In which Rex, Fives and Jesse are left in charge of Angel and learn the hard way that child care is harder than it sounds.
I got this idea from Briannakin back from the first chapter; something about stormtroopers and a baby. Either way the plot bunny bit hard and refused to let go. It helped that I could see Rex and Fives with other clones chasing Lady Vader/Angel as a toddler around a barracks or someplace.
A/N: This along with all Dark Angel content was mused about and a good portion plotted BEFORE TCW ended and certainly before Rebels started airing. Also the next chapter in Dark Angel is being worked on.
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Vader sighed as he hurried around his office and the side room getting ready to go to the meeting. The Emperor had informed him that his presence there was imperative and that missing the meeting would have unpleasant results.
To make matters worse, Tarkin would be in attendance and so his daughter wouldn't be welcome.
His little angel was in her crib playing with her tooka doll. "Dada, Paka!" She said as she stood up and held her tooka doll out.
He smiled. "Yes, I see Paka."
He turned back to his work and sighed with relief. He had twenty minutes to relax before it was time to get to the meeting.
He turned towards the powered down nanny droid in the corner of the side room he have to give it instructions while he was gone. He rarely used one since he was used to being able to take her nearly anywhere. He used the one on his flagship to tend her, but only when he was on duty. He didn't care for nanny droids, but they were sometimes a necessary evil. With a grimace he went over to the deactivated droid and flipped the activation switch. The droid started to whirl to life only to sputter and die before it could turn on.
Frowning he opened up the droid. It was immediately obvious that the droid had some serious problems and it would take longer than he had to fix the problems. It would also take even more time before the other nanny droid could be brought down from the flagship.
Sighing he sat in a chair and stared at the broken droid. He was at a complete loss. The Noghri could keep an eye on her but they would have difficulty seeing to her other needs.
Suddenly he remembered something. He had an entire barracks of someones that had said that they would watch her if the need arose.
He'd just have to make sure that he gave them complete instructions on what to do while he was gone.
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Rex could tell that his General was worried as Vader laid out a blanket for little Angel. "You need to keep a close eye on her," he said as he scattered some toys on it. "If she gets cranky put her down for a nap," he continued.
Rex nodded with Fives and Jesse. Their General was very protective of little Lady Vader and didn't trust many people with her safety. Needless to say it would be an honor to watch her.
"Don't feed her the sliced Alderaanian Pear; she doesn't like the taste and she'll just make a mess out of it. Feed her the cubed shuura and pallies instead. If she's thirsty then there's a cup of milk and a cup of muja juice in the cooling unit. And don't forget to heat up the fried tuber wedges that are in the deep freeze area of the cooling unit.
"The meeting could last anywhere from a standard hour to three hours. It might go on for even longer since Tarkin will be giving several presentations.
"The report for the Quarter Master is on the table by the door." He said as he gestured to said table."
With that their General knelt and kissed his daughter. "You be good for your Uncles; you understand?" he asked her. She smiled her gentle smile as he stood.
"I'll be back." He said before he turned and walked out of the office.
Little Angel stared at the door for a bit before toddling over to a shelf with a stack of datacards. She selected one and brought it over to him.
Rex gently took it from her and looked at the name:
He hesitated but inserted in his datapad and activated the card. Rex bit back a sigh when he saw that it was a Youngling Book collection. One of the marked stories was Blue Eggs and Barve Ham. With some trepidation he selected it and was immediately greeted by a colorful holopicture of some sort of creature holding a holosign with the phrase 'I am Zam' on it on the back of an oddly drawn and colored Nexu. Rex flipped the 'page' looking for the story. After a few 'pages' he finally found the beginning of the story, Rex took a deep breath praying the whole time that this little incident wouldn't leave the room.
"That Zam I am, that Zam I am. I do not like that Zam I -" He began only to be stopped by Angel. She yanked the 'pad out of his hand and started pointing at 'Zam'. "Zam!" She yelled completely excited.
Rex sighed and waited for her to stop. After two minutes of 'flipping' through the 'pages' she dropped the 'pad and toddled off to the Caf Table. Rex sighed as he removed the 'card from his 'pad and put it in a pouch on his belt just in case Angel decided that she wanted him to actually read it to her.
"No Angel." Jesse suddenly called out. Rex looked up to see that Angel had pulled the box of soft flimsiplast face sheets off the caf table and was yanking them one by one out of their box then dropping them on the floor. She was laughing as if this was amusing in some way.
Fives was the closest so he went over to the caf table and took the box from her and set it on the top of a low shelf just out of her reach.
Angel started crying, but after a moment she pushed herself up and headed back for her blanket. After she arrived, she started to stack her blocks and babbled to herself something about Paka, her dada and a few phrases Rex didn't understand; it sounded close to gibberish to him. Maybe Vader, the Nanny Droid or one of the Noghri could interpret what little Angel said.
