A Forgotten but Familiar Presence

[Oriadin]

A presence, once very familiar to these walls entered the bar and grill for what was the first time in months. The air was think, smokey and had that oh so distinct smell that you could only find in bars.

The cloaked man entered the bar and grill and stood in the doorway taking care to look over the faces of everyone there. Some familiar, some new. Oriadin had left the order as a council member for reasons unknown to all but had returned. He had much to catch up on, not least finding his padawan Kale.

He had heard rumblings that his Padawan had been getting himself into some mischief and Oriadin was keen to put a quick halt to that. He had to feel responsible though, since he left the order with no explination of where he was going, or when he might return.

A message had been passed on to Kale to meet in the Bar and Grill, so hopefully he would be there soon. After this meeting, the Jedi Knight thought it best to meet with the council and discuss his whereabouts for the last few months. Until then, Oriadin found a quiet table in the corner where is was dark and waited for his Padawan.

[Kale]

The message light on the computer terminal had been blinking for a good ten minutes before Kale had returned to his room that afternoon. Fearing it had something to do with his recent hijinks, he touched the "display" button as if it were a dead kouhoun.

You have one message from: Jedi Knight Oriadin

He slapped the button again and read over the message. It was short, succinct, and largely unenlightening, but it said he was back. Kale read it twice more before he finally convinced himself it was for real.

Kale ended up at the entrance to the Bar and Grill five minutes later, a little warm from having rushed over from the Temple complex. He looked up and down the dining establishment and finally spotted Oriadin in the far corner. Drumming up his nerve, Kale hiked up his sagging robe and strode purposefully to the corner booth.

His expression was practically unreadable when he flopped down on the bench opposite his master. He preferred to keep it that way until Oriadin established the tenor of the discussion. Some of the old walls they'd broken down at the beginning of their master-padawan relationship had sprung back up again. It'd take some doing to win Kale's trust back.

[Helenias Evenstar]

"If there is one thing I hate right now" I muttered to myself, looking with some distaste at the Bar and Grill's entrance "Is steps. They obviously didnt design this place with women with my problem in mind"

There really wasn't anything else for it, other than to manage, as I always did. I was good at that - managing myself in such a way I kept getting into trouble. I did get to the door, leaned back to try to relieve the backache, then ignored the guards as I walked in.

Smoke. Yuck. Never changed.

I sat down at the edge of the bar, slightly out of breath. While I was in fact a very, very fit woman, the small problem I was having with my health was adversly affecting me.

5 months pregnant would do that to a gal. Least I wasn't so fat that I was waddling.

[Oriadin]

Oriadin felt Kale enter the room before he saw him. His senses had become more attuned since his unexplained dissaperence several months ago. He gave little away in his expressions and body language as he'd become far more closed about what he was thinking and feeling. There was a change in the Jedi Knight, that much was sure.

Kale sat opposite the Knight and never uttered a word. Obviously his master being away had had a negative effect on him, and much talk was going to be needed to resolve the situation.

--Kale. Thankyou for taking the time to come and see me. Hopefully the order isnt keeping you too busy?

Firstly let me appologise for simply leaving you in the way that I did. Its a complicated story and one I fear I have not yet come completely to terms with yet. I am here now though, and as your master, its my responsability to find out how you've been and to try and re-establish our relationship.--

Oriadins look was stone faced. Never once giving away what he was thinking or feeling. Then he stopped for a moment and a warm smile swept across his face.

--Plus i've missed you. Any chance you could forgive me?--

With that another familiar feeling came across the Jedi Knight. Although it seemed strange. He glanced across the room and saw to his delight his previous master. Helenias Q'Dunn. She was pregnant now though by the looks of things, and heavily pregnant at that. Had Oriadin really been away that long?

[Helenias Evenstar]

"Glass of wine please"

The bar tender knew better than to question my drink choice. Of course, others in the bar would frown on the drinking of alcohol when pregnant, they could get dren and die for what I cared of their opinion. The bar tender was also nice a quick too. Barely enough time for me to look around, to see who was in the bar.

Oriadin?!?

I hadn't seen my former Padawan in some months, well and truly before I became pregnant. The wine glass was placed in front of me as I noted he picked up on my presence.

"Take it over to the table over there - I'm going to say hello" I said. I stood carefully up again, a broad smile on my face as I walked over.

"Got a spare seat for a poor pregnant lady?"

[Kale]

Kale slumped in his seat and listened, one hand cupped on the tabletop with the other resting idly on top of it.

"Does it matter? I'm stuck here, one way or the other. I ain't got anywhere else to go but the streets. Even my old apartment's closed to me now. I know just enough about the Force to be scared by it. An' I don't know if I can trust any of the knights after... Anyway... it's not like I ain't used to bein' left on my own. So what does it mat--"

He stopped short as Helenias approached and sat up against the cushioned bench. For a moment, the padawan gripped the edge of the table to haul himself to his feet and leave, but he hesitated. Best to wait for a cue from his master.

[Helenias Evenstar]

Oops. Looks like I was intruding. I noted the tension from the Padawan and the signs of a hasty exit.

"Excuse me" I said, taking the edge fo the bench next to the Padawan (and, I might add, neatly blocking a hasty exit) "Baby on board. Excuse me"

Did anyone ever mention pregnant women can get away with the most astounding behaviour too?

