"Whatever Happened to Captain Rex"

Chapter 25

Rex lay back on a rubbery mattress in a small treatment room at Army Med. He stared up at the ceiling. It was not a very interesting ceiling, but, he had nothing else to do. He'd fallen asleep for a while, which was a good way to pass the time. He was starting to feel better without that extra shrapnel in his leg. But, now he was awake and didn't feel like napping anymore. He'd been officially admitted early that morning. It was close to noontime, and he was still waiting in the same room for his first evaluation. Ah, yes, this is one thing he clearly remembered from every stay in a military hospital- hours and hours of waiting around with absolutely nothing to do.

If he had his gear bag, he could find something to do. Clean something, fiddle with something, read something. But, his bag was nowhere to be seen.

So, he lay back, hands behind his head, and just stared at the ceiling. Yup. Hadn't changed much in the past five minutes. Rex ran a mental comparison to the ceilings of other treatment centers he'd been in. They all looked remarkably similar. Must be a master blueprint somewhere. Treatment rooms must be plain, functional, and devoid of aesthetics.

Rex quickly got bored of lying down again, and sat back up. He looked around the room, thinking it wouldn't take much to make the room more visually appealing. The first thing to change would be the color of the walls. Dull grey? Uggh. That's a tinny color. Why not blue? And, a poster or two of someplace visually appealing that folks always talk about visiting one day, like Alderaan, or something.

Rex studied the room some more. Yes, it wouldn't take much... he could see angles, floor plans, even building re-designs in his mind. He hadn't realized until that moment that he was even interested in architecture. He yawned and lay back down again, trying to sleep out of general boredom. Fek. He wished he were anywhere but here.

# # #

"Ahsoka!" Anakin said, aggravated, "Hey! Ahsoka! Have you heard anything I've said?"

Huh? How long has he been talking to me?

Earlier that morning, after she'd left MedBay, she'd hurried back to her quarters for a quick shower. She was hoping to grab something from the Mess Hall and then share it with Rex. She'd forgotten to ask him if he'd eaten anything at all yesterday, but with the surgery, she suspected he hadn't. She quickened her step, eager to get back to Rex as soon as possible. She wanted to spend every minute with him that she could before he was transferred off the ship today. She tried not to think about that. She was almost at the Mess Hall when she felt a familiar presence. Oh no.

"Ah, there you are, Ahsoka," Anakin put a hand on Ahsoka's shoulder and steered her into the Mess Hall, " I was just about to comm you. Obi Wan and I are meeting for breakfast. Then, we're headed straight into the strategy session. The time of the meeting has been moved up. We have a great deal of planning to do. Come join us for breakfast."

The way her Master said it, it was not a request. Ahsoka felt all of her plans crumbling away.

"Master, I have some things I need-"

"Your plans can wait. Obi Wan is already here. We both want to be debriefed about your time on TriLuna," Her Master kept his firm grip on Ahsoka's shoulder and steered her right onto the food line behind a line of waiting clones. Ahsoka fumed at his manhandling of her. She should be used to it by now. In the beginning, she hadn't minded it. She felt it was her Master's way of guiding her. Now, she was just annoyed by it. Four hours later, Ahsoka was fidgeting with the controls of her datapad. She sighed, and rubbed one of her booted feet against her other leg, scratching an itchy spot on her calf. She stared at her fingernails, trying to figure out which ones might need trimming. She idly ran her fingers up and down the cup of her empty caf mug. She stared at all the little scratches etched into the conference room table.

"Ahsoka," Anakin said, aggravated, "Did you hear anything I just said?"

How long has he been talking to me? What were we talking about? The new mission, right? We've been talking about the new mission?

"Of course, Master," Ahsoka said quickly, glancing down at the notes on her datapad, rather than meeting the eyes of her Master, "I've been taking notes."

"Are you OK?" Master Kenobi asked, in a gentler tone than the one Anakin had used, "you seem... distracted."

