Hiyo there!
It's been a while. This chapter is short because I figured it would be easier to break an 8,700-word chapter down into two chapters (and that way, I can end the story at Chapter 15). Thank you for your patience with this. :)

(CT 9906, Cuthalion97, here you go! XD As promised!)

Enjoy! :D Chapter 12, here we go!

Earlier

Turning back as Tech and Crosshair left the surgical wing, Cody watched as three clones manhandled the sergeant into being strapped down to the table. The colors in Hunter's face seemed to rotate between pale, flushed, and an ugly shade of grey as he fought - maybe not weakly, but uncoordinatedly - to break the other clone's hold on him. Two others rushed in, tugging the biofreezer behind them as they carted it over to the table. One grabbed a syringe while the other typed commands into the pod.

There was a collective nod, a flurry of activity over the next thirty seconds, then the cryopod's door hissed shut and the medical personnel present let out a relieved sigh.

Nala Se entered the room and studied the apparatus for a moment before nodding with satisfaction and giving Cody a slight bow. He responded with a dip of his chin, allowing himself to finally cross to the pod.

Through the frosted glass, he watched, his expression steeled, as Hunter began writhing in the cold. His eyes were squeezed shut, a snarl curling his lips into a soundless howl as the chill took its toll.

The Commander frowned, eyebrows knitting tightly over his eyes.

What the kark…?

Around him, the others murmured uneasily, all exchanging startled glances that all asked the same question.

Huh, guess this wasn't normal then.

The clone who had given the cryopod the commands flicked on his commlink. "Ma'am, the patient is having an abnormal reaction to cryo, should we-?"

The Kaminoan must have responded with a negative because he quieted, eyes following every jerk of the commando, comm still held up. "Very well…Leave him in. This may be the only way to keep the infection from spreading too far too fast."

Though hesitant, everyone obeyed and backed away from the pod, filing out quietly. Still standing in front of it, the Commander noticed that the struggles were beginning to ease as whatever drug had been injected prior to biofreezing began to take hold. The tension around the younger man's face loosened, causing weird quirks in his expression while the muscles fired off spasmodically.

He heard gentle footsteps behind him and peered over his shoulder at the kid standing there.

"Sir?" the medtech asked shyly, shifting his weight on his feet. "It's time to go for now. Mistress Nala Se still needs to finalize some of the treatment plans before we can begin."

"Of course," he responded, nodding before muttering as he headed for the door, "Well then, I guess I'd better go check on the others."

Later…

The darkness crept around them as Cody sat on the edge of the cot, gazing down at the sergeant with a sad gleam in his eyes. After everything that had finally happened, it had resolved. Not the way he had wanted…but a way.

His lips tightening in an effort to control his expression, Cody leaned over and gently kissed the lad's forehead.

"It's all over, kid," he whispered, brushing aside a thick bang. "You're free...You fought it through, and now it's all over." His throat caught and he had to pause before adding, "Sleep well, son. I'm right here...I'll be waiting for you when you come back…I'll be waiting…."

Shutting his eyes as the tears spilled over, Cody dropped his chin and put his head in his hand as he stood. He'd just promised he'd stay...but he couldn't. Not like this. As he wandered away, the last thing he thought of the sergeant was, "Wake up, Hunter. Please...Come back… You're so close."

Date: 1910

Region: Outer Rim, Ryndellia system

Location: Kaliida Shoals medical center

Blood, sweat, and death hung in the air of the surgical ward. As he strode forward, Commander Cody's nostrils flared, snorting out the rot stink of the place through his helmet's filters. Having been raised a soldier, he'd personally never been particularly squeamish at the sight of blood and men dying. But to have the fresh stink of open wounds was something else entirely. Had any of the medics noticed, they wouldn't have blamed him for the instant gag reflect that hit upon entering the ward.

Keeping his eyes down and in front of him, Cody steeled his gut and kept walking, following the medic through the crowd of medward bunks. Part of his mind wandered back to the lads back in his guest quarters, back to the despondent attitudes and lack of hope for their sergeant. After the sergeant's impossible fluctuation, they had been so certain that he wouldn't recover...Yet still Crosshair had demanded a reason why none of them was allowed to check on him.

What was going on? When Crosshair and Tech had explained the situation on the Marauder, they had only explained the bare minimum. Stuff went wrong, mission failure, Hunter injured, need medical assistance. Will explain rest later.

