I couldn't be happier
Though it is, I admit the tiniest bit
Unlike I anticipated
But I couldn't be happier
Simply couldn't be happier
Well - not "simply":
'Cause getting your dreams
It's strange, but it seems
A little - well - complicated
There's a kind of a sort of a cost
There's a couple of things get: lost
There are bridges you cross
You didn't know you crossed
Until you've crossed
And if that joy, that thrill
Doesn't thrill you like you think it will
Still -
With this perfect finale
The cheers and ballyhoo
Who wouldn't be happier?
So I couldn't be happier
Because happy is what happens
When all your dreams come true
Well, isn't it?
Happy is what happens
When your dreams come true!

They were both still breathing heavily as Soniee slipped out of his embrace.

"Did I hurt you?" Korkie asked worriedly, reaching out to her again.

"No!" she rushed to assure him and then demurred, "well, I mean, a little but…" It had been a first for both of them and a rather clumsy attempt being on the acceleration couch of a shuttle hurtling through hyperspace. She knew he would never intentionally hurt her, however and she smiled rather shyly, "I just need a minute, in the fresher."

"Alright." He smiled as well. He had clearly enjoyed it for all their awkwardness but before she closed herself off behind the door he called out to her. "Soniee, I love you!"

"I love you, too." She grinned back at him and bit her lip.

Now staring at herself in the mirror over the sink, she tried to determine if she looked any different. Lagos would have probably been able to tell immediately. And Lagos would have told her that it was about kriffing time that they'd gotten on with it.

Soniee had had her doubts, if she was ready, if Korkie was really the one, and then they had gone to Onderon and she had met Saw. But Bo was right; she would have always been wondering if he was really telling her the truth or if it was just an act for some job.

She knew Korkie. He had always been there for her and she knew she could trust him. She wouldn't have done what they just did if she didn't trust him. And she loved him.

Before she opened the fresher door she took one more deep breath and then…

He was holding the disk case that Saw had given her on the landing pad as they were getting ready to leave. He caught her gaze and they stared at each other guiltily, he for messing with her things and she for having been given the thing in the first place.

Then they both started to apologize at once. "It was only an attraction. I don't know why he thought he needed to…" "I just picked it up and this thing fell out."

She looked at what was in his other hand. It was not a musical recording. It was quite clearly a data disk. "I… don't know what could be on it."

She had thought it strange enough that Saw Gerrera would give her an antique recording of a musician that she might have mentioned that her Ba'buir enjoyed listening to. "Maybe it was a mistake."

"He said it belonged to your mother," Korkie recalled, and he placed the disk into her hand, setting aside the case.

"Did he?" She couldn't remember. She had been trying to leave before he could tell her anything else that may or may not have been a pretty lie meant to entice her to stay.

"He had been helping you research your parents. Maybe he found something?"

"Her name was Melaana, my mother. He told me..." Soniee couldn't take her eyes off the disk. She worried that instead of information, it would be some sort of declaration of his feelings but the technology seemed old.

Korkie picked up her datapad and held it out. "Maybe you should see what it says."

She hesitated but she was curious.

Then Korkie laughed. He pulled her down next to himself on the couch and wrapped his arms around her waist. "I don't think he would have given it to you right in front of me if it was a steamy love letter."

"No, I suppose not," she blushed.

"And if it is, we could always turn this ship around and fly back so I can challenge him to a duel for your honor."

"You wouldn't do that." She put the disk into the holo reader, squirming to avoid his tickling fingers.

"You're right." He was still and grinning. "Because I've already got you here and you're all mine."

He lifted her hair from the back of her neck and began to kiss the soft skin beneath her ear. The pleasant sensation made concentrating on opening the files stored on the disk that much more difficult but maybe that was the purpose.

And then she laughed, pointing at the screen. "And so we may never know. It's all in Onderonian."

"Oh well, even I know how to fix that." he reached out to the touchpad, highlighted a section of the text and chose the selection for universal translation.

