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"Yes, Axe?" she asks, answering the chime of her comm.
His clear voice comes through the small device instantly, "A Razor Crest, matching the description we were given, is headed our way." With that news, she takes the first full breath she's had in days. "Estimated landing in two minutes," he adds.
Two minutes too long in her opinion. "Acknowledged," she responds.
She needs to know their status now.
————
Before she even starts walking down the open ramp, she feels Grogu reaching out for her, his familiar presence making her more aware of her own mind.
Then she suddenly can see them standing beside Axe, just to the side of the ramp. Din is turned slightly away from her, but all of Grogu's attention is immediately on her.
"It's good to see you well, Clan Mudhorn. We weren't certain that would be the case," Axe says in greeting, meeting Din's outstretched arm with his own.
He seems to be moving alright, they both do, nothing noticeably wrong. He looks back towards the cabin where three members of The Watch are almost done fixing the roof. "Where is she…" he starts to ask, but he's interrupted as Grogu jumps from his shoulder and lands in her waiting arms.
"Hello, ad'ika," she says, hugging the boy and pressing a kiss to the top of his head. His tired, relieved coo and the way he clings to her chest plate give her clues that whatever happened is still slightly affecting him.
But what has happened to them? That she is largely still missing. She knows the Hutts were involved somehow. Those ancient slugs undoubtedly earned whatever Din, Grogu, and the New Republic brought down upon them.
Without her gloves, through her hold on him, she can feel Grogu's warmth and his mostly steady breathing. Humming a little, something she knows will calm him, he tucks his face into her neck, responding back and matching her humming.
Relief and comfort and love graze from his mind over her own. She knows that he's going to be alright.
She doesn't have to pay attention to Din or even see his eyes to feel them, since Grogu jumped to her Din's focus has been entirely on them. But now she looks up and meets his eyes through his helmet, and she watches as his whole demeanor changes - still him, but there is something to the way his shoulders slightly relax and how he sheds his regular imposing intensity. He is warmer and more open with every step he takes towards them.
"You're here," he says, pleased as his hand covers hers along the back of their boy.
"So are you," she replies, relief in her voice.
Leaning in, he meets her in the middle into a kelebe that does even more to calm her, enough that she can ask, "You both alright?"
The question has him nodding against her forehead. "Because of him," he tells her, the pride in his voice so clear.
"By the time Greef passed on a message from the Anzellans, they had already gotten the New Republic involved," she explains, pulling back and leading them up the ramp, together, a single unit, instantly in step with each other.
He taps the controls on her vambrace to close the ramp as soon as they're off it so she won't have to disturb Grogu.
"I thought that this would be better than showing up late to a party we weren't invited to," she says, gesturing to the crates in the hold filled with things she was able to salvage from the cabin.
He's silent, looking at it all. "This is wonderful, cyar'ika, thank you," he says softly.
"It is only us here, Din," she tells him. Then he takes his helmet off and kisses her; it is slow, full of love and relief for them both.
Sitting down together, she settles Grogu in her lap while he takes off his gloves.
When he looks up, something unsure flickers in his eyes.
"What is it?" she asks immediately.
His sigh is the exact same every time he is about to say, "You need to know about this one. I was…" he stops for a second. "You should see it."
She isn't entirely surprised. Raising an eyebrow at him, she wordlessly asks if he is sure Grogu will be able to handle it right now. He nods, almost insistent.
Turning her attention to the child in her lap, his big eyes filled with understanding before she even reaches out her hand and asks, "Grogu, will you show me?"
A moment later, his palm rests near the center of hers, and she reaches for Din with her free hand, lacing their fingers together.
Flashes of memories and emotions enter her mind, as their journey plays out for her to witness from the perspective of her own child.
A job, the base, a new ship, information from Hutts, being captured, a cage, battles, a Hutt friend, a crazy escape, playing on a beach, the cabin, a bounty hunter, a mission to rescue papa, an explosion and jumping into water, running.
Suddenly, it changes; it slows down.
A very tiny ship.
He tried to send Grogu home when he thought he wouldn't make it.
Grogu could sense the poison, the wound. He knew he could help.
Healing papa after he had fallen.
The days after and he does not wake up.
Putting his training to the test. Moving beyond his worry and his fear to keep them safe, always safe.
His resourcefulness, using everything to his advantage. The hut, the fish, the kindness of a stranger.
Tightening her grip on Din's hand slightly, he squeezes back for a moment. A needed reminder that they are real and whole and with her.
The next morning, he is gone from the shelter, and suddenly everything is alright again, and the visions speed up.
A ship and a battle and rescuing his Hutt friend, jumping into the same water again, the base, a lesson about the new ship, the cabin, her hugs.
In this moment between them, all she feels from Grogu is his love. He is alright, tired, but alright. He is so strong. She tells him so through the connection, but then she is saying it too, "My incredible boy, you are very brave. I am so proud of you. You did an amazing job protecting your papa."
She almost lost him, she thinks, the thought slipping through before she can fight to ignore every other thought that wants to flood her mind about how many different ways things could have gone even more wrong.
