Rex looked at her sleeping face and realized, not for the first time tonight, just how beautiful she was. All he could think about was how glad he was that she was alive. How much he wished that for just one second in his life something could wait just five minutes before turning bad. All he wanted to do was tell Dagger and yet again the opportunity had been torn away. He wanted it so bad. He always wanted things he couldn't have, like his own personal curse.

Her dress was beautiful, the silver fabric clung to her body beautifully. Her athletic figure showed off in a wonderful way. The way that her leg poked out of the slit in the side had made him want to do a lot of things.

He had stomped down those thoughts immediately. He had no claim to her and shouldn't be thinking any sort of way about it. He took a breath and shook his head to refocus his thoughts. He really needed to have a conversation with Dagger sooner rather than later.

Rex stood and gently made his way to the bottom of the bed. He unbuckled the delicate clasp of her heels from around her ankle. He slid the heels off and placed them on the ground.

He stood up straight and considered Dagger's sleeping form. She was beautiful, and it was striking, he regretted all the time he had gone not knowing just how beautiful she was. However, at the current moment, that dress couldn't possibly be comfortable to sleep in with how tight it was. Yet, he felt like he would be crossing a lot of lines that he did not want to if he were to take it off.

He stood there in conflict for a long time. He could go get Azariah, but he also didn't trust her to be alone with Dagger while she was unconscious and defenseless. He could just leave her in the dress, but then she would be uncomfortable. The thought of leaving Dagger to sleep uncomfortable was not appealing.

Or… He could help her get changed himself. He hesitated then set his resolve. He was the Captain of Torrent Company in the 501st attack battalion. He could get one vod changed into comfy clothes. He had done it countless times before when someone just fell asleep in their armor. Although, the vod had never been Dagger in the past, his mind pointed out in a severely unhelpful fashion.

He went to his dresser and opened the drawers that held his pajamas. He grabbed a pair of sweatpants and one of his shirts. Rex took a deep breath; he could do this. No big deal, right?

He tried to wake Dagger up, but she was deep asleep. Once he was completely sure she wasn't going to wake up and do it herself, he set to his task. He moved as gently as he could as he sat behind her. He pulled her up and sat her up against his chest.

He pulled his shirt down over her head and took extra care not to get her nose or ears caught. Once the shirt was covering her torso, he pulled the sweatpants onto her legs and settled them over her hips under the dress.

Rex was sure that she was covered and he wasn't going to cross any boundaries. Even though he might already have crossed them. He traced his hands up her back to find the zipper that ran parallel to her spine.

His heart rate skyrocketed as he pulled the zipper down. Emotions were warring inside of him. On one side he desperately wanted her to wake up so she could do it instead of him. On the other side he hoped that she didn't wake up so that she wouldn't ask him what he was doing.

The zipper made a small noise as he slowly pulled it down her back and it sent shivers up his spine. Don't, don't think like that Rex. He scolded himself internally.

He pulled down the zipper and when it was loose, he slid the dress down her torso and pulled it out from under the shirt. Then he pushed it over her legs, over the sweat pants, with the dress off he threw it onto the floor. He let out a breath of relief as he gently maneuvered her arms through the arm holes.

Dagger let out a little sigh in her sleep. The sound made Rex's heart flutter. The heartbeat in his chest seemed to stop when she shifted in his lap and turned into his chest. She nuzzled up into the crook of his neck.

He could feel her soft breaths fluttering across his skin and he froze. It was entirely too cute that she did that. How could he justify moving away when she did things like that unconsciously?

Rex frowned, Dagger hadn't asked him to stay and she wasn't capable of doing so at the moment. It would be best to not take advantage, even if it was just staying in the bed. Even if they had done it before on the Mandalorian ship. That had been out of necessity and here on this ship he had his own bed that he could and should be using. Well actually she should be using her bed as she was already in his. He hadn't put any thought into which bed he had placed her in earlier. There had obviously had much more pressing matters at the front of his mind.

He tried to slide towards the edge of the bed and shift Dagger back onto the mattress. He stopped when she made a small sound of distress, had he hurt her?

Her hand pressed into his ribs and held him as tight as her unconscious limbs seemed to be able to manage. She mumbled something incoherent into the crook of his neck

"Awww," he couldn't stop the sound from leaving his throat. He was grateful that it didn't disturb her any further. How bad could it really be if he stayed for just tonight? If she got upset in the morning, he could just tell her about how she sounded distressed when he tried to leave. He was probably just thinking too much.

