While Raven and Eeth talked, Drex closed the door of their cabin behind Kaden and leaned against it, folding his arms across his chest. "Tell me what happened during your lesson," he said. This was quite clearly an order, not a request.

While Raven found reassurance in Eeth's words, Kaden was positively squirming from Drex's, both from the pain that still raged across his ass and the tone in which Drex had couched that question. Relieved that he hadn't been ordered to sit down, the boy attempted to hide a bit of his guilt; he had handled this very badly, something Drex had pointed out several times during the past few days and warned him to improve upon. He had not; in fact, he had gotten a good deal worse. "She beat me up," he stated flatly. While it was technically true, the spirit of that accusation was grossly misleading and he knew that.

"Uhuh," Drex said, clearly unimpressed. "Try that again."

Kaden frowned, but he couldn't deny that this hadn't been the smartest way to begin this conversation. "She punished me, and not lightly. I have welts."

"Yes, I surmised as much," said Drex evenly. "That was not an adequate answer to my question, though. I asked you what happened in your lesson. I'm sure Raven didn't spend an hour and a half punishing you."

"You could have fooled me," Kade muttered, still not happy about the state of his ass.

"You are doing an admirable job at exacerbating your problems," Drex said evenly. "Do you want me to add some to whatever Raven did to you or will you finally start telling me what happened?"

This got Kaden's attention. He absolutely did not want Drex to add to this! He folded his arms and started talking because he really didn't want to make this any worse despite how he felt about his lessons with Raven. "She was having me run through the same drill over and over and it was getting on my nerves. I started to lose interest and make mistakes which she corrected. That got on my nerves too because I was only making mistakes because I was bored with it!"

"I'm sure you know my position on wanting to quit a workout just because you're too bored to pay attention to detail," Drex said evenly. "I don't let you get away with it, and Raven is not supposed to, either."

Kaden did, but he didn't respond to this, Instead he tried to gloss it over by continuing. "I didn't want to lose my temper, so I told her that I quit! But she wouldn't let me leave." He looked up at this point and met sightless eyes. "She wanted me to meditate with her. I was reluctant for obvious reasons. It's not her place. You told her to leave my issues to you."

Drex sighed. "Very well," he said. "So she wanted you to meditate. It might not have been the best of ideas on her part, but it was neither unreasonable nor something that she wasn't entitled to ask. What happened then?"

Kaden begged to differ, but he didn't say as much because he knew his next confession was not going to go over well. "I did as she asked." he said. Then, upon seeing Drex's expression, he elaborated. "I let her have it, more so than I would have even with you." Kaden held up his hands in a placating gesture that was visually lost but ultimately sensed. "I know. It wasn't very Jedi-like of me. It's not like I don't regret doing that to her. I was angry and I was letting it control me," he admitted, and wanted to move this on fast so started talking again. He told Drex all of what Raven had said after that, how she had lectured and how he had responded. "Then, she belted me," he concluded. He hoped that by ending with that it would be clear to Drex that he had paid the price already, because he had!

"You should have expected that," replied Drex neutrally. "I told you she had authority to do this, and you definitely gave her reason to. You know that neither I nor Eeth would have stood for your lackluster approach to these lessons for nearly as long as Raven did. And I assume the same is true for Lakhri. Why you expected to get away with your behaviour, even after having been warned about it, is a mystery to me."

Kaden didn't know how to respond to that. It wasn't like he was trying to get away with his behaviour for the sake of it. His issue was his pride and it wasn't something he wanted to talk about. So, and despite his guilt, he remained silent and stared at the carpet; it was preferable to watching the expression on Drex's face.

Of course, whether or not Kaden wanted to talk about his pride was the least of Drex's worries. That said, he had more pressing issues to address right then.

"Be that as it may," he said, "Raven apparently called you to task for your poor behaviour in her lessons sufficiently. This is between her and you. I'm not going to punish you a second time for it, nor am I going to talk about it any longer, at least not now. There are two issues that Raven has not addressed, however, and I'm quite unhappy with both. The first and less serious one is the way in which you indulged and displayed your attitude about these lessons. Raven has been sacrificing her time and effort in order to teach you, and all you have rewarded her with were groans and procrastination. You did not even have any qualms about doing this openly, in front of her master, Lakhri, and Flynt. That was rude, and I'm definitely not raising you to be rude to others, especially not those who give their best to help you along. I expect you to pull yourself together and be courteous to everyone, most of all your teachers, regardless of how bored or otherwise aggravated you might feel at times. Is that quite clear?"

