A Connection
Part 6 of The Whispers of Fate (A Rey Djarin fic)
Summary: Din’s latest acquired skills of parenthood are put to the test and Rey’s newfound awareness only grows worse... until a certain someone steps up to help.
Rating: Gen (Platonic)
Word Count: 5.4k
Previous Chapter ~ Masterlist
Rey wakes with a harsh startle, unable to catch her breath.
She was too hot… way too hot! She violently throws off her blankets to rid herself of the suffocating fabrics and pulls in a harsh gulp of air. She leans forward to press her sweaty palms to the cool metal surface of the hull and follows them with her head to rest her clammy forehead there as well.
All she can remember are the pulses of interweaving light sparking red and orange like the flames of a fire… then black and white, clashing and warring with echoes of banging metal and the cries of dying warriors. Then there was Mando, and then no Mando; like he had never been there to begin with. And the whole time, she remembers the dark and painful sting of the baby’s projection crying out to her. Loud, painful cries always accompanied by an aftershock of buzzing and tingles. She couldn’t sever the strings from her mind and whatever spell the baby had put upon her was jerking her around like a puppet and she hated it.
The voices seemed to follow her too, although now they were only quiet whispers that she couldn’t decipher, and no matter how hard she rubbed at her eyes or ears they wouldn’t go away.
She felt exhausted. Her eyes stung and her face ached like it did when she just had a good cry. All she wanted to do was go back to sleep and hope the dreams wouldn’t follow her, but she knew they would. She could still feel that buzz dragging down her spine and nestling itself into the back of her neck.
It wasn’t a foreign feeling, but it was so much more prominent than what she was used to. She’s always had a small little twinge at the back of her neck, and a tiny tickle in her tummy, but yesterday all of a sudden it just got worse than it’s ever been. She knows when it happened… but she doesn’t know why it did.
It had been a sudden rush of something when Mando got thrown down by that hairy monster, and she’d been frozen in place lying in the squishy dirt where he’d pushed her and the baby out of the way. She watched him, the confidence that Mando would fight his way out diminished into fear which spurred a gush of warm tingles shooting to the tips of her fingers, like they were suddenly encompassed by the lick of flames from a fire. Still, she couldn’t seem to make herself move. And then the baby… he did something, she know he did, because as soon as the beasts feet lifted from the ground she felt that annoying itch in her teeth quite literally shatter into a cacophony of darkness, fear, and pain; she could feel everything. She could feel the baby, she could feel Mando, she could feel the wooly monster hovering in the air, and she could feel the tiny lizards skittering away from the scene. Everything. And it was so loud, and it scared her.
She shudders at the memory, then recalls another event the day before just before she went down to bed. The same thing happened… when she touched the baby. Only that time, instead of the darkness and fear having an unspoken face, it took the form of that familiar scene she’s encountered far too many times in her sleep recently.
Was the baby bad? He didn’t seem bad… but whenever she was around him she unwillingly fell prey to a fear and pain that she knew didn’t belong to her… but maybe he was just scared and lonely just like she was before Mando found her, and maybe she could help make him feel safe and happy again. He didn’t have reason to be scared anymore. Not with Mando there to protect them…
Speaking of… where was he? All the times she’s woken up on the Razor Crest, he was right here. She looks around one more time, just to make sure it wasn’t a trick of the eye, but nope, he wasn’t there. He must still be up in the cockpit with the baby.
It makes her a bit nervous, being around the baby again, but maybe if she didn’t touch him just yet things would be okay. The whispers were still just a little too loud ad she didn’t want to make them worse again.
She pulls her usual blanket over her shoulders and creeps up the ladder. The door hisses open for her and she shuffles in with her head dropped, gaze staring at her small toes.
“Did I wake you?” Mando asks softly without turning around in his pilots chair.
Rey shakes her head even though she knew he couldn’t see her. She was too busy staring at the tiny green baby peering out at her from his pram with a small coo. He was awake now.
… and her teeth start itching again. She hates it.
She turns from the baby, pulling her shoulders up and rushes further into the cockpit, right up to Mando’s chair. She hopes maybe he’d let her sit with him again. It was nice… he had made all the whistling whispers go away before when he held her, and the universe was quiet when she was around him… even now it was just a little more bearable.
