Beskar’s Bounty - Chapter 3
“Mmmmm,” I hum quietly into the mug of caf I’m sipping from as I watch darkness envelop the sky through the window. The caf is piping hot, flavorful, and fresh; so much better than any cup I ever made. And it smells like...like...home.
Cobb had brought me a tray of various food items just as the suns were setting on the horizon and I watched from my sitting position in bed through the window I sat diagonally across from. Before disappearing through the door, he asked if I had any requests and, “Caf,” was the first thing that joyfully left my lips. He chuckled and left for a few minutes.
Mos Pelgo wasn’t a large settlement, but it was much bigger than my no-name outpost, and much more populated as well. It at least used to be on a map, I was informed by Cobb, which is how Mando came to know of it. Cobb freely told me about how he had met Mando not very long ago when Mando was in search of other Mandalorians.
He also informed me that trade was slow to Mos Pelgo, but still pliable, which is how they could come by things like much fresher caf than what I was afforded back home.
The tray of food Cobb provided was more than I had ever seen in my entire life. And it was real food...real, real food. I have lived off of portions and canned goods for so long, I had forgotten what it was like to have a real meal. My parents used to hunt and cook various animals over a flame, but I was never taught and by the time I was alone, I didn’t have the patience to learn how to hunt. My mouth watered as I studied and poked at the piled-high seared meat a few times, hesitant to consume it at first.
“It’s safe,” Cobb chuckled as he sat and watched me from the chair next to the door.
I took a reluctant bite and immediately closed my eyes to relish in the sheer joy of the savory taste of meat in my mouth. I wasn’t entirely sure what the meat was, but it didn’t stop me from eating my entire plate in a matter of minutes.
Once I finished eating every item on the tray, feeling like I made up for the several years I have had to ration or go without, Cobb took the tray away and handed me a mug of caf with a grin. “Sweet dreams,” he drawled before winking and leaving the room...leaving me alone, to my thoughts. For the first time since I woke up.
It was dark now, the suns had fully set and the room was lit with a single candle, casting grim shadows on the sandstone walls. I hadn’t left the confines of the room, let alone the bed, feeling too weak, too fragile to do so. Plus, I had gotten the feeling that I was being contained to the room, not like a prisoner, but more so until they got a better feel of me.
After my embarrassing, over emotional outburst with Mando, once the tears stopped flowing and my breathing finally went back into a steady rhythm, except for the occasional hiccup, he stopped wiping away my tears and stood, straightening his posture back into the intimidating statue of metal. “We’ll leave for Mos Eisley at sunrise,” was all he said before leaving the room. I haven’t seen him since.
So, here I sit in bed, belly full, my back resting comfortably against the wall, legs stretched out, and my mug of warm liquid in both hands, gazing at the darkened sky through the single window, mentally preparing myself for whatever might lay ahead in the next day...week...month. I sigh heavily.
I try to relax enough to sleep, but I can’t. With the caf now running through my body and the fact that I have been in and out of consciousness for the last 2 days, more or less, I can’t find it in myself to sleep anymore. So, I sit here, in the darkness, except for the light from the flickering candle that is just barely lit now, signaling that some time has passed without me even realizing. I take a sip from the cup in my hands and the caf is cold. I frown. It was warm a minute ago, right?
All of the sudden, the blanket draped over my body is gently tugged by my feet and I freeze. I gaze down my frame to find the same ear tips just barely peeking over the mattress, now in shadow, and I watch as the creature slowly climbs, using the blanket as means to pull itself up. Finally, it makes it up and over the firm mattress until it does a little roll into a sitting position next to my leg. It coos and looks up at me with huge brown-black eyes.
My eyes dart between the creature and the doorway several times, waiting for Mando, but he doesn’t come, no one does. I wrinkle my forehead and clear my throat, settling my eyes on it. “Hello, there,” I announce softly.
It replies with a toothy smile before standing on wobbly feet and takes a few steps closer to me on the bed, until it is standing right beside my torso. The creature suddenly reaches out a three fingered hand towards my face.
It’s tiny fingers gently caresses my cheek as it’s big eyes stare me down.
“What are you-?” I begin to ask, but stop when an unexpected glint of armor catches my eye from the doorway. “What is it doing?” I whisper, my eyes flashing from the door to the creature.
