Naptime
Shortly after TPM
"Jango? Hey Jango, open up."
Zam Wesell leaned hard on the door chime, frowning as a strange sound made it's way through the door of Jango Fett's apartments on Kamino and reached her straining ears. "Jango! Are you all right?"
Finally the door slid open, and Jango Fett appeared, scowling wearily. "Zam. What do you want?"
But now Zam could hear the strange noises clearly and a look of shock crossed her face at the same time that a bad odor reached her nose.
"Holy Sith, Jango, what the-" She started to push past him, but his muscular arm stretched out across the doorway, effectively blocking her way. Zam looked up into his darkly handsome face and saw that he was tired and not in the mood to be talkative. Swiftly, she ducked under his arm, a move she never would have attempted had he not been so clearly bone tired.
"Zam-" He said, turning after her, but she was all ready bending over a make-shift cradle and lifting the bawling baby. "Where's that awful stink coming from?" She yelled over the baby's howling after she checked it's diaper.
Jango pointed towards the trash receptacle. "I changed him." Zam took a look. Ugh, he hadn't folded up the diaper or anything. "Have you fed him recently?"
"He won't take a bottle." Jango yelled back, clearly frustrated. Zam sighed and tensed her muscles, causing the baby to cry louder. There was a ripple in the air around her body, and Jango watched, mystified as her body shape changed slightly. Zam Wesell was a Clawdite, and he'd seen her change shape before, but he couldn't fathom what she was trying to change into now.
His dark eyebrows raised a notch as she started to take off her purple leather vest. She frowned at him, but very calmly unbuttoned her matching lavender shirt down to her waist. Shifting the baby to the other arm, she used her purple silk scarf to cover herself and brought the baby close to her body under it.
The howling stopped instantly, and it dawned on Jango Fett what she had done. He smiled thankfully and retrieved her discarded vest, hanging it over a chair.
"What the hell are you doing with a baby, Jango?" Zam looked puzzled. "Where did you get it?"
"He's one of the clones."
Zam knew about the clones. "The ones that grow fast?" She grimaced. "He's not going to turn into a toddler while he's suckling, is he?"
"No.this one is completely unaltered." Jango sank wearily into a chair and put his feet on the table. Zam watched him a silence a few minutes, wondering how many questions he would answer.she had a quite a few she wanted to ask.
Jango had first met Zam on Tattooine, when she was just a fledgling bounty hunter who did speeder racing on the side. Zam had been engaged in a very ugly cat fight with a furious Jawa.and despite the fact that Zam was much bigger the Jawa, he was landing some pretty good bites on her when Jango pulled them apart.
The crowds were disappointed, there had been several wagers placed on the outcome of the fight. Zam was humiliated and offered the bounty of the Jawa to Jango, who was amused by such a paltry amount.
He refused and gave the girl some good career advice, which she followed to the letter and came back for more. Develop a signature look, he'd told her, something that people will recognize and fear. Zam wore a fortune of the finest purple leather and a modified "crash" helmet. The purple silk scarf she draped over her face gave her dangerous and mysterious look, but it also allowed her to resume most of her natural Clawdite form, allowing her to rest.
Jango didn't know much about skin changers, but apparently the "skifting" as she called it, was very tiring. Her favorite skin was that of the beautiful young woman who was perched on his table now, nursing his son.
"What's his name?" She asked, her green eyes fixed on him.
"Boba."
"Boba." She repeated. "How long have you had him?"
"Not yet 24 hours." He grunted. "Seems longer."
"Babies are a big responsibility." She replied mildly. "You say he wouldn't take a bottle?"
"Yes."
"We'll try again in a little bit. Might just be the formula." She lifted Boba away from her breast and laid him gently on the table, unwrapping the blankets he was swaddled in. "I must say, those Kaminoans do good work." She laughed softly. "And hey, he has a belly button."
"It's just for looks." Jango stretched. "You never did tell me what you're doing here."
"Aren't you glad I stopped by, though?" Zam was more then a little smug. "Say, could you close that trash receptacle? That really smells nasty."
He rose and did as she asked, leaning against the doorframe when he returned. "So.why are you here?"
"I have a job for you, if you want it." Zam deftly extracted a bottle from the mess on the counter and stripped her gloves, rinsing it out in the sink. Boba began to whimper from the table, and Zam cooed at him. "Easy, big guy, it's coming." Boba instantly quieted.
Jango shook his head. "How did you do that?"
"He associates me with food. In time he'll come to see you the same way." She heated the formula easily, her eyes flitting back to Boba watchfully.
