Disclaimer: I own no part of the Rogue Onestory, nor of the Star Warsuniverse.
~RC~RC~RC~RC~RC~
"Who the kriff still uses projectile weapons?"
Jyn's complaint came with a hiss of pain as Cassian probed at the wound in her left shoulder.
"Evidently, these people do," he responded. "It doesn't look like anything major was hit, but it will need tending soon."
Jyn nodded in acknowledgement, hearing the shouts of the people chasing them. "Let's keep moving."
Cassian took her right hand and lead her out of the alley where they had taken momentary shelter, watching all the time for their pursuers.
~RC~RC~RC~
This mission was supposed to be a simple meet-and-greet with a potential informant and supplier. The temperate planet they landed on was tucked away in a little backwater sector; not important enough for the Empire to occupy as yet, but prosperous enough for the Rebellion to attempt contact as a source of fresh food stuffs and some various, but needed, machine parts.
Cassian had left their shuttle on the outskirts of the largest settlement and they had set out to make their meeting shortly before the first of the planet's three moonrises. But within moments of entering the town, both Cassian and Jyn had sensed something was wrong. The town was deserted as far as they could see, but covered in an atmosphere of anticipation.
They had only made it a few streets into the city when the first projectile hit the wall, inches from Cassian's head. They had taken off running, intent on shaking their pursuers off before circling back to the shuttle. When they had turned the next corner, however, several locals had been lying in wait to fire on them and one of their projectiles had caught Jyn in the shoulder. Cassian had pulled her quickly into the closest alley to check the damage before moving on.
~RC~RC~RC~
Something - luck, the Force, whatever - seemed to have turned in their favor then, because just after Jyn's injury, the next several streets they ran down were deserted. She could see that they were closing in on their shuttle's location, but something told Jyn that this had been too easy. If it had been a trap on the part of the locals (why they decided to attack was still unknown, but the reasons could wait for later), it was a poorly planned one - they had survived much worse in the past.
Finally, they were free of the town, although they could hear pounding feet of their pursuers gaining on them. When they came within sight of their shuttle, Cassian released Jyn's hand long enough to reach into his left jacket pocket and enter the proper code into the shuttle's remote, signaling it to lower the loading ramp. Just as the ramp hit the earth below, their streak of good luck ended with a spray of projectiles coming from behind them.
They sped up, trying to reach the shelter of the ship. As they started up the ramp into the shuttle, Jyn felt a stinging blow to the back of her right leg and stumbled, falling to one knee. Cassian turned back to her and started to help her up, but she waved him off.
"Go - take off!" She urged him, knowing she could make the last few meters up the ramp on her own and they needed to get the ship into the air. Cassian nodded and ran for the cockpit.
She risked a glance back as she got to her feet and sprinted up the ramp, slamming her hand onto the control to retract it when she reached the top. A few projectiles pinged off their hull and the ramp as it closed, but she saw no other sign of pursuit.
Jyn allowed herself a small sigh of relief before pushing herself up into the cockpit. Cassian had the shuttle up and well into the atmosphere when she slumped into the co-pilot's seat. He glanced away from the controls for a moment, gesturing to her injured shoulder.
"As soon as I can get the autopilot set, I'll take a better look at that."
She looked down and was surprised to see the shoulder of her shirt and vest soaked through with blood. Wounds caused by a blaster tended to at least be partially cauterized by the heat of the energy bolt, but the old weaponry used on that planet was a projectile-based type, centuries out of date. The projectiles, typically small metal bullets, caused more damage the longer they stayed in, resulting in the blood that now covered her left shoulder.
"Oh," she said, just now realizing how much pain the wound was causing her. Cassian turned and raised an eyebrow at her, though his softened gaze betrayed his concern.
"You've running around with a bullet in your shoulder for the last ten minutes and all you can say is 'Oh'?"
Jyn smiled wryly at him. "Like you haven't done worse?"
Cassian merely rolled his eyes and flipped on the autopilot before standing up. "Autopilot's set – let's get that shoulder taken care of."
She nodded and stood, but swayed as she did, feeling suddenly light-headed. Cassian's hand shot out to steady her. He frowned, all humor gone.
"To the back. Now."
~RC~RC~RC~
The shuttle they had taken was a tiny thing, not much more than a cockpit and a cargo hold smaller than their quarters back at base, but it was enough. Cassian had stocked it with some rations and a better-than-usual medkit (as a team, the two of them got results, but they tended to accumulate injures rather quickly). He pulled both from storage after sitting Jyn down on a cargo container that doubled as a bench.
He knelt in front of her and eased off her vest before catching her eye. "The shirt's going to have to go."
Jyn raised an eyebrow. "That hasn't stopped you before."
