Never Talk to Strangers...

Disclaimer: I make no money off these stories and I own nothing in the Star Wars universe.

I'm trying to wriggle around in Fett's brain a bit in this chapter. I have some difficulty writing really personal stuff from a male point of view as I am not and have never been a man, so if anything sounds strange, let me know. I appreciate constructive criticism.

Chapter 13: Reunion

She woke from a nightmare replay of the battle between Vader and the Prince. Sitting straight up in the small bed, she struggled to catch her breath. Once she had recovered from the dream, she saw that someone had left a pile of clothes on the desk.

She smiled a bit when she sorted through them. Apparently the only thing they had in stock was imperial issue uniforms. That or she was getting someone’s extras. At least it was clean. She showered quickly and changed.

The suit was a bit baggy, but better than wearing the remnants of the dress. The boots actually fit well, which surprised her. She tucked the shirt in, changed her mind and pulled it back out. There was no mirror, which at this point was probably a blessing.

She paced the room for a few minutes, fiddling with the console at the desk, which was completely dead, and the panel by the door, which shocked her when she touched it. Irritated, she searched the room for something to do and found only the remnants of the dress.

Frustrated, she set about tearing the remaining material into tiny bits and scattering them about the room.

~ ~ ~

Private Eriksen Vitel yawned and leaned on one elbow, watching the security monitors with a bored expression on his face. They carried no prisoners on this flight, and he had so far used the time to catch up on sleep. Beside him in the chair, his commanding officer flipped through the screens dutifully checking empty cell blocks and deserted hallways.

“Everyone who is not on duty is sleeping, sir. Why don’t you just com around and make sure everything’s up to standard?” he asked, trying to sound sincerely curious.

The second man glared at him. “With that attitude, it’s a wonder you ever managed to land an assignment on this vessel. We must remain alert at all times. There’s no way of knowing where or when the rebels will strike.”

Eriksen reached down and flipped the screens to level three, the only level where they actually had a passenger. He turned the internal security cameras on and stopped short. "What in the universe?"

The other man noticed his hesitaton. “Something wrong?” He asked, almost excited.

“What is she doing?” Eriksen wondered aloud, as he stared at the screen.

The girl was sitting in the middle of the floor, tossing brightly colored strips of cloth around the room, and laughing hysterically.

“She hasn’t been in there long enough to...” Eriksen began.

“Probably just crazy, is all.” the other cut him off.

“Guess she’d have to be, to be hanging around with the Fett,” Eriksen mused.

His companion stared at him open mouthed. “How did you...that’s classified information.”

“I’m sorry, sir. I was thumbing through the open bounty listings out of boredom and I saw someone had posted a message about her. I couldn’t tell if it was a personal friend or someone just trying to confirm rumors. It wasn’t Fett; he doesn’t post on open boards. So then I sort of hung around outside the officer’s lounge and kept my ears open and, well, stuff sort of fits together after a while.”

“What else do you know?”

“About her? She got picked up by Black Sun at some Tatooine hole in the wall, and Fett found out. He threatened Xizor. That’s pretty common knowledge, but he ended up staying for a few days as the Prince’s guest. Then he came to us... or to Vader, I guess. They must have cut some kind of deal if she’s here. As to what Vader wants from him, no way of telling. But I’ll figure it out eventually.”

“You should have put in for intelligence.”

“No, sir. Thinking too much is only a hobby of mine. I wouldn’t want to make a career out of it,” Eriksen finished, grinning, then turned back to the monitor.

The girl had apparently finished re decorating the room, and was on her feet, pacing. She stopped suddenly and looked around, searching for the cameras she knew were there.

“You assholes got the sound on?” She asked loudly.

“I think she’s talking to us,” Eriksen laughed.

“Someone want to tell me where we’re going? Why I’m here? Anything? No. Fine. Be that way. Assholes,” she then collapsed back on the bed and proceeded to systematically work her way through every single curse word in her vocabulary.

“No one told her anything. That’s rough,” Eriksen said to no one in particular as she launched into Huttese. He went ahead and cycled through the remaining floors.

~ ~ ~

Hours later, Aislynn was mentally climbing the walls. She had tried to occupy her mind trying to figure out where they were going and had given up after an hour or so. She had memorized every square inch of the room, attempting to locate the hidden cameras she knew we watching her every move.

She hummed out a few choruses to songs she had been working on, then remembered that all her disks had been lost or destroyed during the attack on the Prince’s palace. She tried to imagine what Kip and Riley would be doing now, probably just opening the bar. Mac would come rolling in an hour or so after the doors open, and the first thing out of his mouth would be a brand new joke to turn her face red.