"How do you know all this stuff?"
"I had a son once."
Jango was surprised by this confession. "I didn't know that."
Zam lifted Boba from the table and guided the bottle nipple to his mouth. "C'mon, big guy.open wide." Boba repelled the nipple with his tongue and started to cry again. Zam tried a few more times, then gave up and stuck him back under the purple scarf. Jango chuckled softly as he watched Zam guide the baby to her breast. Instantly the crying ceased.
Zam gave Jango a hard look. "I'm not a wet nurse." She said. "We'll have to try a different formula."
"I'll go see what I have." He offered, and went to the storage room to look. When his request for an unaltered clone baby had been granted to him, he'd bought several different kinds of everything, wanting to be prepared. He grabbed a few samples and then walked quietly back to the main room, hoping maybe Boba was getting sleepy.
Zam was resting; she was her normal Clawdite form, green skin, prominent cheekbones, and enormous green eyes. She looked up when entered the room, startled, and her image rippled and became that of a beautiful young woman again.
Jango wondered how old Zam really was. "What happened to your son?"
"He died." Zam still looked tense from skifting so quickly. "Along with his father."
"I'm sorry." Jango was awkward with offering sympathy, but she smiled knowingly and shook her head, dismissing the topic.
"It was a long time ago. You want to know about this job or not?"
"As you can see, I'm a little preoccupied this week." He nodded at Boba.
"Yes.but I was thinking it over, and you really don't have to DO anything. I'll do the dirty work, I just need you to throw them off the track. Make an appearance here and there."
"Who are we hunting?"
The Senate has put out bounties on some of the corrupt officials who worked for the trade federation. One in particular, an accountant, has a bounty of 300,000 credits!"
"Is the accountant dangerous?"
"No, just wily." Zam shifted Boba in her arms and frowned. "Sith, he's asleep."
"Thank the force."
"No, do not thank the force." She scowled at him. "Now we can't try the other formulas until he wakes up again." She shifted him again, attempting to straighten her clothes. "C'mere and take him, will you? Very carefully."
Jango bent and gently lifted his son from her arms, moving her scarf in the process and making her attempts at modesty pretty much futile.
Zam waited until she was sure Boba was sleeping soundly in Jango's arms before she buttoned up her shirt. "You'll learn to love his naptimes." She said in the slightly awkward pause that followed.
"Are Clawdite babies really so similar to humans?" Jango wondered as he gingerly set his sleeping baby in the cradle.
"My son was half human."
Jango's brows raised. "Have you had many human lovers?"
"Almost none worth speaking of." She answered lightly, tugging back on her vest. "Human men don't like going to bed with a young woman and waking up next to green hag.if they wake up first." She shrugged. "I got to rest sometime, you know."
Jango nodded. "Can I offer you something to drink?"
"Sure thing." She seemed more cheerful now, her image rippled and her body changed back to that of a non-nursing woman. "Your little kid milked me dry."
Jango's mouth turned up at her sense of humor. Zam smiled back and removed her helmet, laying it next to her gloves on the counter. She ran a hand through her short dark blond hair.
"So why did you want a clone? If you have a desire to procreate, you could have just found a willing woman, you know."
"Too complicated." Jango poured drinks for them both.
"Well, here's to your son." Zam offered. "May he be as crafty and stubborn as his father someday."
They drank to it.
"Tell me more about this job." Jango requested, refilling their glasses.
"The senate wants him alive." Zam sipped at her second drink. "The real trick will be the surprise attack, from all accounts he's holed up on Geneosis with about a million credits worth of surveillance gear."
"If he's as wily as you say, I'll lay you ten to one he's not there."
Zam cocked her head questioningly. "Why not? You don't buy all that stuff unless you plan on using it."
"Or unless you want to set up one hell of a booby trap."
"Ahhh." Zam laughed softly. "Always thinking, Jango."
"Your way of plunging recklessly into things is too inefficient for me."
"You forget that it was my reckless plunging that got us out of that tight spot on Ord Mantell."
"No, Zam, that was your driving."
She laughed. "Same difference. I got new thrusters for my city speeder."
"City driving. When do criminals hide in the city?"
"The smart ones do." Zam grunted. "The ones we never catch."
"You'd do better to practice in asteroid fields."
She shuddered. "No thanks." She fiddled with her glass. "Doesn't it worry you, having a child in your line of work? What if something happens to you?"
"I suppose I could always leave him to you in my will."
Zam punched his upper arm lightly. "Not funny. He might be a clone, but he's a human being."
