Jacen's Babysitters:

D348/3 ABY, Hoth

Hera never would have gone on the recon mission if she had known what was going to happen. But she did.

Hera hugged her son one more time, just as reluctant to leave him behind as all the other times she had to, but she knew he was in good hands and would be okay without her for the day and a half she would be gone. He'd probably even be sleeping for a third of that time anyway.

Jacen hugged his mother back, sensing her reluctance to let him go. "I'll be fine, Mama," the almost four year old who was wiser way beyond his years said. "Auntie Leia and Unkie Luke are good at sitting me." (He knew it was Uncle and not Unkie but Unkie was so much more fun to say.)

Hera smiled into his hair, amused at how he'd deliberately cut off the baby part of babysitting. Jacen knew perfectly well how to say it right, he just chose not to, because he didn't see himself as a baby anymore. She heaved in a bit of a sigh and kissed his wild hair before pulling back and showing him her loving smile. "I know, sweetie. I just miss you when I'm gone."

Jacen smiled just as sweetly as his personality. "I miss you too, Mama, and I know you have to go. But you're MY mama, and will always come back for me," he said with all the confidence in the world. He pecked her on the cheek and bounced down the ramp of the Ghost, backpack slung over his little shoulder with his things for the day, grabbing Leia's hand where she waited patiently at the bottom of the ramp. He looked back up at his mama with a 'See? Everything is fine and you can go now' look.

Hera sighed again, waved goodbye to her son, and called a, "Thank you," to Leia. As the ramp closed, she caught sight of them waving back. Forcing her legs to turn and climb the ladder, Hera talked herself into work mode.

Jacen watched the Ghost leave the frozen hangar of Echo Base, a small sad smile on his face. He wished the partings were easier on his mama. Feeling her sadness every time she left him behind to run a mission made him sad too, but he always tried to be cheerful so she wouldn't feel as bad. He didn't mind being left behind, knowing he wasn't big enough yet to go on missions, but he couldn't wait until he was older. Jacen knew he was going to be just like his parents when he was bigger. He was going to fly ships like his mama and save the galaxy like his daddy. He was going to be a flying Jedi, like the bedtime stories of General Skywalker he got sometimes from Unkie Rex, except he'd do it without all the crashing.

The pretty Princess with the braided hair looked down at him and squeezed his hand. "Are you hungry, Jacen? Cause I think I am and I'm pretty sure it's supper time in the mess hall."

Jacen's eyes lit up and he nodded enthusiastically. He was always hungry, which his mama said was because he was growing like a weed and weeds need food to survive. Jacen wasn't so sure about that comparison, since he'd never actually seen a weed grow faster than the other plants around it. Jacen also loved the mess hall because all the people gathered in one place made it almost warm, and everyone was always happy to see him and told him fun stories, AND the cooks always seemed to have a treat for him.

Jacen was working on his dessert of frozen blue cream covered in chocolate sauce when he felt the atmosphere in the mess hall slowly change from happy to worried. He looked up and watched people talk as the word spread about something bad. It didn't take long for him to find out what was going on as Unkie Wedge came to talk to Leia, looking paler than normal and feeling like he didn't want to say what he was about to, but resigned to do it anyway.

"Princess, I thought you should know that Luke never came back from his patrol and that Han went out to find him on a tuantaun."

Leia instantly went as white as her clothes and filled with fear. Jacen felt her try to cover it up with anger, but she wasn't very successful. "That stupid idiot is going to freeze to death! It's way too late to go back out on a tuantaun!" She rose swiftly from her seat, no longer hungry. "What was he thinking?"

Wedge shook his head and shrugged. "Saving Luke?"

Leia stomped towards the exit. "Luke's probably fine. I'm going to the command centre to see if I can get either of them on the comm."

Jacen blinked as his sitter forgot about him, then shrugged and dug back into his dessert. It wasn't the first time he'd been left alone while the Princess ranted about Han. Someone always noticed eventually that Jacen was on his own and stepped into the sitting job without a complaint.

Wedge stared after Leia, a perplexed look on his face. "I don't know why they don't just get together already. It's been years. If they did, maybe the fights would calm down a bit," he mumbled to himself. He looked down at Leia's unfinished plate of dinner and slid into the space beside Jacen, picking up her fork and digging in. "I guess it's you and me now, little J."

Jacen glanced up and nodded. "Sure, Unkie Wedge."

After dinner, Wedge took Jacen to the men's refresher and made sure he was alright with getting ready for bed for the night. Including brushing his teeth, which made Jacen roll his eyes at Wedge, because he knew how to change into pajamas and take care of personal hygiene all by himself, thank you very much. Sometimes, the old people forgot that he was a big boy now and could do things on his own.