Maybe A’zael would stop by to get fueled up for her night’s work. They’d have a great crowd and for once the synthesizer would work the way it should. It would only shoot blue sparks two or three times during the show. The joys of unplanned pyrotechnics. And Boba...

She slammed the brakes on her thoughts.

She glanced nervously around the room. It felt as if even her thoughts weren’t safe in this place. She sat on the edge of the bed, and started tapping a rhythm out on the metal frame. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine the music, humming at first. If she could only forget about the damn cameras...

Before long, he was caught up in the song, light years away from a tiny room in an imperial ship.

~ ~ ~

Eriksen stared at the screen, transfixed. He had flipped back to the girl out of curiosity and found her sitting on the edge of the bed swaying to her own haunting song. He remembered hearing she was a singer, but it had slipped his mind.

The music sounded strange through the security speakers. The metal walls distorted the sound, but the essence was still there. The expression on the girl’s face, at once sad and serene, hypnotized him. He heard the other man clear his throat, uncomfortably.

“Sir?”

“Just about time for shift change.”

“Right,” he murmured, not taking his eyes off the girl on the screen.

~ ~ ~

Aislynn had no idea how many hours had passed when the door slid open. Two white suited stormtroopers stood in the hallway. With them was a third man with officer’s bars on his collar. He ordered her into the hallway, and she was too grateful to be angry at his gruff manner. The troopers took up position on either side of her, weapons across their chests.

They took her through the bowels of the ship to the docking bay out the bay doors. Aislynn couldn’t see much difference between the building they entered and the ship they had just left. She wondered if they might be in some sort of space station, but that idea was quickly dispelled.

The gruff man answered her question before she asked it. “Welcome to Cloud City. I suspect you won’t be staying long enough to see the sights.”

“This is a city?” she wondered aloud, but he ignored her, and turned to his men.

“Escort her to Lord Vader. He is in the cold shipment chamber,” then he turned around sharply and walked back into the ship. The troopers led her to a lift and down several floors. When she stepped out of the elevator, the chill cut into her bones. She felt goosepimples raise on her whole body.

The smell here reminded her of her room in the ship, incredibly sterile, without the metallic aftertaste that reminded her so much of blood. The air was dry and very, very cold. They took her to a set of double doors. Inside, she could hear men talking.

Anger surged through her, and she stopped abruptly, turning on the soldier to her left. “I’m not walking through that door until I get some answers!”

~ ~ ~

Fett glared at Vader through the T-visor. He struggled to control his anger, knowing Vader could sense how close he was to the edge. Always overconfident, the Dark Lord was far too smug for Fett’s comfort. Skywalker and Solo were within arms reach. This would be the trickiest part of the bargain.

“He’s no good to me dead.”

“The Empire will compensate you if he dies.”

Fett fell silent, gritting his teeth inside the mask. He watched as Solo was loaded into the cold chamber, and kept his eye on the life signs readout as his body temperature dropped. Carbonite was fine for transporting perishable goods over distances, but this was the first time he had heard of using it as a way to preserve a living body.

Vader had backed him neatly into a corner. If he chose to argue now, Vader would use it as an excuse to back out of their deal. Solo seemed to have survived the procedure, though. Fett turned to two of the white suited troopers and ordered them to take Solo to his ship. They glanced at each other, then at Vader who had turned his attention on Skywalker. They chose to do as he ordered rather than risking their leader’s infamous temper.

Fett did not have the same reservations. He strode to Vader and demanded his payment. It was time to close this bargain and get off this planet. His instincts were screaming at him to leave.

Vader whirled on him. “You try my patience, Hunter.”

“As you try mine, Lord Vader. I only wish to be on my way as quickly as possible. I have business elsewhere,” he said smoothly, allowing none of his anger to show through his words.

Vader spoke briefly to one of his men, then turned to Fett. “She waits for you outside this room. She is quite safe, I assure you. Take your payment and go, Hunter, before I choose to revoke my generous offer.”

Fett bit back his answer, turned his back on Vader and walked out of the room. He saw her standing between two troopers with her back to him.

“I’m not taking one more bloody step until one of you tells me where we’re going and what we’re doing here!” Her voice carried through the entire hallway.

He said her name.