"Do I?" Ahsoka asked, stalling for time.

"Yes, you do," said Master Kenobi, "even without the Force, it's obvious. You haven't stopped fidgeting since we started the meeting. You're even more restless than Anakin at this age and that's saying a lot."

"Nice, Master," retorted Anakin, dryly.

Ahsoka tuned out the two Jedi Masters, figuring they were going to engage in another one of their lengthy verbal sparring sessions. Instead, she was completely tuned into all the shipboard sounds of the Resolute. She was listening for the sounds of ships taking off from the hanger deck, wondering if Rex was onboard one of the ships. What was he thinking now? He'd left, and she hadn't even come by to say goodbye? How awful...

"Ahsoka!" Anakin's voice startled Ahsoka to the point that her hand jerked and her caf cup tumbled over.

Commander Cody, sitting next to Ahsoka, caught the cup, and set it back upright. He gave her a sympathetic smile. She immediately saw in his gaze that he got what was going on with her.

Finally! Someone with a clue!

"Ahsoka!" her Master repeated.

"Yes, Master?" Ahsoka could tell her Master was angry with her now. She braced herself for his oncoming lecture. Surprisingly, it never came. Master Kenobi intervened on her behalf.

"I think now would be a good time for a break, Anakin," said Obi Wan, "Ahsoka, would you be kind enough to run down to the medical bay and get an update on Captain Rex's condition?"

Thank you, Master Kenobi.

"Why don't we just com-" Anakin started.

"Great idea, Master. I'll get going," said Ahsoka, and she was out the door before her Master could finish her sentence. Ahsoka raced through the corridors, dodging the busy crews. A few of the 501st troopers tried to say hello to her, she tried to smile in return as she ran by, but she was in such a hurry, it probably came out as more of a strained grimace. The wait for the hololift seem interminable. She was considering sliding down one of the emergency access tubes when the lift finally arrived, completely filled up with two hoverloaders of supplies.

Ah, just my luck, every lift is tied up with supplies! Ahsoka waited, very impatiently, while supplies were offloaded. She was so impatient, that she helped offload the supplies with the Force, and then ran into the lift. Finally down on medbay level, she sprinted for the medbay. She ran through the medbay doors and into the medbay. She immediately noticed that the medbay wasn't nearly as full. The room had a whole different "feel" to it than the day before. There were much less troopers in it, and the ones who were here, weren't injured nearly as badly. Ahsoka got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. But, not giving up hope, she sprinted in the direction of Rex's bed. She sprinted closer, noticing all the beds around him were now empty.

She rounded the corner, and there was... an empty bed, stripped of its' sheets. Just a bare mattress. Ahsoka sank to her knees. She knew this was a possibility. So, why did it hurt so much? She tried to stand up again, but she just couldn't. Not at the moment. He was gone. He was actually gone. Suddenly, she felt an armored hand on her shoulder. It startled her so much that she let out a shriek. She lost her balance and fell backwards into a white set of armored legs.

"Sorry, Commander, I didn't mean to startle you," the familiar voice instantly tugged at Ahsoka's heart strings. But, it wasn't quite the right voice. Rex's voice was just a little bit deeper in pitch, always gruffer, like he shouted too much.

Ahsoka looked up into the familiar helmet of Commander Cody. Ahsoka teared up. She couldn't help it.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force back the tears. Jedi don't cry. Jedi don't cry. Jedi don't cry. She took a deep breath, and opened her eyes again. Cody had taken off his helmet, and his eyes met hers. His brown eyes were warm with compassion, understanding the pain of being separated from someone you care about. Cody extended a hand to help her up. Ahsoka gripped his hand and just stared up into his face for a moment.

"Cody," Ahsoka said simply.

"Yes, Commander," Cody said, pulling her upwards and setting her back gently on her feet.

He gave her a reassuring smile, it was slightly different from Rex's smile, yet the similarities were there, and Ahsoka didn't know if all of this made it better or worse, somehow.