A slight flush came to Cassian's cheeks as he grabbed the shears from the kit and cut the torn shoulder of her shirt away, leaving it hanging by one side. He reached for a container of water from the ration pack and cleaned away the blood and dust from the wound.
"This will hurt a bit, I'm afraid," Cassian said, reaching into the kit again and bringing out a small pair of forceps. "I need to get that metal out before I can bandage it."
"Again, this is different how?" She asked, turning her head to give him as much room to reach her shoulder as she could.
Cassian was right, of course; feeling the forceps digging around as he tried to grasp the projectile was not pleasant, but he worked fast. Soon the piece of metal was out, her shoulder was wrapped, and Cassian was cleaning his hands.
Jyn leaned against the bulkhead. "So...I'm guessing that planet won't be an ally anytime soon."
Cassian handed her an opened container of water and nodded. "They obviously don't trust anyone, though I'm sure Draven will want to know why."
"Did you get hit?" She asked, scanning him for injuries as she took a drink of water. Cassian shook his head.
"A few scratches," he admitted, "Nothing problematic. What about your leg?"
"It's fine; I just tripped."
Cassian stood. "I'm going to check the comms and send a message back to base – tell them we're headed back early. Finish that water." He leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead before moving back to the cockpit.
~RC~RC~RC~
The next few minutes passed in a slight haze for Jyn. She sipped at the water before resting her head back, shutting her eyes, and letting her mind go blank. Her shoulder hurt, but she knew Cassian had done what he could. Her right thigh ached as well, but that was likely reflected pain from landing so hard on her knee when she tripped.
Cassian reappeared and sat on her left, taking the hand on her injured side in his. He told her that the Rebellion was expecting them back in a few hours and a medic would be waiting for her when they got there. Jyn made a face and, even with her eyes closed, she could sense him smiling softly. Her dislike of the medbay was well known.
Jyn opened her eyes to take another drink of water, but when she tilted her head down, the shuttle wavered before her eyes. Quickly, she shut her eyes and leaned her head back again.
"Jyn?" Cassian sounded worried.
"I'm fine," she insisted, though she knew that was as true as whenever Cassian said it (in other words, not at all). She felt his hands check her shoulder, her forehead, her pulse.
"Your shoulder is looking as good as it can, but are you sure you didn't get hit anywhere else?"
"I banged up my right knee when I tripped," she admitted. Cassian moved around to her other side and gently placed his hand on the knee of her black pants, but almost immediately pulled it away. She forced her eyes open and, moving slower this time, looked down at him. His hand was coated in blood. Her blood.
Cassian tore his gaze away from his hand and looked at her. "You said you hadn't been hit anywhere else," he admonished, even as he reached again for the med-kit.
She blinked, feeling like every movement took twice the normal effort. "I didn't think I had been," she said, "I really didn't feel the pain until just now."
Cassian had turned back to her leg and gently prodded around, assessing the damage. "We are going to have to move you to the floor before you pass out on me and fall off this crate."
It was painful, difficult, and more exhausting than should have been possible, but eventually, Jyn lay on the floor of the ship's small hold and her folded up vest was acting as a makeshift pillow.
She hissed in pain as Cassian bent her injured leg up, her foot placed flat on the shuttle floor, and began to cut the soaked fabric of her pants leg away. More pain flared through her leg and radiated up her body as he cleaned the wound and began to wrap it up.
"Well, this one looks like it went through and through."
"And...that's supposed to be good?"
"Well, it means I won't have to dig around in your leg, like I did in your shoulder. Now hold on, I need to pull this bandage a little tighter."
As Cassian secured the bandage in place, Jyn found herself gritting her teeth. She knew the bandage had to be tight enough to put pressure on the wound, but holy kriff...that hurt. When he was finished, Cassian replaced the unused medical supplies and cleaned his hands again.
"I'm going to contact base again – see if they'll let us come back another way. I want to get you back sooner rather than later."
Jyn nodded in agreement, for once not complaining about the need for a trip to medbay. Cassian stood and left the hold, but returned to her side within moments.
He knelt down next to her. "They're letting us come back in a more direct route, but it will still take about an hour and a half. How are you feeling?"
Jyn huffed at the question. "H-how do you think?" Her voice sounded odd to her own ears, quavering and weak.
Cassian frowned again, reaching to take her hand again. His hand felt wonderfully warm on hers. "You're freezing," he commented, releasing her hand to shrug out of his jacket.
Jyn realized that the shuddering motions she was feeling were not coming from the ship, as she had thought, but from her own shaking. Some part of her muddled mind realized she must be going into shock, but she couldn't bring herself to care as Cassian leaned over her and tucked his jacket around her.
She kept her eyes on him as he opened the med kit once more and removed a folded square of metallic material. With a shake of his hands, it unfurled into silvery thermal sheet large enough to cover a person. Cassian tucked this sheet around her as well before sitting back down beside her.
