Never Dead
II. Aftershocks
Upon slowly stirring from unconsciousness, Rex opened his eyes groggily to get his bearings. He clamped them shut again, as pain struck his pupils and spots flooded his vision. Blinding lights, antiseptic smell. The Captain cursed his luck.
Medbay.
I hate the frakking medbay, he thought, with an accompanying groan of annoyance. Every time I end up here its endless scolding from Kix, and an unforeseeable amount of time off the field.
That last thought made him particularly uncomfortable. His place was on the front lines, now and forever. With the action. With his men.
With her.
Rex's thoughts were derailed as a grumpy medic made his presence known.
"Rex, what did I tell you would happen the next time I found your sorry shebs in my medbay?"
And not a moment too soon.
"S'not your medbay, Kix. It belongs to the Republic." Rex responded, still somewhat loopy from the drugs.
Wait. Drugs? Medbay?
Blasted bacta hangovers! What the hell am I even doing in here?
Opening his eyes, again, he allowed them to adjust to the lighting this time. Kix was frowning down at him over a datapad, with a cocked brow. Ignoring him for the moment, Rex lifted his head off of the cot he was assigned, to inspect his form. Ah, yes. Now, how could he have forgotten that little detail?
His left thigh was bandaged heavily from whatever treatment mended the wound from his Zatarian combatant. It shouldn't have needed more than a simple bacta soak. Apparently, it had been worse than the command clone anticipated.
Well, it had hurt quite a bit, if I recall correctly.
It all came back to him through the med-induced haze. He wished it hadn't. Frowning at the course his mind set itself on, he tried not to think about how he'd last seen his troops and his favorite little jedi. He'd made a wookie of himself in front of Torrent squadron, practically on a quest to dismember a Zatarian. How could his control have slipped so easily from his grasp, when he had once prided himself on being one of the coolest heads on the Resolute? A clone captain cannot expect to effectively lead a battalion without a clear mind.
Maybe he was slipping. Cracking from the pressure. Reaching his breaking point. No! Those scenarios were unacceptable. He was Captain Rex of the 501st. He would not falter. But the question that mattered more to him than he'd like to admit was: Would they think differently of him now, after seeing what he was capable of, at his worst? Would Ahsoka think differently of him?
Kix followed Rex's line of sight, and his frown deepened. "Tissue and muscle damage was a simple fix," the trusted medical officer began to address the issue, "repairing your nicked artery and fractured femur, however, was a pain in my shebs."
Rex let his head thump back onto the med-cot, as he endured the onslaught of things he didn't want to hear.
"The rest of you was practically riddled with lacerations and bruising alike. In Phase III armor! Which is expensive to repair and thoroughly damaged now, thanks for that. And blood transfusions don't just stand by, waiting for careless clones. Really, Captain? It needs ample time and skill to…"
Kix's ranting was somewhat therapeutic to the Captain's overtaxed, and still slightly buzzed, mind. The medic rambled on, as he seemed to realize the calming effect it had on Rex. It helped to ease the severity of the subject.
"…You'd think you were a shinie again, right out of basic, with the measure of caution you take, which is none! Making my job harder, my shift longer, taking up one of my beds-"
"Spaz is gone."
Rex hadn't realized he spoke until Kix halted mid-speech. He didn't know why he said that. But, he felt as if he had to. It was quiet for a few moments, both clones thinking among the silence of the nearly empty medical center.
"I know." The medic spoke finally, clearing his throat. "Not many of us first generation left on board."
"You, me, Axel, and Brody. That's it." Rex responded, flatly.
That was all of them. The last of the first batch. The remaining members of the original line-up of the 501st.
"I heard his killer wasn't far behind him when they left this world, curtesy of a loyal brother's fury."
Rex's heavy eyes slid shut the rest of the way at those words, obscuring the ceiling he'd been staring at from view. A sigh escaped him, and he slowly brought himself into an upright seated position, shoulders slumping.
"If anything, the men respect that brother far more now, than they ever had before, which is a feat in and of itself." Kix asserted this point with hand on the Captain's shoulder.
Rex nodded slowly, understanding everything the gruff medic was conveying.
"In any case," he spoke up suddenly, and a whole lot less seriously, "you should make a full recovery long before we reach the next system. Lucky di'kut."
At these words, the stubborn Captain made to hop off the edge of the cot in a rush to leave this hell, but was met with a wave of dizziness. After a few seconds of shaking his head, Kix's smirking profile was directed at him.
