"He's moving." Said an unknown voice from somewhere above Luke.
Luke heard a few shuffles and tried to open his eyes, but they seemed firmly gummed closed.
"That's good." Leia. Luke thought.
A few more shuffles emanated and Luke tried again to open his eyes. He thought for a second he saw the room above him, but it was gone before he could be sure.
"He blinked!" Han.
There was another shuffle, more frantic this time. Then Leia spoke again.
"Get back, for heaven's sake. You'll terrify him."
Terrify me? Luke tried harder to open his eyes, intrigued by the princess's comment.
He couldn't remember how he had ended up in the hospital bed. The last thing he could properly remember doing was sitting down with a datapad and trying to master some complicated math problems. Then everything just… stopped. And now he lay in a hospital bed. Even accounting for his admittedly terrible luck, that just didn't make sense.
At last, he managed to open his eyes. But all that looked back at him was a huge expanse of blindingly, clinically bright lights. He moaned, and started to close his eyes again. Then, suddenly, something large, and comfortingly dark moved into his range of view. He latched onto it, but even the darkness reflected bright light back at him.
I don't want to close my eyes! I want to know what's happening!
He tried to sit up, but the black something held him still.
"Don't move yet, Luke. Give yourself time."
He nodded groggily and stopped struggling. The black figure placed him back on the mattress.
"Wa'append?" Luke mumbled incoherently.
"Sorry?" Leia asked.
Luke shifted, trying to find her, and finally found her.
He coughed hard. "What happened?"
The princess moved towards his bedside, giving wide berth to the black form which stayed close by his side, as if ready to catch him if he decided he was ready to get up. She looked very concerned.
"What's the last thing you remember, Luke?"
Luke groaned as he tried to think beyond the math problems. "Trigonometry."
"What?" It was the black form speaking, and Luke tried again to identify it.
"They said it would be important for… flying." Luke said.
"And is there anything after that?" Leia asked.
"Important for flying?" Asked the black form.
"Please, one at a time."
Both repeated their questions, simultaneously.
"Leia?" Luke asked.
"That's the very last thing you remember?"
"Yeah. Then, nothing. Then I'm here."
"Oh, no." Leia said. She turned hesitantly to the black form, "Maybe it would be best for you to fill him in."
Luke tried, and failed, yet again to focus on the black form. He had thought his eyes were adjusting when he was able to focus on Leia's face, but now he wasn't so sure. The black with dramatic white shines still didn't resemble anything specific.
"Who are you?" he asked groggily.
Leia gasped softly.
"What?" he asked defensively. "It's so bright in here. Can we turn the lights down a bit?"
Leia stood and moved to the wall. The lights were dimmed and Luke blinked a few times, and was glad to find himself able to adjust and focus on her form. Then he looked around the room, taking in the med-droid, Han, and, at last, the black form.
When he realized who it was, he whimpered and started trying to scramble backwards off the bed. In an instant, Vader's hands were on his shoulders again, and Han was standing behind him, ready to catch him in the event that he were to fall.
Luke wrenched himself free of Vader's grasp and dragged himself frantically towards Han, who gently held him back down against the bed.
"Stop, Luke. It's okay." Han said kindly. "Stop struggling. He's not going to hurt you."
Luke turned to Leia, "Tell me this is some kind of bad dream, please!" He began to try to crawl to the foot of his bed, towards her, but two pairs of hands held him still.
"Luke, calm down. You're making it worse."
"Making what worse?" Luke shouted, trying to free himself. He was sure that, at any moment, his friends' faces would twist and contort themselves into something terrible, probably with glowing red eyes.
Leia came to his bedside, and gently pushed him down against the mattress. "Shh, Luke. Calm down. You have a concussion. As close as I can tell, you've lost maybe a few days' worth of memories. If you'll just lie still, we'll bring you up to date."
"What's he doing here?" Luke asked frantically, pointing to Vader.
"Luke," the demon started to move towards him, and Luke felt tears spring to his eyes as he tried to move backwards, and was caught again by his friends. At least the demon stopped.
"Shh," Leia reprimanded gently. "He brought you back to us. From what he's told us, it sounds like you rushed in to face him, unprepared. That's all I know. Let him speak, please. Don't work yourself up about this."
"Don't work myself up?" Luke sobbed. "Leia, think what he's done to us! He tortured you! He killed my parents, and yours!"
Leia and Han exchanged a quick glance.
"I know it's hard to believe, Luke. Trust me, I was the most doubtful when he brought you to us."
"Wait, he brought me here? Why?"
"Please, Luke. Let him tell you."
Luke felt himself shaking, but he forced himself to look at Vader and nod. "What happened?"
"Do you feel calm, Luke?" Vader asked.
Luke shook his head, "No. But if we're waiting for that to happen, we'll never get anywhere."
Vader nodded. "Your princess is right. You came rushing to confront me. You weren't ready."
"She's not my princess," Luke mumbled.
He thought he might have sensed amusement from the behemoth sitting beside his bed.
"I do not know how you discovered my whereabouts, or the fact that I was alone, but you found me, and tried to attack me. It is not for lack of trying that you did not win. You were simply not prepared."
"What are you talking about?"
"You attacked me, and I defeated you."
"I got that much. What I mean is, why didn't you kill me? And after not killing me, why did you bring me back to the Alliance? And, above all, why did you turn yourself in?" His head was spinning.
Vader took Luke's shoulders in his hands and pushed him back into the covers. Luke's vision stopped swimming and he spoke without meaning to. "Thanks."
He felt a little tickle of something at the edges of his consciousness. Something soft, and warm.
"I brought you back because you're my son. Because I love you. Because I knew you would never be happy with the Empire." Vader answered.
Luke stared at the Sith. Then he turned to Leia, then to Han. Both were nodding assent.
"We tested your blood." Leia said.
"Yeah, Kid. I dunno how it happened, but that's definitely your dad."
Luke turned slowly back to his father, finding himself blinking back tears. "No, either I really am dreaming, or this is some kind of sick joke. Please, don't mock me."
Vader reached out and put one hand on his son's hand. "Luke, I haven't played a practical joke on someone since I turned to the dark side."
Luke found himself smiling, just a little bit. He tried to bite it back, but was unsuccessful. He tried to change the subject instead, in hopes that he would be able to stop smiling if he was thinking about anything other than the ludicrous idea of Darth Vader ever having played a practical joke on anybody.
"How did I get a concussion if you love me so much?"
He sensed Vader's smile a split second before the older man answered. "It was halfway between an accident and a way for making up for not having a tranquilizer."
Luke finally lost the battle with laughter, and then tears. He found himself even allowing Vader to hold him, stroking his back, telling him that everything would be all right.