Signs of Life

By JalendaviLady

Chapter 20

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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When Anakin finally regained some awareness of where he was and what was going on, he was sprawled beside Luke, both his children holding him down and a group of other people, most of whom Anakin didn't recognize, looking on with concern. He didn't think he'd seen so many flightsuits in one place since he was a padawan during the Clone Wars.

What... happened... oh dear. "I'm sorry... I... I..."

"You lost emotional control because something you've been hiding for years suddenly got revealed right when you were already having a weak moment," one of the pilots he didn't recognize said in attempted reassurance. "And you lost control in such a way that no one was seriously injured."

"Seriously"? He glanced over at Luke and saw the growing bruise on his son's face. Luke?!

You didn't know what was going on around you. I tried to offer what comfort I could, but apparently you really don't like being touched when you get like that. You shrugged with your full weight, I understood the warning but couldn't get far enough fast enough. Everyone else got us far enough apart after the first real blow that you only smacked me once and it wasn't anything like a direct intentional blow. Funny thing was, everyone behind you at any point before you physically calmed down got at least bumped, but no one to your front even got a warning like I did.

Anakin felt himself tearing up. I hurt my son again.

Luke hugged him. I'm sorry.

Sorry about what? I hit you...

And none of that would have happened if I hadn't ripped your shirt.

I should have helped when I started to feel you slip.

I shouldn't have even been trying to get up like that yet.

Leia glared at them both and screamed in the Force and out loud "WILL YOU TWO PLEASE STOP ACTING LIKE CHILDREN AND SHUT UP ABOUT WHICH OF YOU IS TO BLAME!"

Jaws dropped around the room. Red-faced, propped up on one elbow, hair in even more disarray than it had been, Leia looked like anything but a princess.

...

"Before a few weeks ago, you were both throwing blame at each other. Now, you're fighting over who gets to accept blame. Just for once, can something be no one's fault? It was an accident, no one meant for it to happen, and the bruise will be gone in a few days. Sometimes, things just happen, for no apparent reason anyone can ever know at the moment." She glared at everyone present. "And I still don't know what started the whole thing!"

"Man, you really were sheltered," someone whispered.

Leia could see a glimmer at the edges of Duria's eyes. What could possibly make her cry for him? She may not exactly hate him anymore, but still...

Han, Wedge, and the other Corellians and ex-smugglers in the group had a strange hardness at the corners of their eyes, as if silently renewing something in their hearts and minds.

Even Wes Janson was solemn. He hadn't ever been solemn before that Leia could remember, but then again, she'd rarely seen him act sober or his age, either.

Chewie looked like he wanted to rip something apart.

There was something vaguely familiar about the mark...

Jabba's Palace. That was the connection. A few of the older tenders of the dancing girls and their quarters had borne that mark.

Leia's mind tried to refuse the connection. She swooned forward...

It seemed a matter of a few seconds later when she started to drift back to awareness. Anakin was leaning against the wall, her cradled under his right arm and pressed close to his side. Luke was beside them, pressed against Anakin's arm and the wall for support, holding one of Leia's hands in one of his own. The world still seemed to move and shift around her; she clutched at both of them, trying to gain some grasp on reality. Anakin gently touched the top of her head with his forehead, humming something that was only slightly comforting to the distraught princess.

After she had regained her composure about as much as she thought she could for the moment, she whispered, "Go ahead and play Bigg's message. Before anything else happens."

Anakin gently started working the larger tangles out of her hair with his left hand as Han started the recording.