AN: This chapter has a special dedication. Thank you Kathy Tyers!! Without you, I would have no plot right about now. I will also take this opportunity to apologize for typos in this and other stories, I try to proofread, but I can't catch everything. If you know what I mean, please ignore them.
Thank you K9 multiple reviews on a story yay!! It will be quite interesting, and can only get better!!
Princess-Aiel – I agree completely!! The lack of reviews is a shame.
Sithspawn-13 – Thank you for you concern about my writing style. I promise to put a lot of thought into every chapter
KSkywalker1 – I honestly wasn't planning on it, but now I just might consider getting more ghosts involved. Not sure how well it will work, though.
Jaina Kenobi – That's what I was going for, appropriate and maybe a little random.
Nicolae – When I can.
Keep talking to me! I'm listening.
Chapter 4: Aches and Pains
Luke squirmed in his bunk trying to find a restful position. Finally he gave up and got out of bed. He ached all over and couldn't seem to get comfortable. His body protested some massive over-usage. Leia must have driven him harder than he'd thought. He showered, trying as he did so to work out the knots that seemed to have taken the place of his muscles. A real shower, with enough water to cover his body several times over still seemed decadent, but he'd stopped feeling guilty about it after the trip to Mon Calamari. His eyes drifted shut on their own, but his body refused to relax. Force, how long had it been since he'd actually been able to sleep? Not since training with Yoda, he decided. Sure he'd shut down for a couple hours at a stretch somewhere in there, but that wasn't sleep, that was crashing. Yesterday - no the day before yesterday, had been the longest day of his life. He hadn't closed his eyes once. The water turned cold, starting him out of his doze. Reluctantly, he turned off the water and toweled himself dry.
Far from relaxing, it seemed like his aches had only increased while he'd showered. Unable to settle, even for a moment, Luke grabbed his lightsaber and headed for the nearest large open space. Unfortunately, the Falcon occupied the area he planned on practicing in. Luke smiled as he heard the shouts and general expressions of anger drifting off the top of the freighter. At least he wasn't the only one awake.
"Hey, Han," he called into the darkness. "What's the problem?"
"Lando, that's the problem!" Han Solo called down. "He swore she wouldn't get a scratch and then goes and sheers off the whole sensor array!"
Luke climbed up the ladder to help his friend inspect the damage to his precious ship. The sensor array was well and truly gone. "Look on the bright side, Han," he commented, reckless in his lack of sleep, "at least it's not a scratch."
"Not a scratch . . . it's a bleeding hole in my ship!" Han fumed.
"C'mon, Han, I'll help you fix it. I know I can fix these kinds of scratches." He grinned impishly, the first time Han had seen him smile like that since . . . well, almost since Alderaan. The kid had grown up way too fast.
Han eyed Luke suspiciously, as if trying to decide if he could trust anyone with the care of his ship again. Ever. Finally he spaced the question and slapped a tool into Luke's hand. "Sure, kid. You're as good with a hydrospanner as any. Have a go." He noted with concern the way Luke winced, the very act of holding a hydrospanner calling reluctant muscles to unwanted effort. Abruptly, his entire body blazed with pain. Drawing on the Force, Luke bashed the pain into submission; he couldn't be weak. Not now. "So," Han inquired casually, "Where you been? I don't think I've seen you for more than an hour since you left for the Second Death Star." He frowned, "Come to think of it I've seen about as much of your sister."
"I've been keeping busy, working with Anakin," Luke admitted. It felt weird referring to the ex-Sith by his first name, but his father had insisted. "He's expanding my Jedi training, you know. Helping me fill some of the stuff that Yoda never had time to teach me." Han made an interested noise. He hadn't known, but he figured the kid needed to connect with his father. Even if that father had been the most evil man in the galaxy, it still didn't change the fact that the kid had a father now. In his musings, Han nearly missed the rest of Luke's statement. "Leia's going to be trained too." That made Han sit up and take notice. He should have known that Leia was Force-sensitive, but she was training?
"How long is that going to take?" Han asked trying to keep his concern out of his voice. It wouldn't do to let the kid realize just how badly Han had it for his sister. But Yoda had kept Luke locked away on some swamp of a planet for months and even then he hadn't finished.
Luke smiled picking up on the Corellian's worry anyway. He decided to give Han something to think about. "I don't know Han," he said, letting his voice show how thoughtful he was being. "After all, Obi-Wan trained me some before I went to Yoda, and you know how long I was with him. Leia's training could take a year or more." Luke stopped teasing as the anguished look on Han's face told him exactly what the pirate felt about that idea. Boldly, the young Jedi forged on. Han would have to make a move sometime or Leia would spend the rest of her life in romantic limbo. "I'd make the most of the time I have with her now," he suggested gently.
