June of Doom 2026 - Day 26
Masterlist | Ao3 Series
Title: "familiar scars and electric hearts"
Prompts: "You're only making it worse." Flare | Confession (25)
Fandom: Star Wars - The Clone Wars
Characters: Ahsoka & Vet (Wolfpack Medic OC)
Add. Tags: (Chronic) Pain, Post Boba Fett ARC, Medical Inaccuracy, Ahsoka Gets a Hug, Reference to the stunning training from TOTJ
Note: A LITTLE BIT of Anakin bashing/criticism here! Just so you know, in case it is not your cup of tea. Otherwise, enjoy! :)
@juneofdoom
After months of stunner training, Ahsoka has developed pain in her arms that flares up every now and then. While en route to Coruscant with the Wolfpack, Vet coincidentally finds out about Anakin's training methods. He is not amused at all.
When Ahsoka wakes early in the morning, she immediately knows that it is going to be a very long, very pain-filled day.
The pain in her shoulders and elbow joints has set in a few months after the first training exercises with Torrent Company. Maybe she wouldn’t even have associated it with the stunners but the pain that bristles in her body is so electric that she can’t really think of a different explanation.
Their last training session was a while ago but after missions the pain has a nasty habit to flare up for a rotation or two.
Still, Ahsoka drags herself out of bed. She probably won’t have to be anywhere today. They are en route back to Coruscant after rescuing Master Windu and Master Skywalker on Vanqor. Both masters are currently recovering in bacta tanks.
Slowly, she slips into her boots and gets up with one hand braced against the wall. Caf. The heat might help and the caffeine will for sure help so that will be her first stop.
She slowly trudges into the mess hall and towards the caf machine. The hall is still almost empty, and it will probably take another hour before the rest of the 104th begins their day.
The caf maker fills the flimsi-cup slowly with a soft trickling of brown liquid. Ahsoka folds her arms on top of the machine slowly and rests her head on top of her arms.
She lets her eyes close again. If she just doesn’t move at all and lets her mind slip a little more towards meditation, the pain is almost bearable.
“Morning, Commander.” Ahsoka startles into awareness again, likely a few minutes later.
Vet, Wolfpack’s CMO, is now preoccupied with the caf maker, offering her the full cup while placing an empty one under the output for himself.
She slowly reaches out for the cup, but when she lifts it up to her mouth, a tingling numbness shoots through her arm, almost making her drop the cup.
Vet reaches out and takes the cup from her again before she can spill it over herself.
“Careful,” he comments. “Are you alright?”
Ahsoka nods swiftly. “Funny bone,” she forces out through clenched teeth.
“Togruta have funny bones?” Vet inquires, setting her cup down on top of the caf maker.
“I think most people have funny bones.” She goes back to leaning against the machine, resting her head on top of it. This feels way nicer. Maybe she can just stay right here.
“Clones don’t.”
“Oh.” She smiles a little at Vet. “That sounds practical.”
He picks up his caf and takes a sip before looking at her intently.
“Are you sure you are feeling alright, Commander? Respectfully, you look a little unwell.”
Tricking a medic is difficult, especially— Ahsoka noticed early— if it is not your own medic but one who looks especially closely because they are newly responsible for you.
It is also a bad start if the medic is already suspicious, but Ahsoka hadn’t really thought that she would meet Vet here this early, so she unfortunately came unprepared.
“Just some pain,” she replies.
Vet frowns, the white scar on his temple crinkles with worry as his eyes narrow.
“Pain?” He inquires.
“Only a little buzzing.”
“Buzzing?” Great, looks like she is only talking herself deeper into the hole.
Vet eyes her down critically and Ahsoka is feeling a little uncomfortable under his gaze, but she stays put.
“Where exactly?”
“Just my shoulders and elbows. But it’s not a big deal, it happens.” The tips of her lekku twitch softly.
“Would you let me take a look at that? What you are describing could be indicating nerve damage.”
Ahsoka hesitates, displeased and looks at him grouchy.
“Nerve damage requires monitoring,” Vet adds, suddenly sporting his best sabacc face.
Finally, Ahsoka ends their stare-down with burying her face in her arms again.
