Frowning slightly as she ducked her head to ensure safe footing, the harried Dean of Ho State University pushed the annoying glasses up the bridge of her nose for the umpteenth time that day. Figured that her bloody contact would rip today.

Swallowing the disorientation that accompanied the infrequent and therefore unusual sensation of having her focus shifted to a point in *front* of her eyes, Caeryn winced slightly as the sunlight streaming in from the high placed hall windows refracted off the lightweight lenses, effectually blinding her.

Stopping in her tracks, she blinked repeatedly, attempting to clear the flashing dots that swam in front of her eyes. Moving carefully to the shadowed side of the stairs, she pursed her lips.

Mental note to self: Have all clear glass windows replaced with stained glass.

Being careful to not look directly into the disgustingly cheery rays of yellowed sunlight that swept through the panes near the ceiling to illuminate the ever-present swirling dust, the Dean grasped the railing and proceeded down the gleaming flight of marble stairs, her black ankle high boots making almost no sound as the two inch rubber block heels absorbed the shock of her footfalls.

Pausing on the last stair, she briefly surveyed the graceful architecture of the main wing's foyer. Soaring arches crossed overhead in a grid pattern, surrounded by gilded scrollwork and tastefully muted frescos. Smiling slightly, her mind recalling the proposed senior art project for the new term, she chuckled slightly to herself as she pondered the imminent fate of the innocent cherubs...the harp bearing, cloth swathed, half naked children floating around on whispy clouds with sickeningly sweet smiles and polished golden halos just had to go...

Smiling almost maliciously she pivoted around the gleaming wooden newel post at the end of the banister as she jumped down the last step, her mid-thigh plaid skirt flouncing slightly at the sudden movement. Walking rather reluctantly in the direction of her office, she absently twirled the end of one of her braids around the fingers of one hand, musing over the various other projects on the roster for the upcoming semester.

Busy didn't even begin to describe it...

She was so absorbed in her mental planning she failed to recognise the warning signs of oncoming danger as she approached her lusciously appointed office. Not until she had crossed the threshold--and with it the proverbial point of no return--did she fully comprehend the situation.

Darry was wearing her most condescending "you have got to be kidding" look, staring down her nose at the grimacing maintenance man, her arms akimbo, hands braced on her hips as she stared down the shorter man.

"Now listen here, you linguistically challenged freak crayola accident, I don't care what you think about it." The irate nurse stabbed a finger in his direction, her voice dripping with suppressed malice as she icily continued, "You are maintenance...therefore you will clean up the aftermath regardless of your aversion to the task. One would think that by now you would be accustomed to cleaning up other people's shi-"

Clearing her throat loudly, the Dean stepped further into the office, sighing partially in relief as she left the glare of the marble refracted sunlight of the exterior hallways for the pale green chiffon muted glow of her office. Keeping her face carefully neutral, Caeryn brushed aside an escaped whisp of hair and circled around behind the circular redwood desk.

"What seems to be the problem here?" Her voice was admirably non-offensive and placating, quietly authoritative without being pushy.

"Monsieur of a thousand words here refuses to clean up after Dande's harse. I almost ruined my new pumps." Darry practically spit out the words as she irately smoothed the front of her impeccable dark blue Armani suit. "He's all beside himself at the idea of having to get his hands dirty."

Suppressing her smile at the veiled reference to vocabulary man's recent indisposition, the outwardly stoic Dean carefully seated herself in the plush green velvet seat behind her desk, demurely arranging the pleats of her skirt as she rolled the chair closer to the desk.

"Grrrrrr." It was barely audible, but a growl none the less. The fiery eyes were almost dancing with irritation as Sidious' henchman tried to stare down Palpatine's assistant.

"Now, now, none of that. You know the rules...only one man around here is allowed to growl and it is most definitely not you. Why don't you have the gardeners remove the...er...evidence of the harse."

Caeryn tried very hard to ignore the hard look she was getting from Darry as she reached for the stack of papers in her inbox. Holding them upright, she lightly stacked them against the surface of the desk to align the edges.

