A/N- A thank you to new followers; this chapter is a smaller than normal and I couldn't resist the quote. Sued13

"Parting is such sweet sorrow." William Shakespeare.

#

Ryssa's Apartment

Coruscant

"Kal? I wasn't expecting you. Come in."

Kal followed Ryssa inside; it struck him again how much her accent sounded like Vau's, but with that upper class Coruscanti overtone.

"Caf?"

"You read my mind."

"GAR special brew?"

"Just as I like it."

He sat down on the settee, after she motioned him towards it; he pushed out his leg to relieve the nagging pain in his ankle. It had seized up again; it was getting worse and he really needed to have it sorted. He could afford it now. It was the time he couldn't afford. Always not enough time. Not for him, not for the clones. He flexed his ankle again; slowly the movement came back, with more pain. He looked around; the apartment looked bare. He realised she had packed some belongings away. He only had a few, mainly his armour and his weapons; it was all he had ever needed, especially after his divorce. He moved around a lot, at short notice.

"You alright?"

He looked up to see Ryssa offering him one of the steaming mugs and nodded; he fleetingly remembered how he had checked her out when his son had first mentioned her, enamoured from the outset, despite his normally cynical take on the galaxy. Kal would admit he was worried; it seemed to happen so fast. At that time he hadn't realised how far gone Darman was with Etain.

But they don't have a normal timeline. He reminded himself. And Mandalorians find their partners young. He had brought them up as Mandalorians first, Republic Soldiers second. It was the best he could do.

"I could have that ankle repaired in an afternoon; if only you had stayed still long enough for me to do that."

The settee sank slightly as she sat next to him. That time had past.

"I'll get it sorted." He would as well, he needed to be fit to do what he had in mind. He couldn't let his boys down by being an atin'la di'kut about his own health.

"I was hoping A'den would be back before…."

"He will. Mereel's picking him up now." He wouldn't let his son miss this.

He saw a slight quiver on her lip before she chewed on it. "There's still time for all this to go away, you know. You don't have to do this. Jaing can..."

"I want to be useful Kal. To the Clones. To men like A'den and …..Fi."

"Fi's doing better now."

"But it could so easily have gone the other way. And how many other times has it? How many were….terminated…reconditioned or whatever...because there was no one there who cared enough..." She felt his hand on her arm. "Even if I wasn't a Doctor, I'd want to do something more."

Shab! My Ad'ike certainly know how to pick them. Besany, Laseema even Etain; they're all good women.

"He's somewhere safe now." Kal saw the question in her expression on her face. "I'll tell you more soon." He hadn't thought out the final process yet but it would be on Mandalore that part was certain. He blew on the caf and took a drink.

"You know I come from Mandalore. And Jango Fett was Mandalorian; Mand'alor, in fact."

He watched her face, the frown, at the latter part about Jango.

"Jango was the Leader of the Mando'ade. That's what Mand'alor means. We don't actually have one at present."

"I thought that was the Duchess?"

"Pah!" He didn't want to get on the subject of the Kryze Clan. He took another drink.

"What do you actually know of Mandalore?"

"Not much—I thought a lot of it was barren. All the wars."

"Sundari, the new capital, was built by the pacifists, on an old Beskar mine; its in the middle of a desert. Dini'la." Ryssa had never seen Kal role his eyes before, "But parts of the North. The old towns. It's good land. Ya can make a life there; it'd be hard but ya could do it." Kal's accent was more pronounced and he was far away now, on Mandalore. He shook his head, bringing himself back to the conversation.

"Is that what you're planning Kal? If it is, don't tell me anymore. It's enough to know you have a plan for them. For the future."

"For you too, if you want." He was worried now, thinking he had misjudged her. He had his answer when she threw her arms around him.

"Just let me know when." She whispered.

"Good girl." He patted her back.

.

His brothers rearranged their rotation for A'den again, he owed them, especially Ordo, for organising it, Kom'rk and Prudii for taking the brunt of the work and Mereel for picking him up. He'd arrived at the apartment to find his Buir there. They got on well, he and Ryssa and he was thankful for that; he wouldn't be able to choose between them.

Kal pulled him into a hug, like he always did, before he left.

"Go out, enjoy yourselves." A'den caught the high value credit chip thrown in his directions.

The Outlander Club was packed to the seams but they were found a table. Skirata was a name that opened doors in certain parts, Ryssa had realised. The meal was more than fine but Ryssa hardly touched hers; the drinks were okay but could have been water. When the main act finished, Ryssa turned to him.

