MEET ME INSIDE

"Call me son one more time!"

Tensions boil over at the Kallus residence as Swain finally reaches her breaking point.

"Is it possible she just wandered off?" Kallus asked. "Ten-year-old-girls have run off especially when they have siblings on the way."

"Runaway ten-year-olds don't leave their comms behind" Sierra replied. "I'm just going to say goodbye to Philip and then I'll be on the run. I don't know when I'll be back."

"Be careful out there." He kissed her before she left and once she was gone, tried to distract himself from the fact he was now alone on the ship with Swain while Sierra went on a normally dangerous job, with anything he could find.

Just a few seconds later he heard footsteps behind him. Logically they belonged to Sierra, and Kallus couldn't explain it if he tried, but some needling force in the back of his mind ordered him to turn around and look.

Swain was in the common room wearing what he could only describe as fence clothes. Tailored slacks, a white blouse and a structured blazer were a far cry from what she usually wore around the ship and that could only mean one thing.

"Where are you going?"

"Believe it or not I have some experience hunting down lost things," Swain scooped her hair into a messy ponytail and pulled the band to tighten it. "I worked here for years and know every hiding spot in this town - if she's still here, I can at least set us in the right direction."

The mental needling loudened to a deafening claxon. "You're going to go out and look for Melaana?"

"It wouldn't hurt to have a fence on board."

"No!"

Swain stopped in her tracks. It was a toss up whether she or Kallus himself was more shocked at his outburst.

He took a breath to calm himself. "You can't go."

"Did Lux tell you something? A new development?"

"Not exactly." He didn't know why or how, but he had never been more sure of something in his life. He just knew that if she went out, something horrible would happen to her.

"So it's not from Lux." Swain's expression soured. "It's just you deciding I shouldn't help."

"I know it sounds crazy but I have a very bad feeling about this. There are too many variables at this point and I'm not willing to bargain with your life."

"Who says it's yours to bargain with?" She went back to her preparations with an extra edge to her voice. "I'm not your daughter! You don't get to decide what I choose to do in my job. Besides I'll be with Lux the whole time, I should be fine."

"Or you could die!"

"That didn't seem to bother you very much last time," she quipped. She'd no doubt intended for that to be the last word and it would have been if Kallus hadn't moved with near supernatural speed to intercept her.

He grabbed her bicep and spun her around so he stood between her and the door. "Hannah -."

Swain yanked her arm free. "Don't call me Hannah."

"Very well." He waited and when no reply came, continued. "I know this is difficult."

If anything that made her more upset. The beginnings of tears sparkled in Swain's eyes. "You have no idea what I'm going through. Brent and I lost everything. I can't lose my work on top of everything else."

He went back to Sierra's advice. Don't fight back. Let her take out some of her anger on you.

So he did. Kallus stood there for a full standard minute while Swain proceeded to work herself into a frenzy. Why was he so against her work? There was a child out there who needed help and he was keeping her from lending valuable manpower. Like it or not she was a grown woman who could take care of herself and he had no right in the galaxy to stash her away like a ballerina in a music box!

He could see where the music box thing was coming from, considering his borderline irrational past behavior. But as she went on it became evident that this wasn't about him at all. Slowly but surely cracks were forming in Swain's composure and all he read through them was excruciating pain.

Once she finally stopped for air Kallus changed tack. Arguing didn't work and silence wouldn't be appropriate, so maybe he could make an appeal to emotion?

"Cogon can't lose you," He said. "I can't lose you. You're like my -."

"Call me daughter one more time!"

Kallus swallowed hard. "Even if you think playing it safe is irrational in the short term, think of the future. If you and Cogon are going to have a family someday you need to be alive to take care of them."

Something snapped behind Swain's eyes. "A family?' she repeated.

"Like you always wanted." He said. "Little copies of you and Brent running around."

Her lip wobbled. Maybe she had doubts about her ability to be a mother?

"I saw you on the missions we worked with children," he said. "You were so good with them; you'll be a wonderful mother."

"Alex, stop!" Sierra, Philip in her arms, appeared seemingly from nowhere but the damage was done.

"That will never happen, Kallus!" Swain shouted. "Beck made sure of it!"

Kallus froze and a loud silence ensued.

It sounded like...but no, that was barbaric. That was beyond even Beck.

Swain folded her hands over her belly and he knew he wasn't mistaken.

My gods.

"Straight out of ISB playbook. Destroy what your target loves most." A single tear rolled down her cheek. "I don't know why I didn't see it coming."

