Thirst by Mac

[capra-maritimus.livejournal.com]

Title: Thirst
Author: Mac
Rating: R
Pairing: Q/O
Warnings: slightly disturbing imagery


Author's e-mail, web site and/or LJ id: ausmac
Link to story: http://home.iprimus.com.au/amacker/Thirst.htm


So this is my last rec. I hope you've all had a wonderful time tripping with me down memory lane. :D I wish I could have had time to rec all of my other favourites. *sigh*

This particular one is by Mac, who in her day (LOL) was quite the prolific fanfic writer in TPM. I think I have five or so of her stories on my hard drive, running the gamut from uber angst to silly. 'Thirst' is on the angst end of the scale. Thank god Mac resisted the temptation to turn the Jedi into whiny teenagers. :D

This story touched my 'Obi-Wan in charge' kink: Master is down, so Padawan must take over. What drives the story even more is that Qui-Gon's incapacitation is due not to outside influences, but to his own sense of duty and self-sacrifice. Being the sneaky bastard that he is he neglects to tell Obi-Wan until it is almost too late to save himself.

Quote from story:

Obi-Wan looked at it with surprise. "That's.almost a litre! How did you manage..?"

"A little Force manipulation, some tricks I learned a few years ago to speed up the process. I've had mine already, this is yours."

He didn't want to think his Master would lie to him, but it was possible and he looked up, ignoring his body's demands to take the offered water and drink it down. "Are you sure?" he asked, very quietly, and Qui-Gon nodded.

"Yes. I'm sure. Take it." He didn't say don't drink it all at once, but he didn't need to, Obi-Wan knew. That was his day's supply and in spite of the driving anguish to consume it at once he rationed himself, sipping it carefully. A few mouthfuls to carry him through each torrid hour.

The days continued in a blistering sameness, the nights hardly any cooler than the days. At first Obi-Wan thought that Qui-Gon might be giving him his own ration and he kept a close eye on the older man. He was drinking but it didn't seem to make any difference, he still grew weaker with each passing day. The water he was producing was helping Obi-Wan maintain his hold but for some reason it didn't seem to be doing Qui-Gon the same good. He was slowly sliding down, weakening, fading before his Padawan's eyes.

The day before the cells were fully charged Obi-Wan dozed for some hours before waking to see that Qui-Gon wasn't in his usual place under the ship. He pulled himself up, tied a piece of tunic around his head and ducked outside. Even with the covering the heat struck him like something solid, a wave of shimmering heat. Hand over his eyes, he moved as fast as his wasted body would allow across the hot ground to the ship's hold. While they could have stayed inside, without the atmospheric conditioning the ship was like an oven, maintaining the internal heat with specific efficiency. Obi-Wan slipped inside and called out for Qui-Gon.

"Master? Master, are you all right?"

He listened but heard nothing and his worry grew. Perhaps he'd fallen, in his weakened condition, and hurt himself. He moved quickly through to the engineering bay and stopped with a choked cry of shock at the door.

Qui-Gon was lying on a pallet with leads running from his body to the hydration unit. He could see the dark blood moving sluggishly along the tubes into the machine and ran forward, shock punching him in the stomach. This was where the extra water was coming from.

More Discussion:


'Punched in the gut' is an apt phrase. It was how I felt on first reading that revelation. Thankfully Qui-Gon does manage to live and be rescued and of course our two Jedi realise how much they mean to each other. It could have been oh so cliched but Mac handled it well with perfect understatement.