FAMILY THERAPY
Session 1: All Together Now
Han and Leia were in bed, Han working on his accounts, Leia creating a lesson for her university classes.
"Tomorrow we have to see Jacen's therapist," Leia reminded her husband.
"Yeah, I know," Han grumbled as he entered figures into his datapad.
It had been a tense evening; Han had picked up Jaina earlier. Jaina was not happy to be there and neither twin was delighted to see one another. Anakin tried to smooth things over, and Jarik was delighted to see his big sister, but it had to have been the least at ease the entire family had felt since Jacen's arrest.
"Well, it is affecting our lives," Leia admitted. Neither had looked up from their datapads.
"No! Just because he's had to be supervised every second? That he cost us a ton of credits in attorney fees? That everyone's walking on eggshells around here? How could that be screwing up the rest of our lives?" Han's voice dripped sarcasm. There was a great deal of anger in his voice.
"I think that's why his therapist wants us to go," Leia sighed miserably. "Which, by the way, I'm looking forward to with the same enthusiasm I reserve for dental procedures."
"Besides, he's doing better," Han said. "His marks in school are better. I'm not sure what this is going to do. It's already succeeded in pissing Jaina off. Luke wasn't too happy about it, either."
"Don't worry. He saved the best part for me," Leia remarked dryly, setting her datapad on her night table.
"Yeah, like sending him back to Praxium's gonna solve everything," Han muttered.
"Believe me, I got an earful from him."
Han finished up his accounting. "Y'know, I like Luke, always have. One of my best friends. But we don't exactly see eye to eye on this Force stuff."
"That's a diplomatic way of putting it. Have you considered a career in politics?" Leia teased him, trying to break the tension.
Han actually laughed. "Sweetheart, if I ran the galaxy, we'd all be drunk all the time."
"Believe me, I have days when that sounds really good. Especially lately."
"I might need to make it happen after tomorrow's session," Han said to her.
"I might well be joining you." The two shut out the lights and snuggled into each other in the darkness, hoping for the sleep that had become increasingly elusive to both.
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"Come on in," Dr. Markess Lunin said, inviting the Solos inside. He was around Han's age, tall, thin and had much less hair. This made Han feel better, though he never would have admitted it to anyone.
Dr. Lunin had set up enough chairs for the six of them. Jarik sat in his - for approximately thirty seconds, at which point he was racing about the small office.
"Jarik, please sit down," Leia directed her attention to her youngest child. Jarik, as usual, ignored his mother, as he did all adults. His teachers despaired of him at times.
"Hey, twerp," Jacen said affectionately.
Dr. Lunin grinned. "I'm assuming that's a term of endearment in your family." Everyone laughed, which helped, since everyone was tense. It was telling that Jacen was at one end of the line of chairs and Jaina on the opposite. Leia and Han were in the center, Anakin next to his mother, Jarik next to Han in theory. "Jaina, thanks for making the trip."
Jaina folded her arms across her chest and kept her eyes down. "I wasn't given a choice."
"Tell me about that," Lunin encouraged her.
"What if I don't want to?" she said sullenly.
"That's up to you," Lunin told her respectfully.
"My parents made me come," she continued.
"What was going on when you had to leave?" Lunin asked Jaina, who still would not make eye contact and maintained her guarded posture.
"I was in the middle of building my lightsaber."
"Pretty important task for a Jedi," the therapist noted. "I do know that some of you are Force sensitive. That probably compounds whatever's going on with you and your brother."
"No shit." Jaina was closing up further. Lunin was skilled enough to move on at that point.
"Jacen, how're you doing with Jaina at this point?"
Jacen looked sad. "She doesn't wanna be here."
"No, you only get to speak for yourself," Lunin said, his tone light. "Care to say how having your twin sister here with you?"
Jacen felt a tear slide out of his eye. "If she doesn't wanna be here, she should go back to Yavin."
"She's here for two weeks, buddy," Han told him. "Might as well tell her what's on your mind."
Jacen looked over at Jaina, who hadn't changed her defensive posture. "If you were gonna come here and be a beyotch, I wish you'd stayed back on Yavin, Miss Super Jedi."
"Fine! I'm done here. I'll get a transport!" Jaina got up abruptly, and turned to her parents. "Don't you ever make me do this again! It's not my problem!"
"Get back here, young lady!" Han said sharply. "You want to help your brother? We don't know what to do, either, but we're trying!"
Jaina glared at her father with a malice no one had ever witnessed. "You have any idea what it's like being known as the twin of a loser brother? Like that really helps my rep!"
Jacen became intensely angry. "Oh, and you think it's great being the brother of Miss I'm Way Too Cool? You always get what you want!"
"Well, at least I know what I want and how to ask for it!"
Lunin leaned back in his chair. "Okay, time out. There's a lot of anger here, lots to be worked through. Let's see if we can do something without shouting."
"In our family? Forget it," Anakin said in his typical good natured fashion. All six members of the family laughed. There was more than a bit of truth to that.
Lunin smiled. "I like a family that can laugh at themselves."
