Fic: If You Don't Go You'll Never Know (Star Wars, Kallus/Zeb)

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Title: If You Don't Go You'll Never Know
Fandom: Star Wars
Pairing: Kallus/Zeb
Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Star Wars. It's not my toy box and I'm merely playing.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: On Hoth fic. An Imperial plot to capture Alex gives him and Zeb an unexpected daughter.
A/N: Written for HixyStix for the Kalluzeb Summer Exchange.
Warning: Alex's parents being horrible people in this fic, but this has a happy ending and turned out way more domestic than I'd originally planned.


If You Don't Go You'll Never Know:

Hoth is miserable. He needs to wear shoes! Well okay, they’re more of a sandal crossed with a snowshow, but Zeb still needs to wear them. He’d managed to go barefoot on Bahryn, but not here, not on Hoth!

The only good thing about Hoth is he gets to share a room with Alex. There’s only one bed, it’s barely big enough to fit both of them comfortably, but it’s theirs. The base is still being built and there are very few people permanently assigned to it yet, but he and Alex share a room. It’s a small thing, but it makes Zeb smile when he thinks about it.

Alex is part of the intelligence team permanently assigned to Hoth. Zeb is assigned to Hera’s team with Chopper, Rex, and Wolffe. Sabine and Fenn join them when they can. They've been mostly acquiring and running supplies to Hoth. It needs to be more hospitable than it is before they move the majority of the Rebellion in. Still, Zeb is more than happy to spend a few cycles on base with Alex, even if he needs to wear shoes.

He pauses in the doorway to the Intelligence Office. Alex doesn’t look up, but Zeb sees his shoulders relax. As Zeb makes his way over to Alex’s desk Alex pauses the holo he’s watching, then reaches back and pulls a chair forwards. Zeb sets the tray he’s carrying on a clean area of the desk, picks up his bowl of soup and sits down. Alex murmurs a greeting as he frowns at the holo that’s playing again. Zeb reaches over and squeezes his hand. Alex squeezes back even though he’s clearly analyzing the holo he’s watching. Zeb knows that when Alex reaches a stopping point he’ll eat and start asking Zeb how he's been. Zeb eats a bit of his soup as he enjoys the concentration on Alex’s face. If Alex isn’t just shutting down the holo then it’s not classified. Zeb glances at it and stills. Alex is watching ads, holonet ads, and the couple on the one that’s playing look familiar. He’s only seen one holo of Alex’s parents, but this is definitely them. They’re holding a small human child. She looks only slightly bigger than Jacen. She got dark brown hair braided down her back with ribbons and a bow that matches her overly lacy dress. Zeb frowns, how is she supposed to play in that? She must be a relative because she’s the same pout to her lips that Alex sometimes gets. Her eyes are dark and there’s something familiar about her face that Zeb can’t place.

Alex pauses the holo and closes his eyes with a pained look. Zeb makes a noise of concern and reaches out with one hand to cup his face, rubbing his thumb over Alex’s cheek. Alex turns his head and kisses Zeb’s palm. “I’m grateful you’re here.”

“That bad?”

“It’s a trap,” Alex says, indicating the paused holo. “One set specifically to catch my attention.”

Zeb feels his ears flick up in concern. “What do you need?”

With most of the Spectres on Hoth they’re available to assist Alex if he needs it. He’s sure Hera would want to help, especially if a child is involved.

Alex sighs and reaches up to squeeze Zeb’s hand. “Right now, eating with you and letting what I’ve just figured out settle so I can think about it clearly will help.”

“What’d you figure out?” Zeb asks as he pauses to give Alex’s hand a squeeze back and then starts eating his soup again.

Alex picks up his own bowl and stirs it thoughtfully for a moment. He sets it on his desk and picks up one of the rolls from the tray. He breaks off a piece and dips it into his soup before eating it. His nose wrinkles slightly as he clearly thinks how best to phrase what he can tell Zeb. He eats for another moment before he asks, “You know that the Kaminoans were the ones to make the clone armies for the Republic?”

“Yeah.” Rex and Wolffe don’t talk about growing up on Kamino often, but when they do it makes Zeb wish he could give them both easier childhoods.

“There’s a company using their cloning tech to make children for an exorbitant amount of money,” Alex continues. “They can clone someone, but the more popular option seems to have them grow a child that is from two or three parents.”

