Rough Day by guardianangelicas

A Show of Good Faith

This story doesn't belong to me. It belongs to guardianangelicas on AO3.

Isn't it weird that nobody really ever talks about what happens immediately after you have a dead body in front of you?

It's the part leading up to it that's usually the most crucial, obviously.  The adrenaline of the actual moment is overwhelming—you react without thinking, danger pumping through your veins alongside your blood and sharpening your survival instincts until they're deadly.  You do what you have to do to stay alive, nothing more.  So it's not really until you have a still moment with the evidence of your actions right there in front of you, glassy-eyed and staring lifelessly up at the ceiling, that you suddenly don't know what to do.

Shocking is a word.

Debilitating is another.

Things... things come in flashes.  You have blood on your hands; it's thick and cold and electric blue in color, not dark or warm or crimson.  One of them is vibrating violently, clutched around something heavy and clunky and unfamiliar, something with a handle made to fit a six-fingered grip.  The kid is passed out in your other arm after expelling all his energy helping you take down the brutal assailant, choking him with... with some unknown baby shaman toad powers and holding him in place so you could grab this knife and you could... and you could...

The body of the man you just stabbed lays in a bloody pile on the floor in front of you.  It was self-defense, but the reasoning behind it doesn't take anything away from the gore, the blank state of shock rendering you motionless for Maker knows how long.

Corellia is a fucking shithole, you knew that coming in.  If it was a sewer even with the Empire's shipbuilding industry boosting the economy, it's even worse after its collapse.  To circumvent any unnecessary danger or attention, you chose to land the ship in one of the dense forest areas on the outskirts of the tracking fob's radius.  But unluckily for you, rats like forests just as much as they like sewers, and one of them apparently crawled his way onto the vessel a few minutes ago.

You drop the vibroblade to the floor with a clatter and slide down the hull wall, clutching the baby to your chest and trying to calm your breathing.  There could be more of his friends close by.  What you should do is climb into the cockpit and find somewhere else to lay low, send Mando a coded message with word of your new location.

But there's a dead body in front of you.

And it's... it's dead.

Strangely, you default to something you've never actually done before.  Something you probably shouldn't ever do, in case your companion is in stealth mode or trying to hide from something, because it'll immediately give away his position.  You could theoretically get him killed, but you're not thinking straight.

Your wrist trembles as you hold it in front of your lips.  "Uh... M-Man-Mando?"

The sound of blaster fire and grunting crackles through your emergency comm link, before you hear a quick, breathless, "What's wrong?" come through the speaker.

"It, uh—" you stare down at the oddly-colored blood on your fingers, wondering how you voice is able to come out so calmly, "it s-sounds like you're busy, I'll—I'll just—"

More grunting.  A thud.  "Tell me what's wrong."

You're at a loss for words.  You take a second to look down at the dead body, before lifting your wrist back up to your mouth.  "I'm o-okay now, but I... but someone followed me into the Crest and he tried to... I-I mean he's—he's dead now, but—"

"Are you hurt?"  He suddenly sounds urgent.  It's ridiculous that he didn't actually sound urgent until now.  "Is the kid hurt?"

"We're—we're both fine, but..."  You look down at the child in your arms.  "But the baby did something I—I c-can't explain—and now he's... I-I think he's asleep..."