Lost and Longing.

She looked up at him, and had no idea how helpless she looked at that very moment to him, but she welcomed his embrace as he switched from a one armed hug of companionship, to a full embrace of comfort. "I will tell you, that's the one area you Jedi have me beat all hollow. The seeing paths to the future." "I was told I don't have the Inner Eye for seeing such things," Harry replied in a tone that was dry and sarcastic "Of course then that same woman proceeded to walk into a wall. So … her opinion on 'the Sight' was questionable at best."

Aayla laughed at the idea of a seer walking into a wall, and only then finally realized where the handkerchiefs were coming from, as she saw him conjure one from thin air with the briefest of disturbances from the Force. This time though, he handed her the handkerchief, which allowed her to keep some of her shattered dignity.

"You know just how to switch dampers and make someone feel better, don't you?" she said quietly as she blew her nose. Harry grinned impishly. "Improper use of humor and sarcasm. It's one of my many character flaws."

"Ahsoka said something about your character flaws. Though, when she talked about them, I distinctly remember a Zeltron's chest being involved," Aayla said wryly.

Harry snorted lightly, "I refuse to comment upon that as I may end up incriminating myself. And I hardly see appreciation for beauty as a flaw."

She rolled her eyes and muttered, "Pervert," but that didn't stop her from sinking further into his embrace. There was just something comforting about it. After a prolonged silence that lasted a few minutes, he asked, "Feeling better?"

Aayla found herself nodding and managing a smile, indeed feeling better than she had been feeling before her emotional explosion.

"Oh good. Otherwise I was going to have to break out my store of chocolate," Harry said, his voice tinged with relief.

"Your chocolate stores?" Aayla echoed.

Harry nodded, "At times, it's more effective than a calming charm, especially on those of the feminine persuasion."

At Aayla's raised eyebrow he continued, "Oh yes, I have all different kinds in case of emergencies. Chocolate bars for immediate fixes. I have chocolate chips for cookies and baking. There's chocolate ice cream, when cooling down is important. Chocolate cake mix for parties, chocolate powder for hot chocolate when I need to warm up, and chocolate syrup for…" Harry broke off from his ramble.

Aayla raised her brow as she stared at him, wondering why he trailed off, "Chocolate syrup for what?"

Harry grinned impishly "Maybe someday I'll show you, Blue."

Aayla blinked several times, and then narrowed her eyes slightly. "I'm not going to be safe one minute around you, am I?" Harry just laughed in response before pulling away to stand up, offering her a hand to do the same. "C'mon, I'm going to check on our guests, we've still got a long ways to go before we get to Kashyyyk."

Aayla took Harry's hand, letting him pull her to a standing position. She was grateful that he didn't pry further into her thoughts or attempt to make her talk. He just let her follow him into the main cargo hold. He could obviously tell she was tired and he nudged her toward one of the unused cots that seemed to appear. Aayla was emotionally and physically tired enough that she didn't complain.

She spent the next few hours and watched as Harry spoke to a few of the recently freed slaves in the hold that had woken up. This time he did it without the bubble of silence around them. Though she only made it those few minutes before she fell into an exhausted sleep on a cot Harry had provided for her as well.

Most of the slaves were exhausted from their ordeals, and seemed to be more than content to spend time catching up on sleep, but others stayed awake sitting on their beds and talking, always quietly and nervously. Aayla knew that even though they were sleeping on cots, they were probably the first fresh beds they'd had in awhile, possibly the first good sleep as well.

Aayla watched when she woke this time not just focused or turning over Harry's 'magic' in her mind. She spent quite a bit of time watching him with a more impartial eye, and realized that Harry seemed to be very experienced or had been trained with people in these sort of situations. He moved slowly. Spoke softly and calmly. Didn't raise ever his voice or show anger. He sat on the floor near the cots, giving each person he was talking to her own space. It also gave them a level of perceived power just by sitting with their heads above his. He nodded encouragingly when they spoke. He didn't initiate contact with any of them even when they started crying. He let them comfort one another freely. But didn't flinch when they initiated timid hugs. That alone made him more accessible than Jedi she knew might handle it.

Over the next few days of hyperspace travel, she would become more and more familiar with the sight of how Harry interacted with the slaves. Ahsoka spent most of that time in the cockpit only occasionally coming back to talk to Harry. She wondered when Harry slept because it seemed he was up before her and went to bed after her. She had almost no time to talk to him about his 'magic' because he was almost always taking time to comfort the recently freed slaves. Some of the slaves would come to him individually to talk, others were only brave enough to come in groups.

Aayla finally gave them more space by heading into the cockpit where Ahsoka had gone some time earlier. Ahsoka had spent the last few days quiet and off by herself. Aayla had only seen her occasionally, but the girl seemed to be on an opposite sleep schedule from Aayla on those days so their interactions were quiet. Aayla respected the girl's need for introspection and appreciated that neither Ahsoka nor Harry pressed for details about the vision they were now aware that she had.

Still on the last day of their hyperspace journey, Aayla went looking for the former padawan, intending to talk to her at least a little bit more than the few passing conversations they had the previous days. Harry hadn't really spoken to Ahsoka more than a handful of times very much over the past couple of days either, but mostly because he seemed to be spending the majority of his time with the freed slaves. In fact Aayla realized that she never saw him anywhere but with the slaves during that time.

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