A Wrench

Chapter 24: The Man Behind the Mask

Mando doesn't even bother letting you sit in your own seat when you get back to the cockpit to leave the prison ship. Mayfield plops down with a heavy sigh, and Mando yanks your hand and pulls you down onto his lap. He gets the ship undocked, and heads off into space with his arms reaching around you. As soon as he gets the ship into hyperspace, he leans back and sighs.

"How do you feel?"

You look down at him, entirely forgetting Mayfield's existence. "Good... I think." Though it might just be the way Mando called you his wife to that prisoner in a sneering and arrogant tone. His intention was obvious, even through the modulator.

"Are you happy you did it?"

You have to think about it, think about the words you exchanged with your father. "Yes. I am. I was naïve to hold out some kind of hope that he would be happy to see me happy."

He pulls you closer in his lap, burying his helmet in your chest. "Well, now you both have closure, right?"

You nod, holding onto his helmet with your hands. Your eyes flash around the cockpit, remembering you aren't alone. And also remembering the time. You pull away from Mando's grasp, even as his hands wrap tighter around you. With a little smile on your face, you open up the sleeping pod.

"Hey big guy," you whisper.

He blinks his big eyes at you, and his little hands reach up, stretching. Your grin gets wider and you pick him up, holding his warm body to your chest.

"Feeling better? That was quite the display yesterday." He leans into your touch as you stroke one long ear.

"What happened?" Mayfield attracts his attention. He wiggles out of your arms, so you set him down on the floor. He gives Mayfield a long, searching look, then heads toward Mando still in his chair.

"I'll go get food." Mando scoops him up and heads out.

You take his seat and swivel around to face Mayfield, leaning forward and keeping your voice down. "He displayed some impressive powers. It was kind of scary."

His brow wrinkles with interest.

"We finished working on the ship last week, on Corellia." Your face falls a little. "I made a mistake with a sublight drive valve. I really thought it would work. And it did for a while. But yesterday we were using it to go from two planets in the same system. And it faltered right at the end. We made an emergency landing, but the ship was going too fast. We would have... we would have crashed." You glance toward the open door of the cockpit. "He just reached his little hands out and shut his eyes tight. Then all of the sudden the ship slowed down significantly. It felt so strange, too, like I could feel it."

Mayfield looks like how I felt at the time, impressed and terrified.

"He passed out, and Mando said he would stay asleep for a long time. I've just been checking on him periodically."

"That little green thing is way scarier than he looks." Mayfield nods.

"I felt horrible. I still feel horrible. I almost killed us." I suck in a sharp breath.

Mayfield rests his hand on my shoulder. "He's had to crash land this thing more times than I have fingers."

You breathe a laugh. "You're a good friend to him. And before you say you aren't friends, don't... I know what friends look like."

Mando comes back up the ladder with the kid, whose got a roll of crackers in his hands. You smile at Mayfield and get out of the pilot's seat so Mando can sit back down.

"You're taking me home, right?" Mayfield looks at Mando. "No more life-threatening shenanigans today?"

"Yes." His voice is flat and emotionless.