Zeb wishes he didn’t have a bad feeling about where this is going.

“The ad,” Alex explains, indicating the paused holo, “is my parents commending the methods used to make them a grandchild after the tragic loss of their son.”

Alex is an only child.

“It’s a trap,” Zeb surmises.

“It is,” Alex agrees as he stops eating to stare at the holo, a pensive look on his face.

Zeb sets his empty bowl down and hands Alex the second roll.

“You don’t…” Alex starts to ask as he takes it.

Zeb shakes his head. “It’s that bread I don’t like.”

“Thanks.”

Zeb grins and Alex smiles back then starts eating again. Zeb shifts his chair so he can face Alex more fully, then shifts Alex’s chair. Alex raises his eyebrows, but continues eating. Zeb cups Alex’s knee and lets his hands warm it. He watches as Alex closes his eyes. Zeb nods to himself. He considers pointing out to Alex that the medics would give him something for the pain in his previously injured leg, but they both know the cold of Hoth is aggravating it and that unless it starts impeding Alex’s movement he’ll do his best to ignore the discomfort. Zeb keeps his hands on Alex’s knee until he feels Alex start to relax further, then he starts to pull back. Alex’s hands grab his and presses it back against his knee. Zeb smiles. “Got something for you.”

“Yeah?”

Alex doesn’t resist this time when Zeb pulls a hand away to reach into his jacket. He actually has to wear a jacket over his jumpsuit. It’s thinner than most peoples’ and it’s more comfortable than the shoes, but a jacket! Hoth is ridiculous. He turns the heating pack on, then shows the settings to Alex and the charging port. He carefully lays it over Alex’s knee.

“Where did you get that?” His eyes are closed and there’s a small smile on his face.

“Liberated from some Imperials. Two whole crates. The medics are thrilled and I got told to give this one to you.”

“Thank you.”

Zeb smiles.

Alex smiles back at him before he rests a hand on the heating pack to keep it in place and uses his other hand to open the lower drawer of his desk. He pulls out a scarf knitted in several hues of purple and wraps it around Zeb’s neck. Then he pulls out a matching hat and hands it over.

“This has holes for my ears.”

“The one I made Hera had holes for her lekku,” Alex points out.

“Do I want to know how many other Twi’leks have requested hats once they saw hers?”

“It’s relaxing and thankfully people have started bringing yarn when they have requests,” Alex shrugs before he reaches into his drawer again and pulls out another hat. “Here, you’ll probably see Sabine before I do.”

Zeb grins at the hat for Sabine. It’s mostly light blue with her signature starbird done up in orange. “She’s going to love this.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Alex smiles again and closes his drawer. Zeb tries on his hat and grins when it fits. Maybe Hoth isn’t so bad if it’s got Alex making him gifts to keep him warm.

He watches as Alex frowns at the holo again. “When do we rescue the girl? Do we know anything about her?”

“If she’s with my parents they’d at least hire a nanny, but this is clearly a trap so there’s probably a security team as well. If she’s on Coruscant...she wouldn’t be though because that would negate a rescue attempt. I don’t know if she even needs rescue and we wouldn’t authorize that for one…” Alex stops thinking out loud as he grabs a datapad.

“Shouldn’t she be younger than Jacen?” Zeb asks.

“Rex and Han Solo should be the same age,” Alex points out.

“Yeah, I think Rex is getting sick of Han joking about that,” Zeb comments. “So we don’t know how old she really is.”

“Or they aged her up and stopped it. I’m researching their procedure now. If they’ve got a way to stop the accelerated aging then that’d be enough for a mission,” Alex says.

“It would?” Zeb would welcome a solution to Rex and Wolffe aging twice as fast as they should, but they’re two people in the whole Rebellion, would a mission really get sanctioned over this?

“If we get a solution to the clone aging, then we can put word out about it, maybe get some surviving clones to come out of hiding. Enough of them might stick around and help the Rebellion, so yes I could probably get a mission approved.”

“That’d be really good for Rex and Wolffe.”

Alex nods his agreement as he frowns at his datapad. Abruptly he stops and sets it down. “I’m sorry. You’re here and this isn’t going anywhere.”

“It’s a kit Alex, one that might need help,” Zeb says gently so Alex will know he understands. “I’m not planning on going anywhere, just please tell me you stop to eat something when I’m not here.”

