WHO KNEW?

Hey all! DK here! For the beginning of this chapter we're going to jump back a couple of months because Soniee's pregnancy seems to have come as quite a surprise to some people. Here's how the news got out!

Saw heard the knock on the door and called, "It's open!" He had told her she was welcome any time. Honestly he had hoped that they might just have gotten over the formality of saying the words and then she and the kids could have moved right in with him. He knew she needed time however to grieve and consider what a huge transition this would be for all of them. And in the meantime she had asked that they refrain from extramarital conduct until their vows had been said. She wanted to be an example not only to Melaana and Pasc but also to Molly and Kiara.

Saw had hardly seen his bride-to-be without some sort of chaperone since she had come to stay on Onderon and settled into Mina's home where her children had been staying during the murder investigation. The three of them were comfortable there and it was good for her to be with Mina for support. But the wedding did have to be planned and Soniee said she had something else she wanted to discuss with Saw so they had arranged this date night to be alone together.

As Soniee made her way through the apartment Saw was in the kitchen on a holocomm with Hero. She was giving him the last minute instructions for the meal he was preparing and she waved hello from the projection as Soniee entered the room. Soniee waved back and smiled.

"So if you've got that, then I'll leave you two to it." Hero nodded back toward Saw.

"Yeah, I think I've got it." He winked at Soniee, threw his spatula in the air so it twirled around, and then caught it again by the handle.

Hero laughed. "Have fun you two." and then her image faded from the connection.

"She's actually letting you try one of her recipes?" Soniee asked sitting down at the table and watching him cook.

"I wanted tonight to be special." He spooned up a bit of the sauce in the pan and carefully brought it over to her for a taste. "It is sort of our first real date afterall." He held the spoon to her lips.

"Mmm. It's good." She complemented with a grin.

"Yeah? Good." He checked a chrono while he went back to give the sauce another stir. "Just a couple more minutes on the steaks and while that's doing, I'll pour the wine."

"I think I'll actually just have some water if you don't mind."

"Of course." Saw had already poured his own and he frowned slightly as he set back down the bottle. It was a good vintage and he had chosen it specifically to pair with their meal but if she was worried about driving back home to Mina's intoxicated or that he was trying to entice her to stay…

The entire family had been teasing them about their chaste lifestyle since their rather scandalous first meeting and their following whirlwind engagement. Numerous offers of watching the children had come their way but Saw was careful to follow her lead and respect her wishes.

"Saw, there's something I need to tell you."

He wiped his hands on a towel and went to sit across from her to give her his full attention.

She looked as if she was having trouble putting the words together now that she had decided to do it. "I had thought for a while that it might just be the stress of the investigation and the move to Onderon and everything or maybe it was just my age…"

"Nya, what is it? You're scaring me." He reached out and took her hand.

"I'm pregnant."

The words hung in the air and then the timer on the oven broke the silence and he jumped up to pull the main course out before it burnt to a crisp. He was trying to think about how to answer while he set the dish on the stove and shut off the heating elements. Then he turned to face her. "You know I love Melaana and Pascal more than anything and if Korkie left you another little person to remember him by…"

"You don't understand." She let out what could almost be a nervous giggle. "Korkie was never ready for another child. When he ever had the time, we were studiously preventing… but from the timing and the opportunity… Saw, it's yours. I'm sure of it."

Dinner was all but forgotten as he fell to his knees in front of the chair where she sat. "M-my baby? You're having my baby?"

He had hardly touched her since that night after the murder at the palace but now she turned her chair slightly so he could have better access and allowed him to place his hands on her growing belly. How had he not noticed? She had been wearing a different style of clothes since she left behind her life as a duchess but he thought he knew her so well. Now he noticed the roundness at her waist and her breasts.

She sighed, mistaking his silence as he studied her for disgust. "I may have to have my gown altered. I was hoping to hide it from everyone till after…. Unless you don't want…"

"Nya, you're beautiful!" He kissed her enthusiastically. "You don't have to hide it. I think we should tell everyone! You're having my baby!"

She responded to another kiss but then pushed him away. "Oh no we can't! Sierra has just had Philip. I don't want to take away their spotlight. The wedding is enough to distract from their happiness. We can keep quiet about this for a little longer."

"Not much longer," he teased, his hand still resting on her belly. It had been months already since they had made this thing come to pass and somehow she had managed to keep her secret.

