Reunion

Rey takes Luke down the steps to meet some old friends.

They were beginning to talk a little more easily. She'd been telling him about her scavenging and how it had taught her such an intimate understanding of the workings of spacecraft. This had kept her alive and given her an interest in space travel and technology, which had got her and Finn off Jakku and had bonded her with Han. Luke gave her free rein to talk: he was delighted by her enthusiasm and proud of her resilience. How had she found such satisfaction and drive to learn from such a menial existence?

The pace of her talk slowed as she became aware of how hungry she was. "I can't remember when I last ate!" She exclaimed. "I'd better go back to the ship and get some food. Erm, what about you?"

"I'm not very hungry, but yes, we should eat." He replied. He went to a cupboard in the corner and began rummaging through it. He had a measure of pride and wanted to do something nice for her. In addition, he felt protective and didn't want to see her walking all that way down to her ship. He was reluctant to let her out of his sight after fifteen years apart. "You don't have to go back down there. I have food. Hold on; I've got some cheese."

"Where did you get cheese?" She asked in disbelief.

"I have my suppliers," he said, the twinkle back in his eyes.

"I thought you just ate grass," she said with a half-smile.

"Grass?" He shot her a glance over his shoulder and she burst into peals of laughter. He smiled at her.

"Serves you right for calling me a crone!" She giggled. He huffed and ground his teeth. Grass? What a comedian! He had a good feeling about this.

They settled for cheese, apples and some of his home-cooked flatbread, while he explained what had happened to his ship and how he had gained a regular supply of essentials. That made her feel better, knowing that the choice to leave, to continue the fight, to come looking for her, had been lost to him for many years.

After they'd eaten, she realised that she'd been up here for hours and felt a pang of guilt about the two she'd left down at the bottom of the steps with the Falcon. "Do you feel like going down the steps? I'd like to show you my ship," Rey smiled, wanting to surprise him with his two old friends.

"O-kay. I think. But you'll have to be patient. I only go down there every few weeks when my suppliers call. You'll be quicker than me."

Half way down the seemingly endless stone steps, Luke caught sight of the Millennium Falcon on the rocks at the bottom. He stopped, hands on hips, catching his breath, with a faraway look of sadness mixed with warm, vibrant memories. "Now I understand," he said, catching his breath. "I knew that engine when I heard it this morning. You came here in the Falcon. My life is catching up with me today."

Standing a few steps further down, Rey looked up at him. She walked back up the steps between them and put her hand on his arm, smiling at him so gleefully that he began to worry. "Come on!" She said. "I've got a surprise for you!"

It was hard waiting for him, though she was trying her best to be patient. She was so excited about seeing his reaction to Chewie and Artoo. Another couple of hundred steps down and they both heard a high-pitched arpeggio. Luke sucked in a surprised breath. "Come on!" Rey called excitedly, dancing down the last few steps.

Artoo came trundling down the Falcon's boarding ramp, whistling and squealing. Luke made it down the last step, watching his footing with blurred eyesight. He crouched down to talk to his old friend.

"Hey, little buddy! I missed you too!" He replied fondly to the droid's chatter. "I know, I know. No, I didn't mean to be this long. I'm sorry. Of course I am. How are you doing? Yes, you did the right thing. Thank you, Artoo."

At which point, Chewie came charging down the ramp, bellowing his own greeting to Luke. He wrapped the Jedi Master in a huge, furry hug. "Chewie! How are you, huh?" Luke mumbled through streamers of hair. The wookiee whined and rumbled at him. "I know, I felt it happen. I'm so sorry, Chewie. I know. We all loved him." They stepped apart and Luke wiped away his tears. He turned to Rey, heartbreak etched into his face. "I've missed these guys so much. And Leia. And Han. I've missed you all."

Rey took his hand and led him onto the Falcon. Luke felt transported back in time to another life – a life of warmth, family, friendship, love. He felt his fifteen years of exile weighing heavily on him as he walked through the familiar corridors.

