Fourteen
"Jak!" It was Switch.
"Just a sec, I need to send this through."
The clone orderly jiggled slightly on the spot as she hit the save button and then slid into the seat next to her.
"You have to stop looking OK?"
"Why?" She smiled as she looked into the earnest face next to her.
"Because you can't keep using my code, that's why. Its classified Jaks."
"But - "
"But nothing. If they do an audit, they'll see my log on searching the list. You have to stop, they'll haul my shebs back to Kamino for snooping where I shouldn't. They know I have no reason to search the data base like that. Just stop. Now. OK?"
Jakline sat back in her chair and looked at her friend. Switch had been loyal without fault and had helped her initially when she needed a friend.
When all the tears in the world wouldn't help, Switch could.
So he started by checking the list which was updated daily at 0600.
The list of those injured and killed in action.
The list of the missing.
And then that day when he finally turned up – missing.
She was looking over her friends shoulder that morning.
Her heart caught in her throat when she saw the numbers she had dedicated to memory.
If it wasn't so painful she would have laughed at the irony; someone so lost only to be found on a list stating the obvious.
Jakline on the other hand saw it as a sign.
She worked harder than before, determined to qualify and finish ahead of her peers.
To be an attending at Army Med the second he was found.
She had justified it in her own mind, refusing to give in and move on.
As long as she kept working, and checking, she could keep going.
The alternative, to unbearable to face.
.
"I heard you were out and up."
Niner turned and smiled broadly. The spinal fractures had healed and he was about to begin the gruelling physiotherapy regime to get him back to work.
Only this time, he was fighting for the other side.
It didn't bare thinking.
The cruel twist of fate that saw the end of the Clone Wars and the beginning of something worse.
They had no choice.
A Republic cog replaced by a variation of the roundel they served under with pride.
The symbol however, was of no consequence.
They were trained to kill, it didn't matter who. But Niner now had a new objective.
To get back to Darman.
Always by his side, his best friend had sat guard throughout his time in bacta, right up until Niner could stand and he felt secure in leaving him alone.
He also never spoke of the night both their worlds changed.
It was now Niner's turn to repay the favour; time for the sarge to step up, settle the sore and make things right.
If only he knew just how the fek he was going to do it.
.
Jakline felt as though she MIA as well. It never crossed her mind that the last time he left her it may have been the last. He was RC, the biggest and the most armoured of them all. Lying naked on the bed she watched as he dressed quickly, mumbling something to himself before he turned to her and smiled while clipping his chrono back on.
"Where are you going?"
"Don't rightly know. We are being assigned to the 212th Attack Battalion. Must be something big," he grunted as he sat down next to her and bent over to pull on a boot. When he finished, he clasped Jakline's head in his hands and sent a searing kiss onto her mouth. She swayed as he let her go and stood.
'Love you," he stated simply.
"Love you more," was the only reply.
So every day she would log on using someone else's code and check the status. As long as the M didn't change into a K, she was happy.
He didn't know that she had achieved her goal and qualified. He couldn't have known she had never taken another lover, her heart solely belonging to him. And she would continue to work hard, continue to prove herself by helping those in need and wait; wait for his status to be changed and walk through those doors and back into her life.
It was the only thing keeping her going.
She looked behind her quickly and hit the enter button on the key board, the curser blinking again, like a familiar friend.
She blew out a long breath, nothing had changed.
It was, as it always had been.
CC-5576-39 ; MIA
.
