| "You don't mind me saying this, I hope." Lilith tried to break the uncomfortable silence that had grown in the back of the skip, "but you all smell really ghastly." "So would you if you had spend gods know how long in a huge upturned vat of garbage and dog cr…." Jemmy started to answer. "Yeah, thanks for wiping your hands on my clothing." Spider growled. "That's ok. You can get Daddy to buy you a new one." Rela smiled. "Thanks. Want me to buy you a drink?" Spider regarded her carefully. "Yeah." Rela glance at Jemmiah. "Naked on the Fresher Floor!" The three girls grinned at each other and shared a brief moment's silent communion. Lilith took it all in but refrained from commenting. "I'm surprised at you, Rela. Crashing the skip like that. Jemmiah I could have understood, seeing as how she's about one cantina away from finding herself in a hospital bed. Again." She warned. "Don't think I haven't seen the way you've been popping those pills young lady. I don't believe in telling people what to do but I would respectfully suggest you stop either the drink or the tablets." "I'm fine." She replied. "Yes, but for how long?" Krelo replied. "Oh, great. Now I've got both of them ganging up on me." Jemmy said sourly. "And I did not crash the skip. It sort of flipped over." Rela was indignant. "Oh, yeah. Course it did." Lilith muttered. Jemmiah sighed and looked back into the darkening Coruscant skyline, filled as far as the eye could see with buildings, more buildings and… "Lilith, we're being tailed by the cops!" She gasped. "Holy Poodoo!" whistled Lilith. "They've probably been receiving reports about two stolen skips racing all over the place." Krelo growled. "I knew this was a bad idea." "Just as well weren't still underneath the other one when they caught up to us." Spider said gratefully. "But what do we do?" Lilith looked at Krelo. "We're relatively sober now. They can't do us for drink driving." She said hopefully. "They can do us for theft!" Krelo reminded her. "Awwww, relax will you? I'll think of something." Demodae sat herself up straight and tall as she wracked her brains for a solution. "Can't we out run 'em?" Rela asked. "In this? You must be joking!" Lilith snorted. "We've got a minute at most until they flag us over." She looked back at the worried faces and came to a decision. "Ok. Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to slow down by that corner over yonder and you three are going to get off and run like stink until you get to Scruffy Dirk's, you got that?" "What, leave you behind?" Jemmy looked put out. "I'm not doing that!" "Don't argue with me, kid." Lilith said more sharply than she wished. "Loyalty is fine and good but no use to either of us if you end up in the clink for joy riding. Got that?" Jemmiah reluctantly conceded the point. "Right." Lilith began to slow down. "Here's where you get off. READY?" "Yeah." Rela nodded. "Good." Captain Demodae pulled over to the corner of the alleyway. "GET GOING KIDDIES! SEE YA LATER!" Krelo watched as Jemmiah and her two companions bolted out of the skip and down the darkened alleyway, praying that no harm would come to them in the meantime. The sound of an approaching skycar and two speeders brought them quickly to their senses. Lilith gawked as one of the speeders continued leisurely down the alleyway after the three fugitives. Damn! They must have seen them getting out! Probably had zoom lenses… Krelo breathed deeply to calm herself. "Well, if you've got any suggestions about what we say, I'd like to hear them." She said flatly as the skycar puled up along side them… ***** "The truth, of course," Lilith shot back as she did some quick calculations in her head. yes, they were headed away from the Temple and generally toward the lot where they had stolen the skip in the first place. Lilith brought the skip to a smooth halt and waited for the cop to climb out of the air car and step up next to her. "License and ID, please." Lilith handed them over without complaint; grateful for once that Krelo had chosen to wear her drab tan robes for a night of drinking. The cop was eyeing the redhead between glances at the cards in his hand and the computer he was entering the data into. "Well, Captain Demodae, I'd like to know please just what you are doing in this particular vehicle." "I was giving a Jedi Master a ride, Officer. He was horribly drunk and couldn't even stand straight on his own and I thought that someone ought to see him on his way and make sure he got where he was going safely, but I didn't have enough credits for an aircab. I didn't think anyone would mind me borrowing