Stay
Your Captain Rex would trade his life for your if he could.
A/N: I'm sorry I'm advance for this. (Actually no I'm not 😂) Whumptober 2022 #5. Prompt: Every Whumpee's Needs (Blood Loss)
Warnings: Blood and a lot of angst.
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"I can't breathe. I can't breathe!" you choked, desperately trying to make sense of the overwhelming pain and panic washing over you.
"Easy kid, just look at me." the familiar voice of your clone captain spoke calmly. "In and out, in and out." Rex's hands pressed hard against your stomach, desperately trying to stop the endless flow of blood. You bucked against him with a strangled cry as he pressed harder, your eyes wide with pain and fear darting down to his hands and the mess that they covered.
"Hey. Hey, keep looking at me. Keep your eyes up here, sweetheart. Keep breathing with me." Rex took a breath to show you but also to calm his own nerves. Damn it, keep it together man. He shook his head in an effort to rid himself of the emotions that threatened to take control. No! he thought, chastising himself, You've done this before. You've seen worse. Get a grip! But it hadn't been you before. Fear bubbled in his chest again threatening to drown him in your panicked, shallow breaths. You're a soldier. A force damned captain of the Grand Army of the Republic! Just stop. Keep pressure. Breathe. The tightness in his chest let up a bit as he forced himself to chuck the emotions behind.
"Captain?" you groggily rasped as you looked up at him with worried eyes. "Are you ok? Are - are we gonna be ok?" Damnit. He felt his heart swell. You were actually worried about him. You lay in his arms bleeding out and yet YOU were the one asking if HE was doing ok. Maker, that's why he loved you - one of the many reasons he loved you.
"I'm alright, Mesh'la. I'm okay and you're gonna be just fine. Help is coming and you know Kix, he'll fix you up nice and good." Force be damned, he'd kill General Grievous and the whole kriffing droid army himself if that would make the reinforcements come faster. "Just hold on for me, cyar'ika. You're doing so well."
You smiled weakly up at him, feeling something warm dribble from the corner of your lips. You weren't scared anymore. A sudden calm lay over you like a blanket. You wanted to tell him that everything would be okay - that you weren't hurting anymore. "Rex..." your voice came in a whisper.
"I'm right here, cyar'ika"
"I love you."
Rex felt as if he'd just swallowed an iceberg.
"I love you too, Mesh'la. Keep those pretty eyes open for me. I can hear the gunships. Just hold on. Stay with me and when you're better and the war is over, I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
You smiled at that. You could hear the gunships too. Your rescue. But you knew they wouldn't make it in time. Rex knew it too deep down, but he'd go to the nine Corellian hells and back before giving up on you.
"Almost there, cyar'ika. Almost home."
But you were home.
Lying in your captain's arms, you were home. His scent - warm like smoke from a campfire and cool like gun metal - wrapped around you like a robe. Only one fleeting thought drifted through your mind as you slipped away. Captain Rex would be alone.
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