Chapter 2- The Decision

Cara groaned and her eyes fluttered open. It was dark and she tried to remember where she was. Not Nevarro like she had expected. She squinted and looked around harder. Suddenly pain shot through her chest and she bit back a groan.

Oh that's right… she was on Mando's ship. Well, at least she wasn't dead.

She moved her legs, trying to get up, and immediately regretted it. Grunting loudly, she noticed the light glint off Mando's armor and realized he was sleeping against the wall next to her, with the baby in his arm.

If she remembered correctly, she'd been in pretty bad shape. Maybe he was just making sure she didn't die.

Biting her lip hard, she sat up with a gargantuan effort. Panting, she suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe. She quickly realized why: there was a huge blaster burn on her chest.

"Dank Farrik," she gasped.

Trying to straighten her legs better so they didn't hurt so much proved extremely difficult. After a moment, she heaved her leg to the side and saw Din almost fall over as his weight shifted in response. He seemed to start awake.

"Cara, what are you doing? You shouldn't be moving." He said it quietly so he didn't wake the kid.

"I had a kink in my leg I needed to stretch," Cara shrugged, her panting betraying her pain.

"Sorry I don't have better painkiller," he said.

She laughed a little. "Well, we should probably fix that." She gasped for air. "I feel like my lungs are on fire."

"Probably the blaster burn. You need deeper treatment. Treatment I can't give you on my ship."

They were silent for a long moment, sitting next to each other against the wall, the child snoring happily.

"I totally kriffed this up," Cara commented.

His helmet turned to look at her. "I asked you to come."

"You did, didn't you," she agreed, shaking her head. "Last time I go on a mission with you."

She was only teasing, trying to make light of a difficult situation, but she could tell she'd hit home. He turned his head away.

"I should never have asked you to come," his voice said quietly.

Cara shifted uncomfortably as she tried to focus on her breathing. "Hey, Mando, it was my fault we got into this mess. My history with the spice cartel…" she paused, feeling the weight of it.

"We all have history we'd rather forget," Din commented.

Raising her eyebrows, she nodded. "Trax… that's the human with the brown hair… he's from Alderaan. After the war, we started running spice and became involved… romantically and otherwise. I'll probably never know what happened but something changed for him. One day we were blissfully running spice and the next day he was selling our shipment to the highest bidder and making it look like I lost it." She shook her head.

They were silent for a long moment.

"I've had romantic… entanglements I'd rather forget," Din said lightly.

She whipped her head around to look at him, the light shining on his helmet. She imagined she could almost see through the visor.

"Romantic entanglements huh?" she said, surprised. "I wouldn't have thought."

"There's a lot you don't know about Mandalorians."

"Yeah, well seeing as you're the only one I've ever met, that would make sense." She took a shaky breath and then started coughing. After a long moment of hacking, the attack passed.

"Dank Farrik," she muttered, leaning her head against the wall.

Mando was silent for a long moment. "You need treatment."

Raising her eyebrows in agreement, she closed her eyes. "Where are we going anyway?"

"Nevarro."

She cracked an eye open. "You're sure they're not going to follow us straight there? They know where I've been based. They know who you work for."

He shrugged. "Maybe they will. We'll find out when we get there."

Nodding, she closed her eyes again. "Wake me when there are better pain meds available."

She heard Mando laugh softly next to her.

oOoOoOoOoO

Din woke to the re-entry alarm warning him they had five minutes before exiting hyperspace. He roused himself and carefully rose, trying not to jostle Cara. The child stirred in his arms, cooed, and then stretched as Din walked to the closet they used as a bed.

He opened the door and put the child in his hammock. Curling in, he quickly closed his eyes again. Mando closed the closet door, glanced over at Cara's sleeping form, and then ascended the ladder to the cockpit.

Sighing, he hoped on the creed that they would be able to land on Nevarro. He knew he was taking a chance, but wasn't sure where else to turn that would have the necessary medical facilities. Whenever he needed more treatment, he always went to Nevarro and Greef was more than happy to help out.

Pressing a button that flashed, he watched the count down to re-entry. The timer went to zero and the lines turned to stars outside the view port. He quickly scanned the area with long range sensors.

Several ships surrounded the planet, but that wasn't surprising. He tried not to let his hackles rise. Calmly pressing buttons and keeping an eye on the sensors, he started the ship towards the planet.

Only a moment later, they were being shot at.

"Dank Farrik," Din swore as he quickly took the ship into a roll.

"Razor Crest, you are carrying a target, Cara Dune. Hand her over."

Din grunted and slapped the comms button. "Who is this?"

