Rex II

Chapter 34

Rex and Appo walked through the corridors of the Jedi Temple and out into the streets of Coruscant, the tense silence stretching out between them. The initial joy of making it through the Council meeting was replaced with a growing sense of suffocation.

Without warning, Appo gripped Rex's arm. The action startled him and he whirled on Appo, fueled by too little sleep and too much caf.

"Relax, Rex," Appo said, holding him steady, "I only want to talk to you." He pointed to a small park nearby, and steered the Captain toward an empty bench clustered around a cluster of ch'hala trees. The two 501st officers sat beneath the fragrant trees listening to the slight musical sound made by the long fronds as they rustled in the slight wind of the city's perfectly generated climate. Appo didn't speak right away, so Rex removed his helmet so he could better hear the slight sound of the trees and appreciate the fragrant scent. He turned his face into the slight breeze, appreciating the moment. He'd learned to appreciate every moment over the past few months, and even being beside Appo, wasn't going to deter the small pleasure of appreciating the ch'hala trees. He inhaled deeply, feeling himself relaxing slightly, and felt Appo's curious gaze on him. Rex had spent so much time among blood and guts, he'd learned to take his pleasures where he could. And, just this morning he'd had Ahsoka in his arms, and nothing Appo did could take that away. He smiled to himself and inhaled more deeply. He sensed a slight motion and cracked open one eye, noticing Appo had also removed his helmet and turned his face into the slight breeze.

"It is pleasant," Appo said, looking up at the trees, with almost a childlike puzzlement. He turned to Rex, obviously wanting to say something to him.

Rex closed his eyes again, using the opportunity to get a brief moment of rest into his exhausted frame. "Whatever you want to say, just go ahead and say it," Rex said, not opening his eyes.

There was a long pause and Rex thought Appo wasn't going to speak at all. But, finally he did. "I know you don't care for me, Rex," Appo said bluntly.

Rex opened his eyes, and studied Appo with a frown. He was about to reply, but the 501st commander cut him off.

"Let me finish," Appo's voice was steady and filled with a calm Rex didn't remember being there before the Battle of Kaz'haria and his two months of imprisonment with Ahsoka. "You don't have to like me. I don't expect us to be friends." His eyes bored in the 501st Captain's and held them. "But, you will respect me and my authority." Appo sighed and ran a hand through his hair. It was rare for Appo to let his guard down around Rex. "I didn't ask for this posting. I don't think I can ever have the same relationship with the men as you." He stared out at where a small boy was walking with his father and staring up at him with absolute adoration. "They have a hero worship of you that I can never achieve no matter what I do. So, I am not going to try to replace you. I want to work with you so we can get our vode through these battles and get as many of us home as possible. I can't do it without you, Rex."

Rex stared at Appo. It was hard to find the vod unlikable when he was being so brutally honest and forthright. He shifted on the bench and extended an arm in the traditional Mando gesture of brotherhood. "For our vode." Appo smiled, a rare gesture on his face and it transformed his features, making him look like any other vod. "For what it's worth, I'll try to stay out of your way as much as possible."

Rex smiled at this, and clasped arms with Appo. "Alright. I can live with that."

They released arms and each returned to enjoying the peace of the trees for just another moment, before Appo sucked in a deep breath and glanced down at his chrono. "We should go."

He stood and extended a hand to Rex, graciously helping him to his feet. Rex nodded. Maybe Appo wasn't such a bad vod, after all. Maybe he'd misjudged him. He replaced his helmet and they continued on back toward the barracks, working together on a list of action items as they went. With a second officer to share the workload, the task was completed quickly.

"Sir," Rex started-

"When it's just the two of us, call me Appo, alright?"

Appo.

It was almost easier when he'd thought Appo was a total di'kut. This was disconcerting.

"Eh... right," Rex continued on, still not quite able to wrap his head around being friends with Appo. He moved on to more logistical matters. "Will you taking over all of the reporting directly to Skywalker now?"

"I would assume so, yes, why is there an issue?" Appo gazed over at him curiously.

"No," Rex shook his head, and couldn't help putting a hand up to where his ribs still ached from being thrown into the wall. He wondered how he could explain about Skywalker without sounding disloyal to the General. He blew out a heavy sigh, feeling caught between loyalties. "No issue."

