A/N: Chapter 50! I have nicknamed this 'Big Chapter 50' because it's 50 pages to celebrate being the 50th chapter. Thank you for being great readers.
"Whatever Happened to Captain Rex?"
Chapter 50
Ahsoka groaned, and opened her eyes.
"Snips?"
She heard her Master's voice, but it sounded faint. The lighting was poor. She struggled to make out her surroundings with her sharp Togrutan vision. Everything was just a mass of shadows. She reached out for her Master with the Force. She gasped.
"It's OK, Snips. You'll get used to it. Just take deep breaths."
"The Force, Master! It's gone!"
From somewhere off to her right, she heard the voice of Master Kenobi. "They are using Force-suppression collars on us. The Force is strong as ever."
Ahsoka tried to reach her hands up to her neck, but she was still bound hand and foot. "Who, Master?"
"I don't know, Snips. I haven't really gotten a good look at them seen them yet. I don't know what we're up against."
"What do they want with us?"
Her Master sighed wearily, sounded slightly exasperated with her, as he did at times. She wondered if he was injured. Then, she gasped, remembering seeing him get shot, twice, and then getting beaten trying to come to her aid.
"Master, you're hurt!"
"We're all injured, Ahsoka," Master Kenobi called wearily, from off to her right. Ahsoka succeeded in turning her head, feeling the weight of the heavy collar on her neck. She could now that Master Kenobi was in a separate cell. He was lying curled on his side on the stone floor looking toward her. She could just barely make out his bright blue eyes in the dark. "Can you go check on Commander Appo? I haven't seen him move at all since we've been brought in. I'm concerned he might be, uh,-" He stirred slightly, pointing toward the corner of Ahsoka's cell, and then dropped his arm again. Ahsoka peered at Master Kenobi again, wondering how bad his injuries were. "Ahsoka, I'm fine. Please, can you go check on Commando Appo?"
Ahsoka looked around her cell, and for the first time noticed she wasn't alone. Tossed into one corner was the unmoving form of Commando Appo. His helmet, weapons belt, gauntlets had been removed. His armor was badly burnt and it didn't appear as if he'd received any kind of medical treatment. "Oh!" Ahsoka said, as she spotted the Commander, and shuffled over to him the best she could. The rough, cold stone floor scraped her hands and feet, but she didn't care. The Commander looked like he had been unceremoniously into the cell and not touched since. Ahsoka scooted herself around so her back was toward him. At least this way she could touch him with her bound hands. She could sense, with her normal senses, that her Master and Obi Wan were watching her from both sides of her cell.
"Commander, can you hear me?" she prodded him with her hands. "Commander Appo?" There was no response. She leaned down toward him. She brought her head down, hoping to hear if he was breathing. But, when she did so, her Force-suppression collar dug right into his injured shoulder. The injured clone suddenly shot up and grabbed Ahsoka in a strangle-hold. Both Anakin and Obi Wan gasped.
"Commander, back down!" Obi Wan shouted.
Appo looked around, his eyes wild with fever. The Force-suppresion collar was the only thing that prevented Ahsoka's neck from being broken. As it was, the padawan was gasping for air the tight stranglehold.
"Commander Appo! This is General Skywalker! Release Ahsoka immediately!" All traces of weakness had left her Master's voice, replaced by a coldness and deadliness Ahsoka had not heard before. His voice seemed to have dropped in pitch as well, assuming a tone that promised deadly consequences if disobeyed. Appo's eyes struggled to focus, and he looked around. He looked down at his hands, "General Skywalker?" His eyes suddenly widened in horror as recognition dawned. He immediately dropped his hands, from Ahsoka's neck and sank to his knees, "Oh, shab! Commander, I'm so sorry!"
Ahsoka collapsed, wheezing for air.
"Are you OK?" Her Master's voice had returned to normal.
Ahsoka just nodded, unable to speak quite yet.
When she finally caught her breath, she coughed and then weakly joked, gesturing at Appo, "Hey, I did it, Master. He's awake."
Anakin gave her a wry look and shook his head.
Appo knelt down by Ahsoka, reaching up with his good hand, "I'm so sorry, Commander."
"It's OK. No harm done. I guess maybe there is some use for these stupid Force collars after all," She nodded her head, indicating the burdensome collar around her neck, "and, why aren't you tied up?"
Appo shrugged, and then grimaced from the movement against his burnt shoulder, "Not as much of a threat as you, Jedi, I guess."
"Well," Ahsoka coughed one last time, "if it's any consolation, Commando Appo, I find you very threatening, at times."
Appo shook his head, and gave a small smile, conceding the compliment, "How about we see if we can prove these Kaz'harians wrong about us clones being a threat, and get these bindings off of you?"
# # #
Cody opened his eyes, and blinked, trying to focus. It took him several tries, but he was finally able to get his eyes to cooperate. He looked around the unfamiliar room.
Now, where was he? His head felt thick and mushy, but he was encouraged by the fact he could at least see properly again. He decided to try his voice. He spoke out the one name that had been his guide in all of this: "B- b- b-"
He squeezed his eyes shut, and then tried again, "B- b- bar- ba- rriss?"
It was silent, and he sighed deeply, closing his eyes again.
Shab. Totally alone.
Then, he heard a light flurry of feet padding into the room, "Cody? You're awake already? They told me you wouldn't wake up for….. Oh! Why do I even bother listening to them!"
Suddenly, Barriss was right in front of him, and she was carefully wrapping her arms around him in a light hug. "I was so worried about you!" She pulled back, beaming at him.
Cody studied her. She was just wearing a nightshirt. She looked down, as if suddenly remembering what she was wearing. "Oh!" she flushed, "be right back!"
"N- no!" Cody objected, still trying to find his voice.
Barriss was already turning to leave.
"B-b-b-a—rr-iss!" Cody shouted.
Barriss turned, "Yes, what is it?"
Cody struggled to get the words out. He had to force every word past his lips, "S-s-s-tay!" he demanded.
Barriss hesistated at the door, "I should change, Commander, it isn't proper."
Cody stared at her in her nightshirt, long hair flowing down, "N-n-n-n-ight?"
Barriss nodded, "Yes, it's the middle of the night."
Cody's eyes swept around the new room, "W-w-wh-w-" he couldn't get the word out.
"We've been moved to a two-bedroom apartment," Barriss explained.
Cody's jaw dropped in shock, and he was speechless.
"Yeah, it's really nice, too, even if there is hardly any furniture. Everything is new. It's the nicest place I've ever lived," Barriss blushed, "not that such things matter!" she quickly clarified, "because a Jedi does not care for such things!"
Cody barked in laughter, and Barriss stared at him. It was the first time she'd heard him laugh like that since she'd come to the medical center. She looked at him, and even in the low light of the room, she could see the sparkle of amusement in his eyes, "Y-o-.. –yo!" he said, still laughing. He sputtered out, still laughing.
"You think I sound like Master Yoda?" Barriss stared at Cody curiously, wondering just how much time the Commander had spent working with the wizened Jedi Master. She was finding out new and interesting things about Cody all the time. Cody had turned his attention back to their new surroundings.
"H-h-ow?" Cody asked, his expressive brown eyes sweeping all around the room, taking in everything.
"It wasn't me. The Jedi Council. I guess you must have a lot of friends there, Commander. When they heard what happened, they demanded better accommodations for you so that we could continue our healing sessions."
Cody snuck a look at her, liking the way her hair moved when she shook her head.
"F-f..r M-m-e?" Cody grunted again with frustration at how hard it was to push out just those those two sounds.
Barriss leaned in closer, soothing him the best way she knew how, "Yes, this is for you, Cody," Barriss nodded, and her fingers sought out his face. She began giving him a light face massage. She stroked his cheeks in soothing downward strokes. Then, she worked her fingers in all around the meridians in his forehead, before lightly brushing the sinus points above his eyes. Cody automatically closed his eyes, and then groaned in pleasure from her light touches. Barriss smiled as Cody responded so readily to her touch, "Yes, well, Cody, the Jedi Council does care. They really are trying to do right, by the clones. Now, you should go back to sleep. And, I should go back to sleep. We'll talk more in the morning, OK?" Barriss stopped stroking Cody's face, and his eyes popped open in protest. He made a disappointed pout with his lips.
Barriss laughed, "I've spoiled you, Commander!"
She smiled gently, and leaned over toward him. Cody stared up at her, eyes widened. His pulse quickened. What was she planning on doing? As she leaned down toward him, her hair brushed up right up against his face. Cody inhaled sharply. Her hair smelled like cinnamon. He would never forget that smell. Cody stared straight up. Oh, shab. He should have let her go change. Her nightshirt was not very thick at all. He could see a great deal from this angle. Barriss brushed the hair back from his face, her hand lingering on his scar for just a moment. It seemed to him that her hand lingered there for just an extra second. Why? "Good night," Barriss murmured. Why did her voice seem extra deep and husky? With that, she abruptly straightened, turned, and left the room.
Cody was still reeling from her touch, and didn't say anything in response. He just stared at her departing figure, long after she'd left. His skin tingled everyplace where she'd touched him. And, he swore he was starting to feel things, manly things, in places where he wasn't supposed to be able to feel anything. He sighed in frustration and blew out a breath. He stared up at the ceiling of his new room.
Cinnamon.
He knew it would take a long time to fall back asleep.
Cody's eyes slowly came back open, as they emerged out of their latest healing session.
"Tired?" Barriss asked, running a hand along the side of his face. Cody had an urge to lean in to her touch.
"I should be asking you the same question," Cody responded, looking at the dark smudges under Barriss' eyes. "Are you sure it's not too much taking care of me all by yourself?"
"What- are you offering to go back to your old accommodations?" Barriss asked, a teasing glint in her eye.
Cody gave her a look of mock horror, then smiled warmly at her, "No. I don't want to go back."
Barriss shrugged, "Then, you're stuck with just me." She got up and checked the food line that ran into his stomach. Then, she shifted his blankets aside, and checked his catheter tube. Even after several days of caring for him, she could still see his cheeks burning in embarrassment. Everything in order, she quickly washed her hands and then returned to his side.
"Cody."
Cody was still looking away and wouldn't meet her gaze. She took his chin in her hand, and spoke firmly, "Cody." After a moment's hesitation, he looked up at her. She could see how much his pride was hurt. "I'm a healer. This is what I do, OK? There is nothing to be embarrassed about. I'm sure you wouldn't feel this way if I was one of your brothers-"
Cody looked away again.
"Cody," Barriss tried gently gripped his chin again. "Cody, look at me." But, instead, Cody just closed his eyes, shutting her out. To Barriss' surprise, a tear slipped out the side of one of his eyes. "Cody, hey…"
"Go. I want to be alone." Cody said, firmly and dismissively.
She reached up and stroked the tear away with her thumb. "No. I'm not leaving."
Cody's eyes shot back open, and he gave her a mutinous look, "Leave me alone."
"No," Barriss said stubbornly, placing both hands on the sides of his face. She immediately started massaging his face. She went right for the meridians. She felt Cody sigh, and relax into her touch.
- Now, what brought this on? she asked directly, going their link.
Cody closed his eyes, trying to shut her out, but unable to since they were so closely linked through all of their healing sessions. She could feel his exasperation. She continued to lightly stroke his face. She could feel him sink into deeper relaxation as she hit pressure point after pressure point.
I don't know, really. Cody admitted. He sighed in pleasure, as she hit one of his favorite spots along his lower cheekline. Barriss lingered on that spot for a while, as she got him talking, slowly circling with her fingertips, lightly soothing.
- Was it because I mentioned your brothers? Do you miss your brothers?
That one word prompted a flood of images. Barriss saw the attack from Kaz'haria again, reliving it all from Cody's perspective. She felt his frustration as everyone kept telling him to hold still, but no one would tell him what was wrong with him. Then, she heard the repeated calls of 'Code Red' as his men from the 212th succumbed around him in the hallway of the Jedi Star Destroyer. When she heard the final call of 'Code Red,' Barriss was astounded. She didn't know Cody had gone into Code Red. His medical records hadn't told the whole story. She felt sickened- he'd been even closer to death than she'd realized.
Barriss also remembered she'd promised Cody she'd find out information on the surviving members of the 212th. She had yet to provide him with that information.
- I'm sorry, Cody. I totally forgot. I will contact the Jedi Temple and get that information routed here.
Thank you.
As Barriss re-experienced the ordeal from Cody's mindset, she gasped with the realization of how much post-traumatic stress Cody must have from watching half his Legion get blown up, and knowing the rest of his men had walked directly into a trap-
Don't blame yourself, Barriss. You do too much of that. Apparently, all of us clones are tightly-wrapped bundles of post-traumatic stress. It's a normal state of mind for us. We have been since they started throwing live fire at us as toddlers. Apparently, we're genetically designed to handle it. The Kaminoans are careful about cultivating those genes, and Jango, apparently, had them in spades. Guess you need them to be a good bounty hunter. So, they just perfecting those genes until they came up with clones who could handle oodles of battle stress. And, any clones who can't handle all that stress is weeded out early on in the process by the live fire exercises. It's apparently one of the big reasons why they introduce the live fire so early on. Survival of the fittest. Only the strong survive. Blah, blah, blah. The rest disappear in the middle of the night. I heard they toss us in the sea. Swim with the fishies. Although, the Kaminoans are 'merciful.' They are kind enough to euthanize us first, before we're dumped out with the rest of the trash.
- That sounds awful, Cody! I thought Temple Training was harsh. We lose padawans sometimes in our trainings exercises, but nothing like that, Cody. I'm sorry.
