When Rex awoke the next morning, his head throbbed, and his throat felt cottony-dry. Gah. I didn't even strip down to my blacks. Fumbling for the canteen on his belt pouch, he propped himself up and drained it. Should've hydrated while drinking heavily. Or maybe I should've skipped that many drinks with Skywalker.

The chime for his door sounded, jarringly loud. "Come," he murmured, his voice edged with irritation.

"Hey," Ahsoka entered, two steaming cups in hand. "Master thought you might need some caf."

Greatest fekkin' General ever.

Ahsoka stood over him, an amused glint in her eyes. "I heard that, and the Master was right. We really need to work on your shields."

Pushing himself up to a sitting position, Rex gratefully accepted the offered caf. Ahsoka settled next to him on the bed, sipping her drink. Rex tried to push away the sudden awareness of her proximity. Focus on something else. Anything else.

"I'm usually better at shielding," he said, leaning back against the wall. After taking a sip of the caf, his eyes widened. "This is really good. Where'd it come from?"

A mischievous spark lit up Ahsoka's eyes. "It's from Anakin's personal stash. Once you're in on his good side, he shares the good caf."

Rex paused, processing. Was I not on his good side before?

"Don't overthink it," Ahsoka chuckled, reaching over to playfully ruffle his short hair. "Your hair's still in place. Looks the same every morning."

"That's because there's hardly any of it," he replied with a smirk. "It got in the way of the bucket, so I always shaved it off."

"I don't have any," Ahsoka teased, giving him a sly grin, "that's why I find yours fascinating. You should grow it longer."

Shaking his head, Rex felt the lingering effects of his headache fade. Every interaction with Ahsoka was just... comfortable.

Returning to their earlier topic, Ahsoka said, "Back to the shielding issue, Anakin insists you master this skill—Let me finish." She raised a hand to silence Rex's incoming objection. "He wants me to tutor you. Thinks it'll be a valuable lesson for me. You know, like giving me my own padawan, except, of course, you're a clone."

He snorted at the ridiculousness of being called a 'padawan.' But, then Ahsoka gave him a teasing smile and he decided to let it go. "Alright. I'm intrigued. Tell me more about this training the General thinks I need."

"Anakin says I should set aside time daily to work with you. Daily meditation sessions. I'm packed during the day but free at 2000 hours. Will that work for you?"

Checking his mental schedule, Rex considered the training for the upcoming Outer Rim sieges. He should be rational, not add to an already tight timetable. Yet, the thought of daily sessions with Ahsoka was more than appealing. "Strengthening my mental shields does sound valuable."

"Anakin will be pleased. He wasn't sure you'd be on board." She pulled out her datapad. "I've reserved Practice Room 221F for us. We'll continue every evening until you've mastered all the necessary skills."

"Sounds good," Rex replied, making a note in his compad.

Suddenly alert, Ahsoka glanced at her chrono. "You should get cleaned up. We have a briefing at 0800."

Confused, Rex looked at his own compad. 0745. He never slept this late. Drinking with Skywalker is just as dangerous as flying with him. He downed the remainder of his caf in one gulp.

"Here, finish mine too," Ahsoka offered, her lightsabers clacking softly against Rex's armor as she handed him her cup.

Reenergized by the two cups of caf, Rex felt ready to face the day. Although, he'd have to hurry if he was to make the meeting on time. "See you in the briefing room." He was already crossing his room, peeling off his armor plates and tossing them in his foot locker. Ahsoka leaned against his doorframe, seemingly absorbed in making an additional note on her datapad. On a playful whim, he added, "Don't forget the doughnuts."

In reality, he'd be lucky to grab a rations bar. But he enjoyed her reaction.

She glanced up at him, watching while he continued to efficiently strip down to his bodysuit. "Captain Rex, do you really think a trained Jedi's duty is to fetch you doughnuts?"

Laughing, he moved into the privacy of his tiny fresher, peeling off the rest of his suit. His officer's quarters, although smaller since Appo's assignment as commander, had its perks. The convenience of a personal sonic shower saved time. He heard the door swish shut behind Ahsoka.

As he quickly cleaned up, Rex tried to focus on the upcoming briefing. Yet, his thoughts returned to Ahsoka. There were worse ways to start a day than with her blue eyes and good company. If Skywalker believed he needed extra training, Rex wasn't about to argue.

