Disclaimer: don't own.

Flora and Fauna

Edelweiss

It was Friday, so Rex stopped at the grocery store and grabbed a case of beer, putting it in his truck before walking to the florist nearby. As he walked in, he looked around. There was only one employee on duty it looked like. He picked up the roses first, counting out twenty one, like always. He checked each carefully, weighing each one, looking for anything possible wrong with them, especially defects in the red color. Accepting each, he moved on to the poppies, selecting fourteen of them with just as much care as he did the roses. He picked up the fourteen pieces of sage, and headed to the counter to talk to talk to the girl working there.

"Hey, um, I'm looking for edelweiss? I need seven pieces, please," Rex said, studying the girl's face, trying to figure out if he recognized her.

"Yeah, we have some, it just came in last night, but, uh, it's marked as reserved and doesn't say who or what for," The girl said, looking up at him.

"Yeah, well, you're new, Cody probably hasn't told you. They're for me, I've had him special order it for years," Rex said, an unreadable smile crossing his face.

"And how do I know that you're telling the truth?" She said, narrowing her blue eyes at him, searching him for guile.
"Well, if you're done trying to perform some kind of mind trick on me, you can call Cody. I'm sure he's not doing anything important," Rex said, smirking.

"And that's what I will do," she said, pulling out her phone.

"Good."

"Hey Cody, it's Ahsoka, I have a guy here, um-" she held the phone away from her face for a moment- "what's your name?"

"Rex."

"Yeah, some dude named Rex, like six foot, almost bald?" She listened for a minute, then said, "Okay. I'll do that. Sorry, Cody."

"Sorry about that, I just wanted to make sure."

"No worries, at least you didn't give it to some random guy."

Ahsoka went to the back to get them, and Rex found that he couldn't stop watching her.

She came back, a minute later, holding seven pieces of edelweiss, tied together with a bit of yellow twine.

"So what did you do, Rex? Must have been something terrible, for all these flowers to be necessary?"

He grunted. "Something like that."

And with that, he left, Ahsoka's eyes following him the whole way out.

She thought about the man the whole next week. He'd intrigued her, to say the least.

She was still trying to learn to make arrangements, so Cody was only letting her close after seven on Fridays by herself, when he said they only had a few customers, who all knew what they were doing. She saw Rex again the next week, and the week after that. He came, like clockwork, every Friday, at the same time and everytime, he purchased the same flowers, never asking for them to be wrapped, or put in a vase, or any of the other things people did with flowers. It was curious, she figured. No one else did that, no matter their reasons for the flowers.

The new girl had started about a month ago. She was pretty, he figured. She was small, and feisty, too. Tonight she wasn't there, it was Cody.

"Where's the new girl, Cody?" Rex asked as he approached the counter to check out.

"Not here, obviously," Cody replied dryly.

"Thank you, Cody, I'd have never guessed," Rex bit back with a sarcastic smile.

"Well, she's not here. You seem to have left an impression, though. She really enjoys y'all's banter."

Rex just grunted in response and paid. He didn't want to deal with this talk again. Not right now, at least. They'd had this talk a couple of times after he'd come back, the older man trying to encourage him not just to be more social, but to date, too. Any slight hint a female might be interested in him, or him in her, and Cody would hound him for weeks.

"Thanks, Cody, but I'm not having this talk tonight. You know what tonight is."

"Too right, Rex. Hey, if you need it, call me, okay? You're not alone."

When he came in the next week, he looked tired. His eyes had bags beneath them, and his shave wasn't as clean as normal. She wondered what had happened to him.

"Hey, Rex, are you okay?" She asked when he came in.

"Yeah, Ahsoka, I'm fine. It's just been a rough week."

"I'll go get your edelweiss now."

Next week, she resolved as he left. Next week she would ask him.

Rex felt significantly better the next week. At the grocery store, he decided to buy himself good beer rather than the bottled piss he usually bought for Fridays. He tossed it in his truck and walked over to the florist, humming ever so slightly as he went.

When he got inside, he looked around and spotted Ahsoka.

"Hey Ahsoka, how are you?"

"I'm good, Rex! How are you? You look like you're doing better than last week!"

