Chapter 2: Talks with Mom and Dad

A tear trickled down Beru's cheek as she entered her home. As she walked down the hallway to go to her room, a couple more tears followed the first, and she wiped them on her sleeve.

"Beru, honey, what's wrong?" Her father had just come out of the kitchen to see her crying.

"I-I don't want to talk about it right now, dad." She bit her lip to keep from crying and rushed to the room she shared with her younger sister, Dama. With the door shut behind her, she fell on her bed and wept into her pillow.

"Owen Lars, what have you done to my daughter?" Tam Whitesun bellowed as he marched purposefully toward the landspeeder.

Owen closed his eyes wearily and moaned as he leaned his head back against the driver's seat.

"And what in the twin suns happened to you?" The older man exclaimed when he caught sight of Owen's battered face. Not only was his nose noticeably swollen with dried blood on his upper lip, but also his left eye was nearly swollen shut by a nasty looking, black-and-blue bruise.

"A brawl broke out at The Last Oasis, sir." He decided to answer the last question first, hoping the other man would drop the first query.

"How's the other guy look?"

"Ugly." He conveniently left out the fact that his opponent was just as revolting before the scuffle as after.

Tam harrumphed with a slight grin. "You aren't the picture of beauty yourself."

Owen chuckled as he agreed and inwardly sighed with relief. Perhaps I'm off the hook for now.

"What happened?" Tam's voice was serious now as he held the younger man's gaze. "Why is Beru so upset?"

Owen looked down at the steering wheel as he mumbled. "We sort of had an argument, sir."

"What was this sort of argument about?"

"With all due respect, sir," Owen looked up at Tam, "it's none of your business." He did not wish to explain about how Beru had danced with just about every man in the bar or how jealous it made him.

Tam's already white hair seemed to get even whiter as his face flushed a bright crimson. He quickly opened the driver's side door. His voice was dangerously quiet as he ordered, "Get out."

Owen swallowed nervously and hastily obeyed, wincing slightly as pain shot through his ribs and right knee. The hour spent driving gave the tissue around both to swell.

He barely got out of the vehicle when Tam stepped closer to him, their noses just inches apart. His eyes bored into the younger man's eyes. "I can appreciate the fact that you may wish to keep whatever disagreement between you and Beru private," his voice was still quiet with a sharp edge, "but when my baby girl comes home in tears, it becomes my business! Do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir," Owen swallowed nervously, but did not break eye contact. Though he had a good fifty pounds on Tam, he would rather tangle with the huge brute back at The Last Oasis again than face Beru's father like this. Nevertheless, he continued, "I understand, but I would like a chance to work things out with your daughter. If you still want to know after Beru and I have spoken, and if she wants me to reveal what has made her upset, then I will."

Tam studied Owen with eyes narrowed. After what seemed an eternity to Owen, Tam nodded with a grunt as he backed off.

"Fair enough." He clapped the younger man on the shoulder. "You're a good man, Owen. Come in now, and let's put a steak on that eye. Then you can talk to Beru."

"Thank you, sir."

"And stop calling me sir," the older man exclaimed laughingly as they walked inside. "It makes me feel old. Please, call me Tam."

"Yes…" Owen stopped himself as he was about to say 'sir' again. "Yes… Tam." He finished awkwardly.

Meanwhile...

It was not too long before she heard a light knock on the door. She sat up and wiped her eyes, taking a couple deep breaths in an attempt to compose herself before shakily calling, "Come in."

Tulii Whitesun came into the room and quietly came to sit on the bed beside her daughter. She put an arm around the younger woman's shoulders and squeezed gently as Beru laid her head on her shoulder. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"Don't call me that!" Beru blurted as she abruptly rose from the bed. "I'm anything but sweet!" She folded her arms in front of her as she stood looking down at her mother before wailing, "I'm mean and wicked, and now he hates me!" New tears streamed down her face as she sniffled uncontrollably.

Tulii said nothing, but rose and put her arms around her daughter, pulling her into a loving maternal embrace. She held Beru until the young lady's breathing calmed. Then she pulled away enough to look into her daughter's eyes. "Tell me what happened."

Beru sighed shakily and sat back down on the side of her bed. As her mother sat across from her on Dama's bed, she began. "Well, when Coolie and I arrived at The Last Oasis, I was really happy to see my date turned out to be none other than Owen Lars!" She paused, and then frowned when her mother did not seem to be in the least bit surprised at the news of who turned out to be her blind date. "You knew, didn't you?"

"Coolie told me." Tulii smiled slightly then encouraged Beru. "Go on, what happened after that?"

"Well, we all sat at our table and after eating a little, Mik and Coolie got up to dance." She giggled a little in spite of herself as she remembered how outrageously Mik twirled Coolie around. "You know how Mik is… Owen and I both were laughing at how they were dancing, but, when I looked over at him, he turned away as he always does. I was hoping he would ask me to dance, but he didn't show any interest. I… I don't think he even likes me that much."

"Honey, I've seen how he looks at you. He definitely likes you."

"Then why did he just shrug and let Daral take me out on the dance floor?"

"Daral asked you to dance?"

"Yeah, he came over, and asked Owen if he minded, and Owen just shrugged and told us to go ahead. He didn't even care!" Beru's voice rose in indignation. "So I danced with Daral and… well, others cut in and I danced with them. I was hoping to make Owen jealous enough to come and cut in himself, but he never did… but this one man… I never saw him before, but he was ihuge/i… he cut in and," she gulped, "well, he was drunk, and he became too… friendly… and before I knew it, he and Owen were fighting and then almost everyone else was too!"

"Oh, my!"

"Yeah, and then afterwards, when we all got out of there, Owen's nose was bleeding, and when I tried to use my scarf to wipe some of the blood, he pulled away from me… I felt so bad because he was hurt coming to my defense… even after I acted like a complete slut and danced with every guy in the bar."

"Honey, you are not a slut! You were just dancing!"

"But I should have stayed with Owen. I was his date, after all. Anyway, I tried to apologize to him for my behavior, and he all but accused me of being a slut."

"He called you a slut?" Tulii gasped unbelieving.

"No, but, he…" she paused and shook her head. "No, he just accused me of doing what I did… dancing with everyone and leaving him by himself at the table." She blushed. "Oh, mom, it's all my fault! I only wanted to dance with Owen, but now we argued and I hurt his feelings and he hates me!"

"I doubt he hates you, honey." Tulii assured her daughter as she came over to sit next to her and put her arms around her once more. "He may be upset, but this was all just a stupid misunderstanding, I'm sure. You should talk to him. Tell him how you feel."

"B-b-but what if he doesn't feel the same way?"

"Then you'll hurt for awhile, but you don't know until you bring it out into the open. Trust me though he feels the same way. I guarantee it." Tulii smiled then. "Go talk to him before your father gets a hold of him.

Beru's eyes widened as she remembered how her father had set Mik straight when he first started dating Coolie.

"Yes," her mother continued, "he's outside now, talking to Owen… at least, I think he's talking."

Tulii barely finished speaking when an alarmed Beru sprang from her bed and rushed out of the room. With a chuckle, the Whitesun matron rose and followed her daughter at a less urgent pace.