A Bedtime Story

Mission pulled the threadbare blanket tight around her shoulders and settled into the pile of rags she and Griff had scrounged for their makeshift bed. It was a cold night in the lower levels of Taris, and the nearly bare room they were squatting in didn't have any heat. They used to have a much nicer place to crash, but then Griff had gotten into a slight misunderstanding with Davik and they'd had to hide out for a while. Misunderstandings happened a lot actually, and trouble always seemed to follow Griff, but Mission didn't mind. Griff looked out for her and taught her all of the important things in life, like how to slice computer systems and how to pick out an easy mark for a shell game. Sure Griff could be a pain in the backside, and he wasn't the most dependable guy, but he was her big brother, and as long as they were together, Mission didn't care where they went.

Griff flashed a toothy smile and poured the thin soup into a bowl for her. Mission's eyes narrowed; usually she was the one that cooked for Griff, not the other way around. She was only ten years old and she loved her brother, but she wasn't stupid.

'Why are you being so nice to me? You're never this nice to me, unless you want something.'

He put on his best 'hurt feelings' face, but Mission wasn't fooled for a second. 'Hey, can't a guy make dinner for his little sis, just because?'

Griff sat next to her in the rag pile and handed her the bowl of soup. Mission held the hot bowl gingerly, gratefully soaking the warmth into her small hands. 'Sure most guys can, but not you. What do you want?'

She wondered if he was going to ask her for money out of her stash again. Mission had learned to set a bit of any money she got aside knowing that Griff was rather... unpredictable, and bound to get into trouble at any time. Often, her stash was the only thing that saved his skin.

'Nothing,' he said in that tone of voice that always set warning bells off in her mind.

That was when she noticed that he hadn't made any dinner for himself. She set the bowl of soup aside and asked, 'What's going on, Griff?'

'Remember how I told you that I was having trouble with Davik, because of that misunderstanding about the money I... uh... borrowed from him.'

'Yeah...'

'Well, I'm going to have to bug out for awhile. Things are getting too hot on Taris for me.'

'We're leaving?' She brightened. Since she'd only been on two planets her whole entire life, she was dying of curiosity about all of the exotic places that she'd seen on the holovid. 'That's great! I mean, I'll miss Gadon and all of our friends in the Beks, but this will be so exciting! We can start over, get a new place. When do we leave?'

'Um...' Griff's lekku flicked in a nervous gesture, but Mission was too excited to notice.

'Where are we going?'

'Well, sis... It's like this... see...' Mission saw a rare flash of guilt cross his face, and she was shocked because she could count the times Griff felt guilty about anything on one hand. His next words hit her like a slap in the face. 'You're not coming with us.'

She couldn't believe it.

'What? Why not? It's because of Lena isn't it?' The hurt and frustration and jealousy that she'd been harboring since the beautiful Twi'lek dancer had come into their lives ignited. Ever since Lena had sunk her sharp manicured nails Griff, everything had changed. Griff had started spending all of his free time with the busty dancer, and Mission couldn't understand why Griff couldn't see through Lena's act. She flattened her lekku against her skull as she spat, 'That schutta! She's just a credit-grubbing cantina rat, but I'm your sister!'

'Look, it will only be for a little while. I've got some leads on a really big payoff, and once I get that money, we'll send for you.'

Burning tears began to slide down her blue cheeks, and she clutched his arm frantically. 'Please don't go. Don't leave me by myself. You're all I've got.'

Their eyes met, and Mission silently willed him not to abandon her. His face softened and he pulled her into a tight hug. 'Okay, sis. Don't cry. I'll talk to Lena tomorrow and convince her to let you come.'

Mission sniffled and looked up at him. 'Really?'

He gave her his best cheeky grin, the one he used to sweat talk gullible marks out of their credits. 'You know no woman can resist me.'

'Yeah.' She wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. 'Thanks, Griff.'

'Hey, no problem.' He settled in next to her and handed the bowl of soup that he'd made to her. Mission took an experimental taste, and as she suspected it tasted awful, but she didn't want to hurt his feelings, so she hid her grimace behind her small hand and choked it down.

