Title: Within the Stars (A Danielle Skywalker story)

Author: jedidanny (danielle_skywalker_jedi@hotmail.com)

Genre: Romance, action-adventure

Rating: PG

Summary: Just one of Danielle Skywalker's many adventures. R&R!

Disclaimer: Star Wars does not belong to me….These characters are not all mine, they belong to Nick, Alex, April, Chris, Erin, and Dan, who are all long time friends of mine. There are some characters that I've made up, but the last name Skywalker doesn't belong to me. I might end up changing the title.

                       Chapter One

            Danielle Skywalker laid in the grass in the meadow in Jedi Falls, watching as the clouds went by above her, her dark blue eyes curious but saddened, as they always were.

            The tall grass above her blew around in the wind and she smiled, feeling the presence in the Force of her best friends in the universe. One by one they were coming into the Falls as they usually did. The last to come would be her foster brother, Rei. Always the loner, she thought.

            She sat up and pulled the pieces of grass and leafs out of her braided hair that flowed down to her waist in one single braid. She wore a short sleeved light blue dress going down to her ankles, brown boots, and a silver belt around her waist. She looked around and smiled to see her friend Alex walking from the forest. Mica, a Twi'lek, Dan, and Siri were both on their way up from swimming in the lake below the beautiful waterfall. Next to come was Syria from out of no where. Now where was Rei . . .?

            Right behind you, knucklehead, she heard his voice through the Force.

            She stood and spun around to find herself almost looking straight into his blue eyes. He wore a cloak of complete black with the hood up. He pulled the hood back and revealed his un-neat brown hair from his hood.

            She smiled, "I was starting to think you weren't going to show up today."

            "Me? Nah. I'll always be here," he said.

            She smiled sadly. I wish that could be said for Max, she thought.

            Rei gave her a look, immediately reading her thoughts through the Force. She just looked away in time to see the rest of their friends walking toward them, not wanting to talk about it with everyone else there.

            "So what're we doing today?" Alex asked.

            Danny shrugged and looked down, turning to look out toward the horizon. She walked away from the group and walked toward the top of the waterfall-cliff, sitting down.

Everyone watched her walk away and Dan raised a curious eyebrow at Rei, "What was that about?"

"She was thinking about Max again. It still hurts her pretty bad," Rei answered softly, not wanting Danny to hear him.

Max was Danny's older brother who had died when she was eight years old, to save her life. She never stopped blaming herself for it. She was thankful, for the most part, though, because she would never have reunited with Luke and her twin brother Jesse, and wouldn't have met her friends at Jedi Falls and Joey, her boy friend.

"Isn't her birthday coming up soon?" Syria asked.

"Yeah. We should have a surprise party for her," Mica answered.

Rei nodded, thinking about it, "We can have Luke invite her friends from the Academy and Alison and Binx. Maybe we can get Joey to come, too. Her birthday is in two weeks, so if we start planning now, we can have the invitations sent out and have everything planned." He looked back two where Danny was sitting, "I'm going to go talk to her. I'll be back."

He walked toward the top of the waterfall and sat down next to Danny, following her gaze and letting it land on the setting sun.

"It's pretty stupid of me to keep blaming myself, hua?" She finally said after a moment.

Rei shook his head, smiling sadly, "No, not at all. It's perfectly natural. It's always painful when you lose someone you love."

She sighed a little and closed her eyes, "I'm glad my friends are here with me to help me through it." She opened her eyes and looked at him, "Thank you."

He put a hand on her shoulder, "Hey, I'm your brother. That's what brothers are for, right? And friends."

She smiled, "Right."

"Give me a hug, you knucklehead."

She laughed and they both stood up and hugged. They then walked back toward the others and began talking.