"S-so what now?" she asked, still shivering. "Do w-we just sit here?"
"Well, no. Now we talk."
"Talk?"
"Yes. You need to stay conscious until we return, so we can...talk to pass the time."
If it wouldn't have taken more energy than necessary, Jyn would have rolled her eyes. "I-I need to stay awake until w-we get back?"
"Yes, you do," Cassian confirmed.
"Is that an o-order, Captain?" She asked, stressing his rank, which was above her rank of Sergeant. And which he very much disliked her using most of the time.
He smiled slightly, knowing she was teasing. "If I thought it would work, I'd make it one, but with you, you'd probably pass out just to spite the order."
Jyn breathed out a small laugh. "I can follow o-orders when I agree with them," she rebutted before changing the topic. "So w-who do you think is going to w-win this time?"
Cassian reached over and brushed away a few strands of hair from her face. "Maybe Antilles? Who won last time, again?"
The winner they were talking about was for the supposedly secret underground betting pool at the Rebel base concerning Cassian and Jyn and the condition they returned in from missions. It had started with Solo and a few of the Rebel fighter pilots and grown with each mission they went on. Each time Cassian and Jyn left base, their 'friends' would place bets on who would come back injured and how. Some would consider it morbid, but neither Cassian nor Jyn minded it.
Jyn thought for a moment. "Wasn't it the Princess? She was the o-only one to bet on you getting a c-concussion, I think."
Cassian smiled. "I remember now. The look on Solo's face when he realized that she had won..."
~RC~RC~RC~
The next hour or so passed in a blur of wandering conversations.
Jyn remembered talking about her recent work with the Pathfinder group (Kes Dameron was alright, but he would not shut up about his pilot girlfriend) and Cassian's many attempts to find a suitable body for K-2SO's back up drive (finding another KX-series body was becoming kriffing pain in the rear and they didn't dare put him in anything else).
At one point, Cassian lifted the thermal blanket up to check on her wounds. He seemed moderately satisfied with her shoulder, but quickly grew concerned when he looked at her leg.
"You've bled through the bandages; I'll need to change them."
Another few minutes of pain followed, though Jyn felt oddly detached from it. When Cassian finished and moved to replace the sheet, she slowly reached for his hand. He locked eyes with her and, feeling how cold she still was, seemed to understand what she wanted.
She soon felt much warmer (although still shaking and only semi-coherent), as Cassian slipped under the thermal sheet with her and the material reflected his warmth back to her.
Sometime after that, an alarm sounded from the cockpit. Jyn forced her eyes open to look questioningly at her personal heater.
"It's the atmo alert - I need to go guide us down manually. Will you be alright?"
Jyn nodded; she had long since abandoned the effort of talking and had been lying there, listening to Cassian's voice. She released the slight grip she had on his hand and he got to his feet.
"We should land within a few minutes - stay awake for me, okay?"
She nodded again, still fighting the urge to close her eyes and sleep.
True to his word, moments later Jyn felt a rumble as the shuttle landed and the loading ramp extended. Cassian reappeared at her side.
"We're back," he said, enclosing her cool hand in his warm one. She nodded slowly and found the energy to speak once more.
"See? I...I can follow orders..."
He smiled softly and brushed another lock of hair from her face. "I see."
He glanced away at the sound of boots coming up the ramp, then turned back to her. "You can rest, now, if you want."
Jyn summoned one more small smile for him before closing her eyes and falling into the black of unconsciousness.
~RC~RC~RC~
Cassian had seen Jyn safely into the hands of the medics before reporting in to Draven. Draven listened to his report with his usual impassivity. He merely said he'd mark off that planet from any future missions and sent the Captain back to medbay for the required after-mission check-in.
When Cassian had finished his own check-up (only a few scratches, not even worth bacta), he returned to Jyn's side. The medics had cleaned her up and replaced his field bandaging with stitching, bacta, and fresh bandages. He pulled up a chair to her bedside to keep watch over her, making sure her rest was as peaceful as possible. Soon, his own eyes grew heavy and he fell asleep himself.
He woke sometime later to find Jyn awake and arguing in low tones with a medic about staying overnight.
"I'm fine!"
"Sergeant Erso, I must insist that you stay here - you have just lost quite a lot of blood and you need your rest."
"I'm no longer in danger, am I?"
"No," the medic conceded, "You are not, but you still need a fair amount of rest."
"Then let me leave - I'll rest better in my own quarters."
"It would be much better to stay here, for observation, Sergeant..."
Cassian hid a smile as he stood and moved to Jyn's side.
If she was well enough to argue with the medics about staying in the medbay, he knew she'd be alright.
~RC~RC~RC~RC~RC~
Well, my first RebelCaptain fic. I have an idea for a small second part to this, but that will depend on reader response. I hope you liked it and please review!
Trekker
