be a bad thing?" Josh grinned.
"Youthful with a full life to live is better than old and useless."
He rolled his eyes. "You and your age hang-up."
She stopped and let him walk past. After a moment, she jogged to catch up, him having never noticed. "The Dark side is still present around us. We must be careful."
"I know," he replied with a nod. "I feel it." He quickened his pace slightly to catch up with Mike and Becki. "I probably should apologize to him." He motioned towards the young man in front of them.
"Not yet," Vickie replied. "Let's get this day finished first. I have a feeling we're going to need to concentrate today."
He nodded and moved up to walk beside Becki. Vickie watched his aura grow brighter. She sighed, frowning slightly, and kept up with the group.
A short time later they arrived at the point where the pairs were to split. "You two be careful," Josh said.
"And you as well," Vickie said seriously.
Mike cleared his throat. "If I may suggest, comm silence unless we find the ship."
Josh nodded "Agreed."
"A bientot," Vickie said with a wave.
"Et vous," Becki replied with a grin. Together with Josh, she headed towards the stairs leading to Rive Gauche.