"If we couldn't laugh at ourselves, we'd be even more unbearable than we already are," Han said, and the rest of the family followed with more laughter.
Jacen's expression turned wistful. "I have a hard time laughing like you guys do. It makes me feel left out."
Leia smiled at her eldest son. "It took me a long time to learn to laugh at myself. You can blame your father for teaching me how to do it," she said, a slightly wicked grin crossing her features.
"Just because you belong to this family doesn't mean you have to be like them," Lunin said to Jacen.
"I'm bored!" Jarik announced. "I wanna go play with Sark and Quall!"
"Soon, buddy," Han said to him. "In the meantime, try not to destroy everything." The three siblings and Leia had to laugh; the running joke was about Jarik's radius of destruction. He was tall for his age, but even having accounted for that, it still extended far beyond what one would consider imaginable.
"He's not Force sensitive," Jacen said to Lunin. "I'm jealous of him."
"Why is that?" Lunin asked.
"'Cause he doesn't have to feel things that scare him." Jacen broke eye contact again.
"Y'know, pal, even when you're not Force sensitive, you can have feelings like that," Han reminded him.
"You're never afraid," Jacen accused his father.
"Only complete morons are never afraid," Han told him. "Now, I realize that since you're sixteen you might think I'm a complete moron, but leave off the complete part and you're pretty accurate." There was more laughter.
Lunin was laughing with them, which was helping everyone to calm down. "I think what your dad is telling you is that courage isn't about not being afraid. It's about being afraid and doing it anyway."
"The only time you can be brave is when you're afraid," Leia told her son gently.
"Fear's actually practical," Lunin advised. "It's a built in warning signal in nearly every species."
"You think I don't know that? I wake up every day and think, is this the day I'm gonna fuck up again?" Jacen said wistfully.
"You don't have to do that, you know." To everyone's surprise, it was Jaina, and her voice had lost its bitter edge. Jacen could feel her relaxing a little. "You've got a lotta people who've got your back."
"Like?" Jacen challenged her.
"Oh, stop whining and think about it!" She was irritated, but less than before. "You think just because you made me incredibly pissed off that I don't understand you? In case you've forgotten, I feel you, even when I don't like it."
"I always feel like you don't want me to be around. Like I'm a drag on you," Jacen said sadly.
"Jacen, stop trying to compare yourself to me. We're alike in that we're in the Force and that we're twins. We have the same parents and brothers. But maybe you're supposed to do things that I'm not going to do. Just 'cause you're a different person doesn't mean you suck. But you always get yourself in this 'Jaina's better than me so I'm not even gonna try' thinking and I get mad at that 'cause you don't have to be like me!"
"Uncle Luke doesn't see us that way," Jacen said, bitterness creeping into his voice.
"Uncle Luke's an idiot sometimes," Jaina said to him. "I mean, yeah, I didn't really wanna interrupt my studies and building my lightsaber to do this but man, Uncle Luke was acting like I was gonna fall to the Dark Side by coming back here!"
"I hate that most of all," Jacen said furiously. "Just 'cause his father went to the Dark Side he's all paranoid about it."
"My sentiments exactly," Leia said, looking to her son and daughter on each end.
"The kid does get carried away sometimes," Han conceded. "His one saving grace is having a wife who'll kick his ass, although not often enough if you ask me." Everyone laughed again.
"I just want you to be happy, Jace," Anakin told him. "Yeah, I like being with people. But you love your animals and they can talk to you. That's pretty cool."
"I wanna go home!" Jarik interjected.
"Come over here, twerp," Jaina ordered her youngest brother and pulled him on her lap.
"I like my animals better than people sometimes," Jacen admitted.
"I hear ya there, kiddo," Han said.
"Jacen, we do need to do a lot more work," Lunin said. "I'd like to meet with you and Jaina together in a couple days. Jaina, how long are you here?"
"Thirteen more days," she answered. "Well, twelve, 'cause the last day's travel day."
"I think we can make that work," the therapist said, entering notes into his datapad. "And I'm very hopeful for you, especially after today. You have a family that's boisterous and loud and that might feel overpowering to you, but it's clear that they all love you deeply. And the reason I feel even more optimistic is despite all of you facing some very serious issues, you're able to laugh about it. I don't hear a lot of laughter in my office. A family in crisis that's able to laugh, that's something to celebrate."
"Speaking of which, I'm starved," Jaina mentioned.
"I'm hungry, too!" Jarik echoed.
"Hmm," Leia murmured. "Does anyone feel like lunch at Bakura Barbecue, where we can be as loud as we want?"
"Oh man, that sounds delicious," Jacen agreed.
"We can offend the tables all around us," Han said, smiling.
"Yeah, and then they leave!" Jaina said gleefully.
"Jacen, Jaina, see you in two days." Lunin looked up. "Good on all of you."
Jacen spoke very softly to his twin. "Was it as bad as you thought?"
She thought about it, using the same expression that Han did when he pretended to ponder something.
"Nah. Now come on, I'm famished!"