Get in line and settle down
Get in line and settle down
What's your 20
Where's your brain
Checking in to check you out
Concerned about your whereabouts
Copy that
You're acting strange
So tell me what is going on
It's so heavy I bet
I'm fine (nothing's gonna knock this girl down)
I'm hella positive for real I'm all good
No I'm fine (nothing's gonna knock this girl down)
It's kinda complicated that's for sure
But you can see it in my eyes
You can read it on my lips
I'm trying to get a hold on this
And I really mean it this time
And you know it's such a trip
Don't get me started
I'm trying to get a hold on this
"Where exactly are you taking us?" Mox asked, he was still responsible for his brothers even though they had managed to get off that Force forsaken planet. "I know you said it was someplace safe but…"
"We're taking you to a friend." Hunter's answer wasn't any more sufficient but he was distracted and more than a little disappointed.
Wrecker was more obliging. "Do we still have that holo of her?"
"What? Oh. It's probably still keyed up on the proj from the last time Omega…"
Even Omega hadn't watched the recording in some time when they were all still together. She had thought it would make Tech sad. But that wasn't an issue now and they had a long flight to Pabu.
"Ah yeah. Here it is." Wrecker located the media file and activated it. "You guys ever heard of limmie?"
…
It didn't come as quite a surprise when Genna heard a knocking on the salon door in the middle of the night. She was already awake, unable to sleep after talking with Phee earlier about the possibility that the boys had a lead to Omega's whereabouts.
She sped down the stairs two and three at a time, threw open the door and hardly noticed Hunter's downcast expression for peering over his shoulders, trying to get a look at who he might have brought with him.
His voice was the first clue that the mission hadn't gone as planned. "Hey, Gen. We, uh, brought some guests to meet you and maybe to stay a while if you don't mind."
He then stepped to the side and revealed three young boys who were nearly identical. She realized at once that they had found three new brothers rather than the sister they were hoping to rescue.
And then Wrecker pushed past them to engulf her in a hug. "Gen, how are the girls?"
"They're asleep so keep your voice down," she admonished but not angrily and quickly mastered her own feelings of disappointment to welcome the newcomers. "Come in and introduce me."
"This is Mox, Stak, and Deke." Hunter pointed out each as he said their names.
"Genna was married to our brother Tech," Wrecker added.
"Married? I didn't know that was possible," the one in the middle, Stak, gawked at her and one of the others gave him a shove.
"You'll find a lot of things are possible now that you're free from the kriffing Empire." Genna smiled. "Now, I would bet all of you could use a good hot meal. I'm not the greatest cook in the galaxy but I can boil a mean pasta."
"Ah!" Wrecker exclaimed and then remembered to lower his voice again. "Do you have the tooka shaped ones?"
"No, but I think I have the stars and moons."
"Great!" he whispered and gave her two thumbs up.
"We should really get going," Hunter argued, with arms crossed over his chest, still standing by the door.
"Osik." Genna went to him and pulled him along toward the stairs. "You need to eat to have the strength to get back out there to search."
They shared a look and finally he nodded. "Alright, but once we've had some food and gotten the boys settled…"
"I'll send you off with my blessing, for what it's worth."
She led the way, told the boys to make themselves comfortable, and noticed that Hunter remained standing, or at least merely propped himself against the arm of the living room chair.
The one she thought was Stak, plopped down onto the couch and Mox, the taller one who must have been the self proclaimed ranking officer, situated himself between him and the other one.
"Wrecker, biggest pot in the cabinet if you please. Fill it half full with water and put it on the back burner on high." Genna gave her orders in a low but commanding tone.
"Yes, ma'am." He saluted with a grin.
The boys on the couch seemed to be having some kind of silent altercation until the one (ugh Genna couldn't remember his name) hopped up and took a step towards the kitchen.
Sgt. Mox put a hand out to stop him. "Be polite."
"Why don't you tell him that?" The boy grumbled, gesturing towards Stak before he turned with a sigh back to Genna and asked, "is there anything I can do to help?"
"Of course, Dek?"
"Deke," he corrected and she warmed with compassion at the lost look in his golden brown eyes so like her husband's and their children's.
"Deke," she repeated, laying a hand on his arm. "In the pantry," she pointed. "We'll need a bag of pasta, two, no better make that three cans of rupingfish, and two cans of cream of nuna soup."
He brightened at the usefulness. "One pasta, three fish, and two soup. Yes, ma'am."
