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It was a long shot, taking Bo back to the covert. The Armorer's less-than-positive words about her were ringing in his ears. But she truly had nothing left, and she wouldn't survive alone. He'd learned the hard way that a lone Mandalorian was like a walking bullseye.
Din coughed, wincing when he felt the sharp crack in his lungs. It still felt like he was coughing up the putrid water from the mines. Living Waters or not, it hadn't felt very good forcing its way into his chest, and it felt like he hadn't quite gotten it all up.
"I still feel like this is a bad idea," Bo's voice crackled over the comm.
"You don't have anywhere else to go. If the empire is hunting you, you'll be- "he paused as a particularly violent coughing fit overtook him. For a moment, he couldn't quite catch his breath.
"You sound awful, Djarin," Bo commented.
"St-still coughing up water."
"It's a wonder you didn't catch some kind of infection."
"We'll be in hyperspace for a while. Ping me if there's trouble," Din replied, brushing her off. He felt drained and tired. Between the blood loss from his encounter with the cyborg and his brief trip to the bottom of the springs, he'd had enough and wanted to sleep off how horrible he felt.
Grogu cooed nervously in his lap, and he patted the child's back reassuringly. "I'm all right, kid. Just tired."
He heard the kid babble to him one last time before he drifted off into a deep slumber.
In his dreams, he was surrounded by water. Everything was dark and wet and cold. He couldn't see, and he couldn't breathe. His lungs were bursting. His chest felt tight and tense. Everything ached.
Startling awake, he was immediately seized by another coughing fit. It felt like it wouldn't end this time, and he would never breathe again. Tears streamed down his face, and his vision darkened around the edges before he could take a half breath of precious oxygen. His head pounded ferociously, and sweat pooled into his armor in the most uncomfortable way possible. Something was terribly wrong; he was horrendously sick.
"B-Bo," he wheezed.
"Dank farrik, Djarin, you sound horrible."
"Th-think I caught so-"he broke off with another cough, and it felt like his lungs were shredding.
"Din, we need to get you to a healer or something. Now."
"Co-covert." He knew in the safety of his tribe, there would be a medic who could treat him. Now that he was newly baptized and freshly bound to his creed, he wouldn't break the rules again.
"Din. I'm serious. You're not going to make it. I can hear you."
"I-I'm fine," Din heaved out. He was so very tired, and somehow the nap had done little to wipe the exhaustion from his body. He could feel his eyes starting to droop.
"Din."
"'M fine," he slurred as his head slumped forward, and he drifted off again.
Din! Din, wake up now! DIN!
Din was startled awake and found himself gasping desperately for air. He had no clue how long he'd been out, but the child was crying and clinging to him.
"I-I'm f-fine, kid," he reassured.
"Djarin, listen to me. We need to stop now and get you looked at. You're not okay, and you aren't going to make it to your covert. If you don't comply, I'm sure there are some friendly New Republic rangers who wouldn't mind grounding an unregistered ship such as yours.
Din groaned and rubbed his chest, forcing his swirling brain to straighten out. It took him a moment to focus on the nav screen and determine where he was, and there had to be some refuge or sanctuary between here and his covert that he could retreat to.
Grogu cooed and reached for the nav screen. His little clawed finger tapped at a blip on the screen.
Din managed a weak chuckle. The kid was getting good with his lessons. In just a short time period, he was navigating the stars like he'd traipsed them a thousand times. He willed his shaking hands to steady as he typed a few things on the screen.
"Sending coordinates to you," Din wheezed to Bo.
He could hear her chuckle. "Really? You want to go to that dust bowl?"
"I-I know a guy," he choked out.
"Well, just hang on until we get there. Stay awake. I'm not turning off the comm line until we get there," Bo reassured gently.
*********************
Din was thankful that it was dark by the time his ship made the rough landing in Boba's hanger. A rough landing was all he could manage in his state. Over the past few hours, the oxygen seemed harder and harder to come by, and he felt like he was on fire. It had been by pure adrenalin alone that he could land, and now that the task was over, he felt so unbelievably weak he could barely keep his eyes open. The hatch opened, and he could hear Bo shouting his name. He felt hands on him as he was muscled out of the ship with every ounce of Bo's strength.
"You sound like shit," Bo said as Din struggled to maintain his footing. "And you're burning up."
He couldn't find the air to answer her.
"I can't believe you made me come here."
