Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed my stories. It always feels good to know that people are actually reading my stuff!


Luke was standing on the scale in Dr. Kenobi's office being weighed. It was one of those old-fashioned scales where the doctor had to balance large weights to try and measure the weight of the patient; Luke still didn't know how to read it.

"One hundred and twelve pounds," Dr. Kenobi frowned.

Luke looked down at his feet, ashamed. "I just have no appetite," he mumbled.

"Well, I'm sure your aunt and uncle are feeding you well," Dr. Kenobi replied kindly as he walked Luke back to the examining room. He lived in the house next door to the Skywalkers in Tattooine, and was Luke and Leia's primary medical caregiver.

Luke nodded. "I just can't eat."

"Do you feel sick as soon as you begin to eat, or can't you even get to that point?"

"I feel sick as soon as I look at the plate."

Dr. Kenobi opened the door to the examining room and motioned for Luke to sit down in the chair next to the counter. Aunt Beru was there as well, flipping through a magazine.

"Luke is underweight, but we're not quite in danger yet," Dr. Kenobi advised Luke's aunt. "I'm not about to prescribe medication to get him to put on weight, because for a growing teenager, that can be extremely dangerous."

Beru nodded and wrapped an arm around Luke. "Is it just a phase he's going through? Is it a side effect of his medication?"

"It may be either," Dr. Kenobi admitted. "Mrs. Lars, I want you to give Luke a daily multivitamin, so that he can get some nutrients. I also want you to continue to make Luke full meals for the next couple of days. Luke, maybe you can drink a dose of Pepto-Bismol before you eat. If there's no change in appetite within a week, you need to call me."

Aunt Beru nodded. She picked up Luke's hand and squeezed it. "We'll get you better, Luke," she whispered. "Just hang in there."

Luke nodded miserably and squeezed her hand back.


Dear Owen and Beru,

I don't think this is going to work out.

I love my goddaughter dearly, but there's no way that Leia and Luke can live apart. Leia seemed okay until my wife and I brought up school; she can't fathom going to a new school without her brother and her friends. She's sick with worry for her brother. She needs to be around her family.

I know that you are struggling financially, and that Breha and I have money. I propose a solution: how about we deliver Leia to you, along with a child support payment of $5000 a month?

I know it may seem selfish of Breha and I to give Leia up, but I think it will be better for Leia to live with her brother. Luke may even recover faster having his sister by his side. I know that they're going to have to be separated sometime, but not with Luke sick like this.

Please give me a call so that we can discuss this.

Thanks,

Sen. Bail Organa

Nevada State Legislature


Beru started to make Luke's favorite foods, just to persuade him to eat. That evening, she allowed him to have a bowl of Sugar-Frosted Intergalactic Space-O's, his favorite breakfast cereal. Luke surprised her by actually finishing half a bowl.

After a couple of hours of television, Beru tucked her nephew in, giving him a glass of water and his sleeping pills. "Don't forget your little sleeping buddy," she smiled as Luke swallowed a gulp of water.

Luke usually slept with a stuffed baby polar bear, a present that his parents had bought him on a vacation to Northern Canada when he was a toddler. When Luke was packing to go live at his relatives' house, he decided to leave the polar bear at home...thinking of the Skywalkers as one big happy family was just too painful.

Later, in the hospital, Mr. and Mrs. Organa had come to visit. As a gift, they had brought him a stuffed Tauntaun, a gray creature that looked like a cross between a kangaroo and a walrus, along with a couple of comic books from a series that Luke had never heard of before: The Adventures of Timmy the Tauntaun.

Timmy the Tauntaun lived on the planet Hoth, which was many light years away. He rescued human explorers from the evil Wampa, an overgrown polar-bear type creature with big scary teeth. Tauntauns didn't smell very nice, so whenever Timmy got near the Wampa, the Wampa caved in and gave Timmy anything he wanted (if it was a good day), or tried to destroy Timmy (if it was a bad day.)

Luke didn't know how Mr. and Mrs. Organa had heard of Timmy the Tauntaun, but he had to admit that he liked the series, and that the stuffed Tauntaun was comforting. He'd slept with it every night since he'd received it.

"It's time to say goodnight to my little nephew," Owen smiled as he entered Luke's room. He kissed Luke goodnight as Luke squeezed his little Tauntaun.

Owen and Beru bid their nephew goodnight and turned out his lamp. Luke snuggled in his bed and squeezed his tauntaun. In the comic books, Timmy spent nights huddled in a cave with his stinky tauntaun buddies. Sometimes, they cuddled around some lost humans, to keep them warm during the frozen nights on planet Hoth.

Sleeping with a stuffed tauntaun kept Luke warm, and not just in the physical sense. He was reminded of the people who loved him.


"Beru, did you read Bail Organa's e-mail?" Luke's aunt and uncle were snuggling into bed themselves.

"Yeah, I checked my e-mail when you and Luke were watching American Ninja Warriors." Beru took a sip of her iced tea.

"What did you make of it?" Owen turned on the fan in the window and lay beneath a cool sheet.

"I think he's right, Owen, that having Leia here is going to help both of them." Beru paused and set her glass of iced tea on the nightstand. "But I'm not about to accept that much charity. Five thousand dollars a month?"

"To them, I'm sure that's the cost of raising a child."

"Well, we certainly can't take them both in on what we have now," Beru reasoned aloud as she reached to turn the light off. "But all they need is food, clothing, school supplies, and maybe some pocket money. That should be a couple hundred a month, if that. Leia would need her own room if she's going to live here permanently, but we can do that. We'll go to Anakin's house and load Leia's bedroom furniture into your truck. She can live in my sewing room."

"And it would be better for them to live in this area and attend their old school," Owen sighed in the dark. "There's no way around it, Beru. If we take Leia in, we'll need some extra money."

"How about we have Bail over and discuss it one of these days? He has that chartered plane of his, I'm sure he can take a weekend afternoon off and come visit."

Owen shrugged. "I'll write to him tomorrow."


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