I wrote this ages ago, thinking I would post it after Echo's death, but decided against it. She needed to have a chapter after everything she went through, and with what is yet to come. . . . .

Eighty Three

Freya's chapter

"Are you sure there is nothing we can do; to convince you to stay."

Freya looked at the flimsie in her hand and passed it over to the senior analyst.

"No, but thank you," she said, "for everything, for understanding."

She returned to her work station, placing the handful of personal items in the small container.

Freya looked around. She had few friends, and now, she had no reason to stay on Coruscant.

Everything had been taken from her.

Everything except the part of him the Republic didn't deem disposable.

The other ARC, his best friend had delivered the news.

Fives sat with her all night, as she cried in disbelief at what had happened, but being the pragmatic person she was, Freya knew she had to stay true to the dream they had allowed themselves to believe.

No amount of tears could bring him back, no amount of tears would stop the baby from coming.

She woke early the next morning, tucked up on the chair opposite the fully armoured ARC. Removing the blanket quietly, she headed into her functional kitchenette and made breakfast. She knew that he would wake hungry, like Echo had done.

She steadied herself against the counter top.

Freya went into the lounge and woke the sleeping giant on her couch.

"Fives, Fives, wake up. Come, I've cooked some breakfast." His eyes sprung open and the reality of the night before began all over again.

He watched as she poured the steaming tea into his cup, her enormous belly leading the way as she manoeuvred herself around the small table.

She looked strange, as if someone had shoved a balo ball under her top.

It didn't look real.

This was the closest he had ever been to a pregnant woman, his hand wanted to touch it, to see how it felt.

He had seen baby clones in vats on Kamino, floating in the pale blue solution with monitors blinking and beeping in unison. He had even seen one born. The fluid drained from the container and the umbilical cord cut and clipped by a medical droid, the clone then placed in a crib to dry out.

Some would cry, but not many.

The ones who were inconsolable were immediately wheeled into another room. There had been speculation that they were defective, the more complacent were moved into the nursery.

Not once were they held. Like a weird psychological experiment in human development they were never touched, their predisposition determined and factored right from the beginning of their sterile lives.

The first time Fives remembered being touched was when a cadet crept into the wrong cot one night after a stint in the bacta.

Confused by the dark he scrambled in next to Fives, petrified when he heard the other cadet speak. "Please don't tell anyone," he begged, "please, let me sleep here." Fives rolled over and when he woke in the morning the cadet was gone, never to be seen again.

That was when he realized the need for intimate physical contact equaled weakness.

They were conditioned since birth to survive without it.

Denied the very thing a child craves.

He averted his eyes and began eating the food she had prepared.

Fives cleared his throat, clasping the large cup in his hands, "Echo," his voice wavering momentarily. Steeling himself, he began again, "Echo made me promise to look after you, if anything happened to him."

Freya stood still. She placed the container of blue milk on the table.

"I'll be OK Fives. I have money and family back on Corellia."

"You don't understand. I made a promise," he whispered as he lowered his head. It struck her then that Fives was just as affected by her lovers death. They too, had a bond, one that ran just as deep and as personal as the one she shared with the fallen ARC.

She walked around behind him and stopped before patting him on the shoulder. "You were there, weren't you, when it happened?" He nodded his head. Fives was aware of her proximaty; he could hear her steady breathing, the material of her tunic moving in his periphery. "I'll be OK Fives, trust me, I'll be OK."

They were both in denial.

Deflecting and avoiding as a coping mechanism to the unbearable truth.

Freya never spoke his name once that morning, she was limiting her awareness to the reality of what had happened to Echo.

Everything inside was screaming, but unable to tolerate the pain that would emerge it she faced the truth, Freya simply carried on as normal.

Emotional anaesthesia.

Her boss had tried to divulge some information about why she was leaving such a senior position. He knew she was involved with a 'soldier,' but had said nothing as her situation became increasingly obvious.

The job itself would more than pay for her to keep the baby and stay in a comfortable position on Coruscant. He wanted her to talk, to open up to him, but knowing what a private person she was, respected her decision.

Freya booked passage back to Corellia and back to her previous life, the one away from the excitement that Coruscant and working with the Republic had opened up to her. She was fortunate to be the daughter of a wealthy businessman, the family home big enough to house her and the immanent grandchild.

