Star Wars does not belong to me. Just Skylar & Co.
Big thanks to laloga and Janizary for reviewing!
Teanna, Tooka doll in one hand, held onto Fives with what could only be described as a death grip. She'd actually started crying when he began to give her to her Aunt Deena so that he could check on her mother. Fives gently pried her fingers loose from his shirt and Tea buried her face in the shirt of her aunt's mint green scrubs.
"I'll be right back, Squirt." He cleared his throat, "I promise, kiddo. I'm not leaving you."
The little Togruta pulled back to look him straight in the eye, "Like Mama's leaving me? Like Mommy, Daddy, and Obi-Wan left me?" His eyes glistened and she cried harder. I don't want Fives to go. Aunt Deena bounced gently, rubbing soothing circles on Tea's back. Uncle Devrin took her from her aunt and held the little girl close to him.
"Your Buir's not leaving you yet, ad'ika. You can't give up now, sweetie."
Tea just clung to him, crying and shivering violently. I want Mama. I want her.
Deena reached to take Teanna from Fives and the little girl started sobbing. Clinging to him so tightly. The ARC hated leaving her, even if he knew that the child wouldn't be alone. Devrin and Deena would be there for her.
And he needed to see Skylar before Tea did. He needed to know exactly what the little girl would be seeing when she laid eyes on her mother. And although he doubted it would be gruesome, Sky's injury wasn't extensive, he still didn't want to be surprised.
That, and he needed time to compose himself before he went back to Tea. He didn't want to scare her unnecessarily.
As he approached the threshold to Skylar's room, he fingered Tea's Tooka doll. She'd put in his hand right before he left her with her aunt and uncle in that waiting room. She seemed to think that doing so made sure that he'd come back for her, since he needed to give her toy back anyway. I didn't know that she cared for me that much. No. Sky's little girl loved him. Hence the reason that she'd kept bringing up his relationship with her mother in her own innocent little way.
It was several minutes before he finally worked up the courage to enter Sky's room. He gasped when he finally laid eyes on her still form. It wasn't gruesome, but it was so much worse than he expected.
Skylar was lying perfectly still, almost lifeless except for the telltale rise and fall of her chest that signified that she was still breathing. She had several different IVs, Fives counted three, one of them blood red, connected to the needles in the back of her left hand. And an oxygen mask. But she wasn't on a ventilator, so that was something.
Still, the sight of her lying so deathly still was enough to cause him to finally lose it. Thankfully, he'd closed the door behind him. Otherwise, he would have have fallen into the hallway. As it was, he slumped against the door and slid down until he was sitting on the floor. He began shaking so violently. It wasn't until he brought his hands up to his face and felt something wet did he realize that he was sobbing. She shouldn't be here. By rights, she shouldn't even be here. If I had been keeping a better watch, I wouldn't have been shot and she wouldn't have been distracted by me. This is all my fault.
Sitting here and crying like a baby isn't going to fix this. With a shaky sigh, he pulled himself to his feet and walked slowly towards Skylar's bedside. Hesitatingly, he took her hand, the one that didn't have the tubes connected to it, and gripped it tightly.
Deena had just told him before Teanna's outburst that people in a coma could sometimes still hear what was going on around them, even if they couldn't respond.
It's worth a try, I guess. "Skylar?" he began uncertainly. No response, of course. "Sky, if you can hear me, this is Fives." Boy, do I feel stupid. But this is for her, not me. He cleared his throat again, "You already know that, probably."
Still nothing. Somewhere in his mind, he'd hoped that his voice would be enough to wake her up. Here I am, an ARC Trooper, a clone, wishing that fairy tales are true. Boy, am I pathetic.
"Sky... Skylar, you've got to hold on." His voice broke yet again, "Please. You've got to wake up. Tea needs you. Your brothers do too." And I can't imagine life without you.
Still not working. Fives' eyes watered again, and he angrily wiped the tears away. He'd never really cried before today. He'd come close on the way back to Coruscant from Lola Sayu after Echo had died. But nothing like this.
Sky's life is on the line. I've got to get a hold of myself. She needs me to be strong, for Tea. I've got to pull myself together. Sky wouldn't lose it like this. The memory of her panicked voice when the Trandoshan's bolt had hit his arm came to his mind. He flinched when his mind mercilessly continued. The sight of her falling with the knife in her leg...
His grip on her hand tightened. So much for calming down.
But this was a calm as he was going to get. I need to get Tea. She's probably hysterical right now.
Without even thinking, he leaned over and kissed the woman's forehead, "I'll be right back, Sky." She's going to kill me for that if she ever comes to.
As soon as Teanna saw him, she wiggled out of Devrin's arms, almost making the blue-haired man drop her, and ran full force to Fives. He crouched and she smacked into him, wrapping her little arms around his neck as tightly as she could. She wasn't crying anymore, but the tears were still running down her little face. He stood up and handed Tea her doll before holding her closer.
"Is Mama going to be okay?"
"I don't know." Tea shivered and he rubbed her back like he'd seen Dev and Deena do. "But she's still hanging on. Do you want to see her?"
She nodded, so hard that one of her little montrals jabbed his chin. That's gonna leave a mark, but I'm not complaining.
As soon as he reached the doorway to Skylar's room again, with Devrin right behind him, Tea wiggled out of his arms and ran to her mother's bed. Being extremely careful as she climbed up to sit next to the woman.
"Mama? Mama, it's Tea. You've got to wake up. Please wake up." Devrin coughed discreetly, but when Fives looked back he could clearly see the other clone's tears. The ARC held back as the commando joined his niece at his sister's bedside.