She turned towards him, very slowly, and he saw disbelief in her eyes. Her hair flowed free over her shoulders. She was wearing imperial hand-me downs which were far too big for her, but she was still the most beautiful sight he had seen in his life. Alive, and breathing. Safe. She took a hesitant step toward him, glancing back nervously at the troopers, who made no move to stop her. He strode up to her and she threw her arms around him.

He pushed her away from him as gently as he could. “No time. We need to leave this place. Now.” He took her by the arm and led her away from the chamber towards his ship, hoping that Vader’s men weren’t taking their time loading Solo.

Their departure went off without a hitch, but as he panned the visuals back over Cloud City, he witnessed the beginning of the battle which they narrowly escaped. Heaving a sigh of relief, he reached up and jerked the helmet off, dropping it beside the chair. He locked in their destination as Tatooine, then unhooked the belts.

She met him halfway across the cockpit, and he could see tears in her eyes. He reached up to wipe them away. “No tears now. You’re safe.” He leaned down to kiss her. He felt her lean into his kiss and he tried to let her know with that embrace all the things he could not say to her.

“I thought I was never going to see you again,” she said, her voice cracking as she spoke. “Xizor, and then Vader came...and... killed him... his head, Boba. His head hit my foot... and...” She was shaking. He brought her to the bed and helped her sit down. She wouldn’t let go of him long enough for him to even take his gauntlets off. She clung to him as though she expected him to disappear before her eyes. Maybe she did. After all that had happened, he couldn’t have blamed her.

“I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. I’m taking you back to Tatooine,”

“And then you’ll leave again and... I want to be strong for you. I try to be strong for you, but I... I’m scared... I can’t....”

“I’m not going to leave you. I won’t leave you alone again. I can’t bear the thought of anything happening to you. I only wanted you to be safe...” he would have said anything in that moment to calm her. To make her feel safe.

The shaking subsided. He took her hands and placed them in her lap, long enough for him to strip out of his armor, then he came back over to join her on the bed. He took her in his arms and lay down, holding her close to him. “Rest. I’ll keep you safe.”

He felt her press against him, and heard her sigh. “I know.”

He knew she meant it. He would never understand how she could place such faith in him, the man who had destroyed her life. How could he keep any of his promises to her? How could he ensure her safety in the battleground the universe had become?

Life had been simple for him most of his life. Even the past few years, she had been a harbor in the storm - a safe place to rest between hunts. He knew he cared for her, but placing himself in danger to protect her was not supposed to be part of the plan. When he had first heard about the kidnapping, he had been in a rage. A smarter man would have done as she asked and left her to fend for herself.

So why couldn’t he do it? Why had he been unable to sever the ties that bound them together? Why had he risked the reputation he had worked so hard to build, and even death at the hand of the Black Prince to get her back?

Long before anyone knew his name, he had imagined himself as the most feared man in the galaxy. He had known he would follow in his father's footsteps. He had known what path his life would take. In all those childhood dreams which had one by one become reality, Boba Fett had never once imagined himself falling in love. It wasn’t part of the plan.

But he had fallen, and here she was, and he had no clearer idea of how to handle her than the first day he brought her to the desert planet. He pulled her closer to him, let her fill his senses, and banished his worries about their future. She was safe. She was here with him, and that was all that mattered.

He dozed lightly in between checking the course settings and running diagnostics. He had worried he might wake her with so much moving around, but once she fell asleep, nothing could stir her. He knew she had been through more in these past few weeks than most people went through in their lives.

When she finally did wake, they were on their final approach to Tatooine.

“We’ll be landing in less than an hour, I hope, weather permitting,”

“Good. First thing I’m doing is finding a bathtub. With real water. And I don’t care how much it costs you.”

“Fine with me, but I get to watch,” his mouth curled into a suggestive smile. He seemed to be carefully considering the image in his mid, and the inherent possibilities.

She laughed. “Maybe we can find one big enough for both of us.”

“We can try,” he chuckled, pulling her into his lap and kissing her thoroughly. He kept her in his lap as he finished adjusting the instruments for their final approach. “It’s probably a good idea to take a day or two before we deliver Solo anyway. Let the rumor mill turn for a bit. I might be able to talk Jabba up a few thousand credits. Guess it depends if he’s into modern art,” he added, scowling. “I will never take another imperial contract as long as I live.”

“You said we.”

“Hm?”

“You said “take a day or two before ‘we’ deliver Solo” You’re taking me with you?”

“If you don’t want to go...”

“No. I mean yes. Yes I do. I want to be at your side, Boba, no matter where that takes me. I always want to be with you. I just never thought...”

