Hi all!

Thank you for all the great responses to this story. It means a lot! Here is the next installment. Enjoy!

Julie was late. Sunny looked up at the clock to make sure he was reading it correctly. Fifteen minutes past the hour. As a soldier in the GAR if one was late for anything, one was punished. Julie would not be punished but Sunny looked forward to his sessions with her and now that he was making progress toward walking, he wanted to keep going.

Why was she late? Did something happen to her? She looked so tired yesterday so maybe she decided to sleep in. Sunny heard footsteps nearing and then stopped outside his door.

He was disappointed when Dr. Banner and an unknown person walked into his room. "Sunny this is Dr. Nathan. He will be working with you on your physical therapy until Julie returns."

"Where's Julie?" Sunny demanded.

"She'll return in the next few days. For now you'll just have to continue without her," there was no room for argument. Sunny narrowed his eyes at Banner but didn't say anything. He had made much progress with Julie, physically and mentally. Now he had to work with the unknown. Well it wouldn't be the first time in his short life he had to adapt.

Sunny hissed and snarled at the man and his way of helping him. Unlike Julie, Dr. Nathan had the same mentality as the majority of doctors and saw Sunny as a unit and experiment to be worked on. Sunny would not complain though. He was not bred to complain. He just prayed that Julie would be back soon.

By the end of the day, Sunny's legs screamed in protest and when Dr. Nathan suggested that Sunny try and walk, Sunny squared his tired shoulders and raised his chin stubbornly.

"No." He said darkly.

Dr. Nathan met Sunny with a cold hard stare. "I order you CT-0426. I order you to try and walk."

"No," Sunny repeated again and his eyes flashed with ominous fury.

"You clones are supposed to follow any order given to you!" Sunny could see the red creep up the doctor's neck in anger and frustration.

"Yeah well maybe this clone only follows orders from someone who commands respect."

Steam practically blowing out of his ears, the doctor stomped away from Sunny leaving him on the bed. "Fine, you don't want to learn to walk no chip off my shoulder. The GAR can just send you back to the factory where you were hatched. Hopefully the assembly lines are coming out with better products than you!"

Sunny was glad that he didn't have his blaster because that doctor would be vapor and the GAR would have no choice but to "put him down." Yeah well, screw you too. Sunny fumed over the doctor's words but decided that an ignorant shabuir like him wasn't worth his time.

Every nerve, be it bionic or real screamed at him in protest. It never hurt this much with Julie but Julie wasn't here to fix it. "Banner," Sunny called into his comlink. "Banner!" Sunny shouted.

"Banner here, the doctor finally answered.

Sighing, Sunny said as nicely as he could with pain lacing though his body, "could you please come here? I need your help."

"You really should have just cooperated," the doctor lightly scolded as he rewrapped Sunny's legs and then placed a sheet over his bottom half. "But Nathan was wrong to say those things."

Sunny raised a surprised eyebrow at the doctor. "Careful there doc, sounds like you actually are starting to care."

Banner pressed his lips in a thin line until they started to turn white. "I do care Sunny."

"You sure do have a funny way of showing it sometimes. Or maybe it's me." Sunny smacked his palm against his forehead. "Of course! The stupid, ignorant clone who doesn't have any idea of the outside world and wouldn't know what compassion looks like. I don't completely understand Doc, my brothers and I bleed just like anyone else. We cry out in agony when in pain and laugh when something is funny. Why treat us so dispassionately?"

"To tell you the truth Sunny, I found it very unusual for the GAR to have us working on a clone. Most of us believe you all to be mindless drones, guess it's easier to admit a drone dying out on the field than someone with a conscience and soul with no choice." Banner finished wrapping Sunny's legs and handed the man a clean shirt.

"What a surprise. Do you always judge a book by its cover?" Sunny's voice was a bit muffled as he put on the clean shirt and then gave the doctor a disgruntled look.

"One of the many flaws of being human and there's no excuse. But even as a clone Sunny I think you also suffer from this fate," Banner said.

Sunny cocked his head slightly to the side. "Oh yeah, how so?"

"You see civilians as arrogant and ignorant to you and your brothers. You think that no one understands you and your sacrifice for our freedom. If you open your eyes and ears just a little more I think you'll see that people will surprise you. I know I have been surprised in more ways than one and I have you to thank for it.

"So back to our initial conversation," the doctor cleared his throat. "I do care Sunny. I think you do too otherwise why would you keep fighting?"

"Because that's what I was bred to do," Sunny shrugged his shoulders but now he wasn't so sure.

"No," Banner said slowly and unsurely, "Sun, while you have some time on your hands I think you need to revisit that question. If that's the only reason you are fighting then, well no wonder we all see you as drones."

"Banner," Sunny called out as the older man was leaving. The doctor turned and waited for Sunny to continue. "Never mind."

Banner slightly nodded and left the room. Things were just so less complicated when I was jumping out of a moving vehicle.

His gaze was once again drawn to her hair, her lovely wheat gold hair. Tied up in a tight pony tail with some wisps framing her fragile face, Julie shifted her own gaze and gave Sunny a small half smile which caused him to slightly redden at the cheeks at being caught staring at her.

"How are you feeling today? I'm sorry that the temp was so rough with you yesterday. I'm lodging a complaint against him and seeing that he is removed from this hospital," Julie started to slowly flex Sunny's right leg and then ran her hand down in a massage motion. She repeated the process on his left leg.

"Nothing I couldn't handle," Sunny shrugged.

"Spoken like a true warrior," Julie snorted. "But in all seriousness, how are you feeling?" She stopped the exercises and looked at Sunny straight in his eyes.

Dark shadows still lingered making her porcelain skin still look ghostly, but today she seemed to have a little more color in her completion. "Maybe I should be asking you that," he countered.