## #

Coric stretched and looked up from the spectroanalyzer. With three medics working together, they were making excellent progress. But, there were some basic facets of biology that couldn't be denied. "Sly, where's a brother empty his codpiece 'round here?" He was about to rap on his codpiece for emphasis, always a satisfying sound, but glanced down and remembered he was only in fatigues. His armor was on Darkknell. Blown up with the rest of the place. Fek it. He missed his armor. It had been perfectly broken in and he could still recall every scratch and nick on it.

Sly gave vague directions with a nod of his head, his hands occupied with the blood samples he was holding. "Down the hall to the right. Don't wander too far, vod. We don't even have clearance to be in this sector of the medcenter."

Coric snorted, already headed for the door. "I get the impression you do a lot of rule bending here."

Kix didn't look up from the glass slide of bacterium he was studying as Coric left. He didn't seem to have moved in the past hour or two, he was so engaged in his work. Sly muttered some sort of comment back from where he was working on carefully adding another sample into a blood analyzer, but Coric didn't catch it. He was already on his way out of the lab. The change of light between the lab and the corridor caused him to stop and blink several times until his eyes adjusted to the change. His eyes smarted. They were dry and painful to the point of being blurry. How long had they been in there working? Must have been several hours, at least. Maybe he should check in with Rex. But, he didn't have an easy way of getting in touch with him. No armor meant no gauntlets or comlinks or helmets.

Not paying much attention to his surroundings, Coric wandered into the refresher and relieved himself in the nearest stall. He heaved out a huge sigh. "I need to cut back on the caf," he muttered, finishing off and tucking himself back in. He turned his thoughts back to the results of the spectroanalyzer, humming to himself under his breath. It was some baudy tune Fives insisted on singing in the showers. The lyrics were awful, but the tune was catchy.

The stall behind him opened.

"Talking to yourself. Singing to yourself. And, in the wrong place. Mentally deficient, perhaps?" A woman's voice behind him startled him, and he gripped the woman. It was pure trooper reflex. He pinned her against his chest, completely immobilizing her.

"Stand down, trooper!" the fury in her voice was evident. "What are you doing in here?! Explain yourself!"

Coric continued to hold her as she struggled against his chest, blinking and trying to process the situation. She was facing toward him, and wiggling a great deal. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation.

"Release me, or I will knee you, trooper," the woman hissed, her face just millimeters from Coric.

OK, that registered. He blinked and let go and studied her. She was tall and dressed in the severe fashion that civilians did when they thought they were important. Very important. Maybe a senator or something. But, not as frilly as that senator Skywalker was always hanging about. This one seemed more... sensible. He cocked his head to the side and studied her with interest. Maybe not a senator. Her only identification was a security badge. He couldn't read her name, but it was color coded. He wished he'd bothered to ask Sly or Kix more about the operations of the medcenter. He studied the badge for a moment, unsure what it meant about her rank or status at the center. He shrugged, and folded his arms across his chest. "I came in here to use the refresher. What are you doing here?"

"This is the women's refresher," she folded her arms across her chest in an exact imitation of Coric's, and he wasn't sure if she did it intentionally or not, but he liked the way it highlighted certain features of her anatomy.

Coric looked around. "A woman's refresher?" They had no such thing aboard the Jedi Cruisers. "Not sure the refresher cares much one way or another."

The woman stared at him at another moment as if trying to figure out if he was deficient. "Who are you?"

"Medic Coric," he said, straightening up his shoulders.

She scrutinized his appearance. "Medic Coric, where is your security badge?"

He looked down at his fatigues, and then back up at the woman. "Nope. No security badge."

"And, why don't you have a security badge, Medic Coric?"

He leaned back against the sink, and then startled when it came on automatically. He leapt forward, narrowly avoiding getting soaked by a small spray of water. He noticed the woman's lips quirked up in a small hint of a smile. He smiled, too.

She cleared her throat, getting serious again. She tapped his chest, and a small shiver ran through him at her touch. "Your badge. Why don't you have one?"

Coric was finding it hard to concentrate. "Eh...because I snuck in through the cafeteria."

The woman's eyebrows rose. "Who sneaks into a medical facility? Most troopers want to get out of here."

