"You need to come into the green space with me, Yala."

"No," D'avin found himself saying in an instant. They were both looking at him now. "I can't lose you, Dutch." She moved to him and held his face between her hands and he could see that she was scared. "Please don't do this…"

Dutch just stared at him for a moment. He could still see the lines on her face where her tears had fallen. Her voice was quiet, but it wasn't calm. "If things go sideways-"

"No, we can choose something-"

"No we can't," she whispered. "All my life I wondered why I was sent away...why I wasn't wanted-"

"You were wanted," Aneela said from behind. "And you were loved, even if you don't remember it."

None of what Aneela made him feel any better. He just didn't want to let her go. His heart was breaking at all the things that could go wrong. D'avin could handle losing Dutch, just as long as they were there dying together fighting like crazy against the Hullen.

But this...this was different.

"If things go sideways," she whispered again. "You'll find our child… You and Johnny will take Lucy and fly far away from the Quad… You'll raise our child and tell all the stories of our adventures and how dearly I loved all of you…" Dutch kissed him and though he kissed back, holding her close and tight, she eventually pulled away and it made him feel like he was breaking all the more. "You promise me."

"Tap my heart," he barely whispered as he touched his chest.

Dutch turned back to Aneela. "How dangerous will it be?"

"I pulled you from the green when I was alone," Aneela said. "But if the Lady finds out…"

"So, maybe you should let Kendry take Caspara to my ship, let D'avin and Johnny protect them."

"Why do you think they'd be safer there?" Aneela asked with a tilt of her head.

"Because they'll fiercely protect them...and they're not Hullen...they won't be turned by the Lady at all. The Hullen slaves you have, are you sure you can keep control of them?" Dutch questioned.

Aneela looked towards him now. "Will you protect both Kendry and Caspara?"

"She's my daughter...I would never harm her...and I won't hurt Delle Seyah either, she's still her mother...well, I guess one of them," D'avin replied.

"Aneela, you can't possibly be even entertaining this!" Delle Seyah cried out.

Aneela went to Delle Seyah and held her at arm's length. "You must trust me. You take our child and you go with the Jaqobis brothers to their ship. You stay away until I come for you. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Then go."

"I don't trust them."

Aneela looked right at him. "Yala trusts them...so must we."

He couldn't believe he was doing this.

"Like hells we're leaving without Dutch!"

D'avin felt the same way, but he also knew that this was what they had to do no matter how much they both hated it. He grabbed his brother and started to haul him in the direction of Lucy. He didn't relent, though, and looked back at Delle Seyah with Caspara who were still following him. Johnny was fighting him and as much as he wanted to shake his brother and tell him that this was what they had to do, he was afraid that if he stopped...that he wouldn't even be able to convince himself that this was the right thing. So, he instead he punched Johnny, grabbed him with two hands and hauled him all the way onto Lucy before dropping his little brother inside.

"Lucy, Dutch said to tell you to initiate protocol Freebird," D'avin said and looked back at Johnny who was starting to get to his feet. Lucy already had the door closed up, so at least Johnny wouldn't be able to run out quickly.

"No!" Johnny yelled. "Lucy, don't!"

"I'm sorry, John, but Dutch has instituted a master code," Lucy replied.

"Dutch isn't even here! D'av-"

"D'avin has the authorization to institute the protocol," Lucy interrupted. "I'm sorry, John."

Johnny launched himself at him and D'av just let him. They were away from Delle Seyah and Caspara, so D'avin didn't care what Johnny did to him. Johnny punched his shoulder and shook him, but as they stared at each other...he saw a bit of the anger melt away in his brother. "I didn't want to leave her either." They just collapsed next to each other and sat there. It was clear that Lucy was already away from the Hullen ship. The last time Dutch had used that code was when they'd infiltrated the RAC in order to find Khlyen and she'd sent them away to keep them safe and be able to still Killjoy.

"Do you think Lucy's taking us to Westerley?" Johnny asked after a long period of time. "That she'll show up like last time?"

"I honestly have no idea." He was exhausted and all he wanted was to have those answers, for himself as much as for John.

"How long do we wait?" Delle Seyah asked.

"I'm not even sure."

"Do you think that it's possible that I could lay down with Caspara for a bit?"

D'avin gave a nod and started to get to his feet. "Do you want me to take her while you lay down?" When it seemed like she was unsure about it, he frowned a bit more. "I'm not going to go anywhere with her...if I wanted to, we would have already tried."

"If she gets fussy, you'll come get me?"

"Of course," he replied.

Delle Seyah placed Caspara in his arms, she still seemed iffy about it but she stepped back and left him with his daughter anyways. "I know the way to the bunks."

"The last one is the guest one," Johnny spoke up.

D'avin watched as she went before looking down at Caspara and bouncing her slightly. He had mixed feelings about that moment. Looking back up, Delle Seyah had disappeared so he moved back to sit down next to his brother. "She's beautiful, isn't she?"

"She looks like Dutch."

"Yeah, she does. We sure she's not?"

D'avin looked at his brother. "No," he admitted. "But technically, Aneela and Dutch are basically the same person, right?"

"I'm pretty sure if Zeph was here she'd give us a whole biological nerd spiel about how there's some major difference...besides their personalities and life experiences, of course," Johnny said. "But Caspara's still your daughter no matter what they say."

His heart was truly torn. He'd wondered for months about Dutch and their child...and thought that maybe if they hadn't been separated that maybe he wouldn't have this feeling...the need to see Caspara and hold her like he was now...that maybe he could accept not being in her life or her father (especially if Aneela and Delle Seyah would only take her off the enemy lines). As he held her and just took her in all the more, he couldn't even imagine what Dutch had to feel to leave their child with Bellus, Pree, and Gared...especially since it was radio silence and not knowing exactly where they were.

"John, are we okay?" he asked as he looked over to his brother.

"You mean about you punching me and dragging me off the ship? Or the fact that we left Dutch behind?"

D'avin sighed. "Both?"

"Yeah, we're okay," Johnny told him. "But I hate leaving her."

"So do I."

TBC…