AN: Hi folks! Apologies for that evil cliffie in that last chapter, but I couldn't resist. I hope this chapter more than makes up for it, especially as it's another long one.
Enjoy!
-Moki
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Din Djarin was burning alive.
No, he was freezing to death.
No, definitely burning alive.
The only thing the Mandalorian knew for sure was that he was uncomfortable. It felt like Moff Gideon was having one of his incinerator troopers blaze him with open flames, causing his skin to crisp as he literally cooked in his beskar.
What new insanity was this? Wasn't he back home now? Or was that all just a crazed dream brought on by the endless torture?
Seemingly seconds later, Din was shivering so hard his teeth didn't chatter, they clacked as he tried to force his jaw still. Now it felt like the Moff had put him into a deep freezer, or maybe adjusted the settings of his cell to turn it into a meat locker. The cold seeped to the very marrow of his bones and Din felt like he would never be warm again.
He needed to get away, but it was too dark. He couldn't see again. Why had the Darkness returned? Had they turned out the lights in his cell or was he still blind? Maybe he had never gotten out and Grogu had never fixed his eyes.
Those moments of peace with his friends and the kid might've simply been a dream. After all, Med was dead, Din had come to terms with that after the fight on Nevarro all those years ago. So, it made sense now that it could have been a dream.
Arriving at that awful conclusion, Din felt the same panic as when he'd been trapped in his cell in the Darkness. The thundering of his heart only furthered thoughts that everything he'd experienced in the last couple days had been a fantasy. He'd felt positive he'd been rescued but now he wasn't sure. He couldn't see, he couldn't move, and he was torn between being cooked and frozen. That certainly sounded like a new form of torture Gideon would have thought up for his favorite prisoner.
A hand touched Din in the Darkness and the Mandalorian flinched, fighting it off in a practiced (if weak) defensive move. If one of the Moff's goons, or that damned droid was going to attack, he was going to fight as much as he could.
"Shh… Din, it's alright. You're okay. You're here on the cruiser. You're home," the attacker said.
Wait. The attacker said what?
Then Din recognized the voice. It was the one that helped him stay in control when he'd stupidly tried to put his helmet on back in his cell. He recognized the hands, too, as they held one of his arms to stop his flailing. Those hands had also been there to help him find his way back from the agony.
"Bo?"
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Several hours earlier….
After the alarm on his vambrace had gone off, Med got back into his helmet and armor and walked into Din's room. Just as the machines had warned, his friend's temperature was rising. The medic could see the other man was flushed, even in the darkness of the room. It wasn't an emergency yet, but things were about to get interesting.
"Well, old man," Med whispered, not wanting to wake his patient. "I see you decided to make things exciting for me, eh?"
Med knew he wasn't going to get any more sleep that night and started pulling together some supplies. He continued to talk to Din as he worked.
"First order of business, let's get these wounds cleaned up again. I've only got a little bit of bacta left, so let's see which ones win the prize."
Med pulled down the sheet on the bed and adjusted Din's robe, starting his exam with the wounds on the other man's upper body. For whatever reason, it seemed the Moff had paid special attention to his friend's chest. Med hadn't missed the fact that all the worst, and most recent, burns were under those areas where Din wore beskar.
Din's cuirass was an especially beautiful piece and provided the most protection other than the helmet, as it covered vital organs. Those burns, under where the chest plate had been, were still some of the worst, even with the previous treatment Med had provided.
"Kriff, Din. What did that monster do to you? Though, I guess the better question might be, what didn't he do to you?"
Med guessed that Gideon had targeted those areas to show just how angry, and perhaps jealous, he was of the Mandalorian.
The medic noted that Din's right bicep had another terrible burn as well. Again, it didn't surprise Med. That was the location of the pauldron that bore the signet of Din's clan, the one he had with Grogu. The Moff seemed like a person who might know things you wouldn't think he would. That would include knowing that the pauldron basically represented the very thing that Din had originally taken from him – the child.
The medic cleaned the wounds again and finished off the last of the bacta on them. They looked better when he was done, but that still left a lot of other wounds that couldn't be treated. The skin had thickened on some, and others were showing signs of swelling, taking on a purplish tint. All sure signs of infection specific to burns.
Before moving on to clean the other wounds on the rest of Din's body, Med reached for the sleeping child.
"Okay, little one. Time to move for a bit, but I promise I'll have you back with your dad as fast as I can."
