It was safe to say that the trip to the Jedi Academy on Alema's trail had not gone as planned.

Alema wasn't there, for one thing. Instead what the trio found was that the Academy was under siege by the GAG, on Jacen's orders. With everyone but the students and Masters Kam and Tionne Solusar at Mara's funeral, Jacen had taken the opportunity to hold the Academy hostage by placing it under the command of a commander named Serpa, who had slightly more than one screw loose. They could have left, continued the hunt for Alema, but that was not happening under these circumstances. Zekk was their secret weapon, still in the ship hidden in the treetops, but Jag and Jaina had handed over their weapons and communications devices in order to stay and play dorm parents to a lot of scared young Jedi.

They'd been at this for a few days now, and had settled into a sort of routine. Jaina's included a lot of caf in the mornings, which was why Jag found her in the mess. He was carrying one tray with two plates on it, and he gave the GAG guard a nod before sitting across from Jaina. The nod was a signal, saying that Jag knew he was being watched and that this was only a friendly chat, nothing to see here, move along.

"I'm not hungry," Jaina said as he placed one of the plates in front of her.

"Regardless, I know better than to assume you've been eating, and we both need to keep our strength up," Jag replied, sliding over things like napkins and a spoon. It was the only utensil they were able to use, since all of the forks and knives had been removed as potential weapons.

Jaina glanced at the spoon, then back up at the guard. He was momentarily looking elsewhere, so she surreptitiously slipped the spoon up her sleeve. It'd make eating more difficult, but if they weren't going to allow weapons, then she was just going to have to make one. Besides, Jag was right about the forgetting to eat thing.

Jag pretended he hadn't seen anything. "How were the kids today?"

"Remind me why you got the teenagers while I got the little ones?"

"That bad."

"You know I wake up an hour earlier than everyone else to try and drag twenty five-year-olds out of bed?" she asked. "And that's probably not enough time. Don't look so amused."

"I'm treating this completely seriously." Which would appear to be true, unless you really knew his facial expressions.

"Anyway, I've been wondering if there's a way to maybe get the kids training without weapons," Jaina went on, picking up a roll to pick apart and eat with her hands. "There's too much worry and too much energy that they can't get out. I think it's partly responsible for why I have to want to tear my hair out in the mornings."

"I'd actually been speaking to Tionne about that very thing. Since everyone on both sides is behaving, maybe classes could start up again," he said casually.

She knew that look. He already had some sort of plan he was trying to put into motion, and really, she should have seen this coming. His skills and the way his brain worked were some of her favorite things about him. "Oh good," Jaina said. "Something to keep them entertained, and I'll have something to do ever since they took away Angry Birds."

He shook his head. "You have picked up some strange hobbies."

He meant it as a light joke, she knew. He was even almost smiling. She couldn't match it, though. Between grieving and bracing herself for what was coming up and worrying and the crushing guilt, she just wasn't feeling much in the smiling mood these days. "You can blame Eric for that one."

It looked like he wanted to ask something, but stopped himself first. Jaina was definitely grateful for that. For as bad as this situation was, she could admit that she liked Jag a thousand times better when he wasn't trying to compete with another guy. Jealousy didn't suit him; he was fine being himself.

What he said instead was, "You need to relax a little."

Jaina raised an eyebrow. "You're telling me to relax? In fifteen years I've never even seen you slouch."

Jag actually sat up straighter at that somehow. "You're visibly tense, and a visibly tense Jedi with your reputation is going to keep the guards' attention on you," he told her, briefly glancing at her arm to remind her that if she was sneaking silverware to turn into weapons she was definitely not someone who wanted attention on her.

She had to really try and relax a little, sne she wasn't entirely successful. But the effort, made entirely to try and get away with things more easily, was a start. "Going all voice of reason on me?"

"When am I not?" he deadpanned.


[I make my own fun. NFB, NFI, OOC okay.]