Chapter Text
Later never came.
Bodhi was instructed to take Zhara somewhere the next day and then you didn’t see him. Not just for a day but for a week and more. You tried not to worry, and command kept you busy. But night after night was a reminder as you came back to an empty silent room. You sat on the edge of the bed, and fiddled with your datapad. No new messages. Not a word from anyone. You tried sending a few messages but nothing ever came back. You wonder if there’d be more of a moment to breath at Hoth. But this was a war you were fighting. Those few moments back on Yavin were brief and happy and rare. You tossed the pad aside and scrubbed your hands over your face in frustration. You already figured if both of them were missing then maybe they had found a place for Zhara. But where would you take a Chiss child when you were on the run from the empire and were a known traitor?
The door to the room slid open and you stood up quickly, knocking your head a moment on the bed above you with a sharp hiss. Your eyes water from the pain as you glance to a figure looking a bit unamused in the doorway. Bodhi? The figure moved toward you as if to check on you but stopped. No…
“Cassian?” You asked as you blinked him into clarity. He glances behind him as you rub the sore spot on your head and came away from the bed more. Cassian closes the door and the room falls into silence for a brief moment. He finally spoke after he deemed it okay to.
“I came to check on you.” His tone was different, the words of concern sounded odd from his lips.
“What…” You started but he cut you off.
“You’ve been distracted. It’s been noticed by some of the higher officers and before someone else got to you I figured-”
“You figured you’d lecture me instead?” It was a question not of anger but confusion. But the words were wrong, you could tell from the frustrated look on his face.
“No-” He sighed, his hands seemed to constantly move, to his face down to his hips, across his chest as he wrestled with words. Finally he settled for hands on his hips and ducked his head some before looking right at you. “Is it because of Bodhi?” You flushed gently, a bit embarrassed a bit indignant, it’s none of his business. You turned your head away and crossed your arms over your chest. “So yes…” He looked his own form of flustered and threw his hands up. “I knew they should have sent you along… but they need you here.”
“Cassian what-”
“They wanted you to stay to help with setup. They couldn’t spare more than one and the girl seemed to get along with Bodhi well…” He sighed a moment. “He’s been directed to take her somewhere safe. There’s a few orphanages under the rebellion that will take her-” You let out a bark of a laugh that stopped Cassian in his sentence.
“Wait, they asked Bodhi to take a child to an orphanage alone? You know he can’t leave her. He’s too… too-”
“Soft. Yes, I agree. He’s also not allowed to make contact with us until he’s back in case anything gets intercepted….But it’s been a while.”
“Been a bit longer than that..” You grumbled, but Cassian pushed on.
“And no one’s going to say it, but I’m worried too.” Cassian watched as your face faltered a moment. If he was worried, then there was true worry to be had. He noticed the small spark of panic in your eyes as you rushed forward toward him. The other was already holding his hands up to steady you. “Listen. I’ve already secured you a ship. I’ll hand off the coordinates to where he was supposed to go. Use them as a guide. I really don’t think they’ll miss one more person right now.” You break through his small hand blockade and hug the Captain tight. He tensed in surprise but slowly wrapped his arms around you in return.
“Thank you, I owe you.” You say quietly.
“Bring him back….” He said in return before pulling away and settling his hands on your shoulders. He gives them a small squeeze, as if it’ll instill some luck. “I wish I could lend you K2 for this but you need to be flying under the radar. Pack a few things, I’ve left some credits in the Stinger for you. Just enough to get you started but the rest is on you.” He dug in his pocket and held out a data chip, with a nod you take it and shove it in your own pocket. He turned to leave then hesitated before saying, “May the force be with you.” With that he ducked back out the door.
You waste no time in packing a bag. The Stinger… Cassian must mean you to go in alias. Your bag ends up not being much, clothes, some hidden rations, hold out blaster and the credits. The whole time from then until reaching the ship all you can think of is you hope that Bodhi is just sitting somewhere with Zhara because he couldn’t give her up. And not something more in line with pirates or imperials. You don’t even know what ship he took to get there. You find yourself starting up the ship, prepping for takeoff. Manning the Stinger single handedly wouldn’t be easy, but it’s doable. You can rest easier once you hit light speed.