Med gently moved Grogu to the other bed again and it showed how tired the kid still was that he didn't stir from his sleep. It also spoke of how sick Din was becoming that he didn't stir either as the medic continued to work. Med bared Din's body section by section, covering him back up with the blankets each time he finished cleaning and rebandaging an area, trying to keep the other man warm.
The only time Din stirred slightly was when Med adjusted the sheets to move him to one side of the bed. Once the injured man was shifted, the medic rolled him over so he could tend to the burns and other injuries on his back. Din mumbled a bit at the movement and flinched when the cool water dripped on his back as the wounds were cleaned and the bandages changed. But he didn't wake up fully.
"It's alright, Djar. I'm almost done."
When he finished, Med turned Din on his back and tucked the child into his arm again.
"Okay, that's all I can do for now, Djar," the medic said, as he returned Grogu to his father's side.
Din's temperature had continued to rise as Med worked. He checked the monitors on the bed, and even ran a scanner over the other man to confirm the numbers. When he got a reading of 102 on both, he sighed. He'd told Bo that this could happen, but he'd been hoping to avoid this. Din's body had been through too much and issues that had been hiding, biding their time while Din had been lying in his cell, were now making themselves known.
"Here we go, Djar. Sorry to tell you that it's time to do battle again, brother. At least you don't need to get up for this one. But I still need you to fight, got it?"
Around the time Med noted the new temp, Din's demeanor changed. The injured man started showing signs of suffering the typical symptoms of a high fever and infection. He began sweating profusely, then shivering, then sweating again. He also started shifting restlessly on the bed, his head turning from side to side as he mumbled incoherently.
As the hours wore on, Din's movements became more agitated and Med was forced to move the child to the other bed again.
"Sorry, little one. But hopefully he'll be back to normal soon. We just have to help your dad ride this out."
When Din's fever rose higher, Med filled a basin with cool water. Taking a washcloth from the stack of linens near the exam table, he brought it back to the bed. He applied the cloth to Din's forehead and could feel the heat coming off of the sick man, confirming what the readings had been telling him. He'd known the monitors were correct, but somehow feeling it with his own hands made it worse.
This is going to be a long night.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
When Bo returned to Din's room in the morning, she was shocked by what she found. When she left the previous night, Din had been talking, eating, cuddling his son, and looking better than he had since they brought him back.
But that morning she walked into a completely different scene. His body was covered in sweat, and he was shivering. There was a pile of linens near the sanitizer and she could tell that he had sweated through multiple sets of sheets and robes throughout the night.
Med had obviously given up on putting Din back into robes, opting to keep him cool when needed and then throwing the blankets back on him when he got cold.
Only covered in a light sheet folded down to his waist, Din's bare chest was dripping, rivulets of sweat snaking their way down his sides and soaking into the sheets underneath. The bandages on many of the wounds had come off, unable to stick to the wet skin. Some of his injuries looked better but others were worse. She hated the sight of the swelling and purple color many of them now had.
Med was wringing out a washcloth in a metal basin filled with water. When he finished, he put it on Din's forehead, then moved it to his neck, then to his chest and upper arms.
Grogu was asleep in the other bed and Bo was relieved the little one hadn't yet woken from his father's distress. In a way it was a blessing that he was still so tired from the initial healing he had done on Din's eyes. The child didn't need to see the current state Din was in, he'd already been through a lot. She was tempted to have the Armorer take the little one away, but they'd already seen that it did nothing except stress both Din and Grogu to be away from each other.
Bo could see the fatigue in the medic's movements, evidence of what must have been a very long night for both he and his patient.
"What happened?" Bo asked in a tense whisper, walking up to the bed and staring at its occupant.
"Infection is setting in," Med replied, moving the cool cloth back to Din's chest. "It started a few hours ago. His temp spiked in the middle of the night, and it's stayed up since then. I used the last of the bacta on the worst of his wounds, so he should be alright to fight off the rest of the infection himself. But he's got another battle in front of him."
"I don't understand," Bo said, shaking her head, as if she could change what was happening by denying what her eyes were seeing. "Last night he was okay. We were just talking to him. He was laughing. He was eating. I don't get it."
"This can happen," Med replied, taking the cloth and putting it back into the basin as Din started shivering again. The medic grabbed a towel and dried off the sweating man. When he was done, he reached for the blankets at the end of the bed and pulled them up to cover Din as his shaking got stronger. "As I said, patients can go up and down in the blink of an eye."