On missions and on the battle field his brain moving a million miles an hour was a helpful thing. He was able to take in information and think about all of the different outcomes. But maybe here, right now, that wasn't the best thing. He decided in the midst of all the noise in his head to just relax, it would all be fine.

He scooted down on the bed so that he could lay flat on his back. Dagger rolled slightly and laid on top of him. Most of her body was between his legs as her head rested on his chest.

His breath came in shallow pants as he tried to remain calm with the beautiful woman he had grown so close with laying on him. This certainly did not happen often, or ever. She nuzzled closer into his shirt and Rex realized that he was still in his dress shirt, the coat had been discarded somewhere in the mayhem earlier.

There was no kriffing way he was going to get up now. With as little shifting as he could manage, he toed off his dress shoes and slid off his belt. He loosened the tie around his neck and undid the top button.

Rex looked down at Dagger sleeping peacefully on his chest. It was amazing how different she looked when she was asleep. He reached a hand up and stroked her soft hair. He stayed like that for a long while, holding Dagger with his right arm around her back to keep her steady, while combing his fingers through her short hair.

How did she look so at ease when she had almost died so recently? Rex knew that he should have paid attention to what was going on. He let himself get distracted and it had almost cost Dagger her life.

He had been so preoccupied with Dagger, the gala, everything. It was as if he had slipped into an alternate reality. A different time where he really wasn't a member of the GAR, where she really was a true born Mandalorian. A time where they were just two people who could be together. As if there wasn't a war going on, as if they didn't have responsibilities to the greater good.

Rex had allowed himself to fantasize, to dream about what wasn't true. He had allowed himself to get distracted just for a moment and he had almost killed Dagger. He swore to himself then and there that he would do better. He would do anything to protect her. He had promised it before and he would a hundred times more.

With Dagger asleep on his chest, he was able to simultaneously keep track of her breathing and hear what was going on in the rest of the ship. The way he could hear the steps of the bounty hunters just reinforced the idea that they were still in enemy territory. Rex grabbed his blaster and rested it along his thigh on his left side.

He had a clear view of the door and he was confident that he would be able to shoot anyone who walked through that door, should the need arise. He knew that he was being a bit harsh with his perception of the group. Especially right after they had just saved Dagger's life, but you don't survive by cutting bag guys slack. He decided then and there that he would stay awake all night to make sure Dagger was ok.

Rex fell asleep less than ten minutes later. He didn't mean to; it was just so comfortable. The feeling of Dagger's soft breathing soothed him into a comfortable rest. He was grounded in the feeling of her weight on him, the knowledge that he was not alone. He really hadn't stood a chance anyway; he was doomed to pass out from the beginning.

~B~

Rex jolted awake at the sound of the door opening. His right arm tightened around Dagger and he grabbed his blaster on instinct. The weapon was leveled at the person before Rex's vision had even focused.

He blinked and saw Jask standing in the doorway with two mugs. Rex tilted his head and lowered the blaster a fraction when he realized that unless he was going to throw caf at him, Jask was no threat. He put it back on the bed.

"What do you want?" Rex asked quietly.

"Care for a cup?" he asked as he raised one of the cups in his hands.

"You woke me up to give me caf? I ain't moving, I don't want to wake her," Rex said and nodded to Dagger, who was still sound asleep on his chest.

"She won't be waking up for a while and I wanted to talk to you. Besides you always wake up around this time anyway. Is she doing ok?"

Rex looked down, she seemed to be sleeping peacefully, "As far as I can tell. Whatever it was that Neems gave her seemed to help a lot."

"You know, you two act a lot closer than two people who just agreed to watch out for each other. What is going on between you two?"

"I don't kn-"

"Don't bullshit me Rex, as resident flirt of this crew, I see the way you look at her," the man admonished as he sat on Dagger's empty bunk.

"She may have picked you up in her travels, but this," he gestured to how Rex was still holding her protectively, "Says a whole lot more than just being some extra muscle for her jobs. I actually thought you were going to try and kill me earlier. You weren't just fighting to keep her safe, you were fighting to keep her with you. I don't know why but you thought we were going to take her away."

This did nothing to make Rex loosen his hold on Dagger, "What do you want me to say?"

"I just want to know if you love her," Jask said as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"I do," Rex said honestly, "I just can't tell her."