'So where are we going?' she asked, trying to ignore the bitter, stale taste of the soup.

'I'm not sure. There are lots of places we can go.'

'Like where?'

Griff waved his hands vaguely. 'Oh, lots of places.'

Mission's mind buzzed with all of the wonderful and exotic possibilities. 'Like Coruscant, or Kuat, or... I know... Tatooine! We could go there.'

'Why would we want to go there? Is it because you think that we'll find Mosha the Hutt's treasure?' he teased.

'Why not? It might be out there!' she protested, indignant that he would dismiss her idea so quickly.

'Aw, Mission... that's just a kid's story.'

She snuggled against him, drinking in his comforting presence, weak with relief that he wasn't going to leave her alone. 'Will you tell it to me?'

Griff rolled his eyes. 'I've told you this story a thousand times.'

But it was Mission's favorite story, and no matter how many times Griff told it to her, she never got tired of hearing it. 'Come on... please? You tell it so good.'

'Alright, alright.'

Mission clapped in glee and settled into the rags as Griff began to tell Nerra the Twi'lek and the forty raiders.

'Once upon a time there were two Twi'lek brothers, Nerra and Ree. Ree had married a rich wife, but Nerra had married poor, and made his living by herding bantha.' Griff's tone told her exactly how stupid he thought Nerra was for marrying a poor woman and doing something that mundane for a living, but Mission liked to think that it was romantic. Besides, she secretly thought bantha were cute.

'One day Nerra was out in the desert, when he saw a Hutt barge approach. Fearing for his life, he hid behind a group of rocks. The barge stopped before the sheer cliff, and forty bandits and their Hutt got out, carying all kinds of crates and bags and things. Mosha slithered up to the cliff, raised his arms and said 'Open, Nuna seed,' and amazingly, the door slid open in the rock. They all passed through and the door closed behind them.

'Nerra was smart and sneaky. He stayed behind the boulder, and after awhile the door opened again, and Mosha and the raiders came out. The Hutt raised his pudgy arms and declared, 'Close Nuna seed!' and returned to the barge and sped away. When they were out of sight, Nerra came out from behind the boulder, walked up to the cliff and said the magic words. The door opened, and Nerra walked into the cave that was full of all kinds of amazing treasure...'

Griff's eyes flashed with greed and he described in great detail all of the treasure that was in the cave, before moving on with the story. Mission, tired from a day of hustling credits from easy marks and reassured that her brother wasn't going to leave her, eventually nodded off to sleep. In her dreams, she and Griff went to Tatooine to search for Mosha's treasure, and they left money-grubbing Lena behind.

When she woke in the morning, Griff was gone.

Even though deep down she knew it was no use, Mission searched everywhere for him, unwilling to believe that he would actually abandon her like this. It was only after she checked all of the gaming dens, Lena's apartment, and the Bek headquarters that she finally faced the fact that he was really gone. Even worse, everyone she asked didn't know where he and Lena had disappeared to. At the end of the day, she was fighting back tears. On her way back to her room, she was stopped by one of Griff's friends.

Blane couldn't look her in the eye as he handed her a datapad. 'Griff left this with me.' While Mission frantically read the contents, Blane scurried off.

The datapad read:

'Hey, sis.

P.S. I took all of the credits from your stash. I'll pay you back when I see you again, okay?"

In a daze, Mission made her way back to her room, which was now mostly empty because Griff had taken almost everything of value. She couldn't believe it, and she knew that Lena had to be behind this. Lena had stolen everything that mattered to her; it was all that table-dancing, brother-stealing schutta's fault.

Overwhelmed by loneliness, she curled up on the cold floor clutching the datapad, and cried until she didn't have any tears left. Finally, realizing that she had no one to count on but herself, she picked herself up off the floor and squared her shoulders. Griff was gone and she didn't know where, but there wasn't anything she could do about that.

As she tried to decide what she was going to do now that she was on her own, she consoled herself with the thought that Griff wouldn't be gone forever. One day, he'd see Lena for the money-grubbing schutta that she was. He'd get the big payoff that they had been dreaming of, and when he did, he'd come back for her, and they would go to Tatooine and search for Mosha's treasure together.