Din felt like he was being squeezed to death. He couldn't breathe, and there was no oxygen to pull in. He couldn't stop his vision from going black this time, and he fell unconscious. Bo-Katan's shouts for help and Grogu's wails followed him into the dark.
********************
"Din?"
Din tried to suck in a deep breath and burst into a violent coughing fit. He gasped and wheezed and could feel himself slipping away again.
"HEY! Don't you dare pass out, Tin Man!"
"F-Fen?" Din gasped. So it hadn't been a dream, and somehow he'd gotten them to Boba's palace.
"You're sick, Din. What the hell did you do?"
"He took a trip to the bottom of a long abandoned springs." Bo-Katan's voice filtered into his pounding head. "I think he inhaled too much water and nearly drowned."
"Geeze, Din." Fennec's voice was chiding, but he could catch the merest hint of concern in her tone.
"We need to get a healer here now."
“N-No!” Din gasped out.
"What?" Bo-Katan queried.
Din's vision finally cleared, and he noted that he'd been stripped of his chest plate in an attempt to ease his breathing.
"H-helmet stays o-on," he heaved over three separate breaths.
"Din, you can't be serious!" Bo-Katan moved to pull the helmet off.
"No!"
Din's and Fennec's voices overlapped as Fennec grabbed her hands and stopped her progress.
"What the hell are you doing?" The Nite Owl snapped.
"He said it stays on, so it stays on," Fennec's voice was firm.
"Are you insane? He's going to die!"
"D-Droid," Din heaved out.
"What?" Bo-Katan
"G-get-"he couldn't get a word out as his lungs convulsed and he tasted blood in his mouth.
"We need a med droid."
Bo-Katan scoffed. Where on earth are to find something like that in this dust heap?"
"There's one in Mos Espa. I can run there and fetch him," Fennec said as she moved to leave.
"N-no!" Din gasped as he summoned enough strength to grab onto her arm.
"Din, you need to be seen to. You're sick. You need help," Fennec said firmly as she tried to disengage his grip, but he hung onto her.
"S-stay."
"I can go. But we can't delay this any further," Bo-Katan insisted as she got to her feet. "I'll be back in a bit. You better hope that junk heap is still there." She turned to leave the room but paused and turned back. She observed the Mandalorian and the woman she'd only met in passing some time ago. There seemed to be a strange energy that she couldn't place between them. Without another, she left to hunt down this so-called medical droid.
"You couldn't have picked a worse time to stick to your morals," Fennec scolded gently as she moved around the bed to prop him up against some pillows.
"Went th-through all th-that trouble. Can't-can't-can't-"another cough interrupted him.
"I know. I know. Don't waste your breath," Fennec shushed gently as she moved to remove the rest of his armor sans the helmet.
"Thank you," he whispered.
"Well, I have to make sure you're comfortable."
Din shook his head and tapped his helmet.
"Oh, well, I knew how much it meant to you. You broke things off with us for it."
"S-sorry," Din wheezed.
"Don't worry about it now, Din. Someday you'll have to tell me why on earth you chose to come back here instead of finding a place with a good med facility."
He reached out and grabbed her hand. "S-s-safe h-here."
For a moment, Fennec was overcome with a wild rush of emotions. This man simultaneously made her enraged, lonely, loved, and happy. She wanted to hit him as much as she wanted to pull him close and never let go. She wanted to say a million things to him, yet she couldn't muster up the courage. It was better to hold these words close to her heart and save them for another day, another day when Din's fingertips, now free from the confines of his leather gloves, were not blue from lack of oxygen.
"Wh-where's the k-kid?" He coughed weakly. He sounded exhausted.
"With Boba," she reassured as she gently. "After you collapsed, he threw a tantrum, and Boba offered to comfort him until we could get you some help."
"Th-thank you."
Fennec observed him quickly. His armor was off, and she could still see how hard he was working to pull in oxygen. His belly heaved with every breath, accessory muscles working overtime to assist with a task that should be unconscious to him. She also noted the damp spots forming through his shirt and figured between the dangerously high fever and the sheer amount of effort it was taking for him to breathe, he must be working up a sweat.
"Here, let's get that shirt off and see if we can't cool down this fever," she said as she rose from where she was sitting on the edge of the bed and pressed a button on the panel on the wall. There were perks to living in a palace. In a few minutes, a protocol droid arrived at her door.