Han's puzzled gaze met Luke's. "I love her, you know," he told the kid. Luke nodded a twinkle in his eye. The Corellian's jaw dropped open as he realized just how much the younger man already knew. "And you're okay with that? With me and your sister?" Han asked uncertainly.
Luke chuckled. "Han, the entire Rebellion knew, and was okay with, you and my sister." Han's face was priceless. It was a load off Han's mind to have finally admitted it to someone besides Leia. Luke turned back to the sensor array, giving the man time to work through his emotions in peace.
Han sat, staring at nothing as he processed what Luke had just revealed. The entire Rebellion knew? That was a bit much. After all he hadn't known until . . . Scratch that. He hadn't admitted it to himself until she'd saved him from Jabba. Now that they had both admitted it, he couldn't bear the thought of being cut off from her for months on end. Why did she have to train now? What would he do without her? Why couldn't he go with her while she trained? Could he go with her? Han realized he had automatically assumed that Leia's training would be similar to Luke's experience, isolation on a mud pit and all. But Leia couldn't leave the Rebellion for an unspecified period of time, could she? They needed her as much as he did.
A short intake of air broke Han's thought train and he looked nervously at Luke. The kid's eyes were unfocused and he was trembling. "Hey kid," Han called. Luke turned a contorted face towards him. "Are you alright? You look like you just ate Jabba's bedtime snack."
Luke was decidedly not alright. Suddenly two Hans were talking to him and he tried desperately to focus in the middle where he thought the real Han was standing. He looked down at his hands; all four of them were shaking. Han's concerned query barely registered over the roaring of his pulse in his ears. "I think I need to go, Han," he said uncertainly. "You don't want me working on your ship like this." He rose shakily to his feet and Han helped him get down off the Falcon without hurting himself.
"Go to bed, kid," Han counseled.
Luke nodded dumbly, but could not take the smuggler's advice. He had to get himself back to normal. The only question was, how?
Mara stormed out of the room, leaving Skywalker on his own with the destroyed suit. The base was almost too quiet. What was she going to do now? Mara was a night stalker. While she could be awake during the day, the predator in her was at her deadliest in the shadowed twilight. Unfortunately, most of the Rebellion seemed to be up with the dawn, and down with the sun. Typical. Well, if nothing else was going on, she'd better be alert when something was. And that meant returning to her room and sleeping right about now. She also needed to have a look at her ankle. It would do her no good if she couldn't run when she needed to.
The thrum of a lightsaber cutting through the air nearby sent her to look. The Emperor had taught her how to handle the energy blades, but it had been ages since she'd held or even seen one used. Luke had his lightsaber out and was going through some sort of routine with it. His motions were fluid and graceful, he moved with a practiced, deadly ease that Mara admired. He wasn't that bad to look at either. Hold it, Jade, she counseled herself. He's a means to an ends nothing more. Now if only she could clear away her doubts about that.
The handsome Jedi finished solo drills and shut down his lightsaber. Mara stepped out of the greenery, clapping, cooing, and generally being the fawning courtesan.
"That was wonderful. Why do you hide that kind of grace?" she asked her green eyes big and soft. Luke refused to answer. He simply blushed and turned to a practice remote he'd picked up. Over his shoulder, Mara saw him flick the power setting to just under dangerous.
"Are you sure you can control it that high?" she asked. She didn't care about the man, but neither did she want to see him hurt. He was, after all, her safe passage into the Rebellion. She frowned. Something didn't feel right about this. She hadn't known Luke for more than a day, but even she could tell he wasn't acting normally. He was calm, and deliberate in all his actions. Obviously there was something wrong. However, the cocky, confident smile that Luke threw her allayed her fears. Still limping slightly, she settled herself to watch.
Luke sighed as the proximity of the petite red-head eased something in him. He felt like he could actually relax now. Smiling at and with himself he set the remote just a hair more powerful and launched it into the air. With a whirr and flash of lights, the remote caught itself on its repulsors. He brought his green blade up between himself and the remote, tracking it with his eyes. Or at least that was what he tried to do. A certain shade of fiery-red hair kept drawing his eyes. Resolutely, he closed them and focused on the droid. He could see the remote through the Force and feel the minute shifts in energy as it prepared to fire. But the sparks of the remote were lost in the raging inferno beyond them. Mara Jade called to him without words asking to be trained, to grow, to explore the light of her being. Under her beguiling influence, he let go of the persistent pain, feeling it shoot through him, electric for a moment, then diminish. How could she do that to him? Loosen the cords of tension and reserve that held his fragile being together? It was as if her presence was a healing balm that never ran out.
