WHILE OTHERS WORKED TOWARD HEALING

by Lux's Sister

CAST OF CHARACTERS (Italics indicate an OC)

Lux and Ahsoka Bonteri

Steela and Saw Gerrera

Captain Rex

Mina Bonteri

former King Tandin of Onderon

Hutch St. James

Hero St. James - the rebel who yelled "Look!", Hero is a woman with no verbal filter

Sierra Bonteri - the group's grifter and the youngest Bonter child, now 18 years old

Tav and Kiara Bonteri - Lux and Ahsoka's children, now 3 years and 2 months old respectively

Katooni and Molly St. James - Hutch and Hero's daughters, now 14 years and 11 months old respectively

And now, I present the story.

AHSOKA

In a rare immediate-family-only moment, it's just me, Lux, and the kids in the common room.

Lux sits on the couch rocking two-month-old Kiara, gently stroking the montral buds on the top of her head to soothe her.

I've just finished putting a dish of mac and cheese in front of Tav when a mortal scream comes from the refresher.

Lux looks over at us. "Should I investigate that?"

"I don't sense actual danger, but it might be a good idea. I would do it, but I'm busy at the moment." I hand Tav a spoon. "Here you go, Tav. One macaroni and cheese for your late lunch."

Tav dubiously pokes the macaroni with his spoon. "This isn't the way Grandma makes it."

"It's Grandma's recipe," I reply. Come on Tav, you gulp down anything Mina makes…

"I like when Grandma makes it better."

And there it is. Never mind that Mina actually did cook this mac and cheese, and I scooped it out of a leftovers container in our fridge and warmed it up for him. In Tav's little mind, if Mina didn't serve it to him then she didn't make it.

Tav frowns at the macaroni and cheese. "Yucky mac and cheese."

"You need to eat lunch."

"Kiara doesn't!"

"Kiara's a baby. She eats on a different schedule," I explain. "Since you're a big boy, you need to eat enough to grow."

"Yucky…"

I raise an eye marking at Lux.

"Tav, we're going to have a talk after I check on whatever happened in the refresher," he says, resting Kiara against his shoulder. "Let's go for a walk, sweetheart."

He doesn't have to. The door slams open and Saw comes in, soaking wet and looking very, very disturbed.

Lux sticks his neck out. "Saw, were you just in the refresher?"

"Bonteri, we need a new ship."

In that instant a giant red carpet of opportunity rolls out in front of me. Has Saw just thrown me a bone in one of Lux's and my recent marital disagreements? By the force, I think he has! "We really do, Lux."

"What?" Lux blinks. "No we don't. This ship is great!"

Saw gives him a withering look. "We literally call this thing Piece of Crap."

I gesture to Kiara, napping on Lux's shoulder. "Where's she going to sleep when she gets older? She and Molly are too little to share with the single ladies."

"Well," Lux sputters. "W-we can move her and Molly into Tandin's room -."

"You mean Tandin's closet," I correct him.

"And where's Tandin gonna sleep? The six inches of floor space between Rex's and my beds? The tub? Oh, and speaking of that, I've had enough of our fresher door that doesn't lock. Katooni and I were both horribly scarred a few minutes ago."

My other eye marking goes up. "How did that happen?"

"Katooni, well," he shuffles his feet. "She walked in on me while I was in the shower."

…

According to Saw, the situation started off normally. He likes to listen to music in the shower, so he grabbed our music player, set it up, and hopped in the shower to wash.

In his hurry to get to the shower, he says, he completely forgot that Katooni's music chip was still in the port. He didn't want to get out of the shower to fetch his own, so he decided to listen to hers this once.

Something to know about Katooni's music: every song on her music chip is an earworm. I can't count how many times Steela and Sierra have threatened to destroy it if she doesn't use headphones. Three songs in, and Saw was dancing as he washed his hair, forming his tresses into a bona fide shower Mohawk.

Before I could ask what he was doing making a shower Mohawk, he launched into the next part of the story: about halfway through the shower Mohawk's creation, Katooni opened the refresher door.

In the shower stood Saw. Scrubbing his armpits and swaying to the tune of catchy pop music. Shower curtain pulled back so he could hear the music. Wearing nothing but a shower Mohawk.

"AAAAAAA!"

Saw's eyes popped open and he noticed he was no longer alone. "AAAAAA!"

Katooni was too frozen by the horrible picture to move. All she could do was scream over the music.

"Get out of the fresher!" Saw yelled, grabbing the shower curtain and using it to cover himself, Shower Mohawk still horrendously intact.

Katooni turned on her heel and ran, slamming the door behind her.

…

I cast a look at Lux.

"You have to admit that's an actual problem."

"We can buy a lock," Lux says weakly.

"Lux, this ship worked we were just a bunch of couples. But since then, we've added four kids. I like it here too, but…" I shrug. "We need more room."

Saw looks first at me, then at Lux.

"Bonteri, how about you go over to the St. Jameses and bring this up with Hutch and Hero?" he suggests. "Because I'm sure that will go over very, very well."

After that suggestion, it takes about two seconds for Lux to deflate.

"Okay," he says forlornly. "I guess we could use some more bunks, but we can't afford something like a new ship!"

"We can if we take another job."

"Ahsoka, it's only been two months since we went on hiatus for Kiara's birth."

"And Steela's fingers are already getting itchy. She tried to pickpocket me yesterday. Said she needed practice," Saw scoffs. "Sierra and Katooni have probably been robbed blind."

"Shouldn't we wait just a little longer?" he wheedles.

"No rest for the weary," I chirp and strut over to Hutch's computer to check the multiple files for prospective jobs he compiled. Steela's not the only one going nuts from boredom. "Let's see who's next on Hutch's sin list. Who's embezzling, who's funneling, and who's just plan – oh, this one's good."

