PASSING THE TORCH

Who remembers the other less-than-well-thought-out decision made at the end of the last story? One involving Ezra Bridger, Molly St. James, and a justice of the peace?

As soon as Ezra heard that Zeb was making his bi-weekly visit he knew he had to tag along, not that he was interested in visiting the Kalluses. Sure Philip was cute, and Alex had become a friend, but he had other things in mind.

After he split off from Zeb, Ezra picked up a small bouquet of flowers from a street vendor, something he'd seen his father do for his mother on one of her birthdays, and made his way to the St. Jameses'.

He didn't have to worry about explaining his presence to Molly's parents. He knew Hutch and Hero were on vacation; Molly had told him. They texted each other good morning and good night every day. They were, after all, husband and wife even if they didn't live together, and were determined to make their unconventional situation work. After such a long separation Ezra thought a little added romance wouldn't hurt. And the idea of having some time alone with his wife had a definite appeal.

He hadn't even knocked on the door when Molly threw it open with an excited "Ezra!"

"Hey!" He embraced her, careful not to crush the flowers. "How'd you know I was here?"

Molly beamed and held up her comm unit. "I got an alert from Find My Friends."

"I should've known I can't hide from a hacker." Ezra groaned melodramatically.

"I have to have some way to keep up with my Jedi husband." She laughed.

He whipped the flowers out from behind his back. "But I can surprise you with these!"

"They're beautiful," Molly sniffed the blooms and carried them inside to put in water, Ezra following behind. "You're the best husband ever."

Now that the romantic gesture was over Ezra didn't quite know what to do with himself. He stood by awkwardly while Molly fetched a vase and filled it with water. "So, how have you been? What's going on?"

"You're never going to believe what happened today." She dropped onto the couch and beckoned Ezra to sit with her as she told him about the museum robbery. "So Tav, Kiara, Sandor, and I are teaming up with Aunt Soniee's kids to investigate it. We thought it was about time we took a job on our own."

"Just you guys?"

"Just us in terms of our family," Molly offered. "I'm the hacker, obviously. Tav's sort of the mastermind, Kiara's … Kiara, Sandor is helping with the logistics in the museum, and Melaana's our thief. But we could totally use some extra muscle if you wanted to join in."

"Oh, I want to!" He nodded and showed her how eager he was to stick around with a kiss that she happily reciprocated. A little while an unwelcome thought occurred to him and he pulled back: "Wait, why can't your uncles investigate the museum thing?"

"They're busy. Uncle Lux is helping Dalla's lieutenant and Aunt Soniee just got admitted to the medcenter for premature labor."

"She's pregnant?" Ezra jumped a little on the couch and unconsciously put a little more distance between himself and his wife. "I mean wow, that's great, hope she's okay, but…"

They couldn't have a baby now; Ezra wasn't ready. Not only were he and Molly young and wanted to have some adventures before settling down, but Kanan and Hera would find out about a baby real quick. And he really wasn't ready for that.

"We don't want it to happen to us, I know." Molly rolled up her sleeve, revealing an adhesive bandage stuck to her upper arm. "That's why I went and made sure we don't have to worry about it."

Ezra grinned. "Have I ever said you're a genius?"

"You can tell me again later." She kissed him again.

...

"Momma found out she's having a girl," Melaana whispered into her comlink, the covers pulled over her head and Kiara snoring on the other side of the room. "They're okay right now but they have to stay at the medcenter, so we're stuck at Aunt Ahsoka and Uncle Lux's."

"That's not so bad," Sandor could talk a little louder since he didn't have to share his bedroom. "And having a sister's not so bad either."

"You're an only child."

"Yeah, but Selkie's sorta like my sister. Guess since the tooka's out of the bag I can call her Hannah." He said. "She's like the daughter my mom always wanted, even if she gets kind of weird when Mom starts talking about the future. Mom doesn't think I'm good enough to train for her job. She'd rather work with somebody who was already well trained."

"I didn't get to meet her," Mel sulked. She'd really wanted to meet Dalla's lieutenants, but especially Selkie since she was a girl. "Uncle Lux said something about her going to stay with Aunt Sierra and Uncle Alex but it didn't sound like she was happy about it."

"Mom's worried about her too. See, all the adults are busy. We're the only ones who can solve the museum robbery."

"Are you sure your parents won't notice?"

"Positive. They barely stopped to eat tonight. So I say we meet up -."

The covers were ripped off Mel and she reeled back. Kiara Bonteri stood over her, very much awake.

"What are you doing?" She demanded. "Are you talking to Sandor?"

"Uh…"

Kiara snatched the comlink from her hands and checked Caller ID. "Really? Does Uncle Saw know you're using the comlink he gave you to call your boyfriend?"

"Sandor's not my boyfriend! Give it back!"

"Sure." Kiara tossed the unit without a care in the universe. "We're going to meet again tomorrow; why don't you go to sleep?"

"Hey" There was a whispered voice from the hallway and a light knock on the door. Tav came into the room leading Pascal by the hand. "You two are still awake? This guy couldn't sleep either. I thought it might help if I brought him to see his big sister."

