After completing the preliminary checks of the patient and monitoring his acclimatisation back into the natural environment Aneep felt confident that he would be able to support his own weight without any issue. She advised him to take his decontamination shower pointing at the door at the far end of the office. It would be strange to think of him using her own private wash station and she suddenly worried that she wouldn't have left it tidy enough for him.

"What difference would it make if you haven't?" she thought to herself glumly, "It's unlikely that you're going to see him again. Just take me as I am baby."

She immediately regretting thinking that as there was a good chance that Kylo could hear her thoughts. She coloured and busied herself with packing her scanner away to avoid looking at him. If he had heard it then he made no indication of it. He rose from the stretcher and wrapped the towel around his waist. He still seemed a little hesitant on his feet, something that he was bound to be self-conscious of given Hux's continued presence in the room. Aneep cursed the General's name, if he hadn't marched in an hour early then the two of them might have had some alone time together. They could have talked about what had transgressed between them, hell, who knows what might have happened in that shower if Hux hadn't been present. She knew though that there was no point in thinking about the what-might-have-beens. Kylo himself had told her that the only thing you can control is the present and there were things she could do to make the present more palatable for him at least.

"General, we should provide some privacy for the Commander." She swept her hand towards the doorway to the main ward. It was a gesture that brooked no refusals. It said very clearly 'you and I are going to leave this room now' and Hux had no option but to comply. The General was forced to walk in front of her given that he was much closer to the door than she was. Once his back was turned Kylo turned to look at her with that dark gaze. Their eyes met for only a couple of seconds as she walked past him towards the door. He did not say anything, he did not smile nor gesture, instead he nodded his head curtly in a tiny almost imperceptible movement and then he was gone from her eyeline. She had not broken her stride and followed the General swiftly out of the room.

"I suppose that was thank you." She surmised as the door to her office slid closed behind her with a sad sounding sigh.

She was back in her empty ward surrounded by empty beds and the clipped footsteps of a man she now despised. Why was he still here? Didn't he have a fleet to command and a Resistance base to destroy? But then glancing out of the window of the medical bay she could see the whirl of white lights that surrounded them and realised that they were still travelling through hyperspace. The battle was yet to come. Aneep strolled over to the doctor's station in the middle of the ward and sat down in her chair. A battle meant the possibility of casualties and although unlikely it was always better to be prepared. Besides prepping the medial computer seemed far less odious than attempting to make small talk with General Hux. Not that he seemed particularly bothered about that either. He seemed happy enough stalking the length of the ward with his hands held tightly behind his back. Aneep wandered what he was feeling in that moment. His face was very difficult to read because he displayed the same uptight expression most of the time. Was this anger she wondered or worry? Perhaps he just needed something to do. She called to him.

"General. The Commander will need a new uniform to be brought here and I was unsure who to ask..."

His icy stare stopped her sentence. She could feel the contempt roll off him like waves at the suggestion that he should do so menial a task. If she'd hoped that he would leave her to do the job himself then she was badly mistaken. With irritation he strode over to the communication console next to her station and typed in his personal code. Whoever was contacted was surely used to the General's bad moods as they answered straight away.

"Bring a uniform from Ren's quarter to the medical bay immediately." He barked into the intercom and hung up before the recipient could even finish their acknowledgements.

"Thank you, sir." Aneep murmured as Hux resumed his furious pacing of the med bay.

No more than ten minutes passed before a shiny booted Lieutenant came marching through the med bay door holding a stack of neatly folded black clothes and a familiar looking helmet. She looked unsure who to hand the pile of clothing to and the General had not even looked up once she'd entered the room. Aneep crossed over to her and took the pile and the helmet from her.

"Thank you Lieutenant, that was very efficient."

Aneep saw pride flash in the woman's eyes at the compliment at her work ethic.

"Thank you sir." She replied, she then turned to the General, "Captain Peavy told me to inform you that we are about to drop out of hyperspace Sir."

"Dismissed." Barked Hux from across the bay, not bothering to look up.

The Lieutenant snapped to attention and without another word marched directly out of the room.

"I will inform the Commander that his clothes have arrived." Aneep moved towards the office door carrying the stack carefully, her eyes were drawn to the hollow sockets of the dark metal mask on top of the pile.

"Tell Ren that I expect him in the shuttle bay in twenty minutes time." He was fuming now, Aneep could tell by his voice. Clearly he'd been hoping to speak to Kylo before they had arrived at the Resistance base but things were moving more quickly than he had anticipated. Aneep got the feeling that Hux didn't like anything to move in any way that he had not anticipated and she sympathised with him on that score.

