[A.N]: Hello! Joey here! First time posting on here so I hope I didn't mess it up somehow...

The story is set before the events in Rogue One. I am a bit of a noob in this fandom, but I'm learning as I go. If you see anything blatantly wrong, please let me know and I will fix it. There will be some references to other works of fiction especially planets and names of places. Maybe some technology. You have a cookie if you recognize them.

I've already posted this story on AO3 and Tumblr under the name Joeybelle. It's a work in progress and it's going a little slow, but I hope I will finish it somehow. English isn't my native language, so I struggle a little. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! Feel free to leave me any sort of feedback, I love feedback!

Cheers!

Disclaimer: Main idea for the story inspired by Devil in the Details (Cassian Andor x Fem!Reader) by themostmarvelousimagines on AO3. Story written with their permission.

The med bay had been really silent that day, so much that even the medical droids were nowhere to be seen. It wasn't unusual, after all the ship hadn't been in battle for some time, forced to drift in space due to some unfortunate hyperdrive engine failure, but there was always work to be done in the infirmary, be it a flu epidemic or a plain old stomachache. The stormtroopers, as designed for battle as they were, had the tendency to turn into babies whenever they weren't fighting, but that day no one bothered her for hours on end and Cora was starting to get bored.

There was just so much you could do in the infirmary when you had no patients. She had already checked and sterilized the equipment twice, yelled at the droids that were moving around in circles and were giving her a headache and volunteered to stay back on the med bay while her colleagues went to get lunch, which, in retrospect was a bad idea since they had left four hours ago and didn't seem to come back anytime soon. But the protocol stated that a sentient medic had to be in the infirmary at all times (except the cases mentioned at the points 1 to 9 in the manual which mainly meant imminent death), so someone had to take one for the team and since she was the new one…

Cora had the feeling that her fellow medics didn't like her very much, but it was understandable. She was new, only being on this ship for the past five months so she expected some sort of animosity towards her. You know, the new girl just out of med school, perfect scores, got her first real job because her daddy is a renowned and beloved admiral and ass kisser of the Empire in general, but sometimes the pettiness was getting to her. Like today, when they "forgot" to bring her lunch.

Most of this was her fault anyway, since she did nothing to help them warm up towards her. They expected a spoiled, stuck-up bitch so that was exactly what they got. This was her safety blanket, in a way: if she conformed to their expectations they won't ask any questions. She was determined to never let anyone know what was going on in her head even if that meant following the hated mantra repeated to her so many times during her teenage years: "Keep your head up high, put a smile on your face and keep your mouth shut". She was going to survive. She was a coward.

Slouched in her chair, facing the viewport and completely lost in thought, Cora almost didn't notice the man that had entered the room. It seemed that he hadn't noticed her either because he barged in through the sliding glass doors and started rummaging through the medical supplies, knocking over some bottles. Cora stared at him for a few seconds before she remembered she was a doctor and this was her med bay he was assaulting.

"You're not allowed to do that," she said, matter of factly. That made him look up and face her gaze. Cora froze. He was dressed in an imperial officer uniform, but he wasn't one, she figured. There were thousands of people on this ship and there was no way she could have known them all, but he just didn't fit the pattern. He looked unkempt, with a few strands of hair falling into his eyes and a not very well groomed beard, the uniform didn't fit him perfectly, like it was fitted for someone with a larger frame. There was a sense of danger about him. Maybe even a tinge of desperation in his eyes and an overall feeling that he didn't belong there. Oh, and he was pointing a blaster at her.

"There's no need for that," she said and her voice surprisingly didn't falter, even though her heart skipped a beat. "You're in a medical facility, no one's gonna hurt you here." He didn't say anything, but didn't put the blaster down. This is how I'm gonna die, she thought. Defenceless and alone. I wonder if my dad's gonna be disappointed.

She kept her eyes on the stranger, waiting for him to shoot. He didn't move, just stood there, breathing heavily.

It took her longer than expected to notice the huge dark spot that kept growing on his uniform, but the attributed that to the shock of having a blaster pointed at her face.

"You're bleeding," she said and got up from her chair as slowly as possible, her hands where he could see them. "Let me help you."

"Why?" he asked, following her with the tip of his blaster.

"Because you're injured and you need help." She remembered saying this to someone else half a year ago, just before a stormtrooper shot them in the head, but she did her best to focus on the present. He was the one with the weapon. He could kill her anytime. "At the rate I see the blood spreading on your uniform, you're going to faint soon." He too a peek at the blood and then went back to staring menacingly at her. "Please let me help you." He seemed to think about it, then he nodded.