“I’m not allowed to skip lunch.”

“What?”

“I’m not sure what Chopper said to the other astromechs, but the ones that don’t get regular memory wipes will come down here and chuck a ration bar at my head if I haven’t stopped to get lunch by a certain time. They have a schedule to keep track of my schedule,” Alex informs him.

Zeb laughs. He’s going to have to thank Chopper.

“You got adopted by that bucket of bolts faster than I did,” Zeb wheezes happily.

“Either that or he enjoys knowing things will get thrown at my head.”

“Knowing Chopper, probably both,” Zeb concedes.

Alex chuckles then shakes his head, before he opens his top drawer and pulls out a datacard. He holds it out towards Zeb.

“You found more Lasats.”

“I think I have,” Alex says.

Zeb wets his lips as he takes the datacard and tucks it into an inner pocket. “You haven’t been wrong yet.”

“You and the Spectres will leave in a cycle or two.”

Zeb leans forwards to rest his forehead against the side of Alex’s head. “Let me take this to Hera. I’ll come back with my datapad and we can figure out if you have a daughter.”

“She is. I’ve confirmed that much.”

Zeb worries at Alex’s carefully neutral tone and the sudden tension in his shoulders. Zeb sighs and runs a hand over Alex’s back.

“Yours and someone else’s?” he guesses. “Doesn’t change the fact that she’s also yours.”

Zeb rubs his forehead against the side of Alex’s face as he feels his boyfriend begin to relax again.

“One of my first missions with the Rebellion was to take my leave on Coruscant and visit my family with my ‘boyfriend’ in tow. I knew my parents were convinced we were smitten with each other, but not enough that they’d be able to do something like this.”

Zeb suddenly realizes who the little girl looks like. “Cassian.”

Cassian’s been dead for years. Cassian isn’t ever going to get to know he had a kit. Sure, she's a genetically engineered kit set up as a trap to catch a Fulcrum agent, but still a kit. Zeb isn’t sure if the thought makes him sad or angry on both Alex’s and Cassian’s behalf.

“Yeah,” Alex confirms. “It let him make contacts on Coruscant and bring other people in.”

Zeb looks at the holo of Alex’s parents holding a little girl again and feels nothing but determination to rescue her. He doesn’t know where she’ll stay after or how that will affect both his and Alex’s work with the Rebellion, but they’ll figure it out. Hera has a rotating schedule, that only she knows, for where and whom she hides Jacen with; maybe she can teach him and Alex to do the same.

In an attempt to reassure Alex as much as himself Zeb says, “I’ll take the datacard to Hera, she can get Rex and Wolffe to help her plan the Spectre mission and then I’ll come back here with my datapad and we’ll figure out how to present a mission that won’t get anyone captured in an obvious tr…”

“What?”

“Isn’t Sana scheduled to be here in a few cycles?” Zeb asks.

Alex smirks. “She’s talented when it comes to infiltration.”

“Infiltration and fast thinking her way out of a situation,” Zeb agrees.

Alex nods, then leans in to kiss him. It’s a brief kiss since they’re in the middle of the intelligence room, but it still makes Zeb smile. Zeb pats Alex’s shoulder, stands, and then leans in to get one more kiss before he sets off to find Hera to let her know they have an upcoming mission to plan.

Hera takes the datacard and then listens to his explanation of the mission Alex is researching. Her face goes stoney and she orders Chopper to follow her. She’s going to talk to Alex. Zeb goes to his and Alex’s room to grab his datapad and when he joins Alex he catches the tailend of Hera’s questions. She nods then leaves. Chopper stays, already plugged in and sorting through data. Zeb and Alex are just starting to settle into work when Hera comes back with Rex and Wolffe. Alex stares. “You guys don’t have to give up your downtime for me.”

“You’re trying to find a way to help us,” Wolffe points out as he takes a chair from an empty desk.

“You’re family Kal,” Rex reminds him.

“Thanks,” Alex smiles.

Rex nods.

It’s towards the end of the workday so it’s not difficult to wrangle some chairs and set up a workspace for all of them. With all of them working together it only takes a few hours to get a mission proposal and plan together.

The next morning all of them crowd onto the Ghost to go over the information Alex put together about possible Lasat refugees. It doesn’t take long to put a plan together. As the group disperses, to take a few hours of downtime, Hera motions for Alex and Zeb to stay.

