Luke lay on a table in the med bay, hooked up to several wires and tubes, his vitals monitored and med droids around him took his blood, did scans. At first glance his actual physical injuries appeared to be pretty minor, a busted lip, a cut forehead, he'd lost some weight during the ordeal but nothing like the starving kids who'd been pulled out of the dungeon. They'd actually expected much worse, his skin was mostly the same color with few bruises. But when the meds turned him over to continue examining him for any injuries, they found something, something that even Chewbacca noticed and filled the bay with a deafening howl.
"What is that?" Leia sounded like she could barely even stomach the question, let alone the sight of a slow healing burn mark around the back of Luke's neck.
"A shock collar," Han answered in disgust.
Leia stood there with her eyes wide and her bottom jaw dropped for several seconds, looking like she was going to be sick as she processed this information.
Bacta was sprayed on the burn and Luke was turned over on his back again and the attending droid medic concluded based on his body's waxy flexibility that he was catatonic and he was put on muscle relaxants and sedatives to put him to sleep in an attempt to bring him out of it. Despite the advisement that it could be hours before there was any change in his condition, no one was going anywhere.
Han entered the med bay and was met with two sights, one unfortunately not surprising, the other somewhat amusing. Luke lay in the bed still unconscious, absolutely no change since he was brought in, and Leia had apparently fallen asleep sitting on the floor leaned against the bed waiting for him to wake up. She was half slumped on the floor with her head tilted clear down on her shoulder. The Corellian smuggler shook his head as he moved over towards both of them, and crouched down to gather the sleeping princess in his arms to take her back to her room on the base.
A hum rose up from her throat, without even opening her eyes she murmured, "Luke?"
Han sighed as he carried her through the corridor. "At ease, princess, I'll take the next shift."
Leia tried to open her eyes but didn't quite make it and tiredly asked, "Time 's'it?"
"Time for all good princesses to be in bed," he answered in amusement.
One eye opened slightly and she said a little more coherently, "Shut up."
"Ha!" Han remarked, "I knew you were awake."
"Put me down," she said as she started to struggle in his hold.
"Stop kicking, it wouldn't be becoming to get dropped, Your Worship," he warned her.
"Put me down!" she repeated louder.
"I will, as soon as we get to your bed chamber."
That apparently was the wrong thing to say because the next thing he knew he felt himself getting scratched and bitten like he was wrestling with a dinko.
"Alright that's enough of that!" he told her.
"Put me down!" she repeated as she started kicking and struggling again, "and you stay out of my chamber."
"Hey you came into mine, princess, remember?" Han asked. "Don't go getting shy on me now."
It may have sounded like their usual banter but it was obvious neither of them could put a full effort into it. Losing Luke, fearing the worst had happened, finding out he may in fact have been victim of something just as bad or maybe even worse, and having him gone so long, only to find him now in this current state, had been wearing on all of them. They went through the motions of being back to normal now that they had their commander back, acting like they were just waiting for him to wake up and then everything would be fine again, but even C-3PO could see it was a cover, and a very pale one. None of them would admit it but everybody was thinking the same thing, nothing would be normal again until they knew Luke would be alright. The more time passed and he didn't wake up had everyone worried about what might be coming.
"Okay, here we are," Han said as the door slid open. He'd noticed that Leia had stopped struggling. He reached the bed and looked around and said to her, "Help me out here, Your Highness, do you wear this to bed or do you change into something else?"
He'd hoped that'd particularly get a rise out of her, he couldn't help find it so amusing every time the princess protested so much and it'd be nice to have something semi-normal again. But there hadn't been any answer, he looked and saw Leia had fallen asleep again.
"Okay, that answers that question," he said as he laid the sleeping princess on the bed and drew the covers up over her.
He stayed there for a minute looking at her. She was pretty enough, a little younger than he usually went for, but definitely old enough, he knew she liked him but for some reason she kept up public appearances of being annoyed and disgusted by him, and for some reason she kept up those same public appearances in private as well. As such, were she awake, she'd probably belt him for what he was going to do, but since she was asleep, he decided to take his chance. He knew one of these days he'd wear her resistance down, but for now he settled for kissing the sleeping woman on the forehead, she never stirred. He smiled in silent victory. He patted her long braids and whispered, "Take it easy, princess, I'll watch Luke now."
"Come on, kid, wake up."
It was as much wishful thinking as frustration. Luke had been unconscious for two days now and hadn't shown any signs of waking up yet. Earlier that day Han had used the base's comm link to make contact with the rescue ship and get an update on the situation. He'd learned that most of the kids they'd rescued were in the process of being returned to their families on their home planets, but as many as there were, and as long as they'd apparently been rounded up on that ship, it would take months to finally get them all home, and many of them were still nonverbal after their ordeal. Han had also learned, unfortunately, that not all the kids had been rescued, they had found several bodies in the bottom hold of the slave ship, kids between the ages of 13 and 19, some were so scrawny that they might've starved to death, others were covered in deep burns from the shock collars from the power having been turned to full blast to make an example out of them and keep the others in line.
The smuggler's stomach churned as he wondered things he'd tried not to wonder since they'd found Luke, how many times they'd used one on him, how high the voltage, what else they had done to make him this way. He was terrified of knowing, and the only idea that scared him more was that they'd never find out. Aside from the burn marks, the exam had shown Luke's blood was so concentrated from dehydration that it was practically sludge, causing him to go in shock, threatening a total shutdown of all his major organs. The medics got him hooked up to several IVs pushing fluids and medicine to counteract it, his system responded to the treatment, but he wasn't responsive to anything. Han stood over the kid, pressed a thumb against one eyelid and forced it open, hoping for some sign of recognition. There was no reaction to the light.
"Come on, kid," Han tiredly repeated as he rubbed his eyes that were sore from staying awake all night, "we need you to wake up."