Private Digging for Worms

[Prennis Keeoli]

It was hard to be good for the sake of being good in the Galaxy, but it was also a difficulty that Prennis had never shied away from. If she had pulled the wool over the eyes of all her First Order superiors for so long, surely she could make it in Galactic City's Underworld.

Admittedly, it would have been easier if she had actually grown up on Coruscant—she might have gotten to know some of these ropes, had a few contacts that she knew she could trust, knew where to source medical supplies. Hindsight 20/20, if she could say so herself, she thought she doing fine.

"What's it today, Doc?"

She had stopped correcting Kio. Yes, the chances she would change his epithet for her plummeted after the first few days they had known each other, but she also realized that, down here, technicality didn't matter. It was just another legality and not one soul cared for it. If she thought about all her past experience in the Confederacy as the rough equivalent of coursework at an accredited university, she could accept easier the slight career path correction from nurse practitioner to doctor.

"Digging for worms."

Kio shifted through the broken doorway towards the desk where Prennis sat. "I…uh," he said slowly, chewing over his words as well as hers very hard, "think they got a planter 'round the corner at that tax place, but dunno if you'd find worms." He didn't say that because didn't know if that plot of soil did or did not have red wrigglers, but because he didn't know what they even looked like. "Are they for meds or…?"

The doctor finally looked up from her datapad. "Oh, no, Kio," she began. Well, maybe yes, but in a different practice. If she ever saw that specific witch again, she'd ask him. "Just a bit of medical slang, really."

"Huh." He kneeled on the seat of a chair opposite of her which might as well have been bolted to the floor sideways relative to the desk because of all the clutter surrounding its legs. "What's it mean?"

Prennis smiled. "Veins sometimes get enlarged and wiggly. Then they look like worms."

He thought for a moment. "So Old Man Ert's got those?"

"Very clever, Kio. Yes, I'm seeing him this afternoon to fix one of them in his right knee."

Aro Harcrow

 

[Aro Harcrow]

Prennis Keeoli

Sometimes business went sideways.

That was just part of the deal.

If you wanted a safe and boring job? Become a desk jockey. You want excitement? Because a GA marshal. You wanted to stare death in the eyes every other day? Decide to take money on the side. Aro Harcrow was an adrenaline junky. At least, that's what he told himself, each time that he stared into a blaster barrel.

You love this. You thrive on this chit. You can't get enough of it.

Say it enough time and Aro might end up believing himself.

As he dragged his way through the alleyway he was once again repeating this mantra. At the very least he had won. Fat luck it did to his limp leg he was pulling along with each stumble. Or his shot to feth shoulder that was bleeding from several holes.

Love this. Thrive on it. Can't get enough. Drag. Slump. Stumble. Catch. Through the door.

"Is the Doctor in?" He shouted through the broken doorway. "She karking better or-" He slid down the wall he had been supporting himself against. It was getting a bit woozy here.

"Or... hmm..." Oh, yeah, Aro's hand was all bloody from holding his shoulder.

It looked kinda funny.

"Doc?" He yelled again, but his eyes were already trying to close themselves.

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

Despite the front doorway being broken in just about all other possible ways as well as the one to the office, a small, dim laser sensor beeped as the figure of Aro broke its invisible line.

A sad greeting. If her life had gone differently, namely if she had stayed on Lorrd, she might have become a psychologist; she loved meeting people and she was in the business that allowed for it, but only under the worst of circumstances.

A voice projected from a hologram puck sat in the corner of Prennis’ desk not a moment after. :: Someone’s at the front, miss, :: came the proper and dry mechanical voice of the her AI. :: No, very much not your one thirty, and bleeding— ::

Prennis stood up so quickly she almost stumbled back over a pile of boxed syringes stacked behind her. She expertly navigated the path left through her mess to the office archway, took hold of the wooden plank, and swung herself into the makeshift clinic's hallway.

:: —all over your newly thrifted rug. ::

”Nononono!” She was knelt at Aro’s side in the next moment.

:: Travesty, yes, don’t I know it. ::

Mountbatten’s voice was faint filtering from the round back in the office, but Prenn heard it. “Kio, turn him off!” she called back to her assistant. Then she went back to addressing Aro. “Stay with me, Aro...”

