LTP12

*****

"I’m telling you, there is!"
"Garbage!"
"There IS!"
"Cut it out! There is absolutely nothing going on between Jemmiah and Master Jinn." Kylenn was adamant.
"Oh, is that right? How do you explain the fact they’re on such good terms?" Abran retorted.
"She’s got cracked ribs, for Siths' sake. Master Jinn is just being a gentleman."
"He keeps hugging her!"
"Is there a law against that?"
"They’ve not spoken in over two months."
"Lucky them." She replied sarcastically, staring at him. "You don’t half come out with some drivel, you know."

She stopped open mouthed as she saw Master Jinn pull his heavy cloak back over his soaking tunic, and then gather Jemmiah to him in a careful hug, an arm round her waist.

"Ha!" Abran crowed. "I told you there was something going on between them!"
"They’re just trying to keep warm." She replied lamely.
"It’s poor Obi-Wan I feel sorry for. Just imagine how he is going to feel when he finds out his girlfriend’s been carrying on with his master!"
"You don’t really think…"
"It’s obvious." Abran said with conviction.
"It’s disgusting!" Kylenn said in astonishment. "She’s just seventeen and he must be fifty four or five!"
"Maybe it’s the beard." Abran said.
"Pardon?"
"Some girls like beards. I read it somewhere."
"Yes, but even so…"
"He probably just likes the idea of having something young and attractive hanging on his arm."
"From what I’ve seen of Jemmiah, she does not hang on to anyone’s arm!" Kylenn rounded her eyes.

They continued to watch the pair from the back of the group of initiates, as they wound their way down a path that should in theory take them back to where they left Obi-Wan and Simeon. They should not be very far away at all. The sparks were going to fly pretty soon, of that Jay Abran had no doubts.

"Good on the randy old devil, that’s what I say." Abran grinned. "But he needn’t think he’s anything other than another notch on her bedpost."
"Don’t be crude." Kylenn said.
"In fact, she must be running out of bedpost."
"That’s unkind." Kylenn admonished.
"Hey. Maybe Obi-Wan does know! Maybe they’ve got one of those threesome things going on!"
"I am NOT listening to this." Kylenn put her hands over her ears, but unfortunately the image Abran had out in her mind would not readily leave.

Ugh!

Qui-Gon turned round. "Is everyone all right back there? Not feeling too cold?"

"We’re fine at the back, Master Jinn." Abran answered, before muttering to Kylenn, "Everything looks kind of cozy up the front as well…"

**********************

"Zzzzzz."

Sith! Not again.

"Zzzzzzzz."

"Simeon."

"Zzzzz…..Zzzzz….Zzzzz."

"Simeon!"

Silence.

"Thank the force!"

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZ."

"I can’t stand this!" Kenobi muttered, trying to stuff his padawan braid in his ear to drown out the sound of Simeon’s snoring.

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ."

"He’s getting worse! How can he be getting worse?"

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ."

"Shut up!"

From somewhere nearby, a sudden tug at Obi-Wan’s mind sounded alarm bells. His master! His master was back! And he could also sense Jemmiah, albeit far more weakly. And Kylenn, and Jay Abran…

Obi-Wan sat up slowly, trying to see if he could spot where they were.

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ."

"WILL YOU SHUT UP!!!" Kenobi stretched right over and yelled in Simeons’ ear.

Simeon awoke with a start, panic written all over his features. He had forgotten where he was momentarily, and half stood up, banging into Master Yoda. "What? What is going on?" He yelped in fear.

Before Kenobi could answer him, the frozen, stiff slab that was Master Yoda went flying over the side of the tree.

"They must be somewhere around. " Qui-Gon frowned. "I can sense them. My padawan, Simeon Cates…his eyes widened. "And Master Yoda?"
"Master Yoda’s here, too?" Jemmiah asked. "Why?"
"I don’t know," Qui-Gon replied, "But I’m sure he’s going to kill me."

The words were hardly out of his mouth when something came hurtling from out of the tree above.