That was fine. Everything had been jumbled and there were bits he still didn't understand from the hurried, broken, horrified chunks of story woven through the desperation, so he had waited. Then he'd asked again while waiting with Wrecker after Hunter had been carted off and got that tiny tidbit about the vile - which, sudden remembrance, he needed to check on. Then he'd seen more tidbits from the lads' HUD feed, but only received the same jumbled message the boys had given him by watching all four HUD feeds simultaneously while walking.

He was able to make out that the mission had gone awry from something in the lab. That much he understood. He understood that the "something" had to do with the biogenetic warfare he'd been afraid of…He understood that it was the reason why Hunter had been bitten by what had looked like a dead anooba. And from the clips he'd seen of how it had all ended, the end result was the reason that Joan wasn't there to explain everything to him in detail while he'd grabbed his caf.

Scowling, Cody slipped into another passage behind the medtech, following him to the decomp chamber as his mind was sent down another whirlwind of questions that refused to yield answers.

Why hadn't he asked for a full recount yet? Or rather, since he had asked, why hadn't he gotten one? All he'd gotten were images and descriptions, but nothing truly solid. If anyone asked him, all he could say is that the mission failed because of unforeseen circumstances, but he couldn't even begin to explain in detail exactly what those circumstances were.

The other lads certainly hadn't been able to give him a distinct account.

By the time they arrived at the proper wing, Cody had come back full circle of his thoughts for the evening, starting with what was going on in the kid's head to what had happened to them, to why wouldn't they tell him - or why hadn't he asked better- back to what was going on in their heads that made them clamp up. He wasn't particularly thrilled with needing to wrap up his thoughts prior to their questions being answered, but despite all the mind could do with time, stopping it in real time was as of yet still impossible.

In front of him, the medtech stepped aside in front of a simple door to the observation booth. It was a small, two wall half-circular room with what appeared to be monitors that hooked up to galaxy-knew-what through the other side of the transparisteel window. Consoles with flickering lights consumed the rest of the desks. Three medtechs and two nurses accompanied the equipment, most frowning in concentration at their screens as they readied the electronic decontamination chamber through the series of commands they typed into the system. As Cody stepped into the booth, he felt the buzz of machines working around him, the steady hum dulling his immediate hearing so the faint fidgets and clicks of the other people became the only sound keeping his head from lulling to a blur.

The door closed behind him, and the Commander glanced around to see where he should stand. He decided somewhere along the back wall so he could see to the other side of the window was the best view. On the other side was a chamber that was not unlike the Kamino training courses, if not for the size. It was a simple grey cube with cheap metal tiles lining the surface. Black-, white- and primary-colored tubes hung from the ceiling, the only equipment that seemed truly out of place in the sterile setting. In the center was a black rimmed bacta tank, already filled, but with a greenish gel rather than a thin blue one. This green substance was thicker, and the bubbles caused by the trapped air had a much slimmer chance of ever breaking free.

Cody tapped at his wrist chrono.

Various message notifications popped up on the tiny screen, and he absently scrolled through them for a while before finding one from one of the other medical personnel on Kaliida Shoals. He quickly tapped it and read the brief note before glancing back at the two nurses in the room. As if on cue, the natborn woman wheeled around in her chair and smiled politely.

"Sir."

"Ma'am," he gave a quick nod, "Is everything set?"

"Yes. We're ready for him now."

Returning to her screen, she asked, "Are you planning on viewing the decontamination or did you just need to check that it was ready?"

Shifting on his feet slightly, Cody lightly clasped his hands behind his back as he replied amiably, "If possible, I'd prefer to stay. The kid getting the chamber is under my watch right now and I need to see what has been going on with him. There's a lot I'm still trying to figure out."

Nodding, the nurse picked up a datapad and peered at the text, her smile vanishing. She didn't quite give Cody something that resembled alarm - more like…apprehension - but he could tell her perception of the situation had just altered. Swallowing, probably to keep a grip on the tension mounting in her gut, she - Cody caught the flash of her ID pin and saw the name Miranda - tapped her foot nervously against the ground.

"I've read the report from Nala Se and the information given about the other squad mates, but in your own words - if I may ask, just so I know - what do you know is going on about the sergeant's injuries?"

Cody pursed his lips. "Ma'am, I'm still trying to figure it out."

He tried flashing her a quick, reassuring grin, and added somewhat jokingly, "All I know for sure is that at least for a little while, it's going to take a hot minute for that boy to get back to PT in order to get back into shape for slacking off in medbay. As for the situation as a whole…well…The younger one, Tech, said something about a vile that he had with him and that was turned in earlier. Have you heard anything about it? Do you know how that could affect this- " he gestured vaguely out the window, "in any way that might help?"

