Wahoo! I was wanting to do this story for awhile now. I have too many projects to keep track of. And another project is in the works. Someone slap me in the face please. *Grunts!* Thank you. Enjoy! Stay home, stay safe!

2 Men & a Baby

Ezra and Kanan had just finished up a training session, and were joining Zeb, Mira, Sabine, Rex, and Chopper in the Common room of the Ghost. They were practicing concentrating with the Force. "Let's end today's lesson by levitating Chopper."

Ezra was a little frustrated today, so, to take his frustration out on something, he asks, "If I do, can I drop him?"

The droid does a questioning grunt and looks at Kanan. With no hesitation, the Jedi teacher answers, "Sure." Chopper does a string of beeps and clicks signaling he is VERY unhappy with this turn of events.

Sabine, who was fine tuning some of her gear, looks at Chopper. Deciding to add to the young Jedi learner's frustration, she whispers to the droid, "Once he closes his eyes, lock it down."

Ezra looks towards the droid, and closes his eyes. He points his hand towards the droid and concentrates really hard on lifting up the droid. Chopper however, has already magnetized his feet to the floor. Ezra doesn't realize this yet, and is becoming increasingly frustrated. Even with Kanan's encouragement to focus, he still can't lift up the droid. Defeated, Ezra reluctantly says, "I can't."

Rex was watching the whole thing, and said, "Kid, when looking through the Force, make sure to look with your eyes. The droid's got his feet locked." Sabine and Chopper then burst into laughing fits. Even Mira laughs at this.

This only adds to his frustration. Looking at Kanan, he says, "Come on. That's not fair."

"Real battles usually aren't." Kanan can understand where Ezra is coming from. But he wants his student to understand that it takes discipline to continue through the unfair situations. Not in battles but in real life.

Rex interjects. "The Jedi I served combined the Force WITH his wits. And it made him a great warrior." Rex knows that it also takes discipline to endure everything life throws at you. Rex and Kanan just have different views on how or who should teach him.

"Ezra has PLENTY of wits. What he needs his more DISCIPLINE." Kanan really emphasizes discipline.

Rex feels pretty confident with himself right now. "Well, then you better let a SOLDIER take care of that." Hera walks in to the room just in time to see the 2 men at it again.

Before Kanan can speak again, Hera says, "Sabine, I have a mission for you and Chop. Thanks to Captain Rex, I found an old base where we might be able to salvage some much needed medical supplies. Zeb." The Lasat in question, who was currently holding Mira on his shoulder and playing some Holo Chess with Rex, looks up at the Twi-lek. "You should go too." Zeb sighs. He was actually enjoying holding Mira after their little adventure together when the others were away. Sabine still likes to reference it from time to time. It always puts him on edge.

"Here big guy. I'll take the little one." Rex says. He too, has actually grown fond of Mira.

Kanan takes the time to jab at Rex a little. "Better find the Med supplies quick. Captain Wits is about to need them."

After getting Mira comfortable in "Unka Wex" arms, Rex returns, "A-ha. So THERE'S where the boy's lack of discipline comes from."

Shocked and offended, Kanan says, "Wait, are you saying I lack discipline?" Everyone is pretty tired of the 2 men constantly fighting each other. Hera leaves to see if Sato has another mission. Everyone else preps for their assignments. Ezra needs a break, so he sneaks on board the Phantom with Zeb, Sabine, and Chopper.

"That's exactly what I said." Rex says. He can's get too mad at Kanan cause of the child in his arms.

"Funny, but a soldier's discipline doesn't compare to a Jedi's. It takes far more discipline not to fight."

"Oh, so you're gonna ask the Empire to lay down their weapons and give up?" Rex eyes. Mira can sense Rex's aggravation. She tries to calm him down, but Rex feels this. "What are you doing? Stop that." he tells the child in his arms.

"All I am saying is that Ezra has to learn to stay in the moment. Got it Ezra?" Kanan turns to look at his padawan, but doesn't see him. "Ezra?" He doesn't see him anywhere.

"Maybe you scared him off." Rex says with a grin. But he still feels frustration with the Jedi before him. Still sensing this, Mira tries again to calm him down. "Seriously kid, stop that."

Curious, Kanan asks, "What is she doing?"

"It's like she is trying to enter my mind or something. It feels like she is probing it." The clone is very uncomfortable with the thought of being mind probed. "Is she, like, strong with the Force?"

