CHAPTER 50 - JEDI COMPASSION
Naluma stumbled across the room to Luke. Tripping over her feet in exhaustion, she collapsed into his arms.
He caressed her face when she reached him. Alive. As the emotion overwhelmed them, he pulled her into an embrace.
She winced in pain when his arm grazed her saber wound. He adjusted his embrace as she pressed her head against his sweaty hair. Their shields dropped, opening their bond again.
Naluma watched as Leia intercepted the emergency crews and directed them to the injured senators and aides. A part of her felt like they should be doing this, cleaning up the aftermath.
Luke shook his head. "Leia can handle this. We're both spent."
Nodding, she pushed herself to a standing position and held her arm out to Luke.
As the Jedi left the ruined hall, Naluma lumbered in stride with Luke, for the first time not behind him but beside him.
He limped. Her flesh wound burned. And both their heads ached from the concussion blast.
She ducked her head under his arm and supported him as they stumbled back to the shuttle. They were silent the entire way, not a sound, not a thought between them—just the Force-bond wide open.
Luke shuffled to his quarters under his own power, dejected. Naluma followed him as far as the galley to heat some water for the headache powder.
While the nanocooker zapped the liquid, she doctored the flesh wound on her arm. She ripped the left sleeve from her tunic with one sharp tug. She cleansed the wound and applied a layer of bacta salve before slapping a large adhesive bandage over the wound.
She watched through Luke's hatch as he removed his left boot and sock. He gasped as the boot pulled his ankle out of alignment. His swollen ankle turned from red to black-and-blue as she watched.
When the nanocooker beeped, she stirred the powder packets into both mugs, grabbed the medkit, and entered Luke's cabin without so much as a "By your leave." She handed him a mug while she placed the medkit and her mug on the footlocker.
Luke stared at her with his intense blue eyes and nodded his approval. He scooched on his bunk and sat with his back to the port bulkhead.
She sat on the foot of the bunk, settling his foot in her lap. Gagging at the pungent odor, she bathed his foot with sanitizer before wrapping it in a support splint and activating the cooling pack built inside. She grabbed some pillows from the storage locker and placed them under his foot.
"Thank you, Naluma." His tongue lingered over her name as he pulled her down on the bunk next to him.
Darkness saturated their link now, darkness she did not understand, darkness that scared her. "What's wrong, master?"
"The people we left on Telti. Now we'll never convince the Senate to return. Some of them must have survived. I feel them—their anguish, their deaths."
She did not know what to answer. She wanted Luke back to his normal self, yet she knew he was right. The Senate and the terrorists had just signed the death warrant of those people left on Telti. And Luke was going to feel every single death, reminding him that he could have done something. Reminding her. Tears streamed down his cheeks, tears of torment for the Teltians he did not even know.
At that moment, Naluma did not care about protocol and Jedi Mandates. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling his head to her shoulder as he mourned. She stroked his sweaty hair, soothing his aching soul.
After a few minutes, Luke broke away from Naluma. "I'm not supposed to be crying on the shoulder of my apprentice."
"New Jedi Order, new rules."
Luke jerked back. "Have you been talking to Han?"
She shook her head and entwined him, transferring as much peace as possible through their bond.
He broke from the embrace once again, but this time he did not push her away. He touched Naluma's face with his fingers, drawing the outline of her cheek to her chin and raising his fingers to her lips.
She spread them at his touch and arched her neck, waiting for more, waiting for the kiss she desired, the kiss she knew he desired.
He pushed her away. "Naluma, I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that."
"I didn't mind." She reached out to caress his face.
Luke sprang up, hopping on his healthy foot. "In any profession, a master is never to take advantage of an apprentice. I'm sorry for violating your trust."
Naluma glared at him, clenching her teeth. She grabbed her jacket and marched off the shuttle. Between the humiliation and the exhaustion, sobs overcame her before she even reached the bottom of the ramp.
As she pounded across the tarmac, Artoo rolled up to her, knocking against her leg.
"Leave me alone, Artoo." Naluma restrained herself from kicking the droid out of frustration.
The droid beeped a few strings of compassionate inquiry, but she ignored him.
When she reached the edge of the landing bay, Luke spoke through mindspeech. I'm sorry, Naluma.
She slammed her shield down so he could not reach her.
The droid followed her, beeping in binary at her as she headed toward the City Centre, looking to drown her sorrows in some carbohydrates. Lishi soundedgood right now.