Chapter Twenty--Pick Yourself Up, Dust Yourself Off, Start All Over Again
Beru was dimly aware of the social services worker trying to peel her off Owen's chest. Owen waved the woman away. As Beru wept, he stroked her hair awkwardly, but he said nothing.
"Stop this!" the woman said, pulling at Beru's sleeve, "You're upsetting him!"
"I'm not upset," Owen said to her, sharply. "But I will be, if you don't leave--right now."
Something in his voice did the trick; after a hesitation, Beru heard her nemesis stalk out of the room. If she hadn't been crying so hard, she would've cheered.
Owen let her cry, for which she was grateful. She wasn't sure she could stop, not just now. I'm having hysterics, she thought in bewilderment. She had always disdained women who indulged in such practices. No self control. Gave their sex a bad name. And of course, she'd never do anything like that--never. Well, never say never, she thought.
When the fit of weeping gradually dissolved into gasps and hiccups, Owen gave her a glass of water from his bedside table and made her drink it. I should be looking after him, Beru thought wildly, but she meekly drank the water.
Owen patted her back; Beru took another sip of water, and tried hard to get a grip on her emotions. She found it difficult to meet his eye. She sat hunched on his bed, clutching the glass.
"Where's the baby?" Owen asked. He actually thought to ask, Beru noted. Voluntarily, no less.
"He's asleep in my room," Beru said.
"I envy him," Owen said. Beru glanced at him. Owen met her eyes squarely.
"Why did you--why did you try *that?*" Beru asked. She refused to say the word.
Owen stared at her. "Don't you know?" he asked.
"No," Beru said, sharply.
"Maybe I just wanted to be unpredictable," Owen sighed, "For once in my life."
"You want to know the truth? I think you're completely unpredictable. All the time."
Owen said nothing. He still wasn't suppressing, though. His pain and embarrassment were still very evident. Beru could not bear this. Think of a distraction, you idiot, she told herself.
"Do you want--do you want--" Beru stuttered. Oh, spit it out, she thought to herself disgustedly. "Do you want to try again?"
Owen gaze finally dropped. "Try what?" he asked.
Fair enough question, Beru thought.
"Our marriage," she said. "Such as it is."
Another fair question. Beru wished she felt less shattered.
"Do you?" Owen asked.
Beru could not answer; she merely nodded.
Owen didn't look up. "I spent all the money," he said.
"The money?"
"The money we saved for the passports," Owen said. "All of it. For the spice and the Correllian."
Beru reviewed her options. She could get mad or she could rise above it.
She rose above it.
"No to worry," she said. "Ben had a full set of passports on him. I remembered to pick his pocket when they arrested him. We can't use them ourselves, because he could trace them, but I expect we can exchange them for a new set."
Owen stared at her. "You remembered to pick his pocket?"
Beru grinned at him suddenly. "Oh, yes. Are you surprised? Really?"
He gave his rare laugh. "No, I'm not surprised."
The social services worker then came in, Luke in her arms. "He was crying," she said in an accusatory voice, looking at Beru. No, he wasn't, Beru thought, but this woman was going to have her way, no matter what.
The woman gave the baby to Owen, obviously, if clumsily, seeking to comfort him. Beru stood to take Luke when he started to cry, as he usually did in such situations. He didn't this time, though, she noted with surprise. In fact, he sat on Owen's lap, and inspected him with great interest, thumb still firmly in mouth. She leaned forward and gently removed it. Luke scowled at her. She felt startled; he suddenly looked like--Owen.
"Thank you," Owen said to the woman, with dismissal clear in his voice. She took the hint, yet again.
"I wonder what he thinks of all this?" Owen said, after she left the room.
"All they think about at that age is their next meal," Beru said, still startled by Luke's sudden transformation.
"Don't bet on it," Owen said. "At least in this case."
"Well," Beru said, drawing up a chair, "If not, he got an eyeful on the shuttle back to Bakanir. Ben and I had a knock-down drag-out fight, and Luke saw it all."
"I noticed the bruise," Owen said. "Who won?"
"He did," Beru said briefly. "That round."
There was silence for a moment. Owen then dangled his hospital wrist tags in front of the baby, trying to divert him. Luke dutifully made a grab at them.
"Why do I get the feeling he's just humoring me?" Owen asked.
"Don't ask me," Beru said, ruefully. "I get that feeling all the time."
Luke popped his thumb back into his mouth, and promptly fell asleep on Owen's shoulder. Beru gave him a glance freighted with both amusement and exasperation. Just when she had him pegged as a high-strung child, he always contrived to upset all her preconceptions. She wondered darkly if he had picked *this* habit up from Owen, too.
The social services worker appeared yet again, practically bursting with self-importance. Beru suppressed a wild desire to brain the woman with a bedpan; preferably a full one. It was obviously going to be difficult to get any privacy at all with her in the immediate vicinity.
"There's a holo message for you," she said, looking at Beru. "From Bakanir. Shall I put it through?"
"Sure," Beru said, struggling to keep her temper.
The woman strutted to the holo monitor and switched it on. Captain Rijdan's face appeared.
"Ah," the Captain said. "Good morning to you, ma'am. Hope you're well. And your husband, too."
Owen glanced at her, his brows raised. But if the Captain knew why Owen had been hospitalized, he was too much of a gentleman to say so.
As it turned out, the Captain had bigger Hutts to feed. "I just wanted to let you know that your abductor elected."
"Elected?" Beru asked, confused.
"On Bakanir," the Captain explained, "the accused has the right to elect to be tried civilly or in a trial by combat. He chose combat. Under the rules, the victim has the right to fight the offender themselves or nominate someone else to do so."
"You want me to fight him?" Beru said.
"Nice little lady like you, obviously *you* can't fight him," the Captain said. Owen gave a snort, which the Captain sweetly ignored. "And your husband---"
"Owen isn't up to it," Beru blurted out. She had no desire to see any more fighting between the brothers.
"Yes, I understand that," the Captain said discreetly. "So I called to ask if you'd nominate me to act in his stead. It would give me great pleasure, ma'am, to serve you in this matter."
"Oh, Captain, I couldn't ask that of you! You've done so much for us already!"
"Nonsense, ma'am! I'd be happy to assist you! A miserable abductor and abuser of ladies--he needs to be taught a lesson, and I'd be delighted to do it for you!"
"Absolutely not, Captain! And I don't want my husband to fight him, either," Beru said firmly.
"In that case, we'll have to let him go," the Captain said, shocked. "Those are the rules."
Beru suddenly noticed that Owen had moved the still slumbering Luke to his pillow and was getting out of bed. She tried to push him away from the holo-monitor. No such luck.
"Captain Rijdan," Owen said, "I accept my wife's nomination. We'll need some time, but we'll be there. Make the arrangements."