That won't happen to you

Chapter 99

Ahsoka was getting worse and worse.

The fever kept rising and soon she wasn't even talking anymore.

She did nothing, except to whimper occasionally when Luca lifted her torso to give her some soup.

Fortunately for the little family, Thomas returned the very next day with Osane.

The latter took care of Ahsoka and, to Luca's great relief, the Togruta girl responded to the treatment.

And very quickly, in fact.

In the evening she was already sitting upright, wrapped in a thick blanket and asked Luca if she had said anything embarrassing during her fever.

He told her about the strange names she had screamed and that she had begged to be found. Attentively Ahsoka listened.

It was quite exciting what she was saying when her consciousness was in a far away place.

When he went upstairs to his bed late in the evening, she took her note and pen out of the drawer.

Carefully she held up the note so that the light from the fire shone through it, in all the places where there was no ink.

She could feel the paper on her nose, so close she had to hold it to her face to distinguish the barely darker outline of the ink against the pale gray of her vision.

But she smiled as she read the names on it, so unfamiliar and so familiar.

Now she had some more to add.

Rex and SkyGuy she carefully wrote along with them on the list, while feeling with her fingers where the paper ended so she wouldn't write across the table.

Then she felt her way over to the cabinet and put both back.

She hadn't told Luca about the list.

He was so afraid that she would leave, she had known that for so long.

And she didn't want to leave. She loved it here. It was all so warm and honest.

But those names on the list.

They meant so much to her.

They were able to loosen this knot inside her that was threatening to destroy her.

She couldn't let go of what it was there that was calling her.

But on the other hand she wanted this security, this safety. Not to give up the peace and happiness of the farm.

It was just too comforting to wake up in the morning and know that she would do it again the next day.

To know that she would live to see the next day.

She didn't know where this fear of not doing it came from.

But here she was safe from it.

She closed the drawer.

Someday she would follow those names and voices. She knew she would. She wouldn't be able to resist the urge forever.

But not yet.

She wanted a little more time in this innocent place.

In this place where time seemed to stand still and you didn't have to worry about tomorrow.

For now... For now she was happy here.

And she appreciated that.

Her time would come. Someday.

She just wanted a little more time here.