UNFOLD

GOING HOME

Journal Entry of Rem Meshkad, 32 BBY

Shit. She's going to kill me.

I shouldn't have taken this job, but the pay was too good to pass up. Listen to me. Worried about credits when my 8-year-old son needs a father to train him. But it's too late now, isn't it? I'm going to some backwater planet to train soldiers. Not my own son. Soldiers I've never met before. I can't even tell Jatne where I'm going or why I'm doing it--it's some big military secret. And maybe that's for the best, because I don't have any answers. I'll just have credits. I swear to Manda, every cred I make will be for him and his mother.

Yeah, she's going to kill me. Credits over my own son. She thinks I'm dead, but she'll still find a way to kill me.

Shit.

Outside Keldabe, Mandalore, 11 years before the Battle of Geonosis

Jatne Meshkad stared up at his father. He remembered three months ago when they left home. Saying goodbye to his mother was like the amputation of his right leg--or going blind. Jatne had cried. He knew he shouldn't have cried because he had never seen his father cry before and he wanted to be like him, but there were tears in his mother's eyes. And he hated seeing her sad more than he hated the thought of leaving her.

"Son," Rem said, kneeling down in front of him. He put his big hands on his son's small shoulders. "I'm sorry I have to do this."

"Where are you going?" Jatne asked. Every time he asked on the way to his aunt's house, his father couldn't respond. "Why can't I come with you?"

"I can't tell you anything more than you're not allowed. I wish you could come, Jat'ika. I really do."

"When will you be back?" Jatne's heart was pounding. He wanted nothing more than to throw himself into his father's arms and never leave his side.

"I'll see you again when you're as tall as me, Jatne." Rem smiled but Jatne didn't think it was because he was happy. Rem put his hand on top of his son's head and ruffled his hair. "You'll be a man then."

Jatne balled his hands into fists and looked down at the ground. When he looked back at his father, he saw tears in his eyes. "Dad?" he asked in a small voice.

Rem opened his arms and scooped Jatne up. The armor plates smashed Jatne's cheek against his skull like it always did. It was the biggest, hardest hug that a Mandalorian could give. It almost hurt, but that wasn't why the tears leaked out of Jatne's eyes. His father let go. The side of Jatne's cheek was red.

Rem hastily wiped his eyes with the back of his glove. He looked at the small woman with blonde hair who stepped closer to Jatne and placed her fingertips on his back. "Thank you, Verda," Rem said with control.

Verda nodded and looked down at Jatne, who still hadn't stopped crying.

"I'll be back, Jatne. I promise." Unable to watch his son for another moment, Rem put his helmet on and turned to walk back to his ship. The late morning sun had grown hot and the air was thick with moisture, heavy and still. Jatne felt hot and dizzy and he couldn't see straight.

"Let's go inside, Jatne," Verda said. He felt the pressure of her hand on his back. She wasn't his mother or father. She was just his mother's sister and she wasn't very nice and she had purple armor and not green armor. "Jatne? Come on," she urged. He felt her grab onto his arm, and he was half-dragged back into her tiny abode.

Jatne felt himself sit down in a hard chair, and his knapsack was placed at his feet. He was trying as hard as he could to stop crying, and the sobs were subsiding. His aunt stood near the window with her back to him as if she was sparing him the embarrassment of watching him cry. Within minutes, Jatne was only sniffling and drying off his face with his sleeve.

Verda was much younger than his mother. In fact, she could have been his sister. He remembered seeing an image of his aunt holding him as a baby and she hadn't been much older than he was. Verda pushed her short blonde hair behind her ear and looked back at him. "I don't know much about kids, Jatne. So you're gonna have to help me."

Jatne didn't say anything.

"My father used to leave us for years at a time. You'll stop missing him in a week."

"My stomach hurts," Jatne said.

"The 'fresher is out back if you think you're going to lose it."

Jatne looked up at his aunt with a hard frown.

"I'm going to tell you right now that if you throw up in my house, I'm not cleaning it up."

Jatne swallowed and vowed to himself that he wasn't going to throw up. So he didn't.

40 Klicks Outside Keldabe, Mandalore, 4.5 Years after the Battle of Geonosis

Jatne Meshkad sighed with his ship as the engines cooled. Another successful landing. Another few months back home. He turned his head toward the passenger seat where a young girl sat on her hands and kicked her feet. She looked back at him and scrunched up her nose. "That was a terrible landing."

"You can fly next time," he retorted as his sister stood up and grabbed her bag. He followed her out of the ship, through the rusting archway to the platform where at the bottom waited their father.

The Mandalorian was wearing a white linen shirt and gray trousers, which were soiled from the knees down with the reddish clay soil of the farm. He was tall and his dark hair was flecked with grays, but he still looked as fit as he did during the war. "There are my ad'ike!" he said proudly. He never stopped using the affectionate Mandalorian term for "children"--most fathers didn't.

Tracyn bounded up to him, and he picked her up and held her on his hip even though she was partially suited up in armor--made of beskar, the toughest material known on Mandalore--and a little taller than she had been six months ago. "How did it go?" Rem asked his son.

"Fine." Jatne said. He turned and went back into the ship to get the last bit of luggage.

"Make a bundle?"

"Sure did," Jatne called over his shoulder.

"And what did you learn, Cyn'ika?" Rem asked with a grin as she tugged on his ear.

"I learned how to stay very quiet and very still while being carried in a tote bag."

Rem's face wilted. "What?"

"Jatne put me in the Senator's tote bag."

"Jatne!" Rem bellowed. His voice echoed throughout the ship like an angry mynok.

Back inside the house, Rem hadn't stopped scolding him. "What's wrong with you? Putting your sister in a tote bag!"