Jemmiah saw it and moved out of the way, but Qui-Gon was still looking further up the path when Master Yoda connected with his head with the sound of wood striking a piece of stone.

"THHWUNK!"

It appeared that Yoda was none the worse from his little experiment with gravity. Qui-Gon, on the other hand, was laid his whole length out on the pathway, his hair and beard awash with frog spawn, and his swollen eye looking considerably darker than it had earlier on that day.

"Master Jinn?" Jemmiah bent over to see if he was OK.
"Happy, hi ham hi took ha padawan with such ha soft skull." Yoda managed to get out.
"Jemmiah sighed, as she looked at the unconscious Jedi.

"Is there a doctor in the house?" She called.

***************

"Master Windu, I can’t drive!"
"Sure you can."
"I CAN’T!" Bai shrieked as the speeder packed with six kids and three adults winged it’s unsteady way across the terrain, trees and bushes whipping past at an alarming rate despite the number of bodies upsetting the aerodynamics.
"What. Really?" Mace asked, fingering the daisy necklace and matching hooped earrings he’d made for himself.
"No! I’m lying!" yelled Bai, as he swerved past a decorative boulder marking the pathway. "Of course really!"
"Well," Mace replied, "There’s nothing like on the job training. You’re doing just fine and dandy!"
"I’m going to crash!"
"Garbage! Have some confidence, man."
"I didn’t expect to die like this!"

Mace put his feet up.

"Are you feeling relaxed, Master Windu?" Bai asked indignantly.
"Yeah, thanks." He frowned. "Apart from this spike sticking out the top of my…"
"Sorry about that. "Dylain said. "I thought you were a Krayt Dragon."
"S’okay," hiccuped Windu. "It’s a mistake anyone could have made."

Bai had forgotten the keeper was there. "Can’t you drive this thing?"
Dylain held out shaking hands. "Sorry son. Nerve’s gone."
"YOUR nerve’s gone!" Bai’s mouth had become very dry.
"Yeah. It’s that rotten Krayt Dragons’ fault. I’m a nervous wreck."

Bai couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

"You look fine to me." He said, sparing a millisecond glance at the grizzled keeper.
"No really. I’m falling apart." He looked about. "You haven’t got any cigars on you, have you kid?"
"No, I’m sorry…" Bai began. Hang on a moment. What the hell was he apologizing for?

"Someone else can drive this thing!" He screeched, letting go of the controls.
"Watch out for that Ankula, padawan Bai." The little Alderaani boy piped up.
"What? Where?" Bai sat up rigidly. "What Ankula?"

There was a large bump from underneath the speeder.

"The one we just hit." The kid said.
"I’M NOT DOING THIS ANYMORE!" Bai shouted.

Master Windu was half-asleep. The kids were drugged, and the keeper had the shakes. There was only one thing left to do.

****************

"Master Jinn!" Jemmiah slapped his face a couple of times. "Hey, I’ve always wanted to slap a Jedi Master in the face and get away with it!" She grinned, whilst holding her ribs with one hand.

"Hello, Prince Charming. Time to wake up!"

Abran snorted at her choice of words.

"Is that Ms Gleshan, by chance." Came a voice from above.
"It is, yeah?" She replied, staring up into the night. "Who wants to know, the angel of darkness?"
"Jemmy?" Yelled Kenobi.
"Ben? What are you doing up there?"
"Our transports been damaged!" Obi-Wan shouted down. "And if Simeon dares go back to sleep, I’m going to damage him!"
"Tsk, tsk!" Jemmiah frowned. "How un-jedi like. I suggest you get down here, Ben, and look after your beloved master like the good little padawan you are. He’s been struck on the head by a falling Yoda."
"Ah!" Came a gleeful reply. "Sounds like a job for An-Paj, super healer. Let me at him!"

