Taking In An Orphan

Chapter 13

The next day, Ezra was reading a naptime story with Sabine in his and Zeb’s room as Zeb snored on the top bunk. Usually, Hera or Kanan sat and read to him, but since Kanan and Hera were plotting their next mission (and Sabine suspected talking with Fulcrum), Sabine volunteered to. She had brought up a holopad book about different animals around the galaxy.  

Ezra was dozing off on Sabine’s shoulder when Chopper rolled into the room. He must have noticed Zeb sleeping because he suddenly used his rocket launchers to bring himself in the air and start zapping Zeb. Sabine was so used to this that she just rolled her eyes as a sleepy Zeb started to yell at the droid. 

“Can you two take this somewhere else? Ezra was almost asleep.” 

Zeb hopped off the bed and was about to chase Chopper when he noticed the kid on the bottom bunk. 

Ezra was wide awake and tears were streaming down his face. He was silently shaking and crying, huddled in the corner of his bunk. 

“Kid, are you okay?” Zeb asked. Even Chopper stopped his taunting when the kid let out a stifled sob. Then the poor child started to breath heavily and hyperventilate. He gasped for breath as his eyes rolled back in his head, and he nearly passed out. 

“Zeb, go get Hera or Kanan,” Sabine ordered. Zeb didn’t need to be told twice. He ran out of the room in search of the other adults. 

Sabine tried to take the child into her arms, but he jumped away from her. He had his eyes shut, and he started to scream out strange things. 

“It hurts. It hurts! Help me! Please, no! Owww! Help!” Sabine so desperately wanted to help, but she didn’t know what to do. 

“I’ll be good, I promise. It hurts.” Sabine’s eyes started to tear up at the child’s pleas for help. 

Zeb returned with Kanan. 

“Kanan, I was reading Ezra a story and the Chopper zapped Zeb and Ezra freaked out.” 

“I felt it right away.” Kanan moved to pick up the boy, but Ezra wriggled away from him, crying out. 

“Ezra, it’s Kanan. Please let me help you.” Ezra let out a sob and shook his head, his eyes still closed. Kanan had no idea what to do. 

“Stop! It hurts!” Ezra cried out, making Kanan back away slightly. 

“What? What hurts?” 

“He’s been saying that before you came in. It’s not you, Kanan. I think he might be having some sort of nightmare,” Sabine tried to explain. 

“Ezra, open your eyes, bud. You’re alright. You’re on the Ghost with us.” Kanan was desperate to get the boy to feel better. 

Suddenly, Hera burst in. 

“What’s all the commotion?... Ezra?” Hera moved over to the bed and tried to scoop the boy into her arms. 

“Ow,” the boy said, weakly. Hera stopped for a second, but continued to try to gather him up into her arms without him wriggling away. 

“Ezra, open your eyes,” Hera said softly. The boy stopped struggling and peeled his eyes open at the sound of her voice. 

He looked around in fear and then confusion. Then he saw Hera and slung his arms around her neck as he shook with sobs. Kanan sat next to them and sent calming waves through their bond.

“What happened?” Hera asked as she sat down on the bed, Ezra in her arms. But the boy stayed silent. 

“I was reading Ezra a story and then Chopper came in and electrocuted Zeb and Ezra kind of freaked out,” Sabine said, looking nervously at the boy. She was worried that maybe she did something wrong. 

Ezra’s muffled voice came from Hera’s shirt. Hera sofly picked his head off her shoulder, making him look at her. 

“What did you say, Ez?” 

“You...you said Chopper was a good droid. Chopper hurt Zeb and now he’s gonna hurt me, too.” 

“That’s not true. Chopper is a good droid, he only gets angry at Zeb sometimes and then zaps him. But it doesn’t hurt Zeb too much, right?” Hera looked pointedly at Zeb, silently telling him that he better give the correct answer. 

“Ya. The old rustbucket doesn’t hurt me too much. He just startled me awake is all. And Chop wouldn’t dare zap you, Hera’d kill ‘im.” Zeb chuckled. 

Chopper, who was out of sight, came into the room and over to Ezra. Ezra squirmed out of Hera’s lap and stood behind Kanan’s back.

The droid beeped, offended, saying that he thought he would be friends with Ezra. He continued to grumble as Ezra peeked out from behind Kanan’s shoulder. 

“No, I wanna be your friend, too!” 

Chopper beeped some more, obviously talking to Ezra. 

“You will?” 

Chopper buzzed. 

“But why do you hurt Zeb?” 

Chopper beeped something, which made Ezra laugh. The crew stared at Ezra, all wondering the same thing. 

“Ezra, what does Chopper say?” Sabine finally asked what everyone was thinking. 

“He says he wants to be my friend and he will play Lothcat hunt with me! And he says Zeb smells and sleeps too much.” Ezra laughed again. Zeb grumbled, but kept his face clear of emotions so that Ezra didn’t think he was angry at him. 

“But how can you understand him?” Hera asked. She knew exactly what Chopper was saying, and Ezra had gotten most of the information the droid was trying to convey. 

“Um… mommy and daddy and Uncle Tseebo teached me how to. They said it was important to learn.” The crew stared at him, now impressed. 

“Well, then you’re smarter than me. I can’t understand half of what that bucket says,” Zeb told Ezra. 

“Well, we already knew that,” Sabine said, lightly punching Zeb on the arm while laughing. 

Hera rolled her eyes and then saw Ezra yawn. 

“It’s naptime, though, isn’t it?” Kanan said, catching the yawn, too. 

“No! I wanna play Lothcat hunt with Chopper!” Ezra said, pleading with Hera and Kanan. 

“He’ll still be here when you wake up. You can play your game all night.” Ezra thought about this and then nodded, getting back into his bed. 

Hera was a little shocked by how quickly Ezra went from being terrified of Chopper to being his best friend, but she was always glad to see her family getting along.