A/N:
Hi folks! Huge apologies for the delay. Life has been super busy and as I've already mentioned, these final chapters are turning out to be tough – being that they were the least finished when I started this story. But hopefully I've made up for it by giving you another long chapter.
Also, remember a loooong while back when I said I would reveal why I did what I did with Din's name in chapter four? Well stay tuned for the payoff and explanation coming up in this chapter.
Enjoy!
-Moki
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Din Djarin was stuffing his face.
"Din, I never thought I'd ever say this again, and while a part of me is happy I need to, the medic part of me isn't. Slow down."
"What?" Din's mouth was full.
"You've got to take it easy, brother or you'll make yourself sick again."
"Sorry," Din swallowed the last bite he'd been eating. "I don't think I've ever felt this hungry in my life. Well, maybe when I was stuck in my cell and hadn't eaten in days, or it might have been weeks, I'm honestly not sure."
Cara looked at Med. She couldn't see the medic's eyebrows, but something told her they were raised as high as hers were.
Din was almost joking about what happened to him. At the very least he was talking about it easily. Either way, it was a good sign.
Cara had never seen Din eat before on their previous missions together, as he'd always gone off alone for his meals. More recently, he'd barely been able to eat a few bites with all the issues he'd been having. Now she was seeing what she assumed was how Din actually ate, or maybe how much he could eat when he was trying to build up his strength. Cara found herself oddly impressed by the amount of food the man could take down now that he was feeling better.
After he finished, Din pushed his plate away, looking uncomfortable.
"Brother?" Med asked worriedly, noting the pained look on his patient's face.
Uh oh, Cara thought. Here we go again.
But instead of running to the fresher to throw up what he'd just eaten, Din suddenly belched loudly. He had the grace to immediately look mortified, covering his mouth and staring at Cara and Med in horror.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that. Please excuse me."
"Nothing to worry about," Med reassured him. "Perfectly normal reaction to stuffing your gut and another reason I will tell you again to slow down. Next time you could end up with more than just air coming back, understand?"
"I do. I'll slow down, I promise."
"Good."
They all paused, unsure of what to say. Din's face was still scrunched in embarrassment. Cara's was scrunched in an attempt not to laugh.
Med looked back and forth between the two of them. He was happy his helmet hid the look on his own face as he tried to hold back amusement, not wanting to make Din feel uncomfortable. They'd just gotten him to eat, and the medic didn't want to do anything to stop that.
Luckily, Grogu found a way to break the tension. He'd been following his dad's example and stuffed himself nearly as much as Din had. When the child finished his meal, he let loose with an impressive gaseous expulsion of his own.
Well, except that his erupted from a location a little farther south than his father's had.
The adults looked at each other in stunned silence for several long seconds.
Grogu looked behind him as if trying to figure out where the sound had come from.
"Nice try, kid. We all know that came from you," Din said, raising his eyebrows at the child.
At that, all three adults erupted into laughter and Grogu stared at them in surprise. He didn't know what started it, but he joined in as well. Din's laugh was again that strong chuckle that Cara had come to recognize, but she and Med laughed out loud.
"I think I'm going to have the galley adjust your diets again," Med said after he finally stopped laughing and all of them had caught their breath.
The tension of the last few days, the last few weeks really, was finally easing and all of them were feeling it. Din was better, there was no doubt about it. Being able to sleep and eat, he was on his way to being himself again.
Now they just needed to get him back into fighting shape. Cara had no doubt that would be her biggest obstacle. Not getting him there but holding him back from doing too much and hurting himself. But once again she was ready for the challenge.
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Din's appetite continued to improve over the next couple days, basically returning to normal. Though Med decided to keep his meals small and frequent for a little while longer just to be safe.
The Mandalorian didn't mind the enforced diet. He had a better understanding of what his body had gone through and knew the medic was doing it for his own good. Now that his memories had returned, Din recalled the starvation. Not just a general understanding of it because he saw his body in the mirror or felt the residual hunger pangs. He remembered the details.
Din remembered the first time he realized they had stopped feeding him. He remembered the first time his hunger nearly drove him mad, trying to sleep while in pain from a recent trip to the debriefing room. How the hunger had added to the pain, making it more debilitating.
Din remembered a time when he literally forgot about food. When eating had become such a distant memory that when they had delivered a rare meal, it took him a few seconds to realize what he was meant to do with the protein sludge and tasteless dried meat that appeared on a tray in his cell.
Now that he remembered what occurred, he understood that it would take a little while for his body to return to normal. Just like his muscles, his stomach was going to have to build up to taking in and processing enough food to get him back to full strength.
After he told Cara everything he remembered about his time as a prisoner, Din found it interesting that none of those memories bothered him any longer.
Logically, it should have been more frightening to know all of it, to be able to see the evil that had been done to him. But though his gut clenched at the remembered pain of his visits to the debriefing room and at the terror of the Darkness, it was better to have those images simply be memories. Rather than ghosts in his mind, blank spots filled only with darkness and nameless fear. Unidentified, the memories had been able to terrorize him. Now that he could look at them, they were nothing. It was like confronting a quarry that thought they could intimidate Din because they were bigger, only to see them cower when he stood his ground.
The old terrors were cowering at him now, unable to make him do their bidding anymore.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
As Din's body continued to grow stronger, the training regimen increased. But now instead of Cara and Med running the program, Din was taking an active role in his own recuperation.
