Zach woke with a rattle of his head and looked around like he'd been sedated against his will, but he didn't complain. He seemed to be in a calmer mood as they returned to town. Luke drove them off base to drop Zach off back at his hotel and Zach hopped out of the back Canali 250 like he had springs on his feet.

But he stopped short and turned back to slap a hand on Kess's door. He ducked under the cover to look at Luke. "Tomorrow?"

Luke smiled from ear to ear, and he nodded. "I'll comm you in the morning."

Zach slapped his palm on the door with that decision and turned to trot up to the building.

As they drove away again, Kess poked. "You're not make him run the grinder? Get up at oh-dark-hundred and—

"Not yet," Luke laughed lightly. "That man is an entirely different project."

Kess pouted like a little kid. "It's not fair."

Luke mocked her pout, grinned, and let it go. Then he said sneaky, "but I'm going to."

She glanced over. Was that an invitation? A hint? Just a thought spoken aloud? Kess opted to handle this without trying to get more information by Jedi skill. She watched South Base slide by for a moment and said, "Me too."

His Force Print bubbled, and his voice was smugly quiet. "Good."

As they drove back on base, Kess looked longingly out the window. She focused on the buildings she'd been to, and the buildings she hadn't. There was Admin. There was med lab. There was the distant stretch of towering Pad Complexes. And there was the grinder, complete with abandoned bleachers and nearby picnic benches with built-in barbecue grills. It was just a base, just a posting. But this place had grown to feel like home.

And now they were about to leave it.

"I resigned my commission this morning," she said, still staring out the window.

Luke cruised down the block and pulled into the parking lot behind his barracks. "I know." His tone was consoling.

He parked and they both got out. Usually after a clearing visit, she'd just walk back to her own barracks from here, if he hadn't already dropped her off closer.

"I didn't want to," she confessed, still standing beside the speeder.

Luke had already taken several steps, but now he stopped, and he looked back. He gave her a sympathetic nod. "I know."

Kess swallowed hard. How was it that she was more terrified of the future now than when all that was happening? She rubbed her lips and sighed fast, but the reality weighed down her lungs.

He motioned her along. "Come up."

She moved her feet but was already shaking her head, "You've got a roommate—

"Come up."

It wasn't an invitation to stay the night. It was just a chance to have a moment alone for a friend to support a friend during this scary moment in life. Kess followed stiffly and followed him into that same old familiar apartment.

But now it felt crowded. The Jedi records and the terminal were in crates and burying the tiny dining table. Werdun was sitting in the chair with his beady Bothan eyes staring at the vid. Artoo was still dead as a doornail in the corner with his box of brains on the kitchenette counter nearby. The place was a cluttered disaster compared to what it was before. It felt like the difference between Coruscant and the clearing.

Kess stood in the middle of the floor trying to catch up with all these changes, but Luke seemed to take it in stride. He gave Werdun a passive greeting and motioned Kess with him into his bedroom. She knew sex wasn't on his mind. This was common barracks practice for having private conversations, but it still felt suggestive. She shuffled through the door and stood at the foot of the bed, staring at the neatly made black bedspread and tried to figure out what to do next.

About everything.

Luke stepped around to the table and set his lightsaber and comlink away, but then he came back to her, standing close by her side, gently unlatched hers with significance of statement.

She met his eyes in a glance just as he turned away with it, so she unlatched the outer belt of her tunic so she could drop the whole thing to the floor. But that's all she took off. She fell back on the bed like a falling slab of stone and stared up at the ceiling.

Luke slowly sat down beside her head. His knee shifted onto the bed so he could half-turn towards her, and dropped his elbow on his knee. He looked at his lap and waited with silent support.

"How did you do it?"

His face almost lifted. "Do what?"

She rolled to her side and propped her head up with her palm. "When you found out who your father was?"

His mouth fidgeted in thought.

"How did you . . . get back to work? How did you conquer everything after that?" She fidgeted with a loose lock of hair behind her ear and finally dropped her ear to her inner elbow with a painful grimace. "He lied to me."

Luke stretched a sympathetic grin. His voice was gentle, "Only from a certain point of view."