With each statement Kaden felt worse and his guilty expression, although visually lost on Drex, would have telegraphed across their bond. Was it clear? Well, yes, but he was struggling to accept his failures. He knew he had fucked up, but it was very hard for him to admit as much. Yet, Kaden did so, because ultimately he really did trust Drex. "Clear."

"Alright," Drex said calmly. "You're still going to be punished because, as unhappy as I am with your rudeness, I am infinitely more displeased with what you admitted to doing during the meditation that Raven made you perform. That was not only rude, it was downright dangerous. I was monitoring you pretty closely and shielded Raven from the worst of it. She's not nearly experienced enough to handle this on her own. That she managed somehow, with the help of my shielding, is impressive enough, but had I not protected her, your outburst could have affected her badly. Was that really your intention or did you simply not think?"

The pronouncement that Drex was planning to further punish him didn't exactly come as any great surprise. He just hoped fervently that it would be extra meditations; he deserved as much, he knew that. That Drex had needed to shield Raven from him hit Kaden hard. He hadn't expected that bombshell! Had he really gotten that far out of control and not even realised it? Fuck! He did his best not to telegraph just how bad he felt about that. Had it been his intention to hurt her? Well, yes, but, NO! At least not seriously. At the time, he had just lost his temper and thought to get a little of his own back! Both were equally bad, he knew. He dragged a hand down his face, not wanting to admit to that. "I didn't mean it. I only wanted to scare her, to get back at her for forcing me into meditating." It was more than that, of course, and they both knew that so he added. "For this whole situation."

"This whole situation is none of her fault," Drex said. "And you know that perfectly well. In contrast to you, though, she tried to do her duty and make the best out of it. If you had ended up hurting her, 'I didn't mean it' would have been a very feeble excuse indeed, wouldn't it?"

There was nothing Kaden could say to that. Drex was right. "Yes, Master," he agreed, head down and feeling rotten.

"I think I had better make sure that you make more of an effort, both with your behaviour and your temper," Drex said implacably. "I don't want anything like this to happen again, nor will I allow behaviour like yours to go unpunished. Go and fetch me my hairbrush."

Kaden's head snapped up at that command. "What?" The word barely came out and sounded choked. "Master, please don't. I can't take any more. Can it wait until tomorrow?" At this point, his pride was out the waste hatch; he had resorted to outright begging and pleading. He backed into his bunk – why, he had no idea because there was no escape route behind his bed! Not that he would attempt such a thing, he wasn't that brave, or stupid? Kaden wasn't quite sure which category attempting to run would land in.

Drex shook his head implacably. "No, it cannot," he said. "Do what I told you. Now."

Realistically, Drex knew that this was going to be very hard on Kaden and that he could not possibly punish him as if the belting he had received from Raven did not exist. And he was not going to. However, he wanted to send a strong message to his padawan, and the more immediately the message was brought across, the more of an impression it was going to leave. Besides, Kaden had got away with far too much during the past days and had ignored entirely too many warnings. He was not going to get out of this.

Kaden's insides turned to ice. Fuck! Fuck, and fuck! he ranted. Thankfully, his crude inner monologue was not something Drex would hold him accountable for, even if he were privy to his private thoughts. The boy stood there like a bantha in headlights for a long moment. When he remembered how to use his legs, he dragged his feet towards their refresher, took the brush from its place on the right side of the sink and winced. He hated this thing. It was impossibly hard, heavy and the pain was horrendous even on and unpunished ass! Again, the boy dragged his feet back to where Drex stood and very reluctantly held out the dreaded brush for him to take. He did not bother with further begging; it was futile. He did, however, start to cry, and he didn't care how un-manly this was, he was not looking forward to this.

Drex steeled himself against Kaden's tears and ignored them for now. There would be a time to offer comfort later. Right now, he merely accepted the brush, walked over to the desk, pulled out the chair and sat down.

"You know the drill, padawan," he said calmly. He planned to check the state of Kaden's bottom before he started to spank. He also was not planning on using the hairbrush for more than a few swats at the end, in order to emphasise his point. Nor did he think he would have to use the paddle to make his point this time around. If Kaden had really received a proper belting from Raven, his skin was going to be sensitive enough as it was.

