A/N: Apologies for the delay on this chapter. These final chapters are turning out to be the most challenging, but I'm making my way through them. Only a few more chapters to go before this story is done.
I'm very glad I was able to finish tonight, seeing as there's literally a hurricane barreling past my part of Florida at the moment. Luckily, it will make landfall north of my location, but we could still lose power so I'm happy to get this up before that happens. Thanks as always for the follows, likes and reviews!
-Moki
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Din Djarin wasn't sure what was happening.
"Din? Are you alright?"
Din was standing, leaning against the wall of the passageway on the medical floor. He and Cara had been out walking. Everything had been fine and then Cara saw him suddenly grab the wall as if he were in pain.
The Mandalorian was just as confused as Cara. He didn't know what happened either. They had been walking when he heard a sound. He wasn't even sure what it was, but suddenly his adrenaline started pumping as if he were under attack, and his mind registered it as fear. More fear than he should have felt over something that small.
For a second the sound surprised him and made him think someone was coming that he didn't know. It had of reminded him of … something. He wasn't sure what, but then suddenly he couldn't breathe.
Now Din was hanging on to the wall, blinking rapidly, and clutching his chest. He felt like his lungs weren't working, and his heart was going to pound out of his ribcage.
"Din?" Cara asked again.
"I'm okay," he assured her softly even as his face scrunched, and he grunted in pain.
Deciding that he was most certainly not okay, Cara ran down the hall and got Med.
"Din? Talk to me, what's happening?" The medic said when he arrived.
"I…don't know. I just can't breathe. My heart is pounding. I can't catch my breath."
"Okay, okay, can you walk? Can you get to the exam room?"
"Yeah… I think so."
Cara picked up Grogu, who was cooing worriedly.
"It's okay, kid. We'll figure out what's going on. I'm sure he'll be fine." Cara didn't know if she was assuring the child or herself.
They got Din to the exam room without incident. Med helped him onto the table and took some readings, then put an oxygen mask over the other Mandalorian's face.
"Breathe. Deep breaths for me, okay?" Din nodded, struggling to follow the medic's instructions.
After a while Din was able to calm down. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply as Med finished his exam.
"Well, I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary now. Your blood pressure was high, as well as your heart rate and respiration, but I can't find a cause," Med said, shaking his head as he put away the scanner.
Med turned back to the exam table and removed the mask, then helped Din sit up.
"What happened right before it started?" the medic asked his patient.
"I'm not sure. We were walking and I thought I heard something."
"Heard what?"
"I don't know. It sounded like someone else was on the floor."
"That could be. I called someone up from the galley, but they were at the end of the passageway, well away from your room. Still, I guess you could have heard them."
"Maybe."
"But why would that cause what happened?" Cara asked.
Med answered her question, but he spoke to Din.
"Djar, I think this was just a residual effect from everything you've been through recently. You heard something different than the normal sounds around here, and it looks like your instincts took that as a threat. You had a fight or flight reaction, not completely unheard of after what you've survived. Especially given that you're still not sleeping or eating enough. The body can make the mind do weird things when it's not doing well, and vice versa."
"So, I wouldn't worry about it," the medic reassured the other Mandalorian. "Probably just a one-off strange occurrence. All of your readings are perfectly normal."
"How do you feel now?" Cara asked her friend.
"Fine," Din said, meaning it. Now that it was over, he felt normal, or at least as normal as he had before it started.
He noticed Grogu looking at him with a frown, still being held by Cara.
"Hey buddy, it's okay. I'm fine. Come here."
Grogu reached out his arms, whining as Din took him from Cara and put him to his shoulder. The little one trembled as Din held him by his neck and patted his back.
"Hey, it's alright. I promise. I'm good now. It's all over."
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Later that night, Cara woke to the sound of Din's voice in the room. She didn't recognize the language, and at first assumed he must be speaking Mando'a. But though she didn't speak the language herself, she'd heard it spoken before and as she listened, she realized that wasn't what he was speaking.
The words were more lyrical, it sounded like a beautiful language even though she could also tell that he hadn't spoken it in a while, or maybe didn't speak it a lot.
