His eyes kept drifting shut, sleep threatening to drag him to unconsciousness. Just as he was about to go under, a sound jolted him to full awakeness.
A small groan.
Ezra!
Kanan jumped up from where he was flopped in his seat, looking down on his padawan's slowly opening eyes.
"Hey padawan."
"H-Hey… Master, you don't look so good" Ezra teased, voice rough from lack of use.
"Oh thanks, it's good to see you too" Kanan couldn't hold back a grin. Ezra smiled back, stretching his arms out from under the covers and attempting to push himself upright. Kanan tutted and instead pulled the pillows higher to comfortably prop Ezra up.
"Thanks," Ezra murmured.
"No problem. Think you can manage some water?" Kanan asked. Ezra nodded, realising how thirsty he was. He took the glass with shaking hands, ready to gulp it down.
"Slowly now- drink in sips." Kanan ordered, seeming to know what Ezra was thinking. With a roll of his eyes Ezra did as requested and slowly made his way through the glass of water.
"Feeling alright?" His master asked, taking the empty glass.
"Much better!" Ezra smiled, happy to be home at last. "Those drugs hit me pretty hard, huh?" he asked, half chuckling.
"Ezra- they pumped you with enough stuff to have you unconscious for weeks! None of us can figure out how you were awake at all." Kanan explained, growing more serious.
"Don't look at me. One minute I'm escaping, then there's a dart in my neck- next thing I know I'm waking up in a cell!" Ezra explained, unsure if Kanan had expected something more impressive.
"Well, all I'm saying is that it was pretty unusual..."
Ezra's features scrunched up in focus "The last thing I remember was getting into the Ghost… Have I been out for very long?"
"About three days." Kanan estimated. Ezra's eyes popped open slightly. Thinking about it, his whole body did feel slightly numb from a lack of movement, but… three whole days? Kanan chuckled slightly at his padawan's surprise.
"Don't worry; it was a good thing really. Means that your body had at least a small time to heal before you start jumping around again…" They both smiled at that. "Although, seriously, Hera and I treated your injuries as best we could. I'm afraid there's really not a lot to be done about the bruises, so they're going to be sore for a while…"
Ezra couldn't help the intrusion on his privacy that he felt; they had treated him without waiting for his permission. The feeling faltered when he saw the concern on Kanan's face and knew that this hadn't been easy on him, either.
"Can we do anything about this?" Ezra asked softly, holding up his wrist.
"Sabine's working on it. But I promise we'll do whatever it takes to remove it." Kanan paused, seeing Ezra's unhappy expression. "He use that on you as leverage?"
"Yeah,"
"Did he, um" Kanan coughed, clearing his throat "Did he use it?"
"…A few times." Ezra admitted, not really wanting to remember.
"Maybe not now, but we are going to have to at least talk a little about what happened. Ashoka's probably going to ask for a report, you know."
Ezra groaned at that. Really- a report? He'd rather just put it all behind him- forget about Vizago and the dealer and be able to stop thinking about the fact that things could've turned out a lot different. Kanan watched as Ezra withdrew into himself, immediately regretting his words.
"Look, padawan- I know you don't want to, and I'm sure all of us would rather put this behind us." He trailed off for a second. "Just know that, if it makes it easier, you can always talk to me, or Hera, or- whoever you want. We'll be there."
"Thank you" Ezra spoke sincerely, "I know I don't say it enough, but- thank you for everything…" Ezra voice faded, clearly embarrassed and unsure. He suddenly found his hands very interesting. It wasn't that he didn't want Kanan to know this, it was just- he'd never really had people, well- care this much, and it meant so much to him that he was lost for words.
Kanan was stunned as well; this was one of those rare times when Ezra completely opened himself up, was completely vulnerable.
"I know how you feel, Ezra… But you should know that we, too, have a lot to thank you for. If I'm honest, we weren't much of a family before you came along. Everyone has gotten so much closer with you around. It seems we both found what we were missing." As Kanan spoke, he realised just how much he meant it; Ezra had changed all of their lives for the better. Ezra's head raised slowly from his hands, eyes glued to Kanan's face. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to have found this crew, and Kanan's words had only made him happier.
It was a shame, then, that he couldn't get the stupid face of that dealer out of his head, and how close he had been to losing everything and ending up in some creep's collection.
Kanan watched as Ezra's smile faltered. He wondered for a second if he'd said something wrong, but he got the sense this was something a little more deep.
"You okay?" Kanan asked gently.
"Yeah," Ezra forced himself from his thoughts, "Yeah, fine." Once again, they both knew it wasn't quite true.
Ezra had been getting steadily better since then. After two more days in bed, Hera allowed him to walk around. It annoyed Ezra to no end when he found himself getting tired after only a small bit of walking, and, although he was used to the feeling of harsh metal on his wrist, it didn't make it any easier to look at. When Sabine announced that she'd finished her re-wiring on the remote, he was, naturally, very eager to give it a try.
"You sure it will work?" Zeb eyed the cuff somewhat nervously, "Maybe we should open it outside… Just in case?"
