"Stop walking in on us and we'll all be free of that problem." Ben said irritably as the Force around him began to churn with dark energy.

Luke looked slightly abashed. "Should I knock stuff over before I visit from now on?"

"Or you could just leave and not come back." Ben still hadn't quite found it in him to forgive his uncle for trying to murder him in his sleep… or all the suffering that came afterwards. He knew that he never would and suspected that he never could.

"No dice, kid." Luke shook his head. "We need to talk."

"We have nothing to talk about." Ben scoffed.

"We have too much to talk about, but that can wait." Luke waved his hand dismissively. "Right now we need to talk about teaching people to use the Force."

Ben glared at his uncle, incredulous at Luke's audacity. "You think you have the right to talk to ime/i about being a teacher?"

"Look, kid, I know I'm not the one you want to listen to, but I iam/i the one you need to listen to about this..." Luke paused to glanced between Ben and Rey. "You found an orphan boy today that you intend to teach..."

"That's none of iyour/i business." Ben said hotly.

Luke's posture, face and tone changed, his voice became pleading as he locked eyes with his nephew. "Don't make the same mistakes with him that I made with you."

"No worries there," Ben sneered. "I don't invade people's minds or try to kill them while they're sleeping." Not even in his darkest times had he ever considered doing something that low... as far as Ben had always been concerned - even your worst enemies deserved that small measure of respect.

Luke grimaced, looking deeply into his nephew's eyes he said with a lifetime of regrets in his voice, "Ben, if I had trusted in the Force and let it guide me I'd have been there for you when you needed me. I'd have been able to help you fight the darkness that was rising inside of you. I wasn't there for you, I failed you…"

It was obvious to all three of them that Luke wanted to say more but he sighed and let it go with a shake of his head before glancing between the couple then around at the luxurious room.

"You have everything you need right here to live your lives, raise your growing family, and show them the galaxy that you helped shape." He paused to glance at each of them. "Trust the Force like you trust each other and it will continue to guide you to the ones you are meant to find."

"I didn't realize until after…" Luke's eyes were swimming in unshed tears, "that I couldn't build the future with my eyes on the past." He admitted dropping his head in shame. "I neglected my duties to you... to both of you."

Luke looked at Rey. "Consider this lesson number three." He told her.

"Instead of being there for you, nurturing and supporting you, I was too wrapped up in my own selfish desires. I made you feel like you weren't enough. That was my greatest failure, Ben." Luke said ragedly. "Learn from it." He pleaded. "These aren't just your students… they're your children - your family- be there for them and never put them second to anything."

Ben could do nothing but stare at his uncle as he quickly faded away.

"Mummy! Daddy!" Two excited little voices jerked Rey and Ben from the restless sleep they'd barely fallen into after hours of communing over Luke's visit.

Raven haired Ani launched herself at her father, who caught her in a gentle hand of Force energy with an indulgent smile. "There is a strange boy on the ship!" The little girl declared as Ben plucked her out of the air and settled her on the middle of the bed.

"It's true!" Ami puffed, climbing onto the foot of the bed and crawling up between her parents to sit next to her twin, "I saw him too!" She flopped down and smiled. "He has hair like mine."

"I saw him too!" Rey teased.

Both little girls gazed up at her in wonder. "You did?" Ami gasped. "Is he an angel?"

Ani supplied, "He looks like an angel from our stories... he's even got blue eyes!"

"Who came up with this theory?" Rey grinned at her daughters, then squinted at Ani. "I bet it was you."

Ani rolled her eyes and dutifully kissed her mum on the cheek. "He looks like an angel." She insisted.

"Well, he is a very nice boy." Rey climbed out of bed and helped them both to the floor. She ushered them out the door saying, "Who's probably as hungry as the rest of us! Go get dressed for breakfast."

"I'm so sorry, Cal." Rey said, ushering him along with the rest of her family towards the dining room. "Apparently Uncle Chewie let a certain set of twins we all know and love stay up past their bedtimes…" she squeezed her daughter's hands.

"It wasn't Chewie's fault, mummy." Ani said solemnly.

"No?" Rey asked, helping her little girl into her seat at the large dining table that they all clustered around one end of.

"No," she dropped her voice into a carrying whisper that only little kids can manage. "Ami gave him the eyes and I asked him sweetly with a hug around the neck and everything!"

An image of ravenhaired little Ani climbing onto Chewie's lap and wrapping her arms around his neck while sweetly requesting to stay up an extra hour flashed through Ben and Rey's thoughts.

"So, you ganged up on Chewie?" Ben failed terribly at hiding a grin.

Both girls nodded sadly. "We're sorry daddy!"

"Don't be mad at Chewie, ok?" Ami said, her teary, deep-brown eyes huge in her tiny elfin face.

Rey had to supress a grimace. Her fairhaired daughter had definitely inherited her father's penchant for drama, and his puppy-dog eyes. Poor Chewie hadn't stood a chance against such an assault of utter adorableness. "How could we be mad at somebody for loving you like we do?" Rey smiled and took her seat.

Ben introduced Cal Shay to his daughters and them to Cal.

"Be careful of these two," Rey warned. "And never underestimate a pair of pretty dark eyes, they're liable to talk you into anything."

Cal smiled, the sheer joy for living shared by the four Solos around him washed over him like a tidalwave, welcoming him even as it enveloped him. He'd never felt anything like it, none of his family had been Force sensitive, their natural energies a dim comparison to the brightly pulsing force signatures radiating from the people around him.

Cal had never felt so at home.

The realization twisted painfully at his heart and he dropped his fork on his plate and fled the dining area as quickly as his legs would carry him, sucumbing to tears before he'd even reached the corridor.

Ben and Rey shared a concerned thought, then excused themselves, admonishing their girls to behave. They caught up to him at the doorway to the room they had put him in the night before.

"Please, don't run away from your pain." Rey stroked the boy's hair gently. "It's a reflection of how much you care and that's not something to be ashamed of."

Cal turned, tears glistening on his pale cheeks. "I miss my family." He said in a tearclogged voice. "But I felt more at home just now than I ever did with them." He dashed at his eyes. "I can feel how you're feeling… all of you… it's… it's…" he gave up, helpless to finish the senetence.

"It's because we're like you." Ben said gently, stepping forward to clap Cal on one boney shoulder. "And you're like us..."