Learning to Live (COMPLETE)

8.7.2

Ahsoka was now extremely glad that she had taken time on Tuesday to make a mini medkit. While Rya stayed with her mother and comforted her, Ahsoka took her bag off of her back and pulled out the homemade kit, hoping that she had enough supplies with her to treat Rya's mother. As she pulled the supplies out, her mind fell back on her Padawan days when Kix had given her crash courses on how to treat minor to major injuries, both on the battlefield and afterward, in the infirmary. She had been forced to rely on those lessons on Dromund Kaas after particularly painful training sessions to patch herself up. While it had been difficult at the moment, she now could treat broken limbs, deep cuts and blaster wounds, burns, bruises, and almost everything in between.

Rya's mother had plenty to be going on with. The first step was to clean the blood off, and there was a lot of it. She pulled an old, raggedy blue towel out of the pack to start and went into the kitchen to dampen it. Start with water, then treat the individual cuts with rubbing alcohol. The sheets and the clothes could be disinfected later.

She returned, and Rya stepped aside to let Ahsoka begin on her mother. Ahsoka kneeled on the mattress but waved Rya back. "Stay with her while I do this," she instructed her, her voice calm and steady. "She needs support right now."

Rya didn't object but knelt down by her mother's face and clasped her hand again. Ahsoka started mopping up as much blood as she could, trying to avoid the cuts for now. She had to go back twice to wring out the towel, but she managed to wipe up most of the red fluid. Now she could see the damage to the skin, and Ahsoka realized that it was going to be a while.

Her mother had bruises all over her body. Her skin was mostly faded to purple, and Ahsoka made a mental note to be as gentle as possible. Rya's mother wasn't a soldier, and there was no reason for her to tough this out if she didn't have to. Ahsoka set the rag aside and opened a box of anti-bacterial wipes. Cuts were running across her stomach, back, and all around her neck and Ahsoka had a feeling she would need the gauze pads later.

She spoke softly to Rya's mother. "I need to clean the wound before I can bandage it, so this is going to sting. Are you ready?"

Nodding, she squeezed her daughter's hand tightly, and Ahsoka started on her stomach first. It was likely to be the most sensitive area and she wanted to get that over with as soon as possible. Her mother started whimpering as the alcohol began to burn, but Rya began talking to her, soothing her with her voice. Ahsoka made sure to work in small increments, giving her lots of breaks to relax. It wasn't hard to do, since she needed a lot of wipes to treat all of the cuts. As soon as her stomach was done, the neck was next, and then the back. By then, her mother was handling the stinging better.

Ahsoka wiped the last cut and discarded the wipe with the wrapper. "I'm finished," she told her, and the mother's body relaxed drastically. Rya began to encourage her, but they weren't done yet, not by a long shot.

Knowing that she needed to rest before they continued, she pulled out a few small bandages. She stuck them to the smallest cuts, mostly on her neck and stomach. After that, only three cuts were left, but they were too big to not stitch up.

"I need you to lay on your side now," Ahsoka instructed, and Rya helped her mother roll so she was facing the wall. While they shifted, she selected a syringe of anesthetic and the miniature stitching kit, and sat them next to her on the bed, along with the biggest bandages she had in her kit. Again, she started with the one large cut on her stomach, since she knew her back was going to be a lot easier and less painful.

She didn't show the needle right away but explained what she wanted to do. "Your largest cuts need stitches in order to heal properly, but I don't want to hurt you so I want to inject a medicine into the area. It will numb the pain, and after about an hour you will be able to feel it again. Is that okay?"