She wasn't prepared for the look of shock on her mother's face when she arrived at their door.

Freya was pale, heavily pregnant and looked as though she hadn't brushed her hair in days. She had lost touch with reality, sleeping whenever she wanted, not showering and not talking about what had happened to her partner.

"Freya, darling," her mother said one evening over the dinner table, "you haven't said anything since you arrived." She continued cautiously, "do you think we might be meeting the 'father' any time soon?"

"No."

"Did the mongrel leave you?" Her father was less persuasive. "Who is he?" he demanded, "I'll have him. No one does this to my daughter. He'll be ruined for the rest of his life."

"He's dead." She looked up at her parent's faces, their mouths open and in disbelief, just as she had been a fortnight ago.

"Oh Freya," he mother breathed, "my poor darling." She moved around the table and placed her arms around her daughters shoulders. "How did he die?"

"He was a soldier in the clone army, an ARC trooper actually." Her brother looked up from his meal, his older sister immediately became more interesting.

"A CLONE?" Her father wasn't as impressed. "A clone soldier, did I hear correctly? Did he rape you? This can't be happening," he grabbed his wine glass and took a long drink.

"No father, I wasn't raped. I had a relationship with a soldier whose name was Echo. We loved one another, we -were plan - ."

"Oh I see, he thought that if he ingratiated himself on an unsuspecting, wealthy young woman he could wangle his way out of the war! This is unbelievable," he was furious.

"Darling sit down, we don't need to let the neighbours know our business." Her mother had sat back down and began finishing her meal, "it's no longer a problem anyway, the young man is dead."

Dead.

It wasn't until she heard her mother say the word that it finally registered, that she would never see Echo again.

"We're glad you came back home Freya. Once it is born we can all move on with our lives, you can stay here and meet a nice man and start afresh. No one needs be any the wiser."

Everything was happening in slow motion, her mother talking, spewing out words as she shoveled food into her perfectly outlined mouth. Her father's red face, guzzling alcohol and refilling his glass. Her bothers sinister smile.

She had embarrassed them all, brought shame into the family home. She had got it wrong, there were no allies here.

Alone and pregnant, she had to think quickly. "We were married," she lied, "we were married and I intend to keep the baby."

Freya was growing stronger by the second. She had to, she had to look after the one thing that kept Echo's memory alive.

"I loved him. He wasn't a genetic freak, he was a man. An intelligent, good looking human, father, who loved me heart and soul. This baby is wanted."

Her outburst sent them all quiet. "And if you don't want to acknowledge your grandson, then, then, that's your loss, but I won't let him go. He is part of my life, and a product of our marriage."

"You can't stay here," her father said rising from his chair slowly.

"Evor, think about what you are saying first. A grandson," she implored. "We can say, in all honesty that Freya's husband was killed in, in an unfortunate work related accident."

"He was a soldier mother," it almost sounded comical.

"I won't have this clone's bastard child in my house," he yelled.

"They were married Evor," her mother was in damage control.

She was happy to have her daughter back from Coruscant. Freya had always been such a serious little girl, her redeeming feature being her intelligence. Her mother never thought she would take a partner, let alone carry a grand child for them. This was a blessing, an unexpected blessing for a family that had nothing to offer but wealth.

A child, an innocent child was at the source of all their anger.

"It's OK mother, I have savings, I don't need to stay here and - ," she stopped, doubling over and waited as the gush of clear fluid ran from between her legs.

"Oh great, just great," her father stated, "now she plans on having the alien here."

Freya was in shock, all over again, breathing hard she looked up at her father, "he's wasn't an alien, he was Mandalorian!"

"Same thing," she heard him mutter as her mother ushered her from the room.

.

Freya was taken to the local private hospital. Within the sterile white walls and hushed tones of the perfectly coiffed Corellian nurses she cried throughout the entire delivery.

She cried from the pain of the labour, from the pain at her situation but her hardest tears were the ones shed over the pain at not having him next to her when Marek was born.

"Eyayah, oh Eyayah," she repeated as she kissed the tiny head of dark hair.

"What is she saying?" her mother whispered to a nurse musing over the medical chart.

She smiled, "it's Mandalorian I believe, for Echo."

.