Luke knew that something was wrong as he sat with Leia in the medical facility, anxiously anticipating the medic droid's diagnosis. He couldn't quite explain it, but he could feel that something was amiss in the force. And it seemed to be coming from Leia. She seemed to notice this too, as she turned to look at him. To anyone else, she would've appeared the picture of calm composure, but Luke knew her well enough to pick up on the signs. The set of her jaw as well as the tiniest glint of fear in her eyes.

Then there was the obvious pallor of her skin. Although, that could have simply been from her being sick for over a week. That was why they had come to the medic in the first place. She'd been nauseous almost constantly, unable to keep any food down and barely managing to sleep. Being as stubborn as she was, Leia had fought against the idea of going to the medic for several days, insisting that it was just a stomach bug and that it'd pass with time. After a full week of this, Luke finally managed to convince her to go on the conditions that he go with her and that it be done privately so as not to attract attention. The last thing she wanted was to alarm the Rebellion.

"What's taking so long?" Leia asked impatiently. "I mean, how long does it take to read a scan? Threepio could have done it faster!"

Luke shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what to say to either of those questions. He couldn't deny that it did seem to be taking longer than usual, considering the medic's admittedly advanced programming. It made him worry what the droid had found. "I'm sure it's fine. He's probably just taking his time, making sure he doesn't accidentally miss something."

Leia grumbled something inaudible, but conceded the point and leaned in to him as he reached out to wrap an arm around her shoulders.

Sure enough, the medic droid soon returned with the blood sample. Both Luke and Leia straightened at his approach, though Luke kept his arm around her, his grip tightening slightly.

"Well?" Leia urged. "What did you find?"

The medic droid rolled to a stop, pulling something up on a screen before turning back to them. "You appear to be undernourished, no doubt from your lack of appetite, but it's nothing to be concerned about. I'll prescribe you some medication to help with the nausea and you should be fine."

"So, there's nothing wrong?" Luke asked. He had to be sure.

The medic droid shook his head. "Affirmative, they both appear to be in good health."

The wave of relief that washed over him was overwhelming. He felt some of the tension lessen from Leia's shoulders. However, it was short lived as he realized the droid's strange response. "What do you mean by 'both'?"

"Miss Leia and the baby of course." The droid started to turn away, moving towards his station, none the wiser to the effects such a statement had on his patients.

"What!?" Luke and Leia exclaimed in unison.

Luke's head felt like it was spinning out of control, struggling to grasp the information he had just been presented. Leia and the baby… Then that would mean…

"I-I'm pregnant?" Leia stammered, her whole body going tense once more.

The droid nodded. "Nearly five weeks along from the scan."

The two of them remained sitting there, almost as if frozen in place. Five weeks along… That would mean… Luke never got to complete that train of thought as Leia tore herself from his arms and ran. Snapped from his own shock at her actions, he reached out to try and stop her, but she was too quick and evaded him. Without thought, he got up and went after her, pursuing her down the hall and through the base.

Almost everyone had retired for the night, but a few staff still remained and turned to them in passing, no doubt wondering what was going on. Luke didn't allow himself to dwell on it, his focus solely on Leia. He chased her all the way to her bedroom, where she promptly dashed in before slamming the door behind her. Luke heard the lock click moments before he reached to open it.

"Leia, open the door," he called out to her. Moments passed without any sound of movement on the other side. She was always a stubborn one. "Please, just let me in!"

If he listened closely, he could make out the sound of muffled sobbing. She was crying. The thought alone broke something inside of him. Leia wasn't one to cry easily. The only time he could recall her ever doing so was right after he had rescued her from the Death Star when she was mourning the loss of her home planet. The fact that she was crying now spoke volumes.

There was a part of him that thought it might be better to let her be, to give them both a chance to process everything better, but at the same time he feared that if he left she might never open up to him again. The thought of that pained him more than anything else. And so, taking a step back, he reached out a hand and reached out with the force, willing the door to unlock for him. He acted quickly once he heard the tell-tale click, pushing open the door and stepping inside before she could try to stop him again.