His native tongue, she thought with a small start.
Cara had never pondered what Din's original language might sound like. She hadn't thought about him speaking anything other than Basic or maybe Mando'a.
Din started speaking louder, his words sounding more upset and frantic.
Luckily, Med had been listening out more for Din after the latest incident. Though he'd assured the other man all was well, Med couldn't help but to feel worried about what had happened. The medic had been having a hard time sleeping and at that moment happened to be walking toward the exam room to find something to keep himself busy. He heard Din speaking and palmed the door open.
Cara had just decided to try and wake Din when Med came into the room. He went straight to Din's bedside and started talking to the other man, responding to whatever Din was saying.
They speak the same language, Cara thought in surprise.
Med continued to speak and though Cara didn't understand the words, she understood the calmness he was projecting with them. Whatever he said soothed Din and soon the other man quieted down. He didn't wake up and instead settled back into a more peaceful sleep.
Cara looked at Med in wonder.
"You weren't just found around the same time. You were found in the same place," she whispered.
"Almost," he agreed quietly, still looking at Din. "Same planet, but different cities on different sides of the planet."
"But you spoke the same language."
"Yes."
Wow, no wonder they're like brothers.
The next morning Din didn't seem to have any recollection of the nightmare and Cara chose not to mention it. Why remind him of something that would only upset him?
They continued their walks around the medical floor for a few days when Cara decided it might be time to start some light sparring. Nothing too strenuous, just something to get Din feeling like he was doing more than just walking around. For anyone not trained as a warrior, it wouldn't even have been a suggestion for someone in Din's physical condition. But for Din the mental boost it would provide outweighed the possible physical problems it could cause.
Med agreed when Cara suggested it to him.
"I think that's a good idea. Just try to keep him from overexerting himself if you can. I know that won't be easy."
"No kidding."
When Cara told Din, he of course was more than up for the idea. Med suggested they use one of the old surgical suites on the floor as it had the largest space in the medbay. He helped Cara move the surgical table and other equipment off to the side, leaving a large area for Cara and Din to work.
Din perked up quite a bit when they entered the room. He shed his new jacket but left all his other clothing, as it was more than comfortable enough for what they were going to do. He was sure the Armorer had instructed the clothiers to make him something he could begin training in again.
Cara was happy to see him excited and was eager to get started.
"Alright Mando, let's work on stamina first."
"I usually have excellent stamina..." Din started but Cara couldn't help but to get in a dig.
"Yeah, I've heard that about Mandalorians," she deadpanned, with a wicked waggle of her eyebrows.
Din ignored her, continuing his train of thought. "But I don't know how long I'll last now."
Cara opened her mouth and he saw that look in her eyes.
"Don't," he put up a hand, which silenced her. "Yes, I heard it. Can you let one go?"
"Never."
Another long-suffering sigh and eyeroll made Cara laugh internally to herself. Then she decided to address the bantha in the room.
"Before we start this, we need to take care of one thing," Cara said.
"What?"
"Him." She pointed at Grogu.
Father and son stared at her with matching quizzical looks that almost made her laugh out loud, but she kept on topic.
"We need to make sure he understands what's happening here. We know he's worried about you, and I don't want him reacting if things get rough. I already know what it feels like to have invisible hands closing around my neck, I don't want to feel that again."
"Oh, okay. Sure. That's probably a good idea," Din said, turning to the child.
"Grogu, you have to promise that you won't interfere. I need to get strong again and Cara is going to help. It might look scary sometimes, but no matter what happens, you can't do anything to Cara. Do you understand?"
Grogu nodded, hitting the button on his IG-12 suit.
"Yes."
"Good. Because if you can't stay out of this, I'll have you visit with Bo while I train."
"No."
"If you don't want to watch, that's okay. You can go be with Bo on the bridge."
"No."
"Okay, then."
They started training and though Cara did her best to keep the Mandalorian from pushing too hard, Din didn't make that task easy.
"Din, that's it. We're done," she finally announced after they'd been at it for a while.
"No. I want to do it again," Din protested, dragging himself off the floor. She hadn't even put him down there that time. He'd just stumbled when she backed away from his attack.
