THE CAPTAIN'S TALE
It started about twenty minutes after breakfast. At first Rex thought it was just some remaining sleepiness, but it only got worse as time dragged on.
His entire body ached. His eyelids felt as if someone had tied stones to them, and he would have sworn on his growth jar that he had a fever, except that the thermometer told a different story.
Bah, he thought, tossing the device into a drawer. He remembered his days in the GAR – no temperature, no sick leave. Heck, sometimes no sick leave even with a temperature. He could tough it out. He had to tough it out.
"Rex, are you okay?"
He turned around. "Yes Ahsoka, I'm fine. Sorry for taking the refresher."
"You don't look fine," Ahsoka pointed out.
"I don't have a temperature." Rex defended himself. "I'll be out in a few minutes."
"Of course. Stay there," Ahsoka said and sauntered off. Rex recognized that voice. It was the voice she used with Lux when he misbehaved.
"I don't!" He yelled after her, but it was no use. Ahsoka was gone but for a second when she returned with the cavalry.
Mina Bonteri took one look at Rex and announced: "You're staying home."
"Senator Bonteri, it's not a problem. I can go on the job."
"Go back to bed, Rex."
Shrinking, Rex slunk off to his and Saw's room half-grateful for Mina's command. He may be annoyed at missing the job, but at least he had the chance now to recover properly for the next one.
He stripped off his clothes, put on the pajamas his friends had gotten him for Life Day, and lay back down in bed. Oh, the softness of the mattress plus the warmth of the blankets was just right for his aching body.
His head had barely hit the pillow when his eyelids finally gave into their weight and closed.
…
The gunship's engine sputtered with dying breaths.
Even though the doors were shut to prevent the passengers from being blown off the ship or to bits, Rex caught a glimpse of Genonosis' quickly-approaching red sand.
Never thought I'd see this place again, he thought wryly as the gunship slammed into the earth.
For a second, all his senses rolled into one: the sensation of heat and panic, and a woman's voice.
"Hey Rex? Rex?"
…
"Hey Rex? Rex?"
Rex forced his eyes to open. Geonosis was gone. It its place was his soft bed, aching body, and the voice from his dream attached to the face of Steela Gerrera.
"Yes?" he sputtered, blinking sleep from his unwilling eyes. "Are you back from the job already?"
Steela shook her head. "No. Katooni's feeling under the weather too, so I volunteered to stay back and take care of you guys."
Rex sat up in bed. "Is Katooni alright?"
"It's her allergies; they're worse than usual." Steela looked at the chrono. "Ahsoka said to wake you up about now. Do you need anything?"
"No, thank you." He lay back down in bed. "Have you had anything to eat for lunch?"
"No, why? Do you want some?"
He hurriedly shook his head. "No, nothing like that. I was just curious."
That was a half-truth if he ever told one. The real one he was asking was because in the past, Steela's attempts to be a nurse had ended with her becoming a patient. Rex remembered hearing a thump and then Sierra's shrill cry of "Mom!"
When Rex arrived in the girls' room he found Steela collapsed on the floor and helped Mina tuck her into bed. From there it was simply a matter of extracting information from Sierra while Tandin hovered over Steela until she got her bearings.
"Steela, can you hear me?" Tandin asked, gently patting her cheeks.
Steela startled and opened her eyes a sliver. "Y-yeah. Yeah, I hear you Tandin."
Tandin placed the straw for one of Tav's juice boxes between her lips. "Drink this. When was the last time you ate?"
Before Steela could spit out the straw to answer, Sierra supplied it. "Yesterday."
Rex sighed. He knew Steela was busy taking care of Sierra, but this was extreme. "Steela, you need to eat and sleep."
"I'm fine!" Steela argued.
"Oh, you're going to be fine," Tandin announced, tucking her in tight. "Because you're going to do nothing but rest and let us take care of you for the rest of the day."
"But Tandin -!"
"No buts, young lady. I'll bring you something to eat in a minute." Tandin said, and it was final.
"Actually," Rex corrected himself. "A sandwich might be nice, just to keep my blood sugar up."
For a second, silence.
"Okay, sure." Steela nodded and walked out of the room. "I'll be right back."
A half second after she left, Rex mentally kicked himself. You d'kut! Did you really just ask Steela to make you a sandwich? How sexist could you possibly be? What's next, asking her to rub your feet? He closed his eyes. Fives would have punched me if he'd heard that.
He knew Steela wasn't a fan of sexism in the least and she'd set anything she saw as such straight, so hopefully he hadn't offended her. He crossed his fingers.
Meanwhile in the kitchen, Steela mulled over the same question as she spread peanut butter on the bread.
He must really be sick if he asked me to do this, she thought, cutting the sandwich into triangles. Rex isn't the make-me-a-sandwich type.
She grabbed the plate, tossed a jogan on it for good measure, and brought it to Rex. "One PB&J and a jogan. Anything else?"
"No, but thank you." Rex tried to recover from his slip when he had a brilliant idea. He grabbed his knife from the bedside table and cut the jogan in half before holding out one sandwich triangle to her. "Would you like half?"
Steela took the triangle. "Thanks. Tandin would kill me if he heard I didn't eat lunch."
"Right," Rex silently breathed an enormous sigh of relief. Thank goodness he hadn't insulted his … girlfriend? Friend? What's the term for someone you took to Pancake World and then kissed? He had a feeling even his old friend Cupid couldn't answer that one.
Awkward silence fell.
"I wonder if the news is on." Steela mused, grabbing the remote and switching on the TV that Saw just had to have in his and Rex's room. She flipped through the channels, trying to find something. Soap opera, talk show, talk show that was basically a soap opera, infomercial, Imperial propaganda…aha!