the skip as long as I put it back as soon as I was done." Lilith raised a hand and pointed, because just down the block, conveniently enough, was the lot where the skips had been sitting. "That's one I haven't heard yet," the officer drawled in an amused tone. He pulled an analyzer from his belt. "Please extend your arm." Both Lilith and Krelo complied and the cop took small blood samples from each. When his machine beeped at him to signal the end of the tests, he frowned at it and jammed it back on his belt. "Sir, the Jedi Master was kind enough to give me his ID, should there be some problem. He said that the Temple would gladly pay for any damages incurred. We were only trying to help, Officer." And Lilith handed over Qui-Gon's ID, which had gone into her pockets along with everything else from his. Suspiciously the man ran that ID though his computer too, and the look on his face when it ran through was priceless. "Well, I- I suppose there's no harm done if you just put the skip back." He ran a critical eye over the vehicle, but could see nothing wrong with it at all. He gave the cards back and watched with an eagle eye as the two women parked the skip and walked away. ***** "Split up!" yelled Rela, her breath visible before her in the cold night air. "What!" Spider exclaimed, "We're in enough trouble as it is without getting lost as well." "Heck, Rela must we?" Jemmy panted. "If you're bad in enclosed spaces, I have to tell you that I am VERY bad in darkened alleyways." "Enough of your personal life." Spider said dryly. "What do we do, guys?" Rela scanned the area quickly and came to a decision. "We hide, we climb, we run." "Climb?" Spider echoed. "Over the wall," Rela explained with a dart of her eyes. " It's the quickest route to Scruffy Dirk's" "It's Ok for you guys," Jemmiah flicked her hair out of her face, "I'm wearing a dress. And boots! If I'd known we were going mountaineering I would've worn something more substantial. And my head is killing me!" "Don't stand there gabbing." Rela firmly shoved the younger girl between the shoulder blades. "I can hear 'em coming. Crouch behind that rain barrel. Spider n' me will draw 'em away. Then we'll double back and follow you." "We will?" Spider retorted. "Wait a few minutes until after we've gone," Rela added, already retreating a few steps, "then get your rear over that wall, sister." Jemmiah heard them run away from her little darkened hiding place and groaned. She's lost count of the number of headache pills she'd swallowed already. Very nearly one at every cantina they'd stopped at. Except for the Hell's Chance. She'd taken two there whilst nobody was looking… Oh, well. She didn't s'pose it mattered if she took another one. If Qui-Gon was awake and fully in control of his senses when next they met up, she was in no doubts that her next destination would be a return trip to the infirmary. Commanding her aching head to pull itself together, Jemmiah had decided that enough time had elapsed since the speeder had gone past to risk a shot at the wall. It was very big. Jemmy cast her eyes round and came across some old wooden crates in the corner and decided that they would make an adequate flight of stairs. Nothing if not creative, Jemmiah stacked them against the wall, wincing at the splinters she incurred whilst stacking them. This had better work, she thought grimly. Taking a deep breath, the Corellian girl stepped tentatively onto the lowest ledge, wobbling precariously as the wood bent slightly under her weight. Pulling herself onto the next level she began to gain confidence. Until her boot went right through the timber all the way up to her thigh. Letting out an annoyed yell which she quickly stifled for fear of alerting anyone to her presence, Jemmy tried to pull her leg out of the hole without leaving too much of her skin behind. It didn't work. Great, she thought sarcastically as she took in the multiple abrasions, just great. Now she knew she was in line for the infirmary and no mistake! Frustration spurring her on, Jemmiah grabbed the top of the wall and pulled herself up…and then missed her handhold on the other side and fell to the ground. That's it, Jemmy thought as she lay dazedly on the paving, I'll just die here. She was drunk; she was hurt and thoroughly kriffed-off! For a few moments she toyed with the idea of getting up and then rejected it. If the pavement wanted her for a friend, who was she to argue? And anyhow, if she stood up, fate would almost certainly have something even nastier planned for her… No. She closed her eyes. A few moments rest would do no harm