LL2 11 The Skywalker Matriarch

Three Togrutas were sucking on death sticks outside the barracks when Kess and Kayla emerged from the door. Kess parted the lounging crowd and marched impatiently to the sidewalk in her khakis where they could finish this debate in relative privacy.

"Tell you what," Kess turned to her friend and cocked her weight on one leg. "Just set me up on a date with somebody else."

Kayla blinked back.

Kess spread her hands. "Kayla, we can double date all you want," she talked while backing up to the edge of the sidewalk just as a speeder was driving up.

Kayla almost grabbed her uniform before the woman stepped blindly into traffic, but the Jedi Apprentice's back legs stopped just shy of the sports speeder, and the glossy red hood stopped just shy of the Jedi Apprentice. Kess simply thumbed over her shoulder at it, "it just can't be with him!"

Kayla's eyes flicked to the humorless driver as Luke waited for Kess to climb in. The Jedi was wearing the same outfit he wore on the NewsNet report that day… that day when they were all toasting the heroes, that day when everyone was glued to the vid to learn the details of the war they'd just won, that day when that man confirmed to the galaxy that Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader were dead.

…that day when Kayla laughed, "Yeah, I'll bet he had to turn to the dark side to kill them both and he doesn't want to admit that's how he did it!"

Kayla stared back at that man through the windshield, but she wasn't laughing anymore.

As Kess climbed into to the passenger's side and buckled in, Kayla noticed Kess was in formal uniform too. That was just taking it too far. Kayla bleated at her. "So you're going to train in uniform now?"

Kess scoffed at her through the open cockpit. "The Minister of State Retirement Ceremony!" Kess would have added more and Kayla would have replied, but Luke hit the accelerator in order to finish their public conversation right there.

Kess settled in beside him, meditated a moment, and waited in silence for the drive. It took more than a block before Luke could generate any words and, even as he began to speak, he bit his response out of the air anyway.

"I did deal with it," she answered as if Luke had snapped at her. "As much as I could. Kayla is not the one that did it."

Luke wondered how that classified as 'dealing with it'. He kept his eyes on the road.

"But I have to admit, I would have handled that very differently if I didn't have the Force." She spoke low and serious, but calm, almost worried, "She came across as angry at my accusation, naturally, but she's not angry." Kess thought a moment as if still absorbing this. "She's guilty and jealous."

Luke grinned wryly. "Wouldn't guilt imply…?"

Kess corrected with a smile in her voice as if this should have been obvious. "She doesn't feel guilty over the ops channel thing. She feels guilty because she's dating Rett."

Luke blinked. Lost.

Kess watched the scenery out the other window as she talked. "My old fencing partner? Rett D'monck? You met him in the class. Cinnamon blond, sapphire eyes, Lando Calrissian-smile?"

Without looking at each other, they shared a grin at the description.

Kess continued, "Kayla backed off because she was trying to get me to hook up with him. So when I came back from Frakkan 'in training' she assumed I was (ahem) 'no longer available'. Guess I can't blame her for scooping him up."

Luke kept his eyes on the road and his tone even. "So how does this qualify as 'dealing with it'?"

Kess shrugged girlishly. "I told her to just hook me up with somebody else instead."

A piece of Luke shrugged a brow to admit that wasn't a bad idea. Another piece of him rolled his eyes over this ludicrous notion that women can't be happy unless the were dating someone. But the piece secreted so far into a corner that not even his Apprentice could detect was the piece panicked.

But Luke had a great deal of self-discipline to not let that kind of thing show. He parked with the masses instead of bothering with the valet. He didn't open her door and she didn't wait for him to. They walked into the building side-by-side but not together, stiff in their black and tan uniforms. They muttered about nothing as they climbed steps into the lobby and cut through dignitaries slithering through the room like confetti-colored tadpoles in a primordial political soup.

The gold-foil chamber doors were still closed. Luke checked his chrono. They were twenty minutes early.

Kess looked around the room in one direction, passively observing the crowd, spiking mild interest only to see famous politicians in person for the first time. Luke looked around the room in the other direction, searching, but not finding, Leia or Han.

He didn't need to close his eyes to sense out and find his sister. "This way." He marched ahead, cutting the crowd with his shoulder, and Kess followed, until they were in the relatively empty hallways of the hotel rooms.