Before, Din had been following along with whatever he'd been told to do, too tired and worn out from injuries or lack of adequate sleep and food to think about much else than simply going from one thing to the next. Now that Din was getting the rest he needed, he could take more responsibility for himself, and he relished having some of that control back.
The Mandalorian was starting to plan and strategize his own recovery. It was something he'd done many times before, having spent years alone as a bounty hunter and recovering from countless injuries. He knew what needed to be done for the most part, especially now that he was no longer in a weakened or critical condition that required medical intervention.
Din consulted with Med to ensure that his increased training wasn't going to cause any damage. But once he got the medic's okay, along with orders to keep checking back before adding anything new to his routine, Din started training in earnest.
One of Din's first suggestions was that the walks he'd been doing with Cara be turned into jogs. Med gave his approval and the two were soon running around the medical floor daily. As Din was still healing and not in his armor, there had been no discussion about moving him to another part of the ship, so they stayed in the medbay area.
Sometimes at the end of their light runs, Din would challenge Cara to a race. She always won but the margin was getting smaller seemingly every day as his strength returned.
They also continued to spar, though Din didn't need to relearn the skill. They did it so he could rebuild the muscle tissue that had been lost during his time as a prisoner.
Much as she had suspected, Cara found that she needed to watch Din more closely now than before. Din remembered how to fight, and he had the muscle memory to do all the correct moves. But he was missing the strength to pull them off, which meant that he fell and dropped a lot.
During their spars, Din attempted holds he'd done thousands of times in his life, ones that he'd accomplished easily and effortlessly in the past couple of decades. But now when he tried them his arms shook, his hands slipped, and he dropped out of them.
Though it continued to frustrate him to no end, the Mandalorian kept pushing forward. Retraining, rebuilding his strength, it was all somewhat annoying. He wanted to get all his strength back now. But he had no more frightening outbursts, which made the others happy. The occasional curse Cara could deal with, it was an improvement over what they'd seen before.
Din was on the lookout for more ways to build up his muscle mass and he came up with an idea one morning, bringing it to Med's attention.
"Sure Djar, I think that should be fine," Med said when Din asked him about it.
Cara got to the surgical suite that morning and found Din already there. Grogu was standing in the IG-12, looking up with his head turned sideways while watching his father.
Cara followed the child's gaze and her eyes opened wide at the sight of Din's legs dangling from the ceiling.
"What are you doing up there, you crazy buckethead? Med is going to wring my neck if you fall and hurt yourself."
"Med already gave his permission," Din calmly replied, his legs moving as he adjusted his body to yank on something Cara couldn't see.
"How the hell did you get up there, anyway?"
"I climbed up on the bed."
Cara then saw that the surgical bed had been moved near where Din was in the ceiling.
"Step back, both of you," Din ordered. Cara made sure Grogu walked to the far end of the room, and she stayed in front of him as Din continued to struggle with something above his head.
A few seconds later a ceiling panel fell, landing on the metal floor with a heavy clang, followed by two more in quick succession.
"There, got it," Din sounded pleased with himself and lowered his body to hang briefly before dropping to the floor.
Cara noted that Din's arms shook while hanging, and he stumbled a bit on the landing, but she was still surprised by the feat considering he wouldn't have been able to do it even a week before.
"Okay, I'll bite, what was that all about?"
"This," Din pulled out a stool he'd found in another exam room. It didn't have wheels like the one Med preferred, which made it perfect for what he had planned.
Din put the stool below the new hole he had created, reaching up to grip the metal struts inside the ship's ceiling. The Mandalorian had exposed the skeletal structure of the cruiser, the rods that ran through the entire vessel to support the floor above.
With a few grunts, Din was able to lift himself almost into a full pull-up before dropping down to hang again.
"Nice," Cara said, snagging the stool to slide it over a few feet.
Din had cleared enough of the ceiling for both of them, and she was able to grab onto a neighboring ceiling strut to do some pull-ups herself.
"I'd challenge you, but I don't think that's fair right now," Cara said with a grunt as she switched her hands to pull herself up with her palms facing forward.
Din did the same, looking over at her as he managed to pull himself up a few more times. "Yeah, but not for long," he said with a snort, yanking up one last time before dropping to the floor and shaking out his hands.
Seeing no need to show off in front of the still recovering Mandalorian, Cara dropped to the deck beside him.
"This is a good idea, Mando. We're going to get you back where you were in no time. I mean I'm sure I'll still beat you at arm wrestling, but then again, I always did."
Din huffed, rolling his eyes, but she could see he was happy with the progress.
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Whereas before they were simply doing generic physical exercises to strengthen his body, Din was now training and working out with a specific purpose. He knew what muscles he needed to rebuild and created his own routine to accomplish that.
Cara now mostly followed along, always willing to do whatever her friend wanted. With her work in Special Forces, she needed to be in top condition, and daily intensive training was right up her alley.
They'd all been relieved to discover that after the breakthrough where he'd slept for nearly a full day, Din had no further problems with sleeping. Once it became obvious Din was doing well in that area, Cara had moved back to her own room.
The two soldiers continued to talk at night. Though instead of nightmares keeping them awake, they were usually too wired to sleep. Din was getting anxious to take part in the upcoming battle, looking forward to the day he would be able to don his armor again and help his people take back Mandalore.
Cara would get ready for bed in her own room, but inevitably wandered over to Din's room, usually after Grogu had fallen asleep.
Din continued to keep his door open most of the time, usually until he actually turned in for the night. It was an open invitation to Cara, Med, or Bo if they wanted to come in and talk. Sometimes all of them would end up in Din's room, conversing well into the night. Yet no matter how late they stayed up, Din was always awake early in the ship's day schedule every morning.
