Waves on the Sand

Chapter 6

Ahsoka was pleasantly surprised when she woke up in a soft bed. Her last memory was being led towards an alleyway, too out of it to do more than register the opening.

And the hands. They'd been a shocking contrast to Lux's hands. Lux's hands were reverential, careful and teasing. These hands had been forceful, harsh and uncaring, taking without giving.

When the she opened her eyes, she looked around briefly. She was in a small, closed room, without the clinical feel of a hospital or the forced homeliness of a sexual assault clinic. There was a single picture on the wall of a wave crashing over a rock, on which a lighthouse stood. Taking in her surroundings more slowly, she noticed how luxurious the duvet was, and how calm the room felt. The softness of the fabric and bed left her feeling like she was floating in space. It took her several seconds to realise that she was completely and utterly naked.

The Force told her other things. Lux was sitting outside the room, nervously, but also with a very familiar tinge of resignation and frustration. The emotion reminded her of Skyguy, after she'd improvised a solution. There were several people with more official presences, their minds weighed down by their jobs. There were also a couple of presences that didn't quite seem to make sense. They were nervous, worried and scared.

Glancing around, Ahsoka spotted a button, and poked it with the Force, enjoying the chance to be lazy. Lux hurried through the door almost immediately, holding a bag in one hand. With a grin, he pushed the door shut, and handed Ahsoka a set of garments she'd have sworn had 'fallen out of the window' of the senate tower.

Why she'd kept a set of Jedi robes was anyone's guess. She didn't know herself. They weren't soft, they were practically wookie-sized, but they were the most comforting garment she had. Somewhere in her hindbrain, it appeared, she associated 'safe, relaxed and happy' with Jedi robes. Even if Master Bantha-Poodoo-For-Brains wore them.

Hauling them on, along with a sports bra and a pair of swimming shorts, Ahsoka glanced at Lux.

"Who's outside?" She asked.

"Detectives Poole and Bordey are here to ask if you remember anything else about what you witnessed yesterday. They're also the officers investigating the goon who..."

"tried to... me." Ahsoka whispered. The sensations were mostly dulled by the drug she'd been dosed with. She still remembered the sense of utter helplessness as her attacker laid hands on her, and she realised she couldn't think clearly enough to resist. It took moments before tears filled her eyes. Once, she'd have refused to cry, and insisted on bottling up her emotions. She'd have meditated on them, and ultimately, the trauma would have faded. Now she wasn't really a Jedi, Ahsoka felt she was allowed to admit having emotions a lot more strongly. Looking down at the most important being in his life, Lux saw the signs of her repressed past again. The situations the Clone Wars had placed her in, had, on the surface, fallen away. He knew some of the things she'd been through. Being handcuffed, tortured and held hostage. Being enslaved. Dozens of narrow escapes from death. He suspected that she'd come very close to being raped on at least one occasion. He'd lost count of the little things that could leave her shaking. There were smells and sounds that would leave her pressing close to him, either protectively or for reassurance.

And now, she was in a position where someone had had to save her from it again.

Lying down next to her, he almost immediately had a sinuous warm body pressed against his. A pair of muscular arms wrapped around his shoulders. He just held her, gently, as she allowed everything to slip past her control, letting it out in the arms of the one person she felt could utterly trust.

It barely took a couple of minutes for her walls to slam back into place. With a few deep breaths, Ahsoka buried her emotions. Lux knew full well they were going to bubble back to the surface soon enough.

The detectives came into the room first.

"Jedi Tano, we're investigating a link between your case and the abduction yesterday." Detective Poole said without pre-amble. "Traces of the drug that was in your system when you were admitted to hospital were also found at the scene of the abduction."

Ahsoka blinked, before trilling softly in her throat.

"Can you remember everything that you ate or drank before you were drugged?"

"The only thing I had was a Jet Juice, detective." Ahsoka replied. "The grox-fondler who served it to me must have... I..." Lux allowed Ahsoka to resume her python impersonation, holding her gently.

"Is she OK?" Detective Bordey asked, looking down at the togruta.

"She's going to be, when she stops being more stubborn than a ronto, Detective." Lux said, earning a reproving squeeze from Ahsoka. "Easy, 'Soka." He whispered. "You're safe. I'm here."

After a couple of minutes of quiet whimpering, Ahsoka dragged herself back together.

"I... can't remember much after that." She admitted, her tone shifting a little, and her voice becoming stronger.

Lux winced. He knew that she was lying. That this was another memory that would torment her for years. And he accepted that. He would support her through it.

Then a pair of Rutian twi'leks stepped through the doors.

"Master Jedi?" They asked, looking at Ahsoka with raw hope shining in their eyes. "Can you help us find our daughter?"

"I... I'm not a Jedi anymore." Ahsoka admitted. "But I will help you."

Lux wrapped an arm around her shoulders as she looked up, hearing a different tone in her voice to the one he'd been hearing since she came back into his life. She sounded confident, assertive and controlled, like the Jedi Padawan he'd first fallen in love with.

"'Soka..." he warned, cautiously.

She responded with a highly mature sticking out of her tongue.

The twi'leks had already left the room, clutching each other in sudden hope. The detectives moved in, datapads in hand.

A few minutes of conversation established that Ahsoka's memory hadn't improved, that she remembered little about her attacker, and that she'd chosen a bar based on how rough it looked. The officers exchanged looks at that, before putting their datapads away.

"Thank you for your time, Jedi Tano." Detective Bordey said, before walking out of the hospital room, following her colleague.

With her shoulders resting against him, Lux could feel the sudden coil of excited energy rippling through Ahsoka. Her lekku were twitching slightly, in a side-to-side flick that reminded him of the tail of a predatory cat.

"Can I get out of here yet?" She asked him.

"I'll ask the doctors." Lux said. "The windows don't open."

Ahsoka grinned at him.

"No." He said, suddenly feeling that he was the adult in the room.

A sudden movement brought the Togruta around, and she went from lying next to him to pressed against him. A set of sharp, carnivorous teeth nibbled his earlobe, and a tongue flicked out under his ear. Rolling to face her, Lux put both arms around Ahsoka's body, and kissed her. Then he pulled back slightly.

"Not here, Ahsoka. Not in a hospital."

Ahsoka growled slightly, but Lux's expression told her not to push it. She snuggled closer, though, just taking pleasure in being close to him.

Which proved to be very fortunate about a minute later, when the door to Ahsoka's room opened.

"I thought Anakin was the only Jedi sleeping with a senator." A painfully familiar, Coruscanti accented voice teased.