Contemplating, she crossed the kitchen to where Wrecker was staring at the pot of water on the stove. She looped her arm through his. "You know it'll never boil if you just stand there watching it."
"Yeah." He looked down at her. "I know you said you didn't want to wake the twins but could I just peek in?"
"Come on, that'll be a few minutes. Just be quiet."
He placed a finger to his smiling lips and followed her lead.
"Awe," he whispered when they stepped into the room. "They're still so tiny."
"They've actually grown quite a bit since the last time you were here, but yeah, I guess compared to…" she thought of the boys in the other room and wondered what their chronological age actually was.
"What was that all about back there with Deke and the others?" Even though she kept her voice low, Saviin stirred in her sleep before rolling over and finding her thumb again.
Wrecker waited a moment to respond. "Oh, well, Deke came with Hunter and me to check out the ruins of the complex. While we were gone the other two were gonna take off in the Marauder."
"They were going to leave you all behind?" Her voice rose and Kebiin burbled something in response. Genna also waited a moment for the twin to settle before continuing. "Was the place that bad that they were so eager to get away from it?"
"It was awful." Wrecker shuddered. "Smelled terrible and the jungle itself tried to eat you if you didn't watch out. And they were all alone, the three of 'em. Whoever the Empire didn't think was useful to bring along was killed in the bombardment."
"So they thought that when you left on your search of the ruins, you wouldn't be coming back and they needed to get out while they could?" she inferred.
"Somethin' like that."
"Well," she decided. "I'll do my best to look out for them while they're here."
Wrecker cracked a grin. "They might feel it's their duty to look out for you and the girls, too. It's part of their training."
"Speaking of training." An idea was forming in her mind. "Do they know anything about limmie?"
…
The three boys and both their elder brothers, despite Hunter's protestations that he didn't want anything, wolfed down the casserole in record time. And while they were eating, Shep came by to check on what the commotion was all about, having been woken by the Marauder's landing. He quickly arranged for clothing and extra bedding to be brought over for the boys until other housing could be arranged but even so he nearly missed Hunter and Wrecker as they were both ready to be back out and searching for Omega as soon as possible.
And even though the rest of them got very little sleep that night they were all excited to be up with the sun to finally meet Genna's girls and get a proper look at the island which they could now call home. All three boys were as enamored with their nieces as the twins were with them and Genna was enjoying the novelty of having younger brothers.
"I was the baby when we were growing up." She showed them the holo that Phee had so recently returned to her.
Then she made sure the closed sign was posted in the window of the salon and commed Mrs. Levi to meet them with the kids in the park. They took their time pushing the double stroller, weaving through the streets, and taking in the sights.
Mox was not so sure about leaving the twins with the old woman until Genna reassured him. "It's alright. She's probably been tending younglings longer than I've been alive."
He gave Mrs. Levi one more suspicious glance. "Why'd you bring us up here, Ms Genna?"
"Please, just 'Gen', and to continue your training, of course." She tossed him the bolo ball she'd brought along and he caught it deftly.
The other boys along with Ezac and Becca gathered around them.
"Now, I know that you were training to be soldiers but no one ever taught you how to play so I plan on remedying that. Wrecker said you all watched that vid of my old game, so you'll know the basics."
The three clones nodded and Ezac puffed out his skinny chest, determined to hold his own among them.
"Mox," Genna faced him and he straightened up to attention. "You think you can captain one team and I'll take the other?"
"Yes, ma'am." He answered, eyes front and ready for orders.
Genna slapped his shoulder. "Great! You take Stak and …" She deliberated for a moment about putting all of the clones together on one team and settled in her mind that it would be better to split them up. "Ezac. And I'll have Deke and Becca."
Becca crinkled the bridge of her nose in disbelief. "Girls can play limmie, too?"
"Of course! You know what the Mandalorian's say?"
"What do they say?" Deke asked.
" Ke barjurir gar'ade, jagyc'ade kot'la a dalyc'ade kotla'shya . That means, 'train your sons to be strong but your daughters to be stronger'." Genna grinned at the little girl. "I played on co-ed teams before the school split us up into boys' and girls' leagues and my eldest brother, Daryc, was our coach."
She had already decided that she would use this first match to judge their knowledge and skills and then later she could devise a schedule and drills that would help them improve in the areas where there was room for growth.
Before anyone could object, Becca snatched the ball from Mox's hands. "Wizard! What are we waiting for?" She ran for the open field and it was all the rest of them could do to follow.
