19.

Din woke. The world around him slowly came into focus through the digital scanner of his helmet. The Armorer stood at her forge, the blue flames bright and hot as she refined the salvaged beskar. He rolled to his knees grunting through the weight of his armor and the pain in his wrists still cuffed behind his back. He bowed his head, taking slow, deep breaths. If Paz found Nevrin then she was already dead and he was sure to follow.

He silently repeated the Resol'nare. He wore his armor, he spoke Mando'a, his children would be raised as warriors and when the time came they would protect their Clan and answer the Mand'alor when called upon. He was hunter and hunted. No one had seen his face and no one ever would. He could take a riduur- a wife; whether she was dar'manda or not wouldn't matter once she bore his child. He had not broken his oath.

He was Mandalorian. He would die with honor. Tonight, if that's what the Armorer decided.

"Did you find anything?" The Armorer set her hammer aside. Din looked over his shoulder watching as Paz returned.

"I found this, " he replied, handing her a small jar.

Her helmet tilted as she read the small, flowery writing on the side of the jar, "Aura blossoms?"

Din sighed. "I like the smell."

Paz crossed his arms over his chest with a disappointed sigh , "There's a meatsicle in the hold. Other than that the ship is empty."

Meatsicle? Din thought frantically. There were no bounties in the hold...he forced himself to remain calm. He kept his head down and shoulders relaxed, he'd give them nothing more to be suspicious of.

"Well, then it seems as though Din Djarin has told us the truth." Her helmet bobbed once and Paz cursed under his breath. The stuncuffs popped off his wrists and Din grimaced at the sudden painful tingling as his limbs regained feeling. He stayed on his knees, head bowed waiting for her final verdict. "Do you wish to keep the beskar as your payment? There is enough here to forge a new chestplate." There would be no further apology than that. Suspicion and paranoia had kept them safe in their dark, underground caverns. This was simply a test of his loyalty and he had passed.

"No. It's for the Foundlings. I only ask to keep the credits from the bounty I have yet to turn in. My ship is in need of repairs, " he replied.

Paz chuckled darkly as he turned towards Din. "I doubt that bitch in cold storage will pay enough to get your ship off the ground again."

Din stared at the stone floor, hands clenched at his sides. "May I return to my ship?"

The Armorer crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at him. "No." She answered. "Your armor is dented and filthy. It appears you have forgotten what an honor it is to carry the history of Mandalore with you." He looked down at the armor he had meant so many times to polish and repaint. "You will stay here until the next lunar cycle. Time with the Tribe will do you well." With her verdict handed down and Din's penance ordered she turned back to her forge.

He stood slowly, fists still clenched at his side and tilted his head in deference. One lunar cycle. He had spent ten years in his solitary existence. He could wait another three months. And Nevrin had survived worse for longer.

Din left the warmth of the forge and headed for the dark privacy of his quarters. His feet followed the path out of memory while his mind was occupied by other matters.

"Where do you think you're going?" Paz again came drifting out of the shadows to stand in his path.

Din sighed, "To my quarters, Vizla."

Paz laughed, the sound escaping his vocoder as heavy wheezes. "Your quarters were reassigned to Khanen. I'm sure you'll find a bunk in the barracks."

Din grit his teeth and pivoted down an adjacent tunnel. He wouldn't give Paz the satisfaction of winning another round tonight. He'd rest, lick his wounds and wait for the other man to swing first.

It didn't take long for Paz to instigate another scuffle.

Din beat Vizla to the chow line the following morning. It was petty he knew it and he knew he should be above such things as a Mandalorian, but he took the last cloudberry flavored ration bar anyways.

"Who the hell took the cloudberry?" Paz angrily dumped the crate of rations over. "We aren't getting another shipment of that flavor until next season…"

Din slipped his helmet up just enough to shove the last bite of the chewy, sweet food supplement into his mouth and tossed the wadded wrapper at Paz's broad chest. He caught the wrapper and straightened it as much as he could in his beefy hands. "Everyone knows that's my favorite flavor." He muttered sullenly.

