The first thing Gail noticed when she woke up was that she wasn't wearing her familiar uniform base layer but was instead in a loose fitting shirt. The second thing she noticed was that her arm was set in a cast and secured across her chest in a sling. Using her good arm, she ran a hand over her face, taking stock of her injuries. There were a few stitches over her eyebrow and a bandage across her cheek. Her body ached but the pain was bearable enough for her to attempt to sit up.
"Whoa! Not so fast, Gail," a voice called from the tent opening. A young woman dressed in a green shirt and black pants entered the tent, dropping a shoulder bag on the floor. "You've been asleep for the past three days, no need to rush. Let me help you."
Gail was wary of the strange woman that called her by a name she hadn't heard in fifteen years, but nonetheless let her help her to a sitting position. "How do you know that name?"
Holly smiled as she sat down at the far end of the cot. "You told me the day that I found you. I don't expect you remember that, you were pretty out of it. My name is Holly by the way. Do you remember what happened?"
The stormtrooper was torn. On one hand, she had been trained to resist interrogation techniques and to keep her mouth shut but on the other, she felt that she could trust Holly. Obviously in her impaired state she had trusted her with her real name, that had to mean something. There was also the likely fact that the New Order had already recorded her as deceased, therefore was no longer under their scrutiny. "I remember my shuttle started to shake and all of a sudden we were plummeting to the ground. Did anyone else…"
Holly sadly shook her head. "I searched the area, you were the only survivor. I'm sorry."
A wave of grief washed over Gail as she took in the news. She had never been particularly close to anyone in her squad, but the thought that they were all gone in a blink of an eye hit her unexpectedly hard. A tear threatened to escape but Gail squared her jaw and reminded herself that troopers don't cry, troopers carry on and push ahead. Above all else, SHRKFN15 was a trooper.
A hand clasped hers. "Is there anything I can do?" Holly asked quietly, "I have some tonics to help with pain and if you want, I have made some to help you sleep. Are you hungry? I could go…I should go," the young woman rambled as she started to stand up.
If not for the seriousness of the situation, Gail might have laughed at the rambling girl. Instead, she felt a strange feeling of endearment for her. No one had cared about her in a long time and it felt nice, comforting. Gail tightened her grip on Holly's hand. "You don't have to go."
"Okay," Holly said as she sat back down and offered her a smile.
They sat in silence for a few minutes and Gail used that time to really look at her rescuer. She reasoned that Holly was approximately her own height and weight, only her breasts were a bit larger. Her dark hair was pulled back into a braid, and she had a slightly lopsided smile and kind, warm brown eyes the color of a wookie. She was an attractive woman, Gail concluded. Not that she was attracted to her, troopers didn't think like that. Troopers served the Order. Attachments were strictly prohibited.
The silence was broken by Holly leaning in a bit, "Since you're up, would it be okay to examine your injuries?" Gail nodded and watched as Holly moved closer. Holly's smile was replaced by a determined expression as she lightly touched the bruised areas around the stitches on Gail's face, then peeled back the bandage on her cheek. She reached into a duffle bag beside the bed for a clean cloth, and using a wash basin on a crate, gently washed Gail's cheek. Gail couldn't help but lean into the faint touch and sigh.
Holly's professional demeanor cracked slightly and she smiled. "It looks good, I don't think it will scar." After the bandage was replaced, the trooper watched as Holly paused and blushed, "I need to check…" she gestured at Gail's shirt.
"Oh." Gail looked down at the shirt in question and realized she only had one usable arm. "I'm going to need your help taking it off," Gail said simply, more than used to others seeing her in such a state of undress. Troopers lived in communal dormitories, where privacy was an unknown concept to anyone below the rank of sergeant.
Still blushing, Holly slid her hands under the white shirt she usually slept in and eased it over Gail's head, leaving the blonde trooper naked except for a few bandages and a cast. Holly had to control her breathing. She was supposed to be a physician and not let her hormones take control, but it was difficult when she felt an extraordinary pull towards Gail.
With a touch that lingered a second longer than needed, Holly traced her fingers along Gail's ribs, which were deeply bruised but thankfully not broken. Using her fingertips, she peeled the tape off the bandage that covered where Gail's chest tube had been and was pleased to see it healing nicely. She tried in vain not to stare at the blonde's breasts but it was hard since they were right there, and with the chill in the air, the troopers nipples stood at attention. Holly gulped and quickly checked the rest of Gail's stitches before replacing the loose shirt.
