The first time the ship lifted off the ground Larena was sitting in the passenger seat, legs quaking, hands gripping the armrests so tightly her knuckles were white. Her heart threatened to burst from her chest, but she swallowed down her nerves and tried to calm herself. She didn't want The Mandalorian to see her anxiety. She was his Healer now. She couldn't afford to be weak.
She watched through a squinted gaze as the blue skies faded into an endless black and then, as if it were as easy as breathing, she was passing stars. Her fear turned to intrigue and, when the ride became more smooth, she leaned forward in her seat a bit more, her mouth agape as she took in the beauty of space.
"Whoa," she breathed.
The Mandalorian tilted his head slightly. "You've never been off the ground?"
"No." She mumbled back, too enthralled by the blurring stars that shot past her to be unnerved by his modulated, flat question. "It's... it's beautiful."
The Mandalorian said nothing, and through the corner of her eye she watched as he pressed a few buttons and then and leaned further into his chair, his back still stick straight.
Another question came a few moments later. "You're a Healer?"
Larena sucked in a breath and tore her gaze from the stars to him. "Yes."
"Trained?"
"Not formally, no." She answered back. "But there was a someone my father hired to help me. He was very skilled and taught me what he knew."
Again, The Mandalorian was momentarily silent, almost as if he were weighing her words. "So your father paid me with a half-trained Healer?"
Larena's chest tightened, in embarrassment or hurt, she couldn't tell. "It seems so."
His accusation churned her stomach. She was essentially a slave, sold to a bounty hunter by her own father.
Suddenly, as if she'd been subconsciously fending it off the entire time, the realization came to her and she felt betrayal wash over her. She felt lost. Brokenhearted.
The backs of her eyes began to burn and she turned her head away from the metal man beside her, wiping them with the back of her hand. She refused to shed her tears. At least in front of him.
A coo from somewhere behind her startled her back to her surroundings. She wiped her eyes again and whipped around to find The Mandalorian already standing. "Was that a baby?"
"Yes." The Mandalorian moved past her, and stopped in front of what looked like a cradle of some sort. He fingered a panel on his arm and the top of it opened, revealing the head of something with massive ears and little hairs poking up out of it's head.
Larena watched as the man leaned down and plucked the little thing out of it's bedding and held it to his chest.
She'd never seen anything like it. A green, wrinkly little thing - it was cute, staring at her with its owlish eyes. It tilted its head and opened his mouth, a little row of teeth poked out to greet her.
"Hi, there," she said quietly.
The creature seemed to sense her emotions and held its small tri-fingered hand toward her, a toothy little coo coming from its mouth. It was oddly comforting and felt herself moving toward the pair without a thought.
The little thing held up its arms, a clear sign it wanted to be picked up.
"Can I?" She gestured to the baby in the man's arms.
The Mandalorian looked down at the baby in his arms then back to the expectant woman standing before him. "Be careful with him."
A boy, she noted with a nod. "Of course."
The Mandalorian placed the child in her arms, watching as she placed gentle finger to his nose. The baby giggled and swat at her finger with his little green digits. "He's sweet. What's his name?"
"He doesn't have one." He answered simply.
Larena furrowed her brows and looked up at him. "What do you mean he doesn't have one?"
The Mandalorian said nothing, still watching her pet the baby's nose with the pad of her finger. The baby's eyes watched, crossing comically as her digit came back down, and giggled each time it made its pass.
"So what do you call him?" Larena looked down when the baby gripped her finger in his tiny hand, tilting its head in what she could only call confusion. She wiggled her finger and smiled when it grabbed it again. "Baby?"
"Or Child. Sometimes Kid."
Larena blinked, but didn't push any further. "And you? What am I supposed to call you?"
"Most people call me Mando," came his monotone reply. "You can call me that if you want."
She nodded and moved back to the chair she was sitting in previously. "Do you have a medkit on board?"
