The snow was falling harder when Vader reached the Selrana Inn. It was a modest two story building that had quite a bit of age to it as the multiple patch jobs on the exterior showed.
The door swooshed open and the Sith entered, stepping on a plush carpet wet from melted snow.
Vader peered around the room. To his left was a stair case and further from it a sitting area in front of a roaring fire. In the opposite direction, the room opened up into a pub of sorts with multiple tables. Both areas were empty.
Wasting no time dawdling, Vader approached the counter that was being manned by a female of the same species as Barlon. She was equally stout and her voice was perhaps just slightly higher.
"Welcome to Selrana Inn!" the woman said with a toothy grin, "Barely beating that storm out there aren't you?"
"We are in need of a room." There was no time for idle conversation.
"Then you have certainly come to the right place. We only have a handful left open, so you are in luck." It appeared the inn keeper noticed the small body in his arms for the first time as her eyes widened, "What a cute little thing you have there! He's yours I assume? He doesn't look too well."
Vader grinded his teeth at the woman's ignorance, "He is not, which is why I am in need of a room and a doctor."
"The blizzard is getting pretty bad out there so I don't think we can com anyone, but I'll see if we have any guests who are doctors. As for your stay, I'm afraid we only have single bedded rooms left. I hope that won't be a problem."
"That will do fine."
"Then please follow me this way."
Luke secured in his arms, Vader followed the inn keeper up the creaky stairs leading to a hallway filled with doors. She continued down until she neared the end and stopped in front of a door. Using a card, she opened the room and stepped aside for him to pass.
The room was indeed small, with a single bed, table and chair, and a window that was currently too fogged up to see out of. There was another door which Vader assumed led into the refresher.
"You just get your boy all set up, I will return shortly." she said, the door closing behind her as she left.
Alone, Vader placed the boy on the bed and proceeded to strip Luke's outer layering of clothes and boots. He brushed some flakes of snow out of the blond hair before pulling back the sheets. With much care he moved Luke onto the pillow and pulled back up the covers. He took note that the bed was larger than the average size, most likely due to the native species bulkier build; it could easily fit two and a half humans.
Vader then proceeded to switch on the bedside lamp which cast a warm light across the room.
His son grunted and his blue eyes fluttered part way opened. The boy scanned around the room before his confused eyes fell on his father, "Where…?"
"We are at the inn. You have been stricken ill." Vader explained.
Luke continued to stare at him, "….father?"
"You have a fever. The inn keeper is trying to contact a doctor." Vader wondered how much of what he was saying was actually being comprehended by his son.
There was a knock on the door before is slid open and the inn keeper entered followed by a petite human woman carrying a bag.
"It seems fortune is with you today, meet Dr. Ralou."
It was clear from the doctor's messy, dark hair and tied robe she had just been awoken to assist them. Placing her bag at the end of the bed she walked up to Luke's side, "Is this our patient?" at Vader's nod she continued in a saccharine voice, "Hi there big boy, I'm Dr. Ralou. I'm going to be using some tools from my bag to help me figure out what's wrong okay?"
Luke stared at her in a dazed state as she pulled out an instrument from her bag, "This is going to take your temperature. All I have to do it hold it in front of your forehead like this see?" She demonstrated on herself before moving onto him. The machine beeped out and she looked at it before clicking her tongue, "Yep, your kid's running a high fever."
Vader glared at the woman, he needed no device to tell him such an obvious fact.
"I don't want a fever. We have to get the doctor." Luke mumbled.
Vader hoped the boy would not say much else, the last thing he needed was the boy sharing too much information. Luckily the woman assumed by doctor, he had meant her.
"He seems to be confused. What's your name, baby?" she asked, checking the dilation of his eyes.
He thought for a moment before answering, "Luke."
"Okay Luke and what's your daddy's name?"
"Anakin."
If the boy was not ill Vader would have strangled him, "Are these questions necessary, doctor?"
"I was trying to calculate how far sever his state of delirium is, but other than a little confusion, he seems okay in that regard."
"Is this just a fever we are contending with? The symptoms developed rapidly."
"Give me another minute or two and I think I'll be able to confirm my suspicion."
As Dr. Ralou continued using various outdated instruments, Luke's half-conscious mood seemed to become more and more irritable.
"I wanna sleep." The boy fussed.
"I know sweetie, I know. And you can in just a minute." Throwing her bag over her shoulder, Dr. Ralou moved over to stand in front of Vader, "It seems your son has caught himself a case of a local flu."
"We have not been on this planet long enough for him to come in contact with and develop such a thing." Vader said with crossed arms.