"This is the spice cartel. Hand over Cara Dune and we may spare your ship."

Growling, he cut the comm line and did a quick, hard roll to avoid the next salvo. Time to jump to hyperspace so they could come up with a better plan.

A moment later, the molten shroud of hyperspace covered his ship.

He sat there for a long moment, thinking through options. Cara needed treatment, soon. He guessed she would continue to deteriorate until she could no longer breath and then death would be swift. Since he had minimal medical training, he had no idea how long that would take but he didn't want to test it. They were also running low on fuel, which meant they had to dock somewhere soon or they would be stranded in the vastness of space.

Sorgan was a good option for hiding, but they didn't have the appropriate medical facilities to treat Cara. Tatooine was another good option, but he knew the spice cartel had a strong presence there and they'd never slip in unnoticed. He flicked through the list of planets in the outer rim where the spice cartel had no presence. It was a short list.

He knew what he had to do. It was the only option. He just hoped he wasn't killed for it. Laying in a new course, he quickly disengaged the hyperdrive and then re-engaged it on their new path.

oOoOoOoO

Cara groaned as she woke from her too-deep sleep. Her chest felt like it had a ton of bricks on it. Taking a ragged breath, she coughed hard. Ouch… kriff… no coughing.

Opening her eyes, she saw Mando sitting at the table with the kid, who was eating. Mando seemed to be looking at her.

He suddenly rose and walked over to her, kneeling next to her propped-up form.

"Dune?" he said, reaching a gloved hand out to touch her neck and face.

With effort, she opened her eyes fully and nodded slightly to him. "Yeah, here," she croaked.

He took his hand away with a visible sigh. "You need water." Rising to get it, he returned a moment later. He held it out to her.

"Can you drink?"

Cara squinted at the cup and then tried to rouse herself, reaching out for it. She managed several long drags, focusing on her breathing at the same time, trying not to cough.

"Where are we going?" she asked, her voice hoarse.

"Someplace safe," he assured her.

She snorted in response. Why was it he always refused to give more than two-word answers? Then she started coughing and coughed for a long moment, her body wracked with pain. Din knelt next to her, helpless.

When she stopped, he said, "You should change that bandage."

She looked down at it, nodding. He quickly moved to find another med pack and came back with another bandage. After she finished changing it, she closed her eyes, feeling the new medicine working. A few minutes later, the pain was much improved, though her breathing remained labored.

"You can sleep in the bunk if you want," Din motioned towards the closet where he and the kid slept. "It's more comfortable."

Cara gave him a half smile. "Thanks. Right now, I want to stay awake for a minute."

He nodded and stood. "We have about 12 hours before we arrive so, I was going to clean my armor."

"Does that mean you want me in the bunk?" she asked.

He considered a moment. "No. You can stay."

He walked to the table and began by taking off his gloves, laying them on the table. The kid didn't even look up from his soup so she figured he'd seen Mando remove his armor plenty of times before.

His skin was light brown, with dark hair apparent on his hands. She realized suddenly that she'd never even seen his skin before. Every inch of his body was usually covered.

Next came the vambrance, which he placed away from the child. Then he removed his pauldron, setting them aside and running his finger over the mudhorn image. Thigh plates and side panels came off next, followed by his weapons belt, which he hung on a high hook on the wall, out of the child's reach. The chest and back plates, Cara realized, were attached to some sort of vest, which he removed by opening one side and shoulder.

He seemed so much smaller without his armor. She looked at him for the first time without the protection of the beskar and felt the great honor of being allowed to view him this way. He was a warrior, and the creed had been hammered into his head from a young age by a warrior culture. She knew he didn't take this lightly. She wouldn't either.

She tried to take a deep breath, immediately realized that was a bad idea, and started coughing. Her body was wracked with shaking and convulsions from the force of her coughing. Several times, she tried to stop but her body wouldn't let her.

Din was there a moment later, when he realized she wasn't going to stop. He knelt next to her on the floor, one of his gloveless hands resting on her back. She barely realized it through the violence of her coughing. Blood was speckling her hands, coming out with each cough.

Din watched her, helpless, his presence reassuring but useless. Cara took a ragged breath and finally stopped coughing. She took a long moment to get her breathing back under control and then opened her eyes, turning to look at Din.

"I think I'm dying," she said softly, without any humor.

He nodded slightly. "You will die, if we don't get you treatment."

She suddenly noticed his hand on her back. It spread a warm, safe feeling through her chest.

"Would you be more comfortable without your armor?" he asked.

Cara shut her eyes for a brief moment as she breathed and then nodded lightly. "Sure."

