The first thing out of his mouth coming out of the anesthetics was, “It looks worse than it is, really.”

“Right. And next you’ll tell me to not worry about it. Trust me, I know precisely how bad it is.” Sache opened one eye to glance at him critically before shutting it again. “First they don’t tell me that you’ve been gutted until a good half-hour after you’ve been brought in when I was right downstairs—Force, stabbed practically on the news and I just know it has to be all over the HoloNet by now—”

“Sache.”

Her words were not loud and still had their usual levelness, though they ran much quicker then usual. “And they get some kid up here who doesn’t know what he’s doing because they think I wouldn’t be able to handle it—Force, stitches are completely— ahh, that I’d, what, get emotional and not be able to work properly or something—I mean, how many times have I patched you up in the past, I know that I—”

“Sache, calm down.” It was almost certainly the anesthetics, or even the blood loss, but Zaine was much more tranquil and low-energy lying on the medical bed than he was normally. Words that were as even as hers, and yet he could easily tell the difference between the two tones. “You know it missed the worse of me anyway,” he managed to get out before his breath caught slightly and he shut his eyes. Any organ work that had been necessary was finished, but it was still painful. “It’s hardly critical. We’ve had it worse.”

“Oh, har har,” she grumbled. There was no actual irritation in her words, only the remnants of fear. She felt herself relax slightly, and she didn’t concentrate on her hands shaking. “That makes it okay, then. Pacer Zaine, you’re s-supposed to learn from past events. We both should have expected something like this would happen.” She ignored her voice wavering and continued to focus her healing. After a long silence, she said, “They almost didn’t let m-me in. Had personnel already on it. Was so…” Her voice was slightly more tense, and Zaine looked up at her through half-lidded eyes before shaking his head slowly.

“I'm fine, now," he said firmly. "Really, I’m—well, don’t worry.” At her patented Not Amused look, he smiled at her easily. “I’m rather offended, actually, that you think some hired thug could take me out that easily. I’m a little more hardy than that, thanks.”

She looked down at him, then brushed a strand of hair out of his face before focusing more on her work. Almost finished, now, and she yawned into an elbow. “I don’t want you to try to make our position more secure if it means you’re going to get hurt for it. No, I’m serious, Zaine,” she said firmly when he shook his head again.

But his voice was just as serious as hers, though still slightly muddled from his recent unconsciousness. “It’ll always be better to deal with politics here with a few bursts of attempted murder than to have to leave because of the Sith.”

Sache sighed. “There is that.” Grimacing slightly, she dabbed two fingers of her gloved hand into a nearby splatter of blood and gently wiped three tools that lay untouched on the tray beside her. Then she spoke clearly to the droid, inactivated in the corner of the room. “Em-see-dee four, clean station.”

The droid whirred to life. “Yes, Ms. Tulio.” Tiny claws snapped up loose tools and inside the computer’s databank, Sache knew, it was doing simple recordings of the date and time Sache Tulio, a rather high-ranking doctor (and climbing the ranks easily still), had used them. Better safe than sorry. It would be a little strange if a doctor had just healed her husband, hopeful senator, without using a single medical tool.

“You’ll be okay,” she told Zaine quietly. “Right as anything by tomorrow, though more weak than someone who was trampled by a bantha—you lost a lot of blood. You’ll have to wear bandages and, in the view of the general public, take it easy for a good while after. You’re recovering.” And in a way he would be, as even force healings take time to fully repair.

“I think I can handle that.”

His tone was light, and Sache smiled despite herself. “Don’t get carried away.”

“When have I ever?” When Sache gave him an incredulous look, he raised his eyebrows with a smile on his face. “At least promise me that when I get out of here, you’ll wheel me out to meet the press.”

She would have insisted on it anyway. When Sache had said he would be weaker than a person who had been trampled by a bantha, she’d meant it.

“That I can do.”


[OOC: I am so amused right now. :B]

Sache was trying to wind her way through the streets of Nar Shaddaa as quickly as possible, following Jaane’s directions, which, although were devoid of people, also took a long time to get through. As she raced through the streets, trying desperately to at least make it to the docks, she tried to formulate a plan in her head. She could try to figure out where Zaine was from the docks, and hopefully, she could also find Namie or…

Sache almost groaned out loud. Scorpyn! She had almost forgotten that he was still on-planet and she could try to find him for help as well. If she could find the Republic forces, there was always a chance she could find him also.

This thought was interrupted as a deafening noise that shook her back into reality. A speeder roared up behind her on the fairly narrow street, and Sache launched herself out of the way as the landspeeder just barely missed her, rocketing through where she had stood only a second ago. She was just barely able to keep on her feet, and instinctively she looked behind her. No one chasing the speeder. Her hand drifted to the hilt of her saber as she looked towards it uncertainly.

Sache could sense the growing agitation, anger, absolute hate in the woman. And she did not move to get by, but still she remained steadily silent, her guard up. Matching the same emotions of the other man. Though, from the man, there was also worry. Unease. But predominantly, there was hate.