After dinner, which was spent with his chair pulled much closer to hers than he had originally intended. He had hardly been able to pay attention to the food he had prepared. He kept reaching out his hand to lay it on her stomach.

Soniee rolled her eyes and laughed at him but she was happy that he was happy and she allowed him to try to feel his child move within her. That is until her hunger and desire to try what he had concocted overcame her patience and she shooed him away with a another laugh so she could eat.

After dinner he led her to the living room and sat her down in a comfortable chair. "What about the dishes?" she protested. "You did the cooking. It's only fair that I do the clean up."

"It can wait." He grinned. "I want to show you this. We have to choose the music for our ceremony, don't we?"

"I suppose." she sighed, in mock irritation. She certainly didn't mind putting off kitchen duty.

He pressed a button on the wall and a panel covered in some old work of art, that was probably stolen come to think of it, slid back to reveal a shelving unit behind it. The shelves were lined with… record albums, not to mention a very nice stereo on which to play them.

"The rest of the crew was more concerned with liquid assets when we retired. Lux and Ahsoka and Hutch and Hero had kids to put through college. Steela has a thing for gemstones so she and Rex might have invested in some of that. But I used my share to acquire my collection." He ran a hand over the well ordered disk sleeves.

It still made her uncomfortable, the prevalence of stolen goods and those items that were purchased with ill gotten credits but she couldn't help but see the pride he took in these acquisitions. "Were you able to replace the one…" She remembered years ago before she had left Onderon, she had thought forever, that they had talked about music. His mother had liked some of the same old standards as her ba'buir. "The one from the case that held my mother's journal."

Saw ran his finger along the titles on the edge of the cases until he got about halfway down the shelf and then pulled out the album and held it up. It was identical to, although in better condition than, the one he had handed to her on the boarding ramp. She hadn't understood at the time why he would give her such a thing until Korkie discovered that it was not a music disk at all, but the data holo that had revealed her whole history.

He withdrew the true contents carefully from the envelope and placed it on the turntable. Then he set the needle in the groove and as the strains of the music began to play he turned to face her and bowed. "May I have this dance?"

She paused for a moment and then raised her chin defiantly. "No."

"No?" he deflated.

"I want our first dance to be on our wedding day." she admitted.

He had wanted to ask her to dance at that party they threw together on the old Piece of Crap after they rescued Sierra and framed Tor. And then at Sierra and Kallus' wedding he had asked her to dance after her husband was called away on business. She had told him she couldn't and he had respected her. More than anything he wanted to hold her and sway to the music. It was all he had ever wanted. He knew she wanted that too and that's why she wanted it to be special.

"Alright." He nodded in agreement but then he turned to lift something else off of the shelf of electronic equipment. It was a set of headphones. "But I'll have our baby properly brought up on the classics."

Saw crossed the room to her chair after plugging in the unit and fiddling with the settings on the player. He knelt in front of her, and with a silent question from his gaze, placed the set of headphones against her barely swollen belly.

She laughed. "I don't know if it can even hear yet."

"Well as soon as it can. It'll be the classics all the way."

It was a jazz standard, just the instrumental version, that was playing and Saw leaned close and added the words. His voice was low and mellow and she knew she would never get tired of hearing it, though their baby might. She smiled and stroked his hair.

…

Steela glanced at the chrono on the wall as she returned from settling Melaana in she and Rex's guest room. "Hmm…"

They had agreed to watch the kids for the evening but the plan had been for Soniee to come and pick them up and take them home to Mina's before bedtime. It wasn't much of a surprise that Pasc had fallen asleep before their movie ended but when Mel requested a second holo and didn't pass out till halfway through that one, Rex had suggested they go ahead and move them both to someplace more comfortable for the night.

He easily settled their little nephew who didn't make a peep at being moved but Steela had the harder task of transporting the tired tween who woke up and had to be coaxed back to sleep with one of Auntie Steela's stories of her exciting exploits.

Rex's face was hidden behind a news holo when she returned but she could hear the smirk in his voice when he spoke. "What? You got somewhere you need to be?"

She gave him a playful swat as she passed into the kitchen to get a drink. She reached for a wine bottle and then thought better of it.

"It's not that." She told him and grabbed a bottle of vitamin water. "I just thought Soniee would comm if she was going to be late is all."