I'm sure Temple training is harsh. I wouldn't want to be a Jedi. I wouldn't pick your life over mine. The training methods were effective, and have kept me and my men alive. I'm content with my lot. And, you seem content with yours. But, I guess, for a laugh, we could swap stories from our broken childhoods sometime.
- It seems we have a lot in common.
Yeah, I guess we do.
Barriss was disconcerted at how easily Cody could read her thoughts when they were connected like this. She was used to it being more of a one-way process. Why was it so different with Cody? She could sense Cody's amusement.
I told you I was a fast learner.
- Too fast, apparently.
But, I would be very grateful if you could get me that information about the 212th.
- I will. Now, will you stop freaking out on me everytime I have to check your cathether?
I do not freak out.
- You do freak out everytime I have to go anywhere near your private sections.
Yeah, well, there is a reason why they call them private, you know.
- Funny.
I am. And, I do not freak out.
# # #
Barriss practically cried out with excitement when the transmission came through from the Jedi Temple. She ran into Cody's room, wanting to show him the information right away. He was sleeping, worn out from their most recent healing session.
He was gradually gaining strength, and they'd been able to push their sessions a little longer each time. The mass of the largest fragment was now greatly reduced. Barriss was sure they'd have it gone within the next few days, and could start working on some of the smaller fragments. The smaller fragments should go much faster. They might be able to even eliminate as many as one fragment a day. She hadn't wanted to get Cody's hopes up, so she'd held off on making any promises.
She decided not to wake him up. She looked back at the list in her hand. She hadn't left the apartment since they'd arrived. She received a food delivery once a day, with ready-cooked meals from the cafeteria. She reheated them as needed. Since she was the only one eating the food, and she was too busy with Cody to eat much, the food had been piling up in the conservator. Giving Cody one last look back, she grabbed a sandwich out of the conservator, grabbed the list and quickly left the apartment.
# # #
Cody groggily woke up, and looked around his room. He wished he could rub his eyes. But, he still had no feeling in his arms and legs, and his limbs were still restrained. He'd asked Barriss if the restraints could be removed the morning after they'd arrived at the apartment. She gave him a sympathetic look, and then firmly told him: "No." She reminded him of how dangerous even the slightest movements could be to his final recovery.
In their next session, she grabbed a datapad, pulled up magnetic resonance imaging, and clearly showed him where the fragments still were in relation to his spinal cord and neck. Despite this, he continued to ask everyday when the restraints could be removed.
"If I can't feel anything, why do I have to have restraints?"
"You can still have involuntarily muscle movements, muscle spasms, muscle tremors… it's just too dangerous. I know how much you dislike it, but the restraints have to stay."
The healing sessions always left him tired. But, it was a good kind of tired. He knew they were making steady progress. Besides, since he couldn't move, eat, or sit-up, he didn't have much else to do other than the healing sessions and sleeping. He did enjoy the conversations he had during and in-between the sessions with Barriss. Despite her severe appearance, she actually had quite a good sense of humor. It seemed they were always finding something new to tease each other about.
"Barriss?" Cody called. His throat was dry. He waited. "Barriss?" he called again, a little louder. He waited patiently. Maybe she was in the refresher. He closed his eyes, counting silently to himself. How long did ladies usually take in the refresher? He listened carefully. He couldn't hear any sounds in the apartment. He tried reaching out over their link.
Barriss? You awake?
- Cody!
The response seemed fainter than usual.
Yeah, who else would it be?
- Stay where you are, I'll be right back!
Stay where I am?
- You know what I mean! Hold tight!
What's going on? Are you OK?
- Yes, yes, I have a surprise for you. Stay right there.
Yeah, I think we established that I'm not going anywhere. Where are you?
- I'm at one of the other wards. I'm headed back now.
What are you doing-
- Hah! Just wait! Or, you'll ruin the surprise!
Cody could sense Barriss was actually very excited about something. Cody heard the door of the apartment opening.
"Where is he?" she heard a clone voice.
"Second bedroom. This way," said Barriss.
Barriss entered the bedroom, helping along a familiar figure.
"Trapper!" Cody shouted out.
"Commander Cody!" Trapper broke out into a wide grin, he looked like he wanted to hug Cody, but wasn't sure if it was OK. He looked at Cody's restraints and neck brace warily.
"It's OK," Barriss said, "you can give him a hug. Just a very gentle one." Barriss let go of Trapper, and he leaned down and very carefully gave Cody a light brotherly embrace.
Trapper straightened back up, and Barriss looped her arm around him to support him again. Cody studied him. Trapper's arm was broken and encased in a cast from shoulder to fingertips. All of his fingers were in individual splints as well. He was limping badly, and his leg was heavily bandaged. His whole face showed bad signs of recent burns and scarring, and his left eye was covered with a patch.
"I'm a sight, huh?" Trapper said, noticing Cody's scrutiny.
Cody burst out laughing, "Well, I'm a fine one to judge. Have a seat, Trap."
Barriss guided Trapper into the chair next to the bed. Trapper studied Cody critically, and then looked around at all the monitors and tubed hooked up to him, "It's good to see you, Commander. I'd heard you were very badly injured."
Cody snorted, and rolled his eyes, "Yeah, well you heard right on that account."
Trapper looked at Cody, his brown eyes wide and worried, "I was worried I'd never see you again, Commander."
Cody took a deep breath, "Yeah, me too." Cody looked over at Barriss, and then smiled, obviously trying to lighten the mood a little, "Thanks to our resident Jedi, I'm on the mend. I plan on being back on duty soon, and tracking down the rest of our unit."
"Yeah?" Trapper said, leaning forward, his interest obviously piqued, "I'd like to be a part of that. Do you have any leads, Commander? I haven't heard anything since I've been here."
Cody's face fell, "No, Trapper, I haven't had any news. To be honest, you're the first person from the 212th I've seen since arriving here."
Trapper's face fell, too.
"Yeah, me, too," Trapper said, glumly, "I haven't seen anyone from the 501st or 212th. I don't know any of the other guys who are in the ward with me. They're all Marines and engineers and stuff. One of them said he sees two guys from the 501st in physical therapy," Trapper shook his head dismissively.
"What?" Cody asked.
"He talks down about them, saying they have anger issues and stuff. They were already ticked before Kaz'hariah because of what happened with their Captain. You know, the 501st guys, they'll follow Appo, but they were loyal to Rex all the way."
"Yeah," Cody looked down, and both ARCs were silently a moment, staring down, remembering Rex.
"So," Trapper continued, "the Marines, they're saying, that Kaz'hariah just sent the 501st guys over the edge. The few 501st guys that survived—well, they are just, shab-" Trapper looked over at Barriss, red-faced and embarrassed.
Cody shook his head, laughing, "It's OK, Trap. I cuss in front of her all the time."
Trapper still looked confused.
Cody laughed again, and said, "Just treat her like one of the guys, OK?"
Barriss smiled. She rather liked the sound of that.
Trapper nodded, smiled, and continued on, "Well, they're saying Rex's guys, the few that are still around, well, they are all- just- uh, well,…" Trapper looked over at Barriss, again, obviously at a loss for the right word.
"Pissed?" Cody filled in.
Trapper nodded.
Barriss shook her head, having forgotten how much troopers liked to gossip.
"Well, this is actually all very good," Cody said, "we could use some pissed off troopers. Good to know."
"If you two are done gossiping-"
"We are not gossiping!" Cody objected.
Barriss shook her head at him, and held up her flimsy, like it was the most precious piece of flimsi in the galaxy, "This came in late last night, Cody. It is the latest known whereabouts of everyone in the 212th."
Cody's eyes widened. Barriss held up the flimsi at an angle so that Trapper and Cody could view it at the same time.
"It was how I knew Trapper was also here," she pointed to Trapper's name on the list.
"Ponds!" Trapper said, pointing out several more names on the list, excitedly. "Hawkeye! Gearshift!"
Cody squinted at the list, "Boil! Well, I've never seen him without-"
Trapper pointed further down the list "Waxer!"
Cody rolled his eyes, "Well, now the place is in trouble. Both Waxer and Boil!"
Trapper was still reading down the list, "Hey, Commander, Wooley's here, too!"
Cody remembered there had been on others on the shuttle with him when he'd arrived at the medical station, but he'd been so sick when he'd arrived he hadn't even thought to inquire whether other wounded from his battalion had ended up here. He was kicking himself for overlooking something so obvious. He looked up at Barriss and smiled gratefully.
Trapper looked around at Cody's room, "Since you've got your own place, we could maybe get the boys together over here. Along with some of Rex's pissed off boys!"
Cody looked over at Barriss with a pleading look in his eyes. "Cody, I can't make any promises! I snuck Trapper out of his ward!"
Trapper laughed, "She did, too, after feeding me a very nice sandwich. That was very nice, thank you. Much better than the food they've been giving me."
"How'd you get him out?" Cody asked, looking at Barriss with all new appreciation.
"The Commander was brilliant!" Trapper said with enthusiasm, "She knocked something over using those abilities of hers, and when the doctor was distracted, we made a run of it. And, I've got torn ligaments in my leg. I can't exactly run. So, just getting me out of bed was an accomplishment in itself. She was very determined to get me up here to visit you."
Cody raised an eyebrow, sputtering in laughter at Barriss, "Commander Offee! I'm shocked at you! You practically kidnapped a clone!"
Barriss put a hand over her mouth, trying to contain her own amusement at what she'd done, "What! You don't think the Jedi know how to bend the rules a bit?"
Cody gave her a teasing smile, "Isn't this breaking something in the padawan rulebook or something?"
Barriss shrugged, "Yes, I'm sure it is."
Cody gave her such an appreciative smile, that it gave Barriss an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach, "Well, thank you, Commander. This is much appreciated."
Trapper looked back and forth between the two of them, just watching this whole exchange.
Cody turned his attention back to Trapper, "What do you know about what happened on Kaz'hariah?"
Trapper shrugged, "Probably not as much a you, Commander. I've just heard rumors. You know how brothers talk. I've just heard stuff from some of the other wounded. Some of the Marines were shooting their mouth off about it. There's nothing else to do in the ward, right? But, everyone is saying that Kaz'hariah was a trap. Word is that the 501st, all of the Jedi that were there, and parts of the 212th- they all got captured. The only way you survived Kaz'haria is if you got wounded early on in the battle. Otherwise, you either ended up dead or missing. Very few brothers came back from Kaz'haria. The whole battle was one big death trap."
Trapper's words gave Cody a chill that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He looked up at Barriss, who'd put a hand over her mouth.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Trapper said, "I should have worded that better. I know we lost some good Jedi there, too."
Barriss just shook her head, indicating it was OK.
"If it's any consolation, ma'am," Trapper continued, "the ones from the 501st—the last of the wounded ones that were lucky enough to make it out—they said they saw the Jedi putting up a heck of a fight. All of them, too, fighting all together in a circle, Skywalker, and his Padawan, and General Kenobi… they were all of them there, with their lightsabers swinging taking down those weird new aliens, the Kaz'harians—" Trapper's voice rose with enthusiasm as he told the story. Obviously, this story had been told and retold amongst the clones, "-but, then the Kaz'harians just swarmed over them, like…like… a swarm of Genosians, or something! Totally overwhelmed them, and that's the last anybody saw of them. No more LAATs made it out after that…"
He shook his head, and his voice dropped down. "Some of the brothers, they think that they are being used as human shields someplace. Or, they're already dead. That's why we can't find them."
Trapper shook his head, looking at the flimsi again, and then back at the Commander, "But, I don't believe that. I know there are more of our guys than this left alive." Trapper stroked his chin with his one good hand, "So, the 501st guys? I guess they'd been saying it looked like they were actually being careful with some of the prisoners." Trapper looked at Cody, "Well, why would they do that? I mean, Separatists don't normally even bother to take prisoners. So, these Kaz'harians are different somehow." He sighed, and scratched at his cast, frowning, "So, well, we just need to figure out where they are keeping them and go get them, right?"
Cody smiled at Trapper's enthusiasm, but all three of them knew that there was nothing at all simple about what he was saying. If there was, the Jedi Master/Commando Teams would have found them already.
Cody looked at Trapper, at his casted arm, changing the subject for the moment. "So, Trap, how are you?"
Trapper laughed, and held up his arm, then groaned from even that simple movement, "My arm is totally shattered, every bone in it. That minefield did a number on it. They said I'm lucky I even still have it. They were this close to just taking it off. It will heal, but it will be a while before I can use it again. Messed my leg up pretty good, too. I just started being able to put some weight on it. I guess I'm real lucky that I'm not dead."
He looked at Cody curiously, then his voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, "I heard though, that we didn't hit the minefield full-on. Is that true? Had we hit full on, our whole Attack Battalion would have been vaporized! POOF!" Trapper shouted for dramatic effect. He held up his injured arm again, then groaned from the movement again. Cody winced in sympathy. Trapper sighed, "I have to remember to stop doing that."
Cody shook his head at him, but part of him was a bit jealous. It was good to see Trapper, really good, but he realized now how much he'd taken for granted before.
"So, basically I'm lucky to just have this," Trapper continued. He tapped his cast, and the sounded echoed hollowly in the room, "All of us- we should bedead," Trapper said dramatically. "We weren't supposed to cross the mountains like that. You had us change course at the very last minute, Commander. Why? Everyone is saying that's what saved us. We were supposed to go straight across the lowlands, where the majority of the minefields were. Why didn't we?"
