Chapter Summary: A continuation of Part 1. After Senator Organa is unable to pick up baby Rani, Zeb spends the day with her.
A/N: A few small moments that I have been thinking of writing about with them, especially after all the positive feedback! I hope that all of you like this chapter as well! Enjoy!
Zeb puffed out air in slight annoyance as the baby tried to slip from his arms again while they walked. She was looking everywhere she could, holding tightly to his shirt and fur to keep herself steady and balanced while she let her curiosities fly. Looking forward, he could see the others by the Ghost, the hatch open with a couple of medium sized and small crates near the ramp.
Moving closer, the rest of the crew began to notice him as well. Their confused looks only deepened as he got closer, their eyes all focusing on the small being in his arms.
"And who's this?" Hera asked, raising an eyebrow herself as Zeb stopped in front of them.
Zeb looked down at the baby that was desperately trying to look over her shoulder at the new voices to put faces to them, though still gripping and pulling at his fur to keep her balance. Her large brown eyes turned to him for a brief moment before she went to look over the other shoulder to try and get a better view.
"Kal calls her Rani," Zeb answered, suddenly jolting slightly to bring his other hand up to her back when she tried to lean over to far, exerting a small huff of annoyance as he kept walking towards them. One thing he had learned quickly looking after Rani was that she needed to be watched every second.
Picking up from where Hera left off, Sabine explained with a small smirk, "I'm pretty sure that there was an implied second part to that question."
Zeb looked up at her and narrowed his eyes in a glare, making Sabine's smirk crack a bit more into a smile along with Ezra.
"Kal found her on his last mission," Zeb explained.
As though the idea suddenly came back to her, Hera's eyes widened slightly with realization.
"Yes, I did hear about that from the other pilots and generals," Hera commented, "the entire city was destroyed when they arrived."
"Yeah," Zeb confirmed. "Kallus found her in some ruble and brought her back to base. He got in contact with Senator Organa and he said he could take her. She stayed with us last night because apparently she hates the droids and was screaming louder than the emergency alarms."
Of which, he could testify to when she woke up in the bedroom that morning and didn't see either of them in the room. Kallus had quickly been able to calm her back down just by holding her. Clearly she attached herself to him, but he knew that was inevitable. Kallus was the one to find her; she automatically associated him with safety.
Still staring at the baby, Hera pause for a moment before saying, her hand coming out and moving her one finger in a circular motion as a gesture, "there was also an implied third question."
Zeb looked back at her and sighed before answering, "you needed me to help you with the unloading, and Kallus is in a meeting right now. Senator Organa was supposed be in today, however he sent a message this morning. The pass along will have to be postponed until tomorrow."
"Ah," Hera replied, nodding once before saying, "as long as she won't get in the way."
Zeb shook is head.
"No, she'll be fine," Zeb looked down at the baby before explaining, "she'll probably be out for a nap soon. And she likes to watch people, but she's pretty good at entertaining herself."
Kanan grinned and began to walk past him to head back into the Ghost. He stopped by Kallus's shoulder and his head moved down as though he was looking at the baby. The little one looked back up at him, staring at him for a moment as though undecided before letting out a large smile and a small coo. Kanan's grin became wider and he moved a hand up to move through her hair, making the baby coo again more happily. As the baby moved a bit from the action, her hands pulled at his fur again.
"Sounds like you're starting to get to know her," Kanan grinned.
Zeb groaned and rolled his eyes as the others cracked their own smiles, Sabine moving back towards the ship as well when Kanan started again.
"More like babysitting duty," Zeb gruffed out.
"Like that sounds too much better," Ezra joked, almost making Zeb growl in annoyance, but stopping himself before he could scare the kid.
Walking past them, Zeb watched Ezra stopped for a quick moment and smiled at the baby, gently pocking her cheek to make her giggle. Ezra's smile brightened as he regarded the baby a couple seconds longer before going on his way to help with the others. The baby was still looking over Zeb's shoulder, watching the three new people walking away with seemingly great interest. Zeb chuckled.
"Trust me kid, we're more annoying than you think we are," Zeb commented to her, however the baby was still looking over his shoulder.
Turning back to Hera, he suddenly got a new idea.
"Hey Hera, can I take one of the seats from the Phantom?" Zeb asked.
The Twi'lek thought for a moment before finally shaking her head, "just put it back after."
Zeb nodded and she was already moving to follow the others. Behind him he could hear the soft grunting of Ezra and Sabine, likely trying to pick up a box together. Moving onto the Ghost himself now, Zeb took a quick detour away to the Phantom. The baby kept turning her head rapidly to try and see her surroundings as much as she could, probably also looking for the others as he walked.
