Luke and Kess rolled in later than usual that night, and they seemed to be suffering from an earlier fight because they were both extra quiet and extra distant from each other. Luke plopped down sacks of take-out food and Kess went to fetch plates for everyone. Nik and Tayla were energetic and bouncy like a pair of siblings, but the Jedi Master's didn't seem to have the patience for it.

Nik noticed and decidedly didn't ask. Tayla didn't notice. She brought over her homework to show Kess with beaming pride. "I did all my algebra today."

Kess's brows knitted at this announcement. "Don't you usually do that?" A spike of warning on the Force alerted her to glance at Nik. Secretly, he scrunched his nose and shook his head.

Oh crap, I haven't been checking her homework. Was I supposed to?

While Kess turned her responsibilities to Tayla and her successful homework, Nik slid the wind power brochure in front of Luke's dinner plate. "I did some homework, too."

Luke struggled to give the man his attention, and shrugged out a weary sigh. "Did you drink?"

"No." Nik smirked, and now slid the solar power brochure down next to the wind power brochure."

"Did you meditate?"

"Yes." Now he slid his sketch to rest between the two brochures.

Luke shrugged his fork. "Well done." And shrugged again chuckling briefly at how easy that was.

Nik hadn't fixed up his plate yet. First, he wove his fingers together and rested his elbows on the table top to look at Luke like he was crazy. "How many kriffing people do you think you're going to fit into twenty kilometers?"

Luke's eyes went from one brochure, to the other, and landed on the sketch that blended both ideas into a single, smaller structure. His mouth stopped chewing and his face peered closer.

Nik motioned at the sketch, "I don't know anything about infrastructure," he grabbed a plate and began serving up his own dinner. "But I know I've seen one of those before."

Distracted, Luke tried to take another bite and his fork almost missed his mouth.

Nik explained, "Solar takes up too much space because it's slow to charge. Wind clutters the hillsides because it's not windy enough there. And you're not going to power a whole damn city or a mining facility." He stuffed a bite into his mouth and motioned with his fork. "So scale down and use them both in a tandem unit."

After only two bites, Luke shoved his dinner aside and pulled the sketch closer.

And his eyes flicked up with a fresh sparkle.

As the discussion between the men lit up with energy, Kess shot a dark glance over her shoulder about it, but otherwise kept her complete attention on Tayla's childish thrill to explain to Kess how to do her algebra problems. Kess recognized that Tayla was acting eleven tonight, instead of acting years older or years younger than she really was. She engaged Tayla for all the attention Tayla wanted and tried not to get annoyed by the thrill now coming out of Luke's Force Print.

She held it in. Through dinner and clean up, through ensuring the bath happened and the nightly girly girl hang-out time as Tayla got ready for bed, Kess held it in. Nik and Luke were now out there talking vibrantly to sort out ideas and look up stuff in the office. Kess sat on Tayla's bed and reminded her to sonic her teeth, brushed the girl's straight green hair (it always helped the girl meditate), and chatted about whatever Tayla wanted to chat about.

"The man told me to run away yesterday."

Kess paused. "Why?"

"He said he wanted you guys to have to come find me."

Kess brushed the smooth hair and scrunched her face. "Why? I mean, of course we would, but why?"

"Dunno. I didn't though."

"No? How come?"

"Because I didn't want you think I was playing games with you."

Behind the girl, Kess nodded. "And I appreciate that."

Tayla turned around to look at her. "But I think you should see the dead garden anyway."

To this, Kess grinned. "Okay. I'll bite. What's so cool about a dead garden?"

"It's got a lotta statues."

"What kind of statues?"

"Big ones." Tayla said, and turned back so the peaceful hair-brushing could resume. "Most been cut off the top by the palace though."

Kess's eyes paused on the air. Her mouth slowly grinned. "I take it some of the statues have lightsabers in their hands?"

"Never noticed. But maybe."

Kess grinned as she brushed. "Well. . . you tell him that you don't have to run away. We can all go look at it together."

Tayla peeped with eleven-year-old glee. "Really?"

Kess nodded, and added. "And tell him I want to know what his blasted name is or he better stop talking to you."

Within a half hour after that, Kess sat down and slumped on her side of the bed to pull off her boots and Luke energetically paced in unable to take his eyes off a datapad as he began to unbutton his tunic. "Hey, look at this."