"Are you alright?" Rey asked. They were walking through the main hold.

"Yeah. It's so strange. I know every inch of this ship," he told her, "and every flight, every moment I spent on here, with Han and Leia, Chewie, Lando, Ben – it's all in here." He tapped his head. "I can see them and hear them. I should have gone back when I could. Rachel, I'm sorry. I failed you."

"It's okay." She comforted him. "We're here now. It's not too late. We can go back and help."

They sat down. "Tell me what's going on out there." He asked her. She told him the whole story.

Luke listened without interrupting as Rey narrated the events of the last couple of weeks, from finding BB-8 right through to meeting Leia at the Resistance Base on D'Qar. When she'd finished, he questioned her for further details. He was devastated to learn that Han and Leia had grown apart and it was agony for him to hear about Han's doomed effort to reason with Ben and how the son had so brutally murdered his father. What a bitter pill to swallow: another grief to bear, piled on top of all of the others.

Luke was intrigued to learn about Maz and about Rey's vision when she'd touched the lightsabre.

"How did she come to have the sabre?" He wondered aloud. Rey couldn't answer him.

He was also fascinated when she told him that Artoo reactivated when Rey arrived at the Resistance Base. "I asked him to keep the map secret until he thought the time was right. A time when I was needed." He told her. "I didn't expect him to shut down altogether. Poor Artoo."

"He picked a good time to wake up and hand over the map," she responded, "though I wish he'd given it up sooner. Things might have been so different." Luke seemed stable at the moment – thoughtful, but steady. She needed to ask: "So, you didn't know where I was? All this time? How did I get to be on Jakku?"

"I don't know." He confessed. "Ben took you. The night he destroyed the Academy, he took you as a prize. I thought he would try to turn you or kill you. I always hoped Artoo would give up the map and someone might come and get me if they found you, and I feared the worst as time went on. I kept reaching out to you – for a long time, but I gave up. It got harder to feel you. It hurt too much."

"Why didn't you come and look for me?" She asked softly. "I always believed that someone was going to come back for me."

"Ah, Rachel. I'm so sorry. We didn't know where you were. Ben could have taken you anywhere. We didn't know where he'd gone or who his friends were. I wanted to come here, find the First Jedi Temple, and see if there was anything here that might help us against the Dark Side - help Ben. I didn't plan on being long, and Han and Leia were going to look for you. When I got here, I got side-tracked with searching the temple and I… I wasn't dealing with things well. I was in bad shape for a while."

She laid her head on his shoulder. "It doesn't matter now," she said. "I found you." He put his arm around her and rested his head against hers.

"You did, you wonderful girl. Thank you."

The sun showed its red face briefly, as the cloud mass cleared, before lowering down towards the western horizon. They decided against hiking back up the steps tonight, and so prepared beds in the crew's quarters on the Falcon. They continued to lie and chat, long after sundown, facing each other across the cabin. Chewie was snoring softly.

"You can call me Rey," she suggested. "I'd like you to. It's what I'm used to."

"Rey. Alright." He whispered, then said hesitantly: "What about me? Do you want to call me Dad?"

Rey fought back tears yet again and nodded. When she felt she could speak, she tested the name out. "Dad?"

"Yes, Rey?"

"Was there a Mom?"

There it was. The question he'd been dreading. Honesty now – he must be honest with her. There had to be total trust between them.

"Yes. There was. Her name was Sami. You are so much like her." He fought down his sorrow, expecting a hundred questions.

"She's dead?" Rey whispered. He nodded silently, not trusting his voice. "Will you tell me about her tomorrow?"

He swallowed, grateful to her and moved by her sensitivity. "Yes, I will. I'll tell you everything about her." He replied. That made up his mind. They would go back up to the cliff-top tomorrow and he would tell her about the rest of her family, and show her their resting place. Then everything would be out in the open. If she could forgive him this last revelation, he hoped he might be able to begin to live with himself more easily. He fell asleep wondering what that would feel like.