Cody shook his head, bemused. He'd forgotten what a flare for the dramatic Trapper had sometimes. He supposed at another time he might be annoyed by all of Trapper's dramatics. But, right now he'd been so starved for company that he was enjoying Trapper's visit, dramatics and all.
"Why did you have us change course, Commander?" Trapper pushed. "That's what saved the 212th."
"Kenobi," Cody answered, feeling a huge pang in his gut as he felt the sorrow anew of his missing General. "All the credit goes to Kenobi. He sensed something."
Trapper nodded sagely, "I should have known. The General."
Both of them were silent, heads bowed, respectfully.
Barriss just sat back and watched their exchange, a small smile on her face. It was a beautiful thing to see—all this respect and bonding.
Trapper looked up and put his hand on top of Cody's bound hand, "We're going to get him back, Commander. You, me, Waxer, Boil, Ponds, Hawkeye, Gearshift, Ponds, all of us. The 212th might be down, but we're not out. We're going to get our General back."
"Damn straight," Cody said, meeting Trapper's eyes.
"Yeah, us, and some of those shabla, angry, crazy guys from the 501st," Trapper added in.
Huh? Barriss' pleasant haze was broken as she listened to the sudden turn their conversation had taken.
"Now, hold on a minute," Barriss protested, "just what are you guys planning here? No. No. And, no! You don't know what this place is like. I practically got shut down just for trying to change your medications, Commander. And, now you guys are thinking of some sort of Commando mission?"
Cody and Trapper smirked back and forth at each other.
"Yup."
Barriss shook her head, "Well, one step at a time, Commander. Let's work on regaining some movement first, OK?"
"Fair enough," Cody said, his voice regaining its' command tone. "But, I am getting the General back."
There was a finality in his tone. His eyes met Barriss' and she saw the old spark there that she she'd seen when she'd first met him at the beginning of the war.
She took a deep breath, and placed her hand on top of Trapper's and Cody's, "I'm sure I will live to regret this. But, OK, I will make you a deal. Commander Cody, you complete your therapy and get fully mobile again, and if they have not located the missing clones and Jedi by then, well," Barriss took a deep breath, feeling like she was sealing her doom, "then, I will join you on this mad, fool crusade of yours. With the crazy shabla whomevers."
Cody smiled at her and met her eyes with a look that was meant for her and her alone. The look melted her in such a way that her stomach did very strange things. She suddenly wished they were in the room all alone together, but she wasn't quite sure why. The moment stretched on.
Trapper finally cleared his throat, and pulled his hand out from the pile-up of hands. Cody and Barriss looked away from each other, both blushing a little.
Trapper looked at Cody, critically, "So, Commander, how about you? You've looked better."
Cody laughed, "You should have seen me, before. Oh, no wait, this is about how I looked before." He laughed again, at ease around his brother, "but, seriously, Commander Offee here has been working miracles on me. You can't see the progress yet. But, you'll be able to see big changes soon. I'm getting much better." Barriss could hear the hope and optimism in Cody's voice.
Barriss sat back, and watched the two brothers interact. Cody was explaining to Trapper what was going on with his neck, and how the Jedi healing treatments worked. Trapper was listening to all of it with wide-eyes, the same way Cody's eyes got wide when he was very interested in something. He was just as inquisitive as Cody, and was asking a lot of questions. After a while, Barriss could hear that Cody's voice was getting hoarse.
"Cody, do you need water?"
"Yes," Cody admitted.
"Can I get it?" Trapper asked.
"No, you don't have to," Barriss said, "you just sit and visit."
"Barriss," Cody said from the bed. Something in his tone gave Barriss pause.
Barriss opened up the link with Cody.
- You want me to let him help, don't you?
Please.
It was only the second time Cody had ever actually asked her for anything.
"Yes, actually, the help would be greatly appreciated," Barriss said, "this way." She helped Trapper up out of the chair and over to the kitchen. She showed him how to fill up one of the eyedroppers, and then helped him back to Cody's room.
"OK, got some yummy spirits for you here. So, don't you go getting drunk on duty here," Trapper said, cheerfully.
"Funny," Cody said, with mock gruffness. "just give me the water, Trap."
"Open up."
Barriss watched, feeling slightly nervous as Trapper gave Cody the water. She was worried he might give him too much. What if Cody choked? It could cause the shrapnel fragment to move? It could be disastrous. But, the opposite was true. Trapper was incredibly gentle, giving Cody just a few drops of water at a time.
"Trap, I'm not going to drown here. Just give me the water. A man could die of thirst, you know," Cody complained. But, Barriss could sense that Cody's complaining was all for show.
- OK, I see what you're up to. Barriss said through their link. She could feel his amusement.
Hey, he's probably been just as bored and frustrated as I've been.
- Yes, well letting yourself be used this way for Trapper's sake is a very kind thing to do.
Are you kidding? I'm enjoying all the pampering.
- Hah! I was going to teach him how to change your catherer line next.
You wouldn't!
- No, I wouldn't. You're much too kind-hearted a man for me to do something like that to you. I'll just show him your food bag, if that's OK. I'm sure he'll be thrilled with that.
Fine, show him the food bag. You can show him every pipe and tube as long as it doesn't have to do with my pee. Or, other, uh, private areas. We have to have some boundaries, you know.
Trapper finished giving Cody the water, and then looked back at Barriss eagerly. "Is there anything else I can do?"
Barriss looked at Cody, and the two exchanged a look, both smiling.
"Yes, Trapper, well, it is time to check some of these other lines. Would you like to assist me? Here- you need to pinch off this end here, like that…"
# # #
Rex absent-mindedly rubbed at his leg while he watched the activities around the camp. Seeing the medic had worked out well. The tingling sensation was already improving, and he'd only received the injection a few minutes ago. Rex realized his leg had first started to bother him when he'd been tossed about around during their hard landing. He remembered smacking it into several hard things, like the walls, floor, and several stray storage cabinets. He wouldn't have felt any of that if his entire leg had still been dead of sensation. He just hadn't pieced together those feelings until now because he'd been preoccupied with everything else going on. He also figured his brain was probably still slow in processing sensations from his leg. But, at least signals were getting through now, even if they were irritating and unpleasant.
Rex noticed one of the men he'd been practicing with earlier, looking over at him hesitantly. His name was Det, a munitions expert. Det also had a leg injury. Rex waved Det over. Det walked slowly over, DC slung over his shoulder, limping stiff-legged through the snow. He walked with the aid of a standard-issue metallic cane, but it had a few splashes of color on it to match his armor.
"You called the medic?" Rex asked.
Det nodded, "I was concerned, Captain."
Rex noticed Det didn't apologize for his action. He liked that quality— a clone who made a decision, and then stood by it. Rex nodded his head approvingly at Det, "Good call. Thank you, Det."
Det beamed, "Glad I was able to help," he paused, "you OK, Captain?"
Rex nodded, then felt he probably owed Det an explanation. He gestured to his leg, "The nerves are regenerating. That's a good thing, of course. But, the process is rather, uh, uncomfortable. The medic gave me something to help with the sensation of the nerves firing off."
"Nerves regenerating, really?" Det's eyes, widened, then laughed, "you do seem to have a lucky star that follows you, Captain. Maybe that will rub off on some of the others."
Rex smiled, wryly, "Well, when it does rub off, be prepared for a sensation like your foot just waking up, except it goes on for hours on end."
"Ouch!" Det grimaced in sympathy.
Rex laughed, getting up and slapping him on the back. "Well, thank you again, Det. Next time I barf, I hope you're around."
"Uh… thank you, Captain," Det said uncertainly, then he caught the teasingly glint in Rex's eyes, "Good one, Captain. Can I walk you back to the practice line?"
# # #
Rex was inside the ship, supervising efforts to adapt the ship's weapons to be used to fire from the ground. It was tricky work, since the system was only ever meant to be used in zero gravity and be fired from space. But, they also had some incredibly talented engineers on board. Several of them were working together, making fast work of re-wiring panels. Rex shook his head in amazement as he watched how well they worked together.
Rex received a call from one of the troopers on guard duty, "Captain, we've got unknown ground vehicles headed our way!"
"Acknowledged, I'll be right there."
"Excellent work! I'm very impressed. Carry on," Rex said to the teams working on adapting the ships guns.
"Travis?" Rex barked into his helmet comlink, (of course, it didn't matter how loudly he said, the words were just going to be transcribed into text on Travis' helmet.)
Wow, I'm doing three things at once, this feels good, Rex thought as he hurried outside. Life was starting to feel like it was returning to normal, in a sense.
"I'm on it, Captain," Travis replied calmly.
Rex could hear Travis shouting to the troopers outside, getting them all into position. By the time Rex got outside, there were several layers of clone troopers, all in full fighting stance, focused on the incoming vehicles. The vehicles stopped just outside the camp, and a single doorway opened on the lead vehicle. A tall, darked hair woman stepped out of the lead vehicle, long rifle slung over one shoulder. She was dressed in clothing well-suited to the rugged climate. Her eyebrow arched up as she looked around at the formation of troopers all in ready fighting stance, aimed at her convoy of vehicles. She slowly lifted her rifle up off her shoulders, and then dropped it to the ground. She lifted her arms up in submission.
Rex came forward to stand by the front line of troopers, blasters on both hips, his DC-15 slung over his back, "Who are you?" he called out, loudly, in his deep baritone.
The woman eyed Rex's disabled leg with obvious surprise, also taking in his armor, rifle, and double-blasters. She was obviously trying to reconcile the different pieces.
"I am Karyn, Elder Chieftan of this Isle on Ando."
"What do you want with us?" Rex asked, making no introductions of himself or his men.
"This is our land," she said, imperiously.
Rex crossed his arms firmly over his chest, waiting, for her to continue.
"OK," she admitted, her voice and body language dropping to a friendlier, more casual stance. "we came because we were curious to see who had crash landed on our planet. We've had no visitors in a long time, unless," her eyes narrowed, "you count those menacing pirates. But," her voice, face and eyes took on the strong tone of a leader that meant to protect her people by any means necessary, "we also came to see if you were a threat to us."
She looked around at the troopers, all still arranged in their fighting stances around her. None of them had moved at all, their weapons held perfectly still, all trained on her and the other vehicles. Her eyes took in the Republic logo on Rex's uniform, "You are more of the soldiers from the Republic?"
Rex gazed at her, arms folded across his chest, just letting her talk. He did not answer her question.
Travis' voice came on in Rex's helmet, "You may want to play nice with her, Rex. These could be the locals that have Hok. If not, they might who does, and how we can get him back."
She gestured toward their crashed transport. "Is someone coming to retrieve you? That does not look like it will fly again."
Rex switched to a secure channel on his helmet comlink, "Travis, what's your take on this?"
"Whether they are friendly to the Republic, or the Separatists, well, shab, I don't know. I guess that's why you are the Captain and not me. But, this would be a good time to ask about our missing crewman."
Rex snorted, "Yeah, well, thanks. I was just about to ask them about Hok. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't about to walk us into a Separatist trap. Alright-"
Chance's voice cut in on the channel, "Captain, we've got incoming! They're headed straight for us! We've got less than five minutes!"
"Can you identify?" asked Rex.
"Signature looks like the same ship that attacked us before."
"Travis! Positions!"
Travis immediately began barking orders to his troops. As one, the troopers moved away from the women and smoothly backed into their new positions. Karyn jumped back, startled, reaching for her rifle. Women began spilling out of the other vehicles, grabbing their rifles. They stared at the troopers in confusion. Rex quickly made his way to Karyn's side, "This has nothing to do with you. We've got unfriendlies incoming. We'll have to continue this social call at another time. Get yourself someplace safe. Have a safe trip home. Do come back, because we did want to ask you about something. OK, bye now."
Rex grabbed her by the sleeve, shoving her toward the open door of her vehicle.
"Hey!" Karyn protested the manhandling, pulling herself free of Rex's grip. She shoved back, nearly sending Rex sprawling off of his crutches, in the slippery snow. She grabbed Rex before he went down. Rex growled loudly in irritation. "Sorry," Karyn said quickly. "I shouldn't have done that. You're injured. But, we have one of your men."
"Hok! Yes, well, then we do need to talk. We need our man back. But, you need to go! Now!" Rex said, shoving her again toward the open door of her vehicle.
Karyn pulled herself free. She planted her hands stubbornly on her hips, refusing to move, "Hold up! This is our land! Who's coming? What's going on?"
"Pirates," Rex growled, "same ones that shot us down. In you go!" He gave her another hard push.
He looked away for a moment, engaged in a private conversation with Travis utilizing his HUD, working out troop tactics.
"Ah, we know of these pirates," Karyn said, "we'll fight with you."
Rex glanced briefly back at her, and the other ladies that had spilled out of the vehicles, all armed with rifles.
"Look, thanks for the offer, but it would be better if you left." Rex shook his head, "I can't vouch for your safety."
"We are Andosian women. We don't run from a fight!"
Rex muttered a few choice words under his breath that had Travis laughing through the com into Rex's helmet.
"That got transposed?" Rex said, surprised, back to Travis.
"OK. Fine," Rex said to Karyn, annoyance clear in his voice. At this point, he was beyond arguing with her. He had a battle to direct.
"Get these vehicles out of sight! Right now they're just perfect targets," Rex pointed to a nearby grove of trees. Karyn nodded, relaying orders to her people. The woman gracefully leapt back into their vehicles, pulling quickly away toward the trees.
Rex was waiting impatiently for Karyn. He'd conferred with Travis, and he quickly positioned Karyn, and the other women in a position where they would be safest, without compromising his troopers.
