Hey everyone. I have to admit that this chapter was a little tougher to get through than the others, which is why it became a little longer than normal. I had to find a good spot for it to end. With that said, to the Guest reviewer, I'm not sure that Gavyn will end up being a spy, but it certainly is still possible. I also don't know about Sabine being held hostage, and that is less likely to happen I'm afraid.

CC, it definitely does seem to have a Padme Anakin feel to it, and definitely not mature yet, but they are still teenagers who never really got a chance to experience something deeper.

LethalJustice, I'm glad you are enjoying so far, and I hope you like this latest update.

Guest 2, that's a pretty picture, but I don't think a kiss from Sabine will pull him back. At least not unless the circumstances are right. If she were to kiss him too soon, it might drive him farther into the Darkside than not.

Guest 3, That is definitely what I was trying to go for. That despite what they think, deep down there is a true affection for each other. They just need to realize it for themselves and for each other.

And finally crispybear. Gavyn and Wini definitely will have a continued role to play as we move forward. Just wait until we move farther into Season 3.

Thank you to each of you for the reviews. I truly enjoy seeing them.

Chapter 6: Clear as Mud

As Ezra begins to heal, things grow between Ezra and Sabine, and more confusing for them too.

His room was quickly filled with a good number of visitors. Ezra was grateful for all of the concern and relief that everyone was displaying for him, but in truth, he also wanted to be alone with Sabine again. While they'd gotten a little time with just the two of them, Sabine, unfortunately, didn't wait too long before letting the other members of the Ghost crew know that Ezra was fully awake.

Up until the others showed up, Sabine had been attentive and caring. There were even a couple of moments where she almost babied him more than he imagined Hera would if she'd been there instead. He certainly wasn't complaining though. Any form of affection from Sabine was immensely appreciated, and he especially enjoyed it when Sabine held up his drink for him to sip from because of just how close she was to him.

He thought that he might be dreaming the whole thing until Hera, Chopper, and Zeb came into the room. And that was when Sabine seemed to flip a switch, returning to the person he'd always known her to be. Any affection from her toward him completely disappeared, and she instantly gave Hera access to her bedside seat while she moved back toward the door.

Ezra thought for a moment that she was going to leave the room entirely, and at first, it seemed like that was going to be the case as she reached for the door but then hesitated at the last moment. He had to admit to himself internally, that her actions did hurt a bit, even though she did end up staying after all. Knowing that she considered leaving caused him to wonder what could be so wrong with him that it prevented her from displaying any desire to have something more with him except when she feared losing him.

And thinking of that, Ezra decided it was time for some answers. "So, um, how did you guys find me before the Empire did?"

"Where could he be?" Sabine huffed in frustration.

Rex's plan to listen into Imperial chatter over radio frequencies provided only a single positive, that the Empire hadn't located, Ezra yet. They were still searching in coordinated patterns, including sweeping through various town buildings for anyone who'd been recently injured.

To evade detection, the Rebels had to land quite a distance away from the Imperial facility and use speeders to make the trek to where Sabine believed Ezra's landing point. That alone cost them a few hours' time, and every extra minute caused their worry to quickly grow, and Sabine especially.

Unfortunately for them, the additional time it took them to get to the area Ezra fell was also followed closely by the sun setting over the horizon. They continued looking for any sign of Ezra's whereabouts until it became too dark to spot any signs that would tell them which direction he might have gone.

With no other choice, Hera reluctantly made the decision to set up camp for the night and then continue the search at first light. But Sabine wasn't having any of that and went off to continue searching on her own. She just couldn't give up looking for the person she'd left behind, even if it seemed like a waste of time.

She wandered around somewhat aimlessly, the only sure direction she kept tabs on was traveling away from the Imperial complex. She'd been at it for a few hours and felt in her extremities that it was beginning to get rather chilly out. She wasn't worried about herself so much because of her bodysuit, but she hoped that if Ezra was still out there, that he'd at least found somewhere to stay warm. "I'm coming, Ezra." She said to no one. "I'll find you. I promise. Just hang on."

