*Sorry guys, I thought I'd posted this. There is one more after this, and I'll post it next week.

*Also, check out Jedi, which is Luke's version of this. I'll post it tomorrow.

*For all those who read A Moment in Time the next two chapters are written, but I need chapter eighteen back from one of my betas. As soon as she sends it, I'll post, I promise.

Safely Home

In hyperspace they could relax. At least in theory. But she was on a strange ship surrounded by the strangest bunch of beings she'd ever had the misfortune to meet. And that was saying something – she had been a member of the Galactic Senate, after all.

Hyperspace was only a temporary reprieve. She would have to face everything soon. Had Senator Amidala felt the same way? Leia could understand it; she would like to stay in hyperspace forever suspended from the reality of the galaxy. She could avoid the Rebellion, avoid surviving Alderaani – how could she look any of them in the face again? How?

Leia's father had once said that Amidala had found it hard to look at the state of the galaxy and remember her part in it. Leia could imagine there must have been days when looking others in the eye would have been hard, forget comfortably using a mirror – the images provided unbearable. Those days taking a never-ending trip in hyperspace must have seemed like paradise.

A part of her wished she was still on board the Death Star, awaiting her execution. Death would be a balm. She wouldn't have to think about Alderaan anymore. She could be with her father. The afterlife was a great, stretching, empty landscape; void of pain.

I want to go home. It was a childish statement, wrapped up in layers of Organa stubbornness, and lacking in Alderaani dignity.

It also meant she didn't want death at all. She just wanted to be home. And be seven years old. She wanted to be curled up on her daddy's knee, listening to a story about a handsome knight and his beautiful love, separated by war and duty.

Tears burned her eyelids, but she blinked them away. They were no use to her.

The plans for the Death Star were safe, and once she got them to Yavin the space station that destroyed Alderaan could be destroyed in turn. It would be turned to space dust, shattering into billions of pieces – one piece for each taxpayer credit. One piece for each life lost on Alderaan.

She had that to live for. Yes, revenge was wrong, but if it served the purpose of stopping another monstrosity like Alderaan, how could it not be the right thing?

"Your Highness, are you all right?" asked a soft voice from behind her and she spun.

For a moment the young face that was becoming so familiar was overlaid by a memory. Leia thought she had the answer; she thought she knew who he was. But it was gone less than a heart beat later and all she saw was the farmboy who had saved her life.

"I'm fine, Luke, thank you. It's just been a long day."

He nodded sadly, and something old settled into his eyes. Today they had both lost much.

Neither spoke for a long while. They just stood in the cool corridor of the Millennium Falcon, lost in thought, not really paying attention to the other. Leia felt no inclination to move off. Something about Luke's presence soothed her.

Still reeling from his own grief, Luke still provided something of a safe haven for her. She had felt instant camaraderie with him, a closeness she couldn't explain. He reminded her distantly of home, although his couldn't have been further from the one she had known.

He had lived on a farm. A moisture farm to be sure, but a farm nonetheless. Leia's mother, long dead and dimly recalled, might have lived on a farm once. Perhaps that's what trigged the resemblance between them. Memory left feelings of security with the older woman, maybe that's the tie she held to Luke.

As a child, Amidala had lived on a farm, Leia remembered. The faint connection between them once again became clearer. What was it about that Senator? Why did it have to be one that caused so much trouble? Because you, yourself have caused so much trouble, Leia Organa. You are trouble, her traitorous mind answered. Alderaan was your fault.

Jedi, Leia's father had once told her, could pick up on things like emotions and thoughts, particularly if they were intense. From his expression, Luke had picked up on something from her. Awkwardly he laid a hand on her arm, clearly unused to offering comfort. Yet the gesture was comforting. The Jedi thing again? Jedi were supposed to be able to provide strength and security. Apparently that extended to barely trained apprentices, too. 

Around him she got the sense that things might just work out. Like there might be some light somewhere at the end of this Sith-cursed tunnel. Perhaps, one day, there might even be a life of some sort where she could look people in the eye.

*****

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