Author note: This book contains periodic discussions of mental health and wellness. It is not meant to describe anyone specific or real, but it is meant to be realistic. It is not prescriptive as any one person's case will be different. But if it sounds like you or anyone you know, I encourage you to seek professfessional guidance.

"Well, he's on his way." Corran set his pocket communicator down on the diner table between him and a Tycho. "Should be here in about twenty minutes."

"This still doesn't make any sense to me," Wes said. "This doesn't sound like Luke at all."

Corran looked across the table at Wes and Hobbie. He and Tycho had spent the last half hour explaining their recent conversations with Wedge and Brianna. "I wouldn't have either if I hadn't been on the med center platform myself," Corran said. "Even then, I didn't really until Wedge basically yelled at me a couple days ago."

"But if something were that wrong we'd know," Wes said. "I mean, I know we don't see him much. But we've talked about that. We know how important all this is to him."

"But we didn't really check either," Tycho said. "That's part of what Brianna was annoyed about. What I want to know is why didn't Wedge say anything? This has been going on for years. We could have done something a long time ago."

"I got the impression he thought he had said something," Corran said. "At least as much as Luke would let him."

"I'm still not sure I know what the problem actually is," Wes said.

"I have an idea about that but I'll wait until Wedge gets here," Corran said. He looked at Tycho. "Has Winter ever mentioned anything to you? She must see him sometimes when he's here doing work for Leia."

Tycho shook his head. "Not until I asked her about it yesterday. She was as shocked as I was. She did say that sometimes Leia gets frustrated with him sometimes as if he's not doing enough -"

"Not doing enough?" Wes said. "He's always busy."

"But she also said Leia doesn't really talk about that kind of thing to her anyway. She always used to talk to Mara about Jedi stuff."

"I definitely don't understand what that's about," Wes said.

"You probably don't want to," Corran said.

"I got the impression that was a clash of personalities," Tycho said.

"Brianna's personality clashes with everyone."

"I got along with her," Tycho said. "I bet Wes would get along great with her."

Wes looked up, intrigued. "Yeah?"

"She's weird and fun," Tycho said.

"She's also rude and sarcastic," Corran pointed out.

"To you, maybe."

"And to Mara."

"Maybe she's just like that to people who try to make her be something she isn't."

"I take it they argued a lot?" Hobbie said.

"All the time," Corran said.

"So what, Luke just let them argue?" Wes said.

"Pretty much," Corran said. "That's part of why Mara was so frustrated."

"From what Brianna said, I got the impression he wasn't around enough," Tycho said. He was so busy doing Jedi stuff that he couldn't be around his kids very much. And no one was helping out."

"But why didn't he say something?" Wes said again. "We could have helped out."

"We can't really help out doing Jedi stuff," Hobbie said. "And he did tell Wedge."

"Who then didn't tell anyone."

Corran scratched at a stain on the table. When recounting his conversation with Wedge, he had omitted the part where Wedge had actually said something to him, even though he hadn't grasped the urgency of it at the time. "I don't think Wedge is going to want to place any blame even if there's enough to go around for a lot of people," Corran said. "He's just going to want to fix it."

Corran let silence fall on the table. The diner was mostly empty. The lunch crowd hadn't come in yet. He could understand Wes' confusion. He was still confused himself. He hadn't really done the conversation justice. Wedge had been so upset, and Corran just couldn't articulate it.

A few minutes later Wedge arrived and pulled up a chair at the end of their table. A server droid set down a cup of coffee in front of him. He looked at Corran and Tycho and nodded toward Wes and Hobbie. "You fill these two in?" he asked.

Corran nodded.

"Sort of," Wes said. "I still don't understand any of this. It makes no sense."

Wedge leaned forward on the table. "Well, it does and it doesn't," Wedge said. But, basically, over the past several years he's developed this really negative view of himself and everything else, so - and I'm not sure which came first - he thinks no one wants him around."

"No one?" Hobbie asked. "As in, everyone?"

"No, not everyone. I think. He sort of lumps everyone in together. He would never blame anyone specific. He would never blame anyone else at all. It's like he thinks that whatever is wrong must be his fault, so if no one wants him around, he must deserve it."

"But we've all seen him at different events, periodically," Wes said. "He's never said anything like that to the rest of us. He seems normal. I guess"

"I think he's afraid of what people would think of him if they knew how he felt. Or he's afraid people would feel like he was letting them down. So when he's out in public, he kind of puts on a show for everyone."