"Yes. I had my suspicions when they first joined our crew. It wasn't until a few months later, when Zeb, and Sabine, and Hera had an argument. They were all pretty angry with each other." Kanan explains. "Mira was apparently able to sense it. A few seconds with Mira in the room with them, and they were suddenly a lot less angry. Even Ezra was confused. The only logical conclusion I could make was that she is strong with the Force. It makes sense because her father is strong, and training to be a Jedi."

"Are you training her and her father at the same time?" Rex asks. His experience with Jedi was that those who did take on an apprentice were only allowed to have 1 student at a time.

"No. Her father wants her to make that choice when she is old enough. If you ask me, I think that's irresponsible." Kanan has a very strong opinion about this.

"How so?" Rex asks. He is thinking through several possibilities as to why Kanan might view this as irresponsible.

"Because, it is a Jedi's duty to pass on the knowledge that we have learned so that the Jedi can survive. If the Jedi are dead, there is no hope left in the galaxy."

Rex thinks he almost knows Kanan's endgame. But he can't be sure. To make his statement without enough evidence is like jumping out of a spaceship with no suit on. It's unthinkable.

Just then, Hera comes back. "I have a mission from Commander Sato. We are going to take an Imperial outpost and hopefully be able to steal some information from it."

"Great. Rex, looks like you have to watch the kid. Ezra doesn't like having strangers in the Rebellion watch her."

"Actually, this is not a mission for you Kanan. Or Rex. It's just for me. I wanted to let you know. And, I'm not going to be using the Ghost."

"So, it looks like we BOTH have the job to watch her." Rex says with a small chuckle. Rex hands Mira to Kanan. Before he can protest, the older gentleman says, "I need some food." After a few minutes later, he enters the common room, finding objects floating around the room. Mira is on the Chess table, and Kanan is smiling.

"She is easier to teach than Ezra." Kanan says. Rex realizes what is happening. He grabs Mira, and that causes the objects to fall down. Nothing breakable was floating.

"What are you DOING?" Rex is very angry at the other man. Setting Mira on the couch, he gets right up in Kanan's face. "Where you training her?"

Kanan gets right in Rex's face. "I was. She has so much potential. At this age, she could be ahead of Ezra if I was already training her."

Rex groans. "You said that Ezra said he wanted MIRA to make the choice to be a Jedi. Not him. Not you. HER!"

"What's the big deal? When she decides to be a Jedi, she will already have a little experience. It won't be starting from the ground up with Ezra."

"The big deal is that Ezra doesn't want you to train her. Maybe HE wanted train her. Maybe he was ALREADY training her. You don't know. But, he said that he wanted HER to choose." Rex is very upset right now.

"A little training now will go a long way in the future. She will already have a little knowledge."

Then the whole thing clicks for Rex. "So, you ARE trying to train her, just so that YOU can rebuild the Jedi Order." Rex is now convinced that this is Kanan's intentions. "You have already made it clear that you think Ezra is making the wrong choice in how he is raising his daughter. But we have to respect Ezra's decision. Even IF we don't agree." Rex goes to pick up Mira. She does not refuse. "If you need us, we will be in the kitchen." A few minutes later, Rex is making Mira some space waffles. The child in question was sitting at the table. Being over 2 years old means she can sit at the table with no high chair. And, she can eat solid food. Sensing Rex's frustration, she tries one more time to calm him down. Despite Rex being uncomfortable with the feeling of mind probing, the resulting calmness is welcomed. Setting a plate of waffles in front of her, he says, "Thanks kid."

Several minutes later, Kanan and Asoka enter the kitchen. "Alright Rex. Since you won't listen to me, Ahsoka will explain why it's important, especially now to train as many Force sensitive children as possible."

Looking at Kanan with a confused look, Ahsoka says, "You told me you needed me for something IMPORTANT. This seems like just another petty argument between you two."

"Just tell him." Kanan says.

"The reason why it's important to train young ones to be a Jedi is so that the Order can survive. Older ones with knowledge have a duty to pass on what they have learned so the next generation can have a chance to keep the peace. In this case today, defeat the Empire. Kanan, is this about Ezra? I thought he wanted to be a Jedi."

Rex explains, "It's not about Ezra, it's about Mira. I left her alone with Kanan for 2 minutes for a ration bar, and found Kanan training Mira. There were even objects around the room floating."

Ahsoka turns to the man who called her here. "You were training Mira? I though Ezra wanted her to make the choice for her self."

"He does. Kanan told me a few minutes ago." Rex says. The child in question was almost done with her plate of waffles. She is watching this with intrest, and she doesn't even know what they are talking about.

"When I first met Ezra and Mira, he told me she was Force sensitive. I asked if he was training her. He said he wanted her to make the choice for herself." Ahsoka explains. "Why are you training Mira if you know what he wants?"