Jatne didn't look at his father as he set the luggage down near the door to be sorted later. "The Senator could have been compromised and she wouldn't let me go with her. So I snuck Tracyn in."

"It was really fun! See, the Senator really liked this red Zeltron guy, but Jatne was suspicious. And the Senator didn't want Jatne to come along and botch things up before she got to necking with the Zeltron guy--"

Rem dropped the pot of water he had been holding over the sink. "What exactly did you see?"

"Nothing! But I heard a lot of kissing and giggling."

Rem glared and pointed his finger at Jatne. "So not only did you turn your sister into living contraband, but she witnessed some--"

"Calm down, old man." Jatne was unloading his gear on a long table near the door, laying out his weapons in neat lines. "Tracyn recorded some valuable information and she wasn't in any danger."

"Yep! But you should have seen how cross Jatne was when he found out the Senator was kissing another guy." Tracyn's bright smile betrayed her knowledge of what she was saying.

Rem put the pot of water over the stove and ran his hand over his hair. "So you slept with the Senator, Jatne? Is that it?"

"Way to jump to conclusions, Dad!" Jatne was about ready to jump back in his ship and find a hotel to stay in rather than face the ridicule of his father.

"Well?"

"I caught them sleeping together!" Tracyn said. Her brother and father stared at her with open mouths. "Jatne was all cuddling her, and she was all snuggly with him!" Tracyn hugged herself and made kissing noises to demonstrate.

Jatne and Rem stared at Tracyn for a moment, both seeming relieved that she didn't catch the euphemism. Then Jatne stiffened and looked at his father, who returned his gaze with a hard glare. "That's not what you were paid to do."

"I was her bodyguard. I did my job. She wanted the extra bit."

Rem let out a heavy sigh and went to the cupboard, taking out various jars of spices and slabs of preserved meat. "Us Meshkads," he said, a grin crossing his face, "we're hard to resist."

Jatne rolled his eyes as he set down his belt and stepped from the foyer into the kitchen. He sat next to his sister at the table and glared at her. She stuck her tongue out at him, then turned to their father. "Jat'ika was really good, Daddy. He didn't let anybody touch the Senator. And he sat through dozens of boring Senate meetings and he showed me how to use the panoramic HUD viewer and he let me use his sniper rifle once and he was a professional bodyguard and the Senator told him so!"

"Well, that's good to hear," Rem said with a pleasant smile. He sat down with them at the table.

"Where's Mom?" Jatne asked.

"Picking up some friends with her sister."

"Friends?" Tracyn asked.

"It's a surprise," Rem said. "They should be back in time for dinner."

A loud hum from outside announced the return of Amyr's ship. Rem shrugged and stood up, and the three of them exited the front door. A small freighter partially blocked the setting sun as it landed on the pad in the rear of the house. The engines hissed and cooled and soon the wind brought a thin layer of red dust over Rem and his children. After a short pause, the landing platform lowered and didn't make the loud creaking sounds of Jatne's ship.

Amyr Meshkad walked down the ramp of her ship. She wasn't wearing her armor, but instead an olive colored, high-waist dress with a utility belt and well-worn brown boots. Her hair was braided and she had dark visors on. Jatne was glad to see her after all of these months while he was on the job, but he was surprised she wasn't wearing her armor. Where had she been?

"Look who came home!" Amyr said as she took off the visors.

Tracyn ran up and bounced before hugging her mother. "Jatne slept with the Senator!" she reported proudly.

"Tracyn!" Jatne and Rem yelled in tandem.

Amyr glared at Jatne and seemed ready for an explanation before she could accept a hug from him.

"I didn't really sleep with her!" Jatne lied.

Amyr shook her head and hugged her son, planting a kiss on each cheek. "We'll talk later. Right now, we have guests."

A short woman with blonde hair came traipsing down the ramp, trailed by an abnormally tall Mirialan male. He had five square-shaped tattoos, two above one eyebrow and three above the other. The expression on his face made Jatne wonder if he had been keel hauled all the way here, or otherwise threatened with bodily harm within the past ten minutes. Was he a hostage? What did Dad mean when he said that Mom and Verda were coming home with "friends?"

"Auntie Verda!" said Tracyn. Verda ruffled her niece's hair roughly and waved to Jatne and Rem.

"Demus, go get the luggage," Verda told the Mirialan.

"Yes'm!" he said, and disappeared back into the ship.

"Who is that, again?" Rem asked. "Is he your new boy toy?"

"Since when have I ever had a boy toy?" Verda grumbled. She waved her hand dismissively at Rem and went over to Jatne, holding out her arm for a shake. She thumped him on the back as they pulled each other close. "How did you like being a bodyguard, Jat'ika?" she asked with a toothy grin.

"It was a lot different from how you taught me," Jatne replied with a hesitant chuckle. "Nobody really prepared me for a Rutian Twi'lek as a client."

Verda elbowed him in the side. "Never had 'the talk' with Rem, huh?"

"Nope. Guess that's what happens when you get left at your aunt's house for ten years!" Jatne said with an exaggerated grin.

Amyr and Rem glared at him.

"I know, I know. It was wartime."

Verda tapped her foot.

"And living with Aunt Verda wasn't bad."

The Mirialan, Demus, reappeared with two large knapsacks on each shoulder and also carrying a medium-sized crate. He was practically a child and wiry to boot--Jatne ogled him as he came down the ramp. "Where do you want these?" he asked Verda, voice strained.

"Take them to the house, Deems."

"Ad'ika," Amyr shouted into the ship. "Do you want to come out now?"

Jatne froze. He and his sister were not their mother's only children as far as Jatne was concerned. When a clone came ambling down the ramp of the ship, Jatne was not surprised. No, he was a little mad.

There was always some clone stealing his glory.