"So will I survive doc?" Gail asked in an almost teasing tone.
Holly nodded as she put a little distance between them. "Yes. In fact, you are healing much faster than I expected. Many of your cuts and bruises look over a week old instead of only a few days. I think you should be able to start moving around soon. Granted, you'll need to watch your arm."
Gail gently lifted her cast and grimaced, "How long will I need the cast?"
"Eight weeks, maybe a little less." A pout formed on the stormtrooper's face, which Holly found adorable. "It could be worse, you could have broken your leg. How about you take a nap and I'll make us some food?"
Gail nodded weakly as she found herself feeling exhausted.
Holly eased Gail back into a prone position, brushing a few sweaty locks of hair away from Gail's face as she fell asleep. When Holly realized what she was doing, she shook her head and stood up. She needed to put some distance between them. She knew falling for the enemy would end in disaster. Trouble was, the longer she looked at Gail, the harder it was to see her as the enemy but as someone that she wanted to kiss. Holly scolded herself as she left the tent, she never had this trouble when she stitched up Jawas.
Later that week, after Holly had cleared Gail to go for short walks with her, Gail accompanied her on plant scouting trips. She soon found out that the trooper had a sharp wit and sarcastic tongue, which Holly found extremely attractive. They mostly kept their conversations to safe topics, like the plants that Holly was seeking, and Gail's hatred of the vegetable paste that Holly tried to feed her as a vitamin supplement.
"I never thought that I would miss the supplement shots that Lieutenant Starther gave me every week," Gail commented as she reluctantly ate the paste (she only ate it because Holly tilted her head and pouted).
"You got shots every week? Do you know what for? If you have a condition I need to know…as your doctor," Holly rambled.
Gail shrugged, "I don't know, I've been getting them since I was five. Well, one of them I have been getting since then and the other one started when I was a bit older. I was never told why and I learned quickly that it was in my best interest not to ask. It's not a stormtrooper's job to question their superior."
Holly frowned, "I'll have to draw some blood later and run a few tests to make sure that you don't have any deficiencies." She took a bite of bread and slowly chewed, taking a moment to pick her words carefully. "Why did you become a stormtrooper?"
The blonde let out a mirthless laugh. "You think I chose to do this? Holly, do you know what a retired stormtrooper does?" Holly shook her head. "Neither do I because they don't exist. The average life expectancy of a trooper is twenty-two years. Does that really sound like something I would choose?" Gail stood up and let out a small groan when her stitches pulled on her side. "You want the truth? I'll tell you. Once upon a time I was Gail Peck, daughter of Captain Elaine Peck and Major William Peck. I had an older brother Steve who was already in a junior officer program when I was born. You have to understand that most people only have one child and I guess I was a surprise to the Captain and Major. One day when I was four, I was playing in our living quarters and my mother came in with a strange man and told me that I was going with him, that I wasn't Gail anymore and that I belonged to the Order now."
"Your parents did this to you?" Holly asked in horror as she imagined the tiny blonde being taken away from her home.
Gail looked out into the distance of the woods and nodded, "I was put in a transport shuttle and taken to the training facility where I learned discipline and the ways of the Order. I was given an identifier tag and a bunk. That was my life and I had no choice but to accept it. I aced my weapons qualifications and tested high in the pilot program. Ironically, I was on the shuttle that crashed headed for pilot training."
"Did you ever see your family after you were taken away?"
"I saw my mother once last year. She looked the same. Of course, she didn't recognize me, with the helmet and all. Steve died a few years ago. Apparently he pissed off Kylo Ren and got force choked. I don't know if my father is alive or not. What about your family? Do you have one?"
Holly set her lunch aside, not feeling hungry any longer. "Both my mother and father live at one of the rebellion bases. My mother is a doctor and my father is an engineer; no brothers or sisters, well not by blood. My parents have a habit of taking in lost strays for a while until they can find their way so I guess I had a lot of foster siblings growing up."
"Were you happy?"
Holly nodded as she thought about her childhood. "It wasn't always easy, we moved a lot but I got to see a lot of different planets and learned so many different customs."
"Nerd."
Holly stuck her tongue out at her. "Scruffy nerf herder."