"But we're not the public!" Wes cried. "We're us!"

"Well, what am I supposed to tell him?" Wedge said. "Every time he says he thinks no one wants him around, I try to argue, but it always sounds more like I'm trying to convince myself. It's not like I have any counter examples to give him. What can I say? 'Hey, remember that time, six months ago, when Wes called and said, hey let's hang out?' Because that definitely didn't happen."

Corran watched Wes sink back into his seat like a scolded puppy. He almost thought Wes was going to start crying.

"We've always known how important doing this Jedi work is to him," Tycho said. "I know I've never wanted him to feel like I was pulling him away from it just to do something for me."

"But if we ever did need him, he always took time for us," Hobbie said.

"Of course he did," Wedge said.

"But that goes both ways. He knows that." Tycho looked around at everyone. "Doesn't he?"

"Maybe that's the problem," Hobbie said. "He's so used to being the one who helps everyone else, that needing help feels wrong."

"I think you may be on to something," Wedge said.

"But I still don't understand why," Wes said. "Why did this even start?"

Wedge took a sip of his coffee. "Well, some of this has been an issue for as long as I've known him," he said. He's always felt a need to appear credible, as a Jedi, even if he didn't always feel credible. Think about it. When we all first met him, none of us could have explained the first thing about Jedi or the Force or what any of that even means, even though we're all reciting phrases like 'May the Force be with you' and all that. We didn't know what we were saying. But it doesn't occur to anyone that he didn't know what any of that meant either. So he was literally trying to figure things out, knowing everyone else just expected him to know everything. It always made him a bit anxious."

"You're talking about imposter syndrome?" Hobbie asked.

"Yeah, kind of," Wedge said. "A lot of the rest of it has been in the past ten years. Some things have gone wrong and now he sees only things that have gone wrong, no matter how much I remind him otherwise."

"No one gets everything right," Tycho said.

"I think he thinks that everyone else thinks he's supposed to," Wedge said. "If that makes sense."

"It doesn't," Wes said.

Wedge set his cup down looking frustrated. "Well, I don't know why he started thinking that way. I'm not inside his head."

"I have an idea about that," Corran said. Wedge looked over at him, and Corran handed him a datapad he had brought along. "I was up early this morning, thinking about everything you had described for me the other day, so I did some searching on why someone might think like that. I'm not a doctor, but it seems to match."

Wedge took the datapad and scanned the top of the screen. He looked back up at Corran. "Persistent depressive disorder?"

"Read the rest of it. Go to the symptoms part."

Wedge scrolled down the page. "Let's see… symptoms… Depressed or irritable. Yeah, even if he tries to hide it. Sleeping too much or too little. He told me a couple years ago he wasn't sleeping much anymore. I'm sure that hasn't changed. He always looks tired. Eating too much or too little. I'm not around him enough to know what he eats. But every time I see him and he ought to be eating he isn't. Low self esteem. Definitely. Feeling hopeless. Yeah, and he'll hide that too. Trouble concentrating or making decisions. I think so, but I'm sure he'd never admit it. At least two of these for the past two years? We're way past that point." Wedge sighed. "Yeah. You might be right." He handed the datapad back to Corran. "Can you send me that?"

"Sure."

"Something tells me he wouldn't agree to go to a doctor," Tycho said.

"I don't even know when the last time was that he went to a doctor for anything," Wedge said.

"Maybe suggest a regular check up trip," Hobbie said. "Just to get him in the door."

Wedge shook his head. "Even that would take asking several times. Over several months."

"So what are we supposed to do in the meantime?" Wes asked. "We can't wait around for him to say yes to something you think he doesn't want to do."

Wedge poked at his coffee cup. "I don't know. I mean, if I knew I would have done it already. Maybe I can get him to come out here more often. I live down the hall from Leia, so that should be an easy sell. Maybe start small, just a couple of us at a time. He's not back for a few days. I'll have to think about it."

Everyone at the table fell silent as Wedge pushed his coffee cup one centimeter back and forth.

"This is not going to be quick, is it," Hobbie finally said.

Wedge sighed and looked over at him. "No. It isn't."

Wedge looked up as his personal communicator dinged with an incoming call. He and Iella were due to meet Tycho and Winter for dinner in an hour. He was hoping they weren't canceling. He didn't recognize the number. He answered it as Iella stepped into the kitchen. "Luke!" he exclaimed as the hologram resolved. "Where are you? I wasn't expecting you back for at least another day."

