Commander of Wolves

Chapter Six: Journey

***

Inside Nya's room, Nevo gestures for Walker, Hypno, and Net to move away from the bed. While the medics have never met Nya's mother before, it was clear to them all that this was Nya's mother.

For a moment, Bo's eyes sweep over her daughter. The oxygen mask over her face. Her closed eyes. The stillness that doesn't seem to fit her. Then Bo crosses over the empty space to Nya's bed. The older Mandalorian woman takes Nya's limp hand, and squeezes it. She turns her head to look at Nevo and asks,

"How long will she be asleep?"

"I'm not sure, ma'am. She could wake up in a few hours to a few days, a few weeks to a few months, or... never. Right now, ma'am, it's all up to the Commander."

Bo sets her shoulders and says, "Then she'll wake up." After a pause, Bo says, "Has she ever told you her real name, Nevo?"

"No, ma'am, she hasn't."

"Nya is her nickname, but her real name is Nyathera. It's an old Mandalorian name that means 'she survives'." Nevo nods, and Bo continues. "I found her as a newborn on Krownest. It's a planet covered in snow year round. Most babies left there die within a few hours, but she was out in the snow for two days."

Nevo gets a look of realization on his face. "That's how her hypothalamus was damaged."

Bo nods to him. "Nya has survived worse odds before now. She'll wake up, if I know her, she'll wake up."

Nevo nods, and then leaves the room after getting a chair for Bo from the corner.

***

Three weeks after her overdose, Nya still has not woken up. Bo-Katan and the Wrens have had no choice but to go back to Mandalore, their duties demanding their return. Plo gives them updates every time something happens, but as general, he has his own duties to attend to, and so cannot stay with Nya at all times. Though that is what he wishes he could do.

Sinker and Boost though have taken to delivering Wolffe his paperwork and doing his physical duties so that he can sit with Nya during the day. The two of them trade off doing night shifts though.

In sitting with her, Wolffe has seen her hand twitch and the corner of her mouth turn up. Nevo and the other baar'urs are hopeful now that she has begun to move, Nya will wake up soon. And indeed, they are right to hope.

Wolffe is going through paperwork, signing off on what he needs to and reviews Sinker and Boost's reports, when he hears a noise come from the bed that Nya has been lying on. It sounds like a noise coming from someone's throat. He looks up from his datapad and sees Nya shift. The clone commander sets his datapad on the night table, and stands from the chair.

Underneath her eyelids, her eyes move around. Then Nya's eyelids begin to try and open. Wolffe takes a seat on the edge of her bed, and waits. It takes a moment, but then the Jedi's eyelids start to flutter. And not a second later, dark blue eyes are staring into Wolffe's own honey brown.

The two stare at each other for what seems to be forever to them, but is really only a few moments, before Wolffe hesitantly reaches out a hand to touch her face. The Mandalorian girl's eyes start to fill with tears as she realizes what had happened. As she realizes the consequences that her actions had. And as she realizes what she would have left behind if her hopes had happened.