The only encouragement to get Luke out of the pool was the promise of lunch.
A servant came to announce that lunch preparations had begun to be made, leaving them no choice but to get back into dry land and go inside to get changed. Luke was almost heartbroken to step out of the water, but Leia was thankful, as she had tried several times to excuse herself — as her royal upbringings didn't let her peacefully be on the water while still wearing clothes — but her new family didn't allow her to do it.
His disappointment at being out of water dissipated into his eagerness to get back downstairs after he took the quickest shower of his life — and he wasn't prone to taking short showers; no, he was too mesmerized by the water. His hair was still wet and his clothes were wrinkled around him, and he knew Leia was ought to chaff him for it, but he didn't truly care. He was just beginning to know this new family of theirs and he didn't want to waste a single second with them.
As he came down, he noticed the addition of a man amongst the party — Shiloh, he concluded, Ryoo's husband. What caught his attention the most, however, was that Han wasn't following Padmé around like a stray puppy like he and Leia had remarked — mentally — that he would be; instead, he was chatting with Shiloh like the civilized human being Leia had always tried to make out of him.
Luke couldn't wait to see the look of surprise of his sister when she came down and learned that she had succeeded.
"Luke, dear, there you are," Jobal fondly called for him, gesturing he should come sit with them. They were all waiting for lunch by the living room in front of the stairwell. "You arrived just in time."
"I did?" he innocently asked, pulling a chair and sitting on it the wrong way out — Leia might have made a tamer man out of Han but Luke was still a farmer in his core. He looked at Ruwee, Padmé, and Pooja, sitting all together. "What are you talking about?"
"Talking is a feeble word for it," Sola yelled somewhere from the distance — Luke couldn't see her from his angle. "They're arguing."
"Arguing?" he asked, scandalized by the mere idea.
"That's what politicians do, is it not," Pooja provided, delighted at the abashment on his face.
Now Luke understood why Han wasn't acting as Padmé's second shadow in the absence of him and Leia.
"Well, what are you arguing about?" he asked, "Maybe I can pitch in."
Padmé looked at him dead in the eyes, "The good common versus moral ethics."
Luke's face remained blank.
"Yeah, I'm walking away now."
Ruwee laughed at his dismay.
Luke scratched the back of his head. "I'm afraid you invited the wrong twin for this conversation. I'm just a Jedi."
"I'm afraid there's nothing just about being a Jedi," Pooja freely declared.
"Hm," Ruwee hummed, "Pooja is right. A Jedi requires a lot more than good martial skills. Being a Jedi, in the end, comes down to this exactly — the choice between doing the best for the good common or honoring your moral ethics."
"I, er," Luke stuttered, "I leave politics to my sister, sir. I just try to do good wherever I go."
"That's the fact of the matter, child," Ruwee said, "Goodness relies strictly on a point of view, does it not?"
"Well," he cleared his throat, "Doesn't everything, in the end? All our choices and beliefs arise from who we are as individuals and our particular points of view."
Jobal looked at him with fascination; so did Padmé.
Ruwee chuckled. "I suppose you're right."
"Oh, Aunt Padmé, you must come here," Ryoo called from the hidden spot where she and her mother were lodged. "Come see this, we just found some of the most heinous holograms of you as a child. The twins will love to see these."
Padmé was quick to get up, determined to get rid of those quickly.
Luke, on the other hand, became eager at the prospect. "Can I see them?"
"Absolutely not," Padmé determined, having walked away already.
He grinned but respected her wishes. He turned back to his grandparents and his cousins, "What prompted this discussion, anyway?"
"Ah," Ruwee relented, "The fabrication of Clones."
His lips turned up in a grim. "Yeah. That seemed like a nasty affair."
Pooja laughed once again, rather entertained by Luke's blunt comments.
Ruwee was about to start talking again when his eyes caught sight of someone else coming down the stairs. Her face was obscured from him, but that dress — that pale yellow dress with the silver embroidery around the neck, he would recognize it anywhere.
He had gifted it to his daughter himself, once she had turned twenty-one — a most important age amongst the Naboo, that fully indicated the passing from youth to adulthood.
Not that his daughter had ever truly embraced her youth, but the symbolism was still there.
"Ah, yes, Padmé. Come back here and tell your son all about your point of view."
There was a heavy silence in the room as Leia reached the bottom of the stairs, and, having heard the comment herself, her cheeks flushed, while she self-consciously wrapped her arms around herself.
Ruwee froze, looking pale, like he had just seen a ghost.