Mando sighs as he leans against the sandstone wall. “I don’t know,” he answers before walking softly across the room to stand beside the bed. “He...does things, sometimes.”
I keep still as the creature’s teeny palm continues touching my face, but sweep my eyes to Mando’s visor, lifting a wary brow. “‘He does things sometimes’ doesn’t make me feel any better about this.”
Mando chuckles so quietly that I’m not entirely sure if I actually hear it or not. He starts to bend slightly forward, reaching to pick the creature up, but I quickly dart out my arm as a gesture to wait. He freezes.
“I...just want to see what it does.”
A moment passes before he straightens out and places the bank of his hands casually on his hips, watching.
We’re all silent as the creature continues to gently touch my face. His big brown-black eyes study mine intently, looking for...something. Although awkward, I don’t feel an ounce of malice; more so curiosity and searching for my intent. Finally, it smiles widely, appearing content with whatever it is it has found, and drops its hand.
“What is it?” I question, breaking my stare down with it to look up at Mando.
Mando tilts his helmet and silently stares at me; I can tell he’s contemplating how much he should tell me. He drops his arms down to his sides and clears his throat, “He’s a...a rare species. He’s...mine.”
“My kid,” Mando interjects.
My eyes widen and I can’t stop the look of surprise that sweeps across my face. “O-oh,” I murmur as I look back at the creature and find it absentmindedly pulling at a thread on it’s clothing, undoing the sloppy and hastily done hem job. I peer back up at Mando and find him watching the both of us closely. “Sooo...that’s how you look under that helmet?” I ask inquisitively.
Mando shakes his head. “My ward,” he amends. “I’ve been quested to return him to his own kind.”
“Oh,” I repeat, blinking awkwardly. “Does it...he,” I correct myself, “have a name?”
The creature's head snaps up at his name and he coos questioningly at Mando.
Mando audibly does chuckle this time, low, but clear.
“Grogu?” I echo, looking at him now.
“Eh?” he tilts his head questioningly to me now.
“I usually call him kid, though,” Mando adds.
“Well, Grogu, you’re going to take this hem right out if you keep pulling at it,” I start as I cautiously pull at the thin, almost burlap-like fabric at his feet to study the work. “Whoever hemmed this did a sloppy job.”
Mando clears his throat and I look up at him with startled eyes, realizing.
I quickly look away, not wanting to meet his obvious gaze from under the helmet. “Oh,” I repeat again. It’s quickly becoming my most used word.
“I...did the best I could with what I had. He kept tripping over himself and...mending is not a...strong suit.”
I nod, embarrassed, “We all have our...skills.”
“Speaking of...uh…mending,” Mando begins, hooking his thumbs into his belt, making it quite clear he was feeling uncomfortable. “I did my best...with your wound.”
“My…?” I start to ask, but abruptly feel like the air is knocked from my lungs when I remember all over again. I blame the bacta spray for doing it’s job too well. If I had a painful reminder, maybe I wouldn’t be shocked at each mention of the injury.
“Hey,” Mando moves, raising his hands to hold me steady if need be.
I put up a hand to halt him, “I’m okay...really. I...I just keep forgetting about it.”
“That’s shock. The...the wound wasn’t bad or...deep. I cauterized it before coming here to Mos Pelgo and then the bactra-spray took care of the rest. But shock...that’s...something else entirely.” Mando sighs and takes a cautious seat on the edge of the bed beside me. Grogu clumsily climbs over my legs to sit in his lap. “It’ll get better. The...the shock of it all. Everyone reacts to it differently.”
I can’t look at him, so instead I gaze at Grogu, whose eyelids are starting to droop in the arms of Mando. “I...guess you’re used to being shot at...being a bounty hunter, and all.”
Mando starts absentmindedly rocking the kid in his arms. “Occupational hazard,” he murmurs.
“And...your armor is...blaster proof?”
“Beskar. Yes. Mandalorian iron.”
I nod, looking at nothing in particular, trying to process.
“Why…” Mando starts, carefully, “Why were you out there? I’ve been to Tatooine countless times, I thought I knew it well. Mos Pelgo is virtually off every map and was hard enough to find, but your...settlement is...nowhere. On no map. No one knows about it. It’s in the middle of nowhere, permeable to Raiders. Yet...there you, and a few half dozen or so, are, just...existing. So...why?”
