Non-canon. I don't own Star Wars Rebels; Disney does.
...
It had been a week since the crew had taken little Ezra in. His ankle had just about healed, and his pneumonia almost completely vanished except for a few coughs here and there thanks to Hera's incredible medical skills.
Ezra truly enjoyed spending time with the crew. Only up until two days ago did Hera let Ezra out of bed. Before that, it was just laying in bed, eating soup, taking medicine, and only leaving the medbay to go to the refresher.
During those days, often different members of the crew would come keep him company and talk to him. Speaking with the crew is what Ezra enjoyed most of all.
Sabine would show him some of her art (even let him draw a few times), Zeb would tell the kid funny jokes, Hera would tell him all about flying the Ghost, and Kanan would talk about how he and Hera got the crew together. Chopper would just talk about how he liked to make fun of Zeb, and most of the time, Ezra didn't understand half of what he was saying.
On the seventh day that Ezra had been with the crew, which was today, Ezra decided he wanted to do something in return for the crew.
He was still lying in bed (he was currently using the medbay as his bedroom), and when he sat up, he rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock. It was only 6:00 AM. Ezra had been waking up extremely early for the past few days, not being able to sleep well because he constantly worried that the time would come when he would have to leave the crew. They only said they would help him while he needed it (or that's what Ezra thought he understood) and he wanted to stay with them for as long as possible.
Ezra stepped out of bed and wondered what he could do for the crew. After all, they had made the day his parents were taken away slightly easier to bear. For the rest of his life, he would remember it as not only the day the Empire took his parents away, but also as the day he met an amazing group of kind people that only wanted to help him. The crew reminded him that there were still good people in the galaxy (contrary to what he had thought from his four years on the street). He knew he would have to leave them soon, but he hoped with all his heart that they would let him stay a little longer than he needed to, even though he was already doing well. He thought the crew was the best birthday present he would ever get, and he didn't want to let go of them so easily.
Ezra walked out of the medbay, trying to keep as quiet as possible, and made his way to the kitchen. He decided he would try to make breakfast for each member of the crew, but he was slightly afraid to do so because when his parents were with him, he had never been a very good cook.
The crew had been giving him a lot of food, and Ezra had been so thankful and glad. He had never had that much food at a time, but they were kind enough to feed him even though he didn't ask them to!
He walked into the kitchen, glad to find that no crew members were up yet. He knew he wouldn't have much time, since the crew usually woke up at around 7:00 AM.
He immediately got to work, having planned on making toast. He set the plates on the table, grabbing napkins and setting them neatly by the plates. He also got glass cups and placed them by each of the plates. He only set four places, since Chopper was a droid, and could not decide on what he would do for Chopper.
"Well," Ezra thought, "I'll think of something later. Right now I need to work on this breakfast if I'm going to want to finish it before the crew wakes up."
Ezra quickly ate a small protein bar and drank a glass of orange juice for his breakfast, and got out the bread, butter, and jam to make the toast.
"All right," Ezra said to himself, "I think I've got everything ready."
He got two slices from the loaf of bread and placed them in the toaster. He also decided to turn on the stove and place two more slices of bread on it to try to speed up the process.
"Hmm, I wonder how you're supposed to work these things," Ezra thought as he began randomly pressing buttons and turning knobs on the small toaster and the stove.
"Well, I think it'll be best if I just leave it for a moment. In the mean time, I'll serve the orange juice for the crew," Ezra reasoned.
He went and got the orange juice from the refrigerator, and moved to the table and poured it in each glass. He felt proud at how his little 'surprise' was coming along.
Then, as he was about to put the cap on the carton of orange juice, the toaster suddenly made a loud 'ding' as the two slices of bread popped into the air.
Ezra was so surprised at the sound that he threw the carton in the air, while it was still open, and didn't realize he did until it was too late. He tried to catch the carton, only for his hand to hit it while it was still in the air, causing it to go flying across the kitchen, all while spilling its contents everywhere.
This all happened in a matter of two seconds.
"Ughhhhh... Kriff!" Ezra growled in frustration. Now he would need to clean all this up, and that would take him a lot longer than he had planned. The two slices of bread that shot up from the toaster landed on the stove, but Ezra didn't notice.