"It will depend on what the people down in the immunization and research lab say. I'm here for checking on the patient's current status to make sure that it remains stable while he's in decom. I make sure all his vital signs are still stable. Olson here takes care of the rest as far as health goes. Everyone else takes care of the operating system.

Nodding, Cody tightened a fist behind his back, about to ask what her thoughts on the kid's condition were when the door on the other side of the window opened and a gurney was pulled in by two medical personnel.

Hunter was strapped down, eyes closed, utterly still, and the careful incision marks wrapped in bandages.

Cody bit his tongue as he watched the kid get unloaded, hanging limply in the arms of the clone medics as they carefully hooked him up for the tank. He was vaguely aware of how still everything in the observation booth had become. The medtechs, though responsible for running the equipment, sat watching quietly.

Figuring he'd take a chance with distraction, the Commander asked Miranda, "How is he looking?"

She shrugged. "He's still alive. Based on what I've seen, no one is quite sure what to make of it, but I know the scientists and virologists are still working out what's going on with his immune integrity."

"Anything to report so far?"

"Not really. He's had a blood withdraw to compare it to now versus his record, so that's in another lab now. Uhmm… When his lung collapsed, the surgeons had to repair it using droids since the infection is still a large unknown factor. The operation was successful as far as stitching it closed, but they found the mucus in the air sacs was…worse than anticipated. Other than that, he's still running a high fever, he's dehydrated…We're still not entirely sure how his body reacted to being placed in the biofreezer or if this form of decontamination will work."

She winced. "It's just an all-round bad situation."

Yeah, no kidding, Cody sighed.

"The mucus, what do you mean by- "

Huffing in either annoyance or frustration - though Cody suspected the latter, the nurse shrugged, "It was more acidic than is comfortable, but if we drained too much of it, we were afraid of what else might refill his lung. From what we could see, it has an awkward consistency when it comes to what it lets in. We managed to get the blood from the initial collapse out, so when he starts coughing - which…unfortunately is highly likely, at this point, it shouldn't be blood unless he tears the lining again - another highly likely occurrence, depending on how this next bit goes."

She glanced back at her screen as something twinkled. Falling silent, she tapped Olson's arm and he responded with a grunt, muttering, "Already on it."

Not looking back at him, Miranda finished her explanation to the Commander with a short, "He's going in now, sir. If you do, pray he's going to turn out okay because we're not sure it's guaranteed."

On the other side of the transparasteel, the two medics were lowering the sergeant into the green, gellish concoction, keeping a careful grip on the harness so he didn't twist the wires around on his way down or jiggle them loose despite neither being very likely. Seconds later, he was completely submerged, and the medics made their exit.

Shifting, Cody loosened his hands behind his back, opting instead for folding his arms in front of him as he watched. Nothing that he could see was occurring, and none of the medical personnel in the room were saying anything as they studied their monitors, so he took the opportunity to send in some quick messages to the research assistant he'd gotten the number of about the vile Tech had had with him and one to update the lads on Hunter since he knew they'd otherwise be at each other's throats again about whether to disobey orders or not. There were a few more for updates on the 212th's status, to the General, and then one to Rex and Bly before checking the time and settling back.

Then, just as he'd been doing since the whole fiasco had begun, he patiently awaited the results of the tests.

The world was cold. Dark. Sharp. Heat around his head made breathing difficult, but he didn't bother lifting the blanket over his head to allow for better airflow.

Curling his cold hands to his chest as he huddled under the blanket, Crosshair squeezed his eyes shut against the memories of the last few minutes. He was tired, but not enough to forget snapping Wrecker for being too loud at first, for Tech not knowing enough, Hunter for being an idiotic lunatic, and Cody refusing to let him escape himself by allowing him to see the sergeant.

Kriff. The mission hadn't been more than (so many hours that it was) and…

And what? It hadn't been more than a few hours and they were already snapping at each other? Or, had been, before Cody had broken it up? It had been a few hours since the adrenaline of the mission had started to wear off and everyone learned how frayed their nerves were after it?

"Hunter is in the decontamination tank," Tech announced flatly, not particularly caring which one of them was awake to hear it, "The Commander is uncertain exactly what time he'll come out, but things are underway. He says to stay here and stay out of trouble."

Then he put the comm up, rolled over, and ignored the rest of the room in favor of sleeping.

Crosshair huffed.

"Stay here and stay out of trouble."

Right. Since when had the Batch ever been good at that?

