Miri studied the contents of her glass, waiting for Jaki's shift to end. The cantina felt different now that she was just a patron, and nothing more. Clothed in her normal attire, she drew little to no stares, which pleased her immensely. She smiled inwardly as she swallowed the last of the Corellian wine from the stemless cup. As she set down the glass, she wondered what places in the Republic, or rather the Empire, that served their wine in glasses with stems, would be like. Setting the thought aside, she looked up at her friend who had sidled up carrying two more glasses of the deep hued wine.
"Just in time," Miri said, holding up her empty glass.
"Now," Jaki said, heaving a sigh, "Spill."
Miri blushed, taking her glass of wine, spinning it idly on the table. "Where do you want me to start?"
"At the beginning, of course," Jaki said.
"Well," Miri took in a breath. "You know how he came in here, and I shamelessly threw myself at him." She smiled, recalling that first night. "After coming by father's stall a few times, I learned that he uh, knew several languages, and he agreed to teach me." Miri paused. "I don't know, through our lessons, we just realized… that we were in love. And we made the decision. It was fairly simple."
"Wait, wait," Jaki said, setting her glass down after taking a drink. "So where does the Hutt business fit in?"
Miri licked her lips and thought on her toes. "Right, well… He walked me home one night, kept me from those goons. But as you know, it ended up not mattering and they got to me eventually." She swallowed, remembering the way Abraxas's closed fist felt when he'd hit her, again and again. "And I got stupid, went to pay them off on my own. I got cocky. That's when father and… Ben," she cleared her throat. She'd almost said Obi-Wan. "That's when they came and got me. After finally doing everything they asked, I got to leave. But, I wanted to stay with him. With Ben. I was so upset. Father understood."
"Your father? Let you stay the night at Ben Kenobi's?" Jaki's eyes filled with incredulity. Miri held her gaze, and nodded as if to say she couldn't believe it either.
"It's not going to be happening anymore, not until we're married," Miri said, blushing, remembering being with Obi-Wan.
"It's not?" Jaki grinned ear to ear.
"Well," Miri added, cocking her head to the side a moment. "I won't be staying there, at the very least. I still have lessons to attend to, after all." Miri couldn't hide her smile.
The girls sat and gushed over the exciting upheaval of Miri's life. After a while, Miri had spun enough lies that Jaki was so far off the trail, Miri no longer worried her story with Obi-Wan could be called into question. She also had no doubt that once Jaki was convinced, when others came to her looking to confirm rumors that she was engaged to Ben Kenobi, she would be able to emphatically confirm. She also could be certain that Jaki would shoot down any rumors that concerned her, for lack of a better word, honor. Miri never felt that sex out of marriage was something to be ashamed of. The further into the Republic you got, the more people were accepting of it. But, as luck would have it, she was born in Tatooine, on the outskirts of civilization.
When asked how her father seemed to be handling the changes, Miri sighed. "Fine enough. He knows when I've got my mind set to something… It's Bastien I was surprised about."
"Bastien?" Jaki asked.
"Yeah, you know, my father's apprentice. A bit older than us? Dark curly hair, green eyes?"
"Yeah," Jaki said, quietly. She cleared her throat. "I know him." She paused. "What surprised you about him?"
"I don't know, Jak," Miri said, drinking more of her wine. "I just had this feeling, or rather I got the impression, that he thought he was going to have a shot with me. And he was angry when news of my engagement got out."
Jaki's lips pressed into a thin line, and she inclined her head once. "I could see that."
Miri waited for Jaki to elaborate. She'd picked up on only so much in Bastien's mind before she withdrew. She knew there was a reason he'd been so unsuccessful with women. She'd lied to scare him, telling him she knew. In truth, she knew only that he carefully guarded whatever secret it was.
When Jaki did not elaborate, Miri pressed further. "There was something that happened with him and some other girls… I heard something, but not much."
"Yeah, well you wouldn't, would you? Not the way their parents covered it up."
"It?"
Jaki finished her glass of wine, and twirled the empty glass on he table a moment before responding. "I don't know all the specifics, but I think it had a fair amount to do with him trying to use other than honorable means to get them to marry him. All I know is that it didn't work, but the parents had to do a whole lot of damage control to keep him away from their daughters."