"They probably just lost track of the time." He looked at her over the edge of the holo and wagged his eyebrows suggestively.

"Or she could be lying somewhere in a ditch." She raised the bottle to him and then took a drink. She didn't seem terribly worried.

Rex folded the news holo and theorized. "If that was the case then Saw would have commed us asking if she made it here safely to get the kids because she hadn't commed him yet to check in."

Steela considered as she took another drink. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Can you blame them?" Rex asked, reaching for the remote so he could more than likely watch the same news stories that he had just been reading.

Steela finished her drink, pushed away from the table on which she had been leaning, and grabbed her speeder keys from the hook before she headed for the door. "Keep an ear open for the kids in case they wake up."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm just gonna make sure everything's okay."

"You could just comm." Rex smiled knowing he'd never change her mind.

"And risk interrupting something? Never!"

"So you're going to spy on them instead?"

"What are sisters for?"

…

There was no evidence of any traffic accidents on the route between Steela and Rex's place and Saw's apartment. So that was one worry checked off the list. And an equally concerned Mina commed while Steela was driving to inquire if the plans had been changed without her knowledge. She had been expecting her house guests back a couple of standard hours ago and just wanted to be sure.

Steela kept her eyes on the road and answered with the hands free app. "Don't worry. I'm going to check on them now. The kids are all tucked up at our house and Rex is looking out for them. I'll let you know what I find out."

"Oh but don't interrupt them if they need some more time alone." Mina added quickly.

"They probably won't even know I'm there." Steela laughed as she ended the comm and pulled into the lot at the apartment complex.

Soniee's speeder was still parked next to Saw's in its regular spot and there was a light coming from behind the curtains of the living room window.

Alright all that checked out and now it was time for the sneaky bit. Steela pulled on her climbing gloves. She was already wearing her soft soled shoes. She had cut off her headlights as she entered the lot so the occupants of the units wouldn't see her approach even though Saw's apartment was on the second story and the downstairs neighbors seemed to be blissfully unaware in slumber. Then she quietly opened and shut her speeder door and slunk like a jungle tooka through the shadows to the building.

It was the work of a moment to scale the outer wall. Then hanging precariously by her toes and fingertips she visually scanned the frame around what she knew to be Saw's kitchen window. There was no alarm there to be triggered.

Now Steela was well aware that her brother had a system set up on his precious record collection but the state of security on the rest of his domicile was sadly lacking. She would have to have a talk with him about that if he was planning on having her sister-in-law and niece and nephew moving in with him after the wedding. They were far too precious to put their lives in that kind of danger. She scowled as she easily jimmied the latch and raised the lower window panel far enough that she would be able to squeeze through.

She waited a beat, listening, but only heard that type of music that was unique to her brother's taste floating from another part of the apartment. Unless, she supposed, Soniee was a fan of those golden oldies as well. It was possible. Maybe that's what they'd been up to all this time. Saw was probably boring her senseless.

Well Steela would see about that. She reached through the open window slowly and carefully and placed her gloved hands on the counter top beneath it. Then with the practiced agility of her calling she flipped so that all her weight was on her hands, held that position for just a moment observing the table full of unwashed dishes upside down before she finished the turn and landed lightly on her feet on the plasticrete tiles.

Again she paused to make sure she hadn't been observed and then tiptoed down the hall in the direction of the strains of brassy horns and valachord. If she took another step she was sure she would be visible to anyone sitting on the sofa but that seemed to be empty. She noticed a flash of movement on the other side of the room, though and peeked around to see Soniee sitting on the recliner and the back of her brother's head where he was kneeling in front of his bride-to-be.

They both seemed to be fully clothed and weren't really locked in one another's embrace. And then Saw whispered something that Steela couldn't hear but Soniee smiled and nodded. He moved slightly to the side and Steela prepared to jump back out of the line of sight if either of them chose to look in her direction. But what was that? Was she holding a set of headphones?

Wow, Steela knew that her brother was a fanatic about his music. Maybe he was trying to get her to listen to some difference in the quality between the regular speakers and the directly focused into your ears variety. But, no she wasn't just holding them in her lap they were sort of pressed against her belly. And just then Saw leaned down and said something closer to her stomach and then looked up into her face with a grin and she smiled back at him.