Moving onto the Phantom, he held the squirming baby with one hand as the other went to the seats at the back of the cockpit. He carefully unlinked one of the cushioned seats. Keeping hold of it, he felt the blanket on his shoulder starting to slip from her fidgeting, so he had to stop and try and fix it with his full hand from the seat, looking down to make sure he didn't hit her.
"You're a lot of work you know," Zeb grunted.
The baby only looked over at him, her eyes still wide. She smiled at hearing his voice before happily pulling at his fur as she moved. He winced slightly again at the force, not noticing the smile forming afterwards, before moving on again to leave and meet the others.
Moving back out of the Phantom and back outside, Zeb passed Kanan and Sabine, who were carrying one large box together, both with struggling faces from the weight as Ezra moved on one of the sides to try and make extra strength.
"Hurry up, Zeb," Sabine grunted.
"I'm getting there," he answered.
His voice was cut off by the baby's sudden loud whine. Zeb felt the extra pull on his fur.
The Last rapidly looked over his shoulder to find out what she noticed that scared her before he heard the culprit's loud beeping before noticing the orange cap with his grippers flailing around in confusion as some harsh beeps of confusion followed.
"Chopper!" Zeb growled at him after hearing the insult, almost dropping the seat in his hand to hold Rani tighter before remembering that it was there in the first place.
"Chopper, leave her alone," Kanan grunted.
Seeing the baby start to cower into Zeb's shoulder, Chopper could see the mistake he made. Feeling her start to shrink against him, Zeb carefully moved his other hand up, the extra arm helping to wrap around her to comfort her almost unconsciously. She had been through enough in the past couple of days.
Turning back to the droid, he growled, "keep your distance unless you really want to hear a siren go off."
The droid seemed to almost pause in confusion for a moment before seemingly deciding to just let it go. Turning, the droid beeped out one last insult as though getting the last word. Holding in a growl, he muttered, "damn Rust Bucket" before moving beside the others and taking her to where the other boxes were being placed.
Ezra grinned, helping the others lower the box in the pile with the others.
"Don't worry, Rani, he just likes to bother Zeb," Ezra commented.
Zeb rolled his eyes, for a moment debating about where to put the seat; on the ground so if she somehow wiggled her way out she wouldn't fall down, or on the boxes where she could easily see everything, and likely wouldn't be as afraid as Chopper. In the end, he placed the seat on top of one of the boxes. She would be buckled in and they would take turns before going in and out of them, so someone would always be watching her.
After setting the seat down and making sure it was stable, Zeb carefully used both hands to move the baby from his shoulder. He grunted lowly when she tried to keep holding him, her small hands still gripping his fur —how could something so small have such a grip, he thought—before he was able to gently pry her off of him. Making sure the blanket was still wrapped around her, he carefully transferred her into the seat. He always forgot how small she was when he literally held her in his hands. He was always worried about accidentally hurting her from his strength and large hands that were practically the size of half of her body.
However, holding her as gently as he could, he managed to place her in the seat. She stared up at him, slightly confused before wiggling in the seat to find a comfortable spot. The seat was obviously too big to fit her right, but he felt better about it when he strapped her into it, making sure the belt was snuggly around her without actually hurting her.
Taking a step back, she immediately made a whimper. Zeb gulped, feeling his chest start to get heavy and full before he saw her attention move to another. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Hera coming back with a medium sized box of her own. The baby made a cooing sound, interested in the new face. After setting the box down, Hera looked towards the sound and smiled at the baby beaming widely at her. Deciding to take his chance, he quickly moved to go back into the Ghost to help the others. She'd be fine with the constant moving in and out and seeing new faces. Didn't babies have that thing where if it wasn't in front of them, they don't think it exists? She'd just be constantly rehappy to see the new face again as though they just came out of oblivion.
Still keeping an ear out for Rani in case she ended up crying again, Zeb found one of the larger boxes and easily picked it up. It was just general habit now to find the bigger boxes of inventory and take them. It was something he quickly picked up when on the Ghost after seeing the others having to struggle to try and move a box that he could easily pick up himself. Lifting the box, he took a quick look around. They didn't have too much more to do with all five of them at work.
Just as Kanan, Ezra, and Sabine were leaving, carrying their own boxes out into the yard and new pile, Hera was coming back inside. Barely looking at him as she picked up another case, she commented, "I heard the baby doesn't like Chopper."
Zeb barely looked over his shoulder at her before he looked back down at his box.
