A VERY MARRY VISIT

Don't think we forgot about Ezra and Molly in the middle of all this.

Breakfast on the Piece of Crap II was down to a science. Alex and Sierra's dinner table could in theory seat four adults and Philip in his highchair, but there was no such thing as a comfortable arrangement at the moment. No matter how they sliced it Swain would either be next to Kallus or directly across from him, and no one really felt like fighting so early in the morning. The solution to this was simply not to seat all four people at the same time. Kallus, Cogon, and Philip would take the table first while Swain and Sierra leaned against the kitchen counter drinking caf and dishing out gossip that would make Kallus' nurse friends proud.

At one point during his brief stint as Medical's monitor tech he asked one of the nurses why she contributed to the rumor mill. Temi had gestured to the medical unit that was falling down around both of their ears and said "Because it's the only way I can get through days like this." Hopefully Sierra and Swain's dish sessions would have the same therapeutic effect.

Today's victims weren't HoloNet celebrities or acquaintances from the Alliance, but a couple a little closer to home: Soniee and Saw.

"So her husband died less than a year ago, she slept with him the day after and now they're married with a kid in the oven?" Swain asked incredulously.

Sierra took a long sip of caf. "Yup."

Swain gave Kallus the stink eye. "And you thought my relationship moved at warp speed."

Don't take the bait, Alexsandr. Kallus ignored the comment and continued feeding Philip.

Before she could try again help arrived from the most unlikely of sources: Brent Cogon. "Well it's not just them. Remember that teenage couple I told you about who I helped get married?"

Swain beamed. "Yes! Do you still have the holo?"

"Of course I do." He pulled out his comlink and scrolled through the holos. "I just happened to be standing behind them in line at the courthouse and next thing I know I'm a wedding witness. Oh here it is!"

Kallus leaned over to get a good look at the holo and spat out a mouthful of cereal.

How had they …. Actually he wasn't sure why this surprised him, but it did.

Sierra froze. "Alex, it's not…"

"It is."

"Oh gods." Sierra set down her caf mug and grabbed the side of her head. "Hutch is going to have a stroke."

"I'm more concerned about Hera."

"You know these people?" Swain asked.

"Remember Zeb?"

"Well, yeah."

"His brother's the groom and Hutch and Hero's daughter is the bride."

"Oh, kriff."

"Oh kriff is right." Sierra's eyes were wide. "Alex, who are we going to call first?"

…

Kanan Jarrus heard Hera's hair-raising shriek all the way from the cargo hold. Once his boots regained contact with the floor he raced for the cockpit and reached it before Hera had time to draw breath for another outburst.

"What is it?" He skidded to stop. He could sense the shock pouring off Hera in the force but there was no other indication what had warranted such a reaction.

"Ezra…" Hera choked.

"Ezra?" No, he would have sensed if anything happened to Ezra!

"I'm afraid so," Kallus' voice said, modulated by the comm system. "I wish I wasn't telling you this over the comm Kanan, but it appears that Ezra got -."

As soon as he heard Kallus, Kanan realized that nothing had happened to Ezra. Something was about to happen to him.

At Kanan and Hera's hands.

…

A cheer rose up from the stadium crowd as the University of Onderon scored another miraculous goal against their archrivals, University of Mandalore.

"Yeah!" Hero jumped out of her seat, fists pumping in excitement. "Did you see that babe? In your face, U Mandalore!"

"I saw it." Hutch held down the stadium seat so she could sit. He knew Hero's sudden team spirit was the result of having an all-expenses paid trip dependent on U of Onderon's winning streak, but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy sharing his passion with his wife. Even if she was maybe a little too gung-ho about it.

"They're totally going all the way this year." Hero plunked down in her seat. "Maybe we should tell Kat and Molly to shut down the restaurant for a while. It might be a little too much for them to handle."

"If they have trouble they'll let us know." He threw an arm around her shoulders and got as comfortable as was possible on the tiny seat. "For now let's just enjoy our anniversary and celebrate twenty years of - hells yeah, Rupings!"

The cheers drowned out conscious thought for a second and when they faded Hutch heard his comm unit's ringtone. He pulled the device out of his pocket and groaned when he saw Sierra's name on Caller ID. Hadn't he told the crew that he was unavailable while on this trip?