"Relay the request to Wicket, if you will. Now if there is nothing further, Darry and I have a conference to attend to."

With one last hard look at the glowering nurse, Vocabulary man pivoted and stalked from the room, muttering under his breath as he all but slammed the door shut.

Wincing slightly, Caeryn gestured Darry to the seat on the other side of her desk.

"You shouldn't have let him off the hook so easy."

"I just don't have the energy for it today. I'm going on two days with no sleep here...I just want to get done with business and grab a nap before my appointment with the General."

"Wondered why you were going NSG today. What's with the glasses?"

Grunting slightly in disgust, Caeryn flipped through the stack of papers pulling out occasional sheets for reference during the upcoming meeting. "Contact ripped this morning. Friggin' replacements won't be here till tomorrow"

"Ouch. So what's on the agenda this morning."

Replacing the unneeded papers back in the inbox, the Dean checked the remaining stack sitting before her with a slight sigh.

"Music wants to refit one of the halls as an opera house. Multimedia is still pushing for the THX certified auditorium and an IMAX set up." Picking up the blue lightsabre pen from its place in the pen holder, she bit the end between her teeth, holding it there while she keyed the controls for the sleek metal holonet transmitters to activate.

"Let's see....we need more computers...the staff is bickering over having to share...." Taking the pen in her hand, she jotted down a few quick notes as she ran down the list of requests.

Pursing her lips slightly, Darry frowned as Caeryn reached the end of the list. "We can only fudge the treasury numbers so far."

Sighing in resignation, Caeryn pushed the sliding frame of her glasses back up her nose yet again. "I know. Half of this is just crap anyway. I'm more worried about the nutella than I am with...what is it...'five cases of tapioca pudding'. We're gonna have to be free with the bribes to get Italy to rescend the embargo on nutella they put us under."

Frowning, she handed the stack of requisition papers to Darry. "Here. You have a pretty good idea what we can get away with. What do you think?"

Sliding forward to the edge of her seat, Darry gave the papers a cursory look, eyebrows arching at some of the more outlandish requests. "Um...Caeryn...ten cases of bubble gum flavoured condoms?"

Shuddering slightly at the mere thought, the cringing Dean ripped the paper from Darry's hand. "How the hell did that get through...yack...Frosh class request. That's a resounding negative...right up there with anything puke-émon."

Sparing a wry grin for the tired looking Ho, Darry swiftly sorted through the stack of papers. When she was done, she looked up to the Dean. "You ready?"

Caeryn nodded her preparedness, straightening imperceptibly as she tucked the errant strand of hair behind her ear again. Clasping her hands in her lap she waited for the transmitter to pick up the subspace frequency. A sharp twitter, followed by a clear tone indicated the connection had been made to the holonet station.

After a brief wait, the Republic Senate signia appeared as a 3-D hologram hanging in the air at the end of the desk. A polite voice somewhat reminiscent of a flight attendant made the request for security clearance, to which Darry swiftly replied with her clearance.

Within a few seconds, the smiling congenial features of Ho State's main benefactor replaced the senate logo. Caeryn's eyes widened slightly as she took in the sleek black Armani suit...obviously Darry's fashion sense was wearing off on her boss.

"Good morning Chancellor Palpatine. You are looking well today. I have the latest batch of requisitions if you'd care to review them?"

~*~ No more; and by a sleep to say we end ~*~

"Careful, General." Emmy reached out an arm to pull him away from his collision course with an unoffending piece of statuary.

Obi-Wan stopped for a moment, blinking his teal eyes slightly to clear the grit. He couldn't remember the last time he'd actually slept. Not that he regretted any moment spent with his grrls...but there were quite a few of them now and he did need to rest occasionally.

Looking around in disorientation, fighting the insidious urge to allow his leaden eyelids to slip shut, he looked up at the statue before him without really registering the image. Frowning as he stared at it, he waved a hand at it.

"What is that?"

"Who."