"That's Leia, darling," Jobal pointed out the obvious; she knew she had to, to pull her husband back from his daze.
"Yes, of course," he lowered his head, ashamedly. "You'll have to forgive me, child, my eyes deceived me. I seem to have experienced — a déjà vu."
Leia took one cautious step ahead. "It's alright."
"I see it too," Jobal said. "You look just like her—ah, you must be tired of being told that."
"I don't mind," Leia forced a smile, "It's only but a compliment to be compared to her, whether physically or intellectually."
"Padmé had a dress just like that," Sola commented, turning to her sister next to her, "Didn't you?"
"I did," she said, "It was one of my favorites — I remember leaving it here on Varykino, did you guys get rid of all my stuff?"
"We did not," Sola whispered.
"We couldn't, dear. They were all that was left of you, of your essence," Jobal said.
"They're all piled up in boxes in the attic," Ryoo announced, "Pooja and I — we would go up there and mess around with your things all the time. It drove mom and grandma and grandpa insane, but — I guess that was our form of grieving. We just wanted to grow up to be like you."
Padmé turned up her lips sadly.
"Well, I'd love to go through those boxes again," Pooja said. "There might be something there that you'd like to revisit—or! There might just be something that the twins would like to keep to themselves!"
"That's a lovely idea, Pooja," Jobal agreed, "I'll have the servants bring down the boxes. We can go over them in the next few days."
She looked over at Padmé, searching for some visual confirmation, and Padmé gently nodded.
"Don't just stand there, dear—come sit with us," Jobal gestured towards Leia.
Smiling tenderly, Leia joined them by their table, but not before giving her brother a sideways glare, "Could you at least pretend you're related to me?"
Rolling his eyes, Luke got up and turned the chair around, sitting properly.
Han, upon seeing Leia's return, immediately dropped his conversation with Shiloh and came to sit with her. Seeing that, Pooja burst into laughter while Ryoo yelled in displeasure, "Damnit!"
Leia frowned, but it was Luke who asked, "Are we — are we missing something here?"
"Yes—my sister bet that it would be at least five minutes before Han dished Shiloh completely upon Leia's return," Pooja said, "I won."
Han huffed, somehow proud of himself while Leia became red. "She's better looking."
"Can't argue with that," Shiloh agreed, amused. "And far more interesting than me, I suppose. I didn't start a rebellion."
Leia blushed again.
"I'm afraid the credits for that go to Padmé's final acts against tyranny before she forged her death," she said.
Jobal huffed. "Yes, politics — that's what they were arguing about before you came down. You'll fit right in, dear."
"They?" Leia looked up at the elder woman, "Aren't you engaging with it, Jobal?"
"Oh no, I'd rather just listen," she said, "You politicians — become a little too hostile trying to argue your point for my liking."
Leia laughed. "What's he doing here then?"
Luke shuddered. "I'm just offering some Jedi wisdom for the table."
Han looked at him, deadpan. "What wisdom?"
"Maybe, if you ever listened to me instead of belittling me all the time," Luke argued, "You'd know what I'm talking about."
Leia patted Han in the arm to silence him.
"Anyway—what are you discussing?"
Ruwee replied monotonously, and Leia noticed how he avoided looking at her at all costs, "Common good versus moral ethics."
Leia's face fell and she, too, couldn't make eye contact with anybody anymore.
"Ah," she forced the sound out, "I suppose it all falls back to that, in the end."
Luke gazed at his sister funnily, unsure why her aura had suddenly gone — grey.
She cleared her throat once she noticed nobody else would start talking.
"I understand this is a sore topic, and one that should not be discussed lightly," she started, nervously moving her fingers in the air. "There's no reason to tiptoe around the issue, yet — the past is at it is, and we cannot alter it to avoid our heartbreaks."
Everybody was frowning at her; even Han, who always made sure to tune out when politics were brought up, became perplexed at her sudden behavior.
"Leia, dear, what are you talking about?"
Leia only became confused by Jobal's request.
"I—The good common versus moral ethics?" she prompted, "Newborn babies being taken from their mother at birth only to be groomed into becoming heroes of the galaxy…?"
Her connection to the Force and to everybody's emotions told her she had turned a light conversion into a whole new level of tension that hadn't been there before.
Padmé magically appeared by her side, placing a hand on her and saying gently, "We were talking about Clones."
"Oh."
The mother squeezed her shoulder kindly.
"She does bring a fair point," Ruwee spoke up at last. "If you had to choose between your humanity and any hope that the galaxy will thrive again, what would you choose?"