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The first two places were a bust. Not the orphanages or the ports had heard of the vague description of the people you were searching for. What’s worse is that these orphanages had been nice and well protected in their spots. You would have left the girl in their care instead of bringing her to Hoth. You sigh as you step back into the Stinger and close the hatch. The silence and lack of people to talk to has been a bit of an annoyance. Or more so lonely. How’d you do it before? The life of a Starfighter pilot meant lots of time alone in a cockpit. Maybe it was the size of the ship, and knowing other people should be in it with you.
Slowly you drop onto the couch and pick up the data pad you left behind. You bought a new one, used and cleared out, to try to reach Bodhi on. Day after Day still brought nothing. Not even a lead. You still had one more system to check but there was the possibility Bodhi didn’t even try to go to these places.
Maybe if you put out a bounty for his alias? But you don’t have that kind of credits.
“Another fruitless day.” You grumble as you toss the datapad aside. You settle your head back against the couch and close your eyes. You run through new scenarios, trying to think like Bodhi, where would he go? You become so lost in thought you almost miss the soft ping of a notification on your datapad. At first, you ignore it. Then slowly you look over to the datapad. It takes a moment before you snatch it up and open the notification.
You stare at the screen, looking it over a few times. It read vaguely.
Twin stars.
You knew it had to be Bodhi, but the ID for the sender was unknown. Maybe it was a test. You tried to remember the words he said to you.
“Ah!” You shake the screen some. “It’s… An… Annana?... No Ana… Bubbadek… no… FUCK.” You press the data pad to your face. “Think think think….” You try to recall the memory…
He takes up your hand, that hand been resting on his torso and thumbs over your palm a moment before sliding his fingers between yours. “I said ‘Ana Bahebek’*. It means...”
“I love you…” You sigh and pull the screen from your face, it’s a bit smudged now but you begin to type, prefacing with, I don’t know how to spell it and then an attempted Anna Baheabbek. You know it’s incorrect looking at it, but you hope it works. You press send and wait.
And wait….
The screen flickers and it pings again. You sigh and then laughed with relief. It was a picture, stone walls. You’d know those walls anywhere. You rush up to the cockpit and bring up the Navigational charts, and put in new coordinates.
“I’m coming.” You said to the empty cockpit as you take off and minutes later hit hyperspace.
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The temple on the moon of Yavin 4 looked almost the way you had left it. It maybe had been checked over by the Empire, but most of the essential had been packed up and what remained wasn’t worth the Empire’s time. As you flew in closer you noticed the hangar bay doors were open. One ship resided inside, along with a cleared out space near it. You didn’t recognize the ship, but you assumed it had to be the one Bodhi took. You started landing procedure brought the Stinger down in smooth. Then powered her down.
You sit in the ship for a while longer and just listen and wait. The whole building is eerily quiet, no people, no droids, no air or ground traffic. It almost seems like a ghost town, or well, temple. After realizing no one will be coming out to greet you, or attack you, you stand up and move to exit the ship, taking out your blaster just in case.
The ramp hissed as it went down and hit with a metallic clang that echoed in the mostly empty hangar. The humid air hits you and you already feel sweat prickling at your neck.
You’d like to trust that all is well, that Bodhi is here, and dumbly safe with Zhara, but that survival instinct keeps you from running off to go find him. You don’t descend the ramp, waiting to hear foot fall. But instead you head a soft quiet hum. It takes a moment, and then you smirk. Bodhi must have rigged up the electricity, resourceful. Finally, you take your first steps down and into the hangar. The ship he brought here is small and unmarked, much smaller than the one you have. You wonder if Bodhi had to fuel up once more one the way over here.
You begin to move toward the doors that led toward what use to be dormitories. You try the old code to open it, and it works just fine. The hall is dark, but the electricity is running, you can hear it. He must be just powering small areas, conserving what he can make happen. But even in the dark, you know the layout of the temple. You go down the hall and make a turn, and another. Finally, towards the end, you see the soft glow of lamplight. It’s by the mess hall. You stop at the door, which is closed. Waiting, you listen. There doesn’t seem to be much sound, but the door makes it hard to tell. You see the lamp illuminates the pad and you put in the access code and the door slides open with a soft kiissh. There’s a clatter from the room and the quick shuffling of feet. One set? You slowly peek around the corner and see nothing but two trays of food and some utensils on the floor. You swallow thickly and then call out.
