Warnings: Minor injuries, alcohol use, a sick babeh Grogu

Pairings: Din Djarin x OC

Star Wars Disclaimer: So while I try to do my research, and I have been a fan of this franchise all my life, there will probably some be some canon things I get wrong or miss or whatever. My apologies in advance. lol

A/N: This is sort of a weird time to be starting an oc multi-chapter, right after the finale and everything that happened in it…. But this will basically be starting in between seasons 1 and 2, and will eventually get into season 2. I use the baby's name for ease of reference, but no character will actually refer to him as that in dialogue until Ahsoka reveals his name later.

...

He felt a strange mix of dread, concern, anticipation, and…even hope, at hearing her cries. The last was the strangest feeling of all. Foreign to a bounty hunter used to calculation and pure instinct. In his personal life, where it existed, was what could be called nihilism on a bad day, indifference on a good day. Not even with the child had he allowed himself the same sort of feeling, even when he felt the unfamiliar stirring of other positive emotions towards the green babe.

When he'd met this same woman, she had spoken so quietly, evenly, "Turn around, please." He did as asked, and faced a blaster pointed right at his face.

Lissa Ardross. He knew of her, vaguely. A rouge bounty hunter who frequently played both sides, typically coming to favor whoever paid her more. Could be unblinkingly ruthless at times.

Din was a man largely sure of himself when it came to battle, to self-defense. And part of that included not underestimating women like Ardross.

"What do you want?" He had asked her, knowing damn well the creature in his arms was what she wanted.

"What do you think?" She'd asked, confirming his fears.

"Please, he's sick…" The whole reason he had visited such a forsaken place like Mygeeto was to seek out care for little Grogu, whose temperature had been unusually high and usual expressiveness heart-sinkingly low. There was rumor that a former kyber crystal miner–though not a Jedi himself–has been taught Jedi healing practices and was loyal to Force users. The place was also close by and seemed like the safest bet…. Din had ditched half his armor for a pile of robes and linens, as well as a wide enough visor piece, that served to disguise and guard him and the child against the semi-urban planet's frigid climate.

"Well, I'll make sure he's healthy enough when delivered to my client."

Before there could be any other discussion or action, a large blast over their heads had both bounty hunters seeking shelter in an abandoned bar. Fragments of the Empire striking out at the New Republic, or vice versa, most likely. It didn't really matter much to Din or Lissa.

When the fighting seemed to die down or at least had moved elsewhere, and the dust had settled, Din surged towards what was just moments ago the entrance to the bar, but which was now a mass of rubble.

He heard a laugh behind him–a harsh, cynical laughter. "Well, aren't we in a fine mess now?"

He turned back to see Ardross on the floor, clutching her right ankle, a nice film of dust coating most of her person.

Din sauntered over to her, to see blood squeezing out from between her fingers, tightly wrapped around that injured ankle. He felt some relief that the ruthless woman was now somewhat incapacitated. Not that she couldn't still try something, but at least she was nowhere near as dangerous.

"Are you okay?"

Ardoss' head snapped up, a genuine look of surprise on her face, which within seconds soured into a scowl. "What do you care? I was trying to take your kid a few minutes ago."

His only reply was to sigh tiredly. Din took the chance to really study the child, who still seemed largely unresponsive. He slipped off one of his gloves and felt the youngling's forehead–it was burning hot.

Ardross watched as the Mandalorian looked around frantically. He stepped up to the bar and studied the mostly empty liquor rack behind it. During his training, even when young, alcohol had been supplied to him when hurt or ill when out on a hunt, or there was simply nothing else available. But he had no idea how Grogu's constitution would react to it.

There had to be a better option.

Looking around again, Din noticed a spot of light on the floor. He stepped up to it. Followed the beam of light, which illuminated small, white specks floating through the air, all the way up to the bar's ceiling. There was a small hole there, and when Din moved his hand through the light, it felt cool to the touch.

"What are you doing?" Ardross asked, a beat before the Mandalorian took out his amban phase-pulse blaster and vaporized enough of the roof, so–thank the Gods–a whole pile of snow fell through onto the floor.

Din found a glass from a bar shelf and proceeded to collect some of the snow. He then moved to the bar and set down the child on it's worn surface. He lay a cloth over the Grogu's head and carefully placed a layer of the snow there, hoping to reduce the poor youngling's temperature. After a few moments, the child let out a little cry of perceived relief, and opened his eyes a little wider.

Din's observation of Grogu was interrupted by Adross' curses from across the bar. He looked up to see her ripping up her scarf to shreds and cursing under her breath.

Satisfied that the child would be alright for the time being, Din approached. "Do you need help?"

That cold laugh again. "I'm fine Mando. Go back to tending to your youngling."