Fives turned when he felt a gentle hand gripping his arm. Deena herself was tearing up, "Poor Sky." She sniffed, "She's the only sister I've got, Fives. What are we going to do if she does...?" He squeezed her shoulder and her work comlink chirped at that exact moment.
"I've got to go. Another emergency case. I'll be back as soon as possible, okay?"
He nodded and she rushed off.
Fives just stood there, watching Sky's little girl begging her mother to wake up.
Several hours later and Fives was awakened by the door sliding open. A medic and a nurse that wasn't Deena entered Skylar's room. The nurse was pushing some kind of cart with some unidentified medical equipment.
As soon as the medic, a Mon Calamari, approached, Fives sat up slowly on the couch that he and Tea were sleeping on. Devrin had left about three hours ago. Tor Squad had been sent on another mission.
"What's going on?" Fives asked with alarm, as the nurse removed Skylar's oxygen mask.
"Sir," the medic began. "I'm going to have to ask you and your daughter to leave the room." The medic cut Fives off before he could say anything, "Just for a few minutes." The male Mon Calamari's demeanor was reassuring, but after the med droid fiasco, the ARC Trooper wasn't too keen on trusting the alien.
"Tea's not my daughter. Her mother," he nodded soberly toward Skylar, "is a good friend of mine." More than a good friend, but he doesn't need to know that. "Why are you asking us to leave?"
"My apologies, sir. Miss Cordav has been unconscious for almost seven hours. My assistant and I need to insert the feeding tube, pronto. Or she'll starve."
No matter how much Fives wanted to stay with Skylar, he knew that Tea was a light sleeper lately. And the little girl didn't need to see what the two were about to do with her mother. He nodded, "Alright."
Very carefully, he picked up the sleeping little Togruta, but Teanna awoke immediately, "Fives, did Mama wake up?"
He shook his head sadly, "No, Squirt. The medics have to give her a checkup. We need to get out of their way." I want to tell her what's going on right now. But Dev's right. To a point. Tea doesn't need to know every little detail. She's still too little for that.
A feeding tube. This just keeps getting worse and worse. It didn't help that he was the only adult of their group there. Katarcca had went back to the underground for some unknown reason. And it would be several more hours before Deena's shift ended. Gabe couldn't come until his wife got back to the apartment, he needed to care for Briika. Beta and Aran Squads were both coming back home for a short relief, but they weren't due on Triple Zero until about noon the next day.
As soon as they landed, Top had wanted to head to the medcenter immediately. Kot had agreed with him. But Hew had insisted that they remain calm. They were professionals. And professionals kept their heads and followed procedure. They needed to debrief with General Zey first and meet up with Aran Squad. Then they could go. Top began to vehemently disagree.
"ENOUGH!" Doz yelled. The other three were looking at the normally laid-back man with varying degrees of disbelief on their faces. Doz had never ever yelled like that before.
The ordnance expert paused briefly before speaking quietly, "Arguing is not going to get us anywhere. We need to follow the rules first. It's what Sky would want us to do. She wouldn't want us to draw unwanted attention to ourselves. The last thing she'd ask for us to do would be to get ourselves court-martialed." That's true. Skylar cares more for us than she does herself. In the short amount of time that Kot had known the Mandalorian woman, that had been very clear from the start.
Doesn't stop us from worrying, though.
As soon as the eight of them reached the medcenter waiting room, they were greeted by Gabe in his hoverchair. Deena, the nurse, was nowhere in sight.
"How is she, Gabe?" Top asked, unable to control his anxiety any longer.
"The same. Her medic ended up inserting a feeding tube last night." He looks exhausted. Has he been here this whole time?
"How's Tea handling it?" That was Doz.
"She handling it pretty well. As well as can be expected with everything else that she's gone through already. She won't let go of Fives."
"And where are they?" Kot asked uncertainly.
"Sky's room. Both of them are out like lights. They kind of had a very interrupted night last night." So he wasn't here. I wonder why? He cares for Skylar just as much as my squad-mates do.
"Interrupted?" That was Wreck, Aran's sergeant. The other three members, whose names Kot hadn't even bothered to memorize since he was too preoccupied with worry over Skylar, were all extremely quiet. In fact, that entire squad hadn't talked much since Beta had met up with them.
Gabe nodded, subdued, "A medcenter isn't exactly a comfortable place."
At that moment, a piercing alarm came from one of the closer rooms. A team of medics, all organics, or 'wets' as Skylar's brothers called them, rushed into the room. And a very distraught Fives, a terrified Tea clinging to him, was pushed out.
"Fives!" Doz rushed to the younger clone and gripped his forearm to steady him. "What's happening?"
Aran stood there, all of them very unsure. Top, Doz, and Kot all exchanged very scared looks. Hew made to take Tea from the ARC, but both clone and child were clinging to each other tightly.
Kot had never seen a brother lose it like Fives was doing right now. "She... Sky quit breathing!" Gabe, Hew, and Top all tried to comfort Fives and Tea, but neither would let anyone near them as they clung to each other.
The former trooper let himself fall into the closest chair. This cannot be happening. This has to be a dream. Yeah, that's it. A really bad dream. But, by the way Doz, his squad's medic, and one of the men from Aran, probably their squad's medic, exchanged a quick look and rushed to the room, Kot knew that this was no dream. Not until Gabe's arm wrapped around his shoulders, did Kot realize that he was sobbing.
Please R&R.