TITLE: Double Trouble?
Part One
(With thanks to Jane Jinn for letting borrow An-Paj)
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"I'm bored." Jemmiah grumbled.
An-Paj nodded.
"Yes, so you've said. At least ten times in the last half hour."
"But there's nothing for me to do." Jemmy turned large, pleading, copper colored eyes to her jailer. "I hate just lying here. I've counted the tiles on the ceiling so often I'm beginning to imagine extra!"
"Hallucinations?" An-Paj asked wickedly. "Well, there's nothing that can't be cured with the liberal use of calming injections…"
"I never said that." The child replied, her round eyes getting bigger.
"Just as well for you." The healer smiled as he tried to make sense of the latest data regarding his young patient.
Patient? He laughed at the very notion of this girl being patient. She'd been in here for two weeks now which had been fine whilst she was too ill to misbehave. Ever since her health had slowly began to improve the healers had been collectively bombarded with "I'm bored!" at regular intervals. He couldn't blame her for being a Corellian pain in the rear. The treatment was not very pleasant and had made her quite sick to begin with until they had sorted out the right medication for her. The wasting disease had taken its toll on any sense of humor that she might have possessed.
"Perhaps if I could get up?" The ten-year-old asked.
"Absolutely not." An-Paj said sternly.
"But you said I was getting better."
"And so you are. But you are still a long way from being fully recovered and you don't have the strength."
As the girl scowled at him from underneath dark eyebrows, An-Paj took that determined expression as one of potential mutiny.
"I mean it." He emphasized. "You put so much as one foot out of these sheets without my permission and I'll have someone sat beside you at all times to make sure that you stay there."
"You know something?" Jemmy glared at him.
"What?"
"I think you are perfectly horrible." She stuck out her tongue at him and then pulled the blankets over her head.
An-Paj shrugged his shoulders in resignation.
"Not perfectly horrible, no. Nobody's perfect. Very horrible will do me just fine." He said as he regarded the lump under the bed.
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An hour later and Jemmy was still bored.
Master Jinn was going to pop in later to see how she was doing and bring Obi-Wan with him.
//That's a damn silly name// Jemmy thought with a sigh.
In the meantime, she was stuck in here with only the walls for company. Well, the screens at any rate. She hated the idea of being stared at and so she had begged An-Paj to close them and he'd agreed at first, knowing that she had been to unwell to get out of bed unassisted. But now…
She still wasn't well enough but that didn't mean she wasn't going to try.
He'd pulled them half round by way of a compromise.
She hardly knew anyone except for the few healers who had been called to attend her, An-Paj himself and his rather goofy padawan whose name began with an S, and Master Jinn and his rat tailed apprentice. Slowly but surely, Jemmiah was beginning to go mad. At her own inability to get better, more than anything else. Her appetite was non existent. The only reason she ate the few mouthfuls of garbage she was given was to get An-Paj off her case and more often then not it made her sick anyway. But she'd be damned if she'd just lie here and suffer.
She knew she could get up. She knew she could walk.
So, when it seemed as if there was nobody about Jemmiah slipped herself out of the covers and shifted round to the side of her bed, feet placed flatly on the cold floor.
//Oh, c'mon! This is easy! You've been able to do this for over eight and a bit years//
Funny how suddenly even a floor seemed scary. If she could just prove to herself that it was as easy as she believed then she could pester An-Paj to let her up and about the next time he came to see her.
"That's it Jemster. Show the galaxy that Corellians can't ever be beaten…" she encouraged herself.
The foot went one pace forward. Jemmy grabbed hold of the table next to her to give herself some stability whilst she slid the other foot along infront of its counterpart. Her feet were obeying her!
Unfortunately, the rest of her body wasn't. The knees buckled twice and she fell flat on her face.
"Oh, that's not fair!" she growled. "That is sooooooo not fair. Now what?"
Well, she reckoned she had two choices. Either she could try and attract attention to herself, which meant that An-Paj would make good his threat of an imposed babysitter or she could try and get back to bed. Either way she didn't reckon much for her chances.
A huge shadow cast itself over her and with a gulp she persuaded herself to look up -
Into the towering frame of Qui-Gon Jinn.
"What do you think you are doing?" he asked in amazement as she lay spread-eagled on the ground.
"I got bored of counting the tiles on the ceiling and thought I'd try the ones on the floor." She managed to say in a tremulous voice.
