Chapter Text
On Mandalore, you and Din Djarin were searching the abandoned cities for anything that might be of value. This mainly included things of cultural value like books or family crests or anything that could be brought to the Armorer. After learning the planet wasn’t as poisonous as originally thought, she decided it might be worth exploring to find some artifacts to begin filling a museum. Many thought it was a good idea to give the youndlings some better means of studying their heritage. You and Din were the first to volunteer for the mission.
Together you went from building to building making your way along the perimeter of the city. Despite the air being safe to inhale, the aggressive locals were still a hazard worthy of avoiding. Being near the outside would allow for an easy escape, should it be necessary. Around hour 4, the collection of items in your bag was getting nearly full. “Let’s make this our last search. I’m running out of room for all of this stuff,” you jostled said bag making it jangle with all the things you’ve grabbed. Din nods in agreement before entering the dark and dilapidated building in front of you, blaster in hand. You’ve been lucky so far and have yet to run into anyone dangerous, but that luck would have to run out sooner or later.
Din quickly walks through the place to make sure no one is lurking around. Once he is sure you’re both alone, he calls out to you standing on the floor above him. “All clear.” Once you’re sure of the same, you call back to him. “All clear!” He holsters his weapon before beginning to look for things to take back to the covert.
Neither of you is sure what kind of practices took place here, but if you had to guess, it might have been a laboratory of some kind. There were complicated-looking machines all over, none of them near functional given how they were caked with grime and fallen apart. Tools were littering the floor and counters that lined the walls. The few drawers you were able to open held vials and beakers, most of them broken. There was the occasional data pad or two, also non functional, among the many rooms you searched.
So far there has been nothing of value here, and you were beginning to worry that searching this particular building has been a waste of time. That is until you went through the last room. There was nothing of interest in the drawers or cabinets, but a red glow from one of the machines caught your eye. It was almost impossible to see anything, the glass was covered in black fungus, but through some of the slivers of less dirty glass you saw the source of the glow. You take a large chunk off the floor that used to be part of the ceiling, but has since caved in, and use it to smash the glass encasing whatever was glowing.
Its beauty took your breath away. A red glowing triangular prism with intricate gold carvings on its edges. Its glow pulsated as if it were a living creature with a beating heart. You didn’t recognize what part of Mandalorian culture this was a part of, but decided you must take it back with you anyway.
Meanwhile, Din had finished the lower section of the building that looked like it used to serve as some kind of lobby. He didn’t find anything worth taking back with him which is kind of expected from a room like this. Din makes his way upstairs to join in your search. He passes several open doors before reaching the last door at the end of the hallway. “Find anything?” He asks as he makes his way into the room.
You smile and point at the thing in front of you. “Yeah. Does this look like anything you’ve seen before?” You speak distractedly, eyes never leaving the hypnotic glow.
Din studies it for a moment before he shakes his head “No. I’m not familiar with this, but we should take it back with us and present it to the Armorer. She may know more.”
“Agreed.” You take it in your hand and take in its details. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Before Din can speak you feel a sudden and intense pain in your head. You stumble backwards into him, groaning with a hand clutched to your temple. Din grabs you by the shoulders to steady you. “What is it? What’s wrong?” He begins to feel a little panic from your outburst.
Through gritted teeth you manage to reply. “My head. It feels like it’s splitting.” Immediately Din looks over your helmet for any signs of lost integrity and worries when he finds none. Then, as quickly as it started, the pain stopped leaving you weak and barely able to stand. You look to notice you’re still holding the artifact, its glow dimmed to nothing, making it look empty. Although you feared the prism had something to do with your pain, you couldn’t possibly see how and ultimately chalked it up to coincidence. You put the artifact in your bag and began to make your way towards the exit.
Din holds his arms outward around you should you stumble and fall. “You sure you can make it back to the ship after that? You seem a little unsteady.” His visor tilts up and down as he looks you over. You begin to casually wave him off before you go still and silent. Seeing you sway, Din is quick to catch you before you hit the ground. He frenetically says your name a few times but receives no response. However, the rise and fall of your chest tells him you’re still breathing. Din holds you in a tight embrace, your head on his shoulder, as he uses his jet pack to take flight.