It’s the most he has said to me at once since I met him. I get the feeling it’s more than he says to most. In my solitary existence, I also know what it is like to be silent. Not needing to say more than what you need to, to who you need to, and that’s it. I’m beginning to feel that we share many similarities. My eyes finally focus as I gaze back at him, finding something familiar between us. “I was born there.”
My brows furrow. “My people?”
“So, you’ve lived there this entire time, by yourself?”
Mando studies me. He’s sitting so close to me that I can feel the warmth of his body close to mine. I can tell he’s trying to figure me out, maybe even coming to the same conclusion as me that we are very much alike. But, he says nothing as he absentmindedly continues to rock Grogu, who is now fast asleep comfortably in Mando’s arms, as he continues to analyze me. And then he suddenly, and easily, stands and walks out of the room without saying a word.
I silently sit and stare at the darkened doorway, mouth slightly agape at the sheer impoliteness of it. Until, moments later, he walks back into the small sandstone room. The kid is gone from his arms, but he’s carrying various pieces of fabric now. He crosses the room and holds out the bundle of clothes, waiting for me to accept them.
I cautiously do without touching him.
“Suns are almost up. You need to change,” Mando says firmly, but gently.
I quickly realize I am still in my dirty and bloody clothes from that night. I inwardly blush as I pull the blanket off me, placing the bundle of clothes down, and push myself to the edge of the bed, readying to stand. I begin to push myself up, but quickly Mando shoots out his hand in front of me. His movement catches me off guard and I stop and gaze up at his visor. He says nothing, but stays that way, waiting for me to take his hand. A few heartbeats pass until I take a deep breath and grab his gloved hand, grasping it as I pull myself up with his help. His grip is strong as I feel his firm, lengthy fingers tightly wrap around my, what feels like miniature, hand and pull me up with what seems like no effort at all.
Although both of my feet are firmly planted on the floor, Mando doesn’t let me go. And I am grateful for it. I feel shaky on my unused legs from being immobile for too long. When I attempted to stand before, I went face first towards the floor, and I know if I didn’t have Mando’s support now, I’d be doing the same. So, Mando and I stand like this for a while, silent, toe to toe, waiting for the blood to recirculate through my legs and for me to once again be used to standing. His hand firmly grips mine as his free arm is hovering around me, ready to catch me if I should fall.
After an immeasurable amount of time has passed, and I feel steadier and more confident on my feet, I start to pull my hand away from his. Mando understands the cue and lets me go, but doesn’t step away, instead, he stays in close proximity to catch me again if he needs to. I cautiously turn around, giving Mando my back as I slightly bend down to pick up the change of clothes from the bed. Straightening out, I shake out the fabric in an attempt to figure out what I have to work with.
I can feel Mando’s gaze on me, watching me, and I turn my head to look at him over my shoulder. We’re both silent as we watch each other, until I raise a shirt up. Mando jolts, as if suddenly realizing what it is I am about to do. He quickly turns around, but does not leave or step away from me.
Watching the back of his helmet for a few seconds longer, satisfied, I face back towards the bed and begin to remove my old, dirty shirt. Carefully, I pull it up my body and over my head before discarding it to the floor and reaching for the new shirt provided, feeling the muscles in my back and arms ache from lack of movement over the last few days. Pulling on the new shirt, which I assume belongs to Cobb, the fabric grazes over an extremely tender spot on my back and it abruptly makes me remember what Mando said about my wound. He said that he did the best he could cauterizing it before using bacta-spray.
I take a quick glance over my shoulder to look at the back of Mando’s helmet before I slip my hand up the back of the shirt and start to feel around until...there, I feel it. I wince at the foreign feeling. Not pain, not sore...nothing that I have ever felt before. The wound is slightly raised, but much smaller than I had imagined in my head. There’s definitely a scar there, rapidly produced from the bactra-spray, because under normal circumstances there would still be an open wound. Bactra-spray can heal wounds quickly, but scars are definitely part of the process. Maybe in a few more days, all that will remain will be a slight skin blemish. I suddenly wished I was back home in front of my mother’s cracked mirror so I could see it properly with my own eyes.
“Are you alright?” Mando’s modulated voice abruptly rings through the room and it makes me jump. I quickly remove my hand and pull the shirt down.
