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.

Reviews are welcomed.

CHAPTER FORTY

It had been going so well.

The studying.

The work.

Then Dr Niemens sent her to the Hangar to check on medical supplies, acquired in a supply raid; it was the only way they could get the medical items they needed but it was hit and miss, as to what was retrieved. Armed with a datapad, accompanied by a droid, she was completing the inventory. the droid took them for storage. There were the planetary medbays, ships and medics to supply and each had different requirements.

They were on the last container, when she saw him.

In the hangar, talking to the new General.

I didn't know he was back.

He never commed me or let me know.

I need to talk to him.

Her task forgotten, she waited, hanging around the medical equipment containers; she knew he would not appreciate her butting in with his discussion with General, besides this was private, between the two of them.

She fidgeted with impatience.

The General left.

"Rex! Rex!" she shouted across the hangar, avoiding the Droid as it stepped in front of her; she jumped around and shouted again.

He's heard me.

Ana jogged towards Rex, who was looking directly at her; he pulled off his helmet abruptly and tucked it under his arm. The manner of his stride and the look on his face told Ana he was not pleased to see her and apprehension suddenly hit her; she slowed to a stand still.

"What are.. you..still doing..here?"

Looking up at him, Ana could see nothing of the man she had known on Seelos; the loving, strong companion she had accidentally found. This man was cold and angry.

"I …."

His face blank, he was standing to attention, "You should have left by now. You don't belong here, you are not a soldier."

Ana pulled herself together, trying to formulate a reply, where she didn't stutter.

"N..N..No, but I am a medic, I can help the injured and I'm training to do more with Doctor…."

"You have to leave as soon as possible."

"You left me here." She retorted, jabbing him on the chest with her forefinger "I can make a difference, I know I can." The anger rising in her, had fuelled her reply.

"Leave, You should leave. I don't want you here."

The words stung, like a slap in the face.

Don't want me here.

"Captain?" A man's voice rang out across the hangar and Rex, ever the soldier turned to face his new Commander, General Pitt Onoran, automatically standing to attention.

"Sir."

"Besides," she continued, speaking to his back, the words rushing out, "it's not your choice, it's mine and I've made it." With that she turned on her heel and strode out of the hangar, tears stinging her eyes.

She hadn't heard Rex call her name, after he had excused himself from the General, leaving him staring at a closing hangar door.

Fek! That didn't go well. You di'kut, you should have explained it better.

"A problem Captain?" the general's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Sir, No, Sir, nothing I can't handle." He took a deep breath. "Now sir, you mentioned a new Rebel Special Forces brigade?"

I'll talk to her later, she'll understand.

.

Ana reported back to the Medical Bay, and continued her work. She was like an automaton, some of the droids had more awareness than her at the moment. Dr Niemens, pulled her up on several occasions on her shift and she was glad when it ended.

All she could remember from her encounter with Rex was the look on his face and his words.

'I don't want you here.'

The words replayed through her mind like a recording on a playback loop. She needed to get rid of it.

What she should have done was go to her quarters, calm down and try to sleep it off, to put it in perspective but instead she headed to the new 'bar'.

'Fly Boys', it said, on the mangled hand painted sign, the remains of some ship. It had been set up by a few of the more enterprising pilots and served, whoever, with whatever they could get their hands on; today's special was moonshine and the least known about the ingredients the better.

Ana approached the bar, "Only moonshine" apologised the barman, who she had seen working on some craft in the hanger, earlier that day, his main job was as an engineer.

"I'll have one." she took the small shot glass, to a table at the back and downed the clear liquid. It seriously burnt the back of her throat and she could not have spoken at that time even if she wanted to. She motioned to the barman/engineer, and he came up to the table with another and went to remove the other glass. Ana put her hand on it to stop him and motioned for more.

"That bad is it?"

She glared at him.

"We're not all the same you know." he had assumed it was about a man, giveenwo she had come to the base with; she was a decent looking fem.

She didn't answer but kept pointing until he had lined ten glasses up; "Are you sure?" he asked again. She nodded. Ten should do it.

.

Wolffe entered the makeshift bar and nodded at the engineer, who indicated the back of the room, where she sat; he didn't particularly want to deal with a drunken fem and this situation didn't look good. It would deteriorate, it always did. He knew they knew each other, nothing stayed secret or under wraps for very long around here and he knew Wolffe and the other 'odd' clone had brought her here. Wolffe approached the table, noting the empty shot glasses lined up.

Ten.

"You Ok?"

She didn't answer and looked as dejected as he had ever seen her.

"What happened?"

Ana slowly and with one finger pushed the first glass over.

"One for sorrow," she whispered,

"Two for joy," the next one was pushed over.

"Three for a girl," Each one followed the other.

"Four for a boy," Ana's voice never raised above a whisper.

"Five for silver," Wolffe watched her carefully.

"Six for gold." He had never seen her this drunk. He had never seen her drunk...ever.

"Seven for a secret never to be told." She took a deep breath and sighed.

"Eight for a wish," one tear made its way slowly down her left cheek.

"Nine for a kiss," another joined it on the right. She downed the next one in one gulp, her throat was numb now, so it went down smoothly.

"Ten for a bird…" Wolffe's hand stopped her pushing the glass over, "Enough." he barked at her. She looked up at him.

"You've had enough. Let's go." he finished, gently.

"I can't." Ana's reply was not what he expected but she sounded coherent.

"Why?" Wolffe asked, this was getting to him; Fek knew what was in the moonshine and being a medic, she should have known better.

