It was night time by now, and the girls were in bed. Felicity was sleeping, but Ocean could not settle. She was still upset over all the things Elissa had done, and enraged at the setup attempt.
Suddenly, she sat up in bed, startled at a strange moaning sound that seemed to be right outside the window. It stopped with the gust of wind.
Hearing nothing but the wind for another minute, she lay back down.
After a while it happened again. A big gust of howling wind, and an additional moaning sound.
"This time, Ocean got up, turned on the light, and threw up the shade to look out the window.
There was no activity as far as she could see, other than the snow storm, but the moaning continued, and this time it did not let up when the wind did.
The elf shuddered and mumbled something under her breath, and this time, looked down.
What she saw was a raised bit of snow, which looked like maybe the wind blew it into a little pile right against the outer wall.
But something else caught her eye. Something that looked like the tip of a green take. She wasn't certain if she actually saw anything for sure, but for a split second there appeared to be a small movement, not caused by the wind. It appeared as if there was something live that huddled by the wall and probably had a muscle spasm due to the cold.
That was enough to send the elf into action. Quickly but quietly she hurried for the door and hit the light as she left the room.
She hurried down the hall and to the entrance, opened the big closet, put on a warm coat, shoes and gloves.
"And where you going at this time of night, Ocean Elf?" K2SO had seen her from his vantage point near the meeting room, and he had managed to sneak up quietly, taking advantage of the closet door noise and Ocean's fumbling around, looking for her coat and gloves.
Ocean startled, but did not release the doorknob. "No time to explain. I saw and heard someone out there."
"No one would be out in this weather unless they were making trouble." said K2SO, who still was not sure Ocean wasn't trying to run away again.
"Or missing, or looking for someone who is." said Ocean, taking a flashlight from a shelf where the gloves and mitts were.
"Well then, how about I go with you, so you don't end up missing yourself?"
"Sure." said Ocean, and headed out.
So droid and elf set off, flashlight trained to the wall and down.
The wind was brutally cold and it made Ocean catch her breath and protest the coldness.
Then the moaning sound was heard again. The wind died down immediately, but the moan continued after, sounding very much like a human cry, and very close.
"It's just up ahead," Ocean said.
"I see." K2SO said rather excitedly, and he quickly overtook Ocean with his lengthening stride.
The thing let out a small shriek and struggled and trembled as the droid picked it up. In doing so, it revealed its face which had been concealed in its hands for warmth.
"Elissa!" Ocean gasped in horror, "What in the world were you doing out in this?" She exclaimed, catching up to them.
"Oh no." Elissa moaned.
"Oh, Elissa." Ocean gasped as she reached out to take her from K2. "I'll run her back into the compound. That way she'll get at least a little body heat on the way in."
"Thank you ocean, running is not my strong suit anyway." K2 answered.
"What's going on?" Luke was awakened by now, and sitting in the visiting area.
"We found Elissa, frozen out there!" Ocean responded urgently as she walked in, coat, shoes and all. As she carried Elissa to the couch, she left a trail of snow and water behind.
"Holy star dust!" Luke exclaimed.
Ocean gently lay Elissa down, removed her own coat, and spread it over her.
Luke ran to get a regular but warm blanket, and a bacta wrap.
K2SO entered.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Elissa sobbed and shivered uncontrollably.
"Shh, don't talk, Elissa, just lie quietly while we help you get warmed up." Ocean responded compassionately.
Ben came out next, He peered into the visiting room and stood looking on with a smile as he watched Ocean gently remove Elissa's cold, wet mitts, toque, scarf, shoes and socks.
"We'll get you warmed up very soon now, the blankets are on the way." Ocean reassured her.
Sure enough, Luke returned with the blankets almost right away.
Elissa shivered even more violently when they took Ocean's coat from over her, then worked together to gently remove her own coat.
"I know it's cold, Elissa," said Luke, "but in just a moment we'll get you into something warmer."
Together, he and Ben took Elissa and wrapped her up, and lay her back on the couch.
"What's going on?" Phantom came in next, having awakened to the sound of voices at a very odd hour.
"Elissa has been found." Ocean replied, coming back after putting her coat and shoes away.
"Phantom, could you make her a hot drink, - " Ben began to ask.
"No, it's all right, I don't - " Elissa began to protest, but Ocean piped up next
"Tea, hot chocolate, or hot lemonade, something without caffeine. And make me a hot chocolate as well" she requested
"Me too please." said Luke. "Mint flavor if there's still some left."
"Consider it done." said the Phantom, smiling brightly. "Elissa, hot chocolate or something tea or fruity?"
"Doesn't matter." the little elf replied wanly.
He wasted no time going to the kitchen and preparing the drinks for the Jedi and the two elves.