“Situations change. No one within Jabba’s walls will dare touch you once they know you are mine. I plan on making that fact extremely clear,” his voice took on a dangerous edge.

She kissed his cheek. “You’d better get dressed.”

He reluctantly released her and donned his armor. She stepped back into the bathroom and tried to straighten her hair. She gave up, returned to the cockpit and strapped in for their landing. He glanced her way before he put his helmet on. As their eyes met, she smiled. He returned the smile, jammed the helmet into place and opened the air-to-surface communications.

“Vessel, this is Tatooine Central. Identify yourself.”

“Tatoooine Central, this is Slave I, request docking clearance.”

“Welcome back, Fett. We’ll put you down in hangar six, if that will...”

“Six is fine. Send someone to meet me. Fett out.”

He shut off the screen and initiated the landing sequence.

A short time later, he set the ship down smoothly in hangar six of Tatooine Central, a few scant miles from a major racetrack and the palace of the infamous gangster Jabba the Hutt. Situated between these two centers of villainy, a small but successful town had sprung up.

He secured the ship, paid the storage fees, and left strict instructions that no one enter the hangar until he returned. The manager of the facilities balked, as usual, and in his typically succinct manner, Fett let him know that he would not be responsible for anyone who died while ignoring his instructions. The man relented, and they headed for the town proper.

Boba knew that the rumors would be flying already. Whispers followed them down the streets as the second sun sank below the horizon. As the last light faded, he checked them into the best hotel in the town. The manager’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head at the water order he placed, but he assured that it would be brought up promptly.

At the manager’s suggestion, he sent Aislynn’s measurements. It wouldn’t be particularly wise for her to walk into Jabba’s palace wearing imperial hand me downs. When they arrived at the room, she immediately sank into a chair.

“Nice place,” she commented after surveying the room.

“It’s all right,” he replied, as he started stripping off his armor. “You want to order us some food?”

“Sure. I thought I might call over to Kip’s and let them know I’m OK. If that’s all right with you?”

“That’s fine,” he said gently. “I told them I would handle the situation, but I’m sure they’ve been worried about you. I’m going to jump in the shower and get cleaned up before they bring the water up..”

“You didn’t!” Her face lit up in a brilliant smile.

“Of course I did. I told you I would, didn’t I?” he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, then slipped into the bathroom.

A few hours later, freshly bathed, fed and dressed her spirits seemed much brighter. Boba lounged on the bed in only his shirt, stretched out like a cat. He watched her twirl around the room, enjoying the way the new skirt whipped around her ankles. It was simple, floor length, a silvery gray which he knew to be extremely popular at the moment among the Coruscant elite.

It had originally had tiny bells attached to the waist, but she’d cut them off two minutes after putting it on. Said it reminded her too much of a bar dancer’s bells. The top was a white, off-the-shoulders number that tied in the front and showed off her belly. The hotel manager had also sent up a sand colored wrap cloak and some plain leather boots.

He had not particularly agreed with the shirt, but she was obviously pleased.

“So, I take it you approve,” he said from the bed.

She crossed the room and joined him on the bed. “I love it. Did you pick it out?”

“No,” he admitted.

“Do you like it?”

He reached up and tugged the front of the shirt loose. “Rather easy access,”and the shirt landed on the floor next to the bed. He cupped her left breast gently, and lowered his mouth to the other, taking the nipple gently between his teeth. She moaned and arched her back.

He felt her hands reach under his shirt, move across his chest. “I just got clean and now you want to get all dirty again,” she teased, as her hand moved lower to wrap around him.

He raised his head and grinned at her. “You want me to stop?”

She pushed him back on the bed and kissed him, moving slowly down his body. He slid his hands into her hair as she took him into her mouth and sucked gently at first. He twisted his hands into her hair, and groaned as the sensations rocked through him. She increased her pace, taking him deeper into her throat.

He felt his carefully constructed walls slip away as the world reeled out of control and heard himself calling her name, again and again. He tried to stop her before he came, but she ignored him. He let go of her hair and grabbed at the blankets as his hips bucked and he felt himself explode in her mouth.

He willed his breathing to return to normal, and opened his eyes to find her grinning at him. She had that smile on her face, the one which had captured him all those years ago and held him captive for so many years. He found himself smiling back at her. He reached for her and she stretched out beside him, laying her head on his chest.

“Don’t get too comfortable,” he said. “Because as soon as I can breathe again, I’m returning the favor.”

For the next several hours he was throughly occupied with fulfilling that promise.