Cejanr (A Rexsoka SWTCW Fanfic)

7

Kix let him out of the infirmary the next day.  Only for short periods of time, and he would be sleeping there for a while for 'emotional observation.' He walked the halls, surprisingly empty on the route from the medbay to Ahsoka's old rooms. Maybe it was just the lack of her presence by his side. 

He punched in the code with out a second glance, stepping into the familiar rooms. He excpected to feel even more distraught with her absence, expected to find something so vastly different with this place. He found neither. The rooms were exactly as they had left in their hasty unpacking after the Gathering that mostly consisted of throwing the bags in and rushing to the Twilight to get to planetside on Corascant. Internally, he only felt a cold tightness in his chest. 

It wasn't the crushing sadness that enveloped him when he woke up not to find her familiar weight on his chest. It was as if all the strength had suddenly been sapped from his limbs as he numbly fell to his knees. He just sat there for a minute, part of him wanting to get up, but he was just tired. Too tired. 

Finally, he didn't know when, he had dragged himself to the narrow bed. He curled up into as small of a ball as a full grown clone trooper could and waited. The pillows smelled faintly of her, a strange combination of GAR soap and spice. It brought him a little comfort. He stared at the ceiling, counting the tiles above him like he had done so many times while they were in the infirmary recovering from their latest adventure. Not that he didn't already know that there were exactly 247 whole tiles and a handful of cut off ones along the edges where the ceiling met the walls.

There was a soft hiss as the door slid open. Cody leaned against the doorframe. "Thought I might find you here." He said quietly. "May I come in?" Rex grunted something in mando'a that Cody didn't quite catch before giving permission. He walked quietly over to the small desk that they had used for paperwork in the corner and sat on the top of it. 

"Rex?" He asked softly. Rex glared up at him. Cody met his intense gaze with his own concerned stare. "We're going to get you back to her." His brother promised. Rex laughed bitterly. 

"Ori'vod, unless you can turn back time and find a way to tell her that I'll be fine, I don't think there's much you can do to help." He grated out roughly. "Kriff, I don't even know if..." He trailed off, tears suddenly welling up. Ahsoka wouldn't do that. She promised she'd be strong. A little longer. Just a little longer and he'd be home. 

Cody seemed to understand his twisted train of thought. "She's strong Rex. Stronger than any of us see. That includes you." He looked pointedly at his little brother. Rex pressed his lips together and blinked back the tears. Cody moved to crouch at the side of the bed. 

"Anakin would know the second anything even started to go wrong, and he'd have you back to Corascant in less than a mynock minute. I bet she's waiting at that address she sent the General, knowing that if anyone could beat the odds it would be you. Hells, you did beat the odds." He offered his hand to Rex. The blond clone looked at the outstretched hand like it was an alien plant before opting to roll over face down on the hard mattress. Cody sighed.

"A wise man, and a good friend once told me, 'Treat the wound or let it kill you,'" Rex turned his head to look at Cody as he finished. "'You can't always treat the big ones alone.'" Rex glared at him. 

"I said that." He pointed out. Cody smiled a little. 

"So you did." He put his hand on Rex's shoulder as he pushed himself to a sitting position. Rex met his brother's eyes. 

"How did I ever do it? Do it with out her, Codes?" He whispered. Cody looked at the ground between them. 

"You had the General. You had your men." He met Rex's eyes. "You had me. Those things are still the same." He promised. Rex sat back and nodded sullenly. Cody fidgeted a little. "Speaking of your men, I may or may not have set aside time for an impromptu inspection of Torrent Company's barracks from some mysterious officer." He smiled hesitantly. 

Rex eyed him. "Me?" Cody nodded.

"Who else. Thought you would like to see how they're doing under the new ARC Lieutenant." Cody shrugged off-handedly. Rex frowned. Fives was the ARC lietenant, but with his recent promotion and demotion...

"Who?" He asked. Cody gave his big 'I have a secret grin' and stood, pulling Rex to his feet. 

"You'll see. First things first, however, you need a new set of plastoid. I'm sorry, I couldn't find another phase I helmet, but I painted your jaig eyes and your normal accents. Most of it is still blank. Thought you could do that much yourself." He practically dragged Rex out of the small set of rooms. Rex stumbled into a slow jog to keep up. 

They came to a non-descript looking closet that Cody shoved open. Part of Rex noted that it was the same closet that Ahsoka had left him in, bound and gagged while her and half of Torrent pulled pranks on the rest of the 501st. There, sitting in the bottom of the closet, was a set of blacks and blue and white armor stacked up in the 'ready five' arrangement that was common practice. Cody turned on the lites of the closet and shut the door, obviously meaning for Rex to change. 

Rex quickly dressed down and started on the armor plating, feeling the familiar weight of plastoid encasing. It felt so right, the feeling of snapping the clean white plates. It also felt so wrong. The plates were too clean, too new. They were missing the tallymarks of completed missions across his bracers and gauntlets. Missing the single plate of Beskar that was his wedding bracer, polished to perfection no matter how hard the battle was. The absence of the pouch at his hip that held his golden saber. 

But Cody had worked so hard to get it for him, to fix it up just the way he knew Rex had spent hours on to modify it to perfection. The only thing that was unchanged was the Captain's pauldron. He paused at the pauldron, turning it over and over in his hands. With an effort, he snapped it in place and stepped out of the closet. 

Cody smiled at him and gave a low whistle. "Look at you. Shiny clean with the stripes of a warrior. How'd I do?" He asked anxiously. Rex tipped his head. 

"I miss my helmet. Can't see a thing in this one. I'll have to rely on the HUD for everything. " He grumbled. Shaking himself, he turned his visor to Cody. "Not half bad. I think it could use a little more work, but not bad at all." He let out a shuddering breath, hearing it crackle through his external speakers. "Well? Somebody tells me I have a surprise inspection to make." 

They set off towards the barracks, Cody in the lead and Rex walking stiffly behind. This was gonna be the biggest joke of the aeon. Fives was going to be both proud and jealous of his Ori'vod. 

A/N - I apologize, if I suddenly have a crap ton of spelling mistakes in this chapter. My personalized grammar editor is on the fritz, and my hands hate me today. While I was writing that one quote from way back when from Cyare Avicii's 'Hey Brother' started playing on my shuffled writing playlist. Coincidence?