"Have you ever considered that it's there for a reason?" Luke said without turning.
"You're telling me they're watching the glasshouse?" Hallin asked, deadpan.
"Well it is made from glass." Luke shrugged easily, "That should be some kind of clue."
"You can't see in from the outside." Hallin argued lightly, aware that the plexiglass walls were privacy-treated, as all plexiglass was throughout the Palace. Jamming and counter-jamming devices were so prevalent in the Emperor's paranoid little world that light-based, line-of-sight imaging was the only reliable method of watching others, and privacy-treated glass ruled that out.
"No but you can see down through the roof." Luke pointed out easily. "Have you checked all that glass is privacy-treated?"
Able to see the treated glass walls from the outside as he walked by it, it had never occurred to Hallin to check that the roof glass was also privacy-treated; he really wasn't cut out for all this vigilant, guarded living. "So basically my private life is being passed around the Palace on datachips?" Hallin said dryly after a long, considered pause.
"No, nobody knows- yet." Luke assured, "But you might want to rethink your safe spot...." He paused in consideration, then; "If you need somewhere to meet outside the security fields use these rooms... when I'm not here, I hasten to add."
"Thank you," Hallin said, surprised but strangely, not embarrassed- mostly because Luke clearly wasn't. "This is my first clandestine affair." He added with mock seriousness, "I'm still learning the ropes."
"I hope that's not literal." Luke smiled, making Hallin do the same.
"So, what... should I leave a towel hanging over a chair in the hall?" Hallin joked lightly, "Or will you just... know?"
Luke smiled again, shaking his head as he looked down, "Don't even go there...."
Hallin too glanced down, amused, but when he looked up his voice was genuine, "Thank you."
Luke shook it away wordlessly.
"And I think you're changing the subject." Hallin added. When Luke glanced back across at him, Nathan set his head to one side, "Do you care for her?"
Luke hunched down and rubbed at his closed eyes, voice wry and self-effacing, ".....So do I get a membership card in this club, or something?"
Hallin laughed lightly, and they both fell to casual silence again, each considering their predicament.
"So you do trust her then?" Hallin reiterated at last, looking for reassurance.
Luke looked away; wouldn't meet his eye. "No, I don't trust her. She'll... one day she'll betray me, I know that - I just don't know when."
Hallin's voice abruptly sharpened, "You're sure?"
Luke looked down without replying, enough for Hallin to know he was. "Would it be completely foolish of me to ask what you're doing with her then?"
Luke only smiled, speaking quietly and without rancour. "Oh you're one to talk."
"My partner isn't trying to kill me."
"I didn't say she'd try to kill me." Luke said quickly, but Hallin was too concerned to let this drop now.
"You said she'd betray you."
Luke glanced back to the open terrace doors behind Hallin, a subtle warning to lower his tone. The medic hushed to a whisper, though as far as he was aware there was no-one in the room- Clem, the only bodyguard on duty, stood to quiet attention in the long hallway beyond. "Well then how will she betray you?"
Luke sighed, looking out over the metropolis again, hair ruffling over his eyes in the muggy breeze.
"I don't know." He said at last, "You seldom see specifics with future events because they're still in flux, just... twists in the flow; feelings... flashes in the darkness which you can trace back to a person or an event. Not even that sometimes, just..."
He trailed to silence, having no way to describe the inexplicable.
"When?" Hallin pushed, still whispering, but Luke only smiled, amused.
"What would you like- a time of day?"
"How can you be so accurate on something as unimportant my love life as and so vague on something that's possibly life-threatening?"
Luke only turned, amusement in those mismatched eyes at his friend's close concern, "Maybe it's impenetrable for a reason."
"What does that mean?" Hallin asked, then ducked down slightly, realising how loud he'd spoken.
Luke shrugged, setting his head to one side, "Some things you can't see for a reason."
"Now you're just being obscure." Hallin accused, frustration borne out of his sense of protection, Luke knew.
"Some things aren't meant to be changed." Luke clarified. He hesitated a long time, considering, "I once knew a Jedi Master who said that the will of the Force is like the flow of a river; we may change its course from time to time, but it still travels to the sea."
"Very deep. I thought that the Sith had a handle on that kind of thing."
"Maybe not as much as they think." Luke said, making Hallin frown; he always said 'they'; never 'we'.
Hallin considered momentarily, pulling his mind back to the moment. "Perhaps Reece should be aware..."
"No." Luke paused, clearly searching for the right words without wishing to offend, "I trust Reece absolutely in matters of policy. But... I feel he may be a touch less forgiving and a tad more... direct in his view of how to deal with Mara. You-" Luke paused, turning to Nathan, wry expression very open and artless and persuasive, "...I know I can trust a fellow 'club member' to give me the benefit of the doubt in dealing with my own... lapses."
"Am I so predictable?" Hallin smiled, amused at the realisation.
"Only to me." Luke said easily, "And speaking of problems, ours have arrived. And I'm not dressed for Court yet."
He pushed up and set off, walking barefoot past the run of open doors to enter the furthest, which led to his bedroom, disappearing behind the reflective, high security privacy panes of the tall plexiglass doors.
Hallin re-entered the nearest, stepping into the drawing room, surprised that there was still no-one there. Frowning, he set off out through the dining room, pausing to turn to Clem, "Are Commander Jade and Commander Reece back yet?"
The tall, broad security officer glanced to the small reader on his wrist, lifting his sleeve to do so, "Reece stopped at the Staff Office... Commander Jade is in the apartments..."
Hallin turned away and headed out with a nod, intending to go to the staff complex just inside the door to the sprawling Perlemian apartments, wondering idly just how far the corridors and hallways would stretch if he measured them all one day. The massive residence covered a complete floor of the West Tower, each of the thirty or so palatial rooms easily equalling the floorspace of a complete home- and that was the kind Hallin was used to, which was hardly underprivileged.
Learning the names of all the rooms was bad enough, never mind the layout; the Malak Gallery, the Ebony Study, the Marble Hall, the Cupola with its massive stained glass dome, backlit to appear like a skylight, the light changing to match the time of day outside. Luke actually used less than a quarter of the rooms, mostly the smaller ones... though 'smaller' was a relative term; even they were each close to the size of Hallin's complete apartment, which had itself seemed huge when the medic had first arrived.
As everyone did, though no-one admitted to it, Hallin cut through Luke's private office to avoid the long trail through the central cupola of the extensive apartment.
Walking in from the doors at the opposite wall of the sizeable office, obviously using the same shortcut, was Mara Jade.
She glanced to him, nodding and rolling her eyes at having been caught out using this common shortcut. Unable to stop himself, everything that had just been said fresh in his mind, Hallin glowered, coming to a halt.