I Want to Be Your Knight - ch 23

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I came to consciousness, helped to awareness by the steady metronome of hospital monitors. A short beep which would occur every few seconds. Cracking my eyes, I found myself in a dim room with a dimpled, cheap ceiling.

I blinked a few times, and tried to raise my head to look around. Just the effort of the movement wore me out, so I allowed my body to collapse back against the bed again. I closed my eyes and was lost to sleep.

Awareness thundered back to me; brought with a steady pressure against the side of my cheek. After a moment, the pressure disappeared.

Then it returned.

Then, sounds intruded; Seha's voice. "Hey! Hey, Ben. You awake yet?"

I allowed my eyes to open, and looked around--a frown forming on my face. "No," I croaked out.

She giggled. "You sound funny."

Groaning, I struggled to sit up. The world wavered around me, and I must have looked like I was going to fall over, because Seha reached out and grabbed my shoulder, stabilizing me. I blinked a few times, and slowly looked around. We were in a standard medical suite for human and near humans. Three beds took up the area. One, which I was guessing was Seha's was empty, while Jysella still slept on the far one. The usual range of medical equipment was set into the walls, and a medic droid stood watching from one corner. The odd thing was that there was no holonet terminal in the room, and no windows.

Finally, I focused on Seha again. "Where exactly are we?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I... I'm not certain. The doctors won't tell me anything, and there's guards standing in the hallway."

Ben frowned for a moment, looking over at Jysella again. "And those guards, what type of uniforms are they wearing?"

"Black and green body armor, full-face helmets. It looks like a cross between the Guard's armor and CORSEC uniforms."

I sighed, and looked over at Jys, watching her face as the monitors around her slowly beeped. I thought back in my mind, certain that I had felt her kiss me just as the blast hit us. I lifted my hand and touched the corner of my mouth; imaginary warmth greeted my fingers.

Still frowning, I turned back to Seha, about to ask her if she had tried to get a call out, when the door to the hallway opened. An elderly male Drall walked through, his snout-like mouth opened wide. "Ahh... young Jedi Skywalker. It is good to see that you've woken up. I'm the physician in charge of you three, and my name is Peela Gramt."

I looked to Seha, who shook her head. Focusing on the Drall again, I said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

The Drall laughed, short bursts of amusement. "Oh, of course not. Of course not. How silly of me to not remember that you're Ira Errissta."

The Drall climbed up a stool, and leaned over me, pulling out a small light from his pocket. He shone it first into one eye, and then the next, murmuring to himself the entire time. Then he pulled something else out of that pocket, and ran it over me, I could feel prickles on my skin from whatever energy was scanning me. When he pulled a third scanner from that pocket, I began to wonder just how much he could store in those things. Finally, he had finished his examination and stepped off a stool. He pulled a datapad from his endless pocket and began writing notes onto its surface.

"So, Doctor," I began. "When do we get out of here?"

Peela paused in his note taking, and looked at me. I could only guess that the expression he turned towards me was confusion. Or it could have been wry amusement. Or even shocked outrage. To a human, all those expressions look pretty much the same on a Drall.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Sky-...err... Errissta, but you and your two... wives, will have to stay here for a few more days for observation. And then I believe CORSEC wished to talk to you; something about an explosion taking out a rather large portion of the Sal-Solo Industrial Park."

I felt myself frowning. "Well if it was named after Sal-Solo, then it was probably due to being blown up."

The Drall chuckled, and his mouth opened wide in imitation of a smile. "Be that as it may, they still want to have a chat with you. Once the three of you are up and strong enough of course. Until then, you'll just have to be here and suffer through three square meals a day, and a semi-private room." Then his head bobbed a few times, and he turned away and walked out the door. I could just make out the armor of the guards Seha had been telling me about, while the door was open. I frowned at them, and stretched out with the Force.

Imagine my surprise when I felt nothing on the far side of the door. My head snapped towards Seha who was nodding her head in understanding.

"Are they Vong?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so. I think they got ysalamiri out there."

I rubbed at my temple. A headache was wanting to form; a side-effect of stress, having to think too much, and someone trying to blow me up. Besides, something didn't make sense to me. "Why out there rather than in here with us?"

Seha shrugged her shoulders. "Who knows what they're thinking. Best guess would be they underestimated the effective distances of the ysalamiri bubble."

"Seems rather... unprofessional of them."

Seha snorted. "Well, not everyone is the epitome of professional behavior that you are."

I sighed and leaned back onto my bed, a smirk coming to my lips. "Well, I have had years upon years of experience."

She leaned closer, her hand running through my hair, as a smile played on her lips. "Really?"

I blinked, not certain how to respond. All I knew was that my throat was dry, my palms were suddenly sweaty and I was having an incredibly hard time formulating a simple sentence.

She leaned closer still. "Years and years of experience?"

I struggled to swallow, wishing all the world for a glass of water. Her breath was warm and moist against my cheek, and an odd light shone in her eyes. Her lips hovered centimeters from mine.

"Would you care to share that experience with me?"

Before I could even begin to think about responding, Jysella's voice cut in. Cold, harsh, pained. "Am I interrupting anything?"

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