"It doesn't matter," Padmé said, taking a seat, "The choice was already made for us."
"Wouldn't you have done differently, Padmé?"
"Doing it differently implies that I had the choice to do it a certain way the first time around," she established. "Like I said, like Leia said — it's in the past, it doesn't matter."
"Except—it kind of does matter to everybody in this room," Sola joined their table at last. "Not only us Naberries, but — well, I can't imagine the twins would be too happy to find they were groomed to be warriors, that they were never allowed a chance to… to be their own persons."
"Is that your impression, dears?" Jobal traded looks between each twin. "Do you think your lives were never your own?"
"I — I don't know," Luke admitted "My Uncle… He was adamant that I had no contact with Ben Kenobi—you know, the… the Jedi assigned to guard my growing up on Tatooine. I don't think Uncle Owen had my best interests at heart, but… There's that. He wanted to avoid me from following my father's footsteps at all costs."
"I see that you don't light up when you speak of your foster carers," Pooja pointed out.
Luke snorted, "What do you know — maybe you could be a Jedi."
Pooja rolled her eyes. "I just meant—I've known Leia for a little while now. Even back on the Imperial Senate, whenever she spoke of the Organas, her eyes sparkled. Yours — don't."
Luke clasped his hands uncomfortably. "Well…"
"It is important to us that, on the chance that you couldn't be given to us, you at least had a happy childhood," Ruwee demanded.
"Well," Luke repeated, running his hand through his barely combed hair, "I can tell you with conviction that I was eager to get out."
"Yeah, I don't think that's going to be enough," Ryoo jumped in, standing next to her mother. "You see, we might not have perfect lives, but we were always happy. At least while growing up."
Luke sighed.
"Aunt Beru always tried to make our home the safest place there was. She truly loved me as she never had, but… Turns out, she wasn't all powerful. Sometimes she just couldn't keep her promises," he spoke in a low voice. "Tatooine was a cruel place to grow up in, and — and we didn't have much credits, so I had to start working on our moisture farm pretty young, instead of being a child, and… And Uncle Owen wasn't always a pleasant person to be around when things didn't go his way. And things never go your way in Tatooine."
"Oh, you poor thing," Jobal said with a sadness coming from her heart.
"That's why you should have been placed with us," Ruwee grunted, and Luke could feel his hurt. "You would have been properly taken care of with us! We wouldn't have let you starve or work, you would have gotten to be a child!"
"He wouldn't."
All eyes turned to Leia after her refutation.
"I know that, back then, several decisions were made that didn't, couldn't appeal everybody," she said, "But we can't be foolish to think that Vader and Palpatine wouldn't immediately trace a baby that was magically placed under the Naberries' care as Padmé's even though her baby was allegedly buried alongside her."
Ruwee fell silent.
"It would be unwise to think that Vader wouldn't be keeping a close eye on your family," she continued, "You said it yourselves, you knew Anakin. Therefore — Vader knew you too."
Ruwee looked angrier than before. "So you don't condone the choices that were made back, then?"
"How can I condone a choice that not only gave me the best life I could have had, but also two loving parents that cared and loved me unconditionally?" she prompted, "That doesn't mean I disregard my brother's struggles, or even Padmé's, but — I can't disparage everything that the Organas did for me. They were my true family."
Jobal placed her hand on Ruwee's shoulder to placate him.
"Isn't that what you wanted, dear?" she uttered, "That the twins had a happy life? Leia is just telling us that she did, and we must be happy for her, too. Relieved."
Sola looked at her niece puzzledly. "Don't you feel at all like you were only adopted by the Organas for their ulterior motives?"
"I do not," she said simply. "I can't deny that I thought I was nothing more than a pawn in the fight against the Empire after it was revealed of my bloodline to Vader, but… Looking back, I know that simply isn't true. My parents raised me to be a quiet world leader, my parents taught me how to bow to the Empire even though I knew better. My parents did everything in their power to keep me away from the fight, but when the time came, I made a choice. The choice to stand up not just for my home, but for the whole galaxy."
Pooja huffed. "You would have never remained idly as the rest of the galaxy suffered. It's not in your blood."
She gestured her head towards Padmé, and Padmé smiled.
"Tell me one thing," Ruwee gazed at Leia, "Bail Organa was one of Padmé's closest friends in the Senate, to the point he took upon him to raise her daughter, despite all the dangers that your bloodline might bring him. But tell me, did he ever speak to you — about her?"
Leia looked at him sadly.
