To Try Our Souls: PART I OF 'TO CURSE THE DARKNESS' (Kylo x Reader)

Revelations

I left my patient sleeping in the dim light of his quarters as the day came to a close. He seemed to finally be resting comfortably. I had straightened up the quarters so that at least he would have clean surroundings in which to recover, and I returned to the medbay to report in to Captain Dentley and explain my bizarre absence.

Looking up from the patient care station, Dentley addressed me with an arched eyebrow.

"Have you looked in a hologlass today, Sharva?" he demanded half-amused and half-annoyed.

"Yes, I have, Captain," I replied, running my fingers through my auburn tresses. "I know I'm a sight, I just wanted to check in with you before I returned to my quarters to clean up."

His brow arched a bit higher, eliciting irritation from me.

"Trust me, this was one of the least pleasant twenty-four-hour periods of my life, I'd rather have been here mopping up after the troops."

"Do tell," he responded, "why don't you come into my day room and we'll talk."

I followed, tired but resigned and realizing I owed him an explanation. The door swooped closed behind us and as I handed Kylo Ren's treatment file over to the Captain for safe-keeping, I gave him the short recap of my encounter with General Hux, the medical treatments Ensign Meech and I conducted in Ren's quarters, and the current status of our patient.

"I believe it's in the First Order's best interests to keep his current condition a secret, Captain," I advised. "He should recover soon, but for the next few days, his weakness could leave a vacuum of power in the command structure and I don't want to be the one to have created a crisis because Ren is out of commission."

Scrolling through my copious notes on the datapad, Dentley's salt and pepper head nodded in silent agreement as he ascertained the true extent of Kylo's injuries. "Hmm..." he said, rubbing a grizzled shadow of a beard around his jawline, "not pretty, but could have been much worse."

"True," I assented, "I'm glad it wasn't, because I couldn't have given him more complex treatment in his quarters and things would have gotten messy... for all of us."

As he placed the datapad back on his desk, we looked at each other knowingly. Supreme Leader Snoke's "favored son," so to speak, was a precious commodity, and had we been responsible for his demise, ours would surely have followed soon after. The sudden realization of how close the med team had come to facing a fate worse than death rattled me. Dentley recognized this and reached into his desk, coming up with a bottle. I looked at him quizzically.

"Don't stare at me like that, Sharva," he said annoyedly.

"Not staring, Sir, just... surprised?"

He placed two small cups on the desk next to the bottle and poured me a shot.

"Have a shot of kyrf, go back to your quarters, take a nap, and come back here this evening," Dentley said before he downed a shot of the potent liquor. "Ack! Vile liquid," he said, wiping his mouth on his jacket sleeve. "In the meantime, I'll contact the Supreme Leader to report in on Ren's condition."

"And say what? 'Oh, here's a note, he'll be out sick a coupla days'?" I sneered, giggling.

Dentley joined my reverie, the laughter breaking the tension we'd been living under since the evacuation. Eventually, our amusement subsided and we returned to the matter at hand.

"In all seriousness, Sharva, you did a fine job. I will need to make a report to High Command to explain Ren's absence and his expected return. The question now is, how to handle him until that day arrives."