Disclaimer: Still not mine, but if George Lucas or Disney want to give Star Wars to me, I will gladly take it.

Hands: ESB

His hand was gone.

As soon as she hugged him, as soon as his arms went around her, she knew it. The cold knowledge settled in the center of her belly. The pressure of one hand pressed her to him, but the other hand was gone. Its absence screamed in her head as loud as the hiss of the carbon freeze that took Han away.

"Oh, Leia," Luke breathed. He stank of sweat and scorched flesh, of blood and tears. He smelled like a man beaten. She moved to put her arm around him, to support him, carry the weight on his shoulders for a brief moment. She only wished he could hand it to her.

Luke leaned against her, each step proved how much of his strength he'd lost with his hand. Each step brought more and more of his weight upon her. He didn't weigh a lot, but her own resources were strapped. He understood this and righted himself halfway to the med center but soon his weight returned. They barely made it to the bed in the sickbay and she gently pushed him in its direction.

Luke sat at first and closed his eyes. There were a few welts visible on his face. His sweat soaked hair stuck to his forehead and she pushed it away. The light touch of her fingers overwhelmed him and he slid down on the bed, giving way to his exhaustion. "Vader," he whispered. "Vader – not true…Leia!" She covered him with a blanket, recognizing he was in shock.

Leia placed the tourniquet over the end of his wrist, where his hand should have been. The ship rocked and she put bacta on a swab to take care of the welts.

Half aware of his surroundings, Luke watched Leia's hand approach his face. He could see the lines of her palm, her short, clean fingernails and watched it morph into his own disembodied hand, reaching for him.

Come with me.

His hand became Vader's gloved hand and it touched his face.

But the touch didn't hurt, instead it soothed, and he thought he heard someone say, "Luke…oh, Luke…"

He tried to say something, but his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, his lips moved uncertainly – he didn't even know what word he wanted to say.

Then he felt something touch his face and knew he heard, "I'll be back."

He wanted to reach out for whoever was there – Leia? Aunt Beru? Someone…someone unknown? – but he couldn't move his hand, couldn't find it.

"Luke." At his name, he surfaced and things became clear. No one was there. Leia must have helped him to the bed, he reasoned, she had covered him with the blanket and applied the tourniquet. Luke pushed the blanket off and walked out to find Leia. If he had to face that gloved hand that took his own, he at least wanted to give Leia's hand as strong of a reassuring squeeze as he could muster.

Leia watched as the Falcon with Lando and Chewie disappeared into hyperspace. She felt Luke's approach and heard 21B return his tools to their proper locations. She looked at Luke, healed physically but the pain in his eyes told her he still had a long way to go. He looked into her eyes and said nothing. He gave her no platitudes for her sorrow. They had both experienced great loss when they'd first met, they knew there were no words that could assuage the pain. Neither of them even wanted words, they wanted something more.

Luke put his arm around her, his new mechanical hand gently holding her shoulder. She had let him use her as support, now he offered it to her. Leia didn't resist the gentle pull and she leaned against his side.

They had each other. They were home.