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Rex wasn’t running but he wasn’t walking either.
He was moving briskly down the white corridors of the Venator. His speedy pace didn’t go unnoticed as any trooper who came across the Lieutenant quickly sidestepped him. Some might’ve even saluted, although Rex didn’t pay much attention to them. He might’ve offered an absentminded nod in return for the first few but the closer Rex got to the medbay A-3, the faster he moved.
The doors had barely parted when Rex darted inside. He had taken maybe a step into the large room, all geared up to keep going, when a cool but undeniably firm voice stopped him.
“Unless you’re carrying your decapitated head in your arms, there’ll be no running in my medbay, Lieutenant,” Hook informed him, his voice easily carrying over the noises of the medbay. Out of the five CMOs of the newly formed battalion, Hook was the one who made almost everyone a little nervous, his calm visage hiding a spine of pure durasteel that, allegedly, didn’t even waver in the face of pissed-off Alphas.
So naturally, Rex froze, head jerking to the side in alarm.
Except that Hook wasn’t even looking at him. The CMO had his back to Rex, reading something from a datapad as he stood next to a biobed containing an unconscious trooper.
“No, sir, I wasn’t about to run,” Rex hastily assured him.
“Good, because any sudden movements would stress out my patients, and I’d really not want that to happen,” Hook commented, typing something else on the datapad before turning around. His expression, as always, was one of serenity, and for a second Rex couldn’t help but think just how much it reminded him of the Jedi Generals. But unlike any Jedi Rex had seen, Hook carried two jagged scars on the right side of his face, one uneven line starting from the corner of his eye and the other beneath it. Both of them ran down from his cheek to his chin, and the one starting under his eye kept going all the way down to his throat.
“Understandable, sir,” Rex replied, eyes drifting away from Hook, scanning the almost full medbay, taking in the medics moving between the rows of vode they were taking care of. He saw a few familiar faces but luckily no one looked badly harmed. Most of the men were clearly taking advantage of the extra sleep they had been given.
“If you’re looking for the Commander, he’s at the back,” Hook noted, already standing next to another trooper, this one awake and slightly alarmed at receiving the CMO’s attention.
Rex’s brows drew together, confused. “Back? What do you mean by that?” he asked, only to still again when Hook’s even gaze turned back to him again.
The vod on the bed visibly relaxed.
“While the Commander’s injury looked far more serious than it proved to be in the end, I decided it would be best to keep him away from the men,” Hook explained, unconcerned despite just having admitted to isolating the leading Commander of the 212th Attack Battalion.
The unease that had been writhing inside Rex like a bed of eels ever since he’d learned about Cody’s injury disappeared as his stomach dropped. “What do you –? Why would you need to do that?” Rex demanded a little sharply, already taking a step toward the CMO.
Hook blinked, lowering the datapad he’d holding aloft. “There’s no need for that tone, Lieutenant. We’ll monitor the Commander for 24 hours just in case, but otherwise he’s in good condition,” he informed Rex coolly, eyes durasteel cold for a second.
Heeding the warning, Rex decided it was best to stay quiet. Concerned or not, no clone wanted to end up with a medic’s ire upon them, let alone a medic like Hook. Instead, Rex’s eyes flickered to the other end of the medbay and back to Hook, who pointed there with a thumb.
“Last biobed on the left with the curtains pulled,” Hook said, already turning back to the trooper, who had watched the whole exchange with wide eyes, only to freeze when the CMO’s attention was back on him.
“Thank you, sir,” Rex nodded and started walking in said direction.
“Lieutenant,” Hook called.
Rex stopped, glancing over his shoulder. Hook’s eyes were on him again.
“Make sure you have your comm ready,” Hook suggested and for a second, Rex could’ve sworn that the CMO was smiling.
Alarmed, Rex turned and all but hightailed further into the medbay. Most was of it made up of the large ward with four long rows of biobeds. Any surgeries were done in smaller, separate operation theaters, and one of the few bacta tanks this medbay had been equipped with was held in its own room, too. There really wasn’t any privacy except for the curtains that could be pulled around each biobed. Many of them weren’t in use, so it was easy for Rex to locate the one that held Cody.
As Hook had said, the last biobed on the left had the privacy curtains pulled closed. The worry from earlier returned and if Rex pushed his way through the curtains with a little more force than was needed? Well, there was no one to witness that. (He hoped.)