"Why don't I believe you?" Qui-Gon asked as he bent down nearer her level. "What happened?"
Jemmiah considered lying but knew it would be a pointless exercise. And anyhow, it would take a lot of practise before she could face those blue eyes and lie convincingly. She had the feeling that he was reading her every thought and didn't much like it.
"I…I fell." She mumbled.
"How?"
"I tried to get up. I thought I could walk, you know?" she asked defensively. "Then my legs went all wobbly and I hit the floor."
"You are not supposed to be out of bed." Qui-Gon reproved her. "You are in that bed for a reason."
"But I hate it! I just feel miserable. And I have nothing to do. I don't know anyone and…and…" she was beginning to work herself into a state.
Qui-Gon picked her up, something that usually would have had her gritting her teeth at the embarrassment of being carried like a baby, but strangely enough she didn't seem to mind too much. Instead of putting her back on the sheets he sat down on the bed and put her on his lap.
"You look tired. Why don't you get some sleep?"
"My body is tired. It keeps wanting to pass out, but my mind is awake." She complained. "I can't help it."
"Shhhh." He calmed her. "I know this whole thing isn't your fault. Nobody would want to be stuck in here given the choice. And I know it's not been easy for you to adjust to these surroundings or the people, especially when you've been ill. But it will get better. You've just got to give it a chance."
"It'll get better? Soon?" Jemmy asked.
Qui-Gon smiled.
"That depends on you. If you keep pushing yourself when you're not ready then you are going to do yourself more harm than good."
He put his hands on her shoulders, and for some reason she couldn't understand her eyelids seemed to grow very heavy. Still she fought the urge to sleep.
"Where's Obi-Wan?" she asked with a yawn.
"He's visiting his friend, Zac V'Aladee. I said he could have some time to himself whilst I came to visit."
"You were supposed to visit later on." She admonished sleepily; feeling his hands bore into her shoulders.
Qui-Gon picked up the comb at the side of the table and started to brush her long, wavy hair.
"I thought my hair was unmanageable." He said as he dragged the comb through the thick, chestnut strands. "It's all tangled together."
"Is it?" she asked with her eyes almost shut.
The master persisted with the unravelling of the girl's locks until it looked like her head was about to nod.
"Tangles? Are you asleep?"
"No."
"Why not?" he said as the hands grew heavy on her shoulders again.
"Because that's what you want me to do and I never do what people….want…me… to." She said as she drifted off.
Qui-Gon returned her to the bed and pulled the covers over her.
"Well done." An-Paj's voice behind him made him jump; suddenly bringing home the fact that they were at the infirmary. "I never thought I'd see the day when you would be able to tame a wildcat like that."
"She is not wild." Qui-Gon frowned. "She's just had a very bad start in life. There's nothing that can't be put right with time and patience."
"Patience. There's that word again." The healer sighed. "Have they managed to trace her relatives yet?"
"No." Qui-Gon shook his head. "We've heard nothing."
"Well, once she's better it will be someone else's problem so I doubt you will have to worry." An-Paj clapped him on the back.
Qui-Gon stood up, remembering. Another time, another opportunity he had let drift by and all because he hadn't had the courage to do what needed to be done. He couldn't change the past or blot out the mistake but perhaps he could somehow atone for it now…make sure it didn't happen again.
And he had promised.
"I'm going to apply for her temporary custody." He stated.
It was one of the few times he could ever recollect the healer being speechless. Well, almost.
"Qui-Gon…" he said eventually once his voice had returned. "Are you sure you know what you're taking on?"
"No." Qui-Gon replied truthfully. "I haven't a clue. But I 'm sure I'll find out along the way."
"The council might not let you."
"Hang the council." Jinn snapped. "I'll follow the code up to when my conscience permits it. But that's where it ends. If Mace tries to stop me he'll have a fight on his hands."
"It's not just Mace." An-Paj shook his head. "What about Master Gallia? And Yoda? Is he really going to let you…"
"We shall just have to see, won't we. But I'm not backing down on this one." Qui-Gon looked back at the sleeping figure in the bed. "I'll be back later on this afternoon. I shall be bringing my padawan to visit, if I may. He seems to get on with her really well."
"Double trouble." Muttered An-Paj as Qui-Gon took his leave, the straight-backed Jedi master retreating through the ward with a silent but brisk step.
"Looks like Master Jinn has found another project." He sighed.