"We could have come home once Rotta had left, but I knew it wasn't over. I couldn't risk bringing trouble with us," he explains.
Is Rotta the Hutt's name? Why is that familiar?
Based on the nudge of yes in her mind from Grogu, it is.
"I was considering calling in for backup. I just wasn't expecting them to move that fast," he says.
That does reassure her a little. That is the moment Grogu pulls away, hops off her lap, and she opens her eyes.
"Grogu?" Din asks, but their son turns and yawns at them dramatically, but there's that adorably mischievous look in his eyes that he doesn't know how to hide, before he continues further into the ship. "Just don't ruin your dinner or make yourself sick," Din calls as he hops out of the cargo bay.
She almost lost him.
His attention turns back to her, to their hands, fingers still laced together, she cant let him go, not yet. He looks a bit nervous when she sighs. "Well, once again you have exploded the power structures of the criminal syndicates in multiple systems," she says, flashes of Din destroying that fighting ring and the clearly blown-up Hutt stronghold roll through her mind.
"What? You know I'm thorough," he says, smiling.
She does, it's why she also knows that he's probably even more proud of something else. "And hundreds of battle droids have been destroyed," she says knowingly.
Something deep flashes across his face, but it's gone in a second. "That was a bonus," he admits.
"You wanted to do that from the moment you stepped on Nel Hutta," she tells him, there's no way he didn't.
He just shrugs, but he doesn't hide how pleased he is.
She almost lost him.
"It is going to be unstable for a while, those systems. The power vacuum is going to be bloody," he says, and he's right, there will be opportunities there, if handled correctly.
A couple of loud noises echo from further in the ship, the galley cabinets closing, and he stands, his side and the hole in his suit and the now mostly healed wound that almost killed him in front of her eyes.
Before he can go find out what Grogu is doing, she tugs on their still-laced hands, bringing him down to kneel in front of her.
"Don't leave me, you can't, not yet," she insists, cupping the side of his face in her hand.
He leans into her touch. "Bo, I won't," he says, and she knows he has done everything in his power to stay.
She's glad he didn't apologize, not when it was the right choice; she would have done exactly the same thing in his position, send their son home to him, away from danger, even if it meant her death.
"Din, we will be fine, but I have spent the last three days terrified. I just…" she stops, the energy that's kept her going failing her, words impossible as she tries to hold in her tears.
Wrapping a hand around his bandolier, she pulls him in for a kiss that has to be enough.
Her lips are needy and harsh and hard against his, and he just lets her take everything she needs, doesn't even try to control it for a second, but his arms wrap around her tightly, supporting them both. A constant pressure that silently reveals so much of his own feelings, his fear, his regret, his guilt.
She slows eventually, biting down on his bottom lip, not hard enough to make him bleed, not even enough to leave a mark behind, even though she could, but just to do it because he is real and here, and given the pleased noise that comes from somewhere deep in his chest, she is sure he doesn't mind.
When her frustration burns out, she can't hold it in anymore; she cries with relief, the few tears she has left after the past few days.
He's crying too.
She keeps kissing him because she can't stop, not yet. Each kiss so light, just her lips against his for a second before she pulls back and then kisses him again.
"Bo," he says gently, and she can hear the apology before it leaves his lips.
Stopping him, she shakes her head and admits, "I would have done the exact same thing, try and send him home to you."
He doesn't seem surprised.
"You are both here now. That is what matters," she says, wiping her tears away. "You promised to be back, and you are. Thank you, cyar'ika."
His forehead presses against her own. "I will always do everything I can to bring us home to you," he promises, "and if I can't, he has everything under control. He is learning so much. Every day he impresses me," he says, shifting and looking in the direction Grogu went. Since the initial noise, he has been alarmingly quiet.
"You should tell him that," she reminds him, imagining Grogu and what he probably did since he left them, him sitting on the table in the galley stuffing his face with snacks before falling asleep in his bunk, able to finally really rest.
When he looks back at her, the love in his eyes is overwhelming. It settles her a bit to see it. The love between them, it's there, right there, their commitment and devotion to each other unchanged, solid.
Pushing past the want she always feels, she needs to do something, to just exist around him after feeling so much. "Din, if I wasn't here, what would you be doing now?" she asks. He didn't know she would be here when he arrived; surely he had things to do.
"We would be staying with Greef. The plan was to message you to expect us tomorrow. Probably would have reached out to Fett to tell him about the Hutts," he says. That's right, Fett has been worried about the Hutts for a while.
"We were going to see what we could salvage from the cabin, see to a few ship repairs," he says, flatly. Still, in any other moment she knows he'd have said that with more excitement, him and his ship modifications she thinks fondly, he's going to want to visit Peli sometime soon, "then we'd have to make some lists for the market tomorrow morning, and arrange for the roof to be fixed."
Only a few of those things left to do. "Could you use another set of hands with the ship?" she wonders, pressing her forehead against his.
She can hear his smile grow as he says, "Bo, I would love your help."