SOME THINGS THAT BEN DIDN'T MENTION

by ardavenport

Oh, no.

Leia grit her teeth.

I can't deal with this.

She stayed hunched forward over the bowl of temodic stew with crackers.

They were just settling into their new base after evacuating Yavin. They were still unpacking, working on of emergency rations until the large food preparation units got set up; shields and defenses were always the first priority. And when Luke came by her office to tell her that the droids had set up the first kitchen units and brought her dinner, she though he was just being nice.

He wasn't just being nice.

He was sitting too close. He had just leaned back, draping his arm over the back of the bench they sat on in her office, so if she sat back, his arm would be draped over her. He couldn't possibly have been more clumsy or obvious.

The other chairs in her office were stacked with boxes. The computer on her desk was crammed with copies of the communiques the Rebellion had been getting. Feelers of interest, covert contacts, third-party messages. With their victory against the Death Star and the destruction of Alderaan, suddenly more people were in favor of going against the Empire. On top of that was the stream of contacts with refugees from her homeworld who had escaped being rounded up as enemies of the state. She was swamped with work.

She just couldn't deal with a romantic advance from Luke Skywalker right now. But she did not not want to just blow him off either.

She could see what would happen. His feelings would be hurt. He would think he did something wrong, or he offended her and every meeting they had after that for who-knows-how-long would be weird and uncomfortable. At least with Han Solo, when he made his own obtuse proposal, he was mature enough to move on when she told him to blow it out his exhaust vent. But not Luke.

Maturity. She supposed that was the problem with Luke. He was a stereotype of a rim-world farm boy taking on the big, wide galaxy; earnest, hardworking, idealistic and naïve beyond belief. She could not imagine anyone more wrong - - -

"Hmmm?"

Luke had said something and she hadn't heard a word of it.

"I was just wondering if you were going to have to go meet any of other senators in hiding. Han said you were talking about using the Falcon."

"Oh. Oh, yeah. But we don't have definite plans. But that bucket of bolts he has would fit right in at some of the places we might have to go to."

Leia cringed when Luke nudged his knee closer to hers. And his lightsaber pressed a little into her thigh.

She stared down out at it. She had seen him practice with it, but she didn't know if he was any good with it; he hadn't cut any of his body parts off with it, so she supposed he was competent. Since the Jedi had been purged twenty years ago, it wasn't a weapon that anyone saw being used. Luke was supposed to have been General Kenobi's apprentice, for maybe a day. She had not had time to ask him much about it. She didn't know anything first-hand about Jedi, only what her father had told her.

"Um, well Han said that he thought it might be a good idea that I go, too. To back you; he thought I'd be pretty good in a fight."

Still staring down at the Jedi weapon, she nodded, "Yeeeeaaaah . . . . Luke, what can you tell me about General Kenobi?"

Surprised, he sat back. He gave her a brief story about General Obi-Wan Kenobi going by the name 'Ben' and living for years as a local eccentric and hermit in the Tatooine desert where everyone left him alone, including the Sand People, some violent indigenous tribe that terrorized the farm community there.

"Why do want to know?"

Leia shrugged.

"Well, some of the people we might be making contact with might be impressed by your connection with General Kenobi. And that you're going to continue with the Jedi tradition."

"Really," he thoughtfully half-smiled, "well, if you think it will help, I'll be glad to do whatever I can. But I still don't know a lot yet. . . . " he faltered, suddenly unsure of himself.

"Oh, Luke, Commander Seprah served in the Clone Wars with Jedi. And General Atam and Senator Mothra . . . . . there are a lot of people in the Rebellion who can tell you about the Jedi. I'm sorry I should have had you talk to them before now."

"Oh, that's okay, we've been pretty busy."

"Yes, we have." She looked around at the cramped little office, rough stone walls stacked with equipment cases that weren't hers, but there wasn't any other place to put them. The base was concealed in caves this time. "But I'm thinking . . . . " Leia put her hand to her chin, eying the lightsaber, "it might be a little hard explaining to some people about that being your father's lightsaber."

Luke hastily looked down at it and back at her. "Well, why?"

"Well, I mean, if your father was a Jedi, General Skywalker - - and if General Kenobi said he was, then he was - - then he would have been in a lot of trouble, because Jedi weren't supposed to have children."

"They weren't?"

"No. They were forbidden to own property or get married. I don't know what the particular rules were, but from what my father said about them, everybody just assumed that they were supposed to be celibate."

Luke's blue eyes went wide with shock and Leia had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

"Ben never said anything about that."

"Well, IIIIIIII . . . guess there wasn't any time." She shrugged.

He nodded, looking a little numb. "I guess not." Luke stared down and past her, obviously having trouble absorbing this news. Leia got up.

"Look, I'll talk to Commander Seprah and some of the others and you can meet with them and talk to them about the Jedi."

Still clutching his own bowl of stew, he hastily jumped up. "Oh, yeah, thank-you. I really appreciate that."

"But I've got to get back to work." She put her dinner down on the desk. "I'll com you as soon as I talk to them."

"Oh, yeah," he nodded, "That, that would be great." He backed away, the door sliding open behind him. "Thanks for your help." He fled.

She sighed. With one problem solved, the huge pile on her computer suddenly looked a little bit more manageable.

Taking a bite of dinner, she went back to work.

### ### END ### ###

Note: BTW, any of us who might have been reading/writing fanfic in those innocent, early days when we were all frantically wild about Star Wars after ANH came out but before TESB was released and we were thinking Skywalker instead of Solo for You-Know-Who . . . . WE DIDN'T KNOW. And neither did they.

Disclaimer: This story first posted on tf.n on - - - . All characters and the Star Wars universe belong to George and Lucasfilm; I am just playing in their sandbox.