Kess' voice peeped with the quiet humor of this craziness. "Where are we going?"

Luke almost laughed at her misunderstanding, but he poked around the corner and found a room door hanging open in invitation as though were expected. Kess peeked around his arm to peer into the hotel room, seeing bodies and hearing laughter.

"Oh."

Han was leaning his butt against a bureau, his eyes bright and smile spread across his face at Lando lounging halfway on the bed (it was his room), laughing his way through some crazy tale. Leia was dressed in an evening gown of mother-of-pearl silk and a jeweled up-do that must have taken hours. She kicked back in the comm desk chair with sequenced slippers crossed on the nearby bed. The woman was giggling with a low, knowing voice and hugging a goblet of pink wine to her own eye as she laughed.

The tale was apparently so interesting that Threepio was the first to notice their arrival. "Good evening, Commander. Lieutenant."

"Hello, Threepio."

Luke only stepped in enough to get out of Kess' way and found a nice comfy space on the wall where he could blend in with it. He thought Kess would complete the relative circle and stand in that big open space between him and Han, but she fell into his flank right next to him as if that's where she belonged. Since they were both in uniform, Luke concluded it was a military habit.

Lando had barely finished his tale, or perhaps interrupted it, when all three of their still-laughing faces turned to the new arrivals.

"So!" Han beamed over at them, "How many Jedi does it take to screw in a light bulb?!"

Luke closed his eyes, shaking his head as they laughed at him. He knew by the sangria-colored spike of embarrassment in her Force Print that she detected the same sangria-colored spike in his, even if it wasn't painfully apparent on his face.

Lando curled over his own lap with a silent cackle. Leia turned her face away, trying not to laugh. Han gestured at the pair with one arm, "And in uniform, too, like I said." He set his goblet down on the dresser behind him and motioned to Lando. "Pay up, buddy."

From his half-lounge on the bed, Lando spread his hands at Kess. "What are you doing coming to this thing in khakis!?" Grunting, Lando pulled out his credit chip.

Leia watched Luke and Kess from across the room. Her eyes smiled, but she spoke calm agreement. "You're here as a Jedi, not a Lieutenant."

Kess kept her hands clasped behind her as if she were reporting in. She shrugged, "I don't have a Jedi uniform," then added, "or a dress." She watched Lando toss the credit chip across the room and Han caught it with both hands. Beyond that, Kess' eyes snagged again on Lei- Councilor Organa Solo staring ather with cool humor, warm eyes, and chilling power.

Kess lowered her chin and opened her senses, but she didn't need the Force to match words to the matriarch's stare.

Yes. I do see what's happening between you and my brother.

Yes. I am happy he's found some female company and, sure, you'll do.

And. Yes. I will slice you into little bitty pieces with your own kriffing lightsaber if you break his heart.

Kess maintained the gaze with complete understanding, full honesty, and absolute respect towards Leia's wordless message.

"Leia." Luke's slow voice pierced the room, strong and warning.

Han and Lando quit making noise, eyeing Luke and then Leia to see her glaring deviousness and him glaring a warning. Kess knew Luke sensed the communication between them but she wasn't sure if he understood it. Leia's powerfully even eyes remained on Kess a moment longer.

"Leia," Luke shook his head slowly, his tone loud and clear. "Don't."

Han sucked the smile off his lips. Lando respectfully dropped his sights to nothing on the bed, unworried. Kess closed her eyes and wondered if she should respectfully make her leave.

Leia turned her eyes to where she set her goblet on the comm desk, freeing her hand to gesture toward the exit. "Threepio, please close the door and wait for us outside."

"Yes, Councilor." The gold droid bowed and waddled out. His servos whirring back and forth echoed in the sudden silence. They all waited. Anger, Embarrassment, Humor, Hope, Discomfort, Daring, and Laughter ricocheted off the walls on the Force. And, during that silence, Leia gracefully pulled to her feet to step across the hotel room floor.

The moment the door whisked shut, she was in front of her brother like she was going to teach him a thing or two. Her brother was already barking back with a smile threatening to emerge on his pink face. "She's. My. Apprentice!"