"You, OK, Commander?"

"He's gone, Cody," Ahsoka said, her voice hitching a little, "and, no, I'm not OK." She blew out a long breath, and then let out a long string of curses, making sure to work in all of Rex's favorites.

To her surprise, Cody laughed at her language, and the laugh was so very familiar that it hit Ahsoka like a physical blow. They might talk a bit differently, but they laughed exactly the same. "Impressive, Commander. Come on, I'll walk you back to the briefing room."

Ahsoka sighed miserably, her shoulders drooping low as they walked out of medbay.

As they walked out, Cody finally said, "Briefings aren't all bad, you know. We clones have a way of livening them up, sometimes."

Ahsoka looked over at him incredulously, "Seriously?"

His voice dropped low, "You ever play 'annoy the Jedi?' You take care of General Skywalker. I'm the Master at working General Kenobi. He never sees it coming."

"Cody, you do realize that I am a Jedi," she'd never suspected this of the mild-mannered 212th commander.

"Yeah, but you don't act like one, so that doesn't count."

Ahsoka wasn't sure if Cody had just given her an insult or a compliment. But, she was feeling better, so she didn't bother pursuing it.

"So, annoy the Jedi, huh?" she said, looking over at Cody, while they waited for the lift.

"A favorite past time of us clones," Cody said cheerfully, "never gets old."

Ashoka looked at him, puzzled, "Your Jedi is Master Kenobi. He doesn't get all worked up all the time, like my Master does."

"Oh, you'd be surprised," Cody said, "I don't think Skywalker learned all of that behavior completely on his own."

Ashoka looked at Cody incredulously, "Are you saying that Master Kenobi has full on temper tantrums? Because my master does."

Cody put his head back and just laughed. The sound made Ahsoka feel much better. There was no one it, but it was filled floor to ceiling with supplies. Still laughing, Cody reached over, hit the door release button, and sent the lift on its' way again.

As Ahsoka watched the lift disappear, she grumbled: "I think it would be faster to crawl through the access shaft."

Cody looked over at her and shrugged, "Supply day. Can't be helped."

Another lift finally stopped, but it was also completely full. This time, there was an apologetic supply officer inside. "Sorry, Commanders," he said, the doors closed, and the lift was gone again.

Ahsoka hissed with annoyance. Cody grinned. "Are you laughing at me, Commander?"

Cody folded his arms across his chest, and then said: "Perhaps."

They both stood there in silence, waiting for the lift. Ahsoka rocked back and forth on her heels impatiently. Cody chuckled. Ahsoka shot him an annoyed look again, which only made Cody dissolve into a sort of smirking noise as he tried to contain his laughter.

"New plan," Cody said, "next time the lift stops, we just commandeer the lift and toss out whatever shabuir is in there, alright?"

"Shabuir?" Ahsoka said, staring at him, she shook her head, "its always the quiet ones."

The next lift turned out to be empty and the rest of the meeting passed much more quickly. Somehow, knowing that Cody had her back made all the difference. She'd barely spoken with the 212th commander before this so she figured all of this must have been Rex's doing.

# # #

Still waiting in the treatment room, Rex sat up again, stretching after his most recent nap. He automatically looked down at his wrist, where his chrono usually resided. The overenthusiastic droids the day before had completely stripped him down before his surgery. Rex's wrist was bare. He wondered if his chrono had actually found its' way into his gearbag. Or, if he'd have to go through requisitioning a replacement. He and that chrono had gone through a lot together. He'd hate to have to break in a shiny new one. Every scratch and ding on the old one represented a memory- some scrape he'd survived. He had to admit he was rather attached to his old chrono.

Rex huffed out his breath with annoyance. Aboard the Resolute, he was treated with respect. He commanded an entire legion, regarded as the most highly trained in the Republic Army. When he walked through the hallways of the Resolute, everyone nodded to him in respect, or saluted. He'd earned that respect. Being kept waiting all this time felt... disrespectful.

