Luke had also been watching the news, and he hurried through from his office, his lightsaber in his hand, rather than on his belt, to collect Vestara.
"Ben's been thrown into an ambo. They're on their way to Central Plaza, despite his request for them to head for the temple instead. Despite what he said on the news, he's hurt quite seriously. Some of the shrapnel has embedded itself in a lung, and one piece shows as being lodged between two vertebrae, so they need to get it out as soon as they possibly can. He called me just after he called you. An assassin droid took a shot at him, and missed, before he batted a second one straight back at." Luke told her, as they hurried through to the speeder garage.
Unfortunately, there was only the StealthX trainer he'd taken to the Rogue reunion do just days earlier, as his speeder had been sold while they were gone, in an authorized charity auction to raise money for anti-slavery groups. Ben's was either in pieces or parked somewhere, leaving them little option but to use the trainer to get to the hospital.
Vestara dropped into the forward cockpit, designed for the instructee to use during familiarisation training, surprised by the simplicity, compared to ship or the other small craft she'd flown with the sith. Without thinking, she fastened the simple five point harness, before pulling on a helmet Luke had handed her on their way through the house.
She very much knew something of her father-in-law-to-be's reputation as a pilot. She'd seen the Yavin recording on a documentary she'd found on the holonet: Greatest Combat Flights, usually from gun cameras and camera mounts, and the flight down the trench had been No.2, after Wedge Antilles' death star run over endor. Forty years of semi-constant practice had honed his natural skills to a fine degree she could never imagine being possible, even while riding in his front seat, cutting through the traffic like a hawkbat, rarely staying in lane more than a few seconds at a time, and despite the fighter's size, never coming close to a collision.
"Do you always drive like this?" She asked him, after he'd taken a one hundred degree turn on one wingtip, barely using two lengths of the craft to make the manoeuvre.
"Occasionally." He replied. "Usually there's something behind me, but this is an emergency." He told her, dropping into what looked like a series of sanitation pipes, barely a foot wider than the starfighter.
To her surprise, they avoided a sewer grate by inches, and rolled out into a intersection, with the hospital just across the maze of speeders and air-vans.
"Master Skywalker..." she said, just before a red lamp flashed on her HUD, and Luke KI opened the taps on the main engines, rather than the comparatively sedate repulsorlift, sending them screaming into the busy traffic. Suddenly, he broke high, then rolled right and down, jinking between an pair of freight carriers, before looping over them.
"Crap," he said, almost to himself, before dropping like a stone, then flying up the face of a spacescraper, just as one of the external fittings suddenly exploded, and she realised why he'd been flying so dangerously.
"Tailchaser." He confirmed, after a moment. "Some sort of imp ASM."
"ASM?" She asked, not recognising the term.
"Anti-Starfighter Missile. It would have gone straight through this thing's shields.
Bringing the snubfighter around, he made straight for a hospital docking bay, sideslipping and evading constantly to make getting a second shot impossible. Despite several lights flashing on then off repeatedly on a cockpit repeater display, causing an even nore violent manoeuvre, the fighter landed safely, with armed guards running into the docking bay and deploying a anti-missle laser to screen the entrance.
"The building caters for heads of state and senators when they are on Coruscant." Luke explained at the girl's surprised look. "They need the security."
"And my... countrymen?" She replied, using the obscure term intentionally.
"There's a secure sub-basement well away from anything critical. Five Jedi knights and a squad of special forces troopers are on duty twenty-four seven. The room is directly above a ysalamir colony, which gives a two-hundred meter exclusion zone. They won't escape." He tried not to notice the former sith girl's shudder of relief, although she suddenly pressed something into his hand.
"Vestara, why have you handed me a pair of stun-cuffs?" He asked, confused, especially when she presented her wrists for cuffing.
"I'm not a republic citizen. I'm in a building holding a number of beings I might consider allies. I need to be secured."
"Hmmmm." The Jedi master responded, as he clapped the restraints around her wrists. "I think you just like being in them, personally." Had he not been a Jedi, he wouldn't have felt the slight pulse of embarrassment at his statement. He just sighed. There was no harm in it, even if she did enjoy it.
Ben's room was guarded by a fully robed Jedi knight, along with three hospital guards.
"Jaden." Luke greeted the man. "This is Vestara. She put the cuffs on her own wrists."
"I guess I can let Ben's girlfriend and father through," the veteran knight responded. "I know exactly how much fun you two have been having," he continued. "And there will be no funny business while I talk shop with master Skywalker."
"Yes, Jedi Korr." Vestara responded, feeling the cuffs suddenly get an awful lot more confining. She stepped into the room, leaving Luke and Jaden to talk.
"How are you feeling?" Luke asked after a moment.
"Better than I did." Jaden replied. "I'm not sure essence transfer is a power any Jedi should benefit from, from all Tionne's stories of the emperor, but it has worked, for now."
"Do you want some sessions with Clighal?"
"It'd be a good thing." Jaden responded after a moment. "I could do with someone to talk things through with."
"I'll have a chat with her, then" Luke replied, before the conversation turned to less savage times.
-000-
Stepping into her boyfriend's hospital room was like stepping onto a different planet for Vestara. The only sound was his steady, smooth and relaxed breathing, although she could see monitors pulsing with light elsewhere, suggesting heartbeat monitoring.
On impluse, she kissed Ben full on the lips, slightly shaken by the lack of a response or his arms closing around her shoulders, keeping her safe from her demons. She still woke up from dreaming she was back in the cell she'd been held in when she and Ben were arrested, feeling totally powerless with her arms and legs fettered, trapping her in a tiny area of floor. He knew, and when she woke up sobbing, she'd feel his arms loop around her shoulders, and a gentle kiss would blow away the demons.
Suddenly, his arms did close around her shoulders, before their eyes met, hazel brown staring into sky blue, and all was right in the world.
A/N. Thank you BenVestaraAwesome and Imperator277 for reviewing this fic. Despite my post times, I am a British author, although I appreciate the sentiment of wishing me a good thanksgiving. Please give me reviews. I like hearing people's thoughts on any of my works.
Firecadet