"I sure hope your people can shoot," Rex muttered to Karyn.
Karyn gave him an indignant look, "This is not our first run-in with these pirates!"
"Yeah, well, we had some recent experience with them ourselves!" Rex barked back.
"Sure hope you do a better job of it this time!" Karyn pointed to his downed ship.
"Will you two kids play nice?" Travis shouted into Rex's helmet comm. Rex heard him go back to barking orders to other troopers.
Rex turned his attention back to Karyn, "OK, our objective is to take the ship down before they can strafe this field and take us out. If and when we do take the ship down, and there are any survivors, we rush the ship. We will not be taking prisoners. They will be shooting to kill, so our objective is to destroy them. Not give them another chance at this. Unless you want to make this a regular them with them, is that understood?"
Karyn looked like she was about to argue, then thought better of it, and simply nodded. Satisfied that Karyn and her women were in place, Rex turned his attention back to Travis. He cocked his head to the side, conferring with Travis on last minute trooper placements. Rex moved back into place against the ship, lined up with the rest of his shooting line.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of a ship's engines straining as the pirates came at them fast and hard. The guns from their crashed transport ship began firing, the force of the shots shaking the entire ship against Rex's back. He almost lost his balance. They hadn't taken the shaking of the ship into account. The noise level was incredible, but his helmet automatically filtered most of that out.
And, Rex thought ironically, we do have a high percentage of deaf troopers already.
"Yes!" Travis shouted, as one of Odds' shots connected with the pirate ship.
"Great shot, Odds!" Rex said, looking up, scanning the sky with his visor. He saw the ship coming in, streaking toward them, smoke billowing from its' aft section, guns blazing.
With crisp precision, the clone troopers began firing as soon as the ship came into range. The troopers hammered the ship with shot after shot, precision-firing. Rex noticed an arc of fire join in with his troopers' shots. He raised an eyebrow. Karyn hadn't exaggerated. Her women could shoot.
The pirates' shots' went wide, kicking up a great deal of rock and snow but not striking any targets. The ship zoomed by overhead, headed out to sea, then circled around to come back around from the seaward side.
Travis and Rex tracked their projectory, "Not good," Travis said, over Rex's comm, "the ship's mounted guns won't be able to fire at them from that angle."
"Then, we're just going to have to do take them down ourselves, Travis. Let's move the men," Travis barked orders, re-positioning the men, getting them set up for another pass.
Rex quickly hurried through the snow over to Karyn, pointing as to where her female warriors' repositioned. Karyn jumped into action, immediately repositioning her women. Her warriors moved as one, swinging into a new formation at just one hand signal from Karyn. OK, Rex had to admit it. He was impressed.
Rex didn't have time to get back to the ship, so he braced himself back up against a tree, carefully sighting down the scope of his DC-15. The pirate ship came barreling back into range, strafing the ground with its' forward lasers. This time some of the marks found their targets. Clones went down with cries of pain as the pirate ship's front-mounted lasers' penetrated right through their armor. But, troopers avenged their fallen brothers. The clones' shots found their marks as well. Shot after well-aimed shot hit the ship. Rex also noticed a hail of well-placed fire coming from Karyn and her women. Suddenly, a part of the pirate ship's engines flared up, exploding. The ship sank down over the next ridge with a satisfying crash, and muffled explosion.
"Finish it, Travis!" Rex ordered into his comm.
Travis motioned his team on: "Come on! Move it! Move it!" Everyone who'd been earlier identified as being fit to run, took off after Travis. It was a sizable compliment of troopers. Rex took a moment to admire the sight. Disabled, my shebs! Look at them.
Rex slung his decee over his shoulder, and quickly moved to the assist the wounded. Lance and Milo were already outside, beginning triage. There were moans of pain, and many wounded. Their plastoid armor had been no match for direct fire from those lasers. Rex was just applying a bacta bandage to the shoulder of a wounded clone, when Karyn dropped down next to him in the snow. She had run back to her speeder to retrieve a large case. "I can help," she said, breathless from running. She popped open the case, revealing an impressively stocked medical kit. Rex looked up at her in surprise. She snapped on a pair of surgical gloves, "I'm the town doctor for Ando," Karyn explained.
Rex raised up an eyebrow, "Well, that's handy." He studied her critically for a moment, then nodded, "You're an improvement over a shabla tinny, I suppose." He looked around at all their wounded. "We could use the help. Thank you."
Karyn had no idea what a 'shabla tinny' was. Rex pointed out the tent Travis had set up for first aid and triage I case of an attack. Karyn called in the rest of her team to help. Karyn worked with Rex, Milo and Lance to coordinate the treatment of all the wounded. The wounded were all examined, and one-by one, carried off to the tent. Soon, it was just Rex and the doctor, with one last wounded clone. Rex's danger sense suddenly warned him something was very wrong. He snapped his head around trying to find the source of the danger. In the treeline, two pirates had escaped the wreckage. They were taking aim at Rex and the doctor.
"Down!" Rex yelled.
The doctor looked up for a moment in confusion. Rex leapt on top of her, as he felt one laser bolt singe by right over their heads. He felt the second one burn into his shoulder plates. Thank goodness for armor, he thought, yanking off the burning, smoldering plate and tossing it down to the snow.
"Stay down!" he said to Karyn, as he rolled back up into firing position, blasters in both hands. He balanced on his one leg, and fired both blasters at once. His eyes and hands found the targets automatically. The two pirates went down with two identical cries of pain. Rex used the scope on his visor to check for movement to see if there were any more unfriendlies lurking in the treeline. All was clear.
"OK," he said, extending his hand to Karyn, pulling her up out of the snow, "are you OK, ma'am?" he continued to balance just on his one leg.
Rex peered around, looking to see where his crutches has fallen in all the melee. He found one, half-buried in the snow. He reached down, and grabbed it. It would have to do. He'd find the other one, in a bit. He balanced, just using the one crutch.
She looked a bit stunned, her eyes blinked several times, taking it all in, "Fine, thank you," she looked at Rex, "I don't even know your name."
"Captain Rex, ma'am," Rex bent down to pick up his shoulder armor, now cooled. He inspected it, to see if it was salvageable, "Fierfik! Completely melted. I'm going to have to start carrying spare armor and paint around in my kit!" Rex grumbled. He stuck the burnt piece of armor into his belt. He gave it one last regretful glance.
"You just saved my life," Karyn said, she touched his shoulder. The bodysuit was singed, and split apart. He hissed and pushed her hand away.
"You're injured!"
Rex rolled his eyes, "I'm fine," he rooted around in the snow with his one crutch, until he struck metal, locating the other one. He bent down, and retrieved it. "I'll put some bacta on it later," he said, off-handedly, dismissing his shoulder burn. "Shame about my armor, though," he said, touching the burnt piece of armor on his belt with a regretful sigh. "Shoulder armor, couldn't have been just an armband or something, no. I liked that piece, too. Piece of my original set, too. That piece is going to be hard to replace." He shook his head, staring out toward the dead pirates, thoroughly annoyed.
He turned his attention back to the wounded clone, "OK, Let's get this trooper moved inside before we receive any more unexpected visitors," Rex gestured toward the first aid tent. Two of Karyn's women were just headed out of the tent toward them to assist.
Just then, Travis and the rest of the troopers crested the hill, jogging through the snow, in high-spirits. And, they were singing. They weren't a lot of songs that all clones knew. But, all troopers were taught 'Vode An'/'Brothers All' as part of their flash training. Rex had to admit they made an impressive picture trotting back in their armor, chanting in Mando'a. The rest of the Andoan women began poking their heads out of the first aid tent, and watched them come in, jaws dropped.
Rex folded his arms across his chest, watching all of this play out.
"Shab," he shook his head. No more work was going to get accomplished today, that was a given. Travis trotted right up to Rex, and saluted smartly. Travis saluting him? Rex wished he could have captured a holo of the moment. Of course, the ladies were watching the whole thing.
"Mission accomplished, Captain! Nothing left of those pirates! However, I think we might actually be able to salvage their ship. Frakkin' thing could use a good cleaning- Oh, excuse me, ma'am! I mean, the –" Karyn waved her hand, saying it was quite alright. Travis nodded and continued, "Well, uh, Captain, sir," Rex almost rolled his eyes at Travis actually calling him Captain. He could salute him and remember to call him Captain, in front of a lady, but not that he shouldn't use the word 'frak.' Smooth Travis. Smooth. Travis seemed to have realize he'd goofed, though, as he was slowing down, and stuttering a bit… "Well, uh… I think if we uh… combine it with some parts from our ship , well, maybe we could uh-"
Rex slapped Travis on the back, hard, "Spit it out, man!"
Karyn gave him a concerned look, at how hard he'd whacked Travis. Rex grinned at her, "Oh, it helps him with his stuttering problem. You'll get used to him. Just smack him a good one if you hear him with that speech impediment of his. Go on, Mr. Travis, you were saying?"
Rex could feel Travis glaring daggers at him through his helmet, "I was saying," Travis said, enunciating very clearly, "if we were to combine parts from that ship with parts from our ship we might be able to get a space-worthy vessel again."
Rex's eyes got wide as he took in what Travis was saying. "Outstanding, Travis!"
Karyn was about to comment on this, a space-worthy vessel, when she heard a gasp coming from several of her women. She turned to see what was wrong. Nothing was wrong necessarily. They were all just gasping and staring at the men.
Many of the clones had taken their helmets off in order to drink water from their canteens. They were in a playful mood after the success of their recent battle. They were very hot and sweaty from the run to the pirate ship and back, so several of them were tossing snow at each other. A couple of them were just grabbing handfuls of snow and using it to scrub their faces, and wipe back their sweat-streaked hair. It took them several moments to realize they had an audience. The women of Ando dropped their jaws in shock, staring at the identical faces. All conversations had stopped. Slowly, as realization dawned, the troopers stopped what they were doing, suddenly self-conscious at having an audience. A few of the troopers smiled awkwardly at the ladies, others turned red, painfully shy. Travis took off his helmet.
Travis playfully smacked Rex on the back of the head: "Frying those pirates was fantastic! I imagined every single one of them was Ko Sai, and BOOM! Totally satisfying!"
Rex smirked at Travis, "After all these years, you still love doing that, don't you?" Rex smacked him on the back, twice as hard, and Travis had to struggle to keep his balance.
Travis looked over at Karyn. He broke out into a wide smile: "Hello. We haven't met. I'm Travis. And, I do not have a speech impediment."
Karyn stared at Rex a moment, and then studied Travis: "Remarkable! Utterly remarkable!"
"He's utterly," Travis said with a teasing grin, "and I'M remarkable!" Travis thumped himself on the chest.
He noticed Rex's missing shoulder armor: "What did you do to your plate?"
Rex pulled out the melted plastoid plate from where he'd stashed it in his belt.
Travis held it up and whistled: "Impressive."
Rex scowled, "I happened to really like that particular plate."
"My fault," Karyn said to Travis, "I didn't drop down when told."
She looked back and forth between Rex and Travis, staring at their identical faces, "Are you… brothers?"
Travis swung his arm around Rex, "Yup!"
Karyn looked over at the other clones, "All of you?"
Rex nodded, smiling, "Yes."
Karyn looked over at the group of troopers, who were milling about talking, casting shy, furtive glances toward the women.
"We're clones, ma'am," Rex explained, "same father. Makes us all, well-"
"- brothers," Travis supplied, still smiling.
Rex gave him a sideways look, thinking he'd never seen Travis smile this much. What was with him? He shoved Travis' arm off his shoulder. "Go see to the men," Rex ordered. Travis saluted him crisply, and headed back over to the other men. Rex stared after him, shocked. That was twice in one day that Travis had saluted him. What had gotten into him?
"Guess it's a fortunate thing for us that you crashed here the same time these pirates began harassing us," Karyn said.
"They been bothering you long?" Rex asked.
Karyn shook her head, "No. They've made a couple of flyovers, but didn't touch down. I think they were just scoping the place out to see if we had anything worth taking. So far, I think we were far less interesting than what's been flying by up above."
Rex scoffed at that, glancing back toward their downed ship, "Yeah, noticed that."
Karyn gestured toward the first aid tent, "Captain, you have a lot of wounded. Some of them quite seriously. You're fortunate you didn't have any casualties."
Rex nodded. It was a rare battle where he wasn't tallying up the dead, along with the wounded. They had indeed been very fortunate.
"I'm concerned, though, about some of your wounded being out in the cold, like this," she nodded toward the tents, "as a thank you for your help, I'd like to offer to bring your wounded to back to our village."
Rex raised an eyebrow, "You have room for this many?"
"I can treat them at my clinic, and then we can house them with the families within the village. Our village is… plenty big enough," Karyn said. Rex could sense something more in what she was saying, but wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Rex's first reaction was to object, thinking the men had their armor to keep them warm. But, he looked toward the tent, which was overflowing with Karyn's women fussing over the wounded. Much as he personally disliked any kind of fuss, it seemed that his men were enjoying the attention.
"Excuse me a moment, ma'am," Rex said, slipping his helmet on. "Travis."
"What's up, boss? Headed off for a romantic stroll with your new lady love?" There was something in Travis' tone, though, that made it sound like that was not something he wanted Rex to be doing. It wasn't quite Travis' normal teasing tone of voice. Rex had no idea what to make of it. Travis' behavior around this woman made no sense to him. He wished Ahsoka was around. She probably would have this figured out right away.
Rex scoffed, "Hardly. Look, Karyn has offered to take the wounded back to town. What do you think?"