"My parents had a statue of Queen Amidala in the private gardens of the Palace of Aldera," she reminisced, "I'm afraid that's all I can say."
Ruwee resembled discontent. "Nothing? Not a single word? Padmé — Padmé was his best friend! Padmé was your mother…!"
Her lips turned up in a single line, but Padmé was the one to interfere—
"It was too dangerous, Papa," she placated. "My name — had to die alongside the Republic. Especially to my own children. If anyone made the connection… It would jeopardy their lives."
Leia complied with a nod. "Padmé's name only resurged once the roots of the Empire were defeated. That's when I came to know about her."
"Er—" a sound escaped Luke's throat, "That's not true, Leia."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "What are you talking about, Luke?"
"Back on Endor," he said, "I asked if you remembered your birth mother. You told me you did."
Her face fell, and she pressed her lips while everybody now looked at her expectantly.
"I — I told you I had no tangible memories of her, Luke," she said, "It was just — feelings."
"Feelings?!" Ryoo repeated, "What does that mean? Weren't you just a newborn when you got separated from her?"
"Leia is very sensitive to her emotional connection with the Force," Luke spoke on her behalf. "She's very perceptive of other people's emotions, especially to those that mean something to her — even if they were taken from her barely minutes after she was born."
Padmé gazed at her daughter intently, her lips agape. "You never told me about this, Leia."
"Because there isn't much to tell," Leia sighed relentlessly. "I don't have factual memories of you. They're just — feelings, images. I… I can't explain them. I just feel them."
"If you don't mind telling us, dear," Jobal smiled, "We'd love to hear it. A child's first bond with their mother is one of the most important bonds on their lives."
Leia chuckled at the simplicity of that.
"I don't mind—and I'll do my best to put these feelings into words. As a child of the Force, I've come to notice that pragmatics often fail me when I'm describing this power that I don't fully comprehend," she laughed at herself. Luke knew her to be stalling, so he told her to close her eyes and focus on her sensations; she did. "There's a woman there, and I know her to be a woman because she's about to give birth. She's very beautiful, but she's very sad, too, and her pain speaks louder than the happiness of meeting the child she's carried inside her. And when she finally sees her child, her daughter, she loses all her strength and closes her eyes; she doesn't even touch her daughter. Then — it's cold. I feel cold."
When she opened her eyes, she left them lingering over the table.
"Your mother was all the sense of safety you had, while you were still in the womb," Jobal spoke melodically, "When you only knew warmth, that abrupt separation ought to bring you coldness."
"I suppose that's right," Leia agreed.
"Anakin was certain I was carrying a girl," Padmé whispered, but the room was so silent that her voice had volume. "I would imagine that, upon seeing he was right, the heartbreak of what he had done would only intensify."
Luke tilted his head. "Mother, we were told that I was born before Leia, and if Leia's vision is correct — you only lost your consciousness after you gave birth to the two of us. That means you got to see us both, that you got to see… me."
Padmé's eyes were drained of the life on them.
"Luke, I… I have no memories of your birth. Leia's story, for me, is just that — a story that I don't have any emotional connection to. I wish it was different, but Anakin had just tried to kill me, and I suppose neither my body nor my mind was working correctly. From the moment Anakin tried to take life away from us to the moment I woke up on a foreign planet, everything is a blur."
"Right—Of course, mother. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," Luke apologized. "I just wish I had more — answers."
"We have a lot of answers here, child," Jobal said. "They might not be the answers you seek, but they're answers nonetheless. Who knows — they might just be the answers you need that you didn't know you were looking for."
He smiled brightly at that.
"Thank you, Jobal. I admit I am eager to know everything about Padmé, about your family. Growing up, all I ever wanted was something tangible from my past, to know where I can from so maybe I could know who I was. My Uncle and my Aunt didn't have those answers, and — granted, finding a particular answer as to the identity of my father almost tore me apart. Then I met Padmé, and it all changed. It's such an honor to have her blood running through my veins, the—the Naberrie blood."
Sola smirked, arms crossed. "He's good."
Luke flushed, having Leia mischievously grin at him.
"Leave him be, mom, he was having a moment," Ryoo claimed, although amused.
"Don't you have any memories of your birth, child?" Ruwee asked Luke, and there was a question he never thought that would escape his lips — newborns weren't supposed to have remembrances of their births.
"I don't," Luke confessed. "My mastering of the Force is more — tangible, if you could say as much. While I have great control of the Force that surrounds us, Leia can connect better to the Force that binds us together. Um—I guess this doesn't make much sense. Sorry, Leia is the eloquent one. I'm just the jack of all trades."