"Din, come on…" She stepped away easily from another attack and sighed when he hit the ground again.
Suddenly a flash of metal passed between them, and Cara gaped in surprise as the IG-12 lowered to the ground. Grogu used the machine to trap Din's arm and kept him pinned to the floor.
"Hey! I said no interfering," Din protested, looking up at his son with an angry frown.
"No. No. No." Grogu hit the button on his suit over and over again, his own angry frown matching his father's.
"Actually..." Cara walked around Din, tapping a finger to her lip in mock concentration, enjoying herself immensely. "…what you said was that he wasn't allowed to interfere with me. So really, he didn't disobey your order at all. Isn't that right, little tyke?"
Grogu continued to stare down Din, nodding solemnly. Din looked up into the child's grumpy face and suddenly all his anger faded.
"Oh, really? Is that so, you little womp rat?" Din reached up and tickled Grogu by his neck, making the child collapse into giggles.
"Okay kid, let's get your dad up before he passes out on us, and we have to drag him back to his room," Cara said.
"I'm not going to pass out," Din grumbled as Cara first got Grogu upright, then pulled him off the floor. But even as he said it, the Mandalorian realized he was more grateful for her help than he wanted to admit. Maybe they should have stopped earlier, after all.
Unfortunately, it seemed the recovering man just couldn't help himself when put into a position to train again. Because the next day, Din pushed himself even harder, despite Cara's attempts to keep things easy.
"Again." Din ground out as Cara backed away, even as he stumbled and nearly dropped.
Cara caught him effortlessly under his shoulders, shaking her head.
"Din, come on. That's enough for today. We've got to take this slow."
"No! We can do more. Come on, again." He held his hands up and bent his knees in a fighting stance, but she saw him sway, noting with worry the weariness in his movements. He was breathing heavily, blinking his eyes as he struggled to keep his attention on her.
Cara frowned but didn't advance. She was doing her best to take it easy. Din didn't seem fully aware of the changes in his body. Cara herself hadn't been fully aware of them until they'd started lightly sparring.
It wasn't just the lack of armor that felt strange, his whole body felt different. During the first light grapple, Cara had been shocked to feel Din's bones underneath his clothing. She hadn't let herself fully think about what he must look like after the starvation she knew he'd endured. She realized that you could see that someone was thinner, but it may not register until you actually touched them and sparred with them like you had many times before. Except this time, it felt like she was fighting a completely different person.
"Din it's alright, we knew this wasn't going to happen in a day or even a few days. We've got a lot of work to do."
Finally, the Mandalorian backed off, dropping his arms with a weary sigh.
"I hate this. I really hate it," he growled.
"I know you do. But you gotta stop beating yourself up, Mando. It's not helping at all."
"Really? Do you think you would be able to if you were in my place?"
"Honestly? No, probably not. But I also know that if I were in your place right now, you'd be telling me the exact same thing, wouldn't you?"
Din sighed. She was right, he would. He'd never let Cara or any of his friends be this hard on themselves in the same situation.
"You're right, I would. Bo said almost the exact same thing to me not that long ago."
"Good, she and I agree. So, take your own advice, warrior. Let's take a break and we can do this all again tomorrow."
Din nodded.
Cara and Din continued to spar lightly for the next couple of days and the ex-shock trooper was happy to note that she could feel the Mandalorian's strength coming back, bit by bit.
One morning Cara decided to challenge Din just a touch more than she had before.
Pulling a quick offensive move, Cara got Din to the ground. She kept a light hold on him, waiting for him to fight back and grinned when he managed to get an arm around her and pin her down.
Good. That's what we need. Come on, Din, you gotta fight.
Deciding that he could use a little more of a challenge before they called it a day, Cara got the warrior on the ground again. She pinned his arms down, straddling his waist but not putting any of her weight on him, except for the light pressure on his arms. It was something he could easily get out of when he was at full strength, and she tested him to see how much he would fight back.
It was a position they'd gotten into countless times while sparring and automatically Cara found herself launching into her typical teasing manner.
