Look Around, Look Around pt 6
Summary: You escaped an abusive marriage, pregnant with your husband’s child. He sends a bounty hunter after you to bring you back. Everything changes. Din Djarin/pregnant!reader, no use of y/n
Word count: 2.9k
Warnings: Pregnancy/related topics, implied/referenced rape, mentions of abuse, blood, labor
Notes: Blown away by Tumblr’s response to this tbh. I’m absolutely overwhelmed by all the kind comments <3
He was supposed to take you back to Sorgan after that job. Supposed to take you back and let you spend the last few weeks of your pregnancy in comfort, let you give birth there in safety.
You managed to convince him to take you to a few more planets under the guise of wanting to see if there were any cities with salt baths that would help your swollen feet and legs. He knew you were lying through your teeth, but he never said anything one way or the other.
Now at a little over eight months pregnant and with your own gravitational pull, you walked through a vibrant market place of a large, exotic city during the height of their local fertility festival. You had been given baskets laden with blankets, food, and natural home remedies for easing the pain of birth.
People threw colorful powders and fragrant flowers in the streets at one another and it was extremely difficult not to get caught in their crossfire. You were certain that you were covered in vibrant color - you may have even been the target on more than one occasion because of your pregnancy. Not that you minded. You were having too much fun.
The little one was captivated by brightly colored dancers that spit fire in brilliant arcs across the path. The bells on their ankles caught his attention more and whenever one would cartwheel in front of his pod, he would make a grab for them, despite the gentle scolds from Mando.
You currently were sitting at a round patio table at an outdoor café. Lively music from a nearby band was muffled slightly by the crowd enough that you could speak without losing your voice.
"This is amazing!" you said to Mando, who looked incredibly out of place amidst bright colors and bare skin of the locals. He shifted in his seat and you knew he was scanning the crowd for potential threats. It wasn't personal, and it wasn't anything against the planet or its inhabitants, but more just who Mando was as a person.
Good gods, did the man ever relax?
Mando had ordered a cup of soup for the child, and expressed his displeasure for you turning down food.
"You need to eat something," he said firmly, straightening his back.
"I'm not hungry," you sighed. "The moon is currently displacing my vital organs."
"Your moon is exactly why you have to try to eat something," he said with a sigh. He shook his head and looked back over at the child, who was glancing between the two of you. When Mando looked at him, he smiled and babbled.
"She's moving around a lot in there today," you groaned, rubbing one side of your belly. "Take it easy, little moon. We're not going anywhere."
"Must be getting cramped in there," Mando hummed without looking back at you. He did another once over of the crowd and then sighed.
"What's wrong?" you asked.
He shrugged. "Just too crowded."
"Not a people-person, Mando?" you hummed.
"You wouldn't be either if you were me."
You supposed that was true. Even a few months ago you wouldn't have come to a place like this where bodies touched and jostled on either side of you. You got comfortable, but you imagined if you were in his boots, you would hate places like this. Too much chaos. Too many things that could go wrong.
"We should go," he said after a moment. He grabbed a basket and helped you to your feet before guiding you through a dip in the crowd.
It took a while to reach the hangar where the Crest was located due to the throng of bodies in your way.
Once you arrived back, Mando handed you a towel to wipe powder from your hair and clothes.
"The puck got activated," he said grimly as he locked the hatch.
You were shaking flower petals from your hair and the smile instantly dropped from your face.
"What?"
Mando turned to you. "I knew it was too easy. He let you go too easily for that to be the end of it."
You walked backwards until you found a seat and lowered yourself into it. Your heart pounded in your ears and you barely registered his words.
Your husband knows exactly where you are.
He knew what you were doing, where you were going, he might even know where you planned on giving birth. Would he attack then? When you were raw and vulnerable, bed soaked in your blood and eyes wild with instinct?
Like a caged animal. Though injured animals will do anything to protect themselves.
"Hey, hey, don't give out on me," Mando said loud enough to draw you from your fear. He grabbed your shoulders and shook you gently so you would look at him. "You're safe with me, okay? I'm not going to let him take you."
"Why is he-- Why is he doing this?" you whispered as you felt tears start to fall. You could barely speak. The thought of him finding you touching you, putting his hands on you... On your baby. It made you sick. It made you scared. It made you angry.
"Because he's a coward," Mando said softly, guiding your face back to look at him when you glanced away. "He's small; he has to hurt others to feel better. You are safe. You and your moon." He placed a warm hand on your belly. The baby flip flopped in response.