The fight lasted quite a bit longer without the Armorers interference. Paz charged forward like a crazed mudhorn, his huge bulk carrying him forward across the dirt floor. Din dodged him again, letting the other man slide past him and landing a hard kick to his unprotected back this time. Paz lost his balance, caught by the weight of his armor and falling face first into the floor. Din pounced on his back, pinning Paz to the floor and before the other man could recover slammed his helmet into the ground. The big man tried bucking Din off but he held tight and slammed him down again. On the third strike of Paz's helmet against the floor Din heard the sharp crack of the glass visor. The fight left the Heavy Armor Mando'ade as he blacked out.

Yes, it was petty. But it also felt damn good to knock Paz on his ass once in a while.

Three months passed beneath the surface of Nevarro. Din was assigned to assist with training sessions. He spent the days with the Foundlings teaching them how to shoot blasters and the evenings in the arena with the Apprentices. He was a glorified punching bag, grunting corrections at them as they honed their hand to hand combat. During the nights he lay awake on his bunk in the barracks, hating the cold empty space next to him.

On the night of the new lunar cycle he left the Covert. "Mando as I live and breathe! I feared my best Bounty Hunter had joined the stars." Greef Karga greeted him like an old friend. He even stood for the Mandalorian, grasping his forearm for a quick shake.

"Not yet, Karga." Din replied. "Do you have any pucks?"

Karga laughed, "Man about business as usual." He reached into his cloak and dropped a handful of bounty pucks onto the table. "Have your pick, Mando, I've got murders, poachers, embezzled. Business is booming."

"I'll take them all." Din replied, scooping up the pucks. He left the cantina with a sense of dread that grew heavier with every step closer to the shipyard. The Crest was where he had left her, looking no worse than when he landed. A couple of repair droids tettered between ships, dragging long fuel lines behind them. He lowered the ramp from the commands on his wristcom expecting to hear the usual squeal of old hinges and was surprised as the ramp descended silently.

"Hail, Mando!" Davenk called jogging out from his garage.

Din stopped halfway up the ramp to peer down and the mechanic. "Hail, Davenk. How much do I owe you for the fuel and storage?"

"300 credits should make us about even, " he replied, "but the repairs to your ramp and the engine flanges were a bit more costly since I did them myself. No droids like you say."

"The ramp and engine flanges…" he trailed off quietly remembering the cold words Paz had said about his ship and his bounty. "How much?"

"Ah…2000 credits. Your ship, she is very old, it's difficult to find the correct parts." Davenk said apologetically.

Din closed his eyes beneath his helmet and sighed. "Can I…put it on my tab? I'll pay it off by month's end. I swear."

Davenk's double lipped face broke into a large smile. "Of course, of course Mando! I know you're good for it. May the stars guide you!"

Din nodded, "Thank you, Davenk." The hatch sealed behind him and he surveyed the damage to the interior of his ship with dismay. Paz had torn through everything during his search. His favorite mug lay in shards. His futon was split down the middle, its matted filling thrown across the floor. His eyes darted to the cargo hold but he ignored the urge to check down there until they were off Nevarro. He was relieved to see the cockpit mostly intact besides the laser targeting system which still sat disassembled on the floor. The engines roared to life, the vital systems all shone green and primed as he readied the ship for take off. He picked a puck at random and inserted it into the nav system. Only when the autograv kicked in and he knew Nevarro was light years behind them did he descend into the dark cargo hold.

"Dank farrik," He growled angrily at the crystal shards that used to be lilies from Crann-Bethadh. The carbonite slab imprisoning Nevrin lay face down next to the freezing chamber. He carefully flipped the heavy block, checking that the carbonite hadn't been damaged by Paz. A deep, relieved breath hissed out of his helmet seeing that her biometrics were steady. With the push of a button the carbonite burned deep orange then melted away in a cloud of sizzling steam.

