'You would smile, and that would be enough. Just let me stay here, by your side. That would be enough. Please Kanan...'
Kanan heard the words. He knew that voice. But everything was to muddled for him to respond. So he just breathed slowly, the slow sound of beeping filling his ears and that quiet, scared voice in his mind.
He didn't really want to reach out further. Something told him to stay right where he was, cocooned in white, numb despite hearing.
'Please...I don't need you to train me more if you don't want to, I'd quietly sit beside you if you just smile, if you just smiled that would be enough...Dad please.'
That voice though. Sad, scared, desperate, calling for him, wanting him to move. That voice was important to him.
Why was that voice important to him?
Blue eyes, full of awe, staring up at him. A young face full of distrust. Lips turned into a small smile as distrust turned to friendship. A warm hug from a soul so battered it had hardly recognized the love it had been offered. Soft dark hair tickling under his chin while grasping the boy as tight as he could, offering him all Kanan had in his heart and soul.
'Ezra...'
Teal eyes opened, finding water filled, red-rimmed blue eyes staring into his own. "Kanan!"
()()()()()()
"I...don't really remember much." Kanan confessed, feeling the pillow behind his back shift a bit at his move. "The escape pod blew up?"
Ahsoka nodded. "Sabotage most likely. You were very lucky you were picked up at all." She took a deep breath and reached out to touch his shoulder. "It was very close." She glanced at Ezra who was mutely sitting in the window sill of the medbay, slowly eating the meal Sabine had brought for him.
"You flat lined." She said quietly, nodding seriously at Kanan's startled face. "Ezra kept you alive each time. He refused to leave your side and we had to sedate him when we got to the medbay to get to work on you, he had a panic attack from overusing the Force." She leaned back. "He's doing better now but he's still exhausted I believe. He won't let me check though." She glanced over to Ezra and then back to him. "He loves you, perhaps more then he even realizes." She smiled gently before gently squeezing Kanan's shoulder and leaving the medbay.
Kanan stared at her back before looking at where his padawan was still struggling with the meal.
He looked tired too. Kanan knew that others could see it too but Ezra was good at hiding from most but not him, never Kanan. The Jedi could see how down right bone tired his padawan was, every move a slight struggle. Slowly he reached out and brushed against Ezra's mind, getting the lad's attention.
Just studying him a few more seconds, Kanan silently opened his arms, smiling a bit when Ezra instantly scuttled out of the window seat and to him, abandoning his meal, the teen quickly crawling into the bed and burying his face in Kanan's chest, arms winding around the dark skinned man's back and clinging.
Kanan cupped the other to him, stroking his fingers through dark strands of hair. "Once again you come to my rescue huh." He murmured quietly, feeling the light tremors running through the slender body in his arms. "I'm a terrible Master." He chuckled quietly.
Ezra hiccuped a bit and just burrowed closer. "No." He whispered.
Kanan kissed the top of Ezra's head gently, drawing him more onto the bed, reclining back slowly with the teen in the medical bed, slowly brushing against the others mind, carefully testing out the bond between them and prodding Ezra to lower his shields more.
Numbing exhaustion lingered in it, his padawan barely keeping himself awake and aware. Force only knew how close the other was to passing out. "Oh Ezra. My dear Ezra." He murmured. "What did I do to deserve a padawan as wonderful as you?" He didn't expect a answer but got it still.
"You loved me." Ezra whispered in return. "You gave me what I needed...a family. Please don't go." He shook against him.
"Never willingly. I told you Ezra, I'm not leaving willingly." Kanan murmured. "I'm still here thanks to you my padawan."
He shifted slowly, aware of the aches and pains echoing in him but making space for his padawan on the same bed, carefully encouraging Ezra to toe of his shoes and join him. And then that slender body was resting against him, soaking in the comfort he had been terrified he'd lose before he'd known it well enough. Their time was to short for him to lose it now.
In Ezra's mind the sound of the heart machine stopping screamed, the image of Kanan so still and broken from the explosion, blood on his hands as he sent more and more energy his Master's way, feeling exhaustion creeping through his body as he still kept doing it, one of Kanan's broken hands in his own as he listened to the screaming of the machine each time Kanan crashed.
'None of that.' Kanan whispered along their bond, tucking the blanket around the teen too. 'Its gone and past and we are here now Ezra. My padawan.' He soothed against the others mind.
'What if this is a dream...what if I couldn't save you...'
'Its not a dream Ezra. I breath and I live thanks to you. And now you are so exhausted that I need you to rest. I'll be right here Ezra, with you. We can rest together and I'll be here when you wake up.'
He started slowly rubbing a mindless pattern on Ezra's back, feeling tension drain and the teen slowly accepting the call of sleep, his grasp on the Force letting go as he settled against Kanan with his arms still around the older man, his cheek resting on Kanan's collarbone as the Jedi settled with his arms around the teen, smiling ever so slightly. "Force, thank you for giving me him. Thank you for sending him my way." He murmured quietly, squeezing Ezra lightly.
In his arms, Ezra slept without the sound of a crashing heart monitor screaming at him. In Kanan's arms he slept with the sound of laughter they had shared after finding Zeb again on the cold moon and saving him.
And with Ezra in his arms, Kanan once again dreamed the dreams of finding a young Ezra and taking him in, dreamed of how different the life of his padawan could have been. Of the family they could have been and the family they did become.
Author note: Hey, hey sorry for the long wait people. Things are...mucky on my end. I haven't actually done much lately except read. This chapter I have I actually had pre written before everyting happened and I've just been...well stuck in my own head I guess instead of updating. I am writing another chapter though at the moment but its not close to done. I'm trying though. If ya have some paitence for me, I may be able to handle it. On a unrelated note, anyone have a good Star wars Fic reccomendation for me about Obi-Wan and some protective clones? Been in the mood for those a while. Just protective clones taking care of their General who, we all know, is suckass at taking care of himself.