-Darin-

The trip to her address was rather uneventful. The sun was setting as I came upon a large building. This was the address. I could see doors which led into rooms that were being rented. I found the door on the slip and knocked.

I could hear shuffling around inside. The door opened and Sadie's head poked out. Her eyes widened when she realized who I was and the door was slammed in my face.

I could sense two minds inside. It was pretty easy to find Sadies because I was already familiar with her presence. I thought about what I wanted to say to her.

You know I can easily get inside, right?

I knew this would infuriate her.

The door opened and she poked her head out again. "Get out of my head!"

"I just want to talk."

"I don't!"

"That's unfortunate. We're still gonna talk."

I could sense the anger. I was playing with fire.

Scratch that. She's Mandalorian. I'd rather play with fire.

She took a deep breath and said "I told you that I never wanted to see you again." Her tone was calm and measured. The evenness of it was surprisingly unnerving.

"I'm bad at following directions."

"You tried to ambush me."

"I did not."

"Your pickup attacked me."

"You held a blaster to my head."

"Because it was an ambush!"

"Why would you possibly think it was an ambush?!"

"Because you led me to a Jedi facility!"

"An abandoned one!"

"You never told me that!"

I stopped. She was right. I hadn't told her. It had slipped my mind.

"I'm sorry. That was my bad. I forgot," I said, hoping to ease the tension.

This caught her off guard. She was expecting us to keep arguing. After a brief second of surprise, she said "Yea. Yea it was your fault."

We stood there in silence for a while.

"Why are you here?"

I pulled her helmet out of the bag and held it out for her. The anger was replaced with shock, which was then replaced with joy. She stared at the helmet, speechless.

"You gonna take it?"

She opened the door fully and tentatively took the helmet, as if she was afraid it would vanish. She looked completely exhausted and was wearing an oversized faded blue sweatshirt with the logo for the Coruscant Naval Academy on it. This was strange. I thought Mandalorians always wore their armor.

Now that I think of it, that's completely ridiculous. How would they clean themselves?

"I noticed it on the landing platform."

"I thought I lost this forever," She mumbled, still speechless. "I thought I would never see it again."

It seemed to finally dawn on her that this was real. She pulled the helmet to hug it and turned her attention to me.

"I don't know if I can thank you enough. This… this is amazing."

"It's no problem at all."

"No really. Thank you. Thank you so much."

We both stood there in the awkward silence. Neither of us really knew what to say next.

"You grew a beard."

Oh thank heavens I'm not the only one who hated this silence.

"Yea. I figured it'd be a nice change for me."

"It looks nice."

"Thanks."

"Why'd you start growing it?"

"After the experiment, my face gave me nightmares. I started to grow this to hide it. It looks normal now, but…" I let the thought trail away. I was half joking about the nightmares. Truth is, I grew it to try to distance myself from that cargo ship, from that experiment. I needed to be a new me.

"Yea, you were pretty hideous."

"Thanks."

"How do you feel?"

"Good. No pain. I've made a full recovery."

"Scars?"

"None. All I got is the tattoo."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Before the experiment, they tattooed me." I lifted up my sleeve so she could see.

"E-1143."

Suddenly, a voice from behind her yelled "CARTER!"

Her eyes widened in horror and her face turned a pale white. I noticed an elderly man walking over to the door. He grabbed me and pulled me in for a hug.

"Oh my boy, you've come home!"

This is definitely one of the weirder things that's happened to me.

Before I could wrap my head around the absurdity of the moment, the man put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me inside.

"Come on in! We were just about to have dinner!"

The place was bigger than my old apartment, but not by much. A couch was against one wall, and two very small bedrooms were off to one side. A small kitchen was in the corner. A delicious smell was wafting from a pot on the stovetop. A small table was in front of the couch. The place wasn't dirty, per se, but messy. Things seemed to be all over, making it look like a place that somebody tries to keep looking neat but that could never keep up.

The old man pulled me to a spot on the couch and made me sit down.

The door closed and Sadie walked over.

"Grandpa?"

The old man looked up. "Yes?"

"I know you're excited, but can I please talk to dad really quickly?"