She doesn’t want to ask though… so she stands beside him with her blanket wrapped tightly around her as she waits for him to figure it out for himself.
Finally, he gives into his curiosity and turns his head to look down at her. His head tilts to the side in question as it usually did when it came to her.
“Are you hungry?”
She shakes her head.
“Are you hurt?”
She shakes her head again.
“Thirsty?”
It spawns the same result.
Suddenly she caught a whiff of frustration from Mando as he shifted slightly in his seat.
“What do you need then, kid?” And that time the frustration was clear in his tone, and she felt like standing down, but she was stubborn… and she was feeling lonely and sad again and Mando was the only solution she could think of. She didn’t want to have to be by herself anymore; not after having to do it for so long on Jakku.
So, she took a single step forward and snuck her hand out from the blanket and placed it on the metal piece of Mando’s leg, staring up at him with big eyes and doing her best to communicate her need for comfort through the thin air of the cabin so she wouldn’t have to open her mouth and make the words say what she needed them to, because really, she had no idea what she needed. Everything was just a big old warbled mess and she couldn’t make any sense of it anymore!
Mando shifts slightly and his left shoulder slumps while his right leg angles further inward, and she knows he’s hesitant and confused.
“You want to pilot?”
She shakes her head. He wasn’t getting it… and he probably wasn’t going to without her telling him what she wanted and she just can’t do that.
She didn’t want him getting more irritated either. So, she sighed, and her chin dropped to her chest. She turns to walk away, sad she wasn’t able to fulfill her goal.
She doesn’t get very far though. Mando grabs her by the arm and pulls her back to where she was, right beside his chair without looking. He presses a button on the console while he adjusts a few controls then slowly turns his chair to face her, giving her his full attention.
He’d never done that before…
His back hunched slightly, to be better aligned with her eye line, and his elbows rested precariously against the metal covering his thighs as he tilts his head down at her.
“Tell me what’s wrong ad’ika.”
It was a bit of a startling contrast from the rigid Mando she’s grown used to, and she ends up biting the inside of her cheek and turning her gaze to the ground when a sudden wave of shyness washed over her.
Then Mando grabs her hand with his warm leather fingers, giving it a small tug to pull it away from her lips, where she was obliviously soothing on two of her fingers. His other hand lifts and he gave her a soft chuck beneath her chin to force her gaze up at him.
“I can’t fix it if I don’t know what’s wrong, ad’ika.”
Rey doesn’t know what’s wrong either! And that’s the problem! All she knows is she feels small and sad, and so, so very alone and scared. And this time she knows these feelings now belong to her… these were her own fears and memories pushing against the seams of the tight knot she’d tied around them in her mind. It had acted like a dark void for so long, knowing that if she ever ventured down that path, she wouldn’t be able to find a way out. And because of it, now she could feel this unknown weight pulling her down deeper into that cavern of dark thoughts, obstructing any light that tries to shine through. It only got worse when she came into the cockpit, so now she knows it’s because of the baby, and-and she doesn’t know how to fix it.
Mando soothes a thumb just below her eye, along her cheek.
“Don’t cry,” he pleads with her, and just like that the dam breaks.
The tears fall as the pressure finally finds its release. She reaches her arms up at Mando, forgoing any care she might have had earlier in her desperation for that alluring relief of safety.
Next thing she knows, she’s being lifted off her feet and settled into a warm embrace. It’s instinctive what she does next, because she doesn’t ever remember doing it with anyone before. She wraps her arms securely around Mando’s waist and nestles her face right into the cowl of his cloak. The hard ridges of his beskar armor and helmet, poke at her, but it wasn’t enough of a nuisance to deter her actions. The soft fabric soaks up her tears and she curls in closer as her sobs begins to slowly die down.
“Is this what you wanted, kid?” Mando’s voice took on a foreign sense of worry and affection and a large hand rested on the flat of her back, nearly covering it entirely as he rubbed soothing circles up and down her spine, chasing away the weighty pinch of tingles that have collected there for what felt like so long.
Rey didn’t want to admit that this is exactly what she had wanted, but she shrugged anyway, pulling her arms tighter around his waist to soak up as much warmth and serenity that she could before Mando could change his mind.
