Chapter Title: Hands

Series Title: Unlikely Brothers

Ages in this chapter: Tanner (11) Dashen (17)

POV: Dashen

Chapter Summary: Dashen has a little accident during a job.


"Give me your hands."

"M'okay, Colt. Really. Just a little trouble on the job today. It'll heal."

"It will, but for now you are dripping blood all over yourself and all over everywhere. Let me see, damn it."

I held out my hands, dark red streaks from fingers to wrists. They hurt like hell; the makeshift bandages soaked through.

"You're a mess, kid. Did someone do this to you?"

"No. The object I was pilfering was sort of ah, booby trapped. Had some type of device tied to it that I couldn't see and BOOM! Exploded outwards before I could get my hands away. Thankfully it was a small boom or my face would look similar to my hands." I winced as Colton wrapped damp cloths around my wrists to slow the bleeding. Then I remembered, "Oh, hey. In that sack there," I motioned to the gray bag laying a distance away from me. I'd dropped it after getting to the house. "That's the thing Grunley had me after. Can you make sure he gets it? The money's good on this one." I said the last few words through clenched teeth as Colton prodded at my hands.

The big man nodded reluctantly. "I'll have Sy get it to him and bring your money back. You're going to be out of work for a few days, you have more jobs lined up for him?"

"Not the rest of the week, Ow! Damn it!" He prodded too closely that time.

"Sorry."

"Where's Tanner?"

"Still early, he's in classes."

"Right. Good, that's good. Quin?"

"On the way."

I knew he'd say that. Colton had been at my attention since I'd fallen into the front door, I didn't see him once make any move for a com to call his healer. Not sure how he always managed that stealthiness. Sometimes he was sneakier than my Jedi brother.

"You look tired, Dash. More tired than usual. I can put you to work at the bar for a while if you need a break from running."

Thought about it. I did. I'd been running a hell of a lot recently, taking job after job, for both Colton and Grunley. For some reason Grunley's business had picked up big time in the last month. He was small potatoes compared to the criminal empires of Colton and Rosina and he posed no threat to them, but the jobs he put me on were often complicated. For instance this one, where the damn thing blew up almost in my face. It wouldn't kill me to take a few days. Looking down at my bloody hands and wrists - now seemed as good a time as ever.

"Might take you up on that offer. I mean," I held up my useless hands, "I'm kinda ineffective at the moment anyway."

"Next week then." Colton's blonde head turned when the house door opened and a white-haired older woman strode in confidently. Quin Kalis - Healer extraordinaire.

"What did you mange to do to yourself this time, Dashen?" She asked. Always with the assumption that I spent much of my time getting beat up. I mean, I did, but did she always have to assume it?

"Not my fault this time." I told her what happened.

"Scale of one to ten, how bad is the pain?"

"Thirteen."

"Excellent. I had it at a fifteen, so not too horrible."

"Speak for yourself." My silent groans became not so silent as she began manipulating my hands with practiced and prodding fingers. The wraps that Colton recently applied removed.

"You've got several open wounds that I'll need to seal and you'll need pain medication for a few days. Plan on not using your hands much. Everything will heal, time is your friend."

My head leaned back against the chair as I tried to chase the pain away with some of that deep breathing nonsense Tanner had taught me. Didn't work. I was probably doing it wrong anyway. My groans soon changed to hold a whiny consistency of which I had no control over. I was feeling it now. Full force. The pain-o-meter was rolling well past a thirteen.

"Quin." I croaked out, voice strained.

She was on it, pulling a large hypo-spray from her medical bag. "Hold on." The injection made a hissing sound as the injection went into my arm. "Give it a moment. Once the pain is reduced, I'll numb the areas, clean and seal the wounds. Won't take too long." She noticed me holding my breath. "Breathe, Dashen. It doesn't make pain better to not breathe. Another moment."

Another moment came and went before the pain began to subside into a simple discomfort. I sighed loudly in relief.

"Good." The healer said, moving to her bag to get the next round of supplies. "Breathe slow for a few minutes. I know your brother taught you some of his techniques and I know you find them exceedingly boring, but this is the perfect time to remember what he knows."

I tried. I was mostly successful, channeling my inner Tanner. The kid would be proud. Or not. Good thing he was busy at school.

Quin worked on my hands for a while. At times, the pain broke through

the abilities of the medication I'd been given. My brow furrowed, my jaw clenched, my breathing paused until the waves subsided. At one point it got so bad that Colton actually came to stand behind me and set hands on my shoulders to settle my panicky breathing. It helped. The breathing did slow when the pressure on my shoulders became more unbearable than the pain in my hands.

"M'okay, Colt," I said eventually. "M'okay."

