Disclaimer: The manuscripts I'd rip apart gleefully if I owned Star Wars . . .

A/N: Yup, sorry for the wait, here's the next chappie! Whee! So close - and yet, so far. Next chapter shouldn't take AS long to get up . . Provided I can spare all of ten seconds a day to write the damn thing . . . Grr.

"You're almost there

With much at stake

But now the ground

Begins to quake"

Chapter XVII: A Peaceful Interlude

(aka the author deciding to torture you)

Jacen wrapped himself in the light blankets supplied by the Rock Dragon. Somehow, even surrounded by the blanket's heat, there was part of him that was cold. He thought he knew what it was, but he wasn't quite sure how to fix it yet. It's like part of me is still half-asleep in the throat of that space slug, he thought, trying to confine himself to sleep. His muscles were still sore after having lived off them for the several weeks he was in the slug, but somehow he didn't think that was the reason he hadn't been able to sleep.

Staring at the durosteel ceiling of his room, Jacen actually sat down and thought about what was going on. Zekk, Lowie, Tenel Ka and Sannah believe the word of a guy they've never met who claims he knew Anakin, and that Anakin's trying to come back. He promises Jacen and Jaina back in the bargain, and Tenel Ka lets him pilot her ship to who knows where to find Jacen.

He had been well more than half asleep, some part of him aware that he would only wake up a few more times before he would never wake up again, healing trance or no. Then that bright spot, a cluster of warmth that he would always recognize, came closer and closer until one of them, the very brightest, leaned over him and pulled him out of the healing trance with his name.

It had been Tenel Ka, yet again – she'd brought him back from the grave before. His concern for her was one of the things that kept him within reach of the thranta and his rider so many years ago on Cloud City. He hadn't wanted to worry her. Didn't want any of his friends to think he was dead, but it had been the thought of her mourning him more than anything else that drew him back. Her anguished Force signature allowed him to find her as soon as he got back on Cloud City.

Last time, he sought her out and came back to her. This time, she came to him, and although he had been incredibly happy to see Zekk, Lowie and Em Teedee again, he was finally admitting to himself that perhaps the one thing that kept him from never waking up was what she'd do to him if he died.

It was as if the mere thought of her summoned her. She was sitting up in her room, reading – what, he couldn't tell, but something was keeping her from concentrating wholly on her book – the same thought that was keeping him from sleep.

Maybe – Jacen grinned a little. Maybe I can fix that . . .

*

She flicked a strand of violently red hair behind her shoulder, trying to concentrate on the story of Nomi Sunrider set out before her. Tionne had given it to her long ago, trying to teach her that there were other ways of fighting than with the lightsaber.

A knock at her door broke her concentration. She was considering sending whoever it was away, until she felt Jacen's Force-signature. She depressed the opening pad from her nest of covers on the bed. The brown-haired young man stood in her doorway dressed in boxers and a blanket.

Tenel Ka quirked an eyebrow. "A blanket? Not your customary attire, is it, my friend?"

"Nah," Jacen shrugged. He was being casual, but there was uncertainty in his brandy-brown eyes. "I just thought – with everything going on – that maybe we could – talk? Oh, Sithspawn! Can I come in?"

Tenel Ka felt like laughing at the goofy, helpless look on his face, but restrained herself. "Of course." As Jacen (and his blanket) moved from the doorway to sitting at her feet on her bed, the door closed behind him. Setting the Nomi Sunrider document aside, she wrapped her arms around her propped up knees and cocked her head at Jacen. "What has you up when most of us are trying to sleep, anyway?"

"I was – thinking."

"About what?"

Jacen glared at her. "You've gotten a lot more talkative, you know that?"

"You asked if we could talk; I am inviting you to."

"Sure. Use my own logic against me," he smiled. "About the one too many times we've had to drag each other away from certain death."

"Ah. Ah-hah. Ryloth. Bespin. That awful crusade beneath Crystal Reef. The Yuuzhan Vong," her emerald eyes were thoughtful. "It is a rather long list."

"And it's going to get longer," his voice was troubled, and Tenel Ka studied his face. "So I keep seeing you and I, the way we were . . . before . . . and what could happen. I mean, the Vong didn't even wait to get us to the worldship-analog before torturing us."

He wouldn't look at her, so she reached up with her hand and ran one finger across the lower edge of his jaw, turning his head towards her. "We survived before, and we shall survive whatever the Yuuzhan Vong – or anyone else – challenge us with."

"We?" Jacen questioned. Tenel Ka rolled her eyes indulgently.

"It has always been 'we'. Unless one of us has a change of heart, I see no reason to alter that."

He bit his lip nervously. "Did you mean it, then? What you – what you said when I first woke up?"

"I –" she sucked in a breath, then nodded in assent. "Yes. I think part of me has always loved you."

Jacen let out a breath. "Good," he smiled weakly. "Because I've loved you since the first time I saw you."

As the tension leaked out of the room, Tenel Ka smiled in that restrained, eloquent manner of hers. This time, it was Jacen's turn to kiss her.

They stayed like that for a moment for two, right arms folded around each other's shoulders. Surprising both herself and Jacen, it was Tenel Ka who broke the comfortable silence. "Maybe now we can both sleep."

"Together?" Jacen asked, slightly shocked.

She nodded again, shyly this time. A new emotion for Tenel Ka. "I've been having trouble sleeping – and I know you have too. I just thought that perhaps the extra comfort . . . unless you'd rather not –"

"No! I mean, I just – wasn't expecting it," Jacen flashed a lopsided grin, diffusing the tense moment. "You have a way of surprising me."

Although Jacen was lying under the blankets he'd dragged with him from his room and Tenel Ka was under hers, they shared a pillow. Somehow it was easier for both of them to let their guard down and sleep with the presence of the other next to them.

Then Jacen was yanked out of sleep by a shock from Anakin.