The torture became worse and worse for weeks and Luke was beginning to wonder about contacting Vader and begging for help. Lord Vader surprised him by saving him the necessity of giving up his last scrap of dignity.
Vader walked into the boy's cell and stared at the tiny form on the floor. Luke's health had clearly taken a beating in the last few months. He was thin, pasty, bruised, and bloodied. Part of Vader told him to go to the boy, but he knew that if he did the child might be scared. Instead he sat down at the door of the boy's cell and waited for Luke to come to him.
Luke looked over his shoulder and stared at his captor. He was terrified of Vader but at least the man wasn't pressuring him to come to him this time. He was also glad that Vader had respected his pride enough not to lure him with food. Vader just sat quietly by the closed and locked door.
Vader watched the young rebel squirming in terror. He didn't want the poor child to be frightened, but the only way he could think of to stop the child's panic was to leave and then his men would torture the boy again. Deciding that scaring Luke with his presence was an improvement on letting him be tortured, Vader stayed.
Luke moved to see the man whose mechanical breathing permeated the small cell. In doing so he accidently reopened a small would on his thigh. Freezing in an attempt to stop the excruciating pain he saw Vader move as though he was about to come over to him.
The man stopped mid-motion and sat back down. Luke tore off part of his sleeve in his teeth and carefully held it to his wound. Despite the pain in his leg he was glad to have better view of Vader.
The two sat, or lay, in Luke's case, staring at each other for an hour before Vader stood and left the cell.
The next day Vader arrived in Luke's cell at the same time. Again there were a couple of silent hours with the two of them sitting at opposite ends of the cell. Again there were a few minutes when Luke half considered crawling to Vader and slipping under his arm. He never did.
This continued for all most a full month before one day, after a particularly bad day, Luke dragged himself to Vader's side.