A brief clambering sound ensued from the tall tree. "Ben, how are you and Simeon doing?"
"Shaky." Replied Kenobi, "Up and down. How about you?"
"The same. With the added bonus of trashed ribs."
"How?" He asked in concern, pushing Simeon down the tree in front of him.
"Long story. Some big snake thing tried to eat your master, and it didn’t take very kindly to my intervention."
"What did you do, take out a flute and try and charm it?"
"It took us girls to sort out a problem made by you boys. Again." She stared at Abran and Qui-Gon. "Although I admit that it’s stretching all credibility to call him a boy." She pointed to the stricken Jedi.
"What, gone off him so soon!" Abran muttered. "Poor old Master Jinn."

An-Paj bounded down from the last branch and made his way towards Qui-Gon. He turned to stare at Jemmiah. "Cracked ribs, you say." He muttered. "Well, under the circumstances I shall make you my next priority, after seeing to this," he pulled a face when he saw the congealed frogspawn and the black eye, "poor fellow. Would I be right in saying that Master Jinn has not been having the best of days?"
"I’d definitely say that Master Jinn’s best days are behind him." Jemmiah frowned, listening to Jay Abran exchanging furtive words with Kylenn.

An-Paj raised an eyebrow, taking the statement in. "Why don’t you go and sit down?" He asked, trying to judge the situation.
"Will he be OK?" She gestured to Qui-Gon.
"Oh, yes." An-Paj said. "That’s nothing compared to the sort of thing fate usually deals him." He straightened up. "Isn’t that right, Obi-Wan?"
"Unfortunately, yes." Grumbled the padawan, as he made his way over towards his prone master and his injured girlfriend. Although he knew he had no right to feel even slightly amused at other people's suffering, he couldn’t help but grin at the thought that other than a bout of sickness brought on by drunken excess, he had come away from the whole thing almost unscathed.

Him!

Usually, if something went wrong, it was nearly always him that suffered. But not this time!

"Master?" Obi-Wan knelt by his mentor.
Qui-Gon’s eyes flickered open.
"Too late, padawan." He said groggily.

Kenobi looked shocked.

"Too late! What do you mean it’s too late!"
"No…I mean it’s too late." He yawned. "I’m too old for larking around in the dark."

He wondered briefly why Abran was tittering to himself.

"Master!" Yelled Obi-Wan. "You nearly gave me heart failure! Don’t you EVER do that to me again!"
"Your sense of humor hasn’t been improved by late night socializing, has it Obi-Wan?" Qui-Gon smiled, sitting up warily.

Why are Abran and Kylenn laughing to themselves, wondered Qui-Gon?

Why does Master Yoda look as flat as a drinks tray, wondered Jemmiah?

Does Kenobi know about Qui-Gon and Jemmiah, wondered An-Paj?

Turn the sprinklers on, to avoid my lectures would he, Yoda fumed?

I’m OK! I’m OK! Thought Obi-Wan.

"Where’s Master Windu?" Isadora Lucey asked.

The sound of a faltering speeder caught their attention. It seemed to be careening about all over the place, zigzagging about with no thought to the safety of anybody it might come in contact with.

"What is THIS?" Qui-Gon winced.
"I don’t know, master." Obi-Wan frowned. "But I think Jemmiah’s been giving him lessons in how to drive, by the look of things."
"Funny." Jemmy grimaced.
"Who is that joker?" An-Paj shook his head. "He’s going to kill himself!"
"It’s padawan Bai and Master Windu!" Sabra-Ni shouted.

So it was. But neither of them were driving. The person in the steering position was…

"The missing initiate?!?!" Qui-Gon gasped. "Is Mace out of his tiny head?"
"He’s heading towards us!" An-Paj gulped, his feet already moving backwards. He turned round. "Move!" He shouted to initiates and padawans both, "Everybody move!"

A small stampede, amidst squeals of terror and fright spread amongst the children at An-Paj’s’ warning. Some dived for cover. Some tried to make for the tree, as the speeder plowed onwards into their midst. Jemmiah was unceremoniously flung onto the ground by Qui-Gon, who managed to land on top of her, whilst Simeon sort of rolled away out of trouble. The speeder flew right over Yoda, missing him by several inches, before the kid at the controls tried to swerve at the last minute, and ran headlong into Obi-Wan and sent him flying.

