"Thyme, I love you. Ni ka-"

Niner stared at himself uncertainly before sinking down onto his elbows. This was getting ridiculous! He couldn't even tell himself he loved her in a kriffing mirror! He wanted to tell her, everything! Like how she made him feel warm and significantly less paranoid than what he usually was. How every holo she sent him made his chest ache and he always got antsy waiting for the next one. Now he worried about her every time he had to leave her behind...

Everything wanted to come pouring out whenever he went towards her! But every time she turned, and just looked at him..he couldn't. River kept popping up into his mind. He hadn't loved her like he loved Thyme, but that didn't mean he loved her any less. It still was a pretty fresh wound. Niner sighed again and leaned on his elbows.

"Vod'ika," he groaned, scrubbing his hair,"help me."

He knew what she'd do. She would've hopped right into his bed near the wall so he could slide in beside her and they'd chit chat for a while until he relaxed before going to the subject.

"Just go up and tell her," she'd insist,"If you can't look at her and tell, look over her shoulder or a little ways away from her eyes!"

A small pause would follow before she'd say,"And quite using me as an excuse!"

The commando chuckled. Thyme was perceptive enough to know when his attention was not fully on her. She'd make him look. Niner's ears pricked when he heard quiet footsteps before his brother pounded at the fresher door.

"Hey, sarge! We have another mission," Fi said as he walked in, wide grin plastered on his face," and you're going to love who's coming along."

"Who?"

XXXXXXXX

"What?"

Thyme sank down into her chair with absolute horror written across her face,"Are you sure you heard right? OMEGA is coming as backup?"

"Tha's some weird looking delight, lassie," Annabelle said dryly as the look on her sister's face appeared as red brown in her vision," Don' let Niner see."

"Don't joke about this, vod," the Cathar said glaring,"Are they really coming?"

"No. I just came all tha way from tha second floor, away from all my patients, just ta play a stupid prank on ye about one of yer fears coming ta life."

"I knew it," Thyme said dryly, bitting her nails as she stood and started to pace. Annabelle gently swatted her hand.

"Quit tha, lass," she said,"It'll be fine."

"No it won't," Thyme said, burying her head in her hands,"I never went into total detail with Niner about what and how we get our info! He thinks it's JUST sex!"

"No surprise there, lass," the medic said,"Most male clones barely even know tha act itself much less things ye can do ta increase pleasure."

The Cathar stared at her sister, unable to understand how she could say it all with a straight face. Thyme was not beneath using a little sexy language to tease her man….but that-

"See ya've been informed," a voice said before Miya swaggered into the room. There was a pad in her hands she was tapping her nails on.

"On the backup, not the mission itself," Thyme said and reached for the pad.

"Where ye been lassie," Annabelle demanded as she stomped over to Miya," Ye were almost late!"

"Late? Late fo what?"

"The mission, ye di'kut! Ye're the second sister, going with Thyme," Annabelle said in annoyance. Miya stared at her with a raised eyebrow before snorting.

"No way, dawg. You're de othera sister."

"Like 'ell I am. I'm blind! I can' dance if I can' see!"

"Yo kiddin' vod," Miya laughed," I've seen ya on da dance floor! You dance in the med ward when people ain't lookin'!"

"Tha's different," the medic protested,"I know my ward like tha back of my 'and!"

"Well, you'll have a pretty big space to dance in, sweetheart," Miya said and pushed the holo pad into the medic's hands,"Buir knew you'd react like this... so she made it a direct order for ya."

There was a moment of silence as Annabelle scanned the pad, face twisting the further down she went, before she erupted with shock and anger.

"'WHO THA KRIFFIN' 'ELLS BRIGHT IDEA WAS THIS?"

XXXXX

Niner couldn't remember a time when he had been so excited and scared at the same time. As the ship took off towards their destination, his chest started hurting. This would be the first time he'd be on a mission with her. He knew that she was only a second level of the IO command structure, but she was always working her shebs off trying to get higher up. However, since she was a clone, it was hard for her to get promoted in the GAR. The point was, Thyme was a good agent in her line of work.

Beeping coming from his COM broke Niner from his thoughts and the small room of their ship was suddenly bathed with blue light as a familiar figure came up.

"Su'cuy, Mando'ade boys," Thyme said, grinning widely,"Ready to see me kick aruetiishebs?"

Greetings were exchanged exuberantly, before the Cathar filled up the gaps in their job descriptions.

"All right, you've already been informed that you'll be posing as our bodyguards. I won't bore you with big words to make me seem smart: basically, what what we're trying to get at is information on Grievous's whereabouts any way we can, since there will be a few Generals here with a lot of alcohol in them."

Niner was pleased with her professionalism, combined with her to the point method without skipping around anything. She'd already told him what she was expected to do. No matter how much he hated it, there was truth in the old saying that you caught more flies with honey. Niner tensed. Wrong choice of words to use.

Thyme took the tensing as nerviness and assured him,"Don't worry! This'll be a walk in the park! Just stand there and look ferocious…though that will be hard, you're going to look real sexy in Mando'a gear."

Niner hid his amusement behind his hand. Leave it to her to prove him wrong as soon as he thought it.

"Yeah, Sarge," Fi teased,"It'll be hard for her to concentrate with you in kandosii bad boy armor!"

"Easy fer ye ta say, lassie."

"Annabelle," Niner asked, confused as the medic came up beside her sister,"Are you coming as backup?"

"No," she said grouchily and crossed her arms," I'm tha second sister."

"Is that really a good idea?"

There was a tense moment of silence before the medic said in a creepily calm voice,"What's that suppose to mean, Niner."

Niner knew he put his big foot in it now and struggled to come up with a nice way to say that Annabelle was not the most...delicate of people when it came to manners and talking. Thyme, taking pity on her poor cyar'ika, stepped back into the conversation once more.

"Don't worry, Ner'ika," she said soothingly (for him or for Annabelle, he didn't know),"she doesn't have to cover up her blindness this time. All they care about is how well she dances and how beautiful she looks."

"Hmph, I don' blame 'im fer bein' worried," Annabelle said, ruffled feathers soothed by Thyme's indirect care. As she marched out of the picture, Niner let out a quiet sigh and found that all his brothers were flashing thumbs up at his COM. Thyme grinned at them.

"Can't wait to see you here in the flesh, commando boys," she said," Don't blow up before you get here."

"We won't! I'll make sure of it," Fi said as he came over and butted Niner out of the way," I still have a bone to pick with you!"

"Few months too late," Thyme shot back,"I won our name calling match!"

"Did not! Sarge took you away before I could finish!"

"We were on the ship for two more days! I saw you almost every hour!"

"I kept forgetting my comeback!"

"All right, what's the comeback?"

"I forget."

Author's Note

Suuuure, Fi, suuuuure.

It tisith finally here! Three Words! Thank you Milan for helping out and everyone else! Hope ya'll like it!

Everyone except Thyme belongs to Karen Travis

Thyme, Miya, and Annabelle are mine