Jyn wanted to pass out. Instead, against her body's protests she heaved herself back to her feet and scanned the mutilated horizon. Water…water. Her mind spun. Her eyes glazed and went out of focus. Keep it together Jyn, you have to stay conscious. Look…look. Really look. What do you see? What can you use? What can you possibly survive on?
Jyn walked around the fallen AT-AT and focused instantly on a leafy pile of shambles. Palms! She had heard palms and other desert plants held water, and although she was certainly no expert on the various alien breeds and what grew on which planets, one could hope…
She stumbled over and inspected a torn tree trunk. Not a single intact tree had survived. Instead splinters of several trees were tossed here and there, mixed up with rocks, warped slabs of metal, and scraps of charred trooper armor. Jyn roamed awkwardly over the pile, until she reached a palm trunk. It was covered with thick spines as large as her hand, growing upward like short spears reaching for the sky. She grabbed a spine and heaved on it, peeling it slowly off of the trunk.
The spines were certainly stubborn, but she pulled harder, heedless of her cracked, bleeding hands until she had a round, clear patch of exposed trunk underneath. Jyn dug her throbbing fingernails into the soft, spongy wood, and scrapped out a trench. The deeper she went, the cooler and softer the wood felt to her touch. This was promising! She continued until she pried out a chunk deep within the tree that looked moist. She quickly brought the piece of soft plant to her lips. Heaven! Just the velvety touch against her burned lips was a relief, and if she sucked hard on the sponge, she could get a few sips of water. It tasted acidic and dirty, but she couldn't complain too much. Not if it was better than nothing. She would need more chunks though, and she would need to get some of them into Cassian somehow. Jyn took off her padded combat vest and used it to put the pieces of moist tree trunk on as she pried more hunks out.
Once she had a dozen well-earned tree pieces, she gathered the vest around them to keep them wet and cool, and half walked, half crawled back around the walker to Cassian. He was still spread eagle on his back, lying in the dark shadow the AT-AT cast, exactly how she had left him.
She hadn't stopped panting, and her hands hadn't stopped bleeding. She peeled her fingerless gloves off, since her hands were swelling inside the fabric. Even with them off, her fingers were clumsy; trembling from exhaustion and the torture she had put them through as she brushed Cassian's hair out of his eyes and knelt by him. She tilted his head back to ensure some water would get in his throat, and proceeded to squeeze the woody pulp as hard a she could between her hands until a few drops of murky water fell into his mouth. A few drops missed and fell on his cracked lips. Using her thumb, she gently spread the drops around his mouth and chin, hoping it would alleviate some of his pain. She squeezed water until her hands screamed and her heart hammered from the strain, but she pressed those pulp chunks for every bit of moisture, and went back for more tree pieces twice.
Once she felt she could walk no more, she rolled Cassian onto his right side, and using her teeth, shredded the moist tree into a pulp that she patted onto the back of his burnt neck. It only took her a moment to find a sharp scrap of metal and use it to cut his shirt apart down the front. She covered his exposed chest and hands with more moist palm tree pulp. It wasn't a medicinal poultice by any means, but she hoped it would do something for his injuries. Her head was pounding again, and her ears felt strangely plugged up. She wasn't surprised this time when she passed out from exhaustion.
When she came to again night had fallen on Scarif, and the wind had lessened to a gentle but humid breeze. She wrinkled her nose, her skin feeling blistered and sore as she moved on rusted limbs to lean over Cassian's head.
"Cassian?" she asked. Her voice was actually above a whisper now, but still sounded wretched. "Cassian?" She cleared her throat and forced herself to hum a few bars of a mindless tune. Her fingers reached for his neck and felt for his pulse. Yes, he was still with her. Perhaps she could bring him back into the world of the living if she talked to him long enough.
"Cassian? Casssssssssian!" She sang his name over and over again, her voice becoming louder the more she used it, until she was able to bark into his face and shake his shoulders. She dared not slap or otherwise jostle him for fear of his injuries. After about 20 minutes of commanding him to wake up, she gave up and slumped back against the AT-AT, falling into a restless sleep.
She felt as if she had closed her eyes for only a minute when she felt a nudge against her leg. Her eyes flew open. Cassian was trying to nuzzle her thigh with his the top of his head.
"Cassian!" she breathed, happiness rushing through her as she and peered at him. His eyes were still closed, and he lay still. Had she imagined it? Was she beginning to hallucinate now?
"Cassian?" she asked again, to make sure. His eyes crinkled at the corners, and his fingers curled. That was the most response he gave her. But he was conscious! He probably needed water. Feeling miraculously energized all of the sudden, Jyn hopped up.
"Cassian, I'm here. I'm right here with you. We're still on Scarif, and it's nighttime. I'll get you some more water. I know it probably tastes like crap, but it's because it's from the meat of a palm tree." He made no reply, just inhaled deeply, wincing as if the very act of filling his chest with air pained him. "I'll be right back." Jyn promised, impulsively planting a feathery kiss on his forehead before hastening to the debris pile and tearing into the palm trees again.
She returned with several more chunks, freshly carved from a new tree. They were cool from the night air leaking into everything. The temperature was gradually dropping. How cold did Scarif get at night? How dense was its atmosphere? She had no idea if being burned or frozen was preferable, but for now her skin welcomed the change in temperature.
"Cassian, I'm going to tilt your head back and give you this water. Try to swallow some sips. It's only a trickle, but it's all we've got." She kept chattering, forgetting everything else as she concentrated on squeezing palm tree pulp into her friend's mouth. She continued a steady stream of mindless rambling, in the hopes that it would keep him awake.
She fed him as much water as she could. Then she applied more wet bark to his sunburned neck and changed the patches on his chest too. Scarif had four moons hovering in the sky, which shed an eerie light on them, so she was able to re-inspected Cassian. She was pleased that his face had been mostly shielded from the sun and debris, and rightly so, since they had been flattened face down when the blast hit. His hands were in good shape too. She certainly wasn't the best nurse, and now that her mind was alert, she began to worry about his wounds being infected already, and about her non-existent plan to get off world, and rejoin the Rebellion.
"Cassian, can you talk at all? Can you tell me anything?" she murmured, dabbing moist tree pieces against his forehead as her left hand tentatively stroked his shoulder. "Can you please talk to me? I know there's something broken in your right knee or foot, but I have no idea how to fix it. Do you have any ideas? Can you tell me what hurts?"
Cassian drew a deep, shaking breath, and coughed raggedly once. She froze as he moaned with the movement, then one of his eyes opened as he whispered:
"Everything hurts…"
Jyn laughed inappropriately, mainly out of relief that he had spoken. She cupped his face in her hands, kissing the tip of his nose and forehead and smoothing invisible strands of hair off of his temples before remembering herself and stopping with a blush