"Thanks, Ahsoka. I'm doing well. Any big plans for the weekend?"

"Just cuddling with my puppy! Hey, Rex?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I come with you? I want to meet the person you're buying flowers for all the time!"

Rex was stunned. He hadn't ever thought about this. What was he supposed to say? He had never thought someone would ask to meet them. Ask about them, how they'd met, yeah, but never meet.

It was as if he was watching someone else as he heard himself say, "Uh, yeah, sure. Is Cody here?"

"Yeah, he is."

"Go get him so I can speak to him, please."

As Ahsoka went to get Cody, he gathered the flowers he normally picked up.

"I heard you wanted to talk to me, Rex?"

"Yeah, Cody. Is it alright if Ahsoka comes with me tonight? She wants to meet them?" Rex noticed that Ahsoka gave him a funny look as he said them, but ignored it.

"Yeah, Rex. It's probably for the best. You need to talk about them more."

Now Ahsoka looked really confused.

"C'mon, Ahsoka, before Cody decides to make you clock out."

Ahsoka followed him out, her long blonde ponytail swinging around as she went. She got in the shotgun seat of his truck, and put her seatbelt on, but he didn't turn it on. She looked over at him inquisitively, wondering what he was doing, to find him separating the flowers into seven identical bouquets and tying each off with twine. She thought about asking him what he was doing, but the intense look on his face made her think twice. He was clearly absorbed in it, performing his task with a delicacy she would have not thought possible. He noticed her looking at him, and looked up, his eyes clouded by something dark and sad.

"We'll go in a minute, I just have to finish tying these up, sorry," he said, his voice sounding just a bit off, something in it Ahsoka hadn't heard before.

"Okay."

He finished tying his flowers together and started the truck. They drove in silence for a few minutes. Ahsoka was wondering where he was going but something in her mind kept her from asking, though she wasn't sure if it was the way he gripped the wheel like he was in pain, or the way every now and then he would take a deep breath and let it out slowly, particularly at red lights.

He turned a corner and her heart sank as she saw the sign at the entrance:

VETERANS ADMINISTRATION

QUANTICO NATIONAL CEMETERY

"Uh, Rex?" Ahsoka ventured hesitantly.

"Yeah?" he answered hoarsely.

"Why are we here?"

"You wanted to meet who I was giving flowers to every week. That's where we're going. Come on," he said.

He parked the truck and climbed out, clearly expecting Ahsoka to follow.

She followed along as he walked into the cemetery, turning every now and then, going to a deeper part of the cemetery. He finally stopped at a row of graves, looking at them sadly.

"Hey Jesse. I brought someone with me today. I hope you don't mind, but she wanted to meet you," Rex said, kneeling and setting the first of the bouquets he made down. He repeated his actions six more times, greeting each grave as if he were greeting the man who was buried, which Ahsoka supposed he was, in a way.

He sat down, leaning against the grave of the one he had called Fives and motioning for her to do the same. He opened the backpack she just now noticed he had and pulled out a beer, silently offering it to her. She took it and he tossed her a bottle opener. They drank together in silence for a few minutes before Rex began to speak.

"You're probably wondering who these guys are, why I bring them flowers every week. I…" he trailed off for a moment, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes, took a deep breath, shuddered, and started again, "I am… I was a marine. These guys, they were my team. I was a Raider and we were in… Well, it doesn't really matter where we were, does it?" he chuckled humorlessly.

"We were surrounded, outnumbered and for political reasons couldn't get any air support. Reinforcements were six hours away. We held our position as long as we could. Tactical Element One- Fives' element- they got over run first. One of them was able to pull back to the rest of our position, but that was it. Jesse was my Team Chief, and he exposed himself to fire to pull back a wounded Ridge, but he got hit and neither of them made it. Our surviving corpsman was working on them when he got hit. We all know some first aid, so we did what we could, but we had to return fire or we'd all die, and it just wasn't enough. You know, they buried them here, they gave them the medals I put them in for- but they redacted their citations. None of them were married. No kids, no girlfriends. No one but us who survived to remember them. The politicians won't do it- to them we were just another service number, just another name on a page. None of us were just a number, but they couldn't see that. And I followed orders, even though I thought the plan was a bad one, and it cost us men. I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for it."

