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.

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CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

Jay finally accepted her offer to stay in the house and they completed the legalities. It helped her, gave her peace of mind; at least she knew her animals and the house was being looked after. This was one of the biggest decisions she had ever made, after filing for divorce, of course. She was going after a man, who she had known only a few months, who had left her.

I must be mad.

Rex had not contacted her but Wolffe had said that he needed her. Both Wolfe and Gregor were adamant that it was She, he needed, and because he was stubborn, had made the decision to leave her, he would not approach or admit that he needed her himself. It had to be her going after him.

Am I that desperate?

Am I that lonely?

She had friends, lovely, helpful friends and family; more now but she didn't have a partner. He was only with her for a few months but it had seemed so right at the time and she missed him, so very much.

Wolffe had not told her exactly what Rex had divulged as his reason for leaving but she deduced it had something to do with the clones accelerated ageing.

They were younger than she was but aged twice as fast as a normal man; Rex had told her, explained it. She had accepted that it would be part of their relationship.

They might get another 10 or 15 years together, more if he was lucky but as a young soldier, he had had three years of continuous war and that was bound to catch up with him, sooner or later. He already had problems with his shoulder and she had worried about him, seeing all those scars. Those injuries had to have some effect.

She didn't care how old he was or wasn't; she just wanted to be with him.

Now he'd joined the Rebellion.

.

Her packing had not taken long, she wasn't taking much, just one trunk and a bag for a past lifetime and her hoped for future one. She had made sure her broken datapad was in there, with her research on accelerated ageing; it wasn't much but it was a start. Gregor had pulled the trunk onto the small ship they had come in and stowed it away, muttering at the weight. She hadn't thought it was that heavy.

Standing watching the family that she had recently gotten so close to, and became a part of, an honorary Aunt, her throat constricted and tears stung her eyes. She hugged them all one by one, as they came to say goodbye.

"Remember to do all your homework on time"

"Look after your father and let me know how you are going on." She had to stop and blow her nose or she would have been bawling like a baby.

"If you have any problems Tula and Essie are a good bet." She had tried to take her leave of both of them earlier in the day, amidst much cursing and then crying on their part. Essie was still distant with her and still threatening to pull his arms off.

She could hear the Clones muttering and bickering, then doing their preflight checks but she was not going to rush this. Finally Jay, who had come to Lonlea for a better life for his girls.

He hugged her tightly. "He had better kriffing look after you, or I'll sort him out."

She laughed. "You?" he had never struck her as a fighter.

"I'm pretty good with a scalpel, I'll have you know."

"I'll be fine." She lied. After one final hug from all of them, including Bonnie, who sensed something was happening and had been following her around the house since she rose; she turned and stood at the bottom of the ramp. She looked out to the road hoping that Tula and Essie would come but it was obviously too difficult, too much. She had hoped they would reconcile before she left; she knew she needed her family.

She took a long look at the place that had been her home for so many years; she had been born here.

Her Mother and Father had died here.

She had fallen in love with Rex here.

There were good and bad memories here.

I can make memories anywhere.

Essie's tone pinged on her comlink; Ana was hopeful as she answered.

"Ana?"

"Essie."

"Take care."

"I will." It was as much of an apology, as she was likely to get. She knew that and accepted it.

"Look after Tula."

"You know I will."

"I do..."

"Look after that man of yours when you find him."

The comlink went dead; Essie didn't do goodbyes.

She sniffed as she walked up the ramp, this was new for her; she had never been on a ship that travelled in hyperspace before, in fact she had never been in any ship that left the atmosphere spending all her life on Seelos. Finally conquering the apprehension that had forced her to stop at the bottom of the ramp, she sat down in the seat the clones had shown her to and fastened her safety belt, anxiety still clawing at her stomach.

"Wolffe, what if he doesn't want me there?" She asked yet again, as they entered hyperspace.

"Once you're there he won't argue."

"Are you sure? Have you said anything to him?"

"Gregor suggested it to him a little while ago but at that time he wouldn't hear of it. But now it's different."

"How? How is it different? How do you know?"

"Believe me, we know."

Ana's face showed how dubious she thought this was.

"How do you think we all survived Kamino, hundreds of thousands of identical men; identical down to the last cell, until we went out in the big bad galaxy. We have especially attuned body and facial language recognition."

After a pause, he took a deep breath. "We didn't have parents but we did have batch mates and were brought up in squads; so early on we learnt how to 'read' another clones body and facial language. Although not one of the attributes planned for us by the Kaminisii, they let it develop as they saw it as advantageous in battle."

He continued to check over his instruments.

"So you were able to recognise different clones by their different mannerisms?" Asked Ana, she wasn't stupid. "so why did you all have different colours on your armour and different markings. Yours is grey and Rex's…...his was blue."

