Snowy, blinding, white mountains. Cold, cruel eyes. Shining lights. Hard slaps, burning whips. Slashing lightsabers, bright lightsabers. Shaceships. Medbays. IVs. Darkness.
It was like something from a dream. Something nobody ever really remembered. For the past month all he knew was laying face-down, not able to move, with an irritating air mask. Once, he got his arms free and ripped it off. When he woke up again, it was back. And one day he wasn't tied down. He didn't know where he was or why. Finally, he was back again, no mask, no itchy bacta.
He woke up like he would in the morning, except usually he didn't wake up in a medbay. In the middle of a taped-together fleet. And Leia wasn't usually there.
"What happened?"
"You were kidnapped and taken to Hoth, remember?" Leia said. "And you killed the guy."
"What about after that?"
"We took you here. You were in and out for a couple of weeks, but you're better now. You can get out tomorrow."
"Good."
Luke was still sore from the whips and the frostbite. He had to stay in bed all day. One day, a week later, he was still confined to bed.
"Can I get up now, please please please?" Luke begged.
"Can you sit up on your own?"
"Yeah." He painfully pushed himself up.
"I saw your face. Go back to sleep."
Luke got sick that day. Somewhere, in between the feverish dreams and what Han called 'blowing chunks', he remembered Leia talking to him, but then the fever started to mess with his hearing. He could only hear bits and pieces of what people said. He felt Leia holding his hand, he heard Han telling him to be strong for Leia. He felt a thermometer in his mouth and Threepio's worried voice saying "Medbay... high fever...immediately." He felt someone lifting him up. He say Wedge there, talking about how much the fleet needed him. Every time he saw someone, they had worried looks on their faces. They got more worried every time. One night, he saw his mother. He could feel her warmth and see the bed move with her when she sat on the bed.
"Luke, I am sorry you never got to meet me. I always wanted you to grow up and be just like your father... Well, how he was. So this is my gift to you." Her cool hand pushed his sweat-drenched hair back. She kissed her hand, then put it on his cheek. That was the last time he would see her for a long time.
The doctor said he made a miraculous recovery. After a while, he could hear whole sentences and see things without them being too bright or too dark or blurry. Leia was visiting him one day.
"Are there holos of our mother?" He asked.
"Probably. Why?"
"Can you get one?"
Luke looked at the holo. She looked exactly like what he had seen. He told Leia all about it. The doctor called a medium. After hours of questions, the only answer they had was that it was a hallucination from the fever. Finally, the day was over. Leia went back to the cabin she was staying in. In the middle of the night, she got a comm call. Leia got up from the couch she had fallen asleep on and answered. Luke was sick again.
His throat burned from 'blowing chunks'. Somehow, he felt himself sticking his finger down his throat. The medical droid must have seen him doing it, because the next day, it came at him with a syringe. He sat on the bed, thinking I can do this. This isn't hard. The needle glinted one time in the light of the glow panels, and he made a decision. Luke ran.
Oh, how I love cliffhangers... but at the same time, I hate them. Odd. Anyway, check out my other stories, Blade of Destiny and A Pretty Ugly! :)