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Once Din's training routine had been observed as going well, and Med had secretly given his approval, Din found another surprise waiting for him one morning. He'd just finished a run with Cara and was headed to his room with Grogu to shower and rest a bit before the midday meal.
Din saw something stacked on the end of his bed that looked somewhat familiar. As he got closer, he saw pieces of armor made of a lighter alloy than his own pure beskar. It wasn't a full suit, but it included most of the pieces he usually wore, though he did note that there was no helmet.
Under the armor was a note in the Armorer's familiar script.
These are to be worn during sparring training ONLY.
Din smiled to himself. The Armorer wasn't taking any chances on putting him back into full gear too soon. Rather than being frustrated, the Mandalorian appreciated the care everyone was showing him. He was taking Bo's advice to heart, accepting the help, and reminding himself that he would happily do for another what was being done for him. If the day ever came, he would repay all their kindness tenfold.
The day after Din received his training armor, he walked into the old surgical suite feeling like an apprentice again. His new clothing had already been outfitted with the fasteners needed to attach the pieces, including the leather coat, so he kept it on while he and Cara sparred.
Cara hadn't been surprised to see him appear in armor, which proved Din's suspicions that she'd known about the new gear. She simply nodded at him, and they started their typical sparring routine.
After an hour, Cara backed away from Din, chuckling.
"Mando, I know you're tired and still healing but you keep dropping your arms. You're just making it too easy for me to go after that big honking nose of yours."
"Hey, I don't have..." Then Din chuckled too, shaking his head. Sure, he did, it was his father's nose.
Having had more of an opportunity to study his face in the last few weeks, Din had seen his father's image looking back at him from the mirror. It had surprised him at first, but he'd gotten used to it. His father had never been a warrior though and Din had only seen the familiar face when he'd been weaker and leaner. Now that Din was gaining weight and muscle mass, his father was disappearing, being replaced by the features Din recognized as his own. The nose, however, didn't change, no matter how much muscle he put on.
"I like it. It suits you. Very regal," Cara said with a wink, raising her arms again and teasing him.
Cara continued to take it easier on Din than she typically would. He was improving daily, becoming more wiry and muscled than before, but his usual bulk was still missing. Not just the bulk of the beskar, but Din's own.
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Bo had seen Din a few times since that awful day when he'd passed out in the surgical suite. She'd been as relieved as the others when he'd slept nearly a day, and was pleased to hear of his progress now that he was over that hurdle. She'd also been happy to see more of his old personality coming back as well. When she had the time after finishing a day in meetings or on the bridge, she would go visit and talk with the others in Din's room. It had become a habit for them now that Din was feeling better.
But there was still something heavy on the Mandalorian leader's mind.
One afternoon, Bo took advantage of Med doing a more thorough physical exam of Din to pull Cara aside for a talk. She hadn't told anyone about the appearance of Imagine Din, but she needed to tell someone, and she had a feeling Cara was a person she could confide in about the unusual situation.
"You think the kid did what while Din was a prisoner?" Cara asked when Bo started explaining everything.
"He made this kind of imaginary version of Din appear to me. I think because he was missing Din so much, he sort of conjured him up. I'm not sure how else to explain it and I don't even think he was aware he was doing it."
"And you talked to him…it?"
"Yes, a lot. At first it helped, it was almost like Din was here, helping me to figure out what to do to get him back. But then it got… harder."
"Harder?"
"I think because Grogu was connected to Din, he knew what was happening to him. Grogu had reactions to the… torture."
Bo held up her hand reassuringly when she saw Cara's eyes grow wide. "Don't worry, he wasn't in pain. He just… knew about it."
"That still sucks. Poor kid."
"I know. It was… not an easy time." Bo found herself struggling to explain, stumbling, and pausing over her words.
Cara felt sympathy again for the Mandalorian leader. The ex-shock trooper sometimes forgot that a lot happened before she came on board the cruiser. There had been many difficult weeks that Bo and the rest of Din's people had gone through, knowing he was being held prisoner and unable to get him back. Then there had been the days after his return, when they'd struggled to keep him alive without the ability to offer all the medical care he needed.
Cara hadn't known all the details and had heard about Din's capture a little later. Bo, Grogu, Med, the Armorer, they had lived with Din's captivity, and known the horrors of it, for months. Now she was learning that they had more of an understanding of the brutality than she originally thought.
"You kept seeing this Imagine Din the whole time?"
"Pretty much. He came with warnings sometimes. Once, he even helped me to make sure Grogu was okay. That's when I figured out Grogu wasn't just having nightmares but was having… visions."
"Wow."
"It's like their connection was creating a piece of Din here. Also, Grogu was even able to get a message to Din once. Not words, exactly, but feelings, enough to give him hope that we were coming. I think maybe when he did that, he somehow connected Din to me. When he first came back, Din said something that seemed to be a continuation of a conversation I had with Imagine Din."
"Seriously? Do you think he knows?"
"I don't think so. He assumes he imagined it, which is probably for the best."
"I agree."
"But it's interesting that Imagine Din kind of, I don't know, helped Grogu, even me, to get through that time while he was imprisoned."
"It figures that the guy was being tortured and even the imaginary version was still trying to help everyone else."
Bo chuckled sadly. "I had the exact same thought. As time wore on, Imagine Din looked… worse, but at least when I saw him, I felt like I could be certain the real Din was still alive."