Nev sputtered and coughed to life in the puddle of melted carbonite. "I…I can explain-" she held her hands out in front of her defensively.

"It's alright, cyar'ika, it's alright." Din pushed her damp, tangled hair out of her face.

She turned her face towards his hand, trying to blink the carbonite out of her eyes, "Krif…I can't see." She shuddered uncontrollably, her whole body trembling on the cold floor as she pressed her palms into her eyes. "Din, I can't fucking see."

He helped her sit up and she coughed harder, grimacing as she spat up a mouthful of the foul liquid. "It's carbonite sickness. It'll pass." He reassured her.

"And if it doesn't?" she turned her blind, bloodshot grey eyes towards him. "What if it doesn't? What if I'm blind forever?"

He helped her to her feet, pulling her close to his chest when her trembling intensified so bad that her teeth clacked together. "Then we won't need the blindfold anymore."

She laughed then coughed again against his armor. "How long was I frozen?"

Din sighed, running his hands up and down the wet clothes that clung to her back, "A lunar cycle."

"A lunar...Gods, what happened, Wookiee? Did they hurt you?"

"No. Just Vizla stirring up trouble. They won't question my loyalty again." She made a skeptical noise under her breath. "Come on, you need to get out of those clothes and eat something."

"Where are we going?" she asked later after a hot shower and more reassurances that they weren't in any further danger. She looked blindly at his chin, her fingers tracing the edge of his face as they lay with their bodies wrapped together in Nev's pod.

He hadn't bothered with the blindfold or turning the lights out when he removed his helmet and fucked her with abandon against the shower wall and again in the small space of her sleep pod. Three months of worry working its way out of his body as he held her. He stared into her eyes, truly seeing them for the first time, surprised to see the flecks of blue hidden in the stormy grey that the optical scanner in his visor never picked up.

"I've got a couple bounties on Tatooine."

She exhaled through her nose, "More desert."

The bounties on Tatooine took nearly a week to round up. Din found her a room at an inn while he completed his jobs, ensuring that her meals would be delivered and she would be safe while they waited for her to heal. Her vision did eventually recover while he was away and she had to stop Din from removing his helmet the moment he returned.

After that they bounced between bounty jobs in the outer rim and Nevarro. Nevrin accompanied Din sometimes to take down a particularly nasty or tricky quarry. Other times she would stay at the ship trying to keep up with repairs. Both of them were happy and content with their life. They waited patiently for the universe to give them a child. Din learned the signs that their practice sessions hadn't taken root by the way she would rub the cramps in her belly or go to town for supplies instead of on a hunt. They continued that way for months: work, repairs, practice, sleep. It was almost routine. If tracking, catching and sometimes killing criminals for enough credits to hustle to the next job could be considered routine.

Then a puck took them to the small, sparsely populated planet of Sorgan. The job had the potential to be rather hazardous. A group of klatoonian raiders had attacked a spotchka brewery and pissed off the Distillery Alliance. The raiders' hideout was hidden somewhere several kilometers into a deep forest.

"It's nice here. Don't you think?" Nev asked as they followed the tracker towards their quarries.

"Yeah, sure besides the swamp…" Din replied sourly. They had been walking for close to two hours, he hadn't been able to land the ship any closer due to the dense forest that seemed to be endless.

"The swamp wasn't that bad. There weren't even any crocodiles in it."

"Aren't we lucky?"

Nev sighed, "Give me the bag, Din." She skipped ahead of him stopping him in his path.

"Nevrin, we haven't got time for this."

She threw her hands out and spun in a little circle. "We've got nothing but time. And your back hurts, I can tell by the way you're walking. So…" she wiggled her fingers in a 'gimme me' motion.

He sighed, "You can carry the rifle. The bag's too heavy."

"I know exactly how heavy the bag is. I packed it."