She was almost at the door but stopped to turn and face him as the chain of command dictated. "I will relay the message." She began to turn back to the door when his voice stopped her.

"Doctor."

Turning towards him again she bit down on her irritation at the stupid formalities of military life.

"Yes Sir?"

He had his back to her as he spoke. It was a little show of power on his behalf. He was the General and therefore did not need to even look at you when he spoke, whereas she on the other hand had to face him whenever she addressed him. It was a subtle way that he showed her his superiority over her.

"I understand you have already transferred the necessary medical data over to the Supremacy."

"Yes Sir, I have." She puzzled over where this was going.

"That was very forward thinking of you."

There was a pause, Hux was clearly looking for a reply. Was this a compliment, a challenge or an invitation for discussion? She doubted very much that he wanted to stay and talk even if it was to challenge her decisions so she supposed it must have been some kind of complement or thanks or something similar. After a moment she responded with what she hoped was the correct reply.

"Thank you Sir."

He looked over his shoulder caught her gaze with the corner of his eye and then nodded. Aneep, surprised and unsure at how to respond found herself returning his curt nod with one of her own. On seeing her acknowledgement of his gesture he then immediately marched quickly out of the room, his clipped footsteps filled the silence of the empty ward for a moment.

Turning back to the door to her office she found herself baffled at their little exchange. She supposed she should feel blessed since the General very rarely bestowed complements onto any of his subordinates. But then it had been such an oddly repressed thanks that she could barely register it as such.

The door hissed open and she stepped into the office. It looked different without the tank in it, back to normal again and this made her feel sad. Normal meant isolation and boredom, she'd like the change of pace that the last two days had offered. A change of pace was exactly what she needed in her life, but barely two days was not enough. Not nearly enough.

Walking to the empty stretcher she placed his uniform and mask onto the blanketed surface. He must still be in the wash room and while she waited she moved a screen around the bed to give him some privacy when changing. She found her fingers exploring the surface of the helmet, it was as cold and hard as the bacta glass had been and she found herself wondering if this was always to be her destiny- to be separated from the things she desired by coldness and distance. That was no life at all. The sound of the washroom door opening made her step back and guiltily snap her hand away. She shouldn't be touching his things, it felt like an invasion of his privacy, but then given that he could see and hear her thoughts as easily as she then perhaps this wasn't too bad of a crime. He stood framed in the doorway with the towel wrapped around his waist. Aneep felt her throat catch at the sight. It wasn't as though she hadn't seen him like that over the past two days but now he was stood there, right there, and if she wanted to she could cross over to him and touch him for real. She wanted to, she really really wanted to, but something told her that their moment had passed and so instead she tore her eyes away from him and stepped aside as he crossed over to the stretcher.

"You've been brought a fresh uniform," she indicated the pile and the mask with her hand and wished her voice didn't shake so much. It was a nervous shake, the sort that someone might have if they were speaking to someone they deeply admired for the first time. "Also the General wanted me to convey the message that he would like you in the shuttle bay in twenty minutes."

He wasn't looking at her, instead he just stared at the mask on the bed with an indecipherable expression. Disappointed but not surprised Aneep turned to sit at her desk.

"Doctor." His voice floated so gently to her that for a moment she wondered if he had whispered it in her mind rather than speaking it aloud. She did not turn because she was afraid of what he might say. But no matter what he said she knew that should could not feel regret and she would not feel ashamed.

"Yes sir." She replied evenly.

"Thank you." Was his simple response.

She wanted to look at him now, she wanted to see the expression in those dark penetrating eyes, but now she found that as she wanted to turn her body would not allow it. It was as though her limbs were frozen and they would not obey her commands. For a second she wondered if he was responsible for it and became angry at this possibility, but then she reasoned that it was perhaps because he found it difficult to say the words aloud to her face. Somehow him vocalising it in the real world felt so much more significant than if he'd have spoken to her in her mind and if this was the only way he'd found the confidence to do it then she'd take that over nothing. Still, she had no idea of what he was thanking her for, perhaps he was simply complimenting her medical skills. She tried to keep her response to that business-as-usual tone she had used earlier.

"I was only doing my duty sir." She replied evenly.

"No," he replied, "thank you for the memories."

Her heart skipped with joy, it had been the only time since the tank came down that he had acknowledged that anything had happened between them at all.