After that, Wedge escorted him to his very own tiny room. This was an improvement over the last time he'd been left behind overnight. Jacen had had to share a room with Luke, Wedge, Hobbie, Dak and a dozen other pilots, which theoretically should have been fun, but the guys snored worse than Zeb when you put all of them together. Jacen had spent the night with his pillow over his head, trying to muffle the racket.

Jacen bounced onto the bunk, which for him was huge, but for a regular sized person would be considered tiny. Wedge chuckled at the boy's enthusiasm. "Are you going to be alright if I go now? I'll come back and check on you later. I'm going to find out what's happening with Han and Luke."

Jacen nodded and reached down, digging around in his backpack, producing a datapad to show. "I'm fine. Got cartoons."

Wedge grinned. "Gotcha. Don't stay up too late or your mother will have me scrubbing carbon scoring off the Ghost for a week."

Jacen grinned back. "No worry, Unkie Wedge. I won't tell if you won't."

Wedge chuckled and shook his head before leaving the little room.

Jacen jumped off the bed, excited at his apparent freedom to do whatever he wanted for the rest of the night. Mama and Chopper would never have let him stay up late, watching cartoons or whatever. He ran to the door and opened it, peeking out and looking up and down the hallway, making sure Wedge had really left. Seeing no one, Jacen let the door close and went back to his backpack. Opening a separate section, he pulled out his daddy's lightsabre, which he'd smuggled into his bag when his mama was distracted by the arrival of Leia. (They liked to talk a lot.)

Jacen knew he wasn't supposed to play with the lightsabre, because it was dangerous, but he liked to keep it with him because it reminded him of his daddy and it sang such a pretty song, making him feel like he was always connected to something. It looked massive in his tiny hands but Jacen didn't care. One day he'd be big enough to wield it without his mama frowning at the thought. (He hoped.)

Climbing back onto the bunk, Jacen hugged the lightsabre with one arm while the other pulled the blankets up over his legs. (Even in the living areas, Echo Base was way colder than the Ghost.) Looking further down the bed to where he'd dropped the datapad, Jacen frowned at it for a moment before his face set in determination. Holding his free hand out, he focused like mad on the datapad, calling it to him, feeling its very essence in the Force like daddy taught him. The datapad wiggled a little and then floated up and over into his waiting hand. Jacen let out a little cheer. That was his best effort yet at floating something, and no one was here to see it. Oh well. Maybe he'd do even better the next time there was an audience.

He'd only made it halfway through one cartoon when he felt the signature of Auntie Leia approaching quickly. Jacen tucked the lightsabre down under the blankets out of sight and continued watching his cartoon like a perfectly innocent little boy.

The door opened and Leia came in in a rush, only stopping after she'd seen for herself that Jacen was perfectly alright. She smiled apologetically. "I'm so sorry, Jacen. I left you and then forgot about you. And it's all that nerfherder's fault," she finished with under her breath. Leia took the last two steps to the bunk and knelt beside it, stroking a hand over his hair gently. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

Jacen put his datapad down and reached over, patting Leia's cheek reassuringly. "You don't have to, but I like bedtime stories."

"Of course I can tell you a story," Leia said with relief in her brown eyes. Jacen had to be one of the nicest, most understanding kids in the galaxy. Leia climbed up onto the bunk with him and leaned against the glacier wall, covered only in a thin sheet of white insulation. Despite her vest and winter thermals, she still felt the cold at her back. Jacen snuggled up into the crook of her arm as they settled into story telling position. "Have I ever told you the story about the first time I met your father and Ezra?"

Jacen shook his head, eyes wide. "Please tell that one."

Leia smiled and kissed the top of his head fondly. "It was seven years ago that I first met your Ghost family. I was delivering three corvettes to Lothal for the Rebellion to 'steal.' Your father and Ezra met me dressed as a stormtrooper and a cadet. It wasn't even a minute later that things started to go wrong..."

Kanan leaned against the wall, invisible, hiding his presence in the Force, listening to the Princess' perspective on the story with amusement. He'd arrived to spend some time with his son just after Leia had settled on the bed. Now he was content to wait his turn. He could have joined them, but Kanan preferred not to appear before anyone but his family. He didn't need rumours of him still being alive flying around the galaxy and gaining the attention of Darth Vader and the Emperor. His family didn't need that kind of grief for no good reason.

"...And then I gave Ezra permission to stun me to keep up appearances," Leia said.

"No!" a wide eyed Jacen said.

"Yes," Leia nodded.

"What's it like?" Jacen asked curiously.

