Bankor

Cole's eyes pinged open. His muscles were tense, aching, his entire body sheened with a thin layer of sweat. He stared at the ceiling, trying to catch his breath, as if he'd been running, trying to tell his body to relax, that it was safe. He'd slept late, after the meeting Niall had called, and felt slightly off balance. It was already uncomfortably hot. He was tired, stretched out, aching. It was time to start another day.

There was a knock at the door.

And a "BAAAA!"

Cole blinked, that was the unmistakable bleating of a goat, but his goats had been securely sheltered away from the barracks. He dragged himself out of bed and pulled on a pair of boxer briefs, rubbing his eyes as he sauntered to the door and opened it.

He'd lost weight. He'd never had any bulk on him, but at least on the huttball court he'd looked fit. At least his bones weren't starting to show yet. Stark against his pale skin was a large scar, stretching from one side of his body to the other. Seeing the togruta, "oh, Ashla, I forgot."

Ashla notices the changes immediately. But decides to not to bring it up immediately. "I have a goat!"

Running a hand through his hair, I'm too tired for this shit, he moved aside and waved her in. "I'll have to introduce you to Pepper and Piper," he said as if the small blue goats were the most normal thing in the galaxy. Maybe they were, the galaxy was a strange place, after all.

"You have two?" Jo only gave her one. "Well, Kidaja the Goat does need to make friends." She gives the goat a toy.

"I came by to see how your meditation work has been going."

"Kidaja?" Cole gave an amused snort, "that poor goat. I bought a goat, and every purchase came with a free goat." He rubbed his face, "I was thinking about donating them to the locals before we left the Emerald Valley, but I've gotten pretty attached." Dropping on the bed, he absently scratched along the underside of the widest part of the scar. It had the distinctive look of a burning wound that had been stitched up, it was quite obviously from a lightsaber.

Cole ran a hand through his hair, "I haven't been giving it as much practice as I should."

"Oh. Interesting. I got a cursed sword." Ashla shrugs. "Probably should have bought a goat. I wonder how much a cursed goat would have costed me."

While Ashla doesn't hide that she's looking at it, she says nothing still. "Well, I guessed you weren't practicing. That's why I came here."

“A cursed sword? Sounds like something out of that Wookie game that’s been getting around.” He was aware of her eyes on the massive scar, “just ask already.”

"You're gonna make me?" Of course he is. It's not like he's less prideful.

"What happened?" Ashla was rooting for Vera Hawke cosplay gone horribly wrong, but felt she wasn't going to like the answer.

He half-shrugged, "if you're just going keep staring, I'm going to assume you either want to ask, or jump me," running a hand through his curls, "and I'm too tired if it's the second one." Stretching, "I got a little too close to a wounded Sith."

"And what? You tripped and fell? When did this happen?" Before he can say anything else, "And don't skimp on the details. I'm sure you wouldn't let me if the case was reversed, and I should be getting sliced by sith."

"Right," he agreed on both points. "I've been working with a small peacekeeping force, a small team of medics with a few body guards. A few months ago we were close to Imperial space when we intercepted a distress call. It was a small vessel, crippled, scans said there was only one person left alive aboard. I took my team to extract him."

"He was barely conscious when I approached, but aware enough to try and lash out at me."

Ashla nods. Not the best, not the worst scenario. "What happened after he took a swipe at you?" Ashla assumes, he still tried to save the man, because that's the kind of masochist he is. That's also why she admired him.

Not that she would ever say that.

"Guy could barely lift his saber, or else I wouldn't have lived to tell about it." He absently rubbed at the scarred flesh, "whatever happened to his ship, it seems someone wanted to go for round two, because the next thing I know, there are starfighters dropping out hyperspace, and the group captain's telling us we have to go. So I picked up him and my insides, and got out of there."

Of course, you did.

"Did he at least he at least apologize after you saved him?"

“He thanked me for saving his hide, which I figure is about as good as I could hope for.”

Ashla chuckles. "Probably. But honestly, nothing less than I expected of you."

Ashla frowns, not sure how to bring it up. "And why do you look like you haven't had a good meal in forever?" She decided to go tactfully.

“That’s easy,” he lifted a hand as if to adjust his spectacles, but he hadn’t put the on yet, so the hand went through his curls, “because I haven’t.” There was blunt openness that was a little too truthful for his usual deadpan humour. “I had a section of my small intestine taken out, it was perforated and the scarring would have messed things up anyway. Since then, eating hasn’t been as fun as I remember.”

Ashla seems somewhat relieved. "Good. Well, not good, but.... I was just conce-.... I just wanted to make sure you're taking care of yourself. Sometimes, you give too much of yourself. It's... admirable, but I do worry about you."

Cole’s first instinct was to say something mocking, but he was genuinely touched by her concern, for the first time he could recall, it seemed to come from a genuine place. Shaisha’s prideful reminders to take care and Niall’s stiff orders-but-not-orders had always seemed self-serving in some way, the things you said because it was automatic. Cole realised he’d been silent a little too long, he nodded, “thanks, Ashla.”

“I’m still too tired,” he quipped after a moment, to lighten the mood.

"Well, you're a doctor in a warzone. It's to be suspected. Well, at least you got a couple of goats from this one." Ashla tried to lighten the mood.

Cole dropped back onto the bed, reaching up to put his arms behind his head. Stretched out like that, his ribs poked up. "Truth be told, I have been working too hard and sleeping too little. But what else are you going to do on a small frigate halfway between one planet and the next?"

"Drink and become one of those crudmongey doctors on the vid like Ship?"

Ashla shrugs. "Maybe you can come back to Coruscant on my ship? You gotta go back to request your leave, right?"

He raised his head to look at her, “I’m plenty curmudgeonly,” and Cole laid back again to look at the ceiling. “When I was out with the peacekeeping group, we’d drop onto a planet, spend a few hectic days providing aid and trying to grab a few winks on the transports. Then we’d be off to the next place, just me, hyperspace, a medbay, and a handful of the same crew I’d been working with all year.”

Cole ran a hand through his hand best he could though his was lying down, “you work, you sleep, you try not to get too far up each other’s snouts.”