"You PROMISED!" Jaina
screamed at Kyp, as she saw his limp body fly away from the X-wing's
debris. Anger flowed over her, drowning her in its embrace as she
opened herself to all the Force would allow. She could feel the
empty spots that were the skips, the emptiness projected by their dovin
basals.
Jag's voice was ignored as
she kept screaming, her anger at Kyps broken
promise turning to anger at everything and anything. She reached
out and turned the singularities on the skips, causing each one to be
sucked into its own non-existance within a matter of moments.
Annoyed with the sound of people questioning what was going on, she
flicked off her comm, and flew toward the Jedi Master's floating body.
As she got nearer, her tears
renewed in earnest, the sight of bits of metal piercing his body almost
too much for her to bear. He was spiraling away into the void,
but she would not allow it. She hoped, she prayed to any being out there who might
listen, that there would be some way to save
him.
Jaina brought her X-wing up
beside him, and reminiscent of actions they
had performed above Borleas, what seemed like centuries ago, she slowed
his
toppling, to the point where his body rested upon an s-foil, as though
asleep.
*
Once again, Jag tried to put
his arms around Jaina in comfourt. Once again she pushed him away
and continued her pacing. "They've been in there for hours now!"
He stood, his hands at his
sides as he regarded the distraught young woman before him.
"Jaina, you should be glad he is even alive."
"Barely," she corrected with
a snort on her way past.
He watched her pace back and
forth across the room for the nth time. "Be that as it may, the
surgeries he needs will likely take some time before they can even
think of putting him into Bacta."
She stopped before she passed
him again, regarding him with hurt eyes, "But I can't *feel him
anymore, Jag. It's like he's not even there." With that admission, she
burst into tears.
This time, when he put his
arms around her, she didn't push him away. Rather, she collapsed
against him as she cried. She didn't notice the hitch in the
young man's heart as he rubbed her back. Sure, he knew she would
be worried about Kyp, he'd been a friend and saviour to her. But
this... he couldn't help but feel that it was the beginning of the end.
*
Jaina had fallen asleep in a
chair of the waiting room when Jag recieved a comm call. His
uncle was requesting that he come and report on his trip to Chiss
space. Planting a small kiss on Jaina's forhead, he left her
there.
A few minutes later, she
awoke to find herself alone. She was about to panic, when she saw
Sharr step into the medbay. He stood before her,
regarding her silently. Finally, she spoke, "What is it?"
"Great one," he exaggerated a
bow, "I was coming to see how you were holding up against your vassal's
uncertain state."
She blinked.
"I wanted to see how you were
doing, with Kyp in bacta."
"Oh."
"Not too well, I take it?"
"The doctors said they're not
sure if he'll make it."
At that, Sharr sat down
beside her, resting a hand on hers, "He will. He's too stubborn
to do otherwise."
She smiled slightly, "Thanks."
After several long, silent
minutes, in which Sharr got up and returned with caf for them both,
Jaina spoke again. "He'd better make it."
Sharr said nothing.
"He has to, because I'm
going to go get him some clothes for when
he gets out of bacta, and they won't be of any use to him otherwise."
He stared after her in
confusion as she nodded, tossed back the last of
her caf like a shot of whisky, and stalked out of the room.
With a shake of his head, he
sat back, "Women."
*
Jaina stepped into Kyp's
quarters, for the first time actually taking in what they said about
their occupant. The bed was neatly made, the small desk held a
few holos on it, but other than that the room was very sparse.
Like herself, he had a footlocker at the base of his bed, except...
incongruous with the rest of the neatly kept space, there was a bit of
crimson sticking out beneath the lid.
She tried to ignore the
sirens call to investigate while she moved toward the dresser. It
was beside the desk, and she couldn't help but note the holos
there. One was of Kyp and her father, ages ago when they'd first
met. The other was a candid picture taken, of a sleeping toddler
girl on a younger Kyp's lap, the young man looking off at
nothing. She
could imagine Kyp's chagrin when the holo had been taken, but that he'd
gotten
a copy for himself showed a sweetness. There were other holos,
ones
of him with herself and her siblings, caught in games while they were
yet
very young.
She smiled softly, this was a
side to Kyp nobody had seen. She wondered at the revelation as
she moved to his dresser. "Hmmm, let's see..." she opened the top
drawer to reveal undergarments and socks. With a giggle she
pulled out a pair of boxers with moons and stars all over them.
She grabbed a pair of socks and threw the two things on the bed, before
heading to the lower drawers. She selected a green turtlenecked
tunic, goes with his eyes, she thought to herself
surprisingly, and a pair of black slacks. She folded them all
together and moved to see if there was a
bag she could put them in when her eyes caught the crimson cloth yet
again.
It wouldn't hurt to take just a
quick look... she thought
to herself as she raised the lid of the footlocker. The crimson
cloth belonged to a small dress, and she blinked at its presence.
With a frown she looked to see a small red tunic, with a pair of black
slacks, as well as a
larger, brilliant blue, dress as might be worn by a full grown woman.
In her curiosity of the
clothing, she had pushed aside the holo that lay atop them, but then
turned to look at it. She forgot all else, as she took it,
running to the only person she knew who might have an answer to her
questions.
*
Jaina burst into the
Skywalker's quarters without knocking. Ignoring the surprised
look from her aunt, as well as the giggle from her cousin, she
went straight to her source of information. "Who are these
people, Uncle
Luke?" she thrust the still-holo at him. "Tell me!"
A younger version of Kyp
stood with his arm around a lovely brunette woman, she wore a dress of
brilliant blue, that could only be the same found in the
footlocker. Crystal eyes of the same hue shone happily, while a
hand
lay on the shoulder of a little girl in a red dress. The little
girl
had raven black locks, and eyes just as blue as the woman's, while the
boy
standing in a red tunic beside her had red-brown hair, and eyes of a
piercing
green.
Luke frowned and shot a
glance at his wife, "Mara, could you..."
"I know I know, go see if Ben
needs changing. Really, Farmboy, you need to learn that you can't
be subtle with me." She winked at him, and breezed out of the
room as though it had been her idea in the first place.
Jaina was still standing
there, a ball of nervous fury, "Who are they?"
she asked again.
Luke gently took the holo
from her, and motioned for her to sit beside him on the sofa.
"Where did you get this Jaina?" he asked as she complied.
"From Kyp's room."
"What were you doing in his
room?"
"Getting him some clothes so
he'll get out of bacta."
Luke chuckled at the
logic. "I see."
"Uncle Luke," she began.
He looked up, "Yes?"
"Please tell me who those
people are with Kyp... they look for all the galaxy like a family."
Lukes face betrayed sadness
of knowledge long kept secret, "They were."