"Sierra?" Hero looked over his shoulder. "You want me to answer?"

"Nah, I've got it." He picked up. "What's up Sierra?"

Her tone was grave. "Are you sitting down?"

"Yeah, why? Something going on back home?"

Sierra took a deep breath. "It seems Molly and Ezra Bridger …"

And that was the moment Hutch's mind went blank. He didn't recall anything from that moment until he and Hero were in a taxi on the way to the spaceport.

...

"For our only clue this thing is useless!" Kiara waved the holo stick in the air for all she was worth. "No fingerprints, no sales receipt, and you can buy one like it in every other shop on the planet."

"Not entirely," Tav said. "That holo stick tells us that the thief planned ahead and did his or her research to use it to fool the cams. They might have used other, similar tactics that could lead us to an actual clue."

Mel scoffed. "That's just a stupid burglar's trick. It's easy, like putting a cork in a …" Her face fell. Momma had tried to shield her from the details of her father's death but she'd gotten into Uncle Lux's notes and memorized everything.

"Hey, don't knock the tricks." Ezra said, but his mind seemed further off. Almost like he was trying to sense something.

"Wait!" Sandor perked up. "The security system at the museum. It's not just cams. All the items are guarded with a pressure-sensor alarm system and the only way to turn it off is with the museum keys."

"So?"

"So Dad says he noticed the painting was gone just after the alarm went off. No one could have gotten away that fast. I think the thief delayed it somehow!"

With this revelation the amateur sleuths perked up. "The key is the only way to turn it off?" Tav asked.

Sandor nodded. "The old-fashioned metal kind. Mom said something about making sure hackers couldn't touch it."

"Who has a copy?"

"Mom and Dad," he answered immediately. "Uncle Sloan and Hannah have them too, but he said something about dropping his overboard and needing to borrow hers until he could get a new one. Brent doesn't really use his, and I think the curators share one."

"Could someone have stolen your uncle's?" Molly asked.

"Not unless they like scuba diving. He was serious about the overboard thing."

"But a physical lock can be picked. And a lockpick leaves tool marks that could lead us back to the thief!"

"Yeah, if you're a CSI." Kiara snarked. "I don't know about you, but I sure don't know how to take scratches on a locking mechanism and match it to a tool. We'd need police case files and I don't see anyone lining up to break in there."

Tav shook his head. "Someone else has case files. We can get them from her."

A speeder screamed down the street going at least twice the legal limit and Ezra looked over his shoulder in slow motion.

Molly noticed. "Ez?"

"Something's coming," he murmured.

Kiara hadn't heard him. "You are not seriously suggesting we steal from Hannah."

"Think about it," Tav implored. "We don't have to take anything; we just make copies and she'll never notice they're gone."

"What do you mean something's coming?" Molly touched her husband's upper arm. Sometimes it was hard to understand him when he was 'in the force.'

Ezra's expression was still far away but the speeder was coming ever closer. "We need to get out of here."

"Why do we need to -?"

The speeder screeched to a halt and before it had even come to a complete stop all four doors popped open and regurgitated four fuming figures.

Hera Syndulla drew herself up to her full height. "Ezra Bridger!"

Kanan was already charging toward him. "What the kriff were you thinking?!"

"Osik!" Ezra's trance broke and he bolted away as fast as his legs could carry him. "Molly, run!"

Molly watched him go in shocked silence until she spotted her own parents clambering out of the backseat. Then she took off in the opposite direction.

…

He ran! He jumped! He flipped!

Ezra used every iota of his jedi training plus all his tricks from the street to get away from Kanan. He was pretty sure he'd lost him, but he also knew better than to underestimate Kanan and Hera. Whatever he had now was merely a head start and if he was going to survive he needed to take full advantage of it.

And to take full advantage, he needed some help. Ezra frantically knocked on the front door of Piece of Crap 2, looking over his shoulder to make sure Kanan wasn't behind him.

The door opened revealing - stars and galaxies, he still had some luck left! - a very confused Brent Cogon. Kallus or Sierra must have asked him to answer the door.

"Ezra?" Cogon asked. "What are you -?"

"I'll explain, just let me in!" Ezra shoved past him and out of sight of the landing platform.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the wedding thing got out." Cogon cringed. "Look I'm sorry. I didn't know you were married to Sierra's niece otherwise I wouldn't have shown Kallus the holo."