"Now why did it make that sound?" Ezra questioned. He walked up to it and turned a few more knobs, thinking that the bread was still inside. "There, that should do it," Ezra thought after doing a fair amount of pushing random buttons.
"Now I'll have to clean up this mess..." Ezra thought to himself, rather annoyed. He picked up the carton of orange juice, put the cap on it, and placed it back in the refrigerator. He looked at all of the orange juice spilled and knew it would take him a long time to clean up. "Well, I'll do that later. First I need to make some coffee in case Hera or Kanan want some," Ezra thought, remembering how every morning Hera and Kanan would be the only two with coffee.
He looked at the coffee machine, which was by the toaster, and was not sure how to use it. He remembered seeing Hera making hers, but he wasn't exactly sure. He reached for the small packets of coffee (at least that's what he thought they were) that he remembered seeing Hera with, and placed them in the top of the machine. He then grabbed another cup and filled it with water, and with that cup poured the water into the machine. He grabbed the kettle too, and placed it under the machine. He thought he was all set.
"Ok... now to start this up..." Ezra slowly said as he observed the buttons on the coffee machine. "Umm..." Ezra tried to read what the buttons said. "Ugh, I wish I could read!" Ezra groaned in frustration. He finally decided to just guess and hope for the best. He pressed a big green button and the machine made a 'beep'. It then started making a sound, and slowly, brown water started to pour into the kettle.
"Yes! I did it!" Ezra jumped happily at his accomplishment, but noticed that the kettle was only filled less than halfway when the coffee stopped pouring. Ezra decided to push the green button again, but became disappointed when it blinked red.
"Hmm, maybe it's run out of water," Ezra guessed. He reached for the cup he had used to pour the water into the machine first, and filled it up and poured it in again. He did this twice before pressing the green button again, and was pleased when it started to pour out coffee again.
"Ok, now that that's taken care of, I need to try to clean up this orange juice," Ezra told himself. "Where are the paper towels?"
He looked around and couldn't find the paper towels, so he began to search for them.
"Now, where could they be?" Ezra wondered. He crawled onto the countertop to look through the cabinets, but couldn't find the paper towels. He walked across the counter opening each cabinet, and soon came upon the last cabinet, right over the refrigerator. He had to struggle to get it open, since the handle was across from his position. By the time his hand reached the handle, he was basically sprawled across the top of the fridge.
He struggled to get it open, and when he did, he was relieved to find that the paper towels were there. However, surrounding the paper towels were a whole bunch of glass bowls and cups.
Ezra, though, was too overjoyed at his finding of the paper towels to notice the glassware. He reached his small hand as far as he could, and managed to get his finger on the rim of the roll.
Suddenly, the toaster made another loud 'ding', scaring little Ezra to death again. His whole body made a jump, causing the roll of paper towel to go flying out of the cabinet while it unrolled, at the same time hitting a stack of three glass bowls. The bowls were flung from their position, and were sent plummeting to the floor.
Ezra made a desperate attempt to catch the bowls, and reached out his hand. He was surprised when the bowls suddenly became suspended in the air.
"Oh man... am I doing that?!" Ezra briefly thought, before losing his focus (and his grip) from the top of the refrigerator. He, along with the bowls, fell to the ground from the top of the refrigerator. The bowls shattered underneath him, and he landed right on top of them, while giving a loud yelp.
This all happened in a matter of seconds.
"Uggghhhh..." groaned Ezra. He held up his right arm, which he used to brace his fall, and felt a searing pain spike through it. He sat up, and noticed there was a deep slice from his elbow to his wrist running along the ulna of his arm. There was a large piece of glass lodged vertically into his wrist, which had been the cause of the gash.
"Hmm..." Ezra thought, "...well, it's nothing I can't handle. I've had worse before," reasoned Ezra. He quickly and expertly pulled out the piece of glass and put pressure on the wound with his other hand, though he couldn't cover it all because it was pretty big. He then got up and sprinted towards the medbay, where he tightly rapped the wound and made his way back to the kitchen, knowing there was no time for stitches (even though he needed them). Luckily, the blood didn't stain his clothes, which included an orange t-shirt and dull green capri shorts.