No Way! Steela hadn't seen anyone behave like that since the time Hutch was trying to teach Molly the University of Onderon theme song before she was born. But Soniee couldn't be... The two of them had been so careful. And by careful she meant hadn't even fallen asleep in the same room since they got back to Onderon after the murder investigation. Of course there was that first night when Rex had found them together in the Palace on Mandalore. Could that have been when it happened? Or maybe it was Korkie's and Saw…

Steela watched the way her brother tenderly placed his hand on Soniee's stomach. None of that mattered. He had obviously already claimed the child as his own.

It was a precious scene to witness, almost more intimate than if she had discovered them… doing something else.

She retraced her steps into the kitchen to think about what to do next and backed unthinkingly into the table still piled with dirty dishes. There was a crash when one of them fell to the floor. "Osik!" she swore.

Saw was there in an instant but when he discovered who it was he leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms over his chest. "Don't you ever use the front door? Or knock?"

"I did just now." Steela chuckled. "I knocked the wine glass right off the table."

"Is everything okay?" Soniee called from the other room.

"Yeah, it's just Steela." he grumbled back over his shoulder.

"Oh Manda! Is it that late?" They heard her cry.

Saw glanced at the crono above the heating unit. "So you came to check up on us?"

Steela couldn't help herself. She gushed in a low voice so Soniee wouldn't hear. "You've got to tell me. I'm your sister. Is she pregnant?"

He tried to stay angry with her but his face lit up. "Yeah," he admitted. "But you can't tell anyone. She, we, want to keep it quiet for a while. We'll make an announcement after we get back from the honeymoon."

"I won't tell a soul," Steela whispered but she looked like she was about to squeal.

They could hear Soniee approaching from the other room so quickly Saw added, "and don't tell her I told you!"

"I won't," she mouthed just before the prego herself entered the kitchen to join them.

"Steela, I do hope they weren't too much trouble for you. I'm so sorry. It's long past their bedtime." She didn't even ask how her almost sister-in-law had entered the apartment from somewhere other than the front door. She was becoming more used to the eccentricities of her new family.

"They were angels." Steela winked at her brother. "They both fell asleep and Rex is with them and if you need them to stay the rest of the night so you can…"

"No, no. I never meant for you to keep them all night. I'll just grab my jacket and then I can follow you back and pick them up."

Saw looked disappointed. "You sure? You can stay if you want, go over in the morning? I could even sleep on the couch."

Soniee turned to face him nearly forgetting that Steela was there. She touched his cheek and he drew her close in his arms.

For a moment Steela was sure the other woman would change her mind.

"I think it would be… too great a temptation. Not to mention how it would look. I'm sure everyone already suspects…" Her face had turned a lovely shade of pink.

Suspect? Steela almost giggled. Everyone was going to know without a shadow of a doubt in another month or so. She managed a straight face before Soniee looked at her again.

"Thank you again so much for watching them so we could…" another embarrassed smile was shot in Saw's direction.

"I'll see you out." Saw took Soniee's hand and then addressed the rest of the statement to his sister. "The front door. Like normal people."

"Normal is boring!" Steela called after them as they retreated. She did a little happy dance, spinning on the spot but then was reminded of the glass she broke and stooped to pick up the pieces. Maybe she could clean up a bit as a repayment for cutting their evening short.

Before she did that however she placed a quick comm to Rex. "She's headed your way, Babe. She wasn't in a ditch and they weren't even doing anything exciting, just listening to Saw's old records." She really didn't want to keep this absolutely amazing news to herself.

"Alright."

And then another little face popped up in the image and Steela was glad she hadn't spilled the beans. "Uncle Rex said you went to get Momma."

"Yeah, I'll be back soon but your Momma will probably get there first. Help Uncle Rex pick up your and Pasc's things to make it easier for her." Auntie Steela instructed.

"I will." she trotted off leaving Rex in the image.

"She woke up not long after you left. Had to keep her busy so she didn't try to follow you."

"I'm sorry." Steela grimaced. "I'm going to help Saw out a bit here and then I'll come home and make it up to you."

"It was pretty hard work here without you." he cracked a smile. "You might need the StarChucks apron."

"Sure thing, mon amor."

…

Steela was grinning at her mischievously as Soniee picked up the next gift from the small pile. She had told the girls she didn't want a bridal shower but they had insisted. She was glad at least that she had gotten the chance to discuss her dietary restrictions with Hero before the event. She was sure it wouldn't have been good manners even here on Onderon to have to run to the fresher if certain smells didn't sit well on her delicate stomach.