"You're always a bad liar, kid. Quin's almost finished." Colton was next to me now and I saw him eyeing the heavy bandages wrapped around my hands. "You... are going to need help."

Quin then said, "At least two days with the thick bandages on."

Ugh. Two days. I'd need help with everything from the most basic to the most personal. Maybe I should just admit myself to Quin's hospital ward.

"That, Dashen, is two days here. Not in my hospital."

Damn.

"I suspect that brother of yours will make himself available."

"And miss two days of school? You've seen how weird he is about learning, right? I think I rank second in his life behind that."

A final hypo into my arm and Quin was done. "I think you underestimate your importance to that boy. You'll be fine. Two days, I'll be back to check the wounds and if the bacta and drugs have worked correctly, you'll have use of the hands again and will need only a thin protective wrap. We're done."

"Thank you."

"Try not to explode anything else into portions of your body. I do have patients to treat other than you."

"I will do my best."

With that, Quin packed her bag, took payment from Colton and was gone, leaving me to stare at my useless appendages.

"So, this is awkward."

Colton cocked his head left, asking the question without asking.

"If you tell me you've gotta pee, I will throw you out on your ass."

"It's cold outside, Colt. And no, I don't have to pee. Yet. But look at me? I'm disgusting. I got exploded on. And I'm useless right now."

"You? Useless?"

"Funny."

"Look kid, I can get you upstairs, but I'm already late for my meeting with my crew at the Rathskeller."

It wasn't an excuse. Colton ran a small empire and the weekly crew meeting kept things moving at about forty seven different angles. It took quite the effort to get his entire crew together without sacrificing the safety and efficiency of the always moving entity that was that same small empire.

"Just help me upstairs. Tanner will be home in a couple hours."

I followed Colton up the stairs to the apartment. My shared home with Tanner. He helped me get comfortable on the couch with a comlink close by.

"Just press with your elbow if you need to call. You'll be good until your brother gets home. You know my crew meeting runs hours, so I'll check in tomorrow morning."

I nodded. "Thanks, Colt."

"Sy got the object to Grunley. Payment in hand. Get that to you tomorrow too."

Again, no idea when he'd spoken to Sydenious since I'd gotten back. Sometimes I wondered if the man had some type of telepathic mind ability to convey thoughts without actual contact or motion. I know he didn't, but it was still strange.

Colton left and I slouched onto the couch to let the pain meds work. The sleep was comfortable until two small hands on either shoulder were shaking me awake.

"Dash! Dash! Wake up! Wake up!"

My brain focused and eyes opened to see my brother's pale brown eyes boring into my face. Took me a second to grasp what was happening.

"Wh... Tanner? Why are you s-shaking me? Stop it. Ugh!"

He let go and sat next to me gawking at my hands. "You got hurt at work. You didn't call me to tell me."

"You were at school, I was fine."

"You're not fine, Dash. Your hands look like clubs."

Okay, so that was a bit of an exaggeration. "Not quite that bad. It's fine, Mouse. I swear it. Colton was home. Quin got me fixed up. Gotta wear these for two days and then all good." I told him what happened.

"You're lucky it didn't blow your face off."

"So, yeah, you'd probably have gotten a call then." I smiled.

"Dashen. That's not funny."

"I know, but it didn't happen and it's fine. Well, it's fine if you can help me out for a couple of days."

"Me? But I'll miss school."

What did I tell you? The kid had a serious learning problem. He's addicted to it.

"You will, but maybe you can get assignments sent to your data pad. Miss Sanya will understand. Only for two days."

"Hmmm." Tanner's face was a study in concentration. He was actually giving serious thought to this. For my little brother, this was a dilemma of the mightiest kind. For me though... he crooked a sneaky half glance at me. "Well, since it's you, I guess I can sacrifice my school work."

"Gee, thanks, little brother. I can feel the love."

—-

The evening and two days that followed were long and clumsy. Whatever balance and gift the Jedi had with their magic did not translate into a enabling a small eleven year old to smoothly aid his tall, gangly brother with the necessities of living. No doubt, he would've throttled me if it was in his nature to do so. Thankfully, Tanner was a mostly peaceful and patient soul.

Mostly.

"Dash, if you stop drinking, you'll stop peeing. This is not fun. I'm tempted to get you diaper."

"Not exactly fun for me either! You see that, right? I didn't ask for the stupid thing to explode into my hands. Damn Grunley and his weird jobs."

Ugh. Grunley. I'd stop running for him if he didn't pay so well and was such a reliable and honorable employer. He didn't especially like me (he didn't like anyone really, except himself) but honorable people were hard to find and I couldn't afford to not take those jobs. I had no want to feed off Colton more than necessary and the fact that he already paid for Tanner's schooling and gave us a home when we'd had nothing... those things were enough.