Kade did know the DRILL, but he sure as hell didn't want to follow it! Reluctantly, he reached for his belt clasp and unclipped it, tossing it aside, and started to unfasten his pants for the second time that hour. His hands were trembling a bit; he was actually afraid that he would not be able to withstand this. When he had his pants down, he craned his neck to assess the state of his ass: yep, it was red and welted; Raven had done a thorough job. He gave the area a gentle rub. Then, with all the enthusiasm of a condemned man heading to the gallows, he awkwardly bent his hulking frame across his masters lap. It was uncomfortable, to say the least, but he assumed that if Drex had him here, the last thing on his mind was his comfort. He moved around in an effort to better protect his undercurve, but again, he knew this was futile, so he simply braced himself with his hands and feet and bit his lip so he wouldn't be tempted to beg. It was one thing to start crying before Drex had even started on him, it was another entirely to start simpering!

Drex gently ran his hand over Kaden's exposed bottom, assessing its state. Yes, his padawan had not exaggerated: Raven had done a thorough job; not that he blamed her for it. Her efforts had been focussed on the centre of Kaden's bottom, though, with little damage to the sides and hardly any on the thighs. Having found out as much, Drex laid the hairbrush onto the table and started spanking with his hand. He did not use quite as much force as he had the last time, but then, he would hardly need to since he targeted the exact area that had received a thorough belting a short while ago.

Kaden's response to this was as expected. His cries immediately morphed into wailing. It fucking hurt! He fisted the rug tightly and squirmed around but, as usual,this did nothing to direct where Drex landed the next smack. "Master! P-please!" He knew begging was pointless but couldn't help it, he just couldn't.

This time around, Drex definitely did not need to overtax the strength of his right arm in order to leave an impression. He simply continued to rain swats onto the centre of Kaden's bottom until the boy started to sob. Then he paused, waited for Kaden to quiet down a little and said: "That was for your inconsiderate and rude behaviour. What comes now is for what you did to Raven during your meditation. Under no circumstances do I want a repeat occurrence." He picked up the hairbrush and brought it down onto the tops of Kaden's thighs with a resounding swat.

"N-nooo! Mas-ter NO, I can'ttttt!" Kaden practically squealed, but it was too late and a second later he felt the brush connect with his thigh. To say that this animated the boy was an understatement. He bucked, kicked, writhed and generally flailed about. He couldn't help it. Drex might be targeting skin that Raven left alone, but she had left it alone for a reason; it was very sensitive there! Kaden wailed loudly enough to alert the entire ship, and possibly some of the planets whizzing past their hyperspace course.

Drex was drawing on the Force to soundproof the cabin. Most masters did this when they disciplined their charges; it was not difficult and saved their padawans considerable embarrassment. He was tempted to cover his ears at the volume of Kaden's wails. Of course he did no such thing; instead, he brought the hairbrush down again. All in all, he gave Kaden twelve solid swats, not at full force, but none too lightly either. Most of these landed on the tops of his thighs and a few at the sides of his bottom where the belt had not struck. Drex was normally more thorough than this, but right now he honestly felt that this was all Kaden could handle, and more than sufficient to bring his point across.

When Drex was through with him, Kaden was a hot mess. He had snot and tears all over his face, his throat was sore from all the screaming and wailing he'd done over the last hour and he was in more pain than he could remember being in a very long time. He made no effort to remove himself from the awkward position as he usually would. This time he just wanted to indulge in his howling for a while longer which was very unlike him, but Drex had quite literally spanked the pride clean out of him for now. It took him a while to pull himself together, but when he did he accepted Drex's help up and hug gratefully. He had survived. Just!

"I know this was harsh, Padawan," Drex said quietly. "And I'm sorry I had to do this. But I had good reason to, and we will talk more about this in a while. For now, lie down and rest a bit. I will fetch you some bacta. I think you need it."

Kade swiped a sleeve under his nose and across his eyes. Both were stinging from rubbing them but they didn't hold a candle to the pain radiating from his ass; it was horrendous. Wordlessly, he inclined his head and moved to his bunk where he lie on his tummy. He didn't bother replacing his pants. Absolutely nothing was going to touch his ass right now unless it was ice or bacta. Kaden closed his eyes and sniffled; he was feeling pretty rotten over how he had acted towards Raven.