"Yeah. Like I said, she hates the droids in the med bay. It must be something about…what happened, that she associates them with danger," Zeb answered.
Hera shrugged, moving to follow him out of the room with her case.
"It's possible, though the Empire doesn't quite use droids anymore," Hera answered. "Apparently it's normal for a lot of infants to be weary or scared of droids. It's the facial thing, you know? Droids don't have faces that change, expressions to read, smiles, a lot of infants find that scary. Especially because a lot of them don't talk."
Zeb thought for a moment before he shrugged.
"I guess."
"It made an impression though."
Zeb stopped for a moment, staring at her. Hera looked over her shoulder briefly at him, though never stopped walking.
"Don't tell me the Rust Bucket's pride is wounded by a four month old fearing him," Zeb scoffed in disbelief, finding his steps again and moved forward.
"You know Chopper. He acts all tough and loves to annoy you, but you also know how protective and loyal he is," Hera answered.
"Droids don't have hearts," Zeb commented, rolling his eyes.
"I just don't think he likes scaring small babies," Hera answered, "despite hating them by how loud and annoying they can be. Well, that or he's scared he'll scare her too much that she'll start screaming."
Zeb chuckled again, the two of them almost outside at this point while the others were moving back in. Zeb's eyes immediately looked towards Rani, who was still sitting in the seat, wrapped up in her blanket. When she saw him, she instantly smiled and wiggled in the seat happily. Zeb grinned, looking at her so closely that he didn't notice Hera looking at him to notice his reaction. She smiled and commented, setting down her box, "she really seems to like you."
Zeb smiled and shrugged, "yeah, I guess."
~.~
Zeb had gotten used into the pace of moving in and out of the ship, grabbing a box and placing it with the others that it was almost mindless and out of habit now. Rani had been entertained enough of the others going in and out at different time so she never felt alone. And Zeb swore that she was starting to understand that he would keep coming back out whenever he disappeared. Whenever any of the crew came out again, it was like a constant, walking, back and forth Peek-A-Boo session where they would come out and she would suddenly smile at the sight of them again, especially when Zeb would come back. Unless her gaze was elsewhere, every time she would spot him, her eyes instantly shined and she let out a small and happy squeal. Zeb kept on his work even if he didn't realize the smile that came to his face every time it happened, her dark skin shining in the brief sunlight. If it weren't so cloudy Zeb would start to get concerned if she was in the sun too long, but it was cold enough, right?
Almost an hour in and at this point all the smaller boxes were carried out. He told the others he would take the rest considering even together they would have a hard time carrying the rest. As they had moved on to work on other things, Zeb kept at his. He was almost done anyway.
Moving to pick up another box, carefully lifting it and grunting slightly, he began to hear small whimpering and then whispering.
Pausing for a moment to try and hear better, he then moved with the box, lifting it while walking carefully. As he came out into the light of the sun, he immediately looked towards Rani to see a surprise. Rani wasn't even looking for him, and the seat he put her in earlier was empty. Instead, Ezra was holding her and crouching down towards Chopper. For a second he couldn't breathe before he saw where she was. Setting the box down, Zeb could only stare at the scene in front of him. Ezra had a careful, but good hold on her, holding her close to his shoulder and chest. Rani was holding tightly to Ezra's shirt with one hand while with the other she was looking towards Chopper with mixed feeling, one hand outstretched to it as well. The droid looked down at her, or at least was leaning down a bit towards her.
"Ezra!" Zeb called to him.
The younger boy immediately looked up, along with Rani who heard his voice. The instant she saw him, like the other times, she let out a happy squeal again, her face instantly shining with a smile.
"You better not make her scream or else you're going to be the one to stop it," Zeb warned him, almost shuddering at how she screamed a couple of times last night. "That goes for you too, Chop. If you scare her not even Hera will be able to protect you!"
The droid just warbled and shifted side to side a bit in fake offence before Zeb shook his head and already began to walk back onto the ship, his back to them. Walking up the ramp again, he heard Ezra call back, "she's fine! She's not even that scared anymore."
Some Force thing, probably, Zeb thought. But perhaps that wouldn't be so bad if Ezra was able to comfort her better with it. Zeb just shook his head and went back to his work moving his boxes. As long as the baby wasn't screaming then Zeb didn't mind that Ezra was going to keep her entertained.
The next time he came out with a heavy cart, he looked to see that Ezra was still talking with the baby, smiling down at her. He looked for Chopper but the droid was gone. After years of living with Chopper he knew to get suspicious, but Zeb decided to let it go. He was almost done.