"What can I do?"
"It's okay, I can handle this," Med said reassuringly. "I don't want to keep asking you to act as nurse, Lady Kryze. Don't worry, I've got this under control."
Bo put her hands on her hips, not about to be dismissed easily, even if she knew the medic was doing it out of a sense of duty.
"Med, I care about him, too. I want to help. Do you honestly think I'm going to be able to concentrate on anything else knowing he's like this? Now please, tell me what I can do."
Med looked over at her, standing there regarding him with a hard stare. He finally nodded in agreement.
"Okay. Here, take over for me. I'm going to get set up to clean the wounds again. I'll also sanitize more sheets and towels. We're going to need them."
They switched places and Bo sat on the stool at Din's side.
"We have to keep him comfortable," Med said. He waited until she got situated then explained what to do.
"He needs to rest as much as possible so he can fight this. So just stay ahead of his symptoms. You saw what I did. If he's hot, get the water on his face, neck, and upper chest to lower his temp. He may shiver but still be hot so just observe him a bit before you change over to warming him up. But if he keeps shivering for a little while, use a towel to dry him off and then cover him in the blankets. That's all we can do at this point, so just keep at it."
She nodded, picking up the cloth and wringing it out. She turned as the medic started walking away.
"Have you been doing this all night?"
"Yes."
Without elaborating further, Med went to work. First, he tossed sheets and towels into the sanitizer. Then he moved on to getting together what he would need to clean Din's wounds. Bo saw the exhaustion in his movements, but she knew he wouldn't have done anything differently.
"You have a very good friend there, Din," Bo said softly as she applied the cool cloth to his forehead, doing her best to keep it from touching the blistered burns that still surrounded his eyes. "I know he's a medic, but still, I'm not sure all medics would do what he did for you all night."
Bo didn't realize that If Din had been awake, he probably would've said the same thing to her about the kind of friend she was, as she kept up with the treatments exactly as Med had instructed her.
The room lapsed into darkened silence as each of them tended to their separate duties. Med had purposely kept the lights low, trying to help Din sleep and knowing that his eyes were still sore. The medic didn't want to cause more pain when the sick man woke up periodically during the fever.
Med couldn't know that the darkness would have the opposite effect than he intended.
Bo noted that Din's movements were getting more frenzied as time wore on. She didn't think it was possible, but somehow, his skin felt even hotter than before. Med checked on him frequently and they changed places often so the other could rest and eat as necessary. The long day wore on, and Din's condition kept getting worse.
Grogu woke up at one point, squeaking sadly when he saw his father. "Don't worry, kid," Bo said to him, holding the little one in her lap as Med kept up the treatment. "He's going to be fine. Your father has fought much harder battles than this."
The boy cuddled into her as he watched his dad, his eyes drooping. He fell asleep after they got him to accept some water and a little broth, and again she was almost relieved that he was still feeling the effects of the difficult healing he'd done when Din had arrived.
Late in the afternoon, Bo was alone in the room when Din started showing signs that he might be waking up. His eyes fluttered but didn't seem to focus on anything at first. As he was burning up more than ever, she put the cloth to his face again, but this time he attempted to bat it away with a weak hand.
"Shh… Din, it's alright. You're okay. You're here on the cruiser. You're home," she reassured the sick man.
"Bo?" he questioned, still not appearing to see her though his eyes were partially opened. She wondered if he was having some trouble seeing. Med did say his eyes were still healing.
"Yes, I'm here. Med will be back soon."
He looked around the room, his head moving back and forth on the pillow.
"I can't see. What happened to my eyes? Where's Grogu? Is he okay? What's going on?"
"Hey, it's okay. Din, it's alright. The room is dark because we have the lights out. Here, hang on."
Not wanting to hurt his eyes but also wanting him to be able to see, she turned on the light in the fresher so that it would provide ambient light. When the room got brighter, Din blinked and he squinted painfully, but it seemed to calm him as he looked around the room and got his bearings.
"You're alright. I'm here. Med is taking a quick nap. He was up with you most of the night."
"What's going on? What's happening to me?" The last thing Din remembered from the night before, he had felt okay. He'd been in pain with lots of healing wounds, not to mention a headache from his eyes still healing. But he'd felt better than he had in a long time.
"You're spiking a fever. Some of your injuries are infected. Med did what he could, but we don't have a lot of supplies on board."
