Disclaimer: Sadly… still not mine. :-(

Part IX

Luke kept his attention carefully divided; to his left, his son Ben and Jaina's daughter Leyla were playing, in a manner of speaking. Ben was digging in the soft dirt with a stick; Leyla seemed more intrigued by the older boy than anything else, and Luke wondered if she couldn't, somehow, sense that they were related. Or perhaps they had played together at Shelter without even realizing their connection.

To his right, strolling among the trees, Kyp Durron and Jagged Fel were side by side, heads down and hands clasped behind their backs as they conversed in low tones- as they had been doing already for a half-hour.

He sensed a wariness between them, but couldn't decide if it came more strongly from Kyp or Jag. He had spoken ever so briefly alone with Kyp that morning, a short conversation but enough of one to know that the Jedi master was torn between joy, awe, and terror at the way his life and flipped upside down in the past twelve hours.

Jag, on the other hand… he was harder to read, and he kept his emotions close to his chest… but Luke believed that, in the case of Kyp at least, he trusted Jaina's judgment implicitly; he certainly was giving the older man the benefit of the doubt that many in his situation would not even consider.

For better or worse though, these two young men were now connected in a way that would be difficult to break. They had a common bond through Leyla and, to a certain, more complicated extent, through Jaina.

Luke turned back to the two children. Despite having been aware of Jaina's pregnancy, he had not met the child until this very morning. It was easy to see, though, how Kyp had been won over so quickly. Leyla was enchanting in that wide-eyed, innocent way as the nearly two-year-old explored her new environment physically and somewhat through the Force.

Jaina had been right; Leyla would grow up and uncover an extraordinary amount of potential in the Force.

Another few minutes passed in the tranquil calm of the morning on Zonama Sekot before Jag and Kyp headed back to the clearing next to the small abode Jaina, Jag, and Leyla would share while on the planet. Luke smiled gently and looked back towards the children; Ben was now sitting beside Leyla and tousling one of her dark curls in his finger curiously.

"Kit." All eyes turned towards Leyla, who had been mostly quiet through the morning. "Kit," she repeated, looking up and around, squinting against the sunlight pouring through the trees. Clumsily, she pulled herself to her feet and tottered towards Kyp on little, unbalanced legs. "Kit," she repeated, more adamantly now.

Luke tried to suppress a grin at the dumbfounded look on Kyp's face. "I think it's you she's after," he stage-whispered to him.

Hesitantly, Kyp took her little hand in his and she began to babble much as she had last night. Smiling indulgently, Kyp took up a seat on the ground near Ben and Leyla plopped in front of him and began picking up leaves and small rocks and offering them to him. He accepted them, confused, and looked to Jag for clarification.

"She's a bit of a collector," Jag smirked lightly. "You'll have a pocketful of things in no time that you can't remember how they got there."

"Kit!"

Kyp turned his attention back towards the girl and stared. "Kyp?" he asked slowly. She smiled broadly and began chattering away again, and this time, Luke could not stop the wide grin spreading across his face. Leyla climbed into Kyp's lap and once again pressed a small hand against his cheek as she rested her head against his chest.

Words failed all three of the men at the tender, innocent sight before them.

The reverie was broken when Leyla jumped up suddenly and scrambled from Kyp's grasp. She stumbled once and was steadied by Luke. She reached out and wrapped her hand around two of Jag's fingers and pulled ineffectually. "Dada," she insisted, turning towards the wooded area, "mama."

Jag turned and smiled, seeing Jaina approaching with her parents, brother, and aunt. "She seems to understand that she can sense Jaina in a way that I can't," he explained to Luke and Kyp. He briefly looked a little unsettled. "Honestly, I didn't realize that the Force-abilities could manifest so early and so… obviously. Nor did Jaina."

Luke shrugged. "All children are different, but it's true that Leyla is… unusually strong already."

The group made their way to the small clearing where the men and children were keeping busy. Kyp felt a wave of apprehension wash over him at the thought of where the coming scene could go. Jag had told him in no uncertain terms that Jaina was going to make sure her family understood everything necessary about who Leyla was, how she'd come to be, and why she'd been kept so secret.

But then again, he'd also told him that he and Jaina had no interest in seeing him murdered by the Solo men so maybe there was hope for his survival today after all.

He hovered in the background with Luke while Jag took Leyla to give her a more formal introduction to the family she had only briefly encountered the prior night. Like everyone else, the Solos and Mara were smitten with Leyla immediately and she was passed around, but seemed too impatient to spend more than a couple of minutes with any one of them.

Kyp felt the briefest of pangs watching Jag stand there with his daughter, but he suppressed it quickly. Regardless of how things could have happened otherwise, it still would never have been him there with Jaina; he'd sacrificed the possibility of any further relationship with her the day he'd put his own arrogant assumptions ahead of her conscience and destroyed a worldship, condemning thousands of Vong civilians to death.

He started as he felt the smallest of touches against his mind. Frowning, he turned towards Luke, but the older man was preoccupied with Ben.

"Kit!" He turned in surprise to see Leyla wriggling out of Han's arms. She hit the ground and strode purposefully towards him on her short little legs and, stopping a few feet in front, held out her arms to him. Bemusedly, he picked her up, aware that every eye, save Ben's, was on him right now. She wrapped her arms around his neck and stared seriously into his face. "Kit sad?" she asked. Kyp thought his heart would beat straight out of his chest.

Leyla had sensed his brief melancholy; the touch had been hers.

Biting his lip to keep from laughing, crying, or both, Kyp hugged her close to him and rubbed her back absently as she tucked her head against his neck. "No sweetheart," he murmured. "Kyp isn't sad. Kyp is very, very happy."

After a minute, he looked up and saw Jaina smiling, with a hand pressed to her mouth. Leia walked over to him and leaned in close, hugging him from the side opposite where Leyla was resting contentedly. "You have a beautiful daughter, Kyp," she murmured softly. "And I'm proud to be her grandmother."

"Thank you, Leia," he whispered thickly, but his gaze was drawn to Han, who seemed to be regarding him with an air of grim indecision. Sensing that it might be best to hand off the child in his arms, he slid her into Leia's grasp and stood there, resigned and vulnerable, as Han measured him up and down.

Making up his mind, Han strode quickly forward. "Ah, what the hell," he muttered, clasping his shoulder. "Congratulations, kid; it's good to see you actually happy again."

"Kyp," Jacen said seriously, pulling him slightly to the side, "I was very glad to see that you'd overcome the dark side when I was free of Vong imprisonment. Having said that…" he glanced back at his nervous sister and keen-eyed aunt, "I think I speak for Aunt Mara as well here- if you slip again and put my sister through that… in fact, if you ever do anything to hurt her or my niece… I won't hesitate to hunt you down." His tone changed abruptly. "Welcome to the family," he said more loudly and pleasantly, and then turned in mild confusion towards Jag. "Er… sort of."

End Part IX