"Don't say that too loudly," Travis replied, looking out at his besotted troopers, "or half this group will be shooting themselves in the foot to get a ticket back with them. They'll be cursing themselves for not having the good fortunate to having gotten themselves wounded."
"And, this is why there are no women in the GAR," Rex said.
"Actually, Cap, I was thinking it's all rather cute," Travis said, merrily.
"Cute?" Rex scoffed.
"This is what I mean, Rex, when I say you have no sense of humor."
"I have a sense of- OK, no, forget it. I am not having this argument with you, again. Rex, out." Rex removed his helmet. He looked back at Karyn, who was waiting patiently.
"And?" she asked.
"Yes, alright, then," Rex said, "we'd be most appreciative. Thank you, ma'am."
"That includes you, too, then Rex," Karyn said, "I want to take a look at that shoulder."
Rex opened his mouth to protest, but Travis arrived then, and cut him off. "Go, Rex. A decent meal, and being checked over by a doctor would do you good. You have been a bit accident prone lately."
Rex stared at Travis, and opened his mouth to object, but then Travis made a move like he was going to elbow Rex in the ribs. Rex immediately moved his arms defensively to block his ribs, but groaned slightly from the movement.
"What happened to your ribs?" Karyn asked, immediately concerned.
"Nothing," Rex said, immediately. Travis moved to swing at him again, but this time Rex was ready for him and easily dodged the blow. "Fine! I'll go. But I'm only going to be there for our men," Rex grumbled. "Travis, you're in charge while I'm gone." He turned back toward Karyn, "Shall we prepare the wounded to depart, ma'am?"
Travis followed, smiling, seemingly amused by the whole exchange. He also seemed to be eying Karyn rather closely as she walked.
# # #
"OK, Rex, that's everyone. We just need to roll your accident-prone self into one of those speeders, and then you and the merry caravan of women can proceed on your merry womanly way," Travis smacked Rex lightly on the back, as the last of the wounded was secured.
Rex pivoted, and returned the smack, with twice the force. Travis coughed from the force of the blow. Karyn looked over from where she was hunched over a patient in a speeder. She gave Travis a look of concern. Travis waved to her, "I'm fine, ma'am. We're just saying our good byes." He turned to Rex, and growled, "I swear, you're going to break my ribs!"
"Well, then you should go to with the women and not me!" Rex mouthed to Travis, letting him read his lips. He didn't want to risk their hosts overhearing.
"Don't you want to go?" Travis asked, discreetly. He sounded like he found that hard to believe.
"Not really, no," Rex said, still speaking just for Travis to hear, "Hard as this seems for you to fathom, I'd rather stay here."
Travis shook his head, "You're a strange one, Rex. I know you don't hang your deecee into that other holster, so I don't see why you don't want to go," a light suddenly gleamed in Travis' eyes, "Wait a second! It makes perfect sense now! This is because you have someone already! I knew it! Is it that-"
"Shut it, Travis! I am not having this discussion with you!"
"Aren't we, you know, like friends, now?"
"Not the kind that talk, no."
"But-"
Rex saw Karyn straighten up from her patient and look his way, "Time to go!" Rex said, totally cutting Travis off.
"If you don't mind waiting a moment, ma'am, I'd just like to grab my kit," he called over to Karyn.
Karyn had no idea what 'kit' was, but she nodded, "Of course."
Rex glared at Travis, "Discussion over. We don't share...stuff, OK? We're not that kind of friends."
Rex turned away, before Travis could respond. He heard Karyn coming up behind them.
"May I walk with you, Captain, while you retrieve your, uh, kit? I wanted to ask you something?"
Rex gave Travis a look that said: 'Stay!'
"Hey!" Travis said, turning to follow.
Rex turned and glared at Travis, putting up his index finger, making it very clear that Travis was not to follow them. Travis gave Rex a hurt look, but did not follow.
He turned to Karyn, and answered politely: "Yes, ma'am. Of course."
They headed out across the snowy camp, toward Rex and Travis' tent. Rex saw some of his men using branches to sweep away bloody snow. He hadn't thought to do that. It must have been Travis. He was always was very good with the details. Rex sighed, and shook his head. Karyn was speaking. He turned his attention back to her.
"So, Captain, I was thinking that perhaps we could extend an invitation for the rest of the men to come to town tomorrow for a mid-afternoon meal? The ladies would like to thank your men, all of them, for their help. These pirates have been a real concern for us for a while now. We thought perhaps we could pull together a potluck supper, with some traditional Andosian cooking. I think we could pull together sometime nice, and some desserts as well. Some of our ladies just go crazy making sweetcakes, stacking them real high, with a lot of icing and decorations. Do you think your men might be interested in attending a traditional Andosian gathering like that? There's always a ton of food."
Rex thought of what his men had been eating, well, more like hardly eating, since they'd left Coruscant.
"Yes, ma'am, actually, that probably would go over very well. Our diet a bit, uh, bland, since leaving Coruscant," Rex confessed.
"Oh, Coruscant," Karyn responded, "is that where you were headed when you ran into the pirates?" Karyn made a vague gesture up toward the sky, "There's not much out in our end of the galaxy."
Rex hesitated.
Karyn waited expectantly, then her face lit up with understanding, "Ah! You can't talk about it! You guys were on a secret mission or something, right?"
Rex wagged a finger at her and smiled: "I like the way you think. I'll be just a moment," he disappeared into the tent, and reappeared a few seconds later with a compact bag slung over his shoulder. It was a small kit bag, pulled out of his large gear bag. It contained his razor, toothbrush, the stuff he used to maintain his hair, etc, and a few other personal items. He could certainly get by without such luxuries, but given a choice, well, it was nice to have it if he was going somewhere. He shifted the bag a bit, so that it fit snugly next to his DC-15.
"Do you want me to carry something?" Karyn said, looking at his crutches.
Rex shook his head, "No, thank you, ma'am. I'm certainly used to this by now."
Rex began leading the way back toward the speeders.
"What happened to you, if you don't mind my asking?" Karyn indicated his leg.
"Just took a bad hit to the knee. That's all. It happens."
Karyn must have sensed his reluctance to talk about it, because she didn't push the topic any further. "OK, so that's a definite yes, with the invitation for tomorrow?"
"Yes," Rex confirmed. Oh, his men were going to love this. He'd let Travis give them the news, after the women had departed. No sense causing even more chaos and excitement. Clones and food. No, clones and food and sweets and women serving all that food. Yeah, what could possibly get a bunch of clones all excited about that?
Travis was waiting for him, next to the lead speeder. Rex slid his helmet back on so he could easily converse with Travis in private. Travis did the same. Karyn looked at them curiously, but said nothing. Rex and Travis quickly went over camp logistics, handling communications while they were separated, and pushing for more info about Hok. Rex then told Travis about the open invitation to all the men the following day. Not surprisingly, Travis was pleased. He felt the rest of the men would be enthusiastic about the idea, too.
"Don't mention anything yet," Rex cautioned, "let me check the place out first, OK? These people seem on the level, but let make sure these people aren't closet cannibals, Separatists, Hutts, witches, slavers, shapeshifters-"
"Rex, that smash into the bulkhead didn't addle your head, did it? Go!" Travis gave Rex a shove. As usual, Rex shoved Travis back twice as hard. Karyn watched all this with a raised eyebrow, wondering why the two men were fighting, yet kept their heads perfectly still.
"Just playing it safe," Rex said, "I once lost my whole battalion in one afternoon. If that's made me paranoid, so be it. I'll contact you once I've had a chance to recce the place. And, find Hok."
"I'll be waiting, and, looking forward to your report on the shapeshifting, cannibalistisic, Seppies of Ando. Now, get going. The pretty lady witch slavers are waiting."
Travis practically shoved Rex headfirst into the speeder. Rex managed to get one of his crutches back far enough to jab Travis in the stomach.
Karyn slid into the seat next to him. Rex removed his helmet and smiled at Karyn, "Are we ready to go?"
Travis removed his helmet, and smiled, slightly stooped over, rubbing his stomach. He cradled his helmet under one arm and waved very enthusiastically to Karyn
"Yes, everything OK?" she looked with concern at Travis.
Rex smiled at Karyn, hoping Travis couldn't see his lips from this angle, "Yeah, we're friends."
"And, that's how friends say good bye in the military?" Karyn questioned.
"I saw that!" Travis shouted, "she just said the word 'friends.' Did you tell her we were friends, Rex?"
"Just drive," Rex pointed, "let's move out."
Travis waved as the caravan of speeders left, shouting after them, "You said 'friends,' Rex. You can't take that back, you know!"
In the lead speeder, head turned away from Travis, Rex smiled.
As they approached the edge of the clearing, the majority of the men had assembled, waiting for the caravan. They cheered, and waved to the ladies as they left.
"What a nice, sweet, polite bunch of men," Karyn commented.
"Oh, yeah, that's the Army for you, just a bunch of nice, sweet, polite guys," Rex said, shoving his helmet on so he could roll his eyes. He looked down at his chrono, wondering how long this trip was going to take. He blew out a breath, briefly entertaining the idea of bailing, and making Travis take his place. In the end, he just rested his head against the window, and decided to sleep. It was a great way to avoid having to make any idle conversation, and hopefully he could also avoid thinking about Ahsoka for a while.
# # #
"Alright, Captain, stop stalling. Come over here and get undressed," Karyn said.
Rex was in the simple, understated, yet cheerful, clinic attached to Karyn's house.
There was space in the clinic for twelve narrow beds, in two neat rows of six. Four of the beds were currently occupied by Rex's men with injuries that Karyn wanted to monitor. The rest of Rex's men had treated by Karyn, and deemed stabled enough to recoup with families within the village itself. The 'families,' primarily single women, were rather insistent, actually, on acting as hosts to Rex's men. Their enthusiasm was almost unsettling.
Rex was a bit unnerved, so had insisted on going along to see where all his wounded men were going to be housed. He had made numerous trips back and forth from the clinic to houses within the fishing village. Their driver, a cheerful, older woman named Rosetta, kept up a steady stream of conversation the whole time, telling them all about the village. She drove them from house to house, helping the wounded men into the houses. She was extremely strong, practically lifting the men inside in some cases, with extreme ease. Each of the host women, both the single ones, and the families, greeted the Captain warmly, welcoming him and their new houseguest into their homes.
It was a nicely-laid out town, sitting right on the sea. The primary trade of the town had always been fishing, and the ocean-theme carried through in the decor of most of the homes. Rex was struck by the openness and good nature of everyone he met. The single women, though, which were the majority of the hosts, seemed especially excited when their houseguests were dropped off. Their eyes shone with excitement when the speeder pulled up, they laid eyes on the trooper, and their guest was dropped off for the night. Rex had to admit it appeared that his men would be well-taken care of for the night. He'd seen an old man, and a couple of children, but other tha few boys, but-
"Rosetta," Rex suddenly asked bluntly, after they dropped off another trooper at the home of another enthusiastic single female, "where are all your menfolk?"
Rosetta paled a bit, and then looked back at the Captain.
"Karyn, didn't mention anything about our, uh, recent history?"
Rex shook his head, "No, we didn't get a chance to talk much. We were just getting to the hellos when the pirates dropped in."
Rosetta's mouth formed an "oh." She was quiet for a long moment, looking like she was choosing her words carefully. Rex waited patiently. Karyn pulled the speeder back up in front of Karyn's clinic. They waited in the speeder for their next injured trooper to come out. Since their was nobody coming out at the moment, they had time to talk. Rosetta looked at the Rex, "Captain, there are no men in Ando, other than the few you've seen, and your men."
Rex looked at her, puzzled. He'd figured out as much by himself by now- what he wanted to know was why. He'd found one of the best ways to get people talking was to just stay quiet and let them talk.
Rosetta's voice grew quiet and pained, "We lost our men five years ago in a terrible civil war that almost destroyed this entire planet," she looked away as a tear streamed down her face. She swiped at it, "I lost my husband, then my firstborn," her voice took on a haunted whisper, "I tried to prevent my other two boys from getting dragged into it, but it was like a disease. It was this endless cycle of revenge that kept feeding on itself. We lost everything."
More tears streamed down, and Rex felt a strange desire to comfort this kindly, older woman that he didn't even know. She swiped at the tears. "I couldn't stop them from going. And, then… they… were all gone," Rosetta looked away, lost in the memory. "We lost our ships, most of our technology, pretty much everything… Some of the women wanted to pick up the fight, and avenge the men. But, it was Karyn who saw where it would all end. She was the one who was treating the wounded. But, there weren't even a lot of wounded. Mainly it was just a lot of casualties. Just dead, dead and more dead. And, the menfolk had been getting younger and younger until it was hardly more than children who had been getting sent out to war. Karyn lost 15-year old twin boys to the war," Rosetta bowed her head for a moment, then gathered her composure. "Her husband had died early on in the war, but when her boys ran off and then get themselves killed… well, that was it for Karyn. She pulled together the womenfolk of Ando into a peace coalition. She sent pictures of her dead boys to every village on the planet and told them that all of their children were going to end up like hers if this didn't stop."
"And?" Rex couldn't remain quiet any longer.
"It did," Rosetta said, simply, "that ended it… But, by then the planet was in shambles. There really was nothing left of the planet that was once Ando. Karyn gathered the survivors left into this one remote village. This is all that's left. One village of 500 people, almost all women, some children, a few old men. The rest are all dead of a planet that was once almost 8,000 people."
Rex was silent in the darkened speeder trying to reconcile the quiet fishing village with the planet's dark past.