"Because it's irresponsible!" Kanan loves his padawan, but his opinion is very strong. "The galaxy needs all the help it can get. If we train Mira now, she will already be ahead of the game. Ahsoka, you have more training than me. We both could train Ezra and Mira together. This gives the Jedi a fighting chance."

"Kanan, I am starting to think you want to train Mira just so you can rebuild the Order." Kanan frowns at Ahsoka's words. "The Order for now, is gone. We can't rebuild until the Empire is stopped. And a much as I would love to have a padawan of my own, Ezra decided he wants Mira to be a Jedi for herself. Not because she was raised as a Jedi. It's going to be hard enough raising her in the Rebellion. Constant fighting. Always on the run. We may not agree with Ezra's choice on this matter, but we have to respect it. And understand that he is raising her to make choices for herself. If we think he is wrong in not training Mira, we are questioning his abilities as a loving father."

"Hang on a second, I don't think Ezra is incapable of raising his own kid. It was irresponsible for him to have a kid at his age in the first place. But that doesn't-" Kanan gets interupted by Rex.

"It doesn't matter if we feel Ezra is being irresponsible or not. What has happened in his past has happened. He knows that. He has to live with the choices he made. All that matters is that he and Mira are here now. With us. And we are going to have different view points on how to raise a kid. But, Ezra is the one who will make the final choice when it comes to how he will raise his child. And WE have to support him. Like Ahsoka said, even IF we don't agree."

Kanan sits down at the table, frustrated that he lost this round. Especially that Ahsoka is not on his side.

Time jump.

Kanan was currently changing Mira's diaper. He did not like it. It smelled. Rex was watching with his nose plugged in. After the waffles, it was nasty. "Guess she shouldn't eat space waffles as a regular meal." Kanan agrees.

After their diaper exchange, Mira was super energetic. Rex and Kanan were chasing her around the Ghost. She currently found her way to the closet. She could sense the 2 men closing in on her. (She's 2. You can't expect a 2 year old to be a master at hid and seek.) Not wanting to be caught just yet, she found a vent she could crawl through. The 2 babysitters did not realize this, so they were shocked to find the closet empty. Rex spotted an opening in the back corner. He exits the closet and listens to the ship. He could hear small baby laughter and thudding in the vents above

"Oh, great." Kanan says.

"She's in the vents. We can get her out, so what's the problem?"

"Her father is an escape artist. His main way of escape is the vents. If she is like her father, she is going to give us a hard time finding her. You check the upper levels and I will check the bottom of the Ghost." It took them an hour to get Mira out of the vents. And the 2 men were constantly running and they almost had her, but they ended up crashing into each other. They would have gotten her out of there sooner, but they spent 20 minutes all together over whos fault it was that she got away. The 3 of them were wiped out. They took a nap, and after 30 minutes, Hera came in and found 2 men and a baby sleeping peacfully. The sound of the Phantom returning woke them up though. The 4 specters appear.

"Ezra, why did you run off?" Kanan says.

"No time. We found 2 more Inquisitors. Did you know that there were more?" Ezra asks.

" No. I didn't. How did you guys escape?"

"Zeb was the hero. He got us out. We would have been goners without him." Sabine explains.

"Well, I knew that my head would be cut off by Hera if I didn't bring back these 2. Chopper would have been a bonus."

The droid grunts, *What?! Grrr. Take this you purple pillow.* Zapping Zeb is the only satisfaction the droid can have right now.

"Enough, both of you. We need to report this to Commander Sato." Hera says. They got a little information that would help the Rebellion from the outpost. But not a whole lot. But it was better than nothing.

"Sorry for running off like that. How was Mira?" Ezra asks.

"She's fine. Look kid, I uh,.." Kanan was about to say he trained her, but Rex stops him.

"Actually, WE, kind of lost her in the vents. She may be a little tired because of that." Rex says.

Taking his daughter from Kanan, he looks at her and says, "That's my girl. Watch out Empire! You got another thing coming!" Ezra found out that Kanan started training Mira eventually. He was frustrated, but not really upset. Ezra was actually happy that his mentor told him the truth. Ezra was actually thinking of teaching her to develop mental sheilds.

Alright, I know that this may be a little bit of a dumb chapter, but I kind of thought it would be nice to see that while everyone loves Mira, not everyone agrees with Ezra's choices about raising her. Sorry if this isn't a good way to bring back the story. It will get better. I gotta take care of my other projects. Check them out if you want. Stay home, stay safe. See ya.