But, he wasn't surprised. He was on Coruscant now. Everything was different here. Corrie was for Republic citizens, and he was not a citizen.

# # #

Rex had managed to doze off into a fitful sleep and was startled awake when the door finally opened. An older human male doctor walked in wearing standard issue medical garb.

He glanced briefly at a datapad in his hand, before introducing himself. "Captain Rex?" I'm Dr. Anhalt." Htte swiped through his datapad, glanced at Rex again and uttered a few noises under his breath. "Mmmm... clone shredder? Interesting."

Rex just watched him impassively, not in the mood to give his opinion on the topic of the new Separatist munitions. At the moment, he was more interest in getting something to eat than having a conversation. He was both nauseous and starving at the same time which was an unpleasant combination.

He watched the doctor unwrap the post-surgical bandages. Rex was amazed at how much padding there was. It came as something of a surprise, then, to Rex when his bare skin finally appeared. The doctor unwrapped the final layers off of Rex's knee with a cool, practiced, impartial touch. Rex steeled himself for the fiery pain of having his knee handled, but he didn't feel anything.

Why can't I feel anything?

Rex stayed completely silent, his eyes carefully tracking everything the doctor did. His knee didn't look any better for having had that surgery the day before. If anything, it looked even more swollen.

"Well, Captain, you're an interesting case. We haven't seen clone-shredder induced trauma before," the doctor pulled out a portable imager and studied Rex's knee more carefully. He looked up again. "Alright, I'm going to put you on the waiting list to get some high-resolution scans done. They're backed up at the moment. But, these scans could be of great interest to many." the doctor said, looking at Rex's knee with fascination once again.

Rex scowled at the doctor fiercely. He didn't care about being an object of fascination. He just wanted to get his kriffin' knee fixed. Everything that happened here determined his future.

"What can you do to fix it?"Rex growled out impatiently.

"Fix it?" the doctor looked at the 501st Captain like he'd asked a ridiculous question. He pointed to the center of Rex's kneecap, "You have almost no cartilage left. We can try bacta, but I'm doubtful as to whether it will fully regenerate. The damage is very substantial. Bacta needs a starting point to regenerate from. I was under the impression they explained all of this to you on the Resolute."

Rex felt his stomach clench in knots and his whole system chilled even colder than he already was. "There must be something you can do," he said, staring at the doctor with a look of icy calm.

The doctor shook his head as he pointed to another section of Rex's knee, "Over here, the nerve damage is so substantial that I don't know if your brain will ever be able to talk to these nerves again. But, maybe there is something we can do."

Rex felt a glimmer of hope. "What? It can be fixed, right?"

The doctor scratched at his chin, "I understand from TwoOneBee that he has discussed our exciting new limb replacement program with you, yes?"

The clone captain felt all his hopes sink away, "No."

"That is most disappointing. Alright, then. I guess we'll just have to try the bacta then and hope for the best."

# # #

Rex had to wait the rest of the afternoon to be sent for the scans, but at least someone at least brought him something to eat. It was standard medcenter food, but he was starving at that point and downed everything on the tray. It was already dark when a technician shook him awake, and took him for his scans. The scans themselves didn't take that long. Another doctor, whose name Rex didn't even catch, looked over the scans and just shook his head. He looked over Rex's medical records on a datapad, shook his head again, and then ordered Rex straight into bacta. Rex wanted to object. He wanted to at least see the scans for himself, and talk about his treatment plan for after the bacta tank. But, then, he realized he didn't have much choice in the matter anyway. He was property of the Army.

Rex flinched as he was lowered into the cold, gel-like bacta. Fourteen days of submersion. Hopefully, the miracle substance would do its thing and he could be reassigned back to the Resolute. But, there was that terrible nagging feeling in his gut that this time he wasn't going back home.

# # #