Saw cranes his neck. "Who is it?"

"I'll ask Hutch for the details," I say sweetly, grabbing the holodisk. "Lux, mind talking to Tav about that macaroni and cheese?"

Lux's face falls, and I feel a twinge of pity. We have to move, we have to take a job, and he completely forgot about Tav. But honestly, I have been in Macaroni and Cheese Hell, PB&J Hell, and Chicken Nugget Hell, for weeks. It's about time Lux took a turn dealing with his son at lunchtime.

…

On my way to go ask Hutch about the potential mark, I make absolutely certain that there's no way we can back out of the job or getting a new ship.

"Hey Sierra."

"Yeah?"

"We're moving."

Sierra looks up from her holobook. "We are?" I nod. "But how are we going to pay for it?"

I wave the holodisk at her. "I just have to talk to Hutch, but if everything checks out then we have a job."

She drops her holobook, scrambles across her side of the room and yanks out her blue alias binder. "I'm on it, Ahsoka. Thanks for letting me know. Hey Steela!"

So far, the plan's working perfectly.

Steela takes out her headphones and stops picking the small lock in her hands. "What is it?"

"We're getting a new ship!"

"We are? Does that mean I'm finally going to get some privacy?"

"By that, you mean your own room?" I shake my head. "You're probably out of luck there."

"Stuck with me," Sierra gloats and starts flipping through the alias binder.

"Well I get the better bunk next time," Steela negotiates and stretches. "Ahsoka, when are we moving and where are the credits coming from?"

"You'd better get your rigs together, because we're taking a job."

It takes a second for it to sink in, but when it does Steela tosses the lock onto her nightstand and slides her bag of rigs out from under the bed. "Finally! For a while I thought Lux was going to retire us."

"Not on my watch." We can't even take two months off without going stir-crazy, I don't know how we would begin to handle full-blown retirement. "You two get ready; I need to go talk to Hutch and Hero."

"Oh, that'll be a trip," Steela rolls her eyes. "Did you hear about what happened in the refresher this morning? On our next ship, we really need a locking door."

LUX

"Our mark, for the job we are so taking, is Abitha Frey."

Hutch twirls the remote in his hands and considers each of us in turn. Sierra, Saw, and Steela are practically vibrating from excitement, Tandin and Mom are sitting quietly but with rapt attention, Rex is at attention, and Hero's devoting all her attention to eleven-month-old Molly.

Ahsoka, for her part, smiles smugly at me. Some things never change.

"She's a board member for the Imperial Academies in the Core," Hutch continues. "She mainly oversees the one on Kuat, given it's her homeworld, but she has significant leverage over everything in the Core."

"That's not a crime," Steela points out. "Why pick her over the Drive Yards of Kuat? They're all Imperial run and I bet anything we could make a mint over there."

"Here's why. In the industrious spirit of Kuat, Frey cuts corners to shave cred off the school's expenses. The weird thing is that the extra money doesn't go back to the Empire. It just kinda falls off the grid."

"Have you checked her payroll? If she's giving herself raises and/or bonuses, then she keeps all the dirty money within the sphere of the budget. It's like the ultimate money laundering." Sierra suggests.

Hutch shakes his head. "My best guess? She liquidated it and she's got it in a vault somewhere. The problem is figuring out which transactions she used to get it into credit form, because so far they all look legit."

"Legitimate business is one of the best places to hide dirty money," I muse.

"Yeah, and the money's dirty in more ways than one. These corners she's cutting really can't be cut: it's the stuff for the cadets. She's skipping on medical checkups, school supplies, even basic utilities for the barracks. These kids can't learn in a place like that, so they score lower. And instead of fixing what actually needs to be fixed, Frey just throws more tests at them. The Empire isn't going to be good to them if they flunk out. She's basically ruining their lives."

"If she's so bad, then how does she still have a job?" Saw asks. "In the Royal Militia, things like that never would have slid."

"Oh, it's the usual runaround. She keeps everything just this side of legal, cleans up right before inspections, uses shell companies for things she's supposed to be ordering that just send the money straight into the void. And you can forget about the teachers; she fires anybody who tries to stick up for the kids. Heck, she got rid of one yesterday."

"Wow, that's a shining example of care for one's charges."

"Touché. Since we need some quick and easy cred, and since my fatherly instincts are compelling me to chuck this woman into a black hole, then she's out best bet."

"And Kuat has plenty of ships to buy. We could do the job, get the new one, and sell Piece of Crap all in one fell swoop," Ahsoka announces. "Lux, thoughts?"

I sigh. I don't want to leave Piece of Crap, and I'm still prickly over the topic, but if I don't give in now my crew just might commit mutiny and do it anyway.

And as an added plus, I'm starting to get a little angry at Abitha Frey's life-ruining scheme.

"I guess we can do it for the kids," I agree, the opportunity for a joke striking at the perfect time. "But it's only a short job, and no sudden child acquisitions!"

Rex stops. "What makes you say that?"

I cross my arms and smirk at him. "Well, since you and Steela are now officially together, then I just wanted to make sure that you two didn't get any ideas if you saw a really cute orphaned cadet. It's a bit early to be having kids."

The entire room bursts out laughing, and Rex turns bright, bright red.

"Lux, no!"

Exactly one second later, Steela nails me in the face with a pillow.

The vote I proposed at the end of Lost Lamb has come back with a unanimous result: more While Others. And to that, I give you While Others number eight!

Unlike the others, this story has two parts: Part One, which should seem familiar, as well as Part Two, which is a little bit more humorous in the style of WOFS and WOFTD. I'd like you to know that it was a blast writing that part especially.

Thank you to everyone who voted, and please review!

Until next time,

LS