Echo's Day Out part 3

"Where could she be?" Rex paced back and forth around the ship. They had been looking for hours and had gotten nowhere. On top of that Echo was missing too. Could this day get any worse for him?
"We looked in her room, and the rooms of everyone else but there was no sign of her, Captain. We even asked a Jedi to look in the temple for her and when he came out he said that she wasn't there either."
"Have any of you heard from Echo?" He said hopefully.
"No, Sir."
"Keep looking then."
"Yes, Sir!" Rex rubbed his forehead. This search was giving him a headache. It seemed like a lost cause to him, because he knew that she would come back on her own.  He knew that Anakin would want a progress report soon, but how could he tell him that they hadn't found her yet. His comlink started going off.
"This is Rex." He said.
"Rex how's the search going?" Skywalker's voice bellowed through the comlink. 'Great. I was just going to spend a quiet night in the barracks, but Ahsoka had run away. Why can't that girl cut me some slack?' Rex had to think of something to say quickly.
"Uh… Well we haven't found her quite yet, but my men are the best. I'm sure we'll find her soon."
"You better!" The transmission ended. He got another call from one his men.
"Speak!" He was in no mood to deal with attitude.
"We found them, Sir."
"Them, solider?" He was just looking to find Ahsoka, so he could get some sleep.
"Yes, Sir! The Commander and Echo. They just went into a diner. Should we go in pursuit of them?"
"No, just watch from a safe distance and keep me posted. I'll be there shortly."
"Yes, Sir!" Rex had planned on getting the information he wanted himself. He had been slightly nervous, when they didn't know where Ahsoka was, not that he would admit that to anyone.


"So that will be two coffees and two specials. Coming right up sweet-thing." The droid said winking at echo. Echo blushed. It was weird for him to except flirts even if they were from droids. He watched as Ahsoka giggled. Her eyes had regained their crystal blue color, and their youthfulness. It was like everything that happened never did. She was the old commander again, ready to cut down anything in her way to get to her goal.
"What's so funny, Commander?"
"Oh nothing." She just giggled again. Now Echo was starting to wonder if he had done anything to make her laugh.
"Really? Then why are you laughing?" He raised his eyebrows, now he was just trying to make her laugh. Echo didn't really know why he just liked the fact that she was happy. She giggled again covering her smile with her hand.
"It's just that you always are blushing, like you did something wrong or noticeable. I mean you always blush when a girl comes in a room, including me. Even if no one else can see your face behind your helmet, I can."  His blush turned to a dark red. She notices the smallest things about people, yet sometimes the most embarrassing. Echo kept thinking, 'What would Rex say? Probably, "How can I not smile when a pretty girl like you enters a room?" That won't work for me though. It's against regulations. Rex doesn't seem to care about the rules. Why is she giggling again?'
"You think to much Echo." She had a sly smile. Ahsoka was going to plan something to make him come out of his shell.
"Well thinking has gotten me and my brothers out of some tight situations, Sir." He said defensibly.
"I know that thinking things through is a good idea, but master has taught me to sometimes forget about thinking and do the first thing that comes to mind. I mean come on, you don't always have time to think things through." She had a point, but Echo didn't know how to think on his feet. It took him 15 minutes just to pick out breakfast. He just couldn't not follow the manuals to the letter.
"I guess." He grumbled.

Ahsoka was just trying to get him to crack, but she knew it would take time. She just wanted him to be able to break rules without beating himself up. Rules weren't everything. 'That was the first thing I learned from Anakin and Rex. I wish I didn't have to lie to them about today, but Anakin would say I was to attached to my mother's memory. Rex would tell me that I was not being strong enough for the men, that if I held on to the loss that I would never move on. Echo hasn't said anything about remembering my mother being against the rules. And that makes me happy.' Ahsoka just reminisced about the past losing herself in memories, not of just her mother , but of what had happened that day. The sounds of the diner slowly disappeared into the distance. She was in peace until Echo got her out of a meditative mood.  

"Sir, our food is here. Sir?" Echo watched as Ahsoka gazed out the window. She wasn't paying attention to the droid who had their food and the steaming plate hit her hand. Ahsoka snapped out of her trance when the plate burned her.
"Ow! Dang that hurts!" Ahsoka tried to shake the pain from her hand.
"My apologizes, Miss." The droid droned. He seemed to be malfunctioning.
"Commander! Are yo…"
"I'm fine Echo." She interrupted Echo, then she turned to the droid, "It's ok. Sometimes we all have problems." By the time she had started talking to the droid everyone was looking at her and Echo.