"No time." He had priorities besides getting angry over being exposed or that his wingman hadn't warned him. "You're Spear and your wife's Selkie, right? You work for, like, the biggest fence network in the galaxy?"

"We...are…"

"Great. I need you to fence me somewhere Kanan and Hera will never find me."

"Look I'm sorry, but no can do. Not only are Hannah and I locked out of the loop right now, but -."

"You don't get it. I need to get out of here or next time you see me it'll be on a morgue slab." He explained the situation even though he probably didn't have to. Maybe Cogon didn't understand that he was in fact in mortal peril. "All I need is a ride out of here so I can lie low while Hera and Kanan cool down."

"Hold up." Cogon held out his hand to cut him off. "You've got angry parents chasing you and you left Molly behind?"

Ezra nodded.

"You can't just leave your wife!" Cogon squawked and waved his arms. "Yegads man, what are you doing?"

"I-I gave her a warning! It was every man for themselves!"

"I didn't leave Hannah behind when we had the Empire chasing us. And they're much worse than parents!"

"What's this about leaving Hannah?" The woman herself entered the foyer with a confused expression that only deepened when she saw Ezra. "Padawan Jabba?"

Nice to see you too, Agent-in-training Swain, Ezra mentally groused before he realized that pissing off Selkie would be hazardous to his health. "Swain, hey, long time no see. Can you get me out of here?"

"Oh don't even try that putting-us-against-each-other thing," Cogon shook his head, linking up with his wife. "We don't split up. We're rock solid."

"Rock solid," Swain echoed and Ezra's stomach plummeted. Not only was Cogon suddenly not on his side, but his wife was also his hype woman.

This wasn't going to go well but Ezra pushed forward anyway. "I thought you understood what we were going through. You know, since Kallus didn't approve of you guys."

"We do understand that." Cogon said. "That's why we were behind you about getting married in secret. Ditching your wife is a completely different thing."

"You ditched your wife." Swain shook her head in disappointment. "No wonder your parents are chasing you."

"Molly's a con woman, one of the best I know. She'll be fine."

"As she runs from her parents, Hutch and Hero St. James." Cogon pointed out. "When we first started working for Dalla we learned there are two things you just can't hide from. One's karma, and the other is the Cashier From Hell."

Sith spit. The volume of Ezra's self-preservation alarm dimmed just enough for him to worry about Molly's safety. "Oh...oh no!"

Cogon and Swain looked at each other with an expression of miniscule pity. Not for Ezra, but for Molly.

"Okay think for a second. Even if you don't know exactly where she is you should have some idea of where she would go in this situation. Where's the most likely place we could find Molly right now?"

…

Molly was initially planning to hide out at Katooni's place but nixed the idea. For one it was the first place her parents would look for her. Second both Katooni and her boyfriend/roommate were at work today so there was no one to let her in. The second thought gave her a better idea of where to go so here she was in the lobby of Bethesda Memorial Medcenter, squinting at the map of departments.

She thought she might go to the OB unit and visit Soniee. She was probably lonely up there and could use someone to talk to. Soniee had never steered her wrong; it was what she said about seizing the day and taking advantage of the time you had with the one you loved that had encouraged Molly to get married in the first place. Surely she'd have some more advice for this situation. She was lying in bed with nothing to do, right?

"Molly!"

Molly jumped. Her older sister Katooni rushed across the lobby like flames were coming off her sneakers, followed by her boyfriend Petro.

"Mom and Dad just called the nurses' station," she said. "Do you want to explain this?"

"Uh…" No, no she did not but that wasn't really a question. "It's not a big deal."

Katooni didn't swallow it. "You got married to Ezra Bridger! What the … how the … what did you even see in him?"

"Ezra's a great husband!" Molly leapt to her husband's defense. "He loves me, and, and …" She squared her shoulders. "We love each other and we should take advantage of the time we have just like Soniee said."

"Soniee?" Katooni screeched. "You got married because of Soniee?"

"I'm gonna need a reminder of which one Soniee is." Petro said.

Katooni rolled her eyes. "Maddie's patient, the pregnant one who was all up in arms about some early labor and distracted Maddie from the girl who got jumped by two guys with knives!"

