THE BETROTHED'S TALE

Between Rex and Steela, he was probably the most surprised at their engagement. Every few minutes, he would think what's that on Steela's hand?

Then he would remember oh yeah Rex, that's the ring you made for her, because you and Steela are going to get married.

Honestly, he could hardly be blamed. He'd wanted this for a very long time, which had led to a string of semi-proposals until Steela said she wanted to wait until after the Empire fell. After that, the proposals had stopped while they casually talked about their "someday" wedding, until the day on Seelos where he stepped out of a tank, help up a ring, and apologized for it.

And when all your dreams come true like that, it's hard to believe.

"We could go to one of the wedding chapels," Steela suggested. "It doesn't have to be a big wedding."

"No," Sierra corrected. "It has to be a huge wedding."

"And why does it have to be a huge wedding?" Rex asked.

"To fit all the people who want to come see you get married," Ahsoka answered and started ticking them off on her fingers. "Mon Mothma, Wolffe, Gregor, Talia and Steela's old troops, anyone left from the 501st, the crew of the Ghost, Phi Kappa Lambda…"

Steela's jaw dropped. "All those people want to come to our wedding? How are we going to pay for this? All our credits went to the Alliance!"

"You're not paying for anything," Tandin said, in a tone announcing this was not up for negotiation. "I'm paying for it. I don't care that you two are adults, the bride's family pays for the wedding and I fully intend on doing so."

"I'm helping." Saw announced. "I don't know much about wedding planning, but I have a wallet. I'm part of the bride's family, and I'm going to help pay."

"We're all chipping in," Lux crossed his arms. "We're all your family, and between all of us we have the money to pay for your wedding."

"We can't -."

Tandin took her hand. "Please, Steela. We want to pay for it."

"Don't worry, Rexster," Ahsoka laughed, playfully slugging him in the shoulder. "I'm going to pick up the tab on your end and don't you even think of arguing with me. I am your sister."

Rex relaxed immensely. He knew how expensive weddings could be.

Hutch flipped open his computer and started trolling through his programs. "We need to order you two a cake, rent a wedding hall, get Steela in a wedding dress -."

Ahsoka started to say something, but Katooni shook her head. She'd seen the wedding dress her family had made, and it definitely needed to be altered if Steela didn't want to end up HoloNet famous for "The Galaxy's Worst Wedding Dress."

Her father continued rattling off a list of things the happy couple would need. "The officiant, you can't forget the officiant. And then we've got to get a marriage license for you two, and whatever you do make sure you order the flowers from the florist Hero and I used and not Lux and Ahsoka's..." his face changed. "Hey, why don't you two go to get your rings?"

Steela blinked. "Now? We're getting our rings now?"

Hero knew that look. "Yeah! The chain jewelry store is having the sale of a lifetime," she covered, remembering something she'd seen on the HoloNet. "I think you two will be able to find the most beautiful rings there."

Mina was picking up on the situation. "At the very least, you need gold rings. Copper will tarnish and turn your fingers green."

Rex wasn't an idiot. He knew that something was up, and he knew that Steela knew. But in the name of preserving this special day, he nodded.

"I'd hate to turn your hands green before the wedding." Another thought struck him. "We could have a stone mounted in it while we're there."

"I agree we need to get actual wedding rings, and this one needs to be plated," Steela relented and put on her coat. "Hero, which chain jewelry store is having the sale?"

Hero rattled off the name of the jewelry store and the two of them left behind a ship full of smiles, wedding excitement, and good wishes.

But once Rex and Steela were on their way shopping for wedding rings, the mood popped when Hutch turned around in his chair and gulped.

"We have a problem."

"What kind of problem?" Ahsoka asked, raising an eye marking.

"A problem regarding our criminal records," Hutch answered. "I just looked into everything, and it looks like we're not entirely in the clear."

"But Senator Mothma and Leia both told me they were going to be expunged," Ahsoka argued. "That was a condition for us giving our profits to the Alliance. Once the Empire fell, they were going to clear our criminal records. So they should be perfectly fine."

"Yeah, they're supposed to be. Remind me again, who was responsible for hounding Leia to expunge them?" Hutch asked, glaring at Sierra.

Sierra shrank into the couch a little. "I…I was gonna do it soon."

"How soon?"

"Next week."

Lux facepalmed. "Hutch, how bad is it?"

"All our crimes are still on file in the Core. The records are a parsec long and we're wanted on way too many planets."

"It's okay; we can work with this," Sierra reassured. "What planets aren't we wanted on?"