"Quit arguing." Din grumbled handing over the rifle. Even with the loss of only a few pounds his back felt better.

Nev slung the sniper rifle over her shoulder. "It's nice here though, isn't it. Nice and cool, probably rains a lot." She ran her hand through a giant fern as they walked past. "I bet you could just throw seeds on the ground and they'd take root." She mused quietly.

"We're getting close." Din said checking the coordinates on his tracking fob.

The klatoonians' ragtag hideout, little more than decrepit lean-to's and rusty speederbikes, appeared in a gully clear of trees. They crawled to the edge of a steep embankment and looked down. A few of the raiders were passed out on the ground evidently having enjoyed their stolen spotchka. Nev used her binos to survey the camp, while Din used his thermal imaging to count the raiders not passed out on the ground. "There's at least another dozen inside the buildings."

"We got another problem." Nev pointed to a patch of trees behind the lean-to's. Din followed her line of sight and let out a string of colorful curses. "If we go in blasters blazing and they counter with that AT-ST we're deader than a Shadda-Bi-Boran."

Din sighed, dipping his helmet as he thought. "I'll draw their fire. You make sure that thing is deactivated."

Nev dropped her binos to look at him. "How about I disable that thing and create a distraction and then you pick 'em off while I circle back."

"What are you going to do?"

She smiled as she stood up brushing the dried leaves off her pants. "I'm gonna blow something up."

He didn't have to tell her to be careful. She knew by the tilt of his helmet and the way he stiffly rolled his shoulders as he loaded the rifle. He wasn't happy but her plan was better. He watched as she silently made her way down the little hill into the encampment. The drunk thieves snored contentedly, completely unaware of the hellfire and disintegration rounds about to rain down on them.

She snuck around the perimeter of the camp, weaving between bushes and trees. Her feet were silent on the pine needle covered ground as she made her way to the AT-ST. Its hulking cold grey form stood inert between two towering pine trees. Din watched as she aimed her magnetic grappling hook straight up between it's five meter tall legs and fired. The metallic clang as the hook attached to the bottom of the drive engine frightened a flock of nesting ravens causing them to fly off with a chorus of disgruntled caws. One of the sleeping raiders sat up blearily peering around the camp.

Din silently counted to 3, his eyes darting between the klatooinian and Nevrin still exposed beneath the AT-ST. The thief burped loudly, patted the ground around him before finding his half buried flagon and drained it of its contents. He bubbled up another burp and passed back out. Din let out a long breath, relaxing his finger off the trigger of his rifle.

Nev activated her hook and shot up towards the base of the AT-ST. She scrambled up and over the drive engine then up onto the top of the machine. There she struggled for several tense seconds with the heavy ingress hatch before finally hefting it open. Din watched as she plucked two detonators off her belt and dropped them through the hatch.

As a Mandalorian, he knew he should be immune to distractions like physical attraction. Nevertheless, he wasn't. Watching as Nev fearlessly jumped off the war machine and swung gracefully back to the ground ten meters below was very distracting. A distraction that was growing firm between his legs like he was a sixteen year old apprentice with no self control. Nevrin tucked her grappling gun away and sprinted back towards the cover of trees. Din watched as she paused there for a moment, peering through the leaves of a giant fern. "Nevrin, get back up here." Din ordered through the comlink.

"In a minute, Wookiee."

"No. Now. I want to get back to the ship before dark." He modulated voice ringing with annoyance. The only response was a staticky click as she turned off her com. Din cursed under his breath as she stepped out from behind the fern. The sunlight shining off her silvery hair like a goddamn blaster target as she crouched low and bolted towards one of the rusting speeder bikes. She stuck another detonator on the bike then stood up, surveying the camp without an ounce of caution. She strolled to the nearest inebriated pirate, crouched down and ran a finger along the bumps and ridges of the mans face. "Maker be damned, you aren't going to sit right for a week." He promised the dead com. She snatched a final explosive off her belt and placed it gently on the man's forehead. He snorted in his sleep causing the detonator to wobble.