"Boba will be able to take care of himself. I'll see to that."
Zam studied him silently. "I hate it when people die and leave me." She said quietly. "If I ever fall in love again, I want to be the first to go."
"Care for another drink?"
"No, better not."
"How long will Boba sleep, do you think?"
"Three or four hours."
"You could-"
"I'm not leaving until I know you can feed him." She interrupted rudely, her hand raking through her hair again. Jango's dark eyes followed her hand, resting on her hair and sliding downward over her eyes and mouth. Zam felt her breath catch in her throat and she watched his eyes moving down. It wasn't like she'd never thought of Jango that way, they'd even kissed a few times, when celebrating or just plain feeling good about themselves. But the time nor circumstance had ever allowed for anything more.
"It's just a skin." She said fiercely, but Jango shook his head.
"It's you. It's the way you are."
While she was still hearing the mellow, sexy cadence of his voice ringing in her head, Jango lifted her hand off the table and pressed a warm kiss into her palm. Zam licked her lips and stood, the look in her eyes the look of huntress, both excited and terrified. "Is this why you wanted to know how long Boba would sleep?"
"Three to four hours, I think you said." Jango released her hand and sat back in his seat, his eyes sharp on her face. Zam bit her lip. Well, hang it all, she liked human men. She felt she could trust this one.
"Do you want this or not?" He asked softly, and she knew whatever she said, he would abide by it. Still, her hunter's instincts wanted to play with him a little.
"What if I said no?"
Jango shrugged, his face expressionless. "Is that your answer?"
She stood slowly, her green eyes melting into his. "No." She whispered. Jango smirked slightly as if he was sure of her answer all along, and made a slight "come here" gesture with two of his fingers.
Zam felt the primal cry of a victorious hunter when she leaned over and kissed him, slowly. Jango put his hands on her belt and tugged her towards him. "Sorry you came by?" He asked her.
"No good deed goes unpunished." She said, sliding into his lap. The movement brushed her glass off the table and it broke with a resounding crash. Zam started to get up, but Jango wouldn't have it. "Leave it."
"But-"
A howl from the next room confirmed Zam's unspoken question. She sighed, and Jango groaned. "All right, daddy," She said with a rueful smile, hurrying off to get Boba. "Start heating that formula."
Shortly after TPM
"Jango? Hey Jango, open up."
Zam Wesell leaned hard on the door chime, frowning as a strange sound made it's way through the door of Jango Fett's apartments on Kamino and reached her straining ears. "Jango! Are you all right?"
Finally the door slid open, and Jango Fett appeared, scowling wearily. "Zam. What do you want?"
But now Zam could hear the strange noises clearly and a look of shock crossed her face at the same time that a bad odor reached her nose.
"Holy Sith, Jango, what the-" She started to push past him, but his muscular arm stretched out across the doorway, effectively blocking her way. Zam looked up into his darkly handsome face and saw that he was tired and not in the mood to be talkative. Swiftly, she ducked under his arm, a move she never would have attempted had he not been so clearly bone tired.
"Zam-" He said, turning after her, but she was all ready bending over a make-shift cradle and lifting the bawling baby. "Where's that awful stink coming from?" She yelled over the baby's howling after she checked it's diaper.
Jango pointed towards the trash receptacle. "I changed him." Zam took a look. Ugh, he hadn't folded up the diaper or anything. "Have you fed him recently?"
"He won't take a bottle." Jango yelled back, clearly frustrated. Zam sighed and tensed her muscles, causing the baby to cry louder. There was a ripple in the air around her body, and Jango watched, mystified as her body shape changed slightly. Zam Wesell was a Clawdite, and he'd seen her change shape before, but he couldn't fathom what she was trying to change into now.
His dark eyebrows raised a notch as she started to take off her purple leather vest. She frowned at him, but very calmly unbuttoned her matching lavender shirt down to her waist. Shifting the baby to the other arm, she used her purple silk scarf to cover herself and brought the baby close to her body under it.
The howling stopped instantly, and it dawned on Jango Fett what she had done. He smiled thankfully and retrieved her discarded vest, hanging it over a chair.
"What the hell are you doing with a baby, Jango?" Zam looked puzzled. "Where did you get it?"
"He's one of the clones."
Zam knew about the clones. "The ones that grow fast?" She grimaced. "He's not going to turn into a toddler while he's suckling, is he?"
"No.this one is completely unaltered." Jango sank wearily into a chair and put his feet on the table. Zam watched him a silence a few minutes, wondering how many questions he would answer.she had a quite a few she wanted to ask.
