Alternate Start (ARCHIVE)

Chapter Twenty Four: Realization

They'd been standing on the bridge when he heard it.

Crack

Kaar looked up, raising an eyebrow. Tedam looked like a deer in headlights.

Crack

"Admiral Tedam? Is that noise coming from you?" Yularen asked. Obi-wan and Anakin glanced at Tedam, who cleared his throat.

"I... think so."

It was the middle of a briefing, so it wasn't like he could just leave. Tedam slipped a clawed hand into his pocket. Dagger, who was loitering on the bridge and shadowing Tedam as was his habit as of late, suddenly seemes very interested in the briefing. Kaar knows he's heard that cracking noise before.

"Tedam is something in your pocket?" Obi-wan asked, crossing his arms.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me." Kaar sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Tedam go down to medical I'll fill you in later." Kaar waved a hand then muttered, "Can't believe this......."

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After the briefing, Obi-wan, Anakin, and Sparkler, as well as Rex and Cody, followed Kaar towards the medbay. Sparkler walked up next to Kaar, "So, wanna tell me what's going on sir?"

"No, I'm annoyed I didn't put it together sooner. If Master Fett were here he'd be calling me an idiot." He grumbled, walking into the medbay and looking right at Dagger and Tedam.

"I fucking knew it." Kaar sighed, throwing out the Kaleeshi curse word. He walked right up to the pair.

Kaar stared at the sleeping clone'ad cupped in Tedam's hands. This really was the same man who had knocked him senseless during ARC training, the man he had to thank for his combat ability. And here he was, able to fit in the palms of Kaar's admiral, and unable to even curse at him.

Things really were falling into place.

"Of course. I should've known." He sighed to himself, unable to get rid of his smile. He reached out over an old and broken bond, getting a tiny huff from the, as far as he knew, still unnamed Bralor.

"Well Admiral, what are you naming him?" Kaar hummed, knowing the answer. It really should have clicked to him that the Mando'a word for dagger is Kal. Dagger looked up, "Bralor..."

Kaar saw that answer coming from a klick away. "And I'm also assuming you two have decided on a negotiation for his clan name?"

Tedam nodded, "Bearing the name Fett, wearing the symbol Lij."

"I guess Master Fett is here." Sparkler mumbled to Kaar, who elbowed him. "I doubt he can call me a di'kut right now Sparkler."

"You told us that Kaleesh younglings were small, but I didn't expect the hybrids to be so small as well." Obi-wan hummed. Anakin peered at the sleeping ik'aad in Tedam's hands, he reached out to poke Bralor, though retracted his hand when Tedam started growling.

Kaar put a hand on Anakin's chest and pushed him back a bit, "Best not to do that, Skywalker. A mother Kaleesh with a new hatchling is not to be trifled with. And a new hatchling not to be touched, unless you wish to lose another hand."