"Sir, they seem to be attracting a lot of attention, I don't think you should just barge in there guns a blazing and take them out there." one of the clones watching them said to the Captain.
"Just give the scope." Rex wanted to know what was going on. 'There she was, sitting with Echo and talking to a droid. It's weird how she always is so attentive to every thing even a droid. Now I see the food in her lap. The droid must have tripped and everything landed in her lap. She is probably telling the droid it wasn't his fault.' Rex was just watching with a bit of envious, the strange girl talking and laughing with Echo. The weird thing was that Echo was laughing too. He saw one thing that would ruin this day for them, both of them. Cody.


"You sure know how to cause a seen, Ahsoka." Echo whipped his head around to see his commanding officer standing right behind them. Echo wanted to disappear. Cody was always nice, but when rules were broken he was worse then Captain Rex.
"Good afternoon Commander Cody. We were just about to eat lunch." Echo was amazed that she was staying so calm. He was just happy that she hadn't invited him to join them.
"Oh were you? Does your Master know where you are?"
"Well not exactly…" Echo knew that her master had no idea what she was up to and where she had gone. He was surprised that the General hadn't sent out a search party yet.
"And Echo, did you have permission to leave base with the Commander?"
"No, Sir."
"Why didn't you tell her that you didn't have permission to leave?" Cody clamped his hand on Echo's shoulder. Ahsoka knew she would be in trouble if he ratted on her.
"Well…I didn't really think about it at the time and she is a commanding officer so I was listening to her when she forced to go with her." Echo glanced at Ahsoka. For some odd reason she looked mad to him. He had just been telling the truth.
"Commander Cody if I may impart, I asked Echo to come with me because I had nothing else to do and I thought he could use some time away from everything. I also needed to get something to eat and I thought it would be a nice gesture to invite him to have lunch with me."
"Is that so?" Echo watched as Commander Cody thought about the situation. He secretly hoped that Ahsoka had some idea to get them out of this.
"Where's Rex?" This question obviously surprised the Commander Cody and Echo knew she had a plan, "I can sense his presence here. Why must everyone follow me? I mean I can't even get something to eat with a friend without you or Rex showing up to ruin things", now she was standing up and looking him right in the eyes. Even though she was quite a bit shorter the Commander Cody, she seemed to scare him a bit. Echo watched as Cody's eyes got wider when she stated yelling at him. "I don't understand why you won't leave me alone! I'm not doing anything wrong and I'm not a youngling! I could look out for myself. Can you give that message to Skywalker and Kenobi, since you are only a message boy anyway?" There were ooh's coming from all around the room. Ahsoka looked as if she had just won a war. That mischievous smile crept across her face because she knew he couldn't come back from that. "I think we're done here. Come on Echo let's leave I'm not so hungry anymore." She slipped some credits on the table and pushed Cody to the side. Echo followed close behind to avoid getting left behind, but he couldn't help looking back at Commander Cody who had just gotten chewed up by a teenager.  Commander Cody just stood there and looked as if someone striped him of his dignity. Echo did kinda feel bad, but not bad enough to go back and get shot.


"Sir don't you think that was a little harsh. I mean I know you had to get us out of there, but it's against the regulations to talk to a Commander like that." Echo said when they were safely in the Twilight, headed back to the base.
"Which regulations is it against Echo?" Echo knew she was being sarcastic, but he answered anyway.
"The regulation of the people who want to stay alive." Echo smiled, it was a new thing for him, but he liked smiling and laughing now. "I'm pretty sure Cody is going to kill me and then who will you have to pull in to your messes. I'm sure you could always take Rex, because that guy never stops following you. I mean…I'm sorry, Sir." Echo now wished he hadn't said that last part, but she didn't seem mind to much though. She was laughing her little angelic laugh.
"I thought you didn't break rules, Echo, because I'm pretty sure being sarcastic is against regs." He knew she was right, but he had learned a few things today.
"A young girl who was wise beyond her years once told me that sometimes it's ok to break the rules as long as you know when you're over doing it."        
"Well, I want you to break one more rule." She said as her gaze shifted from the window to him.
"And, which one is that Commander?" He was curios about the Commander. She was different. He couldn't really describe how she was different, she just was.
"I want you to say my name. Even if it's just once. I want you to know that you can call me by my first name, because… well… because you're my friend."



                                          To be continued…