AN: The show "Star Wars Rebels" is meant for kids. I'm a teacher, I watch these things to keep "current" but as a Star Wars nerd, I couldn't help but fall in love with it. So here are a little more...adult (nothing too salacious! PG-13 max!) additions to the episodes of season 3. Mostly focusing on the "adults" in the show: Kanan and Hera, because I don't think they can really get into the two of them on screen because, again, kids show. I ramble. I own nothing. I don't know where this is going, and I hope you enjoy. PS: bold words are lines from the show

Chapter 1: Steps into Shadow, Steps into Light

"On many long journeys have I gone.

And waited, too, for others to return from journeys of their own.

Some return; some are broken;

some come back so different only their names remain."

-Yoda, Dark Rendezvous

Grief. Everyone handled it differently. That's why she was in the Ghost, working on power relays that were probably fine, and Ezra was taking every mission he could get his hands on and why Kanan was…meditating. She knew that being Jedi again would change things for him - for all of them. But some things never changed. Hera's method of grieving was fixing things, taking action. Ezra's was to throw himself into something dangerous. Sabine drew - not painted - when she was truly grieving. Zeb ate. And Kanan? Kanan distanced himself from everyone and everything and meditated. Usually, he didn't distance himself from her, but this time things were different. Being a Jedi had changed him, but it had merely resulted in more time meditating and a bit more serious mien. This blindness was…it was going to be the biggest change they'd ever had to deal with. So it made sense that the grieving process was…different.

Hera had let him have his mental space. She'd let him meditate and pull away. But she'd had enough this afternoon and finally spoke up about it. It wasn't that she needed him back - though it would be nice to have him back in his co-pilot's seat - Ezra needed him. Desperately. And Kanan couldn't see it.

"Bad choice of words there." She told herself ruefully. "You'd think a Jedi would be able to sense when his Padawan was close to spinning off the rails."

Speaking of which, she needed to be in the command center. The team would have reached the junkyard by now. What Hera wouldn't give to have Kanan there, if only to provide one of his millions of witty one-liners when, inevitably, things went wrong. She sighed and made her way to the command center, reminding herself that her personal problems would have to wait. The Rebellion - the mission - came first. She and Kanan had decided that years ago…

"Okay, I know this is a ruse and all but…we're good together." Kanan said softly, handing her a cup of caf.

Hera sighed. She'd known this conversation had been coming the minute he offered to join her crew. Still, for more than two years now he'd been nothing but a professional and a friend. In that time, Hera had not only come to trust him with her life, but she'd done the unthinkable and fallen for him. But there was a war on. She didn't have time for that sort of thing. "Kanan…"

He held up a hand. "Hear me out, Hera. I know, for you, the mission has to come first. And I'm okay with that. I respect that. I'm not talking a big change here. Just…after this mission, we continue to act…married."

"How is that not a big change?" Hera asked, incredulous.

"Has anything really felt all that different?" He countered.

She opened her mouth to argue and closed it. They'd been running an operation posing as a married couple for two weeks. Other than calling each other endearments on occasion, and a handful of kisses, nothing about their behavior had changed. "What brought this on?" She changed tactics. This was a territory she had hoped to steer clear from.

"This morning." Kanan sighed. "I can't…I can't get it out of my head."

Hera shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant when she was anything but, "We got carried away undercover. Momentarily."

"Hera, we were alone in our room. The only reason I was even in the bed was because you insisted. And I don't know how we got…entangled like that, but I do know that we both made the first move when we woke up." He looked down. "If it isn't mutual, we never have to talk about this again." Kanan raised his head and looked at her in the eyes with a confidence that wasn't cocky, but hopeful. "I don't think I'm wrong in thinking that this is mutual."

Hera sighed. They had grown so close the last couple of years. She trusted him with her life, didn't it make sense to also trust him with her heart, which was clearly what the traitorous organ wanted? "It was mutual." She admitted. "But we have to take this slow. And the mission has to come first."

