The Mandalorian

Chapter 15: The Believer

This whole affair was taking far too long in Estella's eyes. Truthfully she knew that they couldn't just get the Little One back in the blink of an eye, she knew that they had to formulate a plan to find out where he could even be. She knew that it was realistically going to take a fair amount of time and that they would need to gather what allies they could to make the rescue mission more successful. She knew all of that but that didn't mean she had to like the agonisingly slow seconds spent away from Grogu. 

This ache and grieflike pain that she felt within the depths of her heart troubled her, for the obvious reasons of being deathly afraid that the Child was suffering and the fear of never getting him back, but also for the less obvious reasons. Being that if and when they did get him back, they would have to still surrender him to the Jedi in the end and she was scared that this pit of grief and sorrow would return once more. 

For now these emotions coursed through her like a tidal wave, she found that she could focus on nothing else and was simply reacting to whatever happened around her, as if she was set to auto-pilot. At first it was a raw feeling, rendering her seemingly unemotional save for the occasional snappy comment made here and there. Internally she would cringe at such behaviour but ultimately did not care until the Child was found and safe. 

As the formulation of the plan proceeded, she had left Din to do the talking while she observed like a watchful hawk. Taking in all that was said as she paced back and forth but said nothing. They had gathered Cara, now on their way to get Mayfeld from way back when. Realistically it was not all that long ago when they trapped the man on a prison ship, but so much had happened since then that it seemed like years had passed.

She listened as they discussed needing him to gain access to an imperial base and terminal, needing him to get the coordinates of Moff Gideon's wretched ship and gain back the child that was stolen. This had lessened her sour mood a little, to the point where she no longer roamed around like a stalking predator that loomed behind them all and now she sat and took in the newest companions of theirs. Opposite her sat Fennec, Boba Fett in the pilot seat above them, taking them to their desired location. Beside her was Din and beside him was Cara, all of them silent as they thought over what they needed to do.

Of course, she was well aware that she had blindly allowed Fennec to patch her up back at the temple. Under normal circumstances she would have had a plethora of sarcastic comments and jabs about the broken ribs that she had sustained from the woman, but all notion of sarcasm was lost on her during that moment. It wasn't until Fennec glanced up at her did she realise that she had been staring at the woman, no doubt with a suspicious glare upon her face.

'I know what you're thinking.' Fennec sighed, she was met with one raised brow from Estella. 'But you can trust me.'

'Really?' She hadn't meant for her tone of voice to be ripe with venom and suspicion so she attempted to soften it with a playfulness that she did not feel. 'My ribs would disagree.' 

Fennec took in a breath, straightening her back before bringing her hand to her side and pulling the fabric that covered her middle to the opposite side of her torso. Beneath was a mass of tubes and wiring, merging with her flesh and innards, where metal met flesh there were nasty looking red scars. Estella raised both brows. Fennec let out another sigh, barely heard, as she covered her repair work that saved her life. 

'Now we're even.' Fennec stated.

Estella nodded but muttered under her breath. 'We would be if I got to be the one that made you need that.' No one heard her words and deep down she was grateful for that. She did not mean to be so bitter towards any of them. Yes, Fennec broke her ribs many moons ago, but she was here and helping them get back the little one so really it was all water under the bridge. Not to mention that Estella got the better deal out of them both, her ribs were entirely healed and intact, Fennec had a bunch of nasty looking tubing keeping her alive.