He sighed, obviously Rex had told her very little about their life on Kamino, as cadets and then as soldiers with the Jedi.

"It gave us individuality, with our Jedi Generals, not all of them treated us as disposable soldiers." Wolffe explained,

Ana was still undecided about the Jedi, she had never met any or seen any.

"So, where did this Ahsoka fit into the war?" She wanted to know more about her; it was a name that Rex had often spoken in his sleep. He had explained a little about her and now he was devastated by her loss. She was preparing herself for a disappointment, when she arrived. She may yet return to Seelos.

"She was a Jedi Commander, who was General Skywalker's Padawan but he off loaded her onto Rex to train with the Clones in GAR procedures and the like. I'm just glad Master Plo didn't take her on."

Gregor sniggered in the background.

"Padawan?"

"Trainee Jedi."

"Oh."

"They were close."

Her heart sank at that revelation.

"But Jedi don't do that sort of thing, well they shouldn't do. And Rex was the consummate clone soldier, so if he had any feelings that way, he kept them closely under wraps."

"But you said they were close?"

"Hmm. They saved each other after Order 66."

"What's Order 66?"

Wolffe looked at her with something akin to pity in his eyes. "Did Rex not tell you anything?"

"Not much, he didn't like to talk about it. Anything I learned was from the Holonet but a lot had been redacted so he said you couldn't trust it but there were some historians…."

Wolffe made a humming noise again.

"It was the order that went to all Clone Commanders to say that the Jedi had staged a Coup against the Republic and needed to be shot on sight."

"The Holonet was correct."

"Well. There's a lot more to it but Jedi are still hunted by the Empire."

Wolffe went very quiet, he seemed to be remembering.

"Wolffe?"

He pulled himself back; the mental effort was reflected in a physical response.

"Ahsoka had gone on a mission with two other force users, to a place that was dangerous for force users; Rex offered to go with them but she refused him and then Osik happened, and she disappeared. The other two returned. One was scarred and the other was blinded."

Ana was hanging on his every word; "Rex has not forgiven himself." He continued reluctantly "He had only just met back with her after fifteen years."

There was more to this than he was letting on; "Why was that if they were such good friends?" She felt a glimmer of hope, that they weren't as close as she had suspected.

"That would be his fault." Interrupted Gregor, pointing at Wolffe; he had previously been very quiet through all this. "Ahsoka kept sending Rex messages but that di'kut, deleted them and then when the other force users came, he reported us to the Empire. It was great, the biggest Joopa we had ever caught." He was grinning from ear to ear "and then we took down an Imperial Walker." He sighed, the smile still on his face."And that's how we got Joopa station." He finished, leaning back in his seat, with his arms behind his head. The various comments from the Stormtrooper, Jay and the girls all added up just as she thought; the clones had been the ones responsible for the rebel activity.

"Joopa Station?" Ana had to ask.

"It's our home now, but it's not finished."

A wave of nausea swept over her, as Wolffe butted in "She's not interested in that. She wants to know about Rex."

Gregor grunted and continued to finish his flight preparations.

"He's not been the same since then. He spends a lot of time just staring into space, and I mean up here, as if he's looking for something. He keeps thinking she'll just come back." Wolffe looked worried, as he continued. "It's not like him. He's the strong one. We thought you could help him. He was always the strong one."

Nodding in agreement with Wolffe, Ana was really worried about Rex now and another wave of nausea hit her. She had never been in hyperspace before and the stars streaming in front of her eyes made her feel worse.

"How long before…."

"Couple of hours. You could try and sleep?" Gregor offered.

Taking his advice, she closed her eyes trying to sleep; she was already feeling very nervous. It didn't work, and every time she opened her eyes to change position, she saw the streaming stars. In fact she was feeling very nauseous, and shot upright, "Wolfe! Gregor! Is there a bucket?"

Gregor misunderstood and passed her his helmet; she looked at it but couldn't stop.

"Osi'kyr!" Exclaimed Gregor, as he realised what she had done.

"Sorry." She muttered and heaved again until there was nothing left to come up but she immediately felt better.

"I've never been in hyperspace before." she explained as, Wolffe passed her some water. She drank and then leant back to sleep, leaving Gregor to clean his helmet.

He waited until the woman was asleep; he had nothing against her and it wasn't her fault she had hyperspace sickness. But Fek in his bucket an all.

"You really sure about this, Wolfe?"

"Yes. It's the only thing I can think of to get him back on course."

He heard Wolfe sigh. "Kanan is still recovering, Zeb and Sabine are no good they're on tip toes around Hera and Ezra, who's eaten up with guilt over the whole thing."

"That's Rex's Problem isn't it?" Gregor had decided that this was the reason Rex was so cut up about Ahsoka, "guilt."

He felt guilty at not going with her to cover her six.

Gregor would normally have had any number of inappropriate jokes about that.

But not this time.