The General opened the back door to the administration building and stepped inside. One foot flew out from underneath him and he skidded on his other foot, arms flailing, until he crashed into the kitchen. His stomach immediately rumbled and he headed for the fridge. Opening it, he eyed the contents.

There seemed to be a extraordinarily large number of grapes.

True, his freshmen Ho's had been eating grapes while watching the...whatever they had been watching on the rugby field, but two shelves of them seemed a little excessive. The regular grape eater, Dandie, had left--he still was a bit confused as to why--and Dorotea hadn't offered him grapes in a long time.

Shoving aside the bags of fruit, the General finally found a couple of slices of bread and two pieces of cheese--there seemed to be an overabundance of brie, chevre and other poofy cheeses.

Maybe there was a faculty or fund-raising event coming up.

As he made a sandwich, he wondered why he hadn't received an invitation yet.

Maybe it was with his missing paperwork.

He really needed to track down Diebin.

Taking a bite of sandwich, he leaned against the sink and frowned. Diebin had taken off with a man. It wasn't the first time she had done such a thing.

Appetite gone, the General took a mental deep breath and left the kitchen, this time using the Force to keep him on his feet. Gliding down the hall, he poked his head into the bar. It was empty except for Kendra who sat behind the bar, reading a magazine and munching on those chewy candies she liked so much.

He smiled in warm remembrance of their time the day before spent putting Cal's wagon back together...among other things.

As he entered the bar, Kendra glanced up, turned red, and accidently sent the magazine sliding across the bar.

"Hockey Times? I didn't realize you enjoyed this sport, Kendra."

"Um, well, yeah sort of. It's a recent thing." She grabbed the magazine and jammed it under the counter. "What can I get you?"

"Nothing, thank you. I feel I need my wits about me tonight." He smiled and Kendra slumped on her stool, her eyes glazing over a bit. "Is Judy here?" Judy was one of the few of his staff and upper level Ho's whom he had seen in the past week.

"Liquor Barn. We're out of Merlot."

His brow wrinkled and Kendra slid down farther in her seat. "I didn't realize anyone here was much of a wine connoisseur."

"Oh, yeah, Laure is, and Shana, and Dorotea...Well, she used to be. Are you sure you don't want a beer?"

"Maybe a nice Corellian ale." He gave her a winning smile and she fell off the stool.

Righting herself, Kendra shook her head. "Sorry, all we have is Coors Light."

"We're never out of Corellian ale," he said, aghast.

Kendra shrugged.

Giving up on the idea of a drink, the General informed Kendra that he was going to find the Dean and see what had happened to mess up the keg distribution. She nodded and popped another gummy fish into her mouth.

Making his way down the treacherous hall, he heard giggling coming from the Library, and decided to stop off there first, rather than slide back this way after finding Caeryn. Even after their lovely reunion, the Librarian still thought he was afraid of her. He didn't quite understand why she had 'gothed' him--as Emmy had yelled over and over again--for the Rave, but it was time to put the past behind them. "Dorotea, are you in there?" he called out as he pushed open the door.

The room was dark, but he could hear much scrambling around and what sounded like a cabinet door slamming shut, before he found the light switch.

Breathing hard, Dorotea sat on top of a large, black coffin.

The wrinkles between the General's brows grew deeper. Before he could ask why there were a couple of coffins in the Library, the sounds of that horribly addictive game came from the bank of computers. He turned and saw a slender, dark haired man sitting at one of the monitors, black, booted feet up on the desk.

"General, what a surprise. I thought you were avoiding me," Dorotea said loudly, drawing his attention back to her.

"Dorotea, dear, we went over this yesterday. I have no hard feelings about any of the makeup." He tired to give her a winning smile, but his attention flew back to the man. "Do I know you? You look very familiar."

"Diamond mine consultant," Xani replied, not looking up.

"No, I've seen you somewhere." As the General took a few steps towards the semi-dark Jedi, Dorotea hopped off the coffin and intercepted him.

"He has one of those faces. He's just in here doing some research."

The sound of butt slapping and manic elf laughter echoed through the room.

The General patted Dorotea's cheek lightly and sidestepped her, walking over to Xani. "No, I really have seen you some place, and not here on campus."