"The meetings got done early," Luke said. "I stopped by Yavin on the way back and debriefed with Leia this morning. I was going to drop in and see you so I stopped by where I thought you lived…" Luke's voice trailed off.

"Oh! Yeah, we had to move," Wedge said. "Was barely a week ago. Definitely not planned."

"Where did you move to?"

"We're...we're actually down the hall from Han and Leia's apartment. It was Jaina's idea. You said you stopped by Yavin?"

"The empty apartment at the end of the hall?" Luke asked. "I, yes, I did stop by Yavin first."

"Brianna didn't tell you what happened?" Wedge asked. Of course she didn't.

Luke frowned slightly. "She told me the same thing she always tells me whenever I ask if anything interesting happened. 'Nah.'" He gave Wedge a resigned half-shrug.

"Wait, she told you what?" Iella said. She peered over Wedge's shoulder. "What did she tell you?"

Luke's frown got a bit deeper. "She told me nothing interesting happened. But she says that no matter what anyway. I just ask out of habit."

Iella's jaw dropped. "Really? She didn't tell you anything?"

Luke shook his head. "She never does."

Iella glanced at Wedge. "You need to come to dinner with us," she said.

"What? No it's -" Luke started to politely protest.

Iella walked over to the counter to get her own communicator. "No, you must," she said. "We've already got reservations with Tycho and Winter. Oh, we're going to need Corran and Mirax too, Corran will have to explain most of this." She started punching in their number.

Wedge looked back at Luke. His eyes were slightly wide and Wedge could tell he was just slightly starting to panic. "You want to come to dinner with us?" he asked. A large group was not what Wedge had in mind, but it might be too late. He could tell Luke was torn between wanting to say yes and his anxiety-driven inclination to not want to intrude on anyone. Wedge nodded at him.

"Well...okay," Luke said.

"She said what?" Wedge glanced over at Iella as he heard Mirax's exclamation.

"The reservation is over at the Renegade Run in section 39. Can you find it? The reservation is in Tycho's name for an hour from now."

"I can find it."

"Great. I'll let him know you're on your way." Wedge disconnected and started to put in Tycho's number. He hoped this would go better than expected.

Tycho sat in the middle of a long table set for seven, with Winter next to him while they waited for everyone else to arrive. The restaurant was busy, but their party was big enough to be slightly sectioned off from the rest of the diners. He was a bit surprised Luke had said yes to this, given everything Wedge had explained the other day. He was hoping Luke would arrive first.

As if on cue, Tycho could see Luke coming through the crowded tables, led by the host droid. Tycho waved his hand and caught Luke's attention. Luke thanked the droid and walked over to the table. "You sit there," Tycho said, pointing to the empty seat directly across from him.

"Is there assigned seating?" Luke asked as he sat down. The server droid poured him a glass of water.

"Sort of," Tycho said. "Corran and Wedge will probably do most of the talking, so I figure they can sit on either side of you."

Luke nodded. "Ah. That makes sense."

Tycho frowned. Luke seemed a bit uncomfortable. "Did Brianna really not tell you what happened a few days ago?"

Luke shrugged. "She never does. If anything interesting did happen I usually hear about it from Leia later, about some Councilor that complained about this, or some ambassador that complained about that. So I do hear about it."

Tycho glanced at Winter. "What about the interesting things that are good?" he asked. He could think of a dozen different things he'd heard about in just the last month that might have been interesting.

Luke blinked at him then glanced around the table. "Oh," he said. "I...guess I don't hear about those."

"Oh." Because no one calls you…

Winter cleared her throat. "How was your trip?" she asked. "I heard some of the debriefing details, but how did you like it?"

"Oh, it was very good," Luke said, seemingly more comfortable with that question. "The Chitarans are interested in joining the Republic so they wanted to know how everything operates. They have a lot of elaborate meal ceremonies, so that took up some time."

"Was the food good?" Tycho asked.

""Very good. Lots of seafood and vegetable dishes."

Tycho nudged Winter. "You should get in on that for the next trip so I can go."

Winter threw him an amused look. "I don't think it works that way," she said.

"It should," Tycho said.

Wedge and Iella came up to the table. Wedge put a hand on Luke's shoulder as he slid into the chair to Luke's right. "Glad you made it," he said. "I hope you weren't waiting long."

