Nar Shaddaa

There was a line outside the shelter.

He didn't have any problems finding the shelter today, but his heart sank somewhat at the sight. He wondered how long they'd been waiting, some of them he recognised from the previous day. Have they been here all night?

Annoyed with himself, guarded expression showing nothing, he walked into the clinic area. The idea he'd hatched on his way here seemed stupid now. He set himself up, and called over the first patient.

He'd been intending to pick a kid out of the line, and address them first, but it didn't feel right, seeing those patients from the day before still waiting on him. Still, he was only a few patients in when a woman brought forward what he assumed to be her child.

His eyes darkened as he plied the mediscanner. Scoliosis. It was still mild, but the child needed corrective surgery to prevent it from worsening. A look at the child's face said that he was already suffering under the strain of his misaligned little body.

Cole gently pulled the kid up on his knee and smiled reassuringly. He opened his pack and took out a box of sweet cookies. The young boy brightened immediately and Cole opened the box, putting a cookie in the kid's hand. Over the boy's head, Cole looked at his mother, "he needs corrective surgery." The woman nodded, she already knew, but she couldn't afford the surgery any more now than she could when her son had been diagnosed.

He was disappointed when Ashla didn't make an appearance. Her presence did more than share the workload, he enjoyed her company, as odd and frustrating as it could be at times. He supposed it was her unbridled honesty that he liked.

The cookies disappeared quickly, even though they were only for the children. He began to suspect that urchins were attaching themselves to people and pretending to be family just so they could eat. He was fairly sure that one of them came through his line twice, but he couldn't be certain.

Finally, heavy with guilt, Cole called it a day and headed back to the Republic compound.