His heart is pounding the entirety of the flight back to the ship. Once there, he carefully places you in a seat and crouches down to fasten the belt around you. He also takes the time to remove the heavy satchel off of you. Seeing as it was an emergency, Din removes your helmet and places it on the metal floor next to you with a ‘clunk’ in order to get a better look at you. He takes off one of his gloves to get a proper reading of your temperature at your forehead. Feeling the exceeding warmth of your skin, he fails to suppress a worried sigh. His hand lingers to lovingly caress your face. Din isn’t sure why you would suddenly pass out like you did, but knew it was serious. He needed to get you some help, and quickly. Illnesses that were this fast acting never ended well.
Din sets a course for the nearest inhabited planet hoping there will be someone there who can help you. Sitting in the pilot’s seat, Din spends the entirety of the trip bouncing his leg in nervous anticipation. He occasionally looks over his shoulder to get a glance of your condition. Nothing really changes, as far as he can tell. Which he tells himself is good, considering it’s not getting any worse. Eventually, Din lands the ship at a landing dock on a small island planet. Once the ship has settled, he hears your pained groans.
Din rushes to your side. “What's wrong? Where does it hurt?”
You don’t answer, not totally conscious yet. Instead all you can mumble is “too tight” as you fumble at the clips holding your armor in place. Once he understands what you mean, he helps you loosen your coverings. Once it seemed to be to your liking, you fell unconscious again, arms falling to your side. However, it was different this time. It wasn’t as sudden when it first happened, but more like you simply drifted to sleep. This gave Din hope that you could get better.
It just so happened that the nearest planet to Mandalore was under the control of the New Republic which means there was decent medical care. Din managed to get you to a clinic and seen by a doctor without any hitches. The doctors asked him to stay in the waiting room while they stabilized you, and although he wanted to protest, he thought the professionals must know best in how to treat you. Din resigns himself to a waiting room chair. As he waits, his knee is bobbing up and down once again. Everytime he would notice it, he would try to put a stop to it, not wanting to disturb the people around him. However, this only would last for a moment before his mind would wander and send his nerves on edge again. This repeated several times before he gave up trying to break his nervous habit.
Din is sitting for a while before a doctor walks in and asks for him. She says a kind greeting, but he doesn’t waste the time responding to it. Instead he gets straight to the point. “Is [Y/N] okay?”
The doctor offers a smile in an attempt to put Din at ease; it doesn’t help. “They’re going to be fine with a little rest.” She stops in front of a door and gestures for him to enter. When he sees you laying in bed, conscious, Din rushes to your side with a sigh of relief. The doctor excuses herself saying she wanted to give you some privacy.
Din looks you over before brushing some stray hairs from your face. You smile at his gentle affections. “Did you miss me?” you ask teasingly.
He shrugs nonchalantly, “that’s one way to put it.” You could hear the smile in his voice. Din saw your smile drop after a pause, and for a moment he thought it was from his small attempt at a joke. He was about to try and apologize before you began to speak.
“Din, there’s something I need to tell you.” You spoke quickly, trying to get it out and over with. From the tone in your voice, he could sense that this was something important. He gave you his undivided attention, and you would be lying if you said it didn’t make you more nervous. It made you wish that you were wearing your helmet. “While the doctors were treating me, they did some bloodwork and found something.” Seeing his head dip in concern is endearing to you. You could tell that Din was assuming the worst, like some incurable disease. You hoped your next words would bring him some relief, although you weren’t sure yet if your real condition was much better. “I’m pregnant.”
Din straightens at that, and for a moment you see him sway. Thinking he might pass out, you reach for his hand to try and ground him. He grips your hand a little tighter for some kind of reassurance. “That’s… incredible.” He breathes it out, like he’s at a loss of words.
You raise an eyebrow at him. “Incredible? Din, we haven’t… you know. You aren’t concerned at all about how this is possible?” You and Din have been together for a long time now, but you never have been intimate in a way that could possibly lead to a baby. It just wasn’t something either of you were interested in. To be pregnant is just impossible.
Din isn’t an idiot. He knows there is no way he is the father, but that doesn’t change the fact that he wants to be. However, he is concerned this is the product of some pervert doing something to you while you were unconscious. “Perhaps we should ask for a paternity test. I can hunt down the scug bag that did this to you.”
