The Princess, The Pea And The Bounty Hunter

Chapter Four: Sitting Ducks...

Eventually, the ship would grow quiet...

There was not a chirp, nor a babble or whistle from the babe, or a word from the Queen below and Mando found this a little more than unsettling...

"Litha?" he called down, putting the ship on auto pilot, "Litha, if you ate him or something, I'll be very upset," he said sarcastically, exhaustively as he slid down the ladder only to find her crouching before the kitchen sink at eye level with the babe and a soft smile on her face.

Meanwhile the baby himself was enjoying the attention, being pampered with soaps far too expensive for a little boy born on a swamp planet, "You're bein' such a goo'boy," she giggled quietly before turning her head to Mando, "I just got him to calm down...turns out he likes the water," she explained before the babe tried to eat another bundle of bubbles only to be stopped again and greeted with a raspberry on top of his head, "Nuh-uh, no bubbles for dinner. Tonight you'll just have to have, um..." she looked to Mando again, "...what exactly do you have to eat? I'll feed him and put him dow-"

"You'll what?" he mumbled as she was mid-sentence and immediately her face turned.

With wide eyes, she hadn't stopped speaking, "-n for a nap...?" she finished with a rise in octave before standing up straight and draining the sink before taking the babe from his bath in the sink to swap him in a faded blue towel, "You don't...spend much time with children, do you?" Litha surmised, earning a shake of his head.

"No," he replied placidly as she turned to the fridge in which she found only bags of protein paste and packages of instant bread or dehydrated greens.

"Hmm..." she smiled, taking out a pack of protein paste, "...this is close enough to baby food, I suppose," Litha joked and moved passed Mando, "I'll get him dressed, fed and get him to sleep...then, we should talk about your parenting skills," she advised as Many watched her go toward her bag where the babe's robes hung just above to dry after she'd washed them.

"Why would we talk about that...?"

"Because you're...a work in progress and I grew up rearing babies. Little siblings. I'll give you some pointers," she proposed and Mando figured...

It couldn't hurt to know the extent of what he'd gotten himself into...

***

With his robes still damp, Litha thought quickly and dressed the child in one of her own t-shirts before laying him down and heading up the ladder to speak with Mando...

"He's asleep for now and his robes have been washed," she said as she came to sit in the chair behind Mando's left shoulder, pausing a moment later when she saw a hologram projecting a message.

"To all Bounty Hunters: Our former brother Mando has betrayed us! For his head I'm offering forty thousand Republic credits, with the added bonus of lettin' you keep the kid he took for his own bounty and the sweet new beskar armor he got before he turned on us! Message set to repeat!" the little man in the hologram offered and Litha blinked in surprise.

"Well, that's messed up," she huffed then in annoyance.

Mando nodded, "It is...but it also means they know I'm still in the system and I've still got the child," he stated grimly then, "And if they know I came to save you, they'll be expecting me on Coruscant to collect my reward..." he added as his tone only grew more dour and Litha knew he was irritated. Disappointed as well.

"Mando?" she stood, coming to his side to turn off the repeating message, "...I'm not in a rush if you aren't?" Litha proposed, grabbing his attention, "Pick out a planet and we'll lay low. Find some lodgings and-"

"No," he cut her off, but she didn't understand.

Litha furrowed her brows in concern, "Why not? We can't just stay out in space like sitting ducks when they know your ship and ports talk," she assured him of the danger, "And if you're worried about me causing problems, I won't. I used to camp out for weeks when I was a little girl, hunting with my brothers and-"

"I said no. I'm not gonna be stuck in the middle of the woods alone with a rich girl and a frog-" Litha would cut him off this time, setting a hand on his shoulder...though, she never could've anticipated what she sensed...

The true reason why the Mandalorian had come after her...

A vision...