Xani flicked a glance up at the perplexed general. "Sure, I'm in the Hall of Disgraced Jedi." He chuckled and promptly smacked the ball into the deer.

The hollow sound of knocking came from behind him and the General looked over his shoulder to see Dorotea frowning at one of the coffins and knocking on it. She looked up and catching his eye, smiled a bit sickly. "Just testing the workmanship."

Seeing Xani narrowing his eyes and figuring he was about to spill the beans, Dorotea ran across the floor and latched onto the General's arm, pulling him away, laughing. "Just ignore anything he says. He's such a kidder."

"Dorotea, dear, why do you have coffins in here?"

"Um...They're for Halloween."

"Halloween isn't for four months."

"Have to plan ahead for these things." She steered him to the door. "I've got so much work, General, dear, you understand, right?"

"Oh...yes." He brushed his lips over her forehead and left the Library, this time remembering the ice. A perpetually perplexed look on his face, he headed off to find Caeryn.

The Clinic door burst open and Darry ran out, lost her balance and skidded right into him. The General caught her. She looked...mussed.

"There, there, I have you. You mussed your hair in the slide."

"Huh? Oh." Darry patted her hair and tried to straighten her dress, noticing for the first time that the buttons were done up wrong. "Yeah, damn ice."

He gave her his most sensual smile and saw her wilt a bit in his arms. "It seems like ages since I've seen you. Would you like to go for a walk? Or..."

Swallowing hard, Darry glanced over her shoulder at the Clinic and her eyes widened. "I can't." She couldn't believe she was saying 'no'. "I have an emergency in the Clinic. I was just rushing out to get...more ice."

"Ah, yes, your job comes first, of course. Maybe later?" He failed to hide the longing and hope in his voice, and Darry melted.

"Sure." He released her and she slid off towards the kitchen.

Sighing, the General began to head past the Clinic, but caught sight of a man through the gap in the partially opened door. Pushing it open all the way, he stepped inside. "Hello."

"Hello." The stranger stood there, wearing a set of navy scrubs and was fiddling with a stethoscope.

"Did we hire a doctor?"

"Um...yes?"

"I'm General Kenobi, President of the university. I'm afraid I seem to have...lost the paperwork on your hiring. You are...?" He held out his hand.

"Cicero." Setting aside the medical instrument and straightening to a military posture, Cicero shook the General's hand.

"General."

"You have the look of a military man about you."

"Yes, sir."

"Medical Corps?"

"Ah, no. I was...attached to the cavalry."

"The elite of the military." Before the General could expand on one of his favorite themes--one in which he rarely got to indulge since most of his grrls had no interest in the military unless he was showing them his scars--the door opened and Darry returned. She gaped.

"Darry, dear, when did we hire a doctor?"

"Huh? Oh, a week ago. I think it was about the same time as your unfortunate hair problem."

"I wasn't aware that we needed a doctor."

"Oh yes, lots of injuries this summer. It's very weird. The ice in the hallway isn't helping matters."

"Yes, the ice. Have you seen Caeryn? I want to talk to her about the ice and the lack of Corellian ale."

"Um...She's skating in the main hall."

The General mulled this over for a moment and nodded. "Thank you. Doctor Cicero, it was a pleasure to meet you."

"It was a pleasure to meet you, too, General." Cicero snapped to attention again, sending Darry's eyebrows into her hairline.

Leaving the Clinic, the General was determined not to get distracted again and headed towards the main hall. Feminine cheers and the sounds of skates scraping reached his ears, and he turned the corner. An impromptu hockey match was going on. There were three men on one team and Caeryn, Ellie and Kendra--who had obviously left the bar--on the other team.

The puck seemed to be the head of one of those annoying robots.

Several grrls sat on the steps, including Shana who was petting the head of a tiger that purred loudly next to her. Just as he slid towards her, Caeryn scored a goal and all three Ho's hugged each other, yelling in delight.

"General!" Shana froze, then glanced quickly around herself, before smiling at him. "What a surprise. Are you here to watch the game? There's one every evening about this time."

"Well...I need to talk to Caeryn."

"Oh, it's probably not a good idea to interrupt her until the end of the period. She gets a bit testy about this sport."

