"Sabine, we need to talk..." His voice was gravelly, sounding older than he was. Insecurity came flooding back to him. Since his having been deprived of the holocron, he no longer felt as weighed down as he'd been feeling. He wanted to be more open, with nothing to hide. She deserved nothing less. Why had he kept his having had the holocron from his wife in the first place? He knew why. She would have told him to get rid of it, and at the time, holding on to it was what he had wanted to do. Their marriage had gotten off to a great start, but now it felt as though a pack of Wampas was tearing it apart.

"W-what's wrong?" Her eyelids shot up. She had been drifting in-and-out of wakefulness and consciousness, in their bed, the one she had all to herself ever since she'd asked Ezra to go sleep where he used to, before they'd married.

His hand traced her naked spine, fingertips alighting on each vertebrae, as though he was playing a stringed Nubian acoustical musical instrument. He smiled, touching her like this; it had been a while. He was glad she was letting him.

Sighing, Ezra stilled his hand against her warm body. "We are, Sabine. What's happened to us is all wrong. That's why we need to talk. We have to fix what's happened to us."

"We've needed to talk for a long time now." She muttered, "You're always so busy being in charge."

"That's not what I want to talk about," he objected, feeling her annoyance as she squirmed.

Sabine felt she had to bring up what had been getting her down, or gag. How many times had she told him to quit being Mr. Know-It-All? Kanan hadn't been with them, but he hadn't died either. "Hera needed to show you nobody's above not following orders. You want me to try smoothing things over with her?" She rolled onto her side, taking her time, to look at him. The love she still felt for him engulfed her. The expression on her husband's face wrapped an invisible hand around her heart that squeezed. There was heartbreak in his supplicating eyes, as though his eyes were holding their breath, if they'd had any to exhale.

"That's okay. Hera was right to do what she did. Smoothing things over with her to get my command back isn't what we need right now." He got as close as he could to Sabine. "I feel...I just know. We can make things right with us again," Ezra stammered.

Sabine sat up, wide-eyed, gathering the blanket around herself. She'd once been an expert at speaking her true thoughts, not biting her tongue. Her talent for swift directness had atrophied, ever since the boy, now young man, had wormed his way into her heart. There was no point lying. Was there? "Maybe...maybe we rushed into something we weren't ready for," she whispered, seeing Ezra's wounded expression saturate his face.

"Is that what you think?" He cupped one of her hands within his own. "Please don't think that, if you do."

"I know... We live in the name of risk; here one day, gone the next, for the sake of the Rebellion," Sabine exhaled, sounding tired, at a loss for knowing exactly how to put what she meant without hurting this man whom she still deeply loved. "But, maybe we should have..." She caught herself before she blundered into territory of 'no return.' She didn't want him thinking that they'd made a mistake, even though the thought kept occurring to her. What had happened to the guy that used to be nicer? Was a little unsure of himself? She found that endearing. She missed that guy. Where had he gone?

"Are you saying I rushed you into being with me?"

I had a choice, and I made it. No one rushes me into anything, Sabine reflected.

"Ezra, something's wrong. We love each other; I know that. But, maybe loving each other isn't enough to make our marriage work."

Her words cut deep, as his insides turned to ice.

Blindly, he lashed out, "Yes-yes it is! I love you, Sabine, no matter whatever I've done, have done, or will do, we can't end what we have!" Ezra squared his shoulders, feeling his face flush. "Sabine? You still love me, right?" Suddenly, he sounded like someone who had guzzled too many fizzy alcoholic drinks in one of Coruscant's seedier nightclubs.

"Yes. I always will." She remembered when she'd first laid eyes on him, and had never been the same since, in spite of his youthful enthusiasm and instances of extreme childishness. His qualities that drew her to him always sprang to her mind first.

"How you feel about me hasn't changed, then."

You've changed; I haven't, Sabine thought. "No, but you have."