"Nauseating," Leia said with an exaggerated grimace. "And you have a headache for hours after. When I woke up all the ships were far in the distance and Lyste was trying to be helpful by helping me stand," she said with a roll of the eyes. "I demanded repayment for my lost ships and transport home. Just to bug him, I asked for his shuttle, knowing perfectly well that we'd already destroyed it. You should have seen the poor idiotic man's face when he realized his shuttle was also missing."

Jacen giggled, imagining the scene. "That was a good story. Thank you, Auntie Leia."

Leia ruffled his hair and extracted herself from the small bunk. "You're welcome, Jacen. Now you should go to sleep. I'm going to see if there's any news about Han and Luke yet."

"They're still missing?" Jacen asked as Leia walked to the door.

She said, "Yes," over her shoulder, a slump to her shoulders that hadn't been there a moment before and reached to open the door.

"Wait!" Jacen called.

"What?" Leia asked, turning back around.

Jacen got up onto his knees in a meditation pose. "Let me see if I can feel them."

Leia raised a brow in surprise, but leaned back against the door, surprised to see that Jacen was able to meditate at such a young age. "You can do that?"

Jacen nodded, closing his eyes. "Daddy taught me. He said younglings learn to meditate as soon as possible. It's how we connect with the Force."

"Oh," was Leia's only response. She'd heard enough mentions about Kanan's Force Ghost to not be surprised that Jacen was learning from him, but she still wasn't convinced that Jacen wasn't being taught too soon. She might talk to Hera about that when she got back.

Upon hearing that Luke Skywalker was missing in the freezing cold of Hoth, Kanan had immediately retreated back into the Force and sought out Master Kenobi. He found him a moment later, after imagining the feel of Kenobi's signature. "Your Luke is missing," he told the old Master who didn't look so old right now, as he chose to wander around the Force in an image of what he looked like in his thirties.

Kenobi stroked his trim chestnut beard thoughtfully. "Yes, I know. That one is ever in trouble, just like his father."

Kanan raised a brow. "It's not my place to say, Master, but couldn't you help him learn more? I know you can be a Force Ghost if you choose."

Obi-Wan shook his head. "That is not what is meant to be. Another teacher is destined for him. If he was meant to learn to be a proper Jedi before now, something would have happened in a different fashion, making it so either you, Ezra, Ahsoka or I would still be available for his training. Instead, I believe that Master Yoda is meant to be his true teacher. Yoda did not have a padawan of his own for many years before the end of the Order, instead concentrating on training the younglings. I think it is time for the old hermit to come out of his hole and teach a padawan again. He spends far too much time in the Force with us."

Kanan rolled his eyes slightly. "That is true. But what about Luke right now? He could be freezing to death as we speak."

Obi-Wan sighed. "Yes, he is actually, but help is almost upon him. I'll go give him a boost and a message. Hopefully he remembers it when he wakes up tomorrow."

Kanan exhaled in relief as Master Kenobi disappeared and then promptly did the same, returning to Jacen's room on Echo Base where he found his son in meditation, doing a relatively advanced Force search. Kanan was kind of shocked, because he never taught him that. Because of Ezra and Kanan, Jacen's concept of what was possible was so far beyond his age, and the child just assumed that because his father and brother did something, he could too. And he pulled it off more often than not, not having the self doubt that would hold back an older youngling or adult. Kanan was both proud of and scared for his son, worried that one day, that unquestioning confidence in himself would get him in trouble. Nevertheless, Kanan watched his son's amazing growth in the Force with a pride that only a parent could truly appreciate.

Jacen breathed deep and slow, spending a few minutes feeling the Force all around him. Sending out his senses, he felt Leia's distinctive presence first. She had a LOT of Force in her, almost as much as Luke, but she didn't seem to know it. Jacen always wondered why no one ever told her that she could be a Jedi too if she wanted, but he figured if no one else had by this point, it wasn't his place to do so either. As Jacen started looking for Luke's strong Force signature, he brushed past something that made him smile (silly Daddy, thinking he could hide from him), but he kept to his self appointed mission.

Jacen found Luke's signature a moment later, easily drawn to it because he knew him so well. His signature was shivering and flickering but strong enough for now. He then went looking for Mr. Solo's signature. He didn't have even a smidgeon of Force strength in him, but his signature was distinctive anyway, always crackling with semi suppressed energy and aggression. Jacen didn't consider Mr. Solo one of his many uncles even though he saw him often enough and he was sort of connected to Auntie Leia. Mr. Solo was just not that interested in hanging out with a kid and it showed in his emotions even if he never let it show in his actions. (Jacen tried not to let what he sensed bother him too much.) Jacen found Mr. Solo's signature not too far from Luke's, and knew he was bound to find him soon.

