Leia and I fired on the advancing stormtroopers, "Leia!" I screeched, "Get inside the Falcon now!"

"What about you?" the princess was reluctant to leave me.

I pulled a thermal detonator out of my pocked and switched it on, "I can handle myself!"

I threw the explosive and shoved my friend toward the falcon, "Go!"

Luke's POV

I came to a painful stop as the back of my knees caught the weather vane. I tried to pull myself up and catch hold of the hatch I'd fallen through. I fell back, useless.

"Ben." I call for my old master, "Ben please!" There is no answer. "Leia, Ivy!" I call out to my friends. Maybe they'll hear me, "Hear me!"

I keep calling and calling. I don't care if they can't hear me, I just don't wanna die. I'm scared, I don't wanna be alone. Alone.

Ivy's POV

I heard Luke's call. It felt as though something was pulling me, and I knew it was him. And that he was in terrible pain.

"Luke!" Leia is beside me, eyes unfocused.

"You heard him too?"

"We have to go back."

Luke's POV

Please, please, Force! I don't even know if you're out there, but please let them hear me. I'm not ready to die, I'm not ready to be on my own. Please let them hear me.

My strength is fading, I dangle helplessly. I know soon I will not be able to hold on, I know I'm going to fall soon. I only hope that someone can catch me.

And then, just when my hope was lowest, I saw the Falcon. They heard me! I'm practically sobbing with relief. THEY HEARD ME!

The Falcon is under me now, I know I can't hold on any longer. I let go.

Ivy's POV

The wind swirled around me, whipping my hair about my face. I heard a loud thump, looked, and saw Luke's torn and battered form lying curled up on the roof of the falcon, just out of reach. "Luke!" I called his name, "Luke!" he looked up with an expression on his face that I will not forget for as long as I live. "Luke, I cant reach you, you gotta try and make it just a little further. Can you do that for me?"

I watched my friend roll painfully onto his knees and drag himself towards me. My breath caught in my throat, as I felt cold horror seep into my being. His right hand was completely gone.

"T-th-that's it Luke," I stammered, finally finding my voice, "just a little further, then you can rest."

He lay down with a groan just short of the hatch I was half in and half out of, too exhausted to come any further. "Luke, I can't get you in like this, please, you gotta get up, you can't rest yet."

Luke tried to raise himself pitifully and collapsed. "Can't." he croaked. I unhitched myself from the safety tether and climbed out as I proceeded to drag him towards the hole.

"I'm not quitting on you Luke." I gritted out as I hauled him to the side of the hatch, "Can you put your feet in?" He obeyed slowly, like it hurt. "That's it, now can you climb down? You're too heavy for me to catch."

"I'll-I'll try." He whispered in a hoarse voice. Skywalker attempted the jump down, but he slipped and came crashing down with a thump. I followed and was quickly was at his side. "Hurts."

I knelt beside him and began to rub his back, "I know, I know it hurts. You're safe now."

"Ivy?" I heard Leia's voice crackle over the comlink.

"I got him, lets' go!" I looked pityingly on my friend. "You're safe Luke, you're safe. I won't let anything happen to you."

The lift came to a stop with a loud hiss. "Luke can you stand? I can't carry you on my own, but if you need my help."

"Help." He mumbled as he tried to struggle to his feet.

I slung his good arm over my shoulder and helped into a standing positon. He was shivering. The sooner I got him lying down and wrapped up the better.

Luke turned his head slightly to look at me, "Where's Leia?"

"In the cockpit, do you wanna see her?" I ask.

"See her." I'm not sure if he's just repeating the end of my sentances, or if he's actually understanding me. But I assume that he is.

I force a smile, "Alright, I'll take you to see her, but then you must lie down." He could hardly stand.

"Luke!" Leia flung his arms around him. Luke returned the hug stiffly.

"Oh Leia." He mumbled.

We laid him down and covered him with a brown blanket we'd found in the closet. Luke lay there trembling and half conscious. "I'll take care of him Leia, you go keep an eye on what's going on out there."

"Are you sure ?" she asked. I nodded, "Alright," she laid a kiss on Luke's forehead. "I'll be back."

I pulled a chair up to his bedside and began to brush the sweat and blood-matted hair. He seemed barely aware of me as he mumbled in his half awake state, "Ben, why didn't you tell me?"

I gathered from word of mouth that Ben was Luke's old master, and from this I gathered that there was something he hadn't told Luke about. Something he'd discovered very recently. Had Vader told him something?

"Father!" Luke started, eyes unseeing and vaguely frightened. Luke's father was dead, he had told me so. "Ben, why didn't you tell me?"

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and started to rise from his feet. "Luke what are you doing?" I grabbed his hand as he made his way to the cockpit seeming almost in a trance. He sank down onto one of the chairs. "It's Vader."

I shrugged at Leia as if to say, 'I don't know what's going on either.

Luke's eyes were closed, his eyebrows knit, he sighed and opened them. The look in his expressive blue eyes was haunting, heartbreaking, "Ben' why didn't you tell me?"

I was pitched backwards as the hyperdrive engaged and I landed with a bump on the unforgiving floor.

I rose to my feet and made my way over to my friend, laying a hand on his arm, "Luke?" He started, terrified eyes meeting my own. "You can't stay here Luke, you need to lie down." I took his good arm and hauled him to his feet again, "here let me help you."

