When Cammir had spoken, however, Ora was confused. She looked first at Elisabeth, then at Cammir, and, for a moment, nobody spoke. Remembering what Elisabeth had said about being brave, she took a deep breath and spoke to Cammir. "So... does that mean you'll be friends with us?" she asked innocently.

"So, gentlemen, do we have an accord?" Elisabeth asked, affirming Ora's question.

One could cut the tension in the air with a vibroblade...

"Aye. That we do, Senator," he said firmly.

Unnoticed and probably forgotten by all, Soleil wore an expression of utter astonishment. Every pirate on this accursed ice rock knew how Cammir Faerlain despised the Jedi. The last thing she had expected him to do was form an alliance with them. No matter. She would get to the bottom of what was troubling him later.

She rolled her eyes and laughed a bit as they followed the droid to their rooms through the repaired halls of Echo Base. Ora's hand never left hers as they did so, and the two chatted casually. Chris followed behind. They were all freezing. "So, what do you want to do on this ice cube, kid?" asked Chris smiling mischeviously.

Elisabeth thought that she knew what he had in mind.

The other Wookie sniffed. /Did the Jedi train all of your instincts out of you, or is there a Wookie buried deep down under that red fur of yours?/ he growled back.

Lo narrowed her eyes. /You delight in making me angry,/ she replied. She wouldn't let this male get the best of her Jedi training.

This made the other Wookiee begin to laugh. Frustrated, Lo did her best to remain calm, until she could take it no more. /What is so funny?/ she roared.

/What is your name?/ Woolbaar asked, changing the subject.

Lo growled low in her throat. /My name is Logargh. And yours?/ she demanded more than asked.

/Woolbaar,/ the Wookiee replied. /Logargh. A strong name, for a strong mother. You don't have to pretend, you know,/ he growled, moving so that Logargh was up against the wall and he was in front of her. He placed a paw on the wall next to her head as he looked down at her.

Lo was unnerved by this move. /Pretend about what?/ she asked, though she was distracted...

/Pretend about your instincts. They call to you, as they do to me. We are not like those human friends of yours,/ he said, gesturing with his head to the direction from which she had come. /They waste time pretending they feel nothing,/ he growled, his eyes staring into hers. /We do not. When our instincts tell us to mate.../ he trailed off.

Lo's eyes went wide. /I'm a fraction of your age!/ she roared, moving to get away from Woolbaar, but he held her there. She had trained under Tol, she knew she could move him by force... but part of her didn't want to...

/Ages don't matter,/ he growled to her. /All that matters is instinct! Your instinct calls to you... I can smell it in your scent. The question is... will you obey your instincts? Or, have you spent too much time around humans?/

Lo swallowed. Tol had always told her to obey her instincts, hadn't he? To listen to them? But surely he didn't have this in mind... Still, Woolbaar's scent overpowered her, made it hard for her to think. Before she knew it, he was leaning into her... her fur stood on end, her nerves tingled, as gently, very gently, he nuzzled her cheek with his own.

That contact was all it took. Moments later they were in Woolbaar's ship, the Wroshyr , and no one else in the galaxy existed but them...

Taking a nice and long swig of whiskey, he slumped down on the ground next to his bed and leaned back against it. Even though he and Tierva had been very distant as children, her death still greatly disturbed him. They had been twins, two parts of a whole, and the Force had linked them together in a special way.

He finished off the first bottle in what seemed like no time at all. Tossing it to the side, he reached forward and opened a second. Soon afterwards, he was gulping down a third. Whether he liked it or not, Tierva had been a part of him and that part of him was dead. He had taunted her, teased her, and left her on Coruscant. For the first time in ages, the pirate felt remorse. Nobody had seen his sister's death coming, and that taught him something. Never take life for granted.

By the time the door slid open and Cammir looked up against the light from the hallway, there were numerous empty bottles strewn across the floor. Soleil slid into the room and the door closed behind her, throwing the room into a dim darkness again. She sat down next to Cammir and looked at him curiosly. "What are you doing?" she asked, eying the empty bottles before looking back at him. "Tell me what's bothering you. Maybe you wouldn't be so stressed if you didn't try to rule over these idiots all by yourself. Let me help you."

Now at that point Cammir was very drunk, and when he woke up the next morning, he wouldn't remember what he was about to do.

Something cold hit her back, and she spun around, seeing Elisabeth there. Uh-oh. The Force wouldn't help her against her Master... giggling, she ran for cover while snowballs flew at her from behind. But not all of them were aimed at her. Elisabeth and Chris were aiming at each other most of the time, as though they had some vendetta that could only be solved by pummeling each other with balls of snow. Ora laughed. As much as those two argued, it was obvious they loved each other. Grown-ups were funny.

