Tomorrow Can Wait (JA) : New post 23rd Feb!

Up!

 

This is so sad but good. I think I'm going to need kleanxes for the funeral.

 

"Hey, Mus!" An irritated voice called from behind the bar. "We've run out of Banajj crisps again, and the Cutlass Ale is virtually finished."

Silence.

"Mus? Where are you?"

Silence.

"Mus! I can't do everything by myself!"
"Want a hand?" a familiar Corellian drawl answered the first voice, causing Rela to poke her head up above the bar.

"Hey, Jem!" Rela frowned, looking her friend up and down, noting the loose fitting clothing with an inward sigh. "What are you doing here?"
"Huh?"
"You're not supposed to be drinking, remember?" The redhead pushed the thick braid of curly red hair back off her shoulder. "Or has An-Paj given you the all-clear?"
"Fat chance of that happening." Jemmy snorted, seating herself before Rela on top of the nearest barstool and pretending to examine the prices chalked on the wall. "Every time I see An-Paj all he does is give me bad news. No, I am staying as far away from that place as possible from now on."
"Bad news?" Rela stood on her tiptoes, craning her head to see if she could spot Mus anywhere.

Jemmiah began to say something but then change her tack completely, causing Rela to note it away for later on. The Corellian appeared somewhat out of sorts, her mind not quite there entirely, and Rela wondered what was troubling her friend.

"Oh?just about watching my toxicity results. It's getting me down a bit." Jemmiah shrugged, trying to cover as best she could. "I felt like I had to get out, even if I can't drink anything."
"Yeah, I know that feeling." Rela reached her hand out and gripped Jemmy's arm. "Where's Obi? Why's he not here or has Qui-Gon kept him behind for not doing his lessons on time?"

Jemmy almost smiled at that, and for a brief moment her sorrows were pushed behind her. Right now all she wanted to do was forget. Alcohol would blot out the pain, but not forever. Being with her friend and talking to her about normal everyday things warmed her troubled spirit like an open fire on a cold, dark evening.

"He's partly why I had to get out." Jemmiah admitted, playing with a bar coaster between thumb and forefinger.
"You haven't had a row, have you?" Rela groaned, dark eyes growing more and more troubled by the second. "I thought after what happened on Urior you were both set for life! You were happy!"
"It's nothing like that." Jemmiah made an engrossing study of the bar surface. "It's just that he always tries to?"
"To what?" Rela's head twisted into a seemingly impossible position as she struggled to glimpse Mus, but of the tall Wookie there was no sight.
"Pry." Jemmy finished. "Oh, can I have a flameout, please?"
"No."
"Purple Twilight?"
"No."

Jemmiah pulled a face. "Muja fruit cocktail?" she hazarded.

"Third time lucky." Rela raised her hand as Jemmy searched for her purse. "Put your credits away, this one's on me. The only thing I demand is that you tell me what you mean." She looked about her in disgust. "How can you lose a blasted Wookie?"


Rela poured her friend the fruit drink and set it down on the bar surface, watching as Jemmiah made no attempt to take so much as a mouthful, merely stirring in the fruit bits with the drinks umbrella as she tried to think what to say - and how to say it.

"Ben's always trying to ask me stuff. Stuff I don't want to talk about." Jemmy shrugged uncomfortably under Rela's close scrutiny. "He's never content to just let things lie as they are. I just want to get on with my life but Ben is forever trying to chip away at my past. He wants to help, I know that, but he can't. Why doesn't he just learn to leave well alone?"

"Because he loves you," Rela answered steadily, "and there might come a time one day when you DO want to talk to him about things."
"Then why can't I be the one to let him know when it is?" Jemmiah became exasperated. "He doesn't even know I'm here. The moment he does he will come charging through the streets of Coruscant just to keep tabs on me. "
"Now you are getting paranoid." Rela chuckled as she filled up a tankard with some kind of pink foamy stuff that Jemmiah supposed woul

 

Thanks!

UP!

 

Sometimes I think your serious writing is so much more powerful than your humourous writing, and these last posts are proving me right. Wow!

Jemmy didn't get any of that pink stuff in her drink, did she? Things must really be bad if she won't even open up to Rela.

 

wow.