Kess closed her eyes and shook her head. "Can I look at it tomorrow?" She didn't even turn to look at him.

Luke tossed the datpad onto the bed and paced to the other corner of the room. His voice was cold. "I didn't order you to leave the room."

"You may as well have," she whispered.

Finally, Luke turned to shout, "Kess, I'm not your damn commander! And I'm not your master. And if you don't want to leave the room, don't leave the room." He turned his back to her back and yanked off his tunic.

Kess closed her eyes and shook her head. "I'm not doing you any good in there."

He rolled his eyes and nearly smiled in his whine, "Then why are you mad at me!?"

She shifted on the bed and shouted back, "Because I'm not doing you any good in there!"

Still on his feet in the corner, Luke settled, sighed slowly, and nodded with respect.

Kess pinched the bridge of her nose. "I can't do this political stuff like you can." She complained, embarrassed, ashamed. She shrugged her hand to the bed. "And you can get a droid for everything I've been able to do in there."

Luke sat down on his side of the bed, back to distant back, and pulled off his boots. "We don't need to get a droid if you want to do it-

"I don't want to do it." She nearly interrupted him. She leaned against a locked elbow and half-turned to look at his back. "I like it more than being in the bull pen but..." she shook her head. "If this is what a Jedi career looks like..."

Now in nothing but his pants, Luke half- turned on the bed to squint back at her and whined once more. "When did I ever tell you what a Jedi career was supposed to look like?"

Kess closed her mouth. He had a point. But her brows still knitted hard.

He shook his head and closed his eyes, and suddenly smiled the truth of it. "Kess, if you haven't figured it out by now, I will say it plainly: I am making this fodder up as a go along!" His admission finished in a chuckle.

Kess face splashed with reluctant humor. Finally the tension shattered, and she sighed hard and closed her eyes for a moment. She shrugged again, "But what else is there?"

Luke stood to shake off his pants and tossed them into the laundry chute. And, since he was standing there, as he often did, waited with catchers hands so she could throw over hers as well. So Kess pulled off her tunic and tossed it to him, continuing her argument. "Without a war to fight, what else is there but politics or political research." She tossed over her pants, then added with a dark note, "or raising your babies." She conveniently turned her naked back to him as she pulled out a night shirt. She didn't want to see the look on his face after that comment.

He didn't say anything at first, but his voice was quiet when he did. "Those aren't your only options." He climbed into bed.

Once covered, she turned and whipped the covers out of her way. "You got any other ideas?"

Now, his brows knitted. His mouth spread across his face as annoyed as it was grinning to say this. "Sure. Go research other options for us." He shrugged his hands at why this had to be so difficult.

Kess dropped against the pillow, but her face twisted and her palms spread.

Luke snorted out a smile, leaned over her face until he was nose to nose and pretended to glare. "I don't have all the answers!"

She laughed and shoved him away by the shoulder. Luke chortled and fell sideways against his pillow. "I swear, I'm going to have to that out in a press release before you stop acting like I do."

Kess acquiesced with respect. "Well, you have to make everyone else think you do. I guess I should be honored that I get to know the truth."

Now laying in bed with the lights on, face to face against their own pillows with an arm's length distance between them, they stared at each other for a moment of deepening severity.

His voice was hesitant. "Look, I know you don't want to talk about it. And I'm not trying to talk you into it yet-

Her eyes closed against the emotional pressure, and her throat constricted with the want to shed a tear of stress over this topic.

Luke paused, but he pushed through it. "I don't know that it's true, but I wonder if it might be, and I just want you to think about it."

"Just say it," she whispered in defeat.

He shifted his head on his elbow and reached out to put a hand on hers to make her open her eyes and look back at him. "If you think I ever expected you to stay home and just raise babies the whole time..." he shook his head, "You don't know me as well as I thought."

She flashed a shy smile and shook her head. "No, I didn't think that."

"But you're acting like it," he pointed out. "So I am wondering if maybe you're afraid that you're going to have to do it all by yourself."

Kess started to argue, but her eyes shifted before she spoke.

"Leia doesn't have Han. You're jumping in mid-project on Tayla. And I know it's crossing your mind what Gina's probably going through right now. And I know you think that if the galaxy needs saving again I'm going to run off and take care of some mission and leave you home to hold down the fort."

"You know if you had to, I would."