Aro Harcrow

 

[Aro Harcrow]

Prennis Keeoli

"Save... my arse..." He managed to get a second wind somehow. "...and I won't come callin' for the next two weeks."

He groaned and looked at a particularly large hole in his shoulder.

"Three weeks." Allowing there in the negotiation. As if Aro didn't know that Prennis would save his ass regardless. These touchy-feely doctors were all pretty similar in that regard. Which is why they were ripe for the pickings for types like him. Without any feelings or compunction about taking advantage of the righteous ones.

At least his rate was fair...ish.

And Aro didn't shake her down multiple times a week even after she paid already. In that regard the corrupt Marshal was as straight as an arrow. Which was a rarity in the criminal underworld.

"Dear feth, why do I do this to myself?" He positively growled, mostly to himself now.

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

Indeed, Prennis wouldn’t have even thought about saying no. Not about patching him up, but neither about him suspending her protection payment.

”I don’t do those kinds of diagnoses,” she muttered in response to his rhetorical question as she pulled her stethoscope from around her neck. “Straighten that leg, straighten your leg,” she added, clearer, pointing to the bleeding one. As he did, she slid the rubber snake of the stethoscope underneath, then when it was straight, she took a datapad stylus from her scrubs pocket, held it to his skin above his knife would, and tied the stethoscope tightly over it.

So she could crank on it.

As it squeezed closed his open veins, stopping up the blood, it pinched the hell out of already-inflamed nerves, exploding a flood of pain through his systems.

If that didn’t knock him out, she wasn’t going to try again medically. Her stash of anesthesia was dwindling. Though Aro was in a state, she couldn’t justify injecting him with much more than simple pain medication, which she did later on in the procedure, after:

putting him on a gurney bed with the help of Kio,

washing her hands,

sterilizing the bullet and blast holes,

and telling Kio to run along to Old Man Ert’s house and get him rescheduled into the books.

After all of that and more, she had done her best.

Aro Harcrow

 

[Aro Harcrow]

Prennis Keeoli

"Neither do I, luv." and then, for once in his miserable life, Aro did whatever the heck the doctor was asking of him. Usually there would be more snark involved and perhaps at least a little bit of a stubborn streak.

However.

The lack of either? Indicating just how serious his wounds really are.

By the end of it Aro was exhausted. Beyond measure. But he was still awake and studying Prennis intently, in fact. Which only highlighted what a stubborn bastard Aro was. Most people would have been knocked the kark out after surgery like that. Which was for the best because the body needed time to heal.

"You know, when I let you set up camp here, I never thought I would need your services myself."

Aro murmured there.

Maybe he would have been nicer if he had known. Not that he was a particularly vicious arsehole. Just... greedy and not a lot of room to negotiate.

"...thank you, Doc. I wouldn't be breathing if it weren't for you."

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

Aro spoke when half of Prennis was out of sight at a sink just in the other room. The water droned out his words a bit, washing sylables of them down the drain along with his blood off of her skin.

"You know, when I let you set up camp here, I never thought I would need your services myself."

After shutting off the water and grabbing the hand towel off the wall, she shut off the flickering closet light and stepped back into the operation room. ”I suppose that makes today the twelfth of never,” she mused. Statistics seemed to be broken for a few people in the galaxy, one of which she nominated to be herself. A windy, action-packed path from the First Order to the Confederacy to the criminal Underworld was an absurd story to imagine, even for her—and she had lived every second of it.

”It would have been very ironic, and unfortunate for you,” she added as she came near his bed, drying her hands, to look at the softly beeping vitals monitor, “if I had sold off my good synthflesh to afford last week’s payment.”

It was delivered matter-of-factly, because it was a matter of facts, but also with a sly side eye and a hint of a smirk. If he hadn’t the energy to be cheeky, she would fulfill the deficit.

Aro Harcrow

 

[Aro Harcrow]

Prennis Keeoli

A snort that turned into a raspy chuckle.

This was a mistake.

