Author's Note:
Hello! It's been a long time since I updated, again, completely unintentionally, but life got a little crazy. Whoops. And this chapter is significantly shorter than the rest. Double whoops. As far as tone goes, I didn't feel like this chapter fit with the next section I have planned. So, you get a mini-chapter. BUT- good news to anyone who has kept up with this story- I can guarantee a new, normal length chapter next week, so check back in on Wednesday.
As far as content warnings go, be warned of extensive medical injury description, but nothing gory.
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Chapter 8
The day Anakin rolled Ahsoka's wheelchair into Bariss' room was the day her shields walled up tight. It was a new experience for him. Even when she was furious with him, or trying to hide something, she'd never succeeded in fully blocking him out. There was always a trickle of something parallel to his, emotions or thoughts, so constant that most of the time he forgot about it. But this time, everything stopped. The stream dammed up. He couldn't sense a sentiment or a reaction, a sensation or insight. Even her pain was blocked from him, hidden like it never existed. It was unsettling. He wished Ahsoka would let down her guard, but he supposed he couldn't blame her. Looking over Bariss' broken form was difficult for anyone, let alone a good friend.
Bariss was alive. He'd told Ahsoka the moment she remembered their fight. But the Mirialan padawan's status was unstable, and the medical droids still didn't know if she was going to make it, even days later. Anakin watched Ahsoka analyze the other girl's condition, her eyes roaming over the tubes in Bariss' mouth, nose and chest and the IV in the crook of her right elbow. The girl's left arm was severed below the shoulder, taken by Ahsoka's lightsaber during their fight. There was bacta bandages wrapped over her head and torso, so numerous that one could barely see skin. The doctors were pumping her full of nutrients, antibodies for a low white blood cell count, and liquid bacta for internal injuries. Probes covered her chest, monitoring her heartbeat, and the oxygen pump turned her breathing into a mechanical pulse.
Back on the transport, Ahsoka had swiped her saber diagonally across Bariss. The lightsaber severed the lower ribs, singeing a lung and the stomach, and lacerating the large and small intestines. Add on the battery from being tossed around the ship, and Bariss was suffering a major concussion, a couple broken vertebrae and ribs, and an extensive amount of bruising. Her posture would shift. They didn't know if she had nerve damage or not. If so, she might not walk again. If her intestinal wounds turned putrid, she might never eat food by mouth again, a consequence of the GI track puncture. And even if she recovered, Bariss would never serve in combat again, as a Jedi commander or otherwise. She might not even make it as a Jedi.
Anakin knew all this, and he watched as the hope in Ahsoka's eyes dimmed, staring at her unconscious friend, realizing it herself. He realized he should feel more compassionate toward the Mirialan padawan, but gazing over Ahsoka's blue montrals and the valley between them, over the orange tone of her shoulders, and the beaded padawan braid swinging from her headdress, the only emotion he felt was overwhelming relief. His padawan was awake. His padawan was stable. His padawan would heal. Anakin gripped the wheelchair handles a little tighter, though Ahsoka was going nowhere. They stared at Bariss' comatose form, unspeaking, for a long time, listening to the monitors beep and her breathing sigh. Then, when Ahsoka's eyelids drooped and she shook herself awake, Anakin turned towards the door. She didn't protest. Anakin reached into the Force and nudged her presence with his, like resting a hand on her shoulder. Her shields were so solidly fashioned, he wasn't even sure she noticed. He supposed it didn't matter right now. She was in shock.
He steered her back to her room in silence.
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Thanks for reading. If you feel inclined to review, I would love and appreciate it! Like I said earlier, check in next Wednesday for chapter 9.