"They do," Coric agreed, "I'm here to do research to advance the case of a trooper in my Legion so he can get out."

The woman considered this answer. "Which Legion would that be?"

"501st."

"The Lost Legion," she said with open curiosity, "I was unaware we had any 501st here."

"You have one at the moment. ARC Trooper Echo. He came back with serious complications."

"Show me."

Coric considered her for a long moment, still trying to figure out exactly who she was.

"Trooper," the woman said in concise clipped tones, "you have no security badge and you are obviously not where you are supposed to be. Show me what you are working on, or I will have you escorted out of here immediately."

Coric scowled fiercely and led the way down the hallway. The lab door opened and Kix stuck his head. "Coric, there you are-" He stopped suddenly when he realized his vod wasn't alone. Sly appeared behind him.

"Director Valo!" Sly said, jaw dropping. He paled, dropping his datapad, which hit the floor with a slight clatter. He knelt down and quickly scooped up his datapad.

Coric walked over to help him pick it up, and Sly muttered to him under his breath. "Fek, Coric, she's the Director of the entire facility. What's she doing here?"

"She was in the refresher with me," Coric muttered back.

Sly stared at Coric like he'd gone mad.

"Sly!" Director Valo said, causing the young medic to startle and drop the pad again.

"Yes, ma'am?" Sly said.

Coric retrieved the pad for him again.

"You're supposed to be somewhere else at this time, correct?" Valo said.

"Yes, ma'am." the young medic acknowledged, head bowed.

"Then, get to it, before I need to put you on report. Again," the threat was very clear in her tone.

Casting a quick apologetic look at Kix and Coric, Sly hurried out of the room.

"It's not his fault," Coric said immediately, springing to Sly's defense, "he's been helping us."

"Shut it," Valo snapped. "I will be the judge of Sly's actions. He has been walking a fine line toward dismissal and possible termination for a while now."

Coric's froze at her words.

The facility director started to stalk around the room.

"Ma'am," Kix started, "we are-"

"Quiet!" she thundered.

She stalked back and forth around the lab, looking around. "You are not authorized to be in this lab," the civilian woman said, looking around. "You have none of the proper clearance to use any of this equipment."

Coric glanced over at Kix, his chest tightening with fear. They were so close to making a breakthrough which could cure Echo. "We are-" Coric began.

"Working to cure one of the troopers in your Legion," Valo said, "yes, you told me." She scowled fiercely. "You've placed me in a very difficult position, medic Coric." She pierced him with a withering look worse than the one Rex used to discipline errant troopers. She pinched the bridge of her nose, closed her eyes and breathed out opened her eyes again. "However, since you are already here, you may as well show me your work," Valo said, pointing to the glass slides containing their research samples. "You have two minutes to impress me. Make it good."

Valo listened to the two 501st medics work together to explain about a "Kaz'harian bacterium" which was impervious to traditional bacta therapy. They finished up their explanation in precisely two minutes, even with both medics showing her data and talking her through their work. It was most impressive and left her wanting to learn more.

"May I?" she said, holding her hand out for Coric's datapad. She swiped through screen after screen of encoded cell wall points. Fascinating. There was something missing, though. She pointed onto one of the diagrams, drawing the attention of both medics-

And, her comlink went off.

"Director Valo?" the chirpy voice of her assistant.

"What is it, Zan?"

"You're two minutes and five seconds overdue for our staff meeting. Is everything alright?"

She glanced at her chrono. The staff meeting. She closed her eyes, thinking of everything she had to do today. Of course. She had a full agenda of items she needed to review with the staff-

She looked back down at the datapad in her hands and made a decision straight out of her gut. "Zan, run the meeting."

"Excuse me?" her assistant's voice made it clear he wasn't sure if he'd heard the instructions correctly.

"You have the agenda. Take over. I have another urgent matter requiring my attention."

A small pause, then Zan's response. "Yes, Director." Her assistant was puzzled by the unusual request but obviously pleased with the huge increase in responsibility.

She cut the comm and turned her attention back to the pad. The two medics were looking at her curiously.

"My training is in medicine, but somehow all I end up doing all day is attending meetings," Valo said, rolling up her sleeves. "Today, I want to do actual medwork." She tapped the datapad. "I know how to solve this."

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