I'm sorry WHAT?

The old man huffed grumpily, but let me go. Sadie led me to a bedroom and half-closed the door.

This must be her bedroom. Her armor was on display on a wall near the bed. She walked over to the display and carefully put the helmet in its place.

"Dad?" I hissed.

She calmly walked over and shut the door.

"And who the hell is Carter?"

"Carter is my father's name."

"Okay. Fine. Why is that man calling me Carter?"

She sat on her bed. "That man is my grandfather."

"Again, I can guess that. You didn't answer my question."

"He… he has dementia."

It felt like the air was sucked out of the room. I know about dementia. I'd seen people succumb to it, thoroughly oblivious to the world around them.

"He thinks that you're Carter because of the beard." She pulled out a little data chip and put it in her holoprojector. A picture came up. There were three people: a man, a woman, and a little girl. This must be a family picture. The bearded man must be Carter. The woman in blue must be Sadie's mother. And the little girl with pigtails and missing teeth must be Sadie. I guess we both lost our parents young.

"I don't look like him though." His hair was light brown and curly. His nose was a bit pointier than mine, he had freckles, and he had clear dimples when he smiled. I didn't have dimples. He was also much more naturally tan than I was. Next to him stood her mother. She had straight hair, a small scar above her left eyebrow, and high cheekbones that gave a more regal look to her. Sadie had a similar regal look about her.

"I know you don't. He struggles to remember faces. Most of the time he doesn't even recognize me." I could sense a twinge of sadness in her voice.

"I'm sorry."

"You get used to it." She clearly hasn't gotten used to it.

"Are you the only one who takes care of him?"

She nodded. The door opened and grandpa walked in. When he saw me, he stopped.

"Carter!" He went over to me and hugged me. "It's so good to see you! It's been so long!"

He couldn't remember us meeting a minute ago. I decided to pander to him.

"Hey dad. Yea it has. Sorry for not being home."

He looked at Sadie. "Tessa!" He went over to hug her as well.

She looked at me while hugging him and mouthed 'mom'.

"Come on you two! You came just in time for dinner!" He led both of us back in the main room and sat us down on the couch.

Sadie leaned over to me and whispered "Why'd you do that?"

"I know about the disorder. It helps to play along."

"Thank you."

She turned to grandpa. "I should be helping with dinner."

He waved her away, and she left for the kitchen.

Grandpa reached under the table and pulled out a box with a game board inside.

I know this game. It's dejarik.

"Hope you've gotten better at this."

Oh this guy has no idea. I used to play this with Master Joren. I would dominate. Only time I'd lose is when Master Joren would read my mind. He was a sore loser.

He set up the board and we began to play.

-Sadie-

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I'd see my helmet again. Before it was mine, it belonged to my mother, and before her it was my grandmothers, and so on. Our armor is our history. Losing it is like losing a part of yourself. Seeing it again filled me with an indescribable joy. It was like a piece of the puzzle that is me was put in place. The guilt was gone.

I looked in the living room at Grandpa playing dejarik with Darin. I don't know how I feel about Darin. On the one hand, he's part of the group who destroyed my family, he got me to take part in a tournament that could kill me, and he completely invades my privacy when he goes in my head. But on the other hand, he has never once shown any ill will towards me. Nothing he's done has indicated anything less than kindness in him. He's almost TOO good. He reminds me of the stories Grandpa told me of the Jedi long ago. Stories I had shrugged off as old wivestales.

Those stories were fairy tales. Fables about selfless heroes. The Jedi were never like that. They didn't do things out of the sheer goodness of their heart. The only time that they act in kindness is for those kriffing propaganda videos that they make to gain support for their war.

I just can't think of what he could possibly gain. I looked again at the two of them. Grandpa moved his Mantellian Savrip into the Inner Rim.

Oh Grandpa. Bad move. That's in range of the K'lor'slug. You just gave Darin an easy kill.

Darin glanced at me, smiled, and winked before moving his Kintan Strider right next to the Mantellian Savrip in what has to be the worst move I've ever seen in dejarik. He wasn't even set up for a Strider death gambit.