Jango had first met Zam on Tattooine, when she was just a fledgling bounty hunter who did speeder racing on the side. Zam had been engaged in a very ugly cat fight with a furious Jawa.and despite the fact that Zam was much bigger the Jawa, he was landing some pretty good bites on her when Jango pulled them apart.
The crowds were disappointed, there had been several wagers placed on the outcome of the fight. Zam was humiliated and offered the bounty of the Jawa to Jango, who was amused by such a paltry amount.
He refused and gave the girl some good career advice, which she followed to the letter and came back for more. Develop a signature look, he'd told her, something that people will recognize and fear. Zam wore a fortune of the finest purple leather and a modified "crash" helmet. The purple silk scarf she draped over her face gave her dangerous and mysterious look, but it also allowed her to resume most of her natural Clawdite form, allowing her to rest.
Jango didn't know much about skin changers, but apparently the "skifting" as she called it, was very tiring. Her favorite skin was that of the beautiful young woman who was perched on his table now, nursing his son.
"What's his name?" She asked, her green eyes fixed on him.
"Boba."
"Boba." She repeated. "How long have you had him?"
"Not yet 24 hours." He grunted. "Seems longer."
"Babies are a big responsibility." She replied mildly. "You say he wouldn't take a bottle?"
"Yes."
"We'll try again in a little bit. Might just be the formula." She lifted Boba away from her breast and laid him gently on the table, unwrapping the blankets he was swaddled in. "I must say, those Kaminoans do good work." She laughed softly. "And hey, he has a belly button."
"It's just for looks." Jango stretched. "You never did tell me what you're doing here."
"Aren't you glad I stopped by, though?" Zam was more then a little smug. "Say, could you close that trash receptacle? That really smells nasty."
He rose and did as she asked, leaning against the doorframe when he returned. "So.why are you here?"
"I have a job for you, if you want it." Zam deftly extracted a bottle from the mess on the counter and stripped her gloves, rinsing it out in the sink. Boba began to whimper from the table, and Zam cooed at him. "Easy, big guy, it's coming." Boba instantly quieted.
Jango shook his head. "How did you do that?"
"He associates me with food. In time he'll come to see you the same way." She heated the formula easily, her eyes flitting back to Boba watchfully.
"How do you know all this stuff?"
"I had a son once."
Jango was surprised by this confession. "I didn't know that."
Zam lifted Boba from the table and guided the bottle nipple to his mouth. "C'mon, big guy.open wide." Boba repelled the nipple with his tongue and started to cry again. Zam tried a few more times, then gave up and stuck him back under the purple scarf. Jango chuckled softly as he watched Zam guide the baby to her breast. Instantly the crying ceased.
Zam gave Jango a hard look. "I'm not a wet nurse." She said. "We'll have to try a different formula."
"I'll go see what I have." He offered, and went to the storage room to look. When his request for an unaltered clone baby had been granted to him, he'd bought several different kinds of everything, wanting to be prepared. He grabbed a few samples and then walked quietly back to the main room, hoping maybe Boba was getting sleepy.
Zam was resting; she was her normal Clawdite form, green skin, prominent cheekbones, and enormous green eyes. She looked up when entered the room, startled, and her image rippled and became that of a beautiful young woman again.
Jango wondered how old Zam really was. "What happened to your son?"
"He died." Zam still looked tense from skifting so quickly. "Along with his father."
"I'm sorry." Jango was awkward with offering sympathy, but she smiled knowingly and shook her head, dismissing the topic.
"It was a long time ago. You want to know about this job or not?"
"As you can see, I'm a little preoccupied this week." He nodded at Boba.
"Yes.but I was thinking it over, and you really don't have to DO anything. I'll do the dirty work, I just need you to throw them off the track. Make an appearance here and there."
"Who are we hunting?"
The Senate has put out bounties on some of the corrupt officials who worked for the trade federation. One in particular, an accountant, has a bounty of 300,000 credits!"
"Is the accountant dangerous?"
"No, just wily." Zam shifted Boba in her arms and frowned. "Sith, he's asleep."
"Thank the force."
"No, do not thank the force." She scowled at him. "Now we can't try the other formulas until he wakes up again." She shifted him again, attempting to straighten her clothes. "C'mere and take him, will you? Very carefully."
Jango bent and gently lifted his son from her arms, moving her scarf in the process and making her attempts at modesty pretty much futile.
Zam waited until she was sure Boba was sleeping soundly in Jango's arms before she buttoned up her shirt. "You'll learn to love his naptimes." She said in the slightly awkward pause that followed.
