Scene 21 – The Saddest Are These

There wasn't a place for Vacy to sit in the medical bay, but it wouldn't have mattered much if there was. She paced back and forth at Corso's side, watching for any sign of a change in his condition.

They had brought him back to the Defender and hooked him up to a kolto drip even before unlatching and removing his armor. Vacy carefully cleaned out each of his wounds and then covered each one with one of the bandages she'd gotten from Darmas Pollaran. After that, there was nothing to do but wait.

Vacy had never been much good at waiting.

She did take a few minutes to head to Arri's quarters and pick out a cropped grey tunic and a pair of black pants. The pants, designed to stretch tight for someone Arri's size, were fairly loose on Vacy, so she used Flashy's belt to help hold them up. Boots would be impossible, so she put the dancer's sandals back on, and then headed back to the medical bay to resume pacing.

Arri showed up a few minutes later with two steaming cups of sweet-spicy shura, handing one to the other woman. "So," she began carefully, "does he have any idea what you really think of him?"

And this is why it's not a good idea to have close friends who are Jedi, Vacy grumbled to herself. Still, Arri didn't sound exactly certain, so maybe she could play it off. She shrugged. "Never really talked about it, but he's not dumb. I guess he knows that I have a great deal of respect for him. That I trust him completely." Vacy blew across the top of her cup of shura, then took a sip. "It's nice, knowing someone's got my back again. Like Bryson did."

"Seriously? Like Bryson?" Arri's mouth twisted into a wry smile. "You're honestly going to say that you think of Corso as a brother?" She set her cup down and walked over close to him, leaning in to connect with his Force signature and check how he was doing.

Vacy thought Arri might be leaning a little closer than was needed, though. "Yeah, well, not an older brother, of course. Though sometimes he tries to act like one. Why, what does it matter?"

Arri reached down, running her fingers gently through Corso's dredlocks. "He just seems like a really great guy. Handsome, strong, principled… I don't know if I've ever met someone so – so bright. It's like there's next to no darkness in him at all." She looked up again at Vacy, her gaze uncomfortably perceptive. "And, you know, if you were interested, I wouldn't try anything. But if you're not…"

Somehow Vacy couldn't make her smile as casual as she had intended. "I didn't know Jedi were allowed to have family," she said.

"The Council frowns on it, but sometimes… things happen, you know?" Arri's eyes were twinkling.

Vacy looked back at Corso again. "Yeah, well… if you can make him happy, that's great," she said to her friend, her voice sounding unnaturally tight even to herself. "You guys would… you'd probably be great together. And he… he deserves to be with someone as great as you." Idiot. Stop babbling. Just shut up. She sighed. "Just don't break his heart, okay?" She turned and headed out of the room.

"Don't think I'm the one who has to worry about that," Arri murmured to herself. She leaned out the door and called out, "Where are you going?"

Her hand on the ship's exit door, Vacy looked back over her shoulder. "Out," she said.