# # #

Rex made it to the briefing room by 0757, freshly shaved and ready to talk strategy. Ahsoka was the last to arrive, just making it in the door by 0800, and balancing a tray with an impressive selection of sweet cakes, cookies, doughnuts, and dried fruits. She slid the tray down in the middle, along with a small stack of flimsi plates. Rex was impressed she'd managed it. It was very difficult to get the serving droids to deviate from the normal menu.

Skywalker arched an eyebrow. "Hungry this morning, Ahsoka?"

Rex noticed he didn't call her 'Snips' much anymore. But, then again, she'd outgrown the nickname as she'd matured as a commander.

Ahsoka plucked a generous slice of Poma-drupe fruit and settled down in a chair between Rex and her Master. "A bit. Thought we might all find it easier to strategize on a full stomach."

Obi-Wan helped himself to a twist near the bottom of the stack, not upsetting any of the others as he tugged it out. Rex briefly wondered if he used the Force to remove it so cleanly. He gave a gracious nod to Ahsoka. "Very thoughtful." He gave Anakin a searching look. "You never did these things when you were my padawan." He took a delicate bite of the pastry and hummed in delight, smacking his lips to remove a bite of sugar.

Anakin rolled his eyes but reached over and grabbed a doughnut generously stuffed with deep purple Aldeerani jelly.

Rex grabbed a Corellian twist before everything was gone. He made short work of the twist in several large bites. Between the two cups of caf and the sugar hitting his system, he was sure he could take on the CIS by himself.

"Alright, then," said Admiral Yularen, brushing a bit of flat cake from his fingers and managing to do so with his usual dignity, "Commander Appo, if you would start us off, please, with your update."

Appo was about to take an enormous bite of a twist. Rex noted he and Appo liked the same pastry.

"Yes, sir," Appo said, setting his twist down, and straightening up. He projected a schematic off his wristlink. "We received word yesterday from GAR Command. Our relief forces will be arriving by 0800 tomorrow. They will be bringing with them the added troop replacements for both the 501st and 212th to make up for the numbers we lost at…" he paused very briefly, a whole host of emotions flickering across his face, "...Darkknell and Kaz'haria."

Rex regarded him thoughtfully. Ahsoka had hinted to him Appo carried lingering trauma from the battle and abuse suffered while a prisoner of war. Many troopers suffered from bad dreams and lingering trauma after battle. Rex sometimes talked with his men and it seemed to help in most cases. Appo wasn't one of 'his men,' but maybe he needed to talk to somebody, too.

Appo flashed numbers up on the screen providing stats on the reinforcement they were receiving.

"To confirm," Rex asked, "we'll be back up to a full battalion, then?"

"Yes," Appo said, meeting Rex's gaze. "they're all shinies. But, at least we'll have the numbers again. You'll have your hands full, Captain, getting them all up to speed."

"Understood, we'll make troopers out of them. I'll recruit Fives to help with the effort. He's good with the shinies," Rex made several notes on his datapad, already shooting off a message to Fives with his new assignment.

"The ship dropping off the reinforcements will take the Bith prisoners back to the Core. Thankfully, we have no wounded since we won't need them to a medical evac for us," Yularen said. "We'll transition the peacekeeping over to the new forces, and can get underway again by 1800 tomorrow."

The rest of the meeting was split between the logistics of getting the new 'peacekeeping' force in place, (Rex found the name a bit ironic since Bith already struck him as a peaceful place without Republic intervention), and preliminary planning for engaging their forces on Anaxes.

Rex downed another twist to keep his blood sugar up as his fast clone metabolism burned through calories very quickly. He left with a compad full of notes for the upcoming incursion to Anaxes.

# # #

Rex was down on the Bith planet talking with Wolffe at the temporary command headquarters when the reinforcements arrived.

"Get a load of those larties," Wolffe watched the descending LAATs. "Those must be the latest model out of the Kuati shipyards."

Rex made a non-commital grunt, studying the new ships, wondering if the changes were cosmetic or if the ships were more maneuverable in battle. If they could offer his troops any sort of advantage in the upcoming engagements, he'd need to talk to the General about petitioning for some of the new hardware. Skywalker was a huge fan of fast ships and would probably want to try one out for himself. Although truth be told, the thought of Skywalker at the helm of a LAAT was objectively terrifying.

Wolffe gave him a sideways glance. "I know how your mind works. You're wondering why you didn't get any of those ships."

Rex watched the LAATs swoop in for a landing with a critical eye. The new ships were fast. Much more than cosmetic changes, then. He pivoted slightly to look at Wolffe. "The Fifth fleet lost half their LAATs at Kaz'haria. Could've replaced them with some of these new ones."