Grandpa, who was engrossed in the board and missed the wink completely, smiled gleefully and jumped at the opportunity to capture the Strider.

"I see you haven't gotten much better," he taunted.

"I have much to learn from you."

Grandpa smiled, obviously quite happy with his response. "I'm proud of you, my boy. I want you to know that."

"Thanks dad."

Hearing that hurt me. Grandpa was proud of a complete stranger. Earlier today he couldn't remember me. It wasn't fair. None of this was fair. I realized just how jealous I was of Darin.

I went to the pot and ladled some soup into two bowls. I hesitated, then took another bowl and poured soup in it as well. Whether I liked it or not, I had a guest at my house and I was going to be a good hostess.

I went into the living room and placed the bowls in front of Grandpa and Darin. I then sat on the couch with my bowl and studied the board. Darin was getting whooped.

Grandpa immediately grabbed a spoon and started slurping the broth.

"I'm sure it's not as good as what you get to eat every day, but it's something."

"You didn't have to-"

"I know, but I did. Eat." This was more of an order than an invitation.

He smiled. "Yes ma'am." He grabbed a spoon and ate some. "This is delicious."

"You're just saying that."

"No really. This is great."

It's so hard not to like him. Dammit man. Just be a monster so I can hate you.

After dinner, Grandpa and Darin finished their game and Grandpa promptly went to bed. I performed my usual routine of monitoring him as he got ready for bed to make sure he didn't forget to take any medication or anything.

When I went back into the living room, I saw that Darin was in the kitchen washing dishes.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm washing the dishes" he said matter-of-factly.

"Yes I can see that. Why?"

"Because they're dirty."

Oh dear lord. "Why are YOU doing it?"

He stared at me with mock confusion. "Because they were dirty."

I threw my hands up in frustration. "Why are you like this?"

I noticed that he was trying really hard not to smile. I grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. "You're a pain."

He laughed and threw the pillow back. I tried to dodge it but it hit me in the shoulder. I reared back to throw it at him again, but decided against it and went in the kitchen. I leaned on the counter to make sure that he was washing the dishes correctly.

"So why are you doing this?"

He smiled playfully. I could tell he was debating on whether to be a smartass again or not.

Thankfully, he decided against it. "I'm used to doing it at home. And I can tell you're exhausted. I'm trying to help."

"Look, I appreciate that, but you don't have to do any of this. I've done well without any help."

He hesitated. "I do have to do this."

I tried to think of why he would have to. Was the Order having him spy on me?

"Oh not like that."

"I told you to stay out of my head" I said angrily.

"I don't have to go in your head to know what you're thinking. It's really obvious. Your muscles tense, your shoulders moved slightly, your eyebrows came together, and your lips tightened."

I stared at him incredulously.

He smiled slightly. "Body language says what you don't."

I tried to ignore the fact that he could read my mind without ever actually entering my mind. "So why then?"

He put the bowl down and lowered his head. "I wouldn't be here without you. I guess I feel like I owe you."

"Look, you don't-"

"Yes. I do. I just… I just do."

Silence filled the small kitchen.

"What did you do before…" He waved his hand in the direction of Grandpa's room.

"I was studying to be a pilot. But I never finished."

He nodded. "CNA?"

"How did you?- oh," I realized that I had the school sweatshirt on.

"Plan on going back?"

I've never actually thought about that.

"I don't know. Why do you…"

I noticed his expression change slightly as he looked towards grandpa's closed door.

"No… no no no."

He nodded. "I could sense it. I don't know how long, but soon."

I knew this would happen. I'd spent so long preparing for the inevitable. But to know it was soon…

"It's going to get much harder to care for him."

I was still trying to stomach the fact that he was going to be gone soon. He was my only family. He was all I had left.

"I can help you. He seemed to enjoy tonight. And trying to do this alone will only break you."

Every part of me wanted to do this alone. And I didn't want Darin's help. But he was right. I was exhausted. And a part of me liked having someone to talk to. I nodded. "Yea fine."

He arched an eyebrow. "Fine what? You accept my help?"

"Yes, you moof milker."