A TIME FOR TRUTH
Wedge sighed, faced with trying to reason with his stubborn lover. "Luke, look, I understand why you think you ought to be with the ground crew. I agree, you'd be good down there, but we need you flying. We need our Rogue Leader."
Luke shook his head and said, "No, Wedge, you don't understand. I have to be with the ground crew. It's not that I wouldn't love to fly—you know me better than that. I love flying. But," he stopped, visibly steeling himself, "There's something needs doing, and I can't do it in space."
"What needs doing so badly that you have to be on the Forest Moon, may I ask?" Wedge pressed his lips tightly together after that last, bitter phrase. Dammit, he hated arguing with Luke. Ever since that scare, when he thought Luke was dead, he tried not to argue with his lover. Not with a sudden realization of just how common snub-jockey deaths were.
"Vader," Luke said softly, almost whispering. "I have to face Vader."
Wedge's jaw dropped. "Vader? Luke, he almost killed you last time. What's to make you think he won't succeed if you try again?"
"He won't kill me, Wedge. I know it. There's good in him, deep inside. I can turn him back from the Darkness."
Wedge shook his head. He'd known for a long time that Luke suffered from a dearth of common sense, but this was taking that to new lows. "And just what makes you so sure?"
"I… I just know. Trust me, Wedge."
Wedge shook his head. "It's not that I don't trust you, but—Gods above! If anything happened to you…" Wedge trailed off, feeling the familiar chill running through his bones at the thought of Luke dying, somewhere alone, where no one would ever know for sure what had happened, where Luke would…. Wedge forced himself off that line of thought.
"Wedge, if I tell you something, will you keep it secret?" The expression in Luke's eyes, the seriousness that had never left after Luke lost his hand.
"Luke, we've been together the better part of three years now. Do you really need to ask?"
Luke shook himself, just slightly, a shudder. "Yes. This is… this is serious. If High Command ever found out…"
Wedge's eyes widened. "You haven't… done anything, have you?"
"No, no, it's nothing I've done. It's… it's something I am. The reason Vader can't kill me."
"Luke, you're a Jedi. There's a several thousand credit bounty on Jedi, alive or dead."
Luke swallowed, and Wedge could see in his eyes that there was a terrible truth about to be uttered. "Wedge, Vader can't kill me…" Luke drew the first half of the sentence out, stalling, delaying the moment. Then he finished in a rush, "because I'm his son." That said, Luke stood, eyes downcast, waiting for Wedge to declare him a traitor, to reject him, to hate him.
Wedge felt like someone had punched him in the stomach. Luke… and Vader? Luke the kind, gentle person, who never had a harsh word for anyone, the son of Vader, the legendary Sith with a legendary temper? He struggled for words, tried to find something to say that would be both comforting and true. "Luke… I don't know what to say. Except that, well, this doesn't change who you are. You're still a good man; evil isn't hereditary." Luke looked up, the expression in his eyes so hopeful, almost disbelieving. Wedge went on, "I think you're right, that High Command won't like this at all, but that bridge doesn't need to be crossed right now. I guess," he bit his lip, "I guess I can't stop you going, if you really honestly think Vader can be turned, but—" Words failed him, failed to slide past the tightness in his throat, and he took two steps forward and wrapped the Jedi in his arms, clutched Luke to him with desperate urgency. "I love you, Luke, and I always will. No matter what."
Luke clung to Wedge, too, clung as though life was a battering sea and Wedge the rock he could stay anchored to. "I'm afraid," he whispered, "so very afraid. But I have to do this."
Wedge swallowed past a tight throat. "If you have to do this, if there's no way to stop you, then go," he said chokingly, "but come back, please. Come back to me. I couldn't stand it if you didn't come back."
***
The next day, the ground crew prepared to leave. Wedge came down, as the shuttle was ready to depart. Luke was there, wearing a somber black jumpsuit under his camouflage poncho. The two men embraced, clinging to each other as though the would never let go, and Wedge whispered against Luke's hair, "Just come back to me, Jedi, love. By all the Gods, just come back to me."
And Luke kissed him, slow and sweet and desperate, and murmured against his mouth, "I will. If it's at all within my ability, I will."
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Okay, poll time: The next installment is going to have a big mushy romantic scene. Do we want to keep it clean, say PG or PG-13, or do we want an R? Please respond!