"So..." Afir smiled. His deep tones betrayed his amusement at life in general. She was pleased to hear from him. He'd been out of contact for days and days and days. "Guess where I've been..."

She sucked in a deep breath. There was no telling. Jedi were force-sensitive. Not psychic.

The last time she'd seen him she hadn't even been able to kiss him good-bye, not even touch his precious face. They'd been surrounded by her peers and his, dispatching to separate parts of the universe after rescuing some of his brethren who had been taken captive on a remote Outer Rim world.

"Off saving the galaxy on some luxurious Inner Core planet?"

"Pretty close. Naboo, actually." She watched the corner of his eyes crinkle in his enjoyment of his nonchalant announcement.

"What?!" Afir narrowed hers at him, biting her lip as she watched his happy face. She took a different tact. "Did they move the epicenter of the known world so that Naboo shifted to the Inner Core while I was getting my nails done?"

"Actually, I believe the good Senator Amidala requested the presence of our general."

"What?!" Now she was incredulous as to the gett'se it took to request the jedi with whom you were having a raging affair.

Rex forgot himself so much as to chuckle aloud. "I think she phrased it as General Kenobi and General Skywalker…the package deal."

Afir rolled her eyes. She could play cool. "So what were you doing on Naboo?" she sang back to him.

"Catching a madman scientist who replicated a long-eradicated nanovirus."

"Okay. Well...that sounds like fun. Did the Seps have another creep working on killing you guys all in one whack?"

"Nah," he assured her in his heavy accent. "This one meant to kill the whole world - - and as many other worlds as he could with bombs carrying Blue Shadow Virus."

"What?!" Her voice was a gasp. He watched her face fall and her hands clasp onto the rim of some table or console. She was probably pale, but the blue holoimage didn't show it. If it did he'd have waited a few more days before comming her in the first place.

"Afir, love," he assured her. "We got it."

"What?!" she shrieked. "You're sick? And you just called to tell me that?! Like it was nothing?"

Poor choice of words. "Wait! I'm not sick! I got it...but the generals went to retrieve a root and...it's okay now."

"It's okay? You got the virus? The plague?! But it's okay? Where are you?"

"I certainly didn't get it on purpose, Afir! And I can't say as how it's an experience I'd like to repeat."

She sank onto her butt. The steam all went out of her. "Where are you?" she asked softly. Her eyes met his, thousands of parsecs apart. And the pain in her face wrenched his heart every bit as much as if she'd been standing beside him.

"I'm back on Kamino," he answered, shaking his head. "Afir, listen to me..."

She stood, gracefully getting to her feet. "I'm on my way," she promised, reaching out as if she could touch him. It wasn't the first time. She forgot on a regular basis that the flickering blue lightshow gave no comfort when she wanted to feel his warmth.

"I'm over it, Afir. We were administered the counteragent and we're on the mend."

She shook her head.

"Baby, when I said 'we got it' I meant that we contained the virus and deactivated the bombs and delayed transmission of it to other realms and captured the droids and the scientist responsible. I didn't mean to tell you that we'd been infected."

"WHAT?!"

Rex almost visibly rocked back on his heels. "Please stop saying that, Afir," he groaned.

"What?" she asked suspiciously.

"That. What. I'm trying to have a civil conversation, reassuring myself that the girl I love is fine and dandy. And you keep saying 'What?' and I keep answering and it's really not seeming to go well."

"You wouldn't have told me that you were sick?" she asked.

Tough one. "No. Not when I knew I'd get better. There was no reason for you to know."

She was silent for a long moment while she digested that tidbit of information. He'd thought about how he should answer. Truth was only one option, but it seemed like the best at the time. Now he wondered.

"Talk to me, Afir."

She worked her jaw from side to side. "You're fine now?" she asked, meeting his eyes.

He nodded. "Right as rain. And there's lots of that here, love."

"You weren't going to tell me that you had a deadly virus?" she confirmed again.

"Once I was on the mend, no. I knew how you'd react-"

"And how would I react?" she snapped at him. When he held out his hands to indicate the way she was acting now she growled. "I am perfectly calm," she ground out.

"Don't give me that," he shot back at her. "Like you've not just stopped discreetly tapping that datapad on your arm? I'm fine and you have to stay where you are."

That pretty, delicate little jaw of hers jutted out. He could have taken bites out of her but he figured their affair would be harder to keep secret that way.

"I was afraid there for a bit," he confessed when she remained silent. "Ahsoka went down and I lost a couple of guys and we hadn't heard anything from either the capital city or the generals. I had my fingers on the comlink. I've got a data transmission ready to shoot off to you if my suit loses vitals, but I really badly wanted to hear your voice one more time," he said softly.

She looked like she could kill him or cry.

"If I was there I'd have pulled you to me and held you and told you like I should. But I face death every day, Afir. It's not that it's meaningless to me, but I fail to see the difference in me dodging blaster bolts and spending a few days under med center care for a bio infection."

She nodded. "I wish you would have called me immediately. As soon as you were off duty."

"I was strapped to a gurney too weak to breathe on my own, let alone dial you up. I waited until I was looking better. I didn't want you to overreact."

"Good plan."

"You're the one who fouled it. I had this whole monologue worked out so that I could skirt the issue and then honestly say 'I told you about that' should it come up years from now."

"You're in trouble, Rex."

He grinned at her. "You have to catch me to punish me, my love."

She nodded. Her comlink sounded but she ignored it. "You're really well now? No lasting aftereffects?"

"The virus is gone. We're recuperating nicely according to our makers. I'll let you be the judge of that the next time you see me." In a serious voice he added, "I love you. I only wanted to keep you from worrying overmuch about things beyond your control. There is no sense in looking for danger under every corner, with every breath you take. Your job and mine both have inherent pitfalls. It's part of being a soldier."

"Do you still want to be a soldier, Rex?"

"I do. There's still good I can do with my boys. Still good you can do with yours. Especially now that Rocho's out of the way."

"I don't know if I can-"

He nodded toward the link on the wrist of her blue form. "Someone needs you, Afir. Tell me you love me and then you must be about your business."

"I love you, but I worry-"

He laughed and shook his head. "Say, 'I love you, Rex,' and leave it at that."

"I love you, Rex," she smiled at him.

Again his face grew serious. "I love you, Afir. All the time. With all my heart."

Her throat was too thick for her to respond with more than a quick nod. He cut the link and scrubbed his hands over his face.

That couldn't have possibly gone any worse.