True to her word, Holly took some blood from Gail that evening and put the samples in her little LNCH-BX drone to analyze overnight. Gail watched her with fascination as Holly cataloged all of their finds for the day. It was calming watching Holly in her element. To be honest, Gail found herself watching Holly a lot lately. She chocked it up to her deeply embedded trooper observation training. But that didn't really explain why her eyes continuously roamed to Holly's boobs or ass, or why she was having dreams about the woman; dreams that involved the doctor taking off her own clothes to check Gail's injuries.
Gail climbed under the blanket on the cot as Holly extinguished the lantern and settled on the makeshift bed on the floor. The night air chilled them as the wind picked up and rain started to patter on the tent. Letting the rain lull her to sleep, Gail was woken upon hearing Holly shifting on the floor beside her. "You okay down there?" Gail asked as she looked down and saw Holly shivering under the thin blanket and instantly felt guilty for taking her bed.
"I'm fine, I just need to put on my jacket," Holly replied but Gail shook her head.
"Bring your blanket up here, we can share. It's too cold for a single blanket," Gail said as she patted the small space next to her on the bed with her good hand. In the dark Gail could see the hesitation on Holly's face. "Look, I haven't killed you yet, I think you can trust me."
Holly hated that Gail thought that her hesitation was about her not trusting Gail when it was about not trusting herself not to act on her growing feelings. But how could she tell the blonde that? Pushing down said feelings, Holly grabbed her blanket and laid down next to Gail, draping the blanket over the both of them. It was a tight fit and the only way to prevent one of them from falling off the cot was to spoon Gail.
Her heart quickened it's pace as Gail settled in her arms. "I do trust you," Holly said as she felt Gail drift off.
"I know."
The next morning Holly woke to a tickling sensation on her nose and opened her eyes to see Gail cuddled tightly against her; turns out that the big bad stormtrooper was a secret snuggler. It should have been awkward to be sharing the tiny cot but somehow it worked, her and Gail fit like two puzzle pieces. Holly sighed as she let her fingers trace little infinity symbols over the exposed skin of Gail's back; in three weeks someone would be coming to pick Holly up and bring her back to the rebel base. What would become of Gail then? Would she want to come with her? Would she even be allowed to go back with Holly? There were so many questions that needed answers. "It's too early to be thinking so hard." Gail groaned sleepily as she lifted her head and raised an eyebrow at Holly's concerned face. "Is everything okay? Did I kick you in my sleep or something?"
Holly shook her head and fought the urge to press a kiss on Gail's forehead as they both sat up. "Everything's fine, I just have a lot on my mind. I should get up and check your blood tests. If you do have some deficiencies it would be best to find out now."
Gail nodded, "Yeah go check your lunchbox, I'll start heating the water up for breakfast."
"He's not a lunchbox, LNCH-BX is a highly sophisticated medical research drone." Holly replied as she defended her little red and yellow drone that was trilling and beeping, a sure fire signal that Gail's results were done. "What is it? Have you got a diagnosis?" The drone beeped and a hologram appeared on the tent wall. To say Holly was surprised by the results was an understatement. "Are you sure?" Holly asked the drone, who beeped indignantly at being accused of being wrong. "Okay okay, you're sure." Holly apologized as she pulled on her jacket and exited the tent. She found Gail stirring a pot of hot cereal, "Gail when did you say that you started getting the shots?"
Gail looked up from her stirring and frowned, "The first one started a few days after I was taken from my home, so five years old. The other shot started when I was ten or eleven, why?"
Holly sat down on a log that served as their bench, "I got the blood test results, based on the trace readings you have a hormone suppressant, which I suppose isn't that odd; I would think that it would be a bad idea for stormtroopers to become pregnant but these are fairly extreme. This suppressant actual blocks the chemicals in your body that stimulate your brain that deals with attraction and desire. Gail they effectively shutdown your sex drive."
Gail took the news in and tried to understand what it meant. "So now that I'm not receiving the shots I'm going to become a hormonal mess?"
Holly shrugged her shoulders, "It's hard to say, you're probably already feeling some of the effects. You'll have some mood swings and you'll start menstruating but I can give you some medication to help you balance out the hormones until you're settled."
With a nod Gail looked down at her feet, it was starting to make sense why she was feeling so clingy towards Holly, she was attracted to her…or at least her screwed up body was. She needed to sort things out before they got out of hand. Then Gail remembered that she had been getting two shots. "What about the other shot Holly? What was it?"