Upon entering the kitchen, Ezra truly beheld the entire mess he had made so far. There was orange juice spilled along almost the entire floor, an unrolled roll of paper towel flung everywhere, and a pile of broken glass sitting in a pool of blood.
"Oh kriff... This is going to take a while to clean up... Well, I'll do it later. I need to finish making the breakfast." Ezra told himself. He looked at the time, and it was 6:30 AM. "At least the coffee worked out," Ezra optimistically said. He washed his hands to remove the blood, and moved towards the coffee machine. When he looked at it, he realized that it had overflowed! The coffee was spilled all over the counter, and had started to drip onto the floor.
"Oh no! Now I need to clean this up too? Come on!" Ezra moaned as he rolled his eyes in frustration. "Well, priorities first. I need to finish the breakfast and then I'll clean up," Ezra reminded himself.
He moved toward the toaster and wondered why the bread hadn't popped up (it had but he didn't notice, remember?).
"Hmm, maybe it got stuck in there. So, I'll just turn off the toaster and see what's going on." He turned it off (he knew how to because it was one large, prominent power button) and decided to wait for it to cool down. In the meantime, he turned to check the bread he had placed on the stove. When he saw what had become of his 'toast', he gasped in shock.
"Kriff!" He almost shouted, eyes wide. There were four pieces of bread scattered on the stove, all as black as charcoal, with smoke slowly rising in a small string from each one. "Uggghhg..." Ezra groaned in frustration, knowing he couldn't feed the crew charcoal and that know he would have to work twice as fast.
"Wait a second... if there are four pieces here, then what happened to the two that were in the toaster?" Ezra questioned. He walked over by the toaster, and because he was short (compared to the average height for his age), he couldn't really see the openings on the top of the toaster. "Well, only way to find out is to see if they're in there..." Ezra said to himself as he went on his tippy-toes and waved his hand over the toaster. He thought it had cooled down, since he couldn't feel any heat coming from it, and stuck his hand in one of the holes of the toaster.
"Ahhhh!" Ezra shouted, as he felt a burning pain in his hand. He immediately retracted his hand (luckily it belonged to his uninjured left arm) and fell backwards on his back. He grasped his left arm with his other hand and looked at it with wide eyes, gasping at the pain.
"Ahh! It was still hot! Ahh!" Ezra blew on his hand to try to ease the pain, but it really didn't help. His hand turned white, with red on the places that weren't burned so bad.
"Stupid toaster!" Ezra almost shouted, before realizing that the crew was still asleep. "Oh no, I hope the crew didn't hear this commotion... I still have about half an hour to finish..."
Ezra ignored the pain in his hand and got to work. He threw away the burned bread (careful not to burn himself again), and took four more pieces of bread from the loaf.
"Okay... last chance... come on Ezra, don't mess up..." he said to himself. He placed the four pieces of bread on the stove (not trusting the toaster) and decided on what to do next.
"Hmm, it's probably not safe to start cleaning this while the toast is on the stove. I have to watch it in case it decides to nearly catch fire again." Ezra decided.
He took a seat on the bench by the table where he had placed all the food, and watched the bread closely for about three minutes until he decided it was ready. He gingerly picked up the pieces one by one with his right hand and gently placed them each on the plates on the table.
"All right! This is looking great!" Ezra exclaimed proudly. He looked at the time, and it was 6:45 AM. "Ok, I only have fifteen minutes to finish spreading the butter and jam on these things AND clean up this mess... Well, I guess I better get started then!"
Ezra then brought the butter and jam to the table and carefully began spreading them on the first piece of toast. He made sure to get all the corners (personally he hated when his jam was not spread out over the corners) and continued onto the next piece. He did so until all four pieces of toast were covered with butter and jam perfectly, and Ezra was proud of himself. He looked at the time, and it was 6:55 AM.
"Oh no... I took ten minutes spreading the jam!? How am I going to finish cleaning up? Well, I should start now and work as fast as I can. Plus, the crew members usually need to use the bathroom first after they wake up, so at most, I have about seven minutes to finish," he finally decided.
He quickly went to cleaning up the blood and glass, since blood dries quickly and gets hard to scrub off. He picked up the glass piece by piece and moved them aside, not knowing what to do with them, and after wiping all the blood away with the paper towels he had flung across the room, he went to cleaning the coffee. He managed to get a little less than half cleaned up, but then the clock struck 7:00 AM.