But there was Cody, lying on the biobed with a thin blanket drawn over him. Relief coursed through Rex, his shoulders falling like someone had cut his off a strings. He made somewhat haphazardly sure that the curtains were properly closed before taking a step closer.
Cody looked peaceful and pain-free, which eased Rex some more. The medics had cleaned and dressed him in clean blacks. Rex noted the dark spots beneath Cody’s eyes and the stubble covering his cheeks. If not for the bacta patch on his temple, it was almost as if Cody was just resting after a long campaign.
There was no chair, so Rex sat awkwardly on the edge of the biobed. He wanted to reach for Cody’s hand but didn’t want to disturb him either. So, Rex settled on watching him instead, the very last remains of the concern and fear Rex had felt when he’d heard about Cody’s accident leaving him with each breath Cody slowly drew.
He sat there for maybe ten minutes, listening to the comings and goings of the medbay (tensing every time Hook’s voice floated closer) when Cody groaned, shifting on the biobed. Instantly, Rex was up onto his feet and leaning closer, watching like a shriek-hawk how Cody’s eyes slowly opened. He watched him blink slowly and a small frown appeared on Cody’s face as he took stock of his whereabouts. It didn’t seem like he was in any pain, something Rex was glad of since it meant that Cody had been given enough painkillers, even though he was clearly a little out of it.
“Hey,” Rex said, smiling when that dazed gaze met him. His smile grew bigger when Cody blinked again, his frown melting away too. “How are you – “ Rex started, only to be interrupted.
“Did the medics send you? Because, wow,” Cody whispered, eyes big and not just his pupils.
Rex would deny the sound he had just made until the day he died. He had expected some kind of painkiller-induced loopiness but nothing like this.
Amazingly, Cody didn’t seem to mind at all that Rex sounded like a choking frog, his glassy eyes blatantly roving all over him.
“You’re the prettiest vod I’ve ever seen. Who are you?” he asked, sounding genuinely taken by Rex’s looks.
“Who –? It’s me, Cody!” “
“Cody? But I’m Cody?” Cody said, sounding a little baffled while still looking at Rex like a cadet who had been given a brand-new DC-15A rifle, and Rex was that rifle.
“No, I mean, yes! You’re Cody but I’m Rex!” Rex exclaimed a little wheezily. Kriff, they had definitely given Cody the good stuff and then some.
“Oh, we know each other?” Cody asked, completely missing just how close to Rex was losing it.
“Know each other? We’ve been sharing pods since we were cadets,” Rex whispered after leaning even closer.
The dark eyes, (and yes, this close, Rex saw that they were almost nothing but pupils) popped wide open as Cody’s jaw dropped. “We have?! Holy kark, I hit the jackpot,” he declared, sounding genuinely awestruck, and this time Rex couldn’t stop the quick bark of laughter before quickly reigning it in.
Falling quiet, Cody blinked a few times, clearly processing this “new” information, and Rex suddenly remembered what Hook had told him. Hastily, he activated the comm on his vambrace, setting the recording system on just in time.
“Does that mean we’ve kissed yet?” Cody asked, looking quite concerned about the possibility of no kisses.
Kark, Rex was smiling so widely that his cheeks were going to be in pain after this. “Several times,” Rex replied a little smugly. “We even kissed last night,” he added with a wink.
The concern turned into pure delight, and to Rex’s amusement, Cody actually made a wobbly fist pump. “Wizard,” he whispered in breathless wonder.
“Yeah, that’s pretty wizard,” Rex agreed, feeling his shoulders start to shake when Cody nodded sagely. Rex was a little eager and scared to see what he might say next.
“Hey. Hey, Rex.”
Rex bit his lip, carefully angling the comm so that it would catch Cody’s every word. “What?”
“Do I call you babe? Or do you call me babe?” Cody asked, both sounding and looking so serious that Rex was pretty sure he ruptured something from trying to hold back his laughter.
Before he could reply, the curtains were pulled open, and Hook stepped through them.
“I see you’re awake, Commander,” Hook commented, typing something on his datapad as he checked the monitors on the other side of the biobed. “Any nausea or pain?”
“No, nothing,” Cody replied, seemingly a little perturbed at the interruption. His eyes followed Hook’s movements with open curiosity. “I’m just a little stunned that I’m sharing an armor locker with such a handsome vod,” he added with a grin as he looked back at Rex.
