Conversations
Jordana
groaned as the harsh sunlight hit her eyes. Her head throbbed and
spun as she sat up, and her stomach was doing back flips. She hadn't
felt this bad since her first hangover several years ago, when Tahira
first took her drinking.
"Fuck I hate hangovers." she
grumbled.
Suddenly she noticed that the room looked different.
Either someone had completely redecorated while she slept, and who
knows how long she'd been asleep, or she wasn't in her room
anymore. She looked over to see Anakin sleeping on his side next to
her.
"Anakin?" she whispered, shaking him. Finally, his eyes
barely opened.
"Yeah, what?" he said, still half asleep.
"What
am I doing in your bed?" she demanded.
"Why wouldn't you
be?" he replied, smiling and closing his eyes.
"Anakin, we
didn't…last night?" She began to panic. All memory from the
night before eluded her and her heart pounded in her ears as she
began to contemplate all the possible scenarios that could have
happened. While she wanted nothing more than to make love to him, she
didn't want her first time to be while one or both of them was in
some drunken haze.
He opened his eyes again and smiled.
"You
were…amazing." He said quietly.
"What!" she shrieked. He
laughed.
"Last night, you were incredible. You did things I
didn't know you knew how to do."
Her stomach began to churn
faster and faster, and she thought she could taste the bitter bile
rise in her throat.
"Oh…my…god." She whispered. He broke
out laughing, and she realized he was joking.
"Fuck you Anakin
Skywalker!" she screamed and tried to hit him. He grabbed her
wrist and held her down. "Anakin, no! I'm going to puke." she
moaned in protest.
"There's a disposal on the floor, on your
side of the bed."
She quickly leaned over and emptied the
contents of her stomach into it. She relaxed against the pillows,
sighing as she pushed her hands back through her hair.
"You
bastard!" she growled as she attempted to hit him again. But this
time he grabbed both her wrists and pinned her underneath him.
"Well,
you're feeling better." he said cheerily.
She gazed up at his
devilishly boyish grin and realized she couldn't stay mad at
him.
"Alright fine, I'm not mad at you. Just don't ever do
anything like that again or I swear I'll hit you so damn
hard."
"Your in no position to be making threats
Jordana."
"What?"
"Given your position, you're wide
open and vulnerable."
Her eyes widened in shock, "You wouldn't
dare!"
His hands snapped from her wrist to her sides where his
fingers assaulted the delicate, sensitive spot along her rib cage.
She squealed and squirmed until finally he stopped. Once she was
free, she scooted to the other side of the bed.
"So what
happened last night anyway?" she asked, still trying to catch her
breath.
"You passed out. I carried you back here, and you began
throwing up. Once you calmed down, I placed you in my bed so I could
keep an eye on you."
"Good thing I didn't drive home, huh?"
"Jedi don't let Jedi fly drunk." He said, smiling. "Try
not to get that drunk again, please. As much as I liked having you in
my bed, I don't like seeing you throw up all over the place." he
pleaded.
"I won't. I didn't realize how strong that stuff
was."
He got off the bed and started toward the bathroom, "I'm
going to get ready for work. Should I tell Dax you'll be there in a
few hours?"
"Yeah, I'll be ready by then."
About a half an hour after Anakin left for work, Jordana heard a faint vibration coming from her bag, the one that Tahira had given her. Reaching into one of the side pockets, she found a small comlink pager with a random number and two words: CALL TAHIRA.
Anakin
was lying underneath a badly damaged speeder, attempting to fix the
engine when Dax approached him.
"You got a minute?"
He
didn't slide out from under it, "Yeah, what is it?"
"It's
about Jordana."
"What about her?"
"How close are you
two?"
"I already told you, I've known her since I was ten.
She's my closest and most trusted friend. I trusted her enough to
invite her to my own wedding, and she even tried to talk to my
ex-wife after she left me."
Ex-wife. Those words left a sour
taste in his mouth and he was surprised at the ease at which they
flew from his lips. In the days that he'd been on Corellia, he
could count on one hand the number of times he'd thought about
Padme. Even her name was sounding less and less familiar. Perhaps
this was moving on, and he was ever so slowly beginning to forget the
beautiful politician he'd been so in love with.
"I'm just
saying, she's really something else." He paused, "Did you ever
think you might have feelings for her?"
"What?"
Him? With
Jordana? The thought had never crossed his mind, probably because
Padme had occupied his thoughts and dreams for the entire time he'd
known her. And yet even after Padme left him, and her name slowly
loosing its enchanting effect, he didn't know if he could ever fall
in love with someone else. He cared deeply for Jordana, but love her?
It was a concept he couldn't wrap his mind around entirely.
"I've
never really thought about her that way."
"Oh, well. I was
just wondering. You two looked like a couple last night."
The
thought of him with Jordana played through his mind again. It was a
strange, yet slightly pleasant thought. Before he could contemplate
the notion further, he quickly brushed the thought out of his
mind.
"Well, I'll let you get back to work." Dax said,
leaving Anakin to finish repairing the speeder.
Jordana
hesitantly dialed the number, not sure where she was calling, or if
Tahira would even answer. She was relieved, however, to hear her
former master's familiar voice.
"Master, where are
you?"
"Don't worry, I'm far from the Temple. I just
wanted to see how you're doing. Are you feeling ok? You sound like
shit."
"I'm hung over. Anakin and I are fine. He's at
work, and I'm leaving in a little bit to join him."
"Well
it didn't take you two long to get settled."
"We got
lucky. We found someone who's willing to help us. So when are you
leaving?"
"That's why I called you. There's been a
small change of plans."
"What do you mean?"
"I
don't know how I'm going to put this so I'm just going to come
out and say it. Jordana, Obi-Wan and I are together. He told me he
loved me, and we're going to leave the Order, together. But first
we have to wait until the war is over."
"That's a lie.
The war already is over. You're just trying to cover because you
know you won't be coming back!"
"No, it's not. At least
the Council doesn't think so, not until Count Dooku is either
captured or killed. Jordana what's gotten into you?"
Jealousy,
that's what'd gotten into her. Tahira had her man, but Jordana
wasn't sure if Anakin would ever be able to get over Padme. He'd
loved her for so long, that even if she didn't love him anymore, he
would never betray his 'love' for her. She saw green and red, and
another thought popped into her head.
"Does he know we're
alive?" she demanded.
"No! I'm telling him after we leave
the Order. What's going on? Why are you acting like this?"
Hearing
the hurt in her friend's voice ended her rage, but it still didn't
erase the hurt in her own heart.
"Master, understand this is
frustrating for me. You tell me you'll come back for us, and then
you tell me that you're staying with Obi-Wan until the war is
over."
"I know, it's frustrating for me too. It kills me
to keep telling Obi-Wan that you two are dead. He really is hurting,
he wishes he never would have agreed with the Council on your
execution."
"You think that's bad, try having to watch
him marry another woman."
"Jordana-"
"I'm sorry
for snapping at you." she said quickly.
"I understand. Look
I have to go now. I'll contact you again in the next few
weeks."
"Alright. May the Force be with you, Master."
"And
with you, Jordana. Good-bye."
"Bye."
She clutched the
comlink in her hand as a few hot, angry tears fell down her face. She
didn't want to be mad at Tahira, but she was. She knew Tahira
wasn't trying to hurt her, and yet she still felt betrayed. She
angrily threw the comlink back into the bag and went to get ready for
work.