Abruptly Sache’s head ached. Not particularly surprising, considering the situation, and she shook it off the best she could. She was still trying to desperately think of a way to salvage this circumstances that wouldn’t end in both of them dead, but as she had no idea what was going on, that was remarkably difficult. Maybe she couldn’t accomplish anything at all that she needed to be done in this situation. She wasn’t in a position to. It used to be so easy to get out of rough patches, back in the old days on Dantooine.

She tried to shake off the old memory, and her headache intensified greatly. This wasn’t helping the situation at hand, and she—

Sache was barely able to jerk out of the way from her spot on the floor as a man in heavy armor crashed down next to her. "What was-" Sache stopped talking immediately, firstly because she couldn't be heard over the noise in the cramped transport, and secondly, because whatever had very nearly hit them was continuing to shoot.

Sache was just able to prevent a yelp of surprise as a beam of light came crashing down only approximately a hundred meters away from them, though it was close enough to send the transport rocking dangerously through the shockwaves. Republic shots? Sache wondered desperately. It had to be. Couldn't be anyone else.

A man was by the pilot instantly, who was trying use the comm equipment. "-jammed," Sache was able to make out from her position near the hatchway. Everyone else was scrambling to their feet. "Can't get through-"

Sache worked for a long time in relative silence, by one soldier one second and gone the next to tend to another. No matter how efficiently she worked, there always seemed like there was an ever-multiplying amount of wounded that she just couldn’t keep up with. Still, she worked hard and fast, and none died while she worked on them—however, she couldn’t keep up with everything. Death was growing steadily more common around her, and from the tiny scraps of conversation that reached her ears, she built together the assumption that however the Republic was fighting back the Mandalorians, they were putting up a great fight—possibly winning the battle.

After resetting a very nearly critical neck wound and dislocated shoulder, Sache sat back for a second, pressing a stray wisp of hair out of her sweaty face and grabbing the bottle of water next to her. She wasn’t sure how long she was going to be able to keep this pace up, as the Force was slowly becoming harder to grasp as she became more tired. But it was a dangerous time to become useless, as she was fairly certain the only protection she had relied on one Mandalorian woman’s word.

Stretching her sore neck, she glanced around. It had been a while since she had last seen Cosa, though that wasn't exactly surprising- doubtlessly, she was very involved in the war effort...

Sache was jogging slowly down a street, retracing her steps back. She’d stared up at the burning, ruined estate of Vogga the Hutt and only been able to stifle a groan of complete, unhappy incredulity. Not only was there no trace of Zaine or Namie, but there was no evidence of any ruined ships at all—Vogga’s fuel fleet, or their transport. It didn’t take much time for Sache to guess what had happened— no doubt Vogga had moved his fleet elsewhere, but she doubted he could have moved so quickly off-world. He had to be close.

But where was close? And where had Zaine and Namie gone off to? She hadn't been able to contact either of them on her commlink, and it had been a lot easier to follow Namie's directions to get to the hanger then to follow them back, where she could at least be in a familiar area. In fact, she was fairly sure that she didn't know where she was at all- but there were a lot of Republic soldiers about, and more then a few had stopped her. However, as she was still luckily wearing civilian clothing, she had avoided any awkward questions and through being polite had been able to keep herself out of their way

"Hey. You."

She looked up at the sky and her heart plummeted in her chest. Namie was right, many of the ships above them were beginning to come down. As she didn't know much about ships, she couldn't tell which were Mandalorian and which were of the Republic, but war hadn't stopped for them in the planet's sudden, unexpected opening- they still shot at each other as they descended towards the surface.

But however she felt about the matter, the plan still stood. This was no time to worry or panic. They needed to move, now.

"Let's go," she muttered through suddenly frozen lips. It was dead silent now around them. Moving quicker then before, she lightly jostled Zaine's elbow in front of her to quicken his and Namie's pace, trotting at his side now with a hand over her lightsaber and both eyes on the sky.

Meanwhile, Sache pushed the buttons into her commlink hurriedly as she and Zaine walked back to the flat. She successfully punched the right numbers and listened for the familiar hum of the call transfer, looking back up the sky, where she could see beyond the sheild was streaked with tiny lights.

C'mon, Namie. Please pick up.

Scorpyn was packing, and Zaine had left the flat quickly after he put the enormous sum of credits back into the suitcase. Sache almost didn’t realize that he had already gone back to finish the transaction with Vogga, and bolted out the door a few minutes later—it was by pure chance that she was able to find him again in the gritty streets of Nar Shaddaa, walking quickly with the high-class suitcase in his hand.

She fell into place next to him, matching his pace and regarding him warily when he looked over at her. “I think I’ll come with you this time,” she said dryly. “You can never have too many eyes out when it comes to dealing with the Hutts.”

[OOC: Delivering two sketches, which I promised that I would finish EVENTUALLY and finally did of Dressedup!Sache and... well, I kinda cheated because I didn't draw Dressedup!Zaine, I drew FakingBeingAJedi!Zaine. Which was just as fun. :D]