They can't understand that you mean to do good

I guess you could say you're misunderstood

Since you've been gone, since you've been unglued

It's hard to figure out your next move

Genna checked her datapad once more to make sure that she hadn't just dreamed the message she had gotten in the middle of the night. They were coming back. They would be here today! Tech was going to send her another message when they arrived in the system!

They had obviously succeeded in whatever their mission was to help Meg's friend and Tech was proud of the part his little sister had taken. He said he would tell her about it later when they arrived.

So Genna wanted to do something for them. She knew that the box office opened an hour before noon. She checked the chrono again to make sure she wasn't too early. Then she signed on to the U of O athletics site to reserve tickets for all of them for tonight's match. If they arrived too late or if they didn't want to go she could always cancel before game time.

Her hand hovered over the send key while she deliberated.

A customer walked up to the counter and Genna vaguely registered that it was a red haired woman who picked up a shuura and laid down a credit chit.

Genna reached for the chit and rattled off, "Thank you. Have a nice day."

But the customer stood there and took a bite. "Mmm they never taste quite like this from the green house." She spoke with a heavy northern accent.

Genna glanced up. "Those were freshly picked this morning from the orchard."

"That says a lot for trees that have been well kept for generations," the young woman observed, taking another bite.

"Well, I can't take credit for that. They've only been in my family's possession since I was a little girl."

"Begging your pardon for asking, then, but do you happen to know who they belonged to before?"

Genna wasn't offended by the inquiry; she was more curious. "My brothers and I purchased from a family called Rupingwood."

"Not Shara Rupingwood Blackwell? Salt gods if it isn't a small planet we live on! She's my aunt!" The redhead exclaimed.

"Your aunt?" Genna glanced down once more at her datapad to make sure no messages had arrived while she was chatting and pressed the key to reserve the tickets before she directed her attention once again to her chatty customer. "Really?"

"Well, no, not really, but the man she married was a friend to my parents so she's always been sort of like an aunt to me." She reached out a hand, the one that wasn't holding the shuura. "I'm Ellie and you are?"

"Genna." She shook Ellie's hand. All of this was terribly interesting but she couldn't help her attention being divided.

"What's that you've got there?" Ellie nodded and grinned while she took another bite of her piece of fruit. "Could it be a message from your lover who's off on a long sea voyage?"

"My?" Genna choked out and then laughed nervously. She liked this woman's spunky forthrightness but that was getting a little personal. "He's not my… we've only known each other a few days."

"Sometimes that's all it takes, Aye?" Ellie winked. "You meet while he's on shore leave and then can't stop thinking about him till he's back in your harbor. That's the way it was for me and mine."

It was almost exactly like that, thought Genna, but she only said, "I had no idea if he would even be coming back."

"But he is coming back? You've heard from him?" Ellie gasped in delight for her new friend.

Genna rolled her eyes but nodded. "It's not just for me, he and his… crew have a job to do. Guess I'm just lucky that some other job didn't come up that was more important."

"You can't tell me you believe in luck. It must be destiny!"

"Yes, well," Genna didn't like that word, destiny. The last time she'd thought she was fulfilling her destiny it didn't turn out so well. But then the text alert buzzed on her datapad and her heart skipped a beat.

"Is it him?" Ellie asked.

"It's umm…" Genna spared a glance for the message but held the device at such an angle that her new friend couldn't catch a glimpse as well. She rearranged her features into a more professional expression. "No, actually. It's just a shipment I was expecting. I'll have to close up here early and go down to the space dock to sign for it." She had a feeling that Tech and his brothers wouldn't appreciate her announcing to a relative stranger that they had returned to the planet.

"Aye." The redhead didn't look as though she was quite convinced with the cover story. "Well don't let me stop you."

…

As soon as the fruit seller was out of earshot Ellie keyed her comm unit to the two-way function and she immediately heard male laughter on the other end. Aye, her comrades had heard the entire discussion.

"So, I was right, Mollymauk. The boys are back in town," she reported. "I told you I had seen her kiss the tall one with the goggles the day they left."

" And she actually told you they were back in town to finish a job? " a female voice asked.

" You really are a Siren, you know that? " the male voice laughed.

Ellie rolled her eyes. "I guess this means we're staying in Iziz for a few more days?"

" Meet me at the pub tonight and I'll make it up to you ."

And Ellie could bet that the other female was rolling her eyes as well when she spoke up. " Guess there's not much more we can really do till they show their faces again ."

