healing hearts | HOBBIE KLIVIAN

|I|

There were very few things about being in the medbay that didn't actively annoy Hobbie. There were even less actively good things. It became more and more obvious the longer time went on, since Hobbie spent far too much time there. Yet, there came a certain point, when the list of good things grew by one.

Anais Calle was one of the personnel sent in the base switch. It served to balance troops, and other workers. The Yavin base had too many people who had taken medic courses, and not enough full doctors. Whatever base she had come from (Hobbie barely listened to any of the meetings, and couldn't remember) somehow got too many doctors. Along with her came some mechanics, a few pilots, and some other people who Hobbie couldn't recall for the life of him. Around him, people were grumbling about having to leave their tasks to come to the meeting, or were pleased with getting out of work for a little bit.

As Wedge introduced the people, who were greeted with polite applause every time, there was only one person who truly stuck out in his mind. Her. She didn't seem like anything special. She was diplomatic in how she stood and presented herself, enough to make Mon Mothma proud (which was saying something. Everyone felt a little self-conscious about their posture when she was around) yet she smiled brightly and waved at all of them when her name was called. The Rogues beside Hobbie didn't seem to care, but he couldn't take his eyes off her for the rest of the night.

The medics were a strange people, Hobbie had decided. They sat by themselves in the cafeteria, and sometimes didn't show up at all, and were up at odd hours, usually in their uniform and with a cup of caf in their hands. Anais was his favourite. She was older than them, and in the few months the Rogues knew her, they had seen a few grey hairs pop up now and then, leading to thoughtful discussions about how old she really is.

"She's gotta be pushing fourty," Wes said.

"No way," Hobbie said, putting his mug down on the table with a dull thud. "With that face? She looks way too young,"

Nolan made a sound as he thought about it. "Sure, sure, but her eyes? Maker, they look older than some of the vets around here,"

Tycho coughed, bringing the attention to him, at the end of the table. "Dear friends, I think we are excluding an important option,"

Deyla rolled her eyes, talking with her mouth full. "Yeah, and what's that?"

Tycho made a face of disgust, one that Deyla returned with a glare, before continuing, "We are all assuming Doctor Calle is human. What if she isn't? She could just be humanoid. Or a shapeshifter,"

"For Force sake, Tycho," Wedge had walked in on their discussion with his tray in hand. "This is ridiculous. Anais is a human. And she's not even that old."

"Well, will you tell us how old she is?" Wes asked, leaning forward in his seat.

"Children can ask questions once they finish their homework. Janson, how's the paperwork going? I need it tomorrow."

Hobbie tried not to think about it, though it was hard. He was in the medbay a lot, either getting his checkups or having a concussion treated or something of the sort. Anais smiled constantly, a smile that seemed genuine and kind. She called everyone honey, and was gentle whenever she was helping someone. It wasn't that that drew Hobbie to her, though. Most of the medics and doctors were like that. It was when he could hear her laugh in the breakroom from his bed, and hear the sarcastic remarks she would make, and one time, just once they had a drill, and Anais had been sleeping, and she came outside in this too big sweater and with her hair up in a bun and had looked like she would bite off someone's finger if they got too close. And, of course, her eyes.

Her eyes had this sadness to them that never seemed to go away. Even when she smiled so so brightly and talked about the good things that had happened recently, there was this faint look in her eyes, like it was all a show. It was true that people just looked like that sometimes. Hobbie had been told a lot that he looked sad most of the time, and well, he wasn't sad, per se, but he wasn't generally a very happy person, or the most optimistic sort, and some days he was convinced that most of the people in the rebellion lacked basic reading comprehension skills, so he never faulted them for thinking he looked just 'sad'. Saying that, he was more than open to consider that maybe Anais wasn't just simply sad, but whenever he tried to get closer to her, it seemed like the spark in her eyes got snuffed out.

"So, where did you get your degree?" Hobbie asked one day, while Anais drew blood from him. He had eaten some weird plant on a planet they went to after being dared to by Wes, and called a keedee and a coward by Deyla. Turns out, it wasn't good for him, and he spent a good day hallucinating.

Anais didn't respond until she had finished. "Hopefully its out of your system now, but I just want to make sure,"

"Why do we have to be so certain? I'm not hallucinating, am I?"

Anais carefully applied a bandage to where she had drawn the blood and shrugged. "Sure, but if there's any amount of it still in your blood, and you eat anything, you would vomit until you couldn't breath anymore,"

"Oh."

"Yeah. What were you asking, again?"

"Oh. I, uh, I forgot."

She smiled, patting Hobbie on the shoulder, and picking up the syringe from earlier. "Okay then. Call me if you need anything, honey."

She was good at changing the topic.

Hobbie fell back on his bed, sighing softly. He didn't know what to do. He wasn't going to call her over just to ask such stupid questions, and when he thought about it, there was no point to it. There was no interaction for them save the awkward moments when he was awake and asking for painkillers or she was drawing his blood. Anais looked...regal, in a way. Poised and polished and kind, but cold. A medic, already out of his league just in that (though league was used purely in a platonic way), and then she just seemed to ooze life experience. While Hobbie? He didn't exactly have much of a chance to live anything yet. All he had really seen was his home, the academy, and now, the rebellion.

Wes walked in just as Anais walked into the back of the bay, leaning against the chair that sat beside Hobbie's bed. "I didn't think it would-"

"Well, I sure hope you didn't. Otherwise, I'm gonna have to rethink our relationship a lot." His words held a playful tone as he shifted to be able to properly look at the other pilot. "Why are you here, anyway? Thought you hated the med bay."

"Trust me, I do. Felt bad for you, and thought I should check up on ol' Hobbs," He paused, turning to look where Anais had left, "Say, she ain't your primary, is she?"

Though he felt like he knew where the conversation was going, he allowed it to go on. "Yeah. Why?"

Wes turned to face him again, grinning brightly. "Must not be too bad, then. Mysterious Calle tending to your every need. I bet you're already all buddy-buddy with her, mister charming," He giggled as he spoke, and Hobbie swatted at him, though he easily dodged it.

"Shut up, will you?" He whipped his gaze to the door that she had disappeared through. "It's not like that. And she won't even talk to me! Not, like, at a real level, anyways," Hobbie decided with a huff, crossing his arms as he fell back down again.

Wes shrugged, moving to stand up. "I still think she's just a really advanced android. Maybe they found her somewhere and didn't want to admit it,"

"Why would they do that?"

"You're asking the wrong guy, Hobbie. I'm not permitted to know the inner workings of our higher ups."

"Sure, but- where are you going?"

"As much as I feel bad, it is pudding day, and I wouldn't miss that for the world,"

"Traitor!"

"Have fun!"

Hobbie sat there in stunned silence for a moment, gaze turning to the white ceiling above him. He still felt a little sick, if he was going to be honest, but maybe the talk with Wes had just made things worse. The swirling in his stomach could easily be dismissed as a minor symptom, and yet it felt a touch too close to butterflies. He didn't like it. It felt wrong. Like, sleeping with your superior wrong, though Tycho sure did it and no one seemed to care then, so really, Hobbie had no reason to feel that way either.

Anais had come back into the room. It seemed that Hobbie had fallen asleep. She smiled down at him. "I'm sad to say we still found traces in your bloodstream. You'll have to stay another night - I'll let your commander know,"

Hobbie let out a breath he hadn't noticed he was holding, but whether it was a sigh of relief, or a groan of annoyance, even he couldn't tell.