Back at the campsite, Hera wasn't sleeping at all. She'd made Sabine promise to keep a tracker online so that they wouldn't get lose track of each other before Sabine continued the search. But the farther Sabine moved away from the camp, the more Hera's worry increased. She already had one kid missing from her crew, and she didn't know what she'd do if Sabine went missing too.

But she also knew there was no keeping Sabine at the camp. She'd been beating herself up ever since Ezra was left behind, and while neither of the female Ghost crewmates were going to be sleeping, Sabine couldn't or wouldn't wait until they had more of a chance at finding Ezra. Hera just had to accept that Sabine would be okay as she sent a silent prayer that both her kids would be kept safe, as she stoked the small fire to keep the chilly air from having such a bite to it.

Sabine, meanwhile, found herself weaving her way through some trees at the beginning of a small forest from what she could vaguely make out around her. She still hadn't found any new trace of Ezra, but logic told her that Ezra would not only travel away from the Empire but also that he would look for cover to keep him from being easily discovered.

She continued on her way throughout the trees, occasionally validating her coordinates along the way. She didn't want to lose time by accidentally covering the same area more than once if she could help it with her weaving pattern. But the longer she continued on, the more her desperation to find him grew. What had been a gentle breeze earlier had become stronger as well as piercingly cold.

By the time there was only another couple of hours left before first light, Sabine started to lose hope. That only increased when she realized that she was coming upon the last of the line of trees she'd been scouring through for the majority of the nigh. But that's when she saw some movement in front of her. Not taking any chances, she pulled her blasters out and aimed them in the direction of the movement, waiting to see if whatever it turned out to be was hostile or not.

At first, she thought it might have just been a creature of some sort, or when there wasn't any movement afterward, perhaps her eyes playing tricks on her. Still, she decided to check out what she saw a little more closely, creeping forward slowly and being as quiet as possible as she approached. As soon as she could make out what it was, she quickly holstered her weapons and knelt down.

"Ezra?" She said as she gently turned him over so she could check his vitals. But, as worried as she'd been before she found him, the way he looked only increased her level of concern.

He was unresponsive to her vocal and physical forms of contact. She had to remove her gloves to check his vitals, and she discovered that he was extremely cold to the touch. The good news was that she was able to find his pulse, weak though it was.

According to her chronometer, it would still be well over an hour left before sunrise, and even then she knew it wouldn't really warm up that much for a few hours afterward either. So, she reached down to his hip and found his lightsaber was thankfully still with him after his fall. "Don't worry, Ezra." She said. "I'll be right back."

Sabine ran deeper into the tree line, and once she was reasonably sure she was out of anyone's line of sight, she activated the lightsaber and cut off some small branches with it. Once she had an arm full, she returned to Ezra.

She found another use for his lightsaber as she made short work of getting a fire going. As soon as the fire was burning well enough, Sabine gently pulled Ezra as close to the fire as she believed he could safely be, and then started to look him over a little more closely. It quickly became obvious that he'd been crawling for a good bit, as his front was mostly covered with mud. The two blaster wounds didn't look particularly good either. He'd lost a lot of blood, but at least it seemed to have stopped before he lost too much.

She checked his vitals again as well as his temperature, and it was then that she finally got a little reaction out of him. It was more of a short intake of breath followed by him going into a full-body shiver, but what surprised her was what happened next.

It came out as more of a mumble than anything, but there was no mistaking what he said. "Sabine."

"And then we found both you and Sabine just inside a wooded area," Hera said. "We were lucky that she found you when she did. On the trip back, we thought we were going to lose you a couple of times before we got you back to Chopper Base. If it'd been any longer, I'm not sure you would've made it."

"I know I've already said it, but thank you," Ezra responded to them, but his eyes were more focused on a singular person before he finished. "All of you."

"We're just glad you're going to recover sooner rather than later, kid," Zeb added.

Up to that point, Ezra had put up a good front, trying to make sure the rest of his crew felt that he was perfectly fine, but he was still injured and recovering. And Hera had been right before. Even though he'd been unconscious for days, his body began to betray him by the time they'd finished recapping him on his rescue, and he was no longer able to keep up the façade that he wasn't exhausted from his Ghost crew.

