Chapter 6-The Truth

By the time Kanan had reached his apartment, it was starting to get very dark and some of the street light wasn't on so it would make it difficult to see in the dark. He held the small child in his arms as he kept to the shadows of the street, he didn't want any stormtroopers seeing them, and start asking question. The boy was scared enough. And beside, the stormtroopers would make an excuses of anything these days. The child shifted a bit in Kanan's arms as he laid his head on his chest. Kanan sighed for he hadn't even gotten a chance to take a look at that shoulder. He needed to get home where there were supplies that he needed. Kanan spoke softly to him, keeping him calm and reassuring him that everything will be okay.

Kanan caught a glance at the kid, he notice that the boy was half asleep. Looking up, he saw that they were near the apartment. Kanan would not normally worry about the young boy being asleep, he did need it, but with that wound on his shoulder, he was very concerned. For the bleeding hadn't stop. Kanan was thankful for one thing, at least it wasn't bleeding badly. He pressed a bit faster, turning a corner, Kanan quickly enter the apartment building. He made a beeline straight for his room, without the manager of the apartment building seeing him. He didn't want to deal with the manager today, she can be very rude and harsh. He finally got to his room and unlocked the door, pressing a button, the door gently slide opened as Kanan walked in, making his way to the couch as he laid Ezra down. Ezra was just waking up as Kanan heading into the kitchen to grab the first aid kit, three cloth, a hair brush t brush out the knots in the kid hair and a water bull. Kanan realize that the boy needed some new clothing, seeing how that the cloth he was wearing now is torn which concern Kanan and the fact that the boy still needed a bath, but getting the boy new cloth and a much needed bath would have to wait. But at this moment, Kanan wanted to look at the wound first before he does anything else. He came back to the living room and still found the boy sitting on the couch, with his left hand on his right shoulder, Kanan can now see blood on the boy hand since he place his hand on his shoulder. Kanan sat the first aid kit on the couch next to the kid and open it up.

"Now I need to take a look at the shoulder young one. I need you to remove that hold so that I can look at it." Kanan told Ezra, he didn't reply to Kanan, but he did remove his hand away from his shoulder. The boy haven't even said a word for the whole time Kanan was working on that shoulder. Kanan smiled as he worked to keep reassuring the kid, but he did wonder if the kid could talk. "Here we go kiddo," he said smiling as he remove part of the cloth on the shoulder to get a look at the wound, "Let me get a good look at this." Kanan sighed in relief as he found that the wound wasn't infected, "That is a relief." He said as he went back to work. As he looked closer he noticed that there was some dirt in the wound, which would come from all that running around, stealing and being on the street for force knows how long. He looked even closer and notice that some puss was forming "Well we can't have that now can we." he said. "Now I need to take off your shirt so that I can take a better look at what I am doing now. I need to clean it. Ok?" ask Kanan, looking up at the boy who just nodded and then Kanan got to work in helping the child to take off his rags torn up dirty shirt, Kanan cringed as the child whimpered a bit. He gently worked the shirt off and was thankful the action didn't hurt him any farther. Once the shirt was remove, Kanan tossed the torn up shirt to the side and got to work on stopping the bleeding, but just as he was going to applied some pressure to it, he soon realize that the injury is a knife wound. The wound was in an almost completely line from where it started in the middle, going up and almost over the shoulder. It's stop just as it was coming up toward the top of the shoulder. The wound look deep, but it wasn't deep enough for any concern, or to place stretched in the wound. Kanan grab a cloth and gently press down on the wound.

The boy gasp just a bit, but did nothing. As Kanan was reassuring the boy that everything will be alright, he was thinking on how this happen. Which brought the question, who injury him? Whoever had done it, Kanan wouldn't mind putting a blaster mark between the eye of the man that had done this horrible thing to this child. Once the bleeding had stop, he then grabbed one of the batica packs that he would use on the injury. He smiled at the kid, holding up the pack, he held the nozzle towards the wound, "Now this may hurt a bit. Just hold still and it won't hurt." Kanan told the boy, but he hadn't said a word.

Kanan soon sprayed the entire wound on the shoulder, which causes the boy to flinch and gasp with pain, but he didn't make an effort to move away from Kanan. When Kanan was finish with the batica pack, he reach for the cloth and he began to gently move the cloth over the wound to get the dirt and puss out. He clean the injury until he was satisfied with the result. The wound looked a lot better now that it was free from dirt and puss. Though Kanan notice that there was still some puss. Kanan grab the next thing in the kit that would help with cleaning the wound and applied it to the injury. This time it didn't hurt the boy much.

