Chapter Text
The air on Yavin IV had changed. The spice and humidity were still hanging in the air, but the smell of metal and fuel had gone. There temple was now a community hub offering everything from food to speeder repairs. Though the landing pad was still in regular use, the war machines were gone. Even the parts of the jungle the Rebellion had cleared had begun to return. The path to her former home, however, was clear.
“W-w-where are we going?”
Bix looked down at Bee before crouching to his level. “We’re going to the last home I shared with Cassian. We’re going to say a final goodbye now that the war is over.”
They had had this conversation several times. Bee’s memory circuits were decaying faster than her skills could correct. She measured her steps on the familiar route, mindful of Bee’s lack of speed. The path was surprisingly well kept. She was grateful. She didn’t want Bee to struggle more than he already was.
She had readied herself to find their home a wreck, maybe even just the foundation and frame, but it was whole. It was bigger actually. Another small pod had been added and the deck had expanded to accommodate a number of potted trees. She froze on the ramp at the sight of a woman carefully choosing fruits and placing them in a basket a boy of about four years was holding with both arms.
“Mama, how did you learn all this?”
“My mama taught me when I was a little older than you,” the woman answered in an old Core accent as she pulled the vibrantly pink sphere from a back branch and placed it in the basket. “You’re sure the basket’s not too heavy.”
The boy shook his head emphatically though his mother didn’t look entirely convinced before moving on to the next branch.
“When will my sister be here?” the boy asked.
His mother sighed, clearly having answered this question before. “Seven months. And we don’t know that it will be a sister.”
“I know it will be a sister,” the boy stated with all of the confidence of childhood and Bix felt a smile cross her face.
Bee’s gears made a whirring sound and caught the child’s attention. His face lit up and he rushed forward saying, “Mama, look! A droid!”
“Galen, your basket!” his mother chided, standing upright.
The boy skidded to a halt and placed his basket on the deck heedlessly scattering some of the pink fruits to roll along. Bix rushed forward and crouched to stop their motion and the boy’s mother did the same as he came to a halt eye-to-eye with Bee.
“I’m Gale. What’s your name?”
“B-b-b-B2-EMO,” Bee answered dutifully.
“Wow! You speak Basic!”
“I’m so sorry to intrude,” Bix apologized, placing the last of the fruits in the basket. “I used to live here, and I just wanted to see the place again.”
“It’s no problem,” the other woman assured her with the harried smile as the stood with the full basket in hand.
“Mama, this is B2-EMO,” the boy announced, his face still focused on taking in the droid’s every nook and cranny.
“Yes, I heard. Have you considered introducing yourself to his human companion?”
The boy turned and Bix’s breath caught in her throat as he got a close look at the child for the first time. She had never seen Cassian so young, but the boy’s face carried all the features of Cassian’s boyhood she could recall. His eyes were the only difference; they were green like his mother’s and free of the weight Cassian carried even when she first knew him.
“I’m Galen,” the boy announced, sticking a tiny hand out toward her.
She hoped she didn’t stare too long before she smiled and took his hand in hers. “I’m Bix.”
She sensed a shift in the woman next to her, but she was smiling when Bix hazarded a glance her way.
“I’m Jyn,” she said quietly.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. Both of you,” Bix replied, looking between them.
“Mama, can I play with B2-EMO?”
“Perhaps you should ask B2-EMO.”
“You can just call him Bee,” Bix interjected.
“Bee, do you want to see my new room?” Gale asked, turning back to the droid. “I have a lot of toys to play with.”
“Play? I love to p-p-play! Lead the way!”
Gale did an excited little hop and ran toward the door of the house, cutting a path between Bix and Jyn that Bee followed as fast as his gears would allow.
Bix reached toward the basket and said, “Here, let me take that. If I overheard correctly, you probably shouldn’t be carrying heavy things.”
Jyn scoffed, but let Bix take the basket from her anyway. “Galen is much heavier than that and I still pick him up. Thank you, though. Would you like to come in?”
“Yes, I’d like that very much.”
She followed Jyn in through the round door and took in the changes. The little workshop off to the right had been converted into greenhouse. A ramp lead up and around the main hub to a what must have been Gale’s room as his and Bee’s voices emanated from it excitedly. The table was still the center of the room and plants were interspersed along the shelves of the back window, although there were now stacks of dishes and cookware and books among them. A counter ran along in front of it and Bix could see it was a full kitchen set up with sink and the type of cooker Cassian favored during their time on Coruscant. A workbench littered with tools and parts replaced Wilmon’s hammock. Their bed was in the same elevated spot behind a net to keep the night's insects at bay.
