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Hissing between clenched teeth, Cal leans against a wall. Just for a moment, just to catch his breath, but BD's already making small, concerned whistles, asking what's wrong in binary.
“All good BD,” Cal waves off, inhaling deeply. It's been a long few days since Bracca, since the Empire found him and Prauf was killed. It's been almost constant near death situations from then on.
The mission Cal joined Saw Gerrera on shortly after they arrived on Kashyyyk hasn't exactly been a break from that. If Cal had been honest, he should have rested before continuing the fight. But Saw was eager to launch the attack and Cal didn't want to leave them to do so alone. He'd been taught to help where he can. Doing anything but that, especially just so he can get a few more hours of sleep in, would have felt horribly wrong.
Even so, Cal could feel the strain getting to him. He hadn't slept well since Bracca, unable to really quiet his mind unless he was meditating. And as calming as that is, your knees start to ache after a while. Especially if they're bruised from numerous falls and hasty evasive manoeuvrers.
Despite Cal trying to quiet the small BD-unit's concern, BD-1 offers him a stim. Cal quickly declines. He's already had to use one, he'll keep the others for a more dire situation.
Kashyyyk is hot and humid, a climate Cal isn't that used to. It makes the climbing, something he'd gotten so accustomed to during his time as a scrapper, tougher. The imperial troopers shooting at him don't make Cal's life any easier either. That's certainly something he isn't used to. Cal got in fights on Bracca, it's hard to go through life there whilst fully avoiding them, but he didn't seek them out. His opponents weren't usually trained soldiers there either.
Shaking his head and breathing in, Cal pushes off the wall. There are lives at stake, and it's hardly the first time he's pushed himself a little past his limit when needed. At least freeing prisoners is a more noble reason than working overtime in the scrapyard, Cal thinks to himself with a grimace.
Stepping over a dead stormtrooper, Cal approaches the spinning blade blocking the way BD's holo-map is directing him. Reaching out in the force, Cal makes the blade hover in stasis. It shudders and grinds against the invisible force keeping it from continuing its rotation. Cal pays it no mind, hopping through the gap quickly. Pushing further exhausted thoughts aside, Cal begins to climb the wall on the other side.
Cere contacts him to share information about imperial distress calls being transmitted when he's halfway up. Answering curtly, Cal hopes she can't hear the strain in his voice. Whilst Cal feels he can trust Cere and Greez, both seeming sincere, showing weakness was something the scrapyards had taught him to avoid at all cost. And what would Cere think of Jaro Tapal if Cal faltered at the first bit of hardship?
There's a locked door to Cal's left, but that would lead him down the wrong path anyway. To his right, there's a steep drop. Luckily, a broken pipe extends across the gap, and the wall on the opposite side looks to be easy to hold on to. The room Cal has to go towards is occupied by two troopers, both distracted by their conversation. He almost groans when he realizes one is a purge trooper. The one Cal had faced towards the beginning of the facility had caused him enough grief. Since both the troopers have their back turned, Cal's hoping to get the drop on them.
Dropping down onto the pipe, Cal balances his way across, not stopping to think before leaping across the gap between the pipe and the wall. He climbs slowly, looking over the edge before pulling himself up fully. The purge trooper and scout trooper are still distracted, even as Cal approaches.
Eyes locked on the purge trooper, Cal carefully steps forward, not wanting to alert them. They're both standing at the edge of another drop. If Cal's quick, he might be able to push them off with the force.
But then a voice loudly announces that a Jedi has been spotted, but it comes from neither of the two troopers. Cal's head snaps left to the source of the noise, spotting two further scout troopers and two storm troopers. Kark, he'd missed those. Cal can just about raise his lightsaber to block the closest scout troopers attack from colliding with his head.
It's all downhill from there.
Cal's fought such large groups of troopers before, but not with a purge trooper involved. The regular troopers keep their distance, so Cal needs to focus on blocking their shots on top of fending off the three scout troopers and the heavy swings the purge trooper throws his way. Someone staggers him sometime after he's cut down two of the scout troopers, sealing his fate.
The last scout troopers baton catches Cal's shoulder as he's deflecting the storm trooper's blaster bolts back at them. Cal's form is out of balance and even whilst he manages to sink his lightsaber's blade through the trooper's chest, he's too late to block the purge trooper's swing at his legs.
