Unable to battle all the problems plaguing his mind, Nik left for the pub before Gina and Ben got home. He told himself he needed time to think; time to have some quite away from the house and away from them. He had only a few beers before the evening regulars showed up, and they greeting him with a manly slap on the shoulder with tales of hilarity and complaints about bishwags as the crew sucked down evening ales. Soon, Nik was laughing again, bright eyes distracted with the minutia of it all, and enjoyed a few more beers to have an excuse to stay and enjoy the distraction a little bit longer.

His eyeballs were spinning by the time he stumbled home that night. He did his best to stay quiet, but stumbled a little bit in the entryway and accidentally slammed the door. He wiped his palm over his face and struggled to pull off his shirt as he moved through the living room. He disappeared into the toilet and finished stripping while he was safely sitting down. Then he sat there for several minutes longer even after he was done. Finally, when he realized he was about to doze off with his underwear around his ankles, he cleaned up, groped through the dark hall, and snuck into the bedroom.

Gina rolled her back to him.

Nik lay down with his back to her and promptly passed out.

Sunshine on his face awoke him. He cleared his throat and squinted through the headache to look around. Sunlight? He looked at the chrono. The work bell rang over an hour ago.

Nik curled in lips of angry punishment and dropped his head back on the bed for a moment of mental punishment. He forced his body out of the bed.

He was already late enough as it was, ten minutes in a hypo shower wasn't going to make much of a difference, but being clean only helped him feel a fraction better. He came out of the back of the house in his work grubs and grabbed his jacket.

Gina and Ben were sitting at the cluttered dining table with a section cleared away so Ben could work on a homework assignment. Gina cradled a cup of java in her hands and murmured gentle instructions on how to do the math.

Ben fidgeted with the pad to work out the numbers and didn't look up at either of them when he asked. "How come I have to do math work if I got suspended?"

With his jacket half way onto his shoulders, Nik paused.

Gina gave him a dark glance and murmured back at her coffee cup. "Because you still have to learn the math work."

Ben's little mouth twitched and he worked more numbers.

Nik finished putting on his jacket and blinked his eyes hard of the hangover.

"How come Dad has to go to work? I thought we all got suspended?"

"Because I still have to pay the bills, scrapper," Nik said and stepped around to grab his key cards and wallet. He reached over and scrambled the Kenobi-blond hair on Ben's head. He reached down to give the boy a kiss on his fat cheek, but Ben sneered and wiped him away.

"You stink again."

Nik's chest stiffened at the insult.

Gina stared at nothing on the table. She wouldn't look at him.

Nik tried to shove it off. "Well, I'll take another shower when I get home from work." He took a step toward the door and paused. "You guys have a nice day off, huh?"

Gina began to speak.

"Bye Dad," Ben called too easily. He didn't look over.

Gina clenched her jaw and resumed staring at the tabletop.

"Gina," Nik finally said. "Look at me."

She shifted . . . then shifted some more so she could lift her eyes to him. There was no humor there.

"Let's talk tonight, huh?" He offered, "We'll figure it out when I get home."

She pressed a tight smile and nodded at the table. "Have a good day at work."

Nik realized he could solve nothing right now, and so turned his feet to the door and pinched the bridge of his nose to fight the headache for the whole drive to the refinery.

The hardhat felt good on his head. Shutting the gate of the freight elevator felt comfortable. The smell of solvent felt like home. The grit of sand under his boots. Salt in the air tighten on his hot skin. Regit was in a good mood and began to sing filthy songs as they worked. His out-of-tune voice echoed against the structures and through the grated catwalks. The cheap java in the office cleared Nik's head enough to do his job, and soon he was singing too, like railroad songs to keep the beat of rolling barrels and yanking heavy levers that started machinery with an ear pounding beat.

Nik wasn't sure why he wasn't expecting it, but Regit stuffed his hard hat into his locker and offered up a bet. "Twenty credits says my Red Lighting wins it tonight."

Centaxday. The pod races. Nik began to shake his head. "I can't tonight. I got a family meeting waiting for me at home."

"Awe man, come on." Regit whined and cocked his head. "You can afford a few minutes for one race. Besides, Gina knows its Centaxday. She never had a problem with it before."

Nik stuffed his safety jacket away and his mind spoke with two voices. One said no, he had to go home and face this, even if he still didn't know what he was going to say. The other said yes, because Regit is the closest friend you've got. It would help Nik formulate a plan if he had someone to bounce all this off of. But no, the first said, if you go to the pub you're not going to just have one. But yes, the other said, you don't have a problem. You're just going through a rough patch right now. And for what you went through on Coruscant, you have every right to a few moments of weakness. If Gina can't understand that, that's her problem. And Ben's young enough that he'll bounce back from all this with room to spare. Besides, it's the best way you know how to meditate. . . .

By the time the voices stopped talking, Nik was sitting at the bar and drinking a beer.

Red Lightening lost the first round, so Regit bought the next round of drinks as the method of paying up on his bet. Nik squinted one eye shut. He forced himself to take advantage of this detour and tried to bring up the subject with Regit. Should they stay on Tatooine and try to handle all this budding Jedi skill themselves? Or should they abandoned everything they'd worked for to discipline themselves into a lifestyle none of them were sure they wanted in the first place?

