Star Wars does not belong to me. Just Skylar & Co.

Big thanks to Zabuzasgirl, Fidgeymugato, DarthZ, Kelana-ti, Tahiri Veila Solo, Depthcharge2030, spikala, and Janizary for reviewing!


Six weeks had passed since Skylar, Fives, and Beta had set out for Iridonia. That mission had been a total flop and Sky remembered her exasperation when Zey had commed her to let her know that Kenobi had been recovered. Right before they'd landed, of course. She had to remind herself not to get irritated at the Jetii. He couldn't have known that he was sending them out for nothing.

In fact, once she'd thought it over, she was kind of pleased with how things had turned out. As they were waiting for a new assignment, the six of them had gotten a brief respite. And Sky and Fives had gotten more alone time that they'd desparately needed. Best thing was that the boys of Beta were much better at making themselves scarce than Tor was...

She smiled as she opened her eyes to see her husband sleeping soundly beside her. Fives was on his stomach, his face turned towards her. Cordav couldn't help but notice how much younger he looked. I already know that he's handsome, but he's definitely cute when he's asleep. The hard lines of battle and weariness disappeared whenever he was out cold like this. Fives had just gotten in the night before from a month of long missions. More and more boys were being killed on the battlefield, which meant that, according to the Tsad Droten, her ARC trooper couldn't be spared to help her cross-train more commandos. Speaking of which, this new batch of boys that she was currently training was smaller than the last. Eight instead of sixteen. Two squads instead of four, and that worried her. Upset her too.

Of course, it didn't take much to upset her lately. For example, when Fives had commed her two weeks ago to let her know that he'd be gone longer than they'd originally thought, she'd actually cried. I probably scared the osik out of him too. To say that Fives had been concerned was an understatement. If she hadn't assured him that she was just worn out and missing him like crazy, she had no doubt in her mind that her husband would have told Zey exactly where the general could stuff his 'missions'.

Still half asleep, she felt her thoughts drift before settling onto the reports she'd read the night before, right before Fives had come in. Maul and this Oppress had been on a rampage for weeks and it seemed for a while that no one could stop them. Last week, Kenobi and Gallia had headed for Florrum to try. Gallia, a prominent Master herself, had actually been killed by Oppress, whom Sky had figured, basing her guess on the reports themselves, was the weaker of the two Sith. Which means that he's the apprentice of the pair.

If there was one thing Mandos knew better and hated more than the Jetiise, it was the Sith. Not only had her people once been used by both sides of Force users, they'd been almost wiped out by the darksider scum. The knowledge of that bloody war between the Mando'ade and the Siitse had been passed down through millenia. Even though Sky had never met a real Sith, she, like all of her people, was more than prepared to fight one should the time come.

Of course, I don't know how in the manda I'll be able to fight anything with my back aching like this. Skylar shifted, trying to find a more comfortable position.

"S'ika," Fives said drowsily. He yawned before resting his sleepy brown gaze on her, "What's wrong, cyar'ika?"

"Nothing, Fives. I'm sorry I woke you."

He turned onto his side, reaching out and pulling her closer to him, his features completely serious, "You don't need to apologize, Sky." Fives looked at the chronometer lying on his bedside table and turned back to her, "0513. Which means we still have time before the others wake up."

She couldn't help but laugh at his eager expression. He silenced her with a deep kiss, "Kriff, I missed you."

Cordav started to respond, but ended up jerking away from him as an unexpected wave of nausea hit her. She ran as fast as she possibly could to the 'fresher, making it just in time as her stomach emptied itself of it's contents.

"Sky!"


Fives had been expecting his lovely wife to respond by telling him that she missed him too. He most certainly had not been expecting her to streak to the 'fresher like there was no tomorrow. He jumped up to follow Skylar, freezing in the doorway as she became violently sick into the toilet bowl, "Sky!"

Skylar couldn't respond verbally but she gave him the most reassuring look that she could. As she threw up again. There's no way that Sky could have caught a simple virus. She's been inoculated just as much as us clones have. Whatever this was, it was something serious. Judging from the panic that ever so briefly flittered over her features as he knelt beside her, she was thinking the same thing.

