DISCLAIMER:I only own my OC's every other character is owned by Disney, Lucas and everyone else who has ever written anything for Star Wars. This is for entertainment only. My own and anyone who cares to read it.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

Rex was rushing back to Lonlea on the speeder; Essie had said it was urgent. He was worried; she had deteriorated that was all he knew. These feelings were a new experience for him; he had lost comrades, friends and brothers but never a lover. This was a 'first' he did not want to experience. He pulled the speeder up outside the house; it wasn't parked carefully he no longer cared and rushed inside.

Tula met him at the door, "Rex, she was fine one minute, the next..."

She ushered Rex in, "I'm out of my depth Rex; there's nothing on the Holonet matching this and the old med Droid hasn't come up with anything. She's holding her own at the moment."

There were three of them in the back, a strange man sat at the table with Essie.

"Rex, sit." Instructed Essie; "This is Jay. he's a Doctor from New Seelos. A friend of the family from way back. His father and Ana's father knew each other, when they were young." She poured Rex a Caf.

The man nodded, "Rex."

"I called him." Tula explained, "as soon as it happened, luckily, he was at home and he's got a personal flyer. He came immediately." Tula looked worried, they all did.

"Ana should be on the mend now. The med Droid has checked her and all the infection has gone but she is still unconscious, a coma."

"A coma. How?" Rex needed all the details.

"I don't know. That's why we called Jay, he works at the University hospital, on some of the more obscure diseases." She took a deep breath. "The Droid didn't know what it was. He's our only chance. He's going to do some tests."

Rex saw the large doctor's case and several boxes behind him; "What tests are you going to do?" Rex pulled himself together, if this man could help her, he would do everything to help plus he needed to understand what was happening.

.

There was the battery of tests; blood, saliva and lumbar puncture the products of which were fed into the mobile test laboratory he had brought with him and had been left in the other room.

"You came prepared." Rex commented, as the tests were being analysed.

"Anything for family." He said looking serious. "They are the only ones I have now apart from my daughters. My father and I used to come to visit, for holidays when I was young but it stopped after my father died. We lost touch." He continued to construct the apparatus he brought with him. It looked crude to Rex's eyes; he had been used to the best, most up to date when he was in the GAR.

"When Essie called, I couldn't refuse. It also came at a good time for me, gave me hope, gave me purpose." He clicked the final piece of what looked like a complicated jigsaw together. "There."

"What is it?"

"An atomic level diagnostic scanner. My colleague, at the university hospital designed it. It's experimental but if nothing comes from the other tests we can use it to see what is happening in her brain."

"Is it safe?" Rex regarded the ramshackle contraption; he was unsure about this. He remembered that they had them on Kamino, Fives had told him, and Kix had known about them but this device looked crude.

"Of course, we have tested it."

"On who?"

"Wamp rats."

"Wamp rats?"

"Yes. They're an ideal subject."

"Is it safe on humans?" Rex almost growled this out. He wouldn't lose her to some unsafe, experimental medical device.

"Be assured, that I would never do anything to hurt her, or any patient that I treat."

"Okay." Rex felt the muscles in his cheeks tense, as he clenched his teeth. "What do you need to do?"

"Wait for the other results first. She's stable. Be patient."

Rex turned abruptly, losing patience with the process, and went into Ana's room; she lay as if she were sleeping. He touched her forehead with the back of his hand it was cool to his touch. At least she wasn't burning up. He pulled up a chair, next to the bed; he had heard that people in a coma could still hear you, so he started talking. He told her what he done at the house with her animals; he explained about the tests and who Jay was.

He told her how he felt about her.

.

"Well, that is rare!" Jay commented, as he looked at the blood results; "she should have antibodies for that virus, it's so common."

"Which one is that?"

"Rhinacyria, most people have some variant of it by the time they reach their teens."

"What is it?" Wondering if he had had it and given it to her. As a young clone and later he'd had more needles stuck into his shebs, than he'd had ration bars.

"It's a mild virus causes runny nose, sore throat, possibly a cough."

"I'm going to do the atomic level scan to find out exactly what is going on." He made further adjustments to the apparatus and attached it to her head, chest and hands.

"Is there anything I can do?" Asked Rex;

"Just keep her still." Came the reply.

The contraption, Rex could think of no other description of the apparatus that was now attached to Ana's head, was whirring softly and as it scanned each part of the brain, that particular electrode lit up. You could see the progress it was making, as it worked it's way around the brain mapping it. Finally it was finished and Jay removed it from her head and carefully laid her back down on the bed. She still did not wake.

"Now what?" Asked Rex impatiently; all this was taking far too long.

"I transmit the results to my colleagues at the University, who advise the best course of action."

"What? She could Fekking die before they decipher that."

"That's it?"

"What?"

"It's been transmitted on a secure link and we wait."

Rex took a deep breath, he really felt like hitting someone or something, but he knew it wouldn't get him anywhere.

.

Rex put his hand over his mug, as Essie went to pour another Caf for him but he was already wired with frustration and he didn't need extra Caf to make him worse. This waiting was worse than when he was in the GAR.

Jay jumped up from his supposed sleep, to answer the comlink when it pinged. Rex knew he had been pretending to sleep to avoid the questions he had asked ...continually.