"Huh?"

Emmy sighed. "It's not a what...it's a who."

"Okaaaaayyyy....*who's* that."

Rolling her eyes as she adjusted the gleaming tiara in her curly hair, Emmy glanced up from the general to the statue, only to choke slightly as she realised what it was. Fishing for an answer that wouldn't blow the God King's time line to hell she said the first thing that popped into her head.

"Um...it's a football player." She almost bit her tongue off the minute the words left her mouth. Grasping the black clad arm of her companion she began pulling him away from the source of his query.

"Football? I thought they wore pads and stuff. And what's with the cape?"

"Yah....well...the pads are under the cape...probably wearing it cause he was cold." Tugging insistently at the perplexed General the faithful Ho muttered slightly under her breath.

The General knew they had a good idea of what was going to happen, but she very much doubted he was ready for a run in with Asthma Breath...even if it was only carved basalt...it was all a question of timing... it was still future tense as far as he was concerned.

In her haste to head off any further questions by getting the General back in the main building, the smut queen failed to notice the little furry shapes running around the edge of the maze with mini shovels in hand.

~*~ The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks ~*~

The words were swimming.

This was not good.

Caeryn blinked her eyes, desperately trying to fight off the urge to collapse on top of her desk for a well deserved nap.

She just had to finish proofing the press releases first....

The sharp chime of the door startled her stupefied nerves, causing her to jump slightly in her chair.

Cracking her neck slightly, she straightened in her chair, blowing that one annoying hair whisp out of her eyes.

"Enter."

Cautiously, Jael's blonde head peeked through the cracked door.

"Jael, Jael...come on in...it will only take a minute."

Nervously, the Geek Art Ho stepped into the room, images of being called before the principal in grade school flashing across her memory. Taking a deep breath she stepped up to the intimidating desk, straightening her back imperceptibly as she did so. Best foot forward...

Caeryn cleared her throat slightly, waving for the PhotoShop empress to take the seat across from her.

"It has come to my attention that there seems to be a problem with you and Die sharing a computer."

Jaelly choked slightly. "You could say that."

"Yes, well..." Caeryn paused to take the glasses off her nose and massage the reddened bridge area. "I had an idea about that."

Jaelly perked up slightly...this didn't sound like the dressing down she had been expecting.

Replacing her glasses, Caeryn shifted back in her seat, the back reclining slightly in response to her position.

"Technically, you're grad student status this year, which means you could take on some instruction responsibilities..."

Jaelly tried hard to look interested, but the sudden image of teaching nutella finger painting to undisciplined freshman filled her with dread. The dread must have shown on her face because the tired looking dean quickly continued.

"But frankly, you're too valuable to waste on basic art classes."

The Ho's sigh of relief was heartfelt, causing the harried Dean to chuckle slightly.

"So...how would you feel about taking over the director's position for the art department?"

Jael stared at the small woman behind the desk in incomprehension, blinking slightly as the words seeped in.

Caeryn raised an eyebrow as her proposal ran up against a big wall of nothing...no response, no reaction...nothing.

"Jael?"

"Yes?"

"So.....you....Director of Art Department? You get your own office and your own computer so you won't have to fight with Die anymore..."

"Uh...sure."

The dean's brows creased...the Ho sitting before her had the dazed look of a deer caught in headlights.

"Okaaaayyyy...."

~*~ That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation ~*~

This was hot work. Setting the shovel aside the tired gardener looked around for a place to sit and rest for a few moments. It was rather amazing actually, that one 'harse' as the tall ones were calling it could make such a big mess.

Spotting a small marble bench surrounded by the most amazing looking full flowers in a variety of creams, yellows, pinks and reds, the sweaty little guy stumped over on short legs.

After a couple of failed attempts, he managed to climb atop the bench, huffing slightly as he was finally able to rest his weary little bones.

Sniffing slightly, he turned to regard the exquisite blooms framing the bench. They smelled quite lovely. Frowning thoughtfully, he reached out to pluck a petal.