Din bent down before Ardross, who froze. They locked eyes–as much as was possible for Lissa through the black visor piece he was wearing to hide the upper portion of his face–before the Mandalorian reached out and grasped her ankle. He pulled out her leg so it was laying straight on the ground, ignoring his fellow bounty hunter's hiss of pain.

He examined the damage. It wasn't as bad as he thought originally. Several cuts on one side, which were bleeding more than they should have, but which weren't deep. Judging by what smelled like alcohol on Ardross' breath, he concluded that was likely the reason. No, mostly from the swollen state of her ankle it appeared as if she simply had a bad strain.

"We need to make you a splint. Wait here." Ardross looked on suspiciously yet silently as the Mandalorian looked around for and found two sticks of wood. He returned and lined them up to Ardross' outstretched ankle, and proceeded to wrap up the tatters of her scarf tightly around everything.

"One more thing." He got up and returned to the little pile of snow he had caused to fall through the roof, which though he had pilfered part of it before, had grown up a bit more as the snow continued to fall. He palmed up two handfuls of the frozen substance and returned to apply that to Lissa's injury. Like the child, she also hissed audibly upon its application. T

he two bounty hunters sat in silence for a few moments.

"Thank you," Lissa muttered, before looking away. Her gaze landed on the bar across from them, where the child was.

Din said nothing. He rose from a crouched position to stand tall before the wounded woman. "Ardross. Make no mistake; despite my kindness, I will kill you if you try to hurt or take the child."

Her eyes snapped back to him. "Understood," she tilted her head and set her jaw. She sat back, watching the Mandalorian stride across the room to his youngling, who was starting to make gurgling noises.

Din proceeded to look around, to try and find some means of escaping from their current predicament. There was a back entrance that seemingly lead to some sort of receiving area, cut straight through the rocky cliff side this and the neighboring buildings were carved out of. But that passage had seemingly caved in from the blast.

It was quiet all around them; whatever skirmish that placed them into this predicament had seemed to have either stopped, or moved far enough way that it no longer posed a danger. It was a just a matter of getting out.

Din took a moment to think; he returned to Grogu, whom he gathered up in his arms. He felt that the youngling's temperature had lowered somewhat, but still seemed way too high. One of the green babe's little hands reached out and grasped one of Din's fingers, squeezing with all the might his little, ill body could muster in that moment. Din's heart sank in his chest.

The Mandalorian had to remind himself to glance up at Ardoss occasionally, to make sure she wasn't trying something. She was also watching him, but the look on her face was not what he would have expected: it was not harsh, or indifferent, but if he had to place a name on it, perhaps…sad, forlorn? He wasn't sure why. He didn't want to reflect on it.

He returned to considering their options, instead. It seemed it would either have to be blowing a way clear through the debris of what was once the front entrance, or perhaps further opening up the hole in the roof and finding some way to scramble up through it. The latter seemed more appealing, given that he had not brought any of his charges, though it was not lost on him that the latter option was the less friendly one to the wounded Ardross in that moment.

"Do you think you can walk? Climb?" he gruffed from across the bar. "If it meant we could get out of here?"

Her shoulders slumped. "I donno. Toss me one of those bottles behind you and I probably can."

Din had his doubts that that would actually help–it would maybe even make her current state even worse, and he would have two beings he'd have to haul up out of this mess–but he obliged the woman, finding a half full bottle of spotchka and handing it to her.

"Thanks," she said, quickly taking the bottle and unscrewing it, before taking a few swigs of the blue stuff that made her face scrunch. She just as quickly recapped the bottle and tossed it aside, before firmly planting both hands on either side of her and trying to heft herself up. Din was about to offer his assistance, when she managed to push up off the floor entirely.

Neither moved a muscle after a second mortar blast struck way too close to their current position in the fragile structure of the former bar. Both bounty hunters remained frozen for a moment. Injured or not, impossible or not, escape now seemed an imperative.

"C'mon," the Mandalorian said, rushing toward Ardross. "You can take my grappling line first–"

Blaster fire and cries from outside made the bounty hunters fall silent. Both hunters listened intently for any other noise.

"Three lifeforms," was mumbled somewhere beyond the rubble of the front facade of the building. Din gripped Lissa's shoulder.

A bland voice modulated through a cheap Stormtrooper helmet sounded through the fresh cracks, "Who's in there? Identify yourself!"

"It appears to be the people who hired me," Ardoss commented calmly. She turned slowly to Din. "I would run, if I was you."

Confused, his death grip on her arm dropped away and Din started to walk back. "But, what–"

"Go!" she whisper-hissed. "Or I will kill you and whisk away the child myself!"

Din didn't hesitate any further. He used his grappling line to haul himself out of the building through the hole in the roof, and soon as found solid purchase on the sleet and snow covered roof, he ran.