I do or don't, that's the question….

Disclaimer: none of the characters here are mine…blah blah blah. You get the drill.

Jacen nodded. Zekk quietly sliped in and closed the door behind him and made sure nobody would hear their conversation. Jacen stopped feeding his pets to listen.

Zekk leaned against the wall. He looked very paranoid and nervous.

"What's up? You look like you've seen a ghost," Jacen said.

Zekk tossed a small box to him.

Jacen opened it. "HOLY MOTHER OF THE FORCE!" he almost yelled, but managed to keep it at a normal tone. "Where did you get this? How did you get this? When…"

Zekk cut him off. "Lando's gemdiver station, Pechnim helped me buy it, thought about it a week ago," he answered.

Jacen turned the ring in his fingers. "Jaina won't admit it, but the past week you've been avoiding her and she is a bit frustrated. But now I know WHY you've been avoiding her," Jacen said with a grin.

Zekk nodded vigorously and looked around, still paranoid. "Now I just need to get enough guts to ask…"

"Agghh!" Jaina growled as she stormed into the mess hall. She couldn't find Zekk anywhere. He'd been avoiding her for what felt like forever, though it had only been about ten days. And she sensed Jacen knew something, but wasn't about to tell it.

"Dammit!" she said pretty loudly. Everyone turned to look at her, pretty surprised at her cursing. Tenel Ka sat down beside her and perfectly mimicked Jacen's voice, saying "What's up?"

Jaina halfly smiled. "Nothing really," she lied.

Tenel Ka nodded. "Ah, aha. You are upset because Zekk has been avoiding you."

Jaina shook her head. "I think I upseted him. And I think he is now avoiding me because I said I wanted him to pay more attention to important things and not on if he's gonna turn evil again. He's still bothered that he'll turn around and kill me or something. And ever since he's avoided or ignored me."

Tenel Ka soaked in the information. "And what are you going to do about it?" she asked.

"I don't know," came the reply.

Tenel Ka got up. "I think you do." And with that, she left.

Jaina sighed. "Or the other option is he doesn't want to be with me anymore," she whispered.

"I'm going to have to ask before I have to head off on this mission," Zekk said to Jacen.

Jacen nodded. "When do you have to leave?"

"In about 16 hours. The mission lasts for about 2 days," Zekk replied.

"You might miss Jaina's and my birthday party," Jacen said.

"I know. I'll hurry back as fast as I can."

Jaina waited for Zekk outside the Lightning Rod. She paced, getting more and more frustrated. Finally, Zekk came out to the landing field to get on board.

He hurried his steps as he saw Jaina. "Jaina I…" he began.

Jaina stopped him. "BEFORE you say anything, I'm going to talk. Obviously this thing about us being together hasn't worked out."

"But…" Zekk tried.

She went on, drowning him out. "So if you don't want to be a couple…"

"Jaina…"

She cut him off again. "Then fine! Leave on your mission and avoid me more!"

"But…"

"And I don't care if you come back!"

Zekk was getting angry. "FINE! I guess you don't care about this," he said, throwing down the small box. He then boarded his ship angrily and began to take off.

As the ship flew away, Jaina picked up the box and opened it. All of her anger and frustration left her in an instant.

At that moment, Jacen, Lowie, and Tenel Ka ran up, sensing the fight and the anger between the two.

"What happened, mistress Jaina?" Em-Teedee asked. Lowie barked the same question.

Jaina held up the box with the engagement ring inside of it.

Jacen turned to Tenel Ka. "I told you so!" he said.

Tenel Ka nodded. "I did not say you were lying, friend Jacen."

Jaina began sobbing quietly. "I'm sorry Zekk," she said in a whisper. "And I will marry you, if you'll forgive me."

There will be a part 2 or epilogue like part soon.
Zekk