 

I have to agree with everyone else. Wow is right!

That last post has me stunned that she won't even open up to Rela. Jemmy needs to open up to someone before she self destructs. So stay away from that pink foamy stuff Jemmiah!!!!

 

Just bringing this up!

 

Four hours. Rela had spent four whole hours talking to Jemmy about a whole load of nothing. When they had simply run out of things to say Jemmy had made her farewells and left the cantina.

//Something's wrong.// Rela opined silently. //You don't have to be a contestant on 'Brain of Coruscant' to get that! She spends hours hanging around in a cantina even though she can't drink. Come to think of it, so do I - but I have an excuse in that I work here! Then she spends all her time idly chatting about anything that comes into her mind: swoop racing?galactic history?the latest senatorial scandal?the weather - come on! There's something she's trying not to mention. She tried to engineer the entire conversation so she could pick the topics.

Maybe she has had a fight with Qui-Gon. I mean if she had would she honestly tell me?

Actually, I think she would. Maybe Obi has upset her. It does seem the likeliest thing if past history is anything to judge by. Yeah, that'll be it. And she does have a point: monstermouth Kenobi does have a habit of putting his foot in it every now and again. It would be just like him to go on and on at her, trying to ask her personal stuff. Jemmy's quite right: she isn't obliged to tell him a thing. I've got stuff in my own past I don't exactly want to advertise or have lengthy conversations about so why should she?

Next time I see him I'll maybe give him a bit of helpful advice and tell him to back off a little.//

The doors opened to admit two people: one an old man with a shock of white hair and a distinct limp to his walk and the other a much younger figure altogether, and one very familiar to Rela Quinn.

"Talk of the devil?" Muttered Rela, dark eyes not so much as wavering from the padawan's face as he approached the bar, looking anxiously from left to right. "Jemmy was right after all. He can't keep away from her!"

Obi-Wan walked over to the same stool that Jemmiah had been sitting on only some ten minutes earlier and seated himself upon it, leaning his arms across the bar surface. The expression on his face seemed to denote anxiety, and Rela got the impression she wasn't going to care for the news he was about to impart one little bit.

"Have you seen Jemmiah at all?" he fixed her with a firm stare.
"What makes you think I'd have seen her?" Rela asked in an off hand manner. "Can I get you a drink?"
"Muja fruit cocktail." Obi-Wan mumbled, looking distinctly unhappy with his lot in life. Rela wasn't a stranger to miserable faces inside the cantina. Many people came in to drown their sorrows in the rim of an ale glass, but the fact that both Jemmiah and Obi-Wan had chosen to do the same made Rela more than suspicious.

"Muja, huh? Must be the day for it." Rela went to the mini refrigeration unit that stood behind the bar and opened the door, searching for the various ingredients that went into the drink. "You know, I think we might just be fresh out of Muja's. Sure you don't want something stronger? I'm paying."

"I thought you were against drinking." Obi-Wan frowned.
"I'm against MYSELF drinking. I'm not against YOU drinking. Just coz I can't doesn't mean I don't take pleasure from seeing people leaving with sclerotic livers. On top of which I work behind a bar. I'm meant to encourage people to drink."
"Not when you offer to pay." Obi-Wan raised a countering eyebrow.
"Have a flameout." Rela offered. "Then tell me all your troubles."
"Who says I have troubles?" Obi-Wan asked guardedly.
"You wouldn't be here at this time of day if you didn't." Rela answered a touch smugly. "Come on, what is it that's troubling you?"

Obi-Wan fingered his thin, ropy padawan braid for a moment.

"I've spent most of the afternoon looking for Jemmiah. Trawled round the whole temple - at least that's how it feels to my legs." He sighed, feeling his aching muscles protesting at the thought. Fit as he was the jedi temple was an extremely big place. "Then I went to the entrance only to be told that she'd left and caught an air cab into the city. Well, the only reason she would do that was

 

Poor Jemmy, poor Obi. But most of all, poor Rela! Why didn't Jemmiah SAY anything? Something is seriously wrong with this situation, but because you're the one writing it, you already knew that.

 

"...but because you're the one writing it, you already knew that."

LOL, Ishtar! Stick around, it will get worse!

