Author's Thanks: to Falcona and Luke!

F and L - Thanks. Sorry for the confusion. I would've updated a bit sooner but for the site problems. rolls eyes and sighs Any idea how long the normal response time is to a ticket?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Author's Note:

Still having problems with the site, so sorry for any weird formatting. I'm trying.

No blaspheming or cursing, but please do flame, critique & put little smilies after jokes. That last one sounds weird, I know, but I need it.

Enjoy! :)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Twenty-Nine

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"You want me to what?"

Luke wasn't sure if the deceptively young woman was shocked or offended. "Have you never had guard duty, before?"

"Oh—I've had it," Barriss Offee hastily corrected. "I just…" She sighed heavily. "I was planning on…"

The fomerly dead Padawan shook her head. "No matter." She squared her shoulders. "I'll probably be reassigned soon, but I can help until then."

The Jedi Master eyed her a long moment, then directed her into a small side conference room. She followed, but her feet shuffled slightly.

The door slid shut. "How's Father?"

Barriss shrugged. "I can't say. I haven't bothered to check on him."

"Could you take a look at Leia?"

The woman's dark eyebrows shot up. "You want me to bodyguard and heal? With all due respect, Sir—"

"Luke."

"Master."

"Kid."

She blinked. "What?"

"If you insist on calling me a title, call me 'kid'. That's what I am to you."

A mild flush came to her cheeks. "My Master would never allow it."

Luke sighed. There would be no convincing her to drop the rules. "Well, when you're knighted…?"

She snorted. " 'If,' you mean. I've been on unauthorized absence for some months, now, and no one's noticed."

Jedi Master Luke Skywalker frowned slightly. "That's not right."

She shrugged. "We had thousands of Jedi, and no one knows who precisely is back. Those who know I'm one of them are probably assuming the others have sent me somewhere, while those who don't know assume I'm still dead. That's what's happening with—"

Now crimson, she halted herself. "Pardon, Master. I just realized what I was about to say."

"What was wrong with it?"

"It's… not permitted, Master Skywalker." She avoided looking at him, examining the window's view, instead.

Her use of his last name caught his attention. Whatever she'd almost let slip had highly unnerved her.

Accepting her silence on the matter, he nodded. "Perhaps you could get the Senator to grant you a glance at Leia, to ensure her well-being. She's been comatose for some days, now."

Barriss rolled her eyes—something he caught a glimpse of in the window's reflection. "A Senator consenting to help someone with an unnamed task," she muttered. "Right."

"She seems to know Master Qui-Gon Jinn."

The Apprentice Healer stiffened. Slowly, she turned to look at him. "…What?"

"She gets along with him well."

Face intense, Barriss immediately left.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Oh… So this red and this yellow go like this?"

Jaina nodded patiently. "Yes."

"What happens if you go like—"

Jedi Solo lunged at Yni, keeping her hands from connecting the two wires. "That'll start a fire!"

The young woman's eyes lit up. "A fire?"

She didn't like that tone. "A very nasty one from a mini-explosion."

Yni's face changed only in that her eyebrows lifted. "Explosion?"

She nodded.

"That doesn't sound fun."

"It isn't." Jaina was wearing thin. Miss Lecarr was intriguing, certainly, but there was only so much of the dolt that she could handle.

"Oh."

"Jedi Knight Solo," a regal woman's voice interrupted. "Where is your uncle?"

"Busy," she retorted, not pleased to see the speaker. Ta'a Chume. Great.

The former Hapan Queen Mother's eyes flashed, but the rest of her expression was hidden by a veil. "Where is my granddaughter?"

"Tenel Ka? On the throne where you left her."

"Not for some time."

Jaina scowled. "What do you mean?"

"What have you Jedi done with—"

"Tenel Ka Chume Ta' Djo?"

Affronted, Ta'a Chume turned to Yni Lecarr. "I beg your pardon?"

"That's your granddaughter, right?"

"You are aware of her whereabouts?"

Yni shook her head widely. "No, but I know someone who probably does, and someone else who could find her if Si—if the Senator doesn't know."

Without them asking, she led the way.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Hey!"

The woman slowly removed her hand from his wife's forehead, opening her eyes and unfurrowing her brow as she turned to look at him. "Yes?"

"What do you think—"

Leia started waking up.

"You're welcome," the stranger yawned, then she headed out.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"You're crazy!"

"I'm crazy? I'm not the one who wants to dive into a Sith stronghold to find the cure for what they did to my husband—"

"At least I'm not skitzo!"

"I am not skitzophrenic!"

"No, you're just giving yourself multiple personality—"

The door buzzed.

Shooting a glare at her secretary, Senator Whitesun went to open the door. "Can I—Can I help you?" she asked, her question catching upon spotting Ta'a Chume. As if Pooja dying hadn't been enough extra stress…

"Uh-huh!" Yni burst happily in. "The Queen Mother's missing—"

"Why are you bringing this to me?" she asked sharply.

Little Le—Yni blinked. "You like TK."

Determinedly ignoring Tayun's whines for an explanation, she watched the girl blankly. "So?"

"So you watch where she is. Like—"

"That's quite enough," Misti interrupted before—before Yni said too much. "I've heard rumor she's escaped a kidnapping."

"Kidnapping?" Ta'a Chume demanded.

Yni chewed her braid. "What kind of kidnapping?" she said through her full mouth.

"That's disgusting, Le—" The Senator closed her eyes. "Yni."

The girl spat it out. "Sorry." She smoothed her hair back into place. "So what kinda kidnapping?"

Misti watched Yni, face blank.

After some seconds of the zoophobic's puzzled face, she slowly rubbed her neck.

Yni yelped. "Blath—" She stumbled over her own tongue, dodging the Senator and hastily correcting, "Oh, blah!" She smiled innocently, grinning sheepishly. "I picked that up from your mother-in-law, you know."

"And I picked up a great deal of Tatooinian slave slang from a certain somebody, too. Do I use it?"

"When talking to Banai."

She blinked. Little Yni picked up her confusion.

"Kitster?" she asked, knowing Misti Whitesun well enough to know she'd recognize that name.

She felt herself pale. "I do not."

"Do, too!"

"I don't talk to him!"

"Why not? He'd be happy to help you out. He likes…" Yni glanced aside at Ta'a Chume and Jaina Solo. "Er…"

The Tatooinian Senator turned away. She drew a deep breath, drawing herself up. "Tahl. Do what you can to assist Her Majesty."

Avoiding everyone's gaze, she sat sedately at her desk and tapped a few buttons on her comp. "Now, if you'll excuse me…?

To her immense relief, everyone did as she asked.