"We should let you get some more rest," Hera said as soon as she picked up on Ezra's exhausted state. "We'll all be back first thing in the morning to check on your progress, and to find out how long they plan to keep you in here."

Ezra replied with a lethargic small nod, but Hera still noticed it and began leading the others out. Sabine, who had been at the back of the room all that time, initially hesitated to leave. Instead, she allowed Zeb to exit first and gave Ezra a final glance before she too headed for the door.

"Sabine," Ezra said quietly, causing her to stop and turn back to him. "Would you stay for another minute?"

"Sure." She answered before turning to Hera. "I'll catch up with you guys."

Hera and Zeb nodded and headed farther down the corridor as Sabine went back to the seat she'd spent the majority of the last few days in. "Is there something you need?" She asked.

"Yeah," He said as he tried to sit up a little straighter, but that only caused his pain to pierce through the fog induced by the medication he'd been given. It took him a couple of minutes to get settled again, with Sabine's help of course.

"Thank you." He said.

"Don't mention it."

"No no," He responded. "Not just for this, but, for saving me too. And before you say it, I'm not reading anything more into it."

What he'd said last caught her attention more than anything, but it was the somberness in his tone that caught her more than anything. But what he said also struck her as a certain memory flooded her thoughts, and things began to click for her. She combined the fact that he'd stopped trying to flirt with her, that she hadn't caught him looking at her longingly recently either, and now him using her own words she'd said to him on that asteroid with those creepy creatures all added up.

Perhaps he'd given up or moved on from thinking that anything romantically between them would happen. She'd always imagined this day would be a grateful one for her, but now that it was laid out before her, she was anything but happy about it.

In fact, it actually saddened her a bit, and that surprised her as much as anything. "I…" She started before needing to force down an unexpected lump in her throat. "It's alright, Ezra. It was my fault that you were left behind in the first place."

"It wasn't your fault." Ezra adamantly responded as he grasped onto one of her hands. "Things go wrong during missions all the time. The only difference is this time I got hurt. And to be honest, I'm surprised I've made it this long with nothing all that serious happening to me. Besides, you came back for me, and now here I am, alive and recovering. And I have you to thank for it."

It took nearly everything Sabine had just to choke back a sob that was quickly growing inside her. With how poorly she and Ezra had been getting along recently, she almost expected that he'd at the least agree to her being the one at fault for his current predicament, but even though things were surely still tenuous between them, for the first time in quite a while, Sabine felt some hope that things could be repaired.

Ezra thought he could sense something different about Sabine, and that instantly turned their current situation a bit more awkward. Even though he was exhausted, he didn't want her to leave. It wasn't fair that she'd stay by his side when he couldn't even enjoy it, and now that he was awake, she was ready to leave. He had to think of something to say to keep her from leaving so soon.

"So, tell me," He said. "I didn't say or do anything too embarrassing, did I?"

Sabine smiled at the question, and she had to admit, it felt good to smile again.

As soon as she'd heard him call out her name, Sabine was filled with elation. She had feared the worst, especially when she finally found him, but she had found him and he was alive. He'd called for her. Sabine gently moved him so that his head was settled on her lap. "Come on, Ezra." Sabine quietly pleaded. "Normally it's getting you to shut up that's the problem. Say something else to me. Tell me if moving you around is making it worse or not."

Her eyes remained focused on his face, waiting, hoping for something more from him, but nothing else came. Even though he'd spoken, he was still in bad shape and she needed him to be alright. If he didn't pull through, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to forgive herself, and the thought of losing a member of her new family felt as bad or worse than when she'd lost her original family. Even Mandalorians had their breaking point.

Lost in her concern for him, Sabine began mindlessly sliding her fingers through Ezra's hair as she kept her vigil over him. She also tried to keep him both as warm and as comfortable as possible while she waited for daylight. But while they waited, she was still desperate for Ezra to show her that he was going to be okay. "You know Ez," She said quietly. "I'd even let you get away with trying to flirt with me if it meant you'd say something else."

