The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few (or the one).Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Chapter 3. The needs of the manyMaster Vokara Che was a force to be reckoned with in the best of the days. Once you happened to have misfortune of becoming her patient, you wouldn't go away with some poor excuse of duty call. Everyone knew it, and Vokara herself took pride in being a renowned terror of a Healer.
With her reputation preceding her, Vokara faced much less of a resistance from her charges. The Jedi can recite every wise admonition of philosophical or practical sort that exists, but for the Force's sake could they learn to take care before trying to succumb to their hubris. That being said, there were good patients who knew to follow the rules, not so good but they could be tolerated, and then the worst kind ever. Those who would never stoop to ask for help, and when forced to be helped, they would try to pretend innocence and disappear the first chance they get.
Anakin Skywalker used to fickle between those options in accordance with current world situation, and Vokara stiffly respected his choice. He, in turn, seldom abused his privileges.
This time, however, he was getting late.
читать дальшеVokara knew she must have called him in weeks ago, probably taken him away from the funeral, propriety be damned. As a Healer she had her own boundaries, and the right thing to do was to help the man in need. But she told herself it would not be for long, and the Council needed him on display. It was a question of the greater good against one man's suffering. As a Jedi, she had no choice.
By any other name, it was still a cruel thing to do.
With that knowledge in mind, she also knew to watch herself for any overreaction. Anakin was a man grown, his achievements speaking as loudly as well-known satisfaction in serving beside him and under his command even. So it didn't matter how much she wanted, she couldn't wrap Anakin in a blanket, lock him in the safety room and throw away the key, when he refused to be cared for. That would be a disservice and a grave insult.
So she waited: whether he would come on his own or the Council would realise their miscalculation and send him in, or the mission will end and with Obi-Wan back they'd get a break.
Anakin has never come, and Obi-Wan has been out there for far too long now. In the night of their supposed reunion Vokara didn't shut her eyes. This long into the war she had seen enough of simple, mundane meetings that were taking place after things has gone down, and they tended to go awry even when someone's assumed demise was totally unintentional. There was nothing unintentional that time.
Surprisingly (and a tiniest bit alarmingly, she admitted), it was quiet. Either they were good or they were dead. Knowing Anakin and Obi-Wan both, she really couldn't guess better.
* * *
When morning came, she has been once again studying newest medical report on General Skywalker's account and comparing it to her notes. That was how they found her - red-eyed, undercaffeinated and seriously annoyed by all their drama.
To be honest, Ahsoka Tano didn't look much better, and for a moment Vokara considered to order her in too. Maybe if she asked Anakin to help, he would talk his Padawan into submission, for her own good. She decided to give it a try later, after she is done with the Master. And the Force help her, she will make Obi-Wan to talk his Padawan to comply if needed.
She could try to order them all in, but the experience taught her better. So, baby steps. She turned in her chair to Anakin and tried to look friendly and not disturbed at all.
"And so he yielded, brought down by the brute force of those who claimed to be friends," she said pretentiously, meaning if he has truly consented to come here.
She realised the joke to be really backhanded one only then. Anakin was, in fact, here because of his friends' misdeeds, and she was an active participant in the plot. That raised some ethical questions for her leading his case. She told herself that it was insignificant for he was about to work with other healers, those specialising in the mind-healing and psychotherapy, and she was to remain in charge, but that will not do. Vokara wronged him, and while she could have search for his progress, she had no right to be in a position of power.
She told so.
She could see his pain with her own eyes. Subdued as Anakin was, he still was reacting rather loudly, his expression like an open book and Force-presence is always intense. She was expecting a full-blown storm of emotions, an ugly response based on his sense of unfairness of everything that happened. That would be justified reaction, if unbecoming one.
Instead, it was Ahsoka Tano who flared in the Force like a dreadful inferno, all stone-faced and ready to attack. Vokara missed her movement by a heartbeat, but before she could grasp the point, Anakin was already there, holding the girl in tight embrace, shielding her safely. There was something akin to murmur in the air, but Vokara couldn't make a word from it. Then Obi-Wan reached her, moving her out of her chair and in the hall.
* * *
"I am sorry," he said once outside. "Are you okay?"
Vokara blinked. She needed a moment to collect herself. Absentmindedly she noted that there was quite the gathering, - Ahsoka's breakdown has evidently drawn attention. She motioned her fellow healers to go back to work.
"It would seem, while Anakin has a rather conspicuous injury, Ahsoka had been hurt to no lesser degree," Obi-Wan said with remorse. "I suppose it has something to do with all focus being on Anakin, whereas she had been made a target on par."
Vokara blinked again.
"If so," she asked, "you see it alright to leave them alone?"
Obi-Wan stared at her, then shook himself and tried to smooth his hair, obviously missed the fact there wasn't hair in first place. He seemed to be more upset about it than by the whole disaster they witnessed. It did lighten the mood, Vokara thought, still a little shaken.
"Ahsoka will never, ever hurt Anakin," he said at last. "Nor will he let her to hurt herself. Let them have a moment, I have no doubts they will call us in no time."
Vokara reluctantly nodded. Mostly she agreed to wait because a new thought occurred to her, a thought she didn't want but must deal with.
Ahsoka Tano was absolutely to go under treatment, and Vokara couldn't take her case for the same reason she couldn't work with Anakin.
They were the worst patients she has ever not had, she decided.
* * *
Mace Windu was utterly unimpressed with them. He was made to go to medical by Yoda sensing whatever, and while he didn't mind leaving the session at the stage it was, he was not having their oh-so-cleverly masqued suggestion to babysit Obi-Wan's ducklings.
But damn it, did Obi-Wan bribe him with promise to take on his homework for a week to come. You just couldn't renounce such temptation, the Dark Side was easier to ignore than that.
So he took his time to thoroughly smolder smirking bastard with his eyes, asked Vokara to go look for some caf for him, Chief Healer or not, and only then he stepped into the room the ducklings were hiding in.
They were on the floor which wasn't strange at this point. Skywalker has been seen trying to inhabit every other comfortable-looking floor in the temple in the past weeks, why wouldn't try in the medical too? Tano has curled up using Skywalker as a living shell, and seriously, what the hell, Mace wouldn't protest to be hugged like she was too. Not by Skywalker, though.
In the Force they were intertwined closely as well, Skywalker efficiently swatting prominences of her rage every time they were about to erupt. There were few but they were still a destructive force.
But there was not only rage, he noted. That was a powerful emotion, everything else easily disregarded. Mace was quite sure that average Jedi, who was not as used to work with the Dark as he was, wouldn't know what to seek here. He knew, and with Skywalker unspoken agreement he leaned forward and brushed her rage aside, until only the core was left exposed.
Tano wept, defenseless. She was angered, grieving, frightened, - pick any warning from Yoda's masterpiece of a horror-story of the Dark Side and it was there. Despite it all, she was in the Light, quite possibly thanks to Skywalker who firmly held on her love.
Mace gently soothed all ragged edges he could reach when only orbiting a nebulae of a mind. There were many, but they had been seen early and will be healed quickly.
Then, he turned to look at Skywalker.