"And you think Grogu brought Imagine Din back the other day when Din couldn't breathe?"
"I think so. I think he did it again because I guess he wanted me there. He was scared, he wanted someone to be with him and you guys were busy so…"
"He sent Imagine Din to get you."
"I know it sounds strange."
"Not really. I've felt that kid strangle me from across the room and I've seen him heal a wound I was sure would kill a full-grown man, right in front of my eyes. Honestly nothing you say would surprise me at this point."
"I wonder why he called me though?"
"Din said you guys were traveling together before all this happened, taking care of some missions before heading back to Mandalore, right?
"Yeah."
"I'm sure the kid trusts you and with everyone else busy at that moment, and his father basically dying on the ground, he asked you to come to him. It's really not that much of a shock."
"I guess not."
"But…" Cara hesitated.
"What?" Bo asked.
"I don't know if Din needs to know about all this."
"No, I agree. He doesn't need to know. The only time it happened was when Din was seriously injured or being tortured. There's no reason to bring it up. I think it will make him more worried about what Grogu was going through and he doesn't need that extra guilt."
"Right. We'll just keep this between us, then."
"Exactly."
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With the increased training over the next couple weeks, slight injuries were inevitable. Even Cara needed to be treated for a sprained wrist. She'd wrenched it when Din lost his balance and she'd tried to catch him.
"Cara," Med said, shaking his head at her while he wrapped it. "I keep telling Djar he has to take it easy, don't tell me I have to say the same thing to you now."
"Don't blame me, he's the one who fell out of the hold."
Din sighed. "No one told you to try and catch me. You should've just let me drop."
"I hate taking sides but I'm going to have to agree with Djar," Med said, finishing up.
"What? You want me to drop him?"
"Yes. He's getting stronger now, he doesn't need you babying him anymore."
Din nodded with arms crossed and brows furrowed. "That's what I told her, too. Cara, I appreciate all you've done, more than you'll ever know, but it's time to let me take some of these falls now."
"Fine," Cara grumbled. "But I don't want any lip from either one of you the next time I have to drag Din's butt in here for treatment."
"Deal," they both said together, making Cara smile briefly.
Brothers.
Predictably, Din was back in Med's exam room a few days later but the medic wasn't worried. Din was training and sparring harder than before, and Med had expected it. Instead of re-injuring old areas from his time as a prisoner, or getting injured because of weakness, Med was relieved to see Din getting the typical bumps and scrapes one expected from a warrior.
Din was gaining muscle by the day, even faster than Med would have predicted. Din had been on the cruiser for weeks but having been hindered by his mind and by being unable to eat or sleep at first, his wounds had healed slowly, and he hadn't built up much strength.
Now it was all different. Din was eating and sleeping normally, and his body was healing at a rapid pace, making up for all the lost time.
A few days later, Med had to shake his head when both Cara and Din needed treatment. He'd given up on chastising them though, and as long as the injuries weren't serious, he kept his opinions to himself.
"So, how did you end up as a medic, anyway?" Cara asked, sitting on the other exam table after Med finished treating her and had moved on to Din.
"You know the basic story. I was adopted as a foundling and learned to be a warrior like we all did. But at some point, I decided that I'd fought enough fights. I discovered that I liked helping those who fight more than fighting myself."
"Something tells me that doesn't mean you couldn't fight just as well as any of these others," Cara waved her hand, indicating the cruiser full of Mandalorians.
"You'd be right," Med nodded his helmeted head. "I still spar and can take up arms whenever necessary. I'm just as trained and can hold my own with anyone else on this ship, in this fleet."
Din coughed significantly, giving his brother a look with a single raised eyebrow.
"Okay fine," Med sighed, nodded his head at Din. "Except for him. Din has always been one of our best. Though I did usually beat him in wrestling. Sometimes it's good to be the slightly smaller one."
Din chuckled. "True, you always were faster than me."
"Anyway," Med continued to Cara. "I found it was better for men like him to fight, and men like me to fix them up when they're done."
Cara nodded with a thoughtful frown, swinging her legs from the table as she waited for Med to finish up his work on Din.
The ex-shock trooper could see evidence of the old friendship that had turned the two Mandalorians into brothers. And despite Med's seemingly flippant words and his joking way with Din, she noticed the medic's touch ease off automatically when he hit a sore spot that caused Din to flinch while he rewrapped the injured man's ribs.
"Djar, do you remember when you came back from that one hunt with a horn stuck in your shoulder?" Med asked. Cara wondered if he did it purposely to get Din's mind off the pain as he continued wrapping his ribs.
Din groaned, shaking his head. "Don't remind me."
Cara's jaw dropped when she looked at Din. "How did you…?"
"It's a long story. I'll tell you…" he hissed as Med finished. "Another time."
"Okay, that's all for now," Med said, stepping back from the table so Din could hop down. "But if either one of you comes back to me with more damage tomorrow, I'm going to order you both to bed rest and no more training for at least a week. Are we clear?"
He swiveled his helmeted head back and forth between them until he got guilty nods from both.
"Clear," they said together.
"Grogu," Med turned to the boy standing nearby in the IG-12.
Grogu looked at him curiously.
"I want you to help me, okay? Keep an eye on these two, will you?"
The child nodded, looking seriously at his dad and Cara until they both smiled.
"Good, thanks kid," Med sighed as he began cleaning up his supplies.
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A couple of days later, Cara found herself observing Din as they went through their new routine. They started with a jog around the medical deck, which turned into a faster run for the second half. He crossed their designated finish line well before her, which had happened quite a few times recently.