As Kenobi lay stunned on the leafy ground, he had only one thought.

WHY ME!?!

**************

"Master Jinn, we must stop meeting like this." Jemmiah spoke through gritted teeth as the pain from her ribs and the considerable weight of the Jedi master lying across her began to take effect.
"Are you OK?" Qui-Gon asked, anxiously making a quick check for further broken bones. The now familiar snicker of Jay Abran accompanied his gesture, and Qui-Gon shot the padawan a look from out one eye that silenced him in his tracks.
"I just want to go home." Jemmiah closed her eyes in weariness.
"I know that." Qui-Gon nodded. He glanced about to see if anyone else had been hurt. It was still very dark, but the sky had lightened a shade or two. Frightened initiates and stunned padawans littered the grass as if on a battlefield.

"Is everyone unscathed?" Jinn levered himself up, dread beginning to filter into his mind. Mace Windu was lying in a heap with what appeared to be a garland of flowers round his neck. A man, as yet unknown to Qui-Gon, sat clutching a rather deadly looking projectile weapon, wearing a very surprised expression on his face. Surrounding him on all sides were a group of comatose initiates, all deeply asleep. And somewhere amongst them should be…

"Obi-Wan!" Jinn couldn’t believe it.
"Urghh!" Jemmiah groaned. "What’s he damaged this time?"
"Padawan?" Qui-Gon hastened to Obi-Wan’s side, much as the apprentice had done only five minutes earlier.
"Master?" croaked Kenobi. "I’m in need of a LOT of sympathy this time."
"You’re in need of a nice hospital bed, son." An-Paj replied, placing a calming hand on Obi-Wan’s head. Qui-Gon squatted down beside the young man.

"What have you done now?" Qui-Gon asked worriedly. Obi-Wan would have shrugged sheepishly, except that his sprung collarbone was making that extremely difficult.
"I’m not entirely sure, master, except that the bits of my body that should bend don’t, and the bits that shouldn’t do…" He grimaced. "And it hurts."
"Is there anything he HASN’T broken yet?" Simeon asked.

Jemmiah thought about making a witty remark, but then decided that perhaps now was not the time. She watched as Qui-Gon helped An-Paj try to relieve Obi-Wan’s pain through the force. Whilst Kenobi’s mind was occupied, An-Paj routed around in his bag for a hypodermic…

"I’m going to publish your life story, young Kenobi, and make medical history." He frowned, as he stuck the needle into a tiny bottle. "I’m wondering how much of you left is the original Obi-Wan. I think that over the years we must have patched you up more times than an inflatable rowing boat. You are a series of patches, my boy."
"Whatever they are, they still hurt." Kenobi whimpered.
"Do they." An-Paj muttered.

"SIIIITTTTHHH!" Screamed Obi-Wan. "What was that?"
"Injection." Replied the healer. "Even the force needs a little nudge, now and again."
"You never said!" Kenobi yelled.
"Didn’t I?" An-Paj blinked. "Oh, well."

Qui-Gon tried to comfort his stressed padawan as best he could. "What was in it?" He asked.
"Painkiller. It’ll make him a bit more relaxed. Not much else. I couldn’t give him too much, considering that he has some rather dubious substances floating round his body as it is. Isn’t that right, Master Yoda?"
"Hmph!" Came the muted reply.

An-Paj reached into his bag for another hypodermic. "Your turn, missy." He smiled politely at Jemmiah, who promptly turned several shades whiter than before.

"I’ll keep the pain, thank you." She gulped.
"It’s your choice." An-Paj replied carefully. "But all you’re doing is putting off the inevitable. Here or at the healers, it’s no odds to me."

She gave her reluctant consent with a nod. "But I want to know about it." She pointed an indignant finger at the healer, "No taking me by surprise."
"That’s not what she normally says." Abran grinned.

Kylenn hit him.

