Hi guys! Merry Christmas! Here's a little present for ya! So, this got way longer than I planned but that's fine. So that was the last part of Golden Sunset on Florrum, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. Thanks again for all your lovely reviews and I'll see you soon for another story!

TS

The first memory Ahsoka had after the rescue was the bacta tank and the impression that her healing process would never end. She wasn't conscious most of the time but when she was, she couldn't help but panic a little before she realized she was safe. The last couple of days had been really rough on her and left some scars, scars that Anakin could see as if they were physical.

The first time she panicked was a few hours after the shuttle had docked to the cruiser. Once Barriss was done with the first-aid healing, Anakin had lifted Ahsoka again in his arms and taken straight to the medbay, the clones on his tail but the good soldiers weren't hasty and took their time getting there. The medics had quickly reached a diagnosis and operated on Ahsoka's stomach wound before putting her in a bacta tank in bright white and sterile underwear. She had woken up a few hours later, right at the time when Anakin was finished checking on the clones from her team and receiving Masters Plo and Kenobi's transmission that they were done clearing Florrum of droids. They weren't supposed to come to the cruiser for another rotation though.

Anakin had decided to stay a little while with his Padawan, feeling responsible and wanting to make sure she was alright even though he perfectly knew she was as safe as she could be in the bacta tank. An oxygen mask was pressed against her mouth and she floated peacefully in the thick liquid, her face relaxed for once. All her bandages had been removed and Anakin stood up from where he was sitting, his head resting in his hands. It was only at that moment that he could see all the extents of her injuries and he bit his lips, eyes filling with tears. Her forehead possessed a nasty bloody bruise on the right side, her left lekku was purple from the middle down and the Jedi could only guess how much that hurt.

He smiled a little when he remembered how Ahsoka had once tried to explain to him how much the montrals and lekkus were sensitive and sensible and he didn't believe her at first. He always considered her, maybe not as his equal although she was getting closer to that position every day, but as another human being, he wasn't into all the species and races differences. On Tattoine, he had grown up around every kind of people, Rhodians, Hutts and others and so he never discriminated his Padawan because she was a Togruta. He also never thought she wasn't capable of doing something because she was a girl and not a boy and so he never realized that her morphology was actually different. Sure, he could see it but he never understood it. Until during one flying experience they had crashed a ship and he landed with all his weight on her back lekku. He didn't do that on purpose, it was gravity's fault but he realized how sensible that spot was when she burst into tears and almost fainted out of pain. She was so weak and in agony she couldn't move for a whole hour.

Remembering that, he gritted his teeth as he looked at the dark purple that replaced her usual white lekku and blue stripes. He had also realized, during the courses of years that her facial markings and lekku stripes somewhat changed a little bit. It wasn't of course as obvious as the length of her lekkus and height of her montrals that had greatly riser in two, nearly three years. It was actually Obi-Wan who made him realize that. He had been gone for a while and the three of them seemed to always be on missions when the others were at the temple so they never actually saw each other for months. When they did, Obi-Wan couldn't hide his surprise at how much she had changed and grown. Her outfit wasn't the only clue. Her blue stripes were actually starting to get a little irregular and darker and her face markings seemed to want to follow her face and elongated slightly although you needed two pictures of Ahsoka to see the real difference. Padme for instance could instantly see these kinds of things and she already embarrassed Anakin in front of his Padawan, giving him the impression he wasn't paying attention to his apprentice's evolution which wasn't true. It was just that seeing Ahsoka every day for most of the day made it difficult to see any changes in appearance.

But he could see it now. He could also see what the training had done to her body. Nothing negative really, he could for example see clearly her muscles, ones that she didn't have at the beginning of her apprenticeship; her silhouette was slender but not too thin, perfectly in shape actually. She had grown a couple inches taller and he blushed when her female forms caught his attention with this close-to-skin underwear. That was another thing Padme had complained about, that he made Ahsoka train so much that her female body couldn't develop properly but that was one of the rare subjects Ahsoka didn't want to talk about with Padme when her Master was around. When they were all alone though, he had no idea what they talked about and didn't really want to know.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and his gaze fell on her stomach and lower part of her chest. Purple and blue bruises covered the places where her ribs were, sometimes it was more present, sometimes less but he could still see clearly where and what rib had been broken or sprained. Partly because he had broken so many of his own bones that he knew what the consequences of such wounds looked like. He then had to admit that the medics did a great job with her stomach injury. The infection had been kept under control, her fever was gone and the only thing that would soon remain would be a scar, nasty for the first weeks but then just a reminder. The medics were good but they weren't that good. As for the scratches on her arms and legs, they were long gone. No more than after ten minutes in the bacta tank they were history.

