The next few days dragged on with a terrible and mind numbing slowness. The first morning that he had awoken in the infirmary he had tried to leave. Joie had come back to the infirmary with his lunch to find him walking slowly around the tiny room stretching his arms and legs, even as his vision still swam with the sudden exertion.
She had practically dragged him back to the bed and forced him to rest. She even gently but firmly chastised him for moving around so soon, and she made him promise to stay in bed till at least tomorrow morning. He reluctantly agree to her request even though he had no intention of keeping his promise to her. After lunch Ben had curled up in the small hospital bed and pretended as if he was going to take a nap, but as soon as Joie left the room he got back up again. He managed to do some more stretches, and even managed to do some push-ups and crunches that didn't make him feel like he was dying.
Unfortunately he had nothing to do now until dinner came along. He sat in bed and looked forlornly at the door, wishing that Joie would come back with food and some company to ease the painful boredom he was feeling. So far he had found her easy to be around, and she never expected him to talk or carry on a conversation. It was kind of refreshing and different from other girls he had met. Being along with his own thoughts was fine, but he was bored after staring at the wall for hours on end. He instead took the time to look around the room and examine the medical devices that were on hand.
It was very sparse. He briefly wondered how often the students here were injured or sick. As far as he could tell this one small room was actually the whole infirmary. With one small bed and a few limited medical supplies. If more than one student was seriously injured at a time then they would be catastrophically overwhelmed. He surmised that the medical building was still a work in progress, that or Jedi padawans rarely were injured. In addition he assumed that Joie was their only medical personnel. They didn't even have a medical bot on hand.
Eventually dinner came around, or at least the time he hoped was dinner, and Ben stumbled back to the bed. He could walk around the small room without feeling tired, but his legs still felt oddly sore. It must have been a combination of healing from the heavy physical exercise he had done the week before, followed by not using them again for a whole week while he lay unconscious. It gave them a very strange rubbery feeling that he hoped would pass quickly.
He didn't have to wait long for Joie to come back. And he put on an innocent face and hoped that she wouldn't suspect that he had been out of bed, going against the promise that he had made earlier. He turned to look at the door and his face faltered a little as he saw that she was not alone. Behind Joie came a very cheerful girl. It was Thara and her face lit up with joy at the sight of him. He could not reciprocate the feeling.
She bounded over to him and stopped short of the bed looking him over with a look of blatant concern on her face. Ben had been certain that she was going to try to hug him or touch him in some way but she kept a respectful distance from him.
"Joie said that it would be alright if I came to see you. She said that you were finally awake. We had all been so worried! That sickness must have been really terrible." She looked so sincere and heartfelt as she said it that he was slightly overcome. He was not used to someone being so genuinely concerned and it made me uncomfortable.
He looked away and shrugged, not meeting her gaze. "It wasn't that bad, it's not like I was dying. I just got a little sick that's all." This was not true of course but for some reason he did not want to worry the girl more than she already was.
Thara did not look convinced but instead looked as if she was near tears. Ben stared at her not knowing what to do, girls were too strange for him to deal with. So he tried to offer a small smile to reassure her. Please don't cry, he thought to himself.
It seemed to be enough and her face lit up and she smiled back at him. It was almost as if she had never been near tears. At least a smile was better than a face full of tears. However she reached out and grabbed his arm, almost as if she was going to pull him into a hug. It was such a sudden movement that it startled him and he jumped a little. But he didn't try to pull away. In fact he did not know what to feel. If a hug meant that much to her he would bear it.
She pulled him into an embrace that was tighter than he would have wanted. He gave her back a few tentative pats and pulled away and luckily she let him go. But she did smile widely at him as if she was extremely happy.
Joie meanwhile had set down the tray of food and was waiting patiently for Thara to step away from her patient. She had a slightly amused expression on her face, as if she knew something that he didn't.
"Don't grab him so roughly he still needs to rest. He is weaker than he was when you first met him." She said with a slight reproach, as if she was a mother chastising a child for playing too harshly with a puppy. But Thara looked admonished and backed away from him, giving him enough room to wiggle away if she tried to reach for him again.