Kallus stood with his mouth half open, too shocked to move from the awkward position as he tried to reconcile his separate urges. On one hand he'd developed a sudden taste for Beck's blood, on the other he wanted to fold Swain in his arms and do everything in his power to soothe her pain.

But he did neither of those things. "Stay here," he said in a voice he hoped wasn't shaking. "Please."

Swain swallowed hard and proceeded to say the one thing that would crack his heart like an egg.

"Yes, sir."

She quietly turned around, arms still wrapped around her middle, and made her way down the deadly silent corridor. Even Philip's normal joy was dampened and he only let out a single "Ah?" as she walked past.

"Not now little guy." Her expression collapsed anew at the sight of the baby and she quickened her pace, passing the refresher just as the door opened and a freshly showered Cogon stepped into the hallway.

"Woah, Hann, what happened?"

"I need to be alone for a while." She neatly dodged him and disappeared into their cabin, leaving three shocked adults in her wake.

Cogon turned to Kallus and Sierra. "She told you about the surgery?"

All Kallus could manage was a nod and Cogon swore under his breath. "It was just a couple of days before Yularen came for us. I can still see the look on her face when she realized what they were going to do to her." His mouth twisted into a grimace. "Beck didn't take care of her afterward and she got sick, fast. By the time we hit Onderon she was either out cold or seeing things because her brain was overheating. I wasn't allowed in to see her but I could hear her calling out for you."

She'd called out for him?

"Who else knows?" Sierra asked.

"Just me, Dalla and Sloan, and the medics. She won't even talk to Iden about it." Cogon shook his head. "I'll talk to her in a little bit. She's not herself when it comes to this."

Of course she wasn't. She had never admitted it aloud but Swain had always, transparently, wanted nothing more than a family. Now she would never know the joy of cradling the child she had hoped and longed for in her arms. Never stroke their fine baby hair or grin when they burbled out an attempt at her name, or have her heart lurch when they almost rolled off the couch.

Because of him. And because of Beck.

There was only one course of action here. Without a word Kallus walked to his and Sierra's bedroom and opened the blaster safe.

"What are you doing?" Sierra asked. It was a testament to his distraction that he hadn't noticed her approaching.

"Any leads to her current location will be on Coruscant." He retrieved the ammunition and methodically loaded the blaster. "I shouldn't be gone long."

"Alex —."

"Out of everyone I expected you to understand." He burst out. "She can't get away with this. She has to face justice for what she did to my Hannah!"

Sierra didn't back down. "Hannah may not know it but she needs you. You can't leave her now. Trust me, I wanted Tor dead too, but not as badly as I needed my family to be with me."

He set the blaster down. "You're not saying don't kill Beck. Just not right now."

"Of course not," she snorted. "In fact once we know Hannah's safe I'd like to help you take that bitch down like only we can."

Good gods, what had he done to deserve this woman as his wife? "She called out for me. After everything that happened and she still cried for me to come—." He shook, crushing sadness finally overwhelming his anger. "How could they do that to my girl?!"

Sierra wrapped her arms around her husband and let him cry into her shoulder. So great was his anguish that neither of them noticed the sound of footsteps in the hallway, too heavy for a child's but too light to be a man's, stopping in front of their bedroom door before rushing off to the room they'd given to Swain and Cogon.

…

Cogon waited a few minutes for his wife to have her requested alone time before he returned to their cabin and found her sitting on the edge of the bed with her comm unit in trembling hand.

"Versio. I'm unav -."

"Iden, pick up your comm!" Swain screeched and terminated the connection before it even had a chance to go to voicemail. "I can't get ahold of her Brent. This isn't like her - what if something's wrong?"

"Even if it is, Iden and Del can get themselves out of pretty much anything." He assured her. "Why don't we sit here for a while?"

Swain shook her head. "I need to talk to her. She's the only one who might make some sense of what I heard."

Cogon's brow furrowed. "What did you hear?"

Swain paced the floor, the comlink abandoned. "I don't know what to think. For years I thought he'd thrown me away, that he never loved me, that he let them do this to me." Her voice cracked and her arms clenched around her abdomen again. "And now that all might be a lie? What am I supposed to do? I grew up in a crack house; I don't know how a family works! The only person I can be sure of is …"

She trailed off and stopped pacing to look at him.

"Brent, I thank the gods every day for sparing your life. The galaxy needs so much more of you in it, and I'm sorry I can't bring your children into the world."

His heart clenched in his chest as she burst into tears again. He ached from the loss of their future children as much as she did, but he would really never forgive the Empire for causing the woman he loved such pain.

"Hannah…" What was he thinking? There were no words.

So Cogon sat down next to her and they cried together.