Ezra began wiping the remainder of the coffee as fast as he could, which wasn't that fast since he really only had good use of one hand. He was a little over halfway done when the first guest walked into the room. It was Kanan.
...
Kanan had woken up five minutes earlier than usual to go check on the kid. When he made his way to the medbay and looked inside, he was only half-surprised to not find the kid there.
"Ezra?" He called, not expecting an answer. When he got no answer, he made his way to Hera's room.
When he knocked on her door, Hera was already awake, since she usually woke up earlier than everyone else but just stayed in bed relaxing.
"Hey, Hera," Kanan said, "Have you seen Ezra? I mean, did he happen to pass by here or tell you where he was?"
"No, sorry dear. Why? Is he not in his bed?" Hera questioned.
"No, but I'm sure he's just exploring the ship or something. I'll find him," Kanan replied, and then left to go look in the kitchen. Kanan thought that logically, the kid might have been hungry in the morning, so the place where he would most likely be would be in the kitchen.
Kanan came up to the door of the kitchen and was pleased to find out he was right. He could sense the kid inside, as well as smell something like burnt toast. He opened the door and walked inside, but was immediately surprised by the sight.
When he looked around, his eyes widened in shock at the mess in the kitchen. There was orange juice spilled across the floor, a pile of bloody glass in one of the corners, and bloody and coffee-stained paper towels were overflowing the trash bin. The room smelled like smoke, and Ezra was on the floor wiping up coffee.
When Ezra looked up at Kanan, his eyes widened and he immediately sprang up to his feet.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Ezra said in a nervous, almost teasing manner, "It's not ready yet! Shoo!" Ezra began almost shoving Kanan out of the door.
"Whoah, whoah, whoah, kid, what's going on?" Kanan asked, rather puzzled, "Are you okay? This place looks like a mess. I just wanted to check on you. Do you need help? What are you doing?"
"I'm fine, actually, thanks, and I can't tell you what I'm doing because it's a surprise. Now please, I need you to leave." While Ezra said this, he raised his arms to "shoo" at Kanan.
However, Kanan noticed something strange about Ezra. It looked like he was in pain raising his arms, and when Kanan took a closer look, that's when he noticed that Ezra's right arm was tightly rapped in a white bandage. However, the bandage was stained red.
"Ezra! Are you okay?" Kanan asked worriedly. He immediately bent down and grabbed Ezra's right arm to inspect it, but the kid immediately drew away.
"Ow! I'm fine, Kanan! Please, I want to finish... just let me finish. I'm almost done," Ezra replied annoyedly.
"Kid, this is serious!" Kanan fought back. His eyes immediately went to the pile of bloody glass in the corner. "Oh no... kid, did you cut yourself with the glass?" Kanan asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
"First of all, my name is not kid. It's Ezra. And yes, I did cut myself with glass, but that's none of your concern. I can deal with it myself, and please Kanan, I need you to get out for me to finish."
Kanan stood up surprised at how the kid talked to him. He then realized that he would be getting nowhere with the kid, and it would be better to go get the others.
"Alright, fine," Kanan said, and was just as soon out the door.
Ezra then went to the door and locked it.
"Well, it was easier to get rid of Kanan than I expected," Ezra said amusedly. He then went to the spilled coffee and continued cleaning it.
...
Meanwhile, Kanan ran down the Ghost's corridors as fast as he could and made it to Hera's room almost as quickly as he left the kitchen.
"Hera!" Kanan said while knocking loudly at her door, "HERA! The kid's hurt in the kitchen but doesn't want me to do anything about it! We need to help him!"
Hera, hearing Kanan's anxious tone, immediately sprang up from her bed and went to open the door. Her emerald eyes where filled with worry.
"Is it bad?" She asked.
"I don't know... he wouldn't let me see. He says he's making a surprise for the crew, but I don't think that involved hurting himself."
"Ok, let's get the others."
On her comlink, Hera commanded everyone else on the ship (Sabine, Zeb, and Chopper) to make their way to the kitchen as fast as possible because it was an urgent situation.
By the time Hera and Kanan made it to the kitchen, the other three Specters came just behind them.