Cal crumples to the ground, shoulder colliding with the ground as he can just about deactivate his lightsaber and protect his head from hitting the ground. But he's too late. The purge trooper kicks his weapon away from him, pinning Cal to the floor on his front with a boot on the back of his neck. BD-1's skittered away, Cal doesn't know where to, but he's glad. If he's dying here, he'd rather BD didn't join him.
“I've been waiting a long time for this,” the purge trooper laughs. Cal writhes beneath her boot, trying to get free. Any effort to do so is immediately destroyed as the electrostaff is brought down hard on his back. Muscles clenching, Cal tries to bite back a pained cry.
The next hit lingers against his back, sending searing pain through his skin. It stays in contact just long enough to hit Cal with the emotions and memories clinging to the weapon.
Hours and hours of rigorous training, all fuelled by hate for the Jedi wash over Cal, hitting him like plunging into too cold water. Sadistic glee at the thought of doing just this to a Jedi lace the weapon. She's going to kill him, but first, she's going to make him hurt.
When Cal's mind seems to rejoin with his body, the purge trooper must have gotten a few more hits in on him, skin burning even when the weapon isn't touching him. The pain centres around his back, most of the blows landing there.
This is far from the first beating Cal's take in his life, but it's the first time he's being beaten with an electrostaff. He can barely get his limbs to obey him, can't push up against the ground long enough to fight back. Cal doesn't even know where his lightsaber's rolled off to. In every sense of the word, Cal is well and truly karked.
The burning is so intense, Cal barely feels like he's attached to his body any more. The scream that echoes around the room doesn't feel like it's coming from him, but who else's could it be?
Cruel, mocking words leave the purge troopers mouth, but Cal doesn't hear any of them. He's barely clinging on to consciousness.
A distant beep draws Cal's attention through the haze. BD-1, telling him to catch something just before cool metal makes contact with his fingers. His lightsaber. As his hand wraps around the weapon, it's like every scrap of energy in Cal's body condenses into his next move.
He doesn't go to block the next blow the purge trooper has aimed at him. Instead, he slashes at her leg. Yelling in pain, she staggers backwards, releasing Cal's neck from the boot and his body from the continuous blows raining down on him. Heavily burned leg giving out from under her, the purge trooper swings blindly at Cal. He blocks the hit, evading the one immediately following that as he twists to the side. The purge trooper can do nothing as he slashes at her back. Pitching forwards suddenly, the trooper is dead before she hits the ground.
“Thanks BD, you're a real life saver,” Cal gets out, voice strained. His own legs give out as he tries to step forwards and the next thing the former padawan is aware of is laying face down on the floor again, BD frantically beeping at him to get up.
With a groan, Cal turns his head to the side, His arms tremble as he tries to sit up, having to settle for propping himself up on an elbow in the end. Everything aches, his whole body feeling sore from that fight. Cal has to close his eyes and breath though his nose when he jostles his back wrong, sending fresh spikes of pain raking across his raw nerve endings. He swears under his breath, muttering a weak plea for BD to pass him a stim. Cal only opens his eyes when he feels the small vial being placed in his hand.
Pressing it to his shoulder in a now very familiar motion, Cal waits for the sting of the needle and the faint warm buzz of the fluid spreading under his skin. Stims are emergency medical supplies, only there to push though the worst injuries until real medical help is available. A stim won't heal the damage done to Cal's body, but it'll take the edge of enough to let him keep going. Carefully running a hand over the top of BD's head, Cal waits for the stim to kick in.
“Thank you,” he says, voice a little hoarse from the screaming. He wonders if he was loud enough for Saw and the Partisans to hear him.
Cal's limbs still shake as he gets up, BD whistling encouragements all the way. The stim hardly made Cal feel good, pain still plaguing him, but he can push through this with ease. It's not far to get to the first prisoners anyway, just a couple steps and a door away from his current position. He waits for BD to hop on his back, but the droid hesitates.
“Something wrong?”
BD responds with loud beeps, quite firmly telling Cal that he's not going to hang onto Cal's back after what that purge trooper did to it. The choice of words the small droid uses makes Cal laugh.
“Oh come on, it's not that bad,” Cal argues, but his words are pointedly ignored as BD clambers up his arm and settles on his shoulder. “That works too,” Cal says with an amused huff as he walks in the direction of the cells.
Cal almost audibly sighs in relief when he spots no guards near the prisoners, announcing the fact out loud to BD. It's seems a little odd, but Cal has to assume those troopers in the other room were acting as guards as well.