After a break and some water, they moved to the surgical suite where they did some basic exercises and calisthenics. Din was able to do more pull-ups than Cara, which had also happened frequently in the past few days.
"That's hardly fair, I still have a sprained wrist," she said, dropping to the ground as she massaged her forearm tenderly.
"And I… still have… bruised ribs," Din said, doing a few more before dropping to the floor next to her. "What's your point?"
Cara shook her head at him when he grinned at her smugly. He had an arm around his ribs but was obviously pleased with himself.
Cara grumbled, but inwardly she was happy to have Din giving her crap. He was pushing hard, taking his body to the limit, but without the anger and stress he'd had before.
In the beginning, Cara had needed Din to fight so that he could get past everything he'd been through in that awful place. Now she was relieved to see him settling down. He was fighting with the same tenacity, but behind it there was the calmness that she'd gotten used to seeing in their earlier missions together.
While Din could get riled up during a battle like any of them, his typical modus operandi was the opposite. After all, this was the man who tussled with her barely five minutes after they clapped eyes on each other for the first time. That grappling match that had ended with them both aiming blasters at the other and Din calmly asking her if she wanted some soup.
That was the Mandalorian they needed back. The first step had been to get Din out of the difficult emotions of fear, anger, and pain. Once past that, he needed to get back to being the calm, quiet, determined warrior he'd always been.
As the days wore on, Cara saw the old familiar version of Din slowly replacing the more recent one. The one that had been created by Gideon and had just been surviving day to day after being beaten down for months. She respected that guy and everything he'd been through, but they all needed this guy, the one who was fighting her now.
They paused to take a break and Din drank down a full canteen, stopping to give Grogu's ear a scratch as his son purred at him proudly.
"What do you think, kid? Should I take it easy on Cara when we spar?" Grogu's purr turned to a giggle when Din switched to tickling his neck affectionately.
Cara snorted. "You wish, Mando. Bring it on."
"You got it," Din said, swallowing the last of his water and putting the canteen down before approaching her with his arms up in a battle stance.
As for Din, he too was feeling the changes in himself. In fact, he was beginning to forget that there was anything to change from. His body was no longer a stranger he didn't recognize and the more he trained, the more like himself he felt.
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Later that night, Cara was sitting on her old bed in Din's room. They'd had another one of their late-night talks and both were yawning in between sentences. Grogu was out cold in his cot, his baby snores drifting in and out of their conversation.
"Alright, I'm turning in. See you in the morning," Cara said.
"Good night," Din said with another yawn as Cara got up to leave the room.
"Good night, Mando… I mean, Din. Sorry I just can't stop saying that sometimes for some reason."
"You can keep calling me Mando. I really don't mind. You met me as Mando."
"But now I know your actual name, I should just switch to that, Din."
He paused, and she wondered if he didn't want her to call him that. Maybe his name was only for his clan? That didn't make sense though, as she knew others called him that. But she could still feel some hesitancy coming from him.
Finally, his soft voice came from the dimly lit room as she was almost to the door.
"Actually, it's… Djarin."
"Hm?" She turned back sleepily.
"When I was rescued, the Mandalorians asked me my name. Between my native language, not speaking Mando'a and only knowing a little Basic from school, things were lost in translation."
Sensing that this was not a simple conversation, Cara returned to the spare bed and sat down silently as Din continued.
"In my culture, the family name comes first, to honor our ancestors. I was born Din Djarin, son of Din Pedjron and Din Riera."
The revelation of what Din was revealing woke Cara up completely. Though she continued to sit stock still, not wanting to break the spell for him.
"So, it's Djarin. That's your first name?"
"Technically."
Cara had a sudden insight. "Med, that's why he calls you 'Djar'."
"Yeah."
"I just assumed it was because your last name was Djarin."
"Everyone does, which is why I don't mind. No one else has ever tried to call me that but him. Though funny enough everyone started using the nickname I came up for him when we were kids."
"You called him Med first?"
"Yep. I tried shortening it to the first half of his name, but people kept thinking I was calling him 'ball' instead of Bal."
She noted he said "Bal" with an accent, making it sound like another name she'd heard before, "Val."
"Med was easier. Less confusing."
"And you really called him that before he ever thought to be a medic?"
"We were kids so, yeah. I don't think the medic thing came up until a few years later."
"Wait, so if you're from the same planet does that mean Med is really… Rosca?"
Din chuckled. "No. Med is Med. Or Balmed."
"But his people and yours, they follow the same tradition?"
"Yeah, but he made it easy on himself and changed his name."
"Changed it?"
"Once he figured out what was happening, he marched up to the Foundling Master and said he wanted his name changed because everyone kept calling him the wrong name."
"And they did it?"
"Sure," Din shrugged. "It's not like any of us arrived with birth documents. They used what we told them and put us in the records. So, they just updated it."
"Just like that?"
"Yep."
"Then… why didn't you do that?" Cara asked delicately, sure that there must be a good reason Din never took that easy option to correct the error.
"I don't know. At first it took me a while to realize they weren't just calling everyone by their family name. By the time I figured it out, I was already known as Din. I was used to it and.."
"And?" she encouraged gently.
"I guess I didn't really want to hear that name anyway," he said softly. "I was fine being called Din, or even Djar by Med. But the last people who called me the other name.."
Cara noticed he avoided saying it if he didn't have to. Saying his whole name was fine, but not "Djarin" by itself.