Hook’s fingers stilled for a second, and Rex flushed up to his ears, while Cody, blessed, drugged up Cody, smiled dreamily at him.
“I see,” Hook murmured as he continued his check-up, but Rex saw the look the CMO gave him from the corner of his eye and suddenly Rex had this bad feeling about the whole situation. “Yes, the Lieutenant is rather attractive, I agree,” Hook said smoothly, leaning close to check on both of Cody’s pupils with a small light.
He barely gave any attention to Cody’s flinching at the bright light or Rex flushing even darker.
“Attractive?” Cody repeated with a squint. “Rex’s more than attractive. He’s pretty. And hot. Very hot.” Cody seemed to realise something then, because he tried to push himself into a more upright position, only to be pushed down by Hook, who had barely looked away from his datapad before his arm shot out.
“Turn around.”
“What?” Rex wheezed but for a completely different reason than before.
“Turn around,” Cody repeated, lifting his hand to do a sloppy circle, “I want to see. Show me that kama.”
Rex hadn’t known that he could repeat the choking frog sound from earlier but there he was, sounding like a choking frog.
Apparently, Hook decided that was enough. “Commander, while the Lieutenant’s an attractive vod, I’m sure he’d be more than happy to show off his kama to you in private somewhere else,” Hook suggested calmly.
“Somewhere – oh, we’re officers! I’m an officer!” Cody realised, eyes once again big with surprised delight. “That means private quarters.”
Rex might’ve been busy trying to stop himself from bursting into flames from sheer embarrassment, but he didn’t miss the way Hook’s shoulders jerked minutely at Cody’s unabashed excitement. Glad to see that even the ever-calm CMO actually had a sense of humor. Even if it was at both his and Cody’s expense.
Clearing his throat, Rex addressed Hook. “I believe you said it would be 24 hours until he can be released, sir?”
“That’s correct. We’ll check on the wound in a few hours to make sure the bacta’s working properly, and lower the dosage of the pain medication after that.” Hook made more notes on his datapad before his attention returned to the still cheerfully grinning Cody. “If you need anything, Commander, my staff and I will come and see you,” he said smartly.
“Will do,” Cody replied with a nod.
Hook nodded before meeting Rex’s eyes. “Lieutenant,” he said before leaving, closing the curtains as he went.
Once he was certain that the CMO was far enough, Rex covered his face with a groan. “Codes…,” he muttered, only for the man in question to ask,
“Is that what you call me? Not babe?”
“That and asshole,” Rex muttered under his breath before lowering his hands. “Right, I’m leaving now. According to the schedule, we’re staying in hyperspace for another 18 hours. I’ll come see you again if possible. If not, I’ll find you when they release you.”
“And then you’ll do a little spin for me?” Cody asked with a grin.
Rex snorted. “Sure, Codes, I’ll do a little spin for you. Might even let you help me take the kama off.”
The way Cody’s eyes shone nearly made the almost-death by embarrassment worth it. Snorting, Rex reached over to rest a hand on Cody’s shoulder for a second.
“Rest. I’ll see you later.”
“Alright, Rex,” Cody promised with a nod.
He was almost out the doors when once again, Rex was intercepted by Hook.
“Did you remember your comm, Lieutenant?” Hook inquired with a raised eyebrow. He was no longer holding the datapad but instead a small test tube of some kind of liquid.
Blushing, Rex lifted his arm to turn the recorder off. “I see why you kept him away from the other patients,” he said.
“Troopers react differently to certain pain medications, albeit the Commander’s reaction was one of the most interesting ones,” Hook admitted with a hum, and Rex saw another quick flicker of a smile.
“I’ll take your word on that, sir,” Rex could only say.
Hook nodded. “Good. Don’t lose that recording, Lieutenant. I’m sure that certain people would do anything to get their hands on it. Might also be useful to keep the Commander put, the next time he lands in my medbay. Show him what might happen should he leave without getting cleared properly.”
With that said Hook turned around and started to walk away from Rex and toward the small box of an office the medics used as their temporary barracks when on-call.
“You’re an evil man, Hook,” Rex couldn’t help but call back. His unexpected moment of boldness earned him more than one startled look from the medics and patients.
“I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about, Lieutenant,” Hook replied evenly.
Huffing, Rex slipped out of the medbay and started his way toward the bridge. “Little spin my ass,” he muttered under his breath.
Still, the memory of the open-mouthed Cody staring at Rex with absolute wonder made Rex grin just a little.