The chuckle devolved fast enough into a painful coughing fit. It only ended when his hand quickly rose up, warding off any attempt from her to assist or help in any way, before he wiped his mouth with his wrist. Blood, yes, but less than the avalanche of it before. "People always have told me that my avarice will be the end of me."

He smirked a little.

"Guess that ain't today after all." Before Prennis could step away he'd quickly reach out and grab her wrist. A little squeeze there. "I dun' forget my debts, doc. I owe ya one an' I am serious about that."

It was bad for business not to be.

Only then would Aro let go and try to shrug. Also a bad idea, cringing slightly at the pain.

"So, wanna grab a drink after I grow my liver back?"

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

He may have been serious, but so was she. Next he came bleeding all over her newly thrifted rug, she may not have the supplies needed to save his arse. It was nothing personal.

He stopped her from reflexively trying to restrain him, so instead she rocked back on her heels and began needlessly rearranging the basic surgical implements on the bedside tray. It wasn’t so much as medical folks needed to be constantly of help; it was more that they needed constant outlets for constantly spiking adrenaline, and being of help was all there was to do in their work environments of choice.

”If only to make you mind a limit,” Prennis replied.

Aro Harcrow

 

[Aro Harcrow]

Prennis Keeoli

A chuckle there.

"Just for that?" Teasing Prennis there as he tipped his head backwards and tried to relax. Difficult. Aro wasn't the one to lay around for a prolonged amount of time.

It didn't matter he had JUST gone through surgery.

His brain was still racing. Picking over the events of the early day and how he had gotten here. It had been a dumb mistake. Truly needless risk taking... but he survived, hadn't he? Aro just wondered how many more of these close-calls he'd have, before something else had to give. It couldn't be that long anymore.

"Careful, doc, I am known to be a bad influence. I might just get you to have a nice time."

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

“Yes,” she affirmed.

The last time that she tried to have a good time, Ryloth had been bombarded.

She shook the memory out of her head, at the same time letting down her hair. “I’ve always had good out-patient manner,” she added. Even in the First Order, where that seemed somewhat frowned upon. “It’d be rather irresponsible to let you go alone.”

Aro Harcrow

 

[Aro Harcrow]

Prennis Keeoli

"Mm, well, I believe you. I hardly wanted to cry during the procedures. Really good manners."

He sighed there.

It was a damn shame he couldn't just fast-forward to being recovered entirely. Then Aro could go out right now. Which... was beyond responsible. He realized that the only reason he was able to carry this conversation? Was because of the painkillers flushing through his veins. If not for that he'd already be either out cold or crying.

"You got anything to knock me out, doc? I don't think I am gonna be able to sleep otherwise tonight."

Besides.

Free drugs? Hell, yeah.

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

She might have offered him some if she thought she would come by any more any time soon.

“A mean right hook,” she said instead. “Want one?”

Aro Harcrow

 

[Aro Harcrow]

Prennis Keeoli

"That's a rough state o' affairs, darling." Aro yawned there with a half-crooked grin. "I'd take ya up on that one, but... it's a federal crime to hit a Marshal, so let's not get you into trouble."

He tried to stretch again.

Not a smart move. Again a grimace there.

"Ugh. This is gonna be great. I am sure ya got more stuff to do. I am gonna try and sleep anyway, I will be gone by morning." Which was a bit optimistic, considering he was the state in. But who was Prennis to argue with a federal Marshal? Well, the doctor of the back-alley place, but Aro was a stubborn little chit.

"I will forward ya the details on that drink, once I am ready for it."

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

It was, but it still wasn’t personal, and she told him so.

”It’s not personal, Marshal, you’re just not a paying client. Simple as that because, believe it or not, I’m not running a charity here.”