After some time, Angel toddled over to him.
Rex looked at her. "Are you hungry?" he asked her. She nodded with a smile. "Do you want the fruit or the fried tuber wedges?" He asked. He watched as a frown came over her small face as she tried to decide.
"Jesse, go get the container with the fruit and the fried tuber wedges." Rex ordered.
The combat medic got up and headed into the side room. A few moments later Jesse returned with the items in hand.
Little Angel looked back and forth between the two. Finally she pointed at the Fried tuber wedges.
Rex sighed with relief and started to stand.
"No!" Angel cried and pointed at the container of fruit.
Rex sighed and handed the fried tuber wedges to Jesse.
"No!" Angel cried again and pointed at the fried tuber wedges.
They went back and forth for a minute before Rex lost his patience with her. "Just pick one!" he snapped.
Angel promptly burst into tears.
"Now look what you've done!" Fives snapped.
A few things shook and a glass vase shattered.
Rex quickly handed the food over to Jesse and scooped Angel up and bounced her up and down like he saw his General do many times when Angel was crying. Angel soon quieted and her cries turned to hitched sobs.
Rex sighed with relief as Angel started babbling in her 'youngling' talk again.
He set Angel in the chair behind her father's desk before he took the container with the fruit from Jesse. He watched as Angel's brown eyes widened with delight as he let her take one.
"Jesse, why don't you heat up those fried tuber wedges. If she doesn't eat them we might as well have something to snack on." Rex told his friend.
Rex saw Jesse head for the side room to do just that.
He turned his attention back to Angel and saw her munching on a piece of fruit.
After a few minutes Angel's eyes started to droop.
Rex carefully picked her up and set her down on the cot off to the side. She looked up at him with sleepy eyes as he laid her down and covered her with a nearby blanket.
"Paka!" she cried and tried to sit up. Rex quickly stood and retrieved the Tooka Doll from the floor and returned with it.
She eagerly snatched the doll out of his hands and held it close.
Rex sighed as she turned to face the wall before he stood and headed for the desk to catch up on reports.
Rex heard the door slide open some fifteen minutes later; he didn't even turn to see who it was; it couldn't be Lord Vader since it took five minutes to travel to the Imperial Palace from the Barracks and another five to reach the room where these types of meetings took place. If you added all of this together he shouldn't be back for another half hour at the very least.
"The report is on the table by the door." He told his fellow trooper.
A few moments later the door swished shut.
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Little Lady Vader smiled as she toddled down the corridors of the place her uncles called home. She held Paka close so she wouldn't get lost.
Paka had been a gift from her grandma and grandpa. She had a few other dolls at home from her aunt and other relatives. But Paka was her favorite.
She was pleased with herself for slipping away from Rex, Fives and Jesse after her short nap.
She paused for a moment before she headed for the Mess Hall.
She entered the Mess Hall and headed for Kix. She knew that he was here; all she had to do was find him.
A few moments later she found Kix at a table.
Smiling she tugged on his leg and he looked down and smiled. "Hello Angel," he said with a smile. She smiled back at him.
Kix reached down and gently grabbed her and lifted her up onto the bench. "Do you want some Frozen Chokolate Cream?" Kix asked her. She smiled, she loved Frozen Chokolate Cream! Dada didn't let her have it often though.
"Yeah!" she told him quickly.
She watched eagerly as Kix asked one of her uncles to bring out a cup of Frozen Chokolate Cream.
Lady Vader squirmed in anticipation as she waited for her treat to come.
Finally Roe set it in front of her. She squealed in delight and set Paka on the table so she wouldn't fall onto the floor.
She quickly started to eat it before her Dada could come and take it away.
She soon was done with her treat, grabbed Paka and slid off the bench.
"Tank you!" she told Kix with a smile.
Kix smiled back.
"You are welcome Angel."
She thought of where she wanted to go next. She thought for a few moments before deciding that she wanted to visit the place where the ships were.
She hurried as fast as she could to the place.
Finally she arrived and hurried to one of her Dada's fighters. Dada said that it needed to be fixed but she could help with that.
She set Paka down on the closest wing before climbing up and put her hands into the compartment that was open. She felt grease getting on her hands but she just giggled.
Dada would be so happy to see that she fixed his fighter. She had even started to fix the nanny droid that sometimes watched her. Dada would be so pleased with her when he saw how good she was getting at fixing things.
"Angel!" A sharp voice cried out. She jerked and saw Lightning hurrying over to her. He quickly picked her up.
She smiled widely for him.
"Aren't you supposed to be with Rex, Jesse and Fives?" he asked her. She looked away feeling a little guilty that she had left them.
"Well they must be looking for you so let's get you back to your father's office.
With that Lightning started to walk away from the fighter and Paka.