"Why?"

"It's not right, I'm her Ca- I'm just some guy she found. Her teammate at first, now her friend. Dagger trusts me, I can't betray that trust by forcing anything on her," Rex explained.

Jask's eyes narrowed, "You do realize that she feels the same way right?"

It was Rex's turn to be confused, he blinked blankly at the Devaronian, "What?"

"She looks at you like you are the most important thing in her life, the same exact way that you look at her," he explained, just a bit confused how someone so observant could have missed it.

"She is the most important thing in my life, she knows that. Dagger is the only reason I am here, my purpose is to protect and help her," it was hard for Rex to determine how much of that statement was to protect his cover and how much of it was honest truth. The lines were starting to blur out of recognition.

Jask hummed, thinking about his words while sipping on his cup of caf. He decided that this conversation was going nowhere so he changed the topic slightly, "You scared us real bad last night when you ran out of the gala carrying Dagger. I had never seen you move so fast, took us a while to catch up to you. Rex, you should have told us what happened we could have helped."

Rex shifted uncomfortably; he recalled the absolute terror that he had felt when Dagger had slumped in his arms. The sound of glass shattering as she dropped her cup, the way her eyes rolled back. He hadn't even thought of going to them for help. They were the enemy, the mission. He hadn't trusted them with Dagger's safety and that had almost cost him her life. He hadn't known what the poison was, he had no way to treat it.

"I just- I was trying to keep her safe," he tried to explain, "I just ran, I couldn't stop to think."

He let out a small laugh, "I seriously thought you were going to shoot me this time, Rex. You were fighting like a rabid Loth Wolf to protect her."

"I thought you were going to hurt her," Rex growled in defense, not doing anything to contradict his point.

"I could tell. You know we aren't the enemy right? You aren't fighting in the war anymore, we are here to help you and Dagger," Jask said. The man had no idea just how false his words were. The war would never end, not for Rex, not for Dagger. It was the only reason that they were here.

Instead of answering, Rex asked his own question, "How did you know what the poison was? It didn't register on the scanner."

"Neems is the best medic I've ever met," Rex held his tongue to keep himself from disagreeing with Jask, "They can just tell sometimes, better than a scanner."

"It doesn't make sense, why did something as common as Gilleney not show up on the scanner?"

"I'm more concerned with who poisoned Dagger to be honest. Why would someone do that? Do you know anything about her history? Anyone who would want to hurt her specifically?"

"It was Pre Vizsla," Rex said, unable to keep the distaste out of his voice. He should have been more careful, he should have been paying more attention. In that brief moment Vizsla had injected her with the poison, all because Rex was distracted, he lost focus on the mission.

"What does the leader of Death Watch want with Dagger? Aren't they both Mandalorians? Why would he poison one of his own?" Jask questioned.

"He is a terrorist, but I don't know what he wanted with Dagger," he had thought about it himself quite a bit. She hadn't even said her name, but Vizsla had seemed pretty interested in her dagger. Maybe he had been hoping to snatch it and take the last possession of the family that he had killed.

It didn't make any sense to Rex. If Vizsla killed Sif then he might want the Kotep'an blade. Or was he just trying to get to Rex. He didn't have enough information, he had far too many questions and nowhere near enough answers. Vizsla could have easily called her out on the lie. Why did he poison Dagger?

"We need to watch out for him in the future then," Jask stated, "We can't have this happening again. We don't have the firepower to take on Death Watch, but we can avoid them well enough."

Rex nodded, he appreciated the easy acceptance of his inadequate explanation of the situation. He also appreciated the way that Jask easily said that they would adjust strategy to protect Dagger. Rex's hand ran up and down Dagger's back, even without Jask he would protect her, but it would be easier with the help.

"Don't worry friend, we will keep your little Mandalorian girl safe," Jask stood with a wink and made to leave.

Rex sputtered slightly, "My?"

"Everyone knows, at least everyone except her," Jask said before he paused, looking over his shoulder at Rex, "What did you mean by again?"

Rex tilted his head, he tried to recall their conversation but couldn't figure out exactly what he was referencing. Jask saw his confusion and elaborated, "When you almost bit my head off earlier. You said 'don't take her from me, not again'. What was that about?"

Rex looked down, "This universe is dangerous, I was afraid I was going to lose her because I already have once. I thought she was gone forever and it scared me more than the war ever had."