Drex intended to help his padawan feel better soon. He made his way to the galley where Eeth and Raven were sitting, reading from data pads.

Raven looked up when Drex entered, her expression pensive. "Master Zaryth," she said to get his attention. "About Kaden, I think we need to talk. Is he okay?" she started as the man went through the cupboard that housed their medical kits.

Drex took out a tin of bacta and turned towards Raven. "No," he said. "And that is not merely due to your punishment. He received one from me as well – not for acting up during your lesson but for what he did to you during meditation. He flung all his negative emotions at you at once, without restraining himself. He doesn't even do that with me; to you, it could have been positively harmful. You managed to deal with that onslaught impressively, but had I not shielded you from the worst of it, things might not have looked so well."

Raven frowned. Hearing that Kaden had purposefully thrown the kitchen sink at her, so to speak, had come as a bit of a surprise. That Drex had shielded her from the worst was an outright shock. How had she missed that? She looked from Drex to Eeth and then back again as that news sunk in. Her eyes narrowed. Why, that little turd! she thought. Outwardly, however… "Why, that little turd!" The teen bristled, but only slightly.

Eeth pointed a stern look at her but it was half-hearted because he tended to agree with that assessment.

"Rest assured that I did my best to make sure he will not do that again in a hurry," Drex said calmly, slightly raising the tin of bacta.

As annoyed as Raven was over Kaden's behaviour, she couldn't help but feel sympathetic when she noticed Drex holding a tin of bacta. Her ire ebbed, and she deflated a little; Drex had warned her, after all. "It was my own fault. You did tell me to leave his anger issues to you. I'm sorry, it won't happen again," she told him honestly.

"It had better not," Drex said but his tone of voice carried more concern than reproach. "I assume none of us expected something like this. It came as a surprise and you did the best you could. But you have seen for yourself now how dangerous Kaden can be, so please do leave his anger issues to me."

Raven took that in stride, her head inclining slightly; she had expected as much. "I was pretty hard on him. I hope that I didn't overstep my bounds because I didn't mean to. I thought he needed me to leave an impression, so I tried to do that." Kaden was the first official padawan peer she had actually been assigned to teach, after all.

"Kaden sometimes needs his teachers to be hard on him," said Drex. "If they aren't, he will keep testing his boundaries. Believe me, I was hard on him as well. I got out the bacta for a reason."

"I can offer some Force-aided healing," said Eeth. "We will arrive tomorrow and will need him to be at his full strength then."

Drex thought for a moment, then nodded. "Alright," he said. "But let me tend to him first. I think he needs me to. I will call you in when I'm done."

He entered their cabin, bacta in hand, and knelt next to Kaden's bunk. "Here we go," he said gently, starting to dab bacta onto the boy's bottom. "Did you learn anything from all this, padawan?"

"I did…." He replied softly, hissing quietly as the bacta made contact with his ass. Kaden presented a pitiful sight. Sure, Drex couldn't see him, but he knew the man would still sense that his gaze was downcast, and demeanour well and truly chastened.

"I know it hurts," Drex said sympathetically. "And I did not enjoy doing this to you. But I have to say I felt it was warranted. You'll feel a little better once the bacta takes effect. Eeth offered to provide some Force-aided healing as well. Now, tell me what it was you learned."

To restate his failings and how he'd learned from them felt humiliating. Kade grimaced, but it might have been misconstrued as pain from the initial effects of the bacta. If Drex had even been able to see his grimace, that was. "I don't know… That I should obey my superiors." He knew this wasn't going to be enough for Drex, though, so he delved a little deeper. "I didn't mean to throw all of that at Raven. Well, actually, I did and I regret it; she didn't deserve that. It wasn't the actions of a Jedi, but my anger makes me do stupid things. I won't make that mistake again." he confessed, not that any of this would be news to Drex.

"It does," Drex replied. "And I should really hope you don't do it again because if you do, I will take my hairbrush to you every day for a week, and you will pretty much spend the rest of that week meditating on why, exactly, there's no place for giving in to one's anger in a Jedi's life. My more immediate concern is the issue of obeying your superiors, though. We are going to arrive on Barslaa tomorrow. Eeth is the leader of our team and I'm sure you have no issue with accepting his authority. Raven, however, is the expert here, and she is going to take the lead. And you, padawan, are going to obey her orders. All this nonsense about your adolescent male pride has to stop. It's impeding you from doing your duty, and I won't stand for that. That's why I was unwilling to postpone your spanking, painful though it was. It's a lesson I needed you to learn now, not tomorrow or next week."

