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"Wolffe." You don't think, in your entire time of working with the 104th, you've seen Wolffe calm. He's always angry, bitter, or irritated, a frown permanently etched on his face. You'd only known them for what? A month? They were helping liberate your planet from the separatists, and you were the link between the rebellion and the clones. Never once, you think, you've heard Wolffe laugh.
That's why Wolffe, laid beside you, face completely calm, terrifies you. He almost smiles at you, looking at you with a sigh. Something creaks above you and look up at the support beam, the only thing that saved you from being completely crushed. "What?"
"How are you so calm?" You say with a cough, dust settling in your lungs. Your lungs rattle and tell you something is wrong, something is punctured, but you don't want to make Wolffe worry.
"Easy. There's nothing to worry about. In a couple of minutes, General Koon will get us out." Wolffe says, but you can tell he doesn't believe in what he says. He slowly sits up, head brushing against the support bar. He tugs off a glove and stretches his hand, and you're pretty sure one of his fingers are broken.
"You're lying." You say with another cough, and Wolffe looks over you. "Tell me the truth, Wolffe."
Wolffe lets out a sigh and pulls his glove back on. Things shift above you and rubble gently rains down on you both, dust and rocks that make you start coughing again. "It is the truth."
"No, it's not." You bite back, finally sitting up. "Now save me the sugarcoated version and tell me if I'm about to die, Wolffe."
"We're running out of oxygen, I'm pretty sure I have a concussion, the filters on my helmet no longer work so were both breathing in dust and sand, an excavation team will take too long to reach us and I give us about ten minutes before that beam crushes the both of us." Well, Wolffe never does sugar coat anything, does he?
The words settle in your brain and you watch him intently. Ten minutes. Ten minutes until you're crushed to death, less if you run out of oxygen. You suck in a low breath and try your hardest not to cry in front of him. "Alright then."
"You're the one who wanted me to tell you," Wolffe muttered, laying back down with a groan. "How are you holding up?"
"Legs hurt. Arms hurt. Everything hurts." You press a hand to your side and wince, coming away with blood. Wolffe looks over at your concerned, and you just shake your head. "It's fine."
"Now you're the one who's lying," Wolffe says, but he doesn't move to help, so you lay in the dust and wait for death to come. You trace over the small area you've been given, and you couldn't even tell where'd you been only an hour ago. An hour ago, you'd been stood in an office briefing Wolffe and his crew-
Wolffes crew.
You quickly sit up, ignoring the pain that it causes and whip your head around. "We're alone."
"Maybe you're the one who hit your head. Of course we're alone." He says like it's the most normal thing in the world, but there were men with you.
"What happened to the others?" Wolffe gives you a look and you gasp, the reality of the situation settling around you. They're crushed, dead, bodies buried somewhere near you. Wolffe slowly sits up and places a hand on your shoulder. "B-But they...They..."
"They were caught in the blast, alright? We're just clones." You'd heard that saying enough times. Just Clones. Just soldiers. Just men willing to die whenever it's needed. "At least we made it."
At least. But how long do you really have left? "How long until the oxygen runs out?"
"No idea. If there are cracks, we might not have to worry about it, if we're sealed off? Twenty minutes?" The bar creaks about you and you shudder, wrapping your arms around yourself. "Lay back down, you're bleeding."
"I'm f-" Wolffe just gives you a look and you slowly lay back down, but he stays sitting up. "What're you doing?"
"Trying to hotwire my comms to see if I can get a signal." You watch him fiddle with the broken pieces, but it's no use. Somehow, you understand that you're dying and that no one will come to save you. You expect to cry, to scream, anything, but you just feel numb. He finally tosses them off to the side with a sigh. "No good kriffing-"
"Calm down, Wolffe." You wanted to save as much oxygen as possible, and Wolffe throwing a fit is not good.
Wolffe glared over at you, gesturing around himself. "Calm down? calm down? How the hell am I supposed to be calm when we're trapped in a building and about to die?"
"You were calm earlier." You say quietly and Wolffe huffs.
"I was calm to make sure you didn't freak out, considering you once got a papercut and almost cried." It'd been a long day, and you're not proud of that moment, but still.
"Maker, that was one time! You don't need to baby me all the time, I might not be a soldier but I can still-" Wolffe growls, growls, and leans over you with a sneer.