"Paka!" she screamed and started to kick Lightning in an effort to get down but Lightning just tightened his grip on her and kept walking.
She reached out and thought of Paka coming to her. Paka moved a bit and she wished harder and Paka flew into her arms.
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Rex looked up as the door slid open and smiled at the sight of Whiplash standing there.
"What can I do for you Whip?" Rex asked.
"I need the report for the quartermaster." Whiplash answered.
A frown quickly came to Rex's face.
"Didn't someone already come and get it like ten minutes ago?" Rex asked.
"Not as far as I know." Whiplash answered
"The 'pad is still here." Jesse reported.
"Than who came into the office?" Fives asked.
Rex turned to see if little Angel was still asleep and jumped out of the chair he was in.
The cot was empty.
"Sound the alarm!" Rex yelled as he prepared to run for the door and hit the alarm.
Before he could get too far the door swished open to reveal Lightning carrying little Angel in his arms.
Something brown stained her mouth and grease smudges were on her face, hands and clothes.
"She was in the hangar and it looks like she was in the Mess Hall before that." Lightning reported as he sat her down.
Rex noted that Angel was clutching her tooka doll tightly
"Thank you for finding her Lightning." Fives said. "I don't know what would have happened if she wandered out of the barracks.
"No problem." Lightning said.
"Besides, there are Noghri at the foot entrances; no one gets in or out of the hangar without codes and she's too small to pilot a speeder all by herself." Lightning reasoned.
"I must return to the hangar." Lightning said as he turned and headed for the door.
"I'll take this to the quartermaster." Whiplash said as he picked up the datapad.
A few moments later the door slid shut leaving Rex, Fives and Jesse alone in the office with Lady Vader.
"We have to clean her up." Jesse said.
Fives nodded in agreement and walked into the side room to retrieve a change of clothes for Angel and a wet cloth.
Angel protested but a few minutes later they had cleaned off the brown stuff and the worst of the grease.
Angel didn't like her new outfit and fought them a little when they put it on her.
In the end though she sat quietly on her blanket and played with her tooka doll singing some childish song about it.
Rex decided that it might be a good idea to read up on some manuals about raising children that were Angel's age. It wouldn't hurt to read them since they could be called to watch her again.
In fact he was going to start right now.
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Lord Vader shook his head as he walked down the corridors of the barracks that housed the 501st. The meeting lasted longer than anticipated and had left him feeling drained; it didn't help that Tarkin had been particularly annoying.
Looking back on it he was glad that his little Angel had been barred from the meeting, She would have been in tears.
Privately he wished that he had brought her just to see if she would have thrown some type of Force enhanced temper tantrum. That would have been amusing but he doubted that Sidious would have been pleased.
Smiling under his face veil, he entered his office and paused at the sight of his little Angel wearing a pink sundress with a pale blue shirt with black socks and black ankle boots.
He knew that he had left her in a white dress, white socks and white ankle boots
Vader noted the faint grease stains on her face and concluded that somehow she had gotten greasy which explained the change in clothes.
"Dada!" she cried excitedly.
He smiled as he walked over to her and picked her up.
She giggled and hugged him.
"Dada, look!" she cried and he felt her reach out with the Force and saw her tooka doll shake a few times before flying into her waiting arms.
Vader admitted silently that he was both shocked and pleased that she could call her tooka doll around.
Shifting his daughter's position, he went to speak to Rex, Jesse and Fives.
"How was she?" he asked as he covertly glanced down to see what they had been reading on the datapad.
He smiled slightly as he noted that it was one of the few child development books he had.
"She gave us some trouble but nothing that we couldn't handle." Rex reported.
Vader nodded. He could tell that they were withholding information but he knew that it could have been much worse than a shattered glass vase or some grease.
He knew that sooner or later his daughter would tell him what had happened.
But for now he would let them keep quiet about what happened today.
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Later that day . . .
Rex sighed as he sat in a chair in the lounge of the barracks going through reports.
It had been a long day and he was grateful to be able to relax.
Rex frowned when he found another datacard in one of his belt pouches.
He looked at it before he remembered that it had to be the report for Appo. Rex quickly stood and headed for Appo's office. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Appo was still in the office.
Appo looked at him and smiled.
"I hear that you, Fives and Jesse had some fun with Lady Vader earlier today." Appo said in greeting.
"We did have some fun; she's really sweet." Rex replied as he handed the datacard to Appo.
Appo nodded and slid the datacard into his datapad and opened the 'card and frowned almost immediately.
"Rex this is not the report that you told me that you would make." Appo announced in annoyance, as he turned the datapad so Rex could see what was on it: two familiar odd furry creatures and one of them was holding a large, odd serving platter.
Rex let out a curse. He had completely forgotten that he had placed little Angel's book datacard in his pouch.
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Oh my, looks like Rex might not live this one down for a bit.