Din nodded his understanding. At least now he knew what was happening. The terror of thinking he'd been forced back into the Darkness was slowly dissipating.
"Where's Grogu?" he asked when he noticed the kid wasn't with him.
"He's here." Bo leaned over so Din could see child sleeping behind her on the other bed.
"We had to move him when you got a little more… active," she said.
Din realized that he'd been flailing in his sleep.
"Thanks for that. Sorry I'm so much trouble," he said as he began shivering, even as he also felt the heat of his skin causing him to sweat. He closed his eyes again briefly as the shivers got stronger.
"Don't you dare say you're sorry. You'd do the same for any one of us," Bo reminded him.
Before Din could say anything else, he felt a cool cloth on his forehead. He sighed and forced his body to relax into the mattress and pillow.
"Thank you," he said with relief.
"You're welcome. Now, try to rest, okay? You're going need to fight this and your body needs rest to do that."
Din didn't argue. He nodded but he was already growing tired, and he let the pull of sleep take him.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Med felt like he'd just fallen asleep when the sound of alarms woke him up in the middle of the night. Even after the quick afternoon nap earlier in the day, he was bone-tired from being up the previous night and it took him precious seconds to realize where he was. He'd almost thought he was back at the old Covert on Nevarro for a moment, but then he remembered they'd had no medical beds there and no alarms. He was on the cruiser.
Din.
Med had stayed fully armored when laying down, not wanting to waste time to even put back on his helmet. He'd also slept with his door open and ran out of it now at a dead run.
He and Bo had had a long day. Even the Armorer had come in to help once, though she'd been pulled away by other pressing matters. She'd hated to leave, but they had understood.
Bo had refused to leave Din's side, and the Armorer had gracefully stepped in to cover her duties. They couldn't ask her to also stay at Din's bedside.
As the day turned into night and the night turned into the middle of the night, Med had ordered Bo to get some sleep. Din had gotten a little more stable and he felt like he could handle the ill man on his own for a few hours. She had fought him over it, but eventually agreed when he'd promised to wake her up if Din's condition changed.
The medic had set an alarm to wake him up every hour and never expected that something could go wrong in that amount of time. Apparently, Din Djarin was determined to prove him wrong.
He should've realized that Din's condition wasn't stable enough to be left alone for any length of time. It didn't matter what the readings had said. Didn't matter that Din's fever had seemed to stabilize. The fever hadn't gone down, and that, plus all his injuries would of course mean he might crash again. But Med had trusted that his friend was fighting off the infection. He had trusted the monitors and readings.
It was a stupid rookie mistake.
All of those thoughts flashed through his mind in the time it took the medic to run to the next room. But by the time he got to the door, he was done beating himself up and got to work.
When Med opened the door to Din's room, he glanced at the monitors above the bed but bolted toward the supplies first. He rummaged until he found another stim shot, hoping he wouldn't need to use it again. These were still a last resort option, and he really didn't want to use it twice in less than 48 hours.
As Med found the shot and turned, he realized the sound had changed. The monitors were still going off, but with less urgency. He checked Din's vitals on the screen and saw them slowly returning to a more normal range. The medic walked toward the bed and sighed in relief.
"There you go. That's it, Djar," he said encouragingly to his friend, his eyes still on the monitors, as if he could push them down into a normal range by force of will.
As the monitors finally settled, Med looked down at Din. He gasped in surprise at what he found.
Grogu was awake and back at Din's side. His small hands were on Din's chest as he concentrated, his eyes tightly closed. The monitors quieted and Med saw the readings dip back into a healthy range. They weren't great, but they weren't life-threatening any longer. The child had saved his father's life again.
Med opened his mouth to praise the little one, but just as he did, Grogu's eyes closed, and he slumped forward. Still not comfortable with the sight of a small child losing consciousness, Med carefully picked him up. Taking Grogu to the exam table, he put him down gently and pulled out his hand scanner. The numbers weren't that far off from what he'd expect from a being of his size, though he had little else to use as a baseline for the child's normal readings. But he also reassured himself that Din had asked Grogu to help him initially, and if anyone would know what the kid could handle, it would be his father.
"Little one, you may tire of hearing this someday, but you are one very special kid," Med said as he picked up the child again. He walked back to Din's bed and laid Grogu next to his father's side, placing the other Mandalorian's arm around the boy.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"Shh, it's okay," Bo put the cloth to Din's forehead, then moved it to his neck, just as she'd been doing off and on for more than 24 hours.
