The Clone Wars One Shots

Secret Admirer Part 2

You were right, it wasn't a bad idea.

It was a horrible one.

You and Tech had been talking over the comms every chance you got for several weeks now, and the time spent talking to him was the best of your life. Your conversations were never dull, as Tech always had something interesting to share, and the two of you spoke about everything.

Well, almost everything.

Though Tech had endless amounts of knowledge in his head at every given moment, just waiting to be shared with you, he often put the breaks on his info dumps and asked questions about your life. Whether he was genuinely interested or just being polite, you couldn't be sure, but either way, you were unwilling to reveal much about yourself. You always tried to keep the conversation off yourself, telling him short stories about your life and coming up with half-baked excuses not to share whenever he asked for more details.

It was difficult to keep up your fake life when you wanted nothing more than to tell him your real name, but you could never bring yourself to spit it out. You enjoyed talking to him more than anything else in the galaxy, and you didn't want to sacrifice your newfound friendship by revealing that you had been lying to him all along. How would he trust you after that? Just the thought of what he could say upon hearing your revelation was uncomfortable. It was more painful than losing half your body had been.

The hole you had dug for yourself kept getting deeper and deeper, as every time Tech passed the medical bay, he would poke his head inside in search of you. Or rather, in search of Beta. You always ducked out of sight, turned your back, or fled to the small supply room whenever he passed by, and your heart broke every time you saw his face fall in disappointment before he left.

Tech never asked where you were whenever he was in the medical bay, nor mentioned his regular visits, which you were thankful for. You knew he was embarrassed of how often he looked for you - something you had realized after overhearing Wrecker and Crosshair teasing him about it as they fled the medical bay a few days earlier - and figured that he didn't want you to know how much he wanted to meet you face to face. It hurt to deny him that, but you figured it was for the best. For now, at least.

The morning that things changed started off just as every day did. You woke up to a pitch black and stormy sky, as usual; dragged yourself to the medical bay in a zombie-like state of tiredness, as usual; raided the caf machine before the other medics could, as usual; and were ready for your first patient before any of the cadets were even awake, as usual.

Ah, insomnia.

As you downed a large mug of caf and rubbed your eye sleepily, you comm went off. You answered, expecting Nala Se's unpleasant morning voice, and you were pleasantly surprised when a friendly and all too familiar voice sounded from the device.

"Good morning, Beta," Tech greeted you. Once again, as usual.

"Morning, Tech," you whispered back, knowing full well that the rest of the Bad Batch was likely still sound asleep. Like you, Tech had difficulty remaining asleep, and the two of you had developed a routine of speaking early in the morning, before either if you were slammed with work. "How's Hunter feeling?"

"He's back on his feet. Still has a minor limp, but hopefully for not much longer."

"I doubt it. He should be okay in a day or two, assuming he's been taking the medication I prescribed him."

"Begrudgingly."

"Understandable," you said with a nod, shuddering as you recalled your own experiences with the very same medication you had instructed Hunter to take. "It tastes awful."