"Soon after contacting it, this local strain works its way through its host's body fast." The doctor said, emphasizing her point by snapping her fingers, "But the good news is as fast as it comes, it goes. You should only be dealing with a day worth of Luke being sick. By tomorrow your kid should be back to running around."
Vader nodded. That was good; he really couldn't afford more than a day's worth of time being wasted with Luke in bed.
"Well, Mr. Anakin, I'd prescribe some medicine to help lessen Luke's discomfort and bring his fever down, but I'm afraid with the storm there will be no getting it. Now his fever is a little higher than I would like it to be so I suggest letting him sit in a lukewarm bath and after maybe placing a cool cloth on his head. Other than that just make sure he gets plenty of rest and drinks lots of fluids." She leaned back over the bed, "Don't worry, sweetie, your daddy's going to take good care of you until you feel better." But Luke was already asleep.
"How much for your services?" he wanted the woman out of here.
"Consider it on the house. If he doesn't feel better or his condition worsens come talk to me, I'll be in town for another few days."
"Thank you for your assistance."
"Alright, I'm going to get another hour or two of shut eye, it was nice meeting you, Mr Anakin." Dr. Ralou waved and exited the room leaving just the inn keeper left to get rid of.
"I'm glad your son doesn't have anything serious. Would you like me to send breakfast up in an hour or so?"
"That would be appreciated. Now my son requires some quiet to rest." Vader said none too kindly.
"Okay, I will be downstairs if you need anything. We can discuss payment when your stay is up." Smiling the inn keeper left and the door shut behind her.
Glad to be rid of the company, Vader exhaled and turned to his son. His first task was getting his temperature down.
Vader walked into the refresher. The space was condensed, but served its purpose. He dialed in the controls on the bath to the correct temperature before returning to his child.
"I need you to get up, my son. We must bring your temperature down."
Luke continued to lie in bed with his eyes closed. Sighing Vader wondered when he had gotten into such a predicament. Moving next to the boy he pulled back the sheets and was met with an immediate response. The boy fussed and tried reaching for the covers, his body shivering.
"No, Luke. Get up." The boy groaned and cracked his eyes open slightly glaring at him.
Vader did not have time for Luke's foolishness.
Grabbing the boy under the arms, he lifted him out of the bed and dropped him off just outside the refresher.
Luke wrapped his arms around his shaking torso and sank to a crouched position, leaning against the wall. The boy was clearly exhausted.
Closing his eyes for a moment he allowed himself to briefly wish Padme was with him, she would be a lot better with this sort of….situation than he was.
Bending down he grabbed the bottom of Luke's tunic and worked it over the boy's head. Once his son was completely stripped he placed him in the bath and turned the water off. Luke limply reclined against the backing looking miserable.
Vader would have given his son privacy, but he did not trust the boy not to slump over in the water and drown, so he simply stood in the doorway. After waiting a few minutes, he helped Luke out of the bath before wrapping him in a thick towel.
"I'm cold." His son mumbled, still shivering.
"Dry yourself and get dressed, then you may go back to bed."
It took him a minute, but his son dried himself and started to put back on his clothes, a task he was struggling to complete. Vader shook his head and reached for the shirt his son was currently putting on wrong and guided his arms through the sleeves. With his assistance, he was able to get his son back into the rest of his attire.
Upon being placed back under the covers, the child immediately passed out.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Vader removed his own overcoat and slipped off his dripping boots. It was not long after that the inn keeper returned with a trey of food. She placed it on the table in the corner before winking at Vader and sliding quietly out the room.
Sitting down, the Sith examined the trey's contents before slowly beginning to eat. His mind drifted from his son to Vindi and what he would do when he found him. He knew he could not allow the insane man to live. Luke would fight him on that point and want the scientist to change him back to his normal age.
Vader placed a fork full of food in his mouth, momentarily concentrating on the flavor.
He knew he himself did not have any desire to go back to his broken body. Vindi may have not meant it to be, but it was a positive change for him. And Luke…the age regression made his son easier to handle and it practically forced the boy to rely on him for most everything.
Vader sought out Vindi not to return his son or him to their previous forms, but because Vindi had invented a machine that was dangerous and had made the fatal decision of testing it on him and Luke.
Finishing his portion of the meal, Vader picked up a glass of water and a buttered roll and walked to the bedside. Using the force, Vader gently prodded Luke's mind awake.
Moaning, his son opened his eyes.
"You need to drink and eat." He stated simply.
Wincing, Luke slowly sat up, "I'm tired."
It seemed to be the boy's favorite phrase, "Drink this."