Miri's stomach filled with rocks. She had an idea of what those means might have been.
"Do you know which girls those were?"
Jaki studied Miri a moment. "Why do you want to know?"
Miri swallowed the last of her wine in a bigger gulp than she'd anticipated. She cleared her throat. "I want to know if I have anything to worry about, working beside him for the next six weeks. Given what's happened to me over the past several weeks, I think you understand my concern."
Jaki's eyes darkened. Miri could see the names before she even said them, but still, she wanted her friend to volunteer them.
"Yula Sayed and Brinda Vereen. Brinda moved with her husband to Dantooine, but Yula is still here."
"Where does Yula live?"
"With her husband, in Mos Espa. He's a mechanic there."
Miri ran her fingers along her bottom lip. Mos Espa was not too far from Mos Eisley. She could get there in an hour or so if she used the hover car. She supposed, for a moment, that she could just look further into Bastien's thoughts, but there was no guarantee that the truth of the matter would be on his mind. She also had no idea how deeply she could reach into a person's mind. With so much to learn about controlling her use of the force, Miri felt that talking to Yula was the safest bet. With her mind made up, Miri nodded to Jaki.
"Thank you, Jaki. I hope I'm just being paranoid, and she doesn't tell me he's a womp rat of a human being."
"I hope that as well," Jaki said, taking the empty glasses, and out of habit, running them back up to the bar.
Miri sat on her bed, her legs pulled up to her chest, wrapped in a blanket. Miri held the communicator device to her mouth, and called Obi-Wan. Having resigned themselves to the fact that they would be separated for another six weeks, Miri and Obi-Wan decided that having a constant means of communication between them was best, and so before he left Mos Eisley, Obi-Wan picked up the parts necessary to fix his broken communicator.
After a moment, he answered.
"Is everything alright, Miri?"
"Yes, well…" Miri paused, wishing she were in Obi-Wan's bed, rather than her own. Wistfully, she continued. "It's Bastien. I'm hesitant to say anything here," Miri glanced towards her door, which was shut, but still she took no chances. "I just have a bad feeling about him. I need you to go with me to Mos Espa."
"What's in Mos Espa?" Obi-Wan's voice gave no hint of rapprochement.
"A girl. I need to speak with her. And, since I really don't want to go repeating what happened at Jabba's palace, I want you with me."
"I don't suppose I can argue with you about going, if I have no idea why you want to go in the first place. But I can sense how important this is to you, so of course we will go."
"Thank you, Obi-Wan," Miri said, relieved. She had come to count on her lover more than she knew. "I will be able to go tomorrow, if we leave early. I can get out of a half a day's work at the stall, but probably not much more without rousing suspicion."
"Say no more. I will be there at first light. I'll be out back. Now, you get your rest."
Miri smiled into her knees for a moment, and bid Obi-Wan goodnight. For a few moments, Miri rode the high of hearing Obi-Wan's voice, but soon it was replaced with a feeling of foreboding about what she would find out when she found Yula. She didn't even know if she'd be able to find Yula, but she had to try. There could only be one or two things that Bastien could have done to make a girl's parents have to orchestrate a cover-up, and any number of things Bastien could have done to make a girl reject him. None of the answers comforted her. Her feelings told her it was going to be bad. Determined to find some peace, Miri meditated, finding her center, and was able to sleep.
AN: Thanks again, guys, for being so patient! I'm still up to my eyeballs in moving boxes, but I like to set aside some time here and there to write. I still have a plan! ;)
I had a reviewer ask for some photographic reference for what Miri looks like. There are a few reasons I'm hesitant to do this. I like readers to come up with their own interpretation and visualization of characters. We all know what Obi-Wan looks like, and I apologize if my description of Miri hasn't been thorough. So, to address this matter further, I've decided to keep a Tumblr blog about my writings, and will be posting pictures of things that come up in my stories (this is the only one I am working on). Might also just update on the writing process in general.
So, I have put up a photo of a girl I feel personifies Miri relatively well. If you wish to follow, it's beneath-a-western-sky on Tumblr. If you don't need photographic help, then I'll see you at the next update (which will be soon!).