"Come on, Mando. Yield," she said, laughing and putting a little more pressure on his arms, waiting for him to flip her over. She was fully prepared to let him have the upper hand, even if he did the move lightly. It's what you did when training someone who was still learning, or in Din's case, recovering.
Cara had no way of knowing that her words would bring out a completely different response in the Mandalorian.
"NO! I won't yield!" Din yelled suddenly. He pushed her off and Cara jumped more from the yell than from the actual power of his move. Though he'd shown more strength at that moment than in any previous bouts they'd had.
When he got up, Cara was shocked to see that Din's eyes weren't focused. The Mandalorian shook his head and backed away, mumbling angrily.
Something else was going on, Cara could see it. Something was wrong. Very wrong. She rose to her feet slowly, holding her hands up in a surrendering motion.
"Din? Hey, it's okay. It's just me. It's Cara."
Din squeezed his eyes shut as if trying to block something from his sight, or maybe more accurately something from his mind.
Cara's heart pounded with the realization that Din was not aware of where he was, which could be very dangerous for both of them. She kept talking to him, trying to break through to the man she knew.
"Din? Are you with me?"
Din didn't respond. He walked to the wall, putting his hands on it as if he didn't see it, then walked away from her, continuing to follow it around the room. Almost like he was using it to guide him.
As if he were blind. The realization made Cara sick to her stomach.
Cara stayed where she was, waiting for Din to come out of whatever this was on his own. She wasn't about to risk going near him yet. She didn't want to have to take him down and hurt him.
Being honest with herself, she also knew that she didn't want to fight the Mandalorian in his current state. If he was acting on pure instinct, convinced that he was back in Gideon's prison, there was no telling what he might do to her. He may still be recovering but if he was running on the fear and terror of that place, he could easily bypass all the pain and instantly turn into the deadly warrior that she knew he was. It was a situation that could get either one of them seriously injured.
Grogu cooed worriedly from his perch in IG-12. Cara looked at the child and shook her head to keep him away. Luckily the kid seemed to understand and stayed put.
They just needed to give Din a minute to get his bearings and figure out where he was.
"Din," she said clearly but steadily. "You're here on the cruiser. You're not a prisoner anymore. It's me, Cara. Grogu is here, too. Come back to us, buddy."
The Mandalorian paused at her voice, still leaning against the wall. One shoulder came up instinctively, as if trying to keep her (or the enemies in his mind) away.
Cara felt like she was getting through so kept talking, feeling that the sound of her voice might pull Din out of wherever he was.
"We were sparring, and I said something I shouldn't have. I'm not even sure what, but we'll figure that out later. Your kid is here. We're on the cruiser and everything is okay. Med is here, Bo is here, you're safe. I promise you, Din, you're safe. Please, come back."
Din was leaning against the wall, partially turned away from her. He paused again at her final phrase and slowly looked up. His eyes opened and she saw them focus as he studied the room, then he looked at her. When he spoke, his voice was small, sounding nothing like the man she knew.
"Cara?"
As if he'd just realized what happened, all the strength went out of Din's legs, and he slid down the wall. He ended up on the ground with his knees tucked up under his chin, arms crossed around them.
"I'm sorry," he said, putting his head in his hands.
"Hey, it's okay." Cara slowly approached, still not wanting to set him off again.
"I was back there. The Moff… he said that to me." Din's voice was thin, barely making it to her though she was only a few feet away.
"Said what?"
"He asked me to yield. A few times. During…the torture."
Cara swallowed hard. It was the first time she'd heard Din use that word. Knowing it had happened was one thing, hearing him actually say it made it so much worse.
Cara kneeled nearby, still not too close, but close enough to keep him from feeling alone.
"That's all he said he wanted," Din continued. "Just for me to yield and…"
"What? He'd let you go?" Cara didn't believe that for one second.
"No," Din shook his head lightly. "That he'd give me a warrior's death. End all the pain."
Cara's heart dropped even further. The evilness of the Moff was of a variety you didn't see very often, and once again she wished she could put her hands around that man's neck. But once again she couldn't, so she concentrated on the person in front of her, the man who needed her help.