"Ok, come." He followed her to one of the emergency rooms, blaster still pointed at her back. "Lay on the bed please," she instructed. There was an alarm button right next to the one that called in the med droids, but she didn't push either. She was going to tend to his wounds first, and decide later. If he doesn't shoot you first, her mind added.

She disinfected her hands and pulled on a pair of gloves. When she turned around he was sitting on the operating table, weapon still in hands. "Take your jacket off and lie down," she urged him as she grabbed a tray of sterile instruments and pulled a chair to his side. He unwillingly did what she said, but never let down his guard.

The white undershirt was soaked in blood so she grabbed a pair of scissors and cut through it. Underneath was an emergency bandage that didn't do much to stop the bleeding. She took it off to reveal a beautiful blaster wound. He had been shot before he stole the uniform. She wondered if the officer whose uniform he had stolen was the one who gave him the wound and if he was still alive.

The wound wasn't deep, luckily the blaster only grazed him, but it did a lot of damage nonetheless. She took the portable scanner and looked for internal bleeding. There was none, and that made her sigh in relief. Two of his ribs were severely broken though and would require surgery, but there was no time for that. She intended to help him survive, he'll have to get surgery someplace else. Three other ribs were cracked but those would heal on their own. She had to deal with the bleeding first.

"Are you a rebel?" she asked in a whisper, as she grabbed the disinfectant.

"What's it to you?" he spat at her in a heavy accent so Cora used a heavier hand than it was necessary while applying the solution just to see him writhe in pain. You shouldn't be rude to your doctor.

"Do you have a ship?" she asked more demandingly this time.

"Why do you care?" He winced.

"Because you're taking me out of here." Cora was concentrated on finding the source of the bleeding, but even so she could feel the look of disbelief he threw her.

"No." If she wasn't mistaken, he stifled a laugh.

"Oh yeah."

"Why would you think I'd do that?"

Cora peeked up from his would. "Because I will die if you leave me here. When they find out I helped a rebel, well, let's just say they'll put up a nice show for my public execution tomorrow morning." Cora grinned.

"And why do you think I care?" he asked, seemingly unfazed, but he looked away like he couldn't hold her gaze. She took a deep breath and made up her mind.

She grabbed the scissors she had previously used to cut up his shirt and shoved them between his ribs, hard enough to cause him to start bleeding again, but not hard enough to cause any real damage. He screamed in pain, but one second later she felt the cold metal of the blaster touching her forehead.

"If I push these scissors I will nip an artery and you will bleed to death right on this table."

"I will shoot you first," he hissed.

"You will shoot me, but it will be too late, you'll die on this table anyway. Is it worth it?" She swallowed hard. "So let me help you and then you help me, ok?" Maybe she wasn't supposed to die alone. Maybe she would actually kill someone before she died and the obituary will say that she died fighting rebel scum protecting the Empire. But she knew her father will still be disappointed no matter what.

"Listen, you'll never be able to reach your ship, not with that wound. I can take you to your ship and all you have to do is to drop me off on a planet that's not under the Empire's occupation, and we forget this ever happened and live happily ever after." She sighed. "Come on, you look like you've done worse deals than this one," she pleaded. The blaster pushed heavily on her forehead, but she still held her head up high.

The sliding doors of the ER opened with a swift whoosh and Cora feared the worst. She was indeed going to die. The two blasts that followed made her jump from the chair and drop the scissors. Surprisingly she wasn't dead, and neither was the rebel. She followed the line of his arm to where a med droid was standing in the doorway, broken by the laser shots. She sighed in relief, but then remembered the same blaster that destroyed the robot was the one that was touching her forehead just a moment ago. To her surprise, it didn't return.

"Ok," he said and his voice was weak. "You help me to the ship and I take you out of here."

Cora sighed in relief, but the knot in her stomach didn't subside. "Where is it?" she asked again.

"It's in cargo."

"Ok, cargo. We have to go down…"

What the hell was she doing? Ok, she was saving a rebel's life, because she was a medic and that's what medics do, they save people, and she wasn't supposed to just look at him as he bled to death on the infirmary floor, but to run away with him? Where did she leave her resolve, her decision to survive and have and have an easy and pleasant life, away from any sort of turmoil? On Cheyne 3, she remembered and went back to work.

Now that they had stopped fighting each other she was actually making progress with his wound. Having a med droid to help would have made things a lot faster, but seeing how the last one that tried to intervene was still releasing a tiny bit of smoke, she decided not to risk it. Besides she wasn't sure they wouldn't snitch on her, they were still imperial droids. The rebel will have to live with her skill suturing his wound, and if he was lucky find a healing field generator on his base and heal the rest of it, otherwise it would leave behind a really ugly scar.

