Perhaps it was the fact that he was being fed consistently for the first time in god knows how long, and they every face that came into see him only ever wanted to help him, but Cassian Andor was actually starting to like his time in this hospital. He wasn't ever going to admit it of course, least of all to himself, but every day that he woke up, opened his eyes and realised that he was still in the hospital he allowed himself just a few moments of relaxation knowing that it was incredibly unlikely that anyone here was out to kill him.
Then he saw the tubes in his arms and the loose hospital gown that hung around him and he remembered that he wasn't a guest in a plush hotel but a stranger in a world that Jyn had yet to place.
She would come to see him at least twice a day, three times sometimes, and she'd always sneak over some items in her pockets. Chocolate shells coated in sugar, gummed sweets that got stuck in his teeth and drinks tasting so sweet that they conjured up memories he thought he had forgotten from back in the days when he had living relatives. Perhaps it was the candy, perhaps it was the joy of Jyn's company, but Cassian had never laughed more than when he sat up in his awkward hospital bed opposite Jyn, her legs crossed underneath her as she sucked orange juice from a carton.
That was another thing too, Cassian realised. There were different Basic words here for things that were otherwise familiar. Oranges, sweets, chocolate...
He snapped back into the present as he remembered Jyn was talking to him. She often talked just about the hospital: the nurses, doctors, the layout of the building, but today -
"The doctors," he heard her say. "They were asking me all sorts of questions today, where I grew up, if I had any difficult experiences, that kind of thing. They seemed... they seemed concerned."
He frowned, popping a candy into his mouth.
"Concerned?" he said. "Concerned how?"
"They said -" Jyn lowered her voice. "They said they couldn't find me on any kind of register."
"Well of course," said Cassian, lowering his tone to match hers. "Only makes sense."
"And those they have screens telling the news," Jyn continued. Cassian had heard her mention those before. Televisions.
"They were talking about some famous singer in hospital yesterday. It's all they were talking about," she said between sips. "But today they were talking about some summit, Gee-8 or something, said it was to do with to do with their world leaders. We're in a country called the United Kingdom."
Cassian raised his eyebrows.
"That's an optimistic country name," he said. "Are they as United as they say?"
"I'm not sure," she admitted. "But I think this United Kingdom is in Europe and they call this planet Earth. They were mentioned something called global warming..."
The words baffled Cassian. Again with the Basic that seemed so alien and yet so familiar!
"But is there the Empire?" he said. "Any Rebellion?"
The look on Jyn's face - both distressed and angry for being so - made Cassian's heart ache for reasons he could not quite understand.
"I don't know," she said, her voice slipping from informative to exhasperated. "I keep hearing references to this man called - oh, what was it, Clump, Frump - well, this man that people keep calling awful but as far as I know there's no Darth anything in sight."
This news, while it should have assured Cassian, instead unsettled him for the lack of knowledge they still had about this new world. The enemy he knew about he could deal with, the enemy he didn't even know existed... that was another matter.
There was a rap on the door and a nurse poked his head in.
"Miss Erso?" he said. "Shall we head back now?"
Jyn squeezed Cassian's hand quickly and gave him a look which he had recently been able to read easily: I'll find out more. We'll be safe, don't worry.
Cassian worried anyway.
When she was gone he leant back in his bed and allowed his mind to wander. The ultimate fantasy, the ultimate possibility was that they had woken up somewhere new: a new world - no, universe - where nothing either of them had ever known existed. No Empire, no Rebellion, no pain, no loss, just a clean slate to move forward. But this possibility was so beautiful, so improbable that Cassian had thus far pushed it out of his mind.
Yet as he lay back on his pillow at present Cassian began to entertain ideas of what he might do if this new world really was just as he dreamed. Perhaps he would find a way to get a small house, him and Jyn. Did this world have money? Oh yes, she had mentioned there was. Pounds, she had called them. And perhaps they would start a farm or something, she mentioned her parents had done that. But what would he do? He didn't know. A spy spent so much time dreaming up different identities and motivations and yet when it came to himself... no, perhaps he'd do something where he'd get to work with children. He hadn't had a childhood. If he could give a childhood to other kids... yes. Yes, he'd like that.
He wasn't sure if Jyn would want to start up a farm though. The more he thought about it the more he realised that she surely wouldn't want to live a life so quiet when she had this whole new world at her feet. A new world where she could be anything... and then a thought struck him. She could be anything, do anything. Who's to say she'd want to do that with him around? If there was no Empire, no Rebellion, she didn't have to have him around any more...
For some reason the thought made him squirm in the pit of his stomach, in such a manner that made him feel sick. But in a moment of saving grace there was another knock on his door.
A woman in a black uniform, all suited up with a fixed smile on her face, looked through the gap in the door behind the nurse that had knocked.
"I have someone that would like to speak with you, if you're feeling quite well?" the nurse said. "This is Detective Lang."
"Detective Lang?" he repeated, confused.
The suited woman took a step forward so that she was clearly in the room, all a sharply cut blonde bob and glossy shoes.
She flicked open a pass holder that showed an official license Cassian didn't recognise or see clearly.
"Detective Lang," the woman said. "Guildshire Police Department."