It was at that moment that she had winced and moved her head. He knew how weird it felt to wake up in a bacta tank, since it happened to him once. Every time he landed in that thing he wished he slept through it all and wasn't afraid to ask the medics to give him a shot to make him sleep long enough to be in and out without him even noticing. She didn't get it at first and slightly moved her legs and arms, slowly regaining control over her limbs until her eyes shot open and she looked around, panicked. Her cries were strangled by the mask allowing her to breathe and her hands pressed against the thick glass of the tank as if she was trying to break free. He knew how much she hated being trapped and her fear reached him like a freezing wave. He reached for her and pressed both his palms on the glass, at the same place where her hands were. That caught her attention and she stopped thrashing around.

"Hey, Snips, it's okay. You're safe now."

Since he wasn't sure she could hear him, he mouthed the words with exaggeration and she slightly nodded before drifting into unconsciousness again. That had happened more than twenty hours ago. Since that time, she had woken up a couple of times but never panicked like the first time. Plo and Obi-Wan had come back and Barriss returned to her Master with Anakin's gratitude. Anakin had even been forced by his former Master to take some sleep and eat something which he reluctantly agreed to once Rex told him he'd watch the Commander during the General's rest. Rex was the other person that stayed almost constantly in the room where was Ahsoka's bacta tank but the medics accepted his presence much more than Anakin's for the clone didn't make much noise and stayed put whereas Anakin kept on walking in circles and muttering how he could have saved her.

But when he had woken up, a hologram was waiting for him: the medics were about to get Ahsoka out of the tank. Anakin hadn't been happier in weeks, that was a great thing to wake up to. Rex said he'd greet the Commander later, he wanted to leave Anakin with his Padawan first, but he said he'd make sure to bring Sinker, Trend and Comet with him. Anakin reached Ahsoka's room as she was waking up. She had been in the tank for more than twenty-four hours and most of her injuries were healed, those that weren't, the bacta wouldn't change anything about them, they had to heal on their own with time only.

She was lying on her back on a bed; she had been changed into a white tunic that covered her body from her shoulders to her knees. The bruise on her forehead had vanished but the medics warned Anakin about the consequences and side effects of a potential concussion so the Jedi knew she should take it easy. He already knew that she'd get quickly bored, that's why he was planning on bringing her on a small trip to Naboo where Padme had agreed to meet them and couldn't wait to see them both, especially Ahsoka. The senator had really been worried when the news of Ahsoka's predicament reached her and had taken all necessary precautions for a safe trip and one week vacation on Naboo for the two of them. Of course, with the approval of the Counsel.

He could feel her slowly waking up, as if her presence was becoming fully bright in his mind. He couldn't really explain how the Force worked, how he could feel her every time even when she was sleeping, but he just knew she was about to wake up. So he sat on a chair next to her and waited, looking at her. He didn't see her stomach wound once she was out of the bacta tank but the medics told him that the only thing left was a scar. It was still fresh and rather deep but it wasn't bleeding and had been completely cleansed. From what he heard, it was still a little red and would be an irritable place for the weeks to come, but a simple cream should do the trick. Her four ribs started mending and only provoked one fourth of the pain they did when broken. She still had to wear a special bandage to keep her ribcage from moving too much, especially since she sprained two more ribs when that wild coyote pinned her to the ground. Also the broken fragments of one rib slightly grazed her left lung but it was not something the bacta couldn't fix and her lungs were perfectly fine.

The only thing that gave a clue about what she had been through was her left lekku. It wasn't dark purple anymore but more mauve, it was starting to fade away but it was still present and would take time to disappear completely. Her skin had regained its usually bright orange color and her white face markings could easily be seen, they weren't covered in dust anymore like when he had found her. She wasn't shaking anymore or breathing heavily and her heartbeat was steady to Anakin's relief.

Her eyes fluttered open and this time they focused immediately. The artificial light blinded her at first and she covered her vision with her left hand but after a few seconds she looked again and turned to her Master.

"Don't tell me you've been watching me since we left Florrum, Skyguy."

He smiled softly, his hands joined together, elbows resting on his knees.

"No Snips, Obi-Wan kicked me out and forced me to sleep. Rex watched you for me though."

"How is he? And Sinker? Comet? Trend?"

"They're fine and ready to go back to service."

She sighed in relief. After a while of silence when they both just enjoyed each other's presence and were relieved to be alive, she sat up. He raised his hands in protest but she ignored him and swung her legs off the edge of the bed. Her head didn't spin this time and she felt no nausea creeping in. Except for the pain in her left lekku, her mending ribs and the scar that only made her want to scratch it, she was feeling perfectly fine. She raised her eyebrows and shot him a warning look, her hands already at her sides, ready to push her off the bed.

"Don't you even try to stop me! I've been unconscious for too long, I need to get moving."

He laughed a little then brought a wheeling chair from behind the door.

"Luckily, I had it all planned. I know the wheel chair is not your favorite kind of transport but you can't move too much and it's the best we can do to get you back to a shuttle and then to the temple. Once there, I'll help you pack and you and I are going on a vacation."

He brought the wheel chair next to the bed and she dismissed it at first but after trying to get up and wincing, she hopped in.

"And where are we going to spend this vacation?"

"At one of the most beautiful place in the world, Snips."