The tension in the room was palpable.

Brook shifted, feeling the deep seated urge too step away from Vau. He was a sergeant, delta's sergeant, but something was different, something was weird.

This must be that 'gut feeling' that Kal was so fond of talking about, but Vau was Delta's sergeant he told himself again, surely that meant the men was trustworthy.

Boss' fist slammed of the table, startling Brook out of his thoughts.

"I don't care!" His brother growled, rising from his seat.

Vau encountered the clone's anger with his own.

"Sit down." Brook inhaled sharply, biting his lip, eyes darting over to Kal. Brook was expecting an explosion from Boss. Surely Kal would step in?

But the mando didn't lift a finger, only shook his head, pointing at Boss and Vau.

"I am still your sergeant Boss and you will do as I say." Vau continued.

Vau didn't need to yell, didn't even raise his voice, but something in the men's tone made Boss pale.

He slid back into his chair, back ramrod straight, fists at his sides.

The men in the black armour nodded, than raised an eyebrow questioningly as Brook slid next to Delta. The young clone came to an automatic parade rest.

Kal always sighed when they did it, shaking his head and it seemed as if he wanted to protest, but ultimately the he always let them have their way.

Vau ion the other hand seemed to take Brook's posture as the only one good and proper.

"Ah, yes, I heard about the resident Spaarti. It seems you are teaching my men bad manners Skirata."

The last part was aimed at the owner of Kyrimorut, who growled in response and bend forward, towards Vau.

"He has a name friend, and you should use it. Besides, what is wrong with a bit of compassion? He is a good lad."

Vau only raised an eyebrow.

"The thing with compassion is that it makes the men soft Skirata, there is still a whole us inverse out there which wants to kill them, and us. I don't care if he is good or not, he will still probably get them killed one way or another. You know how these Spaarti are."

Kal bristled, ready to jump to Brook's defence, but, to everybody's surprise, it was Scorch who spoke up.

"The universe is pretty big Sir and we need all the brothers we can find."

This time it was the sergeant's time to sigh. HE leaned back, resting cool, calculating eyes on the commando.

"Safety in numbers, eh? That is one thing I could never train out of you. Only thing I really could not rid you off.

I guess you also want to take him along."

Brook felt his brothers stiffen, wanted to lay a calming hand on his brother's shoulder but was afraid he would shatter under his touch. He also feared the older men's reaction.

Scorch nodded. Boss answered with a clipped "Yes Sir," and Vau continued.

"Well, don't blame me if the whole thing goes haraan because of the shiny, if you can call him even that."

As the room fell silent, you could have heard a feather drop, the mando laughed, a hard sound, just like everything about him.

"What? You thought I would say no? I trained you well enough to pick up the slack of the Jedi; you should be able to lug one measly Spaarti around with you."

Brook swallowed hard, nails digging into the palms of his hands. He was furious and hurt at the same time. He had worked, so very, very hard. What was it with this man to just waltz into this room, into his life and talk like that?

Vau stood up, casually remarked that "well, I will head to my ship, get my kit ready," and strolled out of the room.

If Brook had been less occupied with his whirling emotions he might have noticed the lingering gaze of the older mando on the red, dirt-smeared helmet on the table and the way Vau reached out, as if to touch it.

The room was silent, people watching Vau leave. As the door closed Fi let out a deep sigh.

"Well, I haven't met the old men often, but this could have gone better."

Kal eyed the cracked helmet on the table.

"It also could have gone a whole lot worse son." He remarked, than waved Brook towards the bench.

"Sit down Brook. Vau needs to learn some manners. Don't give his words too much weight."

A.N.:

So, sorry for the delay, holidays were busy and very much fun!

So, here is the next chapter, Brook is oficially allowed to come along. (And next chapter the action will start, promise.)

SO, what do you think of Vau?

I had a merry time writing him. Vau is such a really complex character, he, at least the way I understand it, really believed he was giving the clones he trained the best possible start, that he made them fit to survive.

So, I like writing him, even if I would like to reach through the screen and shake some ense into him :)