The access panel to the cell's mechanisms is immediately obvious, what's less obvious is just what needs to be done to free the prisoners. Cal studies the screen and buttons, carefully trying out anything that looks like it might work.
One of the prisoners calling out to him in Shyriiwook makes Cal interrupt his work, leaning heavily on the wall as he assures the prisoner that they're there to free them. He barely understands a few basic words in the language, but the response seems to calm the Wookie.
Turning back to freeing the prisoners, Cal puts all his effort into focusing on figuring out the imperial tech. Maybe that's why he wasn't fully focusing on his surroundings.
"Visitation is not permitted," a mechanical voice announces behind him. Cal turns to the source, just in time to end up with a metal hand wrapped around his neck. He's momentarily lifted off the ground, sparking momentary panic at the thought that the large droid is going to choke him, only to be slammed into the ground with his back. Even without the wounds littering his skin, the impact would be bad enough to knock the air out of Cal.
He struggles for a moment, only just able to roll to the side to avoid the imperial droid's fist. The impact leaves a dent in floor.
Igniting his lightsaber, Cal strides towards the droid, dodging another swing by ducking under the arm. The droid hits hard, but it moves slow and predictably. It still manages to get the better of Cal once more when it uses a move Cal hadn't seen yet. Slamming its arms inwards, it gets a hold of him, throwing him to the ground again.
Cal manages to avoid the droid bringing it's palms down on him with a roll backwards, giving him a momentary break from his enemy as it advances slowly. Rushing at it, Cal gets behind the droid, slashing at its back. He sidesteps it once more, then severs the droids leg before splitting its torso.
BD climbs back up onto Cal's shoulder, scanning the destroyed droid from there. As Cal goes back to unlocking the cells, BD shares some info on the droid, a KX-series security droid.
Trying hard to not limp or think about the pain in his back too much, Cal returns to the prisons controls. A short moment later, the cells open and the prisoners quickly pull themselves out of them. Cal feels a little overwhelmed, not understanding anything the Wookies are saying and not really knowing what to say to them in turn. One approaches him and Cal struggles to find the words to respond. Despite that, he's quickly embraced by large arms. The Wookie must have caught on to Cal's less than ideal state, as he hugs Cal hesitantly, like the human might break.
Cal doesn't have a response to that either, answering with a weak laugh and that he's glad to help. Physical affection isn't something he got a lot of on Bracca.
The Wookies pry the door leading outside the compound open, joining them with the Partisans on the other side. One immediately addresses the Wookies, motivating them for the upcoming fight. Cal wishes he had as much energy as she has, but doesn't dwell on the thought. She quickly tells Cal that he did a good job and directs him on where to rejoin with Saw.
Cal has to climb more to get there, and ends up fighting more troopers over one of the sap refinery pits. The acrid, chemical scent of the process is intense, clinging to the inside of Cal's mouth and nose. He almost falls into the viscous substance twice.
It's more climbing from there on, as well as another fight with a security droid, but then the second group of prisoners are free. It'd be nice if that's where the fighting ended, but Saw orders Cal to get to the roof. With the distress calls Cere announced, Cal's not expecting a good time.
He's right of course. A variety of troopers wait for him there, more joining the battle from time to time. It's also just Cal's luck that an AT-ST is deployed just as Cal took the rest of the imperials out.
Cal's quickly forced to rely on the last stim BD has on him. It keeps him going long enough to end the fight as well as keeps him on his feet throughout Saw's speech and the conversation Cal has about locating Tarfful. He's almost glad when he's informed that finding him may take a while. Cal isn't sure he could bare to look for the Wookie chieftain right that moment. All he wants to do is collapse into a heap.
After a quick conversation with Cere and Greez, Cal excuses himself to use the sonic.
BD insists on coming along, chirping nervously as Cal struggles to ease the upper half of his clothes off. Small winces keep escaping him, but when Cal lets a groan slip, BD starts insisting that Cal needs help. Before BD can decide to act on that statement, Cal locks the refresher door from the inside.
“I'm fine BD, I've got this.” Cal tries to hide the pinched expression on his face from the droid.
BD lets out a series of highly annoyed beeps and binary swears, glaring at Cal as well as a droid can.
“I don't need help, you can trust me,” Cal says, dropping his shirt to the floor once he's finally free of it. He's good at taking care of himself, Cal's had to do so near constantly for the last five years. There's of course also the persistent feeling that if he inconveniences Cere and Greez enough, they'll leave him. Cal really doesn't know what he'd do then.
