Signs of Life
By JalendaviLady
Chapter 19
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Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars.
If you recognize any characters, locations, or things in the following story, George Lucas owns them.
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Han peeked in the small room and smiled. Too bad I have to ruin this. But the news from the Executor is too good for them to miss hearing. He coughed.
Anakin's eyes opened instantly, pulling Luke closer for a moment until Han's identity sunk into his brain.
His first instinct... Wow. Han hadn't doubted Anakin's return to light, nor his devotion to his children, but seeing parental instincts active in the middle-aged ex-Sith was something he hadn't expected to see for a while. He's already adjusted to having his children around.
Luke squirmed, which woke Leia up. Soon, all three Skywalkers were looking at him. "Well?" Leia prompted.
"Just got news from the Executor."
"And?"
"Biggs just came out of surgery. It looks like he'll make at least a partial recovery. He recorded something on a datapad before they did the procedure that he wanted all his friends to hear, so if it's ok with you guy, Wedge, Duria, and the others will gather in the common room here so we can all hear."
Even without the Force, Han could feel the relief radiating in the room.
...
A few minutes later, Han had wandered out again. Leia broke the comfortable and relieved quiet of the room.
Father?
Hmm?
Would Mother have... Would she...
...have disapproved?he guessed, and saw in her eyes that he had been correct. Leia, I can't speak for what your mother would have thought, but given the honor I've seen so far in his actions, I don't think she would have had much of a problem with him.
Even though he's a scoundrel?
Scoundrel by appearances, not by heart. If he'd grown up under other circumstances...
Appearances didn't matter to Mother?
No. Many thought that she should have.
Leia looked at him funny. Why?
I'll tell you later, Leia.He reached over and ruffled her hair.
The resulting mess of half-unraveled braids and loose hairs made Anakin want to cry and laugh at the same time.
"You messed up my braids?" It was a question asked with a smile and no judgment.
"Yeah... sorry..." He suddenly felt like a rodent... a flea... a dust mote...
She squeezed his shoulder gently. "It wasn't braided for the day yet , anyway, Father, so it doesn't matter." She got up and grabbed a bag she'd left by the door. "I'll just have to rebraid it sooner than I thought." She started to run a brush through her hair, then glanced around worriedly.
"What is it?" Luke asked sleepily, eyes slightly open.
"No mirror. I can braid it without one, but I have a meeting later..."
"... so it has to be done properly in something more complicated than a simple schoolgirl's braid," Anakin completed. "Which, I imagine, is rather hard to do without a mirror." He sat up, folding his legs under him. He wasn't graceful on his feet yet, but with a bit of unofficial practice in the kneeling katas he could remember, he had managed to get most of the rest of the gracefulness he had once had back.
She nodded.
He held out a hand. "Mind letting me try?"
"You know how to braid hair?" came the unison response. Luke's eyes were wide and Leia's mouth was open.
"My mother started having trouble doing her own hair when I was five or six and I started helping her. After I left with the Jedi when I was nine, I didn't get much practice for a while. Every once in a while one of my clanmates - Initiates and Padawans were organized into clans; I was in Deer Clan - would want her hair done properly for some festival or put up securely without pins for some tournament or such. I got pretty good at it. Your mother was a senator, and I got assigned to protect her just before the Clone Wars started. Some of that involved traveling unidentified in plain sight. She didn't have access to her hair-dressers, discovered my little talent, and the next thing I knew, I was getting extended lessons." He couldn't suppress the tears that suddenly appeared at the corners of his eyes, nor the expression he could feel tugging at his face, smile from sweet memories and grimace from bitter grief at the same moment.
He felt Luke grab at his hand, giving it the firmest squeeze the injured Jedi could manage.
He started to curl up, sobbing.
"Father?!" He heard something fall on the floor and a moment later Leia was holding him up, letting him cry into her shoulder.
He reached into the Force, letting both twins feel what he was feeling... well, most of it. His loneliness, his regret, his deep love for their mother... but nothing dealing with his six years on Tatooine as a slave. Not anything more than a rough glimpse of Watto's junkyard...
Bad move. He felt the flash of recognition from Luke. He knows. The still-injured young Jedi somehow managed to lift himself enough to wrap his left arm around Anakin's waist and cover a specific spot on Anakin's right shoulder with his own right hand.
Just over the slave mark he had borne nearly his entire life. Through all the disasters of his Jedi training, being burned after his fall into lava, all the fights as a Sith against Jedi - and he'd only entered the fray as Vader after most of the padawans and initiates were dead, so most of those had been against were the truly skilled lightsaber fighters - and the fights with Luke, it had somehow remained intact.
Against all odds and reason.
Luke suddenly pitched, trying to catch himself by grabbing a handful of Anakin's shirt with his right hand. He was still having nerve problems occasionally, and he grabbed with the full force of the prosthetic hand. He kept slipping anyway; he just couldn't support his own weight, even with help.
There were voices outside in the common room. Anakin recognized Han and Duria's.
Just as the group of people opened the door to the tiny room, there was a ripping sound as Anakin's shirt tore...
... revealing the slave mark to everyone present.
As he completely broke down in a flood of emotion he couldn't stop no matter how hard he tried to control it, he could almost feel the raps on his knuckles both Shmi and Yoda would have given him for the language he was using.