Unexpectedly, Sola started laughing at him, which only made him more embarrassed.
"Sorry—you're just so much like him," she said, "Anakin struggled a lot to put his thoughts into words, especially when he was next to Padmé. I guess she just intimidated him."
"Yeah, she intimidates me."
"Yeah, I intimidate him."
The twins said at the same time as he swirled his finger towards her while she put her fingers on her lips.
"Speaking of Anakin," Ruwee began, "Leia, do you have any feelings about Anakin, too?"
A grim took over her face. "I don't."
Luke forced a laugh. "Leia's first baby instinct was to hate the man that fathered her. She's held strong to that hunch ever since then."
She rolled her eyes. "Well, Luke, you were just saying that I was more emotionally intelligent than you."
He tilted his head, "Yeah, that's not really what I said."
"Honestly, I can't blame Leia," Pooja said. "Had I learned my birth father was some sort of beast whose favorite pastime consisted of running the galaxy for everybody else, I would hate his guts too," then, she turned to her mother with spooked eyes, "Mom—please tell me you picked a nice guy to be Ryoo and I's sperm donor?"
Sola merely shrugged. "Worst case scenario — I at least can guarantee you it's not Vader."
Luke snorted.
"So what!" Pooja yelled back. "It could be Palpatine—Oh no, he's from Naboo—!"
Sola smacked the back of her head to shut her up.
Against all odds, Leia laughed too — a deed that earned her concerned looks from all Luke, Han, and Padmé.
"I think you stayed for too long in the pool," Han said, putting his hand on her forehead to check her temperature. "Are you malfunctioning, sweetheart?"
"I'm not a droid," she complained, shaking her head while still amused.
"What about you, Han?" Shiloh made himself heard for the first time, having Han addressed for the first time as well. "It can't have been easy to learn that your girlfriend is the daughter of the devil."
Han's face remained stern at Shiloh's choice of words, and he placed his hand on Leia's back. "No trouble at all. Leia's her own person. So is Luke."
He felt her relaxing under his touch.
"Right, of course," Shiloh replied coyly. "I just meant that it can't be pleasant to have Vader as your father-in-law."
Han narrowed his eyes. "Lucky for me that Vader is dead, then."
"I think what Shiloh here was trying to ask before he put his foot in his mouth was what was your reaction to learning about it," Sola spoke on her son-in-law's behalf while belittling him all the same. "Which is still a breach of your privacy, so you don't have to answer that."
He shrugged. "It didn't matter before, it didn't matter after I learned. I fell in love with Leia for who she is, not for where she came from."
"Right, yeah," Shiloh conceded, still embarrassed and wishing for that conversation to end already.
"Besides," Han continued, "If I started judging Leia for her progenitors, something that she had no control over, I'd give her the grounds to judge me for my past — and trust me, all I've done was from my own volition."
Leia smiled to herself, leaning back against him. "Han is a better man the most."
"We can tell as much," Jobal said, "He came here, after all, to support you amidst the chaos of a family that wasn't his own. We can tell how much he loves you just by that."
"That and how he follows you around like a puppy," Sola snarkily remarked.
"I myself can't wait until we get Leia to ourselves for some very needed girl time," Ryoo said, "Mostly, so we can talk about him."
Leia blushed, although Han merely shuddered at the prospect.
"Right?!" Pooja exclaimed. "I've met Senator Bail Organa a couple of times only, but I can depict his reaction to having Han as his son-in-law very well."
Padmé grimaced at the comment, discreetly shaking her head towards her niece so she would change the subject. Pooja caught sight of Padmé's gesture from the corner of her eyes, but Leia surprised them both.
"It would definitely take some time for my father to get acquainted with the idea of Han," she snorted. "He would consider himself as the most progressive man in town until his little princess came marching home with a smuggler in tow. He would have lost his mind."
The sisters chuckled, while Han wore a proud smirk.
"Not only your father," Ruwee conjectured, "I don't assume the Elder Houses would have accepted it lightly."
Sola tilted her head, "Just like they would have accepted an heir without royal Alderaanian blood. Right, Leia?"
Leia waved her hand with disdain. "The Elder Houses serve tradition, all right. In the end, they don't have any actual power over each respective monarch. They could be loud about my illegitimacy to the throne—they were loud about it, but they couldn't interfere with Alderaan's affairs. The Organas made a choice to take me as the heir, one that they didn't respect, but they had to accept it nonetheless."