The crackles of the holopuck next door in her office chased her sentence with mechanical enthusiasm. As the AI spoke, his voice held a tone that matched that energy. :: Might I please remind miss that her service fee ranges from 5.01 to 11.40 percent of the standard rates as per the Coruscanti Association of Medical Professionals? ::

Prennis sheepishly met Aro’s eyes. Sometimes she wondered why she had ever gone back to save Mountbatten from the wreckage of the Resplendent Dawn. Obviously the numbers were low—not just hers but every practice’s down here—because the values were heavily skewed by ‘up there’. The Senate District was the largest factor. Even simple procedures were extraordinarily expensive in that lifestyle, but it was also one that afforded the luxuries of treatment and surgeries meant to enhance aesthetics or improve the quality of living to its gold standard, things that were out of reach both monetarily and practically in the slums. In any case, she didn’t own Aro anything but the payment he got each week, least of all an explanation into her business practices. All he needed to know was whatever is was she was doing made him his money on time.

“I‘m just a charitable person,” she corrected. She slid her hands into the pockets of her scrub trousers. “And if my non-charity makes me enough drinking credits by then, I’m in.”

Aro Harcrow

 

[Aro Harcrow]

Prennis Keeoli

Hmm, that didn't sound like a droid.

Too... too.

It was hard to describe but usually droids missed a certain something. But it hadn't been human either. So what was it that organized and assisted Prennis in the background? Any other option sounded quite expensive and complicated. For a back alley doctor that was paying off a Marshal to keep operating in the underworld without hassle.

Very... very interesting.

Maybe there was more to the Good Doctor than Aro knew.

He chuckled (carefully this time) and waggled his finger. "Nothing of that. I will pay for yar drinks, doc. That's the least I can do." After you saved my arse in so many ways tonight.

"Good luck for the rest of yar day, doc. I am gonna try an' get some shut eye now."

And there Aro did close his eyes.

But it would be some more time before he could actually fall asleep.

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

”Don’t go wishing all your good luck on me,” she muttered as she walked out of the room, starting to go about the rest of her day.
**
“Did ya find ‘em?”

Prennis looked up from filling out an inventory form on her datapad atop a closed cardboard box. Kio was squatted, shifting through the unorganized contents of another a meter or two away from her. “Find what now?” she asked a mere moment before her brain understood.

”Ert’s worms.”

”Ahh. Yes.”

”What do ya do with ‘em, then, take ‘em out?”

”Oh, balance, no—” she began.

A beeping message notification on her wrist chronometer interrupted her. She glanced down at the small screen. Likewise, Kio glanced up and back at her. “What’s up?”

“Looks like I have to run,” she said even as she powered down her datapad. “Let’s call it a day.” She poked into her offic to snag her jacket off the coat rack. “We can finish this after the weekend.”

More like she could finish it during the weekend.

Aro Harcrow

 

[Aro Harcrow]

Prennis Keeoli

The notification had an address and time.

It led her to a decently-sized bar in the neighborhood.

Aro was already there in the corner booth with a cup in hand. By the looks of it he was feeling better. Yes, still a bit pale around the eyes, but clearly in a far better mood too. Especially the way he waved her towards him once the corrupt cop spotted her. "Ah, Doctor, sit down, sit down. You clean up rather nicely."

This could be sarcasm if she had decided to stick in her usual medic scrubs or sincere if she had actually swapped clothes.

Either way, Aro would have said exactly the same thing, which made it difficult to ascertain what sort of person he was at the core. Sincere or a sarcastic ass.

Both? Could be.

"What's yar poison tonight?"

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

She hadn’t changed out of her scrubs after all, but had only covered them up with her more casual jacket.

”Ha ha,” she enunciated as she took a seat. “Just seltzer. I treat myself to carbonation, not alcohol.” She looked him up and down quickly, then gave a smug smile. “Plus, I only came ready for your liver to give out.”

Aro Harcrow

 

[Aro Harcrow]

Prennis Keeoli

A snort there.

"Ahh... doc, one day I will see you livin' a little, even if it ain't right now." Aro said with a teasing waggle of a finger and leaning back into his chair. But he didn't push there. It just meant he'd have to spend less money. Seltzer was cheaper than a Sunrise Twist after all. Maybe for the best. It meant she'd have a clear head to keep an eye on him.

His wounds seemed okay, but.

You never knew.

"Oh, really... did you bring any equipment with you for impromptu surgery on the cantina bar?" Gesturing towards the bar there. It was currently occupied by a dancer however.

"Not as fun as dancing on it, I reckon..."