As it was the day had gone off without a hitch. They hadn't gone overboard as she had asked but Mina and Ahsoka and even Sierra had made her feel welcome. She was one of the family now.

Again she fought back happy tears at their kindness and Steela nudged her. "That one is from Rex and me."

Soniee tore away the paper and stared confusedly at the garment within. "Is this a StarChucks apron?"

Ahsoka and Hero had burst into laughter. Soniee remembered that the four of them had been employees of the establishment for a whole morning back when they had worked together to find Katooni but she still didn't understand the joke.

"Well," Steela couldn't hold back a giggle of her own. "Rex specifically requested that I pack something similar for our honeymoon so I had to make sure that you had one as well."

"We all about died when you two were leaving your reception and your bag popped open and that thing fell out." Hero had to wipe her eyes from tears of mirth.

But Soniee shook her head still not understanding.

Steela cleared her throat so she could tell the story. "I didn't hear about it either till much later but evidently Rex and Saw were standing there while you and I were getting ready for the steal the caff shop job."

"The way Hutch tells it," Hero added. "Both of them stopped dead when they saw the two of you tying each other's strings and he asked them, just joking, if they would rather that the apron was all either of the two of you were wearing. Saw punched Rex for thinking such a thing about his baby sister but then they had to remind Saw that he was going to be doing surveillance with your boyfriend all day so he had better clean up his thoughts as well."

Soniee's mouth fell open. Come to think of it she did remember there being a sort of scuffle down the hallway on the morning she and the rest of the girls had gotten ready for their job. Then she closed it again and blushed. "Well this is very… thoughtful." And they all laughed. "But you really didn't need to get me anything."

"Don't worry I swiped that from the shop down by the square last weekend," Steela waved it off.

"You…" Soniee's eyes widened slightly. She was still getting used to the fact that the most treasured gifts in this family were ones that had been stolen.

When the other girls had gone to get another piece of cake Steela leaned closer to her almost sister-in-law. "I hope you're still able to tie the strings," she said softly.

"What?" Soniee's gaze whipped to the others at the buffet table to see if any of them had heard. "I mean, I'm sure if I can't then Saw will help…"

"It is… his, isn't it?" Steela asked in a curious undertone. "I mean the timing, it could have been either of them."

"No it's… how did you know?"

Steela smiled warmly. "My brother is over the moon and not just because you're finally exchanging your vows. He already loves Mel and Pasc and I know he would love this one too either way. I just wondered…"

"It's his." Soniee assured her. She tilted her head slightly to indicate her intention for them to make their way outside. She wasn't ready to have this conversation with anyone else. Once they were out of hearing range of the others she began her story.

"My pregnancy with Pasc was tough. I was sick as a strill from before I even knew I was pregnant till the week he was born. We were never really in danger though I was hooked up to an IV a couple of times for dehydration. It just took me away from a lot of the things I would normally have been doing.

"I didn't feel like getting out of bed for months and I had an active 5 year old girl who needed me as much as ever. It was then that I found out she could already read Basic and was bored with all the children's books we had on hand. So I started to teach her Mando'a and she picked that up easily as well.

"That was easy enough an activity for us to share. She'd just climb in bed with me and we'd read for hours or else I would tell her stories about the grandmothers she was named for, at least as much as I knew about them. I had my mother's journal and I was just learning to translate it for myself now that I had the time."

"The journal that Saw had located for you?" Steela asked.

"That's right," Soniee nodded. "It got Melaana interested to know more about Onderon, so I told her about the short time that Korkie and I had spent here and about all of you. Those were the stories she liked the best.

"I don't think Korkie begrudged me that time I spent with our daughter but he did miss having me at his side. I didn't realize how much he missed me until after Pascal was born.

"He was a perfect baby. He never cried. He was almost too quiet and observant for an infant. But we were able to get back to living life again. Mel started school so she had instructors to ask her millions of questions and I could just bundle Pasc up in a birikad and take him with me back to the business of helping Korkie rule the system.

"We were the perfect royal family for a few weeks with our little prince and princess. And then... I'm not sure how I knew. I certainly wasn't sick like I had been with Pascal. I remember I was holding him one afternoon. He had nursed and fell back to sleep and he nuzzled against my belly and I just knew."