Chopper beeped loudly. Whether it was in agreement or not, the crew wasn't sure.
"Have a little faith!" Sabine hit him lightly on the arm.
"No- we stay right here on the ship. Ezra's still a little weak to be walking too far." Hera decided.
"Right, well… I added on this small button here." She pointed to a small green button. "It should pop right off when it's pressed. That's the plan, anyway." With a nod of thanks, Ezra took the remote in hand.
"You sure you want to press it?" Kanan checked, making sure Ezra felt up to the task.
"I'm ready." Ezra replied. Oh, how badly he wanted to get this thing off. Maybe once it was removed, he would be able to sleep better, start to move on from what had happened. He felt like this cuff was anchoring him to all of the recent events, and until it was off, he wouldn't truly get better.
He had wanted to talk to Kanan about his troubles, but something had held him back. He was unsure as to how much he would actually be able to talk about. With the crew gathered around him and the remote firmly in his hand, he looked towards them all before gently pressing down on the green button.
A hiss and a clunk and the bracelet was off, clattering to the floor. Ezra smiled in relief and went to flex his hand. That was when he saw his wrist.
His, uh, rather mangled wrist.
He remembered when the cuff was first attached, it had felt like it had burned into his skin. Turns out he hadn't been wrong. Every outline and detail of the bracelet was singed into his skin; blue, black, yellow and red in a creative little pattern. Fresh blood started to weep from various cuts. There were deeper burn marks, dark in colour from where Vizago had shocked him. His whole wrist looked swollen and out of shape. Ezra's eyes were wide. He frantically twisted his wrist round, looking at the damage from all angles. Pain started to register.
The whole Ghost crew had been thrilled when they watched as the bracelet started to fall, but once they'd caught sight of the wrist underneath, every single face had dropped. Immediately, Hera had sprung into action and raced out of the room to fetch all the medical supplies she could. Kanan came towards his padawan. Carefully, he reached for the wrist, getting a closer look at the damage spread across it. Ezra winced a little. Tears stung his eyes, despite the fact that Kanan held his wrist as gently as possible. The blood was clotting here and running there. Some small parts looked infected, but Kanan was slightly grateful to note that the tightness of the metal had kept bacteria from getting to the open wounds.
Nobody spoke as Hera returned with the medical kit, but the crew flurried into activity to get water and dispose of the fragments of the cuff. Hera and Kanan did the best they could to get Ezra's wrist as clean as possible. Ezra had refused to sit still, so sat cleaning his wrist too, rubbing ointment on some of the burn areas. Once everything was clean and had been treated, Kanan wrapped a white bandage around the full length of Ezra's forearm. It may have been overkill, but Kanan wasn't taking any chances that an infection couldn't still set in. The silence had stayed with them, drawing them closer as a family in a time of need. No one was happy with what had happened, but they couldn't change it now, so they would deal with it however they could- as a family.
In the end, that was exactly what they did. Days turned into weeks, wounds started to heal and Ezra found the confidence to talk. The crew pulled together as a family to bring everything back to normality- or, at least, what passed for normality for a bunch of outlawed rebels. Kanan and his padawan spoke until Ezra's mouth was dry. Ezra had found it strange- Kanan hadn't just wanted him to describe the events; he'd wanted to hear how each one had made Ezra feel. At first the embarrassment and vulnerability had been a little overwhelming for Ezra, but with time and trust he had done it. After that, they would meditate together, and Kanan would slowly guide Ezra through the process of accepting each feeling for what it was, and then letting it go. Yes- he felt guilt for those he hadn't helped on Vizago's crashing ship, but he wouldn't let it drown him. Instead he acknowledged it, mourned them and learnt to work with himself rather than against. The process was slow and it took a lot of work, but, by the end of it, Ezra was starting to feel like Ezra again.
The crew woke one day to a beeping noise resounding through the ship.
"Incoming- distress signal." Hera spoke, readying the crew. "Coming from some sort of escape pod."
The signal crackled for a little, before a very familiar voice came over the line.
"Hello? Is anybody there? My pod's almost out of fuel!"
You have got to be joking…
Vizago.
Wow. What a small galaxy.
The crew were stunned in silence for a minute, their heads anxiously turned towards Ezra. That voice would be bringing back some bad memories.
"Oops! My bad…" Ezra accidentally reached forward, and flipped the tiny communication switch- completely unintentionally, of course. The call was disconnected. Faces lit up in humour.
"What a shame. It would definitely be too hard to try and connect back now…" Hera said, a smile curled at her lips.
"And the Phantom's in no shape to be flying around looking for an escape pod- could take hours." Zeb laughed slightly.
"Oh well…" Sabine shrugged, grinning.
"We tried," Kanan finished, signalling for Hera to get them going. Soon laughter bubbled from everyone as they went on their way.
"Bet he regrets calling in his favour now" Ezra chuckled, Kanan's comforting hands on his shoulders and the Ghost crew smiling around him.
Safe to say, he was never making a deal ever again.
The End!
And there we have it, the final chapter! I hope you all enjoyed this story, thanks so much for the reviews and the support :)