Rehab of the Heart

Summary:

Obi-wan Kenobi has strong feelings for Luminara Unduli. He knows it, Anakin knows it, it seems as though everyone knows it. Except, of course, Luminara. But something goes terribly wrong. When she comes back from a solo mission, Luminara is like a completely different person, not like herself. Obi-wan notices and tries to help her. Lumiwan.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any of its characters.

Author's Note: This entire story is going to take place in Obi-wan's point of view, first person.

I leaned against the railing of the balconies overlooking the training arena. The only sound is the continuous hum of two lightsabers, give or take a few grunts or the striking of lightsaber blades against one another.

I watch the sparring session below me with interest… okay, so I was watching one of the competitors with interest. I was so amazed at how she fought; she was quick and agile in her swipes, and solid in her blocks. Yet she was still graceful in a scary kind of way. I was surprised at how determined she looked; I could tell she was concentrating. Force, the entire temple could burst into flames, and she probably wouldn't notice.

"Spying again, Master?"

I turned around to find my padawan, Anakin Skywalker, standing there with his arms folded and a smirk on his face.

"No, I am observing from a distance."

"Right. So this wouldn't have anything to do with Master Unduli?"

"What? No of course not…"

"Why don't you just ask her out already?"

I frowned. "Why would I do that?"

"Master, everybody knows you like her, ever since that mission to Ansion."

"I do not."

"Yes you do, here I'll help you." He leaned over the bar and cupped his hands around his mouth. "HEY MASTER UNDULI!!!"

I tried to make myself shrink as both her and her padawan's faces snapped toward us. Hmm, maybe she is more alert that I may have noticed before…

"Yes Anakin?" She asked.

"I think my master has something to say to you," He turned toward me, "Go ahead, Master."

"Uh…" She raised an eyebrow. "You um, your form is wrong… you have to balance on the other leg…" Then I took off.

When I got to my quarters, I soon found out that Anakin had followed me. Joy.

"Come on, Master, you have got to tell her some time."

"How do you expect me to do that, Hmm?"

"I don't know come up with something. You'll have a week to figure out what to say, she's leaving for a mission tomorrow, so you can tell her when she gets back. A week is plenty of time."

"Anakin how is this even any of your business?"

"Because, Master, I am your padawan. Your business is my business plain and simple."

"You got that from Barriss didn't you?"

"No actually, I came up with that one on my own."

"Wow, what an accomplishment." I then walked into my room and fell asleep.

The next day, I went with Anakin to see Luminara off on her mission. It was a solo mission; Barriss was attending training with the healers. So she was on her own. It was a diplomatic mission; no real fighting was to be done, so a single Jedi seemed appropriate. She was going to Ryloth was expected to be back in about a week.

Once she was gone, Anakin tried for the entire day to help me come up with something to say to Luminara. Of course though, we didn't come up with anything. The next day didn't prove any better.

The third day, I consulted Barriss. She said she didn't know anything about her master's interest in men. So I still came up with diddlysquat. Who else to ask but her close friend Shaak? She knew just about as much as Barriss. Although I did find out that she didn't like it when people called her tattoos spots. 'They're diamond shaped'.

So nothing in that area. I asked Ki-adi-mundi (who has five wives) and he suggested that I ask her to 'mate with me for the sake of our species.' Uh, no. That would probably repel her. We're not even the same species. Plus, that's definitely not the kind of way I feel about her.

On the sixth day I still hadn't found out any information that I had been looking for, and my brilliant mind wasn't helping at all. Apparently Luminara didn't talk about what she looks for in a guy… to anybody. I seriously thought that Barriss might know something.

So there I was on the seventh day-the day she was coming back-and I still hadn't come up with a decent plan. So I just decided to just come out and tell her. I ran it over in my mind as I waited alongside Barriss… and Anakin, who had decided to come so that he could see her reaction.

When the time came close for the ship to arrive I could feel my hands getting sweaty, and I was a bit weak at the knees. I looked across the sky, waiting for the ship to arrive and then for Luminara to step out so that I could most definitely embarrass myself in front of her and her padawan, AND my padawan.

But the ship didn't come.

We waited for an hour after the ship had missed its landing time before deciding to come back tomorrow to look. If she showed up it the middle of the night, so be it. Ships were late sometimes. Actually it wasn't uncommon for a ship to come back a day late.

Then the ship didn't show up the next day. Or the next.

I started to get slightly on edge. It was very rare for a ship to be three days late from a planet that is about two hours away by shuttle. I asked the counsel about it, and they agreed that it was quite strange. So we tried to contact Luminara via her comlink. It must've been turned off or something, because there was no reply.

Three days later the counsel decided to send a search party to Ryloth. The party was to consist of two Jedi Masters. So I immediately volunteered. The other member was to be Mace Windu. So we went to Ryloth.

We searched for a day and a half, and didn't find her. Or anything about her either. So we decided to leave. We were on our way back to the ship when I heard a strange noise.

It was a shuffling sound, like something scraping against the ground, I'm surprised that I heard it, it was very faint. The sound seemed to have come from a nearby alley.

I stopped Mace before he boarded the ship. "Hey, hold up I think I heard something."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "What?"

"Something coming from that alley, I'm going to check it out real fast."

"Make it quick, we need to report back at the temple."

I nodded and headed toward the source of the noise. It was a normal looking alley, dirty, dark, and it smelled funny. At the end were some trash bags piled up, but nothing seemed to be alive. The sound was probably just one of the trash bags shifting in the wind.

I turned to leave and the sound came again. No breeze. No wind. I looked back and saw one of the trash bags shift a little. I turned back to Mace who was tapping his watch. I held up a finger to him and made my way to the end of the alley and around the trash bags.

Behind them was a shaking form of some bipedal race. Not a Twi'lek, I noticed, due to the lack of lekku. But humanoid. The form appeared to be female. Whoever she was she had curled into a ball-type shape and had her face buried in her knees.

"Excuse me, ma'am, are you alright?" I asked.

She looked up with a terrified expression. She looked horrendous, she had a significant cut across her forehead, and her lip was busted open. The entire left side of her face was bruised and swollen, plus she had a thing going with the black eyes that made her look slightly raccoon-ish.

But these weren't the worst things. The worst part was how familiar she looked. What part of her face wasn't black or blue was olive green. Her eyes were intense blue, and her bottom lip was permanently tinted a dark shade of purplish black. Extending from this was a series of black diamond shaped, not spots, tattoos. This person, laying here behind a pile of trash bags, who looked as if she had been beaten to death, then dug up again and miraculously come back to life, who was absolutely horrified at the sound of my voice, was Jedi Master Luminara Unduli.

So that's it for now… please review?