“Y-yes,” I answer, sounding out of breath, before reaching for my dirty pants. I push the waist down slightly before lifting my leg to remove a pant leg, but quickly lose balance being on one foot. I reflexively throw my arms out, reaching for anything sturdy to catch myself on, which happens to be Mando’s armored back. He grunts softly and readjusts to absorb all of my weight that I am leaning on him now.
“Sorry,” I quickly whisper as I put my leg down, both feet now back on the ground, and let him go.
“Do you need help?” he asks, unbothered, without turning around.
“N...no,” I answer as I take a seat back on the edge of the bed, deciding to change my pants sitting down instead.
Once my old pants are off and the new pants are halfway up my legs, I once again try to stand. But, just as before, Mando’s hand whips out in front of me, ready to be used to pull myself up with. I quickly jerk my head towards his helmet, but find it turned away from me. His whole body turned slightly towards me, but gaze obviously set away from me. I hesitantly take his hand into mine and pull myself up, but I let him go quickly and pull the pants up to tie them at my waist.
I look around the room. “Shoes?” I ask with a small voice.
Mando fully turns around now and gives me a look up and down before striding out of the room without a word, before quickly re-emerging with my same pair of shoes in his hands. They appear to be slightly cleaner than I remember.
“There was...blood on them,” Mando answers, seeming to read my thoughts.
I nod, not needing to say more.
Before I can take them from him, he drops down to a knee. “Lift your foot,” he instructs.
My heart starts to pound violently out of my chest as I stare at him kneeling before me, but I do as he says, lifting my foot just slightly off the floor. Just as he grabs my ankle, with a forced gentleness, and places my foot on his knee, I begin to wobble, becoming unbalanced once more. Without thinking, I throw out my hand and grab for something sturdy until I find myself clutching the unarmored, exposed spot between Mando’s helmet and shoulder pauldron. I feel the muscular build of his collarbone beneath my palm and his body warmth radiating through his clothes. My eyes widen at the view before me and my breath hitches.
Mando goes completely still as his helmet slowly raises to look up at me from his kneeling position.
I turn my fixed gaze from my hand on him to his helmet, his visor, his eyes. I can feel his eyes on me. “Sorry,” I apologize, immediately removing my hand and my foot out of his gloved hands.
Mando continues to stare at me, unmoving.
I wait, awkwardly, feeling little under his scrutiny. Finally, not knowing what else to do, I lift my foot up slightly, offering it back to him. I try to focus on staying balanced, but I already feel myself teetering on one leg.
Mando quickly grabs my ankle again and I take a quick inhale at his sudden caress. “You can touch me,” he murmurs, cutting through my focus on staying upright while also acknowledging his gloved hand on my skin. All I can do is just look down and stare at his helmet, seeing my own gaze warped back at me.
Hesitantly, I reach out a shaky hand and slightly bear my weight onto his pauldron this time.
“Other foot,” he instructs as he taps the ankle currently resting on his knee.
I do as he says, keeping my hand on his shoulder, placing my foot back on the ground and raising my other one into his waiting hands. Again, he places it slightly on his knee and goes to work. He finishes, but I notice he hesitates before I watch him cautiously brush his gloved finger across my leg, a bare spot between my shoes and the pant leg.
I can’t move as he raises his visor up to look at me and our eyes meet. Even though I can’t see it, I can feel his eyes pierce mine. Abruptly, Mando brushes off my foot from his knee and stands, quickly pushing me onto the bed. The air leaves my body as I meet the firm mattress and my heartbeat rings in my ears. I watch as he raises his arm and a red blaster shot appears to bounce off of the armor...right where I was standing not just a second before. It happened so quickly that my brain can’t fully comprehend what is happening as I watch Mando quickly turn to face the window and fire a single blaster shot out of it.
Then he turns back to me and grabs for my arm, pulling me up effortlessly onto my feet. “We need to leave...now!” He lets go of me momentarily to grab various items through the room, throwing them in a discarded knapsack that was left by the door, until he circles back to stand beside me and gently pushes on my elbow to guide me forward.
I silently comply, adrenaline now making my legs move forward, as Mando leads me into the space I had yet to venture into. My eyes try to adjust to the darkness.
“Cobb won’t be happy that I led hunters here,” Mando murmurs behind me.
“You are correct,” Cobb’s voice startles me, making me yelp and jump simultaneously.
Neither of them say a thing as Cobb lights a single candle. He’s sitting at a small table, two blasters laid out in front of him.
