Precipice by shadowsong26

Milestones: Chapter 4

While not quite as effective as they would be on an open prairie, the markings on Ahsoka's face, montrals, and lekku did a lot to help keep her hidden among the leaves of the tree she was sitting in, overlooking Dr. Naar's clinic while she waited for him to wrap up for the night. Especially since the local season meant the colors of the foliage were only a few shades redder than her face. It wasn't protection against anything like a scanner, of course, but anyone doing just a visual sweep would miss her, and probably no one would make more than a cursory glance without a good reason.

And that, she could supplement with what Obi-Wan called a low-level distortion. Not a true mind trick, just a broad-range, very faint projection of "nothing to see here." Most people who got caught up in it, when it worked-which Obi-Wan insisted was only about half the time, but she had yet to it fail when he did it-were just uninterested in looking in that direction. Her level of success was maybe one in three times, but it seemed to be holding up so far today.

Again, nothing that would hold up against a scanner or a systematic search, but it suited her purposes today.

She'd been here for a few hours, watching people come and go-mostly locals; or at least no resistance fighters and no troopers that she'd been able to identify, though there had been one Twi'lek she was pretty sure worked for one of Hondo Ohnaka's competitors. The last time she'd seen anyone enter the place had been almost an hour ago, but full dark was still a ways off, and Dr. Naar usually kept his doors open until then.

And so, she waited. Because while she might risk a daylight approach if she actually needed his professional services, that wasn't her mission here today.

She hoped she'd have a little more luck here than when she'd found Saw three days ago, out in the Cadavine sector. Fortunately, she hadn't interrupted any kind of actual operation-he was on a resupply trip, meeting up with one of the less-disreputable independent weapons dealers.

Unfortunately, Saw, while open to collaborating on specific missions, still wasn't interested in coming to their base. Or any kind of more formal or permanent alliance.

He'd seemed…harder, too, than he had the last couple times she'd run into him. Colder, more withdrawn, which, yes, had been a general trend over the three years since they'd reconnected, but the difference between yesterday and four months ago had still stood out. And she was pretty sure she knew why.

Jyn was no longer with him.

"Jyn has to walk her own path," Saw had told her, grimly, when she'd asked, and refused to share any more details. Kylie and the rest of his cell hadn't even given her that much.

Ahsoka knew damn well there was more to the story than he was saying. Of course, without prying, she couldn't be sure exactly what that meant. On the other hand, she could be pretty sure that Jyn was still alive somewhere-or at least Saw believed she was; she would've picked up a different kind of grief if his adopted daughter had been killed.

So, she decided it was probably better to back off the subject, at least for now, and privately resolved to keep an eye out for the kid herself. Maybe not actively look for her-even with the expansion of their movement, she didn't necessarily have the time or resources to do that.

Especially since she had become Leia's primary teacher-and, the fact that her personal history meant she couldn't be with Leia and Anakin when they went looking for a crystal was maybe part of why she'd slipped off for this last-minute recruiting trip, instead of helping Obi-Wan and Rex and the others get Crait up and running. To keep her distracted from worrying about them, and regretting that she wasn't there.

But, anyway, she could at the very least passively keep an ear out for any news of Jyn-just to make sure she was okay, wherever she'd ended up. After all, the likeliest explanation was that Jyn and Saw had had a fight, and Jyn had left to figure out what to do next on her own. And if that was the case…

Yeah. Ahsoka knew what that was like.

Either way, there wasn't much of anything she could do about it, especially from here. She closed her eyes and, just like she'd been taught, let out a breath and set those worries aside.

Or, she'd planned to, but was interrupted when her comm buzzed.

She blinked and, after a quick glance at the ground to make sure no one would notice any inconvenient leaves rustling, she picked it up.

Text-only message, from Rex. She activated her decrypt module and opened it.

"Do you have a minute, Commander?"

Which meant nothing urgent, just an update he thought she should get before she made it back to Crait.

"Hey, Rex. Yes, I do, still waiting in a tree. What's up?"

"General Kenobi got a call," he said.

Ahsoka's eyes narrowed slightly. Still not urgent, or he'd've been much more direct. Still…

"Trouble?"

"Probably," Rex said. "We're going to meet with Hondo, says he's got something to sell."

Even with lightyears separating them and no audio on the call, she could practically hear the faint exasperation there.

"Oh, that kind of trouble," she said, relaxing a little. "Should I pull out of this, come meet you instead?"

"No, the General and I should be able to handle anything Hondo might throw at us," he said. "Not sure how long it'll take, though."

"Right, understood." So, not quite urgent enough for her to give up on her contact here, at least not yet, but she should be mindful of the time. It was probably better for at least one of them to be on base, especially when Senator Organa arrived. "I should be wrapping up here soon, then I'll head back."

"Copy that. Any luck?"

She grimaced. "Not really. Our old friend is still unwilling to commit, and I'm waiting for a chance to speak to our new one discreetly."

"About what we expected, then."

"Yeah. I'll fill you all in on details when you get back."

"Likewise. Anything else?"

"No. Anything I need to know before I meet up with the Senator?"

"Nothing on our end," he said. "But Moonshot will probably have more current information when you get there."

"Right," she said. "Tell Hondo hello from me, and feel free to smack him from me if you think he deserves it." Which he might or might not-Hondo had been a good friend to them, these past thirteen years. Despite the complicated history they'd had back during the Clone Wars, he'd more than made up for the bad parts since. On the other hand, he was still Hondo Ohnaka, and sometimes came very close to crossing the line.

At least he hadn't kidnapped any of her friends lately.

"Yes, sir."

"May the Force be with you, my friend."

"Copy that, sir. See you in a few days."

Ahsoka cut the connection and slipped the comm back into her pocket. She glanced over at the horizon-the sun was already half-behind it; she shouldn't be stuck up here more than another hour.

