Where's Elesse gonna be? 

Elesse needs to finish helping the others with their scans.

...Kay. 

Is there somewhere on the ship Anakin can wait for her? 

The forward compartment, perhaps.

She nods, hesitating a bit.

"Remember what I said about a single point of failure, Anakin?"

"...I know."

"But I - don't wanna be alone, either..."

"Could you try finding one of your friends? Or Shmi?"

"They're all ex-slaves too, though, and even the little kids will be talking about it..."

"...Though maybe I could see if anyone wants me to watch their baby? Babies don't talk."

"Usually not," Elesse agrees. "And that would be otherwise helpful."

"Okay."

She gives Elesse a hug, then heads off to do that. 

And Elesse continues helping to process ex-slaves.

She stops by the forward compartment before takeoff.

Anakin has acquired four babies of varying ages. She's gotten them all to go to sleep at some point, and is humming a quiet lullaby. 

She looks up when Elesse enters and grins, though she doesn't stop humming. She seems a lot calmer than she had been when she left.

Elesse smiles.

"I'll be just ahead," she says softly, "until we break orbit and jump into hyperspace."

"'Kay," she whispers, then goes back to giving the baby currently grabbing her finger a silly grin.

Cute.

Elesse goes to prepare for takeoff, coordinating with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in the other two ships. The rendezvous is Odessa, a Mid-Rim world with the medical facilities and refugee programs to see to the necessary surgeries and placements. It'll be about two days travel.

Anakin seems determined to spend the two days glued to Elesse's side, though she'll let herself be nudged into spending time in the ad hoc nursery. Spending time with her mom is - she'll do it, but only if her mom is otherwise near Elesse, unless Elesse insists otherwise. She doesn't actively avoid Shmi like she does most of the other ex-slaves, at least.

(For friends... Her prediction that most of her older 'friends' wouldn't want to keep talking to her without Gardulla threatening them more or less bears out, at least in the short term. It's increasingly apparent she has a very weird definition of friendship, since at least one of those 'friends' deeply and openly loathes her, verbally attacking Anakin the one time Anakin approaches her, and otherwise seems determined to create and spread as much nasty gossip about the girl as possible. One older 'friend' does at least express a willingness to let Anakin hang out around him so long as she doesn't remind him she exists very often. Her younger friends are effectively rolled into 'helping with childcare,' and it seems she entirely lacks anyone she likes who's within about five years of age of her.)

(The adults are mostly more neutral on her, those with children sometimes a tired sort of pitying, but they're not exactly intervening with her social life, and they don't reach out to her.)

(Some of the problem becomes clear. Perhaps it may be fixed by the upcoming context shift, but something to keep an eye on, still.)

When they arrive, Elesse makes sure she's available to sit in on Anakin's appointment with the doctor.

Anakin is only a little clingy. 

The tentative verdict: they can remove or at least neutralize the explosive itself, and they can wipe the current data on the chip proper, both without likely problems. The chip itself, though - 

They'd have to remove a good bit of bone to get it out, and the collateral damage risk isn't insignificant, from the surgery itself or later inflammation. There's a high chance they'd need to fuse at least two vertebrae together, and anything that replaces the bone won't grow as Anakin does.

The chip's currently not in a location where it'd threaten her, though, and its casing appears fully intact. It might migrate as she grows, or the casing might become damaged, but - they can monitor that with routine checks.

Given all that - the doctor's purely medical recommendation is to remove the explosive now, but leave the chip in place until Anakin has stopped growing, at which point they'll be able to reevaluate and there'll be fewer overall risks.

Anakin is very, very quiet about this. 

Elesse puts a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You should get the explosive off now," she says quietly. "For the rest... We can seek a second opinion on a Core world. Jedi healers, perhaps."

Jerky nod.

"You'll be all right."

Lean. "How do you know?"

"Because I'm here to help you make it so."

Mrrr. (More lean.)