I look between the both of them, waiting for one of them to go first. Finally, I settle my gaze onto Cobb. “I’m sorry,” I sigh. “Technically I lead hunters here, I guess. Since they’re after me.”
Cobb smiles brightly at me. ‘It’s not your fault, darlin’. You’re not the only one they’re after,” he jerks his gaze quickly over to a corner behind me and back.
I furrow my brows and turn my head to where he glanced, seeing a silver sphere floating there.
I turn my head back at Cobb. “Wha-?” I start to ask, but am immediately cut off when Mando places a soft hand on my lower back.
“We’re leaving,” he says sternly.
Cobb tilts his head and gives what I can only describe as his signature smile. “That’s too bad. I was getting used to the company,” his eyes immediately meet mine and I can’t stop the heat that sweeps across my face.
An abrupt rapt comes from the door, startling me.
“Mando! We know you’re in there!” A voice yells from outside.
Mando immediately draws the blaster at his side and pushes me behind him. Cobb extinguishes the candle light with his fingers and slinks out of the chair, staying low to the floor as he slithers to the window and takes a peek out.
“There’s four by the door. Another two up high,” Cobb informs.
“You’re surrounded, Mando!” The male voice calls out again.
“Who-?” I start to ask, looking around Mando at Cobb, but stop when he shakes his head.
Cobb turns back to the window and shouts, “I’m not sure who this Mando is, but I think you’re in the wrong town, friend!”
Mando clicks a button on the side of his helmet and looks around the room, turning in a circle. “Three more in the back,” he confirms, pressing his helmet once more.
I look at him quizzically, wondering how he knew that.
Cobb quickly turns and focuses his gaze on Mando, “Get ‘em out of here. I’ll handle this.”
“We know the Mandalorian is in there with the two bounties for Moff! Give them up and we’ll leave peacefully, sheriff!”
“Just go!” Cobb’s eyes widen, pressing us to leave.
Mando is motionless for a moment, appraising the situation, until suddenly he turns around and tilts his helmet down to face me. “Stay low to the ground. Do not move from this spot until I come get you. Do you understand?” he asks.
We stare at each other for a moment until Mando tilts his helmet gently to the side...expectantly.
“Oh!” I breathe, understanding, and quickly crouch down behind a chair.
Mando starts for the door, taking out a second blaster, one for each hand. Cobb watches him carefully.
“If you think you’re gonna walk out there-” Cobb starts.
The Mandalorian cuts him off, “Cover me. Worry about the two up top, I’ll take the ones on the ground.”
“And what about the ones around back?”
“I’ll take care of it,” Mando says it so confidently, so easily, that I completely believe him.
“They’re bounty hunters, Mando,” Cobb states, exacerbated. “There’s seven of ‘em on the ground and just one you.”
Mando sighs audibly, “We went up against that krayt dragon and turned out fine..”
“Krayt dragon?!” I exclaim, looking between the both of them.
Cobb looks at me with deadpan eyes, “He was swallowed by it and got lucky with explosives rigged to a bantha.”
“I’m gonna count to five, and then we’re coming in there. One...two…” The hunter outside starts counting.
Mando readies himself, pistols once again by his side, fingers hovering just above the triggers. “We don’t have a choice but to fight.”
He turns to look at Cobb, “Keep an eye on her.”
Straightening out, Mando nods to Cobb, who presses a button on the panel next to the door and it slides open.
“Five,” Mando rasps as he kicks back the hunter that was standing in front of the door. Once he’s out of the frame, the door quickly closes back shut behind him.
That’s when the shooting starts. The room quickly lights up with red blaster shots pinging here and there. I get even closer crouched to the ground and uselessly cover my head with my arms. Cobb starts shooting too, and my ears start to ring from the barrage. I tightly close my eyes and try to cover my ears. And that’s when I feel a rough hand grip my shoulder and whip me backwards, flat on my back. I yelp out, losing the last bit of air from my lungs.
“Get up!” the human hunter grunts above me.
I throw my arms up, trying to fight back as he’s pulling at my shirt and hair as means to get me upright.
Somehow I manage to shriek.
“Hey, friend,” Cobb’s voice rises through the room now. “I suggest that you let her go,” he steely states, now standing and taking a single step towards us, both blasters taking aim.
“Where’s the other bounty, Sheriff?” the hunter asks, tightening his grip around the collar of my shirt, still trying to raise me to my feet.
