Eeth had taken care of Lok for four days now, and he thought that things were going reasonably well. Alright, so this afternoon, he had felt the need to give the boy six solid swats with his paddle over the seat of his pants for pulling an attitude about going back to school. It had worked - sort of; Eeth was not entirely sure that Lok would give up that easily. He was on his guard. He was also a little uncertain whether disciplining a boy who had so recently lost his master was the right thing to do, so he had called Ngka about it.

"Of course you did the right thing," Ngka had said. "He needs some degree of normalcy back in his life, and that includes someone who will call him to task when he oversteps his limits. Which he did. He knows perfectly well that he'll have to go back to school, and you made that clear to him. You're good for him, Eeth. Just trust your instincts."
"Well, my instincts are telling me he is not through with the issue of going back to school," Eeth said. "They are also telling me that the momentary state of affairs is too good to be true. He cannot be over his master's death after less than two weeks."
"No, certainly not," Ngkam agreed. "Grief tends to come in waves. Part of Lok still expects his master will walk into the door the next moment; when he fully realises that this won't happen and what that means, he'll have a hard time coping. Besides, he has had a lot of adjustments to make these past days. That might have kept his mind off things. It won't always be that easy. Be prepared."

And that was sound advice.

This evening, Lok seemed restless. During their evening meditation, he was unfocussed and absent-minded. Eeth could not help him much because he did not share a bond with the boy. Lok would need to open up to him a lot more than he was currently doing for them to create at least a strong Force-link. Eeth did not want to force him, though, at least not yet; just as he had decided not to haggle him too much about his school work until classes actually started. It was enough of a challenge for Lok to cope with a full day's schedule as it was, without being forced to give his best effort at every single thing he was doing. For now, Eeth was satisfied if there was at least some effort.

Like usual, Eeth sent Lok off to bed at nine. During the past days, Lok had fallen asleep like a log at night. He had obviously still been catching up on all the sleep he had missed after his master's death. The shadows under his eyes had disappeared, and he looked a lot healthier for it. Tonight, however, Eeth heard him tossing and turning for a long while. After an hour, Eeth knocked on his door to ask whether Lok needed help falling asleep.
"No, thanks," Lok said politely, without raising his head from the pillow to look at Eeth. "I've just not been that terribly tired, but I'm starting to get sleepy now."
"Alright," said Eeth, "but call me if you need help."
If Lok wasn't asleep in another hour, he decided, he was going to provide that help whether the boy wanted him to or not. But it did not come that far; Lok eventually fell asleep on his own.

Eeth had just gone to bed and drifted off himself when he was jolted out of sleep by a scream. He acted on instinct; within seconds, he had jumped out of bed, stormed into Lok's room, lifted the screaming and thrashing boy out of his bed and cradled him in his arms.
"Calm down," he said softly, shaking Lok gently to wake him up. "I'm here. It's a dream. Wake up. It's only a dream."
"Master!" sobbed Lok, clinging to Eeth's robes. "No. Master. No. Please..."
Eeth would have loved to be able to soothe Lok through the Force, but what tiny link the boy allowed was not enough to do much. However, through his voice and touch, he slowly got through to Lok.
"Master Eeth!" the padawan said, blinking at him through tear-stained eyes. "I... what happened?"
"You had a bad nightmare," Eeth said gently. "About your master, apparently."
Lok shuddered.
"Yeah," he whispered. "He... like... he was there. He hugged me, and suddenly he turned into... urgh. Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up."
Eeth had to smile a little at that.
"You have nothing to be sorry for," he said gently. "It's not as if you had that nightmare on purpose. Come on, let's get you back to sleep."

Eeth sat with Lok until the boy had gone back to sleep, helped along by a light and unobtrusive sleep compulsion. And he continued sitting next to Lok's bed, meditating, until Lok woke up in the next morning. It was almost seven; Eeth had decided to let him sleep in. He was feeling strangely protective of his charge, and having had two padawans already, he thought he recognised the signs. Maybe Lok recognised them, too, and maybe that was why he was so loathe to allow a deeper contact during their meditations. Well, Eeth was ready to give him more time. Some more time; certainly not indefinitely.

As Ngka had predicted, the grief seemed to come in waves. Some days were going well; on other days, Lok was absent-minded, constantly close to tears and had terrible nightmares.
"Tell me honestly," Eeth said after their evening meditation, the night after Lok's second episode of heavy nightmares. "Would you rather not sleep alone in your room?"
"What?" asked Lok in surprise. "Nonsense. I'm thirteen."
"I know hold old you are," said Eeth. "I also know you lost your master and are having bad nightmares. That is neither unusual nor something to be ashamed of. My first apprentices had nightmares when they were much older than you are now. I had nightmares as a youngling, for that matter. Sometimes, it helps not to sleep alone. So?"
Lok was silent for a long moment. Then he whispered: "Yes, please."
So, Eeth set up a second bed in his own bedroom. Whenever Lok had had a bad day, he slept there. His nightmares did not stop with that, but they were not as bad any more, and Eeth was up close to help with them.

On the one hand, Eeth was glad that Lok was so obviously starting to trust him and to rely on him. On the other hand, he was a little concerned about Lok's refusal to engage in any other social relations. The only time he did not spend with Eeth was when he was with Ngka. That did not bother Eeth, per se; the Council had freed him from his other obligations. Lok was his job now, and Eeth took it as seriously as he had ever taken a task. But he was not sure that this was good for Lok. He decided to let it slide, for now, until Lok's classes started.