The drive took a moment to search and then Soniee read out the result. The grammatical structure was awkward from the translation but the meaning was clear. "Rash Melaana gift for birthday sixteenth. Thanks to Sani and to mother and father for cloudhopper…"

"He said your mother's name was Melaana?" Korkie inquired. "So if this belonged to her…"

"It's her journal." Soniee was torn between diving into the file and devouring every word, and tearing the thing out of her datapad and tossing it out the airlock. Saw had been telling the truth. At least about this.

But Korkie was also correct. She was here now. She had chosen to come away with him. She closed the datapad as his lips went back to work on her throat and his hands again began to roam over her body.

"At least you know who she was now." He whispered. "And maybe someday you can pass on that legacy to your children."

Bo Katan chose that moment to walk in on them, arms folded over her chest and cleared her throat for attention. "We're stopping off at Krownest for a week or two."

Korkie attempted to slip his hands out from under Soniee's shirt inconspicuously. "I thought we had to get back to Manda'yaim to begin my bid for the throne."

"For that you're going to need allies and this is where we start gaining them." She added with a sigh, "that payout we got from the Onderonians won't hurt either."

…

Sabine sat on the floor with a crayon clutched in her little fist and her tongue stuck between her teeth. She looked at the sheet of flimsi as if it might tell her where it lacked the color she might bestow upon it next. Then in a flurry of creative activity she scribbled intently for a moment before sitting back again to survey the outcome.

The toddler grinned. "There! Tristan!"

She held up the masterpiece for the assembled adults to admire. It did resemble a little face poking out from a blue blanket, surprising accuracy for one so young.

"She's quite the artist, our Saby," Ursa smiled. "Just like her Buir."

Indeed the Mando mother had plenty to smile about. She was up and back in her beskar'gam only a day after delivering her second child.

Bo Katan was taking a turn holding the precious new ad'ika until her nephew asked, "Can I hold him?"

Bo waited for the nod from her friend before she passed over the infant. "Careful now. Be sure to support his head. That's right."

Korkie was a natural and raising ad'ike was such an important part of their culture that it was a good lesson for him to learn. He would be an excellent Buir some day though everyone seemed to think that day wouldn't arrive for some time.

After a few minutes of keeping the baby to himself, Korkie made his way toward where Soniee was sitting, still keeping an eye on the little artist.

Soniee had never been around babies or young children in her life. She was brought up as an only child and her mother didn't mix with the other families in the clan. And then upon entering the academy when she was ten, all of the other cadets were her age or older. The youngest child she had ever been acquainted with was another first year cadet that she had been asked to mentor in her fifth year.

But she supposed if Korkie was going to take up the throne he would eventually need an heir. And if she was going to stay by his side possibly as his duchess she would be the one to give him that heir. She'd never really considered that other than theoretically. And of course considering what they had done in the shuttle on the way here, it was possible…

Before she could protest she realized that Korkie was standing in front of her now, leaning down with the intent to place little Tristan Wren into her arms.

"But I've never held a baby before!" Her eyes widened.

"It's alright," he parroted what his aunt had told him. "Just support his head and there you've got it!"

She looked down at the sleeping infant and then back up into Korkie's grinning face.

"It'll be our own bundle of joy you're holding one day," he said softly but not softly enough that the words weren't audible to Ursa and Bo.

Ursa laughed. "Not too soon we've still got a lot of work to do to get you set up in Sundari."

Bo didn't say anything at the moment but she did give Soniee a disapproving frown and later she pulled her nephew's girlfriend aside to have a little chat with her.

"What are you using?" Bo demanded.

"What am I using for what?" Soniee asked in return.

"Contraception," she pronounced deliberately. "I know you and Korkie have been carrying on as if you think you're getting away with something under my nose. But there could very well be consequences to those actions and Ursa was right, at this point in his career…"

"But if…" Soniee floundered, "if it were. Wouldn't it be a good thing if he could show the people that he was a Buir with a healthy ad'ika?"

Bo's eyebrows rose. "Is that what you were hoping for? Because sure it wouldn't hurt Korkie's persona much but you will be seen as the strumpet who thought to get your claws into him early enough in his career that he won't be able to put you aside."