Jacen felt a reassurance from the Force that they would be okay so he opened his eyes and smiled at Leia reassuringly. "It's okay, Auntie Leia. They're both alive and Mr. Solo will find Unkie Luke soon. You should find them to the east of the base in the morning."

Leia sighed in relief, not sure why she believed the word of a not quite four year old, but she did. She took the few steps back to the bunk and hugged him quickly. "Thank you, Jacen. That makes me feel a lot better."

Jacen grinned at Leia. "I know."

She ruffled his hair affectionately and helped him back under the blankets. "Cheeky tooka. Now its definitely time to go to bed AND to sleep." She grabbed the datapad that was sitting beside his pillow and tucked it back into his backpack. "You can watch more cartoons after your lessons tomorrow."

"Yes, Auntie Leia," Jacen said obediently, even though he knew he wasn't going to sleep just yet. (Daddy was still waiting his turn.)

Leia left the room with a, "Good night, Jacen. Sweet dreams," turning off the main light on her way out, leaving only the faint glow of the secondary lights around the edge of the ceiling to illuminate the room.

Kanan's image immediately winked into view, walking over to Jacen's bunk. "Hi, Daddy!" Jacen sat up again eagerly and scooched over so his daddy could sit beside him.

"Hey, my little man," Kanan smiled back as he concentrated enough energy into his form to make it solid enough for Jacen to snuggle into his side, wrapping an arm around his warm little form. "I see things are exciting here as usual."

Jacen nodded eagerly. "Uh huh. The base is never boring."

Kanan chuckled and lifted the blankets with a thought, summoning his lightsabre from the depths of them. "And someone's been sneaking this past his mother again." Kanan twirled the unlit lightsabre through the air with a swirl of his finger, floating it in front of Jacen.

Jacen reached for the lightsabre, hugging it to his chest. "I know I'm not supposed to take it off the Ghost, Daddy, but I feel like I'm missing something if I don't have it with me all the time."

Kanan sighed. "I know exactly what you mean, son. I won't tell your mother if you don't."

Jacen shook his head quickly, eyes wide at the thought. "I wouldn't dare. Mama would have a fit." He stared at the lightsabre for a minute. "Daddy?"

"Hmmmm?"

"When I can I start learning how to use it?' Jacen asked solemnly, peeking up at Kanan through his dark green eyelashes.

Kanan had been expecting that question to show up eventually and had thankfully already thought of his answer. "When you can hold it in one hand easily and your fingers can touch each other, so you have a proper grip on it. We wouldn't want you to accidentally cut off your foot or something if you dropped it."

Jacen sucked in a breath at the thought, wiggling his toes reflexively. "I need my feet, don't I, Daddy?"

Kanan laughed. "Yes, Jacen, you do. But we could always get you a mechanical foot if you ever lose one," he teased.

"Not funny, Daddy." Jacen gripped the lightsabre tighter, holding it up with two hands. He let go with one so it rested on just the palm of one hand, feeling heavier by the second, and examined how far his tiny fingers had to grow to be able to reach around the hilt. He groaned exaggeratedly at how far that seemed. "My fingers are too short still," he grumbled.

Kanan laughed and plucked the lightsabre from Jacen's hand, easily demonstrating how his long fingers wrapped around the hilt he'd designed for himself when he was thirteen years old. "Tell you what, little buddy. I'll have Zeb find us some sticks and I'll start teaching you the Forms. That way, when you are big enough to hold the lightsabre easily, you'll already know the moves. Sound good?"

"Sounds great," Jacen said happily, hugging his short arms around Kanan's chest as best as he could.

Kanan squeezed him a little closer and kissed the top of his head. "Love you, Jacen," he whispered.

"Love you too, Daddy," Jacen whispered back.

After a few minutes of just enjoying the moment, Kanan sighed and reluctantly extracted himself from Jacen's embrace, tucking the lightsabre under the pillow. "I'm going to see your mom now. You okay here by yourself for the rest of the night?"

Jacen nodded and squiggled back under the blankets. "I'm fine, Daddy, really. I'm a big boy now, and nobody seems to get that," he said with a hint of exasperation.

Kanan laughed and ruffled the green hair he loved so much. "I know you are, son. You're growing up so fast."

"Not fast enough," Jacen grumbled, making Kanan laugh again.

"Good night, Jacen," Kanan said.

"Night, Daddy. Say hi to Mama for me," Jacen said, eyes starting to close from exhaustion.

Kanan smiled at his sleepy son and disappeared from the room, zipping though the Force to Hera and the Ghost, wherever it was in hyperspace, still on the way to its mission. He found Hera in her cabin, sitting up in bed, already changed into one of his old green shirts that she'd taken to sleeping in years ago, reading a datapad, a little frown of concentration on her face. Kanan materialized his form without any clothes and slipped into the bed beside her, kissing her cheek in greeting. "That's from our son and I."

