Day 30: Now Where Did That Come From?
Prompts Used: Wound Reveal, Ignoring an Injury
(( Kitty is a good dad who loves his babies so much and gdi Jess you're gonna give him a heart attack ))
Warnings: Permanent Injury, Character Injury, Eye Trauma Mention
Characters: Jessi Toklar (Trooper - Human/Zabrak), K'hedif (Smuggler - Sith Pureblood)
Background: Jendrush Sept (Voidhound - Cathar), Jeva Toklar (Smuggler - Human/Zabrak)
Jessi knew, long before she even set foot near the Star Hopper, exactly what was about to go down. She was on temporary leave, face still wrapped while kolto worked its magic on the deep scratches scored through it and her eye.
She couldn't go too far from base, but asking the right people, a lot of paperwork done and trained troops keeping watch (it was a crew of known smugglers headed by none other than the Voidhound himself, after all), Hopper had been granted clearance to land nearby so she could at least see her family while she was stuck in recovery. She felt fortunate it wasn't some secret base or whatever so having them nearby was a real possibility; it had been too long since she'd had the chance to see them.
She'd told K'hedif over the holo not to worry, that they had good doctors handling her. "It's going to look bad," she'd said. "Just promise me you won't freak out?"
Yeah… That obviously wasn't happening.
The moment K'hedif came down the ramp (he was fully covered up, helmet and all—the troops who'd accompanied Jessi knew he was a Sith Pureblood, but she knew it was more for his own safety than the comfort of those around him), he was rushing to her side. He cupped her face in his hands and she could about imagine his wide eyes behind that visor.
"Jess! Y… Your eye!"
She could feel his thumb running gently over the bandages and from the corner of her remaining eye spotted Jeva peeking out from behind their father. She gave her sibling a look—Jeva owed her a candy, now. Jessi knew he'd react that way!
"I'm okay, I promise! Just—"
"Okay?" He pressed his hands against his helmet like he couldn't believe she'd just said that. "You've lost an eye! What…"
"I'm a soldier, now. Things like this are going to happen."
"You're gonna give your poor dad a heart attack is what's gonna happen." Jen was leaning against the ship, just watching it all go down in front of him. After speaking, however, he pushed himself away from it to duck around K'hedif. He brought one fist under Jessi's chin, guiding her head to one side so he could get a good look at the bandaged side of her face. "What were you even doin', kid?"
"Besides making me worried sick?" Oh, K'hedif sounded so distraught… She couldn't help but feel a little guilty for it.
"We were guarding a reconstruction team on Taris—" The name slipped out before she caught herself. Oops…
K'hedif's shoulders immediately stiffened and she could almost feel the air around her drop a degree or two (was that a Force thing? or was it from imagining the horrified look his helmet hid?). "You were on Taris?! You were… Rakghouls, and—"
One of the troops chuckled, then coughed to hide it when Jessi threw him a glare.
"Dad? Dad!" She grabbed his shoulders and squeezed them before he could make himself panic thinking about what could have happened. "I'm okay. It was a Nexu that did it—not a Rakghoul, so no infection. Okay? It was a Nexu."
"A…Nexu," he repeated, nodding slowly and taking a deep breath. "Nexu." He still thumbed carefully at the bandages, but when Jessi offered him a smile his shoulders relaxed a little.
"I know I worry you, but I promise I'm careful and have a really good team and we all watch out for each other. Okay?" She smiled and kissed the visor on his helmet—it made her feel like a kid again, but now their roles were reversed. Instead of K'hedif kissing her forehead and humming comforting words when the sounds of blasters startled her, it was her turn to comfort him when he was afraid for the little girl he'd raised. "And, ah… I wanted to surprise you, but I've been learning field medicine, then I'll be getting into the more complex stuff. I'm training to be my squad's medic."
"Their medic?" She could hear the smile creeping slowly back into his voice.
It was Jen and Jeva to grin wide, however. Her sibling outright laughed and nudged their dad with a pointy elbow, while Jen clapped a hand on his back. "She's takin' after her old man!"
Even if smiling too wide stung a bit when it pulled at the scratches, she did so anyway. She couldn't help it. "Dad, I've seen the good you do as Hopper's medic. I want to do that, too." It's why she was training with the up-and-coming Inferno Squad, anyway! It was a squad that would go to worlds in need to protect reconstruction teams, just like the one on Taris. She'd be doing good with Inferno.
"I'm proud of you no matter what you do, but Jess… Please, please don't scare me like this again." That said, he dragged her into a hug that she had a feeling she wouldn't be escaping from anytime soon. Not that she wanted to, of course.
She returned the hug, grinning down at her sibling and Jen who both gave her a thumbs-up probably for successfully calming K'hedif. "I can't promise that, but I'll try to be more careful."