"No, I just got here," Luke said as Iella sat down across from Wedge on Tycho's other side.

A moment later, Corran and Mirax also appeared. Corran took the seat on the other side of Luke, across from Winter, and Mirax sat next to him at the end chair. Corran nodded to Luke in greeting, and Luke nodded back. Tycho noticed that Luke was sitting much straighter and much more stiffly. It wasn't entirely unusual. Tycho had seen Luke sit like that at formal events he'd attended when he had to talk with councilors and ambassadors. But, this wasn't that kind of event…

"Luke was just telling about the food on his trip," Winter said.

"Seafood and vegetable dishes," Luke repeated.

"Ohh, that sounds good," Iella said as the server droid set menus in front of them. "Think they let retired generals in on that?"

"I don't think that's how it works," Wedge said.

The server droid took their drink orders, starting with Iella and moving to Tycho, around the table. Wine, whiskey, more wine, ale, and another whiskey.

"Just water, thank you," Luke said.

Oh, I'd forgotten again, Tycho thought. He would have ordered water too, if he'd remembered. He hoped Luke wouldn't feel left out, then Wedge ordered water too.

Iella engaged Winter and Mirax in some mundane small talk while they looked over the menus and waited for their drinks. After the server droid came back with their drinks and took their orders, Wedge cleared his throat. "So, you might have heard something happened," he said to Luke.

"I did hear that," Luke said. "Though, not from Brianna."

"Yeah." Wedge looked at Corran. "Do you want to start or should I?"

"Ah, I'll start," Corran said.

Tycho watched Luke carefully as Corran started the story. Tycho had heard most of the beginning already. Luke looked like he was trying not to show too much emotion, but he did nod appreciatively at Jaina's intervention at the old apartment building. On the other hand, he looked like he was trying to hold back a sigh and a shake of his head while Corran was describing their late night call to Brianna. Tycho had thought the 'thrilled to be your third choice' comment was funny, though, he supposed he might not have, had he been there.

Tycho couldn't help noticing that some of Brianna's more obnoxious behavior that had been described to him earlier was being cut from this version. Luke could probably fill that in for himself.

Iella interjected a bit as Corran described Brianna's arrival. "Anton thought she was fascinating," Iella said as the food arrived.

"She can talk quite a bit when she's on a topic she finds interesting," Luke said.

"I noticed! She's quite knowledgeable. I was impressed. She talked all about training through dinner and on the way up to the apartment that evening."

"That is one of her favorite topics," Luke said. Luke paused slightly as he turned back toward Corran. Tycho saw Wedge motioning to Corran to move it along.

Corran skipped ahead to the next morning, describing the explosion at the Rogue Squadron bay, picking up Jaina, and Brianna running off to meet Cami at the port. "Cami wasn't very detailed about what happened," Corran said, "just that she got jumped by three of the fake security agents, Brianna intervened, and sent Cami back to meet us. I imagine it's about the same thing that happened to Tycho though."

Luke looked at Tycho. "What happened to you?"

"Pretty much the same thing," Tycho said, "except it was six fake agents. I'm not sure who found me first, her or them, but I know she followed us all for a while. She waited until they jumped me before intervening."

"Why?"

"I think she was testing something?" Tycho looked at Corran.

"Yeah, she was testing the idea that, even if we couldn't sense threats the normal way, we could still sense other people's reactions to threats. But, you had to know the other person fairly well for the reaction to penetrate."

"Oh, I see," Luke said. "Very interesting. So she sensed your reaction instead."

"Well, no, not exactly," Tycho. "She sensed Cami's reaction, but not mine. I guess, you know, she doesn't know me well enough." Luke frowned. "But it was fine," Tycho waved it off. "No one got hurt. Well, I imagine those fake agents were a bit sore and embarrassed later. But we had a really interesting, wide ranging conversation on the way back. She's good to talk to."

Luke held his frown. "What...what did you talk about?"

"Oh. Um, just, more training stuff." Tycho thought quickly. "She was explaining how Jedi training works compared to how it was done under the Old Republic. Interesting stuff."

Luke nodded. "You always did like history."

"After they got back," Corran said, "we started putting all these ideas together. Brianna thought that the fact that we could still sense reactions to threats meant there might be other imperfections we could identify. So we started testing it with some sparring. This is where it got really interesting. It turned out that, even though you couldn't sense a threat directly, as soon as a threat started to interact with your threat perception, it got fuzzy and distorted. You had to be paying attention to it though, or looking explicitly for it. But that way, you could identify it and still see it before it was right on top of you."