Wolffe grunted out a cynical snort. "Probably cleaned out the old stock and gave them to you and Cody. Luck of the draw. Speaking of which, have you heard from Cody this morning?"

"Eh, I didn't get a chance to check in with him this morning," Rex admitted, guilt tinging his voice as he still studied the LAATs with a critical eye as the remainder of the ships continued to land. "I overslept," he admitted.

Wolffe snorted. "You?" He stared Rex down. "Wait- are you feeling okay?"

Rex shook his head "No, it's nothing like that. I had drinks with the General last night."

Wolffe arched up an eyebrow with interest. "A drink, or several drinks?"

"Whatever it is, it was one more than I should have been drinking. Skywalker can really hold his liquor."

Wolffe chuckled, a deep low, rumbling baritone. "Drinking with your General. Can't say I've ever done that; what was it like?"

Rex felt a small surge of pride as he realized how unusual it was that Skywalker had chosen to confide in him. "A bit strange. But, not bad really. Skywalker is a really good sort, once you get to know him."

"I'll take your word for it. What were you drinking?"

"I don't know. Couldn't tell what it was, but the bottle was very unusual. Strange etchings on the outside- looked like Jedi fighting. Light side-dark side sort of shab."

"Probably a gift from the Chancellor."

"What?" Rex looked over at Wolffe, surprised.

"Fox said your General regularly meets with the Chancellor. More than any other Jedi. Surely you were aware."

Rex looked genuinely surprised. "Skywalker thinks well of him, but I wasn't aware they met so often."

"Fox used the word obsessed. Says the Chancellor has an unhealthy interest in General Skywalker." Wolffe folded his arms across his chest and gave Rex a critical look. "I would think you'd be watching that more carefully."

"Why would I?" Even as he said the words, he was getting a bad feeling about all of it.

Wolffe leaned in, lowering his voice, "Fox gets a bad vibe around the Chancellor."

"Since when are you so close to Fox? I thought you didn't even like him?"

"Eh, I don't like anybody," Wolffe grunted out in his usual cynical tone, "but I've made it my business to know what's going down on Corrie. And, I don't dislike him."

"High praise coming from you."

"Fox is going through a lot."

"What does that mean?"

Wolffe avoided the question, directing Rex's attention to the landing area. "Here we go." The final shuttle touched down and three natborn officers stepped out, with the ranks of Admiral, Commander, and Captain. "It's all... natborns."

Rex didn't like the thought that clone command officers were being replaced.

The Captain stepped away to give orders to the newly arrived clones, while the higher-ranking officers approached Wolffe and Rex.

Rex saluted sharply. "Sir, I am Captain Rex and this is-"

"We know you are. We read your briefing reports."

Wolffe smoothly cut in. "You have us at a disadvantage, sirs. And, you are?"

The natborn huffed out an annoyed breath as if speaking to Rex and Wolffe was a waste of his time. "I am Admiral Brunwoll. This is Commander Nordell. We are here to formally take over the peacekeeping operations on Clakdor VII. You are relieved."

Rex straightened up in surprise. "Sir, we were under the impression we would use this day as a transition period between our two forces to familiarize you with our operations."

Admiral cut him with a dismissive wave. "That will not be necessary. You may go."

"But, sir," Rex objected, "this is highly irregular, S.O.P. dictates we-"

Admiral Brunwoll leaned in toward Rex. "Are you hard of hearing, clone? I said you are dismissed." He turned his back on Rex and Wolffe and walked away.

"He called you a clone," Wolffe's tone was glacial as he stared at the Admiral's retreating back.

"I am a clone."

"It was clearly an insult."

"We've been called a lot worse, Wolffe."

"By our commanding officers?" Wolffe shook his head and spun on his heel back toward the landing area containing the older LAATs. "I'm heading back up to my ship."

Rex joined him. "I will take this up with Skywalker."

Wolffe stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Are you sure you can trust him?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course, I trust him," he stared down Wolffe.

"Having drinks with the man doesn't change the fact he's close to the Chancellor."

"So?"

"Fox doesn't trust the Chancellor."

Rex rolled his eyes beneath his bucket. "No wonder you and Fox are getting along well these days. You're both paranoid." He shook his head. "You're wrong about Skywalker." He shook off Wolffe's grip and headed off to find a ride back up to the Resolute.

# # #

A/N: *The etchings on the brandy bottle are inspired by the artwork in Palpatine's office. Palpatine was so confident in his ability to deceive during the Clone Wars he openly displayed Sith artwork and artifacts, even though he met regularly with members of the Jedi Council.