He reached behind her shoulders for the clasps holding it in place and then helped her slip it off, leaving her black under shirt.

"Your leg is pretty kriffed up to," he commented. "If we take off the armor down there, the burns will be easier to get to."

Nodding carefully, she squeezed her eyes shut against the pain of removing her armor. Every movement, every twinge caused shooting pain up her leg from the multiple burns that littered her skin. She tried not to groan, but she couldn't help it. After the whole ordeal was over, she noticed the kid was standing next to her, his big eyes worried.

She gave him a tight smile. "Hey kid."

Din looked at him, curious if he would be able to heal Cara.

"Mawr?" He seemed to ask a question.

"Don't worry, we're going someplace safe. Or so he says," she moved her eyes to Din, waiting for him to expound. He didn't. Only started unwrapping new bandages for her leg.

The child came up to Cara then, crawling onto her lap and placing his hands on her chest. She tried not to groan at the extra weight. She felt her chest start tingling and then burning and then fill with shooting pain. Squeezing her eyes shut, she gritted her teeth. Then, as quick as it started, it was over.

"Ga?" The kid reached up to touch her face with his hand and she opened her eyes, taking in his huge ones.

She smiled slightly and then coughed experimentally. It didn't feel like her lung was going to be ripped from her body, so that was definitely an improvement. She turned to look at Din.

"I think it's a bit better," she managed. "I can actually breath."

Din nodded, stroking the kid's head. "You did good kid."

"Miew," he seemed to agree.

"Come on, let's change these bandages. And then we can get you some food."

oOoOoOoO

A little while later, Din was sitting in his chair, polishing his armor and Cara was sipping reconstituted broth slowly from a bowl. He peered at her from under the cover of his helmet, watching her labored breathing and her struggle not to cough. The kid had probably saved her from dying within the hour, but he still didn't know if it would be enough to keep her going for another 11.

He rubbed the cloth hard over a particularly stubborn section of grime. He hated feeling helpless, but he had nothing else on board that would make a difference. He tried to focus on his cleaning, but all he could think about was the fact that Cara was dying. Rubbing as hard as he could, he focused his anger on the beskar, knowing it could take it.

After a long moment of furious rubbing, he punched the beskar hard, making Cara and the kid jump, stood quickly and stomped over to the ladder, scaling it. He entered the cockpit a moment later and sat heavily in the chair, pulling off his helmet throwing it at the floor. Feeling tears burn his eyes, he rubbed them hard, and then kicked the console in front of him.

"Hey," he heard Cara's weak voice call up. "You okay up there?"

"Fine," he called back.

"Just don't break the ship okay?" She added wirily.

He snorted a little at that and shook his head. He was pushing the ship as hard as he dared. It wouldn't do them any good to get stranded half way there after all.

He was more upset about her injuries than he cared to admit, even to himself. Outside of his covert, she was the only one whom he trusted implicitly. And he had allowed her to be almost killed. It was his fault she was dying, and it was his fault she came on this unnecessary mission.

He kicked the console hard again, feeling the rage grow like a sharp knife in his chest.

He suddenly heard a commotion from below.

Springing immediately into action, he shoved the helmet back on his head and slid down the ladder, almost getting smacked in the head with his own thigh plate. The kid was standing on the table, his face angry, throwing things across the ship's hold without touching them. Cara was still in her chair, staring at him.

Din held up his hands. "Hey, hey kid, it's okay. I'm here. What's the matter?"

The kid let out a growl like he'd never heard and flung his vambrance across the room so hard it hit the opposite wall.

"No," Din said firmly. "That's dangerous." He walked over to him, holding out his arms. The child seemed to realize Din was in front of him then and his face fell into sadness, his ears drooping. Din picked him up and held him to his chest, feeling him grab onto his shirt tight. He looked at Cara.

"What happened?'

Cara shook her head. "The only thing I can figure is, the kid knew you were mad and got mad too. Has he done that before?"

Din shook his head. "Not that bad."

After a long moment with Din just stroking the child's back, he broke the silence.

"Okay kid, nap time."

The green child let out a huge yawn and Din deposited him in the hammock and tucked him in. Closing the door, he made his way back over to his chair.

"Do you want to lay down with him?" he asked Cara.

She shook her head. "No, I'm okay for now."

"You should rest," he encouraged.

"I know," was all she said.

He sighed. She was a stubborn as he was. Sitting down, he started to work on his armor again.

"You okay?" she asked again. "And don't give me a kriffing 2 word answer like you always do."

Snorting, he turned his chest plate over to work on the back. "I'll be fine. It's just the whole mission…"

He trailed off and shook his head.

