Ahsoka lifted the goggles from her eyes and wiped the sweat from her brow. She had been working with the flamethrower to weld a pipe back in place, and while laying underneath a speeder, it could get very hot. Nothing she couldn't handle, for sure, but it was the reason the shop had AC.

One of the advantages of having the shop trespassed and damaged was that they had an excuse to renovate it. They had replaced the air conditioning, the heating system, about half of the lights, and the lobby had gotten a bit of a makeover. Fuller had been very happy with the changes, as had his customers and employees. The thugs that had tried to rob them had actually done Gauges and Gears a favor.

Granger had left last week, and the entire staff had gone up to the surface to send him off to Alderaan. He had promised to keep in touch, but it was a bittersweet departure all the same. Ahsoka was just glad he had been able to move on after losing Kalifa, again. Hopefully he could start over fresh in a new environment and maybe find a new family somewhere along the way.

Lowering the jack, she ran diagnostics on the speeder to make sure everything was now in working order. Without one of the mechanics, everyone else's load had increased slightly. Fuller was cracking down on everyone, making sure that no one was taking any longer breaks than the lunch break they were allowed. Jake kept complaining that it was 'just like after Frand left', and that they 'needed to find another Tano'.

After completing the report on the speeder, Ahsoka looked around her workbench. She had a choice: she could pick up one more product to fix up before she clocked out, but it would run over her normal time and it might take a while. On the other hand, if she tidied up and clocked out now, she could probably idle long enough to make her normal exit time.

Unable to decide, she closed her eyes and exhaled, clearing her mind. It was a silly question, and hardly one worth so much attention, but reconnecting with the Force certainly wasn't going to hurt. She blocked out all of the distractions from the workshop and focused on herself and the balance she had been nurturing. Only after a moment did it register that she could feel Anakin quite easily as well.

He must be on Coruscant again, she thought, and she focused on it. He seemed to pick up on her presence as well because she felt his Force signature strengthen in her mind. Before long, Ahsoka heard the same tunnel noises she heard months ago before all noise silenced except for her breathing and someone else's. Anakin.

She opened her eyes, and sure enough, he was sitting on...something, Ahsoka couldn't see what, not far from herself. Probably the bed in his quarters at the Temple. When he saw her, his face lit up and he turned to face her. "Long time, no see," he commented, and Ahsoka laughed.

"I wonder why," she retorted. "It's almost as if you've been fighting a war."

"Not tonight," he told her. "I've been on duty for a week and I finally got a break. I'm not supposed to receive any assignments tonight."

She smirked. "Keyword: supposed to."

Anakin smiled and rolled his eyes, before thinking of something and standing up. "Are you working tonight?"

Ahsoka shook her head. "I don't work evenings, and I knock off in...ten-ish minutes. I was about to clean up, actually."

"Do you think you could make it to Halda's in half an hour?" He asked. "I don't know how fast travel is for you..."

"Half an hour is perfect," she replied, eager to finally see him again. "See you there."

He smirked. "Race you," he taunted before their concentration broke and he disappeared.

Ahsoka didn't realize until then that Wheeler was outside her workbench. "Hey, Tano, you okay?"

She looked around and realized she had probably looked like she had been talking to a wall. "I'm fine. I just need to clean up." She gathered up her mess from the day, putting forth minimal effort to do so. Wheeler noticed her rush.

"Are you going somewhere?" She inquired, curious. "Is something wrong?"

"Actually, nothing is wrong," she answered, making sure everything was somewhat in order before walking out. "I'm meeting an old surface friend, one I haven't seen in a while."

Wheeler whistled, following her to the staff room. "Catching up with your friends in the fast lane?"

Ahsoka laughed, too excited to be bothered by her bias. "It's the first time in two months. Besides, the fresh air is good for me. See you tomorrow," she waved, grabbing her bag and blaster from her locker and dashing out the back door. She jumped straight into the shaft and caught a ride on a rising ship.

Time to see what the rest of the galaxy had been up to.

Anakin parked his speeder in the middle of downtown, where he had free parking and no obstructions. It was a bit of a walk to Halda's, but the time outside certainly wasn't going to hurt him. After all, he had spent the past week in a cruiser. Anything was better than that.

If he was being completely honest, he had wanted to reach out to Ahsoka for a while now. He hadn't heard anything from her in two months, and he wanted to check in on her and make sure she was doing okay in the Lower Levels. Anakin would never admit it, but he still felt responsible for his old apprentice, even if she wasn't his Padawan.

The crowds on the street parted before him, not wanting to cross a Jedi. He kept an eye out for Ahsoka but he didn't see her montrals pointing between any heads the whole way to the restaurant. Give her time, he told himself. You're early anyways.

