This senate thing dragged on and on but sitting on the spire to watch the detail, Kess began to understand why fair legislation took so long. Allowing all representatives to put forth their ideas and discuss them into a compromise took a lot of time. Kess began to see the Senate Chamber as though she had her head under the hood of a combustible engine, watching all the parts move as it idled. Each hitch in the process prompted a slight adjustment. An incorrect adjustment caused parts to bang against each other and the engine would stop. But an adjustment with which all the parts could operate would fine-tune the machine workings even further and the engine would move a little faster.

Now Kess was beginning to really see the difference. A week into this thing, they had somehow managed to take an engine so out-of-whack it was banging hard against itself and headed for an explosion, and now had adjusted it enough that most Senators stood up, sparked, and sat down, taking their turns to keep the engine moving, like a room full of timed pistons.

But their lives seemed to be doing the same. Small adjustments gradually made their lives easier to operate. A committee independently formed to organize a handful of assistants for the Jedi crew. At first, Luke was hesitant to accept the help, but their lives were still such a mess that he agreed to it for now. A Twi'lek, a Human, and an Ugnaught helped quicken the research for bits of political data, organized the new database of Senators, and even ran out into town to buy them a change of clothes.

Kess's first request of these aides was to find Yana Deitrich. She was on the WIA list, Kess explained, because friends spotted her still alive as an emergency medical crew hauled the woman away, but that was the last anyone saw of her. Now six days since the battle, her worry that she'd lost the last Girly Girl was becoming unbearable.

The human assistant, a gentle but energetic man by the name of Raól, proved his worth by coming back with a report by the end of day.

"She's alive." It was how he said hello. He allowed Kess and Luke a sigh of relief, then gladly explained the detail.

Yana was hit twice by blaster fire. Once in the shoulder and another skimmed her head. The second shot cut into her skull and sizzled out a slice of her brain matter, causing a temporary coma. This was why the hospital didn't know her identity to report Yana's location. The medical staff warned that Yana would likely have trouble speaking for the rest of her life, but cognitive tests confirmed that her personality and intelligence were still in there.

"So she's awake?"

"Sometimes. She's going to need a couple of surgeries so they're keeping her sedated to reduce brain activity until they can get in there. I told them to have her awake this evening so you could go see her."

Kess clopped her palms together at Raól and shook them with immense appreciation. "You are my new best friend!"

Raól gladly flew them over to the hospital so the gang wouldn't have to mess with trying to find the place, during which Luke commed a friend of his own.

Wedge declined somberly. "I wanted you to ask her first."

"We will," Luke assured, "but that doesn't mean you can't already be in the hall when we do."

So Wedge hesitantly met the group at the hospital entrance. Wedge and Nik nodded hello again and reminded each other of their names. Raól was introduced all around. Kess rushed ahead and sought out the right authority to get a full report on Yana's health. It was much of the same information, but now Kess thought to ask an additional question. "Has she seen The List?"

The nurse queried. "What list?"

"Killed in Action."

The man nodded and reported with gentleness. "After asking her location, her first question was for the status of the battle and the list of the affected soldiers."

Kess rubbed her lips, nodded, and eyed Luke and Wedge to find they had no intent to go in until Kess took care of her hello first.

She stepped into the hospital room and found the woman propped up in an angled bed.

Yana instantly smiled in a heaving, crying breath of relief to see her.

Kess ran over and hugged her from the bedside. Yana wrapped her good arm around Kess's shoulders. Her other arm was still in a sling. Her brown hair was loose all over the pillow, but the left half of her beautiful hair had been shaved off for the bandage covering the side of her head.

Yana didn't say anything. She didn't have to. She started crying in Kess's shoulder, gripping the woman's tunic and shuddering with horror at the losses she'd just learned.

Luke took a step down the hall only to peek at them through the angle through the open door. Wedge stood out of sight with Raól and Nik, but all listened with sadness.

Sniffles and smiles, and Kess backed up to sit on Yana's bedside. "I am so glad to see you. You have no idea how glad I am to see you."

Yana nodded more than she spoke, wiping her eyes with the back of her good hand. "Ya." Her mouth moved to try to speak more, but she couldn't find the words. Her hand gestured, her face shrugged, she motioned with frustration at her own mouth, and her hand shrugged again. "I uh . . . can't—" She gave up trying, closed her eyes, and sniffled again. "Dammit."

Kess made a joke with it. "Well your cussing wasn't affected. At least you have that."

Yana laughed and new tears sprinkled her eyelashes. "Ya." But she brightened and lifted an index finger. "But!" She motioned over to a datalink resting on rolling table with her dinner leftovers. Kess went over to get it, looked at it to find nothing, and sat back down to hand it over. Yana grinned because this was a development she just learned. "But." Her cast hand struggled to bring up the datalink, but when she had a grip on it, her thumbs flew across the tiny keyboard and handed it to Kess.

But I still gots my mad typing skillz.

"Just not your spelling," Kess laughed back. The moment of play calmed back to reality. They were trying to make jokes to keep the moment from growing heavy, but it grew heavy anyway. Kess kept Yana's eyes and held her good hand, squeezing hard, both of them equally overwhelmed with sadness and relief.

"We'll raise a beer together as soon as you're out of here."

Yana grinned to that and nodded fervent agreement. "Ya."

"But I should quit hogging you. I'm not the only one that came to see you."

Yana's brows angled, grinned dirty, and wriggled suggestively.

Kess smiled. "Yes, he's here too. But that's not the one I'm talking about."