Bringing it to his nose, he sniffed slightly. Yep...they sure smelled good. Experimentally, he licked the edge of the velvet soft petal. Not bad...not bad at all.

It had been a long time since breakfast.

~*~ Devoutly to be wisht ~*~

Meeting over. Sleep time.

Glancing up at the clock, Caeryn stretched her arms up above her head. Just enough time for a brief nap before her appointment with the general. Sighing in satisfaction, she yawned, settling back into her chair and bringing her feet up to rest on her desk, completely beyond caring that it was rather improper to do so in a short skirt.

Her pre-slumber drift was rudely crashed by the apoplectic form of a short green troll stomping into her office without knocking.

"Stopped, it must be!!!"

Groaning as she recognised the voice, Caeryn warily cracked open one gritty eye to watch the irate master come to a stop in front of her desk. Giving him what she hoped was an appropriately disgusted look, she bit out the phrase "What now?"

"My medicine the sith has."

"Medicine? What medicine? Who has it?" The Dean's eyes were both now open, slitted suspiciously as she regarded the ancient Jedi.

"My medicine...for aching. Tattooed dark one--keys he has. Filched my stash he has."

Caeryn blinked slightly, her foggy brain not quite believing her ears.

"Stash? Yoda, you haven't even been here 24 hours and you already have a stash? That stuff is controlled...Darry is the only one with access. And need I remind you that your temple prescription expired? I seem to remember having this conversation a while back with Darry."

"Mine!!! Or I will help you not!!!"

The ho bit back a few choice oaths especially reserved for warped flash backs of the original trilogy.

"Oh, stick it in your pointy ear! You're a Jedi Master...go get your own dope." Swiping a handful of paper clips the almost comatose dean started chucking them at the annoying midget in an effort to chase him out of her office, only to jerk upright in alarm as a painful wail echoed across the campus.

"NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! MY ROSES!!!!"

~*~ To die, --to sleep;-- ~*~

The Director of Student Affairs felt the breath catching in her lungs, her own anguished cry still echoing in her ears.

Before her lay the ruins of her prized rose garden. All that remained of the beautiful blooms were the incriminating petals scattered around the startled form of one short ewok.

Shana felt her lip trembling, her blood beginning to boil in her veins.

"You....you...."

Her voice rose steadily with each successive word until she was screeching with the force of a mythic banshee.

"You unspeakable runt!!! You fuzz bucket bantha poodoo...You...You..."

Wicket regarded the screaming woman with something akin to awe. He'd just had a rather nice snack when this tall one had interrupted him by piercing his eardrums with the most hideous sound. His awe swiftly turned to alarm as he saw her hands clench tightly around a pair of sharpened pruning sheers.

He squeaked slightly as he saw the unmistakably murderous glint enter her eye. Without pausing to brush the last remnants of the prize roses from his furry little body he took off at a dead run.

~*~ To sleep! Perchance to dream: ~*~

Caeryn came to a skidding stop at the threshold to the huge foyer, under the arched doorframe. Before her had to be one of the most bizarre tableaus she had seen all day...well, actually it ran a close second to Maul chasing the ewok with the fork and the salt but still....

Ironically, it was a rather similar site...except this time it was Shana running after the ewok with a pair of garden sheers.

Her eyes remained fixed on the chase as the players re-enacted every looney tunes cartoon ever made by running repeatedly around the same bush in an attempt to stay away from or catch the other. Behind her, she could hear the clamour of others running to see what was going on.

"What the...???" The unmistakable growl came from over her shoulder. Even preoccupied as she was, the Dean had to fight the instinct to puddle on the floor.

Shrugging slightly, her eyes still fixed on the comedy before her, Caeryn sighed. "Something about roses...."

Obi-Wan frowned slightly, looking down on the woman standing in front of him, exhaustion apparent in every line of her stance. Before he could say anything however, yet another blood curdling scream ripped through the air.

Wincing slightly, Caeryn turned to meet the cerulean eyes. "You better stop her before she skins him."