“Hey.” The rough edge to Mando’s voice returns in a stern scold, and Rey pulls back quickly like the metal of his armor had burned her. She flinches away from him, thinking she’s done something wrong. “I thought I told you to leave that alone.”
Mando’s hand doesn’t leave her back, instead it negates his words as he tries pulling her back into the embrace, using his other to situate the blanket back around her shoulders so she was still nicely cocooned against him. It was confusing, so she turns to look at him, unsure of why he was scolding her so suddenly when his actions spoke the opposite.
He wasn’t looking at her, instead his helmet was turned to the side, and she followed his gaze. She sees the baby standing on the console, just a foot or so away from falling right into Mando’s lap beside her. He’s holding out something round and shiny towards her in his claw. He looked sad with his big eyes drawn together by the big wrinkle at the top of his head.
Mando reaches out to grab it from him, but the baby was quick and pulled it out of his reach, closer to his body, and shoots him a look. His ears pull back, and his big eyes narrow to accompany a threatening purr. Mando grunts, and the baby turns away from him, ears wilting once more and eyes growing big and wide as he holds out the little metal ball towards her again with a soft coo.
On impulse, she reaches out to take the offered gift. Then she remembers the night before and she pulls back with a jerk and she stares at the baby in horror of what she had almost done. She turns back into Mando, falling against him and smushing her arms protectively between their chests.
“She doesn’t want it kid,” Mando says gruffly, and it’s followed by a sad coo.
Rey feels bad, but she doesn’t want the tingles to get worse if she touches the baby again… not when they’ve finally gone away again.
It’s okay… safe.
Her body goes stiff at the warm sentiment echoing in her ears, and she sits up a little more.
Warmth… no more tingles… she could feel him. It wasn’t like the other whispers.
Safe.
The presence blotted out everything else, acting almost as a shield for her own mind and she didn’t realize how much everything else had been weighing down on her until it was gone. She sagged forward against Mando, eyes almost instantly going droopy as she was finally able to relax. She peeked her head out at the baby… the cold press of Mando’s chestplate chilling the heat of tears on her fac and she looked up at the baby. His little ears quirk up as his head tilts to the side.
“Baby?” She squeaks.
He gurgles at her with a happy smile and he extends his arm to offer the ball once more.
This time she takes it, slowly and tentatively, but she takes it, fingers brushing momentarily against one of his tiny claws. And instead of a wave of alarm and panic, it’s an even stronger sense of warmth and security that rushes over her, almost like the physical connection had solidified the mental one.
Safe… goes the whisper again.
Rey hums, tears instantly drying and she shivers as the residual tension flushes through her.
“Thank you,” she whispers, feeling the lulling pull of exhaustion.
She pulls the ball close to her face and rolls it around her fingers. The metal was chilly to the touch, but it wasn’t bad… and she shut her eyes,
Her sleep hadn’t been restful before, dreams filled with noise and chaos, but now things were quiet…
She feels the small tap of a tiny claw caressing her cheek. She blinks open to find the baby right near her face, perched on Mando’s opposite leg. Two more small taps of his claws, and then a rush of soundless relief and everything goes dark.
***
“Kid?” Din shakes her shoulder when her small body suddenly slumps against him like every muscle in her body had given out.
She doesn’t move.
“Kid!” He shakes her harder. “Rey.”
She snuffled, a small hum which evolved into a quiet chirp. Her head tilts just enough for him to spy the relaxed smile she wore. He turns towards the baby.
“What’d you do to her?” He asks it, eyes narrowing suspiciously beneath his helmet. He’s seen the uncanny power the small child was capable of.
He plucks him off his lap by the back of his tunic and drops him into the pram like he did earlier, and tilts Rey’s head to the side with a soft grip on her chin, just to double check nothing was amiss where the baby had touched her. He found nothing and he gently pries the small ball from her grip and screws it back onto the gear shift and stands from the chair. He adjusts Rey in his arms, grasping the blanket that had fallen off her shoulders and tucking it back around her as he hikes her up onto his hip like he’d seen other parents do with their small children. And he must admit it is much easier to carry her this way. Much more efficient.