"Sorry, Captain, didn't mean to throw that all out on you. I'm sure you have troubles of your own," Rosetta laid a gentle hand on Rex's arm.
"I'm sorry for the loss of your husband, ma'am," Rex said, "and, your sons," he took a deep breath, and met her eyes, "during the war, I lost many brothers."
"I'd be honored, Captain," Rosetta said, "if you'd tell me about your brothers."
Rex turned to look at Rosetta. He was about to tell her what he'd told Travis. He wasn't the type who talked about those types of things. He'd talked to Ahsoka, but, she'd stumbled into his mind when he'd had a fever. He hadn't exactly volunteered to discuss his past demons with her.
But, there was just something about the kindly older woman. So, as they sat in the darkened speeder, waiting for the next trooper to be brought out, Rex found himself slowly starting to talk to Rosetta. "Well, ma'am, there's not much to tell."
"Oh, I highly doubt that. I've met some of your men, now, Captain, and they're incredible. If I were you, I would be devastated by the loss of any one of them. I've lost a husband, and I've lost sons. Surely losing brothers is just as awful," Rosetta said in her quiet calm way.
Rex closed his eyes for a moment, trying not to see images of Teth. He felt a hand on his arm again.
"I'm sorry, honey. I shouldn't be pushing you. Let's not talk about it. We can just sit here and be quiet, if you like."
They sat in silence for a long moment, each alone with their thoughts. But, it was Rex who broke the silence, "Once, in a single day, I lost almost five hundred brothers. They were all under my command. It was the single worst day of my life," Rex hung his head down, temporarily unable to continue. He felt Rosetta's hand on his arm again. Rex took a deep breath, and blew it out, plunging on, "It was on a planet called Teth."
# # #
It was past ten once Rex and Rosetta finally finished dropping off all of the wounded to their host families. Rosetta walked Rex as far as the door of Karyn's clinic. She gave him a warm, tearful embrace.
"I'm so glad you and your men are here, Captain. You have breathed new life into this town again," she said to him quietly, "I look forward to seeing you tomorrow at the potluck. I'm going to make you my special fruit compote."
"That would be a real treat, ma'am," Rex responded, bowing his head to her respectfully, "I've never had fruit compote. I look forward to it."
"You're a dear sweet man," Rosetta said, brushing a hand up to his cheek, "you're all sweet boys." She teared up again, "Remind me of my boys, you all do." She sighed heavily, "It's good having you here." She shook her head, "I better go, before I make a fool of myself, crying over you." She turned and slipped back into her speeder.
Rex watched her go, making sure she got into her speeder OK. He watched the speeder pull away.
"Well," Karyn said from directly behind him, "you certainly made an impression on Rosetta. I don't think I've ever seen her get all emotional over anyone like that."
"Really?" Rex said, turning toward Karyn, grimacing a bit from the moment. "She's a very sweet lady."
"Sweet?" Karyn laughed, "she's considered about the toughest old bird in town. But, well, somehow she has taking a liking to you, Captain." Karyn reached forward and touched Rex's ribs. "OK, tough guy. You've taken care of everybody else. Now, it's your turn."
Rex shook his head, "I'm fine." He looked toward the beds where his men were settled. Rex immediately recognized one of the men in the beds right away. Dart, the smart ass trooper he'd run into during the journey from Coruscant "I'm just going to go sit with my men for a while."
Karyn folded her arms across her chest, "No, you're not."
Rex raised an eyebrow, and looked back at her, challengingly.
"No deal," Karyn said, "I let you run all over town. You know your men are fine. We're not bad people. Now, it's time to take care of you."
Karyn quickly turned and wiped the treatment bed down with an anti-septic spray, then patted it with her hands, "Alright, clothes off, right here."
Rex backed away, headed toward the side of the room where his men were settled, "No need. I'm fine. I've got some bacta. I can take care of this."
Karyn walked over grabbed Rex firmly by the arm, and pulled him back over to the treatment bed. "Captain, sit down, now." Her tone of voice brokered no argument. "You have a burn from a laser. It needs treatment, not benign neglect. It can get infected, even blood poisoning- that can be fatal. The sooner we get started, the sooner we'll be done."
Karyn was wearing traditional medical garb, and Rex had to admit it made her both attractive and imposing. Granted, he hadn't been around a lot of other women, other than Ahsoka. But, a man would have to be blind not to notice the doctor was well-built. She had particularly nice-
"Captain?"
Rex blinked quickly. Karyn's voice interrupted his profound thinking. Rex realized, with some embarrassment, she had been talking to him for some time. He'd heard her voice, but it hadn't really registered with him. He knew his focus was way off due to fatigue. Rex blinked, and forced himself to focus on what she was saying.
"Uh, yes, Doctor, you were saying?"
"Are you going to remove your armor? Or, did you want me to do it? After the fifth or so trooper, I got very good about removing armor."
"I can do it," Rex insisted. Rex began removing his chest plate. He reached up remove his one remaining shoulder plate, but grimaced from the movement. Karyn watched his progress, and then grew frustrated.
"Captain, may I?" she asked, reached forward to help.
Rex dropped his hands to his sides, and nodded to the doctor. He could feel exhaustion setting in.
"Yes, so, Captain, I was asking what Lieutenant Travis meant when he said you were injured colliding with a wall?"
"Oh, that… Uh… oh… just a clone expression. It means… uh, well, that is to say… er, well, to hit the wall means, uh,… it's when you… uh..." Rex floundered, knowing if he wasn't so tired he could pull this off much better.
"Oh, give it up, Captain," called Dart from his bed, "the doctor has a nice touch."
"Thank you, Dart," Karyn said.
Dart grinned at Rex, and then smirked, "Quite nice, actually."
"Thank you again, Dart, I think," the doctor called, still removing Rex's armor.
Rex just shook his head, but couldn't blame Dart, since he'd been thinking about her nicer points just a moment before. But, then he felt guilty for even thinking it, since he and Ahsoka had a… well, thing. Rex wasn't sure how to define what he and Ahsoka had. It was good. It was mutual. But, what would you call it? Rex's mind drifted, thinking of Ahsoka. Where was she now anyway? Ahsoka? Rex quested for her with his mind. He felt like he could almost touch her…
"Captain?" the doctor's voice abruptly brought him back to the moment, causing Rex to startle and curse under his breath. "You, OK?"
"Yes, fine," Rex grumbled.
"That seems to be your standard answer for everything, you know," Karyn said. She finished with Rex's armor, and began removing the top half of Rex's bodysuit. She exposed his chest and arms.
"Impressive," Karyn said, getting a good look at all of Rex's accumulated chest and shoulder injuries. She looked more closely at the burn on his shoulder. Rex's armor had taken the brunt of the blaster burn. But, the skin underneath was swollen and red, with a large fluid filled burn blister. "Captain! Why didn't you say something sooner? This blister must have been extremely painful, especially with your clothing rubbing up against it all day," Karyn gave Rex an exasperated look.
Rex shrugged, then grimaced from the movement, "I've had a lot of experience with blaster burns," said Rex, "it was more important my men be taken care of,"
Karyn very gently probed the area, and Rex yelped. Karyn sighed, "OK, for now we're going to cover the blister, and just let it pop on its' own. The fluid inside will help the area heal. We have some excellent natural remedies for burns that will help them heal just as well as bacta does. In this case, I'm going to use a combination of sea buckthorn oil and seaweed."
The doctor pulled two jars, a mortar and a pestle from a side cabinet. "These just came in off of our main research vessel, The Manifest Destiny," Karyn explained. Her eyes widened as she suddenly remembered something important, "It's the same ship that picked up your man, Hok!"
Rex's eyes widened, and he jumped up, annoyed with himself that he hadn't asked about Hok sooner, "Hok! Where is he?" He looked around the clinic. "Where's Hok?"
# # #
One of the women of Andoville who had taken in a clone for the evening was a widow named Maya. She was hosting an injured trooper named Quinn.
Just as the sun was setting over Andoville, she set a soup tureen into the middle of the table in her small, cheerful kitchen.
"Are you sure you're OK to sit at the table and eat?" she asked her houseguest, "I could bring you a tray in bed, if you'd like."
"I'm fine," said Quinn. He inclined his head politely, "thank you, though, uh, ma'am."
Quinn had been strafed with laser fire down his left arm and left side. Karyn had treated his burns, and then declared him stable enough that he didn't have to remain in the clinic. He was, however, to remain in bed for the next several days, except for meals and using the refresher. So, Quinn had been helped out to the speeder by the kindly Rosetta, and the waiting Captain Rex, and ferried off to Maya's house.
Maya smiled to herself, feeling lucky she'd been chosen to host a clone for the night. There were more offers of lodging than clones who needing housing. Word had spread like wildfire that a shipload of men had crashed upon the planet. And, not ugly men either. When it had come time to assign housing, well, that scene had almost ugly. Five years is a long time.
So, Karyn had ordered the housing selection be done by lottery. Maya had been thrilled when she drew a winning lottery number. She'd rushed home to start preparing a meal. She didn't have much, but she was determined to put forth something nice for her guest.
Maya watched her guest eat, impressed with his polite manners. He sat ramrod straight at the table, bowed his head politely when accepting food, and always called her "ma'am. Maya had never seen or met anyone like him. The sheer exoticness of him swept her breath away. Maya's late husband had been a competent enough breadwinner. But, truth be told, Maya had never been heads over heels in love with the man. Their marriage had been one of convenience, and it had produced no children.
As Maya sliced a loaf of bread that she'd baked earlier that day, she snuck a look at her houseguest out of the corner of her eye. Quinn was still wearing his armor, but he'd removed his helmet. He had dusky skin and beautiful eyes. Underneath the armor, she could just make out a muscular build. She let out a sigh.
"Are you alright, ma'am? Could I help you with that?" Quinn asked, indicating the bread.
"Fine, fine," Maya said, snapping back to reality. She hadn't realized she'd sighed out loud. "Uh, no, no, that is, no need to help. You just relax. Doctor's orders."
That was another thing to like about Quinn - his voice. She loved the accent, although she couldn't quite place it. She noticed all the clones had that same accent. It was delightful to listen to- words seem to just roll off their tongues.
Maya set the slabs of bread onto the table next to the soup tureen. She sat down next to Quinn and smiled at him. He smiled back, and then blushed.
He's shy. I need to get him talking about something he'd comfortable about.
"So, Quinn, how long have you been in the military?" Maya ladled out a generous portion of soup into his bowl.
Quinn looked puzzled at the question.
"I'm a clone, ma'am. I was born and bred to be a soldier. So, I guess the answer would be since birth, I suppose."
Quinn stopped, because he noticed Maya was staring at him.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude," Quinn said, "I know most civilians don't know much about us. I guess the holonet doesn't do a very good job of explaining."
Quinn stared into his soup, not eating, feeling awkward, and like maybe he'd said something wrong. Maya reached across the table and wrapped her hand around his. Quinn looked up, startled.
Maya laughed, "We haven't had the holonet here in five years. We had no idea you even existed, or your war. Would you tell me more, about you, and your life?" she asked.
Quinn looked at her, then down at their clasped hands.
"You're interested, in me?" he cocked his head sideways at her. His eyes widened, as if the thought of someone being interested in him was hard to fathom.
"I am," Maya said, her green eyes meeting his brown ones.
"I'm not even sure what to say, ma'am," Quinn said, feeling self-conscious again.
"Tell me everything about you and who you are. I don't know anything," Maya said simply.
Quinn continued to look into Maya's eyes, feeling extremely nervous. He wondered if this was some kind of trap. But, all he saw there was kindness and sincerity. He looked down at their hands. Neither of them had made an effort to move their hands away.
He still hesitated.
Maya lightly stroked her thumb over his hand. Quinn gulped at the intimacy at the gesture, but still didn't pull away. He met her eyes again, and she smiled again.
She likes me! Quinn suddenly realized, feeling like he'd been shot again. He decided to take a huge risk, and started talking.
"Well, uh, I'm a clone, yes, but I'm also human. Some people think we're droids underneath this armor, but, of course that's not true. We're just ordinary men. I've made a pledge to protect the Republic, and to lay down my life for the Republic. A lot of my brothers have died already for the Republic - some of them very hard and brutal deaths," Quinn took a deep breath, "I've always know I'll die, too, in a battle someplace. But, that's my lot in life." He looked back at Maya, "The rest of it, I'm sure you do not want to hear."
"Why not?"
"Because it is the other side of being a Republic soldier—the truth. The stuff that doesn't have to do with duty and honor, and dying some heroic death. And, nobody ever wants to hear about that stuff."
Maya gave him a sincere look, "Well, I want to hear it."
"Really?"
"Yes, I do."
Quinn gazed at her for a long moment, as if judging her sincerity. "Well, OK, then, here's the rest of it. I'm expected to die for the Republic, but yet, I am not considered a citizen of the Republic, I can't vote, I have no rights, and I don't get paid. One year ago, before the Battle of Geonosis, I had three million brothers. Now, I have two million brothers. If the war continues at this rate, well, we'll all be dead inside of the next two years. All of my brothers and I, all of us wiped out for good as if we never existed," Quinn paused for a moment, caught up in a memory of something that had happened to him. He shook a little, a tremor passing through his body.
"Go on," Maya encouraged.
Quinn looked at Maya, he nodded at her, took a deep breath, another tremor passing through his body, and then continued, "My specialty is Combat Engineering," another tremor passed through his body, Quinn grimaced with annoyance, but he pushed on and continued,
"Up until last month, I was part of the 38th Armored Division. I did a lot of constructing, and deconstructing of things as part - "
Quinn's stopped speaking abruptly, and his whole body went rigid. He sank like a stone to the floor, his entire body convulsing in a seizure.
