Broken Dreams

Job Hunting

"Sorry, kid, no openings."

"Not even a cleaner?"

The Besalisk shook his head. "Not even a cleaner."

Ahsoka sighed. "Thanks anyway." He nodded.

She turned and left the restaurant. "Check that one off the list," she muttered. Padmé leaned out the speeder window.

"Anything?" She called. Ahsoka shook her head and hopped in. "Where to next, then?"

"You don't have to do this, you know. I could take the tram."

"I like to get out of the house. So where are we going?"

Ahsoka grinned. "Tangletown."

She'd been job hunting for a few days now. The only opening she'd come across had been at a less...savory establishment. That one she had turned down quickly. She was looking for work, but she wasn't that desperate.

They sped through the crowded airways. Ahsoka half expected a breathless Anakin to drop down on the back of the speeder and yell "Go! Go! Go!" The thought made her chuckle.

Padmé pulled up next to a shopping center, busy with servants buying provisions for the week. Ahsoka hopped out. "I'll only be a few minutes, we can get back after this." Padmé nodded and raised the speeder roof.

Ahsoka stepped into a café and headed for the counter. "Hey, droid," she said to the WA-7 wiping a cup. "Is there anyone here I can speak to about a job?"

"Yeah, honey, let me go get him," she buzzed. She set down the cup and rolled away through the back doors. Ahsoka filled with excitement.

A large Ortoran sidled through the back doors, huge stomach barely fitting. He stepped up to the counter. The WA-7 rolled back and grabbed the cup, then left them to their business. The Ortoran laid his wide hands on the blue surface.

"So, you want a job," He said through the translator on his head.

Ahsoka nodded. "Yes, sir."

He regarded her for a moment. "Can you lift heavy things? You look a little small for manual labor."

"I'm stronger than I look."

He grinned. "You're hired. Delivery work. Seven sharp three days from now."

She let out a relieved breath. "Thank you, sir. You won't regret this."

She turned to leave, but something drew her gaze to one of the back tables. Someone was hunched over a glass of spatchka, hat low, fingering what appeared to be a small pen.

Ahsoka shook off whatever her paranoid senses were yelling at her and made for the door again. Upon pushing it open, she came face-to-face with a police droid. Startled, she froze.

"Ahsoka Tano," the droid said, "You are under arrest. Do not resist."

"What?" She cried. "But I haven't—"

"Do not resist." He turned her around and cuffed her so quickly she didn't have a chance to protest, and since she was lightsaberless, she couldn't fight back.

After the droid had shoved her into his speeder, Ahsoka got a chance to twist around and look for Padmé.

Another police droid was standing beside her speeder, gesturing at Ahsoka occasionally. Padmé was shaking her head and pointing towards the café. The droid marked something on a datapad and returned to the police car. He opened her door and pressed a button on his datapad. Her cuffs fell off.

"You are free to go," he said monotonously. "We apologize for the misunderstanding."

Ahsoka stumbled back to Padmé's speeder, rubbing her orange wrists. The two drove away quickly, and when Ahsoka opened her mouth to speak, Padmé shushed her.

"What—" she whispered again. Padmé gave her a fierce look, and she shut up.

Once they were relatively far from the district, Padmé pulled over and leaned out the window. She emerged with a recording device. The Togruta's mouth dropped open, and her friend dropped it on the dashboard and crushed it.

"How did you know?"

"Their police car got close enough to mine that I knew they were bugging me," Padmé said. She paused. "Ahsoka, do you know why they tried to arrest you?"

She began to shake her head, then stopped as it dawned on her—of course they were trying to arrest her; she'd been a Quiet member. She had a kill count, for crying out loud. And despite the fact that the people she had been assigned to kill were ruthless criminals and slavers, any one of her numerous offenses could have her in jail for life.

Unless she cleared her name, and fast.

~

Anakin was near falling asleep at the table when a loud banging at the door startled him out of his sleepy haze. The twins looked up from their cereal, frightened. He gave them a reassuring look and went to the peephole.

The person standing there had a wide-brimmed hat concealing everything but their chin pulled low over their face, was dressed in full black, and was fiddling with a--what even was that? A pen?

He pulled the door open a crack. "Can I help you?"

They didn't answer.

"Who are you?"

Slowly, ever so slowly, they turned and walked back to the lift without saying a word. Anakin reached into his concealed pocket and gripped his lightsaber. As the lift doors closed, they saluted him, and then they were gone.

Anakin stood by the door for a while longer, white-knuckling his lightsaber, until he felt a small tugging at his pant leg. He looked down, and there was Leia, bouncing on her toes. He shook himself and picked her up. She frowned at him, sensing the waves of tensity radiating off him. He put up his mental shields and smiled at her.