Chapter 16--The Gamorrean Stand-Off



Beru brought her lightsaber down, heavily, just missing Ben. He jumped back, rapidly swinging his lightsaber around to engage hers. But he was also aware of Owen Lars coming after him from behind. He backed away until he could see both Beru and Owen.



"Did you miss me deliberately, Beru? Or were you actually trying to kill me?" he mocked her.



"Drop your lightsaber. You'll find out."



"No thanks."



"No faith in me?" Beru puffed between parries. "I'm hurt."



"I have plenty of faith in you. It's him I'm worried about," he pointed, not to Owen as Beru expected, but to Luke.



There it was again, the hateful suggestion that Luke was manipulating her. But Beru wasn't stupid; she knew that Ben was more than capable of manipulation himself.



So instead of denying it, she said, "You better hope he likes you."



"No such luck," Ben said.



Beru marveled at his ability to keep both her and Owen at bay. But he could not do it forever. All three of them were tiring, but Ben most of all. He saw it, too. So he turned and charged Beru, knocking the lightsaber out of her hands, and grabbing her around the waist. He held her back tightly against him, his lightsaber at her throat.



"You wouldn't," Owen said, between gasps of air.



"Maybe. Maybe not," Ben said. He was gasping, too.



Left deserted on the ground, Luke began to wail. Owen flinched at the sound, went to him and picked him up awkwardly, trying to quiet him. Luke was unreceptive, wanting Beru. But Ben still held her tightly. He and Owen faced each other, still breathing heavily. Owen was, quite literally, left holding the baby.



"And you, Owen, would *you* have killed me?" Ben asked, staring at his brother.



Owen did not answer.



"And for what?" Ben asked.



"We're married," Owen said, gesturing toward Beru. "Legally, and all that."



Ben looked down at Beru. "Quick work," was his comment.



"Let her go," Owen said, trying to calm an increasingly agitated Luke.



"No--we'll talk first," Ben said.



"What about?" Owen asked wearily.



"I want to know why you betrayed me, Owen," Ben said. "That did surprise me."



"Aren't you going to ask Beru why *she* betrayed you?" Owen asked wryly.



"No, he won't," Beru said bitterly, over the sizzle of Ben's lightsaber, "That's because he *expects* all women to be faithless."



Ben tightened his grip on her, but he said coolly enough: "You may be right, Beru." He turned his eyes to Owen. "I'm waiting, Owen."



Owen said, hopelessly, "What will all this solve, Ben? Leave it."



"Did I fail you in some way? I tried my best--"



"Leave it, I said!"



Both men were silent for a moment. They were still breathing heavily from the duel.



Then Ben said, and his voice took on a pleading tone: "Owen, can't you see? I'm trying to repair this before it prejudices your future forever."



Beru tried to kick her way out of Ben's grip. No good.



"Nobody needs to know," Ben went on, attention all on his brother, despite his iron grip on his captive. "I'll forget about it--erase from my memory banks. I swear. Owen--please--I'm begging you. Don't let one mistake ruin your life. I know how it can happen, believe me. One weak moment, and you do something dishonorable. You regret it later. You wish it never happened. But you can't repair it, no matter how hard you try, and the consequences start out small and get bigger and more terrible by the moment--"



He's not talking about Owen's life anymore, Beru realized. He's talking about his own. And this wasn't a manipulation, either. Ben was deadly serious. Owen seemed to sense it, too. Beru was not sure how much a blood relationship affected a Force bond. Of her own relatives, only her father had been Force strong. She remembered being far closer to him than to her mother and brothers, but she wasn't sure it was the Force or simply a matter of partiality.



But Ben and Owen were full brothers, and they were both very Force-strong. She sensed that despite Owen's resentment and Ben's neglect, they still had an affinity born of shared background and blood line. Owen's not at all sure he did the right thing, Beru thought, and Ben knows it.



Beru wanted to plead with Owen to stand by her, but she couldn't form the words, couldn't ask.



"Let me take child back to his mother," Ben was saying. "He won't suffer, I promise you."



"And Beru?" Owen said, slowly.



"She needs help, too, can't you see that?" Ben said, "Amidala wasn't the only one who had a breakdown, I think. This obsession with the child--and it is an obsession, Owen, most definitely--isn't healthy. Not for her, or Luke."



You're preaching to the converted on *that* point, Beru thought. But when I had a crush on you for five years, there was nothing wrong with mind then, I guess.



"I don't need to tell the Council anything if you go back now. We can still keep it quiet. Get her some treatment--"



"That's too kind of you," Beru snarled up at him. "But don't bother; I don't need any treatment, and I don't want to go back! Owen, is this how you keep your promises?"



Owen flushed. Ben said: "You had no right to extract any promises from him, Beru, and you know it. And you know why, too."



"No, I don't!"



"Don't pretend you married him because you were in love with him," Ben said angrily.



"You wanted him to marry Amidala!" Beru cried. "Was that intended as a love match?"



Ben turned pale with anger under his tan; he hadn't been sure how much Beru actually knew. He shook Beru's shoulders sharply. "I expected better from you, Beru."

"Better than you, you mean?"



"Yes," Ben said slowly, suddenly seeming very tired. He looked at his brother. "So, did it work?"



Owen didn't answer.



"You thought being married would make a difference, didn't you?" Ben said. "It didn't, did it?



It might have, if we had had enough time, Beru screamed in her mind. But even yet, she couldn't bring herself to beg Owen to keep trying. She did not know why.



"Don't deceive yourself," Ben said. "It never *will* make a difference."



Owen looked pleadingly at Beru. Contradict him, his eyes entreated her. Beru looked hopelessly back. I didn't lie to him when I asked him to stay in the marriage, she thought. I can't lie to him now.



And as if giving voice to her despair, Luke began to howl.







to be continued....