As if hearing her plea, Ezra shivered slightly and mumbled something incoherently. Then he actually moved his uninjured arm and weakly wrapped it around her back, although it still seemed somewhat possessive too. "Knew….I could….count…on….you." He whispered softly before his grip on her slackened.

Sabine startled for a moment when Ezra went limp, but she was able to focus on her training and confirmed that he was still breathing. She let out a small sigh in relief as she once again checked her chronometer for the time, hoping that she could call Hera to let her know where they were.

The next hour passed agonizingly slow without being able to move much and having no one but an unconscious Ezra to talk to. All she could do was occasionally reach behind her to grab another log for the fire or continue to run her fingers through Ezra's hair. She couldn't really do anything to keep her mind occupied like paint or put together some more of her miracles.

But eventually, the sky did begin to lighten up, and that was when Sabine's communicator thankfully indicated an incoming message. "Spectre five, come in," Hera called out.

"Spectre five here, Spectre two," Sabine responded.

"According to your tracker, you haven't moved much in the last few hours." Hera continued. "Is everything alright?"

Sabine could tell that Hera was trying not to get her hopes up, but now wasn't the time for that. "I've found the missing package, Spectre two," Sabine answered in code just in case their communications weren't secure but still getting right to the point. "I'll need you to come to my location to complete the delivery. The package is damaged, so I'm going to need a pick-up."

"Understood Spectre five, we'll be there as soon as we can."

Ezra was doing his very best to hide any signs of discomfort or pain from everyone else as he continued walking out of the med bay. He was returning to the Ghost, or more precisely, to his room where the Sith Holocron remained safely tucked away with his shelf of helmets.

It had been a long few days in recovery, made even longer by the scarcity of a certain someone's presence. Her absence started the very next day after he'd regained consciousness. Sabine was there for breakfast in the morning along with Hera and Zeb, but then he didn't see her again until dinner time, and once again with the same company.

The following day, Sabine wasn't with Hera in the morning and was only there around dinner time long enough to make sure he was eating before making her exit, and Hera had asked her to do that because she'd been pulled into a meeting with Rebel Command. Ezra suspected that if Hera hadn't asked, Sabine wouldn't have come at all that day.

The day after that, only confirmed his suspicion by her not visiting at all, and that absolutely infuriated Ezra. He'd thought that maybe, just maybe they might become closer as a result of his injury, but with her continued absences around him after that first day, he was obviously wrong. Things weren't getting better between the two of them with him stuck in the med bay and her no longer even visiting. In fact, he was beginning to believe that they were only getting worse.

It was at that point, Ezra decided he needed to get out of the med bay. He needed to get back to the Holocron to help him understand what was going on, and what he could do to help his desire for something romantically with Sabine to come to fruition. But, in order for that to happen, he had to be released by the medical personnel, and namely, the medical droid.

The next morning, as soon as Hera arrived, Ezra immediately began peppering her with requests to get out of there. Hera, however, remained steadfast in denying those requests, at least until the medical droid gave its approval, which had already issued its denial. Ezra knew that getting a droid to believe he was alright would be more difficult than a human, but he was determined.

As soon as the droid returned to his room again, Ezra drove the topic of medical clearance home to it. The droid attempted to ignore his demands, relying instead upon the scan performed earlier that morning. But, when the droid went to leave his room without providing Ezra with the answer he wanted, he used the Force to pick up the droid and pull it back to his bedside.

Ezra then used the threat of not allowing the droid to leave his room until he and it finally came to an agreement to put him through a battery of physical tests. If he passed them, then the droid would sign off on his release from the med bay.

Needless to say, Ezra relied heavily on his Force powers to help him through each and every test the droid chose to put him through. It almost felt like torture going through all of the range of motion testing, but he did make it through.

At that point, Hera stepped in and added the stipulations that Ezra had to strictly adhere to. She made him agree to continued rest and recuperation along with two more sessions in a bacta tank for good measure that the droid suggested when Hera was with them.