Hera hummed in pleased appreciation, her frown smoothing away into a small smile. She finished the sentence she was reading with details on her current mission, then turned off the datapad and placed it on the bedside table. She turned her focus on her handsome mate, meeting his smiling teal green eyes and brushing her fingers through his long hair which was already loose from its customary tail. "How's Jacen?"

Kanan caressed a lek in return, running a finger up and down the length with the barest of touches. "Jacen's fine. Better than fine actually. Our son just keeps amazing me with what he knows without being taught."

"What's he done now, aside from sneak off with the lightsabre again?" Hera asked, forcing herself to concentrate despite the small shivers that ran through her with each pass of Kanan's hand.

"Oh, you know about that, do you?" Kanan said with a glitter of laughter in his eyes.

"Of course I do," Hera said. "You don't think I don't know how much he adores that thing? And that it keeps disappearing from the drawer under my bed every time he has to stay with a babysitter?"

Kanan chuckled and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer into his chest. "Nothing gets past General Hera."

Hera smirked and rubbed her cheek against his chest lovingly. "Nope. Especially when it comes to our way too smart for his own good son." She looked up at Kanan, propping her chin on his chest. "So what's he done this time?"

Kanan explained about Luke, Han, and Jacen's Force search and that he'd never taught him how to do something quite like that. "I swear our baby has better developed Force senses than the son of Anakin Skywalker," he finished with.

"And that's saying something," Hera said, now grazing her hand up and down the muscles of Kanan's arm.

Kanan scoffed a little. "Well, it should be, but Luke is so undertrained for his age, it hurts. And honestly, I think there's more spirit and determination in Luke than actual talent."

"At least he's got something," Hera said, starting to lose focus on the conversation as Kanan had once again started running his hands over her lekku. "He's a good pilot, too. Gotta give him credit for something," she mumbled.

"Sure," Kanan chuckled. Hera was ever determined to find the good in people. He was finished with talking, too, as his eyes closed in pleasure as Hera pressed kisses to the bare skin of his chest. Kanan grabbed the bottom of Hera's sleepshirt and pulled it up and over her head so that all she was left wearing was their wedding rings on a silver chain around her neck. Kanan tossed the shirt away and rolled them over so he was now above Hera in the position of power.

Or not, Kanan thought as Hera's hand wandered down his chest and abs and took a firm yet gentle hold of his eager cock, stroking it in a manner that made his eyes practically cross. Kanan managed to compartmentalize the pleasure so he could focus on Hera as well. He started with a passionate kiss to her luscious mouth, which distracted her enough that she stopped the movement of her hand on him, but didn't let go.

When he was sure Hera was properly kissed, Kanan moved on, nipping and kissing the line of her jaw over to the spot below her ear cone that made her shiver. He continued, trailing kisses down the length of a lek until he reached her chest. Kanan moved over, paying homage to her perfect breasts that fit in his hands just right and had the dark green nipples that were so responsive to his touch and especially loved his tongue. He kind of missed the year that they'd been a bit bigger with milk for Jacen, and even more sensitive than normal, but he'd never tell her so, knowing it would be a sad reminder that they'd never have another child together.

He eventually moved further down, which made her lose her grip on his more than happy throbbing length, but she moved her hands to his hair instead, burying her fingers in the long strands. Kanan kissed his way down her softly rounded stomach, not stopping until he'd reached her bare pussy lips.

Hera moaned softly as Kanan's mouth latched onto her clit, fingers tightening in his silky hair. (Due to the close quarters of the ship, she'd long ago learnt how to keep her pleasure cries muffled to the barest possible sounds that only Kanan could hear.) She bit her lip as jolts of sensation ran through her, closing her eyes for a moment as she savoured the pleasure, before forcing them open again so she could watch Kanan work on her pulsing clit. Kanan's eyes met hers, a knowing gleam in them, before he bit her clit ever so gently, making Hera shake in a mini orgasm. "You're so bad," she whispered.

Kanan grinned up at her and licked the length of her slit, savouring the taste of her escaping juices. "And you love it," he whispered back.

Hera tugged on his hair. "Just get up here and love me already."

He licked her again. "I thought I was already doing that," he said teasingly before thrusting his tongue into her dripping pussy.

Hera's eyes rolled up for a moment at the pleasure of his intrusion. She tugged on his hair again, getting his attention as he tortured her with his tongue. When his eyes met hers again, she gave him a look that said she was done with foreplay. Hera wanted his big cock in her now.