Nev stood up brushing her hands off dramatically before jogging away into the foliage. Her com clicked back on a second later and Din wasted no time reprimanding her. "What in the hell do you think you're doing?" he growled.

"Creating a distraction, Mando." She replied in Mando'a. He could imagine the dangerous smile pulling at the corners of her lips without having to see her face. She hadn't returned to his side yet, hiding somewhere in the trees below to create a deadly crossfire their bounties would have no chance of escaping. "On the count of three...hey, we don't need to bring all these bodies back with us to get the credits right?"

"Visual confirmation is enough. My visor is recording the encounter. I'll forward it to the Distillery Alliance and they'll pay us." He replied matter of factly.

Nev was silent for a beat. "Does your visor always record?"

"No," Din paused, smiling beneath his helmet, "Not always." He didn't elaborate further.

Nev replied with a high-pitched 'hmm' into the com. "Well...just make sure you send them the correct file then."

The drunk she had placed the detonator woke himself up with a particularly loud snort. "1." Nev counted.

He blinked stupidly for a moment as the deadly little ball rolled down the ridges and wrinkles on his face before landing in his lap. It took several long seconds before he noticed the blinking red orb. "2." She continued. Din adjusted his elbows, making sure the rifle was balanced. He had a row of rounds set up in front of him for easy reloading.

The soon to be dead man held it up to his face trying to blink the alcohol induced confusion away. His eyes widened in dreadful comprehension. "That would be 3," Nev sang over the comlink.

The klatooinian evaporated in a brilliant orange fireball the next instant. The AT-ST followed, taking one of the giant trees with it, flying metal and wood shrapnel rained down on the camp, completely obliterating one of the shacks. The doors on the remaining shacks were thrown open as the other raiders stumbled out into the open. From there, the camp quickly broke down into chaotic screams and shouted commands as one by one they disintegrated with loud 'pops' as Din sniped them. Those that attempted to escape were shot down by Nev's blaster fire.

The whole thing was over in less than a minute.

Nev picked her way through the destruction as Din finished recording evidence of the jobs completion. "Found a couple hundred credits and some Bothan gin!" She called happily as she dug through the debris of one of the shacks.

Din pushed a button on his vambrace ending the recording. "I hate gin."

"Hate's a strong word for a Mandalorian." Nev said, unscrewing the cap and taking a swallow of the herbaly liquor, "What crawled up your beskar?"

"You acted foolishly." He told her.

"Foolishly? You sound like a kriffing guardian." She retorted, tucking the bottle of liquor in her bag.

"Taking that risk…" he paused, his fists clenched at his side, " to touch him."

She had to bite her lip to keep from smiling. "Jealous, Mando?" She asked, her voice dripping with feigned innocence.

Her grey eyes sparkled with trouble as he loomed over her, his armor pressing into her as he grabbed her ass and pulled her towards him. "Did you like it? Touching him. Seeing his face."

"Yes. I liked it so much I blew him up," she smiled up at him. He squeezed harder, making her jump up on her toes trying to ease the grip of his fingers. "I just wanted to…compare-" She ran her fingers down the smooth edge of the Beskar. She knew the angles and planes of the face he hid underneath. Seeing him through the touch of her fingers: the worry lines he carried on his forehead even while he slept, the strong straight ridge of his nose, his soft but always a little chapped full lips.

"And?" He asked tilting his helmet to look down at her.

She shrugged one shoulder letting her hand drop away from his helmet, "I guess you aren't a klatooinian." A sharp 'hmph' escaped his helmet. His hands didn't stop their harsh kneading, keeping her up on her toes and pressed against him. "Whatever you're thinking, the answer is no. Not until we get back to the ship."

"It's a long walk." His voice low with an air of persuasion as one hand left her ass and slid up under her tunic to repeat the kneading and massaging on one of her breasts.

