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Chemical reaction

Jaina stirred from her deep, unnatural sleep.

"Jacen?" she said, even though she was half asleep, she knew her brother was around.

Jacen, just let out a muffled noise which could have been a 'yes'.

"I had a dream," Jaina said, in a happy voice, brought on by the sedatives that the kidnappers had given them, "Daddy, Mommy and Uncle Lukie where coming to save us…" she shuffled closer to her brother, "Mommy is mad at Daddy again," she said falling asleep again.

Before Jacen fell back to his dreams he murmured, "He must have left the milk out again…"

"So then, despite our advice, he goes and hits the pipe…with a hammer. Oil goes everywhere all over this wonderful ship, which was once mine and still should be by rights!"

"It was an experiment!" Wedge groaned, head in his hands. He was wondering how many times he would have to hear this before he lived it down. As long as Janson and Hobbie didn't know everything was fine. But, he knew it wouldn't be long until they were informed.

"And this," Lando continued, "Is the man, that you let pull a chunk of wood out of your spine!"

"It wasn't his spine, just his back!"

At this moment in time, Zeke was lying face down on the medical bed of the Falcon wondering why on earth he got landed, hitching a ride with a group of maniacs. Lando had turned GP again and was sewing up the injury in his back while telling all the stories he had promised to tell. Zeke's face was buried in his arms but he was grinning all the while. He was actually enjoying their company, though it would be a while before he would admit it to anyone.

Suddenly Zeke stuck out a hand and brandished a piece of bloody material in Wedge's face, "I need to talk to you about this Antilles! I didn't see what you ripped up for bandages when I was bleeding until you had left. Next time use your own clothes instead of mine!" True enough, Wedge had used the jacket the boy had been wearing as the dressing for the cut, "I Liked that jacket," Zeke said with fake emotion in his voice, "it was worth a lot to me! Sentimental value and all that!"

"What have you been teaching him?" Wedge demanded of Lando, "he sounds like you!"

"A lot General! A lot!" said Lando as he finished sewing up Zeke.

"Careful Baron! I could have you arrested for less than that!"

"Like to see you try!"

"I don't know who to fight for," Zeke sneered, his expression matching his voice.

It seemed like an odd comment to Wedge and Lando, but in the last few hours they had spent all of their time with Zeke and even in that short space of time learned that he was a very odd person.

Zeke spoke again, "My throat hurts."

Lando cut the thread. Looking concerned he placed a hand on Zeke's forehead. Zeke seemed alarmed.

"He's checking your temperature," Wedge said soothingly.

"Yeah," Lando said, removing his hand, "You're getting the flu…or not as the case is. It's part of your withdrawal. You didn't answer Wedge earlier. When did you have your last fix?"

Zeke shrugged. Even though Lando had finished he remained lying down, "Yesterday? I dunno it's a bit of a blur…"

"What did you take when you were on a trip?" Wedge asked now he was answering questions about the drugs.

"Anything and everything. I don't even know the names on most of them. Whatever I could get. All I know is that before I started my eyes were always green and my hair was black."

Lando inspected him pensively. "Your eyes and hair changing colour are the effects of mixing and matching with drugs. I'd say that you are the unique conclusion to one big chemical reaction."

Zeke looked around at him. "So basically I belong in a science lab. Whoooo for me! I feel like I've been bred in a test tube!" Sarcasm dripped off his voice and onto the floor like the oil from Wedge's experiment.

Lando smiled, "Well, your eyes and hair aren't actually doing you damage, so it could be worse. They're permanent but you could dye your hair and wear contacts if you feel uncomfortable with it." He inspected the tests he ran on the Falcon's medical computers. "However, I hate to tell you this but your insides are as messy as the inside of the Falcon," he suddenly went serious, "but it's no damage beyond repair. I've seen lots of people come back from worse than this. If you stop now, you can save yourself. By these readings you must have been pretty heavy, so you're gonna have a rough night or two." Lando shot him a grin again, "But nothing you can't handle!"

He could tell Zeke wasn't so sure. "I once went a week without a fix. It almost killed me!"

Lando frowned, "Well, we're your temporary babysitters for this. You're only going off this in small doses until you get to a stand still. We've offered you help to do it right, and besides, the women always love a strong man!"

Wedge was studying Lando with a worried expression. "Are you sick? 'cause that's some of the smartest stuff that you've ever said Calrissian!"

Lando produced that winning smile. "There's more to me than good looks mate!"

Wedge and Zeke were preparing to create chaos on board the Falcon but Lando had a more important job to do.

He was slowly and quietly hauling that carefully disguised spice from the storage compartments to the air lock of the Falcon. After all the threats of throwing something or someone out of it, it was finally being put to good use.

Meeting Zeke had made Lando realize that spice wasn't always as good as it seemed. It just wasn't the sort of stuff that should be traded on a rescue mission after so much had gone wrong with it. It could be dangerous to have it on board along with Zeke. You never know, Lando mused, some day he might even reach the levels of their deceased arch nemesis, Boba Fett, who had hated anything to do with the stuff, and the fact that he and Han had traded it only gave the late Bounty Hunter a reason to hate them more.

But that wouldn't be for a long time yet.

As Lando prepared to shove the last crate out the air lock, Han Solo rounded the corner on the way to the cockpit.

Han froze. Lando froze. The pair stared at each other for about a minute. Han turned around and walked back up the corridor. As he came towards Lando again he nodded politely at him.

The crate was gone and Lando was standing ever so inconspicuously beside the air lock whistling to himself.

"Lando…" Han said shaking his head. Then he promptly tackled him until Lando was caught in a head lock. Using all the strength he possessed he rubbed his knuckles into the con's head.

The message was clear. "Never bring that stuff on my ship again!"

Lando was having trouble breathing and could only produce a small noise. Han took it as, 'yes sir' before letting him go and continuing to the cockpit.

A.N Thorney: Once again we are in a car, in the middle of he night, in the middle of somewhere.

Warning: the next chapter we be long. We have 5 major thing that have to happen between now and the end of the fic and our Jedi senses are telling us that the end is near. Although that's what we have been saying for the last year. Honestly.

Sweetdeath04: We will see you as soon as possible. Half term is now unfortunately over so no more writing for at least a week. We done more work in the past few days than we have in months and for the long wait we apologize again and hoped that these chapters and Zeke were worth it.

See you soon…

Sweetdeath04 and Thorney