"How long was I out?" Rex dared to ask.
"Well, given the substantial stress on your body from the wounds and adrenaline, not to mention the near fatal amount of blood loss, and the time it took to remedy all of that, I'd say: 3 days, by my count." The medic's lingering smug look, and the constant glances towards a visitors chair by his bedside, told Rex all he needed to know.
He groaned with a touch of guilt, "Tell me she at least got some sleep."
Kix chuckled, "You know the Commander. When you're out of commission, she's out of commission. She'd probably still be here, if the General hadn't had to practically pry her from your side for some important Jedi Council summons or something."
All joking aside now, Kix helped Rex to his feet. "She was in ruff shape while you were under, sir. You might want to talk with her as soon as you get the chance."
Nodding, his agreement, Rex began to take it slow and steady towards the door. Being dressed in a simple white shirt and pants from the medbay, his progress was unhindered by the weight of his armor, and yet his leg already started to ache from use. The man who'd seen a hundred battles ignored it, and waved over his shoulder. "Thanks again for the patch job, Kix, you'll make a wonderful nurse someday."
"Yeah, yeah, get the hell out of my medbay already, blondie. Oh and hurt yourself again, and we'll have some more words." Kix barked back with mirth.
Rex strode out the doors with a small grin on his face.
Say what you will, but the man sure can take the bite out of a near death experience, Rex thought fondly.
"…and may the force be with you, Masters." General Anakin Skywalker said, as a farewell to the glowing blue images of the council members, before they all winked out of existence.
"Finally!" Ahsoka let out a relieved sigh that the session was over. She had never enjoyed being party to the council, apart from seeing a few of her favored masters again. They bickered far too much nowadays, and half of the decisions they make conflict with her own thoughts on the matter.
"Ahsoka," Anakin drawled out her name in a poorly faked scolding tone, which was being ruined even further by the slow formation of a rebellious smile. "You should have more respect for the council."
Ahsoka couldn't help but snort at the pitiful effort. "Oh, that's rich. You're one to talk, Skyguy."
Her master chuckled along with her, as she made for the door exiting the holo-room, trying to keep her strides as calm as possible. "He's not gonna float away, Snips." Apparently, she hadn't tried hard enough. She should've known her master would see right through her. He always could.
Resting her forehead on the door, Ahsoka let her hand fall to her side, mid-journey to the glowing keypad that opened the door. She could practically feel his concerned eyes boring into her back from across the dimly lit room. "I know, master."
Anakin kept his tone soft, trying to coax his Padawan into opening up to him. "I mean, I've seen you shaken up when Rex was injured on multiple occasions, but never to the extent as to where you were this …off."
"I've never seen him like that, before, master." Ahsoka turned to her mentor, with a look of apprehension. "Rex getting himself injured is nothing new, but Rex going ballistic? I'd probably have laughed at the notion before the battle on Mar-Quesoth."
Skywalker only nodded his head, a contemplative look on his face. "I'll admit, it definitely caught me of guard, as well. He seemed pretty far gone."
"That's what I'm saying. He was completely unresponsive, master. Before, all I had to do was call his name, and no matter how far away he was on the battlefield, he was by my side in seconds. But, when he had that Zatarian pinned, and I cried out to him, it was like…like-"
"Like he couldn't even hear you." Anakin finished for her, dark memories resurfacing. He stomped them down. His Padawan needed him now.
The troubled Togruta slumped into a nearby chair, nodding her head slowly. "Yeah."
The two sat in silence thinking over their captain's behavior, the only sounds being the small beeps and varied mechanical tones of the holo-room. Ahsoka was somewhat comforted by the sounds of the ever-reliable workings of the Resolute, her home. After what seemed like an hour of comfortable quiet, she finally spoke up once more.
"I just… I just wanted-needed to hear those words. The words he always says when he wakes up in the medbay, all cranky from everyone's unnecessary concern. That 'he's alright'. That no matter what kind of hit he took, he would be alright."
Standing from her seat, the Padawan to the chosen one made her way to the door, once more. "After seeing him like that, I need to hear those words again, now more than ever," without turning towards her master she finished her thought, while crossing the threshold, "I need to know that he's okay."
Anakin was now left alone with his thoughts, in a room muddled with his padawan's lingering emotions.
A sappy one, but what the hell do ya want? Sorry for the long wait, by the way. Work isn't very accommodating to my writing habits. I'll try to update sooner for my, like, 5 fans.
Laters...
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