Kaden blanched at the threat, but he wasn't entirely sure Drex meant it. Would Drex ever be that harsh with him? In any case, he decided that it wasn't worth testing him over because, Force help him, he couldn't endure one encounter with that brush, let alone several in a row. The meditations would simply add salt to the wound. He listened to all that Drex had to say, his guilt increasing with each word. He didn't know what to say and so he remained silent, his head down and shame clear.

Drex was entirely serious about his threat. It had been a very real possibility for Raven to get hurt by Kaden and he could not allow that to happen. Drex was still not sure whether he ought to feel guilty for allowing her to take over Kaden's Ataru training. He had expected Kaden to have reached a degree of maturity that prevented his temper from taking over. Maybe this was a new stage of adolescence; the boy seemed to have more difficulty dealing with his pride than had been the case a few months ago..

"You could have actually harmed Raven," he explained to his hapless padawan, wiping his fingers on a tissue. "That's no small thing. If we were at the Temple right now, I would certainly take away your saber. I'll let you keep it for now in deference to the fact that we're arriving on Barslaa tomorrow and you might need it, but if you give me the slightest cause to complain about the way you handle your aggression or frustration from now on, your saber is gone. Do we understand each other?"

"Yes, master," the boy replied subduedly. He really did feel bad for having let his anger get the better of him, and for what that might have meant for Raven. He wasn't intrinsically evil, but he was powerful and that power was sometimes overwhelming, uncontrolled and it needed a very experienced hand to taper. He looked up at his aged master and felt yet more guilt. He didn't want to cause him grief but he was doing just that.

Drex screwed the jar of bacta shut and stood to put it away and wash his hands. Then he returned to Kaden's bunk, sat on the edge and rested his hand on the boy's back. "Still feeling guilty?" he asked gently, having quite an acute sense of what went on inside his padawan. "Well, in this case, I have to admit I'd be worried if you weren't. I believe you have been sufficiently punished, but you will probably have to make it up to Raven in order to feel better about it. After all, she was the one you did this to. I'll send in Eeth for the Force-aided healing session he promised, and then you should find Raven. Tonight, I'll meditate with you and help you sort out your feelings about this whole affair. Alright?"

Drex's touch was soothing. "Alright," Kaden replied, his head still down and buried in the crook of his elbow. He didn't want to face Eeth, not after what he had done to the man's apprentice. Fuck, he might just kill him! The boy swallowed, but did not make to move. He did, however, eye the airlock briefly…

Drex knew that his padawan was far from over this, but that was only to be expected. He had done something that might have caused serious harm to another person, after all; there was no magic cure that could stop him feeling guilty about this in a matter of minutes. Drex squeezed Kaden's shoulder affectionately and said: "Just stay as you are. I'll send Eeth in."

Eeth was waiting in the galley. He had given Raven some free time since he had sensed that she was distinctly fatigued after that whole experience. Besides, he'd promised it before the lesson.

"You can go in now," Drex said. "He can really use some healing. Neither your padawan nor myself were gentle with him. But he deserved it and he knows it. He's feeling extremely guilty, and I think he's also expecting you to tear him to pieces."

Eeth raised his eyebrows. "I trust you have already done that," he said and rose. "So I will not. He should apologise to Raven, though."

"He will," said Drex.

"Alright," said Eeth, knowing that if Drex said it, it was going to happen. He made for Drex's and Kaden's cabin. "Padawan Kaden," he said neutrally upon stepping inside and closing the door behind himself. "I hear you received quite some punishment. I will see what I can do to alleviate the aftereffects."

Kaden's heart started thumping in his chest as he heard the door to their room slide open. Of course, he knew Eeth would not actually kill him, well, he gathered those rumours were false… They were! He sat up, suddenly feeling the need to be upright, and winced. Fuck! His ass still stung from the bacta and, to add insult to injury, it was now smudging all over his sheets. "I did, and… thanks," he said, trying to sound calm.