"How may I be of service, Lady Shand?" The sterile male voice asked.
"I need a bowl of cool water and a towel immediately," she directed.
"Right away, Miss." The droid bowed politely and tottered off to complete his errand.
Fennec returned and began to undress Din from the waist up. Her hands were gentle yet strong as she manipulated him up to pull his cloak from around his shoulders. Next, she removed his flack vest and compression shirt, and he was laid bare before her. Then, she noticed the angry mapping of redlines stemming from a nasty bruise on his arm.
"What happened here?"
"C-cyborg," Din coughed.
Fennec shook her head. "I don't even wanna know. We'll make sure the med droid looks at that too."
"I've returned with the items you requested," the droid's voice, and Fennec left his side to retrieve the bowl and cloth before returning.
Din groaned and flinched away as she dragged the freshly wetted rag down the side of his neck and along his chest and abdomen in an effort to wipe away the sweat and cool down the temperature burning like a fire within him.
"I know. I know. But we've got to get this fever to come down. You're going to burn up."
Din started coughing again, and this time he couldn't catch his breath, and he couldn't stop it. She watched his hands curl into weak fists and clutch at the bedsheets beneath him, and suddenly her stomach dropped.
Breathe. Please breathe. Breathe Din!
Her own voice was screaming in her head, but she had to remain calm for him. Quickly, she discarded the cloth and pulled him so that he was sitting straight up. She leaned him against her and felt his body convulse as he coughed and gasped. The cool beskar helm slumped weakly against the side of her head, and it was such a contrast to the rest of him. He coughed and coughed until, finally, a weak gasp pulled from his lips. She felt his full weight start to slump against her.
"Din? Din! DIN!" Fennec called in a panicked voice.
**********************
Din awoke abruptly to a sharp pain in his chest. Gasping, he flinched and pushed the hand that was rubbing its knuckles against his sternum away.
"Geeze, Din. You scared the hell out of me," she scolded.
"S-sorry," he wheezed.
He summoned every ounce of his strength. "If-if I don't-don't-" he stopped to gasp frantically.
"Din-"
"I just w-wanted you-"
"Din, stop it."
"I. Love. You," he managed to choke out.
Fennec bit her lip and blinked the moisture in her eyes away. If he wasn't so sick, she'd close her hands around his throat until he couldn't breathe. Or maybe she'd kiss him. She ached terribly as conflicting emotions slammed inside her body like they were trying to escape.
"I'm back!" Bo-Katan announced, and Fennec heard the unmistakable sound of treads on the stone floor. Relief, both that she'd been relieved of the duty to say anything in return to Din and that Bo had been able to track down the med droid filled her.
"This is the patient, yes?" The pale blue droid queried as it approached Din's bedside.
"Yes," Fennec replied and moved off the bed so that the droid could have full access to the suffering Mandalorian.
The droid ran a quick scan and projected its findings onto a holograph.
"His fever is nearing the 104-degree range. He has severe congestion in his lungs. Oxygen satting at 89%. His blood pressure and heart rate are tanking. His condition is severe. I must treat him now if I'm going to be able to save him.
"He also has an infected injection site on his left arm," Fennec pointed out.
"Of course. I will add that to his treatment plan. Now if you excuse me, I must treat him."
Bo-Katan started to leave. Fennec moved to follow but stopped. Leaning over the gasping Mandalorian, she cupped his helmet with her hands. "Now listen here. You're going to behave, and you're going to let this nice droid treat you, and you're going to let him take your helmet off because it's not a living thing, and this is the only way we can save you. You hear me?"
Din nodded weakly.
"Good. We'll be back when you feel better," she said before straightening and following Bo-Katan out of the room, closing the door behind them.
"Well, we probably have a while before we can go back in. Could I interest you in some food and some drink?" Fennec asked. "Boba has employed some of the finest chefs here."
"On Tattooine?"
"Listen, princess, I know you come from royalty. But at the end of the day, the Hutts' reign has survived an empire and now a Republic, and yours is frozen in glass. So you can continue to turn your nose up at us, but the truth is, we've been good friends with Din for a while now, and if it weren't for him and his kid, we would have blasted you clean out of the sky, and you wouldn't have known what hit you. Now, can I offer something to eat and drink?"
Bo-Katan stared the assassin down in front of her. There was a thick tension between them that one could cut it, and Bo-Katan wanted to. But she was indeed on their turf, and she knew better than to start fights in someone else's yard.