Bix set the basket down on the table and said, “It’s much more of a home than it was when I lived here.”
“Oh, I think it was always a home,” Jyn said, heading toward the kitchen area. “I’m going to have Cavrian tea. It helps with the nausea. I have other kinds if you—”
“Don’t trouble yourself. Cavrian tea will be just fine,” Bix assured her as she wandered over to the workbench. Upon closer inspection, she could see the pieces of wood from the forest. “What are you making with all this?”
Jyn chuckled as she filled a kettle from the tap. “That’s my husband’s project. He wants to build a traditional cradle for the baby. Seems to have forgotten he’s a mechanic and pilot, not a carpenter.”
Bix smiled. “Do you not still have Gale’s cradle?” she asked as Jyn turned the kettle on to heat.
Jyn’s smile faltered for a moment. “He didn’t get to have a cradle. He was born in the hold of stolen Imperial shuttle about ten days before Endor. He slept in a drawer beneath our bunk on Home I for a few months. By the time one of us got a ground-based assignment, he was too big for a cradle.”
“Oh,” Bix said, working her mind to a more helpful reply. “You and your husband were both in the Rebellion?”
Jyn nodded as the kettle began to whistle. “We met here on Yavin.”
Bix smiled, recalling those quiet moments with Cassian nearly seven years earlier. “Have you been together since then?”
Jyn snorted as though Bix had said something terribly humorous. “Absolutely not. I hated him. He wasn’t terribly fond of me,” she said, pouring the steaming water into cups. “Then we had a succession of near-death experiences; one becoming worse after the other until our chances were very nearly spent, his especially. When it was apparent he was well and our mission had actually succeeded we, um, celebrated for the first time.”
Bix grinned at Jyn’s hidden meaning, her eye drifting to the open doorway where the small boy was still happily chattering away with Bee.
Jyn picked up the steaming cups and lead the way to the table in the middle of the room. Bix followed her and sat down just far enough away to face the other woman. The warmth of the cup seeped from her fingers to her insides and set her at ease as she sipped the citrusy tea.
“It was just physical for a while,” Jyn continued after a long sip of her tea. “He was in Intelligence, I was a Pathfinder. We were rarely in the same place at the same time when the fleet was scattered after the first Death Star. When we were though…it was like coming home. Not that I could find the words to articulate what that meant at the time.”
Bix smiled and tried to keep her eyes from drifting to the bed she and Cassian shared. “I had someone like that too,” she said, surprising herself with her wistfulness.
Jyn’s face formed a tight smile as a blush spread across her neck and she took a longer drink from her cup. “It wasn’t anything dramatic that made us acknowledge what we had,” she continued. “I doubt anything could rival how we met. It was just conversations with people that we trusted. It was a bit of a surprise for everyone when we came back to Hoth from a standard supply mission and asked to be married.”
“Well, war has caused people to make stranger decisions.”
Bix felt as though she had almost been struck by the coldness that came over Jyn’s demeanor. She was about to ask what offense she had caused when the sound of distant voices drifted into the house from the open doorway.
“C-c-c-cassian!” Bee’s voice cried.
“Papa’s back!” Gale yelled as she skipped past Bee and out the door.
“C-c-c-cassian!” Bee repeated.
Bix got up to stand in the little droid’s way. “No, Bee, it’s not—”
“It is,” Jyn cut her off.
“What?”
“It is Cassian,” Jyn said softly.
Bix was only vaguely aware of Bee rolling past her as she turned to stare at the other woman.
“I’m sorry,” Jyn said, though her face held no hint of remorse. “I know who you are. I know who you lived here with. I know because we live here with him now.”
The sound of the Yavin jungle faded and she felt like her limbs were melting into the floor. It was hard to breath and she stumbled into the daylight. Then she saw him, healthy and whole as he caught his green-eyed clone in his arms. His hair was longer and pulled into a knot at the nape of his neck. His beard was as full as he had worn it on Ferrix. A part of her mind thought she should be alarmed at the hulking KX droid at his side, but the sound of his laughter as his son squealed in his arms was all she could truly process.
“Papa, I made a new friend. His name is Beetoomoe!”
“C-c-c-cassian!”
Shock, surprise, and, finally, delight crossed Cassian’s face as his eyes landed on Bee.
“How are you here?” Cassian asked, leaning down to place his free hand on top of his oldest friend.
“B-b-b-bix brought me.”
Cassian’s gaze drifted up the ramp until his eyes locked with hers. She felt her insides turn ashen as the delight in his eyes fell into dismay.