whatsoever… Obi-Wan grinned. There were eight snails in the race. A lot of silly money was being wagered on the outcome. Of course, it was all going to go to the Infirmary. Of course it was. Kenobi had no doubts that his money would go towards setting up an Obi-Wan fund for a new liver. He was going to need it after tonight. The thought of excessive alcohol brought Jemmy firmly back into his mind. She was Corellian, which in itself seemed to give her an unfair advantage in alcoholic-tolerance, but she had also been sneaking drinks off friends and getting into cantinas since she'd turned fourteen. As soon as she'd hit sixteen she'd really made the most of the legality of the situation. To tell the truth, he sometimes felt hard-pressed to keep up with her. He didn't think that she had any sort of addiction to anything, except perhaps for finding trouble. But it was that very unpredictability that Obi-Wan found so exciting. When she walked into a room, it didn't so much light up as sparkle. If he were waiting on the room sparkling with her presence at the moment he would be sorely disappointed because she had still not arrived. He was beginning to worry again. "Right, ladies and gents. I am acting as the judge to ensure there is no foul play." Mace clapped his hands in a school masterish way. "How can there be foul play in a snail race?" Simeon asked innocently. "Well, er…I don't know!" Mace scowled. "Do you think we've got a set of little wheels on our representative?" Obi-Wan asked. "Less of your lip, Padawan Kenobi or I'll have your snail disqualified." Mace snorted, preparing to announce the competitors. The eight snails were placed on the wooden track. "In trap 1: Goodtime Gertie In trap 2: Lady J In trap 3: Frisky Frieda In trap 4: Zippy In trap 5: Nifty Ned In trap 6: Flash Boy In trap 7: Madam Mindy In trap 8: Rocketing Rozz" "I think he likes the sound of his own voice." Muttered Obi-Wan. "I've already warned you, Kenobi." Windu growled. Obi-Wan rolled his eyes but said nothing. "Ok." Mace took his position on the adjudicators' seat. "Are we ready?" "Did you fix Harkley's snail?" Obi-Wan hissed to Simeon. "Oh, yes." Cates winked. "I can't see it winning." "Good." "…Then ready, steady…GO!" Screamed Mace, as everyone gathered round to se the greatest showdown in recent mollusk history. Simeon smiled. His money was safe, at least… "Think it's safe to go back?" Hissed Rela at Spider, who was hiding behind some railings just opposite her. Spider strained her ears and heard nothing. "Think we've lost 'em." She nodded. "That was well scary though." "Yeah," agreed Rela. "But kinda fun, too." Spider grinned slyly. "I know what you mean. You know, we should go on these sort of outings more often. It's been a new experience for me." "What, getting drunk?" Rela asked in disbelief. "No, watching the Jedi getting plastered." She answered. "C'mon. Let's see if we can catch up with Jemmy." "If I know her she'll already be sitting propping up the bar somewhere." Rela snickered. "Although I'm not sure how much longer she'll last out." Their journey back was slow and cautious in the extreme. There seemed little point to Rela in getting themselves caught when they'd gone to so much trouble to avoid just that in the first place. "D'you think Lilith and Krelo are ok?" Spider frowned as they approached the spot where they'd last seen Jemmiah. "Those two? Yeah, they're bombproof. One's a Jedi and the other's, well…Lilith." Rela glanced around. "Jemmy?" She hissed. Nothing. "Jemmiah?" Spider added her low voice to Rela's. "Looks like she's gone over already." "Yeah," Rela frowned, spotting the cobbled wooden cases, "I s'pose we ought to get after her." "Maybe we should be a bit more careful then she was." Spider laughed at the hole in the wood. "Trust her to pick something rotten to stand on!" Spider, being that bit taller, decided to go over first and help Rela up if she needed it. "Whatever you do, don't fall." Was Rela's only useful piece of advice. "Ha ha…" Spider replied as she pulled herself to the top. And on looking down on the ground got the shock of her life. "Rela!" Spider's voice shrieked as she sat on the top of the wall. "Get up here quick!" Rela's eyes flashed in annoyance. "Give me a chance, will you?" She scrambled over the uppermost box and reached for the top of the wall, grunting as she hoisted herself into a sitting position. "Now, what's all the hullabaloo?" she glared as Spider prepared to jump. She took in the prone figure lying at the foot of the wall. "Hell, Spider - why didn't you say anything?" She yelled as the tattooed girl dropped to the