Applying ointment, Kanan was finally finish. He then placed a bandaged over the wound, it would help keep dirt out so that it wouldn't get infected. While Kanan worked on warping the bandage around the injured shoulder, he noticed that the kid was looking not at him but away. In fact he seemed to be looking at the kitchen from where he was sitting. Kanan noticed that the kid seemed to be looking for something. Kanan for a minute stop what he was doing and look back at the kitchen, wondering what got the kid so interested in the one room that Kanan barley spent time in. 'Maybe he's hungry. He probably hasn't eaten since yesterday.' Kanan thought, as he turn back toward to what he was doing and continued to work on wrapping the bandages around the kid's shoulder.

"You're hungry kid," he said while working on the shoulder, "I can fix something up for ya later once I am done with your shoulder. But I do need to ask you a few question." Kanan told the child, as he finished wrapping the shoulder. Kanan then reached for an extra cloth, grabbing the bowl of water he soaked the cloth in it. He then squeezed the cloth, getting out the excess water, smiling he then began to gently wiped the dirt of the kids face. Kanan smiled as he wiped off the dirt, "Well I was wondering if there was a clean face under all this dirt." the kid looked back for a brief moment half smiled, then turned his attention back to the kitchen. Kanan again smiled, "Hey kiddo, first of all, would like to know what is your name?" ask Kanan. He looked at the boy, who was still looking around the kitchen, trying to find something, but what. The boy stop moving his head around when Kanan started to clean his face. But he still saw that the boy was still looking at towards the kitchen, but why?... But Kanan notice that the boy didn't even answer his question which worry Kanan. Kanan was beginning to think that the boy was mute.

He hope that the boy wasn't mute and that this was just some part of a phase that the kid was going through, or the fact that the kid had a really bad sore throat and it really hurt to talk. Though Kanan would have notice that by now. Whatever the reason was, Kanan hope he would get the boy to talk, if he kept asking question. He hope was with all the question asking the kid might do just that. As he worked on the child's face, he began to asked the kid all sorts of names, "Is it Jake? Frank?...Mike?" ask Kanan, as he still tried to get the boy to talk.

"Conductor?" the boy suddenly spouted out, which surprised Kanan, as he almost dropping the cloth. Kanan had to hold his joy as to not scare the kid, he finally had gotten the boy to talk. But now Kanan was confuse on what the boy had just said.

"What was that?" ask Kanan, not wavering from his work on the kid's face.

The child look back at Kanan, "The conductor sir, I hidden it here." the boy told Kanan.

Kanan was confuse he laid down the cloth on the small table next to the couch, "You what now?" ask Kanan, though the kid's hair needed to be brushed it would wait for a moment.

Kanan watched as the kid got up, grabbing his hand and lead him to the small kitchen. Kanan followed the young boy and watched as the boy let go of his hand and head for a cabinet that was on the floor. Reaching forward he opened up one of the cabinet doors with his good arm. Kanan pondered as he watched the kid reach in with his good arm he pulled out something that Kanan has been looking for a while. Kanan cocked a smile shock his head, "I should have known." He said, as he saw that the item that the boy was holding was in fact the Conductor. The very one that Hank needed.

"No wonder why you came here," Kanan said as he stepped forward and knelt down to be at level with the boy, "But why here?" ask Kanan.

The kid took a small step back looking at the floor, "Because I didn't want people to steal it from me and I couldn't bring it back to my tower. It was just too much for me to carry all that way. Your place was closer," the boy said shifting a bit as he looked up at Kanan, "So I managed to climb into that window over there, using my energy slingshot to crack the lock." The kid stopped talking for a moment as he sat the conductor on the floor. He then stood back up standing still for a moment rubbing his sore arm, shifting a bit more, he sighed as he fidget with his bandaged. Kanan could understand how sore and tender the arm is at the moment. But he also know the more the kid played, pulled, or just messed with it would make it worse and slow the healing process. He reached up and gently pulled the kid's hand away from the bandages. The kid sighed and smiled a little as he went on, "I managed to get the conductor in through the window, climbing in, I came into the kitchen and hid it in here. When I was through hiding it, I realized I was very hungry so I went looking for food, but then you came in." the child told Kanan, looking up at him with a small tear in his eye.

Kanan smiled as he sat on the floor closer to the child, "Well I'm sorry if I scared you that day. I wasn't sure who it was. But now that I know what is going on, it doesn't matter now. But how did you get that injury on your shoulder?"ask Kanan.

Kanan watched as the child bent down and picked up the Conductor. He stood for a moment as he fidgeted with the conductor waiting patiently, for the kid said nothing. After a while as he sat the conductor back on the floor, "Well, you remember," He started wiping the tear from his eye, "I say about three…. No more like six hours ago that I didn't follow you anymore to that station." Kanan nodded as the boy sat on the floor beside him.