But his few vague topic starters fell flat. Regit pretended to listen, but the man's eyes remained on the vid behind the bar. And he continually peeped with comments and statistics on the various race teams. It soon became clear that Nik's 'best freind' couldn't give a half a shit about the dramas of Nik's fracturing family.

Regit babbled on, "No human's ever done it. Did you know that? No, I take that back. There was one kid. Buncha years ago, one kid won the Boonta Eve race. Can you believe it? A human kid!" Regit shook his head and turned his eyes back to the vid. "You'd think he'd go professional when he grew up. He'd a made a ton of money. But the scrapper took his winnings and took off. Never raced again. Can you believe it?"

Now, Nik's mouth had closed down all attempts to try to talk to Regit about anything serious. Brown eyes glued to the pod races on the vid and absorbed the dead end road of this simple life.

Suddenly, Nik felt complete understanding for that pod racing human kid. Whoever it was, he was smart for taking his winnings and hopping the first freight off this rock.

"If I won the big pot, y'know what I'd do? I'd buy an island on Nekisa and populate it with a bunch o' Twi'lek sex slaves. That's what I'd do. Go swimming in the ocean every day. Make them just pour water on me, every day, just because I can." Regit smiled over and slugged his beer. "What would you do?"

Nik's eyes dropped to him.

"If you won a big pot," he repeated. "What would you do with it?" Regit smiled a little more to tease him. "Other than pay off your house."

Nik's eyes fell on nothing but his mind saw a vision. He had a glowing blue blade of light in his hands, and a glowing green blade of light crossing it, and behind all that, Luke Skywalker's face grinning with approval of his skill.

"I'd go to school," Nik murmured distantly.

"Really?" Regit twisted his brows and laughed. "What kinda school? You already got your Chem Cert. What else could you get that would do anything to your resume?"

Brown eyes finally shifted over and took in the sight of Regit for what this man really was to him: a bad influence.

"I gotta go." Nik pushed away his half empty glass.

"Wait a minute. You can't go yet! They're about to race the finals!"

Nik climbed out of the chair and pulled on his jacket. "No, Regit, I gotta go." He slapped the other man on the shoulder and shrugged off Regit's continuing arguments. "See you tomorrow."

Nik stuffed his fists in his pockets and walked home with much more grace than yesterday, but it was dark already, and Gina was sure to be waiting in the living room with all the warmth of an iceberg. Nik beat himself up with disciplinary thoughts and sighed a vow to quit doing this. His wife and son need him home, not at the pub. He cleared his throat, determined to never go to the pub with Regit again.

He didn't slam the door open this time. The house was dark; only a table lamp and the entrance light was on. They went to bed already. That was fine. They were probably both exhausted from all this drama. He considered how much time off he had on the books so he could stay home tomorrow and have the family meeting with them in the morning. And then remembered that he used up all his time off by being kidnapped on Coruscant. Nik couldn't bring himself to tell anyone that, no, pretending to be the Emperor for a month was not a vacation. Nik tossed his jacket across the back of the clean couch and dropped his datacard on the naked dining table. His eyes shifted to see the kitchen.

It was spotless.

Now I know I'm in trouble. Nik thought. If Gina went on a frantic cleaning spree, that meant she had a well of anger she was trying to burn through. This isn't good. Nik decided to face his punishment like a man, but tomorrow. Tonight he'd give her the respect of letting her sleep. A school teacher with a Jedi son and drunk husband at least deserved a good night's sleep.

Quietly, he kicked off his work boots and stripped in the darkness. He wasn't drunk, but he was buzzed enough that he knew he'd fall asleep quickly. His side of the bed was still made; she hadn't even stirred enough to crumple the blankets. So he carefully and quietly slid under the covers without disrupting her peace.

With his back to her, he cuddled his head on the pillow and stared at the darkness.

Damn, she was quiet.

His chin turned.

Too quiet.

In a quick move, he rolled onto his back and put his hand out. His palm found the other half of the bed still as neatly made as his had been.

Nik sat up in a rush and turned on the light. Gina wasn't there.

He whipped the covers off of his legs and slammed the closet open. Half the hangers were missing clothes, and the suitcase on the shelf was now an empty hole in the otherwise cluttered storage. Feet rushed out the hall and through the tidy living room to race through the open door of Ben's room. Nik slammed on the light there too.

Bed neatly made. Toys put away. Remote control fighters lined up on the shelf, but three of the favorites were missing from their posts as though they flew off to war.

His chest heaved air through his open mouth. His brows wrinkled as he stepped to the boy's closet and slammed that door open too.

The clothes were gone.

Nik stumbled backwards. His hands raised slowly to his forehead and his neck crooned to the air. His face crumbled to a storm of rage and regret. His back fell against the stone wall and his body crumbled to slide down and sit on the floor. Rubbing his face with a palm, his features contorted with panic and heartbreak, Nik peaked through his fingers and stared at his son's neatly made, empty bed.

The little voice spoke again. Now, you've really earned a drink.