4.
A/N: Sorry this took a little while. Please review! If you have an idea on anything you might like to see next, I'd be glad to hear suggestions (no promises-though). :) I hope reading this makes you as happy as it made me to write it!
"Nice place your friends picked to meet us." Kanan raised an eyebrow as they exited the Ghost. They were in a largely abandoned part of the city sprawl, there to meet the smugglers who were supposed to be bringing the supplies for the rebel cell on Talus. Chopper had scanned the area when they had arrived early, and found nothing but a few pitiful lifeforms wandering from place to place. Now, at dark, the bombed city took on a ghastly pallor in the moonlight. Too many shadows. Kanan's hand drifted towards his blaster from time to time, but he kept it holstered for now.
"It's going to be fine." Hera didn't sound so convinced, however. Kanan felt his senses prickle as he looked at the buildings, bombed and damaged during the battle of Lianna. He had fought in the Clone Wars soon after he'd become a padawan, and thinking of that brought up a set of memories that he didn't want to re-experience. He didn't need the distraction, so he shoved them away into a place in his mind and locked the door.
"Too many windows. Too many places for ambush," Kanan muttered. He and Hera unconsciously placed themselves almost back to back as they surveyed the area. More than a decade ago, this definitely had been the 'nice' area of town. Now some of the white marbled buildings were just hollowed out shells where criminals and transients bedded down for the night.
Footsteps on uneven piles of rubble seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere in particular. They tensed, but only one shadow emerged from the darkness in front of them. Kanan and Hera turned to face the man but were soon frozen by the cold press of a blaster in their backs.
"Hands up," the voice behind him said just as Kanan's hand closed around the grip of his own blaster. The former Jedi let it go reluctantly, putting his hands in the air. Before his attacker could take his weapon, Kanan grasped the Force and whirled around, delivering a kick to the aggressor's face almost too quickly to be seen. He followed with several punches at a blinding speed and before Hera could even take a breath, his foe was in a headlock and Kanan's blaster was under the defeated man's chin. He kept his hold on the Force as he watched the two men warily. These were some friends that Fulcrum had, he thought.
"Put it down or I'll shoot her." The other assailant had pressed his blaster to Hera's side and was now glaring at the former Jedi.
"You'll never get the chance," he said in a voice of deadly calm. It would be a cold day on Tatooine before he let two guys like this so much as scratch Hera. "After I kill you, I'll kriffing kill him." He tilted his head in the direction of the shadowy figure who was now closer. There was something in Kanan's manner that actually made Hera's attacker pull her back a little. "So, for your own protection, you're gonna want to take your gun off of my associate, put it down and step back very carefully. I feel a little jumpy and I'd hate to blow his head off by accident."
"Let's all just stop a minute, here." Hera hadn't been prepared for either the attempt to disarm them or Kanan's sudden...whatever that had been. She had seen him fight before during their adventures on Gorse, but this was different—he'd moved with a supernatural speed and grace. Catching his eyes she nodded an okay. "Hey...let him go," she urged. He seemed to understand finally and let the man slip to the ground, but he still kept his blaster trained on its target. She looked at her contact as soon as she was sure Kanan was with her. "You looked like a ghost in the moonlight," she said with a peculiar emphasis on "ghost."
At the sign, the operative that was approaching them waved his hand and the other assailant let Hera go and holstered his blaster. The former padawan lowered his weapon but kept it at the ready; he was still uneasy.
"But the phoenix always lights the way." The countersign was given and acknowledged by a nod of Hera's head. "Didn't know you were bringing company. Fulcrum didn't mention it. Sorry for the confusion."
Kanan took a deep breath, making himself loosen his grip on the Force as he realized the danger was gone. He reached down and hauled his attacker back to his feet. The would-be assailant had a spreading bruise on his face and seemed to have a healthy respect for Kanan as he took a few steps back in retreat.
She felt more confident once he'd given the countersign, so she gave an apologetic smile to the older man. "No problem. He's a recent addition to my crew. Do you have the pickup ready?"
He nodded, tapping a com on his wrist. "It's green," he said into it.
Apparently the crates weren't far off. Five speeders appeared carrying three crates each. Kanan checked each one and then helped the drivers load them into the Ghost's cargo area while Hera talked briefly with her contact.
Kanan returned to her side, like a shadow, and stood sentinel over her shoulder as she wrapped up. The operative, the leader of the Hydros rebel cell, cast nervous looks at Kanan the whole time.
When done, they headed back to the Ghost. "Well, that went well," she said with a smirk as the contact and his men climbed aboard the speeders and left into the night.
"Yeah." Kanan narrowed his eyes suspiciously, watching their departure.
"No apology to the guy you laid out, I noticed."
"For what?" He raised an eyebrow. "They pulled guns, not us. What are we supposed to do? You wanna play that game, you get what you get." He shrugged, then eyed Hera, realizing how much he'd hated seeing someone with a blaster to her side. That was new; this caring thing was like unfamiliar clothing he wasn't sure how to wear. He'd cared about someone before, but not like this; he hadn't let them get close enough. Hera was something completely different and he didn't have a handle on it yet. That fact was somehow terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
She could feel his intense stare as they reached the cockpit and she slipped into the pilot's chair. "What?"
"Um..." He shook his head, ignoring her look and sliding into the copilot's seat. He fed their coordinates into the navicomputer for the jump to hyperspace.
"Kanan." She colored her words with a warning tone as she navigated out of the planet's atmosphere.
He sighed. "Are you part interrogation droid?"
She smiled at him sweetly at that, as if he'd given her a compliment. "Maybe."
He gave in with a sigh. "I just didn't like seeing that blaster in your side. Maybe I overreacted a little, but I'd rather overreact than one of us or both of us end up dead."
"You used the Force, didn't you?" She raised an eyebrow. This was new. Once again, she had the feeling that he was changing, becoming something more than he had been. It was fascinating to watch.
"Yeah. I didn't plan to...it just..." He raised his hands. "I lost my focus. Being force-sensitive is not something you can just flip the switch on. It's always there, waiting. It's like saying you're not going to use your sense of touch, or your eyes. It's hard to shut it out."
"Are we ready for the jump?" She checked the navigation readouts on the panel.
"Yes." When he answered in the affirmative, she engaged the hyperdrive. When flying together, they'd become used to holding two conversations at once and they made the seamless switch back to their original topic.
"Look." She turned her chair to him as the stars stretched into lines ahead of the ship. ""I like that you had my back out there. I needed you on that op. If something had gone really wrong, we would have been equipped to handle it. You did good." She said softly, searching his blue-green eyes.
He didn't know how to explain what he'd felt when he'd turned and saw her in danger. It had only been one day since they'd discussed his past and he was still overwhelmed by the simple caring she'd shown towards him. There hadn't been one second's thought about protecting her; after all, she'd accepted him and his secret without hesitation. While now he saw that they hadn't been in any real danger, he'd not known that at the time and he'd been prepared to fight it out until the bitter end—win or lose.
"You had my back last night," he said simply. "I'd never let anyone hurt you, Hera."
Hera gave him a smile and motioned to him. He leaned in to her, thinking she was going to tell him something, but she simply leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
He'd been kissed before. Many times, in fact, but never the way she did. And he knew the memory of that first, simple kiss, Hera's kiss, would override and erase all others until the end of days.