"Good thing you don't trust Jedi Knights" I said, getting comfortable. "Nasty bunch they are. Oh, hi there by the way, I'm Senator Helenias Evenstar, Jedi Knight. So I guess there's two good reasons not to trust me, right? I mean, how do you know a Senator is lying? Her lips move!"

I winked at Oriadin.

"So, whom are you?"

[Kale]

Kale was astounded, all right. He shifted in against the wall more out of necessity than of choice and gave Helenias a look that would've corroded a bulkhead.

"Mind tellin' me why that's any of your business?" he mumbled testily.

[Sejah Haversh]

After a few weeks of depending on it, Sejah had grown used to the unweildly gait of his walking frame, and clomped on into the Bar and Grill, happy to be out of his apartment, and away from Dasquain's constant nagging to clean the place up. He still couldn't operate his legs under his own power, let alone feel them, so the mechanically assisting frame was his only way of getting around, though it made him feel like Frankenstein.

Even though the last few weeks had made him more withdrawn and bitter than he used to be, Sejah still hated to eat alone if he didn't have to, so he scanned the B&G for familiar faces, and spotted Kale before Oriadin and Helenias next to him. Checking his lightsaber at the door, Sejah lumbered over to their table and waved hello from a short distance away.

"Hello, Ori, Kale, Senator Evenstar. Mind if I join you all?" he asked, clueless about the conversation that had been transpiring.

[Oriadin]

Almost beofre Oriadin had the chance to say hello to Helenias Kale seemed bothered that he had to go. Obviously the two of them needed time to talk things over and with her around, it would be difficult. It was good to see her now though and he didnt want to ask her to leave as it was bad timing.

Oriadin tried to send over a look to Kale to be patient. They would find time to talk alone a little later on.

--Kale. This is Helenias, my old Master and...--

He was stopped mid sentance by another old friend.

--Sejah! What the hell happend to you!?--

He made a motion to shake the mongooses hand but kinda waved his hands around not knowing what to do.

[Sejah Haversh]

"Got in a fight. Lost," Sejah replied, not wanting to expound on it much more.

Awkwardly, he maneuvered the frame into a sitting position, and scooted in at the table. "Sorry if I'm intruding, you three go ahead and talk, I need to adust this frame thing, here."

[Kale]

Kale clenched his jaw fiercely as Sejah took his seat next to Oriadin. He'd been waiting for word from his master for a long time. Well, what was a few more hours? They'd already been interrupted once, why not twice? Frell, invite the whole bar over!

Suffice it to say, Oriadin's silent entreaty for patience had not quite done the trick.

Cautiously, Kale glowered over in Helenias's direction. Oriadin's old master? he thought. She don't look any older than he is...

With a sigh of resignation, he said, "I'm Kale. Oriadin's padawan."

Oriadin had already mentioned his name, but Kale waited to see if it registered as anything meaningful in the Senator's mind. If it did, chances were it wouldn't be favorably represented. Kale wasn't sure whether word of his latest misadventure had spread.

[Oriadin]

OOC: Not sure if its my turn to post, I assumed we were awaiting Helen. If she can't find time to post, we will have to work around her.

IC:

Oriadin shuffled over in his seat to make sure his good friend Sejah had plenty of room. He then looked over to Kale as he introduced himself to his old master. There was a slight tone Oriadin sensed in the young boys voice that the Jedi Knight picked up on, although he'd lost touch with his padawan and found it hard to put a finger on what the actual problem was. Perhaps that would be easier to fine out later on once they had a chance to talk alone.

--I lost track of my padawan after.... my dissaperence.--

He chose not to go into any more detail than that for the time being.

--But I assure you the boy has a great deal of potential, assuming he does not go astray!--

Oriadin was talking to Helenias, but gave Kale an almost knowing look, although he didnt know what he'd been up to, he sensed he would find something out he probably wouldnt approce of.

[Helenias Evenstar]

"Oh, we all go astray now and then" I said brightly. "Look at me. You would hardly know I put a bomb under the Temple years ago, would you? Or been an Imperial Guard? Ha, could you imagine me trying to get back into my old armour now? That would be priceless! But to be truthful, I would just take getting back into my old dresses. Having a baby really destroys your waistline. Least I get a cast iron excuse to be out fo the Senate. I suppose that's one upside to getting fat."

"But really" I said, getting back to the point, "Going astray is little matter. As long as you realise you have and fix it. "

[Kale]

This was... odd. Kale was teetering on the edge of disbelief--edge, nothin', he was over the cliff.

"You put a bomb under the... What?"

Vaguely, Kale remembered something about an explosion in the upper Coruscant area a couple years ago, but he was living in the Southern Underground at the time, and news of the upscale district didn't travel fast in the slums.

He could tell she was trying to make a point, and that, plus Oriadin's glib comment, just annoyed him.

"I find that hard to believe," he said acridly. "What, did you just pay off the insurance? And what does that have to do with anything? I came here 'cause I haven't seen my master in three frickin' months, and whether or not I have all that potential he's talkin' about, I ain't got a clue what to do with it."

Kale glanced back at Oriadin. It had come out a little more sharply than he'd intended.