She finished stitching and added a bandage that would help the healing and a brace that limited his movement and further damaging the injured area. The painkillers had kicked in a while ago so the rebel had stopped squirming, and was now lying peacefully on the bed.

"Let's find you some clothes," she told him, disposing of her blood stained gloves. He got up and took off the undershirt and threw it in the bin. He followed her to the nearby changing room where she gave him the undershirt and tunic from a med tech uniform that she thought would fit him. No one would have ever taken him for medical personnel, but she hoped he could pass as one of the mechanics doing med droids maintenance. Nonetheless, she didn't want to take any chances.

"Ok, please try to act like you belong here," she told him, while she changed her uniform tunic to a clean one.

"What does that mean?" He didn't seem very pleased with her remark.

"I don't know…" she mumbled. "Try to look less…" She gave him an overall look but couldn't put a finger on that he reminded her of.

"Less what?" He was glaring.

"Rebel?" She shrugged. "And hide the blaster, medical personnel don't have blasters."

He frowned but put it away. Cora went out first, and he followed her when no stormtroopers were in sight. Her heart was racing a million miles a minute. She was betraying the Empire, the only thing she'd ever known since she was born, hoping that a rebel will take her to freedom, putting all her trust in his hands. Yes, she was that naive

She started thinking. The nearest maintenance entrance was a few hundreds of meters away. That would be the easy way, she knew the door codes, but that would mean risking being seen. She would probably be safe, but mister rebel would be spotted in no time. No, she wasn't going to risk that. They would have to take the other route, she thought as she guided him through the corridors.

"Here," she said when they got into a hallway that she knew was less used. She kneeled close to one of the ventilation shafts on the floor and pushed her little finger through the grill, trying to reach the closing mechanism. Luckily this was a ship that still employed this old fashioned ventilation system.

"What are you doing?" he asked in a rushed tone.

"We're going through the vents."

"Are you crazy?" he whisper-shouted.

"I'm not. We have to go down three levels and I won't risk just strutting in the cargo bay with a rebel in tow. You're not blending in very well." The clasp that was holding the grill in places was proving rather tricky and her pinky was starting to ache.

"Well, I've made it so far," he said and Cora could feel the smugness in his voice.

"Yes, with a blaster wound an a shitton of luck. I am not betting my life on your luck." The clasp finally gave in and the grill came off with a cling. "Alright space cowboy, get in." She grinned maliciously.

"You first," he barked.

"Ok, but you will be left here, alone, to explain to the stormtroopers what you're doing on this ship. I'll be long gone." She smiled again and waved. "Get in and wait for me."

He glared at her again and Cora could have sworn he was close to slapping her, but he followed her order and got to his knees and then in the vent opening. Cora was really scared he wouldn't fit, after all she stopped taking these entrances to the ventilation tunnels when she was 14 and learned how to crack the entrance codes to the maintenance shafts. She had forgotten how tight the fit could be.

Luckily the rebel was rather slender so after a bit of forcing he got in. Cora followed, putting the grill back in it's place and securing it. The vent was tall enough that they could crawl on all fours inside.

"Ok… ummm… first right, then left," she instructed him, trying to remember the layout of the ship. He started moving and she followed, hoping she had guessed right. There was very little light in the cramped space, but Cora was used to the darkness.

She felt him disappear in the ventilation tunnel more than she saw him, and to her surprise there was a pair of arms waiting for her descent. She jumped down into what she knew was one of the main arteries of the ventilation system that was now big enough that they could easily walk inside it. But now it was pitch black. Cora spent a minute feeling the air current and listening to the engine noise trying to figure out where they were. Hoping she estimated right, she grabbed his wrist and and started walking through the darkness. The rebel followed her without any objections, after all this was her territory. Here he was blind and lost and powerless. His blaster would be useless if she decided to leave him there and start running. It would take him a few days to die, lonely, lost and miserable. She smiled at the thought that he knew this as well. His skin felt cold in her hand and she started to worry that maybe he had lost a little too much blood. Instinctively she moved her thumb looking for his pulse but he wiggled free of her grip so she was left holding his sleeve instead. Whatever, cowboy.

At some point she started feeling the walls looking for the signs. If she was right, she should be close to her apartment. She finally found the little carvings in the tunnel wall, the ones she had made when she first started exploring those vents five months ago. They were close, really close. The tunnels, as opposed to the hallways above, were mainly straight lines so you could travel really fast from one place to another.