"Wait, An-Paj." Qui-Gon walked over to the healer and pulled him to one side, well out of earshot of the others.
"What is it?"

Qui-Gon hedged a bit before deciding that the best way of saying the thing was to just tell his friend directly. "It would seem that Jemmiah is…how shall I put it…expecting a happy event."
"Uh-huh." An-Paj took that in. So Simeon HAD been right after all. "By happy event, I am assuming that you are not referring to a large, substantial win on the Republic lottery."

Qui-Gon sighed.

"You are trying to tell me, are you not, that Ms Gleshan is in the family way?" He raised an eyebrow.
Qui-Gon nodded. "Will the injection be harmful to the child?"
"No." An-Paj shook his head. "But I’d be more concerned about the alcohol she’s consumed, not to mention the crush injury. I’ll make sure she’s looked over as soon as we get back to the healers." He looked about him. "I think most of us are going to be in need of their services tomorrow."
"It’s today now." Jinn smiled ruefully.
"I would tell you not to worry, and that everything looks better in daylight, but I would be lying." An-Paj smirked. "We’ll get your young lady seen to, and then look at the rest of the casualties." He backed off a little towards Jemmiah. "And that means YOU too, Master Jinn. Don’t think you will escape!"

Qui-Gon wasn’t sure he liked the way Jemmiah had been referred to as "his" young lady, and he wasn’t sure he liked the way that Kylenn and Abran seemed to be whispering amongst themselves. Something was going on here…

"Right, young Miss." An-Paj altered his jocular tone to a serious one. "I’ll try to make this quick." He rolled up her sleeve.
She screwed up her eyes. "Be gentle with me." She pleaded.
"She doesn’t normally say that, either." Abran snorted.

Qui-Gon overheard that particular remark and wheeled on him.

"Do you have something to say?" He asked in a decidedly dangerous tone of voice.
"N-no, Master Jinn, Sir. Nothing." Abran stammered.
"Good." He fixed icy blue eyes on the nervous padawan. "I think it would be best if you really DID say nothing, don’t you?"

Abran nodded.

Obi-Wan moaned out loud, despite the painkillers.

"Why does everyone want to stick me with needles today?" He growled.
"I’m hardly everyone, now am I?" An-Paj replied, finishing Jemmiah’s injection.
"Someone already beat you to it." Kenobi muttered. "Those little darlings stabbed me with a rusty brooch pin."

An-Paj snapped his head up quickly. "Rusty?"
"Too right." Kenobi sulked.
"In where, if you don’t mind me asking such a personal question?"
"My side." He gritted. "Hurts like wildfire."

An-Paj exchanged a meaningful glance with Qui-Gon.

"Let me see." The healer rolled up Kenobi’s tunic. There was a circular, angry and reddened mark on the young man’s side. It looked extremely inflamed.

"When did this happen?" An-Paj asked warily, lifting Kenobi’s head slightly so that he could check his neck and jaw muscles.
"This afternoon, just after you arrived." He moaned.

An-Paj nodded.

"Any pain, or stiffening round the jaw?"
"Why?" Kenobi looked nervous.

"Because, young man, when we get back to the healers I shall be testing you for Giromalthic Infection."
"What’s that?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Something you get when you’re stabbed by rusty brooch pins." An-Paj replied. "And wouldn’t you like to know what the cure is?"

Obi-Wan swallowed.

"More needles?"
"Top of the class, that boy." An-Paj nodded. "Correct. More needles. LOTS of them."

Jemmiah wandered over to Obi-Wan and placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

"Hard luck, Ben." She said simply. "Sith happens, huh?"

He glared.

***********

Somewhere in the undergrowth, something stirred.

Something BIG.

Attracted by the noise, the screaming and chattering and whimpering of young and old voices alike and the scent of living bodies, human or otherwise, it could sense the vibrations of their speech in the air. The feeling of movement carried along the ground up to its feet. Hooded eyes watched as shapes danced in ghostlike fashion amidst the dark.

Still it waited.