He needed an excuse to stretch his legs and decided to check on the others. His first thought was of Dorme and he headed down the hall to her room, passing Nawe who was still dozing, that boy could sleep through anything!
He came to her door and lightly knocked before entering. She was startled by his entrance, but quickly hid her fear from her face, even though he could sense she was still very shaken by the experience and he subtly sent waves of reassurance to her through the force and her body became less tense as he moved to her bed. He looked down to see her hands heavily bandaged, while the burns to her face seemed almost healed thanks to the immediate application of bacta.
"How are you feeling?" he asked gently as he indicated he wanted to sit. She nodded and used her right hand to show him the chair and then looked down at the bandage.
"I'll be OK thanks to Typho. Is he-?" she began, close to tears.
Kenobi chuckled and smiled warmly at her. "He's going to be just fine. It was quite a tackle he had on you. I think he missed his calling as a Togruta wrestler!"
Dorme chuckled a little, but tears of pain and guilt soon replaced her amused expression. Kenobi reached out and hugged her close. Over the years he had grown quite attached to Padme and her decoys and protected them as closely as he did the senator.
"Everything is OK, Dorme, I promise you," he gently rocked her as the pent up stress of the incident came flooding out of her. She could still see her burning hands and Typho's smoldering body pressed so close over her and her horror at the broken ship above them that she was sure would fall on them at any moment. Then there was Padme cradling her and comforting her. Wasn't that Dorme's job, to comfort and protect? How she had failed in her duty.
Sensing her feelings, Kenobi held her still more tightly and spoke gently into her ear.
"I'm so proud of you," he began, "how you conducted yourself after the explosion. I knew I had nothing to worry about with you, that you would make it through this. Padme is privileged, we are all privileged to be working with you. Well done, old girl!"
She chuckled a little through her tears. Trust Latterie to make her feel better and make her laugh with his odd little colloquialisms. She sniffed and sat up with a whispered "thank you".
"Oh dear," she said then, looking at his jacket where she had been crying into him. She began to wipe him off with her hand.
"Well, don't do that!" he exclaimed playfully, "you'll rub it in more, here use a tissue," and he grabbed some tissues from a box on her night stand to clean it up himself, only to have the tissues begin to disintegrate and get rubbed into the fabric. This had Dorme laughing and he threw up his arms in mock exasperation only to begin laughing himself. He handed her the shredded tissue.
"Here, dispose of this will you?" he asked and the waved her hands while trying to control her hysterics and Kenobi looked around for a trash bin.
Just then Medic Kravis entered and to add the absurdity of the situation for Dorme's amusement, Kenobi suddenly hid the tissue from the medic's view as though it was some illicit substance.
"What's going on in here?" she asked suspicious of the scene.
"Oh, nothing, we were just cleaning," replied Kenobi with a sly look to Dorme who had her giggles under control.
"Well, I came to check your IV and tell you, Captain, that you are now cleared to leave." She came over and handed him a datapad and then began to remove his IV. "just place your mark on the screen, please."
"Oh, good, hold this please," he said, retrieving the tissue from its hiding place and trying to hand it to Kravis. She just indicated the trash and he grudgingly threw it in. He placed his thumb print on the pad and rose to leave but then he felt Dorme's bandaged hands reach for him.
"Could you stay, just for a little while longer?" she asked. He turned back to Kravis with a questioning look.
"It' fine with me, in fact if I knew you'd stay for the Lady Dorme I'd have brought you in here sooner!" and she turned to leave, taking the IV with her.
Kenobi sat back with Dorme and held her hands gently, and for a while they were just quiet, Dorme needing the reassurance his physical touch brought to her. Eventually they started talking, just small talk, both happy to be in each other's company.
Cpl Nacto showed up a couple of hours later asking for Latterie and even before he entered the room Kenobi knew something was wrong. Dorme was much settled and extremely glad to see Sabe who had accompanied Nacto to the infirmary. Leaving the ladies to chatter away, Nacto and Kenobi headed for the corridor.
"So, what's bothering you Cpl?" asked Kenobi once they were outside.