It was a few more boxes before Zeb stepped out of the Ghost, growing even more suspicious. Giving a brief look to Rani, Zeb saw she was back in her seat, Ezra and Chopper standing beside her. He set the box down, relieving his arms and looking back to get a better look. He had barely registered the electronic in Ezra's hand before feeling cold water splash onto his head.
"EZRA!"
The boy's giggles immediately stopped and he backtracked, going to walk backwards before realizing he was up against the boxes, his hands on the control freezing. Chopper warped again, both in laughter and because he told Ezra he was on his own, going to scurry away before Zeb could yell at him. Rani's laughter, however, was still loud and musical in the air.
"Chopper that's not fair!" Ezra called after him but the droid only rolled faster away.
Looking towards Zeb, Ezra let out a nervous smile.
"Hey, at least I waited until you put the cart down!" Ezra tried to defend himself as Zeb started to stalk towards him. He then looked at Rani before pointing to the baby and saying, "and I made Rani laugh! And she's no longer afraid of Chopper!"
Zeb shook his body a bit as he walked over to him, trying to shake some of the water off of him. He growled a bit, moving closer before Ezra let the remote go and look towards Rani as she laid back in the seat, "see, look how happy she is!"
By the time Zeb was in front of Ezra, who was cowering, his one leg out ready to make a side sweep to escape, Zeb finally turned his eyes to really look at Rani. The baby was staring at him with tired yet wide eyes, her smile the biggest Zeb had seen, bigger than when she saw Kallus this morning when she woke up. Her giggles were high but musical, loud and almost infectious. The way she was smiling at him, despite how annoyed he looked, felt as though she was looking past something, or that she didn't care. She was just happy of his presence and somehow understood the joke that had been played. She was a smart girl who seemed to find this absolutely hilarious. He started to wonder if she actually did know what had all happened, the maniacal little baby. But this was the happiest Zeb had seen her yet, and he had never heard her laugh like this before. All problems away.
Zeb let in a deep breath, swallowing a growl of frustration in his throat. He looked at Ezra and grumbled, "you're lucky you're in front of baby."
Ezra let out a nervous laugh and smile, though he knew he got away with it, at least for now.
"Even you have to admit it was good," Ezra grinned.
Zeb pointed his finger into Ezra's chest and moved his head closer, his brows furrowing more, "Don't push—"
"Zeb, Ezra!"
Both immediately turned to look sideways and towards Hera as she was walking closer to them. They immediately straightened up and as she got closer, she her face paused a bit to look between the two curiously.
"Should I ask?"
"He started it!" Zeb growled.
"You can get back at him for it later," Hera told them, stopping in front of them, overlooking that Zeb was soaked. "We got called to a meeting."
Zeb sighed before he asked, "do I have time to change?"
Hera looked him over once before shaking her head and answering him, "I don't think so."
Zeb grumbled again before his head whipped back towards the younger boy. Ezra's nervous grin shrunk a bit before he mumbled, "you know what, I think that's my que to leave…"
Before Zeb could grab him, Ezra had already shrunk past him and was moving after Hera as she began to walk away. Zeb always forgot how fast the kid could be until Ezra ran from him when he knew Zeb was ready to pay him back.
Shaking his head, the Last looked back towards Rani. The small eyes looked back up at him, her laughter now faded out by now. But that last burst seemed to be the last effort of energy she had. Honestly, he was surprised that she was even still awake. Looking up at him, the baby held her arms out and let out small whines. Ezra had tied her back in her seat so she wouldn't get out, but she pulled at it all the same. Zeb's shoulders slumped a little.
"Hera?" he called, turning his head towards them again. The Twi'lek turned her head back to look at him while Ezra turned fully. "What about her."
Hera seemed to think for a moment before she shrugged, "Kallus is going to be there too. As long as she's quiet I guess you'll need to bring her."
As they turned back to keep going, Zeb let out a long sigh before turning back to the baby, who was still holding her hands to him, whining louder now. He groaned before moving to untie her, keeping the blanket wrapped around her, "you're a lot of work, you know."
The baby could only smile as he picked her up, her feet dangling a little before he moved to bring her closer to him again. Almost instantly, she quieted.
"I'm wet, you know," he grumbled as he moved her closer to his shoulder, making sure that the blanket offered a bit of a buffer from her to his still wet vest. Despite the slight wetness, however, Rani was already curling against him as best she could, moving her head from the outside to looking towards his chest, getting comfortable as she murmured baby rambles. Not realizing his smile, Zeb grinned down at her and began walking after Hera. "I was wondering when you would start to get tired."