"I can only imagine what that felt like seeing her poisoned after that," Jask said with an uncharacteristic understanding.

"It wasn't pleasant," Rex said, he swallowed thickly, "I'm sorry for thinking that you were going to hurt her."

"I know you don't trust us and that's ok, one day you will."

Then he was out the door and it slid closed behind him. Rex lay there contemplating for a while, he looked over to where Jask had been sitting and saw that a cup of caf still sat on the dresser. It would be cold by the time Dagger woke up, but it was nice that it would be there anyway.

Rex took the moment of peace to simply exist in Dagger's presence. She was alive, sleeping peacefully on his chest. He brushed her hair back on her head, he thanked the stars in the heavens that she was still alive. He smiled at Jask's words, his Mandalorian? No, but she was his Dagger. At least he hoped she was.

He let his head sink back into the pillow and sighed deeply. He let his fingertips wander up and down Dagger's arm, tracing the skin and soaking in her warmth. Rex stared at the ceiling, unsure if he was going to be able to get back to sleep.

After so long in the GAR he didn't really need the caf, but it was nice to have it. He debated reaching for the cup and trying to drink it laying down. The thought quickly left when he imagined spilling it on himself or Dagger. Thinking about it, he realized that he wasn't as tired as he usually was. He hated to admit that being on a covert mission was the best sleep that he had gotten in a very long time. There was no wake-up time, no late-night meetings, no sudden deployments to the front lines for weeks at a time. No instead it had been a few weeks of no wakeup calls and going to bed when you were tired.

Instead of closing his eyes he turned his head. He realized that Dagger had turned in the middle of the night, her back was to him as she curled around his arm. He smiled and lightly wrapped an arm around her. He pressed up against her back and let out a content sigh at the feeling of her. She was warm, chest expanding with slow breaths. He was so relieved that she was alive and the feeling of her in his arms was enough to lull him back into a comfortable sleep. Rex could reheat the caf later.

~B~

Dagger blinked her eyes open as she slowly started to wake up. Her back felt cold, as if her blanket had just been removed. She stretched out in her bunk letting her muscles wake up. As she sat up she let out a little groan at the feeling of her head pounding in her skull.

Rex was by her side in an instant, apparently just having realized that she was awake. She looked at him and saw him pulling a shirt onto his torso. He crouched to the side of the bed, "Hey, how are you feeling?"

She nodded gently, trying to not aggravate her head, "I'm fine, just a headache."

He let out a short laugh, "I'm glad that is all you have. I really thought you were a gonner last night."

"Vizsla?"

"Yeah, he got you with some kind of poison. I didn't know what to do, I-" he cut himself off and stood going back to hanging up his clothes from last night.

Dagger finally realized that she was on his bed, "What happened Rex? Was it really that bad?"

He kept his back to her as he nodded, "It was. I thought that I had lost you. The poison got you so fast, I thought you were going to die and there was nothing I could do about it."

"How am I still here" she asked as she stood and walked to his side.

"Neems. They knew what kind of poison Vizsla used even when the scanner didn't pick it up."

She placed her hand on his shoulder, "Leave it to the terrorist to pick some obscure poison. I'm not quite sure why I was targeted though."

"Maybe because you are connected with me, or maybe because of your dagger. We know that he has a vendetta against the Kotepa'ans, maybe he is willing to go after anyone who has an association with them."

Dagger nodded. She looked at Rex who still wouldn't look at her, but he did lean into her touch so she didn't move away, "But that isn't what is bothering you is it?"

He shook his head, "No."

"I'm sorry for worrying you, Rex."

He turned to look at her in confusion, "How could any of this possibly be your fault? I should be apologizing to you. I got lost in the moment at the ball and I wasn't paying attention. I broke my promise to you once again. I am so sorry for letting you down Dagger."

"You didn't let me down," she said gently, "We both made it out again, we are both ok. That's all that matters, besides the only thing I even feel now is the headache. I'm going to be just fine."

Before Rex could even respond there was shouting from the main area of the ship. They both looked to the door in concern, wary of what was going on even if it seemed like an argument and not a full fight.

"Wait here," Rex said, holding out a hand, "I'll go see what's going on."