"Yes. I wouldn't mind some refreshments."
"Good girl. Now come on," Fennec replied snidely as she led the female Mandalorian down the halls.
*********************
Bo looked across the table at Fennec, who was sipping a strong ale from a goblet. Boba was propped up at the head of the table, ensuring that Grogu got his fill too. Both man and child could sense the tension.
"So, what is the nature of your relationship with Din?" Bo asked casually.
"I should ask you the same thing," Fennec replied.
"It's no secret. You were there when we helped rescue his kid from the empire. We're allies."
"Well, then you just answered your own question."
"Come now. Let's not argue in front of the kid," Boba interrupted.
"I'm just merely curious about my gracious hosts," Bo replied.
Fennec could feel rage fill her. It was taking everything in her not to jump across the table and choke the woman in front of her. She could feel Boba eyeing her down, and instead, she rose abruptly and left the table.
************************
"If you're coming to provoke me further, I should warn you, Boba is usually the one that holds me back, and he's not here," Fennec warned as she looked up from where she was sitting beside Din's door. Bo-Katan was standing in front of her.
"I wouldn't dream of it. I saw you fight back on Gideon's ship. I know you'd be a formidable opponent," Bo replied.
"You've delivered him to us. Why are you still here? Last I heard you had a palace of your own."
Bo sighed and slid down the wall to sit beside the assassin. "Not anymore. Imperial pilots bombed my home. There's nothing left of it. Din was taking me to his covert when he fell ill."
Fennec clenched and then unclenched her fists. "I'm sorry to hear that."
"Well, when you've lost your home, one tends to be a bit rude. I apologize. Din would have died if it wasn't for you. He's so deeply loyal to his creed he's willing to sacrifice everything for it, including himself."
Fennec scoffed to herself. "Yeah. Everything."
Bo studied her deeply for a moment. "You have feelings for him, don't you?"
Fennec shot her a look.
"You don't have to say anything. It's none of my business either way, and truly I could care less, but since we've been here, I see the way you look at him. I see the tenderness he shows to you. And judging by what I've seen, I suspect this has been going on a long time."
Fennec said nothing, and she could feel her jaw clench.
"It must speak volumes that other than his covert, he chose to come here when he needed help."
"We were the closest. It could have been anyone else."
"No," Bo said thoughtfully. "For him, I don't think it could be anyone else." There was an awkward pause. "You know he won't take his helmet off."
"I know. That's why your speculation is ill-perceived," Fennec retorted.
"Suit yourself," Bo replied.
********************
"Your friend here is going to make a full recovery," the droid announced.
Fennec let out a tense breath she'd been holding since they were allowed back into the room. Din looked much the same shirtless with his helmet on. But now, instead of his whole body heaving for breath, he slept peacefully, and his chest rose and fell evenly.
"Well, that's a relief. What the hell was wrong with him?" Bo asked.
"Pneumonia," the droid confirmed. "Has he inhaled a lot of water recently?"
"We had a little accident earlier today."
"He contracted a severe bacterial infection from the water he inhaled. That, combined with significant blood loss, made his immune system too weak to fight the infection."
"Dank farrik, Din," Bo said as she shook her head.
"I've given him several bacta infusions and drained his lungs. He had a little supplementary oxygen and medication to break the fever. He'll sleep through the rest of his current bacta infusion, and then he should return to his normal self."
"Well, that's a relief," Fennec replied.
"I'll get you back to where I found you," Bo told the droid before turning to Fennec. "I trust you'll keep an eye on our friend until I get back."
"Of course. Hurry back," she replied before moving to the bed where the Mandalorian slept and sitting on the edge.
Once Bo-Katan was gone, Fennec sighed and took Din's limp hand into hers.
"You drive me nuts, Tin Man. I can hardly stand you. I can hardly stand to see that shiny helmet of yours. I miss your face. I miss you. I miss whatever the hell this was between us. I knew it was bound to end eventually, one way or another, but damn, I wasn't ready to let go of it yet. I feel like a stranger to you. You feel like a stranger to me."
His hand tightened ever so slightly around hers. "Fennec?" He breathed out softly.
"I'm here, Tin Man. Just rest."
He stilled once more and, bit by bit, dropped off again into slumber. Gently, Fennec traced the side of his helmet, wishing it was his face. "I love you," she whispered to his slumbering form.