"Rex, I… I'm so sorry, Rex. That's horrible. I can't imagine how painful that was," Ahsoka said, starting to tear up herself.

"S'okay, 'Soka. I'm over most of the pain now. But since it's just the survivors who care, I come every week. I get off work, buy the flowers, and come here and lay them, have a drink with my old buddies. You know, Cody was one, a long time ago. He got out earlier than I did, and he's older than me, but he was one of us. He'd say, 'you know, sometimes in war, it's hard to be the one that survives.' He's a good man, makes sure that I can get edelweiss for my men," Rex said, tears silently streaming down his face.

"I was wondering about that- do you mind explaining the flowers you chose, or do you just want to sit in silence?"

"No, I'll tell you. Red roses for blood shed and love, red poppies are because they're a flower for a soldier's grave, sage for my respect for them, and edelweiss. Edelweiss has a long history. It grows in the Alps, above the treeline. Used to be, if you wanted one, you had to climb up there and get it yourself. It was dangerous, so edelweiss came to mean courage and dedication. Give one to your beloved and it's the same as a promise ring. It's been used by mountain troops throughout history as their symbol, the courage of those who fight in one of the most inhospitable climates there is. That's where we were, in the mountains, you know, when…" he trailed off, his breathing shaky.

"Rex, I'm so sorry, I... I don't even know what to say," Ahsoka said suddenly remembering the time she had said he must have done something terrible to need so many flowers, horrified at her insensitive past self.

"Don't speak. Just drink. That's what I do."

"Then how do you get home?"

"Well, usually I don't actually get drunk, just have a couple, but I always walk home afterwards, anyways. I come back in the morning for my truck." Rex said pensievely, taking another casual swig of his beer.

"Thank you, Rex. I'm really touched you shared this with me, it obviously means a lot to you."

They fell into a comfortable, contemplative silence. Ahsoka noticed how Rex would every now and then look at one of the graves and act as if he was about to say something to them, but then would change his mind and stop himself, looking away and contemplating.

Suddenly, he remembered something she had told him during one of their chats a few weeks ago, "Ahsoka, you said you're getting your masters in international relations right now, right?"

Ahsoka was taking a sip of her beer as she said this, so rather than reply she just nodded.

"Where do you go?"

"Georgetown."

"Wait, does one of your professors have a really stupid name, Obi-Wan Kenobi?"

"Yes, he is!" Ahsoka giggled, "I always wondered why his parents hated him so much to name him that!"

Ahsoka took a moment to catch her breath, then said, "Do you know him?"

"Yeah, yeah I do… or more did, I guess, it's been a couple years. He was a Foreign Service Officer for the place I was. They called him 'the negotiator' because they said he could get the host nation to agree to whatever he asked for. He had a buddy he claimed was also Foreign Service, but considering all the places I saw him and what he was always doing, I'd be willing to bet his buddy was Agency."

"Wait a fucking minute, he mentioned you! I didn't realize it, but he told us a story about you! He was telling us this story about some bullshit 'this damned detachment of Marines and their absolute madman of a captain' pulled in-country that gave him a massive headache trying to smooth it over."

"He's only told one of those? He has at least ten, maybe more. We didn't exactly make his life easy," Rex said with an affectionate smile.

"Well, I have to ask him for more and tell him you said he's been holding out on us."

They fell once more into a comfortable silence until Ahsoka put her hands on her thighs and said, "Rex, this has been lovely, but I gotta get back home and let out my dog, he needs to be fed."

"Alright, c'mon, let's get up. I'll walk you home."

"Rex, I live like three miles from here."

"So?"

Ahsoka just shook her head fondly, "You idiot, c'mon."

A/N: It's been a while, sorry. I should be updating The Silent Service, but I'm so ludicrously behind on that and this from the last season of The Clone Wars wouldn't leave me alone. This is gonna be a series of 5 shorts, all under the name Flora and Fauna. Please read, review, let me know what you think.

Very respectfully,

Charles Basilone