Happy Holidays! I am hoping to update all of my stories on this site. So here is the next part. If I get my next chapter for my Charmed story up quickly I might be able to post another chapter for this story.

~*~

As she stood there with two of the most influential beings in Star Wars History all Raechel could think was that she could just imagine what Obi- Wan thought of her, "another pathetic life form."

"Please sit." She gestured to the boxes that surrounded her "camp."

She and the two Jedi sat in a circle.

"I feel I should tell you that I am able to take care of myself, but I have never been to Coruscant before, thus I do not know my way around. Otherwise I would go on my own. I really do not mean to inconvenience you," she told them. 'As far as part of me knows I have never been to any of the places that the other part of me remembers. I wonder what they would do if I said that aloud?' She almost burst out laughing, but she was able to keep her face passive.

"It is no inconvenience," Qui-Gon assured her.

Just then a bell rang.

"Meal bell," Raechel explained. "Are you hungry? The food is pretty good."

Qui-Gon nodded, Obi-Wan glanced over at him then nodded as well.

"I'll get the food," Raechel said, getting up.

"Thank you, Raechel,' Qui-Gon said.

"Call me Rae, everyone does," she told both of them. "If I was just walking down a hall and someone called Raechel, I probably wouldn't respond." She shrugged and walked off.

Rae knew that the main reason Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had agreed to a meal was because Qui-Gon wished to speak with his Padawan alone, Rae didn't mind. Right now, though, she did feel a little envious of Obi-Wan because he still had Qui-Gon, who was like a father to him, and her mother was dead.

She shook that thought off.

~*~

They had finished eating about an hour ago. The meal had been a silent affair. Obi-Wan had then wrapped his brown cloak close about him and fallen asleep, knowing, from experience, that there were no guarantees as to when he would get a chance to rest again. Qui-Gon sat on a box reading a datapad. Rae was coming back from the 'fresher when she knocked her bag off a box as she entered their little "camp." She swore softly in several languages and began to gather her things. Qui-Gon set down his datapad and helped her. He handed her two lightsabers. He could immediately tell which Rae's was and which was her mother's since he had seen her mother's many times. They had picked up basically everything when he saw a small book lying open face down on the floor, a pencil stuck between the pages. He picked it up, turned it over and looked at the pages. On a page was a sketch of a Bothan, a human, a Wookie and a Duro playing dajark. It was very life like and held something that a holo just couldn't have captured, as if the artist could see beyond what was on the surface just by observing.

Qui-Gon was pulled out of his thoughts by a discrete cough. He looked up and saw Rae holding out her hand for the book. He closed it and gave it to her.

"That was a very good sketch," he told her. "You have a great gift of insight. It brings life to it."

Rae paused in putting the book away then handed it back to him and shrugged. "You can look at it if you want to," she said, truly not caring. She rarely used her journal as a journal, more as a sketch book.

Qui-Gon took it with a nod. She sat down; since she was cold she pulled out a blanket and wrapped it around herself.

"This is good," Qui-Gon told her as he looked at the sketch of her.

She shrugged again. "I made it from one of the few holos that I look remotely ok in. Momma said I should have a picture of myself on the first page...I did it for her."

A lump formed in her throat. She worked around the sudden rush of emotion. It was almost overwhelming. She took deep breaths to try and get them under control.

Qui-Gon gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I am fine," Rae told him, not looking at him.

For some reason she found herself wanting to ask him questions about grief, but she didn't think he could help her. He may have lost Tahl, but he had never lost a parent figure. She was pretty sure that the loss of a love was different from that of a parent figure.

Qui-Gon knew something was wrong and was pretty sure of what, but couldn't be positive. Her shields had lessened a little, but when she had mentioned her mother they had slammed up again full power.

She had shrugged off his hand; she didn't want sympathy right now. Qui-Gon immediately backed off. He watched her for a moment the returned to the book. It seemed to serve, for the most part, as a sketch book, but she also recorded some events and facts in it. The written parts held little or no emotion. All of the emotion was in the sketches. The sketches were of many places, beings and things. There was one of her mother amid datapads, datacards, books, scrolls and papers, a very good illustration of her. Qui- Gon smiled briefly. She, along with Tahl and the Council had stubbornly urged him to take on a Padawan. They had all been right. Sahna had given him an I-told-you-so look when he took on Obi-Wan. After Obi-Wan had returned from Melida/Daan and Qui-Gon didn't want to take him back on Qui- Gon had contacted her. Tahl had already commed her and told her what had happened. Sahna had been sympathetic the whole conversation. She had started out gentle and prodding but Qui-Gon's stubbornness had driven her to the point that she wanted to reach across the line and either hit him, strangle him or both. She had ended the conversation with, "You had better straiten out, Jinn, or I will fly over there and straiten you out myself!" she had then smirked, it had been knowing. "Though I believe that Tahl can do that *very* well."

Qui-Gon finished flipping through the book 10 mins later. He turned to Rae to give her the book, but she was fast asleep. He got up quietly and put it in her bag. Then he went back to his datapad.

~*~