"I think I have a headache just from hearing all of that," Luke complained. "So you're telling me—there were people who didn't support you? But you always told me about how all of Alderaan loved you!"
Leia chuckled at her brother.
"The Elder Houses weren't from Alderaan, Luke," she explained. "They were a committee of the hereditary royal houses all across the galaxy, such as House Organa. They possessed real power in ancient times, but by the end of the Republic, they barely had any authority over the monarchs. No, by then, they were just fancy nobility. They were great at throwing galas, but had no rights to govern."
Luke listened to her carefully, and, per usual, focused on the wrong thing—
"Can we go to one of their galas? I've never been to a gala before. It must be so fun."
Pooja snorted. "You wouldn't survive one second into a gala."
He gasped in offense. "Well—Neither would Han!"
"Kid, unlike you, I actually know how to pass as an honorable man."
"And I can't?!"
Both Han and Leia made a face at him, like they had coordinated it.
Luke puffed a blow of air. "I guess we'll only truly find that out once Leia takes me to one of their galas."
Leia shook her head gently. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Luke. I have no affiliation to the Elder Houses any more."
"Right," Luke's face fell as he mumbled, "Because the Alderaanian monarchy doesn't exist anymore."
"No," Leia rolled her eyes, "Because House Organa severed all ties to the Elder Houses when I was about six or seven."
"Why?" Padmé asked, suddenly her interest peaking.
Leia clasped her fingers under her chin, a soft expression turning her lips up.
"Well, we were invited to a gala by House Sindian, as you should know, Luke," she offered him a sideways glance. "House Sindian was quite conservative on their beliefs, to the point they made it known, to my face,that I wasn't truly my parents' child."
Jobal gasped in horror. "They told you you were adopted just like that? Without your parents' consent?"
Leia smiled calmly at her. "No, I knew I was adopted since — well, since I could sustain a thought, pretty much. It's not easy to keep an adoption from a public figure, especially when I looked nothing like my parents, and — well, children tend to be overly curious and ask about everything, so eventually the questions as to why I didn't look like them at all resurfaced. The trouble wasn't that they told me I wasn't adopted, the issue was that they told a six years old that she was loved less because she wasn't her parents' real child."
"My goodness," Sola murmured. "Imagine being that antagonistic to an innocent kid for your own sick pleasure."
Leia nodded. "As a malleable little girl, I believed them. This took place in the middle of one of the extravagant galas they were holding all week, so I ran away. Hid myself in the gardens while the party continued. It took a couple of hours until my parents managed to find me, and they were so desperate to know why I had run away. When I told them, they were so sad, so they held me and told me I was the most loved child in the galaxy, because I had been longed for and wished for unlike any children of blood, and the universe had brought our family together. So my father picked me up in his arms and we went back inside, where my mother called everybody's attention and gave a speech with her serene, collected self. I don't remember a single word she said, but I remember being mesmerized by her, I remember feeling the depth of their love for me, and that was the last time we ever affiliated ourselves with Elder Houses."
"They sure did love you," Ruwee grunted to himself, like he still had doubts about it up to that moment.
"Yeah," she huffed, sensing his uncertainty. "They were pretty transparent about it."
"Do you miss them?" Ryoo bluntly asked, her hand on her womb again. She knew the answer to that, but, unconsciously, she also wanted to know that her child wouldn't ever turn on her.
She sighed. "Not a single day goes by where I don't miss them terribly."
"Even now that Padmé is back in your life?" Pooja obnoxiously asked.
The question didn't bother her as much as she thought it would. "One doesn't erase the other."
"I for certain don't miss my Uncle Owen," Luke ended the stiffness in the air with his poorly timed remark. "Especially now that Padmé is back in my life."
Everybody chuckled at him.
"I know there's no point in wishing, but I wish we could have kept you, Luke," Jobal lamented. "You would have grown with love and safety with us, I can promise you as much."
"It's okay, Jobal," Luke said. "I admit to not having the happiest of childhoods, but I am happy now. Today. Circumstances have made me happy today."
Jobal smiled warmly. "That makes us happy, Luke, dear."
Luke grinned shyly at that.
"Well, I suppose lunch will be ready any time now," Jobal announced, standing up. "If you'll excuse me, I'll go check on it and help the servants with what they need."
Nobody paid her attention, as Jobal was prone to providing help when help wasn't needed from her — especially as they were privileged enough to have servants hired to do all the job on their behalf. Despite that, Jobal departed, and nobody spared her a second thought.
