Epilogue 2 - What a padawan teaches a trooper about generosity
Chopper lay in his bunk with the data pad and stylus in his hands. He'd woken from one of his nightmares. Rather than try to sleep, he decided to work on the battle vids, watching the droids. How they moved. How they reacted to terrain and circumstances. What it took to bring them down.
Absently, he heard the holocom softly beep a personal message arrival. A few seconds later his thought processes came to a halt. That had been the default setting. All the others in the room had personalized their settings. That could only mean the message was for him. He sat up, putting his bare feet on the floor. He'd never received a personal message since joining the 501st. Sometimes Slick had.., never mind, that was before; that was the past.
He moved to the desk slowly and sat, looking at the blinking light with a frown. It couldn't be good news. He ran his fingers over his lips. It was probably misdirected and not for him at all. That decided, he tapped the button and the blue hologram light flared.
It was the Jedi healer, Commander Offee that he'd been introduced to yesterday. His frown deepened as he set the holo on pause. She was probably going to ask for his medical file again. Healers were apparently like medics, persistent. He sighed. Too many people already had access to his medicals and he often felt naked in front of them. The Kaminoans, the medical droids, the Admiral, the General, Commander Tano, Captain Rex, the medics, his old commander and captain from the 224th, General Kenobi. Too many people.
As company medic and as second under Rex, Coric had full access as well. Coric had asked if the other medics could have access to Chopper's file. It had taken Chopper three days and a talk with the Captain to agree. The Captain had merely said, "It could save lives, Chopper, for the medics to understand what happened to you."
He gave a soft moan of pain. He'd give it to her, but only the portions relating to the Geonosis injury. That was all she had asked about. As far as she knew, that was his only injury. She was only interested in the interplay of blaster wound and explosion wound. His decision made, Chopper nodded and played the holo.
Her image began moving again and her voice spoke.
"Greetings CT 4523." Then she smiled. "Chopper. You know by now that Commander Tano and I were able to help Keel and he has probably already returned to the Resolute."
Chopper hadn't known. He was odd shift at the moment, but he nodded, pleased. It had been a hard assignment, but they'd ended up completing the assignment with no dead, no red and now, not even a yellow marked man. They'd all come home. That was good.
It was another talisman to be added against his nightmares.
She continued in her soft voice. If he listened well, it wasn't that similar to a Kaminoan's. "I wanted you to know that we could not have done that without your help."
Chopper grimaced and turned his head. He hadn't helped. He'd barely been cordial to her in the mess.
As though it were ship-to-ship live she answered that thought. "You did help, Chopper. Never doubt that. We could not have understood what we were seeing, what was going on inside Keel without your help. Without you to tell us about drilled in responses, we would not have been able to bring Keel home."
Her saw her pause. "I would not have understood how to help the other man in Keel's ward. I would not understand how to deal with it when it happens again in the future."
She was more generous than she appeared.
The image turned for a moment and fiddled with her image console. She then turned back to him and continued.
"Commander Tano tells me that you are the author of the newly released Directive 344. General Unduli was impressed with that Directive as was Commander Gree. Already we have begun the protocols for teaching it. I have spoken to both and they are in agreement. General Unduli has authorized you complete access to all battle vids from the 41st. The link is embedded in this hologram."
She smiled. At him. "Thank you, Chopper.
Her imaged faded to the link information and his fingers flicked the link to data pad electronically. Chopper saved the message. He knew that when the nightmares got bad, he'd like to listen to that soothing voice speaking those words of appreciation and approval and promise.
He thought about it for a moment. She hadn't asked for anything in return. He went to his helmet where his copy of the file chip was kept and slipped it out, taking it to the holocom. For a moment, he thought about sending her only the medical information. He had no doubts that she knew about his nightmares.
He ended up sending it all, giving her everything he was.