“Any parenting questions?” she asks with a sympathetic face.

“Didn’t you already have this conversation with Bey?” Alex stresses. “Perhaps we should have you put a presentation together.”

Hera raises an eyebrow.

Alex apologizes and scrubs at his face. Hera reaches over to pat his hand. Zeb presses close to Alex’s side trying not to feel conflicted. Part of him is excited about the prospect of the two of them becoming parents. Another part of him is slowly filling with anxiety. Yes, it’s not the most ideal time to have responsibility to a child while they’re both fighting a war, but he knows he wants to spend the rest of his life with Alex, so they’ll find a way to make it work. Part of him is starting to realize how little he and Alex have talked about their plans for the future. They’ve never talked about what they want to do after the war, if they manage to live and win. Zeb wants to live on Lira San, but Alex doesn’t even know about Lira San. He knows Zeb takes the Lasat refugees to the same place, but maintains it’s safer if he doesn’t know where it is. What if Alex feels just as strongly about where he wants to settle after the war?

“Why don’t you both take some downtime,” Hera suggests. Her face says it’s a suggestion, her tone doesn’t.

When they get to their room Alex starts pacing the length of it. Zeb strips down to his jumpsuit and sits on the bed. He watches Alex for a moment before he suggests, “Do you want to knit?”

“This is…” Alex starts and then pauses to consider knitting. He shakes his head. “No, this is definitely a pacing situation.”

“We all help with Jacen when Hera needs us to,” Zeb reminds. “We’ll have a support system.”

“I didn’t even ask you if you wanted to be a parent! I just…” Alex turns to look at him, the stress evident on his face. Zeb wants to reach out to him, offer physical comfort, but he knows that if Alex needs to move while he sorts this out then getting him to still won’t help.

“You weren’t asked either Alex. Your parents or the Empire...they didn’t give you a choice, but we’re together and I’m here to help. The rest of the Spectres and assorted adopted crew will help too, but you and me: we get to be parents.”

Alex sighs loudly and stares at him. “You mean that. You’re not worried?”

“I’m plenty worried,” Zeb admits. “We don’t even have her yet.”

“If she’s with my parents then maybe she’s healthy, maybe they somehow learned how to parent since I grew up or they’d at least hire people to take care of her.” Alex starts pacing again. “What if I’m as bad at parenting as my dad? Or worse, my mom? Zeb, we might not even find a way to save her and I already have at least a dozen different scenarios in my head about how wrong this could all go.”

Alex turns to look at him. Zeb reaches out and Alex takes his hands, leans in so their foreheads can rest against each other.

“You are going to be an amazing dad,” Zeb reassures.

“We never even talked about becoming parents,” Alex points out.

“We’ve never talked about what we’d like to do after the war,” Zeb counters. He doesn’t say if they win, they have to win.

Alex snorts. “Well we spend a lot of time with veterans from the last war that led to this one so it’s understandable not to plan for an after, but you want to go where you’re taking any Lasats we find, don’t you?”

“Yes.” Zeb desperately doesn’t want to give up the hope that he can find a home on Lira San.

“I don’t know if I’d be welcome,” Alex admits. “But I’d want to go wherever you are, if I can.”

Zeb reaches up to cup his face and shifts so he can kiss Alex. They’ll figure this out. Together they’ll figure out the life they want to live.

Zeb feels reluctant to leave Alex several hours later, but they both have their respective approved missions. Zeb listens to Rex and Wolffe speculate to sooth himself. First they’re excited about the prospect of a new niece. Then they worry about any of the other kids that the Imperials might be using. Their talk turns to hope as they want to believe Alex will find a solution to their aging dilemma. Then they turn hopeful about finding clone brothers who are still alive. Their talk then turns to memories, each of them trying to only share good things and antics they use to get up to. It’s a worthwhile distraction.

They find the Lasats easily enough with Alex’s information and then they take them to Lira San after the Lasats they rescue decide that’s where they want to go. Once on Lira San it takes a moment to get everyone settled, but after Hera tells him to take the night off. They’ll leave in the morning.

Zeb decides to find Chava and ask her about what she thinks he and Alex should do after the war.

“You’re both going to come here!” she tells him as if that answer should be one he already knows.

“I want to. Alex says he wants to be where I am, but with his history neither of us is sure he would be welcome,” Zeb explains gently.

