"Ouch! Mother of- Fffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccckkkkkkk!"

"Having troubles there kid?"

"Shut up Furball, you didn't just have a laser graze your side!"

"Nope, but if you're complaining you're fine."

The Lasat watched amusedly as the kid grumbled a bit before moving to deflect some laser fire. They were stuck in a firefight with a squad of Stormtroopers while waiting for Hera to arrive with the Ghost. Both Master and padawan were blocking incoming laser fire as the team rushed to get behind cover. Once they were behind cover, it was just about waiting for Hera to arrive.

Luckily, they didn't have to wait long. The Ghost flew right up to the edge of the platform and lowered its loading ramp. As Sabine and Zeb got into the ship, Master and padawan were defending them. The second that Zeb had gotten his furry butt into the ship both Jedi Force Jumped backwards, landing right in front of the ramp. They turned together and ran up the ramp. Ezra, being just a step behind his Master, hit the switch to close the ramp.

"Specter 1 to Specter 2, punch it!"

"You got it, Specter 1!"

Ezra had to grab hold of the nearest thing attached to the wall to prevent himself from falling backwards at the sudden acceleration of the Ghost. Soon enough they broke through the atmosphere, allowing him to let go. Feeling his side give a twinge, Ezra began heading towards the Med Bay.

As he had been the only one to be injured, he was alone in the Med Bay. Despite that, he still pulled close a privacy screen before stripping off his top. He definitely wasn't expecting the privacy screen to suddenly be pulled aside by Hera, so could only stare like a deer caught in headlights.

"So I heard you had gotten… injured… Ezra, why is there a wrap around your chest? Don't tell me it's the bandage for the graze, I know it's not."

"Ah, um, uh, I'mreallysorryInevertoldyouguys."

"Told us what?"

Ezra squirmed under her stare before undoing the wrap, releasing his- no, her developing breasts. Her expression was full of guilt as Hera processed what the younger girl had just admitted to her. Ezra looked away, thinking that the Twi'lek was going to be angry and yell at her. She flinched in surprise when arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a comforting hug.

"Oh, Ezra, I'm not angry with you. I'm just sad you didn't tell us. Don't you trust us?"

"I- I do, I-it's just…"

"Were you afraid?"

"Y-yes."

"Has someone hurt you because you were a girl?"

Ezra nodded as tears began trailing down her cheeks. Hera felt her heart ache at the girl's pain. She was still young, but had already been through so much. Hera tightened her hug, letting out quite shushing sounds in response to Ezra's barely audible whimpers. Minutes passed before the whimpering stopped, and the tears ceased to flow. Ezra pulled back from the hug and wiped at her eyes.

"Do you want me to tell the others?"

"Yes, please…"

"Ok, I'll do that after we get that graze cleaned up and bandaged."

The next few minutes were spent in silence as Hera carefully cleaned and bandaged the wound. She then carefully put everything away. She gave one last hug and a kiss on the forehead to Ezra before walking out the door.

"Why'd you call us in here, Hera?"

"You were going to get blue balloons for Ezra's surprise birthday party, weren't you Kanan?"

"Yes, why?"

"You might want to get pink balloons instead."

"What? Why?"

"Because blue balloons are for boys."

Everyone was giving her a look that clearly stated that they had no idea what she was going on about. Well, if she can't say it indirectly, she'd be blunt.

"God you guys are slow right now. Ezra wouldn't want boy balloons, because Ezra's a GIRL."

Hera could almost see little loading bars above their heads with the message 'Processing..' above them. She stood there with her arms crossed waiting for the inevitable exclamations of surprise. She wasn't expecting Kanan to fall over in a faint, Zeb to begin poking him, or both Sabine and Chopper to begin repeatedly walking/rolling into walls.

"Chopper, get over here and wake Kanan. Sabine, sit down. Zeb, stop poking Kanan. I'm not done talking."

Chopper immediately went over to Kanan and shocked him, causing him to bolt upright. Zeb sat back and stared at Hera. Sabine walked (stumbled) over to her seat. All four stared at Hera, waiting for her to speak.

"Now, I just spent the last ten minutes comforting the poor girl because she was terrified that we'd be angry at her and maybe even reject her. She even admitted to having been hurt before because she was a girl, giving her plenty of reason not to want to admit that she was a female. She even wore a wrap under her top, and those things are painful! I expect you four to be gentle with her while she tries to adjust to openly showing her femininity, and to go in there one at a time to tell her that it's ok."

Chopper let out an affirmative sound while the other three nodded their heads. Then they began arguing over who would go in first, all of them wanting to be the first. Hera felt like hitting her head on the wall. She settled with hitting her forehead with her palm. These people…

Ezra sat quietly in the Med Bay waiting for the first crewmember to show. Hera had been kind enough to fetch a bra and shirt for her to put on. She'd also been informed that tomorrow the female members of the crew were all going shopping, and it was a mandatory event. It could have been worse. Hera could have hit her for hiding her gender.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. In walked Sabine with a warm smile on her face. The younger girl felt some of her anxiousness ease away. Maybe this wouldn't go so bad after all…

"Hey, Ezra, before I go and send Zeb in, I got one question. You were female, so why were you always flirting with me?"

Ezra gave her an honestly confused look before answering, "Isn't that how boys interact with girls?"

Sabine stared blankly at her before leaving the room. In walked Zeb, looking the least grumpy she'd ever seen when not clobbering Stormtroopers. Ezra was still confused as to why Sabine had given her that look, and decided to ask him.

"Hey Zeb, why did Sabine ask me why I flirted with her and then give me a weird look when I asked 'Isn't that how boys interact with girls?'? I don't get it."

"Uh… Well… Why did you think that boys only interact with girls by flirting with them?"

"That's how I saw most men interacting with women."

"And where did you see this?"

"The men were usually around the bar."

"Those men were drunk. Normal men normally have something called manners, which cause them to talk to people of the opposite gender the same as they would people of the same gender."

"They do?"

Zeb stifled a sigh. This was going to be a long and awkward conversation…

Kanan waited as patiently as possible for his turn to come. He couldn't believe he had lost the game of rock-paper-scissors. One would think that being in tune with the force would give him an edge, but oh no, he couldn't win at that game if his life depended on it. Finally, (finally!), Chopper and Hera left the Med Bay. Since Ezra had no idea what Chopper was saying, Hera had been called in to translate.

As he walked into the room, the Jedi opened the bond he had with his padawan, allowing all of Ezra's anxiety surged into him. In response he sent comfort and the sense of pride he had for his padawan. No words were exchanged as the two sat together. Ezra moved closer to her Master, feeling the acceptance from him. He smiled, put his arm over her shoulder and pulled her close. She all but melted into his side, feeling safe in her Master's arms. He put his chin on the top of her head, a surge of protectiveness invading his heart.

The young girl snuggled up to him was more than just his padawan, she was his little girl. His daughter in all but name and blood. The crew was their family. The two sat there, feeling that everything was going to be ok.