"You were pregnant again?" Steela reached out and touched her arm, knowing that the story didn't end happily.

"I took a test to be sure. I was... anxious about it happening again so soon. I felt great for the moment but I was worried that the sickness that I had just seemed to get over, that had taken so much out of me, would start up again any moment. And I was worried about telling Korkie.

"He took the news worse than I thought. He didn't blame me in so many words but he did say he wished I had warned him that it was possible. He blamed himself for letting it happen. He was worried about my health of course but he was also afraid of doing his job alone again for several more months.

"I told him I felt fine. I hadn't been sick with Mel and maybe this time would be more like that."

"Surely he came around," Steela guessed. "I know he loved Mel and Pascal more than anything."

"He suggested it might be a false positive, some sort of residual hormones kriffing up the results. That had to be it. He settled on that answer and refused to discuss it further. I didn't bring it up, thinking maybe he was right.

"So we went on as if I'd imagined the whole thing. From the outside we were still the happy family but in private Korkie was determined to make sure that it wouldn't happen now that we thought it was possible.

"I couldn't let go of the idea though. I took Pascal in for a wellness checkup. The nurse asked me how I was feeling. I told her about my silly suspicion. She gave me another test. Then she congratulated me and said it was lucky that every pregnancy was different and this one seemed to be going so much smoother than the last. I thanked her and asked her not to tell anyone. I still had to tell the Duke.

"Well he changed his tune when I had a medical diagnosis. He said he was sorry for not believing me. He said the timing wasn't ideal, which it wasn't, but it was what it was and we would face the challenge together. And we wouldn't tell anyone else until it was necessary. I was feeling well enough. We could pretend everything was normal.

"I never got sick, not even a little queasy but once I knew for sure that there was a child... well I'm a mother. I started thinking of the future for the ad'ika."

Soniee put her hand on her belly and when she did her current condition became a little more obvious. She looked over her shoulder to see that the other girls were still out of earshot and not looking in their direction.

"It just wasn't real to him yet." She went on with her story. "He never spoke about it in terms of a son or daughter, just... the pregnancy.

"And then the pains started. I was acting as his secretary during a holo conference and had to ask to be excused. I said it was because I had heard Pascal fussing and he needed to be fed. It was true he was crying. I had never heard him cry like that before.

"Korkie cut the meeting short thinking something was wrong with our son, but it wasn't Pascal, I was losing the baby.

"I went to the hospital for an outpatient procedure and came home again the same evening. It was over. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise, Korkie said, neither of us were really ready to increase our family again quite so soon. He said if we really wanted another child we could wait and try again when the time was right. The time was never right."

Steela was silent, processing the information. She grabbed a tissue and handed it to Soniee and then gently she spoke. "So it's not just about letting Sierra have her limelight, is it?"

Soniee wiped her eyes. "I'm not as young as I used to be and with my history… I just don't want to get my hopes up if this one doesn't stick. And I don't want to disappoint Saw."

…

Back to the present…

"And didn't I have the greatest idea to get our dinner out tonight?" Saw opened the door for his girls to enter the restaurant and bent so Pascal could slide down off his back to the floor and scurry into the booth.

"It's wonderful." Soniee answered almost too brightly. They were both trying a little too hard to make the reunion with their children a happy occasion. "No one has to cook and no one has to clean up. We can just relax and worry about unpacking tomorrow."

She squeezed into the booth beside her son without an inch to spare for her belly beneath the edge of the table.

Pascal didn't say a word he just snuggled close to his mother.

Melaana had also been uncharacteristically quiet all afternoon. She slipped onto the bench on her step-father's side of the table and looked around to see if anyone else they knew had chosen to dine out at their favorite establishment. It was then that she noticed Sandor sitting in a booth near the kitchen with Kiara.

He smiled and waved but Melaana turned back around in her seat with a frown.

It wasn't as if she didn't like Kiara. They were cousins now, sort of. But Sandor was her friend. They had met at the Museum when Aunt Steela took her and Pasc on a tour, the legal kind. Sandor saw Mel taking holos with the comm unit Papa had given her in a gallery where that wasn't allowed.

"But I wasn't taking holos of the artwork," Mel had made the excuse.

And Sandor had grinned at her. "I know. Not many visitors find the security so interesting."