"Please don't let him get me," you begged. "Promise me. Not me. Not my baby."
Mando looked at you and nodded. "I promise." He leaned up on his knees and pressed his forehead to yours. He held the position for a moment before he got to his feet.
"We're leaving this planet right now," he said. He picked up the baby and set him back in his pod and turned to set coordinates.
"Where will we go?" you asked, suddenly feeling like the smallest person in the galaxy. "Where will we go that he can't find us?"
"I have a few places in mind," he said as the ship dragged itself out of the planet's atmosphere. "Safe places."
"Sorgan?" you asked hopefully.
He paused for a minute. "Sorgan isn't safe. If he knows you were there he'll have people there waiting."
You held on tight as he punched in the coordinates for some unknown planet in on the pad.
What would you do if it came down to capture and return?
You couldn't help but cry. You looked down at your stomach and cupped both hands around it.
"I'm so sorry, little one," you whispered.
***
A few hours later, Mando dropped the ship out of hyperspace. A planet lay before you, dark and unfriendly looking in the blackness of space. There were a few lights from cities spread out in the far reaches of the large sprawling continent, but beyond that, you could see nothing.
"What is this place?" you asked.
"Arvala-7," he replied. "I had a... Friend who lived here. Worked on a moisture farm. Helped me with the kid."
"He doesn't live here anymore?" you asked, forcing yourself out of your seat with difficulty. You ignored the pain in your belly and back - normal for this late in your pregnancy. False labor couldn't detract from your fears right now.
"He died," Mando said softly.
"I'm sorry."
He didn't reply and started the deceleration to land in a remote section of desert.
"You should be safe here," he said as he lowered the hatch for the two of you to step out.
"Should be?"
He nodded. "Should be."
"How could he find me?" you asked softly as Mando set about shouldering open the long-locked front door.
"Tracking pucks," he grunted, throwing his whole body against the door. He let out a rather undignified cry as he fell inside when the lock finally gave way and the door banged open. When he stood he fished one out of his pocket and held it out in his palm to you. It flashed a rapid red as it neared you. "That's how."
"Why now?" you asked. Rage welled up in your heart at the thought of this vile man getting a hold of you again.
"Probably just wants to scare you," he said as he set about tidying the little house up. "Knows that baby is coming soon. Just wants to stress you out more."
As if on cue, a particularly rough false contraction hit and you vaulted forward to grip the edge of the table. You arched your back, hoping to alleviate some of the pressure.
"Oh, kriff," you gasped, gritting your teeth. You squeezed your eyes shut and took a few deep breaths in and out. "Maker, I don't want to know how bad the real thing is gonna be."
"You won't be alone," Mando said softly as he placed a hand on your back.
"Yeah, well," you gasped, "No offense, but have you ever delivered a baby?"
Mando was quiet.
"Yeah, didn't think so."
"You'll be fine," he assured. "Sit. I'm gonna go look around, see what we can salvage and use."
You sighed and nodded. "If you need help, let me know. Sometimes walking helps with the pain."
He looked around at the state of the main living room. "Okay. Here, I'm gonna fix the bed. You go and get the blankets from the ship. Take a few trips if they're heavy."
You took the key from him and started back towards the ship, a hand grasping your belly. It's okay, my moon.
As you boarded the ship and headed towards the bedroom, you heard what sounded like voices from the cockpit. Taunting voices drifted down the ladder and through the corridor to you, though you couldn't make out what was being said. As your heart hammered away in your chest, you tiptoed to the ladder to ascend to the cockpit.
It became obvious to you as soon as you breached the top of the ladder that the voices were on a recording, an old transmission that must've automatically started playing when the ship picked up a bio feedback on board.
"...don't worry, Mando. We just want the little whore you been travelling with. Not that ugly kid," a low voice growled up at you from the holopad. A thin blue image of a burly, bald man was staring up at you and illuminating the otherwise dark cockpit. "Ain't got nothin' to worry about with us. In and out, like always. She got a good price out on her, and with that baby intact, there's a double offer on 'em. So we call it even, got it? Besides, Xi'an misses you."
Your heart was pounding in your throat as you sank into the pilot's chair. Mando was right. People were looking for you.
A chilling thought entered your mind and no matter how much you tried, you couldn't shake it.
Did Mando turn you in?
You broke out in a cold sweat as you glanced around the cockpit for something that could be used as a weapon. If he knew that you saw this message...
