Sabezra's Wedding Anniversary Adventures (part 2):
D26/13 ABY, Csilla
As the sea of Yuuzhan Vong soldiers advanced on them across the vast plain of windswept snow like a roiling black thunderstorm, Ezra looked to his right.
Sabine, bundled in a thick coat that left her slim form shapeless but provided needed protection from the bitter cold, looked back at him through her helmet. She nodded once as their eyes met despite the barrier and then ignited the green lightsabre he'd given her fifteen years ago as she palmed a blaster in her left hand.
He pulled his amber Kyber sword out of the sheath on his back and twirled the hilt easily around his hand. The practically intelligent, single piece broadsword hummed in the Force with anticipation, glowing and nearly weightless like an extension of his arm. To his right hand, Ezra summoned his blue bladed lightsabre from his belt and flicked the switch. The small crystal in that sang to him as well like a wave of confidence in his blood.
On the far side of Sabine, Raign and his father, Coran, drew their swords as well, one a dark red and the other a deep teal that reflected the oceans of their home planet. Their covered head tentacles made the hoods on their winter coats writhe amusingly as they grinned at Ezra with anticipation radiating from them.
To his left, Ahsoka drew her white lightsabres, her face set in grimly determined lines as she shifted forward into a fighting stance. Her deadly staff that contained more Force power than an exploding canister of unstable coaxium was strapped diagonally across her back to use as a last resort.
And just beside her, Ezra's former Padawan, Rowan Freemaker, now twenty-two years old and with a budding family of his own to protect, drew his unique Kyber sword that ran on power cells like a lightsabre, but was made of a long, narrow, double bladed, pale blue crystal sort of like the Cerulian broadswords. A field of lethal energy buzzed up and down the crystal, just waiting to be unleashed on their enemies. The still incredibly energetic and brilliantly inventive young man was all but bouncing on his toes in anticipation of the coming battle that would hopefully win the war with the Yuuzhan Vong once and for all.
Ahsoka and Rowan were the most deadly weapons their army had.
On the far side of Ahsoka, Luke and Mara Jade exchanged a look of amusement as the Force Ghost of Anakin Skywalker appeared between his son and his former Apprentice in the small gap Luke had left in anticipation of just such an occurrence. The blond Jedi Master pulled a second lightsabre out from under his coat and handed it to his glowing father, saying, "I had a feeling you'd show up."
Anakin ignited the blue sabre that was a perfect copy of his original lightsabre, grinning widely as his nearly real and solid fingers caressed the hilt. "Fighting is one of only a few things I was always really good at. No point wasting it."
"What else were you good at?" Luke asked curiously as everyone eyeballed the advancing army who'd just broken into a jog, increasing the thunder of their steps. The individual beings in the mass were starting to become clearer.
"Well, there was flying."
Ahsoka snorted. "You mean crashing."
"A good pilot is also good at crashing," Anakin said defensively as those around who could hear them laughed.
"He's not wrong," Luke said, supporting his father.
"Thanks, son." Anakin beamed at the man who now looked older than he did by at least a decade.
"So, what else did you think you were good at?" Ahsoka goaded her former Master.
Anakin turned his head and smirked at the Togrutan Grand Master whose impressive montrals now made her taller than him. (Especially with a fur rimmed hood on them.) "That one's classified between myself and Padmè."
She rolled her eyes as Luke looked vaguely sick. "Already too much info, Skyguy."
He shrugged, smirk deepening. "You asked, Snips."
"And I should have known better."
During this conversation, following the example of their fearless leaders, the long lines of Jedi and Cerulian Force Users ignited lightsabres or drew their Kyber Swords, lighting up the moonlit snow in a wave of rainbows for kilometres in either direction of Ezra. Their lines rivalled the Vong's in length, but not depth, so they were going to have to make every swing count if they were going to prevent the enemy from taking Csaplar.
Behind the Force Users, a line of weapon covered Mandalorians led by Fenn and Din stood at the ready, more than eager for a good fight. And behind them, ten more lines of Chiss soldiers, led by Thrawn himself, stood determinedly with blasters, canons, and tanks at the ready, to prevent any Vong who got through the first lines from reaching the entrances to their underground capital city that housed a good quarter of the winter planet's population.
The neverending thunder of the army of planet stealing monsters advanced ever closer.
Ezra glanced at his beloved wife again, wishing he'd been able to convince her to stay home with the children. Since that had clearly failed, all he could do was trust in the Force and her skills to keep her safe.
Her helmet turned again to meet his eyes and then she glanced back over her shoulder and beyond the Mandos to the lines of blue-skinned and white outfitted soldiers behind them.