ground. "Is she ok?" "What does it look like?" Spider's voice bit back. "Help me down." Rela instructed. "But Jem…" "I'm smaller than you. I have further to fall." The red head prepared to scramble down. Spider's arms collected her half way. "S'pose she's dead?" Spider gulped, afraid to go any further. "Then she's not going to do you any harm." Rela hurried to the Corellian. "You know, for someone who feeds her snakes live rodents you're sure as heck squeamish!" "We're not talking about rodents, we're talking about Jemmy." Spider hissed, but drew closer all the same. Rela's fingers went to Jemmiah's neck in search of a pulse, and it was with considerable gratitude that she located one almost straight away. "Phew, that's a relief." She muttered. "I think she's just unconscious. Probably her concussion's caught up with her at last." She slapped Jemmy's face a couple more times in an effort to get her to wake up. "Jemmy? C'mon sweetie, give us a smile." "Shouldn't we get that An-Paj character?" Spider asked with open concern. "She's obviously not well and…" "You do that and that's her evening over with. Finished. Ended. And I'm telling you," Rela tried to peel Jemmy's eyelids back, "she is NOT going to thank you for that." Jemmiah gave a slight moan as Rela continued to slap her face gently. "At last!" Rela sighed. "Hurts." Jemmy mumbled. "Where, can you tell me?" Rela asked. "Is it your head? Did you fall?" "Yeah…" she said in a distinctly distant voice. "Fell. My leg." "Let's see." Rela squinted in the dark. She worked her hands carefully down until Jemmy flinched. "Sith!" She whimpered. "Was that sore?" Rela asked. Spider just looked at her. "I hate to tell you this," Rela said after a moment, "but you've got half a tree stuck in the top of your leg. It looks like somebody's been stabbing a Jemmiah effigy with little pins, coz you've got splinters everywhere." "Do you think An-Paj will notice?" Jemmy asked in a voice that sounded too far away to be hers. "Unless he's blind." Spider replied. "I'd settle for blind drunk." Rela answered. "They're gonna have to come out or you're leg is apt to get all infected." "Don't worry," Jemmy closed her eyes again, "I'll grow another one." Rela and Spider exchanged glances. "Awwww, heck!" Rela cursed. "She's gone and drunk herself into a stupor. Believe me, I know about these things. Only I did it without the aid of any other substances." Rela leaned over Jemmiah. "Have you been taking more of those tablets?" She accused. "Ohhhhhh, let me die." Jemmy moaned. "How many have you taken?" Spider yelled in her ear. "A few. Not…many." "How many is not many?" Rela asked in dogged fashion. "Hmmm…how many cantinas have there been?" She half smiled. There was a deadly pause. "Jemmy, you PLANK!" Spider shouted as she grabbed the bottle. "The label says one every four hours, not four every one hour! And what else does it say? Not to be taken with alcohol. Do you hear that? Not? As in DON'T do it?" "Great, what do we do now?" Rela said dryly. Spider regarded her friend, as she lay doped to the eyeballs. "In all the old holo films I've seen, you have to walk the person up and down to keep them from passing out." She said. Rela nodded. "That's what we'll do." She grabbed Jemmy's arm and started to pull her. "C'mon Jem. We're going for a nice little walk. You'll like that." "Where's Ben?" Jemmiah looked confused. "I was s'posed to do something with him…" "That's going to have to wait." Rela snorted. "Even half dead you've got a one track mind. Help me, Spider." "N-no. You don't understand." Jemmy paused, trying to remember. She screwed up her face as she sought the answer. "Snails." She said. "Oh, no." Rela grimaced. "She's worse than I thought. Now she's hallucinating. There's only one thing for it." "What?" Spider asked. "We can't take her back like this. I'm afraid it's time for the old salt water remedy." "Rela…" "It's necessary. It's the only way she'll get to stay away from the infirmary." "But…" "She's seeing snails, for kriff's sake!" Spider nodded reluctantly. "Stay here with her. See if you can get her to limp about a bit. Get the circulation going." "Where are you heading?" Spider called. "There's a small Corellian eatery not far from here. I know one of the girls that works there. She'll help us out." Rela disappeared round the left side of the road, leaving Spider to drag Jemmiah round and round and round… Rela returned some ten minutes later bearing a flask in her hands. "Right. Who's holding her and who's helping her drink?" Rela asked. "You are helping her drink." Spider informed her. "I am staying as far back