Now it's Holly's turn to look down to collect herself before answering. "A long time ago back in the days before the Rebellion, even before there was an Alliance people were nervous about the force, specifically children that showed signs of being force sensitive. The worry was that they could be dangerous since they wouldn't know how to control it so they made a neural block that could be administered to the children until they were properly train on how to control the force. Over the years it was banned because it was barbaric, the children were left in a depressed state since a part of them was essentially shutdown in them; many didn't survive into adulthood because of this. As far as I knew the drug hadn't been used in fifty years but I guess someone in the First Order brought it out of retirement. Gail I found this drug in you. You have the force within you."
If Gail had been shocked before she was floored now; there was no possible way that it could be true. "The force? Like jedis and that dickhead Kylo Ren?"
Holly offered a weak smile and nodded. "Gail think back to when you were young, do you remember anything strange happening when you'd get upset or scared?"
Gail combed through her memories but nothing stood out and shook her head. "I don't remember a lot from back then and what I do is hazy." She stood up and started to pace, "What does all this mean Holly? I don't have a clue on how to control powers. I've seen first hand how out of control Kylo Ren can be when he gets emotional, people die Holly." Gail shook her head and looked as if she was about to cry. "I can't be trusted with this, you need to find a way to suppress them again."
In a flash, Holly was up and hugging Gail; bringing her head to Holly's chest and stroking her hair. "I'm sorry Gail but I can't, once you go off the blockers you can't go back on them; they would kill you. I'll help you learn how to control it, it will be okay. Everything will be okay."
"Arghhh!" Gail groaned as she held out her good arm pointing towards a balled up sock. "Rise dammit!" Frustrated she crossed her arms and pouted, a week of force exercises had proved useless, not only couldn't she focus the force to move something a insignificant as a sock she couldn't focus period because all she could think about was the young doctor sitting across from her. It felt like every moment of the day was devoted to trying to make Holly smile or laugh. Her favorite part of the day was bedtime when Holly crawled onto the cot with her to sleep. All Gail wanted to do was walk up to her and kiss her but she didn't dare. Holly deserved someone so much better than a sad, broken excuse for a stormtrooper; she couldn't even lift a sock dammit.
Gail was brought out of her self loathing by Holly squeezing her shoulders. "Come'on I think you've had enough practice for now. Let's take our walk, I think the Fanza tree should be blossoming now. I might not get another chance to get some." They walked in comfortable silence for a while until Holly spoke up, "It took my friend Rey a long while to learn control too, before she started training the force only presented itself when she was under duress."
Sulking, Gail shrugged her shoulders. "I bet she could lift a sock though."
Holly laughed, "She once accidentally flipped her girlfriend into a table when she was trying to rotate a fork in the air. Boy oh boy was Phasma mad."
Gail laughed despite her brooding, "I once had a Captain named Phasma, not a real common name. I liked her, she was one of the only officers to care about their squad. It was a shame that she died in the explosion on the Starkiller base."
Holly debated on whether or not to mention that Phasma used to be a trooper but decided that she'd let Gail
find out about Phasma on her own. Holly stopped walking and took off her shoulder bag. "Here's the tree and look it's full of blossoms up at the top." Holly pointed to small clusters of blue and green flowers thirty feet above ground. "It shouldn't take long to harvest them." She started to climb the tree.
"Wait!" Gail yelled as she tugged Holly down with her good arm. "It's too high, you can't climb up there."
Crossing her arms, Holly smirked, "Do you want to climb up there instead? One of us has to, the blossoms only last a single day."
"Can't you do without them. Seriously they can't be that important."
"Gail they are pretty much the sole reason that I'm on this planet. The extract from the dried petals is the only cure for Jankon fever. Have you ever had Jankon fever?" Gail shook her head. "I didn't think so because if you had then you would be pushing me up this tree. Now are we done talking about this? Can I climb up there or do you want to?"
Holly didn't receive an answer only a scowl and rolled eyes. Holly started to climb and Gail grumbled, "I would climb if it wasn't for this dumb cast."
Halfway up the tree, Holly laughed, "I bet you're an excellent tree climber, just like a cat." Gail watched as Holly got up to the blossoms and started to shimmy across a limb to gather the blossoms. Gail didn't like the way the branch was shifting under Holly's weight.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Gail muttered under her breath as a knot grew in her stomach. Just then a loud crack echoed through the woods and as if in slow motion Gail watched as the limb broke and Holly started to plummet to the ground. Gail only had time to scream, "Holly!" before everything went black.