Luke nodded. "I've never heard of anything like that before."

"Me either," Corran said. "Once we practiced for a while, it became easier to pick it up. While we were doing the raids -"

"You skipped the whiskey cookies," Iella said.

"What? No one cares about whiskey cookies," Corran said.

"It was the only good idea you had."

Corran grumbled and turned back to Luke. "Brianna said she had an idea how to find the source of the disruption, so while we were getting ready to leave, Brianna said she wanted to take Jaina with her. I suggested she take Cami instead so we could, you know, spread our skill sets out. Which Brianna inelegantly called lifting rocks. But she agreed to the switch. I asked if I could get credit for my idea. I was kidding. But she asked, 'Oh what do you want, a cookie?', and then made an off-hand remark to Cami about making whiskey cookies."

"Oh," Luke said.

"Who puts whiskey in cookies, anyway?"

Luke cocked his head to the side just slightly. "Isn't ryshcate cake with whiskey?" he asked.

Corran opened his mouth, then turned to look at Mirax. She nodded. He turned back to Luke. "Yes. Yes, it is." Corran recollected himself. "Anyway -"

"Did you get a cookie?" Luke asked.

"I - no."

"If we hear about it later, we'll tell you about it though," Tycho jumped in, earning him a quick glare from Corran.

"Anyway," Corran said, trying to regain control of the story, "being able to sense the distortions was actually very effective while we were raiding the fake security networks. And about an hour after we finished, Jaina and I noticed that the disruption was gone too."

"What did they do?" Luke asked.

"Well," Corran hesitated. "We're actually not entirely sure. It was another couple of hours before they came back, Brianna complaining about not having had breakfast. She refused to stick around and Cami was short on details. She explained that they found the location adapting how you might normally experience the kind of threat they were looking for to a distortion, which was pretty interesting. But I'm still not sure what exactly they did to dismantle it."

"They did bring us those datapads," Iella said.

"Yeah, they found a small stack of datapads. Apparently these people call themselves Vir-Shat. Don't suppose you've heard of them?"

Luke frowned. "No. That's not -" he glanced back at Wedge.

"No, not the same," Corran said. "Too bad, I was kind of hoping it would be. Could be related though."

"If they pop up again, we'll know though," Iella said.

Corran leaned back in his chair. "So. That's what Brianna calls 'nothing'."

Luke sighed. "She's always an adventure."

Tycho waved at Wedge, Luke, and Iella as the rest of them split off to walk home. No had been interested in dessert so dinner ended not too long after Corran finished his story. Luke hadn't asked too many other questions. It had been a rather reserved evening.

"That didn't seem too bad," Corran said when they were out of earshot.

"Much better than I expected, for sure," Mirax said.

Tycho shook his head. "No, it was worse."

"Worse? How?"

"He was so uncomfortable," Tycho said. "I've seen him like that at major events, you know, talking to dignitaries and diplomats." He looked at Winter. "You've seen him."

Winter nodded. "Mm. Proper. Reserved. Professional."

"And you expect him to be like that at major events. But not on a normal night out with friends."

"Maybe that's just how he is," Mirax said. "When was the last time you had dinner with him?"

Tycho sighed. "Ages. But that's just the point. When was the last time any of us had dinner with him, or just hung out and got coffee?"

"But we asked," Mirax pointed out. "Or Corran did. That's what started this whole thing."

"Yeah, but Wedge's point was that he won't say yes if he thinks we don't actually want him around," Corran said. "So it becomes a bit of a vicious cycle."

"Wedge did say this wouldn't be easy," Tycho said.

"What do you think?" Wedge asked as they walked back to the senate apartment building. Luke had been very reserved throughout dinner, as Wedge had expected.

Luke looked at him as if unsure what Wedge was referring to. Truthfully, Wedge was leaving the topic up to him. Luke seemed to decide it was easiest to talk about Brianna. "She's always been a very analytical person," he said.

"I noticed that," Iella said. "She always wants to have evidence of things. And she likes physics analogies."

"She's never been interested in the more mystical aspects of the Force. She thinks that's boring." Luke turned back to Wedge. "What was the part you made Corran skip?"

Wedge hesitated. He was hoping Luke hadn't noticed that. "What part?"

"It was in the middle somewhere," Luke said. "Right before they went to the Rogue Squadron bay, I think." Iella giggled. "That part," Luke added.