"Quinn!" Maya dropped down to his side. She stared in horror at his convulsions, feeling panicked, unsure what to do. She dug her comlink out of her pocket.
"Hang on, Quinn. I'm going to call Karyn!"
In her panic, she dropped her comlink. She fumbled, picked it up again, and brought it up to her lips. She was about to call for the doctor when a strong hand stilled her actions.
It was Quinn. His seizure had subsided.
"There is no need to call the doctor," he said, weakly, his eyes still closed, still curled up on his side in the fetal position, "I'm alright." His voice was breathless, and he was pale.
Maya stroked his forehead instinctively, trying to lend comfort: "What just happened?" she asked Quinn.
As she stroked his hair back, she noticed a jagged white scar underneath his silky black hair. Eyes still closed, Quinn grabbed her hand, and pulled it up to the scar.
"Head injury," he said, eyes still closed, "a detonation job—didn't quite go as planned."
He opened his eyes and focused on her. Her eyes were wide with concern and compassion. "I'm not in the Grand Army of the Republic anymore," Quinn said with a tired sigh, "there's nothing grand about me, at all." He released her hands, and dropped his arms to the floor, so he could push himself up. Maya put a hand on him to prevent him from getting up just yet.
"Do you want to lie down? I could show you to your room?" she said, concerned.
"No, really, I'm OK. I think I'm finally getting used to these seizures," he said, "I'm sorry to disturb your dinner. I should have warned you before you agreed to take me on as a houseguest. I'll understand if you want to send me back. You probably don't want me in your house. I understand… I wouldn't want me."
Maya stared at him for a moment.
Quinn looked down, "I'll get my kit," he said quietly.
On impulse. Maya grabbed his face, turning it toward hers. She leaned slowly toward him, making eye contact the whole time.
His eyes widened as he realized what she was about to do. He didn't pull back. He leaned forward ever so slightly. She put a hand behind his back, drawing him nearer. He parted his lips, ever so slightly. Their lips finally met. Quinn closed his eyes, as a whole world of new sensations washed over him.
24 hours ago, I thought I'd be dead by now.
Maybe I did die. Maybe I just made it to the afterlife, and I don't remember crossing over. Maya is my own personal angel. So beautiful. And, sweet. I didn't expect a kiss to taste this sweet.
After they broke apart from their first kiss, Quinn looked at Maya, confusion furrowing his brow. "Are you an angel?"
Maya threw both arms around his neck, and rested her head against his chest. He was still wearing his armor. Some of the plates were now blackened, and badly in need of replacing.
Quinn tucked his chin on top of her head, savoring the unfamiliar sensation of holding a woman in his arms.
I think I could grow to like it here.
She pulled back from his chest, and helped him to his feet, pulling him up by his good arm. She curled in to his chest again, for just a moment, enjoying the feel of his armored chest.
"I'm very glad you came, Quinn," she said.
Quinn's stomach growled, cutting in to the moment.
Maya laughed, "Come on, let's feed you. Before Karyn steals you back from me because of benign neglect."
Quinn released her, somewhat reluctantly, but he did eye the soup and bread with interest.
"We'll get back to this. I promise," Maya said, running a finger lightly along his lip, before turning back to the soup bowls. Quinn shivered, just from the light touch.
"Sit, please," Maya helped Quinn back into his chair. Quinn sat back down carefully, wincing a bit as the the burns along his side pulled. "Are you OK?" Maya asked.
Quinn laughed, "Trust me, ma'am. I've had a lot worse than this."
Maya frowned at that, but let it go. Maya put aside the cool bowls of soup, and ladled out fresh, hot bowls of soup for both of them. She passed the bread to Quinn. He accepted the basket of freshly-made bread, smelling it appreciatively, before selecting two large pieces.
"I've never smelled bread such as this before," he said.
"Really?" Maya said, eyebrows raised.
"Army food isn't like this," Quinn said, eyeing their meal appreciatively.
"Go ahead, please, and start eating," Maya said, indicating the food.
"Thank you, ma'am," Quinn said.
Karyn laughed, "Quinn, if you're going to kiss me, at least call me Maya, OK?"
Quinn looked at her, his first spoonful of soup halfway to his mouth. He blushed again.
"OK, then," he said, "Maya," trying out her name on his lips.
Maya felt a strange thrill when she heard Quinn say her name in his lilting accent.
He smiled at her again, right before bringing the soup to his lips, "Although technically, Maya, you kissed me."
Maya's eyes opened in surprise. He winked at her, and Maya knew then that she was completely lost.
He closed his eyes, savoring the taste of the soup.
"Oh, wow- this is good," he said appreciatively, ladling in spoonful after spoonful. Maya found it fascinating just to watch him eat.
She slid the butter over to him, "Butter? We have a small creamery at the edge of town, run by Rosetta. Our stuff is unusually good and creamy. I tend to like to just slather my bread."
He accepted the butter from her, touching her hand a moment longer than necessary. His eyes met hers again, and he smiled warmly. Maya could see his initial shyness had disappeared since their kiss. The way he looked at her made a puddle of warmth spread in the pit of her stomach. As their eyes met, she sucked in her breath. As their fingers met and lingered over the creamy butter, she thought she couldn't remember ever feeling anything like this in the presence of her husband. As much as she was enjoying watching Quinn eat, she was also anxious for him to hurry up and finish eating.
She stared in fascination as Quinn spread a generous amount of butter onto his bread. Slather, slather, slather. But, before he even opened his mouth to take a bite, he took an appreciative whiff of the aromatic bread. "Mmmmm….. delightful," he said, with a happy sigh, finally taking a generous bite of the sweet, fresh bread. Quinn looked over at Maya, his brow creasing a bit in a frown.
"Aren't you going to eat, ma'am- Maya? Everything is quite, ah, delicious," he gave her a long, slow smile.
Maya picked up her spoon. "Yes, sorry. I was just enjoying watching you eat. I don't think I've ever seen someone enjoy a simple meal so much."
"Oh, well, you should see what we've been eating," Quinn laughed and the sound seemed to fill the room. Maya realized then how empty her house had been these five years. "Oh wait! Perhaps this can help explain things better than I can!" Quinn tried to pull something out of one of his belt pouches, but between his arm injury, and the burns on his side, he couldn't quite manage it.
"Let me help," Maya stood up and crossed over to help Quinn. She wasn't interested in eating at all, anyway. Quinn was so much more fascinating than dinner anyway. She leaned over him and placed her hand in his belt pouch.
"This one?" she said, rummaging around in the pouch.
"Yes," Quinn said, suddenly short of breath. Maya's upper torso was right in front of his face as she leaned over him. Again, Quinn wondered if they truly had crashed on Ando, or if he was just living through some kind of post-Kamino-execution afterlife.
Does it matter, Quinnie boy?
"So, is this what you were looking for?"
"Yes!" Quinn said, enthusiastically, then he blinked and focused on what Maya was talking about. She was holding a food ration cube in her hand.
"Oh, yes, that was it," Quinn said in a more subdued tone, trying to get his breathing under control. "Try eating those for years, and you'll have a whole new appreciation for your delicious soup."
Maya sat back down in her chair. She studied the rations cube for a moment.
"Not very appealing looking, is it?"
"Oh, I have nothing against the way it looks. Just wait until you taste it," Quinn teased.
Maya sniffed it, "It has no smell."
"That's not all it doesn't have."
Maya took a small dainty bite of it. She chewed, and to her credit, didn't spit it out immediately.
She looked back at him, "How often do you eat these?"
Quinn shrugged, "In the past week, it's all I've had to eat. Well, that and some water."
"You're kidding!"
"No. But, I was raised to eat stuff like that."
Maya took another bite, chewing it carefully, "It doesn't get any better the more you eat it."
Quinn laughed at her, "No. It doesn't. But, I dare you to eat the whole thing."
She laughed at him, "You're on!"
Maya made a terrible face with each bite, but finally ended up finishing the ration cube.
Quinn watched her, laughing, enjoying his delicious meal of soup and bread. He couldn't remember ever enjoying a meal more, "I'm impressed. Not sure I've ever known a non-civilian tough enough to stomach a rations cube."
"Why are they so tasteless?"
"You sure you want to know?" Quinn asked, an amused glint in his eye. He looked around at their food on the table. He had taken flashtraining in etiquette. At the time, he didn't understand why soldiers had to take such things, but now he was glad he had. "It might not make for appropriate dinnertime conversation."
"Yes, I want to know," Maya said, sensing something of a story.
"Ok, then, remember you asked. Ah, well, if the food you take in has absolutely no smell, then the stuff coming out of you has no-"
Maya raised her hands laughing, "OK, OK, I get it!"
Quinn laughed with her, "You did ask."
"So, I did. What do I get for completing the dare?" she asked, giving him a playful look.
Quinn sat back in his chair, taking a generous bite of another slice of bread. He studied her carefully while he chewed. "Well," he said, finishing off the rest of the slice, and licking the butter off of his fingers slowly and appreciatively "I suppose since you won the dare, it would have to be lady's choice."
Maya in fascination as he licked fingers. She shoved the bowl of butter toward him. "More butter?" she asked, breathlessly.
"Uh, no," Quinn said, looking down at the bowl for a moment, and then back at Maya, "thank you, though. It was delicious, and, uh, very creamy, just like you said."
Maya licked her lower lip, "Ladies choice," she murmured, a sparkle in her eye. She stood up and walked over to Quinn. She looked down at him, smiling.
"I choose a kiss from Quinn."
Quinn sucked his breath in, and then grinned back at her, thoroughly enjoying the flirtation. He reached up and pulled her down on his lap. Maya seated herself carefully, not wanting to further injure his arm or side. Quinn didn't seem overly concerned about his injuries at the moment. He wrapped his good arm around Maya, and she wrapped one arm around his back, and the other behind his head. She gave a contended sigh as he slowly drew her closer in to him.
"Pay up," she demanded.
Quinn laughed, bringing his lips in toward her, "You know, I have a whole pouch full of ration cubes, since you like them so much…"
Maya couldn't wait anymore for her kiss, and brought her lips down on his. Quinn had planned on a light kiss, but Maya's kiss was hungry and demanding. Quinn heard her moan, and he responded with a growl.
# # #
Several long, exploratory minutes later, he had her pushed on her back on the table. She was desperately pulling off his armor from the waist down. He was glad for the help because he didn't have the dexterity to do it with his injured arm. He had to murmur instructions to her, since she was unfamiliar with some of the latches and clasps. But, she was a quick study, and he was soon naked from the waist down. She was too impatient to get fully undressed. She rolled her underpants off, and he pushed her dress up to her waist.
"Now, Quinn!" she demanded, pulling him down for another kiss, biting his neck.
"Did you just bite me?" he laughed, both turned on, and surprised. "That will be a one-minute penalty." He leaned over her, but didn't enter her yet. He took his time, leisurely kissing her, and nuzzling her neck. He'd never made love to a woman before, but found every part of being with Maya was just so perfect, even lying half-naked amongst the bread crumbs and soup tureen. He was so aroused that he couldn't wait to enter her, yet he wanted the moment to last forever at the same time.
She impatiently swept the bread crumbs off the table onto the floor.
"Quinn!" she demanded, breathing heavily, "please! I feel like I'm going to explode!"
Quinn frowned and looked down on the floor, "You're making a mess, you know. I'll help you clean that up later."
She reached a hand down and grabbed his swollen member.
Quinn sucked in his breath, and closed his eyes, "Yeah, OK," he said, breathlessly, "I'm pretty sure that's cheating."
Maya guided him toward her entrance, "Yeah, well, whatever works. A lady's got needs you know."
"Uh, OK, then. I guess I can't keep the lady waiting then," Quinn sounded nervous though.
Quinn felt himself hovering right at her entrance, and looked right into Maya's eyes, "Are you ready, Maya?"
"Quinn!" Maya demanded.
"OK, OK," Quinn said, "just double-checking," he leaned his face down to hers, capturing her lips in a kiss that was light at first. Maya wouldn't allow for a light kiss. She immediately escalated the kiss into searing intensity, shoving her tongue into his mouth. Quinn's eyes opened in surprise. Maya locked her legs around his hips.
Quinn moved hips forward, trying to find the right angle forward to enter her. Maya shifted her hips helping him out. Quinn bucked his hips forward and entered her. Both Maya and Quinn groaned as their bodies joined. Maya felt her body stretching to accommodate Quinn's length. He was much bigger than her husband had been, and it had been five years since she'd had sex.
Quinn stopped, "Are you OK, Maya?"
Maya pulled back from their kiss, "Yes, it's just been a long while for me."
"Do you want me to stop? I could, uh," Quinn begin to withdraw.
"Don't you dare!" Maya said, "it was a battle just getting you in! How long has it been for you?"
Quinn stilled, and Maya wondered if she had said the wrong thing.
"Quinn, what is it?" Maya put her hands up to Quinn's face with concern, "please, you can tell me anything."
Quinn looked away, and Maya was even more concerned. He looked ashamed. His face had turned bright red, and Maya instinctively knew it was not from the strain of the sex.
"Quinn, please! Tell me!"
"Maya," Quinn said quietly, the beads of sweat, still on his forehead, "I've never done this before."
Maya's eyes widened in surprise, "Really?"
Quinn nodded, and he squeezed his eyes shut, even more embarrassed.