 

Well, duh, we're counting on it!

 

I love it when Rela gives Obi advice. Too bad he never follows it.

But I can't help but feel that someone needs to give Jemmy a good shake. Just something that will make her snap and release those pent up emotions of hers!

But Nooooooooooooooo! It's going to get worse!

 

I love it when Rela gives advice too. Will Jem be glad to see Obi if he does catch up with her?

 

Don't forget about this one Jem!

 

Jemmiah, where art thou and why aren't you writing this?

 

Ish, you sucked me in! I thought that Jem had posted!

Well maybe she will now that she sees this up!

 

Yes, we can hope. Ahem ahem.

 

Woohoo! Normally I'm just a lurker, although I did join Jemmy's group on yahoo groups, but I wanted to add my voice to the rest when saying that I hope we get to see something soon on this story! Great stuff!

JMA

 

Something had told Obi-Wan that Jemmiah had returned to the temple again, although it was more to do with logic than any subtle prompting of the force. She'd left only as a means of escape for a short amount of time and having satisfied the urge to sit quietly with Rela and talk about normal things, everyday occurrences that had little or nothing to do with funerals or death, she had slipped back to her home unnoticed the same way as she had left it that morning.

He hoped that her little jaunt away from the jedi would have helped her clear her head in preparation for the funeral that would come all too quickly. Rela was right of course; it would not be easy. Funerals never were. Burning the physical body was never a pleasant business and even the constant recollecting that this was indeed an empty shell, a husk and nothing more, would cause considerable upset to the mourners who had taken Evla to their hearts. It wasn't Obi-Wan's first funeral and sadly he doubted very much that it would be the last either.

It signified an end. With the cremation, the rendering of the flesh by red flame and smoking ash, there was simply nothing left to mourn. There was no choice but to move on.

He doubted very much that Jemmiah was ready for it. Her constant brushing aside of the past told him that this brutal reminder of mortality was not what she needed to see, infact he was surprised that Qui-Gon had been so insistent. Not for the first time Obi-Wan found himself disagreeing with his master even though he knew the sentiments were well meant.

//She knows that Evla is gone, but how can she appreciate the impact it will have on her life right now? It won't hit her until later. If Qui-Gon were to die I should feel utterly bereft?and maybe angry too at being left behind. She must wonder why fate has been so unkind to her.//

It made him all the more determined to look after her: if she would allow it. And that was a mighty big if because Jemmiah could be fiercely independent if she wanted. Finding a balance was going to be difficult in this situation given Rela's warning to stand back slightly yet be supportive. How did he do that? Stand by and offer to be a wooden if obliging shoulder to cry on? It was so difficult not to get involved!

He'd have to be careful of what he said, that much was certain. Not just because he knew that on rare occasions he lacked tact and subtlety but because she would be feeling terribly raw and upset right now. What should he say? He had no more of an idea than he had last night! She had done all the chattering on the way back to the apartment and in a way he was relieved, yet at the same time listening to her carry on as if nothing at all had happened had been extremely painful to watch.

He toyed with the idea of getting her flowers but then again he knew that was hardly much of a recompense for losing her 'mother'. In the end he decided she would have to make do with his own presence and hoped somehow that would be enough.

After his master's tale of ringing the doorbell for what seemed like eternity he half expected to be subject to the same treatment and was therefor surprised that the door to Jemmiah's apartment slide back almost instantly the moment he first depressed the chime. The face that met him looked small and pinched, almost waif like and once again he was given a stark reminder of exactly how the Kaligari affair had altered her?

"I thought you'd be here." She mumbled without much enthusiasm. "I was expecting you. Come on in."
"Thanks." Obi-Wan replied, forcing a thin smile, subconsciously smoothing back his short trimmed padawan cut with a single hand.

He cautiously stepped into the living area and looked about him, not sure what he was expecting to see. Perhaps some small amount of debris or something that might give away the mayhem and misery of the night before, but there was nothing except for a few empty bottles of wine and an empty box of chocolates lying on the nearby table. Obi-Wan saw them and immediately felt himself straighten with concern.

"Have you be

 

Great to see this up again Jem!

Great story!

 

Thanks! I hope I'll be able to get back into the swing of things with this story very soon