He looked back too and met the jewel red eyes of the man that he'd grown to respect over the last nine years of their alliance. They nodded to each other as Sabine said, "You know, Ez, if you told me fifteen years ago that we'd be protecting Thrawn and his planet, I would have dragged you to the medbay for a full diagnostic, because this is just crazy."
Ezra chuckled. "I would have said I was crazy too. But here we are."
Her helmet focused on the hoard of unrelenting killers advancing on them. "Yes, Here we are." Her tone had turned grim.
Sobering, Ezra focused on the enemy again, judging their distance. And it was just… about… right.
"Now!" he called back to Thrawn.
"Fire cannons!" Thrawn yelled into the open comm system of his troops.
As proton and concussion bombs flew over their heads and exploded in the mass of spike covered warriors, making them roar in rage as bodies flew, Ezra started jogging towards the enemy, his vast line of friends and acquaintances following at his sides like long rainbow wings, and the kilometres long row of Mandos behind them staying a few metres behind to hopefully avoid any lightsabre accidents.
Sabine, close to his side where he'd made her promise to stay if at all possible so they could watch each other's backs like they always had, nudged his arm with the hand holding a blaster. "Hey."
He half turned his head to look at her with one eye. "Yeah?"
"Happy anniversary, babe. Don't get dead."
He gave her a rather pathetic grin. "Happy Anniversary, cyar'ika. And the same goes for you."
Then he swung his Kyber sword at the first enemy that he would kill that night.
D26/14 ABY, Lothal
Ezra groaned as he fell into bed face first. And then immediately rolled over to scratch frantically at the dozens of itchy spots on his chest and stomach that he'd been valiantly ignoring for the last three hours as he tried to soothe his even more itchy and miserable children who'd been struck by the Red Pox two days ago. (Along with most of the younglings in the school.)
No one had slept since.
Sabine walked into their bedroom five minutes later, looking like beautiful death warmed over with dark circles under her eyes, in a rumpled, oversized T-shirt (his), and her long emerald and gold hair piled haphazardly on top of her head. She stopped just inside the doorway. "Oh shab, not you too!"
Ezra grimaced as he fought with the urge to rip his shirt off and dig his blunt nails into his skin until he bled. He clenched his hands into fists instead. I am a Jedi Master. I can kriffing well control myself.
I hope.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know adults could catch it too."
"Of course they can, you di'kut!" Sabine whisper-yelled so as not to worry their kids just down the hall as she stalked towards him, worry and fury creating an interesting expression on her face. "Why didn't you tell my you'd never had the Pox as a child?"
Ezra flinched back from her, sliding further onto the bed. "I didn't think it was a problem, honest! It's just an annoying rash virus!"
Sabine sank down on to the bed and buried her face in her hands. "For a child, yes! But for you…? Not so much. The Pox hits adults ten times harder than it does the children, which is why anyone over the age of ten who didn't catch the Pox is supposed to be vaccinated. Why didn't you... Osik."
Ezra huffed, throwing one arm over his eyes which were watering from the light that seemed much too bright all of a sudden and clenched the other hand in the bedding. "Yeah. Kinda hard to get your regular shots as a homeless street rat."
Sabine rolled onto her side and stroked his hair gently. "Oh, Ez. I'm sorry. But we need to get you to the hospital."
"Is it going to be that bad?" he asked, horror filling his tone.
"Yes, babe, it really is," she whispered, tears glistening in her amber eyes as he peeked at her from under his arm. "Your body is going to crash soon and crash hard. Everything's going to try and shut down on you."
"Sounds like fun," he tried to joke.
"You won't be saying that by morning," she said with a mournful shake of her head. "If you can still talk at all."
And then she heaved herself off the bed as a determined look crossed her face.
"Where are you going?" Ezra asked plaintively, feeling very pathetic and stupid.
She paused in her quest for the dresser where a comm unit sat and looked back at him. "I'm going to comm Hera to come watch over our children and then I'm going to comm Din."
Ezra peered at her rigid form through a squinted eye. "Din? Why Din?"
"Because Grogu can heal wounds. I'm hoping he can work his Force magic on viruses too."
Ezra blinked. I'm married to the smartest woman in the galaxy, I swear. "Worth a shot, I guess."
Sabine picked up the comm. "At this point, Ez, I'd be willing to deal with Palpatine himself if it meant healing you before you turn into a puddle of melting organs. One grumpy Mando who loathes being parted from his pregnant wife and a mischievous child who is terrible at taking directions is not going stop me from begging for their assistance."
