#anyway i realised midway through that jale is just a main character from my epic fantasy novel but able bodied and not a musician

[squirrelno2]

Jesse Lives AU, pt 6

Back at it with whatever this is!

Jesse and Jale make it to the ship and contemplate next steps.

First - Previous - Next

The captain didn't look happy to see that half of Jale's haul was a person, but at least the storm clouds cleared when he presented the navigational unit and the fuel.

"There's another piece I pulled from the engine room, if your medic takes a look at my stray," Jale said.

"Your stray?" Jesse snapped. He swayed getting off the speeder. Jale let him stumble and turned back to the captain.

"So?" he asked.

"Last time you brought one of your pretty boys on board he stole half our goods."

Jale sputtered.

"I didn't know -"

"That's the problem." The captain frowned as Jesse approached. "Is that a clone?"

"I am," Jesse said tightly. He glared at Jale. "I'm not fucking you."

"Please, my taste in men isn't that bad," Jale lied through his teeth. Jesse was exactly his type, unfortunately, but Jale was trying to ignore that.

"I won't be any trouble," Jesse told the captain. "Not unless you make trouble for me."

The captain looked him up and down warily, then glanced at Jale. Jale tried to look completely innocent of previous sexual escapades.

"Fine," he said. "We'll take the clone to Corellia and drop him off when we leave you behind."

"It's Jesse," Jesse said tightly. The captain didn't answer.

"So all the shit you were saying about how you didn't trust this crew, that's because you're an idiot who sleeps with thieves?" Jesse asked as they boarded the ship.

"No, they hated me before that," Jale said. "I'm not an idiot!"

Jesse scoffed.

"Haven't seen any evidence yet."

"You're going to be stuck with me for a while, Jesse," Jale said. "Maybe consider holding back on the judgment until you know a little bit more about the real world."

"The real world?" Jesse snapped. He stopped walking. Jale, for some reason, stopped too. "You ever seen what war looks like? You ever lost your family to ambush, and betrayal, and bad luck? That wreck out there is the last in a long line of real things, and you don't know a damn thing about any of it."

Jale swallowed. He wasn't about to give an inch to a man who'd spent the whole day insulting and belittling him, no matter what points he made.

"War isn't the only bad thing that ever happened," he said. "And it's not what life is like for most people."

"You think that makes it any less real?"

Jale was intensely aware of the fact that the captain had turned to look at them, and a few other crewmembers had surfaced to find out what was happening.

"You need to get your head checked," he said. Rage flashed across Jesse's face - he probably thought it was a dig at him - but Jale ignored him and turned to the ship's doctor.

"You want to take a look at a shipwreck survivor?" he said, like he was offering her a gift. She looked as though she couldn't decide whether to focus her attention on hating him or worrying over Jesse.

"Come here," she said to Jesse. "He picked you up off that ship out there?"

Jale ignored the murderous glare Jesse was still sending his way in favour of waving as the doctor steered Jesse away.

"She'll take good care of you," he said cheerfully, just before the doors closed behind them.

The doctor was surprisingly gentle and friendly, for someone who worked for a captain that so obviously didn't respect clones. Jesse was still on edge. He'd won the argument with Jale - the man would never have passed him off to the doctor if he hadn't - but he wanted to go back and make sure Jale knew just how wrong he was. He didn't know why. Jesse was usually better at letting things go, at least from natborns.

The doctor was at least quick about her checks and scans. She was no Kix, but Jesse knew a capable medic when he saw one. He tried to relax.

Finally she gave him a mostly clean bill of health.

"You're lucky, the worst you're hurt is your head," she said. "And you're healing up well from that, miraculously. I don't know what more I can do for you."

"So I'm fine?" Jesse said.

She frowned. "I can't do much for you, but there's definitely trauma. You may experience headaches, mood swings, loss of function - noticed anything?"

Jesse shrugged.

"Headaches," he said. "But we were engineered against that kind of thing."

Her face took on a pinched look which Jesse couldn't interpret.

"Doesn't really matter what your genetics look like when your head gets cracked like an egg," she said. "Look, just… if you notice anything, issues with motor control or speech or eyesight, let me know. You got off easy."

Easy. Jesse didn't think easy was landing on a near-empty moon. He didn't think easy was depending on a too-cocky stranger and the crew that hated him. He didn't think easy was outliving everyone you knew, and being left behind for dead by the one person you had left.

"Sure," he said.

"Look," the doctor said. "If you don't want to be stranded on Corellia at Jale's mercy, I'm sure I can talk to the captain. Maybe you could work for us -"

It was a smart idea. He wouldn't be stuck with Jale. He'd be able to travel where he needed to go, as soon as he figured out where that was.

But some part of him hated the idea of working for anybody that wasn't the Republic. Jale, at least, hadn't framed it like that - like Jesse would be betraying himself by assisting. Jesse may have hated picking over the Venator's bones, but it hadn't been a job.

It was stupid. It was impractical. He'd never be able to survive, thinking like that.

But he could put off the moment when he needed to change.

"It's fine," he said. "I'll make Corellia work."