"…were my parents and I didn't want to be reminded of their loss. I felt like it was sort of a new start, but not a huge change. I still had my name, but I also had a new one. That worked for me."
"But you still want to be called Din?"
"Yeah. Maybe someday I'll go back to… my original name. But I doubt it. I'm too used to being Din now."
She could see there was still some pain there for him.
"That works for me," Cara said. "I'll probably call you Mando some of the time, though."
He chuckled. "That's fine. I'll answer to either, you know that."
Cara started walking out the door to go to her room when another thought occurred to her.
"Using Din works for now, but maybe not forever."
"Hmm?" Din had dropped onto his bed and now opened one sleepy eye, the other buried in the fabric of his pillow.
"Well, what if your family grows? What if there are other little Din family members? Won't it be weird to be called by everyone's last name?"
Din's eyebrows went up as he shifted his face fully out of the pillow to regard her seriously.
"I guess I never thought of that. It's always been just me. I'm the last Din in my family line. So, it's never been a problem."
"Yeah, but it might be someday. I'm just sayin'," she shrugged, walking out the door and signaling it closed behind her.
Din stared at the closed door for a moment, frowning. He wasn't sure what Cara meant but he decided not to worry about it. Shrugging, Din pulled the still sleeping Grogu off his cot. He tucked the child close to his neck and pulled the covers over them both. Grogu wriggled at the transfer, then purred and fell back to sleep when he felt his father's warmth.
Walking back to her room, Cara smiled to herself.
That man is so clueless. I'm sure he'll figure it out soon. Everyone sees it but him.
Cara had always assumed that Grogu would become "Grogu Djarin" when Din finally woke up and realized the kid was his and he needed to adopt him formally.
Then again, "Din Grogu" has a nice ring to it, too.
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A few days later Din was consistently beating Cara in their runs, as well as with push-ups, pull-ups and other exercises. They had always been pretty evenly matched in most things and Cara was proud to see him returning to that again.
As they sparred, Din got Cara down to the floor again and again. He was panting as they pulled apart, his arms raised for another round when Cara stepped back, shaking her head.
"Hang on."
"What?"
"I think you might be ready."
"For what?"
"Not yet."
Din turned at the sound of a new voice.
"You've proven you can consistently beat one opponent," the Armorer said, walking into the room. "Any well-trained apprentice can do that. But how about four opponents?"
Din's eyebrows raised when Bo walked into the room after the Armorer. She was followed by Axe and then Med. The three Mandalorians put on their helmets, ready for battle. Din was still without one and only in his training armor, but that didn't worry him in the least.
Din looked at Cara, who smiled and raised an eyebrow. She'd obviously known this was coming.
Din studied his opponents and chuckled.
"Four against one? I like those odds."
"Oh, this is going to be fun," Cara said, hearing that old teasing tone she'd heard in the Mandalorian since the day they met.
Din immediately went back into battle stance. He raised his hands, palms facing himself and waved his fingers in a come-hither motion, waiting for the first to attack.
All four of his opponents closed in on him and the Mandalorian planned his next move.
The rules for group sparring were different so Din knew he wouldn't be attacked by all of them at once. In a life-or-death battle one would expect all to attack, but one could also kill or at least injure the opponents to lessen the crowd. For training, the rules were that only one could attack at a time. But it was still a challenge to either get each one incapacitated, or to get them to yield before being attacked by the next one.
Din turned his attention to Cara first, figuring there might be a slight advantage with her being tired after already sparring with him for a while. Of course, he was also tired for the same reason, but he wasn't about to give up on proving to the Armorer that he was ready to rejoin the Fighting Corps.
The Mandalorian felt his adrenaline rushing, this time with strength and vitality. Not with pain and shock as it had in the last few months when the adrenaline had been the only thing getting him through terrible injuries. Now it was there for his benefit, raising his heart rate and sending more oxygen to his limbs, readying him for the fight.
Knowing that speed was his best bet, to keep his opponents on their toes and to keep himself from tiring and falling victim to the whoever was still standing at the end, Din moved fast.
He didn't dance around Cara as they'd been doing recently, sparring for training and even a bit for fun. This time he went straight for her, stepping into her fighting zone and shoving his shoulder into hers as he grabbed her arm. The move caught Cara off guard, being completely different than anything he'd done when fighting her recently.
"What the..?" The ex-shock trooper muttered as she felt herself flung over Din's shoulder.
Din dove on top of Cara as soon as she hit the ground, not allowing her any time to think or plan before he used the advantage that he again had more body weight to pin her down. Knowing he had to either fake a fatal wound or incapacitate her, Din chose to keep most of his weapons for his later opponents.
Instead, he used something simple. The training vambraces he'd been given had a grappling line and he deployed one while he snatched her hands. He tied them together, again using his body weight to keep her pinned while he pulled her hands down toward her legs.
Cara cursed loudly as Din managed to tie her hands to her feet, despite her best attempts to get out of the position.
"Aw, come on!" Cara protested as she found herself neatly tied up. "This isn't fair. You can't take me out this fast."
Din jumped up with a shrug, grinning at her.
"Sorry," he said even as he turned to his next opponent. "You've had your fun. Time to give somebody else a turn."
Cara heard the laughter in his voice, and it made her smile.
The man is fighting three Mandalorians and sounds for all the world like he's enjoying himself.