The cold air stings against Cal's back, making him turn to the small mirror to try and see the damage for himself. Cal cringes at the sight. Even with the bruises still settling in, his skin is already a colourful patchwork of blues and purples. He can see where they overlap with the older ones he picked up over the last few days. At this rate, Cal will never be free of bruises again. But that was the case on Bracca too.
The electrostaff left ugly welts on Cal's skin, some forming blisters from the electricity. All the fighting Cal had done made sure to rub those raw, making them sting terribly. Despite having little to no medical knowledge, BD insists on scanning Cal's back. The little droid announces loudly and pointedly that Cal's injuries look bad.
“I've had worse,” Cal sighs, shaking his head. BD keeps trying to convince Cal to get help as he rids himself of the rest of his clothes and steps into the sonic. He spots more bruises forming on his body on the way, choosing to ignore those too.
The stims have started to leave Cal's system by the time he turns on the sonic. It's mechanical hum fills the small refresher, making Cal start to feel the beginnings of a headache. The vibration of the sonic as it evaporates the days grime off of Cal feels bad on his wounds, especially his burned back.
The exhaustion washes over Cal suddenly. Despite his efforts to brace himself against the wall, Cal ends up sinking to his knees. He decides to just have his shower like that kneeling on the floor with his head slumped against the wall. BD isn't a fan, hopping around the outside of the sonic whilst making distressed noises. The droid only doesn't rush into the shower because the vibration of it makes BD's circuits play up. Cal waves him off weakly, claiming that he's just tired.
BD does quiet down a little, but keeps lecturing Cal on the fact that he needs help, despite Cal having the situation fully under control. Cal ends up taking a little longer than he'd usually take showering, most of it spent trying to motivate himself to get back up. It's BD's panic that gets him moving eventually, not wanting the little droid to burn out a circuit in his distress.
Only when Cal's managed to use the wall to pull himself up and out of the sonic does it dawn on him that he forgot to bring a change of clothes. With a sigh, Cal starts to struggle into the same clothes he'd worn running through the woods of Kashyyk and the imperial compound. He leaves his chest bare for the moment.
All things considered, these are hardly the worst clothes Cal has had to wear. They're undoubtable soaked in cold sweat and mud has died into places, but they're still presentable. The worst part really is the chemical stench of the refined sap that's seeped into the fabric. But even that is nothing compared to the state of Cal's cloth half of the time on Bracca.
BD still makes a point of telling Cal that his clothes are dirty.
Cal sighs. "I know BD, I'll find something clean later." If BD's making a fuss about this, then it's likely for the best Cal doesn't bring up the stuff he wore on Bracca.
In response, BD calls Cal unhygienic.
"Hey," Cal exclaims, trying to stifle a laugh. He doesn't want to encourage BD, and his ribs ache when he breaths too deeply. "At least I showered!"
BD trills in irritation, only really doing so to have the last word rather than actually having something to say. Cal lets him have that.
Using the mirror, Cal inspects his back again. He'll have to cover the burns, if only to keep them from getting infected. What and how much he'll be able to discreetly sneak from the ships medkit isn't clear yet, but Cal will have to wait for Cere and Greez to be distracted or asleep for that to happen in the first place. Sighing deeply, Cal leans on the sink. Maybe he can get a bit of sleep in until that time comes.
A loud knock on the door startles Cal, shaking him from his thoughts.
“You slip and crack your skull open in there?” Greez shouts, knocking again. “Your taking your sweet time and the droid keeps making a fuss.”
Cal swears under his breath. He should know better than to occupy a communal refresher for too long. That always draws people's attention and usually their ire as well. “Almost done,” Cal assures, scrambling to grab his shirt from the floor. It's clear he'd overstayed his welcome in the bathroom.
When no response comes for a moment, Cal almost thinks Greez has left. Then the captain clears his throat before speaking again. “Everything alright? You looked pretty beat.”
“I'm fine,” Cal snaps a little too quick, unable to keep himself from wincing when he forces the shirt over his head. Even raising his arms is uncomfortable. BD's warning to be careful is ignored.
Greez scoffs. “I'll believe it when I see it, kid.”
Tugging the shirt over his back hastily, Cal unlocks the door and glares at the Latero. “There.”
“Is that the same clothes you came back in?” Greez narrows his eyes at Cal.
“I'll change in a moment.” Grabbing the door frame, Cal tries to squeeze himself past Greez, but the captain doesn't move. “Can't change if you don't let me go past.”
