Jake was rubbing the sleep from his eyes and grumbling irritably as he shuffled through the darkened room to answer the summons tone that continued to ring imperiously from his door. A glance at the wall chrono made him swear caustically and seriously consider returning to his bed and bedamn whoever was at his door, but the near constant sounding of the buzzer hinted at the dogged perseverance of the being on the other side. He'd barely been asleep for three hours, and after a long evening of drinking and sabacc, too. His head was starting to throb and his mouth felt as though he had been chewing on bantha fur for the last hour or more.

He was on vacation blast it all!

He'd taken great pains not to tell anyone, not even Kizzen. It was the first time in years that he didn't have a schedule to keep, didn't have anywhere to be, or anything that needed to be done. No one was supposed to know where he was. In point of fact, he admitted to himself briefly, he was hiding from anyone who might know him so that he could fully enjoy his time off.

//So then who's that at the door?// he wondered blurrily, a touch of anger helping him to make a start at wiping away the cobwebs in his brain.

When his bare foot encountered the leg of an end table in the darkness, Jake began planning the horrible things he was going to do to whoever it was that had awakened him and started his hangover early.

"Prepare to die," he snarled when the door opened, or at least that's what he tried to say. Instead all he got out was the first syllable before being bodily pushed right back inside, the tall figure doing the pushing closing the door quickly behind them.

The flash of brighter light from the hallway outside his rented rooms had momentarily blinded him and between that and his pounding head it was little wonder that he tripped over a fold in the blanket he was clutching around his waist and fell headlong.

"Be merciful and just kill me now," he moaned, praying that the mugger or whoever it was would do just that and stop the vicious pain that had exploded behind his eyes when he hit the floor.

"Can't do that, Jivinan. Dead men don't lie to cops."

The sound of that husky female voice and the instant recognition that came with it made him first whimper in frustration then growl in anger. How did she always manage to do that? How did she always know where to find him?! Was no one in the galaxy safe from-

"Lilith Demodae." The name was a curse, more spat out than said, and the growing anger it engendered was helping Jake clear his head at last. He struggled back to his feet and turned to face the slightly taller woman who had just invaded his rooms. Normally he would have responded to a woman pushing her way into his presence with a polite leer and less polite suggestion of how they could pass the time. Unfortunately this particular woman, three inches taller and surviving in a game that left no room for mistakes, would probably grab him by the ears and twist his head right off his shoulders were he to do any such thing.

She obviously didn't know what she was missing.

"Beat it. I haven't got time for you right now. I'm on vacation."

"I'd love to, but just now I can't." White teeth flashed in the darkness and Jake was unhappily reminded of a hunting cat in the jungle. "And if you're on vacation then you should have plenty of time for just about anything."

Trying to salvage some dignity, Jake adjusted his blanket and straightened his shoulders. "What do you want, Lilith?"

"I need an alibi."

"Great," he responded quickly, shuffling forward to shoo her from the room so that he could get back to his much needed rest. "Comm me in the mornin- make that late afternoon and we'll settle the details. Right now I'd like to get back to bed."

"Good idea." Lilith pushed past him toward the deeper darkness that was the bedroom, banging a booted foot against the self same end table that had inconvenienced him earlier. Hearing that made Jake feel a little better, but not much. This woman was quickly becoming the bane of his existence.

"Where are you going?"

"To the bed, silly. You're the one who suggested it." That deep, husky voice held a trace of exasperation, as if she were talking to particularly slow child, but no hint that he would be welcome in the bed with her. "I told you, I need an alibi, and not later this afternoon. They ought to be doing a door-to-door in this building by now and it would look a little suspicious if I were still fully dressed and standing in the front room when they knock on the door."

"Wait," he shouted, dragging a hand through his already disheveled hair, making the dark strands stand on end. He trailed after her as she heeled out of one black leather boot and left it by the poorly placed end table. The other boot was pulled off with two controlled hops and tossed to lean drunkenly against the bedroom door frame and Lilith disappeared into the darkness beyond. A light blinked on, shedding faint illumination through the whole apartment. Jake never saw where the omnipresent blaster and its holster and belt disappeared to, but disappear they did. When she came back into sight the vibroblade she kept strapped to her left wrist was slipped into a potted plant, and two shivs from the vicinity of her vest followed it. It wasn't until she began to shimmy out of her tight leather pants that Jake truly became aware that the blanket he had hastily dragged around his waist was the only thing between him and indecent exposure.