I gasp for breath as I try to fight my way away from the man, clawing and elbowing at his legs, but my attempts are futile. His hold only becomes stronger.
“Let’s just work this out like men and leave the lady out of it,” Cobb attempts to defuse the situation, but the hunter is not having it.
All of a sudden, I feel cool metal against the top of my head. The hunters blaster.
Cobb instantly crouches down, placing both blasters on the ground, before he straightens up and darts both arms up in the air. “Let’s be cool, friend. Don’t be rash. She’s worth more alive than dead.”
My heart throbs in my chest and my head aches as I try to remember to breathe.
“Get up,” the hunter demands of me again, and this time I comply fully.
With as much strength as I can muster from my under-used limbs, I push myself up and stand on shaky legs. The hunter grabs the back of my shirt with a tight grip, forcing me to stand close. I feel his hot breath on my neck. He places his blaster next to my head now.
“The other bounty?” he requests again, becoming agitated.
Cobb’s eyes meet mine. He tilts his head slightly and raises a single brow, as if he’s apologizing. I nod in understanding.
The hunter forces the blaster harder into my skull, making my neck jerk to the side, and his grip at my back tightens even harder. “I’m not playing games with you, Sheriff. I know the other one is here with the Mandalorian. She’s still worth a lot dead, I’ve got no qualms pulling the trigger.”
Cobb starts to open his mouth, but the hunter now turns his focus on me. His hot breath brushes across my neck and down my back, making my skin crawl.
“Can you tell me where the other bounty is? The little green creature that Mando has been flaunting around?”
I am glad that I am not facing him, because my brows shoot up in surprise at this new information. Cobb watches me with uncertainty. We both come to the same realization then. I have no allegiance to Mando or the kid, Grogu. I could try to save my skin and bargain the child for my own freedom, since the hunter made it clear that I am certainly not the priority bounty.
And I can’t lie that the thought is appealing. Going back to my little home, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, to just live out the rest of my days like I have always planned. It’s really all I’ve been wanting since I woke up here in Mos Pelgo...to get home.
But, to sell out a child. A tiny creature who doesn’t even speak, in the hands of this barbarous hunter, makes my skin crawl even more than his hot breath.
I shake my head, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The hunter scoffs in my ear, putting a finger on the trigger of the blaster still against my head, “Lying bitch. You’ll be easier to deliver dead anyways.”
My eyes widen as I search the room and find Cobb’s on mine as well. I can see that he’s trying to work out some sort of plan, but coming up empty.
And then, I hear it. The gentlest, smallest coo of a child coming from the corner of the room where the silver sphere has sat this entire time. All our heads move to the noise as the top half of the sphere is now half opened and Grogu is sitting up, staring at us with his big eyes. He babbles again.
“Ah, there it is,” the hunter murmurs and slightly loosens his grip on me.
My body is working ahead of my brain as I absentmindedly elbow the hunter and go to take a running step forward. But before I can get out of his reach, he grabs my shoulder and spins me around to face him. I try to push against him, but he abruptly whacks his blaster across my face, the blow so hard and unexpected that I unexpectedly find myself on the floor before I even realize that I’m there. Grabbing my cheek in an attempt to relieve the pain, through blurred vision I look up to find the blaster pointed directly between my eyes. I tightly shut them, refusing to have his face in my view in my last moments.
A blaster goes off and I flinch, expecting pain or pitch blackness or...something. Instead, there’s an eerie silence. I open my eyes to find the hunter looking down at me, shock clearly plastered on his face as he wobbles for a moment, until he starts falling forward towards me. I quickly use all the strength left in my legs and arms to push myself up and back, out of his proximity as his body meets the floor just inches in front of me.
I look up to find Mando standing a few feet away, blaster still aimed...ready. A few rapid beats of my heart and he’s putting it back in it’s holster at his side.
I can’t help but sob and slink into the floor.
“You were supposed to watch her,” Mando grumbles, taking the few steps needed to cross the room and reach me. He offers his hand for me to grab and I do, letting him pull me up to my feet. Then, quickly, his gloved finger is under my chin, moving my head to the side to examine the wound. “It feels worse than it looks,” Mando mutters to me.
I start to raise a skeptical brow at him, but wince when pain swipes across my face from the motion. “Easy for you to say, you’ve got that helmet on,” I wince again.
