"What? She's dead?" The Jedi clutched his head, keening, rocking in his chair. "Why? What will I do now? She's the only one who helped me, who brought me medicine." He went still, staring at his feet.

"What do you mean, medicine? You mean spice, right?" Aric asked, his eyes never leaving the Jedi's face.

Cray jerked his head up to look at the Cathar. "No, I mean medicine. From Hutta, the only ones who make it. I have a terminal illness, one that cannot be cured, but that can be managed with this drug. She was the only one brave enough to risk bringing it to me a couple of times a year. And now, you say she's gone." He sighed, wiping the tears from his face. "I didn't kill her, couldn't kill her. I can't imagine who would. I came here because she gave me this as a contact, if she wasn't responding."

Tanno Vik came into the office then, called by Maura. He took over observation of the Jedi, and Aric and Corso talked quietly in the other room.

"Let's get Mags over here, see if he's telling the truth. She's the only one who will know for sure. I'll call her, you call the girls," Aric said, and Corso nodded.

Miriah answered, Devin on her hip. "Hey kitten, " he said, "Everything's fine, we're getting Mags here to help us but otherwise there's no problems here. You're okay?"

"Of course we are, sugar. I'll call Maura, let her know." He nodded, waved at Devin, and signed off. He turned to see Aric returning to Cray, and when the Cathar looked up, he nodded at his brother in law. Mags must be on the way here then, he thought. Corso walked back to the others, and asked the Jedi his question.

"Why were you with her on Alderaan a couple of months ago, yet you needed to find her now?"

He sighed. "I saw her on Alderaan with my regular delivery" So now we know firsthand at least one reason she was there, Corso thought. "She was fine, laughing, happy. Not high, as far as I could tell. She even told me she'd be away for a month, in rehab. So I wanted to see how she was doing, and never got a call back. Mina always called back. We were friends."

"You knew she'd married, then?" Cray nodded, and rested his head in his palm.

"She was very excited about that, in fact. I can't imagine anyone wanting to hurt her." They heard a knock at the door, and Aric went to let Mags inside. Corso met them in the hallway.

"I'm going back to the ranch. Come by if you want after, Mags." He smiled at her and she nodded.

"Felix and Michi are there now," she told him. Aric said he'd call later, and Corso walked out into the mid afternoon sun. He rode home, thinking about the Jedi, wondering how strange it must feel to have been cut off from the force after having felt it your whole life. He saw his family sitting outside, Devin playing in the grass, and thought about how many times he'd almost lost Miriah, both before they'd retired from smuggling and in the past few months. Too many times, he thought.

Devin squealed and ran toward him as he slowed and stopped the speeder, and Corso picked him up, swinging him above his head, seeing him grin and giggle. Felix smiled at them and Corso walked up on the porch, going to Miriah with the giggling little boy.

"Aric and Tanno are with Mags, but I can see this man didn't kill Mina," he told them, letting Devin slide down his leg and onto the porch, where he took off to play again.

Felix nodded. "We may never know the exact circumstances," he said. "Maybe it would be better that way." Corso nodded absently, wondering for the first time since Rona had said it, how she knew that someone was hunting her. With that thought tumbling through his head, he tried to appear normal while working on a plan to try to contact Rona again, find out what she knew about her pursuer. Felix had asked him the same question twice when Miriah touched his arm and got his attention.

"I'm sorry, I was gone there for a minute," he said, smiling at Miriah.

"More than a minute. What's going on in that head?" she teased. Instead of answering, he leaned over and kissed her, which made Felix laugh.

"I guess that's allowed as a distraction," Felix said, shaking his head. Miriah, however, felt his conflict, his unwillingness to talk about whatever he was mulling over. She gave him a look and he very slightly shook his head, and she understood. They'd talk about it later.

Miriah stood and walked to the edge of the porch. "Devin, want some cookies?" She was almost bowled over by his enthusiastic response, and laughing, they went inside. They'd only been there a few minutes when Magdalane joined them from the office, and Michi reached for her.

"Hey Pumpkin," she said, and grabbed a cookie. "I wish I could make these, Mir, they're so good."

"Come over tomorrow, I'll show you. It's pretty simple," Miriah told her. Mags nodded, her mouth full. Miriah never understood why Mags wasn't a good cook, she'd studied biochemistry, surely she could follow a recipe. She looked over at Corso, who was playing with both Michi, who was sitting up now, and Devin. What's up with him, she wondered. "Mags, is Cray being truthful about Mina?"

"He is," she responded, "and he's also very sick. He will be one with the force sooner than later. His viral load is very high, so either the medicine that Mina was delivering for him isn't working anymore or he needs another dose. Soon." She lifted Devin to her lap, Corso holding Michi, and the little boy touched her face. "He's such a sweet baby, Mir."

"Yeah, I'm hoping he's just like his dad." She smiled at him, and he grinned, cookie faced. "You know, I never asked before, does he have any force sensitivity?"