She found his gaze, remembering again that Luke knew her grandfather nearly as well as she did. Maybe more. But for as much as that man was in their lives growing up, there was so very little they knew about Obi Wan Kenobi. He may have had his reasons to keep secrets when he was alive, and they granted him that, but now that he was gone . . . and yet still could communicate? Kess felt the man had no more excuses to not to untwist certain questions of history.

Nikolai Lendra's DNA came up positive, confirmed to be a direct offspring of Obi Wan Kenobi. No one wasted time fretting about the Empire's lie that it was Obi Wan Kenobi to become Darth Vader. Those that knew better chocked it up to the truth that the Empire couldn't get their hands on a Skywalker offspring they could manipulate. But now the Empire had Kess's brother, and they dressed him up in robes and a helmet, and they gave him a Sith title, and the Empire was (supposedly) secure once more—even though 'Darth Tovecus' not yet done one damn thing. The only thing that kept Kess calm was the promise that, as the new Emperor, Nik was physically safe in his golden chains.

It killed her to leave him behind when the Plan Cresh mission was over. As the Falcon was fighting its way off the planet, Luke helped Kess through an exercise to try to send her thoughts to her brother. Untrained and probably drugged, they had no idea if Nik could hear her in his mind, but Kess remained hard focused to send consoling thoughts nonstop until they hit hyperspace.

The entire trip home, Luke focused on providing as much emotional support as he could muster. Every day he was by her side or granted her meditation privacy whenever she seemed to want either. And every night he held her close and calm as if his body served as a blanket of safety and strength so she could rest.

Over all, she was holding it together pretty well, but she still swelled with moments of desperate worry . . . like now.

Luke rubbed her nearby forearm. "We'll get him back."

"But what will he be when we get him back?" Her challenge was shaky.

He pressed his mouth, "If we can bring Zach back—

"That's different!"

"I know, but still." Then he pointed out, "I got my father back."

Kess stared at his eyes. It was hard to believe, but there was no lie in it. And Luke wasn't the kind of person to hide behind 'certain points of view'.

"Anybody can turn," he said, "which means anybody can turn back." He rubbed her forearm again. "We'll get him back."

Kess nodded, unconvinced.

Luke waited a long time to let that rest, to let her say more, but she closed her eyes and calmed herself from the entire topic.

"So let me answer your question," he lowered slowly to his side and propped his head in his palm too. He half-curled around her the same way she half-curled around him, him in black and her in bone white, facing each other like a yin yang on the bed. "I didn't get back to work."

Kess shifted her head in her hand, squinting.

Luke thought into his memory and worked to put it into words. "I didn't jump out and conquer anything after that. In fact, the first thing I did was retreat."

She listened.

Luke met her eyes. "The first thing I did was try to eat. And try to rest." He rubbed his lips. "Went to med lab and got a new hand." He wiggled his fake fingers from his hip.

She softened, smiling sadly.

"And I panicked a little," he admitted. "And I mourned and . . . I stomped and . . . I yelled . . . and finally decided to just take one thing at a time. The first order of business was obvious, and it helped get my focus back when I sat down and built a new lightsaber."

"A new one?"

"Well, yeah." He smiled big. "My old one is um . . . somewhere . . . with my hand."

Kess fought the laughter and dropped her face to the bed to hide it, but he was chuckling too.

She pushed back up and wiped her eye. "I'm sorry. I know it's not funny."

"I can laugh about it now," he said. "I sure couldn't at the time."

Her mouth stretched supportively. "Well," she sighed anew, "thankfully, I don't have to build a new lightsaber."

"Or get a new hand," he sniggered.

She giggled tightly, trying not to, but Luke was just trying to break the tension, and it worked. She came back to the topic a little less overwhelmed. "What do you think I should do first?"

His gaze fell away as if trying to look at his own nose. He considered this with a tight sigh, and adjusted his head in his palm to meet her gaze again, but with less humor. "Depends on who you're asking."

To this, she sobered, but she faced it. "Does my Master have different advice than my friend?"

His chin nodded, barely, but a couple of times.

"Can't I ask them both?"

He angled his head. He hadn't thought of that. And he nodded, "Which one you want first?"

Her grin grew, "The one I'm going to like the least."

"Okay." He shifted himself face down on the bed, propping his chest up with his elbows. His eyes flicked to the air to figure out his wording, then looked at her firmly. "Stop worrying about your brother until you can do something about it. And go train your nephew."