"Well, you could have fooled me, Quinn. You're…" Maya struggled for the right words.
Quinn opened his eyes, and turned toward her, his face full of hope.
Maya smiled at him, "You're good at this. You seem to have natural instincts, the kissing, the flirting, the whole bit, so just go with that, OK?"
Quinn nodded, his whole face lighting up, "Yeah, I can do that. Clones learn very quickly."
She brushed a hand up against his cheek, "Seriously, sweetheart, you had me so aroused from the moment I first laid eyes on you that I jumped you right on my kitchen table," Maya said, looking over at the soup tureen right next to their heads. "I can guarantee you this is not a normal occurrence for me." She began to laugh, and Quinn joined in. "Do you know how turned on you make me?" she squeezed her thighs tightly around his naked buttocks, "now, are you going to finish making love to me, or are we going to just talk about this all night?"
Quinn flexed his buttocks, causing his shaft to drive deeper into Maya. She sucked her breath in.
"That felt good, right?" Quinn asked, looking to Maya for confirmation.
"Yes, Quinn," Maya said, with a smile, "that felt very good."
"Huh, I am good at this," he laughed happily, "it's good to know that I have a talent for something other than demolitions." He flexed his hips and drove himself into Maya again. She moaned.
"Guess I have Jango to thank for this," Quinn murmured. "Bet those fishheads didn't know this when they picked his genes." Quinn flexed his hips again.
"Who's Jango?" Maya asked, breathless, as Quinn established a rythmn between them.
"We'll talk about that later," Quinn said as he leaned down to nibble on her ear, "busy now."
# # #
"Will you have to leave Ando?" Maya asked, several hours later, her hand tracing lazy circles around Quinn's bare chest. She was careful not to press too close to the bandaged areas of his chest where he'd been burned in the battle.
"Leave?" Quinn asked, tilting his head to look at her, a frown creasing his brow.
"Will they send a ship looking for you, and the other soldiers?"
"I don't think so. I can see where they'd be upset about losing a ship, even a junker like that one. But, losing us? No, I can't think of any reason why they'd waste good resources looking for us. They sent away us away from Coruscant trying to get rid of us."
"What?" Maya looked alarmed and upset, sitting bolt upright.
Quinn pulled her back down again and nestled her into his arms. "I'll tell you the whole story, OK?"
He explained to Maya about how he'd ended up at ArmyMed, the depressing journey towards Kamino, and right up to the point where the pirates were getting ready to attack, and Captain Rex started rallying everyone and bellowed out: "Wake up, troopers!"
Maya listened to everything, propped up on one elbow, gently stroking his chest and face. But, once she heard about what would have happened to them at Kamino, she gave him a look of horror, "Are you saying that if you hadn't crashed here on Ando, that you would... you'd be..." She couldn't finish the sentence.
"Yes, I'd be dead now," Quinn said, calmly. I'm still not sure that isn't what actually happened, but if this is the afterlife, I'm going to keep playing along. I like sex, and I like Maya. I don't ever want to wake up.
Maya gasped, and her eyes teared up.
"All of you? All those men I saw yesterday..."
"Yes, the Captain, everyone who fought against the pirates, everyone who has injured - all of us were scheduled to be terminated yesterday."
"That's barbaric! That's horrible! That's- that's -" Maya couldn't find the words to continue.
"Well, in military terms, we've always been considered 'expendable.'Now that we are damaged clones, well, it's just a question of finding the most expedient way to dispose of us."
"Do you regard yourself as useless, Quinn?" she whispered.
Quinn looked away for a moment, unable to meet her gaze. After a long pause, he finally answered.
"For a time, after I found I couldn't rejoin my battalion, well…... it's the only life I've ever known... It's what I was created to do..." He made eye contact with Maya again. "Yes, I felt worthless. When I boarded that ship, I was prepared to die. Actually, I was looking forward to it."
Maya swiped at a tear, as she listened to Quinn's story.
"But, something changed when Captain Rex and Lieutenant Travis took over. They made us feel like men again. I'm not quite sure how to explain it. They gave us back our identity as troopers, outside of our old battalions. Brought us back together as brothers. It all started with the Captain, though. If it wasn't for him, we would have been easy pickings for those pirates. They just would have slaughtered us, right there up there," he pointed in orbit over her planet.
Maya shivered at that image. She could hear the pride in Quinn's voice when he spoke of Captain Rex. "Your Captain sounds like a most amazing man," Maya commented.
"He is," said Quinn, "we all owe him our lives."
Maya looked very thoughtful, once again tracing circles on Quinn's chest with her hand.
Quinn lifted up her chin with his hand, "You look like you have something on our your mind."
"I was thinking..."
"About?"
"If you don't have to leave Ando, or, if you can't leave..." Maya started.
"Yes?" Quinn prompted.
"That means you could stay here."
"Yeah, we've got a tent city outside of town. I think the Captain has to work things out with your leader, Karyn. She mentioned something about all of that being your land. I guess I have to find out from the Captain when we have to go back there to our camp."
"That's not exactly what I meant. I was thinking about you staying here."
Quinn's eyes grew wide as he realized what she was saying.
"Me? Here?"
Maya nodded, looking hopeful.
"With..." Quinn couldn't even bring himself to say it, in case he was wrong.
"Me," Maya said.
Quinn inhaled sharply. He was speechless, his mind trying to process what she was asking of him.
"You want me to..." Quinn started, and trailed off, his brow furrowed. Maya sat up, the blanket falling to her waist. Moonlight streamed in behind her, highlighting her long hair.
"I want you to stay here and live with me."
Quinn cocked his head to the side, his brow still furrowed. He was thoughtful for a long moment.
"What would I do?" he finally asked.
"What is it that you most want to do?" Maya asked.
"Other than this?" Quinn asked, with a teasing smile, brushing the back of one hand down Maya's ribcage.
Maya shivered and got goose bumps up and down her arms. She laughed.
"Yes, well, when two people live together, there is generally a lot of that. Yes, other than that," Maya said, still laughing.
Quinn continued to look thoughtful, while he ran his good arm up and down Maya's back. She leaned in to his touch, enjoying the back rub.
"I would like to be an engineer again," Quinn said, "except I would like to spend more time building things, rather than blowing them up."
At the word 'detonations,' Quinn reached his hand up, and rubbed his head scar self-consciously.
Maya studied him for a long moment. "Our town's growth has been stunted for a long time. We've been severely short on labor since our men stupidly killed themselves off. We have a backlog of things in town that are in need of repair, and we'd also hoped to expand the village. Would that be something you'd be interested in helping with?"
Quinn's eyes grew wide, and his face lit up with a smile. But, then as quickly as his smile came, it disappeared again, and he looked away.
"Maya," he said quietly, "you're forgetting about this." He took her hand and brought it to the scar on his head. He met her gaze, and she could see the anguished look in his eyes.
"I think you could do better, Maya, than a guy like me," he said, his eyes meeting hers.
Maya felt her heart melt at the sincerity in his gaze.
"You want me to give up on you because you get seizures?" she asked, in dismay.
"The Republic did," he said, holding her hand gently, "I did." He admitted.
"Well, Quinn, I'm not giving up on you. Yes, I want you to stay here and live with me, here. Yes, I think you'd make an incredible engineer, and have great things to contribute to Andoville. And, if you think you can just give up on yourself and walk away from here, then, I'll... I'll..."
Maya grew flabbergasted.
"You'll what?" Quinn asked, a happy, teasing smile back on his face.
"Chase you down and bring you back here, with me, where you belong. That's what!" Maya said.
Quinn regarded her thoughtfully, the teasing smile still in place, "Mmmm... that sounds like a good bit of fun, actually, all that chasing."
Maya laughed, and punched him on his good arm.
Quinn grabbed her and rolled her down in bed underneath him.
"Oh now, you are just asking for it," he laughed, "tell me again that part about me being yours and all that chasing?" He felt himself immediately growing hard. He captured her lips in a long searing kiss. Maya moaned under the intensity of his kiss. "Are you sure you'd want me around, Maya?" Quinn asked, pulling back.
Maya wrapped her legs around his buttocks again, trapping him against her, "Yes, Quinn, yes! Now, less talking, and more of the thing you seem so naturally talented at…" She reached her down, grabbing him again, and pulling him against her entrance.
This time, Quinn didn't hesitate. He thrust himself right into her with the confidence. Maya moaned.
"Thank you, Jango," Quinn murmured again.
"Who's this, Jango?" Maya demanded, grabbing Quinn by his silky black hair, and pulling his mouth toward hers for a long, hot kiss.
"Do you really want to talk now?" Quinn murmured, peppering her face and neck with kisses.
Maya sighed, and shivered as Quinn ran his tongue up the nape of her neck, "Later. You'll tell me who this Jango is later."
Quinn just laughed, and muttered, "Mmmmm…. now this is an interesting place I haven't kissed you before…" He wasn't planning on getting out of bed anytime soon. Doctors' orders. He decided he liked Ando. A lot.
# # #
Author's Notes: OK, according to my Microsoft Word count, that was a little more than 50 pages. Mmmm… ah, whatever, it's all good. I wanted to take the time to answer one of the review questions that came in: "How did Cody know Rex was killed by the pirates?"
Ah, I realize now that I edited out two pages of Chapter 31, "Don't Forget Me," that in retrospect, I should have left in. They are still in my written, (printed out) copy so that when I re-read my binder, I assumed they were also still part of the online version as well. But, no, they're not there. Too bad. So, I'm putting those two pages back in. Not sure why I ever took them out. (Overzealous editing, I suppose.)
(Chapter 31—the missing two pages.)
# # #
The funeral ceremony for Rex was brief, but poignant. Anakin spoke first, saying what a fine officer Rex had been. Cody spoke next, very briefly, saying there had never been a finer brother. His throat clogged with emotion, he shook his head, wouldn't say anything else. He shoved is helmet back on, and went to stand beside Echo.
Anakin then asked Ahsoka if she wanted to say anything. Ahsoka shook her head, maintaining the same characteristic silence she'd kept since Rex had died. And, that was it. End of ceremony. Total ceremony time: about three minutes.
Since it was unusual for clones to even bury their dead, or have any kind of remembrance, Anakin it was a sufficient length to get the job done.
Cody walked briskly away after the ceremony was dismissed, headed full speed for the turbolift. Ahsoka headed after him.
"Cody!" she called.
Cody kept walking.
"Cody!" she called, a little louder.
Cody stopped, startled. He'd been so caught up in his own thoughts and memories, and it had been a while since he'd even heard Ahsoka's voice. It had taken him a moment to even register that it was her voice that was speaking to him. "Do you need something, Commander?" he asked, gently.
"Can I talk to you?" Ahsoka asked.
"Of course," Cody said, standing in front of her. He assumed a formal pose, place his hands behind his back, and legs hip distance apart.
Ahsoka rolled her eyes, in a gesture reminiscent of the 'old Ahsoka.' "I meant, could I talk to you someplace a bit more privately?"
Cody gestured toward the turbo lift. They entered together.
"What is this about?" Cody asked, after the turbolift started.
Ahsoka turned to Cody, looking right into his eyes, "I don't think Rex is dead."
"What?" Cody stumbled back in shock. He tried to absorb the impact of her words. The turbolift stopped and the doors began to open. Cody immediately jammed the button to close the doors, and set the turbolift in motion to another floor. He then hit the 'stop' button, halting the turbolift in motion between floors. "You were the one who said Rex was dead!" Cody said in a voice so accusing it bordered on hostile.
Ahsoka backed up from the vehemence in his eyes. "I know, Cody, I know, but, I-, I-" she began, stammering from nervousness as she saw how angry Cody was.
"But, what!" Cody said, "we just held a eulogy for Captain Rex, and now you want to tell me he's not dead?"
"Yes, I know it all seems strange, and sudden, Cody," Ahsoka tried to explain, "but, I had this feeling-"
Cody took a deep breath, as if struggling to reign in his temper.
"Commander, I know you're under a lot of stress right now, so you're likely wanting to believe that Rex could still be alive. Believe me, I wish that, too."
"No, Cody, it's not like that. This was a vision-"
"Like your other vision?" Cody asked, clearly skeptical.
"Yes, but I think this one means-"
"This vision cancels out the other vision?" Cody's voice clearly showed his skepticism.
"I know it's hard to understand, but, I felt-"
Cody gripped Ahsoka's arm, "Look, Commander, I didn't want to show you this, because I figured there was no sense. We all knew Rex was dead, right? But, now I think you need to see it."
Ahsoka looked at Cody with confusion, unsure what he was trying to say. Cody pulled a small datapad out of one of his belt pockets. He called up an image onto the screen.
"The ship Rex was on never arrived at Kamino, Ahsoka. General Kenobi was able to pull some strings and send a ship to retrace their route. They found this…" Cody called up images of wreckage and debris floating in space. "They confirmed that the debris came from the hull of the Kamino-bound troop transport. It was Rex's ship, Ahsoka. His ship was destroyed en-route. Looks like the work of pirates. So, your original vision was correct. Rex is dead, Ahsoka."
Ahsoka stared at the images, then looked up at Cody in confusion.
"No, this isn't possible, I-, but, I-, but-, I-, felt-, I -, I-" Ahsoka's eyes began tearing up, as she looked at Cody with confusion.
Cody hit the button to restart the lift, "I'm sorry, Commander," the lift stopped and the doors opened. Cody turned and faced Ahsoka, "we both have to face Rex is dead." He turned and walked quickly away, leaving Ahsoka standing alone in the lift, shattered.
# # #