The General climbed past Brenda, Lynne, Jen Jen and Kymira, all who seemed to be cheering for the team of men until they saw him, then they hooted for Ellie who had the puck. As he sat down next to Shana--on the opposite side from the tiger--he noticed that Sere and Julia were snapping photographs of the hockey action, and of the cheering section.

Noticing something distracting her current mistress, the female tiger bared her teeth at him.

"Shana, why do we have a tiger?"

"School mascot."

"I wasn't aware we had a school mascot."

"Every university needs one."

"But, a live tiger?" The tiger growled softly and the General glared back at her, until she snarled and put her head back in Shana's lap. From that point on she pointedly ignored him.

"She's totally tame and..." Shana's voice died away as Crow's yells of 'coming through, make way' came from around the corner. The male tiger, ridden by the robot, came skidding into view, knocking Caeryn to the floor and sending the puck careening into the opposite goal.

As Crow and the tiger disappeared from sight, the General gave Shana the one raised eyebrow look. She swallowed hard.

"Two tigers?"

"Well...they came as a pair." She sounded terribly defensive, but before he could question her further, the action on the ice caught his attention.

One of the big, burly men was helping Caeryn up and touching her in an overly familiar manner.

"Who are those men?" He scowled.

"The new hockey coach and his assistants."

'We have a hockey team, too?" Disbelief filled his voice and Shana winced.

"Yeah, sort of. It's a good sport."

"I'd like to see the paperwork on that."

"Um, yeah, sure. I'll dig it up."

The General rose, terribly perturbed. "I'll be in my office." He didn't even ask if Shana wanted to join him. He had a terrible feeling the answer would be 'no'.

His office was empty and there were no messages or new paperwork in his in box. He picked up the calendar and saw that his next appointment was with Emmy. She was his only appointment for the night, until the next night, for that matter.

"Fine," he huffed to himself. Straightening his spine and flaring his nostrils, the General slid out of his office to the back stairs and took them two at a time until he reached the second floor. Emmy opened her door at the first knock and gave him a sultry smile, which faded at the sight of his hair and his scowling countenance.

"I thought you were getting your hair cut." She backed up, letting him into her room.

"I got distracted. There are too many weird things going on here. Too many new men all over the place. And...I have no appointments."

"What am I? Chopped liver?"

"Besides you, and you again tomorrow night along with Judy and Brenda. But, no one else. I can't even find Diebin since she drove off with some man, and my calendar is empty. My calendar is never empty. It gave me all this time to wander around campus and, do you know there aren't any classes going on? And there seems to be a near army camped out past the rugby fields. We have a new doctor, and apparently the tiger is our new mascot, but I don't have any paperwork showing the requests for these. Shouldn't I? And, there's this man in the Library who looks terribly familiar and..."

"Shh, shh," Emmy soothed, pushing him down gently onto her bed. "I'll make it all better." She sat next to him and took his hand, rubbing it gently. "You know Ho's are unpredictable, and your schedule probably just got messed up. The paperwork will show up."

"I think...I think I need to go away and meditate for a bit."

"WHAT?"

"Emmy dear," the General soothed. "I'm just very confused. Maybe a trip to the Temple would help."

"WHAT?" Emmy jumped to her feet and began to pace, muttering very softly about 'those damn Ho's and their damn EAs and no frickin' way was the General going nuts again because of their infidelities'.

"No one here seems to need me, Emmy," the General said plaintively. "Except you," he continued quickly at the look she shot him. "Certainly most of the Ho's continue to welcome me with open arms, but some of the staff..." He sighed heavily.

"Of course they need you. You're the whole reason the university exists." Exasperated, Emmy plopped back down next to him and was hit suddenly by a brilliant idea. "So, just to remind them that they need you, yes, I think you should go to Coruscant."

"But, you hate it when I even mention going to the Temple."

"I didn't say you were going to the Temple. We," she stressed, "will go to Coruscant and get your hair cut and do some shopping, maybe see a show." And let those ungrateful Ho's stew, she added silently, all ready planning what she would pack.

"Oh..okay. Can we leave tonight?"

"Oh..." She smiled silkily at him. "In a couple hours."

End

Okay, Emmy, take it (and him) away!

Of course, she's on vacation... There is a plan, really. Someone else want to notice that he and Emmy are gone, write it!