Healing Hands, guarded (D4 EA, Open)

[Ashla Vyliis]

Ashla just shakes her head, clearly not enjoying Cole self-depreciating humor. She sees the next patient. "So, anything exciting happen besides cookies?"

[Cole Ormont]

He apologised, there wasn't anything else he could do about it. "Categorically uninteresting, I'm afraid. You didn't miss much. But what about your exploits? Unlicensed doctoring again?" He frowns and lowers his voice, "you're not in trouble, are you?"

[Ashla Vyliis]

"As long as I don't really talk about it, yeah. I'm fine." After the next patient. "Oh. You're talking about Captain Alderaan. Yeah. We're on the same Huttball team."

[Cole Ormont]

"Yes, Captain Alderaan." Cole shakes his head slightly at the moniker, well, Captain Republic just doesn't have the same ring to it.

[Ashla Vyliis]

"Do you know each other well, or did you just meet after coming to Nar Shaddaa?"

[Cole Ormont]

Cole's face sets into a sort of careful lack of expression, and he seems to be focusing on his patients more intently that usual before answering. "The Captain was injured on Tattooine. I was one of his doctors. But we never actually met until Nar Shaddaa."

[Ashla Vyliis]

Taking care of her own patients, Ashla is oblivious to Cole's behavior. "Ah. I see. You there? I heard Tatoonie had it rough."

[Cole Ormont]

"The Medical Frigate I was serving on was there. It was rough."

[Ashla Vyliis]

"I can imagine. Do you have any stories from your time there?"

[Cole Ormont]

Cole shakes his head slowly. "I was on the Frigate. I'm a surgeon, not a field medic. I never saw action," thankfully.

[Ashla Vyliis]

"I know that. But was there any particularly interesting cases you had?"

[Cole Ormont]

Quietly, "you might find it fascinating putting bodies back together like gruesome jigsaw puzzles just so there's enough left to put in a kolto tank, but I don't."

[Ashla Vyliis]

Ashla ignores the jab. "No appreciation for your own art?"

[Cole Ormont]

"If art was what I was doing, perhaps." He sighs, "there's no art when you're trying to stitch an artery back together through a litre of a soldier's blood, and trying to be finished five minutes ago, because there's another three soldiers bleeding out while you fish around in the current one's insides."

[Ashla Vyliis]

"I disagree very much. The act of recreating flesh. Turn the dying to the living. That is art."

[Cole Ormont]

"I know," he conceded, "but it's hard to see the wood for the trees. Things like that aren't meant to be done on a mass production scale."

[Ashla Vyliis]

Ashla shrugs. "I've never done anything like that. So, I don't know what that's like. Why would you want to go back if you hate it? Just go into private practice. You seem to like it here."

[Cole Ormont]

"It all boils down to the peace talks. If the war comes to an end, then I'll quit the Navy and do something rewarding. But if the fighting is going to continue, at least being on a Medical Frigate gets me to the front."

[Ashla Vyliis]

"But you hate the front. It's not like there's not going to be plenty of people to help wherever you go."

[Cole Ormont]

"Yes, but I get free transport, room, and board in the Navy. Three hot meals a day can go a long way to salving a guilty conscience."

[Ashla Vyliis]

"Guilty?"

[Cole Ormont]

"Mmmm," he didn't expect her to understand. "Guilty that I'm not helping the people who need it most. Guilty for being part of the problem."

[Ashla Vyliis]

"And how are you part of the problem?" Ashla has an idea of he's talking about, but she wants to make sure.

[Cole Ormont]

"About a year after I joined up, the C.O.s finally worked out that I wasn't any good at fighting or killing. The Group Commander pulled some strings, and I got fast tracked to go into military intelligence. Tactics, leadership, ordering people to killed, that sort of shit."

Cole pushes a hand through his hair, "I didn't want any part of it. If I was going to kill people, I'd rather be looking at them when I did it. Then they said I could join the Medical Corp. As Navy, it meant a nice, safe job on a Frigate, no frontlines, no killing, no pissing off the Group Commander."

[Ashla Vyliis]

"I don't understand how that makes you a part of the problem. It just sounds like you finding your place in the galaxy."