Kanan grinned knowingly, kissed her clit once, and then surged up her body, planting his mouth on hers. Hera gasped and accepted his tongue, tasting herself and finding it highly erotic. Her tongue fought with his in a happy duel while his cock found her sheath in an unerring thrust that buried him to the hilt. Hera gasped into his mouth again and wrapped her legs around his as he thrust into her slow and deep in a steady rhythm that he could maintain for a very long time. Hera, on the other hand, would go nuts eventually and demand he go faster.

And that's exactly what happened some twenty minutes later, when Hera had been hovering on the edge of a climax for too long to bear. She dug her nails into Kanan's back and growled at him. "Kanan," she whispered warningly, telling him that if he didn't get a move on and let her come already, there would be serious consequences.

Kanan grinned into her neck and picked up the pace. He reached back and grabbed her lethal hands, interlocking their fingers above her head. She wrapped her lekku around his neck instead, determined to hang on to him as much as possible. Kanan kissed each lek lovingly and then her mouth hungrily as she started to moan, swallowing the sounds. Kanan thrust even faster and harder, calling on a little bit of Force speed to send his wife over the edge in a shattering climax that had her clenching her pussy around his cock in a mind stopping manner that he loved. When she relaxed enough, Kanan thrust on, now aiming for his own orgasm. At this point it was a simple matter of letting go of his control on himself. Two hard thrusts later, Kanan experienced his own euphoria, groaning quietly into Hera's neck.

They stayed like that for awhile, basking in the afterglow. Eventually Kanan rolled them over so Hera was draped over his chest and wrapped his arms around her. Hera hugged him in return, snuggling her cheek into the crook of his neck. "Love you, Kanan," she whispered tiredly, eyes closing and quickly falling into a deep sleep.

"Love you, too," he whispered back, knowing her subconscious would hear him.

Kanan held her for as long as he could, stroking a soothing hand up and down the light green satin skin of her bare back, until he felt his energy waning. With a sigh, he gently moved her off to the side and gave her a pillow to hug instead. She mumbled into it sleepily but didn't wake up. Kanan kissed her forehead softly and pulled the blankets over her. Drinking in the sight of her beautiful face at peace one more time, Kanan dematerialized and returned to the Force.

Jacen woke up early the next morning to an already bustling base. After changing back into his day clothes, he left his things in his little room for now. Jacen wandered through the base, hitting the refresher on the way to the mess hall for breakfast. He found a few people in there, but not many, most already having eaten breakfast. Jacen went to the counter where food was served and got a big smile from the soldier on kitchen duty that day.

"Morning, Jacen."

"Morning, Buzz," Jacen replied.

Buzz looked around. "No one watching you this morning?"

Jacen shrugged. "Guess not. Sokay though. I know my way 'round."

Buzz grinned. "I'm sure you do. You should try the command centre. The Princess is already there, I think, overseeing the search for the missing Commanders."

Jacen nodded. "Okay. May I have some breakfast first?"

Buzz grinned. "Of course! I saved some of the good stuff for you, in fact." He reached below the counter and pulled out a covered plate and took off the lid with a flourish.

Jacen's eyes lit up and he grinned in return. "Space waffles! Thank you, Buzz!"

Buzz handed the plate and a fork over the counter. "You're welcome, little J. Always happy to be of service."

Jacen smiled once more in appreciation before turning around and deciding where he should sit. A table full of mechanics waved him over and Jacen happily joined them, eating his waffles while he listened to them tell stories about how they fixed this or that, learning with every word spoken.

Jacen didn't move on until the mechanics did, taking his dirty plate to the pile awaiting cleaning. He waved goodbye to Buzz and wandered out of the mess hall, heading for the command centre. Just as he entered, he almost bumped into a relatively rushing C-3PO. The droid looked down at Jacen. "Master Jacen! My mistress just sent me to wake you up and look after you for the morning. She mentioned that you have school lessons to do?"

Jacen nodded up at the droid. "Sure, Threepio. You can help me with them. I'm working on my letters right now."

Threepio seemed excited at the idea. "That is excellent, Master Jacen. I am versed in over four million written forms of language. Which one are you learning? Or would you like to learn all of them?"

Jacen giggled. "Just Basic for now, Threepio."

Threepio seemed a little sad for a moment but got over it. "Oh, well. Basic is a good start anyway. But you should consider learning more. Your mother is from Ryloth. You could learn twi'leki too, although without the lekku, some of the language would be missing. And then there's binary. You never know when you'll need that. Mandalorian is also a good one to learn, considering you are associated with Lady Wren and Captain Rex and Commander Wolffe. Oh, and you have a lasat in your crew. I could teach you his language as well."

