Chapter Text
“Stitches, explain again why we’re going to Kamino?” He looked to Sawbones, who was in the co-pilot’s seat as they flew to Kamino.
“Because I picked up a distress call from a trooper.” He replied, “And my gut is telling me we have to go.” He hated trying to explain his gut feelings, even to Sawbones, they came and went of their own volition but he always tried to listen to them when they happened.
“It could be a trap cyar’ika.” Sawbones reached over and put a warm hand on his, which were gripping the steering yolk in a white-knuckle grip, “This is Kamino, we escaped Kamino… remember?”
“I remember…” He sighed, “But something is telling me we have to go…”
“We bail at the first sign of a trap, okay?” He asked and Stitches nodded, “Okay, exiting hyperspace.”
He felt his stomach hit the floor when he saw it, an Imperial Star Destroyer jumping to hyperspace, there was a clear patch… free from clouds but the sight of smoke greeted them as they broke atmosphere, “There… that’s a platform.” He said, pointing to a small platform out in the middle of the sea, far away from the smouldering ruins of what was Tipoca, “They destroyed it…”
“Tipoca… Tipoca is gone.” Sawbones said breathlessly, almost every clone despised Tipoca, despised Kamino… but it was their home, where they were decanted and raised, they defended it from the Separatists when they invaded but… they couldn’t save it from the Empire, “Wait, there’s someone on the platform!”
“What?” Stitches looked out Sawbones’ viewport as the swung around to come in for a landing, it was a person but they were lying on the ground of the sun-baked platform, “Get the kit ready, possible heatstroke and dehydration.” He said as they touched down and Sawbones nodded, they both moved quickly and Stitches made it down the ramp in record time before speed walking over to the person. He stopped short when he saw it was one of the enhanced clones, he’d taught this one to sew… “Crosshair…” He hadn’t failed to notice the boy’s black armour, “Hm.” He broke his hesitation and knelt down beside the young clone, who was muttering incoherently passed dry, chapped lips, his skin felt dry despite the sweat pouring down his face. “Okay. Up you get.” He hoisted the youth up and slung his thin arm around his shoulders, “Hyperthermia, not sure how bad.”
“We need to lower his body heat.” Sawbones said as the beep of the thermometer confirmed his beliefs, they quickly eased the young clone out of his armour, revealing sweat-soaked blacks that clung to a thin body, “Inserting cannula.” Sawbones said once they removed the blacks.
“Cold I.V bag.” He replied as he arrived back from the cold storage, he placed a cold pack on Crosshair’s chest, one under his neck and one on his forehead.
He stopped mid-motion when a thin hand grabbed his wrist, “W… who…?”
“You can ask questions later, right now we need to get your temperature down, do you understand trooper?” He met Crosshair’s gaze and after a second the boy nodded as he closed his eyes again, Stitches looked to Sawbones, “We need to get him back home.”
“Agreed, get us out of here, I’ll do this.” Sawbones nodded to him.
“Affirmative.” He moved to the cockpit, depending on how bad it was, if they didn’t get his temperature down then they didn’t have much time before Crosshair’s organs started failing, he was able to form words and understand what was being said to him, so that was a plus, “Jumping to hyperspace.” He called back as the star lights blurred together. He stood quickly once in hyperspace and went back to them, “Anything?”
“His temperature is dropping, not as fast as I would like though, I hooked up monitoring equipment and everything seems to be working, his heart rate is fast but that’s to be expected.” Sawbones explained as he came to stand beside him.
“Okay… that’s some good news.” He sighed, “He was wearing Imperial armour…”
“They left him behind?” Sawbones asked gently, then sighed also, “They don’t care about our kind.”
