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“Kanan, open up!” Hera called, knocking on the fresher door.
Kanan’s body was trembling violently. He could barely grip the counter tight enough to stay upright while he threw up in the sink. Besides the nausea, he felt as if ten thousand needles were pricking his body at once. His head felt fuzzy and he felt as if he was floating, almost as if he wasn’t in his own body. He felt himself drooling overtly, but with how badly his body was shaking, he could do nothing to stop it.
“Kanan!” Hera called again, sounding much more worried.
“Hunnnng.” Kanan answered. It was the only sound he could get his uncooperative lips to make.
“Alright, I’m coming in.” Hera said.
Kanan could hear Hera trying to open the locked door, to no avail. He wanted to open the door and let her in, but he could barely hold himself upright and it hurt to move.
Suddenly, Kanan felt Ezra’s presence on the other side of the door as well, concentrating on unlocking the door with the Force.
Time seemed to be moving in bursts of understanding and nothingness, one second Kanan was alone in the fresher, the next he was laying on the floor with a concerned Hera and Ezra by his side.
“Kanan, Kanan!” He heard Ezra say.
“Ezra, we need to get him to Phoenix Home’s medbay. Go get Zeb.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“I don’t know. Just go get Zeb so we can find out.”
Kanan moaned, trying to join the conversation.
“I know, love.” Hera said, brushing some of the loose strands of his ponytail out of his face. “Ezra is getting Zeb so we can take you to the medbay.”
Kanan wanted to tell her he had heard all that, but he couldn’t get his lips to cooperate. Instead another groan was the only thing to escape.
He wasn’t sure how long he was laying on the fresher floor with Hera stroking his head, but it felt like an eternity with how much pain he was in. He thought if he just lay still, the needle-like pain would stop, but he couldn’t get his body to stop trembling. Everything hurt. He felt strange. Maybe if he just closed his eyes for a moment….
“Kanan!” Hera said sharply, jerking him back into awareness. “I need you to stay with me.”
“Hunnnng.”
“Just hold on. We are almost to the medbay.” That was Zeb’s voice. When did he get here? Looking around bewildered, Kanan suddenly realized Zeb was carrying him.
The next thing Kanan became aware of were a lot of voices he didn’t recognize. Whatever they were saying sounded important, urgent almost, but Kanan couldn’t get his brain to focus on them. He felt the trembling in his body become worse, the pain seemed to increase tenfold. Finally, he couldn’t take it any longer, so he allowed himself to slip into blissful nothingness.
“It’s a good thing Pikaati Gas is a common poison to humans.” Thalli Gaa, the Rodian doctor was telling Hera. “If it had been something else, the antidote would have been harder to find, but luckily most medcenters and medbays carry it. There are many cases of this type of poisoning in a standard year.”
“We assume Mr. Jarrus had no idea he was exposed to the gas. It is odorless and cannot be seen by the human eye.” The medical droid standing next to Doctor Gaa said.
“He must have breathed it in on the mission.” Zeb said. The whole crew—including Chopper—was standing in the hallway just outside of Phoenix Home’s medbay.
“Well, then why didn’t you, Sabine or Ezra get sick?” Hera asked, turning to Zeb.
“Kanan got separated from us.” Sabine said. “It wasn’t for long though.”
“If Mr. Jarrus had been exposed to the gas for more than a couple of minutes, his symptoms would have been much more severe.” Doctor Gaa said.
“How can anything be more severe than three seizures in less that twenty minutes?” Zeb exclaimed indignantly.
“Zeb!” Sabine said, shooting him a glare.
Deciding she needed to de-escalate the situation, Hera interrupted by asking Doctor Gaa if they could go in and see Kanan yet.
“I suppose so.” Doctor Gaa said. “But keep in mind, we are keeping him sedated for the time being. The antidote works better if the patient is unconscious. Its smell often causes patients to become nauseous if they are awake for its administration.”
“When will he wake up?” Ezra asked. Hera realized it was the first remark the terrified boy had made since they had brought Kanan to the medbay.
“Some time within the next five or six hours.” Doctor Gaa said. “The antidote inhalation treatment will be over in four hours, but the sedative takes a little while longer to wear off. Don’t expect him to be feeling one hundred percent by then though. It will probably take Mr. Jarrus a little over a week to feel like himself again.”
“Thank you, Doctor Gaa.” Hera said as she and the rest of her crew entered the room to visit Kanan.
The first thing Ezra noticed upon entering the room was that Kanan didn’t seem to be looking any better than when he and Hera had found him having a seizure on the floor of the fresher. To say that Ezra had been terrified at that moment would have been an understatement.
The next thing he noticed was the breathing mask situated on Kanan’s mouth and nose. Every few seconds it puffed out a crimson colored gas that Kanan would then inhale.
As Ezra stood at the door, taking in the sight of Kanan laying prone on the bed, Hera had already made her way to Kanan’s side and sat down in the lone chair next to his bed. She had taken his hand in hers and was gripping it tightly from the way her knuckles had turned a greenish-yellow. Ezra then realized that this whole ordeal would have terrified Hera as well.
Stepping further into the room, Ezra thought back to all the times he had seen Kanan sick or in pain. None of them had been like this. Ezra knew he wouldn’t quickly forget the way Kanan looked when he was found convulsing violently on the floor, unresponsive and unaware of what was happening around him. His eyes had been rolled back in his head, his hair sticking to his face, his body covered in sweat. Ezra shuttered at the thought of it.
At least he was going to be okay. Ezra thought, placating himself.
Whatever was going to happen during Kanan’s recovery, they would get through it together. As a family.