“You're pale and shaky,” Greez states firmly, crossing both pairs of arms across his chest.
“I'm always pale.” Cal tries to brush off the rest of the comment, trying to twist past Greez. He ends up having to stabilize himself against the wall, hoping Greez didn't catch his pained hiss.
“Doesn't change the fact you're barely upright and clearly in pain,” Greez grumbles, moving back into Cal's line of sight. There's no way he's getting out of this.
“It's nothing bad,” Cal assures before Greez jumps to the conclusion that Cal bled all over his bathroom. Greez just stands there expectantly, one hand on his hip. Cal gets the feeling he won't be allowed past unless he proves that statement to the Latero.
Trying to subtly lean against the wall, Cal begins undoing the work he just put into getting his shirt back on. Biting the inside of his cheek hard, Cal frees his arms before pulling the item of clothing off his head.
He can hear Greez huffing and muttering “nothing bad” to himself. “You're more bruise than skin! Did the AT-AT kriffing step on you?”
Cal's tempted to quip that Greez hadn't even seen the half of it yet, but the words feel difficult to get out of his mouth. It's not worth the effort. He turns around to show off the state of his back.
“Are those burns?” Greez's eyes are glued to Cal's back, eyebrows raised. “How did that even- Why didn't you say anything?” Cal finds it hard to tell if Greez is angry or just exasperated.
Shrugging, Cal turns back around again, holding the dirty shirt to his chest. “I've had worse.”
Greez shakes his head. “I'm getting Cere, stay right there.” He's already walked off towards the common area when he turns back to add something else. “And your changing, those clothes are disgusting.”
Cal can hear him loudly calling for Cere. Exhaling sharply through his nose, Cal leans against the wall with his shoulder, pressing his cheek to the metal. He's exhausted, sore and his legs are about to give out from under him. All he wanted to do was avoid a fuss. Cal just knows he's going to get lectured on this, reminded how important of a mission he's risking by letting himself get injured. He groans, closing his eyes.
BD says that this is for the best, making Cal shake his head.
“Had it handled BD, this is just going to make everything worse in the long run.” Cal's voice tapers off slowly, but BD's hearing is good so he won't be inconvenienced. The world seems to spin around Cal, so he keeps his eyes shut. He slides along the wall a little, only able to keep upright because he jams his knee against the metal. It must be a pathetic sight. Cal would rather have kept all of this to himself. He can't even pull himself together when he hears footsteps approaching.
“Kark kid, when I told you to stay put, I didn't mean you couldn't sit down.” Greez quickly takes a hold of Cal's arm, trying to steady him despite the height difference.
Cal's forced to open his eyes when Greez and Cere start leading him to the engine room. Cere looks concerned, genuinely, but Cal isn't naïve enough to trust the sentiment immediately. Cere seems kind, but in Cal's experience, the people that truly care about how you feels are few and far between. Even more so if those people just need you to do something for them.
Greez drops clothes on the bed as Cere helps him sit down. They try to offer helping him change, but Cal firmly denies that. He's not useless enough to need that as well. Neither of the two look happy to leave Cal to do so alone, but they leave the engine room non the less. BD promises to keep an eye on Cal.
The clothes, a pair of shorts and a shirt he borrowed off of Cere and Greez, are freshly washed, Cal notices. He can't figure out why though, because he certainly didn't clean them. It's easier to change sitting down, even if doing so is still a struggle. Cal's slumped on his side when he calls Cere and Greez back, wearing the gray shorts he'd been given.
Cere helps Cal to lay on his stomach. Not liking how exposed he is, laying there limply, Cal props himself up on his elbows so he can look around. Cere is crouched next to the bed and Greez is hovering in the doorway.
“Now what?” Cal says, still waiting for either of the crew to snap at him.
“Now, I'm going to have a look at your back and then you're going to rest,” Cere says.
Cal nods, understanding an order when he hears one. He hadn't noticed that Cere took the medkit with her until she opens it. BD immediately has to look into the box of course, but he listens when Cere asks him to give her some space. Cere tells Cal that she doesn't trust that his shirt didn't contaminate the open burns again, showing Cal the disinfectant before she opens it.
It's hard to keep quiet. The burns being touched would be unpleasant enough without the stinging of the disinfectant, so Cal ends up letting far too many sounds slip past his lips.
"How'd you end up like this anyway?" Greez sighs, running a hand across the top of his head.