Ezra also had to agree to refrain from any form of physical training and missions were completely out of the question, but Ezra agreeable to pretty much anything so long as it provided his freedom. He even agreed to being inactive for the next two weeks or until he received full clearance from the medical droid based purely on the results of scans instead of going through another set of tests.

He knew that Hera was just being overprotective out of concern for him, and that was part of the reason why he didn't try to argue with her about the stipulations she added. But even though he'd agreed to them, he didn't stay in the Ghost for very long.

As soon as he had the Holocron, he immediately trekked out to a more private area with the assistance of a thumper to keep any nearby krykna at bay. Once he was reasonably sure he wouldn't be disturbed, he opened the Holocron up, and it instantly began speaking to him.

"Ezra Bridger, you've not opened this Holocron in many days."

"No," He responded. "I was injured during a mission, and got stuck in recovery for a while after that."

"What knowledge do you now seek?" It asked, getting directly to the point.

"I'm confused and need answers." He replied. "The person I want to be with, for a short time, it seemed like she was starting to see things between us the way I always have after she rescued me after the last mission I was on, but then without warning, she completely turned around and stopped even coming to visit me. Now it feels like she's shutting me out more than before, and I need to know what I can do to fix things between us before it's too late."

"The girl you desire is Mandalorian?" The Holocron asked as confirmation.

"Yes."

"Mandalorians are a race of people driven by power and status." The Holocron explained. "They admire victory, especially during war over all else. By displaying weakness in front of the Mandalorian girl, she would naturally be drawn away from you due to her upbringing. By allowing her to see you in an injured state, you would have displayed an unattractive look. She would initially display concern if your injuries were severe, but anything more than that would be considered weakness and not worthy of further attention."

So, by not being instantly recovered as soon as he woke up, he'd inadvertently displayed a major turnoff to her? But he wondered how would he be able to turn it around and fix it. He wasn't permitted to train or join any missions for a good amount of time, and with Gavyn also trying to weasel his way into the picture, Ezra didn't want to give him the slightest of chances if he had any say in the matter.

"Tell me what I need to do in order to fix this." He said. "I don't want to lose her, and I'll do anything to have her be with me and not Gavyn."

Sabine was walking through the Med bay corridors with Gavyn at her side, having both just returned from yet another supply mission. She wasn't especially pleased with having to go, but since Ezra had regained consciousness, she didn't have an acceptable excuse not to help out. Although she was pleased that the supply run only took a couple of days to complete.

It was also nice having Gavyn along for the supply run too, as he was really starting to grow on her the more that she hung around him. In a short amount of time, he'd already become a good friend, and with Ezra on the mend, she appreciated having that.

But even though they were only friends, she wasn't entirely sure Gavyn being with her at the moment was a good idea. Ezra had already made it obvious that he had an issue with Gavyn, and she was on her way to visit him. She did want Ezra to see that Gavyn and she were only friends, but that was going to be down the road a little ways, not while he was still healing up.

She also didn't want Gavyn to feel like Ezra resented him when it was misplaced. He'd let the sparring session go without much issue, but if Ezra continued to display animosity toward him out of some ill-conceived notion that they were in competition for her affection, there'd be no chance for Ezra to see that Gavyn was just becoming a good friend.

When they turned to the entrance of Ezra's room, it was obvious that he'd left. The room had already been cleaned and prepped for the next injured Rebel. Sabine was absolutely furious to see that he'd already been released. Why hadn't anyone told her about it?

She marched around, hunting for any medical personnel or droids that could give her the information she wanted, and upon making a second turn down a corridor, she found just that. "Hey droid," She called out, getting the medical droid's attention as she jogged toward it. "What happened with Ezra?"

"Ezra Bridger was released this morning under the condition that he refrain from missions or training until receiving full medical clearance." The droid responded before trying to return to its duties.

Sabine, however, wasn't finished yet. "And where did he go to?"

"Bridger's current location is not part of my coding to track." The droid answered.

Sabine huffed in frustration, her blood really beginning to boil. Even with the bacta treatments, Ezra should have remained in the med bay for at least a few more days.

"Maybe he's back in his personal quarters," Gavyn suggested.