Grabbing the glass with trembling hands, Luke slowly brought the liquid to his mouth. Vader noticed the boy's weak hold on the cup and immediately grabbed the end of it, assisting his child so he would not spill water all over him.
He drank greedily until Vader pulled it away from him, "Not so fast, your stomach will not be able to handle it." Instead he placed the bread in the boy's hand.
Luke stared at it before moving to place it on the nightstand, "I'm not hungry."
Vader did not have the patience for this, "You will take a few bites out of that."
Luke blinked at him, "I'm tired."
"If you don't take a bite right now I will force feed it to you, an experience that will not be pleasant for the either of us."
Somehow the force had willed his words to get through to the child because Luke took a small bite out of the bread. He nibbled on the roll a little more before Vader allowed him more water. Satisfied his son had eaten a little of something, he took the remainder of the roll. Luke wasted no time lying back down and fell back asleep instantly.
Vader returned to the chair and watched as his son fitfully slept.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
When Luke regained consciousness the first thing he noticed was how hot and sticky he was. The second thing was the hand wiping his sweaty bangs out of his face.
He slowly blinked his eyes open and saw his father. With a raised brow, Luke looked around the room and pieces of the last few hours came back to him.
"How long have I been asleep?" he groggily asked and sat up.
"Around four hours." His father answered, "Are you hungry?"
Luke shook his head, nauseated by the mere thought "Food does not sound good right now."
"I assumed as much."
Running a hand through his damp hair, Luke let out a shaky sigh, "I'm sorry."
Vader stared at him with curiosity, "What for, my son."
Luke looked down at his hands, "For getting sick. I'm holding us back, we should be out looking for Dr. Vindi."
His father simply shook his head, brunette hair swaying slightly as he did so, "Do not apologize for that which you cannot control."
Luke still couldn't shake off the feeling of guilt. Maybe they would have found Vindi already, maybe he would be back to his normal self.
As if reading his mind, his father said, "Do not blame yourself. Even if you were in perfect health the odds of us finding Vindi before the blizzard hit were slim. He is likely stranded here due to the weather, giving you opportune time to heal."
That was true. He could already feel himself getting better, his joints weren't as achy and his vision was no longer tilted. He just felt drained.
Luke suddenly stiffened as he felt Vader's cool force presence gently touch his mind before pulling back, "It seems your fever has finally broken."
Did his father just check his temperature…with the force? It was odd thinking of the right hand to the Emperor checking his temperature at all.
"That would explain why I am covered in sweat."
The young boy suddenly took notice of a towel laying outside of the refresher, at first he thought nothing of it, but then he began to recall fuzzy memories of the last few hours. He remembered some woman pestering him with questions and the mentioning of his temperature being high before he had fallen back asleep. The next memory was his father waking up him to get the fever to go down by…Luke felt his face heating up.
"Oh Sithspit." He covered his face with his hands.
Why did the force enjoy tormenting him so? Could he not keep at least some of his dignity? He was twenty-two, at least mentally; he liked his privacy especially when it came to THAT. He couldn't even bring himself to think further about his father seeing him exposed.
"What are you embarrassed about?" Vader asked sounding a mixture of annoyed and bemused.
"You know very well what I am embarrassed about! You-" Luke gestured wildly to the refresher, trying to find the words, "-saw me in there!"
"Oh please, it is nothing I have not seen before." Vader said simply, "Would you have preferred I allow you to drown in your half asleep state."
"I don't know, maybe?" Luke said flustered. He found himself breathing heavily and his limbs feeling akin to the weight of durasteel.
Flopping back against his pillow, he turned toward the window. The outskirts were fogged up, but there was a clear circle in the center where someone, his father he assumed, had wiped away the condensation. Outside was nothing but a world of blurred white. Thick flakes of snow fell in a slanted motion allowing Luke to only see maybe three feet away from the window.
It was a beautiful view he had to admit.
Luke stared almost in a trance at the falling snow. His mind began drifting to a time when he was younger and feeling under the weather. He would lie in bed and cuddle close to his stuffed toy Bantha as Aunt Beru read to him until he fell asleep. From his Aunt, his mind moved to thoughts earlier that morning in Barlon's shop. Thoughts of his mother.
Luke shifted his gaze back to his father. Maybe he should ask the man. The worst that could happen would be him refusing to divulge anything. Besides this may be his last chance before they found Vindi. After that he would return to his normal body and escape back to the rebels.
"Father," Luke said gaining the older man's attention, "What was my mother like?"
AN: Yep, the next chapter has the scene a lot of you guys have been waiting for; Vader and Luke discussing Padme. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. And thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for every review, favorite, and follow. They make my day and mean so much to me.