The whine of several blaster bolts getting a little too close forced him to concentrate and he blocked the volley easily. He had been distracted and that wasn't good. But he had still managed to block the shots. In the pleasure of the accomplishment, he missed the second round entirely, but dodged all but the last shot, which caught him a glancing blow to the shoulder. Red agony screamed up his arm and into his brain. Force, it felt like his whole arm had come off! No, on second thought, it felt worse. Carefully, he corralled the pain and shoved it, if not out of his mind, then at least to its very edge. He called heavily on the Force to work through the pain, and was rewarded when the third set of bolts bounced harmlessly off his lightsaber. He just had to concentrate. Yeah, right.
Mara admired the young Jedi's physique, the way he moved, but the regard he was giving her with his eyes was disturbing. Those eyes were just plain creepy. She could swear she'd seen them somewhere, looking older and sadder. Luke's eyes held the shadows of what he had seen and the light of the innocent. It was a relief when those changeable blue orbs veiled themselves behind sleepy lids. Free for a moment from the strange compulsion that had laid hold of her, Mara probed her ankle with fingers and mind. She grimaced; the ankle was twisted pretty badly. I guess I'll be avoiding the medcenter for awhile, she thought. If the healers got whiff of this, they would insist that she rest for days on end and the last thing she wanted was forced inactivity.
Blaster fire brought her attention back to the young Jedi in front of her. She could tell he was startled, but he blocked the series of bolts. He wasn't so lucky the next time around. It was such a shame really that that finely muscled physique had to suffer the ignominy of an angry red blaster burn across the deltoid. She was mildly concerned by the grimace that creased his features. He showed more pain than a mere blaster bolt should cause. Heck, she'd taken Palpatine's Force-lightning with less of a reaction! Come to think of it, so had he. He admirably collected himself and continued with the practice, actually blocking the next few volleys. Well, well farmboy, looks like you can actually handle yourself, she thought instantly wondering why she called him farmboy. Her appreciative assessment dissipated when a blast caught him unexpectedly in the leg. Luke went down like a rock, twisting to avoid cleaving himself in two with his own blade. A few more bolts were swatted out of the air, until one caught his right hand.
Luke moaned as the rest of the flesh was taken off his artificial hand, his lightsaber falling useless to the ground. The remote didn't stop, unleashing even more lances of agony to spear the overconfident Jedi. He shouldn't have set it so high. All of his pain flared up together and he collapsed.
"The more that hit you, the more that will." Where had that come from? The feminine voice drifted out of the ether, a shadow of a maybe. It beckoned from a comforting pain-free blackness and he gratefully followed.
Mara's dark humor at the brash Jedi getting beaten by a remote vanished when she realized that he was doing nothing to stop the bolts still pounding him. "Luke?" she called. The prone man didn't answer. Unwelcome and unexpected panic gripped her. She was not aware of drawing the hold-out blaster from her wrist and melting the remote with a single, un-aimed shot. In fact she wasn't aware of anything until she found herself kneeling by Luke's head. She grabbed the young man by the shoulder and began to shake him, trying to rouse him. His skin was clammy and he didn't respond. "Luke, wake up," she pleaded. "Come on you sith-spawned idiot wake up!" Desperate, she felt for a pulse at his neck. It was weak and wavering, but there. However, he wasn't breathing. Shock must have gotten to you, Jedi. The sentence floated languidly in her otherwise frantic mind as she swept his mouth for obstructions. Finding none, she tilted his tousled head back, took a deep breath and forced a lungful of air into his lax mouth. She kept her mouth over his for a while, making sure she'd imparted every last molecule of oxygen possible to the unconscious man. Or maybe not so unconscious. She was surprised at her own lack of surprise when she raised her head to find a pair of ice-blue eyes regarding her.
"Wow," was all the pilot-turned-Jedi managed to push past his lips, letting out the breath she had just given him with a sigh.
Mara pounded his chest with her fist, only stopping when she saw how he winced every time she made contact. "Don't scare me like that, farmboy!" she yelled. "And why am I calling you farmboy in the first place?"
Luke sat up and infinitesimally raised his shoulders. It hurt to even do that much. "I guess my background still shows. I grew up on a moisture farm on Tatooine. I left the galactic sandbox four years ago to join the Rebellion."
Mara sat back on her heels, "You lived on a desert world, to harvest water?" she asked incredulously.
"Nothing else will grow there, I assure you," he answered. He attempted a smile for her, but it hurt too much to move.
Picking up on his discomfort, Mara gingerly helped him to his feet. "Let's get you to the medcenter."
Luke accepted her support but shook his head at the suggestion. "I'll be fine."
Mara smacked him in the back of the head. Great, now he really hurt all over. "You weren't fine two minutes ago, farmboy. I'm not going anywhere until you get checked out."
"I thought you were going to avoid the medcenter for a few days," he whined.
Mara's brow creased. How could he know she'd just been thinking that? "I never said that. Besides, I probably need to get this ankle checked anyway."
Out of arguments, Luke capitulated and allowed himself to be hauled towards the medcenter.
AN: Apologies for this being so late in coming. Class registration and all that.