About 11 hours later….

A pinging sound woke Fives from his sleep. He lifted his head to look at the chrono on the wall beside his bunk and sighed when he saw how early it still was. He laid his head back down and closed his eyes, trying to get back to sleep.

A week ago, General Zey had informed him that he would be assigned to the 212th to assist Generals Kenobi and Kolar to liberate Mandalore from invasion by CIS forces. During the briefing, Fives had learned that the Duchess of Mandalore had been assassinated, as had the leader of the Death Watch, by none other than Maul himself. The assignment had been so sudden and rushed, that Fives had barely had time to send a quick message, text only, to his wife to let her know that he was okay. He hadn't even had the time to tell her where he was being assigned.

Fives tried to calm his mind, trying to focus on the familiar sounds of his brothers' snores. He'd barely slept at all within the last five weeks, being bounced from one mission to another. Tonight had also been the first chance he'd gotten to get a full night's rest since the attack on the CIS forces on Mandalore had begun. Being away from my wife and daughter for so long doesn't help either.

The pinging sound went off again and he buried his head in his pillow, still too drowsy to figure out where the sound was coming from. It wasn't until he heard Boil and few other brothers in the barracks grunt and mutter something along the lines of 'kriffing commlinks' that he realized that it was his own comm that was going off.

Fives grabbed the beeping comm, leaving the barracks to find an unoccupied area of the small makeshift command base to let his sleeping brothers rest. Once the door closed behind him, he sidestepped a few brothers who'd drawn the short straw to be unlucky enough to take the night shift. He wanted to find an unoccupied area of the base to make sure he wasn't overhead on the off chance that Sky was calling him because Tea was having a nightmare.

As he walked, he glanced down at the comm briefly and saw that the call was coming from Deena's apartment on Coruscant, and not Sky's personal commlink. That was odd, given his wife always kept her commlink near her. Tea must be having bad nightmare about Kadavo again. He sighed. They keep getting worse the longer I'm away. He sent a quick message via text format, "I'm okay, I'll be calling back in just a moment."

The night sky lit up from explosions and the ground rumbled from the battle still taking place only a few miles away.

As he headed toward the small office that had been assigned to him, the only place in the whole base that he knew there wouldn't be any clones, he heard the comm chime indicating that a word only message had come back through in response. He glanced down as another pair of clones walked towards him and nearly choked. "Daddy, it's Tea. Hurry up!" He blocked the comm from view of the pair as they walked past him.

Tea knows better than to message me like this. Sky and I both made sure she understands how dangerous it could be if the wrong people found out about our family. Speaking of Sky… Wait, where is Sky!? His wife should have already been with their daughter, trying to comfort her. It should have been Sky sending him these messages in the code they'd worked out. It's too early on Coruscant for Sky to be doing her paperwork at the barracks… She should be home with our kid.

Once the two clones turned a corner, Fives deleted the message, then sent another. "Wait." He hoped that Tea would understand the one-word answer and realize that she had to be careful.

Wishful thinking, she's only four…. This is not good.

But Tea seemed to understand this time as her response was also brief. "Hurry."

I have a very bad feeling about this. Where is Sky?

Thank goodness the door to his office was right in front of him. He tapped the door controls, peeked through, and, seeing no one, stepped in and locked the door behind him using his personal security code. Only the Generals or Commander Cody would be able to get in now and they were most likely still in the middle of the battle. Another set of explosions went off, and the ground rumbled again.

He sat in the chair behind his desk and punched in the secure code Sky had gotten from one of Skirata's boys, then punched in the code to the comm at Deena's apartment. As he waited for his daughter to pick up, he laid the comm on desk.

The blue tinged image of his little girl appeared, hovering over the comm. For just a moment, Fives noticed that Tea had had yet another growth spurt as he could tell that her montrals were a little taller and the upper part of her lekku, the part that framed her face, was just a little thicker. Her chubby cheeks weren't quite so chubby anymore either. His little girl was growing up and he was missing it.

Those thoughts were gone as quickly as they'd appeared when he noticed the distraught look on her face and his heart nearly broke. I'm not there.

Tea was sitting cross-legged on her bed, one of her little hands rubbing at her eyes. She's been crying. Where is Sky, he thought yet again.

"Daddy?"

"Hey ad'ika," he answered, trying to put as much reassurance into his voice as he could. "I'm here, Squirt. Did you have another nightmare?"

"No Daddy. No bad dreams. I can't sleep. I miss you; I want you home." Her little voice was just on the edge of being whiny and she looked like she hadn't slept at all. She sniffed, and a few tears fell down her cheeks. He wanted so very much to be able to pull her into his arms and hold her tight.

He sighed and leaned forward in his chair, "I miss you too ad'ika, and I'd rather be home with you too."

"Really?"

Fives chuckled, a sad smile on his face, "Yes, Squirt." He opened his mouth to ask her where her mother was, but Tea beat him to it.

"I want Mama home too. I'm scared Daddy." He couldn't help but notice that his little girl had been using Mama and Daddy instead of Buir. Both her little hands came up to rub her eyes as she sobbed.

She's terrified.

Fives took a breath to steady himself. He needed to keep his voice calm so that Tea wouldn't pick up on his worry. And my fear. If Sky's hurt…. "Tea." She moved her hands down a little to look at him. He took another breath, "Where is your mother? She's okay, right?"

Tea sniffed, "She's okay… But she's not here."

I gathered that much. Tea's lower lip trembled, "She didn't want you to worry…. She left with Tor and Uncle Wreck yesterday morning."

"Where did she go, ad'ika?" Sky left with Tor and Wreck. That means she left on mission when she promised not to. He thought back to not long after the mission to Florrum, early on in his wife's pregnancy, when he made her promise, to swear, to stay out of active duty until after the baby was born. He moved his arms under the desk so that Tea couldn't see his clenched fists. His left fist bumped against the Tooka doll he'd secured on the underside of said desk.

Tea sniffed again, and her voice wavered, "Please don't be mad at me, Daddy."

That made him pause. "When have I ever been made at you, T'ika? I could never, ever, be mad at you." He schooled his features, only then realizing that he hadn't been able to keep the anger from showing on his face. Sky broke her word and is putting herself and the baby in danger. On top of that, she's having our daughter keep secrets from me.

His daughter hiccupped as fresh tears fell down her face, "Because I didn't tell you."

"I'm not mad at you, I promise." I'm mad at your mother. She should know better. She promised. "Baby girl, tell me where your mother went. Gedet'ye."

"She called Uncle Gabe yesterday. They're on Mandalore." She started sobbing again, "I'm sorry, Daddy. I should have told you. Mama made me promise not to. She didn't want you to get dis-…. Distra…. She didn't want y-you to g-get h-h-hurt."

Another explosion, another rumble.

He froze, his heart pounding as terror and anger battled within his chest. His head throbbed as he fought to keep both emotions out of his face, his posture, and, especially, his voice. His daughter needed him to be calm right now.

"Tea, ad'ika. I'm not mad at you, baby girl, and you're not in trouble. Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum, ad'ika. Go wake up your Uncle Gabe, let him know what's going on. And stay with him, okay?

"I love you too, Daddy. Okay."

"Tell your Uncle to give me time to call your mother first, gedet'ye."

"Okay, Daddy. I love you."

"I love you too, ner Squirt."

I'm back!

ad'ika = little one

Buir = father (also used for mother)

T'ika = little Tea (adding 'ika to a syllable of someone's name is a term of endearment)

gedet'ye = please

Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum = I love you (literally: I know you forever)