"Three guesses whose fruit stand we should stake out."

"I don't know, guys. We don't want her caught in the crossfire. She didn't ask to get dunked into the middle of this."

" But we can guess who's side she'd choose ."

…

Tech had to double check the chrono when her reply appeared a fraction of a second before they dropped into hyperspace. He had thought it was the middle of the night in Iziz and she would have the comm unit set to silent so that she could sleep. He imagined that she would receive the recording of his message in the morning as she readied herself for another day working in the marketplace.

Rather than have to wait hours to hear from her again however, a brief text lit up his screen, " That's great! See you then, Gen! "

He smiled. She hadn't even taken the time to spell out her entire name. The moniker seemed more intimate in its shortened form. And it rhymed.

He was sure that hadn't been her intention. He had said in his own message that they would soon be beyond the reach of holo communication and she, in her most likely half-asleep state, had tapped out a few words to let him know that she had received his information.

Still as he read the words again to himself, "... see you then, Gen," it was like poetry and Tech wasn't generally moved by such sentiment. He couldn't wait to see her again.

He could have watched her limmie holo another dozen times but instead he decided to put his extraordinary brain power to their mission. And with that, he entered the name Mollymauk into his datapad.

The species was a type of waterfowl indigenous to the northern sea region of Onderon. It was featured in their local songs and legends and mythology, as were the other names that Cid had informed them of: Sidhe and Siren. Sidhe was the name of a fairy trickster and Siren, a half woman half fish who lured unsuspecting sailors to their doom with her songs.

Genna was a bit siren-like in the way she commanded his attention from the first moment he'd seen her. Of course he didn't believe that she actually held him under a spell, but she did have other talents. He had been captivated watching her run to make the precise game-winning kick and follow through with a tuck and roll only to bound back up onto her feet and leap to pound the air with her fist in victory.

Some of the moves in the beautiful game reminded him quite a bit of those he had been taught to dodge blasterfire or face an opponent in hand to hand combat. Maybe that was why the Mandalorians taught their children to play limmie in the first place. The skills carried over so well into their preparation to become warriors. And yet it was ironic that Genna's parents sent their children away so that they wouldn't have to follow that path.

She had also worn a uniform of sorts, not beskar or plastoid but a form fitting athletic jersey and a pair of very short shorts. The image in his mind brought to remembrance the feeling of her hand in his and the way her lips had brushed against his.

He thought back to their last conversation, not the text messages but the last time he had actually seen her. She had called him noble, or at least his penchant for wanting to fix things that were broken. And she seemed to like the fact that Omega had picked up that trait from him.

That was another Mandalorian ideal, the fostering of skills in the next generation. When they lost their own parents, her brothers must have taken that responsibility very seriously. It was very like Tech and his brothers taking responsibility for Omega.

He was teaching Omega to fly and she and the twi'lek girl had acquitted themselves well when the occasion called for it, even if they did for whatever reason equate flying to a 'feeling'.

Genna would enjoy being regaled with the events, though he wasn't quite sure how to approach the topic of their encounter with Crosshair. She had only just begun to rally from her distrust of clones in general, seeming to view their present squad as something altogether different from the merciless regs she had been conditioned to fear by Separatist media.

He wanted to ask her more about her family and the story she had started to tell him of the night of rebels' attack on the power generator. He had looked up her stats on the university holo site before their conversation and she had all but confirmed that it was not the injury that had ended her athletic career, but the war.

And that was another thing Tech was curious about, the injury itself. What exactly was the extent of her paralysis? He had made brief contact with her calf and she hadn't felt a thing but what if he was to touch her knee or her thigh…

For a purely scientific line of inquiry, the idea of actually testing his hypothesis produced an undeniable physical reaction.

"Mollymauk!" Tech forced his attention back onto the mission. There would be plenty of time for other investigations after his work was done.

…

Tech woke to the sound of the console alerting him to their eminent drop from hyperspace. The environment had gone blurry and he cried out in alarm before Omega spoke.

"They're right here."

She was holding out his goggles and he took them and put them on.

"Thank you." His vision focused as the stars outside the viewport condensed back into points of light. Then he looked down and noticed the blanket that had been tossed over him while he slept.

"You looked exhausted so I thought it would be better to let you get some rest, so that you could be awake when we get to Onderon."

"Again, thank you." He removed the blanket and handed it to her.

Onderon. They were almost there. Tech checked the instruments and laid in a course for the last leg of their journey.

