Partners | The Mandalorian

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"Hey!" Is what woke up Calidora and the child.

They both shot their eyes open, Calidora's mouth gaping and the child letting out cries in her arms.

"Where are they?!" The Mandalorian's voice shook the hangar.

"Quiet!" Peli replied, then heard the child's wails. "Oh! You woke them up."

Calidora stood up, cradling the child to her with one hand on the back of its head, and quickly went outside. Upon seeing the Mandalorian, he visibly relaxed and rushed passed Peli over to Calidora.

"I'm sorry." Was all she could say, but Peli was going to give him a piece of her mind.

"Not so fast! You can't just leave them all alone like that!" She pushed his shoulder a bit to get his attention. "You got a lot to learn about people, Huh?"

The Mandalorian was quiet so Peli continued.

"Anyway, I started the repair on the fuel leak.
There you go. I had a couple setbacks I want to talk to you about. You know, I didn't use any droids, as requested, so it took me a lot longer than I expected.
But I figured you were good for the money since you have some extra mouths to feed."

"Thank you." The Mandalorian sighed, facing Calidora again. Peli looked surprised, but not surprised enough to stop talking.

"Oh, I guess I was right. You got a job, didn't you? You know, it's costing me a lot of money to keep these droids even powered up."

While she spoke, the Mandalorian took Calidora's chin in his fingers, turning her head side to side to inspect any wounds. Calidora was a bit confused but let him anyway. He held her head to the left and nodded his head at her.

"That spotchka?"

Calidora moved her head out of his hold, tsking at him before wiping her face all over. He chuckled at her and she couldn't help but smile, the child cooing gently in her arm.

"Hey, Mando, what do you think?" A voice caught everyone's attention and the Mandalorian stepped back from Calidora.

A young man, tanned and with a confident smile on his face, stood between two speeders.

"Not too shabby, huh?" He asked, eyes trailing over Calidora. "Ma'am." He nodded at her.

The Mandalorian circled the speeders, tapping them and clearly unimpressed. It seemed to hurt the man's pride a bit.

"What'd you expect? This ain't Corellia."

The Mandalorian hopped on the one to the left before turning to Calidora.

"I'll be back soon."

She nodded and they sped off.

The child and Calidora sat with Peli and her droids for a game of cards, betting with discarded ship parts until the sun set. Eventually Calidora excused herself and retired to the Razor Crest, laying down on her cot to think.

She felt so conflicted. One the one hand, she felt Juna was the love of her life, so what was the point in running around with a Mandalorian. She felt she had to stay with Juna, respect Juna, and this running wasn't what Juna deserved. But on the other hand, she was living, what Peli said before couldn't leave her mind 'the thrill of a lifetime.' And she liked being with the Mandalorian, it was nice to have a friend, if she went back who would she have besides Juna?

And then she had to remind herself that Juna wouldn't really be there when she got back.

Calidora struggles for what felt like hours, and only came out of her mind when she heard a small ruckus outside. She sat up, strained her ear to catch anything, and when she couldn't, she got up and carefully moved outside of the small room to be met with a blaster in the face.

It was the man who came to get the Mandalorian earlier.

"Where is he?" Calidora asked, noticing Peli and the child behind him looking frightened.

"He's coming." The man smiled.

He kept them in the cockpit, spinning around in the Mandalorian's chair and twirling the blaster as Calidora, Peli, and the child sat in front of him. Sometimes, for fun, he would point the blaster at them, but really he just talked to kill the time.

"So how long've you and Mando been Bonnie and Clyding it?" Calican pointed his blaster at Calidora.

Peli opened her mouth to respond but Calidora shot her a look to shut up.

"We're not together." Calidora said.

"No?" He raised his eyebrows. "Pretty thing like you, and he doesn't jump on that?"

"He just keeps me for the child." Calidora pouted to draw attention to her lips.

"Figures." Calican continued. "Probably wouldn't be able to treat you like I could."

"I bet he couldn't." Calidora agreed and moved her hair out of her face.

Calican's eyes followed Calidora's hand as she rested it back on her thigh.

"Tell you what, how 'bout you sit here." He use the blaster to pat his lap and Calidora smiled before getting up.

She placed herself in his lap like she'd done to so many of her clients, the look of shock and horror on Peli's face showed that she didn't know what Calidora was doing. To try and loop her in, Calidora sent her a wink, and she finally relaxed a bit, holding onto the child as Calidora and Toro spoke.

Finally, from the corner of Calidora's eyes, she spotted the Mandalorian enter the hangar, which gave away to Calican. He stood up, grabbing Calidora by the waist and motioning Peli and the child up with his blaster. He lead them out of the cockpit with a smile.

"Took you long enough, Mando." They descended the ramp halfway. "Looks like I'm calling the shots now."

The Mandalorian's eyes caught Toro, then Toro's arm around Calidora's waist and his mind went back to Qe'in. He noticed she was acting the same way, but he didn't like it any more.

"Drop your blaster and raise 'em." The Mandalorian did as he was told and Calican nudged Peli, letting go of Calidora to take the child. "Cuff him."

"You're a Guild traitor, Mando." He taunted. "And I'm willing to bet that this here is the target you helped escape."

"Fennec was right. Bringing you in won't just make me a member of the Guild, it'll make me legendary."

Calidora watched Peli, who stared into her eyes before casting a look at the ground. Calidora understood, so when the Mandalorian set off a flash charge and Toro threw the child in shock, she used one hand to grab the blaster, the other to knock off his hand, and shot him.

"Stay back." The Mandalorian cut through the smoke to see Calican in a heap on the ground and the blaster in Calidora's hand.

He looked at her, and she looked at him. The same sense of adrenaline as when she killed her husband running through her. Peli ascended the ramp with the child cradled in her arms, talking to him in a baby voice. The two broke their staring contest for Calidora to hold the child and for the Mandalorian to speak with Peli. He thanked her, paid her, and they set off once again, this time to take Calidora back home.