The Storms of Kamino: Crosshair

Changes

The report was right in front of me, but I still couldn't believe what I was reading. Four members of Clone Force 99 have disobeyed orders and are now fugitives of the Empire. If you or anyone you know have information on their whereabouts, contact the nearest Imperial outpost right away. Failure to do so will result in an arrest for treason and subsequent execution.

A picture of them escaping was at the bottom of the report. They were all there, and Omega was with them, all of them except Crosshair. I wondered about why he wasn't included in this announcement, and I had this nagging feeling that I needed to find him to get more information.

"AZ-5, could you do a huge favor for me?" I asked in the droid's general direction.

He looked up from his daily inventory logs and said, "Of course, Doctor."

I turned the screen on my desk and pointed at Crosshair's file. "See this? I need you to find the chief physician in charge of care for CT-9904 and ask that all his medical checkups be transferred to my facility." I fiddled with my nails, a bad habit I picked up whenever I was stressed. "There's something weird going on. Call it a hunch, just try your best... please." 

AZ mock saluted at me. "You got it, boss!" he said, before leaving to hopefully preform to difficult task I'd sent him to do.

After a few hours of waiting, I was dozing off when AZ entered, looking proud of himself, if that was even possible for a droid. "I did it, Doctor! I found CT-9904 and brought him straight here as requested." Crosshair was there, loitering in the background. His armor was different, all black, no longer having it's signature patches of red and grey.

"What am I doing here?" he asked, sounding irritated.

I pointed to the to full body scanner and the cold table that was protruding out of it. "You're here for your physical. Remove you armor and lie down, please."  He did as I asked, taking everything off until his thin frame was only clothed in his blacks and lied down on the bed. "You'll only be in the pod for a few minutes," I continued. "There's a red button inside you can press if you start feeling claustrophobic. Let me know if you feel any discomfort and I'll pull you out." I went to check his heartrate and he winced as I put the machine on his chest.

"Relax," I said, trying to keep my voice as even as possible. "I'm just measuring your heartbeat to see if it's irregular, which it's not, so we can begin the full scan." He calmed down a bit before I pulled the lever that sent him into the machine. Everything looked normal, his blood pressure was a little high, but it was nothing I couldn't remedy.

"Well, everything looks good as far as I can tell. Your blood pressure's spiked, but I can give you a shot that will regulate it." I went to the sterile table that AZ-5 had prepared for me and prepped the syringe.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked, out of the blue.

"Doing what?" I responded.

"Helping me."

"It's my job. I heard about what happened with the rest of your squad and I wanted to check up on you, not just physically, but emotionally."

Crosshair's eyes softened as he looked down at the floor. "I'm fine," he said.

I crouched down so we were at eye level. "Are you?"

"Yes." 

I wanted to push harder, but I knew it wasn't going to work. I sat down next to him and we sat together for a while, the mechanical whirring the only sounds keeping us company besides each other.

"Do you remember when Wrecker got caught in an explosion on Felucia and you and the rest of your team brought him back here because you were all out of supplies?"

Crosshair nodded and looked sad at the mention of his old battalion. 

"He was going to be fine of course, but there was a moment when he was in surgery that you looked so scared. You were sitting in that very spot." I pointed to a set of chairs in the corner. "And, I went up to you and sat with you for hours, waiting for any word, because I wasn't the doctor in charge. I just want you to know that I'll always be here if you need to talk. Or, to just sit in silence." I gingerly reached for his hand and I expected him to pull away, but he didn't. He let me hold it for a few seconds and I squeezed it gently before letting go and going back to my desk.

"You're in perfect health and may leave now, if you desire," I said. Part of me wanted him to stay, and I was disappointed when he got up, put his armor back on, and disappeared into the night.