as I can." "This is your friend." Rela reminded her. "There are some things that even friends will not do." Rela blew out a deep breath. "Fine." She said as she unscrewed the flask top. "Hold her steady." Spider put her in an arm lock. "Got a drink for you, Jemmy. It'll make you feel better, ok?" "Huh?" she replied. "Oh, just drink it." Rela said crossly. "Remember. Take a long drink. Swallow it. Run to the gutter, got that?" "Drink, swallow, gutter." Jemmy mumbled. "That's it, yeah." She held up the flask and forced the girl to take a good, lengthy drink of the contents. And then jumped back. "GO ON GERTIE!" Yelled Simeon. "You can do it!" "That a girl, Frieda!" Dex shouted encouragement to his representative. "Show 'em what you've got!" Mace regarded the whole seen with hazy bemusement. Jodi's snail, Zippy, was living up to his name and had stormed (in as much as a snail could storm) into the lead, with Freda and Gertie a close second, running eyestalk to eyestalk. Lady J was proving most uncooperative. Simeon grinned. He'd taken the necessary precautions in insuring Kryztan's snail would not get very far. A chance few moment alone with the competitors whilst the others had been at the bar drinking had enabled him to feed Lady J some draught ale. Snails were very partial to it, so it seemed. This one was no exception. Of course, the temptation to wager on whom would cross the line last had been too much for Simeon. This time he had the feeling he was going to come out on top. Obi-Wan regarded the whole seen with great satisfaction. His snail was still in with a chance of winning. Kryztan's snail, short of sprouting wings or roller skates, wasn't. Now, if only Jemmiah would turn up… "Gutter, Jemmy. I said gutter. Didn't you hear me?" Rela ground her teeth. "What is wrong with everyone tonight? First Simeon and now you? Does everyone have the desire to be sick on me?" Rela stood in the middle of the street and shouted: "If there's anyone else who'd like to vomit all over Rela Quinn, please come and take your best shot!" "I feel dreadful." Jemmiah gasped. "That's what happens when you mix pills and alcohol." Rela snapped. "Don't do it again. Next time I'll leave you in the street." "Rela!" Spider frowned. "Well, it's not fair!" Rela grumbled as she regarded her spoiled footwear. "I told Qui-Gon that these boots were reliable and never let me down, but I never put this idiot friend of mine into the equation." She walked over to Jemmiah. "Finished?" She asked bluntly. Jemmy nodded. "Good." Rela put her arm over her shoulder. "Let's get to the cantina." Half dragging, half supporting Jemmiah the two girls tried to hurry onwards so as to miss as little as the action as possible. "What did you have planned here, I wonder?" Rela asked. "Snails." Jemmy said weakly. "Awww, not again Jemmy!" Rela frowned. "Look, you'll have to stop this snail rubbish before An-Paj sees you or it'll be hospital food at dawn." "But I'm sure that…" Jemmy began. "Look, hush up and try and look sober. We're going in." Rela put her hands on the door and tried to push. It wouldn't budge. "Hellfire, what's going on?" She cursed. "Leave it Rela, they've locked it. We'll find the other door." Spider answered. "She'll never make it." Rela looked ruefully at Jemmiah. "Just give me a minute and I'll have that baby open…here we go." Obi-Wan yelled in delight. Gertie was winning by an eye. Simeon was also looking more than happy with himself as Lady J had contented itself with falling asleep near the start line. "Only a few more inches to go!" Mace tried to provide an exciting commentary of the final stages. The Jedi were going crazy as they cheered and clapped as Obi-Wan's snail made the last few agonizing perambulations to the line. "And it's Goodtime Gertie! Goodtime Gertie is nearly there! Let's here a big Jedisome cheer for…" Mace was cut off by a thud as the door was flung back against the wall. "Who locked the festerin' door?" Yelled Rela, as she and Spider hauled Jemmiah towards the group. There was a crunching sound under her foot. "What the…?" Rela looked down. The cheering stopped very suddenly. Obi-Wan swallowed. "Goodbye, Gertie." He muttered. ***** Lilith used the time it took them to walk to the next cantina to closely examine the rest of her stash. She only half listened to Krelo's exclamations of disbelief. "I can't believe that you managed to tell the almost complete truth without once saying anything that could be construed as bad." There were only a few credit chips, but they were all had high denominations. *Don't Jedi carry anything less than 50s?