He blinked more water out of his eyes that might not be entirely due to the light. "Have I told you yet today that I love you, cyar'ika?"
She looked up at him just before hitting the connect button on the comm and smiled slightly. "No. But that's all right. We've been just a little busy."
"Understatement," Ezra muttered as the itching heat in his chest was suddenly replaced with a full body shiver. He pulled a blanket over himself and then his world went blurry after that as Sabine's voice blended in the background along with Hera's. In a bid for focus, Ezra turned his head and squinted at the chronometer on the bedside table.
It was two minutes after eight p.m., Lothal time, and the twenty-sixth day of the galactic year.
They were supposed to be going to see a symphonic light show concert in an hour, followed by a blissful night in bed while Caleb and Mira slept like angels over at Hera's.
And he'd already paid the crew to add a message into the finale of the light show.
Karabast, he thought blearily.
"Sabine?" he mumbled. Having to repeat himself a couple of times until she heard him over her conversation with… Din. When did she finish the call with Hera?
"Yes, Ezra?" she said, coming over to the bed, concern on both sets of her fuzzy features.
"I'm sorry I've ruined another anniversary," he said as clearly as he could manage.
Sabine blinked and then leaned down to kiss his forehead softly with warm and dry lips, which felt like heaven to him as the rest of his body shivered. "That's okay, too, Ez'ika. We can celebrate our anniversary when you're feeling better."
"Thas good," he slurred, "But you have to watch the end of the show," he said insistently, weakly touching her arm to emphasize his point just before the cold dragged him under again.
Sabine stared at her unconscious husband with tears creeping down her cheeks, terrified that she was going to lose him with how fast the virus was affecting him already.
"Sabine. Sabine?"
Jolted by Din's voice coming from the disk in her hand, she looked at the little hologram of her fellow Mandalorian with a small, big eared and big eyed child hanging over his shoulder. "Sorry, Din. Can you hurry? Please? If this doesn't work, we'll need to rush him to the hospital."
"Of course, Sabine. Grogu and I will be there in five minutes."
"Yep, yep! Fix Masser Ezie!" the child said quickly just before their image flickered out.
Feeling a little bit of hope at Grogu's confidence, Sabine made one more call.
A hologram of a caf-skinned woman with a shaved head and purple eyes popped up a few seconds later. Her expression went from curious to concerned in two seconds flat. "What's up, Sabs? Do you need help with the kids?" (Hers were all in their double digits now and safe from the virus.)
"Ketsu," Sabine said, swiping at the betraying tear tracks on her face. "No, no. The kids are all right. Just itchy and grumpy. No. It's Ezra. He never had the Pox as a child and because he was orphaned, never got the vaccine later."
Ketsu, piecing together the rest, cursed. "Shab. That's not good."
"I know. He's already unconscious and burning with fever." Sabine rubbed her forehead with a trembling hand. "I've got Din bringing the little miracle worker over to see if he can heal him, but if that doesn't work we're rushing Ezra to the hospital."
"That's good. I hope."
"Yeah." Sabine forced herself to take a deep and steadying breath. "The thing is, Ezra and I were supposed to go see that light concert in Kanan's Park tonight. Before passing out, Ezra was rather insistent that I still see it. Would you and Joshua like to use our tickets and record the end of the show for me? I have a feeling Ezra's done something that I'm supposed to be impressed by."
"Of course we'll go."
"Thank you, Kets. I'll send you the digital copies of the tickets right away."
"No, thank you. It'll be nice to get out for the evening. And RJ is old enough now to keep an eye on the twin terrors." (The eleven year old girls had a semi-friendly competition going on to see who could startle the other the most with awful pranks. It had been going on for a month already.)
Sabine summoned a hint of a smile as she found her wrist computer and sent the tickets to her friend. "You'll be lucky if you still have a house when you get back."
"True. But I don't really care anymore, at the moment."
"Enjoy your night, then. And send me the vid of whatever Ezra's cooked up."
Ketsu smiled. "Will do. I hope he's okay."
"I'm sure he will be," Sabine said just before she heard a knock on their apartment door that led from the main foyer of Spectre House to their living room. "Gotta go. Din made great time."
"Good luck." Ketsu's image disappeared.
Sabine rushed out of the bedroom and down the hall. She let Din and Grogu in. …And Hera, as she came rushing across the foyer from her own apartment. "Thank you for coming over so quickly," she told them.
"Not a problem," the moustached Mando said as he put a squirming Grogu down. The man was actually wearing casual clothes for once, much to Sabine's amazement. They followed the small green child as he dashed for the master bedroom on fast little legs without any directions from Sabine. "Omera and I just finished talking Dorim into bed and she's resting now too. And Winta is being her usual helpful self and doing the dishes."