“Already done.” You both turn your attention to the doctor who entered the room. She shuts the door behind her and sits on a stool by your bed. “We complete paternity tests with the original blood work. We cross reference our results with the New Republic’s galaxy wide database of DNA and can get results fairly quickly.” She looks at her datapad and begins to read your results. “Let’s see here… the pregnancy is about three months along, and the father is one Din Djarin.” She looks up from her datapad to look at Din. “Is that you?”
Din doesn’t get the chance to respond as you jump in with your own questions. “Three months?! That isn’t possible. And Din can’t be the father, no one can. I’m untouched by anyone.” None of this was adding up. How could you have been pregnant for three months without ever taking notice? Wouldn’t you be starting to show by now? You pull back the sheets on your bed to try and prove your point, but are surprised to see the small baby bump you have. It’s almost unnoticeable, but just large enough to know something isn’t right. You let out an audible gasp before you begin to prod your stomach hesitantly.
Din is also taken aback by this. You did not look this way when he brought you in. He is then reminded of your small outburst on the ship. Something about your clothes being too tight. How could you have grown so quickly? His mind drifts to where this all began; the red glowing artifact.
The doctor frowns, “It is not uncommon for parents to be in denial of their pregnancy at first. However, I can assure you that the blood work is not wrong. The sooner you accept this, the better. Options you may want to explore are running out with every day your pregnancy progresses. I suggest you think about it.” She hands you several pamphlets regarding unwanted pregnancies as well as prenatal care, whatever option you may want to choose.
After the doctor deemed you fit for leave, Din took you back to the ship. He was worried about how quiet you’ve been. Clearly there were many things you had to discuss. He wanted to offer you some kind of reassurance, but he wasn’t sure how to go about it. When you slump into your seat in the cockpit, Din moves to crouch beside you. You glance his way and his heart stutters to see a tear slip down your cheek. A gloved hand wipes it away before caressing your face. His other hand goes to squeeze yours resting in your lap. “I’m so afraid. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“You don’t have to worry about that right now. Just try to get some rest. We’ll be back at the covert in a couple of hours.” He brushes some hair from your face before placing his helmet against your forehead in a gentle fashion. You nod before making your way to the bunks in the back of the ship. Din makes all the necessary button presses and switch flips to get the ship to take off. The whole time he does, all he can think about is you.
Din would be more than happy to raise a child with you, but he knows that this is your decision to make. You would be the one carrying the being afterall. He didn’t want to influence you to keep it should it be something you were against, but he wanted you to know that he would be there for you and the child always. He made a mental note to tell you all of this later, seeing as now wasn’t the best time.
This was also the case for his theory on how your pregnancy occurred in the first place. Din wasn’t one to believe in magic, but that artifact was clearly something unusual. He thought the same thing when Grogu was able to lift the Mudhorn and heal Greef so quickly. Perhaps the artifact is a Jedi thing. Luckily, Din knew a few Jedi. You could seek help from Skywalker or Ahsoka. Although, he wasn’t sure you would need their help at this point. Surely doctors could take care of the rest. On the other hand, the artifact was still on the ship. Should someone else touch it, who's to say it won't impregnate again? Din resolved to send a message to Ahsoka and ask for a hand in disposing of it should it do something suspicious again.
Once the ship finally touched down on the planet, Din went to the bunks to wake you. He reaches you just in time to see you sitting up. The dark rings under your eyes tell him that you didn’t sleep. Din silently offers you his hand to help you get down. You take it with a forced smile. Once you’re on your feet, your hand lingers to remain entwined with his. Din takes this as an opportunity to pull you by the arm in close and wrap his arms around you in an embrace. You’re caught off guard by this, Din not really one to show physical intimacy. Eventually you do hug back, resting your head on his shoulder. It is commendable how accurate Din is in knowing when you need a hug.
A comfortable silence falls over you as you bask in the warmth of your partner’s hold. You’re reluctant to break it with your request. “If you wouldn’t mind,” you start slowly, “I would like to keep this pregnancy thing between us for now. I don’t want the covert to be celebrating something that may or may not come to fruition.”
“Of course, cyar'ika.”
Notes:
I know it's not likely that the New Republic has Din's DNA, but let's just roll with it. Also, I wrote this with the helmet rules being much looser than canon, so there's that too. Other than that, I hope you enjoyed reading! Please feel free to let me know what you think in the comments!