Jacen's eyes widened at all the options Threepio was spouting before bursting into laughter. "Really, Threepio. Just Basic to start. But I promise we'll work on something else after. Maybe Mando'a. It'd be cool to surprise Sabie one day."

Threepio gave a droid sigh. "Yes, Master Jacen. As you wish."

Just then, they heard a crackle from the comms in the command centre. "Echo Base, I've got something. Not much, but it could be a life form."

The room hushed and Jacen poked his head in, curious to see what was going to happen. Everyone waited for a good minute, not making a peep, before the voice came back. "Echo Base, this is Rogue Two. I found them. Repeat. I found them."

Jacen joined in the big cheer that went through the room. He saw the Princess sag into a chair in relief and smiled at her with a little wave. Leia smiled back but then turned her attention back to one of the displays. Sensing he wasn't wanted in the command centre, Jacen looked back up at Threepio. "I guess we'll do my lessons now."

Threepio inclined his head. "Yes, Master Jacen. That would seem to be the correct course of action." They made their way back to Jacen's little room where the datapad with the preprogrammed lessons was. Whenever they were in an empty hallway, Jacen would call out silly things, just to listen to the glacier walls echo his voice back.

After his morning lessons, Jacen and Threepio returned to the mess hall, with Threepio then toddling off to see how Master Luke was doing.

While Jacen was eating lunch with a table full of pilots, including Wedge and Hobbie, the base alarm sounded the Wampa Alert. Everyone in the room immediately tensed and pulled their blasters if they had them. Soon enough, there were numerous comm calls as people tried to figure out where the wampa was. Jacen stayed in the mess hall, protected by dozens of soldiers, all on high alert for a good half hour until someone reported the wampa had been trapped in the quarantine room. The feeling in the room instantly changed to relief and people relaxed, returning to their lunch of standard issue ration packages. Jacen was more than used to this as his normal food and considered anything more real to be a treat. He didn't know where the cooks came up with the treats they gave him, but he was always extra thankful.

Not long after the wampa had been trapped, Luke meandered into the mess hall with a grumbling stomach. He was a few meals behind and his stomach was telling him so.

Jacen sensed Luke enter the room and jumped up to meet him. "Unkie Luke! You're okay!"

Luke bent down and picked up the boy, a big smile on his face. "Yeah, I'm good, Jacen. Sorry you had to have Threepio as your babysitter this morning, but you've got me for the rest of the day. I promise."

"Sabie says never make promises you can't keep, Unkie Luke," Jacen said, eyes caught on the angry looking half healed wounds on the right side of Luke's face.

"Oh, she does, does she?" Luke said with a grin, walking to the counter and picking up a lunch tray. "All right then. I'll change my vow to: you have my undivided attention for the rest of the day as long as nothing unforeseen happens. How's that?" Luke sat down at Wedge's table, putting Jacen down on the bench beside him.

"Better." Jacen touched Luke's injured face gently, wishing he could make it better. "Does it hurt?"

Luke shook his head and dug into his food. "Nah, just stings a little. The bacta did its job well enough."

Jacen studied the injuries some more, feeling the Force swirl around him a little, like it was telling him he could help if he wanted. His mind went back to a scene about half a year ago when they'd been visiting Sabie on Lothal at the same time that Auntie Ahsoka had come back for a day. Sabie had come home with a nasty cut on her arm from a malfunctioning piece of machinery that had decided to blow up while she was trying to fix it, sending a shard of metal right past her, catching her arm as she ducked. Auntie Ahsoka had cleaned it up and then closed her eyes, gathering the Force around her and sending it into Sabie's cut, healing it in only a few minutes. Jacen wasn't the only one who had gawked at her. She said she'd known a bit of Force healing before but learnt how to do Force healing properly from the same place she got her cool new staff.

Recalling everything he'd felt while Ahsoka healed Sabine, Jacen closed his eyes and put his hand back on Luke's face, drawing the Force to him like he was meditating. Luke looked up in surprise, fork halfway to his mouth. The table went silent as well as they sensed that something was happening. Jacen thought about Luke's cuts being healed and then sent the gathered Force into Luke for as long as he could. One minute later, Jacen was exhausted and his hand fell from Luke's face.

Luke caught him before he slid off the bench, too tired to hold himself up anymore. "Are you okay, Jacen?"

Jacen nodded slowly, opening his eyes and smiling a little to see that the healing had worked. "Jus' tired. Need nap," he slurred.

Meanwhile, Wedge and the others were gawking at Luke's face. "Luke. Luke, he healed you," Wedge said, wide eyed.

"What!?" Luke said, letting go of Jacen with one hand to feel his face. He'd felt the Force swirl through him, but he'd had no idea what Jacen had been trying to do, only that his energy level picked up drastically. Luke's fingers felt only his usual skin, no scabs at all. "Holy kriff!" he breathed, staring down at the child in his arms in awe. "This is one special kid."