"Knowing Ezra, probably not," Sabine grumbled. "Why don't we split up and see if anyone's seen him around the base. Contact me if you find out where he might be, and if I find out anything from my end, I'll let you know."

"Can't argue with a plan like that," Gavyn responded. "You'll be the first to know if I find out anything."

Sabine didn't hesitate with moving in her own direction, and the first person she went to was Hera. While Hera had been aware of Ezra's leaving the Med center, she wasn't aware of his current whereabouts. She had expected him to be in his quarters resting and went with Sabine to the Ghost only to find it completely empty.

It was at that point when Hera joined Sabine in being frustrated with the young Jedi. Hera pulled out her communicator and attempted to contact Ezra, only to hear her own voice echoing back at her from his bunk, meaning he'd left his comm behind.

"Is there any chance that he's not on base?" Hera asked.

"I wouldn't put it past him," Sabine replied. "I know he's been doing his training from somewhere outside the base perimeter, claiming that there were too many distractions for him to be completely focused on increasing his powers. It's been that way ever since he started training without Kanan."

"Ok, then we need to determine if he is off base, and which direction he would have gone if that's the case," Hera suggested. "Maybe someone witnessed him leaving. I doubt he'd go on foot because it would take too long."

"He would've most likely taken a speeder out then," Sabine concluded. "I'll let Gavyn know. He's already going around the base looking for Ezra, and he'll most likely be closer to the speeders anyway."

"We could pull in Wini too." Hera offered. "She's been in Ezra's room the past couple of days when I went to check up on him. I'll ask Zeb and Chop too."

"What about Kanan?" Sabine asked.

A sad expression crossed Hera's face at the mention of her romantic partner's name. His closing everyone out since Malachor had only gotten worse over time, and she doubted that he would be willing to help search.

If not for Ezra's injury, Hera had been planning to focus much of her attention on helping Kanan come back to the Rebellion, to come back to their family, to come back to her. She missed his presence desperately, and she knew deep down that Ezra still needed Kanan just as much despite his significant growth.

To Hera, it stilled seemed like just yesterday when Kanan pulled her aside to discuss the possible ramifications from Ezra briefly succumbing to the Darkside on that asteroid. Kanan had been afraid that he wouldn't be able to keep Ezra from falling, that he might not be able to become a Jedi at all. But then they'd traveled to a Jedi temple as padawan and master, and everything seemed to be fine when they returned. Ezra had even earned a Kyber crystal.

It was Kanan's concern for what could happen to Ezra back then that troubled her at the current moment. Because Kanan had been a major part of Ezra's Jedi training back then, and yet he was still concerned by that slip. But now when Ezra was growing at a more advanced rate, both physically as well as with his Jedi powers, Kanan was very much not a part of his training. How could Kanan have been so concerned back then and not now?

Hera didn't get much of a chance at discussing anything else before Sabine's comm chimed at her. "Sabine, I've got a lead on Ezra."

It was Gavyn, and Sabine was quick to respond. "Did he take a speeder?" She asked.

"Yeah," Gavyn confirmed. "Plus, Wini saw him when he was getting ready to head out. She said that he had a thumper with him and that he headed out west."

"Alright," Sabine said. "We'll be there as soon as we can to start tracking him down."

"No need," Gavyn replied. "The speeders already have trackers on them as a safeguard. I've already got a thumper and am heading to his location."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea." Sabine instantly stated, but Gavyn didn't reply to her.

Hera looked at Sabine in confusion, wondering why Sabine thought anyone in the Rebellion going after Ezra would be a negative but decided to let it go for the time being. "Let's go get him," She said.

Ezra was on a knee, sucking in deep breath after deep breath. He'd gone through as much as his body would allow from the Holocron's instructions, and he could see that he was exactly what the Holocron said. Weak. He wasn't even sure how he'd be able to just drive the speeder back to base because of how sore he was. It was no wonder Sabine wasn't interested in him. He had to get stronger and as fast as he could.

But any more training was going to have to wait as he could hear a speeder just off in the distance and figured someone was coming after him. He closed the Holocron and moved over to his speeder as quickly as he could, putting it away reaching for a rag to wipe some sweat away. He'd just gotten himself presentable when the speeder crested the small hill and parked beside his.