Before Din had a chance to catch his breath, Bo was on him. She managed to sweep his leg out from under him and he landed on the deck hard. Blinking from the intensity of the fall, Din flipped his body around, sliding a leg under hers until she fell in a heap next to him on the floor. She moved faster than he anticipated and was on his shoulders a moment later, pulling an arm around his neck. If she pinned him hard enough to prove that in real combat, she could have choked him or broken his neck, Din would have to yield.
Moving with the same speed, Din shifted and pulled on Bo's arms, rolling with her so that she ended up beneath him. Insider her helmet, Bo's eyebrows went up in surprise at the speed of the move. Din couldn't see her reaction, but he felt it and he grinned briefly before jumping up to land on top of her. Straddling her waist, Din held down her arms, thinking about what his next move should be.
He spotted Grogu watching nearby and got an idea.
"Grogu! Come here!"
The kid walked over in the IG-12 while Din kept Bo pinned. She tried several counter measures to get out of his hold, but he combatted each one while still paying attention to Grogu.
"Kid, remember when you held me on the floor?" he asked when Grogu got nearby.
The boy nodded, already moving to kneel and place IG-12's metal hands around Bo's upper arms. Once Grogu was holding her down, Din hopped up again with another grin.
"Oh, come on, Din. You have to be kidding me. This isn't fair!" Bo called out as he ran toward Med and Axe.
"No one said war is fair," Din quipped over his shoulder.
Bo sighed, looking up into the face of Din's son, who was taking his job as guard very seriously.
"You, my little friend, are having entirely too much fun," Bo said to Grogu. She couldn't resist rubbing his neck and listening to his giggles at the tickle. He wiggled away from her hand but held his ground.
"Okay, I promise I won't try to escape. You caught me fair and square. But do you mind letting me sit up so I can watch the fight?"
Grogu hit one of the communication buttons.
"Yes."
Grogu let Bo up enough to sit cross-legged on the ground to observe the rest of the fight, but she was amused to see he kept the IG-12's hands wrapped around her arm.
Smart kid, she thought.
Bo smiled as she watched Din take on his next opponents. He was back doing what he was meant to do, fighting, and even cracking a few snide jokes. He savored having his strength back and it was obvious he was enjoying himself.
She had to admit she was enjoying it as well. It was so good to see Din back in his element again. He was fighting with the skill she already knew he had, that had been hidden away for too long. Now it was back, and it made her heart happy.
Cara, still tied, was sitting back against the wall, enjoying the fight as well. She and Bo started throwing good-natured taunts at all the remaining combatants.
Once done with Bo, Din didn't give either of his next opponents a chance to think. He bolted into the middle of them, sliding along the floor in one of his signature moves. He swept Axe and Med off their feet, immediately jumping on Axe.
The other man pulled an impressive move, lifting his legs to flip over until Din was the one pinned to the ground. Axe grinned inside his helmet, seeing that he'd caught Din by surprise. But his look turned to consternation when Din simply sat up – using core strength Axe didn't know the other man had. Din shoved Axe down, pinning him with one arm across his shoulders while the other pulled a blade from his boot and held it to his neck. He had decided to use his knife now that he was starting to tire a little.
Axe cursed. "Dank Farrik, you're fast."
"Yep," Din said without an ounce of sympathy. "Do you yield?"
The Nite Owl sighed. "I yield."
Din pulled away in time to feel a familiar arm come around his neck and throw him on his back. He grunted as Med threw his weight over him.
Med always did have the upper hand at wrestling. Din had hoped to get a breather before his brother tackled him, but it was too late now.
"What'd ya say, old man? How are you going to get out of this? You know I always beat you at wrestling."
"True," Din grunted. "Good thing I'm not in the mood to wrestle."
Din wasn't going to bother trying any small maneuvers to get out of Med's lock. He wasn't interested in pinning the medic down. This wasn't a match for points. Din was out for blood. Fake blood, but still blood.
Din took advantage of the fact that Med was treating this like a match and instead reacted as he would in a life-or-death battle. Gathering his abdominal muscles again, he pushed off the floor with his feet and launched upward, twisting his body in a move reminiscent of the one that kept Grogu safe while Din flipped into the back of a speeder surrounded by angry bounty hunters on Nevarro.
"How…what…?" Med muttered, finding himself suddenly rolled over and slammed into the floor.
Still wholly uninterested in getting into a wrestling match, Din sat up, planting his knee into the space between Med's cuirass and the edge of his helmet. If they were in a real battle, he would have been able to crush the other man's windpipe.
"Kriff," Med muttered, knowing he'd been beat.
The medic didn't even wait for Din to ask. "Alright, I yield. Get off me, old man."
The Armorer stood by silently through the entire match, observing it all.
After he bested Med, Din stood up, panting, to face the leader of his clan. He felt his opponents leave the room but didn't turn to look at them. Finally, it was just him and Grogu left with the Armorer.
"You did well Din Djarin, but I want to be sure. Med will give you a final exam and if he approves, I would like to formally ask you to rejoin the fighting corps."
Din dropped his head, fist to his chest. "Thank you."
Din walked back to his room, looking forward to a long, hot shower. He figured he'd see Med after that. But when he stepped inside the door, he saw something on his bed that made him stop.
His armor.
All his armor and other gear had been restored, down to new sets of underclothing. Every single piece of pure beskar had been repaired, cleaned, and shined to perfection. His leather jacket and pants had been replaced, along with the underpadding. All his armaments were back, the new bandolier was restocked, and the coverings for his shins also had their typical ammo. He even saw a new set of whistling birds had been installed in his vambrace.