"He has some, enough that he can sense things, he'll never use it consciously though. Devin is definitely a four. So, he gets that from you." She smiled at him again, and he got down to play, happy. "Michi is much the same, so I think all our children will have some degree of it, but I don't worry anymore about the training. If it happens, we'll deal with it."

Wow, Miriah thought, that's a change. She was watching Mags as she reached across the table to pick up a strange looking object. What is that? Miriah wondered, not having seen it before. As Mags picked it up, she gasped and dropped it, and it bounced on the floor, the metal making a clang against the stone tile.

"What is it, Mags? And what is that thing?" Miriah rushed around the table to pick it up before Devin could get to it, and placed it on a counter near the door. Mags was speechless, staring at the object.

"That was Rona's. It's a listening device." Miriah heard this not with her ears, but with her connection to Mags through the force. Magdalane rose and took the object outside, where she force pushed it kilometers away before speaking. Miriah hugged her and they went inside to tell the men what they'd discovered.

While Miriah explained, Mags used the force to scan the house, but could detect nothing unusual. She could sense Rona's presence on a few objects but nothing else left behind by the woman. Corso was nodding his head. "I just had the thought a little earlier that I never asked how she knew she was being hunted. It was all too neat." He walked to the window and sighed, feeling betrayed.

Miriah crossed to him, and he put his arm around her. "We'll find her, sugar. Her docs were good, but not that good, and she thinks we're not as smart as her." He nodded, silently cursing his cousin. After a few minutes, he kissed her and walked to the holo to talk to Aric. They agreed to all go to his house to discuss this and the two families headed that way.

Aric told Maura what they'd discovered, and she knew that Corso would be devastated. She hugged her husband, seeking his comfort. He stood thinking, gently rubbing her back, and realized that his wife was in his arms and the twins were playing in the house. He brought her chin up to kiss her, felt her respond and wished things were more settled. They were still in that position when the other families arrived. "Well, I finally got to kiss you without the damn holo interrupting us." Maura smiled at him, and moved to open the door to her sisters.

They gathered in the living room, Michi with the adults, and discussed what they knew and how it all played together. The eventual conclusion was that Mina was connected to the Black Suns, through Rona, and that she was getting out. "That would explain her death, for sure. They don't let people leave, " Felix said, having been stationed on Coruscant and fought the Suns on a regular basis. Almost as soon as Miriah had arrived, she was in the kitchen, cooking. Maura knew it was one of the ways she coped with stress, but also that she used it to keep her hands busy while her mind worked on problems. She watched her younger sister closely, seeing no signs of anything but concentration. She looked at Mags then, and got a nod.

"She's only working through it in her mind, letting her hands go," Mags said to Maura in a low voice. Corso had noticed the women checking on his wife, and was glad they were all so close. He moved in to the work area to help, and Miriah grinned at him. She's okay, he thought. She doesn't hate me because it's likely my cousin killed hers. Just the thought made his gut twist, and he wondered if she'd even considered it. He took her hands and she looked up at him, love and trust in her eyes.

"No, I absolutely do not blame you for anything, sugar," she told him before he could even speak. He hugged her then, lifting her feet from the floor, breathing in her scent. She laughed, and he felt the rumble of it against his chest. He put her feet on the floor again, and kissed her.

"Aww you guys," Aric said, "you're just too cute." Corso blushed, and Miriah stuck her tongue out at him, making him laugh. They gathered to feed the kids and then eat dinner, and the dinner conversation turned back to Rona.

"We need to talk to her," Aric stated. "There may be no other choice but to go to Coruscant. I'd wager she went back there from here." He worried about that, since he 'd promised Miriah they wouldn't work off planet. He glanced at her then, seeing that she was thinking it over.

"You're right, Aric," she finally said. "We do have to go to Coruscant. It's the only way to do this, and maybe then it will be over." The whole group agreed, and figured they'd set out in the morning for the capitol planet.

Miriah and Corso went home, mentally preparing themselves for departure in the morning. Corso was worried about how she might handle being away from where she felt safe, knowing that he'd do anything to help her. He watched her go through the nightly ritual with their son, and stood with her as she put him in his bed. He waited until they were in the hallway before he took her in his arms. "Darlin' I know you didn't want to leave Dantooine. I'm so sorry about it." He put his cheek on the top of her head, and felt her relax into him.

"Just, please, no crazy risks, and we all stay together as much as possible, okay?"

"Of course, sweetheart." He moved her into their room, and then realized she was crying. "Hey, Miriah, I'm not going to let anything happen to you, I promise on my life." She nodded, unable to speak. "Shh, love, we're going to be okay. Aric's already alerted Garza, we're not going in alone." He dipped his head to kiss her face, tasting her tears, feeling her tremble and not knowing if it was fear or the same desire he felt. He knew a moment later, when she ran her hands under his shirt, skimming her fingertips along his back. They spent several hours loving each other, and still Miriah couldn't sleep, worried about the next day.

Coruscant. She sighed and finally closed her eyes, Corso holding her close. I'll be okay, she thought, trying to convince herself.