"We're here," she announced when she reached her hiding place.

"Here where? I thought we were going down," he said, a bit irritated.

"And down we will go, I just need to get my bag." She climbed up on one of the pipes sticking from the wall and took a duffel bag from where she had hidden it.

"You need your bag? We made a detour because you need your stupid bag?" He was already pretty angry.

"Yes, do you wanna go down three levels and travel through tunnels I've never been through before with no light or supplies?" she asked taking a flashlight from her bag, turning it on and throwing it to him. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights and Cora felt a tinge of satisfaction. She liked taking him by surprise. It felt like payback for all the times he pointed the blaster towards her. "Take your shirt off."

"What?"

"Take your shirt off. I wanna put you on an IV. Come here with the light," she urged him, rummaging through her bag trying to find the right solution to stick in him.

"No," he answered and his jaw tensed visibly.

"I have to make sure you don't faint from the blood loss. I don't have transfusion blood for you, but I have something just as good." He didn't move. "You're with me on the long run, I can't have you die on me in the middle of this, my life depends on yours."

"I'm fine, let's get going."

"You're not fine!" Cora almost shouted, frustrated. "Your hands are very cold and you don't look very good to me."

"My hands are always cold!"

"Ok fine." Cora snapped, dropping her bag. "Be it your way. No IV. But I'm not endangering my life because you're stubborn. I'm out of here, screaming even, telling them there's a rebel in the ventilation system. See how long you'll last."

"You won't do that. They'll kill you too."

"Nope."

"You helped me." The desperation was visible in his eyes. "They'll kill you too."

"I can always lie. I had to help you because you have a blaster. I took you to the vents because I knew I could lose you here and get help. Who do you think they'll believe?" She smiled. "Shirt off and let me stick a needle in your arm."

She could see his determination faltering and finally he took off his shirt and came to her.

"How long will this take?"

"We would have been long gone if you'd just stop being so stubborn," she said, wrapping the iv sleeve on his forearm, attaching the cartridge with nutrients to it and turning it on. The machine started working, finding a suitable vein in its own and starting to pump. "See? That's it." She closed her bag while he got dressed and they soon took off.

It was a little less eerie walking through the tunnel now that they had light, but for Cora it felt weird having someone else with her in there. Only two people had ever joined her in exploration and that was a long time ago. This was one of those things that she had only shared with a handful of people that she trusted, and now here she was, sharing her secret with a total stranger that may or may not kill her by the end of this.

"Why does a doctor know the ventilation system of a ship?" he suddenly asked and Cora jumped at the sound of his voice. It had a certain softness to it when he wasn't yelling at her. It almost sounded pleasant.

"I was born on a ship like this. Spent most of my childhood on one. It's not really an ideal place to raise a child, but my parents were so absorbed by their work I'm not sure they even noticed I existed. So I started exploring to pass the time. It ended up being a great way to travel fast and undetected since the corridors have more turns and people you can bump into."

"So you're born in the Empire. Why do you want to leave it?"

Cora fell silent for a moment. She had never said this to anyone before, she knew voicing her concerns was never an option. But he wasn't going to kill her opinion on politics. "I've seen what it can do." She finally said. "I was raised thinking the Empire was this wonderful thing that would make us all live in harmony, where we would all be equal and there are no borders. I was led to believe that this is an ideal that was worth dying for, and that there are people who try to steal this from us for their personal gain and we have to fight them." Her voice sounded weak in the dark, windy tunnel, but she had made up her mind. She was leaving, no matter the cost. "I've seen what the Empire can do in the name of peace. And I can't fight for that. I may be just a speck of dust in this storm, but I can't help them anymore."

"Don't you think they'll kill your parents if they find out you've deserted," he asked after a while.

"My mother's dead and my father can get himself out of any situation, no matter how shitty. I'm more afraid of what he'll do to me if they catch me. You know that public execution I told you about? If he gets his hands on me it will be much, much worse." She smiled, but it was bittersweet, and for the first time since she had met him she thought she saw compassion in his eyes. Or maybe it was just the light.

Soon the light seemed to disappear in the tunnel and Cora knew they had reached the main the shaft. It was one of those tunnels that probably connected all the levels. If you fell in one, you'll probably be turned to marmelade when you reached the bottom. Pretty scary shit, but luckily it wasn't Cora's first seeing one. The rebel though, let's just say he wasn't that thrilled.

"There's a ladder on the right side, we'll use that to go down. Here, tie this around your waist," she said handing him a piece of rope. "In case one of us falls, the other will catch them." She tied the other end of the rope around her waist and secured it tightly. This time the rebel didn't complain and did as he was told. She liked him better now that he was more obedient. He seemed actually nice when he kept his mouth shut. "You go first."

