Chapter 5: Maybe You Are a Jedi

When they finally sat down, they both felt drained. Luke felt sorry that they had spent so much time looking at the carvings and was now a bit embarrassed that he had failed his one job – to make sure that she was ok.

"I'm sorry if I got a little distracted back there. You were standing the entire time and I should have made sure you were comfortable above anything else. I'll pay more attention from now on-"

"I'm fine, Luke, but thank you. You are already exceedingly considerate – please don't be sorry," she said softly.

Even with the battle being long-over, the Death Star holo was still illuminated on the center console before them.

"What a great and terrible creation. Man is capable of so much – imagine if that power had been used for good. Luke, what if you are right about the Force needing 'balance'…what if this was a sign that the universe is leaning toward too much darkness." Rue let out a sigh.

"I am so glad that I stole those plans, and the weird thing was that somehow, I just felt that I needed to. Maybe I'm just crazy, but one day I woke up, and had this overwhelming feeling that I needed to take action."

"I know what you mean. Sometimes I feel that way – it was like that when I took the shot to blow up this space-ball," said Luke with a gesture to the holo. "...I just felt that it was the right time..and it worked."

Maybe now was the right time to tell her something more about himself.

"You know, when we were escaping the Death Star, I saw Vader strike down my mentor, Obi-wan (or as I liked to call him) "old Ben" Kenobi – he was going to teach me, you know."

"Wait, what do you mean, teach you?" Rue shot him a puzzled look.

"Well…I wasn't going to say anything because I highly doubt that I have what it takes, but Ben was going to train me in the ways of the Force..."

Rue's jaw dropped a little bit at his words. Luke was a Jedi?!

"Haha, yes, my reaction exactly. He thought I had what it took to become a Jedi…like my father, and that is how I ended up here in the first place," said Luke, looking down as his boots in the darkened war room.

He continued on. "But I highly doubt that it's possible. Ben was the last of them, and now, well here I am!", said Luke with a sigh. "I hate to say it, but I'm really no one. I don't think I have the Force like he thought I did." said the hero as if he were confessing his darkest secret.

"And now, I'll never know."

Rue realized that it was his turn to talk, so she allowed him to continue on when he was ready.

Everything was beginning to sink in. Maybe he really was a Jedi…he did just seem to understand those ancient carvings, as though he were speaking the prophecy that no one else could read in the stone images.

If she were being perfectly honest with herself, she had never met anyone like Luke before. Usually, men were very guarded about their feelings, and very skeptical of a woman in "their" domain, but Luke was nothing like them, as if he were from a bygone era in which men were not afraid of their emotions or the strength of the women by their side. Perhaps she was hanging out with too many deck officers and one very commandeering Chiss Captain, but Rue was sure that she would never meet anyone like Luke again.

As she waited for him to speak again, she watched him as he closed his eyes, breathing deeply as he leaned back into the chair as if he were trying to calm his thoughts, which were surely spinning after interpreting the carvings for as long as they had been. He had not had much time to process all that had happened this past week, and it was coming at him in waves, she could tell.

Rue knew he would never see it in himself, but to Rue, he looked so beautiful, even in his profound sadness that he had otherwise concealed so well in her presence. His vulnerability and emotions were somehow lain bare as if she could somehow feel them as he now did – something she had never felt before from anyone; maybe it was because deep down, she felt the same emotions and saw them reflecting right back at her.

She was hurting too.

Rue closed her eyes. She then felt overwhelmed with the feeling that he needed to tell her about everything; about things that he had not even said; about things that had not even happened. Somehow this raw openness was more beautiful to her than any physical trait that he might already possess; his timeless grace made her think that somehow he'd always look this way to her: a beautiful man, even in old age.

In her mind, she imagined sitting close to him and telling him that it was going to be ok. They'd be ok.

For a few minutes or hours they just sat there. The only sound: the hum of the antiquated equipment cutting the silence; the blinking lights and radar holos the only light illuminating the darkness.

A low rumble woke Luke from the flood of emotions that had suddenly overtaken him. As he looked up at the enormous hangar bay doors that were now slowly opening hundreds of meters away, he realized that he had been silently crying.

The sunlight filtered into the room as the distant bay doors opened at a glacial pace, illuminating Luke with the beautiful golden glow of the early sunset over Yavin, almost as if the Force had wanted to reassure him that he was indeed someone, not just some poor kid growing old while watching the sun set on his happiness, as it always seemed to.

