Fixing Our Broken Pieces || The Bad Batch

Chapter 17: Homesick

After her dream Orla spent the rest of the night in a chair, isolated in the cockpit. Too afraid to sleep and having another similar dream. She kept herself awake by counting the stars that sprinkled across the black sky.

"1093, 1094..." she yawned but the yawn took so long that she forgot her number.

"You know you're not supposed to count stars, there's too many to count. That's what Tech says."

Exhausted, she dropped her head to the side to look behind her chair and to her surprise it was Wrecker standing, smiling down at her and snacking on a ration bar.

"Oh, I'm sorry Wrecker, did I wake you?"

"Nope," he collapsed on the chair next to her, happier as ever, "just needed a snack."

"Sounds good," she rested her head back and closed her eyes, hoping that maybe her eyes would let her stay awake.

"Why aren't you in bed?" he asked through a mouthful of food.

"Have you ever had a dream and you wake up and you're afraid to go back to sleep because you don't want to have the same dream again?"

"Nope," Wrecker paused to swallow, "I stopped having those dreams after my head injury." He pointed to the large scar on his head. "But I know that Hunter has a lot of dreams that relate to his sensory issues. You should talk to him about it."

"Sensory issues? From his mutation?" Orla didn't expect that being able to sense everything around him could be a downfall.

"It happens all the time, strange it hasn't happened too much recently but he's always been good at hiding them."

"Or I've been too blind to notice," she whispered to herself. Of course, he had sensory issues, why had she never considered it until now?

"So what was your dream about?" Wrecker's mind wandered.

"Um, actually I don't remember now," not wanting to lie more than she wanted to, she told Wrecker she felt ready to go back to sleep and he escorted her down like a gentleman and wished her a good rest of her night.

"You to Wrecker," his generosity made her chuckle and she lay flat in her bed and the rest of her night was spent soundless with dreamless sleep.

☆☆☆

The following morning Orla offered them to stay at Zelda's instead of returning to Cid. While appreciative, Hunter insisted they had some business to deal with at Cid's first. During the walk back to Cid's parlour, Omega and Wrecker enjoy a large bag of mantel mix, Tech and Hunter lead the way while Echo and Orla travel behind. Echo still held concern over the previous night and could tell how tired she was. She didn't show it but he noticed how slow she was walking and how she wasn't leading the group like she normally would. She crept to the back, drained of all her energy.

"Are you alright Echo? I'm sorry I may have missed..." she gets quieter, checking if the other members could hear her, "one of your attacks."

"You don't need to worry about me," he brushed it off, "are you ok? I didn't get to hear what happened last night?"

The whole scene was too complicated to explain on a walk so she promised she would tell him when they reached Cids.

"So when's our next mission?" Omega was already eager to get back on the field even after everything that has happened.

"With two bounty hunters after you, It'd be wise to keep a low profile," Tech advised.

"Tech's right," they all stopped in front of the parlour and Omega jumped from Wrecker's shoulders, "there's too much heat on us right now."