Nobody — except for Leia, whose chest was suddenly filled with a strange feeling; something that she had never felt before, therefore couldn't explain it. Frowning, she watched Jobal go, and she couldn't help but feel that there was something else there.
"I will assist Jobal," she said raspily, standing up. Nobody paid attention to her either.
Except for Luke, who looked at her funnily. He was about to reach her through their connection when Leia simply waved at him, so he let her go. After all, if he wanted her to be secure in her relationship with the Force, he would have to trust her.
Leia found Jobal in the kitchen meddling with the servants and obviously getting in their way. The servants were probably too used to it so they just let her be, listening to her remarks and answering to them when convenient. Leia chuckled to herself, camouflaging herself on the back and staying out of the way.
She watched as Jobal grabbed some heat-resistant gloves and walked towards the oven.
"Annah, dear, the meatloaf is just about right. Wouldn't you say?"
"Yes, ma'am," the young girl by the name of Annah replied, "I was about to get it off."
"Well, I can do it myself, dear," Jobal prompted. "Why don't you go check on the eggs? They're probably perfectly boiled by now."
"Yes, ma'am."
Leia crossed her arms in front of her as everything unfolded. Jobal getting the trail out of the oven and carefully walked with it to the granite table; Annah checking on the stove and turning off the ignition; a second servant whose name she didn't know grabbing a pile of plates out from the cabinet and into the table as well; Jobal appreciating the beauty of their meal as Annah carefully picked up the double boiler from the stove; Jobal walking away from the table just as Annah took a step back with the pan containing the burning water.
The strangeness on her chest suddenly turned into consternation. Leia didn't know whether she had predicted the outcome intuitively or rationally, as she saw it happening before it happened, but before she had the chance to warn everybody, it was too late.
Jobal walked into Annah and Annah, instinctively trying to keep herself from burning, stretched her arms forward as the pot slipped from her hands. It would have turned out to be a nasty mess and only that, if only some of the sizzling water hadn't landed on Jobal's bare arm.
Jobal let out a sharp scream both at the startle and at the pain in her arm. Her breathing became erratic as Annah rose her hands to her mouth in pure horror.
"Mrs. Naberrie, oh my—I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
"I—It's okay," Jobal managed to blurt, both her voice and her body shaking as she looked down on the red wound on her arm. "It wasn't your fault. I'll live."
Leia took a moment to approach them; there was a humming surrounding her, and she couldn't trace its origin, but it was louder than Jobal's pain. Leia tried to look inside as to what the humming was trying to tell her, but she didn't know how to shut herself off to Jobal's agony.
"Are you okay?" she vainly asked, replacing Annah's place in front of Jobal — Annah remained horrified against the counter. She closely examined the wound and noticed how big blisters were already starting to appear over the damaged skin.
"Not my first kitchen accident," she sighed, tears escaping her eyes against her will. "These just happen. Nothing that a couple of bacta treatments won't fix."
"It'll take a little more than just a couple, I'm afraid," Leia said, "It'll leave a scar."
Jobal laughed an uncomfortable laugh. "My dear, it's quite impossible to reach my age without carrying a few scars on the body."
Leia's lips turned up sadly. "I suppose. Do you have any bacta patches here?"
She winced, "I fear not. We used them all on Sola when she came over last week and twisted her ankle."
Leia nodded, trying desperately to pay attention but getting distracted by the humming on her ears, louder by the second. "How far away is the nearest pharmacy?"
"The closest village is about thirty minutes away from here," she said, avoiding looking at the ugly wound at all costs. "It's not too far."
"That's too far when you're in excruciating pain," Leia spoke from experience. If maybe she could only silence the humming, maybe she would be able to think of a tangible solution.
She suddenly frowned—why did she want to quieten the hum? No, the humming was there for her, the humming was trying to tell her something. She closed her eyes, trying to focus on the strings of the Force, to divert her attention from Jobal's pain—
No, she was doing it wrong. She wasn't supposed to draw away from Jobal's affliction, she was supposed to direct all her efforts so she could make it better, so she could heal.
Heal it.
"May I?"
Jobal hesitantly nodded, unsure as to what Leia was asking permission for just as to what she hoped to achieve with her eyes closed. Yet, something placed her entire trust in this grandchild she had only just met.
Leia focused on Jobal's pain and visualized the wound on her arm. She saw the heat of the injury and she saw the agony there; she took in a deep breath and located the light within. She touched it and she expanded it towards Jobal.
She enfolded the wound with her light, her fingers gently grasping over the skin. Breath in, breath out; she saw the life there and she made the life flourish. Her heartbeat calmly inside her chest, and she listened to the peaceful song of her heartbeat until Jobal's own started singing at the same rhythm.