Fives gently pulled his wife's long brown hair out of her way and into a loose bun before he started rubbing her back as she vomited for a third time. He'd never felt so... helpless.

"What happened?" Deena. Thank the manda. If anyone can figure out what's going on, it's her.

"I don't know, Dee," he responded, very aware that his voice was shaking and not caring at all about how scared he sounded. "One minute she's fine, the next-" He was cut off by the sound of Skylar retching again. That's four times in less than five minutes. He felt the cold weight of dread settling in his stomach, "What's wrong with her?"

By this time Sky was panting, trying to catch her breath. But she wasn't throwing up anymore, thank the manda. Fives put his arms around her and she wilted against him, shaking hard. "Udesii, cyar'ika. It's okay, I've got you," he murmured as soothingly as he could, the worry still managing to leak out in his voice.

Deena crouched in front of them, "Has this happened before, Sky?" There was the sound of a hoverchair as she spoke and Fives looked up to see Gabe watching them from the doorway, concern etched into his features.

"Only once," Skylar responded breathlessly, still shaking.

Fives whipped his head back toward his wife so fast that his neck popped, "Why in the galaxy didn't you tell me, Skylar?"

She winced at his reprimanding tone, "'Cause it wasn't this bad. I hadn't wanted to worry you at the time because I'd thought it was just something I ate. I didn't want to distract you if you were fighting."

"You're never a distraction, sweetheart, and I don't care how minor you think something is. I'm your husband, S'ika. I need to know these things, okay?"

By the look on her face, she was about to argue. Typical, hard-headed Mando woman. Gabe cleared his throat and Sky's expression softened. "Okay," she responded quietly.

Deena, not to be deterred, was still watching Sky, examining her with a practiced eye, "When was the last time, Skylar?"

"Two days ago," Sky answered as she shifted in Fives' arms. She winced, her hand automatically reaching to rub her lower back.

One of the half-Firrerreo woman's eyebrows raised questioningly, "And just how long has your back been aching?"

Skylar buried her face into Fives' chest, her indication that she was tired of talking. "Almost two weeks," was the muffled reply. He couldn't help chuckling a little at his wife's actions even if he was still worrying about her health. He'd never seen anyone this sick before, as Rex and Commander Tano's brush with the Blue Shadow Virus had happened before he and Domino Squad had left Kamino. Her back's hurting her too? Could all of this have to do with an injury? His breath caught in his throat. What if she got hurt training her new boys? It would be just like her to hide something like that to keep me from worrying. Wait a minute. She said 'two weeks'. Was her back the reason why she was so upset when I commed her that time? And he immediately felt awful for not coming straight home to her right then.

Deena looked over to her own husband, "Cyar'ika, could you get Sky some water? Some crackers too. I need to see if she can keep something down." The more time he spent around Gabe's wife, the more she reminded him of Kix. Quiet most of the time, but with a kind of authority about her that made others shut up and listen when she did speak up. The fact that the other woman wasn't panicking actually calmed Fives down. But I still want to know what's wrong with my woman.

Sky pulled her face out of Fives' shirt and glared at Deena from the safety of his arms, "I don't feel like eating, Deena. And besides, won't that just make me sicker?"

"Not if this is what I think it is." There was no mistaking the suggestive tone in the blue-eyed woman's voice. Thing was, Fives had no idea what Gabriel's wife was suggesting.

What the manda is that supposed to mean?

Skylar stiffened and her face paled, "That can't be it, Dee. Not now, the timing's definitely not good."

Timing? "Will someone gedet'ye tell me what in the manda is going on?"

"If I'm right, what Skylar has is called 'morning sickness', Fives. I had it when I was carrying Briika. It's basically just a side affect of a near-human or human woman's body trying to get used to carrying a baby. It's really nothing to be worried about."

Fives couldn't answer as Deena's news had rendered him completely speechless. Huh? He knew that his sister-in-law had said something very important, but he was currently unable to process it. Did Deena just say what I thought she'd said? I must be hearing things.