Chapter 2: The Departure
Chapter Text
Attempting to get back on track with the mission that feels like you started so long ago, you take your satchel of treasures to deliver to the Armorer. Din was preoccupied with collecting Grogu from those that agreed to watch him while you were on Mandalore, so you figured he would catch up with you later. Reaching the forge, the Armorer is already aware of your presence before you make yourself known. She must have heard your ship land. “Did your trip prove fruitful?”
You unhook your bag from your shoulder. “Yes. Din and I were able to find several items of significance.”
The Armorer gestures to the table in front of you. “Let us have a look then.” You begin laying your bounty out, one object at a time. She picks some up to get a closer look and get a better sense of what they are. Eventually you take out enough that the prism was at the surface of your satchel. Seeing the ominous red glow from your bag, you hesitate. You could have sworn it wasn’t glowing when you put it in your bag. The Armorer notices this and tilts her head curiously. “What is it?” Not wanting to get into the details, you simply take the artifact out of your bag and place it on the table with the rest. “Oh my,” she gasps. She stares at it from a slight distance, seeming to be hesitant to touch it, just as you were.
“We aren’t exactly sure what it is, but it looked important,” you explained. “Do you know what it is?”
The Armorer doesn’t respond for a moment, walking around the table to get a better look at it. “You hesitated in taking it out of your bag. Why?”
For a moment you thought about lying and saying there was no reason, but ultimately thought against it. You couldn’t bring yourself to lie to your matriarch. “I may just be superstitious, but I think it made me sick. A moment after I picked it up for the first time, I quickly fell unconscious.”
“I see,” she said, eyes never leaving the glowing prism.
It was at this moment that you began to feel an ache in your abdomen. Faint at first but quickly gaining intensity. As you double-over, you cry out in pain. “Gah!”
At this, the Armorer whips her head around in concern. Before she can step in and try and help, Din rushes in. He must have heard your outburst. “Grab a chair, quickly!” She instructs him as she places an arm around your shoulder. Her attention is on you once again. “Where does it hurt? What are you feeling?” Once Din has brought the chair over, she helps you lower yourself into it.
“I’m… growing?!” Sitting down, you can feel your stomach swell outwards. It gets heavier in your lap. The stretching of your skin is the painful part; however, constraining your growing abdomen within beskar armor didn’t help either. “My armor…” is all you can manage to say as you strain to try and loosen it. Noticing your struggle, Din steps in and takes it off of you, leaving you in just your flight suit. This brought you some relief from the discomfort, but not much. With the armor gone, everyone stares in awe as your middle gets visibly larger. Everyone seems to be at a loss of words.
Once the growth stopped, you let out a shaky breath. The pain subsided with the growth, leaving you mildly achey. Your shaking hands go to rest on your large bump. “What just happened?” you ask with disbelief, eyes wide and still breathing heavy.
The Armorer is the first to speak. “It appears… you just underwent a growth spurt.” She pauses as she tries to take in all that’s happened. “Were you with child before now?”
“Yes. I recently learned I was three months along in my pregnancy.”
“It looks as though you are six months along now.” Knowing you and Din were in a relationship with each other, she turns to him. “And what do you know of this?”
Din is silent for a moment as he sorts his thoughts. “I think the artifact is something from the Jedi, and when [Y/N] touched it, I think it made them pregnant.”
“How do you know this?” she asks.
He awkwardly rubs the back of his neck, trying to ease the tension there. “We’ve never…” he pauses as he searches for the right words, “been intimate. However, the New Republic doctor we saw confirmed that I was the father.”
The Armorer puts a hand to her chin in thought. “I’ve never heard of the Jedi doing something like this, but it isn’t impossible. Perhaps it’s worth contacting someone.” She turns back to the red, glowing item. “We have no idea what else this artifact is capable of.”
It was settled that you and Din would meet with Ahsoka to get some advice on how to handle the artifact and see if she could offer you any help for your rapid pregnancy. Din was torn between bringing Grogu along or not. He has already been away for some time now, and was beginning to worry Grogu was feeling neglected. On the other hand, he worried the artifact would do something heinous to him. Ultimately, Din thought it was safest leaving Grogu with the rest of the covert, but not before explaining all of this to him.