~.~
By the time they were seated and talking in the conference room, Rani was sound asleep, still curled against his chest. He was given some weird looks by a couple of the pilots when they saw the large Lasat walk into the room, or just stand near the outside with a baby against his chest, a pink blanket wrapped around her and along his chest, but Kallus found Zeb's eyes when he walked in and saw Rani before a wide smile came to his face.
A couple of minutes in, Zeb had found a seat along with a couple of the pilots as Hera and a couple of other Generals and Kallus were working out a plan. Feeling her soft heartbeat and breathing against him, Zeb never felt so warm. It was as though he was chosen, that she felt comfortable enough to sleep against him. He felt honoured. Kallus had to keep his grin from growing too big.
Despite how weird it looked, he sat there, making his own comments and verbalizing his thoughts to help in the strategizing, and it seemed that everyone else got used to seeing the big, burly Lasat holding the baby as she slept soundly against him, as though it was normal. And after a while, Zeb felt it was normal too.
~.~
Most of the base was quiet by now. With each hour that came into the night, there was the familiar way that it grew quiet, slowly, hour by hour. Rani had went to bed early as well. She woke up after the meeting, now ready to play with Kallus when she saw him again. Zeb watched the two play with some small containers that Kallus had managed to steal from the mess hall for her to play around with. They were pretty big for her tiny hands, but she was still entertained enough to move them around, slam containers against the ground, and to suck on the lids as she moved others. Kallus laid on the ground, moving them along as well, grinning as she let out slight squeals of excitement before moving them, one hand still holding the lid so she could suck on it.
Zeb had tried not to make it look obvious that he was watching them. Kallus had been smiling the entire afternoon, and he didn't realize that he was too. The baby had been happy just to move them around with Kallus.
But after a couple of hours Kallus noticed her starting to fall asleep against the floor, so he laid her in her box. After that, it had been pretty quiet. Kallus and Zeb had enough time to eat on their own and watch a small holovid before going into a night time routine. Kallus was almost surprised. This was the longest that she had ever slept while in their care. In a weird way, Zeb both liked the quiet, but it was also starting to feel foreign.
They had only slept a couple of hours before Zeb heard the small whimpers and whines coming from the box. Both of them almost instantly awoke the at the first sound she made. While Zeb picked up Rani and held her to comfort her, Kallus had gone to the kitchenette area to warm a bottle of milk for her. She had been so tired from her day that she almost didn't have it in her to cry. Zeb tried his best to hold her as she squirmed with discomfort, wanting to be fed, but luckily Kallus had been quick.
Even eating she was slowly starting to fall back to sleep. Zeb knew that it would only be one of the first of many wake-ups in the night, but at least this one seemed short.
Holding her against his chest and on his lap, Zeb gently pulled the bottle back when it emptied. Although she was almost asleep again, Rani carefully held the baby against his shoulder before gently patting her back to burp her. Kallus was starting to get comfortable laying down in the bed again.
Hearing her burp, Zeb tried to pull the baby away from him before he felt her grip his fur again, whining in disapproval. The Last rolled his eyes and groaned, but leaned back against the pillows, pulling Rani with him and moving to gently rest a hand on her back. If this kept the kid from whining, Zeb could hold out. From what Zeb remembered of this afternoon and what Kallus remembered from last night, she got very cuddly when she was sleepy. And if felt kind of nice to hold her again.
"It's a nice thought, isn't it?" Zeb heard Kallus say. The Last turned his head to look at the blonde. Kallus was staring at him, still propped up against the pillows and holding a soft smile on his face. "You know, I mean, I know that we can't but, just to think…us…and…well, and her."
Looking at the blonde, he remembered thinking the exact same thing the night before and seeing Kallus with her. He remembered how natural Kallus looked holding and taking care of her. Is that how Kallus saw him now? Is this how Kallus felt last night holding Rani? Did he feel the sense of peace when he was holding her? Or how…warm of a feeling it was to have her trust you so much that she falls asleep against you? How despite everything she has gone through she seems happy and comfortable with you because of how much she trusts you. How there was a sense of joy in holding her, seeing her smile up at you and how that smile can outshine the brightest stars.
He knew that they couldn't, but what if they did? What if they made it work? What if he stayed with Kal on the bases? What if he and Kal were their own group on separate missions? What if they brought her along? What if she grew up with them? What if they tucked her in, cared for her, and loved her as they already did every day like parents are supposed to?
What if they became that family?
Staring down at Rani, at how she was still peacefully sleeping against him, he began to smile.
"Yeah," he agreed, "it's a nice thought."