"Just hold on a minute, Demodae. What do you mean a door-to-door search? What have you done this time?!" he demanded.

"For a complete switch I haven't done a star-loving thing," she responded quickly enough, a bitter smile tugging at one corner of her mouth. "I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and with the wrong people, so the authorities automatically jumped to the wrong conclusions."

Lilith disappeared into the bedroom again and Jake heard the sounds of sheets being shook and rumpled, of a mattress creaking.

"C'mon, I'm on vacation, kriff it all. I don't need this kind of stress," Jake moaned, flapping one hand in a frustrated motion.

A slight sound from the outer hallway brought Lilith back out from the bedroom. Sometime while she was in there, her hair had become nearly as disheveled as his own, all but a few buttons in the middle of her blouse were undone, her vest was gone entirely, but her expression was as calculating as ever. She bore down on him with such implacable intent in her muddy green eyes that he didn't bother trying to flee. The outcome was inevitable, so he might as well face it like a Corellian.

"They'll be here any second now, so do yourself a favor and don't put up a fuss," the bleached blond amazon told him. She fisted one hand in his hair and leaned down to bestow a kiss upon him, her other hand busy behind her. //Holding a blaster, knowing her,// he thought when he could marshal his thoughts into coherent order. Then realization hit him like a runaway speeder, //She kissed me!//

"If they ask, I've been with you all night," she told him.

Jake blinked and stared through the dim light. //Lilith Demodae kissed me!// He blinked again as she patted his cheek in a patronizing manner and disappeared back into the bedroom. Somehow her bra had ended up draped over the back of the couch during the kiss. //Oh, that's what her other hand was doing.//

A loud buzz from the door startled Jake, making him jump and almost lose his grip on the blanket. He immediately shuffled toward the door, his body on automatic pilot while his brain tried to sort out exactly what had happened in the last few whirlwind minutes. When the door shooshed open, with Jake leaning against the frame, clutching his blanket around his waist and blinking at the too bright light from the hallway, sure enough there were two CorSec agents, standing ramrod straight just like in the holodramas, square in front of the door.

"Yeah, waddaya want?" he grumbled, his brown eyes squinting to see their faces, but knowing that they didn't really have any, after all, they were the Law. The Law was faceless and soulless, everyone knew that.

"CorSec." Badges were flashed with practiced speed, too fast to actually be seen by anyone who wasn't a droid. "Excuse us, sir, but we are looking for a tall blond woman who fled into this building just a few minutes ago. Have you seen her by any chance?"

Jake heaved a long-suffering sigh and massaged his temples with his free hand. "Look guys, the only tall blond I've seen all night is the one currently in my bedroom, if you catch my drift. Do me a favor and bugger off."

"We'll only take a moment of your time, sir-" the slightly older of the two intoned in a voice that reeked of officialdom.

"Jake?" Lilith called from behind him then, and all three men shifted their gazes to look. She was silhouetted in the bedroom doorway by the light behind her. It shone through the thin silk blouse she wore, throwing her lean, muscled form into sharp relief. It was rather obvious to the men that the blouse was all she was wearing and it hung askew as if hastily donned and buttoned. "Jake, what's taking so long?" Her tone was pouty and slightly drowsy sounding.

"Ah, we can see that you're busy, sir. If you do see a tall blond woman wandering the halls tonight we'd appreciate a call."

"Yeah, sure." Jake shut the door in their faces and turned back to face Lilith. She came forward, turning on the light in the front room, and dropped a chaste kiss on his forehead, a surprisingly feminine smile softening her strong features.

"Thanks, I owe you one."

"And I didn't even have to lie."

"The setting is everything, Jake. They saw what they expected to see, and now everyone's happy." She wandered here and there through the front room and began gathering up her artfully scattered clothing.

"Except me. I'm on vacation and you're still in my front room," he pointed out.

"Don't worry, Jake. I'll sleep on the couch, and I'll be gone long before you wake up. You'll never even know I was here."

Shuffling past her into his bedroom, Jake Jivinan voiced his thoughts on that in a hushed whisper as he flicked off the lights and climbed back into bed. "Maybe that's what I'm unhappy about."