She smiled and replied, "Anytime."

Her limbs could work again and she went over to her desk and sat in her chair. From behind the screen she could hear him getting dressed but she tried not to dwell too much on it. Soon he would be gone and she would have to decide what she would do to make her life more invigorating again.

A few moments passed and Aneep heard the hiss and click of the mask locking into place. Soon after the screen was pushed aside and there stood Kylo Ren. The man she had desired over the past 48 hours was gone completely. The pale and bloodied fallen angel had been replaced by a demon in black. Every inch of his creamy flesh was now covered in black fabric and Aneep could not see a single inch of the man she had become so instantly attracted to only days before. He was completely dehumanised, which she supposed was the point, but she already missed the hidden figure beneath the façade. His hands were clenched into tight fists and he stood tall and menacing with his featureless face like some terrible shadow in the room. She felt afraid, even though she knew those dark eyes and full lips lay beyond the metal horror she still felt as though that figure of masculine beauty was already beginning to slip away from her like some distant dream never to be seen again. He began to move for the door and she stood to attention at her desk. Her movement caught his eye and he paused for a moment.

"Goodbye Doctor." Spoke the metal voice. It sounded harsh and inhuman to Aneep's ears. She wanted desperately to rush over there and rip that thing off his head and plunge her hands into his still damp hair. To kiss those soft lips and feel the warmth of his skin against the palm of her hand, but of course she did not. Instead she simply nodded and he strode towards the door. There was still a rebellious spark left in her though as it seemed as though he would leave there and then and all her hopes of passion would be truly over before they ever began.

"Kylo Ren." She called, and that stopped him in his tracks. "Think of me, sometime." There was more, so much more that she wanted to say but she couldn't and so she didn't.

He turned that featureless face to look at her and she felt that cold pit of dread again in her stomach.

"I will." His gentle voice whispered in her mind. Then with a sigh the door was opened and closed and he was gone.

Aneep sat at her desk in silent contemplation for the next hour. From her view port she witnessed the destruction of the Resistance base followed by the destruction of the Siege Dreadnought Fulminatrix.

Her parents had always counselled her about her wellbeing by using an ancient medical proverb- a stitch in time saves nine. It meant to heal an ailment early would mean saving the patient from worse discomfort and pain in the future. Aneep hadn't realised that she even had an ailment until she'd stood by her office door that morning excited about going in. Her wound was loneliness and stagnation and it was deep and raw and painful now she could recognise it. How long had it festered inside her? How much longer would it have gone unnoticed had she not seen the young man with the scarred face? Nothing had happened between them and yet everything had changed for her. She knew now that she could not stay in this same place with this same existence. She could not stay isolated and unstimulated in an environment that she felt no strong connection to. She'd joined the Order out of duty to her parents, but she knew now that she took no joy in their victories nor felt any loss in their defeats. In truth she felt nothing for the cause and that was not a good reason to stay and fight. She didn't want to fight, she had never wanted to fight all she had wanted to do was heal to the best of her ability and there were thousands of planets that she could do that on. She could heal different people in different places and not have to be so cloistered and segregated like some nun in a secret forbidden order. She wanted to live a life, meet people, have sex, laugh, fall in love and work. She wanted to go somewhere and be excited about who she would be meeting there. To feel excited about the conversations she might have and the stories she might hear. She knew now that that was what she wanted. She wanted company, comradery, companionship and career and she knew this was not possible in the First Order.

"The real journey starts here". She reasoned, because she knew that no one left the Order alive easily. Soon they would have more important things to worry about than chasing after one rogue medical officer. With the Resistance all but gone who would be there to stop the Order now from taking over as many systems as they wished? There would be need for medical expertise across the galaxy if any system wanted to put up a fight against them.

"And they should fight," she thought to herself, "because I've seen the regime and it is petty and cruel."

She was beginning to sound like a rebel, she could almost hear her parents turning in their graves.

Everything in the Order was too clean and measured for her, she liked things to be messier and more chaotic like the scarred-up face of a handsome dark-haired beauty. It was a mess that she'd love to try and fix given the opportunity.

There was no mess in the Order because any imperfection was always destroyed. All they had were formalities and discipline. She couldn't live that way anymore, she needed more than that. It was clear now what she had to do.

"Thank you Kylo for my awakening." She thought into the ether. He was far away on the Supremacy by now but she thought it to him anyway even though he couldn't hear.

It was time to stitch the wound. It was time to leave The First Order.

The End