Chava studies him for a moment. Zeb ducks his head, he always forgets how intense she can be. Chava draws herself up to her full diminutive height and raises her staff. For a brief moment Zeb is worried she’ll hit him with it.

“You want me to tell you that the path the Ashla sets before us is easy to see and easy to follow,” she accuses.

“I’ve lived with Jedi,” Zeb reminds her. “I know it’s not.”

“He was part of the prophecy that led us here in the first place! We wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t been involved! And now he insists on no longer being our enemy! He keeps Lira San safe by not even knowing where it is as he searches out other lost Lasat for you to find.”

Zeb grimaces. He already knows all this. He’s not sure why he expected Chava to have answers for him.

Chava taps her staff against the ground, uses it as a cane and comes close. She pats Zeb on the hand. “You win that war. You bring him here. Then I can adopt him and you can marry him. You’ll make an excellent son-in-law.”

Zeb’s eyes widen and he feels some of his fur stand straight up. For all her excentries Chava is respected, if she were to make Alex her family then that would curtail a lot of objections to him being here.

“Tell me,” Chava continues with a hopeful look. “Do the two of you have any plans for kits?”

“Ah, he’s working on rescuing his daughter now.”

“A daughter?” Chava grins wiggling slightly in excitement. “Excellent! The more lineage I have the better.”

“Ah, she’ll be human,” Zeb points out slowly. Maybe this isn’t the best idea.

“Even you, such a skeptic, could be taught how to listen to the will of the Ashla.”

“That’s what Kanan and Ezra were for,” Zeb tries to reassure her. Yep, bad idea, mostly, maybe. He’s going to leave it up to Alex to decide if he wants to be adopted.

Chava studies him again.

“We’re going to find Ezra, eventually. I have to believe that,” Zeb tells her. “You ah, don’t happen to know anything about Ezra, do you?”

She leans on her staff to peer at him. “You are going to tell me what happened to that nice young man.”

Zeb spends the rest of his free time answering her questions about the Liberation of Lothal. When he’s done she pats his hand and tells him she’s still adopting Alex and she’ll see what she can find out about Ezra, but it’s late and she’s going to bed.

When they leave Lira San and finally begin their circumvent route back to Hoth Zeb tries not to dwell on how long they’ve been gone. It’s difficult. Sana is in the hangar waiting for them. Alex isn’t. Zeb tries to quell his anxiety by focusing on the fact that Sana is grinning.

“He’s fine!” She tells Zeb. “He’s fine.”

“Why isn’t he here then?” Zeb asks.

“We got the girl,” Sana informs them in a low tone. Alex wouldn’t bring a child to Hoth.

Hera makes them all go back on the Ghost so that they can keep their conversation private. Rex and Wolffe sit down, both of them obviously trying not to look too hopeful. Chopper finds his usual spot. Zeb leans against a wall. He’s not sure he can sit down. He’s still anxious, even though he knows Sana would tell him if anything was wrong with Alex. Hera sits down with Rex and Wolffe and looks expectantly at Sana.

“We can stop the accelerated aging,” Sana says with a grin. “I actually got sent down here to escort you to the medbay so that they could explain everything and get your permission, but also because it turns out that you two aren’t the only clones in the Rebellion. His name’s Wildfire, he’s already here and received treatment.”

“Wildfire?” Wolffe repeats. He stares at Rex. “I worked with a Wildfire.”

Rex reaches out to squeeze Wolffe’s shoulder.

Wolffe turns back to Sana. “Do you know his CT number?”

Sana shakes her head, then offers, “He did say you were his commander.”

Wolffe leans against Rex. “Thank you.”

“The girl,” Rex prompts. “It really looked like a trap.”

“A well set up one,” Hera adds.

Sana nods. “We got the solution for the aging and realized they were keeping Kal’s kid at a different facility.”

“The grandparents?” Rex asks voice low and stern as if he already knows the answer and doesn’t like it.

“Cooperating with the Empire,” Sana answers with a scowl. “They just made that ad and then handed her over to be bait. The file we found said they didn’t even want her after, that they expected her to be something they referred to as decommissioned.”

Rex and Wolffe both swear.

“That’s…” Hera starts and then shakes her head. “Kal is ours now. When we win this thing his parents don’t have any right to claim association with him to lessen anything they might be charged with.”