"I did. It's almost empty now." He sat back in the pilot seat but made no move to swivel it toward her as she'd done to look at him. "I have to make a stop soon to get some repairs done to the ship. Make a list and I can get what you need to refill it."
The woman beside him nodded and smiled when she felt the baby cuddle itself closer to her chest. "Okay."
Later that evening, Larena was left to her own devices until Mando and The Child got what they needed from the small town.
She decided to practice on her focus - something she'd failed to do in recent months - in hopes that she could prove the Mandalorian wrong. She wasn't half-trained. She would prove herself.
She sat cross legged on the floor, her back to the cockpit, and focused her energy on lifting the bolt she'd found lying on the floor of the ship. She closed her eyes, focusing everything she had on the bolt, trying to physically wrap her consciousness around the metal itself.
She heard a small tink sound and had to will herself not to open her eyes, lest she break her concentration. Instead she did what she'd done since she was a young girl.
She sang.
It was a song - her mother's song, or so her brother told her when they were small. It somehow made her feel as if she'd known her mother - made her feel like she might still be out in the starts watching over her.
The song strengthened her focus and she finally let her slide eyes open. She blinked a little blearily and, to her great surprise, was greeted with a pair of legs directly in front of her. A little green head peeked out from behind them.
She screamed and flinched backwards when she saw Mando and The Child standing in front of her. "Maker's sake, you could've given some kind of indication you were standing there!"
"It shouldn't be that easy to sneak up on you." The modulated voice almost taunted her. "What were you doing?"
Larena huffed. "I was practicing."
"What were you practicing?"
"Focus." Her tone was clipped. She was annoyed.
Larena could hear his breathing through the helmet and it unnerved her. She pushed herself off the floor and stretched her legs.
"I got what you asked for."
She nodded and took the sack he held out to her. She looked through it, smiling at the contents. "This should be good for a while. Depending on how often we have to make use of it."
The stood in silence for a moment before Mando sighed and began to load himself down with weapons of all sorts.
"I have a job. Watch the kid until I get back." Mando told her "There's weapons down the ladder, use them if you need them. Don't let anyone in the ship that's not in here now."
Larena's eyes widened. "I-I'm a Healer, not a fighter."
"You have to be both," he told her seriously. "If someone comes in here they don't leave alive. Understand?"
Larena swallowed down her reply and gave a short nod. "Understood."
"Good." He checked his blaster and rifle he strapped across his back. "I'll be back before sunrise."
Larena grabbed the kid off the floor and held him tight to her chest, watching as the ramp on the ship closed, sealing them both into for the next few hours.
"Well, what do you say, little guy, wanna get something to eat?" The baby cooed and waved his arms at her suggestion. "Alright then, lets go see what we've got."
After they ate and she wiped his little face down, because Maker did he get messy when he ate, they sat on the floor together playing. Larena decided she could both train and play until Mando got back so she got the bolt and clapped her hands to get the baby's attention.
"Watch this, kiddo. You're gonna love it." She closed her eyes, concentrating her focus onto the little piece of metal, and smiled when she heard the baby cooing at her.
She began to sing her mother's song and, by their own accord, her eyes opened up.
The baby was looking at her in wonder before he too closed his eyes and held out his little hand. What little focus Larena had managed to hold on to left her when the bolt was torn from her grasp and into his own.
Her eyes widened and her jaw went slack, the lyrics of the song dead on her tongue. "Whoa, you can do it too?"
The baby let his hand fall to his side and opened his eyes, offering a toothy smile.
"Want to play a game?" She asked excitedly The baby cooed. "I'll pass it to you, you pass it to me. Okay?"
She concentrated on the bolt, tossing it toward him with the flick of her hand.
The baby laughed and caught it mid-air in his mental grip, then threw it back to her.
They played this way for a while, back and forth the bolt went, until the baby suddenly yawned loudly, his green face scrunched up. He held his arms out to her and she made her way toward him, picking up off the ground and placing him gently in his cradle.
"I'm glad you're here, too, little guy," she told him softly, trailing her pointer finger down his nose. "You make me feel less alone."