Often, when they walked to and from the gym, did chores around their quarters or ate, Eeth – following Ngka's advice – got Lok to talk about his life, both in the creche and with his master. This was not too hard since Lok was by nature a lot more talkative than Eeth had ever been. The boy had clearly been devoted to his master. Apparently, Jerad had developed a special talent for undercover missions and had therefore paid particular attention to training Lok in stealth and evasion techniques. Lok was indeed fairly advanced in this area for a padawan his age. He was also quite good with a lightsaber. Even as a padawan, Jerad had been a good fighter, very precise and in tune with the Force, and he had obviously taught Lok well.

The talks were not entirely one-sided. Indeed, Eeth realised at some point that Lok had learned more about him in one week than Lakhri or Raven had learned during the first year or two of their padawanhood, and in hindsight he felt decidedly guilty towards his two former padawans about that. Part of this was simply because Lok asked so many more questions than Lakhri and Raven had, but this, in turn, was because he was less afraid of Eeth - and because Eeth more readily answered these questions than he had in former years. He really was trying to improve. Mostly, Eeth told Lok stories about missions he had undertaken alone or with one of his padawans, but Lok had a knack for asking questions that forced Eeth to become a lot more personal than he would have done on his own accord. Lok's talkative nature had its downside, though; the boy tended to speak without thinking and, especially when he was tired, angry or frustrated, answered more flippantly than he had any right to. Eeth was feeling not very tolerant about that type of behavior.

"I don't wanna go to sleep," Lok said morosely one night after their evening meditation, about a week after he had moved in with Eeth. "I'll just have nightmares again."
"That may or may not be the case," Eeth replied calmly, "but you need your sleep. Off to bed with you. You may sleep in my room. If you have a nightmare, I will be right there."
"Yeah, well, that's easy for you to say," grumbled Lok, making no move to get up from his meditation mat.
"No, it is not," said Eeth firmly. "I know what a nightmare is."
"Well, YOU didn't lose your master and had dreams of him turning into a monster and dragging you off somewhere," Lok said grouchily.
Eeth resisted the sudden urge to pull him up and swat him. He had taken Lok to the pools today and driven him hard; the boy was tired and exhausted. This was not usually conducive to reasonable behaviour.
"No, I did not lose my master," he replied quietly and firmly. "That still does not make you the only one who has experienced bad things in his life, nor are you the only person haunted by nightmares."
"Yeah, I'm sure," drawled Lok, trying to hide a yawn. "What'd you have nightmares about? Getting a fail grade in astrophysics?"
Eeth was just about fed-up with the boy's self-pity.
"I did lose my parents before I was three and grew up living on the streets in the slums of Nar Shaddaa where drug addicts alternately tried to rob me, rape me or sell me as a slave," he snapped, "but I am sure that is not quite up there with your experiences and would not qualify any of the nightmares I had as a youngling as particularly haunting. Now off. to. bed. with you."
Lok stared at him.
"Is that true?" he asked in a small voice.
"I did not suddenly get into the habit of inventing stories about my life in order to make myself interesting," Eeth replied sternly. "Yes, it is true. I have also asked you repeatedly to go to bed. I'm not going to give you any further verbal reminders."
"Yeah?" asked Lok absent-mindedly. "What are you going to do inst- OWW!"
He had been pulled up by the ear and firmly swatted across his backside.
"Are you going?" asked Eeth, not releasing the grip on his ear.
"Yes, alright, I'm GOING!" yelped Lok, squirming in order to reduce the pressure on his ear.
"Good," said Eeth sternly, letting him go. And Lok hurried to obey.

The night before the start of the new cycle of classes, Lok was toying with his food. He was also repeatedly sighing and was wearing a rather miserable look on his face. Eeth indulged this for a while without comment. The longer it continued, the more certain he became that Lok was putting on a show and was pushing for a reaction. He finally got one, but probably not the one he had hoped for.
"Stop behaving like a martyr and eat your dinner before it gets cold," Eeth told him in a no-nonsense tone of voice.
Lok's head snapped up.
"A martyr?" he asked incredulously. "I'm NOT behaving like a martyr. I'm simply not ready to go back to school yet. People are going to ask questions and I'm going to fall apart in front of everyone. Can you blame me for not wanting this?"
"Yes," said Eeth unsympathetically because at this point he was certain that this was just a ploy for getting out of going back to classes. "It is going to happen sooner or later anyway. The longer you postpone it, the harder it will get. And you need to get back among people. So you're going. Just accept it and finish your dinner."
Lok folded his arms across his chest.
"My master wouldn't have made me eat when I'm unhappy," he said petulantly.
Eeth's eyes narrowed. He felt himself getting angry for more reasons than one; apart from the fact that Lok's statement was probably a blatant lie, Eeth had never looked kindly upon attempts at emotional blackmail.
Lok at least seemed to notice that he had crossed a line; he shrank back a little from Eeth's glare.
Eeth took a moment to get his anger under control and release it into the Force. Then he said very quietly, his eyes boring into Lok's face: "Don't you dare misuse the memory of your master in order to manipulate me. Ever. Am I clear on that?"
Lok bit his lip and was suddenly tearful.
"I won't," he said contritely after a moment. "Sorry. It slipped out before I could control it. That was childish of me."
"Childish is a nice way to put it," Eeth replied, not quite mollified. "Now, if I have to remind you again of finishing your dinner, you are going to finish it on a sore bottom."
Fortunately for Lok, he was not stupid enough to let that happen.