"What is it Hera?" Sabine asked, confused.
"It's Ezra. He's hurt and doesn't want us to help him. We need to help him."
With that, Hera pressed the button to open the door, only to find it locked. "Kanan!" She called.
Immediately, Kanan was by her side and with a wave of his hand, he unlocked the door and it slid open.
...
Ezra knew he needed to work twice as fast, because the crew was already waking up. So, he decided to use both hands to clean up the rest of the coffee. He didn't get far, though, because his burned hand immediately started to hurt like crazy. Some of the skin began to peel off, and it felt like his hand was on fire.
Ezra then stopped cleaning the coffee and sat criss-cross on the floor. He began to cry at how much his hand hurt, and he took a moment to observe it. The burned areas were blistering and completely white, with red around them, and Ezra decided to not use that hand at all. He knew now that he wouldn't be able to finish, but he still had to try. He went back to cleaning the coffee, while he let his tears fall to the ground. He suddenly felt light-headed.
Almost immediately, the crew burst through the door. Ezra sprang to his feet, while the tears shone in his eyes.
"Oh my goodness!" Hera exclaimed. Are you-"
"I'm sorry!" Ezra shouted. He thought Hera was surprised at the mess, not the fact that he was crying. "I'm sorry! I'll clean it all up. I didn't mean for it to happen. But... I made you all breakfast..." Ezra said as tears fell down his cheeks. He pointed to the table, and when the crew looked, they saw that a beautiful breakfast had been set up for them. When they turned back to look at Ezra, however, they only saw a flash of orange disappear in the vent across the room, and Ezra's faint whimpers echoing out of that same vent.
"Ezra!" Sabine called. "Ezra come back!" She shouted as she ran towards the open vent.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." Ezra repeated quietly. He was hiding behind a corner in the vent, so they couldn't see him. "I didn't mean to make a mess. I only wanted to help. You all are so nice, and I wanted to do something nice for you." Ezra spoke so quietly that the crew had to closely pack together around the vent to hear him. "Please don't be mad. I'll clean it all up, I promise."
It sounded almost as if Ezra were scared.
Hera looked at Kanan sadly, before finally speaking up.
"Ezra, sweetie, please come out of there. We aren't mad at you. Please come out so I can check on you. I need to make sure you're okay."
"This isn't how it was supposed to go..." Ezra sniffled quietly. "It was supposed to be a nice surprise."
"And it is!" Hera gently encouraged. "You saved us all so much time and we are so excited to try our breakfast! But before we can do that, you are going to need to crawl out of there so I can check on you. Please, Ezra."
"...Ok..." Ezra spoke quietly. "Promise you aren't mad?"
"Promise," Hera said encouragingly. "You can come out, Ezra."
Slowly, Ezra began to crawl out of the vent. What the crew saw shocked them.
As Ezra was crawling towards them, the crew got a good look at his hands. Well, hand. His left was cradled under his chest. His right was covered in a bloody white bandage.
"Sabine, Zeb, can you guys step out for a moment?" Hera said when she saw Ezra was hesitating to come out. Sabine, noticing the hint in her voice, turned to leave.
"Aw come on, Hera—" Zeb said before he was cut off by Sabine.
"Yes, we were just going. I need to use the refresher." Sabine said looking a Zeb. Zeb finally seemed to get the hint.
"Oh—oh, yeah. I—um— also need to go to the bathroom." He stated awkwardly, not being able to come up with a better excuse. "I'll be back soon to eat because I'm hungry." He said so Ezra wouldn't think they were forgetting the breakfast he made.
"Same here!" Sabine said before walking out with Zeb close behind.
"You too, Chopper," Hera said, now frustrated.
Chopper let out a series of disappointed beeps before leaving.
Now only Kanan, Hera, and Ezra were left in the kitchen.
"Come on Ezra, let me see where you're hurt," Hera spoke softly.
Ezra continued crawling out, still cradling his left hand to his chest and using his right hand to hold himself up. Kanan helped pull him out and sat him down on a chair.
"Let me take a look at your hand, ok?" Hera said, gesturing to his left hand as she kneeled in front of him.
Ezra tentatively held out his left hand, and Hera almost gasped when she saw it.