Petro's brow furrowed. "You mean the one who was actually in labor and you were all angry about having to watch on the monitor?"

"I mean the one who got pregnant with Uncle Saw's baby the night her husband died!"

Petro blinked. "Wait, what?"

Molly ignored them both. "She said she wished she'd taken greater advantage of the time she had with Korkie, so that's what Ezra and I are doing. And why do you hate Soniee so much?"

Katooni scoffed. "You just like her because she encouraged you to get married behind Mom's and Dad's back."

"At least I'm lawfully married and not living in sin!"

Katooni's jaw dropped and a hush fell over the lobby. Molly hadn't realized how many people were watching them.

"I think that's my cue to leave." Petro whistled and tried to back away.

"Not so fast." Katooni growled and she leaned over her little sister. "Have you considered that you are now legally tied to Ezra Bridger, forever? As in, if you get run over by a hovertruck tomorrow and we need to comm someone because you're on life support, Ezra's your legal next of kin. Do you love him that much? Let him make your life or death decisions love him?"

Molly suddenly felt very small. "I...I don't know."

"Then you shouldn't be married!" Hutch bellowed as he and Hero burst through the lobby doors.

Katooni and Petro clamped their hands on Molly's shoulders to stop her from running, not that she was going to try.

"I can't believe this!" Hero cried as she neared her daughters. "You got married without telling me? You didn't even let me plan a wedding?!"

"That's what you're worried about?" Hutch asked his wife incredulously.

"It's Soniee's fault!" Katooni jumped to lay blame. "She encouraged her to do this stupid -."

"Good gods Katooni would you please lay off that poor woman?" Hero pleaded.

Molly sensed an opportunity to save herself: "She's been trying to tell me that it would be better if Ezra and I just lived together like her and Petro. But that's not right, you taught me that if you wanted to live with someone you should be -."

"Oh we'll get to Katooni's living situation in good time," Hutch said and fixed Petro with a death glare. "Right now we're focused on Ezra Bridger."

…

"Look I might have screwed up but I can fix it," Ezra insisted to the highly skeptical Cogon and Swain. "I just need Kanan and Hera to calm down a little first."

Cogon just glared at him and Swain shook her head. No doubt they were going to start up another lecture but the boarding ramp opened before they could.

"Kiara?" Sierra said, voice distorted from coming down the hall. "What are you doing here?"

Ezra knew and it took everything in him not to roll his eyes. Really, Kiara? You were going to copy the case files right now?

"Mom said something about needing your and Uncle Alex's notes," Kiara lied smoothly. "Hope this isn't a bad time."

"It could be worse." Sierra's footsteps grew closer as she and Kiara walked past Ezra, Swain, and Cogon. "I'll look for them. Be right back."

"No rush."

Ezra stopped eavesdropping not a moment too soon before Cogon turned back to him. "Do you and Molly even act like husband and wife?" He demanded.

"Well yeah, we —."

"Not that stuff. I'm talking about the living together stuff that really makes you married. Does she leave her toothpaste uncapped? Do you steal her blankets in the night? Do you love her even though she puts the empty blue milk jug back in the conservator every time?"

Ezra shrank. "Does that really matter?"

"More than anything else," Swain said. "Dxun, I worked a case not too long ago where a couple got into it over a dishwasher. I'll show you the file."

No, no, no! She couldn't walk in on Kiara with the case files! "Uh, actually I don't think I need to —."

"The holos are worth a thousand words," Swain said and then she was gone.

Ezra swallowed hard. Copy like the wind, Kiara.

The next ten seconds seemed like hours before Swain walked past again, murder in her eyes.

"Be right back," she said, and in the next breath glared ahead and snapped "Kallus!"

Man was Ezra glad his name wasn't Kallus.

"What is it?" The owner of the name sounded more tired than Ezra had ever heard him.

"What did you do with my case files?"

"Nothing. Why do you ask?"

"Because they're missing and you're the only person who has a reason to take them. Salt gods, if you really needed to see them you could have just asked me like a normal person instead of stealing my stuff."

"Stealing?" Kallus repeated, bewildered. "Are you sure they aren't just lost?"

"I didn't touch them, I know Brent didn't, and Sierra's been with Philip all day. That leaves one person on this ship."

Cogon closed his eyes. "Here we go again."

Come on, Kiara!