Hutch gave her a withering look. "That would be Tatooine, Jakku, Nar Shaada and for reasons I cannot explain, Alderaan is still on the list."

Silence fell.

Onderon wasn't on the list.

"There might be a nice venue on Nar Shaada," Katooni said weakly.

"No," Mina rapped out. "Absolutely not. Rex and Steela deserve better than to be married on that dump of a planet. Sierra, why didn't you have the records expunged?"

"I kinda forgot about it because it wasn't a big priority for me personally," Sierra admitted. "I'm just planning on adding to my criminal record later."

Mina glared at her adult daughter like Sierra was thirty-five months old, as opposed to thirty-five years.

"Well they can still get married there!" Sierra protested. "I'll talk to Leia about it. We knew her since she was a kid; maybe she'll loosen up if I invite her."

Sierra could try. Sure, the con men had known Leia since she was a baby and played with her on occasion when they stopped in, but at the moment Leia had more important things to do than expunge their criminal records. Such as, reorganizing the entire galaxy.

Ahsoka knew it. "That's not going to happen. She has higher priorities. So, it looks like Sierra here is going to have to break the news to Steela that she can't get married on her own home planet, which was extremely important to her."

Everyone gave Sierra a death glare.

"Nice knowing you, Aunt Sierra," Molly quipped.

Kiara's jaw dropped. "Wait, wait. Mom, I know you and Dad are planning to go straight since the Empire's gone, but tell me you didn't just forget that you're still thieves until the records are expunged."

Lux raised an eye marking. "How is that supposed to help Rex and Steela, Kiara?"

"Simple," Kiara said, rolling her eyes. "We steal the wedding venue."

…

"So we're gonna steal this wedding hall?" Molly asked timidly.

"Yup," Tav answered.

"And we're gonna do it on a planet where we – not just our parents, but the three of us also – have criminal records as long as our arms."

"Yup."

"And we can't let Uncle Rex and Aunt Steela know we're stealing the place."

"Pretty much."

"But no pressure, right?"

Tav clapped his cousin on the back. "Exactly, Molls. You just do your computer magic and play your playlist, and everything will be fine."

"You're aware that if we get caught Leia won't take these crimes off our records."

"She's not going to catch us!" Tav scoffed. "We've done bigger jobs than this in the past and gotten away scot-free. It'll be fine. No pressure." With that, he walked away to get in position for his part of the job.

Molly gulped and stared up at the giant spires of the Unifar Temple. In her years in the galaxy she'd stolen many things, but stealing a church?

"We're all going to hell for this," she lamented and walked into the doors.

She, Kiara, and Tav waited for one of the holy men to finish with his prayers, then they raced to his side.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Kiara breathed. "We were looking all over for you; just wanted to make sure you had all the readings for today."

"Today?" the holy man repeated.

"Yes, for my aunt and uncle's wedding. We HoloMailed you about it."

Lie number one: Kiara hadn't HoloMailed the holy man anything. Hutch took care of that.

But sometimes all it takes is a suggestion to play a mark straight into your hands. The holy man nodded, albeit a little slowly. "Oh…I remember. When is the ceremony again?"

Kiara gave him a blinding smile. "Two o'clock."

…

"The kids have the officant secured for the ceremony," Hero reported out of the side of her mouth after receiving a text from Molly.

Steela looked up from across the room. "What?"

"Just Molly texting me about the food," Hero lied. "How about we get you into your dress?"

"Hero, the wedding isn't for four hours and I still have stuff to do," Steela checked the seating arrangement chart for the sixtieth time. "Some of Rex's brothers are still AWOL and haven't RSVP'ed, I'm not sure if the pancakes will be ready on time -."

Hero grabbed her shoulders and steered her away. "Okay, time for a pedicure."

"I got my nails done two weeks ago." That was the day Rex proposed. Hero had taken Steela to the salon so the others could make preparations.

"And we're going to re-do them for today. You need to take a few deep breaths and relax; this is supposed to be the happiest day of your life. Enjoy it."

"Did you feel like this when you married Hutch?" Steela asked, sitting on a couch.

"A combination of excited and scared witless? That's how I felt." She didn't need an answer to know that her friend had a good old-fashioned case of bride jitters. "It helps to talk about it. What's on your mind?"

"Mina gave me the speech about being a wife, and I'm freaked out." It was a good thing there wasn't any polish on Steela's nails because she reached to rake them through her hair, a nervous tic of hers. "I shouldn't be scared. Rex and I have been dating for eighteen years, we've lasted longer than a lot of marriages, what's going to change?"