Han couldn't contain it. His laughter escaped in a sniggering snort. Lando tossed his head back and tried to hide his face with his palms. Leia turned her loving eyes up at Luke and spoke in a smooth, low, don't-screw-with-me kind of voice. "Luke. We all lived in a hotel suite together for two full months. I don't need training in the Force to see what's happening."

Kess tried to keep the fuzz in her heart from bleeding out on the Force, but it didn't work, so she scrunched her head down between her shoulders and grimaced until her eyes shut.

Luke dropped his hands and squealed it. "Nothing is happening! That's my point! And now you're just making it worse bringing it out in the open like this!"

Han laughed loud. "So you like her, kid! So what? Who cares?"

Luke's voice whined out. "Now I have to teach you guys politics? If I don't get Senate support on this Guild—" he stopped himself with a cough of incredulity.

Leia nearly laughed at him again. She stepped up and patted his forearms with loving assurance. "Luke, you're missing the point."

Kess peeked with a single eye but was not bold enough to look around. She saw a piece of Leia's pearl gown and a piece of Luke's black uniform and, in the small slice between them, Lando's eyes watched her. His was a tight grin of real understanding and pure enjoyment to witness Luke squirm. It meant all their guesses and suspicions were dead on.

With a huff, Luke dared to answer. "Do I want to know the point?"

"The point is," Leia said as if teaching a class. "How many Jedi does it really take to screw in a light bulb?"

Kess could feel his emotion sucking quickly into a tiny spot until it all disappeared like a dark black hole.

"All of us," she answered pointedly. "And right now, I'm the one willing to shine the light into the corner before dark side has a chance to fester."

Luke's defenses calmed with a tight huff through his nose. He sensed Kess humble too with a puff of new respect for the Councilor.

"You like her. She likes you. You've become friends. So what? The cameras are on you and it makes it feel awkward. The Senate is on you and it makes it feel complicated. But relax, Luke. We like her too."

Kess glowed and tried not to let it show.

The Councilor stepped away, her eyeball stretched just enough towards Kess to make her position crystal clear. Little bitty pieces…

Lando broke the tension with a blurting smile. "I got an idea!"

They all turned to watch the man scoot off the bed and stand up, hands spread and head high with his great plan. "It's about appearances. About politics."

Luke already didn't like the sound of this. "No, Lando, it's not just—

"Gotta keep it in perspective. I get that." Lando interrupted lightly. He explained as he stepped slowly forward with placating gestures and salesman's voice. "What you need is a simple, easy, solution to this whole misunderstanding."

As Lando advanced, Luke took an instinctive step to get between him and her. Han sniggered and Leia turned away with fresh laughter. Lando just reached right around the Jedi and offered an elbow to the Lieutenant. "Shall we?"

Luke's eyes must have widened the way they were laughing at him and he forced himself to calm down. He pressed his mouth to admit there was nothing he could do; nothing he should do. As Kess took Lando's elbow with screaming uncertainty, Luke just exhaled every bit of breath from his lungs and let them go.

A moment later, Han escorted Leia out too, passing Luke to leave the room, and, as soon as their backs were turned, snuck a quiet croon. "You snooze, you lose."

Luke was quiet and humbled for the entire ceremony. Kess was nervous and attentive. The most communication they had all night were forced grins and only when they found each other's eyes by accident. The joke was gone in the minds of everyone else, even Leia, Han, and Lando, but Luke still occasionally struggled with the embarrassment of it, and Kess occasionally flushed at what was implicated in it.

They were politely silent all the way home too and, during the drive, Luke realized Kess had spent all camera angles on or near Lando's elbow, and yet reverted right back to Luke's flank when no media was looking. Luke's heart gently swelled. He thought about it: about Kess, and Kayla, about Lando and, (what was the guy's name?) Rett. He wondered why Kess had no interest in Rett when Kayla was so convinced she should. If Kayla was that attracted to the man…

As Luke slid the speeder to the curb outside her building, he cocked his chin. "You said 'guilty and jealous'. What was Kayla jealous about?"

"She knows she's not my best friend anymore," Kess said simply. She climbed out of the speeder and poked her eye back down under the hood to see him. "I found a new one."

Luke's eyes shifted to see the simple shrug of her brow. A smile of deep honor spread across his face.

Meeting her eye, Luke nodded.

Meeting his eye, Kess grinned.

"Good night."

"'Night." Luke drove away.