Inside he found Leia collapsed across her bed, her face buried in her pillow, fingernails gripping the bedding so tightly that he could see the whites of her knuckles. And now that he was inside with her, he could determine that she wasn't merely sobbing, but also screaming hysterically. He quickly reached back to close the door behind him. This was not something she would want any random passersby to witness.

He approached her slowly and reluctantly, not entirely sure what she would do. He didn't reach out to pull her to him or even so much as touch her, but instead sat down on the edge of the bed beside her while he waited for her to calm down. This allowed him enough time to put his own thoughts in order.

Leia was pregnant. He could hardly believe it, and yet he knew it to be true. If he reached out with the force and focused really hard, he could just barely make out a tiny life hidden within, glowing with the force. The medic droid said she was about five weeks in, which meant… It wasn't his.

Eventually she stopped screaming and sobbing and picked herself up enough to wipe her eyes. And even after she sat up, she purposefully avoided his gaze. That only served as further proof. "It's Han's, isn't it?" he asked quietly.

She laughed, and Luke was taken aback by it. Usually he loved the sound of her laugh, how pleasing and musical it was, but this was different. There was something deeply disturbing about that laugh. Something broken and wrong.

"I almost wish it was," she spat. "Anyone would be better than him!"

Luke furrowed his brow in confusion. "What do you mean?"

She was silent for a spell, in which he could tell she was fighting against her anger, her fists clenching and unclenching regularly. Her eyes shut tightly, as if trying to push some thought from her mind. "Five weeks ago was when I was held prisoner on the Death Star," came her reply.

It took Luke only a minute to figure out what she was referring to. He felt the blood rush away from his face as the realization hit him like a herd of banthas. Leia had never spoken much about her time on the Death Star. She downright refused to, either snapping or changing the subject whenever anyone asked about it. Now he knew why. She hadn't just been tortured. She'd been raped as well.

"Do you know who it was?"

She nodded her head, slowly turning to return his gaze. And he could see it in her eyes that it wasn't good. "Darth Vader."

To say that he was shocked was an understatement. He didn't really know what he had been expecting, some random empire general or perhaps even a stormtrooper perhaps, but this… He couldn't help but think back on what Ben had told him about the Sith Lord.

He's more machine than man now, Ben had claimed. Clearly he was still man enough to rape and impregnate Leia. A former pupil of mine, who served as a Jedi Knight before he turned to the dark side… He betrayed and murdered your father… Luke had never been one to hold grudges or even truly hate someone to the point of wanting to kill them, but Vader seemed to be an exception. An exception that he wasn't unwilling to make. Force knows he had more than enough reasons to hate him.

"I'm so sorry, Leia," he croaked, lowering his head in shame. "I didn't save you soon enough."

Soon after, he felt her draw close to him, reaching out to lift his head so that he was looking back at her. Her brown eyes shone with both sorrow and understanding. "It's not your fault, Luke," she insisted. "There was no way you could have saved me from him. It happened almost as soon as I was captured. You hadn't even found Artoo and Threepio yet."

He knew that deep down she was right, and yet it did nothing to squash the guilt that had welled up inside of him. If only he had found the droid sooner. If only he'd gotten to her sooner. He shook his head. There wasn't much use in dwelling over it. It wasn't like he could go back in time and stop it from happening. He didn't know all that much about the force yet, but he didn't think it was possible. Or if it was, he wasn't powerful enough to do so.

All he could do was live in the moment and be there for Leia. And that was exactly what he planned to do. Wrapping an arm around her once more, he pulled her into his embrace, which she thankfully didn't fight against. She clung to him the same as he clung to her, both finding strength and solace in each other's arms.

"What are you going to do?"

Leia shook her head. "I don't know."

"Whatever you decide, I'll be there to support you."

She pulled away from him just enough to look up at him, a weak smile tugging at her lips. "I don't know what I ever did to deserve you, Luke."

And then she reached up to kiss him. Luke leaned in to kiss her back, pouring out every ounce of love and adoration he felt towards her. He felt the same way as her in the way that he didn't know what he had done to deserve her either.

Hello there! Thank you for giving this fanfic a try! Yes, this is a Luke/Leia fanfic. If you don't like the ship, I kindly ask you to be respectful towards those of us who do. Anyway, on to the next chapter!