Even with all their work, she could feel the heat radiating off Din's skin more than ever and it worried her. How much longer could he keep fighting this infection and fever?
She spared a glance down at Din's son. They tried to keep the boy with his father as much as possible, only moving him if the ill man's movements threatened to injure the small child. Grogu was sleeping hard after the latest healing. Med had told her about the scare overnight and she was glad that Grogu had woken up and gotten to Din's side when he had crashed. It was the only reason he was still alive.
Din mumbled again, moving weakly in his sleep. His face was pinched together, his brow heavily furrowed. She couldn't call it sleep, as he was getting none of the rest he really needed. It still seemed cruel to her that he'd been better for a while, only to have the infection come in with a vengeance.
"This was always going to happen," Med reminded her, walking in the door and noticing her distress. "It was only a matter of time."
Med noticed that she didn't look up but continued to stare at the other Mandalorian.
"We just have to get him through this, and I'm sure we'll see improvement on the other side. Hopefully not much longer now," Med put a hand on her shoulder, and she nodded.
"Can you get me the canteen?" Med asked as he moved to sit on the other side of Din's bed.
"Of course," Bo filled the container and handed it to the medic. They'd been through this so many times in the past couple days it was a routine.
Med lifted Din and put the canteen to his lips, making him drink. With the amount Din was sweating, he needed every ounce considering he'd arrived in an already massively dehydrated state. But luckily the sick man had stopped fighting and accepted the water as it was offered to him.
The day wore on into another night. As it got later, Bo turned to Med before he could suggest she go to her quarters and rest.
"Don't even consider asking me to leave this time. I'm staying." she told him in no uncertain terms.
"Don't worry, I wouldn't dream of it," Med said. "It's going to be another long night and I'm not afraid to admit that I can use all the help I can get. This man always likes to give me challenges."
"Another long night, for all of us…" Bo said thoughtfully as she looked at Din.
Med was alone in the room when the night turned into another very early morning. Med had sent Bo to her quarters for a quick break. Din had made it through the night, but only barely. The medic wouldn't admit it to Bo, but he was starting to get a little frightened for his friend. He had expected Din to be better by now, but his fever still raged.
"Come on, Din. I know you. This isn't how you want to go out. You have a child now. You've got to beat this," the medic said, tucking the blankets under Din's chin as more shivers wracked his tired body.
"I'm… trying."
Med hadn't realized Din was awake, though when he looked at his face, he saw the other man's eyes were closed. He was just barely conscious, but he had heard Med's voice.
"Good, Djar." Med said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Keep trying. Keep fighting. You've got this."
Hours later, Med lifted his friend off the bed again in the hourly ritual to get water into the feverish man. Din woke a bit more than last time when he felt the movement.
"Come on, up. More water. You're sweating it out faster than we can get it into you, Djar."
"Where's Grogu?" Din asked groggily, but Med was happy to see he continued to accept the water even as he inquired about his son.
"Sleeping."
Must be the middle of the night again. Din thought.
"Make sure he eats when he wakes up," the worried father said.
Med smiled, happy to see how his friend had become such a good dad. Sitting on the next bed, Bo grinned at Din's demand as well.
"You know I will. But for now, let's get some into you." Med offered him some broth from a cup. Din accepted that as well, falling back to sleep as soon as the medic laid him down.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Bo came back from another quick trip to her quarters, this time to shower and change. It wasn't much of a rest, but it made her feel almost human again.
"Med, I'll take over again. Why don't you take a break, too?" she said as she came back into the room. She hoped giving him a respite would do a little bit of what it had done for her.
The medic nodded, heading for the door and keying it open. The door was programmed to stay closed and would only open for himself, Bo and the Armorer. Din may still be injured but they weren't letting anyone see his face who didn't absolutely have to. When Din and Grogu's meals were delivered, they always came outside the door and Med went out to get them.
Bo yawned as she put the cloth to Din's head again. She wasn't sure but she thought he felt different. But when she checked the monitors, it showed the same temperature as before, so she decided she must have imagined it.
She got up to rinse out the basin and replace the now lukewarm water with more cold water. When she turned back around, her eyes flew open in surprise. She put down the bowl and quickly walked to the bed.
Din was trying to get up, pulling back on the blankets and the sheet, mumbling to himself.