He stopped at an alley next to the building and leaned against the wall while he waited. While he was watching the passerby, though, a familiar voice piped up behind him. "Beat you," Ahsoka teased, and he turned to get a look at her.

She was crouched up on the balcony of the building next to Halda's, waiting for him. While she leaped down, Anakin realized that he hadn't noticed how she looked during their...vision? Bond? He still didn't know what to call it. Now that she was actually standing next to him, he got a better look.

Thankfully, there was no more bandage wrapped around her midsection, and she was clearly moving just fine. Her outfit had a few grime stains on it from work but suited her much better than the Inquisitor armor. She had a blue top on with her coat over it and green pants tucked into boots. Her blaster was on her hip and her bag was on her shoulders. If it wasn't for the fact that Anakin had known her for four years, she would have looked like your average civilian. Personally, Anakin thought the look suited her.

"Someone's feeling better," he commented, smiling down at her.

"More than you know," she laughed, then looked up at him. She straightened her posture and then grinned. "Looks like I've gotten taller, too."

Anakin leaned on her shoulder, just to prove that she wasn't that tall yet. "You have to catch Obi-Wan first, Snips. Come on," he said, walking towards the front entrance. "I'm starving."

She followed him, smirking behind his back. "I'm not surprised, especially if you've been on assignment for a week. How did those rations taste?"

"They didn't," he complained. "That's the problem. Of course, you wouldn't know, you've been living in the Lower Levels."

"Trust me, I haven't forgotten," she groaned. "I've been trying to, though. Fresh food is much better."

"I'll have to take your word for it."

Since Anakin was a Jedi, they got a table right away. It was a lot faster service than Ahsoka had grown accustomed to, but she wasn't complaining. She slid into the booth and set her bag next to her on the bench, leaning back on the cushion. As she sighed, Anakin raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you okay?"

Ahsoka nodded, groaning as she sat up. "I was on my back for an hour welding a speeder back together. The engine was an absolute mess. You would have loved it."

Laughing, he crossed his arms. "Sounds like fun," he agreed, but his face lost the cocky grin for a second. "Seriously, though, are you all right? You felt...off..for a while earlier this month."

"It definitely wasn't one of my better weeks," she admitted, remembering her period without the Force. "I hit a rough patch, and I had to work through a few things. Just...trying to adjust, I guess."

"I just wanted to make sure," he told her. "I don't want to take chances like that, not after last year."

She grinned. "Believe me, I understand. I have my own reasons to avoid that again."

Silently, both Ahsoka and Anakin remembered their reasons. One night, in particular, stood out for both of them.

Anakin scrunched his brow. "Why were you working on a speeder again?"

"I never told you, did I?" She remembered. "I'm working at a mechanics shop. As it turns out, all those lessons on engine repair actually came in handy."

"It suits you," he decided, smirking. "Better than running around on a cruiser every other week. How often are you working?"

Ahsoka shrugged. "About 42 hours a week. It's pretty nice, actually. I work mornings and afternoons during the week, and I get the entire weekend to myself unless there's an emergency."

What would qualify as an emergency at a mechanics shop? Anakin wondered. "Like what?"

"Like a band of thugs trying to rob the building on a Saturday," she answered, remembering the call she had received two weeks ago. "We don't exactly have clone troopers standing guard outside the doors."

Anakin leaned his elbows on the table. "How did that go? Sounds like fun to me."

She waved her hand. "The thugs were nothing. I didn't even have my blaster with me for most of it, and it was still a piece of cake. The cleanup was harder than the actual fight."

"Cleanup?"

"Well, until local troopers showed up, my coworkers and I had to clear the mess. One of them had a piece of debris cut their leg, so it was bleeding onto the ground." Ahsoka groaned, closing her eyes.

The Jedi couldn't fight the grin off of his face. "Not used to medical treatment, I'm assuming?"

She slammed her forehead on the table. "He wouldn't stop squirming! It would have taken five minutes if he had just held still, but nooooo! It took me ten minutes just to clean the cut! And when I brought out the anesthetic?" She rolled her eyes. "He passed out on the spot. A good thing too, or he would have been horrible during the actual stitching. Mind you, this is a man in his mid-twenties."

It was all Anakin could do to not completely burst out laughing. He looked around to make sure no one had heard him stifling himself, before turning back to Ahsoka. "He wouldn't have lasted a day in the Clone War."

"If he hadn't passed out, I would have stunned him," she confessed. "He had no pain tolerance whatsoever."

The two of them composed themselves as the waiter came up to take their order. As they spoke, Anakin tried to imagine a full-grown man passing out. They had barely been talking for five minutes, and Ahsoka already had stories about her life underground. What else had she been up to for the past two months?