Kallus' tone grew testy: "Well you must be missing something because I left your things alone. Shockingly I do respect people's boundaries and personal privacy."

"Don't do it, Hann," Cogon prayed under his breath. "Just ignore him and -."

Swain matched her old mentor blow for blow. "That is shocking to me, actually, since you've kept up your habit of going over my life with a fine-toothed comb and the next step would logically be going through my stuff."

"You know why I have to ask those questions!"

Ezra mentally blocked the sound of the argument in favor of watching Cogon take a deep breath and slowly exhale to a count of ten.

"You wanna know what marriage is?" he asked. "It's standing here, supporting Hannah through her family stuff on a weekend morning when I would much rather be in my bed. Still feel up to the challenge?"

"No, he isn't!"

The force cried out a belated warning as a hand clamped down on Ezra's bicep with no question who it belonged to.

"K-Kanan!" He tried to squirm out of his master's grip but Kanan didn't budge.

"Ezra," he growled. "You'd better have a very good explanation for this."

"I, um…" Ezra frantically looked around for help but saw only Cogon and - oh stars, Ezra had never been more scared to see Hera Syndulla in his life. How had they found him? He'd covered his tracks, the only way Kanan and Hera could know he was here was if…

"Kallus, you snitch!"

"Alex didn't do anything." The blood drained from Ezra's face when he saw Sierra appear in the hallway next to Hera. "I let them know you were here."

Ezra swallowed hard as he accepted his fate.

...

"Do you have any idea how badly this could have gone?!" Hero paced from one side of her living room to the other, neatly dodging the furniture and their houseguests. "What if you got pregnant? What if you decided it wasn't working out and then you needed a divorce? Did you think of any of this when you made your little trip to the courthouse?"

"We didn't need to," Molly announced. "We wouldn't get a divorce and we weren't going to get pregnant either. I made sure of it!" She thrust out her arm to prove her point.

Hero swayed at the sight of the bandage on her daughter's arm but both Kanan and Hera relaxed visibly. Ezra even thought he heard Hera mutter a quick prayer of thanks to the Ryl gods.

"Even if that catastrophic stuff didn't happen, I still don't see why you two decided to get married," Kanan said. "You don't live together, you hardly see each other, you just text all the time. You could have just kept on dating and nothing would have changed."

"But then we wouldn't be married," Ezra protested.

Kanan glared at him. "Exactly, Ezra. You wouldn't be married."

"How were you planning to proceed with this?" Hera asked. "Was Ezra going to eventually move to Onderon? Was Molly going to move to Lothal? Were you getting your own place? What were you going to do for a living? And how long did you plan on keeping this a secret?"

Ezra swallowed hard. "We, uh, didn't think about that."

Hera just nodded. "That seems to be a recurring theme in this situation."

Ezra and Molly looked at each other. What were they going to do after the job?

"I understand you two have strong feelings for one another," Hera said. "But I think you both rushed into things without thinking."

"And I think there's no 'I think' where that's concerned." Hutch spoke up for the first time. Since he'd gotten home he'd been engrossed in his computer. "Luckily I think we can fix it. We can pick up the docs tomorrow."

"What kind of docs?" Molly asked.

"Are you both familiar with the concept of an annulment?" Hera asked.

"I...I think I heard about it on the holonet."

"An annulment voids a marriage. If you two sign the papers then it'll be like this never happened."

An hour ago Ezra would have scoffed at the very thought. He loved Molly. He loved her eyes and her laugh and how much she loved animals. He couldn't picture himself sharing his life with anyone else. But the pain he sensed whenever Molly met her disappointed parents' gaze drove through his heart like a needle.

He'd become part of the Ghost family through ups and downs and a whole lot of trauma; this was hardly the biggest thing they'd fought over. But Molly had grown up happy, with parents and a sister who loved her, and he couldn't just stand by and let that relationship get ruined for her.

Time to take Cogon's advice. Time to man up and make the sacrifice for his wife.

"I'll sign the docs."

Molly's head whipped around, eyes wide. "Ez?"

"They're right, Mol." It hurt like haran but Ezra managed to look her in the eye. "I love you … but we're not ready."

Relief flooded the force as Molly nodded, tears in her eyes.

"It's settled then," Hutch said. "We'll go to the courthouse in the morning and get this taken care of."