Skylar, on the other hand, understood the other woman completely and seemed to have gained the strength back in her own voice, "There is no way in the galaxy that I could be pregnant, Deena!"

Deena looked Sky straight in the eyes, met Fives' now shocked gaze, then turned her attention back to Skylar. An amused smirk on her face, "You sure about that? 'Cause I thought that's what happened when a man and a woman..."

"A baby?" Fives barely managed to whisper. Still in shock over here.

Sky snuggled into him, "We're not sure, F'ika. And, until we are," she sent Deena another glare, "not a single word to anyone. Especially Tea."

Fives' mouth opened like a fish out of water. Before he could manage to say anything, though, Sky's personal comlink chirruped from it's place on her nightstand.


Kot dodged blaster fire that a group of commando droids were sending their way. Lousy shots. If they weren't so dang hard to kill... "How much ammo you got left, Top. I'm out."

Top responded by throwing another two packs his way. The bald clone wasn't one for talking when fighting was going on. Unless you counted muttering to himself. Gabe had once told Kot that most of the Cordav boys had picked that up from Sky and Orar. The way that Beta still talked about their adoptive father even though he'd been dead for several years was enough to make the former trooper wish that he'd been trained by the Mando father/daughter duo even more. Can't dwell on that right now.

He snapped the first ammo pack into his DC-17, noting that the stamp on it wasn't the Republic's seal, but rather the Seppies'. Top was picking up ammo from the droids they'd already killed. Why the osik didn't I think of that? Maybe because I didn't know that they'd fit in my DC. That was a little strange. Why would two very different sides have weaponry that was almost a close match? Something about this just doesn't feel right. I'll bring it up to Hew and I guess we probably need to tell Skylar when we get back to Triple Zero. A little voice in the back of his head told him that General Zey probably needed to know about it too. Then again, the Jetiise will probably just write it off as 'coincidence'.

There was an explosion to their left and Doz's voice came over the link, sounding bored. "Incoming," he droned in an annoying nasal tone, several seconds after the blast. On purpose, of course.

Top muttered a long string of what might possibly be insults directed at Beta's medic, but the only word that Kot caught was 'di'kut'. I probably don't even want to know what Top said.

"Doz, I swear, if you don't k'uur right now, I'll pin you up for these useless tinnies to use as target practice." That was Hew. The longer this shabla mission carried on, the thinner his patience became. He definitely was more of a sergeant now and less of the quiet clone that Kot remembered meeting back in the medbay of the Resolute. Back when Kot had been a hopeless and depressed 'Thirteen'.

"Aye, aye, Cap'n."

"Just shut it, Doz," Kot said, exasperated. At the beginning, when he'd first started working with Beta, he wouldn't have dared to reprimand one of them like this. Now it was second nature. Especially when it comes to Doz. "We're already in deep osik. Now's not the time to be a distraction."

"Awww. Hear that, guys? Our little Kot'ika is all grown up!" Kot rolled his eyes. How can he even focus enough to shoot those clankers if he's too busy winding us up like this? Fives was right. He's worse than Devrin was. At least Dev had known when to shut up and be serious. Stang. I barely knew the guy, but I miss having him around.

Doz said something else equally annoying which caused Kot to clench his teeth. At this rate, Doz's jokes are gonna kill us faster than these osikla droids.

"Kot! Look out!" Top yelled, knocking his brother off his feet. The bald clone let out a pained yelp and Kot was up and at his brother's head in an instant.

Kot froze, eyes on the huge piece of shrapnel sticking out of Top's right shoulder. He pushed me out of the way... "Top! Hang on, ner vod. Hang on," he whispered as Top's gloved hand grabbed his in a death grip. Just hold on. Gedet'ye. I can't lose you too...


Jetii = Jedi (singular)

Tsad Droten = Republic

osik = crap

Jetiise = Jedi (plural)

Mando'ade = Mandalorians

Siitse = Sith (plural)

cyar'ika = sweetheart

manda = heaven

udesii = easy, calm down

gedet'ye = please

di'kut = idiot

k'uur = shut up

shabla = cursed

osikla = crappy

ner = my

vod = brother

Please R&R.