"And I would have been here sooner," Hera explained. "But I was delayed by another call from Ahsoka. Minxha is itching now too, so their hope that they'd missed the bug before they left for Cerulia is shot. They're coming back so they don't infect a planet who's never seen the Pox before."
"That's good," Sabine said as they entered the bedroom. "That'll make Caleb happy, too, to have Minxha back."
"Very true," Hera said with a wan smile as they all focused on the latest emergency in Spectre Land.
Grogu was already on the bed, kneeling beside Ezra with his clawed little hands on the unconscious Jedi's chest. The child's eyes were closed as he concentrated with all his might, a subtle blue glow of energy rising around the pair.
After a minute, Ezra took a deep breath and his eyes popped open. Everyone exhaled in relief. Grogu fell back on his rear, reeling with fatigue, but smiling widely. "All better Masser Ezie is!" he said proudly, looking from one adult to the next for approval, big eyes melting hearts, as usual.
They gladly gave it to him, starting with Ezra himself.
He scooped up the small child and nuzzled his nose. "Yes, I am, thanks to you, clever boy."
"You wecome, Masser Ezie."
Din stepped up to the bed and took his adopted son from Ezra, hugging the small being tightly but gently. "You were amazing again, Grogu. And look at you, you're still awake after healing someone."
The child grinned widely at his father, showing pointy teeth. "Stronger I getting Masser Soka says."
Din bounced Grogu in his arms, smiling in return. "Then she must be right."
Sabine stepped forward and touched the bare head of the small being she was going to appreciate a hell of a lot more than she had, drawing his attention. "Thank you, Grogu. I'm sure you saved Ezra's life."
From the haven of Din's arms, he twisted towards her and raised a hand to touch her cheek, soulful eyes suddenly looking his actual age of fifty-six years. "Masser Ezie imporan to evyone. But you most. Force bon unbwakable. I save for you, Auni Sabie."
Sabine swallowed hard, fighting tears. She touched her forehead to the small child's and whispered, "Thank you."
He patted her cheek and then he was just a child again, eyes bright and playful as he looked up at Din. "Home, Daddy?"
Din squeezed Grogu again, smiling softly. "Home. And bedtime," he added as he started walking out of the room. Sabine and Hera followed after she motioned for Ezra to stay on the bed or else. Ezra raised an eyebrow, shrugged, and then flopped backwards and closed his eyes.
"No!" Grogu protested, his squeaky voice echoing in the hallway. "Too erry!"
Which, of course, had Caleb and Mira popping out of their bedrooms like magic as they heard their friend's voice.
"Grogu!" they called.
The child in question nearly slithered out of Din's grasp before the Mando ended up catching him by the back of the tunic in midair. Sabine almost laughed.
"Wanna pway," Grogu sulked as the older (relatively speaking) lotion and pajama covered children gathered in front of Din.
The children, who were opposite blends of their parents' colouring, turned their eyes to Sabine. "Can we, Mom?" the royal blue eyed boy begged.
"Please?" Mira added, her amber eyes huge. "We're too itchy to sleep anyway."
"Yeah, pwease?" Grogu said from his dangling position, doing the best impersonation of puppy eyes a non mooka could ever hope to pull off.
"Pretty, pretty please?" Caleb finished with.
Sabine looked at Din helplessly. He looked back at her just as helplessly.
Hera, thank Force, took charge. "All right, you can play. But over at my house. The three of you can bother Jacen for an hour and then everyone is going to sleep, got it?"
"Got it!" all three chorused, cheering.
Caleb held his arms up for Grogu and Din dropped his son into the nine year old boy's grasp. Din looked at Hera, a rueful smile almost hiding under his moustache. "He's all yours. I'll come retrieve the little ankle bitter after breakfast."
Hera smiled as she herded the children chattering about what games they were going to play with Jacen out of the apartment. "That's fine. Or you could bring your whole family and we could have a big breakfast in the communal dining room. It's been a while since we've done that and I think after what just happened with Ezra, we could all use a little celebration. Ahsoka will be back with her family by then, too."
"That sounds great," Din said as Caleb perked up even more at the mention of Ahsoka and thus Minxha.
"Ezra and I will be there as well, Hera," Sabine said as she held the door.
"Good," the Twi'lek said with a smile. "And I'll invite over the rest of our core herd." (Meaning Luke, Rowan, and Ketsu's families.) She gave Sabine a knowing look. "Now you and Ezra can enjoy the rest of your anniversary in peace. Enjoy."