They had struck up a conversation and Sandor had thought it was funny that she and Steela Gerrera weren't actually blood relations. Well she told him, "Aliit ori'shya tal'din," that family is more than blood and he took her to see that famous painting, the one that looked like Momma, the one that had just been stolen that morning…

She looked back over her shoulder again and saw that Tav had joined the other two and they were discussing something intently.

"Welcome to the best restaurant in town," Molly had come to take their order herself with a smile. "What can I get for you? Sorry Uncle Saw, if you'd like a glass of wine I'll have to get Tav to pour it because I'm still not allowed to serve alcohol even though Mom left me in charge."

"That's alright," Papa laughed. "I'll just have some jogan tea."

"Aunt Soniee?" Molly looked as pleased with bestowing the title as Momma did accepting it.

Momma ordered water for herself and blue milk for Pasc and then Melaana muttered something about muja fizzpop. Molly said she would be right back out with their drinks.

As soon as she left Momma placed her hand on her belly and frowned slightly.

Papa was instantly on the alert. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Momma assured him. "It's nothing. We're just getting used to being back on solid ground again."

Papa relaxed a little but Pascal was still looking up at her and his deep blue eyes were equally concerned.

"It's a lot of responsibility Hero has left Molly with while they're away," Momma attempted to change the subject, "but she seems to be up to the challenge."

"Yeah," Papa agreed. "The staff is well trained and like she said Tav will step in if she needs any help."

Momma must have seen Tav and the others at the other table. "Who is the other boy? He was with them at the docks earlier, wasn't he?"

Melaana looked back again and caught her friend's eye. He motioned that she should come and join them. She didn't hold out much hope since it was supposed to be a family dinner but… "That's my friend Sandor Wallace. He's nice. Can I go sit with them? Please?" She added as an afterthought.

Papa turned to look, "Oh yeah. That's Dalla's boy. He's a good kid, practically part of the family. Seems a little lonely sometimes. It's good that Tav and Kiara and Mol are including him in whatever they're getting up to." He patted Melaana on the head affectionately. "Go ahead and sit with your friends."

Mel hopped right up but when they looked at Momma she was wearing a disapproving expression.

"Why don't you take your brother with you?" Papa tried.

Before Momma could object Mel pulled her brother out of the booth. "Come on Pasc."

She glanced back to see momma shake her head and say something about, "... thought it was going to be a family outing." but then she put her hand on her belly again and her and Papa's focus was completely drawn away from Melaana and Pascal.

"Come on," Mel gave Pasc another tug toward the kids' table and when they got there she wasted no time. "We're investigating the museum robbery, aren't we, that's why you're all here together?"

Sandor scooched over so she could have a place to sit and Tav picked up Pasc with an encouraging smile even though they both threw glances back at the other table where Momma and Papa were sitting.

"I still don't see how anyone could have gotten that painting out of the gallery right under your mom's nose." Kiara said to Sandor, confirming Melaana's assumption.

"Aunt Steela could have!" Mel inserted herself into the conversation.

"Aye," Sandor grinned. "But all of your crew were at the docks when it happened. Mom and Dad and the police are stumped."

Tav frowned. "We could ask Dad and Uncle Alex to look into it."

"Look into what?" Molly had just come out of the kitchen and when she noticed that Melaana and Pascal had moved tables she went ahead and set their drinks in front of them before going to serve Saw and Soniee.

Mel swallowed a sip of her drink before she answered, "The museum robbery."

"But we don't need to bother them with this," Sandor insisted.

"Yeah," Molly agreed. "We could do it. We helped take down Thrawn."

"But Mol," Tav reminded her, "You're already busy with the restaurant."

She shrugged as if it weren't an issue. "So this will be our base and I'll keep you all fed and informed just like Mom and Dad do. Just a sec while I go bring these to Uncle Saw."

But when she said it, they all looked over to see Uncle Saw helping Aunt Soniee stand up out of the booth. He looked worried and she had a hand in her belly as if it was hurting her.

He called over to Melaana and Pascal, "Your mom is feeling a little uncomfortable. We're going to drop you off at Aunt Mina's and then just have the doctor take a look at her to make sure everything is okay."

Pascal was out of the booth in a flash but Mel managed a glance back at the rest of the junior con men. "Don't do anything without me," she requested and ran after her parents.