"I agree." He smiled, one of those adorable, truly happy smiles that he seemed to reserve just for her. "How do we…seal this agreement?"

"I can think of a few ways." Hera grinned, pulling him toward herself and capturing his lips with a kiss.

From that day on, they'd simply been together. Their relationship had progressed slowly, and almost completely in the shadows. Hera was sure her shipmates knew of their involvement…well, maybe not Ezra. Every time they'd been together since he joined their crew, they'd done it when the kids were gone. Which is what they'd usually be doing now. Except Kanan was…not really around.

"Captain. Commander Bridger has missed his check-in." Sato reported as she walked in.

"Get him on the com." Hera shook her head, wondering what the youngest member of her family had gotten himself into this time.

Hera listened as Ezra evaded her questions and was clearly not following orders. He was in so much trouble when they got him back. Maybe he was just too young to have command right now, especially after the loss of Kanan's sight and Ahsoka at the hands of Maul and Vadar. Now they would have to mobilize the fleet to go pull him out of trouble. Again. Hera walked into the Ghost's bridge and gasped in surprise.

"Kanan?" She asked.

"Ezra's in trouble." He said. "Let's go."

Hera thought about asking him how he knew that as she completed the pre-flight, but figured it had to be some kind of Jedi thing. Instead, she just let him know how she was feeling. "It's good to have you back."

"How long?" Kanan asked as they entered hyperspace.

"About half an hour." Hera replied and turned to look at him. "Are you really back?"

"Yes." He nodded. "I'm sorry if the distance…hurt you."

"I know how you deal with things. And if it was just the two of us, I'd have given you longer before I pushed you to rejoin the world. But…" Hera trailed off.

"Ezra." Kanan said softly. "I know."

"Not just Ezra. Sabine needs you. So does Zeb, though he'd never admit it." She replied.

"And you?"

Hera smirked. "I should think I've made that pretty obvious."

When Kanan and Ezra had returned from Malachor, Kanan had told her everything that had happened. She hadn't wanted to know, to put faces to the evil in her nightmares that tried to take her family from her, but she knew he needed someone to tell, someone to listen. Mere days into his recovery, their physical relationship resumed - which they learned quickly that Kanan's blindness was a non-issue in that area. Of course, those encounters had all arisen from nightmares - both his and hers - and stemmed from a need to remind each other that they both still lived. But things had been far from normal in every other aspect of their lives.

Kanan looked down, in a sign Hera knew was guilt. "I'm sorry. I've been…using you."

"And I've been using you." Hera said softly. "I haven't heard either of us complaining, love. It's part of being…what we are. We're there for each other. It's what we've needed to get through this. And whatever you need is freely given."

"Still…"

She sighed and tried a new tactic. "So, next time I have a nightmare, I should, what, do nothing? Then not sleep. And then the next night, it happens again, and I don't sleep again. What happens if my exhaustion catches up with me during a mission? Everyone deals with things in their own way. Part of what helps me get through the nightmares of almost losing you and Ezra is reassuring myself by checking on Ezra and then making sure you are well and truly alive and back with me. Neither of us is taking more than the other is offering, and both of us need it. Is it any different for you?"

"No." Kanan still sounded defeated.

"Then there is nothing to feel guilty over. Do you truly think there is something wrong about us, Kanan Jarrus?" Hera demanded.

"No!" He replied, fiercely.

"Then you have nothing to be guilty about. Don't let the loss of your eyes blind you to the truth: you could have come back with no arms and no legs and it wouldn't change how I feel about you. It wouldn't change how anyone in this family feels about you."

Kanan smirked. "Is this the 'enough with the self-pity, get off your ass' talk?"

Hera grinned, delighted to hear the witty, sarcastic humor of her beloved Jedi coming back. "You knew it was coming."

"I did." He grabbed her hand and kissed it gently. "But thanks."

"You can thank a girl better than that. But later. Right now, we've got to focus. We'll probably need to rescue the kids."

"Probably?" Kanan turned towards her and Hera knew he was raising an eyebrow beneath his mask.

She shrugged. "A girl can hope."