"This will rehydrate and help you warm up and relax, Elissa." Ocean explained as she knelt before the couch.
"But why are you doing this? I don't deserve it after all I've done."
"Shh, never mind that. Just relax." said Ocean.
"All part of being an elf - on the light side." Luke responded.
Elissa winced.
"Luke..." said Ben.
Ocean turned to Luke and mouthed, "Shut up."
He grinned.
Phantom found one box with packets of powdered hot cocoa in it, and one box that was unopened. The last two packets in the first box happened to be a mint hot chocolate, and a rich and creamy one. Perfect for Luke and Elissa. He made those first, and took them out to luke and Elissa. He even hunted around in the cupboards and found a bendy straw for Elissa's drink.
Ocean gently propped Elissa up just enough to get the straw into her mouth. "Have some." she said.
Elissa took a couple of small sips, and looked relieved.
"That's it." Ocean encouraged.
Luke sighed in satisfaction, enjoying his own drink.
Phantom soon returned with Ocean's drink, and set it on the coffee table.
"Thanks." she said, and continued helping Elissa.
"You should drink yours before it gets cold." Elissa said weakly.
"That'll take a while, and I don't like mine too hot anyway." said Ocean.
"I don't want to keep you from enjoying yours. You didn't have to come out and find me." said Elissa.
"I could take over for Ocean if that'll make you feel better," Phantom suggested.
"All right then," Ocean agreed. She moved off and Phantom took her place to give Elissa the rest of her drink.
Ocean took a seat at the end of the couch and began to drink her hot chocolate. But soon, she grimaced and stood up.
"Is something wrong, Ocean?" Ben asked.
"There might be. I'll be right back." and she left for the kitchen.
Ben and Luke exchanged puzzled looks.
Finally Ben spoke up. "Phantom, you didn't add something in as a trick on Ocean, did you?"
"Of course not." he replied, looking pleadingly at Ben. "I wouldn't do that to any of you."
"Good, I was just checking. Well, something was wrong with it," Ben said.
"Ugh!" Ocean came back. "I'm making myself a lemon blueberry tea instead. This stuff has sucralose in it! Yuck!"
"What?" Luke put his mug down and followed Ocean back to the kitchen.
"The only box that's here," Ocean opened the cupboard and took the hot chocolate out, "and it's artificially sweetened...!"
Luke approached, took the box from Ocean and read the writing. "Reduced sugar - "
"which also means artificial sweetener added." Ocean said in disgust.
"Luke read the ingredients and came to "Sucralose, sure enough. Oh, crap! I didn't even look when I saw this one was on sale, I just picked it up, thinking we'd have an extra box."
"I'm not drinking that stuff." the scowling elf said affirmatively.
"Wow, sorry about that, Elf," Luke said."
"I know," she replied, but made a quiet utterance of dislike and set about making herself some tea.
"What's going on in here?" Ben came in.
"I bought the reduced sugar hot cocoa by mistake," said Luke.
"Oh, less sweet, that is good for me," said Ben with a smile.
"It isn't less sweet," Ocean said irritably, "It's chockablock full of artificial sweetener. Ugh!"
"Don't toss it, kids, I'll give it a try," said Ben.
Ocean grimaced. "If you find it tastes gross, don't say I didn't warn you."
Ben grinned at her in bemusement.
Back in the visiting area, Phantom continued to give Elissa the rest of her drink.
"I shouldn't be here." she said ruefully."
"It's the best place you can be right now, Elissa, you have to rest and get well." Phantom said quietly, "you're lucky you were found out there before things got worse."
"I don't deserve this kindness." she said. I was so awful toward everyone."
"Elissa, listen. If I can get another chance, so can you." Phantom tried to reassure her.
"At first I didn't set out to bug everyone. But after Yoda and the library thing, I was disappointed this didn't seem to be the cool place I expected. So then I wanted to get back at them."
"Well, you don't deserve to freeze to death out there in that blizzard." Said Phantom, then kept giving her the rest of the drink, and softly urged her to finish it. When she had, he gently lay her head back down when she was through. He put the mug on the coffee table, and carefully tucked the blanket in around her shoulders and neck.
Back in the kitchen, "Oh look, the storm's stopped." Luke noted.
"So it has." Elf said, looking out the window, then smiling back at Luke.
"What an odd coincidence." Said Luke.
"What do you mean?" Asked the elf.
"It was stormy all day, and now that Alyssa has been found - you don't think she could've caused it?" Luke suggested.
"And just wandered off to get lost in it?" Ocean said incredulously. "I hope not. That doesn't even make sense unless she's more disturbed than anyone thought." She shuddered, and shook her head.