"I'm sorry, Din. That guy deserves… well, things I'm not going to say out loud in front of your kid."
Grogu cooed, he'd come closer in the IG-12 and was standing nearby.
Din didn't respond to either of them. He just stared at the ground with his head in his hands.
"I'm sorry that he did that and that you had to live through it. I'm also sorry that I said something so stupid. I should've known you would have gone through something like that."
"No, it's not your fault. How could you have known? I didn't even remember it myself. It just popped back into my head. Actually, it popped me out of my head. I wasn't even here for a minute. I was back there, with him, with his goons."
Din looked up in horror at the realization of what that meant.
"Maker, I could've hurt you."
Din's eyes were stricken when he looked at her, then over at the child staring at him worriedly.
"I could've hurt Grogu. I didn't know what I was doing."
"Din, stop it. You can't do that. Yes, you were out of it, but you didn't do anything to either of us. You were still lucid enough to walk away. You didn't strike, which shows me that somewhere in there you were awake. That's good."
Din didn't respond. He stayed as he was, his back braced against the wall, elbows on knees, pressing his palms into his eyes. It looked like he was trying to block out the images that kept pummeling him.
"Din?"
He shook his head. Whether at her, or at whatever was going on in his mind, she couldn't be sure.
Cara could see Din was holding something back, something that was aching to be let go. There was tension evident in his entire body.
It didn't look like what had happened before, when he'd been fighting an invisible enemy. This looked like pain, plain and simple. Not physical pain, though. The nightmares, the panic, and now the knowledge that he'd gone so far into his mind that he might have hurt her and his son.
It was all a bit much.
Cara knew she'd feel the same way in his place. They were soldiers, they weren't supposed to break down. But sometimes you needed to fall apart so that you could put yourself back together.
She had to let him know it was okay, that he could drop the walls for a little while. He'd already done it a little bit with her, but not enough.
He needed to let go.
"Din, it's okay," she reassured him quietly. "It's just me here. Me and your kid. No one is judging you. No one is going to hurt you here. You've got to let this go. Stop hanging on to it."
Din thought about what she said. He wasn't trying to be some cold monster who never felt emotion. After all, it wasn't as if he'd never been emotional in front of her, not that she'd really seen him. But he'd had tears in his eyes when he'd let go of Grogu on the bridge of this very cruiser, when the kid went with the Jedi.
The difference was that Din hadn't felt close to losing control back then. He had been feeling a deep, terrible loss but there'd been no fear, no pain under it. He had been happy Grogu had found his people. He'd only been sad for himself. That was easier, much easier than this.
"You're not alone in that darkness anymore," Cara said, her voice barely above a whisper. She had a feeling he was closer to letting it all go so she kept talking. "You're not there in that place, and not in your head. You're here. And we're all here with you. All of your friends are here for you."
Din gasped and a single soft sob fell out of him. That's what it felt like, anyway, as if he tried all he could to hold it in, but the damn thing had just dropped out of his body without his permission.
Oh, kriff it, he thought, and let it happen. He buried his head in his arms and let go of all the pain, the fear, the frustration, the shame, all of it. It tumbled out of him without any control.
Cara put a tentative arm around his shoulders. She wasn't used to this giving comfort thing. Treating an injury, sure. This? Whole different story. But she'd asked him to let go, so she was going to be there to catch him when he fell. She was always there to catch him when he fell. Or to pick him up and drag him to safety after he fell. Wasn't this just another way of doing that? She'd literally held him when he'd been dying, why would this be different?
Even warriors had a right to bleed, even if that bleeding didn't involve actual blood.
Making a decision, Cara pulled her friend to her shoulder. Din didn't resist, letting himself be held and comforted like he hadn't been in a very long time.
Other than the single errant sob, the Mandalorian didn't make much more noise. He didn't cry or wail, but he still found a way to let out some of the emotion, the pain, the fear, even the anger that had been bottled up inside of him. Tears fell, much as they had on the bridge the day he chose Grogu's happiness over his own.