* "It's all in the wording," she explained absently. There was the gold keycard and ID of course, but what was . . . was that a navel ring?! Lilith held up the small piece of jewelry to the scanty light of a street lamp they were passing under and nodded to herself, yes, yes it was. Of course, now she was going to have to check. Qui-Gon hadn't struck her as the type to go in for that sort of thing. And if it wasn't his, whose was it? "Lilith!" "What?" "You aren't listening to me." "Sure I am." "You just agreed that you were desperately in love with Griff Rendar." "And if you ever tell him I will deny it to the death," Demodae replied, unruffled. "It's amazing the things people carry around in their pockets," she murmured a moment later, examining yet another surprise. "Like what?" "Oh, nothing." Lilith quickly stuffed everything back in her pockets, hoping to change the subject. After all, she carried some interesting things in her own pockets, so she shouldn't be talking. They took their time, enjoying the light evening air and arrived through the front door just in time to see Jemmiah and friends stumble into the middle of the race. "Urgh…what is that?" Rela groaned as she looked at the sole of her boot. "As if my feet haven't been through enough already in the last half hour." She peered at the deceased mollusk with a shudder. "Looks like crunchy chewin' gum." Her disgust grew further as she tried to clean the mess off by wiping her foot on the leg of a nearby table. "Looks like something slimy just died…" "It was a snail." Simeon supplied. "It was my snail." Obi-Wan said indignantly. "Sorry?" Rela frowned. A horrid thought occurred to her. "Er…I'm sorry Jemmy." She couldn't quite look the Corellian in the face. "But Spider n' me thought that…" "Don't bring me into this. It was your idea." Spider muttered. Jemmy looked between Rela and Spider, then back again. "See? Told you it was snails…an' you made me sick for no reason." She moaned. "So I'm not speaking to you ever again." "How was I s'posed to know?" Rela replied cagily. "I mean, snail racing…" She looked at the floor again. "Sainted sausages, these suckers can move!" She said in surprise. "Except for mine." Obi-Wan said pointedly. "It's not going anywhere fast, is it?" He looked at the unsteady Jemmiah. "Sith! Jemmy…your leg!" He cried. "Yeah, what about it?" "You look like you've been put in front of an Ewok firing squad!" "Eh?" She looked down. "Oh hell!" She said, before passing out. There was a moment of confusion before An-Paj pushed through the crowd of Jedi. "Never fear, An-Paj is here." He said confidently, swerving at the last moment to avoid a snail. "Now, what seems to be the trouble…oh, dear." He frowned as he examined the patient with a cursory glance. Obi-Wan looked at the healer. "Is it bad?" "Bad?" An-Paj said. "Very bad?" Obi-Wan amended with a gulp. "Beyond help, I should think. Leona, have you got those sterile dressings?" "Beyond help!" Kenobi gasped. "What are you saying?" "I'm saying it's not within my means to do anything." Simeon, Rela and Obi-Wan looked at each other in horror. "There must be something you can do?" Obi-Wan's mouth felt very dry. "No." He paused for a moment as if breaking bad news, "I'm afraid these stockings are damaged irreparably." Obi-Wan closed his eyes. "Stockings." He hissed. "Yes." An-Paj smiled. "Had you going for a bit, didn't I?" He looked about in the medi-pack for the tweezers that he'd put in earlier that day. "Just as well she was wearing these high boots, otherwise the damage might have been so much worse." He peered closely at the biggest foreign body embedded in the leg. "Ouch! That's got to hurt. Just as well she passed out. Rather saves me from whacking her on the head with something hard." A mischievous glint appeared in his eyes as he stared at Dimallie. "Oh, sorry I forgot. You already did that, didn't you?" Dimallie promptly turned red in the face. "No matter." He flexed the tweezers. "Got those dressings ready?" He asked Leona. Leona nodded. "Right then, you nasty splinter. Let's see what you're like against the angel of mercy…" He clamped the tweezers carefully round the large piece of wood and gradually drew it out bit by bit. The groans and sympathetic winces were drowned out only by the sound of Obi-Wan, Garos Hmiol and Jay Abran hitting the floor. "People seem to be dropping like flies round here. All because of a little blood." An-Paj observed. "Healer Territ, would you mind clearing away the corpses?" As Gethin moved forward to help carry Obi-Wan to the side, An-Paj took another look at the wound. "Hmm, there's still more in