His helmet had been cleaned and repaired, all its wiring back to complete working condition, the beskar glinting.
Everything was beautifully remade, and Din felt his heart beating faster as he picked up and examined each piece, hardly believing his eyes. It had been so long since he'd seen his armor.
Cara walked in the open door to find him running his fingers over the new bandolier.
"Looks like you passed."
"You knew this was coming."
She shrugged but Din knew he was right.
"Well, what're you waiting for? Get into gear, Mandalorian, you've got a battle to win."
She made to leave the room, but Din spoke up before she walked out.
"Cara?"
"Hmm?"
"Thank you."
With those two words, Din said so much more. While he was thanking her for everything, it was also a goodbye of sorts. Din was about to get back into his armor, which meant that Cara would likely never see his face again, and they both knew it.
"Anytime," she said with a nod and a smile, walking out and closing the door behind her.
Cara walked to her own room. A part of her was sad she wouldn't see Din's face again, but she was also proud of all that he had accomplished. Din was stronger than ever and there was no reason to worry about him any longer.
Once Cara left, Din turned to Grogu.
"Well kid, I guess it's time."
Grogu nodded his head, grinning happily. He hit one of his communication buttons enthusiastically.
"Yes. Yes. Yes."
Din smiled at the child. Just as with Cara, he knew he would likely never be without his helmet in front of him again. But at least they would be together. They would get back Mandalore and then…
Din realized he didn't know exactly what would happen at that point. He wasn't sure if bounty hunting was the right profession with the kid. But it didn't matter right then. All that mattered was that he was well, he had his foundling, and they were ready to get their home world back. They could figure out the rest later.
Din took a shower to get rid of the sweat from the test. When he came back out, he slowly and meticulously got back into his armor. He tried to remember the last time he'd gotten fully dressed in all his underclothes, leathers, and armor but he couldn't. While he had re-armored himself when Bo had rescued him, that had only been to put the armor pieces themselves back on as he'd still been in his clothing.
He supposed it had happened the day before they'd traveled to Mandalore. But he didn't have a clear memory of it as too much had happened since then.
Once he was fully dressed, Din held up his helmet. He looked into the T-visor, seeing the reflection of his face in it.
He knew some might expect him to hesitate, to want to stay out of the helmet, to want to have the freedom of showing his face. But Din didn't feel that at all. He craved the comfort of the familiar piece of beskar and pulled it over his head without hesitation.
As soon as he was fully armored again, Din felt his whole body relax in a way that it hadn't in months. He had been feeling more and more like himself after being able to sleep and eat, then with all the training and strength-building. But now he felt truly complete.
He'd forgotten the old feelings of what it was like to be in his armor, having taken it for granted for decades. But as soon as they flared up in his chest again, he recognized them.
Din Djarin felt powerful, protected, dangerous, and like a warrior.
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Another long A/N ahead!
First up, there's at least one more chapter to go so we're not done with this story yet!
More behind-the scenes for any interested - the last line of this chapter actually came from a quote by Pedro himself. I found an interview where he was asked what it felt like to put on the armor and he said: "When it's on, you immediately feel powerful, protected, dangerous and like a protector."
As soon as I heard that, I knew I needed to use at least some of it in this story.
For anyone interested in another bit of behind-the-scenes, I thought I'd mention how I came up with Din's parents' names. Obviously, Din's father's name (Pedjron) is based off of Pedro. Din's mother's name (Riera) came from Pedro's father.
I also wanted to give you folks some more information about my upcoming BoDin epic series, which will be called "When We Came to Be". It will start out as a slow burn romance but will end up being about Bo and Din becoming a family with Grogu and, yes, at least one other child.
I mentioned earlier that Med would be in it and that I am giving him a bit of a slow burn romance of his own. Well, I've decided to let you all know that he will be paired up with Cara.
The interesting thing about that (at least to me) is I started this story, and even wrote many of Cara's scenes, before I had invented Med. So, I truly wasn't planning on it, but somewhere along the way, as I was writing both stories at the same time, the idea of who to pair Med with came up. I thought of creating another OC for him, but that just didn't sit well with me for some reason. It wasn't until I was writing a scene in When We Came to Be where Med and Cara are teasing Din that suddenly I thought "Med and… Cara?"
And that, as they say, is when history was made.
But though I started this story before I invented Med and therefore before I ever thought to pair him with Cara, and even though I haven't purposely put in any romance into this one with them, you can still view it as pre-CaraMed if you like. Just as you can look at it as pre-BoDin if you like as well.
Again, as a reminder, this story will not be part of that series as that one will start directly after the S3 finale. Din will have not shown his face to Bo (other than the glance she may have gotten when Luke came to get Grogu) when their slow burn romance begins.
I also wanted to mention that, yes, there will be love scenes in that series. I've never done that sort of thing before but the more I wrote these characters, the more I was inspired to try my hand at those kinds of scenes and the truth is they've been lots of fun to write. At this point, my plan is to probably cross-post the series on AO3 and put those scenes there, so that I can keep my typical rating here on .
Be sure to keep reading after the end of the last chapter (which should be the next one) as I will be posting an epilogue AND a "trailer" for the BoDin and CaraMed epic series. It will feature snippets of scenes that have already been written to give everyone a taste of what that series will look like. As I said, it will definitely start out as a slow burn for both couples but after that it will be all about both families and all of their different adventures – and yes, that does include future children for Bo and Din, as well as Cara and Med. In fact, I've already written the births of their babies and I can't wait to post those chapters in the future.