“Bodhi?” You voice carries through the room. “Bodhi?” You call again holstering your blaster and coming around the corner and into the room. Something peeks from behind the food service line and then the tension you carried and the tension of the room dropped as the pilot popped up from where he was.
“Y/N!” He calls out and grins, already moving to meet you. You see behind him a pair of red eyes peek at you. You want to have the ‘I knew it’ moment but instead you find yourself running up to meet Bodhi half-way, colliding into him with an almost bone breaking hug.
“You left, you didn’t come back, I was so worried.” You voice cracks slightly as you press your face into his neck and sigh.
“I wanted to tell you but I couldn’t find you to let you know. And I couldn’t message you…” He didn’t let go, Bodhi’s grip on you was tight, his hands fisting in your jacket, nose in you hair. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.”
You let the moment linger before you begin to pull away, he loosens his grip and his hands move to cup your face. He leans in, and you feel your face begin to heat up and you pull away further.
“Where’s Zhara?” You ask him, as if reminding him that there were other people around, one other to be exact. Bodhi looks a bit mortified, just for one moment, that he might have forgotten she was around. He moves back toward where they had been hiding.
“Zhara, it’s okay.” He said as he rounded the counter.
“I know…” She said, gentle, but loud enough for you to hear.
“Want me to remake lunch?” He asks crouching, his voice light and kind. He walked with her into the back and started making food again, talking with her all the while. You watched and settled at a table. Bodhi has been taking care of this child the whole time, he’s grown attached. You realize slowly that there’s no way you’d be able to bring him back with you to Hoth. You’d be breaking a promise to Cassian. You’d be breaking, possibly, loyalties to the Rebellion. Loyalties, where do yours lay? Where do his?
“Shit…. Shit shit shit…” You mutter to yourself and press your palms to your eyes. If you take the Stinger fill her up with the fuel from Bodhi’s ship, and stockpiles of food and sellable things from the temple maybe you two could run off. And always be on the run. On the run from the Empire, and maybe now from the Rebellion. You run scenarios over and over in your head until a tiny clack comes from in front of you as Bodhi sets a tray of food down. Nothing spectacular. But it’s hot and it’s not rations.
He sits next to you and watches you for a moment. Shifting, a little closer he turns his head toward you, eyes moving down as he finds words.
“What do you want to do?” His voice settles on your shoulders like comforting hands, it causes you to slouch and you shrug.
“I promised Cassian I’d bring you back...I don’t think I can…” Your brow wrinkles. “But if we don’t go back, then we’ve stolen their ships and resources…” His hand rests on your leg and you drop you own to cover his, leaning on him some. “Do we abandon another cause?” There’s a moment of silence, where both of you think and no food gets touched.
“You said.. Cassian sent you?” He asked resting his head against yours. You nodded slightly. “Then… maybe he knew we wouldn’t come back. He’s sneaky like that…”
The thought never occurred to you. But it seemed that also Bodhi was saying he didn’t want to go back. No more fighting. At least on the battlefield.
“Really?”
“I think it’s a possibility…” His lips twitched into a smile and you can’t help but lean in and kiss him. He accepts it and savors it like it’s his favorite dessert. His kisses move from your lips to across your cheek and to your forehead. “Stay. You, me, Zhara. We can make it work…”
Zhara… You look over to the girl, eating and pretending that you two weren’t here for a moment. You smile some.
“Of course I’ll stay. But we can’t live in the temple for-” You’re cut off by an excited whoop from Bodhi as he kisses you again. And again.
After some rest, and catching up, your night is spent in a familiar room, running over plans, navigation charts and places to lay low. Zhara sleeps in bed, and you and Bodhi share a mattress you had dragged in and put on the floor. A plan is made, which involves staying here for a little bit. But change is on the way, and hopefully it means you can settle down. Should you ever be needed, you know Cassian would have a way to find you.