"But Korkie would never…"

"Are you late?" Bo returned them to the matter at hand.

Soniee tried to remember when she had last had her monthly cycle. It did seem like it had been a while. "I don't know. Sometimes hyperspace travel gets me off schedule and we've been doing a lot of that lately."

Then Bo asked another question that took her completely off guard. "Is it possible that you could be carrying a child that doesn't belong to Korkie? The Onderonian was certainly intent on giving you that disk before you left the planet. He might have given you something else to remember him by and though I'm sure my nephew would honor the custom of adoption…"

"No!" Soniee could absolutely deny that without question. "Th-the disk was all he gave me and it contains my birth mother's journal. He found it and thought I should have it. Korkie and I, it was our first time, after we left Onderon. There was never anyone else. At least not like that."

"Okay." Bo nodded, accepting her word. "But we still need to find out if we actually have something to worry about or not. Come with me." She took hold of Soniee's upper arm and led her none too gently towards the nearest drugstore where they might procure a test.

Several minutes later, they waited for the results to appear. Bo had read the instructions thoroughly and made sure that Soniee followed them to the letter so they might not leave anything to chance.

"It wouldn't be so terrible, for Korkie I mean. He looked so natural holding Tristan and he's good with Sabine and Ahsoka's little boy warmed right up to him too." Soniee rehashed the idea in her mind and tried to picture Korkie with a child that she could give him. She was terrified of parenthood despite or maybe because of the fact that it was such an important expectation of the Mandalorian code.

"But the timing is all wrong, can't you see that?" Bo tried to make her see. "Your credibility as a politician would be completely blown away no matter how well you did on your exams at the academy. You are already from a clan that is unpopular in the ruling council. You would be seen as a grasping aruetii who has no business anywhere near the throne of Mandalore."

"Is that how you see me?" Soniee asked, almost afraid of the answer.

Bo spun and placed her hands on Soniee's shoulders, a look of mingled frustration and sincerity on her face. "I see you as my niece, a true Mando'ad. I know that you have done everything in your power to stay true to the tenants of the Resol'nare by which you have been raised and that when the time comes for you to have ad'ike of your own you will, with the help of that mir'osik nephew of mine, raise them in the same manner."

She glanced at the chrono and then at the test lying on the table. And then she heaved a deep and relieved sigh. "And that will not be for some time to come." Bo held up the negative result for Soniee to see.

"Oh thank Manda!" Soniee nearly cried.

"Don't think this means you can go find Korkie and celebrate. I'm taking you to get the hypo as soon as we can get it arranged!"

Soniee laughed. "Of course, and thank you, for everything."

…

And so she had stood by him as the loyal assistant and advisor. What happened between them behind closed doors stayed private and didn't interfere with his campaign to take back his rightful place as Duke of the system.

They were known to be a couple when the day came for him to be crowned and her background and personal life were scrutinized from every angle as much if not more so than his had been but she was glad that they didn't have a child brought into that mess and though there were naysayers, Soniee was generally found to be above reproach.

She stood quietly but loyally by his side and when he did finally propose to her on the balcony at a fancy dinner and made the announcement when they returned to the rest of the guests, the news was treated with happiness by most and that it was inevitable by others.

Soniee wished that they didn't have to have quite such a huge fuss made over the royal wedding which involved not only saying their vows in front of the entire populace but also her crowning as duchess. She would have liked a quieter ceremony, maybe with only a few close friends as guests. She supposed that their old academy friends were out in the crowd somewhere but if they were she never got to see them herself. She found herself wondering if any of the other friends they had made out there in the galaxy somewhere had managed to hear about the event in the holos.

And then of course the teasing and questions started up about when they would have a baby, an heir for the perfect royal couple. Not to mention stability in the succession with the Empire breathing down their necks. Korkie was just as excited about it as any of them and when they officially started trying there were months that the negative tests reduced her to tears not because it was something that she wanted so much for herself but because the hopes of her husband and her whole system seemed to rest on her shoulders.