Melaana guessed being a big sister wasn't so bad. She did love her brother. She held out her arms to him and he ran to jump up on the bed she was borrowing for the night.

"You didn't have any more dreams, did you?" she asked him quietly as she hugged him.

Pasc shook his head.

"And you know Momma and the baby are going to be okay?" The question was as much for her own reassurance as it was for his, because well, Pasc knew things.

He nodded and Mel smiled and tickled him.

When he giggled and squirmed he bumped the comlink that she had nearly forgotten about and the image of Sandor Wallace in his pajamas emanated from the unit.

Kiara squealed and grabbed for a robe to put over her nightgown.

Tav laughed and sat down on the end of her bed, "Oh so this is what's kept you girls up so late."

Kiara tossed one of her short lekku over her shoulder. "That would be Melaana. I was asleep. I told her we would all be getting together tomorrow to talk about…"

"But we're almost all here now!" Sandor said from the comlink.

"We really shouldn't do anything without Molly," Tav suggested. "If she's going to be acting as our hacker."

"We could comm her!" Mel sat up on her knees in excitement.

"She's probably getting a good night's sleep so she can put in another day at the restaurant tomorrow."

Kiara complained but without any real venom, "And when did my bedroom become our HQ?"

"Couldn't hurt to try." Sandor grinned. "It's not like we'd risk waking up her parents since they aren't there."

"Alright." Tav took his own comlink out of his pocket and keyed in the ID. "But if she wants to sleep we let her sleep and do this tomorrow, deal?"

They all agreed and Tav dialed in Molly to join the party comm only for the holofield to light up with two figures.

"Hey guys!" Ezra chirped, casually reclining on a couch.

Molly was much less calm. "What's wrong? Is Aunt Soniee okay?"

"Nothing's wrong," Kiara said. "We were all up so we thought we'd give you a comm and see if you were too. What's Ezra doing with you?"

"I tagged along with Zeb for his visit but there was no room at Kalluses'," Ezra explained. "Molly was nice enough to let me crash in her sister's old room."

"Right." Kiara nodded skeptically, but then decided that whatever was going on between her cousin and Ezra, it wasn't her problem. "Does Ezra know about the museum thing?"

"Fully briefed." Ezra leaned forward in his seat.

"Not fully." Tav said. "We heard why our parents got called in. Someone tried to kill Selkie and it's bad enough that she and her husband have to go stay with Uncle Alex. According to Dad, it's about to get ugly over there."

"Isn't that where Zeb...?" Ezra trailed off and checked his own comm unit. "Oh it's getting ugly alright. Zeb just peaced out of there."

"Her name's Hannah, Hannah Swain." Sandor interjected. "She's worked with Mom for years with no problems. If someone got the jump on her they have to be good."

Ezra raised his head. "Did you say Swain? Like, Officer Swain who used to be stationed on Lothal under Kallus?"

"Why, do you know her?"

"...I might have thrown a meiloorun at her head."

"What?"

"She was an Imperial!" Ezra shuddered. "Once we found out Kallus had a shadow, Kanan figured we should try to feel her out and I thought 'what better way than a melon to the melon?' She chased me through the streets - and she's fast. I only got away because of the Force."

"Aye that sounds like Hannah," Sandor admitted.

Ezra nodded. "After that we didn't have a reason to mess with her much. Zeb called her 'The little agent.' I called her Evil Sabine. But one day she just dropped off the face of the planet. We thought she got transferred or something. Didn't really care."

"It wasn't a transfer; it was a defection. She's been with the network ever since, and after the war she's been spying on the cops from the inside."

"She's a cop? Did she respond to the museum robbery?" Tav asked and when Sandor nodded he clapped in triumph. "That's it! She must have seen something and the thieves are trying to keep it from getting out."

"Like what?" Kiara asked.

"I don't know and she probably doesn't either. We just have to figure out what it is and we have the answer to the museum robbery and the hit. Our parents can't ignore that."

"We don't know that the hit and the robbery were connected," Sandor said. "It could be just a coincidence."

"Pretty big coincidence that it happened on the same day and Selkie was the investigator."

Mel brightened. "So where do we start?"

"Mom says there wasn't anything on the security cameras," Sandor said. "Maybe that's a good place?"

"Then it's settled." Tav nodded to all of them. "Tomorrow morning we meet in the museum lobby and focus on how the thief fooled the cams. Everybody get some sleep."

"You didn't say the thing," Mel sulked.

"What thing?"

"Where you say what we're stealing."

"What are we even stealing?" Kiara asked. "The museum?"

"Somebody already stole from that," Ezra pointed out. "A Swain?"

Sandor snorted. "I think Kallus has that one in the bag."

"It's not quite right either." Tav rubbed his chin like his father would sometimes when he was deep in thought. "It's not the museum or Hannah we're looking for, it's … I've got it."

The rest of the junior con men leaned in to listen to him.

"Let's go steal our parents' jobs."