Safe and Sound (Star Wars: The Bad Batch AU)

Chapter 3

They dragged their suitcases to the front door and Omega rang the doorbell. After a moment, the door opened, revealing Wrecker with a huge smile on his face.
"Omega!" Wrecker kneeled down as his niece ran into his arms.
"Hi Uncle Wrecker!" Omega smiled back.
"Hey Wrecker," Hunter stepped inside.
"Hey Hunter!" Wrecker slapped his brother's back, "Go and put your stuff away. Everyone's in the movie room."

They went into the movie room, which was a spacious room with a mini movie theater on one side, behind it was a seating bar, behind that was a pool table and against the wall there was a snack/drink bar. Some were watching a movie, others were by the bar and talking with each other. Trace was sitting at the bar with her sister sipping apple juice when she saw them. Trace elbowed her sister, and gestured to who it was. Rafa turned around and looked up, getting anxious as soon as she saw them. She took a few steps toward them and kneeled down. "Hey Omega, remember me?"
Omega stepped in front of Hunter, "Mom?"
Rafa nodded and smiled, "You want to give your mother a hug?"
Omega ran into her Mother's arms, almost crying when she said "I missed you."
Tears welled up in Rafa's eyes when Omega said those words.

Hunter was furious. What's she doing here? Hunter pulled Wrecker from whatever he was doing and took him into the hallway.
"Hunter-"
"What's Rafa doing here?! I don't want her anywhere near Omega!" Hunter yelled in Wrecker's face, "Why didn't you tell me Rafa would be here?!"
"If I told you, then you wouldn't have come! And it would've broken the kid's heart," Wrecker defended, "Besides, Rafa has been clean for the past few years."
"That still doesn't chance what she did to us," Hunter snapped.
Wrecker face palmed, "Can't you at least give her a chance? You've both had four years to recover. You can stop being a big baby and at least be friends!"
"What do you know?" Hunter sighed, "It's not that easy."
"C'mon, I'll help ya," Wrecker hit his shoulder.
Hunter glared at him before deciding to at least be nice to her, for Omega.

They walked back into the movie room, seeing that Omega had started a game of Uno with Tech, Trace, and Crosshair, Rafa helping Omega. Rafa looked up from the game when they walked in the room. Wrecker bumped Hunter, indicating him to go talk to her. Hunter reluctantly went to her. Rafa stood up and excused herself from the game.

To Hunter, Rafa seemed different  it in a familiar way. His mind went to when they first met in high school. The good old days... he got out of his trance and Rafa was standing right in front of him.
"Hello, Hunter... it's been a while."
Hunter didn't say anything.
"Looks like you were mad earlier. What was that about?"
Hunter shook his head, "Nothing. Just tired."
"MmHmm. I heard you had a long drive. Did Omega have fun for the last four years?"
"Actually, she did," Hunter snapped, "Did you have fun while I raised Omega on my own?"
"It's not like I had a choice. You took her from me!"
"I'm not the one who went to jail!"
"And I'm not the one who has killed people!"
"That was a long time ago!"
Omega looked up from her game, "Huh? You killed people?"
"Only in Fortnite," Tech covered.
"But dad doesn't like to play that game," Omega said, still very confused about what the heck was going on. Wrecker signaled Tech to take her out of the room.
"He only played it for a little bit before switching to Call of Duty," Tech got up and led her outside, "C'mon, Omega. Let's go to the game room. What game do you want to play?"

Meanwhile, Hunter and Rafa were still at each other's throats.
"We were doing just fine until you decided to go soft!" Rafa jabbed him with her finger.
"I didn't want Omega to grow up in this lifestyle! I wanted-"
"'To give her a better chance at life.' Well, we could've provided it anyway with how much we were making! But no! You wanted to move away and become a high school gym teacher! But guess what? That failed too, because you're now a janitor at our daughter's elementary school!"
"I only had to do that because you decided to get drunk and rob a 7/11!"
"Oh ho ho, you had to bring that up!" Rafa folded her arms.
"Don't even get me started on the other things that you've done," Hunter shot back.
Crosshair leaned over to Wrecker, "Still think it was a good idea to invite her over?"
"The gambling, the drinking- so many times you'd come home late it scared Omega and I half to death!" Hunter shouted.
Echo got up and separated the two lovebirds, "If you two don't stop arguing, the neighbors will hear you. How do you think Omega's feeling about you two yelling and screaming at each other?"
They seethed. Rafa let out a groan of frustration.

"C'mon, Omega, let's go to the gaming room. What game do you want to play?" Tech got up and held Omega's hand, leading her out of the room. In the hallway, their voices echoed off the walls, the high celling not helping to dampen the sound. Tech picked up Omega and his pace to the elevator. He pressed the button, hoping that it would hurry up. The yelling seemed to have stopped, the ding of the elevator breaking the silence. Tech stepped onto it, Omega still in his arms.
"Do you remember which button to press?" He asked her. She didn't answer. Tech adjusted Omega so that he could get a good look at he could get a good look at her face, "What's wrong, verd'ika?" (Pronounced: vair-DEE-kah Means: little soldier)
Omega looked down, confused and hurt, "Why were they fighting? Was it something I did?"
"No, it wasn't your fault. They were just talking in loud voices. Adults do that sometimes. Heck, even I do it when I talk to Wrecker sometimes," That made Omega a little better, "Do you want to go play a game in the game room?"
Omega nodded, "Can I press the button?"
"Of course you can," Tech took her to the control panel. Omega pressed the button to the second floor.