Cal's about to answer when BD cuts in, exclaiming that it's not Cal's fault. With Greez's binary being rusty at best, Cere translates for him. He gives the BD-unit a pointed look.
"That's not what I meant."
"Purge trooper," Cal answers, gesturing for BD to show the others a holo of one. It's likely they'd seen one before, but Cal isn't sure from how close up they'd done so. The droid doesn't need to be told twice, always happy to share the data and images he collects.
Happy to leave it at that, Cal doesn't elaborate further. BD however decides to share further detail, which Cere decides to repeat for Greez. Cal can feel his face heating up. He sounds pathetic in the recount of what happened.
Nobody says anything, Cal knows they're all very aware of the fact that he might be dead if that purge trooper didn't have a sadistic streak. That fact hardly makes Cal seem more competent, so he keeps his mouth shut on that matter.
“I'll be ready to go when we reach Zeffo,” Cal forces past a groan as Cere disinfects a burn high on his back, right across his shoulder blade. It's best he changes the conversation topic before things get worse.
“We'll see what state you're in when we reach Zeffo, and then we'll decide what we do,” Cere counters. Does she really already think so little of Cal?
“I can keep going, promise.” Cal looks back to meet Cere's eyes, hoping the determination in his expression drowns out the pained look.
“I'm sure you can,” Greez huffs. “Doesn't make it a good idea though.” Cal wants to respond, but a whimper cuts him off. To Cal's surprise, Cere stops to lay a hand on his shoulder. Not threateningly, her fingers don't dig into his skin. It's just there, carefully resting against his skin. Cal knows how to deal with that even less than he did the hug from the Wookie.
“Your health comes first. That's non-negotiable.” Cere continues her work, but Cal's shoulder still feels warm from the contact.
“And whilst we're at it,” Greez starts, “I don't know whether it was pride or some stupid habit you picked up on Bracca, but if your hurt, you don't hide it. It's my ship, so I make the rules and that's one of them, got it?”
Cal hesitates for a moment, then nods. “Okay,” he says, not entirely getting the point of that rule. He understands most of the other rules, a big chunk of them just having to do with no one but Greez flying the ship and not tracking dirt across the floors, but Cal can take care of himself. Best not to argue with the captain though.
Once again, Cere announces as she changes what she's doing. “Best I can do for you is a layer of bacta on everything and covering the burns.”
Cal almost argues against putting bacta on his bruises, since that hardly seems worth it, but he's too tired.
Cere prioritizes the burns first, spreading a generous layer of the gel across the open skin. It's warm, almost instantly soothing the stinging to a dull, distant throb. Once four different burns are treated with bacta, Cal starts to feel the substance's side effect. A second layer of exhaustion settles upon Cal, though this one is more comfortable, not as insistent and achy as the exhaustion from a day of fighting.
That's one of the reasons the scrapper guild didn't allow the usage of bacta on the job, not wanting anyone falling asleep on the clock. Not that anyone could afford bacta in the first place, since no one was producing it directly on Bracca.
When Cere's taped gauze over the burns, she makes good on the promise of coating the bruises too. Cal can barely keep his eyes open when she's done. Cere offers to get the rest of Cal's bruises too, but he refuses that, telling her he doesn't want to lay on a damp, sticky blanket all night.
Greez is still standing in the doorway when Cere packs away the medkit's contents. Cal can't really tell why. Surely Greez has better things to do than this, right?
Cere stands up, draping a blanket over Cal's lower body before placing a hand on his shoulder again. “Call if you need something, okay?” Cal can't think of anything he could possibly need besides what he already has in that moment.
Greez informs Cal that he'll be bringing him something to eat later and Cal just responds with a quiet “thanks”.
Only when everyone but BD has left does Cal stop using his elbows to keep himself up. The blood flow was hindered by the position, so now both his arms feel like they're filled with static. Cal clenches and unclenches his hands at his side to try and reduce the feeling.
BD hops up onto the bed next to Cal, pressing his body against Cal's cheek affectionately. Cal laughs weakly. Using quiet whistles, BD informs Cal that he's glad he's okay.
Cal brings a hand up to hold BD close. A droid is far from cuddly, but it's comforting to have him nearby. “Thanks for looking out for me,” Cal tries to say, words slurred by exhaustion. BD seems to understand, responding that it's no problem. Cal must have fallen asleep shortly after, because that's the last thing he can recall when he wakes up.