"Feeling guilty?" she asked. "Don't waste your energy. You couldn't have known. I'll be better soon. At least, I'm assuming wherever you're taking us will have good medical facilities?"

Stopping his work, he looked at her. "They're not the best. But they'll do."

"When are you going to tell me where we're going?" she asked.

He sighed. Cara was nothing if not persistent. "The covert," he answered.

Her eyes widened in surprise. "You want to put the covert in danger? We have no idea if we're being tracked. I'm wanted by the spice cartel of all people. You don't want them getting even a hint of where the mando's-

"Cara," he cut her off, "I've taken every precaution. I scanned the ship before we jumped. I'm going to make a dummy jump half way there and scan again. They can't track us in hyperspace; they'll have no idea where we're going. I feel comfortable with this level of risk. I would never put the covert in danger."

She signed from across the table and then started coughing again. A long moment passed as she hacked and then drew a shaky breath in. The voice that came out was not as strong as before.

"I would never, ever want to put your people in danger. I can't have that on my conscious, especially not after losing my own." Her eyes were deeply sad.

He could see her sincerity and it meant a great deal to him. He knew he was right bringing her to his people.

"Thank you," he said. "Express those same sentiments to my people and we'll have nothing to fear."

She laughed weakly. "Great. You mean I have to worry about being executed by Mandalorians now too?"

The silence stretched for a beat. "Probably not," he said.

Cara rolled her eyes.

oOoOoOoO

Cara slept almost the entire trip. The kid woke from his nap and traded places with Cara, Din helping her into the awkward closet bunk. When she looked at him before she closed her eyes, the deep tiredness took his breath away. Before he pulled back to close the door, her hand suddenly grasped his ungloved one.

He shuddered. Touch was so rare for him, even the simplest touch made his whole-body tingle; the warmth, the pressure, the light, tickling feeling of her skin… He took a deep breath and looked at her.

"Don't take any unnecessary risks for me." Her dark eyes were so tired, but so strong. "Okay?"

He nodded curtly and suddenly, spontaneously gripped her hand tightly in his own. "You can make it Cara." The tightness in his voice surprised him.

Giving him the ghost of a smile, she shut her eyes and her hand went slack. He still held on to it for a long moment, just trying to burn the sensation of touching her into his memory. The kid's small, green hand touched his leg and he looked down at him.

"You okay?" he asked quietly.

"Mawr…" the kid replied, and Din noticed his eyes were full of tears.

Dropping Cara's hand, he reached down for the child and held him so he could see Cara sleeping.

"She's going to be okay kid, see? She's just resting." He pulled slightly back and closed the door. The kid reached out a hand to touch the door, looking at Din in question.

"Grawnm?" He seemed to ask.

"I'll check on her regularly. Don't worry."

Despite Cara's warning, he had pushed the ship faster than was advisable. Finishing with his armor, he had replaced everything and eaten another meal with the kid.

He checked on her every half hour. Each time, her pulse was weaker and her breathing was more labored. Thirty minutes before re-entry, he decided to sit on the edge of the bunk. Twenty minutes and the kid joined him, laying next to her. Ten minutes and Din pulled his glove off and reached out to grasp her hand again, feeling a little self-conscious but needing her to know he was there.

When the re-entry alarm went off, he jumped in surprise, yanking his hand away and quickly replacing his glove.

"Come on kid, time to strap in."

He closed the door on Cara and both of them settled into the cockpit to get ready, Din's heart beating fast. His covert would be glad to have him home, but he knew how they felt about outsiders. He took a deep breath.

Re-entry happened suddenly, and there was the beautiful green and blue planet, Raknuvak. The child gurgled, reaching out for it.

"Razor Crest, we see you. Din Djarin, is that you?" The mando voice came strong through the speaker.

"This is Razor Crest. Requesting immediate emergency docking. I have a passenger in critical condition."

The silence stretched on the other end as Din's ship hurtled towards the world. He held his breath, hoping they wouldn't choose this moment to be suspicious of his loyalties.

"Razor Crest, confirming request. Is the passenger an outsider?"

"Yes," he replied immediately, not wanting to waste any time.

The reply felt like it hung in hyperspace for years. Din could feel his heart beating under his armor, the blood rushing to his ears.

"Confirmed. Land at coordinates 27, 83, 96."

He let out a huge breath. "Acknowledged."

"What's the nature of the passenger's condition?"

"Blaster burns, severe. One heavy on her left chest. Confirmed lung damage. Bloody cough." Din stopped short, as he felt his voice grow tight.

"How long has the passenger been in this condition?"

He did quick mental calculations. "Over 15 hours."

"We'll be ready."