The skin on his fingers was white and blistering, and the rest of hand was completely red. His skin was peeling off all over his hand. It looked like a combination of first to second degree burns.
Hera was devastated at the sight. She never wanted little Ezra to get hurt, or even think that they would punish him for trying to do something nice for them.
Kanan felt awful when he saw the kid's hand. Ezra shouldn't have gotten hurt. A pant of guilt rang inside Kanan, since he didn't wake up early enough to make sure the kid was alright.
"Ezra, honey, what happened?" Hera asked gently, taking his left hand in hers.
Ezra winced slightly when she touched his hand. "I... um... toaster." Ezra answered, not really sure of how to explain his stupid mistake.
"Those burns look pretty bad. We are going to need to take care of them right away." Hera answered.
"I know... I'm sorry..." Ezra barely whispered. He was starting to feel more light-headed.
"Why do you keep apologizing?" Kanan chimed in, but he made sure his tone sounded gentle and not mad.
"It's... a habit. I just don't want you guys to be mad. I'm so sorry about this. I just wanted to help. Please don't be worried about me..."
"Ezra, we're not mad." Hera interrupted. "And we do worry about you and your safety because we care about you. Can I see your right arm, please?" Hera inquired, noticing the blood-stained bandage.
Ezra tentatively held out his right arm, and winced when Hera began to unwrap it. Both Hera and Kanan were shocked at how much blood was on the bandages, and kept getting more and more concerned as Hera kept unwrapping his arm.
Finally the bandage was completely off, and Hera lifted Ezra's arm gently to see where he was hurt. She gasped when she saw the long, deep gash running from his elbow to his wrist.
"Ezra, what happened?" Hera asked, much more worried than before.
"I'm... sorry..." Ezra whispered gently as he winced. His eyes were fluttering closed as his lightheadedness was getting worse.
"Ezra, please don't apologize—" Hera began to say but immediately stopped when she noticed that Ezra was beginning to lose consciousness. It was worse than she thought. She gently placed her hand on his cheek to try to keep him awake, and noticed that he was very warm. Possibly a fever.
"Ezra, Ezra... hey," Hera said gently tapping his cheek. "I need you to stay with me, okay? We're going to get you to the medbay, but I need you to stay awake."
Meanwhile, Ezra's eyes opened slightly when Hera called his name, but began to close again as she kept talking. He couldn't really hear what she was saying. His lightheadedness felt absolutely awful, and he was having trouble keeping his eyes open. He could hear Kanan and Hera calling his name, but all noises were drowned out as his vision darkened. The last thing he remembered was falling towards the floor and a pair of green arms catching him before he blacked out completely.
...
Hera began to get really worried when she noticed Ezra was losing consciousness.
"Ezra, Ezra... hey," she gently called as she tapped her hand on his face. "I need you to stay with me, okay? We're going to get you to the medbay, but I need you to stay awake."
She could tell Ezra wasn't listening to her. His eyes opened for a little but then closed again, and he began to slump from his chair.
"Ezra," Hera called out worriedly, keeping her hand on his face to try to wake him.
"Hey kid, Ezra," Kanan joined in. He was now very worried, and he crouched down next to Hera in front of Ezra.
"Ezra," they both called out, Kanan placing his hand on Ezra's thigh to steady him. "Ezra," they both called out again, to no avail. Ezra's eyes remained closed and he was not responding to them. He slumped further in his chair, and then fell forward.
"Ezra!" Hera yelled, just barely catching him in her arms.
She held him bridal style and got up to take him to the medbay. She looked down at him, and her worry grew. He was pale, and sweating lightly. He was completely unconscious and limp in her arms. She began to walk out of the kitchen with Kanan close behind. Kanan didn't know what to do, so he just decided to stick by Hera in case she needed help.
On their way to the medbay, they passed Sabine, Zeb, and Chopper. Sabine came up to them first, seeing Ezra in Hera's arms.
"Oh my gosh... what happened? Is he okay?" Sabine asked worriedly. Zeb and Chopper just stayed back, not knowing how to act in the current situation.
"Not now," Hera replied, going as fast as she could to the medbay.
"You guys can go eat the breakfast Ezra made for you," Kanan said gently, following Hera. "I'll let you know how he's doing." Kanan told them, referring to Ezra.