She heard steps approaching, she heard voices asking what was happening, why had someone screamed, was somebody hurt—Leia shut them off, put the disturbance on a different plane, and concentrated on the energy flow pouring from one body to another.
Healing; nature always healed, nature always evolved — Leia only facilitated that it happened faster.
And when Leia opened her eyes again, she felt in harmony with herself and with the life that surrounded her as she noticed that the wound was gone.
She beamed contently, before stumbling back and falling down onto a chair she didn't know that was there from exhaustion.
"Leia?!" Luke, amidst his eagerness, was the first to react, "Did you — Did you just heal Jobal?"
Jobal was astonished, her chin trembling. Amazed with what had happened, that she wasn't in pain anymore and her arm didn't even hold the scar that a bacta treatment ought to leave behind. She didn't even know that Force wielders had enough power to do that.
Leia drew in a breath and said nothing.
"Leia!" Luke hopped towards her, excited. He barely acknowledged Jobal's presence there. "How did you do that?"
"I don't know."
"What—What is going on?" Ruwee demanded. He and Padmé had as well rushed to the kitchen upon hearing the commotion. On the opposite side of the room, Annah was pressed against the wall, both horrified and terrified of what she had witnessed.
"One of my nasty kitchen accidents, dear," Jobal said, not bothering to look at her husband as her attention rested solely on Leia. "Leia healed me."
"Healed you?!" Padmé repeated, taking a step ahead, "Can you—can you even do that?"
Leia simply shot her shoulders up and down; whether she could or could not, she had done it.
"Oh, you loathsome people—let the poor thing breathe, back away," Jobal demanded, "Leia was helping me out of the kindness of her heart and you're ambushing her."
"Jobal—my sister has never done that before…!" Luke exclaimed.
"That you know of," the grandmother snapped, a little hesitant to cross her arms until she remembered there was no pain there anymore. "If you don't think sisters hold secrets from their brothers, then you're quite naïve."
Leia chuckled while Luke rolled his eyes.
"Leia," Luke ignored Jobal, "What are you feeling?"
"I feel — tired," she said, knowing very well that wasn't the answer her brother was looking for, yet it being everything she had to offer. Until her stomach groaned loud enough for everybody to hear it too. "And very hungry, it would seem."
Jobal flicked her fingers at Annah and a tray of canapés magically appeared in front of Leia, who accepted it gratefully — she hadn't realized how hungry her efforts to healing Jobal had left her until now.
"I suppose that'd make sense," Luke prompted, launching back. "Passing forward your own life energy to another lifeform would leave you momentarily exhausted."
"I can concede to that," Leia agreed, going for her second canapé, "I feel like taking a nap. Luke — I don't take naps."
Jobal stepped in front of Luke before he had a chance to tease his sister. "We'll have lunch all at once and get out of your hair, dear. You deserve your rest for what you've done to me. Leia, I am eternally grateful for what you did to me. You were under no obligation to spare some of your energy to me."
Leia gently waved her hand; there was no need for thanks, she had simply done what felt right.
"Leia," Luke made himself seen and heard again. "Can you teach me how to do that?"
"I told you, Luke, I don't know I did that," Leia sighed, "I heard a humming and followed it, that's all."
"Leia," he kept saying her name, "I'm giving you a free pass to hurt me as many times as you want until I learn how to do it."
She tilted her head. "I don't think it's possible to heal yourself, Luke."
"Oh," his face fell, "In that case — any chance you'll volunteer your body for the sake of knowledge?"
Padmé immediately shook her head, leaving Leia to glare at him.
"You're out of your mind."
Luke scratched his head. "Probably."
Jobal pushed Luke out of the way. "Come on, dear. Let's get you settled into the dining room. Annah and Pedrin have already begun to set the table."
She left with her granddaughter, having Luke follow close behind as he still had several questions on the tip of his tongue.
Ruwee and Padmé stayed behind, the father staring at the daughter intently.
"I didn't know Force sensitive people had the power to do that," he said.
"I don't think she knew either," Padmé claimed.
"Well, what does it mean?"
"It means, Papa," Padmé turned her head towards where they had left, "That she cares enough for this new family of hers to give a part of herself to heal you."
He hummed. "Do you think there's anything we can do to heal her?"
Padmé smiled sadly, offering her arm to her father. Ruwee took it.
"Come on. Lunch is ready."
A/N: this chapter exists solely for Leia using the Force.
feedback appreciated!