Her mouth twisted to the side. She met his gaze a long time, and finally huffed that off. "And the other one?"

"Retreat." He said it softly. "Allow yourself a moment of panic. Take a few days to sort out the business of living that's got you so worked up." His eyes were sincere, "You don't have to have a whole mission plan before getting started on the obvious stuff."

Somehow, that let her breathe. She sighed big and hard as if she'd been holding it in for a long time. To hear him say that, even though it wasn't packaged in the form of a Master's permission, still felt like a huge relief. "Dammit, I just meditated for an hour!" She scolded herself and wiped her eyes again. "Why is this roaring back so fast?"

"Because you haven't resolved any of it," he smiled the obvious.

"Okay. Okay." Kess took another deep sigh aimed at the bedspread and stared at the blackness of it. "Okay. I don't have a job."

His face brightened, his mouth opened—

"And don't throw that Rogue Group thing at me. I resigned my commission so I can't work for Wedge either."

He snapped his mouth shut, but the grin was still there. He pinched his eyes closed, but one pinched more than the other.

"What?" She leaned forward until her body was against the edge of the table. "What? It's not like you've got a job either!"

"Well, not that it's a permanent solution, but you don't need one of those anyway—

"What?"

He inhaled slowly and met her eyes mischievously. "I happen to know someone who could really use a skilled hand getting his ship back in shape so it doesn't break on every blasted mission."

Kess angled her head and shook it. "I would never approach him for something like that."

"What if he approached you?"

"Does he need me?" She challenged.

"I think he does," Luke said. "Leia certainly does or she wouldn't have sent you with us last time."

"But I'm not going to push it on him unless he thinks he does. You know how much he hates letting new people work on the Falcon."

"That's why you're perfect for it," his voice almost whined. "You've already been through the Han Solo boot camp."

"What about Chewie?"

"I think his invitation was clear enough when he started teaching you how to understand Wookiee."

She thought about this a minute. "I'm glad to do it if he asks me. But I'm not going to walk up to Han Solo and tell him he needs help. For one, he wouldn't respond to that well—

Luke opened his mouth and rolled his head in a silent groan.

—and for two, I respect the man too much to insult him like that."

He hiked into a real whine now. "Have you considered the fact that the only reason he hasn't thought of this himself is because he thinks your Jedi Master had dibs on you the moment you quit your commission?"

Kess cocked her jaw. He had a good point.

"Like I said, it's temporary anyway. But it's short work with a little income so you can keep your own ship in the air. And for me, personally, I like our odds better if he had you spending every waking hour on that thing until we launch for Coruscant."

"I'll think about it." She granted him appreciation. "It is a good idea."

Luke nodded succinctly. He watched her eyes float around the a little, and not entirely confident. "What else?"

Kess didn't even want to talk about this one, but she knew she had to get this thorn out of her brain if she was going to get anything else done. "I gotta go see Dad."

Luke blinked. "You've haven't seen him yet?"

They'd been back for a day and a half. By now, the man would have heard it on the street, if not in the Newsnets, that Luke and Kess were back on Yavin 4.

She shook her head. Kess tried to make it not sound like an accusation, but it did anyway. "Leia said that he received a 'Regret To Inform You' letter, but that no one sent him a follow up letter that it was mistake."

His eyes closed with incredible regret.

"I guess he found out I was still alive by some Newsnet thing on Tatooine."

"I forgot." He dropped back onto the bed and put his palms over his face. "I am so sorry, I forgot." But then he squinted at her. Not accusing; just surprised. "You didn't comm him from Med Lab?"

She squeaked back, "I didn't know you sent him a letter!" But she was laughing about it. This was a simple misunderstanding. She understood that. And fair enough that Luke was too distracted with her in recovery to have a moment to think about her father. But now they had to deal with the fall out of it.

"Will you come with me?" She asked, instantly concerned if this 'face the in-laws' kind of moment was too soon for them.

But Luke lifted his brows with ease, "Well, yeah, I have to. I owe him an apology." He lifted back onto his elbow and met her eyes.

"You don't have to do that while I'm there though," she stuttered.

He shrugged a hand from his hip. "You just asked me to come with you. And now you're trying to talk me out of it?"