"I headed out to look for food because I was still hungry. The bread that I stolen from Market grump didn't fill me up and the fact that I didn't grab something from your place. So I wonder around a bit." he said as he looked up at Kanan, "And when I got to the cargo station I believe that what it is, I enter the building. Saw some bucket head and some droid. I avoided them and then I looked around and saw that there was some food on a table. I moved in as fast as I could and reached for it, to grab it. But then somebody spotted me." stated the boy, and Kanan could see fear in his eyes.

"And that somebody is Sylas right?" ask Kanan softly growling keeping it low key not to scare the boy.

The boy shook his head, "Yes, Mr. Boldly Spot Head? Yeah that was him." The boy replied, as he heard a chuckle from Kanan.

Kanan nodded to the boy smiling, "Well, that is Sylas for ya. The guy with the bold spot, now what happen then?" ask Kanan, having a bad feeling about the answer.

"Well..."began the child as he shock, and Kanan could clear see more tears forming in his eyes,"Well he threw a knife at me." announce the boy shaking even more as he moved closer to Kanan.

This angry Kanan, he stood up pacing a bit. "If I ever..." he trailed off. The boy watched as Kanan walked back and forth. Kanan was so mad, 'If I ever see Sylas again I'll well beat the boldness of his thick stubborn skull. There will be so many pieces of his skull all over the place that there would be nothing left of his face when I'm was through with him' Kanan thought as he looked down at the child. Kanan sighed and knelt back down to the boy's level, "Then what happen." he asked trying to control his anger in order not to scare the boy.

"I managed to ran out of the building when I saw him grab that club, that is when you came in and save me." Added the boy.

"Well you don't have to worry about him anymore. He got fired today when he tried to harm you and kill me." added Kanan.

The boys eyes went wide with horror, "He tried to kill you?" ask the boy, looking up at Kanan with concerned and worry.

"Yes, but that's all over now." He said as he stood up.

The boy watched as Kanan leaned down and scooped him up in his arms, carrying him back to the living room, "Lets not worry about all that at for the moment. We need to finish getting you cleaned up." Kanan told the boy as he sat him on the couch and grab the cloth again to clean the kid face.

The boy nodded, "What about the conductor?"

Kanan smiled, "Don't worry I'll take care of it."

The boy nodded and looked up at Kanan. "And to answer your question sir, my name is Ezra, Ezra Bridger." announce Ezra as he looked up at Kanan.

Kanan stopped working on Ezra's face and smiled, "Kanan Jarrus. It's nice to meet you." Kanan announce, as he reached out and took Ezra's hand shaking it. Ezra smiled as Kanan then went back to working on his face, "Now the second thing is, where are your parents? They must be worried sick about you? Once I am done getting you clean up and I'll..." began Kanan, as he was interrupted by the Ezra's small quiet voice, "I don't have parents," Ezra replied, looking down at the couch, "Not anymore." Kanan stop what he was doing and looked at Ezra. He saw how sadden Ezra had become. The painful, fearful look tore at Kanan's heart.

"What happen to your parents?" ask Kanan, as he sat down the cloth once again, which by now was so dirty you could not tell it was a piece of cloth.

Ezra sightly hiccup as he looked up at Kanan, "They were taken from me by the Bucket heads." replied Ezra, as he wiped tears from his eyes.

Kanan nodded, he knew who Ezra was talking about. It was stormtroopers, though he wondered why they come in and took Ezra's parents. He was brought out of his musing when Ezra said, "They came in one night, my mommy hid me and my daddy tried to fight them. I watched this all from my hiding spot, the Bucket heads overpowered my parents and then they took them away. I never saw them again." Ezra told Kanan, tears were streaming down his face.

"When was the last time you saw them?" ask Kanan, smiling as he reached up wiping the tears off the newly cleaned face.

"At my home, a year ago." Ezra told Kanan.

Kanan was not only horrified, but shocked as he realized that the boy is an orphan. He looked at Ezra as the horror of the situation hit him, 'This boy's parents have been gone for about a year.' he thought. Though he was amazed at how quickly the boy learned how to survive out there on his own. He reached for the brush as he realized even more that the skills he developed was enough to keep him alive, but not enough to fight someone, or how to defend himself.

As he worked on Ezra's matted hair, another question came to him, "Why hasn't anyone taken you in?" ask Kanan, as he gently worked on the hair, "Because nobody want me Mr. Jarrus." whimper Ezra.

"You don't have to call Mr. Jarrus, you can call me Kanan. But why doesn't anyone want you?" ask

Kanan, still working on Ezra's hair. He managed to get half of the head.