"You are a civilian. Don't get any of this twisted - You're just a kid playing soldier. 'Oh, I'm a Rebel', no you're not, you're a nuisance and nothing you'll ever do for the war effort will ever come out good. The most you can accomplish is getting in my way, and you're great at that." He rants, and at the end, he picks up a rock and shatters it against the wall.
The words settle hot in your brain, every sentence tearing you apart internally. "You're a piece of osik, you know that?" You snap, propping yourself up on your elbows. "At least I'm the one who got to choose to fight in the war. You can mock me all you want, but at the end of the day, I'm the one who wants to help. I can't say the same about you." How many times has Wolffe just stood off to the side while you struggled? How many times has he insulted you, or given you extra work just to watch you in pain? "And if that's how you really feel, I guess you won't have to deal with me once this is over."
"Listen, I-" Wolffe cuts himself off and you see anger turn into something almost like shame. You both stay in silence for a while, the gravity of your situation dangling over you with every creak and shift of the building. "We're going to make it out alive." Wolffe finally says. "And I mean it."
"You promise?" The numbness is starting to fade and everything becomes sharper. The pain, the fear, it all centres itself in your brain and your chest starts to heave.
"I promise." Wolffe moves closer to you, and you try to prop yourself up against but you pull on something and gasp, head smacking back against the floor. "Are you sure you're alright?"
Your hand presses itself to your side. "Nothing you can help with."
"I'm trained in first aid," He offers, and you shake your head. "I can do CPR?"
"I'm not letting you kiss me," Is the first thing that comes out of your mouth and you can't contain your laughter, head tilting back against the floor. "No offence, Commander."
"None taken," Wolffe says with he hint of a smile as he lays beside you. You both listen to the building shift again and debris rains down again, and the floor almost starts to shake. Your hand grips Wolffes out of instinct and you expect him to bat it away, but he closes his hand around yours and squeezes gently. "You know, the first thing I'm going to do when we get out of here is have a good meal. I don't care if it's in the mess, I just need to eat something besides stupid ration bars."
You close your eyes and picture escaping, as futile as it sounds. "I'm having a hot shower and wasting all of the hot water we have, I never want to have a speck of dust or dirt on me again."
"Eh, I've had worse." He mutters and you look up at him with a glare"Ever been covered head to toe in mud?"
"Can't say I have, no." The building falls silent against but you leave your hand in Wolffes, finding comfort in the feeling. "You know, when I pictured you finally going out, I pictured something far grander with this."
"Do you picture my death often?" Wolffe asks and you laugh softly, resting your forehead against his shoulder.
"Only when you really got on my nerves. But I always pictured like you sacrificing yourself, or going out in a blaze of glory or a big explosion." You say, and you never pictured yourself ending this way either. Maybe shot by a droid, maybe growing old, something...something normal. Not being crushed by a building or running out of oxygen. "You don't deserve this."
Wolffe chuckles and the sound breaks your ears, never once thinking Wolffe had it in himself to laugh. "At least this was is peaceful."
"Being crushed by a building is peaceful?" You ask, exasperated, and Wolffe looks down at you with a soft smile.
"Well, considering we're running out of oxygen far faster than I thought we would, I doubt the beams going to kill us anymore." Well, now you have another thing to worry about. Not being able to breathe. "It'll be like going to sleep."
"I suppose that's nice." You can feel the air get thinner and it becomes harder to breathe, ever so slightly. You feel your chest heave and Wolffe squeezes your hand again.
"Calm your breathing, we want to last as long as we can." You try to calm yourself down but nothing seems to work, your chest heaving as tears come to your eyes. "Come on now, cyare, breath with me."
Wolffe shifts you onto your side and pulls you against his, pressing your hand over his heart, and you feel his chest rise and fall. "It's no use, Commander, really."
"Of course it is, we're going to survive." Everything starts to blur, and you feel Wolffes grip tighten around you. "You are staying with me, you have you, come on, please-"
"It's hard to breathe with a punctured lung, Wolffe." You finally admit and Wolffe sucks in a breath, staring down at you. His hand closes over yours on his chest and he squeezes it tight.
"Why didn't you tell me?" You suppose, while you've never seen Wolffe calm, you've never seen him afraid either. This is the closest thing you'll ever get - Dying in each other's arms is the closest you'll ever get to seeing Wolffe afraid.
You smile up at him and shrug. "I didn't want to worry you."
"I could've..." There's nothing either of you could've done, really. "I could've helped."