Dagger rolled her eyes as he walked out the door, then winced as the motion made her head feel like it was splitting open. She let her eyes fall closed for a moment and rested her head in her hands, rubbing at her temples. Then she forced her eyes open and pushed up from the bunk. Her head spun and her legs trembled as she stood for the first time in what felt like forever. Her body felt weak but she was glad to be alive after whatever it was that Vizsla had dosed her with.

Her arm ached, a raw pain, she looked down and saw the bacta patch pressed to her upper arm. She sighed, realizing she was lucky to be alive if it was Vizsla who had tried to kill her. Once she was steady on her feet she did exactly what Rex told her not to do and followed him out of the cabin.

Walking around the hallway and towards the sound of voices. As she approached the main living area the words became clear and the voices identifiable. She saw Rex leaning up against the doorway of the common area, obviously he had not been noticed yet by the two bickering.

"We are not going after that Senator again! I don't care how much he wants to pay us, we aren't doing it!" Jask yelled.

"It's good money!" Azariah protested, "We need this job and to keep this contract!"

"Then he can put us on someone else's trail because I'm not risking it."

"You are being unreasonable!"

"Unreasonable?! You think I'm being unreasonable? You know what, maybe I am being unreasonable!" as Dagger came to stand just behind Rex she peered into the room and saw Jask and Azariah face to face. He was gesturing vehemently as he shouted.

"Would you just relax?"

"No!" he yelled, "I will be damned if another one of my team gets put in harm's way again. Someone always gets hurt and this time was too close for comfort. We will not be going on doomed missions and no money in the world will change my mind."

Dagger cleared her throat. The togruta and the devaronian both snapped their mouths closed and their heads spun to look at the source of the noise. Rex looked back at them for a moment, wondering why they were looking at him. He looked down at himself, wondering for a fraction of a second if the noise had come from him, when he realized that it didn't he slanted his body to look behind him revealing Dagger standing with him.

Jask let out a sigh, all the fight seeming to leave him. He took a step toward Dagger, pausing to look over his shoulder at Azariah, "Call M, tell him to get us a different job. I don't care if the price isn't as high."

Azariah nodded, "You're the boss."

Jask walked towards Rex and Dagger, looking at her, "I'm sorry if we woke you."

She shook her head, "You didn't. What was that all about?"

"That mission is bad. We have gone after Amidala before and it ended with a hole in one of our crew's heads. Now you got poisoned on the very same mission. There's something up and I don't care if it is a coincidence, I'm not letting my team go after her again, it's not worth it."

"Don't you think that all of the bad things have happened by now?"

He shook his head, "Not a risk I'm willing to take. Not when bad things so often come in sets of three."

"What do we do now?" Rex asks.

"Azariah is going to contact our employer. He will give us another job, a different one. We will have to stretch our funds for a few extra days until we complete the next mission but we have plenty saved up that it shouldn't be a problem."

Rex nodded, tucking the little clues away in the back of his mind the employer was named or at least nicknamed M. Not much to go on but more than what they had previously, especially with their newly translated documents from the prison.

Jask settled a hand on Dagger's shoulder, "I'm sorry about what happened at the ball and I wish I could tell you that it won't happen again, but all I can promise is that we will try harder in the future."

"It's going to take more than that to kill me," she said meeting his gaze with a look of defiance.

He smiled, sharp teeth just peeking out from behind his lips, "Good."

His statement was definitive and sincere. Dagger nodded an affirmative and he left them with one final pat on the shoulder. Once they were gone Dagger was left looking into an empty room and Rex was looking at her. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, he had his arms crossed over his chest and did not look impressed.

"Soooo," she drawled, "There any food around?"

He rolled his eyes, but couldn't hide the huff of laughter that escaped him, "I got up just before you so we will have to look."

She smiled and followed him to the refrigerator. He opened the door and stood in front of it with his arms crossed as he surveyed what was left inside. Dagger stood next to him as they looked together.

"Eggs," he stated.

"Ice cream!" she exclaimed.

His head snapped to the side to look at her with a raised brow, "For breakfast?"

She looked at him, "Do you have a better idea?"

"Yeah," he paused, "Eggs."

"I almost died last night," as if that was a good explanation for why she should get it.

"No."

"Captain," she whined.

He gave her a look as he pulled the carton of eggs out of the refrigerator. She pouted, but a sharp sting of pain in her head stopped her from protesting anymore. Rex must have seen the flash of pain in her expression and his face softened.

"Ice cream after eggs."

She smiled at his words and nodded softly, a good compromise.