"Exactly." He stressed. "And I think part of your hesitation is that you fear you're going to have to hold down the fort -alone- the whole time. Your mother sacrificed everything to do what was best for you and Nik, but your dad was useless, no offense."

"He was better than yours," she noted with a touch of humor.

Luke laughed, "Point taken." But he calmed and explained more freely now. "But consider this, Leia and I don't remember our mother at all. And our father tried to kill us both... But she still had Bail and Breha, and I still had Beru and Owen. As slanted as the shift of power was in my homestead, they were a team about it. And even though your dad was not dependable, your mother didn't raise you alone. She had Obi Wan and your grandmother to help. Leia's daughter isn't going to have Han, but she'll have me. Tayla can't depend on her mother and she doesn't even know who her father was, but she has us. My point is, the ones that do the raising aren't always the parents. And you have more people to help than you think."

She fretted, "Like who?!"

"Aunt Yana?" He stressed. "Uncle Wedge?" He smiled when Kess humbled to this. He gestured his free hand. "Do you really think Leia's not going to be in your way trying to take over the care of her niece? If you run into trouble, do you think Nik's going to say he's too busy to help? He just single-handedly got Tayla to actually finish her damn homework for once!"

"I didn't know she wasn't doing it." She admitted with a shy squint.

"Exactly," he said. "He helped before you knew to ask." He watched her eyes shift to the air as she visualized his point with humility. "All I'm asking is that you meditate a little on the possibility that you're afraid to have kids because you're afraid of having to do it all alone. And if that's true, I'm asking you to meditate a little longer on the truth that you have a lot more support than you give yourself credit for."

"Okay." Kess nodded at the blankets, but her eyes lifted back up. "So let me ask you this?"

He lifted a finger from the blanket. "Can I turn off the light?"

"Sure."

His finger swished in the air and the light disappeared. "Okay, go."

"Why aren't you helping me with Tayla?" Her tone was almost accusational.

"I've been thinking about that. I'm trying to figure out how I can help with the raising of her without disrupting your authority as her master. I'm just not sure how to do that yet. That's all."

Kess was surprised. "You think we're going to raise her the rest of the way?"

"Well, geez, I hope we do," he nearly coughed.

"I felt bad I didn't ask you about that before I made the decision."

His voice shrugged. "Even if you had, you know what my answer would have been. She's an apprentice; the more time she spends with us, the better."

Kess stared at the darkness to think on that for a long time. "So, now I'm going to ask you to meditate on something..."

"Sure. What?"

She thought how to word it before saying it. "I want you to think long and hard how much you would want kids if you knew they weren't going to be Force Sensitive."

"Well, that doesn't make any sense-"

"I'm not talking about the real odds. I'm talking about the what if."

He was confused. "Why?"

"Because I have a right to know if I'm bearing children for you, or if I'm just bearing apprentices for you."

"Mm." He paused a moment, but his response was fair. "You're right. I never quite thought of it like that."

"So I guess we both have homework to do." Her fingers blindly found his on the bed and curled under them in firm little finger-hug.

His fingers hugged back, and then they began to pull her in until both bodies wrapped around each other in a comfortable cuddle.

"Y'know what else we have to do?"

"I can't even begin to list-

"We have to go down and start checking out the old temple ruins."

His head shifted. "Why?"

"I'm a little worried that the nice man in Tayla's head might not be what we think he is."

"You don't think it's a dead Jedi?"

"I don't know. But I'm starting to wonder if it might be a dead Sith."

"What does the temple have to do with that?"

"He told her to run away from us and go down there so we'd have to try to find her. I don't like the idea that he told her to run away at all. So I'm wondering if we'll either find 'ghosts' down there or traps down there."

"Hm. Okay. Then... I just figured out a solution to your problem."

"What problem?"

"Tomorrow, when we go into work, you are now in charge of Temple Exploration. Research all the original construction records you can get your hands on and arrange an archaeology and cartography crew. And get Tayla's and Nik's help with anything part of the project you think they can do."

Kess's brows lifted in the darkness. Her hum smiled. "Hm."

"Boom. New Jedi career. See how easy that was?" He giggled into her hair.

"Shut up and go to sleep," her voice smiled deeply.

There was a long pause with both of them remaining alert and awake...

"Can we try to make babies first?"

"No." She giggled in spite of herself.

He snorted a fresh, squeaky snigger, "Can we practice?"