"No, you couldn't have." Wolffe tucks some hair away from your face with a sigh. "You better not get sappy on me, Commander, it'd ruin your reputation."
"Ha ha." He deadpans. "I'm not getting sappy, I'm just worried about you."
"That's a first," You say with a yawn. "Must've hit your head pretty hard."
The world starts to fade, and Wolffe pulls you even closer to him. "I'm always worried about you." He finally admits, and he waits for your response. Instead, you're completely still in his arms and he sucks in a breath, looking down at you. Maybe, if he thinks hard enough, he can pretend you're sleeping.
Maybe, if he prays hard enough, the evacuation team will find you in the minute you have left.
Maybe, if had he listens really hard enough, he would've heard General Koon's shouts before he succumbed and passed out, you curled in his arms.
-
"You promise me she'll be okay?" The first thing that tells you you're alive is pain. Pure, though somewhat dull, pain. Like you'd been hit by a truck, or maybe fell down the worlds largest flight of stairs. The next thing is the hand in yours, squeezing every so often.
"We got her out of bacta, her surgery went great, give it a week and she should be able to get out of bed." So Wolffe was right. You did survive. You slowly crack an eye open and instantly close them again with a groan, the room far too bright. The hand tightens in yours, and you squeeze it back.
"Are you awake?" Your turn your head towards the voice and hum, eyes still squeezed shut. "Holy kriff, do you have any idea how worried I was about you? Next time your lung collapses you better tell me, I swear to maker, you were dead for-"
You flimsily raise your free hand and wave it. "M'fine now."
"Oh, shut up." Wolffe says, exasperated. "You were blue! Like your skin actually turned blue you were that dead."
"Secretly a Chiss." You finally open your eyes again and let yourself adjust to the light. Wolffe stands over you with a clone doctor, and he looks perfectly fine. No more bruising, nothing. "Didn't you know?"
"I'm going to kill you one day, I hope you know that," Wolffe says with a huff. "But I'm glad you're alright."
You smile and lift your head up and instantly decide against it, dropping it back down to the pillow. "Can't get rid of me that easily. Besides, I'm great at being in your way."
"Okay, that's uncalled for." You giggle and squeeze his hand, and he squeezes back. "How are you feeling?"
"I've been better. You?" You ask, and he knocks against his skull.
"No more concussion, everything's healed, I'm back on duty." You share a smile and it suddenly dawns on your that the doctor is still stood there, flicking through a datapad. He smirks between the two of you and gestures towards the ward.
"Well, I'll give you two a moment, just call if you need me." Wolffe glares daggers into the back of the doctors head as he goes, and you laugh softly.
There's something that happens between two people when they share a life-threatening experience. Maybe it's a bond you form, maybe its the trauma you'll share, but something ties you together if you want it to or not. Before, Wolffe wouldn't have cared if you were hurt or in a medbay, but now here he is, holding your hand and smiling down at you like it's all he's ever done. "Ever manage to get that meal?"
"Messhall food is terrible." Wolffe grimes. "So not really, no."
"You had a building collapse on you, you should have some offtime and go get some good food." You shift and Wolffe lets his hand slip from yours to brush your hair out of your face. "I didn't get my shower either, so it's okay."
"You still need one, you smell like old bacta." You scrunch your face up and smack his arm as he laughs. "What! It's the truth."
You stick your tongue out at him and he hides his laugh behind his fist. "You're just being mean."
"I suppose it's better than how you usually smell." You reach up and smack him again, harder, and he grabs your wrist. "It's a joke!"
"Oh maker, is Commander Wolffe telling a joke? Someone get a medic, he's hit his head again." You say with a snort and he drops your hand. "I didn't know you had a sense of humour."
"Believe it or not, I'm not actually a droid." You gasp and let your jaw drop. "I know, shocking."
"My whole life is a lie." Wolffes commlink goes off and he steps off the side to answer. You wonder what did change between you - Even looking at him seemed different, like looking at him for the first time. He finally steps back and opens his mouth to say something, and then promptly shuts it. "Do you have to go?"
"Yes, unfortunately. Get well soon." He rushes out and walks away awkwardly, before turning on his heel and coming back to you. "Would you...Would you want to go out for dinner?"
If someone had asked you, 24 hours ago, if you'd willingly go to dinner with Wolffe, you would've called them crazy. "It's a date."