A/N: Again, this is not necessarily about plot or plausibility; it's about the fluff. I'm here for the fluff.
Surprises
It had been about a week since she found him.
"Did Hera know what you were up to," Ezra asked as the Gauntlet hurtled toward the Core. "looking for me?"
"Of course she knew," Sabine scoffed. "I promised her I'd get you back."
He wondered for a moment what it must have been like for Hera and Sabine—watching him disappear without a trace just days after Kanan died. If the roles had been reversed, he wouldn't have handled it well, he was sure.
"I had faith you were okay," Sabine said, as if she could read his mind. "And Hera had other things to worry about. I watched her just kind of…square her shoulders and decide you were okay, because that's what she had to do." She paused. "I didn't tell her how close I was to finding you in case—in case you decided to be an idiot and string me along for the chase. And," she added, batting her eyelashes coquettishly, "I wanted you to myself for a few days."
Ezra grinned. "I can't argue with that." He grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the co-pilot's sea and she sat in his lap, legs draped over him comfortably, arm around his shoulders like they'd been together this way for years. "How is she?" He asked after a silence.
"Hera?" Sabine sighed reflectively. "Better than you ever could have hoped for after that night. But I think she'll want to tell you about it herself."
Ezra wondered at the comment, but didn't try to decrypt it. He shook his head. "You should have told her we're coming. Hera hates surprises."
Sabine kissed his temple and, in that momentary contact, he could feel all her excitement and joy. "I think she'll forgive us just this once."
Sabine set the Gauntlet down in the hangar right next to the Ghost. For a moment, all Ezra could do was stare at the VCX, the ship that had been his home. The ship where he'd found a family.
"Ready?"
He started at the sound of Sabine's voice. "Y-yeah." He took her hand and squeezed it. "Yeah."
They walked hand-in-hand from the Gauntlet to the Ghost, striding up the ramp as if they'd never been gone a day. "Hera?" Sabine called. Ezra's heart raced in excited anticipation, expecting to hear the Twi'lek answer.
Instead, he heard a child's elated shriek.
"Bean!" A green-headed blur of a figure streaked down the ladder and barreled straight toward Sabine. She caught him easily in her grasp and swung him up on her hip. "I knew you were coming soon!" The child was clearly enamored with Sabine; it showed in his brilliant blue eyes.
"You did, huh?" She grinned, hugging him close. "How?"
He put his small hands on her cheeks and whispered, "I just know things."
Sabine made a popping sound with her lips and whispered to match his conspiratorial tone. "Well—do you know who I brought with me?"
The boy froze, looking at Ezra for the first time. "Spectre Six," he said in awe. "No way."
Ezra just stared, open-mouthed. "Sabine?" The child—small, maybe four or five—in her arms had the shape of Hera's eyes framed by Kanan's brows. The little one lunged for him, and Ezra took him, hardly knowing what was happening.
"This is gonna make mama's day."
"Ezra," Sabine started, "meet Spectre Seven—"
"Jacen Syndulla," a melodic voice finished. "My son."
Ezra spun on his heel and the sight of Hera, the woman who had quietly mothered and loved him, put unashamed tears in his eyes.
Hera looked shaken herself as she climbed down the ladder and approached him with her chin held high. "What you did," she said, swiping at her eyes, "was grossly insubordinate and if I wasn't so happy to see you, I'd throw you in the brig."
Ezra choked on a laugh. "If you were gonna do that, you'd have done it after I crashed the Phantom."
Jacen gasped in ghoulish glee. "You crashed the—"
Hera put a finger to his lips, and he wiggled into her arms. "Ezra." She whispered. "Ezra."
He hugged her then, her and Jacen both, overcome with joy and shock and just the barest trace of grief—he wished he hadn't missed all this.
Hera cleared her throat. "You two should have told me," she rebuked wanly. Her voice was rough.
Sabine smiled sweetly. "We know how you love surprises."
"Well." She turned on her heel, Jacen still on her hip. "How about you come and surprise me with an explanation."
Ezra and Sabine followed her, hand in hand again, and Ezra released the last breath he'd been holding since that day on Lothal.
Ezra woke up sometime after midnight, sleeping in Zeb's old bunk, to a soft but persistent tapping on his shoulder. He found himself looking into Kanan's blue eyes.
"Ezra," Jacen whispered, yawning. "Can you tell me stories about my papa?" His face shone with hopefulness. "Mama and Bean always said you could."
Ezra froze for a second—he hadn't talked about Kanan in years. But he couldn't think of a better way to start again than by telling this small boy about the father who would have surely loved him so much.
"First of all," he said, sliding into the floor next to Jacen, "is that Ka—your papa always knew what kinds of things to tell your mom, and what kinds of things to not tell your mom."
Jacen's eyes narrowed as he unpacked that statement. "Why would I ever snitch on myself for being up after bedtime?" He asked shrewdly after a moment.
Ezra grinned.