Ben did not mind that Joie was here. He wished that he had known that Thara was coming, he could have feigned a relapse so he wouldn't have to deal with any visitors. But she was here now, and if he acted sick she might take away the food. And it did look more substantial than it had for the previous meals.
Joie picked up the tray again and sat it at the foot of the bed, it looked like there were three full meals on it this time. Apparently the girls would be sharing a meal with him. He was torn between feeling annoyed and also being excited for the company. Granted it would be better if it had just been with Joie, but the meal would not last forever. And maybe Thara would be a pleasant dinner companion.
Luckily he was right about that. Thara stared at him wide eyed and giggled occasionally, but she was surprisingly silent. She seemed to content to stare at Ben, which was fine with him as long as she was not being annoying.
They both sat on small chairs that were more like stools and ate their food. Ben sat on the bed and let his legs dangle over the sides as he ate. The evening meal was some kind of strange dish he was not familiar with, it was something with noodles and broth that tasted faintly of chicken even though he was sure it was not chicken. It even had some of the pink vegetable in the broth that he and his uncle had eaten out in the forest.
Joie sat her plate of food down and cleared her throat. "I think that with how fast you are recovering that you can go back to your room tomorrow. But you shouldn't do any kind of training until three days after that. Do you think you could do that?" She asked him softly.
Ben nodded with a mouth full of food. "I can do that, I'm tired of being locked up in this place." HE answered honestly.
Joie smiled at his honesty. "I don't blame you, it can get boring here. I would visit more often but I'm the only one here with any medical training. I'm usually running all over the temple applying bandages to cuts and bruises."
Ben just nodded as he finished swallowing his food. "It must be hard, doing this all by yourself." He went back to eating and wished he had more, but he couldn't overburden his stomach just yet.
Joie smiled warmly and nodded, "It's not so bad. I'm learning more here than I ever could at home. There are no schools are medical facilities near where my family lives. I'm happy for the opportunity to learn what I can, before a university accepts me into their medical program." She said it cheerfully with a hopefulness in her voice. It surprised him that she had no medical training before this, was there anyone here who was a professional besides his uncle?
Thinking about his Uncle he realized that he had not thought about the older man since he first woke up. He had not even crossed his mind. But he had never even come by to check on his nephew. He must have better things to do, more important matters he thought with a stab of bitterness.
"What happened to my Uncle? Why hasn't he come to visit me," Ben asked trying to keep his voice steady. He tried to tell himself that he was not hurt by the lack of visitation, but that he was just making an obvious inquiry.
Thara looked surprised and shot a glance at Joie, and the older girl gave him a pained and sympathetic look. She sat down her bowl and reached into her robes, pulling out a small device that looked like some kind of recorder. Ben could guess who had given it to her.
"Your Uncle left a few hours after you first were admitted. He sent a correspondence this morning and I promised to give it to you. He said he was sorry he couldn't stay, but there was some urgent matter he had to attend too." She placed the small device on the blankets next to him.
Ben stared at it but made no move to pick it up. He would look at it later when they had left. "Thank you," he said calmly. The boy resumed eating and focused on the task until the bowl was empty.
Both the girls looked at him expectantly and he wondered if he was expected to say something. "Thank you for the meal," he said finally wondering if he was being rude.
Thara giggled at him and took his bowl and placed it back on the tray. Joie gathered up the rest of the empty bowls and picked everything up to take back to the mess hall.
"There are also some other messages from your family. Your mother is one of them, and some young boy named Poe." Joie mentioned as she started walking to the door.
Ben sighed inwardly. He wasn't sure if he would listen to those messages. He was mostly interested in what his Uncle had left him in the message.
"Also, there is a message from someone named Snoke?" Joie said with her brows twisting in slight confusion. "Is he a relative or friend of yours? He seemed like he was a politician."
Ben felt his heart flutter a little before he responded. "He is an old friend," Ben admitted as he finally picked up the recorder. He was glad now that he had waited to watch these messages in private.
"Thank you again for the meal Joie," he said again. She smiled softly at him and Thara giggled and waved at him.
"Bye Ben!" she said in a high pitched voice. Ben was already looking away so he did not see Thara blush as she left the room.
His eyes were focused on the device in his hand, and his heart beat loudly against his ribs, as he wondered what messages it contained.