Chapter 27.

Latest edit; July 27th, 2015. Cheers and Enjoy.

Mako was having a really hard time reconnecting cauterized nerve cells and muscle fibres. It was long work, made longer by the fact that she had to cut everything up a bit just to get rid of the cauterized bits. With that stuff out of the way she could reconnect the tissues. Except everything was shorter and it was really hard not to go all perfectionist on this stuff. Torian had been bright, he'd stashed the hand in his chest plate, kept just warm enough that it didn't freeze, but still cool, which maximized cell survivability. It was a small miracle in an unfortunate situation. After six hours of gruelling, repetitive work, she called it quits with almost everything essential reconnected. Mako needed the break and the tissues needed time to heal as well. Anything she might have missed could be touched upon later with better tools and some synth-flesh as needed. As it was, they were lucky. So, so, so lucky that it had all been taken so cleanly off by that rocket's misfire.

Mako sighed as she finished washing her tools and her own hands, sweat running down her brows. She wiped it with her fore arm and looked at Torian. He hadn't spoken much, if at all which wasn't unusual for the Mandalorian, but it worried her. He'd helped her do it all, not even flinching at the sight of the broken bones, leaking marrow and bloody bits of muscles and tendons. In fact, he'd looked directly at it. Was he trying to convince himself that it was all real or, stars forbid, was he punishing himself? If she had ever doubted his feelings for Raidre, she had no room for doubt now. He was devoted to her in a way she had never seen a man be devoted to a woman before. She understood now why he'd felt the need to be so blunt with her. She appreciated his honesty even more. Torian wiped Raidre's arm clean, washing away any remnants of the injury. He placed her arm upon her chest to rest as she slept, he swept her messy hair from her face revealing soft features underneath the burned flesh and tattoos.

"You okay?"

Torian looked at Mako. "Yea."

Mako frowned as she walked over. Raidre looked relaxed, not a muscle out of place due to worries or mental machinations about the next job.

"Sure wish she looked more like this."

Torian chuckled, which caused Mako to pay closer attention. He didn't feel like the usual Torian, more fragile somehow, he inhaled deep and sighed.

"Yea."

He moved to walk away, Mako caught his arm.

"Seriously, you okay? You took some good hits out there too."

Mako banged his chest plates which were all kinds of bent out of shape. She was betting on a couple of bruised if not broken ribs. Just like Torian to forget about them though.

"Come on, let's make sure nothing's broken, 'kay?"

Torian didn't look at her, but he nodded. Mako helped Torian out of the bent plates, which took a lot longer than it should have due to the severity of the dents. How had he been breathing in those?! She pulled out the scanners and confirmed her suspicions. She whistled.

"How did you just go through 6 hours of surgery with four broken ribs, two of which look shattered, by the way? And not even complain once?!"

Torian shrugged, his movements precise, Mako noted that it made little use of the hurt parts of the Mando's body.

"Not important."

Mako frowned. "Ah, yea, it is important, Torian. You think she'd want you hurting yourself?"

Torian looked away as if he had been slapped. Mako bit her lower lip regretting having brought Raidre up even if it was true. Their boss never pushed them this hard, it wasn't how she ran things, and she still ran a tight ship!

Mako went to work on Torian's chest, his second and third rib on the right were almost completely shattered, how he could continue to function was beyond her. Torian didn't seem to have the energy to even grunt when she injected him with the nanoids that would repair the bones for her. He looked so empty. She gave him a vitamin boost along with her last injection of kolto and sent him to his bunk. Gault was right in front of the door as Torian walked out. The Devaronian watched as a listless Mandalorian just waved and moved past him. The kid was too good to go by without at least acknowledging Gault, but this was a bit sad. Gault walked in to find an exhausted Mako holding her head in her hands.

"I really don't have the energy-"

"I'm just here for the list of materials you'll need."

Mako perked up at that. "Materials?"

Gault jerked a thumb at the sleeping Raidre. "For her hand and wrist, unless you're telling me you don't need anything."