“No… but what about the rest of the enhanced clones?” He ran his hand through his hair, “There were four of them…”
“Left… b… behind…” Crosshair muttered as he shivered, “A…”
“Easy vod, you’re okay.” Sawbones said gently as he moved to smooth the lines of pain from the young man’s face, soft and gentle fingers making easy work of it, “You’re okay.” Stitches hadn’t failed to notice the horrific scar on the side of Crosshair’s head, he wasn’t sure what hit him but whoever treated it was useless at their job. He looked at the monitoring system, Crosshair’s temperature was slowly creeping back down from life threatening, his heart rate was still fast but that would stay an issue as long as the temperature was high, “There we go, you’re safe.” He looked to Sawbones again and noticed Crosshair had relaxed enough to slip into sleep.
“Glad to know that works on people other than me.” He smiled to his cyar’ika.
“It’s because I know it works on you that I can use it with confidence.” Sawbones chuckled, earning a chuckle from Stitches, “Should we try get in contact with the other enhanced?”
“I don’t know…” He sighed, “If they left him behind like he said they did, then it could be that they didn’t want him with them.”
“Oh… oh dear…” Sawbones looked so sad at the thought.
“Until he’s back on his feet, however, he will stay with us.” He put his hand on Sawbones’ shoulder, “We’ll help him cyar’ika.”
“Of course we will.” He replied with a smile, then looked back to Crosshair, “We should cover him, don’t want to swing him too far the other way.”
“I’ll go find one.” He nodded and kissed Sawbones’ forehead, “Keep an eye on him.”
“Of course!” Sawbones smiled warmly.
He moved to go find one of the blankets, he wasn’t sure if getting in contact with the rest of the Enhanced Clones was a good idea, Crosshair didn’t have anything with him when they arrived, no helmet, no weapon and no pack… that was either because he lost them in Tipoca or they were taken by the rest of his enhanced brothers, he bit his lip at the thought of them abandoning their brother to die on that platform. He didn’t know the circumstances leading up to it, maybe they thought the Empire would return for him? Not likely, given how the Empire was trying to phase out Clones and if the Empire was the one to destroy Tipoca, then they were intent on killing Crosshair along with it… “Here we are.” He arrived back and carefully wrapped the youth in the blanket.
“Not too tight cyar’ika, he still needs to breathe.” Sawbones chuckled as he loosened the blanket a little after Stitches was done but the mere action of what equated to swaddling Crosshair, seemed to calm his heartrate right down but it had that effect on a lot of clones to be fair, it simulated something they never got as beings grown in tubes and decanted, the warmth and hold of a mother.
He smiled a little, “Good to know that works still.” He said, watching as Crosshair’s other readings evened out as well, save his temperature but that would take time to come down.
“If it works on you, cyar’ika, it will work on anyone.” Sawbones chuckled as he nudged him.
“So I’m basically the base line for comfort methods?” He asked, “If it works on me then it works on everyone?”
“Exactly.” Sawbones smiled as he cupped Stitches’ cheek, “You need to shave.”
“I thought you liked the bush growing on my face.” He grinned.
“A bush? Cyar’ika, please, this is a hedge.” Sawbones tapped his cheek, “I’ll break out the hedge trimmers when we get back.”
“Fine.” He sighed dramatically, he wasn’t sure what led up to Crosshair’s abandonment, to him being left to die in the sun so rare to Kamino… but they would help him.
“Good, his temperature is getting to normal levels.” Sawbones looked to the equipment when it beeped at them.
“His breathing and heartrate have stabilized.” He said, examining each and every reading, “Once he’s stable and awake, we should get him to drink something.”
“Agreed.” Was the reply as Sawbones leaned over and put his hand against Crosshair’s forehead, then then reached under the blanket to check his chest, “He isn’t sweating as profusely, still a bit damp but the packs are helping.”
“Good.” Stitches sighed, he wasn’t in the danger zone anymore, now they just had to make it to Naboo and make sure there wasn’t any organ damage from the hyperthermia or dehydration, make sure the boy didn’t have a chip… but judging by the scar dominating the right side of his head?
It probably wasn’t there.
Hopefully.