Manda! Genna had missed this! She was in her element on the limmie pitch even though she was a bit out of shape and that pain down her leg from her sciatic nerve tripped her up a couple of times. She couldn't help but think that Dar would be proud of her getting back out and coaching the next generation in the finer points of the beautiful game.
She had lost all track of time and was celebrating a goal with her teammates when she noticed that a couple of their opponents were distracted by something off of the pitch.
"Come on, guys, you should have blocked that one." Mox chided but they weren't listening.
"Who is she?" Stak asked, his eyes glued to the newcomer.
"The mayor's daughter," Ezac gulped, also entranced.
"Lyana!" Becca raced over to the other girl. "You should join us! Ms Genna's teaching us to play limmie!"
"Yeah, you definitely should," Ezac agreed heartily.
Becca rolled her eyes at her brother.
"I can't," she sounded disappointed, blushing slightly. "I have stuff I need to do for Dad. I just came by to bring you these." She held out a tray of cups containing juice and ice. "And to say hello to, well, Dad said we had some visitors to Pabu."
Genna made the introductions. "Lyana, these are Mox, Stak, and Deke. They're some of Hunter and Wrecker's little brothers." She made a mental note to warn Shep about his daughter's admirers.
"Some of the other kids might want to come and play." Lyana suggested. "And maybe another time I could…"
"Haar'chak! Oh sorry." Genna had just checked her wrist chrono and realized the time. "I should really be getting the girls home and open up the salon. You all can still keep playing." She added, seeing their downcast expressions.
Mox and Becca were all for resuming play. It took a little longer for them to convince Stak and Ezak to snap out of their preoccupation with Lyana's retreating form. Deke however matched Genna's stride as she prepared to push the stroller back down the winding road to her place of business.
"Don't you want to play with the others?" She asked. "It looks like they've already found someone to replace me."
"They can find somebody to cover for me, too." He shrugged. "I'd rather go and see what you do. It seemed interesting."
"I cut hair and sometimes do makeup and nails." She chuckled.
"I did a little of that back on Kamino for my brothers. I mean, not the makeup, but hair and stuff. When they took us off-world they wouldn't let me have the vibro-sheers so I'm a little out of practice."
She stopped the stroller and studied him. "You want to learn to be a stylist?"
Again his shoulders rose and fell in a shrug and he glanced back at the other clones who didn't seem to be missing him much. Whether it was an occupation he was looking for or not, Genna could tell that what he really needed right now was just somebody to take him under their wing.
"Alright," she started walking again. "I might just have you sweeping up and answering the comm for a while but then we could probably find some tutorials on the HoloNet."
"That would be great!"
Even the twins caught on to his excitement, clapped their hands, and squealed with delight.
So, now Genna was a limmie coach and she'd gained an apprentice. Yes, as she had told Phee, she had quite enough to keep her busy without going to work for Mollymauk.
…
Back on Onderon, Dalla was done. She was done with Dryden Vos trying to yank her chain. She was done with the Empire getting in her way. But most of all, she was done being pregnant.
"Tell me you got Genna on board," she said to Phee and gulped down a hot sauce-covered cracker. The HoloNet said spicy food would put her into labor, and she was willing to give anything a go at this point.
"Sorry, it was a no go." Phee looked disturbed. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Dalla waved her off and reached for the hot sauce bottle again. "If she won't listen to you, maybe she'll listen to family. See if Echo can talk her into it."
"I'm not sure he can, but we can give it a shot at least."
"I'll check in afterward." Hopefully it worked. Wherever Genna was, knowing her location could save lives.
Now onto her other problem…
Dalla shuddered, and picked up the hot sauce bottle again.
…
In the dream he once again visited Onderon. It wasn't the jungle where he had been ordered twice to find and destroy the camp of Saw Gerrera. This time he found himself on that city street in Iziz, somewhere between the med center and Malgan Market. And there was the girl with the blonde hair and the huge belly as if she had swallowed a planet.
All was quiet and she was alone in the entire galaxy. Except, she wasn't entirely alone. She touched her belly tenderly, acknowledging the lives therein.
He wondered if his brother had ever heard of her condition or if she had heard of his fate.
And then, as she had on that day, she looked directly at him. She opened her mouth as if to speak.
"Crosshair."
The voice, an insistent whisper, did not belong to the girl from Onderon but he knew it well and it brought him back in a flash to the stark reality of his cell on Tantiss.
He opened his eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"Escaping," Omega announced, low but determined. "And you're coming with me."