Ezra sat up then too, and stared at her with stormy, watchful eyes that were darkening. Sabine watched him shake, as if he tried to rouse himself from deep sleep. Thoughts about the holocron floated across his mind. Sabine's heart pounded with desire. The desire made her lightheaded. Her veins ached, never forgetting the thrill of his lovemaking. How he could make every nerve ending in her sing when his passion ignited hers.

"Sabine, I need you to believe that I'm still the man who will never stop loving you. Will do whatever I have to do to make you believe we can't go our separate ways," Ezra pleaded, moving in closer to her again since she'd inched away. He bridged that distance, seeing how his nearness to his moody wife was affecting her.

He mesmerized her, as though she'd drunk the same intoxicant he seemed to have imbibed that was making him appear loopy.

"Stop acting like you know more than everybody. And being so sure about it."

Nodding vigorously, he swore, "I can do that."

She wanted him to say he'd do anything for her, but that he didn't say. The way he used to let those words roll off his tongue, before they'd said: "I do."

Sighing, she waited for that avowal, and still it didn't come. The longer she waited, the more she died a little inside.

Ezra looked at her, and Sabine looked at him, neither saying anything. The silence grew deafening.

Then, she finally broke the lull in communication, and gazed at him quizzically, slicing into Ezra's curious stupor. "Who is Moreena Krai?"

With his throat tightening, Ezra winced, chaotic memories overwhelming him. When he answered, his voice was rough, hoarse. "Wh-where did you hear that name?"

"You've mumbled it in your sleep from time to time. It's obvious she means a lot to you. Who is she?" Sabine asked again anxiously, "Who?"

"A good friend..."

She felt her throat with one hand and tried again to speak. Sabine's voice was rough and hoarse. "She was more than just a good friend. Wasn't she? You loved her. Maybe you still do. More than me." It was obvious that Sabine believed Ezra had grown tired of her. She thought she knew the reason why. There was another, that girl whose name he would passionately cry out, no doubt hugging and kissing in his dreams, from his past.

Ezra's face went stark white. "That's not true, Sabine. Mo—"

"Mo?" Sabine squeaked, when she shuddered. "Your nickname for her? How cozy that sounds. You…and Mo…"

"Not my nickname for her. I didn't make it up," he protested, his eyes wild. "Everybody who knew her on Lothal called her that. Her family, they lived on this farm before the Empire came and took it from them, always called her Mo." His eyes bored into Sabine's face that looked so sad. Why was she acting like this? "Okay, here's how it was, Sabine, back on Lothal…with me and Mo—Moreena."

Before Ezra could get another word out, Sabine broke down, sobbing uncontrollably until he reached out to her through the Force, trying to calm her down. It wasn't easy, but eventually, his anguished wife got very quiet, going all still.

"Sabine, I love you. You're the only one for me. I've made mistakes, but being married to you isn't one of them. I vow I'll be the man you won't regret having as a husband. Sabine—I mean it! No more Dark side leanings for me. I give you my word. No more thinking I know it all, all the time. I promise, Sabine. Promise. There's no one, but you. If there's no you in my life, I really will go all Sith."

Taking a deep breath as she gazed at him through her silky curtain of white/purple-tipped hair, Sabine nodded. "Ezra," she said, smiling nervously, tucking his hands into hers when she grasped them, "that goes for me too." Mrs. Wren-Bridger curled herself around him, one hand gently stroking his well-defined middle, and echoed what he'd said. "I give you my word. If there's no you in my life, I'll really go…on auto-pilot." As Ezra leaned in to kiss her, their foreheads merged and nodded against each other. "We are better, together."

"Love what you did with your hair," he mumbled, meshing his lips with hers.

Against his that were soft and warm, she replied, "Ezra, your hair's okay, but could you grow it a little bit longer? I'd like it longer."

As his mouth engulfed hers, and his eyes swam with tears, he promised, "You want it longer, I'll grow it longer. Whatever makes you happy, anything you want, Sabine…" He trailed off, and sighed happily into her. How many times had he told her that, 'whatever made her happy?' Not nearly enough.