The others nodded in agreement, speechless.

Luke froze as a thought occurred to him. He narrowed his eyes at his friends. "This can't leave this table. Can you imagine what the Empire would do if they heard rumours about a kid who could heal?"

Everyone sucked in a breath at the dreadful thought.

"Don't worry," Wedge said. "We can keep a secret, right boys?"

Everyone nodded solemnly.

Luke glanced down at Jacen again. "As far as the base is concerned, the bacta healed me completely, right?" He'd have to tell Leia, Han, Chewie, Artoo, and Threepio because they knew differently, but they were his best friends and he trusted them.

"Right," came back the reply in chorus.

Luke smiled at his friends thankfully and stood, forgetting his lunch, holding an already passed out Jacen in his arms carefully. "C'mon, little miracle. Let's find you a bed to sleep in," he said to the sleeping boy. Luke went to his own barracks, not knowing that Jacen had his own room this time, and put Jacen in his own bunk, covered him with the blankets fondly and smoothed down the wild green hair that looked like it hadn't been brushed yet today. "Thank you," he whispered to the little boy, before putting a commlink on the bed beside the pillow in case Jacen woke up before Luke got back, and left the large room to try and find the Princess. She'd kissed him and he was over the moon about it. Maybe he did have a chance with her. Which he thought wasn't likely, considering he hadn't felt any real desire in her kiss, just affection, and Han went running after her right afterwards, but hey, a guy could dream, right?

It turned out that the meteor Luke had seen yesterday before the wampa had taken him out wasn't a meteor at all. It had been an Imperial probe droid and it had called the Empire.

Four hours after the Wampa Alert, the base rang with alarms again as a Star Destroyer appeared in orbit and then another and another and so on, until the whole planet was blockaded. Luke ran back to his barracks to change into his pilot gear. Spotting Jacen still asleep in the bed, Luke shook him awake while he hastily changed. "Come on, Jacen. Time to get up. We're evacuating the base."

Jacen blinked up at him sleepily, not really registering the words. "M'kay," he mumbled.

Luke finished his quick change and double checked that he had all his gear, including his lightsabre. He picked up Jacen and ran out of the room that now had a few other pilots also changing in double time. Luke jogged down the hallways to the hangar that held all of the transports. Spotting the person in charge of evacuations, he handed Jacen over. "Make sure he gets on the first transport out of here," he said before taking off to join the other pilots getting into snowspeeders to fight the encroaching Imperial army.

By this point, Jacen was wide awake and staring at the organized chaos with wide, curious eyes. He was handed from person to person until someone put him on his feet and pushed him up the ramp of a big transport. "Go find a seat, kid," the soldier said.

"But..." Jacen said in protest, turning around and going back down. "My things. I can't leave without my bag."

The soldier shook his head and nudged Jacen up the ramp again. "Up, kid. Stuff can be replaced."

Sensing he wasn't going to win this one, Jacen did as he was told. For five whole seconds. He walked up the ramp a ways, waiting for the soldier's attention to be caught by someone else, then dashed back down the ramp as fast as he could go, just eluding the arms that tried to catch him on the way by. Ignoring the call of, "Hey! Come back!" Jacen booted it for the living quarters section of the base, past a sea of moving adult legs. There wasn't a thing or person on this planet that could stop him from going back for his daddy's lightsabre.

While he ran, the glacier started to rumble with the start of the battle. The shield generators that Sabine had designed were doing their job keeping the enemy fire off Echo Base directly, but it didn't protect the land around it, and the glacier was being shaken from the ground up with enemy fire. Jacen ducked a few times as icy snow fell from the carved out ceilings of the hallways, just managing to dodge the frozen bombardments in time. He finally made it to his little room, passing a few preoccupied stragglers on the way. Only one of them had tried to stop Jacen from running the wrong way, but Jacen dodged those hands too and kept going.

Jacen dashed into his room, the automatic door closing behind him. He grabbed the lightsabre from under the pillow and stuffed it into his bag, closing it frantically, making sure the lightsabre couldn't fall out accidentally. Putting the backpack on, he turned around and had taken only one step towards the door when the lights went out. Jacen froze, terrified that what he thought had just happened did. Carefully taking the last few steps to the door, Jacen reached forward tentatively, feeling for the door. He exhaled when he finally touched it, further away than he thought. Picturing the door in his mind, he felt around until he came to the wall on the right side and reached up for the door controls, pressing the button to open the door. Nothing happened.

Jacen's lower lip wobbled as he fought the urge to cry. He was trapped in a tiny, pitch black room, with no power and no way out.