Mako shook her head as she sat up straighter. "No, no. We barely had enough left to reconnect it all, but it's all too tight, and not all of the fibres could be connected. Some synthflesh would be great, as well as extra kolto and some nerve cells would work great. Tendons, we'll need those too!"

Gault nodded at everything Mako said. "Ship's headed to Nar Shadaa, anything else, because I need to know the grocery list. I'm getting to work as soon as this rust bucket lands."

Mako cringed. "Don't call the Mantis that…"

"Mako, love. Tell me it ain't a rust bucket?"

Mako cringed again. "It's reliable!"

"Rust."

"It's cheap to repair!"

"Bucket."

Mako pouted. "Stop insulting her. She gets us where we need to go!"

"And she does it in style! Now, anything else?"

Mako thought about it, chewing on her lower lip. "I will be impressed if you managed to get half that."

Gault faked being shot in the chest. "Oh! Mako! Why?"

Mako rolled her eyes as she got up and turned Gault around to face the exit. "Come on, the boss needs her rest. Shenanigans outside of the med-bay!"

Mako pushed Gault all the way out of the med-bay. They both waited until the doors slid closed behind them.

"Is that really all you need?"

Mako frowned. "I'm no specialist…"

Gault nodded. "Boss needs those hands, they're her best and most trusted assets."

Mako nodded. "Would we have the time, I mean, we still have to finish the job on Hoth too… This is a major detour."

Gault rose a ruddy brow at the slicer. "You want to go back?"

Mako's hands shot up. "No! No way! The boss before the job!"

Gault nodded, satisfied. "Didn't think so. I'll call in some favours, see if I can't find someone on the short notice."

Mako smiled, eyes wet and red. "Thanks. You know, you're not so bad!"

Gault winked at her. "Don't kid yourself, I am so getting something out of this!"

Mako's smile grew. "A clear conscience, I know."

Gault stuck his tongue out. "Ugh, no!"

Gault made to turn and walk off, but Mako grabbed a hold of him before he could scamper off.

"Umm, I don't know how to say this, but… Torian's not himself."

Gault frowned but shook his head in negation, in dismissal. "Don't worry 'bout it."

Mako frowned. "How can I NOT worry about it, aren't we trying to do the boss a solid?"

Gault gave Mako his full attention and spoke in a low voice. "Mako, if the kid's gonna jump ship. He won't do it without saying goodbye. Honour requires it. "

Mako frowned. "I don't get it."

Gault half smiled and shrugged. "Not sure I do either, honey. Something about paying debts, I think."

Mako nodded. "So we should be good until she wakes. "

Gault nodded. "Pretty sure."

Mako licked her lips in thought. "We gotta work fast, the narcotics don't work well on her."

"Did you double dose it?"

Mako gasped. "Of course I did! Anything under double and she feels everything!"

Gault nodded, rubbing his chin. "Three days at the most, then?"

Mako crossed her arms as she contemplated it herself. "With the concussions, I'd say, yea, three days."

Gault nodded and let his arms drop. "Go get your beauty sleep, honey. We gotta work fast and I am going to need your help!"

Mako nodded. "You got it!"

The two parted ways to go to their respective bunks in an attempt to catch a hold of as much sleep as they could. Torian tossed and turned, sleep eluding him. The few snippets of sleep he could manage to catch were filled with horrible nightmares where he was even slower than he had been and instead of Raidre losing a hand, she lost her life. Between the burning of the kolto, the pain of his laboured breathing and the emotional turmoil, sleep soon became a hopeless endeavour.

It had become his custom while serving on the Mantis to pace the ship's length and width when sleep eluded him. He usually found Raidre working on something during his pacing. It's how he had discovered the extent of her hard work, and how it was making her an insomniac. The girl just couldn't turn her brain off when she had good ideas bouncing around in there. It worried him how she often slept no more than three hours a night, but he'd become accustomed to staying up with her and spending quiet time just watching her or listening to her bounce ideas off of him. An activity he found himself missing right now.

And his inadequacy was the cause of this lose.

It could have been a permanent loss…

Torian found himself in the med-bay even though he had never consciously thought of going there. He sat down beside her bed and watched her breath. Reassured that it was steady and deep.