Giving a weary sigh, Julie had Sunny lower both of his legs. "Sunny, this isn't about me. I'm here to get you better so you can go back to your squad or whatever the GAR wants you to do next." Folding her arms over her chest, she lost herself in thought. Sunny continued to watch her, silently pouting. How was he supposed to be more open if his new friend wasn't open to him?

His gaze suddenly locked onto a dark bruise on the top of her hand. "You must have smacked your hand pretty good to get a welt like that," Sunny nodded toward her hand.

Julie twisted her hand up to look at what he was talking about and then covered it up with her other hand, though it was pointless. "Um, yeah," she said distractedly. "For the rest of the week I am going to have you ride a low resistant bike. It will start to get your legs in motion and the muscles moving and stronger."

"Julie," Sunny started.

"Yes Sunny," Julie answered as she brought over a hover chair for him.

"The first time I got tagged by a blaster it was in training. I was so embarrassed that I couldn't show my face around my brothers unless I was wearing my HUD for a week. Then I heard others in the locker room laugh and joke about their mishaps. I found it okay to talk amongst my brothers about my trials and errors and learn from them. Guess what I am trying to say is that if we are friends, you can talk to me as well."

Sunny scooted himself to the edge of the bed waiting for the chair to be level with the bed. Despite her fragile appearance, she had a good amount of strength in her which he could feel as she braced herself against him and placed her hands on his chest and back, using herself as a support in case he lost his balance.

When he was situated on the hover chair, Julie covered his hand with her bruised one and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Thank you Sunny."

Sunny started off very slow on the bike, his legs protesting and sending the bionic nerves in all sorts of directions. Sunny gasped at the wave of sensations overloading him and even had to stop pedaling for a moment, causing Julie to worry that something had gone horribly wrong. Sunny had assured her that he was just getting used to having any sort of feeling other than the constant sleepy/tingly kind.

Julie had to constantly remind Sunny that he was not in a race and that slow and steady would get him healed faster. Sunny grew frustrated throughout the session when he found himself growing tired and his legs slipping off the pedals in lack of coordination.

"It's alright," Julie assured. "This isn't a mission to conquer. Take a break and then we'll continue." But it was a mission for Sunny. The sooner his muscles got stronger the sooner he would be able to walk and then he could rejoin his brothers. Gritting his teeth he dragged his tired legs back onto the pedals and slowly started up again.

"That's enough for today, you're going to hurt yourself," Julie stopped Sunny after another hour and this time he didn't protest. These legs were a lot heavier despite them looking like real ones and the rest of his body had to adjust to the weight. The skin had almost fully grafted itself the exception his feet. Daily tests and scans confirmed that everything was healing and proceeding normally. Now all he had to do was walk.

"So do you think by the end of the week we can give it a shot at walking?" Sunny asked and grunted as he slid back onto the ever humiliating hover chair. Soon…he thought to himself.

"I think so. You heal remarkably fast something we all can envy." Did Sunny actually pick up a hint of bitterness in her voice? He wasn't sure and decided to shrug it off. "I just want to make sure you are used to moving these muscles and can adjust to the different weight."

"I can adapt to anything," Sunny said confidently.

Julie turned her head and gave him a smirk. "You should try living a civilian life someday, but I have no doubt that you can Sunny."

Julie had surprised Sunny and had taken him to the small cafeteria to share dinner together. "I know it isn't much but I figured it's better than having another meal alone and staring at the same boring walls."

Looking around at his new surroundings, ignoring the few stares from the nurses and staff workers, Sunny turned and gave her another grin, "this is great Julie. You're right it does beat being stuck in my room." As food was set in front of them, the waiter stopped and stared at Sunny.

Sunny poked at his food until he turned a cold, sterile eye at him. "Want me to draw you a picture?" He snarled and the waiter took off in a hurried walk. "Di'kut."

"Di what?" Julie raised a questioning brow.

"Di'kut. It's Mandalorian for idiot," Sunny explained. He took a bite of his food and slightly grimaced. The hospital food had not been the greatest but it did beat the ration cubes he had been accustomed to.

"They taught you Mandalorian in the GAR?" she set her fork down thoroughly interested.

"No, but some of the instructors that were brought in to train us were Mandos and some of us really took to their way. Besides Jango Fett was Mandalorian and his blood runs deep. Not all of us feel that way, but a lot of us."

"Fascinating," Julie breathed. "What was training like?"

Sunny went on to tell her what his type of training was like. Though basic training was all the same for all clones, each went on to do something different and he was bred to be a paratrooper. He explained how they trained him to adapt his body to high altitudes and long falls.

After clearing their table, they made their way back to his quarters. Sunny found himself growing a little depressed knowing that the evening was coming to an end.

"So how did you get the name Sunny?" she asked as they made their way into his room.

"It's kind of an embarrassing story," Sunny mumbled.

"Ah come on, it's just you and me. I promise not to tell anyone," Julie prodded as she helped him into his bed.

"Okay, well after my first free fall test there was a Jedi general and my commander-Metric. When I landed I immediately took off my HUD and was smiling like a fool. The rush of the fall was just exhilarating I couldn't contain it. Seconds after I landed my brothers Ajax and Buddy landed and as luck had it the Jedi had to open her mouth and say, "Such a big sunny smile." She said some more stuff but my brothers were laughing so hard I didn't hear the rest. And the name Sunny stuck."

Julie looked at Sunny curiously. "You do have a sunny smile though."

"Awe not you too!" Sunny took his pillow and covered his face with it, trying to hide his embarrassment. When he slightly lifted it, he caught her smiling at him, which in turn made him smile.

"Okay, okay, I get it," Sunny tossed the pillow down. "I smile a lot."

"I like seeing you smile; it makes life a little lighter. Get some rest Sunny, tomorrow is another day."