Sabine wanted to help, but knew it was best if Kanan and Hera worked together by themselves. "Alright, you heard Kanan," Sabine said, her worry shining through her words. "Let's go eat."
Zeb and Chopper both wanted to see how the kid was, but knew how serious the situation was after seeing Kanan and Hera. Zeb and Chopper didn't argue, but did what Sabine said. All three of them didn't say another word as they headed to eat, worried about Ezra.
...
In the medbay, Hera set little Ezra down on the table, and was surprised at how light he was.
"I can't believe it's only been a week since we first picked him up, and he's already injured in the medbay again," Hera said sadly.
"I know," Kanan replied, not knowing how else to respond.
"I just realized... we don't even know how old he is. He's so light," Hera remarked as she began to gather the supplies she needed to treat him. Kanan got some bacta patches from the other side of the room to put on Ezra's burned hand.
"Wow, you're right. We don't even know his age. From the looks of him, I'd say he's about eight or nine years old." Kanan guessed as he began to clean the burns on Ezra's hand. (He's actually eleven, remember? He just looks so small because of his four years on the streets with barely any food.)
Hera, meanwhile, was cleaning the gash on his right arm. As she was cleaning it, Ezra winced in his sleep. Hera was silently relieved because that meant Ezra was still slightly responsive.
"I don't know. We really need to ask him when he wakes up," Hera said as she finished cleaning the gash and was preparing the stitches. Kanan meanwhile finished cleaning the burns and began to place bacta patches on them.
They worked in silence for the remainder of the time, focused on their tasks. After Kanan placed bacta patches on Ezra's left hand, he wrapped it in a clean white bandage that went from his wrist all the way to the tips of his fingers. Kanan finished before Hera, so he just sat by the kid and watched as Hera finished stitching him up.
"How many stitches?" Kanan asked Hera.
"I'm not done yet, but from the looks of it, about 17. I'm on 15... almost done," Hera answered, focused on her task.
Kanan was shocked. "Wow... that's a lot," he said turning to look at Ezra's face, which was now twisted in a pained grimace.
"Well, the cut was deep and pretty long. He's lucky he didn't slice through his ulnar artery. Then it'd be much worse," Hera said, not raising her eyes from her task.
Kanan was going to reply, but was interrupted when Ezra let out a soft moan. His eyes began to flutter and slowly open. Kanan stood up to look down at the kid, and Hera finished up the last two stitches. She places bacta patches on the wound and began to tightly wrap it.
Ezra let out another soft moan, and his eyes opened completely. Kanan called out his name.
"Ezra? Ezra, can you hear me?" Kanan gently tapped Ezra's face. Ezra's eyes looked unfocused up at Kanan, but slowly he started to become more aware of his surroundings.
"K-Kanan?" Ezra asked softly. "I'm... so sorry... about all this..." Ezra's eyes began to close again.
"Hey, Ezra, stay with me. Stay awake. Look into my eyes," Kanan said sternly but caring. Ezra's electric blue eyes opened again, and looked directly into Kanan's turquoise eyes.
"Did you at least like your breakfast?" Ezra asked quietly with a curious smile.
"Hera and I haven't tried ours yet, but Sabine and Zeb have gone to eat theirs. How are you feeling? Do you want to go back to the kitchen?" Kanan asked.
"My... head hurts," Ezra replied, sitting up and placing a hand on his forehead.
"Oh yes, I almost forgot you had a fever. Here, take this," Hera said, passing Ezra a glass of water and a fever-reducing pill.
Ezra swallowed the pill with the water. "Thank you," he told Hera, "and I'm sorry about the mess I made. I promise I'll clean it up."
"You don't have to worry about cleaning it up, especially in the condition you're in. You have 17 stitches young man, so you are going to rest for a little while," Hera said.
"Okay... but are we going to go back to the kitchen?" Ezra asked curiously.
Kanan spoke up. "How are you feeling? Does anything hurt? Do you think you can walk there?"
"I'm fine," Ezra replied quickly. "Don't worry about me." And really, he did feel much better. The bacta patches were helping a lot. "Let's go to the kitchen."
With that, Ezra hopped off the bed. He made it a few steps before wobbling and stumbling. Luckily, Kanan was there to catch him in time.