"Hey, Din? That's not a good idea. You're still sick. You need to rest." She had no idea if he could hear her, but she kept talking anyway.
"Where is he?" Din demanded, looking at her with shiny eyes that didn't seem to really see her at all.
"Who?"
"Who? The kid! Where is he?"
"Grogu's asleep, Din. See?" She pointed at the bed where the little one lay slumbering.
"I can't let Gideon take him. He wants his blood. That bastard. If he gets the kid, he'll kill him."
"Din, we're not going to let that happen. You're both safe. Now come on, lie back down."
But rather than laying back down, Din stood up suddenly. Forcing Bo to quickly avert her eyes as the blanket and sheets fell away from his body.
"Okay, then," she said, keeping her eyes firmly on his face while simultaneously reaching to grab the edge of the sheet that was laying across the bed. She deftly pulled it around his waist, using it to also help keep him from walking away.
"Din, come on, you have to lay back down. You have a fever, and you don't know what you're doing right now."
"I know what I'm doing, I'm saving the kid from the Moff. He can do whatever he wants to me, but he's not getting Grogu."
"You're right, he's not. I know you would never let that happen and so does Grogu. You've done an admirable job keeping your son alive. You can rest now, Din. Come on, back to bed." She was trying to say whatever she could to break through his fevered state, speaking in a soothing voice.
Just then, the door chimed as someone keyed it open and Med was standing in the doorway. He stopped in his tracks as he observed the scene in front of him.
"Well, I can't say this is exactly what I expected when I came back." He walked in and the door closed behind him.
"Alright brother let's get you back to bed," Med said, getting right down to the problem at hand.
"No! I need to find Grogu," The sick and confused man protested.
"The kid's right over there, Djar."
"I keep telling him that, he's not listening." Bo said in frustration.
"Djar, hey, listen to me. Your kid is fine. You've got to lay back down."
Din continued to fight, and Med sighed.
"Sorry about this, old man."
The medic was forced to put a little more strength in his grip as he pulled Din back to the bed. The weakened man wasn't able to put up much of a fight, though a lot more than Med would've expected from one in his condition. But with the combined efforts of himself and Bo they finally wrangled Din into the bed.
The fight, such as it was, tired out the patient and after a few more mumbles and half-hearted attempts to rise, he was asleep again.
Once Din was safely in bed and asleep, Med couldn't help but to let out a short laugh.
"Well, that made for an interesting morning."
Bo looked at him a little surprised. She felt like the latest incident proved that not only was Din not getting any better, he was getting worse. How much longer until permanent damage was done by his raging fever? Could he already be suffering everlasting effects, as evidenced by this nearly violent episode? How could Med laugh right now?
"Med, I don't think this is funny," she said seriously.
"Of course, it is," Med was still chuckling as he gathered the blankets off the floor and placed them on top of the sheet covering Din's body as the man shivered lightly. When he finished, he looked up and saw her stricken look. The medic realized belatedly that the episode must have been quite frightening for her.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound cold. But trust me, this is actually a good sign," he said, his voice serious and reassuring.
"What do you mean?"
"Let's just say I've been through this before with him. Once he starts acting a little crazy, it means his fever has finally broken."
"He's been through this before?"
"Unfortunately," Med said, looking down at Din briefly before turning back to Bo.
"He used to try and take care of his own injuries after a hunt went to kriff and, I'll give him this, he got frighteningly good at it. But that also meant he got cocky and thought he could handle things he definitely should not have handled on his own."
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Bo said, shaking her head.
"So sometimes by the time he got to me," Med continued. "He was a lot worse off than if he'd just come to me in the first place. Luckily that was back when we were both younger. He finally started getting smart and coming to me sooner. So yeah, I know by the stunt he just tried to pull that he's on the other side of this."
Bo looked closely at Din and saw the medic was right. Din's skin wasn't soaking wet, and he appeared to finally be sleeping soundly, despite the antics of a few minutes ago. His temperature had dropped a degree, doing so for the first time in days. She'd been correct earlier when thinking he might have improved. He just needed a bit more time before it showed on the monitors.
"Thank the Maker," Bo said, relieved.
"I'm glad he's not quite as bad as that any longer," she continued, knowing that Din still preferred to treat his own injuries whenever possible. But at least now he was smart enough to get assistance when something was more serious. "It is definitely better to seek help when you need it, though this time it's not like he had a choice. I'm happy we're through the worst of it."
