Disclaimer: Yea, sure I own Star Wars. ::Voice dripping with sarcasm. Rolls eyes.:: OF COURSE I DON'T OWN STAR WARS! And I sure as heck don't have any money! I am just a poor college student! So far all I own are Nicole and Arica.THAT'S IT! So leave me the hell alone! Jeez!

A.N.: I know that people in general don't like these little author notes. ::Dodges fruit being thrown.:: But this ones is to explain why it has taken me so long to get this new part up. I had winter break and had next to no time to write, but I was able to find the stuff I had written for this story while I was home, which I had forgotten when I went off to school; I now have it with me. I also dreamed up a couple new parts that I realized would help some parts of the story a great deal. So I hope you like this new part introducing another new character.

~8~

Healer Arica, the head healer in the Healer's Ward of the Jedi Temple hurried down the hall to meet up with the Jedi who were bringing a small girl down to her. It was late at night and she was the only full healer currently on call, which she almost always was since she didn't have a Padawan, and was one of the few beings who knew about the child, but that wouldn't last long, not with how fast she knew the Temple rumor mill ran. She didn't know fully what had happened; only that she had shown up in the Council Chambers and was hurt.

The Mon Calamari Jedi Master finally spotted several of the Council members guiding a hover-stretcher with a tiny figure lying on it. She motioned them to follow her and led them down another hall to a small examination room. The council members used the Force to carefully lift the little girl onto the examination bed while Arica gathered the supplies she needed. The other Jedi Masters stepped back as the Healer proceeded to examine the child.

She immediately noticed that the girl's right arm was lying at an odd angle. "Broken right arm."

Mace Windu spoke up. "She landed on her right side with her arm under her body."

Arica nodded her thanks to him without looking up. She vaguely noticed that the child was wearing odd clothes that she had never seen before as she lifted up the girl's shirt. She grimaced, or the Mon Cal version of a grimace, at what she saw; the little girl's chest was mottled black, purple and blue. She placed a fin gently on the girl's chest and reached out to the Force to find the damage done and grimaced once more. "A cracked rib and several bruised ones." She lowered the shirt again and moved on to the child's head. She gently probed the scalp around the right side and found a large lump and sighed. "Possible concussion." She looked over the rest of the little girl's body and found mostly just bruises, scrapes and minor sprains in her left wrist and right ankle. Arica shook her head as she reached for some ointment to clean the cuts, a few bacta patches and boneknitters. "What in the name of the Force happened to her?!"

"Would you believe that she, literally, fell into the Council Chambers from nowhere in mid air?" Mace asked his old friend.

Arica looked up at him, shock prevalent on her face. Finally she shook her head, as if to shake away her surprise, and got back to cleaning the wounds and placing bacta patches on the wounds.

Ki Adi Mundi frowned a little. "Aren't you going to put her in a bacta tank?"

Arica didn't look up. "Not until she has stabilized. Her condition is too fragile; she could be injured worse if she was put in now."

Several of the Masters nodded in understanding and most of them began to leave, until there was only Mace Windu and Yoda left, who had been strangely silent the entire time.

She was about to tend to the girl's arm when something caught her eye. She reached down and picked up the child's good arm and studied a spot where she had placed a bacta patch over a cut. She suddenly cursed, something she never did, which caused Mace to frown worriedly and Yoda to raise his eyebrows and calmly say, "A problem there is?"

Arica, almost franticly, began to remove the bacta patches. "She has an allergy to bacta!" She removed the last one, which was on the girl's chest, and showed the two Masters. "Look!"

There were already red welts forming where the patch had been, as there were on every other place they had been.

Mace looked on grimly. "What are you going to do?"

Arica quickly cleansed her fins and began to wash the welting areas. "This is going to complicate matters; it will take her longer to heal and I will have to look to older methods of healing." She turned her attention to the girl's arm again, murmuring, "I just pray that she isn't allergic to bone knitters." She used the bone knitters, which the child thankfully wasn't allergic to. She then placed her fins on either side of her head and probed around checking the damage. She soon sighed in relief and lowered her fins. "It looks like she narrowly escaped a concussion; she should be alright in that area, save for a large lump."

She went to a storage unit and removed three rolls of bandages; then returned to the child's side.

Just then the little girl stirred. "Mommy," she whimpered softly, though she didn't open her eyes.

"Shh...little one, it's alright." Arica's voice was soft a soothing as she stroked the side of the girl's face.

Yoda stepped forward and climbed up on a chair next to the table. He gently placed a clawed hand on the girl's face and closed his eyes.

The child quieted down and was soon in a deep dreamless sleep.

Arica sighed in relief; then turned to Mace. "Would you mind helping me?"

He nodded and carefully levitated the girl off the table.

Arica removed the child's shirt and bound her chest with one of the rolls of bandages; then the sprained wrist and ankle. She then dressed her in a healer gown (you guessed it, exactly like a hospital gown with ties in the back).

With Mace and Yoda's help Arica moved the girl into a room, hooked her up to an IV and a vitals monitor.

Mace and Yoda then left; Arica settled down in a chair next to the child to keep an eye on her. She now allowed herself to look at the girl's features. She looked to be about 4 standard years. She had auburn hair that reminded Arica of the dark red river clay she had seen on a planet she had visited. She had a little nose with freckles smattered across it and her cheeks. Her skin color was a little pinker than most humans, but not overly so. She was curious as to what color the little girl's eyes were, but she wouldn't disturb her for the world.

Arica reached out her fin and brushed a lock of hair that had fallen into her face away. It was then she noticed something shining in the lobe of the girl's ear. Arica leaned forward, inspected it and was surprised to find that the gold ball, which at first glance appeared to be merely resting in her lobe, was actually attached to something like a needle that was actually stuck through the lobe. Arica checked the other ear and saw the same thing, she sat back and frowned. She had heard of humans, particularly females, making holes in their ears to put jewelry in, but she had never heard of someone so young having them.

"What is your story, little one?" Arica murmured to her self.

As if she had heard the question the little girl stirred slightly, but didn't wake and didn't make any sound.

Arica reached out and placed a fin over her hand soothingly stroking it.

~8~

Thank you K-Chan26! I have probably been actually working on this story for over 2 years and this is my first time posting it. It's good to know that someone likes it so far!

As always feed back please! Praise and constructive criticism only; flames will be used to cook food for myself and fellow poor college students. Hot dogs, s'mores or burgers anyone?