He treks back down into the hull, toeing at the jumbled mess of blankets spread across the floor. He bends to pick up a handful of them and uses his elbow to press against the control panel and open the door to the small storage space he uses as his own sleeping quarters.
He uses his free arm to arrange the blankets along the hard metal, hoping this way she might sleep a little better than she had on the floor. He lays Rey down on the blankets gently and he tucks the blanket around her sides then brushes away the hair in her face. He stares for a couple moments, still warry and unsure with the circumstances, but she looked at peace and nothing seemed wrong. So, he stepped back and closed the door.
He hopes she wakes before they land. He doesn’t want to have to deal with the aftermath of leaving her behind on the Crest. By his luck, she’d probably wander off on her own in search of him and end up getting hurt or taken by a skanky slave trader. Nevarro was not a crowd for unaccompanied children.
Din forces himself to trudge back up into the cockpit. He’s met with a mischievous baby mouthing on the same metal ball, and the beep of a transmission on his dashboard.
“I thought I told you to quit that,” he mutters, pulling the child, yet again, from the control center and dropping him back in the pram. Mischievous, this one was. He falls into his chair with an irritated grunt and spins towards the controls, quickly flipping through several switches now that Nevarro can be clearly seen through the viewport of the Crest. As he gets the the ship back on course, he plays the transmission from Greef.
He grips the controls tightly, stretching the cramped muscles of his fingers as he adjusts his grasp. He knows he’ll regret what he plans to do.
***
Din stares at the baby as they both sit down in the hull of the ship while they wait for Rey to wake. They’d landed in the shipyard on Nevarro half an hour ago, and Din could feel himself growing antsy as the minutes passed and Rey still showed no signs of waking up no matter how much he tried to shake her awake.
“What did you do to her?” He mutters, turning his head down to the silent child. He looks back up at Din with a curious tilt of his head and quiet chirp.
Din sighs. He braces his elbows on his knees and laces his fingers together as he stares at the closed quarters Rey slept behind. Whatever spell the child had put her under, it was definitely doing its job.
“You’re hard to read, kid. Not sure whether to hurl you off this ship or thank you…” He sighs and drops his head. “I could tell she didn’t sleep well.”
The baby cooed at him, and he felt the tap of a tiny claw patting his leg. Din looked at him and the kid stared at his visor with his big eyes, and his ears twitched while his head tilted to the side with a curious chirp.
“How long will she stay like this?”
He doesn’t know why he asks, the baby couldn’t kriffing talk for Maker’s sake…
But then the child’s big eyes slowly close and his ears pull back slightly as his small face morphs into the same expression he saw him make just before Rey fell into her deep sleep.
His eyes snapped back open, then blinked slowly like he was in a daze and Din reached out a hand to steady the little guy when he wobbled precariously.
He heard a quiet rustle from the compartment Rey was sleeping in, and he glances between the baby and the storage bay.
There’s no way…
He stands slowly from his crate and moves towards the compartment. And when he opens the door, sure enough, there she was, awake and rubbing at her eyes as she yawned.
She looked up at him and squinted with a small smile.
“G’mornin’.”
“Good morning,” Mando huffed in astonished amusement. “Are you feeling better.”
Rey sits up and continues to rub her eyes as she nods. “Yeah… tired though.”
Din pauses, thinking this might be the perfect excuse to leave her behind on the ship without her fighting him every step of the way. “I have to leave with the kid. Why don’t you stay back and sleep?”
Rey perks up, because of course she does, and she shakes her head adamantly. She vaults herself out the container, rushing for the clothes she had folded neatly in the corner, then to the fresher to get changed out of her sleepwear.
Din sighed.
It was worth a shot.
He turns around to face the kid, moving towards one of the storage cabinets overhead to retrieve a couple ration bars for whenever Rey decided she was hungry during their trek. He didn’t know how long they would be away from the ship.
He would have quickly eaten one himself while she was getting ready, but the child was there. So, he would just have to wait until tonight after Rey went to sleep.
He does break off a small piece though and offer it to the child as a silent thanks. He gladly takes it, mouthing on the rubbery piece of food.
When Rey joins them, he holds out the rest of the bar towards her.