"Because when someone take me in," Ezra shifted a bit, but still allowed Kanan to work on his hair, "I wouldn't stay in the house for long. I was only there for about a week, maybe at most a day before I get thrown out, back on the street." Kanan stopped brushing Ezra's hair and looked down at him. Ezra had turned his head looking back up at Kanan and the questioning look on the man's face, "It was because of all the question I asked, and there was a lot. Plus the fact that I get into trouble a lot. Beside, nobody want a child who parents were place on the empire wanted list...well..." Ezra told Kanan, his eyes were downcast, tears were coming down and the boy was beginning to sob.

"No no it's okay, don't cry." Kanan told Ezra, trying to reassuring him, but Kanan was angry. He was angry at how people can just ignore one child, just because of what their parents did. And he knew for a fact that a child would ask a lot of question and the fact that they would get into trouble. That's all part of the growing up thing. Kanan had done that when he was little. This disgust Kanan that the fact that people wouldn't take the time to even give their attention to a small child who was in need loving and attention.

Kanan wasn't going to be one of those people, he couldn't even think of the possibility of Ezra ending up on the street again. He soon turned back to fixing the boys hair. Kanan took a deep breath for he was going to say something that would change his and the Ezra's life forever, "Ezra?" He stopped and wait for Ezra to look at him. Ezra looked up at Kanan and at the moment, Kanan just wanted to talk all of the boy pain away as he saw the look in the young boys eyes, "I promise you this, I will not ever throw you back out on the street." Kanan told him, waiting for it to sink in.

Ezra blinked slowly was he hearing Kanan right, "W-what do you mean?" ask Ezra.

Kanan smiled as he sat the brush down, "What I mean is this, I'll take care of you. So that you won't have to worry about finding food, or getting attack by Slice Head or the Bucket head" Kanan said, he watched as Ezra's eyes light up.

"Really, you mean you'll take care of me?" ask Ezra, surprise.

"Yes." Kanan added.

Ezra's stared for a moment, "B-but nobody wanted me. They'll just throw me back on the street." added Ezra hopeful but also unsure at the moment as he watched Kanan's face.

Kanan smiled again, "Not me. I promise you that." Kanan told Ezra, as he then picked up the hairbrush again. He needed to finish up what he started. He had so many things to plan. As Kanan reached for Ezra's head, he stopped as he looked he notice that Ezra had started to cry. Kanan saw that it was not in fear, but in happiness.

Ezra turned around to face him fully, "T- thank you." Ezra said, as he jumped up hugging Kanan, before Kanan could even start brushing the kid hair for the kid had jumped at him, wrapping both of his arms around Kanan's neck, giving him a huge hug. Kanan had drop the hair brush when Ezra had jumped at him. This took Kanan by surprise once again. He really didn't understand all this child care, but he would do his best.

Kanan hugged him back, he felt Ezra jump a little at the pull on his bad arm, "Ok ok take it easy kid," He said as Ezra pulled back, tears had dirtied up his face again. Kanan smiled as he looked over the shoulder, "We don't want to cause your wound to bleed again." Kanan told Ezra, then pat him on the head, Ezra nodded as Kanan sat him back on the couch.

"But Here is my question, if you had left the conductor here and wasn't carrying no food out of the station six, than what was in your hand when I saw you running out of the building from Sylas?" ask Kanan, and he watch Ezra just smiled, well a nervous smiled, "Well, as he was trying to grab me. I...grab his blaster and ran out with it." Ezra replied, smiling his nervous smiled. Kanan just stared at him dumbfound for a minute before he let out a chuckle, "Well...smart of you to do that kid." Kanan said, "Now, let's finish up here." Kanan told Ezra, as he began to work on the knotted hair again. Kanan smiled as he worked, but then, he just realize something, "Hey, what did you do with Sylas blaster." He asked. Ezra looked up at him with a mischievous smile…. Kanan raised an eyebrow, "Ezra?" "Uhm...I smeared it with some engine grease and throw it to a pack of loth-cats." Kanan stopped blinked a few time then threw is head back and laughed. "That is something I would have love to see." Ezra Chuckled as he said, "Yeah boldly head came running out and the last I saw was him fighting a loth-cat for his blaster." Kanan stared at Ezra knowing he would have to keep a sharp eye on the kid, laughed as he turned back to working on the hair. They both chuckled over the events as they talked, musing what Sylas did while trying to get his blaster back. Kanan wasn't sure what the future held or for that fact he wasn't sure what he was signing up for, or should he be doing it. But for now he was for the time at peace.

End of Chapter 6, YEAH SCHOOL IS OUT! So Here is Chapter 6 and like four days ago, Star Wars Rebels Siege of Lothal came out and I SAW IT!HEY! Hope you like, chapter 7 will come on...well hopefully before the 30 of June, and if not that day...Than probably will be before July 4...maybe even early. Hope you like. Please still give out suggestion, I really like it.