The casualness of the sound and close proximity of him makes my stomach flutter and I hastily pull away from his grip.
“I was tryin’ to work it out. He came up from behind,'' Cobb belatedly replies to Mando. “I wasn’t gonna let anything happen to her.”
Mando ignores him entirely and gently places a hand on my elbow, guiding me back to the bedroom. “Let’s get you cleaned up. We need to get off Tatooine as soon as possible.”
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Mando had sat next to me on the bed and carefully cleaned my facial wound, consciously being gentler than I think he is used to being. Neither of us spoke. Once done, he left me to pack up a speeder bike that would take us to Mos Eisley. Alone, I straightened out my clothes and fixed my hair in an attempt to look less disheveled than I felt. Then I just sat on the bed and waited...getting lost in my thoughts.
So much as happened in the last few days. More than that has happened in my entire existence. I want to go home. I want to forget all of this has ever happened. Go back to...nothing, really. What’s there for me, except the solitary life I had accepted? Waiting my entire life for the death I just learned to accept over the years in seclusion.
But, over the last couple of days, I have faced death more than once and have wanted nothing more than to live.
At that moment, deeply lost in thought, a sudden rapt on the door frame breaks through my thoughts. I jerk my head towards the noise to find Cobb standing in the door frame, hands casually on his hips.
He drops his head, not meeting my eyes. “I just wanted to say...that I am sorry.”
I furrow my brow and wince, gently touching my face. “For what?” I ask.
Cobb looks up now and throws his hand in my direction, “For your face. For letting it get that far. I should’ve just shot him, but I-”
I quickly stand, “It’s not your fault.”
“Mando is right to be upset. I was supposed to be watchin’ you and I didn’t.”
I scoff, “You were a little busy shooting people. I’m not...mad at you. I don’t hold you accountable. I should’ve been paying attention, looking out for myself.”
Cobb scoffs now and gives me his signature smirk, “Strong, Tatooine women. Gotta love ‘em.”
I huff out a laugh, “Got to be to survive the suns and sand.”
“Indeed,” he nods, but then hesitates. Clearly wanting to say something, but unsure how. “Uh...that, uh, shirt looks good on ya.”
I look down and remember my borrowed attire. I smirk, “Thanks. I’m, uh, sorry I got my blood on it.”
The Sheriff smirks now too, “Don’t worry about it. Keep it. The color suits you.”
I nod, unsure of what else to say.
“You...can stay,” Cobb says suddenly, furrowing his brow, “Here, I mean, in Mos Pelgo. If you don’t wanna leave Tatooine...your home.”
My eyes widen in surprise. “I…” I start, but don’t know what to say. He's caught me completely off guard.
Cobb takes a thoughtful step towards me, watching for my reaction. “I know you don’t want to leave. I saw it...saw it on your face when the hunter mentioned the kid. And I’m tellin’ you that you don’t have to leave.”
Cobb could protect me, if need be. He’s the Sheriff of Mos Pelgo after all. Knows his way around a blaster. But how long will these hunters come looking for me? The rest of my life? To stay here in Mos Pelgo, or back home...to stay on Tatooine was...stupid.
I open my mouth to start, but a glint of silver armor catches my attention over Cobb’s shoulder. My eyes immediately find Mando’s visor and I know that he’s been standing there, arms folded across his chest, listening.
Cobb turns now and smiles broadly before opening his mouth to start talking, but Mando cuts him off before he can even begin.
“The suns are almost up. Speeder is ready,” Mando states, titling his helmet.
I nod, dumbfounded. “Oh...okay.”
In this moment, I feel like I am making the biggest decision in my life. Cobb’s offer is generous and kind and...tempting, very tempting, but it also feels like...it’s more than just staying in Mos Pelgo. It’s staying in Mos Pelgo with him. An offer to stay at home, or as close to it as I can, and have him look out for me. But, it’s also putting Mos Pelgo and Cobb in harm's way. Having me around, with an obviously large bounty out for me, makes me dangerous to be around. I couldn’t do that to Cobb or to the people of Mos Pelgo. It wasn’t fair to any of them.
I look up at Cobb with somber eyes and find him staring right back at me. As soon as our eyes lock, he smiles his ever so bright grin and nods, knowing full well that I made my choice.
“Well, then,” he says with a smirk. “I guess y’all should be on your way.”
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