But it was another hour, and she should probably use that time semi-productively.

She closed her eyes again and leaned back against the tree trunk, settling in to meditate until she had an open window and cover of darkness to approach Dr. Naar.

When Ahsoka opened her eyes again, the sky was filled with stars and she could spot Dr. Naar's shadow, as he locked his back door.

Excellent, she thought, and leapt down from the tree.

He paused, and half-turned with his hand still on the doorknob.

"It's me," she said, coming a little further out from the tree-line, where she was more visible under the planet's two moons.

"Ah," he said, but she saw his shoulders relax a little. "What happened this time? Are your friends with you?"

"Nah, I'm all right," Ahsoka said. "And so are they, as far as I know. Really. That's not why I'm here."

Dr. Naar, while very good at controlling his facial expressions during an actual crisis, wasn't quite as good at not looking confused when the stakes were lower.

But all he said was, "I'm glad to hear it," before pushing the door back open, silently inviting her inside.

"Thank you," she said. "I'm glad to be able to say it."

"I take it that doesn't happen very often?"

"Well," she said. "Not as often as I'd like anyway. But we're really not…you mostly see us at our worst. Physically."

"True," he said. He made sure the screen on the window was fully opaque, then turned on one of the lights. "I don't think you've ever just...dropped by like this before."

"No," she said. "We didn't want to risk drawing too much attention to you."

"And I'm grateful for that," he said, before taking a seat and rolling his eyes a little when she just hopped up onto the table. "What's going on?"

And now comes the hard part. "We've set up a base."

"I see," he said, after taking a minute to let that sink in. "Congratulations, I think. I'm guessing you want me to move there?"

"I'm here to invite you, yeah," she said. "We know we can trust you, and you're good at this. Good in a crisis. You're exactly the kind of person we want running our medbay, now that we're getting a little more organized."

Dr. Naar didn't answer her right away. Instead, he stood up and started needlessly sorting through the various supplies on his shelves.

But Ahsoka could already guess what he was going to say. He was just looking for the words.

"I have a rule," he said, turning to face her again. "No one gets turned away."

"I know," she said.

"And that would change, if I worked out of your base instead of here," he said. "Not because I think you or your people would stop me, exactly, but…it's different, working for an active military. Of any kind."

Ahsoka winced a little, as Saw and his people leapt back into her surface thoughts.

"Maybe having you there would remind us why we shouldn't stop you," she said. "Like you said, I think most of our people wouldn't. Or, at least, I don't like to think that anyone we've brought in so far is that cruel. But at the same time..."

He wasn't wrong. People got…caught up, and there were extremists out there. She didn't think Saw was that bad, but after seeing him a few days ago, she had to admit that he was starting to lean that way. Which was actually part of why she still wanted to bring him in now, to integrate him into the community they were building and give him reasons to keep things in perspective. But maybe Jyn could help him walk it back, whenever she rejoined him. The kid seemed to bring out the best in him.

Still, that tendency was there. And Saw wasn't even the worst of them.

"I appreciate the thought," Dr. Naar said. "But my answer's still no, at least for now. You and your people are of course always welcome to come here, when you need me, but…I think I need to stay where I am."

"I understand," she said, softly. Because she did. His rule was a good one, and it was there for a reason. And even leaving that aside, it wasn't just soldiers he treated out here, after all.

"Thank you," he said. "Besides," he added, a little more lightly. "I'm not sure I'd be all that good at the non-medical side of things, anyway. Not the kind of being you want running things."

Ahsoka grinned. "I think you're selling yourself short there," she said. "You built all of this, didn't you? Your clinic, your network…all of it."

He smiled back, but shook his head. "I didn't build a network," he said. "At least not on purpose. But I will admit to the clinic."

"Fair enough," she said. "Still, the way you've kept this place running, with your rule and everything-we could use your administrative skills almost as much as your medical skills."

"Thank you," he said. "That doesn't change my mind, you know."

"I know. I didn't expect it to," she said, and hopped off the table. "I still thought it needed to be said."

"Right," he said. "I'm sorry I couldn't give you the answer you wanted. But I'm sure I'll see you again, one way or the other."

"Probably," she agreed. "Hopefully not too soon. Although…" She considered his shelves for a moment. "You know, we have some more reliable supply lines and black market contacts these days. Is there anything in particular you need? I could try and get it for you." Even if he wasn't coming to Crait with her, they probably owed him that much, and more.

He blinked. "A few things, yes," he said. "But you have an active military base to supply."

"We do," she agreed. "But we can only stockpile so much." Their base only had so much room they could devote to medical, after all, and some medicines and other supplies had a limited shelf life, besides.

"Fair," he said, then stepped past her to where he had a few sheets of flimsi, and jotted down a brief list. "Any of these, if you have surplus, I'd be very grateful."

"I'll check into it," she promised, slipping the list into a pocket.

"Thank you," he said again. "And...listen, if my situation here ever changes…"

"Our offer's always open," she said, firmly. "Do you want a way to reach me, in case?"

He shook his head. "Best not," he said. "I haven't been raided yet, but if I am, that wouldn't be the kind of thing I'd like being caught with."

"True," she said. "And, with that in mind, I really should go. I'll be in touch."

"Yes," he said, and walked with her to the door. "Until next time," he said, with a wry smile.

"Until next time," she agreed. "And hopefully, it'll be about your list."

He shook his head and smiled.

"May the Force be with you, my friend," she said.

He nodded. "Good luck," he said, softly.

She bowed once, then slipped off back into the relative safety of the tree-line, heading as quickly as she could for where she'd left her ship.

He hadn't given her the answer she'd hoped for, maybe, but Dr. Naar was still a valued friend, and one she was glad to have.

Even at a distance.