Prompt #50 - Presence

"Luke, what are you looking at?"

Leia's newfound brother seemed to be gazing out at some nearby trees, but not looking at the trees themselves. "Luke?" she repeated. "What are you looking at?"

Luke slowly turned to face her, his eyes reflecting the bonfire's light. "Leia, don't you see them?"

"See what?"

Luke turned back to the spot he was gazing at. "The ghosts . . ."

Normally Leia would have thought Luke was either crazy or joking, but with all that had happened lately she couldn't bring herself to completely doubt him. "Ghosts?"

"Yes," Luke kept looking from Leia to the trees and back again. "You really don't see them?"

"Don't you think I'd tell you if I was seeing ghosts?"

Luke sighed. "I don't understand why you can't see them . . ."

"Maybe if you told me who they were?" Leia offered.

"Well . . ." Luke pointed forward with his gloved hand, ". . . there's Obi-Wan, and there's Master Yoda, and there's . . ." He hesitated for a lingering moment. ". . . there's our father."

Leia couldn't stop her eyes from bulging at what appeared to be empty space to her. "Our . . . our . . ." She couldn't utter the last word. Not yet. "What . . . what does he look like?"

Luke slowly smiled at her. "He looks young and healthy – blond curly hair, blue eyes."

"So he looks like you?"

"I guess a little bit."

"Why can't I see them?"

Luke shrugged. "Maybe you'll be able to see them after you've trained in the Force some more." He put his real hand on her shoulder. "Master Yoda tasked me with rebuilding the Jedi - I could start by teaching you what I've learned."

Learn about the Force. She could learn about the Force. Her hands twitched a little at the thought – she wasn't exactly sure how to feel about it. Though Luke could levitate objects and fight with a lightsaber, there was a certain heaviness on him now that wasn't present when she'd first met him.

"Leia, he wants me to tell you something,"

Leia gulped, her insides growing cold, her mind vaguely aware of the music drifting in from the party and wishing she had stayed there instead of asking Luke what was going on. "What?" Her voice came out in the tiniest of whispers, her stomach tightened as if she were about to jump off a cliff.

Luke squeezed his sister's shoulder. "He says he loves you, Leia."