"Yeah, but he sure is going to be miserable when he wakes up."
"Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad," Bo replied, somehow feeling the need to defend Din's behavior. "People do strange things when they are as sick as he's been. That infection is the worst I've ever seen and the fever...well, now that it's hopefully over, I don't mind telling you that it honestly scared me."
"No, you're right about the fever and the dreams. That's common and as I said, he's been through it before. No, I meant physically."
"What do you mean?"
"He wasn't exactly kind to his body when he was fighting us. He's going to be sore and in more pain when he wakes up, unfortunately."
It was then Bo noticed that Din had opened some of his stitches. She could see drops of blood on the wounds higher up on his chest and on his arms as Med examined them. Sighing to himself, the medic got out a suture kit and started to do repairs.
As Med worked, Bo also noted that some of the old bruises looked worse than they had before. Especially the one around Din's broken shin, visible when Med pulled the sheet off Din's leg to check out the barely healing injury.
"Dank Farrik, did he break it again?" She asked as she saw the ugly color of his leg.
Med palpated gently, causing Din to moan slightly in his sleep. Bo reached over and put a hand on his shoulder to quiet him.
"No, luckily, just bruised. But as I said, he'll be pretty miserable."
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Din felt himself coming back to consciousness. Automatically he tried to move and was alarmed by how much his body hurt. It wasn't as bad as when he'd first arrived on the cruiser, but it was up there in a close second.
"What the... kriff." He said, the last word coming out in a moan.
"Hey, watch the language around the kid," Med's voice said nearby. Din opened his eyes to find the medic sitting on the bed across from his.
"What the..." Din stopped himself before saying something even worse than before. "What happened?"
"You had an interesting fever, let's just leave it at that," Med said, and Din heard the amusement in his voice. He knew what that meant.
"Oh no, not again." Din laid back and put an arm over his eyes.
"Oh yes, again."
"What did I do this time?"
Din realized as he asked the question that he probably didn't want to know the answer, but it was too late.
"Nothing much," Med said with a shrug as Din turned his head to peek out from under his arm at his friend. "Just managed to get yourself out of your bed and nearly out of the room. It took two of us to keep you from wandering the halls."
Din suddenly became aware of the fact that the only thing covering most of his body was a sheet. A blanket was on his lower half, but he felt the need to pull the sheet farther up his chest until it was under his chin.
"No need to bother, Djar. We already saw plenty more than that," Med said, not trying to hide his mirth.
We?
Med had said "the two of us" hadn't he?
Dank Farrik.
Din heard a chuckle and looked over to find Bo smiling at him. She was holding Grogu, who was sleeping again. Din didn't have time to think about how often he'd seen the kid sleeping recently. He just assumed he must have been waking up during the night every time he'd been conscious during the fever.
"Oh no. I'm so sorry..." Din's dark skin went darker as he flushed. He'd gotten used to the idea of being without his helmet, remembering how badly he was burned and knowing that only the people in the room, plus the Armorer, had seen him without it on the cruiser. But the idea of also walking around in a fevered state without a stitch of clothing on, well that just felt mortifying for a whole different reason.
"Don't worry," Bo reassured him. "He's just teasing you."
"I promise I didn't see anything unseemly," she continued as Din breathed a quick sigh of relief. "I've got fast reflexes and I'm more than capable of keeping an opponent from escaping. As well as keeping that opponent wrapped in a sheet at the same time, though that was a new one. Not that you didn't give me a challenge, but nothing to be embarrassed about."
"I don't know about that," Med said. "Even with the sheet in place, it was still pretty damn funny."
"Yeah, yeah. Hilarious," Din grumbled, letting his arm drop as he gazed at his friend with a raised eyebrow. "You're just lucky that no one besides a medic, and me, has seen you during a fever."
"Fair enough," Med agreed.
Once again, Bo found herself wishing she could hear all the stories these two had about each other. She was sure there were some good ones.
"Okay, so I guess that explains why I feel like I just tried to take on a Mudhorn again," Din said with another groan as he shifted in the bed.
"Well, you didn't make it easy on yourself, or on us," Med's voice was sympathetic. No matter how much he liked teasing his friend, he never liked seeing him get hurt.
"You got battered up pretty badly. I had to re-stitch you in a couple places and you knocked that broken shin hard. You didn't re-break it, but it will be sore for a while longer."
Only then did Din notice the pain coming from his leg.