Rue did not even notice the rumble – probably because rumbles were the norm on a Star Destroyer – but she seemingly could not break away from the thoughts she was experiencing from Luke; for a surreal moment that seemed to last an eternity, she felt that nothing in the galaxy could make her break away…

…nothing except Luke's calm but intense blue-eyed gaze now staring back at her in a golden halo of light.

He did not hide his tear-streaked face from her. For some reason, he didn't care if she really saw him for who he was.

"Luke."

"I….I don't know what to say…" said Rue, calmly…strangely not at all embarrassed that he'd caught her in such an intense state of…what…meditation, was it?

"You aren't just 'no one'.

The light of the sunset continued to flood the room as she continued.

"I've never seen a Jedi in my life, but I can tell, somehow, that you will become one, perhaps the greatest. Somehow, I just know it. And even if you choose not to, you are a good man. You care about people. You care about….me….I'm 'no one' but yet here you are. "

Now she was crying.

Why was she crying?

What had just happened? Was it the meds?

She never allowed herself be seen crying, least of all by a high-ranking officer. Why was she beating herself up like this?

Luke stood up and drew her up into an embrace that she did not know she needed, bringing her into the warmth of his sunlight. A warmth that was almost healing.

They pulled apart when the room suddenly grew dark again; the sun had descended into quick darkness – or had hours passed once again?

"Rue," whispered Luke. "I…I'm sorry…I don't know what just happened, but it was…beautiful." He smiled a little. "I…somehow felt connected to your mind for a moment, I know that sounds….impossible."

She smiled at him – they were roughly the same height, which she really loved about him.

"I felt it too. Maybe that means you really are a Jedi, Luke."

He pulled her close once again, careful not to crush her injured body.

"I hope that I choose the right path," he said, weary yet hopeful. "I feel like I don't know what I'm doing."

"But," he continued, again remembering his earlier nervousness – " I do know that I want to ask you if you would do me the honor of attending the ceremony reception with me tomorrow…you don't have to, of course."

"Would you stop apologizing for yourself, Skywalker?", she teased. "I would love to. But, you will have to beg Leia to help me find some appropriate attire…unless this med-gown does something for you, farmboy…" she said with raised eyebrows and a smirk that made him laugh.

"Well, I hope you like my farm clothes because that's that fanciest stuff I own! I'm sure we'll figure something out. I don't think it's going to be a big deal or anything anyway, just a quick thank-you and get-together. We don't tend to over-do things around here, from what I gather."

For once in a long while, Luke finally felt a bit more at peace with himself. He was happy that someone understood what he was going through, even if that person was still almost a total stranger, and an Imperial, to boot.

"Come on, let's get you back to the med droids, they'll have my neck if you aren't hooked up to all your fancy machines pretty soon…and they could really have my neck if they wanted to…ever think about that?"

"Well, I will have you to thank for my nightmares tonight, thank you Commander Jedi," teased Rue. "Though, I don't think I will be having any bad dreams any time soon."

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Luke made sure that his friend was comfortably ready for bed, and offered to help her change her hand wrappings which he knew would be difficult for her to do alone.

"Ooh, I'm almost afraid to look. Oh Gods, I really don't know if you want to see it, it was horrible yesterday" groaned Rue.

"Well, the sooner we patch you up, the sooner it will get better, right?" reasoned Luke. Rue nodded.

Her right hand hurt. A lot. Much more than it had hours earlier. It had not only been sliced up and burned a bit in her struggle to free herself from the escape pod, it had also been crushed upon initial impact in Beggar's Canyon. Removing the bandages was bad enough…what would regaining proper strength feel like, if that were even possible?

She winced when she looked at her now-exposed hand. It had once been a nice hand, she thought…now it was three different colors. What did the rest of her look like? She almost felt faint…

Luke stopped what he was doing and waited until she looked up at him, and calmed down. He wasn't judging her, wasn't running away because she was maimed. She let out a sigh.

He gently and attentively finished wrapping her hand, and finally kissed it like a father kisses a child's boo-boo. It was incredibly sweet.

"All better?" said Luke, with a genuinely happy smile on his face.

They were sitting very close together now. In silence, Rue pulled him closer, and kissed him softly.

He could feel her smiling lips brush his like torturous feathers; lingering close he felt her whisper: "All better."

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I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for your comments and follows..it means a lot to me. This has been very fun to write, and I hope that if you like my story that you will share it with your fellow Star Wars pals. Thanks! :) May the Force be with you! hehe