“Fine,” she muffles. “But don’t tell Master Skywalker.”
“Don’t worry. We won’t take him out of the tank until we hit Triple Zero. Absolute confidentiality,” he grins at her with an odd mix of danger and complicity.
It inclines Ahsoka to slowly push up from the caf maker and follow the medic down the hallway.
The medbay isn’t far from the mess hall but Ahsoka already wishes herself back into her bunk to sleep some more and then stretch out under the air conditioner.
“Hop on, make yourself comfortable,” Vet says when they enter one of the treatment rooms. She slowly settles to sit on the biobed, still facing Vet who is now scrolling through the datapad in his hand.
A small red astromech rolls around the corner, cheeping happily and halts in front of Ahsoka’s legs.
“Ahsoka, meet Red. She’s equipped with medical protocols,” Vet introduces the little droid by her feet.
She smiles softly at the astromech. “Nice to meet you, Red. I didn’t know astromechs could be medical droids.”
“Rico thinks that the 2-1B droids are eerie so one of the guys redesigned a medical program that would fit a different type of droid.”
Red’s optical lens turns a few times, calibrating, before she starts to scan Ahsoka.
“Do you think you would prefer warmth or cold to relieve the pain right now?” Vet asks. “It is up to your personal feeling.”
“Cold, I think.”
“Alright. Do tell if that changes.” He picks up two cool packs and presses one on each of her shoulder. It dulls the buzzing feeling a little, making her sigh.
The little red astromech chirps eagerly and circles around the biobed towards Vet, projecting the results of her scans for the medic. Vet eyes them critically.
“Yes, it does look like there is some minor damage to the nerves in your arms. Any idea what could have caused this?”
Ahsoka shrugs into Vet’s hands to the best of her abilities. “Probably from the stuns during training,” she offers. It is her best guess after all.
She can see and feel Vet freeze, his force signature suddenly clouding with a looming confusion.
“Excuse me?”
“From stuns,” she repeats.
“Yes, I got that. General Skywalker lets the training droids shoot at you with actual ammunition?” Vet inquires. His hands rest firmly on her shoulders, but he doesn’t press down painfully.
“Well… it’s not exactly the training droids shooting. Master Skywalker thinks I should gain more experience with deflecting the attacks of life forms since they are more unpredictable so—”
“Force, if I catch that Jedi,” Vet growls unhappily. He crouches down a little and catches her gaze, looking at Ahsoka intently.
“Just so I am understanding this correctly. General Skywalker— who, by the way is responsible for your health and well-being— lets Rex and his guys shoot you with stunners?”
Ahsoka feels like she should deny the claim, but it would look pretty unbelievable at this point, so she simply nods.
“That describes it pretty accurately,” she gives in.
“Do you—” he takes a moment to gather his words. “Have you got any idea how dangerous that is? Stuns were developed to hunt down criminals. It is generally accepted that a proportion of people will sustain injuries because it is a safer option than lethal ammunition.”
“Vet, I’m fine,” she attempts but the medic is ignoring her on account of continuing his lecture.
“Aside from relatively harmless side effects, you could also suffer seizures or heart palpitations. Or you could end up comatose. Or dead. How often have you been subjected to this sort of training?”
“Uhm… hard to tell,” she answers. To be honest, she has no idea, really. It has been a few months since Anakin brought this sort of training up for the first time in the hangar on Coruscant.
“Is it a regular occurrence?”
She nods. “Kinda.”
Vet exhales audibly and he looks like he is trying really hard to hide his horror. He looks down, pondering, before his eyes meet Ahsoka’s again.
“I’ll have to bring this up to General Plo. This sort of thing is seriously dangerous. If you are subjected to more stunning, the pain in your arms could become chronic. Okay?”
Ahsoka grumbles but finally complies and nods. “Fine. But don’t do the retelling this dramatic.”
Vet sighs but nods and stands up again, only to pull her into a very gentle hug.
“You are a disaster. And Skywalker and Kenobi, too. Your entire lineage is a catastrophe. I have not envied Kix for a single day of my life,” he complains and it mildly reminds Ahsoka of Wolffe.
She chuckles softly but leans into the hug.
“Thanks Vet.”