Nine

Gem didn't care how long they had stayed at the doctor's surgery.

Time to her was of no consequence.

Jesse was making a slow recovery, and the ever present threat of infection had been averted. Her own wound had been debrided and surgically dressed. Both were on light sedation to help with pain management; she was now officially as dull on the outside as she was on the in.

"I have a transport for you both heading out of Corellia tonight."

Silent stares crossed the room. The unmitigated threat rose it's ugly head once again.

Jesse felt the familiar rise of his heart rate. He knew what it meant, he had just been given new orders. All he had to do was consider it another mission on top of the hundreds he had received in the past.

Only this time, there was no brother covering his back.

This time he was all alone and a civilian was involved.

What he didn't know was that both of them were only in it for each other.

There had been a time during the past three days when Jess had contemplated a bottle of Morpha on the bench. He went through it in his mind. He knew what to do, fek he's seen Kix do it often enough and he had helped the medic pump it into a brothers arm more times than he care remember.

He also knew how much to take to get him over the line.

First his body would go numb followed by the heavy weight of his limbs. His heart rate would be all over the place, and that was when the panic would set in as his body would fight to stay awake when in reality, all it wants to do is shut down.

If he could then push past the guilt and just close his eyes and give in, it could all be over, in less than three minutes.

The line was already in, all he had to do was top it up.

But then he looked over at her. The forlorn white face with the permanent dark circles etched under her eyes. Gem was now a wasted figure from not only the physical pain, but also from the mental anguish that lay just below the surface.

Her lithe torso, along with her endearing heart had been scarred for life.

No; he had to keep going if not for her, but for the captain.

The cap would expect no less from one of his men.

So Jesse stopped looking at the little glass bottle on the durosteel bench and closed his eyes.

He mentally allowed himself another minute before he would rise and dress.

CT-5497 had a new objective: to save the Honourable People's Representative from Oriis.

At all costs.

.

Gem on the other hand felt nothing when the doctor came into their room and mentioned the ride. He had selflessly organised them a transport off and away from the prying eyes of the Corellian people. They both knew there was a bounty on any AWOL soldiers heads, and Jesse had just become an expensive man.

They watched in horror as Lord Vader stood beside the Emperor and listened to the broadcast, describing the new unit that had been formed for such a task.

Vaders First, Jesse had tapped on his datapad. It was a crude method of communication, but until he could talk again, it was blessed relief to finally be heard.

Gem raised herself from the bed and began to collect their small amount of clothing. She had made sure to take some of the finer pieces that Cariss had left out in the laundry, knowing full well how angry any woman would have been at having them stolen. A fleeting smirk of satisfaction crossed her mouth. Little did she know that it had spurred the scorned woman into reporting their presence at a cost to her lieutenant.

She would never know of the betrayal against Reed.

The doctor sounded optimistic that Jesse would talk again, but not without the implantation of a new voice annunciator.

At some point she would make sure he got one.

Gem always had a unique, unspoken relationship with the tattooed man. She looked at him as he gingerly began to dress. He had already begun loosing muscle mass. A diet of high protein shakes was not going to keep up with his insatiable metabolism. She inadvertently smiled as she remembered the night he had taken her to get that tattoo, their friendship sealed with a drunken trip to a seedy artist back on Coruscant. Then the time she sprung him with Vail leaving a supply closet together in the Senate building. She continued to stare at him, lost in a not so distant memory. Then she rememberedhow Rex would laugh, reciting stories about his antics alongside Hardcase.

'Stop!'

She remembered…

'Please?'

She would be resting her head on his chest, laughing and listening to his voice reverberate through her ear.

Just a snippet, an innocent mind trick.

'Rex.'

With his memory came another.

It was like a bolt to the chest.

'No. Not now. I'm sorry.'

It was too late of course.

That sudden weight of grief that only appeared when she forgot.

It would leak out, insidious and invisible, enveloping her entirely, gripping at her soul and twisting it amongst it's malicious tentacles.

She had to maintain control. Remain strong.

She couldn't breathe, the pressure all consuming and she swayed as she tried to stay upright and hold it together.

For Jesse.

He had seen it, as fleeting as it came she had regained her strength and composed herself, tucking the torture back down deep into a pocket where she could keep it from ever seeing the light of another day.

Buried, along with all the happy memories she and Rex had made for themselves with Piia.

And that's what hurt the most; the denial of something so beautiful, a simple love that knew no bounds.

Jesse reached for his datapad and quickly tapped out a message holding it forward for her to read.

You 'right?

"Yes, let's get you fully dressed."

Jesse was annoyed that she was ignoring her feelings. He had seen it often enough after a brother had died. He was guilty of it as well, deflecting the conversation, circling around the bantha in the room.

Death, grief, sorrow.

He tapped away again, shaking his head and tapping on the screen with urgency.

Gem, talk to me!

Her expression went blank. She knew he was on to her but she was determined not to open that pocket again, not until she had him clear of Corellia and safe from the Empire.

"Stand down trooper."

Her voice was devoid of any emotion. He had been given an order and stepped back over the invisible line that he had inadvertently crossed.

Jesse nodded his head and placed the datapad down on the bed, reaching for a scarf to wind around his neck and cover the black bruising.

They would not speak of it again, not for sometime.

They may have made it out of the Jedi Temple alive but a new menace was hovering, in black, like their collective grief who was determined to finish what had been started. The Clone Wars may have ended, but they now had a more bitter battle to fight, the one for freedom.

Unbeknownst to either of them, their resolve would be tested again.

The worst was yet to come...

...