Hearts are Meant To: Chapter 28

By KnightMara

A/N: Thanks for sticking with this story through the last 27 chapters. To those who have been reviewing, thank you times ten! It's great to get reviews, because feedback (honest feedback) is so important. I can't tell you the number of times I've changed or edited a story or chapter because of a reader's constructive criticism.

Déjà vu: I'm glad you like my characterization of Wedge. As you can tell, I'm a big fan of the Rogues, and Wedge is at the top of my list (with Wes Janson coming in a close second!).

Bjrn: Yeah, I know I'm evil. . . ..

Okay, so now on with the story:

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Genna's eyes flared open as she was unexpectedly pulled back into consciousness. Her chest painfully protested the sudden urge to take in desperately needed oxygen as she took a deep, agonizing breath. Tortuous as it was, she could feel her body greedily drinking in the precious air that was at last flowing into her lungs. Fixed upon the ultimate goal of breathing, her mind was slow in coming back to reality. Something was calling her, begging her to respond. Her eyes were not yet registering what was going on around her. All she knew was that she was alive and breathing. Something told her that in itself was amazing.

There were voices, the droning sounds of verbal communication, but she couldn't isolate them from each other, even though she was fairly sure some of them were trying to communicate with her. It took some time for things to solidify enough in her consciousness for her ability to be aware of them.

She was on her back, and there was movement. She was being moved. There were people around her, but she couldn't focus on anyone in particular. They were moving too fast. Her chest felt like it was on fire, and her shoulder ached. She tried to swallow, but found that she couldn't. Something was in her throat. It hurt, and she wanted it out. She tried to move her hands. One was being restrained by a firm grip on her forearm, while the other was being clasped tightly in someone else's hand. She didn't know who was holding that hand, but she struggled against the grip to free it. She wanted to remove whatever was in her throat. The people around her wouldn't let her. She was being held down, pressed into the semi-soft surface of whatever it was she was lying upon. The grip on her hand became tighter. It squeezed as though the owner of the hand was trying to reassure her. Reassure her of what? Who was it? Where were they? And where were they going?

"Get her into the tank, now!"

The words assaulted her ears, which seemed to suddenly start functioning. She didn't like the sound of them. She tried to swallow, but once again found that she couldn't. She blinked her eyes, wanting to clear her vision. Nothing seemed to work right.

"She's fighting the respirator. We need to sedate her."

She felt slight pressure against her neck as a hypo was administered, and suddenly she was sinking back into oblivion.

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At that very instant, Luke felt himself being violently pulled out of oblivion and into wakefulness. His eyes opened to stare at a ceiling above. What had just happened? Why was he on his back? At least he thought he was on his back, for he couldn't actually feel his body. His head seemed to be floating, staring upward at the faces of two strangers hovering over him. Odd. The last thing he remembered was . . . he was in a closet, waiting for Laire. No, wait! Laire was pressing a blaster against his neck. Why? He struggled to remember, though his head ached excruciatingly with each frantic beat of his heart. Wait, how could he feel his heart, if his body was numb? No, it wasn't numb; it was panicky. Like the tingly, jittery sensation of having a good scare. Almost numb, but not quite. But had he been scared? And what was Wedge doing here?

Frustrated and bewildered, he tried to ask Wedge what was going on. His brain thought, "What happened?" but his mouth wouldn't form the words. Something was wrong with the muscles in his face, his throat, and his body. He tried to reach for Wedge, but nothing happened. He couldn't move! Now he truly was panicking! What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he move? Had he been shot? No, if he'd been shot in the neck, he'd be dead. But why else was he paralyzed? Wedge appeared to be saying something, but his ears weren't registering the words. Luke stared up at his friend, confused and terrified. He couldn't move, speak, or hear! "Wedge, help me!" he thought, hoping his eyes conveyed his plea. He felt his heart racing in his chest as his mind swirled with questions. What was going on? Where was he? What happened to Laire?

