\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So wrapped in his musings that he’d let situational awareness slide, Tag caught Les unawares. Realizing that he’d been caught off his guard, he flew to his feet with surprising quickness, pulling his saber to him through the Force so that it reached his hand before his feet hit the floor, but he stopped short of snapping it on, realizing at the same time just who it was that had invaded his room. All at once he locked the things he’d been turning over in his mind into a safe place; and as they faded from the fore of his thoughts and he looked his new mentor in the eye, all that they had discussed in her office that day as well as his honest and bare plea for help flooded his mind. He felt color rise to his cheeks, and he had to catch himself from casting his gaze elsewhere.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhat the heck is going on?\u201d Janet asked groggily as she came up behind the group gathering in the doorway to Les’ room. \u201cIs there another attack?\u201d she questioned, coming more awake.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cOf a sort,\u201d Tag said, keeping her gaze steadily upon her apprentice.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI’m fine,\u201d Les said defensively. \u201cI’m just…I don’t know.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cPlaying with fire,\u201d Tag suggested. \u201cYou heard me. Up and at em \u2013 now.\u201d Turning on her heel, she left the room, leaving Janet and Mark standing there half wondering what was going on, half scared of what this sudden intrusion could mean.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Certainly it had something to do with the Force, which Mark understood but little, putting distance between him and his son. That had been Jinx’s department \u2013 and look where that had brought him. Would have been better leaving well enough alone, he determined now, too late. When Les looked to his father, he misinterpreted the frustration he saw there as directed at him; while in actuality, he was cursing the late Jedi master \u2013 and himself, for making such a terrible error of judgment. In his mother’s eyes was sorrow, while her lips were pressed together in anger; anger, and disappointment, that he would dare endanger this chance he had been given, at such a high price, to turn things right.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Naturally he ought be mistrusted, after all the things he’d done; yet something about that picture, the two of them standing there looking at him like that, and Tag’s sudden intrusion, set badly with him, and he had to willfully block the anger from showing on his face. Wordlessly and betraying no emotion, he gathered his things and obediently followed Tag out the door and into the early morning.<\/p>\n
\u201c:)
\nSkyy<\/p>\n