Hero shrugged, remembering the few hours before her own wedding. "There will be a lot of things that change, but most of them will be good. You're going to have a home together and make caf in the mornings and find gray hairs and wrinkle up like prunes. Marriage is work, but it's rewarding. I have to ask you this" she asked, very seriously. "Do you still want to go through with the wedding?"

The answer was instantaneous. "Of course!"

As a married woman, Hero knew instantaneous answers were the only good ones.

"Then I'll call in the others to get you ready. I wouldn't be surprised if Rex sheds a few tears when he sees you."

…

"How many more strings of these things are there?" Saw yelled from the top of his ladder.

Sierra rifled through the box of silk flower garlands. "Nine! You're in single digits now."

"Thank the force," Saw grumbled and finished hanging another flower garland. "My hands are cramping like you wouldn't believe."

"We'd better hurry. Tandin's being a diva about everything," Sierra had elected not to tell Tandin about her discussion with Leia Organa yesterday, which basically boiled down to three lines.

"Leia, I really need you to expunge my crew's criminal records right now. Steela and Rex are getting married."

"I have more important things to do. Such as replacing monarchs."

"Kriff the monarchs."

Leia hadn't been too inclined to listen to her after that, even when Sierra had threatened to send her force-sensitive friends to change her mind. Leia had just laughed and said mind tricks didn't work on her.

If Tandin had heard about that, he would have gone bonkers. None of the con artists had ever seen someone so invested in a wedding … even Mina. He was, they said when he couldn't hear, a "father of the bride-zilla."

"Eight more!" Sierra announced, handing another flower garland to Saw at the thought of Tandin. When he came around (and she knew he would) she wanted them to be ahead of schedule.

…

Ahsoka pinned Rex's boutonniere to his jacket.

"You look great," she reassured and straightened his bowtie. "Every single woman in the galaxy is going to be jealous when they see you."

He fidgeted with his cuffs. "I guess."

Ahsoka crossed his arms, "Okay, you look like Lux when he's having 'The Twelve Days of Life Day'. What's up?"

"I'm old!" Rex blurted out. "I don't even know how old I am, but I know it's older than thirty-eight. Ahsoka, do you think it's fair to marry her when I know she's going to outlive me?"

Ahsoka took a long, deep breath. She knew this was coming, but she didn't think it was going to strike on Rex's wedding day.

"Mina can answer this better than I can, but this is what she told me after John died, what I know about Lux, and what I'm sure Steela knows about you. A little time spent together is better than no time at all. Mina said that if she could do her life over again knowing that John would die young, she would marry him again in a heartbeat."

She took Rex's hands in hers.

"You've been a soldier and you've been a thief all your life. This is one thing that nobody's going to make choices for you on. Your life with her is all yours, and believe me when I say she loves you."

Rex smiled. "You'd have to love me to drink my terrible excuse for caf every morning."

"Don't I know it," Ahsoka smirked. "Maybe you should let her make it a few times while you cook breakfast."

"Or we could just stick to Pancake World," Rex released her hands, emboldened at the memory of his and Steela's first date. "We'll have plenty of opportunity, considering we're about to spend the rest of our lives together."

"When you adopt your first daughter, name her Ahsoka Junior!" Ahsoka teased as she left him alone to wait for the ceremony.

Rex took a seat in one of the chairs and put his head in his hands, heart racing against his chest.

It was his wedding day. On Kamino, and throughout all the Clone Wars he had never dreamed he was going to have a wedding. Not even after a certain mission to Onderon when a gorgeous rebel appeared on a Daglo, and Rex felt something like a poke in his chest.

(He brought it up with Kix when he returned, wondering about cardiac problems. Kix listened to his story, whacked Rex with a holozine and told him to take it up with Cupid. He didn't. No one with half a brain took things up with Cupid. Bad enough Fives had overheard it already.)

Fives wasn't here to celebrate with him today, nor Hardcase or Denal or so many of his brothers. He was so, so thankful for the ones who managed to survive the Clone War, Order 66, and the devastation that was the Empire, and were still willing and able to come to his wedding.

And for the fact that there was a wedding in the first place.

He sat up, and another thought struck him as if planted there by his lost brothers.

For the first time in his life, Rex was going to have a last name.

Rex Gerrera.

Yeah. He liked the sound of that.

So, the wedding is coming along. Rex is going to have a last name, Steela is going to have a husband, Tandin will have his time being a diva, and Sierra just might dig herself out of the giant hole she's in. And with a pairing as colorful as Stee-Rex, the wedding ceremony can't be anything but a little outrageous.

Thank you to MusicKeeper, Starwarshobbitfics, and McAwsome for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!

Until next time,

LS