"No, she didn't cause it, You were the first, joined by Sheev, and then Elf." Ben said, "Though I wasn't sure it wasn't me as well."
"What!?" Luke exclaimed, looking startled and as if he thought he might be in trouble at any moment.
"Oh no," Elf said, looking dismayed. She proceeded to turnoff the kettle, put the tea away, and put her cup back in the cupboard.
"It was difficult to tell for sure, with everyone's upset mingling," Ben said, "sometimes I thought it was one of you, then the other. I wasn't positive it was really any of you until Sheev turned in for the night. His died down long before either of you, then yours petered out, Luke."
"You should've let me know." Elf despaired, and after shutting the cupboard doors, left the kitchen, looking upset.
"So then it's much easier to tell if someone's force storming if they are the only one doing it." Said Luke, looking shaken.
Ben nodded.
"We could've killed her out there!" He looked shaken.
"But you didn't, Luke. If I was sure of my senses that it was you and the others storming, I would've said something. But I didn't want to accuse anyone prematurely.
"Had you told Sheev yet?"
"Not yet. I saw no reason to mention it since none of us had any idea Elissa was out there. Perhaps I shouldn't have said anything about it now,."
"You're only trying to help us be mindful of the force especially when our emotions run high." Said Luke.
"Thank you, Luke, I know you and Sheev can control it when you're aware of it. But we'll need to look out for Ocean and help her to manage it. When there is a storm out there, she has no idea she or you or anyone else might be causing it unless she storms deliberately.
"Well, this time it was all an accident." Said Luke regretfully.
"Yes. Who can blame you after what happened in the kitchen this morning," said Ben gently, "and then Shmi's workshop? What I don't understand is what Elissa was even doing out there. Surely she could've come inside, or gone to some place for shelter if she couldn't face returning to us."
"That's the first shock, the next one was that we could have - "
"But Luke, you didn't. Elissa will be fine as long as she listens to us and does what she needs to recover."
Luke sighed with relief at the reassurance. "Thanks Ben," he said.
"Now, you should go back and finish your drink before it gets cold." Ben said with a smile.
"It probably already has." Luke replied. Luke and Ben rejoined Phantom in the front room to take care of Elissa, and make sure she would rest comfortably.
Before they left, they stationed BB8 by the couch to keep watch over Elissa.
Once Elissa finished her hot drink, she fell asleep quickly and soundly, completely drained by the experience.
It took Luke a long time to go to sleep. The fact his and Elf's storms could have killed Elissa really rattled him. What also bothered him was why she had been out there in the first place. There were places to go for shelter, surely not everyone would've just kicked her out. A small, shivering elf on a doorstep, how could anyone deny her entrance and a warm bed for the night? For that matter, did she even try to seek shelter? Luke knew how miserable it was to nearly freeze to death back on Hoth, but if there had been inhabitants there, he would have knocked on a few doors until he was let in.
A storm had started up outside again, this time the wind had a strange moaning sobbing quality and freezing rain drove against the walls and settled on the ground.
Luke felt the disturbance in the force. He knew what it meant. Ocean was very upset, and probably for the same reason he was.
So he got up, got dressed, then started out looking for her.
Ben couldn't sleep either. What happened to Elissa had rattled him for a couple of reasons. First, that she could have died out there had she not been discovered. Why hadn't he detected her much earlier? Perhaps it was because Elissa probably didn't have the force. If she had, her distress could've been picked up by Ben after Luke and Sheev had dropped off and only Ocean's storm was going.
The other thing was that Elissa allowed herself to suffer exposure to this extent at all when she certainly could have sought shelter. Was this just carelessness, had she lost track of time, gotten lost and disoriented? Or could this have been a deliberate act of dispondency? That possibility really bothered Ben.
Then, what to do about Luke and Ocean. Ben knew they were extremely distressed at finding out their storms could have killed Elissa. When Ben had tried to reassure Luke, the young man had put a brave face on it, but he was still horrified. Ocean was upset enough to run off. Ben wasn't sure how he was going to deal with her, and now another force storm of distress was moaning out there. Somehow, he knew he'd have to do something about it.
There was a knock on his door.
He answered it to find Luke standing there, looking stressed.
"Elf is sick, and I have a raging headache."
"Oh, dear."
Ben followed Luke to the washroom and advized him to take what he needed for his headache and try to go back to bed.
Then Ben tried to reassure Ocean and give her something that would get rid of the nausea and help her to sleep.
When the wailing storm outside stopped, and the elf's tears stopped falling, and her breathing became steady and eventually turned to a snore, Ben picked her up using the force, and took her to hers and Felicity's room and lay her in her bed. He went and got a bacta blanket that would cover her and hopefully keep her relaxed and asleep for a while.