Rex raised his eyebrows in recognition. "Little Moisture Farm in the Desert."
"Yeah, it's a classic." Steela said. "Have you watched it?"
"Some of the shinies liked it after their first battles," he reminisced. "It helped them relax so they could sleep at night."
"Well then this is the best show for you." She flopped beside him on the bed, on top of the covers. "Mind if I watch?"
They directed their attentions to the screen, apparently a rerun of the Life Day special episode. The main characters' parents were trying desperately to keep their one sprig of mistletoe alive with what water they could scrounge up, just so their young daughter could have a special Life Day kiss under the mistletoe.
"Remind you of something?" Steela snorted.
Rex only sighed in reply.
The "something" Steela mentioned was nothing less than the famous Life Day Incident. She and Rex, in a hurry to get to the revelry in the common room, tried to squeeze through the door at the same time and didn't see what Mina had hung above it.
"Seriously?" Steela asked, looking up at the mistletoe hanging above her head.
"Pucker up, lovebirds." Hero cackled.
"I don't see you under this." Rex pointed out.
"Nope, Hero and I already went." Hutch smiled seductively at his wife.
"Just kiss!" Katooni cheered. "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"
Tav joined in, sensing the fun and games. "Ki', ki', ki!"
"I can't believe the baby is chanting." Rex sighed. "Well Steela, I only see one way out of this. Where do you want it?"
Steela rolled her eyes. "Pick your poison."
He blushed and kissed her gently on the cheek. The rest of the crew applauded, Lux even whistling as the two scurried away from the mistletoe.
Sierra stopped Steela before she could get to her seat. "Hey, your presents are under the tree."
"Thanks, Si -."
"The one from Rex is small. You know, about the size of a ring box."
Steela was about to fire off a reply when Saw walked in and stopped in the doorframe, yawning.
"Happy Life Day, you guys."
Oh, Steela thought, It's high time Sierra Bonteri and Saw Gerrera got a taste of their own annoying medicine.
She spun Sierra in Saw's direction, placed both hands on her friend's back, and shoved. Saw caught Sierra before she flew into the wall.
"What the heck, Stee?" Saw demanded.
"Look above you." Ahsoka snickered.
Sierra gave Steela a very black look. "I seriously hate you right now."
But not even this could dampen Saw's Life Day spirit. He kissed the top of Sierra's head, spun her around, and kissed her again.
To this day, it completely boggled Steela's mind that after the scene Saw made, they didn't have a "Saw and Sierra are going to get married" joke.
Next to her, she heard a barely perceptible snore. She turned her head.
Rex, still propped up for eating lunch and watching the show, had fallen asleep.
Probably good for him, Steela mused and leaned over to grab Rex's plate. She didn't want him to accidentally dump his sandwich on the floor.
She had just set the plate on the bedside table when Rex's arm wrapped tight around her, leaving her literally draped over him.
She tried to find somewhere to put her hands so that she wouldn't push on Rex and wake him, but she couldn't find a place. She tried to wriggle out without waking him, but every time she moved Rex stirred in his sleep and tightened his grip on her.
This is stupid, she thought. I am a thief. I can get out of this.
But then again, Rex was so nice and warm and the bed was so soft, and his breathing coupled with Little Moisture Farm in the Desert was strangely soothing.
It occurred to Steela that there were worse things in life than being Captain Rex's teddy bear. Might as well accept fate and enjoy the moment.
…
"Steela!"
Steela startled awake, her head snapping up from where it had fallen on Rex's chest. The Captain's eyes opened very, very slowly.
"Steela?"
Steela shook her head, tight-lipped. "It was a mistake. Hang on for a second, Katooni needs me."
She ducked into the common room, where Katooni lay on the couch surrounded by dirty tissues.
"You need something, honey?"
"My nose won't stop running." Katooni bawled. "And I don't know how to run the caf machine. Can you make tea for me?"
"Let me show you how to run it." She showed Katooni how to pour the water and start the machine. "Wow, your nose really is running. Are your allergies this bad?"
Mostly, Katooni seemed a little drowsy. But never…like…this…
Suddenly, realization dawned. "Katooni, does your mom give you antihistamines for your allergies? And do the pills make you sleepy?"
"Yes!" Katooni cried miserably. "We couldn't find them this morning, so she let me stay home."
"What do these pills look like?"
"They're white, and they're in a little bottle."
Steela knew another white pill that came in a little bottle: Rex's multivitamins.
The entire mysterious illness cleared before her eyes.
"I think Rex might know where to find them, Kat."
…
Meanwhile, as the rest of the team drove back to the ship…
"That was a new low, even for you." Lux snapped at Saw. "Slipping Rex an allergy pill?"
"I didn't do it on purpose!" Saw protested. "I thought I was giving him his vitamin, but I swapped the bottles."
"My Katooni is dealing with her allergies because you lost the bottle, numbskull!" Hutch snapped.
"Hey, it's not a big deal." Saw said. "Steela will find them, she'll give them to Katooni, Rex will sleep off the pills, and everything will be okay. Good? Great."
…
Now, the question of the day: was Rex really asleep when he grabbed Steela?
To that, my friends, the answer is simple.
No.
A/N: I had every intention to update this on time, but unfortunately a storm temporarily knocked out my internet. No worries, it's back up now.
Thank you to starwarshobbitfics, Rose Ravenclaw, McAwsome, and MusicKeeper for your reviews! And speaking of which, please review!
Until next time,
Lux's Sister