Din wasn't sure how long he stayed like that, but soon he became aware of a soft coo near his hip. He looked down to find Grogu staring up at him with sad eyes, whining. The child had gotten himself out of the IG-12 suit to be closer to his father.
Din took a deep breath and wiped his face with the back of his arm.
"Hey, kid. It's okay. It's just been a rough day. But I'm fine. Promise."
"Rough day?" Cara said slyly. "How about a rough couple of months?"
Din sniffed one final time and chuckled lightly.
"Yeah, that too."
"Feeling better?" Cara asked tentatively.
"Yes."
He still looked worried.
"What?"
"What if….whatever that was happens again?"
"If it happens again, we'll handle it. But my experience is that usually the first time is the worst, so I bet it if does happen again, you'll be even more in control. And I'll keep a closer eye on you when we spar. We'll treat this like everything else. We learn from it and adjust until it goes away. Just like the nightmares, right? We keep finding the problem and then we fix it, like soldiers do, like warriors do."
"Right. Okay." He agreed.
"Now get up. I need to bring you back to Med. You better hope you don't have any new bruises from slamming yourself into that wall or else I'm going to pay for it with that friend of yours."
Luckily Med gave Din a clean bill of health and the Mandalorian went back to his room with Grogu to rest.
Bo, Med, and Cara took the opportunity to meet in the exam room down the hall, speaking in hushed voices even with the door closed.
"I think it's good that he's finally starting to remember bits and pieces of what happened," Bo said when she heard.
"But we all need to be prepared, next time it could be worse," Med said.
"Agreed," Cara said. "I'll keep an eye on him."
She had told them about Din going into full-on warrior mode for a little bit, feeling that it was better for his and their safety. But she chose not to say anything about the other breakdown. No one else needed to know about it, other than those who'd been in the room.
"And I'm going to start listening out more for him, day, and night. If he does that again, it might be good if we have two sets of hands to deal with it," Med said.
"Good idea," Cara agreed.
The next day, there was no repeat of the previous incident. But Din still insisted on doing more than he should have and they'd ended up in Med's exam room.
Din was currently getting his ribs wrapped, and getting the riot act from Med.
"Djar, what did I say about taking it easy?"
"I need to get back in shape, Med," Din protested with a grunt as the medic was forced to put extra pressure on his bruised ribs, to give them the support they needed. Grogu was sitting on the table next to Din and cooed unhappily at the sound of pain from his father.
"I understand that, but you do realize that if you break your ribs that's only going to slow down the process, right? You think I'm going to approve you back to the Fighting Corps with an active injury?"
"No," Din said softly.
"Good. Now just take it down a few notches, that's all I'm asking. I'd really rather not have you training or sparring at all, but I think it's better for you than sitting in your room all day. And I trust Cara, I know she's trying her best to go easy on you."
"She is," Din assured.
"I'm trying, he sure doesn't make it easy though." Cara said sadly, noticing the new bruises which had now been added to the old healing ones on Din's body.
"He keeps pushing to the point where I have to increase my holds, then he drops and sometimes I can't catch him."
"Stubborn." Everyone looked up to see Bo entering the room, shaking her head with her arms crossed and an angry frown. "Din, am I going to have to order Med to keep you on bed rest?"
"No, I'm fine. This is enough of a lesson." He assured, holding onto his sore ribs. Din hadn't meant to let things get as far as they had and was paying the price for it now. He was determined not to let it happen again. He was tired of being too injured to fight.
"Good, old man. Don't forget what this feels like. Unfortunately, I am going to have to order you to bed rest for at least a couple days. These are only bruised so you should be fine by then. If they'd been broken, it would have been longer."
Bo and Cara shared an amused look.
"Okay, I have to ask," Cara said to Din. "Why does he keep calling you 'old man'?"
"Because he's older," Med said simply, as if that would explain everything.
Cara and Bo shared another look. While they couldn't see Med's face, his voice, the way he moved, all of it indicated that he was probably similar in age to Din. Certainly not young enough for Din to be called "old man" in comparison.
"Really? How much older?" Bo asked.
"Thirteen days," Din grumbled.
"Wait, you guys are only thirteen days apart? Born in the same year cycle and everything?" Cara was surprised.