"Den, I don't want to be here." he understood. She clung to him as he piloted the speeder back to her Apartment, head plastered to his back; she wanted him all to herself, anyone else was an unwelcome intrusion.

Even home no longer felt like home; some of her belongings packed away.

She needed to shower; the smell of high class Spice lingered on her.

The water was hot, steam engulfed her, filling the whole room. Steam moved away from the door as he entered. He pulled her face up to him, wiped the water from her eyes and kissed each one finally resting his forehead against hers; moving to stand behind her, he lifted her damp hair and carefully massaged her favourite shampoo into it. Rinsing it gently, he found the conditioner.

"Yes. That's plenty." She answered as his hand appeared in front of her. She leaned against him as he smoothed her hair with the lotion, right through to the tips. She sighed as she felt his fingers pressing onto and around her skull in a rhythmic motion.

"Not too hard?"

"Perfect." She nearly groaned at the feeling. Finally he rinsed her hair.

"Better?"

"Hmm."

A'den dried her and wrapped her in her fluffiest dressing gown. She felt truly pampered.

.

They lay in each other's arms in bed as Coruscant's regulated nighttime ploughed on inexorably; A'den's hands stoking down her back, then returning, his calluses lightly scratching her skin. She pushed her face into his chest, his hairs scratching her cheek. He tilted her head back up to look up at him.

"Hey...I could still get you out of this, Cyar'ika, you could just leave, and go and stay...somewhere safe...with Fi."

"How? That would be deserting." Declared Ryssa. She was having none of that, not while he was still fighting.

He pulled her into a deep and passionate kiss; he finally pulled away. "Have I told you how proud I am of you?"

She stared at him; her mouth opened and closed quickly.

"You're going into the middle of a war, as a Baar'ur, now that takes some real guts." He explained.

"I've always been proud of you, cyare. Now stop talking." She returned his kiss, just as passionately, then she climbed onto him, looking into his eyes, holding his stare. She dropped her forehead to his. Her hands were braced on his chest; she tried to remember every single part of him. She slowly leant down and kissed him, her braid dropped down; he twitched his nose as it swept to and fro tickling him. A chuckle rose from him and she stopped moving against him, just watching his smile. She felt the stirring of arousal underneath her and moved again not taking her gaze from his eyes; she was not going to rush this. She had to remember every feeling, every nuance, everything, until they met again. They made slow, passionate love, to the brilliant night lights of Coruscant, savouring each precious moment, and then fell asleep in each other's arms.

Ryssa was first awake, showered and already packed by the time he woke; she had said her goodbyes to Laseema, Besany and the rest of the Aliit, who were on Coruscant at a small party a few nights ago. It had been emotional. She kept saying to herself it would only be for a few months but now she'd heard rumours that it was often extended and although it was risky, A'den was going to see her off, it was a reversal of their previous roles and she didn't even know where her first assignment was going to be yet.

A'den flew her to the Coruscant Destroyer Staging Area; it was next to the GAR barracks but given its size was not walkable. They stopped at the edge of the area where the 'Brassbound' Venator class Destroyer was docked and she turned into him, looking at his chest armour. He was going straight out on his own mission expected to last several months; neither of them would be in regular contact. They had got their encrypted, top spec com links so they could contact each other if necessary; it would not be often.

One last, lingering kiss, his hands either side of her face, "Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum. K'oyacyi!"

"Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum. K'oyacyi!" She echoed as they touched foreheads, she couldn't move her feet, they were blocks of durocrete. He pulled away first, tucking a strat strand of her hair behind her ear. His hand fell away.

Then she walked away. This felt the hardest thing she had done; the urge to rush back very nearly overwhelmed her but she had made this decision and she needed to go. She turned to look back, he was at the corner, a small barely noticeable wave and he was gone. Taking a deep breath, she walked onto the bottom of the massive troop ramp, stopping to look upwards, she couldn't actually see inside the Ship, taking another deep breath she wiped the tears from her cheeks; it wouldn't look good to be crying and she continued up into the belly of the ship.

.

A'den watched her walk up the ramp from his seat in the speeder, confident he was out of sight of prying eyes. He activated his comlink. The shimmering blue hologram of his brother popped up.

"Ner Vod...like the gloves?"

Two grey gloved hands appeared in front of him; A'den didn't feel the need to have trophies but the gloves satisfied something in Jaing's psyche.

"Very stylish."

"Aren't I always?"

"Of course."

"What do you want?"

"She's on the 'Brassbound'.

"I'll get onto it. Easy. You'll know where she is all the time, Ner Vod. Don't worry. K'oyacyi!"

The hologram disappeared.