Disclaimer: Star wars franchise belongs to many people and companies from Gorge Lucas to Disney, however I'm not among them. Red is bad, blue is in the goo is Jesse Cox's catchphrase.
Story summary: Fives closed his eyes tightly. He knew he should be sleeping and how fussy medics could get when their orders weren't followed to the trill.
Sleepless nights
Fives lied awake in his med bed, absentmindedly watching as a chrono on the wall ticked the minutes away. He was shivering from cold and pain; due the shortage of bacta, the medics had to colour-code the wounded: red is bad, blue is in the goo, black is death, green is fine. It was like a mantra that medics muttered in their sleep from time to time.
On the plus side, green tag meant being in not immediate danger – Fives' body could manage to heal on it's own accord; on the other hand the blunt throbbing pain in his lower back wasn't helping much in falling asleep.
The doors whizzed, Coric finished his shift and passed Kix in the doorway. The latter, as always, had a cup of caf with him. He took a long sip and with that he started his round, stopping in front of every bed, reading the datapads, checking the patients then updating the datapads. His movements were still somewhat sluggish as he rubbed his eyes and covered another yawn with his forearm, visibly trying to shake off the reminiscent of sleep.
Fives closed his eyes tightly. He knew he should be sleeping and how fussy medics could get when their orders weren't followed to the trill.
"everything's all right?" Kix's voice was hushed and soft. "Fives? I know you're not sleeping. I can tell"
"I hurts" Fives tried his best not to sound like a small child.
He failed.
"it has to hurt if it is to heal" Kix retorted, most likely quoting a Jedi healer.
He placed his mug on the nightstand.
"on a scale from one to five-?" Fives rolled his eyes.
Right now, aggravated by sleeplessness and stillness, the pain was over nine thousand.
"Four" the ARC muttered.
Immediately medic's hands were all over him: flat on his forehead for temperature reading, probing his ribs and spine for any indication of swelling. Fives hissed, when Kix's cold hands pressed the most hurting area.
The medic tapped the screen on his datapad, brows furrowed.
"be right back. Just hang in there" Fives wouldn't even be able to move even if he wanted.
The medic came back minutes later, with and pillow tucked under his armpit.
"what's with that?" the ARC asked "you're gonna sleep with me?"
It wasn't that uncommon to see clone medics awkwardly fitting the remaining free space of the med beds, dozing off next to their patients. Sleeping beside their brothers was something only they could do without mockery or gossip for both participants as many of the dying or seriously wounded men recovered better with them by their sides. The efficacy of that practice was hard to neither confirm nor deny; even long necks couldn't explain that phenomenon. On that regard only Jedi were sure of their theory, babbling, as usual, about the Force and It's adhesive properties. For many clones, just the fact it worked, was a game changer. So whenever it was a real deal or Placebo no one batted an eye. Everyone wanted to live to fight another day no matter the costs.
"next time, theearghhh!" Fives yelped, as Kix lifted his legs and put the pillow under them. "that hurt like kriff! warn me next time, will you?"
"Unexpected pain hurt less" the medic answered flatly "better?"
"sort of, krifffff"
"I'll bring you thermoform in a minute" Kix tapped the data pad again, "it should alleviate muscle tension"
"Thanks"
Despite the initial jolt of pain, the pillow seemed to help. Fives' eyes slowly closed as sleep finally took over his tired eyes and sore, hurting muscles.
"that's what I'm here for" the medic replied to his sleeping brother as he carefully placed the warm thermoform near the source of the discomfort.
The medic fixed his brother's blanket and shifted his attention to his other patient.
"oh, Hardcase!" Kix sighed heavily "will I ever had a day with you not ending up in a medbay?"