"Yep," Med nodded as he put away the bandages. "And believe me, he used those thirteen days to his full advantage when we were kids. Tell her, old man."
Din sighed, and Cara laughed.
"Oh, I know that sigh. He's right, isn't he?"
"Yes. When we were kids, it paid off to be the older one."
"How?" Bo asked.
"They always put him in charge if we were paired off for any duties," Med said.
Din shrugged, wincing slightly as the movement pulled on his sore ribcage. "I wasn't above using it to my advantage."
"But then we got older, and I flipped it on him. It's not nearly as fun now when you're the old man. While I'm still in the bloom of my youth," Med declared, holding his arms out and pushing out his chest in a show of exaggerated vitality.
Din rolled his eyes. "You see what I've had to put up with? As soon as we became adults, he started calling me 'Old Man.'"
"Yeah, but tell them what you used to call me when we were kids."
Din's mouth quirked into a one-sided smile.
"What? Come on, spill," Cara said.
"Baby Brother."
"That's not so bad," Bo said.
"It is when you're a young man of fourteen and trying to show off for the young ladies in the Foundling Hall. Not that I ever had a chance with him around - they all flocked to him anyway - but still."
Din chuckled lightly.
"How did you discover you were almost the same age?" Bo asked.
"We figured it out not long after we also realized we were rescued from the same planet," Med replied.
"And speak the same language," Cara said.
Din looked up at her with a frown, and Cara remembered that he didn't know he had spoken to Med in his sleep the other night.
"How did you know that?"
Bo looked between the two of them, wanting to know more but not wanting to get in the middle of whatever had happened.
Med rescued Cara from the awkward moment.
"You talked in your sleep the other night, brother."
"I did? What did I say?"
Med said something in their shared language.
Din nodded thoughtfully. "And what did you say?"
Med said another phrase that sobered Din.
Din looked over at Cara and Bo.
"I'm sorry, we're being rude."
"No, don't worry about it," Bo said.
"That's private between you guys," Cara added.
"No, it's okay," Din said. "You deserve to know. You both have helped me so much through all of this. I guess I was remembering when my parents died. When the battle droids came, my parents grabbed me, and we ran. People were being killed and I was so scared. I just held on to my father, but I could see everything happening around us."
Bo and Cara frowned sadly as Din continued his story, speaking softly.
"They must've realized there was no hope. They found an underground storage space and put me inside. I still remember seeing their faces as they closed the door on me," Din's eyes grew unfocused, remembering that terrifying time.
"Then I was alone in the dark. There was an explosion just after the door closed. I knew they were gone. The doors opened, and the droid was aiming at me. I closed my eyes and waited for it to end. There was a loud sound, but I was still alive, and when I looked up, there was a Mandalorian reaching down to pull me out. That's when I was rescued."
"Now I understand why you hated those droids on Plazir," Bo said, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, I had no idea you'd gone through that. I would never have made you do that stupid job if I'd known."
"No, it's alright. Honestly, I kind of enjoyed kicking those things and taking one out," he said with a small grin remembering that day.
"Kriff, Din, I had no idea how bad it was," Cara said. "No wonder you hated droids for so long. I can't imagine going through something like that as a child."
"It's okay. I made it. We both made it," he looked over at Med who nodded at him.
"Anyway, like I said, I think I was dreaming of that moment. What I said was, 'Don't leave me alone. It's dark. I'm scared.'"
Cara's heart tightened. She couldn't help but to picture him much younger and stuck in a dark room, knowing his parents had died for him, and waiting for his own death.
Bo felt the same, thinking of that day not too long ago when she'd found Din alone in another room, darkened by blindness, tortured, and in pain.
Neither woman had thought it was possible for her respect of the Mandalorian to grow beyond what it was already, but in that moment it did.
Din looked at Med, who nodded and finished the story.
"And I said, 'You're not alone. We're here, brother.'"
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A/N: As a little behind the scenes, I'm picturing that Din and Med speak Spanish or at least a language that sounds similar to Spanish when speaking in their native tongue. That felt right considering that both Pedro and Oscar speak it as their first language.