Taking In An Orphan

Chapter 3

A/N: Hello all! I hope you enjoy my story so far. Please comment and tell me how you like it! If you have any suggestions please let me know in the comments! Enjoy!

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    Hera sat with Zeb and Sabine, who had finished unpacking the supplies and were waiting for Kanan. 

    “What does he mean? What’s a good complication?” Zeb asked. 

    “I’m not sure, but I don’t like the sound of it.” Hera replied, worried. 

    They heard the buzz of Hera’s comlink. 

    “I’m here, Hera. Can you please open the ramp?” Hera shot up, followed by the other two. They raced for the cargo hold and Hera opened the ramp. Kanan walked in, bringing his speeder up and parking it. 

    Hera climbed down the ladders and walked up to Kanan, who had his jacket tied to him strangely. Then, as she got closer, she realized what was in the jacket. 

    “Kanan, what...?” Hera was speechless at the sight of a tiny child on her ship. The boy was so dirty, she couldn’t tell what color shirt he was wearing or the true deep blue color of his hair. 

    “Can you please give me a hand?” Kanan asked as he tried to untie the jacket one handed, trying to hold the front of the jacket with the other hand. Hera took the weight of the child, who started waking up when he felt different arms around him. Hera shifted the boy in her arms so he could see who was holding him. The boy seemed a little shocked at the smiling person in front of him. 

People, aside from Uncle Tseebo, always grimaced when they saw him. The twi'lek in front of him was not only smiling, but holding him in a warm embrace. He wasn’t sure exactly how to react to the woman, but he saw the nice man who saved him smiling at the twi’lek holding him. This made the boy relax into the woman’s embrace and fall back into his exhausted sleep.

    Hera watched the boy’s range of emotions and then saw him glance, worryingly at Kanan. She, too, looked at Kanan and saw him smiling. The young boy relaxed onto Hera and fell asleep. 

    “Who is he?” Sabine and Zeb had come down and were both thinking the same thing. 

    “Let’s get somewhere more comfortable and I’ll tell you what happened.” Sabine was up the ladder first, followed by Zeb. The Hera wondered how to get up the ladder with a sleeping baby. He wasn’t that heavy, so she shifted his weight into one arm and then climbed one handed. Kanan followed them all to the common area. They sat down around the table, Sabine got up quickly and ran to the bedroom area. Hera and Kanan glanced at each other, worriedly. Sabine had a habit of storming off with no explanation and sitting in her room for the rest of the day. 

Hera was about to hand the boy to Kanan and go talk to Sabine, when Sabine came back, hauling a pillow and two blankets.

“We can set up a bed for him so he’s comfortable while we talk.” Kanan was shocked by Sabine’s care for the boy and got up to help make a bed on the couch. Hera, though reluctantly, set the sleeping boy down and tucked him in. The boy immediately stuck his thumb into his mouth and, hugging the pillow with his other arm, fell asleep. The crew’s hearts melted at the sight of this tiny boy. 

    “Okay, tell us.” Sabine urged, showing more excitement and anticipation than she had ever shown before with the crew. Everyone looked at her, both confused and happy that she was letting down her guard a little bit. 

    Before the staring got weird, Kanan started telling them the story about the small child he had saved. When he started talking about the troopers kicking the child, Hera went to get up to check the boy for wounds, but Kanan grabbed her arms. 

    “Wait. He seemed pretty frightened of me when I approached him, so I don’t think he would be okay with us taking off his clothes and checking for bruises.” Hera wanted so badly to argue and do it anyway, but she knew Kanan was right. She sat back down.

    “I asked him if he had any family and he shook his head. I told him we could give him food, security, and warmth and he came with me.” Everyone sat there in their own thoughts. 

    “Does that mean that the empire’s after him? You heard the troopers say Kallus? What would they want with a young child?” Sabine asked. 

    “I’m not sure,” Kanan told her, but he had an idea. He wanted to discuss his findings with Hera before he said anything about the force-sensitive boy. 

    “Well, it’s getting late, so for now, you two should go to sleep.” Kanan told the Lasat and Mandalorian. “Hera, I don’t think we should leave him here alone. You and I can take turns watching him and making sure he knows where he is when he wakes up. I’ll take the first shift and wake you up in about three hours.” Hera nodded. Zeb and Sabine left. Hera made to follow them, but Kanan said something that made her stop in her tracks. 

    “Hera, I think this kid is strong with the force.” This took Hera by surprise. 

    “What? How can you tell?” 

    “I can sense a force signature. If he has extreme emotions, I can sense them.”

    “Do you think that’s why the empire was after him?” 

    “What other explanation can there be?” Kanan said. 

    “How does that work? Does that mean he is a child of force-sensitive parents?” 

    “No. Younglings are just born with the powers. It has to do with blood types and things, but I’m afraid that’s why the empire was after him. His force-signature was not fresh, meaning someone has tried to train him before. I’m afraid he had some sith training by someone in the empire.” 

    “Can you reverse that training?” 

    “Yes, but not until the boy trusts us. I don’t want to scare him. If the sith taught him, he might think the force is a bad thing. It’s probably best to get him away from anyone force-sensitive so his powers don’t grow. If his powers grow to become a sith, we will have a big problem on our hands.” Kanan sighed, deep in thought. 

    “I can tell you want to be alone to think, love. We can talk some more in the morning. If he wakes up, please let me know. See you in three hours.” Hera left Kanan to his thoughts.