Zeb murmurs his agreement. Chopper beeps his, but that’s little surprise, he usually agrees with Hera. Then he beeps something about adding them to a list that Zeb doesn’t quite understand. Maybe he shouldn’t worry about it? He can ask Hera later, maybe much later.

“How’d you spring their trap?” Rex prompts.

Sana smirks, a touch of a smile coming back to her face, obviously proud of having outsmarted the Imperials trying to capture Alex. “Well, they clearly expected us to go right to the place they were holding Kal’s daughter. They didn’t expect me to be friends with a long lived pirate queen that has a castle full of supplies and a strong dislike of anyone who messes with kids. Hondo might have been partying there with the crew he’s attempting to put together and I’m pretty sure he understood he was the distraction, but we just took Kal's daughter and left the rest of the facility for him to pick clean. If he tries to send us a bill, he already got what should be considered payment.”

“Good job,” Hera praises.

Sana grins.

Zeb wants to ask his daughter’s name, but he worries that they won’t have given her one. What if all the facility or Alex’s parents did was give her numbers? “Where is Alex?”

“He said to meet him at the Fulcrum communication tower,” Sana tells him. “He said you’d know what he meant.”

Lothal. Alex is on Lothal, which means he’s got Sabine looking out for him.

Hera gets Sana, Rex, and Wolffe moving towards the medical bay and then grabs his arm. “Come on, we’re going to plot you a course out of here.”

“Sabine is supposed to have another week on Lothal before I rotate there,” Zeb reminds her.

“After I make sure Rex and Wolffe are settled in here I’ll come get her,” Hera reassures. “Right now I’m just worried about making sure you get to Alex and your kid.”

“Thanks Hera.”

Zeb doesn’t have to wait long on the landing pad on Lothal before Sabine bounds into the ship. She grins at him. “I’m an aunt again and your daughter is adorable!”

Zeb shares a smile with her then hands her the hat Alex made for her. “Guess he was wrong about me seeing you first.”

She smiles as she traces her symbol on the hat. “I wish I had the patience for this.”

“I’m sure Alex would be happy to teach you.”

Sabine shakes her head. “Not my preferred medium, maybe in the future. This is gorgeous and functional.”

“So is some of your art,” Zeb reminds.

“Especially when it blows up!”

They load a few supplies on the shuttle and then switch vehicles. Sabine takes the shuttle to finish the supply transfer and Zeb takes the speeder out to Ezra’s tower. He finds Alex sitting in a chair reading a datapad with their daughter asleep on top of him. Her tiny hands are fisted in Alex’s shirt. Alex smiles at him as he steps into the room. He’s already removed the dark hair wash he uses for missions, but he hasn’t shaved his full beard into his usual look. Zeb takes a seat near him and leans in to kiss him. Alex sighs against his lips. “Now I have both of you safe. Was my intel good?”

“Yes. Chava wants me to let you know that we need to hurry up and win this war so she can adopt you.”

“She realizes she hasn’t really met me yet, right?” Alex points out.

Zeb chuckles. “It’s her scheme to get me as a son-in-law and to have some grandkids.”

Alex’s face softens. “Did you just propose? Cause I had a plan to wait until we win.”

“That was my plan too,” Zeb agrees.

Alex pulls him in for another kiss. As they part Alex tells him. “I like the idea of Nasya having a grandma that actually cares about her.”

“Nasya,” Zeb repeats with a smile. She’s wearing a purple shirt that Sabine has already clearly gotten ahold of due to the lothcat doodled on the sleeve. She’s also wearing tan overalls and socks. It looks far more practical than the dress from the ad. Her hair is done in a braid loop around the top of her head. He’s going to have to learn how to comb and style human hair Zeb realizes.

Nasya stirs. Alex greets her softly. She smiles at him. “I have someone I want you to meet. This is Zeb. We talked about him a little.”

She nods, then looks at Zeb. Her eyes widen and she grins. “Purple!”

At least Zeb is relatively sure she’s saying purple in basic. She launches into a babble about her favorite color and reaches for him. Zeb takes her easily. She starts tracing one of the patterns on his arm.

“Purple is one of my favorite colors too,” Zeb manages.

“Mine as well,” Alex agrees.

He and Alex share a smile. They don’t have this parent thing figured out just yet, but Zeb feels himself relax. They've got each other and plenty of family that’s willing to help.