Encounter on Lothal (Kylo/OC)

Chapter 10

The next morning found the navigator, Sen, poking his head in the medtent where Tana was keeping her solemn vigil, bringing the young medic caf and breakfast.

"How's he doing?" Sen asked, looking over toward Kylo in curiosity as he handed Tana the tray.

"He's better than he was, but he's still not in the clear," she said sadly.

Observing the dark circles under her eyes, Sen commented, "You don't look so hot, either, Doc."

She laughed. "I'm only a medic, but I'll be alright."

"Well," Sen said as he turned to leave, "you done right by 'im, that's a certain."

She prayed he was right.

Today was the day she needed to determine if he was well enough to come off the ventilator. Every day he was on it, his body became more and more dependent on it and worked less for itself. If he was on the machine too long, it could actually extend his recovery time instead of shortening it, but once she took it out, it would be even harder to put him back on it. It was a delicate trade-off.

As she sat checking the monitor readouts against the medical manuals after eating a trifle amount of food, she decided it was time. She planned to give him another round of injections before she did so, including a narcotic. While she was re-filling the hypospray with an antiobiotic serum, she felt something brush her arm. Kylo had raised his hand to reach out to her, resting his fingers on her elbow. The sedative was beginning to work and he was struggling against the weird feeling.

"Don't fight it," she said to him softly. "It's to keep you calm while I take out the ventilator."

His eyelids separated just a tiny bit and she could see him staring directly at her. He blinked a couple of times and then the anaesthetizing power of the drug took over and put him back in a dream world as his hand slipped down and fell off the side of the cot.

~~~~~~

Tana had been hovering over the monitors nervously since she'd removed Ren from the ventilator several hours ago. He was touch and go, sometimes his breathing strong and even, sometimes shallow, sometimes it stopped altogether. That's when she would rub his chest to stimulate him and his breathing would pick back up. Watching this arduous situation was making her a nervous wreck.

At one point, Trudgen came to see Kylo, bearing the lost lightsaber. He stood watching his leader nervously before lifting the wounded man's hand and putting the saber in Kylo's palm, closing his fingers around it. Neither of them spoke and Trudgen stalked away, his head lowered.

Tana could see the Knights were almost lost without Kylo. He was the tower of strength they all looked to and he had been laid low in battle. It must have made them all feel their mortality, as the rock upon which they rested for their power had been crumbled from underneath of them.

In many ways it had. Kylo was at the pinnacle of his youth, his body was, or had been, in near perfection condition and his decisive leadership led them through many a difficult trial. Now, he was wasting away without nutritious food or exercise, much the way Tana had the two weeks she had been in the detention cell. She wouldn't wish that on anyone, even Kylo. He was being fed through a tube and it would be weeks before he'd be able to eat anything by mouth.

And she didn't want to see his body wither and weaken. In the time she'd been caring for him, she'd seen and touched him all over and his physique was exquisite. She'd bathed him and cleaned his wounds, going over every inch of him and she'd come to appreciate the outlines of his muscles, his supple skin, his fine features. She even liked the way he smelled. What she especially liked about him right now was that he was quiet and he couldn't touch her.