Kicking off the covers, Crosshair silently rolled up onto his feet so he sat in a crouch. Cody had told them to stay put and not to leave until he said.

He had.

He had said that.

And at the time, the sniper had been too focused on being angry to care that the little reverse order thing that went on with him whenever he was given an order he didn't like hadn't kicked in. Instead, he'd gotten cold trying to fix things up in his head where the situations only got uglier, and the fights got louder until all he could do was curl up and wait for it to stop since he didn't have anything else to distract him.

Yes, fine, he'd admit it. He was scared.

He was scared of Hunter dying.

He was scared of what would happen if Hunter died but didn't stay dead.

He was scared of what would happen to the squad situation if and when Hunter came back.

He was scared of everyone blaming him for overreacting if the need came to it that one of them had to kill what was left of the sergeant before one of them turned too, since he knew the task of getting the bolt through the neck would fall to him since he was the only one who could really do it.

He was scared of being backed against a corner with no way out and no way to hide…Just like he felt he was now.

Silently as a shadow, he carefully stepped down from his cot, hardly daring to press his weight to the floor lest it creak, but it never did. He grabbed a spare tunic to pull over his black long sleeve thermal and a pair of civvie shoes, slipped them on, and eased out from the door.

Now that he had been told he had to, he couldn't stay still.

Well, kark. Guess that meant he owed an apology to the Commander.

Humph.

Guess that meant he just had to go find him…

Thirty-two minutes later...

As if nothing had ever happened, the hallways were still full of life as the Commander made his way to the next station where the sergeant was currently scheduled for. And only 'currently' because as of yet, the schedule had changed twice due to the head medical officer's indecision about how to handle the situation. So now that he was decontaminated from the mission, the sergeant was slotted for another quick exam before he underwent full surgery to have his lungs drained - even replaced, if necessary - and the part of his thigh where he'd been bitten grafted over in order to heal. Then, depending on how fast the doctors thought he would recover, he was supposed to undergo another blood test before an immunity IV hookup line to reinforce whatever was left of his immune system.

At least, that's what it seemed like. Anytime Cody tried asking how bad it was, he tended to get the same answer of dulled eyes and tired sighs.

The lab still hadn't contacted him about what was in the glass tube Tech had brought with him.

Shaking his head clear of what all he needed to worry about, the Commander turned a corner, pursing his lips thoughtfully as he thought over the last fifteen minutes.

For the most part, Hunter's resurfacing had been uneventful after the ten equally uneventful, yet surprisingly swift minutes it had taken for the decontamination to occur. Going in, Cody had thought that it would be extensive, maybe taking an hour or so - for some reason that he honestly wasn't sure of why, now. Coming out, he'd wondered why it had seemed so normal. It hadn't been more than a quick bacta dip, if it hadn't been for the different colored gel. He'd been pulled out of the tank by the same two medics, mostly dried by towel so the liquid wouldn't drip onto the floor as he was carted off, and then pulled away. Inside the observation booth, Miranda and Olson had stretched before the former handed Cody a datapad with a list of potential and probable procedures to be performed in order to insure Hunter's best odds.

Even still, the chances were slim.

And yet…

Scowling, lost in his thoughts, Cody didn't see the shock of silver until he'd walked headlong into it. He blinked back into reality.

In front of him, the rainbow of emotions that flashed across the sniper's face was settled by a barely brave enough, grim set, space-eyed neutral gaze. Crosshair swallowed, not quite looking the Commander in the eye as he nodded once.

"Sir…"

It took a minute for his own expressions to go through the motions, but Cody snapped out of it soon enough, glaring down at the younger man, despite the lack of definite height difference.

"Crosshair…" he growled, arms crossing over his chest as his jaw tightened. He opened his mouth to continue, but snapped it shut quickly, eyes closing as his ears pulled back in annoyance. He forced himself to breathe, the sound audible under those of the hallway. Then his eyes opened, and he gestured for him to follow.

As Cody walked past him, Crosshair inhaled steadily, one fist clenching by his side before he turned on one heel and followed.

Had he needed to get out of the room? Yes.

Had he thought it all the way through? …Potentially.

Had he planned out everything he needed to discuss with Cody in order to round-aboutly apologize?...Uhm…There was a slight chance he hadn't...

Dundundunduuuuuuuuuuuuhh... ;3

Gosh, I just realized two days ago that I have no longer been working on this story for year...I've been doing it for almost two. :P Okay, yeah, this is getting ready to finish.
ANYWAY: Thank you for reading! :D