She cocked a sliver eyebrow and surveyed the still burning wreckage scattered around them. "There are bugs. And dirt everywhere. And bugs…" Nev replied, removing his hand. She drew the line at bugs. "But I bet I can get that Joben up and running. And then when we're back at the Crest and behind the perimeter that keeps the creepy-crawlies out-" she stepped towards the rusty speeder bike, "-we can do anything you want."

"Anything?" He repeated as she straddled the bike and stomped on the engine booster. The bike gurgled out a pathetic whine then died. Nev's forehead creased with annoyance, she hadn't really thought it would be that easy but she had hoped.

She knelt beside the bike, pulled off the battery casing and sorted through the wires before finding the colors she wanted. "Anything, " she confirmed, taking a knife out of her boot and stripping the casings off the wires. She brushed the wire fibers together a few times until they sparked and the bike growled to life. It's antigrav booster kicked on and the bike hovered a foot off the ground.

"We can go to town later. If you want…" he offered.

Nev looked up at him and smiled, "Yeah. Actually some real food sounds amazing. I think the replicator's on the fritz. Everything tastes like Gungan cabbage."

"I like Gungan cabbage, " he replied, swinging one armor covered leg over the bike.

Nev climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Gods you are such a Wookiee." She muttered burying her face in his cape.

Later, after the anything, Din kept his promise and they walked to the little village they had flown over while searching for a place to land the Crest. The sun was setting, casting the tall trees in a beautiful show of purples and oranges. Nev frequently commented on some large plant or blossom that caught her eye. She always felt most at peace when surrounded by green and growing things. The loss of the crystal lilies had been painful, not that she had known what she going to do with them. But the thought that the flowers might have been the last of their kind just as she was had cut deep.

"Back to Nevarro In the morning ?"

"Yes. For a few days at least." Din replied as the first stone buildings of the village came into view. She nodded. This was part of the routine also, Din returning to the Covert while she stayed on the ship doing internal maintenance and repairs.

The sound of laughing children and the low babble of conversations flitted through the evening air as they walked. The light of the setting sun refracted off a garden in front of a quaint little cabin. The prismatic light caught her attention and she drifted away from Din's side. He continued on for several paces before realizing she was gone.

He found her standing in front of a low wooden fence staring down at a garden of impossible flowers. Living crystals grew and twisted out of the ground in the forms of dozens of kinds of flowers and ferns. Nev looked up at him wordlessly, her grey eyes wide with wonder. The front door of the cabin opened and a woman stepped out. "Orla, ùine airson tighinn dhachaigh!" she called out. Nev took Din's hand, squeezing it tightly like she might lose her grip on gravity. The woman finally noticed the two strangers standing at her gate, she swept her silver hair over one shoulder and called out to them. The language, buried and all but forgotten in Nev's memories, was lost to her.

"I'm sorry...we didn't mean to startle you, " Nev replied in Basic, "We're looking for...for a cantina or somewhere we can get something to eat."

The woman relaxed as a young girl with silver hair bounded through the gate and inside. "We don't have a cantina but there's a bistro in the square. Just up the next street."

"Um...Tapadh... least, " Thank you. Nev replied haltingly as memories of her mother's patient voice switching between Basic and her native language drifted up from the recesses of her childhood . The woman nodded before retreating into her home.

They followed the woman's directions, passing more villagers bearing the same resemblance as her. Silver hair and grey eyes. Men and women of all ages, some of them as pale and Nevrin. Others obviously from different parts of Crann-Bethadh then her own mother and unknown father had been. Their skin and the texture of their hair different but still similar enough to know they were the same people. Children played along the streets, some of them with only silvery streaks in their hair or pale blue-grey eyes. And Nevrin openly stared at all of them. She felt a pang of sorrow for her mother who had died believing they were the lone survivors from her home world.

Din held her hand through it all, Mandalorian stoicism set aside for the moment while she processed everything around her. "Did you know?" she asked once they found a quiet alcove in the bistro. "Did you know this place was here?"