Maybe he didn't have to know you saw it. After all, he just sent you in here to get the bedding. He wouldn't know... You hit delete, hoping maybe he wouldn't find out about it.
You quickly descended the ladder and retrieved some of the bedding and carried it down the ramp of the ship.
Mando was tending to the moisture tanks a little way away from the house and you eyed him warily. It was the first time in six months you had not trusted him.
Why would he wait until now? Were he and his friends waiting to literally snatch the baby from between your legs and drag you by your hair, kicking and screaming to your ex-husband, a bloody trail dragging behind you?
Mando wouldn't do that. You knew he wouldn't. So why now were you so afraid? Was it just the mounting anxiety of new motherhood catching up to you?
You busied yourself as best you could while you waited for him to come back to the house, both by trying to clean up all the dust that gathered and by watching the baby.
He had been uneasy the last few days, especially around you. He would babble softly and reach for you to pick him up, which you had been having trouble doing due to the fact that you could barely bend over.
One time he cried so hard and so loud that Mando ended up taking him for a walk off the ship until he fell asleep so your breasts would stop leaking and soaking through your shirt.
The lights came on automatically a few hours later and were droning steadily for half an hour by the time Mando came back inside
"So bad news," he said with a tired sigh as he dropped into a chair at the rickety kitchen table. "Moisture tanks are busted to hell. Looks like Jawas scavved the machinery. I tried to salvage what I could but no luck."
"What are we going to do?" you asked softly.
Mando shrugged. "Gonna have to go find somewhere. We're gonna need a lot of it, especially when that baby decides to make an appearance."
"Should I come with y--"
"No. You're gonna stay here," he said firmly. "I'll leave my gun and a knife for you."
"You're going to leave?" you asked, heart racing.
"I'll only be gone a couple of hours," he said, getting to his feet. He unholstered his blaster and took a knife from his sheath. "Safety is off on that. Use it like I taught you if something happens, okay?"
He handed them both to you and picked up the baby. "I'll leave the ship. If anyone comes, you go inside and you lock that door. Nothing on this planet will get inside. I'll be back by morning."
Mando came over to you and cupped his hand around the back of your head and pulled you close to press his forehead against yours. Second time he's done that...
He seemed hesitant to pull away from you. He placed the baby in his pod and looked back at you, his shoulders tense and squared.
"You'll be safe here. I promise," he said as he opened the door. "I'm gonna take the kid with me. You need to take it easy and he'll just be upset the whole time."
You looked at him, eyes wide with fear as you watched him leave.
For a moment, you debated telling him about the message on his ship. But you knew then he wouldn't leave - and you needed water. Washing, cleaning, sanitation, drinking. A lot of water was necessary, especially if you were going to be here for a while.
He shut the door behind him and you waited a few minutes before you got up and shoved a broom through the door handle, effectively locking it from the inside. If you needed to escape out the back door, it would buy you a moment of time.
He knows where I am. He knows I'm with the Mandalorian... He knows that I am alone.
You had to do something to keep your mind busy and off of the thought of being taken back to evil himself. It wasn't easy, and you desperately wished that he left the baby. He was right though. You needed to rest and sleep as much as you possibly could.
You also wished that you brought something to do to distract you from the excruciating pain that was now tearing itself through your lower body. As quickly as you could, you ran to the section of the abandoned homestead that had once been used to repair the moisture tanks, both now stripped bare of essentials. A passing knowledge of some of how some of this stuff works comes in handy every now and then. You had a timer fastened together in no time, set to beep once a minute. It would keep you alert, at least.
As you made your way back to the main part of the house, the pain subsided. You allowed yourself to eat part of the food that Mando had brought in, hoping that would quell the gnawing feeling in your stomach.
The baby turned and shifted as the night went on, even as you bedded down to for the evening.
Sleep didn't come easy that night for you and as you lay awake in the darkness of Arvala-7. All you could do was hope that you wouldn't be alone when the baby came.
***
Mando wasn't back the next morning. He wasn't there to help you out of bed, or to call you me'suum. The Crest was still there though, which brought a little comfort to you that he hadn't simply abandoned you on this desert planet to die of thirst.
He didn't come back by lunchtime.
Or dinner.
Or long after the lights came on.
You found a small leather skin under the bed that had about a day's worth of water in it. It was warm and had a bit of a sandy grit to it, but you drank deeply from it all the same.
That night, in the early hours of the morning, your waters broke.
And you were utterly alone.
***
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