"Well, just . . . that . . . it was the Jedi Master that made the mistake. Not the . . . um. . . ." She swallowed hard and looked at him shyly. What should she call him now?

Luke saw her eyes, and his grew to a mad sparkle. "Boyfriend, suitor, mate. Whichever term you prefer."

She flushed, but she kept it together and tried to word it any other way before she gave up and just blurted it, "Are you ready to face the potential in-laws with that though?"

He nodded. A lot. "I think I'm late for that actually."

"How do you figure?" They'd only been 'official' for three weeks.

He shrugged the obvious. "You've already been through enough with my family."

She warned, "You know you're the worst possible person I could bring home, right?"

Luke flashed a new laugh. "Oh, he made that pretty clear when I met him on Tatooine."

Nervous, she dropped her gaze to the bedspread again.

"Why are you trying to talk me out of it?" He asked with a gentle grin.

"I'm not. I'm just . . ." She faced him with the truth. "This thing with us is still so new. And all that before . . . you were so. . . . "

He gave her a moment to finish, but she didn't.

"Trapped." He said for her.

She glanced up.

"I was trapped in the ethics of it. But now . . . now I've got a hell of a learning curve ahead of me. I've got a lot to make up for. A lot of habits to change. . . . Now I've got to earn it."

She shook her head, "I don't want you thinking of it like that."

"I know but remember what I said before," he rolled onto his elbows again to bring his face a little closer. "I don't want just a piece. I don't want just a moment. And these last few weeks, I can see how it seems that way. Especially on the outside. Everyone assumes we're together now, but nobody really knows it. And I know that you want people to know it."

Kess absorbed his words like a clam breathing at the return of high tide.

He looked her in the eyes and said it in all seriousness. "I love you."

A smile spread across her face.

And he shrugged. "Just give me some time to figure out how to show that. To you and the rest of the galaxy." He smiled again. "Remember I'm new at this."

Kess scrambled over the last bit and curled into his arms. Her face smashed so hard into his shoulder that her words were practically inaudible. "I love you too."

Luke held her close and tight and he sighed with just as much warm relief as she did.

It felt like a weight had been lifted from her chest. She still had Nik to worry about, but having solved some of these other uncertainties helped a lot. She settled back, not entirely pulling away from him. They rested side by side upside down on the bed, both heads propped up in palms so they could look at each other.

For a long beautiful minute, they just stared into each other's eyes.

Now that she was calmer, Kess could sense him better. Even if the expression wasn't already clear on his face, she detected it when an idea blossomed in Luke's brain.

She adjusted her head on her palm. "What did you really bring me in here to talk about?"

"What do you mean?" He cringed at it like it was ridiculous, but the shine in his bashful eyes were bright when he yanked them away. "I brought you in here because you needed support."

She tried to shove him, but he was already rolling onto his back with a little laugh. He propped a boot on a pillow with his knee in the air and rested his hands behind his head, relaxing back in the bed like he was about to start daydreaming.

But Kess wasn't going to let him get out of it. "Bantha fodder," she sat up to harass him. "I didn't even need the Force to see that guilt."

"No, really." To this, he was sincere. "You were low and I wanted to help get you back up. That's all."

Sitting beside him and leaning over his torso, she studied his face. He met her eyes, calm and cool, for a long beat, but then they shined again and a big, guilty, smile invaded his face.

"You're lying."

"Yes, I am." He admitted, grinning bigger.

"You gonna tell me?"

He licked his lips, and sobered a little. "Not yet." But the shine never faded.

Kess angled her head.

"Soon." He promised, almost a whisper. "But not yet."

Kess draped her elbow across his body and rested her head in her hand. She let him get away with that one only because she liked the feeling he was emitting, so she enjoyed this moment for all it was worth.

Luke looked over her whole face, and reached up to touch a strand away from her forehead. Then he found her eyes and pushed himself up onto one elbow, landing a smooch on her mouth. "Stay the night?"

She dropped her eyes with a sigh, "I'm not really—

"That's not what I asked you," he pointed out.

She found his eyes again and he smiled softly about it. He whispered, "Stay the night."

Kess stayed the night, but they didn't fool around, just like on the trip back from Coruscant. Mostly, she just meditated in his arms, which was a different kind of meditation that doing it alone. And Luke held her close and strong so she could.