The edges of Eeth's mouth twitched slightly. He knew what kind of an effect he tended to have on students in general and Kaden in particular. "Relax and lie back down," he said. "I am not going to eat you, despite everything that Raven and Flynt might feel tempted to tell you."

Kaden did as he was told. Immediately. "You don't have the right teeth," he said quietly… but it fell flat. The boy feigned a cough and lay on his stomach just praying that Eeth did not wallop his ass because he truly did not think he could take another smack. The guilt he felt was palpable. If someone had done that to his apprentice, he'd have been pissed as all get out, but Eeth didn't seem to be. Kade reached out with the Force in an effort to sense something from Raven. He couldn't sense blinding rage, so that was one bonus at least… He looked back over his shoulder. "I'm sorry." Was all he said because to say anything else would seem shallow.

"Apology accepted," Eeth said calmly, kneeling and starting to let healing energy flow into the damaged area. Raven and Drex combined had certainly done a thorough job, he could see as much despite the bacta; it would have been a harsh punishment even by Eeth's high standards. But then, Kaden had had it coming. "In any case," he continued, "it is not me you should apologise to, it is Raven."

Kaden nodded once, but kept his head buried in the crook of his elbow. The pain blazing across his ass and thighs was beginning to ebb, thank the Force. That had been among the worst punishments he had endured. He had not at all anticipated Raven to lay into him like she had. In fact, he was certain she stopped just shy of actually taking the skin from his ass. Having Drex add to it had ratcheted that experience into his top five most memorable punishments. Not just because it was harsh, but also because it had been Raven! A girl, his first crush, his peer and friend… What a mess. Kade squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face. He just had to stop thinking like this! It wasn't conducive to his goal of knighthood and if he didn't quit it, he wouldn't be sitting down before then either. He turned his head to the side and glanced back at Eeth, a slightly pained expression on his face. "Do you want a piece of me, too? For what I did to your apprentice." he questioned. Kaden wasn't sure if Eeth was healing him simply to tear his ass up again himself.

"Why should I?" asked Eeth. "It is Raven who is your teacher, not me. And I think Drex already called you to task for flinging your anger at her during meditation. If I punished you as well, that would be little more than petty revenge. Quite pointless and quite un-Jedi-like. It is not as if we go around looking for reasons to spank you, you know."

Well, yes, actually, revenge had been exactly what Kaden was thinking, as un-Jedi-like as that was. Besides, he doubted there would be anything petty about it if Eeth decided to tear his ass up for him. He didn't say as much, though, focusing instead on keeping still and what he was going to say to Raven. When the man finished, he got to his feet and righted his clothing. The bacta was dry now and so it didn't stick his ass to the material. "Thanks," he offered, his tone carrying genuine gratitude. Kaden knew that Eeth had given Raven the night off as they had completed their lesson early, and he wondered if Drex planned to keep his word there, too, or if his behaviour meant the man would revoke that privilege. He followed Eeth from the room. His gait was slightly stiff and his eyes were still red-rimmed; it was clear that he had spent a good deal of time crying.

Thankfully, Lakhri and Flynt were still in the cockpit. Drex was seated at the table with his headphones on. He stopped the audio file he was listening to when Eeth and Kaden entered.

"Am I still free for the night?" Kaden asked Drex very quietly, hoping that Eeth wouldn't hear the exchange.

Drex considered this question. "Mostly," he finally said. "You should help prepare dinner, and we will meditate together quite a bit longer than usual before you go to bed, but apart from that, you are free. You should seek out Raven now, though."

"She might be in our cabin," Eeth, who did not bother pretending not to have heard, supplied. He had fetched himself a drink of water and now made his way to the cockpit to see how Flynt was doing.

Kaden looked like he had bitten on a lemon. He wasn't exactly looking forward to making this apology to Raven. It wasn't because he thought it was in any way undeserved, but because he didn't know what to say, or how to start, for that matter.

Drex took off his headphones. "Which part of 'now' haven't you understood?" he asked.

The last thing Kaden wanted to do right now was go anywhere near Raven. He wanted to piss Drex off even less, though, thus the boy turned without comment and went to find her. He still had no idea how he was meant to start this. What if she was busy or didn't want to talk to him? What was he meant to do then? All these thoughts and more whizzed through his mind as he approached the common room area; it was the only room with movement, and the flicker of blue lights clued him in to what she was doing… He took a breath, closed his eyes and … stood there.