"Are Clawdite babies really so similar to humans?" Jango wondered as he gingerly set his sleeping baby in the cradle.
"My son was half human."
Jango's brows raised. "Have you had many human lovers?"
"Almost none worth speaking of." She answered lightly, tugging back on her vest. "Human men don't like going to bed with a young woman and waking up next to green hag.if they wake up first." She shrugged. "I got to rest sometime, you know."
Jango nodded. "Can I offer you something to drink?"
"Sure thing." She seemed more cheerful now, her image rippled and her body changed back to that of a non-nursing woman. "Your little kid milked me dry."
Jango's mouth turned up at her sense of humor. Zam smiled back and removed her helmet, laying it next to her gloves on the counter. She ran a hand through her short dark blond hair.
"So why did you want a clone? If you have a desire to procreate, you could have just found a willing woman, you know."
"Too complicated." Jango poured drinks for them both.
"Well, here's to your son." Zam offered. "May he be as crafty and stubborn as his father someday."
They drank to it.
"Tell me more about this job." Jango requested, refilling their glasses.
"The senate wants him alive." Zam sipped at her second drink. "The real trick will be the surprise attack, from all accounts he's holed up on Geneosis with about a million credits worth of surveillance gear."
"If he's as wily as you say, I'll lay you ten to one he's not there."
Zam cocked her head questioningly. "Why not? You don't buy all that stuff unless you plan on using it."
"Or unless you want to set up one hell of a booby trap."
"Ahhh." Zam laughed softly. "Always thinking, Jango."
"Your way of plunging recklessly into things is too inefficient for me."
"You forget that it was my reckless plunging that got us out of that tight spot on Ord Mantell."
"No, Zam, that was your driving."
She laughed. "Same difference. I got new thrusters for my city speeder."
"City driving. When do criminals hide in the city?"
"The smart ones do." Zam grunted. "The ones we never catch."
"You'd do better to practice in asteroid fields."
She shuddered. "No thanks." She fiddled with her glass. "Doesn't it worry you, having a child in your line of work? What if something happens to you?"
"I suppose I could always leave him to you in my will."
Zam punched his upper arm lightly. "Not funny. He might be a clone, but he's a human being."
"Boba will be able to take care of himself. I'll see to that."
Zam studied him silently. "I hate it when people die and leave me." She said quietly. "If I ever fall in love again, I want to be the first to go."
"Care for another drink?"
"No, better not."
"How long will Boba sleep, do you think?"
"Three or four hours."
"You could-"
"I'm not leaving until I know you can feed him." She interrupted rudely, her hand raking through her hair again. Jango's dark eyes followed her hand, resting on her hair and sliding downward over her eyes and mouth. Zam felt her breath catch in her throat and she watched his eyes moving down. It wasn't like she'd never thought of Jango that way, they'd even kissed a few times, when celebrating or just plain feeling good about themselves. But the time nor circumstance had ever allowed for anything more.
"It's just a skin." She said fiercely, but Jango shook his head.
"It's you. It's the way you are."
While she was still hearing the mellow, sexy cadence of his voice ringing in her head, Jango lifted her hand off the table and pressed a warm kiss into her palm. Zam licked her lips and stood, the look in her eyes the look of huntress, both excited and terrified. "Is this why you wanted to know how long Boba would sleep?"
"Three to four hours, I think you said." Jango released her hand and sat back in his seat, his eyes sharp on her face. Zam bit her lip. Well, hang it all, she liked human men. She felt she could trust this one.
"Do you want this or not?" He asked softly, and she knew whatever she said, he would abide by it. Still, her hunter's instincts wanted to play with him a little.
"What if I said no?"
Jango shrugged, his face expressionless. "Is that your answer?"
She stood slowly, her green eyes melting into his. "No." She whispered. Jango smirked slightly as if he was sure of her answer all along, and made a slight "come here" gesture with two of his fingers.
Zam felt the primal cry of a victorious hunter when she leaned over and kissed him, slowly. Jango put his hands on her belt and tugged her towards him. "Sorry you came by?" He asked her.
"No good deed goes unpunished." She said, sliding into his lap. The movement brushed her glass off the table and it broke with a resounding crash. Zam started to get up, but Jango wouldn't have it. "Leave it."
"But-"
A howl from the next room confirmed Zam's unspoken question. She sighed, and Jango groaned. "All right, daddy," She said with a rueful smile, hurrying off to get Boba. "Start heating that formula."