"I heard a rumor from a trader on Pantora…I've been trying to find an excuse to come all the way out here, " he replied.

Nev smiled, "Well I guess a gang of spotchka stealing pirates is as good an excuse as any."

She didn't ask to return to the village before they left the following morning. Instead she sat in her usual spot and stared out of the canopy as the village and then the green planet of Sorgan disappeared.

Months passed.

More bounties, close calls and injuries, expensive repairs to the ship...trips to Nevarro and occasionally the inner rim.

Routine.

Until Din noticed her sleeping in later and falling asleep earlier, sometimes propped up in her co-pilot's chair snoring like a Tuskan raider. He didn't worry until she skipped her trip for supplies and a hunt complaining that she felt ill. She was having trouble keeping anything substantial in her stomach and she didn't want to put him at risk if she couldn't keep up. The concern nagged at him while he was away, trekking through a series of craggy, mountainous fjords in search of a double murderer. When he returned to the Crest three days later, with the cold bounty over his shoulder, she was standing beside the replicator gingerly sipping down a bowl of broth.

"Are you ok?" Nev asked after he stowed the body in carbonate.

"Yes, " he replied. His voice tight through the vocoder. Something had occurred to him the night before, something so obvious that both of them had ignored it. "Are you?"

She nodded and sat on the edge of their sleep pod. "Yeah. I feel better...just exhausted. I don't know what's wrong with me." She slouched back on the mattress with a jaw-popping yawn.

"I might, " he replied, sitting next to her bent legs.

"Mmmhmm oh yeah? " she murmured sleepily, feeling the warmth of his bare hand as it slid under her shirt and rested on her abdomen. "I'm definitely not too exhausted for that-"

He tilted his helmet, testing the limits of his vitals scanner. All her readings were in the green. Then a momentary blip on her heart rhythm: from slow and steady while she fell asleep to a sharp fast sprint that came out of nowhere. An alarm dinged at the abnormality and he waited, eventually the tech in his helmet sorted through the data and gave him the answer he already expected.

Two life forms in one body.

"You're pregnant." His voice barely above an exhaled whisper through the modulator. As if he announced it too loudly the universe would snatch its gift away.

One stormy eye popped open as Nev glanced at him. "What did you say, Wookiee?"

Din licked his lips, he was suddenly parched, throat full of sand and grit. "You're pregnant, Nevrin."

Epilogue

"Cara, what in the hell did you do now? I just fixed this damn bike last week." Nevrin sighed at the retired Rebel shock trooper. Her shop was due to close in less than an hour. She had already spent all day repairing farm equipment and a rusted landspeeder. She was exhausted and starving and nauseous and Lyra had been fussy all day from teething... She just wanted to go home but standing in front of her smiling that 'its a funny story, really' smile was the woman brave enough to be her best friend.

Cara shrugged sheepishly, "It's a funny story, really-"

Fifty-five minutes later and a story that was actually pretty funny involving a slightly tipsy former Rebel soldier and an even tipsier turnip farmer deciding to drag race on the outskirts of town, the bike was working again. "You know, Cara, Alderanians are an endangered people. Maybe you shouldn't try killing yourself so often." Nev said, wiping her greasy hands on a shop towel before taking her wiggling toddler out of Cara's lap.

"Jeez, Nevi, I wouldn't have crashed if old man Mako's tractor hadn't blown a gasket."

Nev sighed and shook her head. "Why were you racing against a farmer and his tractor?" She jostled Lyra from one hip to the next searching for the shop's keys. Which was not as easy as it had been a few months prior before she started showing again.

"It was to defend my honor." Cara countered.

Nev laughed and set Lyra down. The little girl walked on chubby, wobbly legs as they made their way away from her mechanic garage and across the small field towards their home. The village of Glean Fodha, the new home of the children of Bethadh as well as a few dozen Alderanians and other refugees shone in the distance. Nev looked up at the sky, like she had every morning and evening for weeks, hoping to see the silver streak of the Razor Crest.