Omega was watching him carefully as if memorizing his movements. It was a bit unnerving but she was eager to learn. And he could teach her.

He stood up from his seat and stretched and then pointed to the pilot's chair he had just vacated. "How would you like to bring us in for a landing in the Iziz spaceport?"

"Me? Really?" she asked excitedly, slipping into the seat before he could change his mind.

Tech smiled. "I believe you will find that it is exceedingly less difficult when there are no lasers being fired in your direction and I will be here to talk you through the entire process."

While she settled herself, he keyed in a quick message to Genna to let her know that they were now in the system and would be touching down within the standard hour. Her response was not as immediate as the last one had been. She was most likely busy with a customer.

He attempted to focus on the duty of instructing his pupil but returned avidly to the datapad as soon as it announced an incoming message.

"Is it from Genna?" Omega asked not taking her eyes from the viewport and controls but grinning all the same.

"Yes," Tech managed to keep his voice level. "She is taking the rest of the afternoon off to come and meet us when we land and she says she has a surprise… for all of us."

…

And there she was.

Omega lifted a hand from the steering column to wave at the young woman in the hoverchair who was waving back from the edge of the docking bay.

Tech chastised her gently, "Attend to your duties, Omega. There will be time to greet our friend when the operation is complete."

He struggled to keep his own emotions in check at the sight of her but he suggested that Omega go ahead and he would stay to shut down the engines and do the final inconsequential maintenance tasks.

Before she ran off, Omega reached out and tousled his hair. "I think Genna likes it better that way."

Until this moment he hadn't allowed himself to hope that they might actually be reunited after their initial meeting. He watched through the viewport as Omega ran over and hugged the girl. He felt a twinge of desire for that same or perhaps some more personal form of physical reception.

Genna greeted the other members of the squad as they made their appearance but she still seemed to be looking for the one who had yet to show himself. She glanced up toward his location and he ducked quickly so she wouldn't see him cowering in nervous anticipation.

He may not be able to see her now but there was a way he could hear her. It was the work of a moment to open Omega's comm channel.

" Tech said you had a surprise! "

He rose up a bit to peer over the edge of the console and see if it might be more shuuras or maybe an early meiloorun but Genna only seemed to be showing the little girl something on her datapad.

" Well I wanted to tell you all at once but… I reserved us all tickets to the University limmie game tonight ."

Omega jumped up and down and clapped her hands and then turned to give Wrecker a high five.

This was absurd. Tech switched off the comm channel. He had faced hordes of droids and this very sweet, beautiful young woman had him hiding under an instrument panel. He had been longing to see her again and now she was here.

"Come on, CT-9902. You can do it!" he told himself. "It is a simple matter of walking out that door and saying hello to a pretty girl."

He stood and tried to look like he had been hard at work just in case anyone might glance his direction through the transparasteel.

As he made his egress from the Marauder, Hunter was speaking. "I don't know if we've got time to mess around going to some sporting event. We've got a job to do."

"Hunter's right," Tech had to agree even though it might have been an enjoyable diversion. "We will need to check on the efficacy of our surveillance equipment and then continue the search…"

"I can do that." Echo spoke up after sharing a pointed look with Wrecker and Omega. "And then Hunter and I can get a look at the university campus while the rest of you are inside the stadium with the crowd."

Genna (Tech finally gave her his full attention) seemed disappointed at his words. He had only thought that they might be able to spend more time together if they accomplished the goal of their mission first.

"If you'd rather not go I can return the tickets. It's not a big deal." She looked down at her datapad and started to key in the site for the box office.

"No!" Tech surprised them all with the forcefulness of the negative. "Of course I would like to go and it would be unfair to Wrecker and Omega now that they've already been promised."

He took a step closer and smiled. Genna smiled too and then so did the others, except for Hunter who looked as if he had missed something.

"Well, great," Genna let out a breath she had been holding. "But you probably shouldn't go in that." She nodded to the armor he was still wearing.

He had forgotten all about it. His battle scarred Katarn-class plating was like a second skin.

"Oh, I suppose you're right." He still had the 'holo-star' outfit, as Echo had called it, packed away on the ship. "I'll just go and change."

"You could wear this." She tossed something at him before he could retreat.

He unwadded the fabric and discovered it was a University of Onderon tunic.

"You should fit right in wearing that."

"What time does the match begin?" he asked when he couldn't think of any other excuses not to make the most of this opportunity.