It was then, when I deposited him that he did the strangest thing I ever saw him do. He dropped his head into his good hand, his shoulders slumped, and he let out a despairing sob. I sat down beside him and wrapped an arm around him. "Now Luke, don't cry."

I felt him bury his face into my sholder and start to cry harder. I felt my back hit the wall at the head of the bed as he threw his arms around me, sobs shaking him brutally.

I can feel his remaining hand clutching the fabric of my tunic, practically tearing it. "Shh," I whisper, running a hand through his hair. "It's okay, it's okay Luke, please don't cry."

"It's not!" he said in something between a scream and a strangled moan.

I tighten my hold on him and begin to rock him gently. "Hush, I know Luke, I know it's not." I'm crying too by now, "Luke, you gotta calm down."

But he doesn't, Luke continues to cry. I wondered once again what Vader had done to him.

"What did he do to you Luke?" I ask.

He shakes his head violently, "No! No!"

I run my fingers through his hair, "Please Luke, I can help you."

He looks at me, "Don't, you'll hate me!"

"I won't Luke," I murmer, laying a kiss on his sweaty brow. "I promise Luke, there is nothing that could make me hate you. Nothing. And I won't tell either, not if you don't want me to."

He's panting now, I can tell he's debating wether or not to tell me what happened. At last he chokes out in a scared voice, "He's my father, Vader's my father." Luke lets out a horrible bloody scream as he burrows against me, sobbing uncontrollably.

I continue combing through the sweaty hair, singing to him, petting him, trying anything to calm him down. Anything to ease the pain I know he's feeling, "Hush Luke," I gently cup my hand under his chin and tilt his face up so that he's looking into mine. His eyes drop, as the tears spill down his cheeks. "Look at me Luke." He obeyes, "I don't give a damn who your father is Luke. I love you!"

Then I was kissing him.

…

Almost to the alliance's rebel base, the pain medication and emotional disorder had finally taken its toll on my friend. Luke slept, head still resting against my chest, He is utterly still, except for the occasional twitch or moan. Lost in his own terrifying dreams, but too weak to fight back against the horrors he must face, over and over again.

Not long after succumbing, to his exhaustion, his temperature had rose to an alarming height. All I could do was watch as my friend, my love cried out feverishly in his nightmares.

I run my fingers through his hair over and over again, trying to alleviate some of the pain he's feeling. I still can't belive his own father did this to him.

How could Vader be his father? How could his own father have taken his hand, mutilated him, and turned him into half a person. It makes me so angry that anyone could hurt my poor Luke like that.

I've never seen him cry like that. It was a long time before I was able to get him to calm. He had cried until he had slipped into an exhausted sleep. We're still an hour from Home One.

…

"No Please," Luke cries out in his fevered dreams, "Why? Why?"

We've got him resting on a stretcher on its way to the trauma center. I haven't left his side once, and I won't for anything. It's tearing me apart seeing him in this state, in pain, scared. I've never seen him scared before. Hell, I've never seen him cry before, not like that anyway.

I'm not sure I belive Luke when he says Vader's his father. I mean how could it be? How could someone as evil as Vader have produced someone as gentle and kind-hearted as Luke. He'd never hurt anyone if it could be avoided. I've never seen a time where Luke didn't feel remorse when he had to kill or injure an enemy, he hates it. That's the only thing I can think of that Luke really and truly hates is hurting others. How could someone as evil as Darth Vader be the father of Luke Skywalker? I don't understand. How could anyone look at Luke and hurt him, especially his own father!

Luke cries for me in his sleep, I take his good hand and whisper; "I'm here Luke, I'm not gonna leave you. I won't let anyone hurt you." He calmed and turned away, still muttering in his sleep."

Leia was at my side, "Will he be alright Ivy?"

"I don't know." I can hear my voice crack and my eyes stung with tears, "I don't know if he'll be okay." I straightened, "But right now Luke needs us to be strong, for him. Because he can't be strong himself."

Luke calls my name again, and this time I find myself staring into his clouded blue eyes, "Ivy, why are you crying?" he tries to raise himself, "Ow! Why does my arm hurt?" Skywalker attempts to look over at his right arm. I gently turn his face away.

"Luke, you're in the medicenter." I explained to him soothingly. "You've been hurt really bad and we're taking you to get you better, but you're gonna have to keep being brave for me and Leia and do whatever the doctors tell you."

The nurse who's with us looks at Leia and myself, "We're gonna have to take him."

I nodded and started to let go of his hand, but he held on tighter eyes wide with terror. "Don't leave! I don't wanna be alone!"

"Luke, Ow! You're hurting me!" He had my left hand in a strong grip, "You have to let go, You won't be alone. The doctors have to take care of you now because Leia and I can't fix you."

"We have to sedate him," I heard the doctor say and in seconds Luke's remaining hand had gone limp in mine and the door had shut behind me.

It was then that I broke down and cried, not caring who saw me. I couldn't bear seeing my friend, no my all, ripped apart and in pain. I wept not for myself but for Luke, the only man I will ever consider my one true love.

I definatly haven't ended this on a high note. This was a challenge to write, but I am proud of myself. Gosh it is so difficult portraying strong characters in a vulnerable state because there is a fine line between making them vulnerable, and having them act completely out of character. Especially when that character is Luke Skywalker because he's not a character who cries, he just doesn't cry. I really hope I pulled it off, I think I did, but I'm the author not the audience.