Shifty, Yana's brows wrinkled with questions. Kess turned her head and called them to come in. Yana stretched her neck to around Kess to see who it was.

Luke strolled in with a grin at her. "Hi Yana."

Yana waved and smiled at Luke, but she stretched her neck even more because there were other bodies out the door. She eyed Luke, then flicked her chin at the empty doorway, questioning again.

Luke smiled through the door. "You'd better get in here before she jumps out of this bed."

With chin down and eyes up, like a crewman Reporting As Ordered to face a reprimand, Wedge stepped carefully into the room and tried to grin.

Yana's eyes bulged. Her mouth opened to a new smile. She had a voice to breathe and laugh through her overwhelming relief to see him. Her lips tried to make words but they couldn't. She shook her head, smiled anyway, and dropped back against the angle of the bed.

Kess stood and turned away, eyeing Luke, and ushered them both back to the hallway. But they stopped there and listened in like bandits.

Yeah, sorry about that. Everyone seems to think this was a bigger deal than it got." Wedge groaned apologetically. "I tried to tell them you don't date pilots, but they don't listen to me."

Yana forced herself to speak, and Wedge was patient to let her get through it. "I . . . th-think . . . I c'n . . . ." She huffed in frustration and gave up, but Wedge said nothing to interrupt her.

There was a long pause. Wedge wasn't going to speak again until she was finished.

Yana fought to finish her sentence. "Make . . . an ex-excep-tion," her voice sighed into a smile, "in . . . your case."

Wedge's voice curled in playful dare. "Are you asking me out?"

Luke and Kess heard the two laughing together. They stepped away to give the Wedge and Yana some real privacy, but they still heard Yana's voice through the open door, fighting her own mouth make it insist the obvious. "Ya."

In the hallway, Kess held Luke and gladly meditated in his arms while they waited. Wedge wasn't in there for very long before he poked his head out to motion the rest in. The med staff was making noises that they had to sedate her again before much longer, so Yana finished all remaining conversation with the datalink. Introductions all around. Yana's eyes shined at 'Emperor Nik', typing that he looked like his sister. Luke asked Raól to get Yana a new data-commlink so they could stay directly in touch. Wedge seemed to want to fade into the wall, but she typed one last thing before they all left and handed it over to Wedge.

He read it. His eyes shined. And he handed it back.

"What did she say?" Luke asked him as they all walked out.

Wedge looked over at the other man, but his glow was obvious. "None of your business."

Returning home, they discovered another development. Instead of finding a clean and sparsely filled apartment, the sand and black great room was now cluttered with stacks of dinged up crates, green canvas seabags, and one big hand-me-down Oroblam terminal.

Nik spread his palms. "What the hell is all this?"

Luke and Kess shined to step up and review it all. "Our stuff." Kess moved to the seabags and Luke stepped to the terminal. They gazed over all the mismatched crap, unorganized and cluttering the beautiful room, and grinned more that now—now—the place was starting to feel like a home.

Luke's squatted in front the terminal and crates and his eyes were already beginning to sort out the project in his mind. "Threepio—?"

His eyes caught on the silver/black droid who looked back at him like he was insane. "My designation is Eye-D-Ten-T."

Luke dropped his hand to his knee. His brows lifted into his forehead and a grin stretch across his face. "You're kidding. Really?"

The silver man nodded and propped up with pride. "Most sentients call me Eye-D. You are welcome to call me that as well."

Nik blinked. His voice deep. "Eye-D-Ten-T."

The droid looked over at him. "Yes."

"Spells IDIOT."

The droid angled its head, shuffled oddly, and addressed Luke again. "I prefer to be called Eye-D."

Luke laughed tightly at the floor in front of him and motioned the droid. "Eye-D, can you move this terminal into the office, please?"

"Of course, Master Luke." He shuffled to turn around. "R2-D2?"

Artoo rolled out from the other room and swiveled his head to squint at the protocol. He beeped, "What do you want, Idiot?"

"Will you assist me in this effort?"

Luke stood on his feet and watched Artoo roll over like the old droid was shaking his head in a grumble at having such a young droid order him around. Kess smiled at it all and hefted her seabag onto her back to carry it into the bedroom.

Luke opened the first crate and asked Nik off-handedly. "When are you going to ship Gina out?"

Nik sat down at the dining table and quieted.

Luke detected his mood shift and did a double-take.

"She's not coming."

Luke turned away from his unpacking and stepped carefully over to the dining table to sit down, but he didn't relax in the chair.

"When this is over," Nik fidgeted his hands together on the tabletop and kept his voice low, "I'm going home."

Luke tried to contain his disappointment and stopped himself from trying to argue Nik out of it. He nodded vaguely and met the man's eyes with respect. "I understand."

"I see the work your doing," Nik assured. "And it's a lot of work. And I want to help but," he shook his head, shifting his eyes to look out the giant city out the big window, and shook his head again. "I don't want to raise my son here. And Gina . . . she's not ready for this."

Luke absorbed it in silence.

"She needs me home. For her, it's still happening; I'm still gone. I need to go . . . play remote control cars with my little scrapper and . . . sit on the porch swing with my girl and . . . and just sit there. For hours. With nothing happening."

Luke grinned softly at the image of a simple life. He nodded again.

Nik combed his fingers through his messy brown hair and huffed hard, but he lifted his face. "But. That said, just between you and me." His hand dropped to the tabletop with a thud. "When you get this . . . Academy thing . . . up and running . . . assuming it isn't here," brown eyes sparked to meet Luke's with respect, "Ask me again."

Luke smiled, then he nodded with firm agreement.