Ora snuck around to the snow drift Chris was taking shelter behind, armful of snowballs. After assuring him with a smile that she did not plan to use them on him, he grinned mischievously and, reaching down into his own stash, the two came out together and started pelting Elisabeth at the same time.

"Hey!" she yelled, but that was all she got out before one snowball narrowly missed her head. After dodging snowballs for a bit, she stuck out her hand, and suddenly the snowdrift fell backwards, burying Chris and Ora with snow. As the two struggled to unbury themselves, she stood over them.

"Well, that's what you get for ganging up on me," she said lightly. Suddenly, a hand grabbed her foot, and she was down in the snow, with a giggling Ora throwing snow on top of her while Chris held her down. "Okay, okay!" she cried, laughing, and Chris fell down beside her, also laughing. Ora laid down on her stomach on Elisabeth's other side, her head propped up on her elbows.

"Thank you," Ora said soberly, after a fit of giggles.

Elisabeth and Chris turned to her. "For what?" Elisabeth asked.

Ora smiled at them. "For being my family. I know things are pretty scary right now, and it might have felt safer to be alone. Thank you for staying with me, for staying together," she said.

Elisabeth smiled at her, then playfully tugged on her padawan braid. "Exactly how old are you, Ora? Because what you just said right now was very wise," she said, and pulled the girl into a hug. The three of them lay there then, in the snow, not minding the increasingly dropping temperatures, just happy to be in one another's company... happy to be a family.

The pirate had had his share of hangovers, as he regularly gulped down whiskey like it was nothing more than water. However, this time it was worse than it had ever been before. Out of experience, he had concocted a mixture that lessened the after effects of heavy drinking. Groggily, he stood up and pulled on his pants before making his way over to the liquor cabinet. In the process, he managed to cut his foot on one of the broken glass bottles. He cursed so loudly that it was a wonder Soleil didn’t stir. After bandaging it with a makeshift tourniquet that he ripped off the sleeve of a shirt, he opened the cabinet and pulled out the bottle labeled ‘Antidote’.

As soon as the warm liquid went down his throat, Cammir felt better. His vision cleared and the pounding in his head and the uneasiness in his stomach lessened. However, the hangover wouldn’t be completely gone for a while. He slipped on a tunic and his worn out boots before slipping out of the room and heading toward the mess hall.

He had been so drunk the night before, that he honestly couldn’t remember what happened. However, he didn’t need to consult Soleil to figure it out. The fact that he’d woken up naked in the same bed as her was enough of a clue. Sure, he’d slept with plenty of women and disappeared the next day during his days of piracy on Tatooine. But this time was different. He was certain that the sinking feeling in his heart was not because of Tierva anymore. He had a very, very bad feeling about Soleil.

Soleil, apparently, didn’t think anything more of their night together than Cammir would have normally; she didn’t seek him out at all during the next few days. She saw it for what it had been. He was drunk, depressed and needed company. She had given it to him. Sure, it was a completely unmoral way of looking at the situation, but that’s how pirates viewed it.

Over the next few days, that warning at the back of Cammir’s mind grew in gravity and persistence. Finally, Soleil sought him out. He was sitting in the mess hall at the time, completely sober and enjoying a nice bit of lunch by himself. As she sat down across from him, there was no mistaking the bitterness and anger evident in her expression. At that moment, the annoying presence in Cammir’s mind peaked and the Force told him what had happened before Soleil could find the words.

“I’m pregnant,” she snarled.

Cammir stared at her, openmouthed in disbelief. Nothing could have prepared him for that. When he failed to find words to describe how he was feeling, Soleil leaned over the table and slapped him hard across the face. The pirate’s face contorted in rage as his hand flew to his stinging cheek. “What was that for?” Cammir demanded, unable to think of anything else to say.

“I’m pregnant, you bastard!” she hissed, repeating her initial statement.

He sighed and stood up to face her. “What would you have me do?” he asked threateningly. “What’s done is done.”

Soleil wasn’t pleased. “You cannot leave me alone with this!” she whispered fiercely, pointing down at her stomach. “You are the father of this child whether you like it or not! And you are going to help me raise it!”

The zeal with which she spoke disturbed Cammir. Surely, she knew something like this could happen. And made her think that he would take responsibility for this? He had never done anything of the sort. However, he could not deny that he admired her spirit. They were going to be stuck together for years on end anyway. If he didn’t comply with her wishes, those years would be a living hell. Would it really hurt him to hang around such an attractive woman that was obviously drawn to him?

“Very well,” he said finally, keeping his voice resigned and controlled. “Though the prospect of raising a child repels me, I will take responsibility for my actions.”

As she stared at him, Soleil’s expression softened a great deal, and, after a moment, she wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace. Cammir groaned internally with regret. What had he gotten himself into?

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