Just like with their wedding when she was finally able to spill the beans about a positive test they couldn't celebrate privately for long. They weren't just any husband and wife expecting their first child, they were the duke and duchess and the child she carried would follow them to that lofty height.

…

Soniee was in an exhausted daze after her labor and everything had a slightly surreal quality. That could have been partially due to the drugs but she had done it. She had carried the heir of Mandalore in her body for nine standard months and delivered that child into the galaxy.

"Manda, Son, she's beautiful!" Korkie's voice broke through the haze. He came to stand beside her bed with a bundle in his arms. "And you are beautiful! You were amazing!"

He bent to kiss her forehead. Was she amazing? She supposed she had to be after what she had endured.

He placed the tiny bundle in her arms and it squirmed within the blanket.

Then she looked down and her whole world tilted on its axis.

"Meet your daughter." Korkie whispered.

"She's mine," Soniee said in amazement. Never had she ever felt such love for any being in her lifetime. It overwhelmed her and she choked back a sob. "Korkie, she's ours. We made her."

For her entire pregnancy she had prepared abstractly for a future duchess who they would have to train up to rule as they had been trained at the academy. She had never expected to meet this tiny person who was the first of her flesh and blood whom she had ever met.

That wasn't supposed to matter to a Mandalorian. Family was more than blood. But then she wondered if this was how Veeka Ordo had felt when she pulled Soniee out of the wrecked freighter.

"I thought we could call her Melaana after your mother," Korkie said. They had agreed that calling her Veeka wouldn't go over well with some of the council members.

"Melaana." Soniee couldn't take her eyes off her little girl.

Korkie leaned closer and whispered. "And Satine after my mother."

"Elek," She agreed. "Melaana Satine. Oh Korkie she's perfect! I never imagined…"

The baby was making little cooing noises and she seemed to be listening when she heard her mother's voice. Then she turned her face toward Soniee's chest and opened her mouth in a little "O" shape.

Korkie laughed. "I think she's hungry."

She had been bottle fed herself, she knew and she had never seen a human mother feed her infant other than in the parenting holos she had watched in preparation for this event. So what she did next was purely on some latent instinct. Soniee unsnapped the gown at the shoulder and allowed the baby to find her breast.

She smiled at this new found ability and the connection it forged. "She's mine, My precious Melaana…" Soniee kissed the top of her daughter's head and took in the sweet smell of her.

"That's right." Korkie climbed onto the bed beside her so that he could snuggle with them both. "And we don't have to announce her to the system right away. Of course the news has already gone out but we can spend as much time as you need, just the three of us. Would you like that, Soniee?"

"I would." He thought of everything. Her eyes filled with happy tears and she laid her head on his shoulder as their daughter continued to take nourishment from her own body. "Thank you, Korkie. This is all just perfect."

"You're thanking me?" he laughed and gave her a squeeze. "I should be thanking you. You did all the hard work. And Manda, was it worth it!" He stroked his daughter's wispy red hair.

Soniee had translated and read a good portion of her mother's journal in the weeks before her daughter was born. She wanted to know who her own mother was before she became one herself. And in doing so she had learned that she was glad she was here, that she had chosen Korkie and Mandalore. It wasn't going to be easy, raising an heir to the throne but this was home, it was all she knew.

Maybe someday they could visit Onderon again, she and Korkie could show their little Melaana where her namesake was from and introduce her to that part of her heritage. For now they would raise her as a true Mandalorian.

Soniee knew that it wasn't an adoption. She was well aware that she had carried and pushed this child from her body but she still felt compelled to say the words, "Melaana Satine Kryze, Ni kar'tayl gai sa'ad ."

Korkie understood the need for his wife who was herself adopted and he who had always called Duchess Satine his Aunt and had never been able to formally acknowledge their true kinship, to perform this very private ceremony. He laid his hand on top of Soniee's on their daughter's arm and entwined his fingers with hers as he repeated the words, "Melaana Satine Kryze, Ni kar'tayl gai sa'ad. "

"It's what we always wanted, isn't it?" Soniee sighed. "A real family."

" Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum, cyar'ika. "

" Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum. "