We moved from the bathroom to my bedroom. I sat, Tanner pulled off my bottom half and redressed me. Same with the top. One more day and I'd not need my little brother playing nursemaid anymore, assuming my hands had healed to the point where I could use them again.

Said little brother asked,"You going to bed or you want to watch a holo-film?"

Oh, Tanner. I know he was so very tired of Dashen-duty and even after wanting to push me out a window (though he'd never admit it) he still offered to spend some quiet time with his inept big brother. Such a good kid.

"I could watch something simple," I said to him, knowing full well I'd not last the entire two hours awake.

"Okay, I'll pull something up. But no snacks. I'm not feeding you any things else today. You've hit your quota. Or I've hit mine."

A good kid. And a funny one too. Or not. I was sorta hungry. But I let it be. It was enough to be forced to help your brother to and from the bathroom, help him bathe, shove sandwiches and drinks into his mouth... yup. Quota exceeded.

"No snacks. And no more bathroom breaks, I swear."

"You pee way too much, Dash. You should get that looked at."

"I do not pee way too much and we are not having this discussion."

"I hope you're better tomorrow."

"You say that because you can't wait to get rid of me or you're my favorite little brother?"

"Well..."

See what I mean? A funny kid. It was fine though. I had gotten on his nerves today. Hell, I'd gotten on my own. Who knew I could be so needy?

Regardless of my needs, I was up for a holo-film though I didn't stay awake for it and found myself lying horizontal on our couch with my

head in my little brother's lap early the next morning. His left hand was cushioned in the crook of my neck between my shoulder and chin. He'd used his Jedi magic whammy stuff at some point in the night, getting rather good with those calming waves as he called them. That, combined with the pain meds put me out good and I remembered very little of whatever holo had been playing. It was probably a boring one anyway, Tanner knowing that I'd last about ten minutes before being out cold. So he'd put on something with a long boring dramatic arc with four million details and forty seven characters to keep track of. For him - fascinating. For me - snooze.

I was awake now and feeling better. The throbbing in my hands was down and I counted the minutes until Quin's visit to remove the bandages and give me back my freedom to pee in peace.

I moved my head and started rolling off my brother when his eyes opened.

"Where you going?"

"Hey, Mouse," I said, glancing toward him as I made myself vertical. "It's early, go back to sleep."

Then my bladder reminded me of my predicament.

"On second thought. Ah, Tanner?"

"You have to pee again, don't you?" He asked me, his head not moving from his leaned position on the back of the couch.

"In my defense, I went an entire night without going, so don't start. One more time, please?"

"You owe me big, Dash."

"I do. I'll give you a ride to school all next week. I'm on duty at the Rathskeller so it'll work."

"And pick me up after school."

Sneaky kid. "Fine, yes, assuming Colt will let me hijack one of his speeders."

"He will if he knows it's for me."

I gave my brother one of my famous I hate you looks. "You and your damn ability to make everyone like you."

Tanner got up and walked with me to the bathroom. "Last time." He said firmly.

"Yes, yes, I know, I know."

—-

Bandages came off two hours later. Quin was pleased with the healing and wrapped them in a thin later of bacta cloth to finish the process. I had full range of my hands again. Yay, me!

I held them up for her to finish tying them off.

"They need a few more days for normal, so don't do anything stupid."

Quin was honest and blunt. I did love that about her... at times. She also knew me. That always helped.

"I swear on my little brother's patience," I said, ignoring an evil glance from that same little brother.

"I am certain, Dashen, that you've tested that infinite patience of his to the point of no return. Be grateful you have him and that he is who he is. Anyone else I suspect would have simply put you out of your misery and buried you six feet under."

"What a lovely morbid thought, Quin. Thank you."

"I know my patients and their patience."

She trashed the old bandages, grabbed her medical bag and strolled out the door. I flashed my new hands to Tanner.

"All set. Thanks for the help, Mouse, these last couple of days. Or for... giving me... a hand. Ha! Okay that was horrible. I'll do my best to not get myself partially blown up again anytime soon."

Tanner raised an eyebrow. "Yes that was horrible and yes I will hold you to that."

"Hands look good, huh? Colton's got me saddled at the Rathskeller upcoming so I can keep these babies from harm."

"Right. You can get into trouble anywhere, Dash. It's a natural talent you have. Just keep the hands safe. I'm off bathroom duty for a while."

I ruffled Tanner's brown hair, first time in over two days. Didn't realize how much I'd missed doing it. He hadn't missed receiving it of course, but I did it anyway and he tolerated it. He was a good kid. A good brother. And if he was ever to partially blow up his own hands, well, I'd offer him... a hand.


END