Jay listened, the occasional um and Ah to signify understanding and then he went to the printer and pulled off the flimzi print out showing the diagnosis.

"Well…" started Jay, "That's a one in a million chance."

"I don't want to know the odds but can she be cured?"

"Yes." Jay responded with a smile "and it's fairly straightforward procedure but we need to make sure that she has antibodies for the Rhinacyria, in the future or the next time she may not be so lucky."

"Why?" Rex needed to know exactly what was happening.

"The Rhinacyria virus can mutate and carry infections to all different parts of the body, now normally in humans they can fight this but occasionally the antibodies are reabsorbed back into the body. Spice can mutate the normal virus to something more serious, resulting in the grey membrane. That's happened here and lodged in the brain, causing inflammation. The coma is its way of protecting itself." He paused, "the Spice…. "

"She was attacked and scratched by a spice user."Rex jumped in with the explanation before anyone said anything.

"If they were bleeding as well that would account for it."

Tula and Essie exchanged glances.

"He was bleeding a lot, he had been stabbed before he attacked Ana." Rex was ensuring no one was asking too many questions.

Jay looked at the occupants of the room and decided against it.

"I have lots of antibodies." Rex announced, "I was jabbed more times than I care to remember in the …..army. Can you synthesise some from my blood?"

"Probably but we are getting ahead of ourselves; at the moment she has inflammation in the brain that needs reducing. I have the medication for that and will administer it. Once she recovers consciousness and I'm happy she's strong enough we can look at the inoculation for her."

Tula, Essie and Rex hung on his every word.

"I sense a but here." Stated Rex.

"Because the antibodies I synthesise from your blood will, I assume, be fairly robust, she may have a reaction against them and become ill again."

.

Rex sat pumping his left fist, forcing the blood through the pipes to the other contraption Jay had set up.

"That's enough Rex; I'll unhook you now." Jay gently removed the needle from his arm and gave him a swab to cover the small injection point. He automatically bent his arm at the elbow.

"How long will it take to synthesise?"

"A couple of hours at best, up to twelve at worst."

He wandered around the shop not knowing what to do with himself; he could have gone back home but didn't want to miss any developments. He hated this feeling of powerlessness; he hadn't felt like this in years not since…..Umbara. He stood at the door of the room they shared when he first came to town; he often wondered what she saw in him.

A man with half a life.

He shook his head now, he was getting maudlin.

.

It took Jay six hours to synthesise the inoculation; he decided to administer the inoculation before she recovered consciousness to avoid reinfection.

It was a gamble.

The improvement took 72 hours to appear and he wasn't there when it happened.

He should have.

Rex had been going backwards and forwards to and Essie's and Tula's, whilst Ana was recovering. He still didn't know enough to do everything at home and look after her. He should have but he bowed to Tula's expertise.

After several weeks of nursing Ana was getting better. He tried to get over every day but had so much to do recently, he had missed a couple of days. Instead they had had long com conversations, especially about the preparations that had ceased and the fact that his brothers still hadn't shown up. Ana had suggested a flying droid, which was a good idea, except that Gregor hated probes and they usually looked like probes.

He loaded several blankets onto the speeder, as it was definitely chillier, just in case she could come home.

Entering the town, he noticed there were the normal speeders parked up by the bar, including Jed's; normally he would have dropped in to see Jax and have a chat but he was probably busy and so headed straight to Essie's and Tula's.

Ana was sitting in the kitchen drinking tea; she still looked weak, and seemed to have shrunk. The infection had taken a lot out of her; her skin almost translucent and her eyes still shined. She was beautiful but in a pale delicate sort of way. He knew that he loved her; she had gotten under his skin, stuck there and he wouldn't have it any other way.

.

Rex stood at the doors to the small balcony, his arms crossed and resting on his chest, the night air had a chill about it but it didn't bother him, as he stood gazing at the night stars. He had decided to stay tonight, all his jobs at home were done.

"Where the Fek are you, Ner Vod," He said, whilst scanning the horizon.

"Rex?" He heard the small imitation of the voice she used to have; turning around he saw Ana leaning against the door jam with both her wrap and the quilt pulled over her shoulders. "I missed you." It sounded like a struggle for her to speak still. Although all the infection and inflammation had gone; the final inoculations has caused a few problems and it had taken all her strength to fight them all.

"Hey, you should be in bed." He replied softly, afraid if he spoke louder that it could knock her over. He realised she was leaning, as she couldn't stand holding up her own weight yet.

"I wanted a change of scenery."

"Fed up of me already." He quipped.

"Never." She replied and he could see tears well in her eyes.

"Hey, come here." He held his arms out and she leant into them. He held her up, she was no weight at all. "You need feeding up." He murmured into her hair.

"Rex?...I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired."

"You still need time to recover." He had wished fervently that they had the medical expertise, they'd had in the GAR and Bacta tanks but this was an undeveloped outer rim world and it didn't have many of those. He still held her and the feeling, that he could have easily lost her, washed over him and it scared him, more than he cared to admit.

"I want to go home. Take me home Rex."

He looked at her long and hard, perhaps it would do her good to get home; to be among her own things, her animals. "We'll talk to Tula and Essie again." He murmured as he rested his chin gently on her head.