“Would you like to eat now, or later?”
“Now please,” she exclaims excitedly, reaching out to grab the ration greedily. She takes one large bite, chewing viciously at the portion in her mouth then holds it out towards Din to share.
He shakes his head slowly, a small smile growing beneath his helmet and he reaches out to push her offered hand back down then uses his hand to gently pet her hair in thanks.
“I can’t remove my helmet, remember?”
Rey frowns, opening her mouth to speak while she still chewed.
“Why not?”
“I’m a Mandalorian. This is the way.”
She swallows.
“Oh,” her brows furrow and she stares down at the bar in her hand. “So, if I want to be a Mandalorian I have to wear one?”
Din nods.
“Can I still eat?”
He chuckles under his breath.
“Yes, you would still eat. You just can’t remove your helmet in front of someone else. You would have to eat alone so no one sees your face.”
Rey stares up at him, completely crestfallen.
“No one can ever see my face?”
Din shuffles on his feet. He knows the answer, but the matter regards his willingness to disclose it.
“Well…” he hesitates. He did not want to discourage her form becoming a Mandalorian; she would grow to be a skilled fighter, he knows it. Yet, he wonders if it were the best choice to reveal everything so soon. There were still so many variables that could change…
“If you were to become a Mandalorian… then only I would be able to see your face.”
Rey squints at him and asks the ever-dreaded question of “why?”, and he sighs.
“You would be my… my clan…” You would be my child. I would be your father. We would be Aliit.
“Oh,” she muses, frown dissolving as she thought about it and took another bite of the bar. “So… does that mean I can see your face too?”
Again, Din shuffles awkwardly. “Eventually.”
Rey grins at him, a wide smile to show off her missing tooth. “Then we can eat together! You won’t have to eat alone no more.”
Din blinks, a sudden sting piercing his eyes. “Yes.”
His answer is clipped and short, but Rey doesn’t seem to mind.
He turns his back to her to lift the baby off the crate and into his floating pram. Then, without looking back at her, he gestures with his hand for her to follow him and she obeys, trotting up to his side near the hanger door as she gnawed away at the remains of her breakfast.
***
Rey follows along beside him as they navigate their way through Nevarro once more. She holds onto his cloak, and he’s glad she does judging by how distracted she becomes with the baby. Any prior fears or grudges she held against the creature long gone as she giggled and poked him. The child loved it, cooing and laughing and chasing after her hands when she’d reach in to tickle him.
She trips over her own feet a couple times but is otherwise able to remain upright.
And about halfway into their trek, she tugs on Din’s cape.
“Can I ask a question?”
He nods.
“Where are we going?”
He turns abruptly into a small alleyway, his cowl tightening around his neck as his cloak is pulled taught by Rey’s ill-preparedness to change directions so suddenly.
“We’re dropping the kid off,” he answers, helmet nodding to the side to gesture towards the pram following beside them.
“What?” Rey whines, “I thought he was gonna stay with us.”
Din doesn’t respond. He knows she won’t be happy with any answer he gives her and simply lets her protest continue in vain. They descend a small staircase and come upon a heavy door. He bangs on the metal with four loud knocks and then flexes his fingers to loosen the cramped muscles… he felt strange.
“Whoa!” Rey jumps back when the small droid pops out of the pillar beside the door.
Din holds up the card to be scanned and the door unlocks and opens with a hard screech. Out walk two storm troopers and Din can hear Rey’s audible gasp then immediately steps behind him. They stare at the baby then gesture for them to follow.
Rey grabs his hand and tries to pull him away from the door. “Mando,” she hisses, “those are storm troopers! They’re bad guys!” The baby voices his agreement with a disgruntled squeak, and the remaining storm trooper outside, waiting for them, stares at her.
Din wasn’t a fan of their piercing stare and he steps to stand between his gaze. Then he grabs Rey’s wrist and gives it an encouraging squeeze. He moves her hand to rest at the side of his belt, folding her fingers around the leather.
“Stay close,” he orders, and leads them through the dark threshold.
Rey watches the trooper that follows them in. She hangs tight to Mando’s belt
“Easy with that,” Mando grumbles, and Rey turns her head quickly to see the storm trooper in front grab the baby’s pram.