The baby babbled sleepily and, within a few minutes of her talking to him, he was out.
Larena sighed and rubbed her finger over his little nose one last time. "Sleep tight."
Time passed slowly as she waited for Mando to get back. Her energy dwindled little by little and soon she found herself fighting the sleep that threatened to claim her.
She'd taken to aiming down the sights of one of the blasters he'd left on the ship for her. She closed one of her eyes, shivering at the heavy feel of it in her palm. She didn't like weapons - detested them in a way, but she knew his way of life was dangerous. It was only sensible that she got comfortable with them. She sighed and let the blaster rest by her hand on the ground as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes - the kid was asleep and surely she'd hear someone open the hatch. Right?
She drifted in and out of sleep for a little bit, but was jolted awake by the sound of grunting coming from outside the ship. She jumped to her feet, the blaster shaking between both of her unsteady hands when she heard a pounding on the side of the ship.
She gripped the blaster tightly, her eyes closed. "W-Who is it?"
"It's me, open up."
Larena sighed and rushed over to the panel and pressed the button he'd showed her when they'd entered the ship the first day. She watched as the ramp lowered slowly, revealing to her a stumbling Mando dragging a body behind him.
"I-Is he dead?"
The Mandalorian shook his head wordlessly and continued into the ship where he threw the body into what looked like a wall of stone. She flinched when the body's imprint showed through on the back of the wall. "He's not dead."
The woman let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She ran her hand over her face, her exhaustion catching up to her, and then turned back to the Mandalorian. She watched as he swayed slightly. "Are you okay?"
"Fine." He grunted out. "Just got clipped."
Larena's brows pulled down. "Let me see, I can heal you."
"I'm fine," he said again, limping toward the cockpit. "I just need to cauterize it."
"This is what I'm here for," Larena argued hotly. "Let me do my job."
Mando sighed and nodded, leaning up against the side of the ship. "Okay."
"Here?" Mando nodded and removed the upper parts of his armor, groaning when his left arm moved to unclasp it. "Do you want me to..."
Mando grunted. "I can do it."
Larena nodded and went to get the medpack while he worked. She got back before he was done and waited patiently for him to drop his armor to the floor and raise his shirt. She gasped when she saw the gash on his side, bleeding profusely down his torso. Her hand reached out on its own accord and touched the puckered skin around it, wincing when he jerked with a groan.
"Mando," she whispered. She pushed him gently down onto the floor and he relented, laying back when she pushed his shoulder just a bit more. "I'm gonna disinfect it first and then I'll get started, okay?"
He grunted softly, but allowed her to do what she needed to. He watched her grab an antiseptic towel wipe her hands on it, and then another, he guessed to clean his side with.
"I'll be as gentle as I can," she told him. She wiped at the blood that had dried to his skin first, rubbing it lightly and exposing the copper colored skin below it. She then moved to the gash itself, wincing when she saw him visibly flinch as she brought the towel over the gash. "Sorry."
He said nothing and she continued her work, wincing with his every subtle movement. Pity filled her chest and she defaulted into doing the only thing that made her feel better as a child.
She sang.
Her voice echoed off the walls, filling the small space with a harmony he'd heard her sing only hours before when he found her practicing. He relaxed slightly under her ministrations and she felt herself smile a bit. It seemed to hold a calming quality for him as well. She sprayed a bit of bacta onto the gash, just enough to take the edge off, and then pressed her palm gently over it, concentrating with all her might. She saw, in her mind's eye, the gash knitting itself back together, the skin smoothing over into a just a whisper of what it was.
She heard his breathing even out and opened her eyes, smiling down at the clean, barely there scratch that was much worse only seconds before.
"Y'alright?" She breathed, her body feeling weightless. Her eyelids felt heavy and she teetered forward slightly.
The Mandalorian was still in pain, but just a fraction of what he'd felt before. He watched her blink once, then twice, and then fall backwards with a thud.