Encounter on Lothal (Kylo/OC)

Chapter 12

"Get off!" Ren railed at Tana for the third time today. She could tell he was getting well when he started fighting her more often than cooperating with her lately. Today's battleground was her attempts to drain his abdominal wound.

"Commander, please," she pleaded with him where he lay on the medtent's cot, "let me just drain this now and I'll let you go back to what you were doing, it will only take a couple of minutes."

"Be quick about it," he huffed as he threw his datapad at his feet. He was sitting up in bed reading intelligence reports about their next locale and here she was getting in the way of his very important work.

"This is time sensitive," she reminded him. "We're trying to stay one step ahead of infection." She flushed his abdominal cavity with bacta and he winced at the strange sensation.

"I tried to get it as near to your body temperature as I could," she explained in apology.

"Yes, fine," he said between gritted teeth. She'd offered to put him under for the procedure, but he was having none of it.

She suctioned the bacta back out of him and closed the port she'd sutured into his gut, then handed him back his datapad. "All done," she announced as if he should be relieved. Instead, he grabbed the device from her hand and glared at her as if she owed him a favor. The days and nights spent in close proximity under stressful conditions were beginning to wear on them both, and they found themselves sniping at each other more often than not. She decided it was time.

"Commander, actually, instead of reading that here, maybe you can read it in your own tent."

He looked at her quizzically.

"I think you're well enough to be on your own now. If you want, I can help you pack up," she said, indicating the small office he'd built around himself during his convalescence.

"Oh," he said at first in surprise, feeling like she was kicking him out but then thought better of it. "Well, it's about time."

~~~~~~

Ren spent another week recovering in his own pavilion, finally being allowed more solid food as each day passed.

Despite being afforded a better night's sleep without her 'roommate', Tana discovered she missed him at nights, his soft breathing assuring her he was still alive. She berated herself for not harboring a persistent hate for her rapist, and she couldn't resign herself to make peace between her logic and her feelings.

He didn't act like a rapist; he didn't take every opportunity to objectify her, to touch her, to make her feel under his control. He did none of that. Was he oversexed? Maybe. She thought she'd caught him masturbating a couple of times the last week he'd been under her care and the fact that he took advantage of Qaderos' services on The Finalizer told her that maybe he was just a young man with a healthy sex drive and a narcissistic personality, and Tana could absolutely see some of Qaderos' girls throwing themselves at Ren.

And that's what bothered her. He treated women like snacks, ordering them up like meals and having them brought to his quarters for him to devour. It wasn't right; it wasn't fair. She'd have never been put in that position to begin with if he just hadn't put in an order for a sexual encounter that day.

She marched to his tent and called out to him. "Commander?"

He pulled the flap back to allow her entrance.

"Talurra, come in," he replied and returned to his makeshift desk.

She had her medkit with her, so he assumed she wanted to do a check-up on him.