“You take it easy,” the trooper snaps back, walking even faster and pulling the baby even further from them.
Rey doesn’t think when she does it, she just senses the sudden wave of distress. She lets go of Mando’s belt, surging forward to grab the pram to try and yank it out of the troopers grasp. “Let go!” She grunts, tugging even harder.
“Hey!” The trooper rounds on her, pulling out a blaster aimed right at her head.
It all happened so fast she has to question if it actually happened. Mando grabbed her arm and hauled her out of the way so quickly it hurt her shoulder. He didn’t let go as she was shoved behind him. His blaster was already lifted, standing off against the trooper.
“Keep that brat in check Mando,” the trooper eventually muttered, slowly lowering his weapon. Mando follows his lead and soon they’re continuing down the hall once more, but now Mando had a tight grip on her arm.
He was mad at her…
She frowns and gives a small tug to try and loosen his tight grip, but he doesn’t budge.
“Yes!”
They enter a large room and Rey cranes her head to see the owner of the excited voice. It was an old man with white hair… she didn’t like him.
“Yes, yes, yes!” He approaches the cradle as she and Mando come to a stop just behind it. Then a guy with glasses rushes up to join the old man and they both stare down at the baby.
Rey wants to jump in front of him to protect him from the two strangers, but Mando must have sensed her plan because his grip tightens even more around her arm and he tugs her even further behind him. It twisted his arm in a weird way, but he didn’t seem to care. Now she couldn’t see what they were doing, but she heard the baby make a sad noise and her skin tickled with a wave of panic.
“Very healthy. Yes.”
She frowns. She wanted to know what was going on! The tingles were just getting worse and worse and she knew that the baby was scared. She tried tugging out of Mando’s grip again, but he didn’t let up.
“Your reputation was not unwarranted.”
“How many fobs did you give out?”
“This asset was of extreme importance to me. I had to ensure its delivery…”
Rey shivers, mouth going dry as she peeks out to see the old man walking away from them, headed for a long table in the middle of the room.
“…but to the winner goes the spoils.”
Mando follows him slowly, and Rey is tugged along behind him. She didn’t want to leave the baby alone, but Mando was just leaving him there! She didn’t know what to do.
She saw the weird man with the glasses grabbed onto the cradle and pull him away. Rey gasped and the baby looked at her with a fearful whine. He was scared.
She revived her effort to pull away, tugging with an angry fervor and whined with an angry grunt when the effort proved fruitless.
“Now who is this?”
She feels Mando go rigid and slowly his grip on her arm loosens enough for her to step out from behind him. She’s sure to use her best glare as she comes into view, and the old man chuckles. She wasn’t going to be scared of him.
“I have to say, I did not expect a man of your distinction to be caring for a child.”
Rey looks between the old man and Mando to determine the best opportunity to bolt to the baby and save him from the mean old man.
She forgot how good Mando’s reflexes were though. As soon as she jumped into action he grabbed the back of her tunic. She fought him, the growing desperation of the baby’s tenor urges her to act.
“Let me go!” She tries reaching back behind her head to slap at his hand. When that doesn’t work she twists and pulls, which only ends up tangling her in her own clothes.
Nothing was working and the baby was leaving now. He stares at her, looking sad… and Rey slumps with defeat. She failed. She failed to protect her new friend.
“He’s scared,” she pleaded. “Mando don’t make him go. He doesn’t wanna go with them. Please.”
She quiets when she sees the angry scowl the old man shoots towards Mando. “How unprofessional, bringing a child of this disposition to such a significant business dealing. I expected more from a man of your reputation.”
Mando didn’t move or say a word for a long time. Rey stares at him with tears growing in her eyes. She refused to cry in front of these people. So, she moves forward to hug his waist in a last ditch effort to convince him not to leave her new friend behind.
But he ignores her and reaches up to close the canister holding his hefty payment. It seals with a hiss and a click and he lifts it from the table then grabs her wrist with his other hand, prying her off him.
“Couldn’t find a sitter.”
And with a shrug Mando turns, walking past the troopers, and headed for the exit. Leaving the baby alone in the hands of these people with the dark hearts.