Wedge sighed, realizing he was probably stuck. "It wasn't that important," he said.

"It was nine years ago, you might as well tell him," Iella said.

"What was nine years ago?" Luke asked.

Wedge resigned himself to telling the story and turned back to Luke. "It was the night before they went to the bay. We were in the hall walking to the new apartment. Brianna was about to go into your apartment when she asked me if you had ever given me a key to that apartment."

Luke frowned. "I'm pretty sure I've never given you a key."

"Well, no," Wedge said. "But I remembered she had given me a key. Which she found delightful and then disappeared into the apartment, leaving me to explain this ridiculous story to these three." He pointed to Iella.

"Which was nine years ago?"

"You remember when Leia's treasure box was made public and you and she had to give that senate testimony? Then we got R2's story, and we hung out for a bit that night?"

"Yes."

"The next morning, I went back up to Leia's apartment to look for you, but you weren't there."

"Yes, we left early that morning, I think," Luke said.

"I was standing by the door waiting, and I heard a voice behind me. 'Oh, they're not here.' I turn around, and there's Brianna."

"I remember her asking me if she could come along, and I told her no."

"I said, 'What are you doing here?' She said, 'Technically I live here.' And you hadn't mentioned her to me, so I said, 'Does your dad know you're here?' 'No.' 'How did you get here?' 'The shuttle.' 'Your dad's shuttle?' 'Uh huh.' 'Did you stow away?' 'Uh huh.'" Wedge paused to glance up at Luke. If it was possible to look both reserved and horrified, Luke was managing it. "I said, 'Are you supposed to be here?' And she said, 'Well, if I was supposed to be here, I wouldn't have needed to stow away, would I?'"

"I hate it when she does that," Luke said.

"Then she asked me if I had a key. I said, 'A key to what?' 'A key to this apartment.' 'No.' She says, 'Why not?' I said, 'Why would I have a key to this apartment?' Then she looked at me like I was stupid and said, 'Why would you NOT have a key to this apartment?' I said, 'I don't have a key.' Then she rolled her eyes, called you a delinquent and pulled me in to give me a key."

Wedge paused to take a breath. Luke was frowning at the ground while taking all of that in. Wedge assumed he was trying to decide which question to ask first.

"Do you still have it?"

"Show him," Iella said.

Wedge pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. "It's this one," he said, holding on to one of the cards.

"Have you ever used it?" Like asked.

"No, I have not ever used it."

"Why didn't you tell me about that?"

"Well, because," Wedge put the keys back in his pocket, "you know, you were busy." Luke frowned at him. "I didn't want to get her into trouble," Wedge said. Luke continued to stare at him. "I figured if she could stow away once, she could do it again," Wedge finished.

"How did she manage that?"

"I didn't ask her," Wedge said, realizing Luke was mostly asking himself.

"And I had R2 with me, he must have known she was there."

"I didn't ask him either."

"I think it's fascinating," Iella broke in.

"That she gets away with things?" Luke asked.

"Yes! Everyone complains that she gets away with things, but every time you turn around, those same people are letting her get away with something new. It's so intriguing."

"That's her intel brain coming out," Wedge said to Luke.

"I'm a trained investigator and intelligence officer. It's my job to understand people."

"If you figure her out, let the rest of us know," Wedge said.

"I'm working on it," Iella said with a small smile.

The elevator door opened to their hallway and Wedge stepped aside so Iella and Luke could get off first. Iella had filled most of the rest of the walk back with small talk questions about Luke's trip, which he seemed much more comfortable discussing. Halfway down the hall, Luke started to reach for Leia's apartment door. Wedge tugged gently on his sleeve. Luke hesitated a moment, then followed them the rest of the way down the hall. At their own door, Iella let herself in. "See you in a bit," she said.

Wedge glanced at Luke and then walked over to lean against the railing along the floor to ceiling window at the end of the hall. "People have been trying to convince Iella to move for years," he said. "She wasn't too happy about it at first, but she warmed up to it as we got moved in. And the view is great."

Luke joined him at the railing. "You can see the sunrise from this side."

"We're thinking of putting a couch right there," Wedge said, pointing behind him.

"That would be very nice."

Wedge nodded. This wasn't exactly how he had envisioned this. He had been hoping for a slower start. "So, what do you think?"

"What about this time?"

"I don't know. Dinner."

