Nobody Listens to Kix

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Star Wars: The Clone Wars or any related titles, characters, plots, settings, etc. These rights belong to Dave Filoni, George Lucas, the Walt Disney Company, and their various publishers and distributors. I own only the original elements of this story, the writing and publishing of which earn me no money.

Case 00506: Jesse

"Well, at least it went straight through," Kix commented, examining the back of Jesse's blaster wound.

"It's a blaster bolt," Jesse groused, his voice tight with pain. "They all go straight through."

"Yes, but it didn't hit anything vital," Kix disagreed. "That's not something you can say about a lot of injuries affecting this part of the body. An inch in the wrong direction, and you would have been dead, helmet or no. You got lucky, Jesse."

Kix stood to retrieve an armful of items from the medical cabinet, but paused when he saw an expression that could only be described as pouting on Jesse's face. "Why are you making that face, trooper? Is there another injury I should know about?"

"No," Jesse said flatly, trying to turn away from Kix, but the motion only aggravated the neat wound in his trapezius. He winced and went back to facing the same direction as he had been before.

Deciding to leave it alone for now, Kix gathered the few supplies he needed and came back to Jesse's bedside. "I'll need you to tilt your head in the other direction."

With a small, pain-filled noise, Jesse did as Kix had asked, stretching the wounded muscle connecting his neck with his shoulder. Kix set to work disinfecting the injury, a process that Jesse endured as stoically as he could manage.

While he worked, Kix puzzled over Jesse's odd reaction to his injury. Jesse had seemed pained, of course, but he had also been embarrassed. Hardly the reaction Kix would have expected from the trooper. Jesse wasn't overly cocky, but he certainly enjoyed being in the spotlight.

"What happened?" Kix asked bluntly, deciding that being direct was his best chance of getting the truth.

"I got shot," Jesse answered simply. Kix pressed a bit harder with a disinfecting wipe than was strictly necessary and Jesse let out a yelp and glared at him. The medic gave a small shrug as if to apologize and Jesse sighed. "I wasn't paying attention in the field and I didn't see a super battle droid approaching."

Kix huffed out a breath. That was a bad mistake to make. Super battle droids were far superior to basic battle droids, but they weren't exactly on commando droid level when it came to subtlety. "How far away was it?"

"A little more than a klick."

"I didn't know SBDs had sniper capabilities," Kix commented.

"They normally don't, but Fives found out that it had been augmented by the Seppies," Jesse said, voice bitter.

Ah, now things were starting to make sense. Since he had first become part of the 501st, Jesse had idolized the older Fives. "I had heard he and Echo were sent back to us for a few missions. How does he like being an ARC?"

"He says it's great, but a lot of responsibility," Jesse admitted. "I was asking him about the training when he pushed me out of the way. If he hadn't seen the droid, I would have died on Er'Kit."

The disgruntled tone in Jesse's voice was something Kix couldn't begrudge him. Er'Kit was no place to die, especially from a blaster shot by a droid. "Well, sounds like Fives was in the right place at the right time with his rangefinder pointed in the right direction. I'm sure he was glad to help you out."

"Yeah, I guess," Jesse said morosely, wincing as Kix started applying the bacta in long sweeping motions. "But maybe I'm not ARC material after all."

"That's not true," Kix said matter-of-factly. "I've seen you think on your feet, help the other troopers, and work independently better than most of the other men. Those are all signs of an ARC trooper. Just because you made a mistake doesn't mean that you're automatically out of the running. It wasn't even much of a mistake. A klick is a pretty far distance. Not many men would expect a droid sniper attack from that distance."

"Fives noticed," Jesse returned bitterly.

"Lucky for you," Kix reminded. "You may not remember this since it was right around the time that you were brought into the 501st, but Fives made more rookie mistakes than most troopers in the legion. Hell, he made more mistakes than most of the GAR and he's an ARC trooper now. You've got hope, kid."

"Kid?" Jesse repeated, aghast at the designation.

Kix shrugged. "As long as you insist on idolizing Fives, of all troopers, I'm going to call you 'kid'. He's a good man, but he'd be the first to tell you not to follow his example. Point is, he saved your life today. You saved the lives of two men on Socorro last week. Focus on doing your best work instead of what other troopers are doing and I promise you'll rise in the ranks. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Jesse said sarcastically, but his smile was genuine as Kix affixed a bacta patch on either side of the wound and placed Jesse's arm in a sling.

"You'll have to stay here for a few hours while I monitor the progress of your healing," Kix warned him.

"That's okay, I could use a nap," Jesse agreed, settling easily against the flat pillow. "Thanks for everything, Kix."

Kix nodded back at him and went to start the paperwork on the injury. Thankfully, very few troopers had been injured on Er'Kit and he appreciated the lack of additions to his stack of forms, especially since he was falling ever further behind.

He wasn't even shocked when Fives and Echo stepped into the medbay an hour or so later.

"Hey, Kix!" Fives greeted, his voice ringing through the nearly-empty medbay. "We're here to see-"

"He's back there," Kix interrupted, pointing toward the section housing the beds. "If he's asleep, leave him alone."

"Good to see you, too," Fives grumbled even as Echo grinned.

Kix stood abruptly and Fives's eyes widened as he clearly wondered what the medic was going to do. Behind him, Echo glanced between the two like he was watching a bolo-ball match.

Kix braced his hands on the desk and leaned across it slightly. "Congratulations to both of you on becoming ARCs. I've never known two men who deserve it more. Fives, thank you for saving Jesse's life. I'm glad you're back with us, even if it's just for a few missions."

"Glad I could help," Fives said slowly, then grinned. "Jesse's a good man, even if he's a little… er, over-enthusiastic."

"Over-enthusiastic?"

"You're calling someone over-enthusiastic?"

Fives scowled at Echo and Kix's simultaneous and incredulous questions. "Fine, fine. I was worse. Probably still am. You don't have to gang up on me. I'm going to talk to Jesse now. At least he likes me."

As Fives and Echo stepped through the privacy wall and went to visit Jesse, Kix rolled his eyes and returned his focus to his paperwork. If there was a small smile on his face, he would never admit it.

Author's Note - Just as a quick explanation, the trapezius muscle is the one connecting the shoulder to the neck and stretches down to the shoulder blade. That's where Jesse's injury was. There was some confusion, which is definitely on me. Also, here's my shameful confession: I don't have a good grasp on Jesse. He never really stood out for me as a character and I have a hard time 'hearing' him, so I have a hard time writing him. I also have very little ideas on timelines about when he became an ARC versus when Fives and Echo were made ARCs. All of that means that this isn't my strongest chapter, but I tried!

Speaking of trying, I apologize for my lapse last week. It was just a little bit of everything hitting really hard. But thank you to everyone for your patience and special thanks to those who sent messages of support or left beautiful reviews: RyanSquad, Slim 'Tech' Sherman, Lillie Tano-Syndulla, KarajeJinsta, SolarRose29, STARWARZMYLIFE, Cuthalion97, dieFabuliererin (who has been leaving amazing comments on this story on AO3), and OEG, who I was unfortunately unable to reach to thank for their kind support! I know the Star Wars fandom gets a lot of flak for being toxic, but the Clone Wars fandom offers nothing but support and I appreciate you all more than I can say!

Anyway, thank you for reading and I'll see you all next week! If you need an odd little side story to add some clone troopers to your day, consider checking out my (new-ish) Tumblr account under username wanderinginksplot for a series of drabbles I've been working on. Have a wonderful day and a fantastic week!