Genna! With a jolt, Luke realized he didn't see Genna anywhere. She'd been with him, hadn't she? Yes, of course she had! She was supposed to meet Laire. But what went wrong? Why were his thoughts so disjointed? He looked at the faces above him for answers. They seemed to be discussing things amongst themselves.

"…warned you this could happen."

His ears had started working again! Thank the Force!

"He doesn't seem to be aware at all," Wedge was saying, eyeing one of the other two men with a worried expression.

Luke wanted to shout, "No, I'm aware! I can hear you! Please, just look at me again!" He'd never felt so helpless in his life. He needed to know what had happened to him; what had happened to Genna!

"Well, this is useless!" one of the other men growled. "Put him back under."

"I can't," the third man replied in irritation. "You just had me administer a stimulant. Combined with the effects of the stun beam, his body's pretty overwhelmed as it is. I'm not going to throw a sedative on top of it all!"

Stun! So that was it. He'd been stunned. So why couldn't he move or speak? This wasn't like any of the effects of a stun beam he'd experienced before. Unless it had something to do with the blaster pressed against his neck. Maybe Laire wanted to ensure he was incapacitated for a while, and he used a higher setting. Or maybe he'd fired while it was still pressed against his skin. That would explain the throbbing pain in his skull, he supposed. Now the question was how much time had elapsed since he'd been stunned. And where were Laire and Genna?

Fueled by desperation, he struggled to form a simple word. He needed answers, damn it! He needed to know what had happened to Genna after he'd been stunned. His thoughts were beginning to clear, and hers was the last face he recalled seeing before blacking out. If she'd been there when . . ..

Sweat beaded on his forehead as he pushed past the pounding headache and the reluctant muscles to speak. His jaw moved a little, and his tongue just enough to mouth the word, "Genna." The word was like a breath without voice, his larynx still paralyzed from the beam. But Wedge caught it.

The Corellian turned his gaze to Luke, shock in his eyes. "Luke?"

Luke struggled again to repeat the one word, hoping for an answer. Please, let him understand, he prayed.

As if in answer to his plea, Wedge's hand came to rest on his shoulder, relief in his features. "She's on her way to the infirmary, Luke. She'll be all right."

Luke could hear the subtle tremor of doubt in his voice and tried to ask, "What happened?" His lips wouldn't cooperate. His head throbbed at the effort.

"Do you remember what happened in here?" one of the strange men asked. He looked like an officer on the security force.

Luke grimaced. Even if he did remember, couldn't the man see he was having trouble speaking? He couldn't explain what had happened. Not now, anyway.

The third man, clearly a medic, asked, "Are you in any kind of pain?"

Luke stared at him, wanting to reply, "Only my head." In truth, the pain in his head was increasing with his struggle to communicate. He tried to nod, but a spasm shot through his neck. He winced as tears sprang unbidden to his eyes. So much for non-verbal communication.

"What's wrong with him?" Wedge asked the medic.

The medic patted Luke's shoulder and said to him, "It'll be all right, Luke. Just relax." He looked to Wedge. "Partial paralysis, caused by the scrambling of nerve impulses. A stun beam uses light energy to mimic the most basic nervous system response to an electrical pulse—a blackout. But it's usually not enough to cause this type of reaction. In his case, the beam was fired directly into the spinal cord, scrambling the whole nervous system. That's also why his heartbeat was so erratic. We'll have to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't have any other symptoms like chronic tachycardia, amnesia, headaches, persistent numbness, and such."

Luke stared up at the medic in dismay. "Oh, Force, no," he thought. He needed to find Genna, not stay under medical supervision. Again he struggled to speak. This time, however, he found his right arm flinching under the strain. Surprised, he opened and closed his fist. He was starting to move again. The muscles of his mouth twitched in something akin to a grimace. Feeling a bit more confident, he grabbed Wedge's sleeve with his right hand and slurred a whispered, "What happened?"

Wedge looked back down at him, a grim expression on his features. "Laire is dead, Luke," he said. "But Genna's been shot."

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A/N: Yeah, I'm still pretty evil. . . ..