Cad Bane - The Concept of Trust

Ghosts from the past: Part I

She woke up screaming that night, her whole body in cold sweat, and felt how Bane had grabbed her arms, holding them with an iron grip against his body.

"Lady, you're gonna break my jaw if you keep doing that."

She stared into nothingness in the dim light of the quarters, the dream and faces fading out of her vision, but the feeling staying vivid and all too real. Then her muscles relaxed, when she finally understood where she was, and she rolled on her back, grunting, closing her eyes. Bane watched her intensely, but did not say anything.

Next night she woke up to her own scream again, covered in sweat, and shaking her head when trying to get rid of the image of the battlefield, and the squad in the midst of it all. Then she caught a figure leaning to the doorframe, the lights from behind made it nothing more than a black, lanky silhouette. Bane was watching her.

"I think Todo just dropped a couple of parts there because of that scream," he said, and though the words were joking his tone wasn't.

She exhaled, trying to even her breath. Druk. Why couldn't the past stay in the past?

Bane did not move from the door.

"So, what happened on the mission with the gun trader?"

She glanced at him, eyes narrowing. "What do you mean?" she said, staring rigidly forwards.

"Don't take me for an idiot. This started the very next night we took that gun trader down, and I have seen you in tight spots before, so it's not about that. What happened?" Bane's voice was more demanding when repeating the question. She hesitated for a moment.

"I... shot down a mercenary I knew." she kept avoiding his eyes.

Bane looked at her probingly.

"Told you not to take me for an idiot," he snarled. "You wouldn't be cracking up just because you killed some hired gun you knew. It's not the first time you've done that, but you haven't tried to smash my face, flailing your fists in your sleep, or screaming your lungs out."

She grew rigid, and sat silently on the bed, still focusing her eyes forward, not answering Bane. Kriffing ghosts from the past, and bounty hunters asking about them...

Bane groaned, and left the room. Like a fucking clam...

She went in the refresher, and tried to shake off the dream. She knew Bane had seen through her; It wasn't just shooting down some vaguely known mercenary. It was about killing a man he had once trusted, fought with, and followed without questioning. She banged the back of her head to the wall, trying to focus. Get a grip. It's all in the past, she thought, as she absentmindedly ran her fingers on the scars on her body.

She got out of the shower, and didn't even consider sleeping again. She pulled the trousers on, and went into the cockpit. Bane was sitting in his chair with a bottle of Caridan booze next to him.

"You need to talk, lady. I am no fucking medical droid or a head doctor, nor even a keen listener, but I value my own bones enough to hear what a hell happened to you. You don't need to be a telepath to know that this is connected to those scars of yours."

She seemingly twitched.

"You think I'm blind? You have been stroking those all the time now. It's not hard math. Sit."

She thought of turning around, but instead sat down in the second chair, leaning back, and eyeing Bane.

"You gonna get me drunk so I will blubber out everything?"