Saving Grace—Chapter 3: The Ride Home

By KnightMara

A/N: The disclaimer still exists . . . this is George's world, and I'm just playing in it. Thanks to all who have reviewed!

Deja: I'm glad you are enjoying young Luke. He's really fun to write—a bit awkward and uncertain . . .the little kid who grows up to be a hero.

LilPKLoser: Yeah, there's more.

Jelp: I have, and here it is.

Hermione: Yeah, don't ask me why, but Luke always struck me as the type of kid who would get shoved into lockers and such. He's just such an outsider.

KTSkywalker: Well, you've got it.

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"You okay back there, Luke?" Grace called from the front passenger's seat of Lara's speeder as they raced along the desert landscape.

"Yeah," Luke shouted back over the wind from his seat just behind Lara. In fact, he was quite comfortable. Lara's speeder was a top of the line model, with enough room for eight people, or so Luke estimated. With the top down and the wind blowing his blonde hair back wildly about his face, he was actually enjoying himself. Not to mention the fact that he was seated right behind one of the most beautiful girls he had ever met. Especially with her hair twisted into a neat little knot at the back of her head to keep it in place as they drove, she was absolutely mesmerizing.

"So how far out do your parents live?"

Grace's question pulled his attention away from Lara. "Uh, they're not my parents, and they're a little further out. It's a moisture farm."

Grace turned around in her seat and grinned at him. "So I gathered. All you find out here are farms this far into the desert," she told him. "I live on one, too." She turned around but continued yelling back to him. "They're such a pain, though. All the work. And it hardly ever pays off. Lara's folks have got it easy."

"Why? What do they do?" Luke asked, genuinely curious. Lara, of course, hadn't seemed like the moisture farming type to begin with.

"Import/Export," Lara replied over the sound of the wind. "My dad works for Darklighter."

"Really?" His eyebrows arched in surprise.

Grace answered, "Yeah, lucky her. And the next week is going to be really sweet because her dad is working overtime while Darklighter is off on some trip."

"Jealous much?" Lara teased with a sidelong glance at her friend.

"Spoiled much?" Grace teased back, matching her tone.

Lara laughed. "Yeah, I am! I admit it, and I love it! So you can just kiss my spoiled, pampered—"

"Do you know the Darklighters?" Luke interrupted.

Pausing, Lara shrugged her shoulders. "A little. I tend to run with a different crowd, though."

Grace chuckled. "Yeah, the sand-baked serfs like me."

"Beats elitist queens like Tela."

"Ugh, she makes me sick," Grace agreed with a scrunch of her nose that Luke could see even from behind. Then she cocked her head backward and asked, "So what about you, Luke? Got any friends besides the Tusken-bait from the cafeteria?"

"Actually, yeah," he replied sheepishly. "Biggs Darklighter is my best friend."

"No kidding!" Lara exclaimed. "Now that's one Darklighter that I can stand. Though, no offense, Luke, he's a bit on the weird side."

Grace shifted in her seat, throwing her arm over the headrest so she could look at both Lara and Luke. "Is he the one that wants to be a pilot?"

Lara nodded. "Kid's thirteen and his dad is already trying to groom him for the business. It'll never happen though. That kid has his head in the stars."

Luke smiled hearing this. How often had the same been said about him? "That's Biggs," he agreed.

Grace seemed to study his wistful expression. "So let me guess. You want to be a pilot, too."

"Eventually," Luke answered honestly. "My father was a pilot, so why shouldn't I be?"

"Sweet!" Lara laughed. "What kind of pilot?"

Luke shrugged. "I'm not really sure. I never knew him, actually. Or my mother. I live with my aunt and uncle."

A strange silence engulfed the speeder as he said this, and he was aware that the two girls up front had exchanged unreadable glances with each other in response to his explanation. It made him uncomfortable to think that they might be pitying him. Well, of course they were pitying him, a small voice in the back of his mind cried out. They were only driving him home because they didn't want him to take another beating from Fixer. Glumly, Luke sank back into the seat, feeling small and insignificant. The novelty of the experience had worn off, leaving only the harsh reality that these two girls had taken pity on him, and nothing more.

"Well, then we've got something in common, kid," Grace chirped, abruptly breaking into his thoughts. "I live with my grandparents. My mom and dad got killed in a shuttle crash two years ago."

"I'm sorry," Luke stammered, a little taken aback by the frank manner in which she'd just spoken. He'd always felt a little awkward and emotional when speaking about his parents, and he'd never even known them—didn't even have a small fragment of a memory about either of them. Grace, though, seemed unaffected by the fact that she'd been orphaned.

"Yeah, well," she commented with a shrug, turning her head away from him and looking out into the desert, "it's old news."

Not knowing what to say in response, Luke remained quiet.

"Hey, is Dar still following you around like a lovesick sandcat?" Lara broke in, changing the subject.

Grace chuckled and groaned simultaneously, a sound that was rather amusing to Luke. "Is he ever! How many times can a girl say she's not interested?" She still hadn't turned her head back toward the occupants of the speeder, but her voice sounded cheerfully annoyed.

"About a million," Lara laughed. "Believe me, I should know."

Luke imagined that she probably did. Who wouldn't want to follow her around?

"Yeah," retorted Grace looking back at Lara, "but you've got guys like Mik and Walson and, Force help us, Devan drooling over you. I've got Dar. Sweet, scrawny, geeky Dar."

"I don't know," Lara countered in a voice that was casually conspiratorial. "Devan seemed pretty impressed with what you did in the lunch room today. Said it was sexy to watch a girl come to kid's defense."

Luke fought the urge to slump in his seat as a sick, twisting feeling gripped his stomach. Yeah, he had been a pity case, all right. A mere kid that Grace and Lara had felt the urge to defend. Little Wormie. In spite of Lara's mesmerizing beauty, he wanted nothing more than to get out of this speeder as quickly as possible. Any interrogation by Uncle Owen would be preferable to this.

"He really said that?" Grace asked her friend, and Luke could hear the desperation she was trying to keep out of her voice.

Before Lara could answer, Luke recognized one of his uncle's vaporators in the distance. "Uh, hang a left just past that vaporator," he called out. "It's the easternmost part of the property."

"Gotcha, kid," Lara said as she complied a few seconds later.

In a few moments, Luke could see the faint outline of the homestead, and he was practically itching to get out of the speeder. Girls or no girls, he didn't want to be anyone's charity. As soon as the main dwelling was clearly in sight, Luke nudged Lara's shoulder. "Just let me out here," he said.

"You sure?"

Luke nodded, and Lara slowed the speeder to a stop. Luke had already hopped out as soon as she had applied the brakes, and was moving quickly away from them. "Thanks for the lift," he said as politely as he could while retreating.

"Sure thing, kid," Lara laughed as she smiled her beautiful smile at him.

His cheeks reddened in response as he spun around and hurried away from them.

"See ya' around, Luke," he heard Grace holler just before the speeder engine roared back to life carrying the two girls back to civilization. With a sigh, Luke descended the steps that led into his uncle's home.

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A/N: I'm not sure how long this story is going to be. I guess it all depends on my muse.