One-Shots and Art For The Runaway

One-Shot: Nightmares

This is just a little blurb I randomly thought of. I hope you guys like it! A little moment between Crosshair and Callista! ☺
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Callista awoke with a start and expected to find herself back in the labs on Kamino. Except she wasn't - she had been asleep on her bunk on the Havoc Marauder. Though that didn't stop Calli from taking fast, haggard breaths while trembling as if she was cold though her body was drenched in sweat.

She'd just woken up from another nightmare. This one had taken her back to those long hours of experiments in the cold lab. This wasn't the first time Calli had had nightmares about Kamino and she knew that it wouldn't be the last. 

After carefully listening to see that none of the boys had woken up, and hearing only faint snores, Calli drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, silently rocking her body as she tried to calm herself down. 

Thankfully the boys hadn't woken up because she didn't want them to see her like this: broken. They'd already seen her get upset when seeing Obi-Wan for the first time in five years and Calli regretted ever letting her emotions get the better of her like that. She promised herself to never let herself get that way again in front of the boys, scared that they would think she's weak and not fit to be a part of this squad. Calli didn't think she could handle it if they decided to kick her out. 

Once Calli had calmed herself down, she left her bunk, being careful to be as quiet as possible to not wake the others as she climbed down past Tech and Wrecker's bunks beneath hers to the floor. She needed a distraction, knowing that sleep wouldn't come for at least a couple of hours. She wished she could go to the cockpit, but one glance at Hunter's empty bunk told her that he was in there, and she didn't want him to see her like this, obviously. 

So Calli decided to go to the cargo hold above where she could clean her gear. They'd just finished a mission that had taken them to Tatooine and dust and sand found its way to the smallest crevices of her armor and gear. Calli knew she'd be shaking sand from her boots for the next several rotations. 

Stupid sand. I hate it. 

Once getting into the cargo hold, Calli went to the back where all their armor had been deposited to be cleaned. In her half groggy state, she didn't see or hear Crosshair until he spoke. 

"You look terrible." After nearly having her heart jump out of her chest, it registered what the sniper had said and Calli glared. 

"Gee thanks." She responded dryly, noticing the bucket of soapy water sitting next to him and the rag in one hand and one of his pauldrons in the other. He sat in the back corner behind a large crate which is why Calli hadn't seen him. 

She silently grabbed another rag and sat across from him, the pile of armor between them and she grabbed one of her gauntlets. 

Crosshair, with his keen eyesight that noticed everything, saw the bags under her eyes and the tenseness in her shoulders as she quietly began wiping the dust off the armor piece in her hands. 

She had another nightmare. 

While Crosshair wasn't sure the others noticed she'd been having constant nightmares, he definitely had. His bunk was across from hers and he'd see her tossing and turning in her sleep. How she'd have extra caf in the mornings after a nightmare and when no one was looking her mask would drop and there would be a sort of haunted look in her eyes. 

He was impressed at how she was able to keep plowing on even when she hardly slept or ate. His guess was that she's had years to practice and perfect looking OK when she definitely wasn't. In a way, she kind of reminded Crosshair of himself. Maybe that's why he was quicker to tolerate her as opposed to anyone else outside of his squad. While she could be annoying and get on his nerves - though to be fair everyone did at some point or another - she didn't complain about it and put others before herself. 

Heck, after that speeder blew up and she'd been in a coma, the first thing she asked about waking up was if he'd been OK. She'd had half her right arm and leg missing and he didn't hear her complain once about it either except for not being able to walk. Nothing about the pain she must have been in. 

Crosshair might go as far as saying that he admired her and he thought very highly of himself and his abilities and rarely - actually never - viewed anyone as superior to himself and his squad. But a fifteen year old managed to gain the approval and admiration of the sniper, though she didn't know and Crosshair would unlikely ever voice this to her. 

It's this respect for her that prevents him from saying any other snide remarks or prying about what she'd been having a nightmare about. He knew it was most likely about Kamino or what happened with Jango, or maybe something that had happened to her in those years on her own. Calli needed silence and a distraction, and he might be the only one in the squad who can give her both without complaint, besides maybe Hunter. It was a small ship and quiet moments were rare, and he could already see that Calli some of the tension left her shoulders as she cleaned. 

So they spend the next two hours in complete silence, and Calli finds that she felt halfway alright when the cleaning was finished. While she didn't know why Crosshair didn't ask why she'd been up, she greatly appreciated it and found that just being with someone else made her feel better, especially when he didn't force her to talk about her problems. She managed to feel relaxed enough to fall back asleep the second her face hit the pillow, with no nightmares for the rest of the night.