Sabine smirked back. "Oh, I do believe I will."
Hera and Din laughed as they walked away with the children and Sabine shut the door.
Smiling, filled with relieved happiness and gratitude for the wonderful, caring people in her life, Sabine basically floated back to her bedroom.
Ezra, the nerf, was not on the bed where she'd told him to stay, but up on his feet and inexplicably getting changed in their closet. And he seemed to be infected with the same weightless feeling of joy that she was experiencing, because he was bouncing around as he changed and whistling a popular song that she was sure had the word 'Alive' in the chorus multiple times.
Sabine crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the closet doorframe. She admired his tight black undershort covered arse for a moment (or three) before she said sternly, "And what do you think you're doing?"
Ezra whirled, grinning, as he hopped into a clean pair of dark green cargo pants that did yummy things to the lean waist they framed. His bare chest (red spot free) was looking mighty fine as well. "Getting dressed for our night out, what else? If we hurry, we still have time to make the opening act."
Kriff. Sabine winced. "I'm sorry, Ez. I thought you were dying on me and that we'd be spending the next week in the hospital. I gave the tickets to Ketsu so she could record whatever it is that you wanted me to see."
Ezra's expression fell. "Oh. That makes sense, I guess. As long as you see it somehow, I suppose it will still be okay." He sighed and then brightened, stalking towards her with a gleam in his sapphire eyes. "This means that we can move straight to the empty house and just you and me in a bed part of the day."
Now giggling like a teenager, Sabine put a hand on his bare chest to stop him from crowding up against her with his sexy body. "But you were just unconscious not even half an hour ago. Don't you think you should take it easy?"
Ezra smirked, capturing her hand to bring to his mouth. He nibbled kisses on her fingertips as he said, "Not a chance. I have more energy now than I've had in weeks. Or maybe months. Possible even years. I think Grogu might have given me a bit more Force juice than necessary, but I'm not complaining." Her breath caught as he gave her a heavy lidded look and wrapped his other arm around her waist, drawing her flush against his hard body. "That just means that I'll have even more fuel in the tank to devote to making you scream."
Sabine shuddered at his husky tone and gave in to the inevitable. Jumping up, she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Then she whispered against his mouth, "Bring it, Bridger."
Hours later, a nearly boneless Sabine left her very satisfied and brilliant husband asleep in his sprawl on the bed to use the refresher. On the way back, a blinking light on the wrist computer attached her vambrace caught her eye. Picking it up off the chair she'd dropped it on earlier, she smiled to see that she had a data message from Ketsu with an accompanying text of, Your husband is a sentimental sap. Joshua and practically every other guy there left the concert muttering about 'unrealistic standards' while all the females talked about how dreamily romantic and handsome the Hero of Lothal is. You are one lucky Mando girl, Sabs.
Glancing at Ezra to make sure he was still out like a light, she smiled and thought, You bet your shebs I am, Kets. Then she left their room and made for the office to watch the file on the much bigger desk computer.
A minute later, there was a light show accompanied by the muted tones of music she'd listen to later so as not to wake Ezra playing on her screen. Her artist's eye appreciated the colours that dashed across the clouds of Lothal's night sky in beautiful patterns. And then she gasped as a laser light wrote in glowing blue puffs:
Happy Anniversary, my Warrior Goddess. Fifteen years with you and I love you even more than the day I married you. I can only imagine how much more I'll love you in another fifteen.
Your forever devoted Ez'ika.
Shab, Ezra. You've always known how to turn me into a mess of a girly girl. Holding her overflowing heart in with a hand to her heaving chest and fighting back tears yet again (at least for a different reason this time), Sabine turned off the computer and went back to bed. She crawled in under the blanket beside her deliciously warm husband and snuggled into his body, laying her head on his shoulder. In his sleep, he slung an arm over her and tugged her even closer, mumbling her name like a quiet prayer.
Sighing softly with contentment, she brushed a lock of dark blue hair off his handsome face with tender fingers. He'd grown up so much in the nearly twenty years since she'd first met him, but the gawky, adorable, rounder faced teen was still in there. Especially when he slept and the tension eased from him. In a barely audible whisper, she promised, "Next time, Ez'ika, I'm going to do something for our anniversary that I guarantee you'll love. And you'll never see it coming."
She wrinkled her nose as she remembered his propensity for visions and added, "I hope."
Ezra, not quite as asleep as she'd thought, smiled without opening his eyes, rubbed the small of her back with a caressing thumb, and mumbled, "Bring it, Wren."