"M'legs not working." She replied with a sigh; her speech was being affected now, Wolffe shook his head. He had seen some of her moods at various times but not drunk, it wasn't a good look on her. He grabbed her by the biceps, pulled her up and away from the table; she slumped and and he had to improvise. Holding her by the waist, he lifted her arm over his shoulder, not that it made much difference and walked her out of the makeshift bar, escorting her to her quarters.

By the time they reached her quarters, he was dragging her and she looked green. He hoped she could last till they got in, she did and headed straight for the fresher; where he could hear her retch and retch. He finally took pity on her and found a towel to wipe her face and a glass of water. Helping her up, he gave her the water and helped her to her bunk.

"So, what does getting dead drunk solve?"

"Rex!"

"Huh!"

He pulled off her boots and opened the covers; carefully pulling her legs up and over into the bunk, settled her in there before covering her with the thin blanket.

"I saw him, Wolffe; he was in the hangar and he saw me and." She sobbed the last few words out. "He said I shouldn't be here, Wolffe." She sniffled into the towel and sobbed again. "Wolffe, he doesn't want me, I came here for him and he doesn't want me."

Wolffe said nothing, just watched her, "Do you know how that feels? Twice, he's rejected me. I'm an idiot, a stupid idiot to think that he would even want me here."

A sob escaped.

Wolffe knew exactly how that felt, only too well. Part of him felt like laughing at the irony.

He watched her unsure what to do next but he hated seeing her upset; he always had but he had never been really sure how to deal with an upset female. So Rex had been back but the reunion had not gone well. Wolffe shook his head; does that di'kut know what he's losing.

He sat and tentatively pulled the sobbing woman to him, until she relaxed; he held her close as she sobbed it out. Finally tired out, the sobbing ceased and he helped her back into the bed, covering her gently again. He looked around the spartan quarters; she had brought a few things with her, books and holographs, clothes and toiletries and a few bits of jewellery, not a great deal. It smelled different to his room, lighter, floral; it smelled of Ana. He wished he could bottle it and take it with him. By the time he had finished looking around she was asleep; he tiptoed carefully to the door to avoid waking her and closed it carefully behind him.

.

Ana woke, after a few hours of restless, dream filled, sleep; luckily she was off shift so she could have slept later but the pounding in her skull had prevented her. She swore her head moved in time to the pounding and turned to find a glass of water and painkillers next to her bed.

Wolffe.

She smiled, ruefully.

.

Rex was escorted to the ramshackle buildings near the caves; the people who had met him were not soldiers, not his type of soldiers anyway. All fanaticism and no discipline.

You have to have good order and discipline.

Draven had pulled him away again; this time from the Spec Ops Brigade. He hadn't even given him chance to check the recruits they had. But they needed someone to look at Geonosis and they had come up with Saw Garerra, although he was pushing his luck at the moment. His last few missions had been bloody, killing not just military but civilians as well; Rex just couldn't get out of his head what Andor had told him. But this wasn't the time to tackle Garrera about it, if there even was a good time. His crew now called themselves the Partisans.

He was the one that was convinced that the Empire were building something big. Rex wasn't so sure, although after Geonosis….

Saw's raspy voice broke through his thoughts, "Old friend, it's good to see you again. Welcome to my humble abode" Saw spread his hand out to show the way to a functional durasteel table and chairs.

Rex headed towards them and sat at the nearest one. The twi'lek he had seen outside, slammed a mug on the table in front of him and the spirit, he could smell it, spilt out onto the table. Saw waved him away.

"Don't mind him, he thinks all clones are Stormtroopers. I keep trying to educate him otherwise, telling him tales of my old friend Rex, but it's ingrained in him, from childhood."

Rex nodded and brought the mug to his lips, he took a sip. It wasn't as rough as he thought it would be.

"So how can I help you old friend?"

"Geonosis." Declared Rex and placed the holorecorder on the table and flicked the switch; the recording the Ghost had taken of the debris around a Geonosis caught Saw's attention immediately.

"They're definitely building something big." He muttered as he studied the recording.

"There was no sign of life left on Geonosis. Now Saw you know I'm not fond of the bugs but all of them gone, millions of them." That had no effect on Saw, he was more interested in the debris field and continued to study it.

"What do you want from me?"

"Organa and Mothma would like you to lead one of our teams down there to find out what happened."

Saw pretended to consider it, as he stroked his beard, contemplatively, but Rex could tell he was itching to get there, just to prove his point.

"Organa and Mothma eh?" He gave a raspy chuckle at that, "so I'm back in the fold if I take one of your teams?"

He looked around at the two Members of his team, who stood observing.

"What do you think Two Tubes?" Saw nodded to the two watching male Tognath. Rex assumed they were eggmates, as they were so alike.

They shook their heads in unison and then both spoke quickly in their own language; Rex didn't understand but the nuance was there. He hoped Saw didn't take their advice and found himself tapping his chest where he kept the holo of Ana. He still needed to explain to her.

"Yes." Boomed Saw, "I'll do it old friend. Even with one of your teams. But….only because it was you that asked."

Rex handed over the password to get further intel and then that was his job done. He stood up to leave.

"Are you not staying old friend?"

"Not this time Saw."

Saw chuckled, it that maniacal way he had acquired over the years; it disturbed Rex. "It's Okay. Tubes! See that my friend gets safely to his ship." He stepped towards Rex and clasped his hand on Rex 's forearm. "It's been good seeing you. Keep well old friend."

Then he strode into the rear of the building.

Two tubes escorted him from the building and as they walked away, he heard the sounds of someone in pain.

Rex shook his head, sadness crept over him, at what his friend had become.