there. I'll have to do some more ferreting around." He noticed that both Rela and Spider had the good sense to look away, yet all the others had crowded closer for a better view. Never one to pass up the opportunity for a laugh, An-Paj thought his comic timing was about due for a test. He put the tweezers against the remainder of the splinter and pretended to pull, gritting his teeth with the sheer effort. "Gods, this is really stuck." he gasped, allowing a smiling Leona to wipe his brow. "Come on you horrible piece of wood! Get the better of me, would you?" An-Paj pretended to pull and pull but to no avail. "I think it most be almost to the bone, Leona." He said in an over loud voice. "I might have to widen the wound in order to…" Two more thuds sounded the passing out of Mace Windu and Griff Rendar. "So much for the big, touch smuggler routine," Lilith Demodae's voice sounded as she looked in dismay at Jemmiah. "What happened to the kid?" She looked down at her boot. "Oh, swinging Werrads, what is this sticky thing under my foot?" "Not you as well." Rela groaned. "I don't care," Simeon grinned as he brandished his winnings, "I've done very well out of this evening." Rela nodded. "Good," She said as she swiped the credits out of his hand, "this'll help pay for the clothing that you so considerably decided to puke all over." "But there's more than enough there." Simeon complained. "Even better. It'll help pay for the boots that your friend," she indicated the wakening form of Jemmiah, "managed so considerably to puke all over." Lilith winked at Krelo. "Why don't we see if we can help Master Jinn?" she said with an evil looking smile. "Maybe we could use that trick with the force and sober him up a bit." Then out the corner of her mouth: "And see if that naval ring belongs to him!" An-Paj smiled as Jemmiah opened an eye. "All over." He soothed. "Y-yeah?" she mumbled. "I'm afraid you lost your leg," added the healer, "but just think of the time you'll save painting your toe nails." Jemmiah closed her eyes again. "Infirmary humor's obviously not to everyone's liking." He sighed. ***** Krelo and Lilith flanked Qui-Gon at the bar and ordered drinks from the tender. Shortly, one Alderaani orange juice (looking remarkably like an Alderaani screwdriver) and a mineral water (masquerading as white vermouth) and a small cup of caff arrived on the counter in front of them. "Want me to start sobering him up now?" Krelo asked, looking around and checking to make sure everyone else was looking elsewhere. Everyone who wasn't passed out was watching An-Paj finish, so there was little chance anyone would pay them any attention for a little while. "Okay, but very slowly. I don't want him sober while I'm checking for that ring. In fact, I don't want him conscious." Which, fortunately, he wasn't. Lilith draped one arm across Qui-Gon's shoulders and slipped the other hand into his tunic. Simeon looked unhappily at his now empty hands and thought about his winnings, which were now Rela's winnings, he supposed. He glanced around, wondering if he should go get another drink and spotted the threesome at the bar. Blinking and rubbing at his bleary, unfocused eyes, he looked again, startled. He walked slowly over to where Obi-wan was just coming back around and leaned over the slightly groggy padawan. "Don't look now, Obi-wan, but I think Captain Demodae is groping your master." "What?!" Obi-Wan's startled exclamation turned several heads. "Well, it certainly looks to me like she's got her hand down his tunic," Simeon stated clearly. Darned sash thingy getting in my way, Lilith grumbled as her hand groped farther downward. Krelo had one hand on the man's shoulder and one eye on the medical gathering in the corner. "Hurry up. He'll be coming around soon," the knight urged. "I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying. Why do you Jedi insist on wearing so many layers of clothing?" Lilith griped. "Izz a little more fun to take them all off," a slurred, happy sounding voice said in her ear. Lilith jerked her hand out of Qui-Gon's tunics and froze as his head came to rest on her shoulder. "Mmmmmm, donnn't stop now, that was niiice, Leona." "I warned you," Krelo hissed at her friend. "Well, keep going!" Lilith hissed right back. "He called me 'Leona'." "Too late!" Lilith had snatched up the cup of caff and was raising it to Qui-Gon's lips when an outraged voice spoke from behind her. "Just what are you doing to my master?!" |
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| A Night to (Almost) Remember |
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