"It's a very good restaurant," Luke said.

"Right? We should do it again some time."

Luke stared at him for a moment, as if unsure what Wedge was referring to. "Well," he said finally, "I'm sure Brianna has no shortage of adventures she hasn't shared."

"It doesn't have to be about her," Wedge said. "We could just...go."

"Who?"

"Us. All of us. Some of us. More than just you and me, I mean."

Luke turned away and sighed. "Wedge, we've talked about this. No one wants me there."

"Luke, that's not true. Everyone wanted you there. This wasn't even my idea, remember?"

"To tell me a story my daughter thought not important enough to tell me herself."

"Or, maybe," Wedge suggested, "she didn't tell you because then we could." Luke frowned at him as if that was not something he had considered before, but sounded unlikely. "Everyone wanted you there," Wedge said again.

"You can't make people do things they don't already want to do."

"I didn't make anyone do anything."

"I think you underestimate how influential you are sometimes."

"Well, either I can't make people do things, or I'm highly influential, but I can't be both," Wedge said. "Not for the same people at the same time." Luke blinked at him. Wedge realized Luke had probably held those same two thoughts in his head for years without ever catching the inconsistency.

"Nobody would want me there," Luke said again, as if that resolved the discrepancy.

Wedge sighed. He wasn't going to win this one tonight, and direct arguing never worked anyway. He changed topics. "Why didn't you tell me what happened on the med center platform?" he asked.

"The what?"

"When you stopped by the apartment before you left," Wedge said. "You explained the rest of the story. Why didn't you tell me what happened on the platform?"

"You mean when we dropped you off?" Luke asked.

"Yes."

Luke shook his head. "Nothing happened on the platform."

Wedge looked closely at Luke. "When Corran came up to talk to you?" he prompted.

Luke shook his head again. "Corran didn't come talk to me."

"I -" Wedge stopped. Something wasn't right. "He said he did."

"No, he didn't," Luke insisted.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. He…" Luke trailed off as he turned away, thinking. "He did. He did come up to me."

"Right," Wedge said, trying to prompt him again.

"We were waiting...no, they'd already taken you in. I was waiting for...something. He came up, I think? He said…" He looked up at Wedge, starting to look concerned. "I can't remember what he said."

"At all?"

Luke paused again. "What did he say? Did he say something and then something happened, is that what you were asking me?"

"Wait, hang on, let me think about this." The way Corran had described it, it sounded pretty traumatizing. And if Corran had thought so, surely Luke must have found it so too.

"Wedge, what happened?"

Wedge shook his head and held his hands up. "No, wait, I think we need to slow down here."

"Wedge, it's one thing to not tell me something about you, or some crazy thing Brianna did, but this is different."

"No, Luke, I think I should wait -"

"I didn't hurt anybody, did I?"

"What?" Wedge stopped short. Luke was looking at him, almost pleading. "What, no. No, no." Wedge gave Luke a hug. "No, no one got hurt. Nothing like that." He felt Luke relax just a little. I guess that's more or less true, Wedge thought, even as he remembered that Corey's kids had started crying when it happened. He pulled away and held on to Luke's shoulders. "Listen, if you can't remember it, there's probably a reason. So, let's not rush into it. We can figure it out first. Just, trust me on this one, okay?" Luke looked at him skeptically. "Please?"

Luke stared at him for a moment before answering. "Okay."

Wedge noticed that Luke suddenly looked completely exhausted. Another thought occurred to him. "What time did you land this morning?"

"I don't know. Zero seven hundred, maybe."

No wonder he looked exhausted. "You should probably get some sleep." Wedge led Luke back down the hallway to Leia's apartment. As Luke reached for the door, Wedge stopped him. "You should stay for a few days."

"Hm?"

You were going to go back to Yavin tomorrow, right? You should stay for a few days."

"For what?" Luke asked.

"Just to stay. To hang out. Nothing is going on on Yavin. Nothing she's going to tell you about, anyway."

"Thanks for reminding me."

"So, you should stay."

Luke frowned at him. Wedge nodded. Luke glanced away, and then back. "Okay," he said, finally.

"Great," Wedge said. "I'll see you tomorrow." After Luke disappeared into Leia's apartment, Wedge walked back to his own. He rubbed his hands over his face, trying to keep his mind clear and calm, even as he realized this was going to be more difficult than he'd anticipated. Luke could sense his emotions over parsecs. Down the hall would be no problem at all.