After giving the best explanation he can, Din holds Grogu in a farewell hug. “We won’t be gone for long, Grogu. I promise.” He wasn’t sure that the child understood everything, but was certain he got most of it. You stood beside them, feeling a little teary eyed from the exchange. Grogu looks over Din’s shoulder and reaches out towards you, wanting you to join in. That pushes your tears over the edge, and you hug Din from behind, resting your head next to Grogu’s on Din’s pauldron.
As you all part from the hug, you sniffle sadly, “we’ll see you soon, buddy.” He waves goodbye and gives a sad coo as you and Din depart towards the ship.
Once aboard, Din begins getting the vessel ready for take off. Meanwhile, you stored the artifact someplace safe in the cargo hold. Luckily, the Armorer managed to make a glass case to contain it, similar to the one you found it in. After carefully placing the artifact inside using a pair of tongs, the case was sealed tightly. Hopefully, no one else will fall victim to its whims. By the time you make it to the copilot's seat, the ship is ready to depart.
Din takes notice of the way you collapse into your chair out of the corner of his eye. Once he finishes all the proper calculations, he slowly guides the hyperdrive into gear and the ship's interior is filled with a blue light as thousands of stars and planets pass the windshield. He turns to see you resting one of your arms over your visor with your head thrown back. "How are you feeling?"
You drop your arm to your side with a sigh. "If I'm being honest," you turn to look him in the eye, "not great." Din expected as much. "My lower back hurts, my hips hurt." As if to prove your point you begin to knead the flesh of your lower back and sides before gesturing to your boots. "My feet ache."
"Would it help if I gave you a foot rub?" Din offers.
“Would you?” you ask hopefully.
He takes that as a 'yes'. He reaches over to recline your seat a little before reaching for your boots. Din gently removes them, one at a time, before resting your feet in his lap. When he begins to press his thumbs into your arches, you tense a little from the pain before the action eventually becomes soothing. As you relax into the chair with a sigh of relief, you thank him. "Thank you, Din. That is just lovely."
Din shrugs, eyes focused on his work. "I'm happy to be able to relieve some of your pain." Seeing you throw your head back in bliss brings a smile to his face. You lay like that for a while, feeling much better than you were before, when you start to feel a new sensation in your abdomen. Putting a hand to your stomach, you sit up, your feet coming to rest on the floor again. Din begins to feel a panic start to form in his chest at your sudden change in demeanor. "What is it?"
You begin to chuckle in bewilderment as you feel a fluttering in your stomach. "I think.. I think the baby is kicking." At this Din deflates, relieved it's not something serious. As you unzip your flight suit, Din feels his face flush with heat. He's about to ask what you're doing when you grab his hand. Quickly removing his glove you press his hand to your stomach where you feel the source of the fluttering. "Do you feel it?"
It's Din's turn to chuckle as his bare hand is able to feel the tiny vibrations of movement from within you. "I feel it." The moment makes the situation all the more real for both of you, but Din especially. He realizes that there's actually a living thing growing there, and being its father, he was a small part of it somehow. You, on the other hand, bore all of it. It's your body doing quite literally the heavy lifting nurturing this tiny thing inside of you. Everything this cluster of cells will need will come from you. Din feels a bit overcome with emotion, a lump developing in his throat. He rests the forehead of his helmet against the forehead of yours. The gesture is near silent except for the quiet clink of colliding metal.
You sniffle as you lift your head again, having been overcome with a similar feeling. “Seeing as I kind of outgrown many of our options, it seems I have no choice but to have this baby,” you said, feeling a little worried about how all of this was going to end.
Din takes your hands. “I’m sorry that choice was taken from you, but there are some options left. We don’t have to raise them, if that’s what you want. I'm sure some other couple in the covert will welcome a foundling. On the other hand, if you do want to raise them…” He trails off, unsure how to finish the statement. "I think we parent Grogu pretty well." His voice was soft and coy.
You smile with a tilt of your head. "Well, Grogu is a little different. We didn't raise him from an infant. How are you so sure we'd be able to do that?"
"Because, like everything else, we'll do it together." Din shrugs. "And besides, I'm sure Grogu will be more than willing to help out as the elder brother."
You smile at that. "Well then," you sigh, "maybe we could do this." Your hand goes to rest on your distended middle. Din clasps his hand over yours.
"Of course we could."
SerGate on Chapter 1 Mon 26 Jun 2023 02:52PM UTC
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GloomWeed on Chapter 1 Tue 27 Jun 2023 02:18AM UTC
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