"When's he coming home?" Cara asked quietly.

Nev shook her head, running her hands protectively over the bump currently practicing somersaults inside her. "I don't know but I hope it's soon. I think this one's gonna be early." Din had been gone for months. He had made one holocall to let her know he accepted a job that paid in beskar ingots. Then nothing but silence. She lay awake most nights with her hand wrapped around the mythosaur charm around her neck. She could survive on her own, Cara alone could keep her in business, even with two little ones. But she didn't want to. She wanted her riduur back in the safety of their home, wanted his warmth in her bed, wanted to hear their daughter's laughter when he took his helmet off to make silly faces at her.

The birth of Lyra had changed something inside Din so quickly and so profoundly it was as if the Din Djarin she had grown up with had never existed. When the midwife placed their tiny, wrinkled baby on Nev's naked chest then left them alone with only a few words of age old wisdom Din had barely let the hatch on their home seal shut before he tore his helmet off.

Nevrin had been shocked silent for a long while as he kissed her, murmuring praises against her lips. Then he kissed his daughter's forehead and each of her ten fingers and toes. And held her like she was the most precious thing in the world. His deep amber eyes shone with pride and love and belonging. Nevrin had never, never come close to imagining how beautiful his eyes were, how beautiful he was under all that cold armor. The way his eyes crinkled around the edges when he smiled and whispered promises to the sleeping baby. The way every expressive emotion played out on his face, as easy to read as if his thoughts were visible in a little cloud above his head.

She wanted him home. Hell, at this point she just wanted another call to know he was ok. Nothing ever went as planned when beskar was involved.

She heard the beeps of the security perimeter dropping and the hiss of the hatch sliding open later that night while she was trying to get Lyra to bed. "Mar'e!" Finally. She murmured thankfully.

"Da! Da!" Lyra was already wiggling her way out of her blankets and trying to climb over the rails of her crib. Nev reached down and picked up the excited girl, who now would probably not go to sleep much before dawn.

"Cyare, are you ok? How did the bounty go?" she called out walking towards the main room of their home.

Din pulled his helmet off with a sigh, his wavy mahogany hair disheveled just the way she liked it. He had dark, exhausted circled under his eyes but he smiled brightly at the two girls and a bump that made everything else worth it. "I'm ok, prudii...just been a long trip." He took their daughter from her arms and ran his hand over the bump that hadn't been so big when he left. Then he made a ridiculous cross-eyed, puff-cheeked face that made Lyra squeal in high pitched laughter.

"What's in the package?" Nev asked nodding her chin at the floating egg-shaped parcel behind him. Din set Lyra down and she tottered her way towards one of the many piles of toys strewn about the home.

Din ran his hands through his hair. "I couldn't call...I had to make sure no one was tracking us…"

"Us?"

He pushed a button on the front of the parcel and the lid slid back. Nev sucked in a sharp surprised breath as the little green...thing inside sat up and peered around it's new environment. It's big brown eyes blinked away the last traces of sleep as it looked up at Din and cooed. "What...is it?" she asked.

Din shrugged and picked the thing up, rubbing his fingers along it's large pointy ears. The baby cooed again. "He's a Foundling...he's our Foundling."

Lyra toddled back towards them and pulled on Din's tattered cape. She looked up at her da with her dark thunder cloud eyes, a perfect swirling fusion of Nevrin and Din, and babbled excitedly at the strange little creature in his arms. "Lyra, this is your older brother Grogu." He said, setting the strange child down next to her.

"Older?" Nev repeated as her daughter and the green creature wandered away towards the colorful, noise-making toys.

Din gave her a lopsided smile, "The last few months have been very strange."

"I'll make some tea and you can tell me all about it, Wookiee."

Authors note

Thank you for sticking it out. Reviews are always welcome. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I went back and forth a lot about how to end this and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.