The descent seemed to go on forever. Cora had tied the flashlight to her belt so they had a little light, but the size of the shaft still gave her the creeps, like the darkness was a few meters away ready to swallow her. When they finally reached the corridor of the desired level Cora breathed a sigh of relief. Her arms and legs were hurting and the muscles had started to cramp. She looked at the rebel and saw that he wasn't looking really good. Even in the dim light Cora could tell he was deathly pale and his breathing was uneven. She had saved his life only to almost kill him.

He got up, though, and he was walking even faster than Cora, who decided she had to start hitting the gym again if a dude who had just been shot in the ribs and almost bled to death had more stamina than her. It was really impressive that someone with his wounds could still stand on his feet, let alone run.

From his description he had hidden his ship on Cargo 5 and Cora almost hugged him thanking heavens for how lucky they had made him. Cargo 5 was the furthest from them, but it was the easiest one to get out of. This was the cargo bay they used for supplies too and it was one of the most familiar to Cora.

They had reached it fairly quickly since the vents made a straight line towards it and the rebel set an alert pace. They got out of the ventilation system through a maintenance door. They could see through the glass doors of the cargo bay how the main gates were opening to let a large cargo ship in.

"We can get out before they close the gates," the rebel said and Cora could read hope on his face.

Cora grabbed two space suits from the hanger and they dressed hurriedly. She was so close to freedom she was almost shaking with excitement. But it wasn't over yet, and here they may have to face stormtroopers, so she took her blaster out of her bag and attached it to the suit, even though she wasn't sure she would be able to use it in a fight.

"I thought medical personnel wasn't issued blasters."

"Shhh, don't tell anyone," she smiled and she could swear she could see the ghost of a smile passing over his face. "Decompression chambers to the left.

After passing through decompression it seemed like their luck had ran out. They bumped right into two guards.

"Identify yourselves," came the distorted voice of one of the guards.

"MD1309 Corinthia Enoch. I've been told you received a transport for us?"

"It was picked up yesterday." Shit.

"They misplaced a case, A0s-574. They insist they never got it from cargo, but I am sure they just filed it under the wrong number again and sent it god knows where. I have to check here first before we start another search through all of the supplies on the ship. I really hope they forgot to pick it up from cargo, otherwise it will take days to track it down and we really need it fast."

The guard seemed to think for a bit. "Alright, but be quick. We got another shipment coming in and we have to evacuate before it docks."

"It will be 10 minutes, tops. Aisle 4?" she asked but started jogging before he answered. They were exchanging weird glances and Cora supposed they had noticed her bag. Please let us reach the ship, please.

She didn't have time to think about it too much nor the guards to say anything because the sirens started blaring at full intensity.

"Shit! Total lockdown! RUN!" They had found a security breach. "They won't be able to close the gates with the cargo ship still entering!" she screamed at the rebel and followed him. Luckily, a small imperial cargo ship was waiting for them, a stolen one of course, but she wasn't complaining. They got in fast and Cora collapsed on the floor. The rebel hurried to the control panel where, to Cora's surprise, an imperial droid was waiting.

"You are late," the droid scolded him. "We almost got found out twice but I managed to turn them away."

The rebel was fiddling with the controls and the ship started trembling as the engine started. Cora got up and sat on one of the chairs, took off her uncomfortable space suit and secured her seat belt.

"Who is she?" asked the droid, pointing a metal finger at her

"Not now, K" yelled the pilot, as he lifted the ship into the air. Blasters were already shooting at them and Cora wondered how long it would take until the TIE fighters would take them down. She watched holding her breath how the rebel maneuvered the ship and got them out of the gates, almost grazing the cargo ship in the process and then as he found a piece of clear sky he entered hyperspace.

Cora breathed a sigh of relief as she saw unfamiliar stars. Half an hour ago she was alone in the med bay waiting for her lunch and now she was on a stolen ship with a rebel whose name she didn't know and an imperial droid. She had left the Empire behind with all its bittersweet memories. She could start a new life where she wouldn't have to feel guilty for her every action. She was free to make her own destiny. It was a new day. Cora allowed herself to smile.

"Sooo… who is she?" The droid asked again, and her smile faded as the rebel got out of the pilot's chair and approached her, blaster gun in hand.

Her new found freedom lasted only a few minutes. The world became dark in a fraction of a second.

[A.N]: I hope you guys enjoyed reading, I will post the rest of the chapters soon!