"But honestly, brother," Med continued. "I've seen you do worse, so we're going to call this one a win. Especially considering the fact that you made it through the fever and managed to beat nearly all that infection on your own."
"Whoa, praise from you? I must've been really sick," Din said, ducking his head. "Stop it, before you embarrass me."
"Well, be prepared to keep being embarrassed because I'm going to say the same thing. You've come through all of this like a warrior, Din," Bo added with a smile from where she stood on the other side of the bed.
"A warrior that's been a royal pain. Sorry about that," Din said with chagrin, not sure how to respond to the praise from both of his friends. It wasn't like he'd done anything all that noteworthy, he'd just laid in a bed for the past couple days, apparently acting like an idiot part of that time. It hardly seemed praise-worthy to him.
"I think Med will agree that it's all been worth it to have you back. And I think Grogu will agree, too."
"I told you not to give up on me," Din told her with a smile. The words were out of his mouth before he realized he'd said them.
"What?" Bo asked sharply. Suddenly she remembered a conversation with Imagine Din where he'd said that. But had the real Din said it, too? She wasn't sure.
"What?" Din was confused by her change of tone.
"What did you say?" she repeated.
"Wait." Din seemed puzzled, too. When had he said that to her?
"What did I say?"
"That you told me not to give up on you." Bo repeated slowly.
"Oh… right. Did I?"
"Did you?"
"I don't know. Why did I say that?"
"I don't know." Bo said, still looking confused.
Din didn't say else anything for a moment.
"When did you say that, Din?" Bo repeated.
Med stood back, his head going back and forth between them, not understanding the strange direction the conversation had taken.
"I don't know. I think I'm confused," Din said, putting a hand on his head. In addition to the other aches and pains, his eyes had started hurting and his head was throbbing as well.
"There were times in that place where I saw things, heard things that weren't real," Din admitted. "Maybe I'm remembering a conversation I only thought happened."
"Yeah… maybe that's it." Bo said.
"Okay, then, if you two are done," Med said, clearing his throat. "Djar, you up for some more water and broth before you go back to sleep? I want to keep getting as much into you as we can. You lost a lot of fluid over the past couple days, and you were already lacking when you got here."
"Okay," Din agreed.
Once Din had eaten some broth and had more water, he laid back down, his eyes getting heavy from just those simple activities.
As Med took the broth and water away, Bo went to put Grogu at Din's side. But he shifted the child to his chest, resting his chin lightly on the little one's head. Grogu immediately turned his head sideways and put his ear to Din's heart, curling his body in towards his father's warm skin.
"You two rest," Bo said quietly as she pulled the blanket over Din and tucked it just below Grogu's chin.
"Hmm?" Din mumbled sleepily.
Bo noted his eyes were heavy, hooded and closing on their own.
"Never mind."
She smiled at the pair. Grogu was sprawled out on Din's chest and his baby snores filled the room. The two healings he had done were taking their toll, made worse by the fact that the child hadn't slept well during Din's capture.
It made Bo happy to see them back together. They needed each other so much, probably more than either of them even realized. Seeing them now, she was once again in awe that Din had ever given up Grogu to the Jedi and wondered how he had survived for so long without his son.
As they slept, Bo took the opportunity to study Din. She was pleased to see the relief in his face. His pain was well under control, the fever was finally over, and he had his son. She felt as relieved as he looked.
Bo was fascinated by the dichotomy of the man before her. Greef Karga loved to talk about how "Mando" (as he still called Din) was the best bounty hunter he had ever worked with. She didn't doubt that. No prey would easily get away from Din and she was sure many had shaken in their respective skins when they came under his sights. The Mandalorian could still a room with a glare, without anyone ever seeing his eyes, and was quiet and ruthless when he needed to be.
And yet that same man, who struck terror in the hearts of many, had taken on the wrath of the Empire to save a child. Who took that child and hadn't hesitated to protect him from anyone and anything, no matter the cost. There was immeasurable strength in that.
But there was also a gentleness to Din. It had been there that very first time when they'd helped rescue Grogu from the sea creature. She'd seen it when the child had been placed in Din's arms again, how he had cradled the young one. Even now, in his sleep, Din's hand was lightly holding onto Grogu. Those strong hands could maim, kill, and break bones, but they were the same ones that soothed his tiny child to sleep.
Din Djarin was nothing like any other Mandalorian (or man) Bo had ever met.