Pursing his lips as he looked up in time to see Shana start attacking the bush trying to get at the trembling ewok on the other side, he nodded swiftly. "You're probably right."

Grinning lopsidedly, the Ho reached out to smooth the wrinkled shirt across his chest, obviously hastily donned as he rushed to investigate the commotion. "Of course I am...that's why I'm the Dean, remember."

The Look.

Something that might have originally been a "meep" but came out more like a strangled whine escaped the illustrious administrator's throat. She could feel her heart doing all sorts of erratic things in her chest as she fell headfirst into that oceanic gaze, her hands stilling on the firm chest in front of her.

There was a sudden commotion as Darry came running around the end of the building, obviously drawn by the screams of the ewok hunting Ho attacking an unoffending hedge to get at the cornered creature.

"Shana! Stop, NOW!!!" The Nurse's voice was laden with authority, the type of voice that no one in their right mind ignored. Shana paused in her offensive, the leaves stopping momentarily in their mad flight from the pruning sheers.

Caeryn looked on as Darry practically ripped the gardening tool from the Student Affairs Director's hands. The words of the medic were unheard, but their calming effect was obvious even from a distance.

"Looks like Darry has everything in hand." The General's silken tones wrapped around her ears, lulling her mind past the rush of adrenaline Shana's initial cry had evoked.

"Yep...." Turning to head back to her office, smothering a wide yawn, the Dean absently undid the first two buttons of her white oxford shirt...too tight...nap time...

Obi-Wan watched the light motions of her fingers, the realisation of what she was wearing finally hitting him. A smile of appreciation curled his lips as the predatory glint crept into his eyes. His gaze traveled over the trim black boots with the slightest sliver of white socks peeking out over the top. Up her bare legs, past the swell of her hips and the curve of her ribcage. The thin strap of her lacey white bra was easily visible through the thin material of the cotton shirt.

Caeryn was so tired she didn't even notice his reaction, already walking back down the hall to her hopefully quiet office, she mentally reminded herself to lock the door this time.

The General admired the sway of her hips, the pleated plaid flouncing slightly with the movement of her shapely legs. Licking his lips slightly he strode after her quickly.

"One moment, please."

Quite possibly the only voice in creation that could dissuade her from her beeline for the comfortable chair in her office. Sighing, she turned to face her boss...only to lose any resemblance of coherent thought as her eyes fixed on the striding form of the tousle haired, unshaved General stalking toward her.

"There are some...curriculum...issues...I need to review with you, if you have a few spare moments."

"...curriculum...?" Her foggy brain couldn't quite catch the words...only the soft flow of his honeyed voice sliding over her exhausted muscles.

Obi-Wan pursed his lips in concern. She was almost comatose she was so tired. Snorting slightly, he realised he was hardly one to talk. Well, that was easily remedied. Without another word, he lightly clasped the Dean's arm, pulling her in the direction of his office.

Groggy as she was, it wasn't until they crossed the threshold of his outer office, passing a ruffled looking Diebin on the way through, that Caeryn realised what was going on.

The General pulled her into his office, turning to speak to Die as he closed the door.

"Reschedule my appointments for the next four hours, Diebin."

Die's loud protest was cut off by the solid click of the door shutting, followed swiftly by the metallic clink of the lock sliding into place.

"Wow...four hours...whatever will we do with all that time?" Her voice was surprisingly husky as she regarded him through her lowered lashes.

"I have a few ideas on that." His purr sent a thrill coursing through her veins...

Unfortunately, she was unable to answer his challenge past the huge yawn that surfaced.

"But first...." He reached up to pull off her glasses, setting them down carefully on his desk as he lead her to the wide black velour couch in front of the roaring fireplace. Sitting down, he slowly reclined sideways into a laying position, pulling her down to lay beside him as he shifted to make space for her.

"First...we sleep."

Caeryn was asleep between breaths, wrapped comfortably in the musty cedar scent and strong arms of her boss as they drifted off into a well deserved slumber.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~