"Hey, hey, are you okay? Don't worry, I'm here," Kanan said as he held on to little Ezra. He was reminded again of how small the kid was.
"Yes, I'm fine. Sorry... thank you for helping me," Ezra replied quietly, ashamed that Kanan had to catch him.
"You don't need to apologize for things that aren't your fault. And I, as well as the rest of the crew, will always be here to help you when you need help, okay?"
"Does... does that mean... I can stay with you guys?" Ezra asked cautiously. He didn't want to push his luck, but he really wanted to know if they were going to kick him out for the mess he made.
"Ezra," Hera piped in, "did you ever think we would leave you?"
"Um... yes? M-maybe...?" Ezra blushed and looked down at the floor, slightly ashamed.
"Oh, honey, why would you think that?" Hera kneeled down to be at eye level with him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "You can stay with us as long as you want, and I promise we will be there for you whenever we can. You don't have to apologize. We'll take good care of you, okay?" Hera asked, her words overflowing with love.
"O-okay..." Ezra replied, his eyes still looking down on the floor. He was trying to hide the tears forming in his eyes. Tears of happiness.
Hera, noticing that Ezra must have felt ashamed, instantly wrapped her arms around him. Ezra stiffened slightly, not used to having someone hug him. Kanan then joined in, wrapping his arms around Ezra.
Ezra relaxed, finally feeling the warmth of the two adults around him. The gentle embrace reminded him of what it was like to have a family, and the tears of joy flowed freely from his eyes.
"Thank you... thank you all so much, for everything you've done for me. I hope one day I can repay your kindness." Ezra said.
"You don't have to repay us for anything. We care about you, Ezra," Kanan said, withdrawing from the hug. "Now lets go back to the kitchen and have some breakfast, shall we?" Kanan said standing up, placing a hand on Ezra's shoulder. Hera stood up as well and ruffled Ezra's hair.
"Okay," Ezra said.
"Oh, and don't worry about the mess. Chopper will take care of it," Hera said. "For now, lets just go eat breakfast and be glad that you are okay."
The group of three slowly left the medbay and made their way to the kitchen. Ezra couldn't have felt happier. He was so glad that these people cared about him, and he finally felt like he belonged.
He was home.
...
At breakfast:
"Hey Ezra, I just realized we haven't asked you yet," Hera said over a mouthful of delicious toast that Ezra made. "How old are you?"
"I'm eleven," Ezra replied as he ate a waffle Sabine had made for him while he was in the medbay.
"WHAT?" The whole crew said at once, gaping at Ezra.
"What? I'm eleven. " Ezra said innocently, enjoying his waffles.
...
Author's Note:
Hey everyone! I know it's been like two years since I updated, and I'm really sorry. I actually had this chapter half-done when I posted Chapter 3, but I never got around to finishing it. I'm probably not going to be updating as much on this story because I want to start several new stories and I have some really good ideas. Did you all see the series finale? I cried so much, and I want to make an alternate ending where Kanan lives. I also want to write a story that's like the Hunger Games in Star Wars Rebels, and another story that's like the Holocaust for force-sensitive children that will be sent to Mustafar by the empire (also SWR-based). Anyway, if I have a small idea that I like, I'll post it on here (as you can tell from the title, they'll mostly be Ezra-based). But don't expect too much on this story. Please tell me if you liked this! Also, what do you guys think about my ideas? What do you want to see first? I really want to start on the Holocaust one. I hope you all enjoyed and have a great day!
Also, thank you guys so much for your kind reviews! It really does take a lot of motivation to finish a story, and reading your reviews really made me work hard to finish this chapter. I'm really sad that Rebels ended, so I want to work hard on making more fan fictions to help keep the fandom alive! Once again, thank you all so much! Feel free to review with ideas you want to see in later chapters. I'll try to update as soon as possible. Don't expect another update for about a week, but if it's longer, please don't give up on my stories. I mean, it's been a year and I still updated! Also, be sure to keep an eye out for my new stories! You guys need to tell me which idea you want to see first: Kanan lives, Hunger Games SWR, or Holocaust SWR. Also, comment things you want to see in later chapters of this story (remember, I might not update as much on this story). Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!