Ezra turned around and saw that the driver was none other than Gavyn, who was the absolute last Rebel Ezra wanted to see. "What are you doing here?"

"We've been looking for you," Gavyn said as he climbed off of his speeder.

"We?"

"Yeah," Gavyn continued. "Sabine and I."

Hearing what Gavyn said took everything Ezra had in him not to react. Sabine and I? Why was he saying Sabine and I? Why couldn't he just stay away from Sabine? Or had she run to him after seeing just how weak Ezra was? All of these questions flowed through Ezra's mind, and that was only the beginning.

Aside from the questions, he also had to tamp down the desire to Force choke the life out of this Rebel. "Why? I can't go on missions or anything."

He managed to say without grumbling, surprising even himself. There wasn't even a single hair on his body that wanted to be around Gavyn, and yet here he was forced into a conversation with the piece of bantha fodder.

"We went to check on you earlier this morning in the med bay, and had to find out from a medical droid that you'd been released," Gavyn explained. "Sabine wasn't too happy to find out about your release that way."

"She would've known if she'd been around the last couple of days." Ezra fired back without thinking. As soon as he'd said it, he wished he could take it back. He was unintentionally giving ground in the battle for Sabine's affection because he wasn't being focused, and was yet another weakness he'd just become aware of.

"That's not her fault you know," Gavyn said, showing a little frustration with Ezra for his attitude about Sabine's perceived absence. "She couldn't keep putting everything and everyone else on hold forever."

Ezra opened his mouth to say more but stopped himself when he suddenly heard the sounds of another speeder approaching. He reached out with the Force and was able to sense that it was Sabine and Hera closing in.

Gavyn didn't notice until Ezra became silent and started to stare out into the distance, but within a minute or two, Sabine was parking her speeder next to the other two. She was obviously angry as she stormed straight up to the two boys. "What the hell are you thinking, Ezra?" She nearly yelled as she stopped only inches in front of him. "You haven't even been released a single day and already are going off on your own out into the middle of nowhere."

"I came out here to meditate, Sabine." Ezra defended with a blatant lie. "Nothing strenuous out here, and last time I checked, meditating should be considered close enough to resting to still count."

Sabine wasn't interested in hearing his excuses. She was completely furious with him at the moment, and that was enough for her to momentarily forget about his injuries as she latched onto his right arm a little too aggressively, causing him to flinch ever so slightly, but it was enough that she immediately noticed.

"Hera, I'm going to take Ezra and his speeder back to base," Sabine said. "Can you and Gavyn take the other two?"

Both Hera and Gavyn agreed, with both of them climbing onto their own speeders, with Gavyn giving Sabine a last look before firing up his speeder and taking off. Sabine didn't see it, but Ezra did. As soon as both Hera and Gavyn were gone, he tried to pull his arm free, but that only caused him more pain.

"Meditation may be another form of resting, Ezra," Sabine said. "But riding a speeder all the way out here isn't. Why would you risk your recovery by coming out here?"

Ezra wanted to fire back at her in anger. He wanted to tell her that she was the reason behind his motivation, but since she'd left him for the last few days and it seemed that she was with Gavyn for part of that time at least, he concluded that if he did open up, she'd only pull farther away from him. "I've been lying around long enough Sabine." He finally said.

"That's not it." She responded. "What aren't you telling me?"

Ezra sighed. This wasn't getting them anywhere. "I have my reasons Sabine, and you wouldn't understand."

"You can't know that for sure if you won't even give me the chance." Sabine continued to push.

"I just can't, Sabine." Was all Ezra would say. "So please don't ask me to."

Sabine was disappointed. She'd thought that Ezra wouldn't hide things from her, and discovering that wasn't the case hurt to know. She didn't like the fact that things were apparently not really getting better between them, but she could be stubborn too. "I'll let it go if you promise to stay on base until you're healthy enough to pass full medical clearance."

"Deal." Ezra agreed readily.

"Good," Sabine responded. "Let's go home then."