Luke felt the galaxy shift, someone's arms around him. The Force was still blindingly bright, and as the person holding him nestled him gently against his chest, it blossomed again. He felt something familiar about the presence and forced himself to open his eyes.

"Where am I?" he whispered.

"You're safe now," the person answered, "We've just landed on Coruscant, and we're taking you to a med center."

Luke struggled to pull back to look at his protector, "I'm fine," he protested.

"Your brother carried you off his ship unconscious," the man answered.

"Who are you?" Luke asked.

"My name is Anakin. Now will you relax so I can get you the care you need?"

Luke blinked, startled. That would explain why he felt so familiar. He pulled back so that he could look at the man's face, and sure enough, his eyes were blue. He had a slightly quirky smile, Luke noticed, finding himself returning it.

"Relax. You need care," Anakin said, dragging Luke close to his body again.

Luke yawned and found himself with a small mouthful of hair, on which he gagged slightly. Anakin pushed his hair out of Luke's way, and Luke closed his eyes.

"Okay," he said.

His father cradled him close, and he felt immensely safe and loved.

"Thank you," he mumbled.

Anakin laughed, and Luke felt another blinding rush of light Force power.

"It is my job to help the helpless," the man laughed.

Why does he look the same age as me? Luke thought groggily, And why hasn't he recognized me?

"Where are you taking me?" he asked finally.

"The best medcenter on Coruscant. Obi-Wan got permission to take you to the Jedi Temple, because you're Force sensitive. We noticed your lightsaber too. Were you learning in the Outer Rim? Force knows we try to keep track."

Luke glanced down at his belt, and noticed that Anakin had clipped his lightsaber to his own belt, next to one that was very familiar.

"I want to see the Temple," Luke said, trying to extract himself from his father's arms.

Anakin clutched him tighter, "Patience, young Padawan," he teased.

Luke sighed and let himself go limp in defeat, "Okay. I can go exploring later though, right?"

"Yes."

Luke smiled, "I'd heard of the Jedi Temple, but I never thought I'd actually be here!"

Anakin didn't answer, silently carrying him into a medcenter. Luke watched over his father's shoulder as the halls drifted away into the distance. Finally, Anakin lowered him onto a bed. Luke promptly sat up, wanting to question him. He watched in pleasant surprise as Obi-Wan and Han moved into view as well. Smiling, he looked up at his father.

"What's going on?" he asked eagerly.

Anakin blinked at him.

"I think you startled him," Han said.

Luke grinned apologetically, "Sorry. I'm just so excited, this is completely new to me!"

Anakin looked concerned, and carefully took a seat next to Luke on the bed, "What's new to you?"

"Being in the Temple, meeting Jedi," Luke said happily.

"You should be resting," Obi-Wan reprimanded gently, nudging Luke backwards until he fell against the sheets.

Luke frowned, "But I want to talk to you. I want to know everything about this place!"

"We can talk about all that later," Anakin promised kindly, "But why don't you tell us who you are, and where you came from, and then we can let you rest."

Luke wanted very much to protest again, but he realized how childish he had already made himself seem. He'd had another chance to make himself look good in the eyes of his father, he now understood, and he had ruined it.

"Okay," he said.

Anakin and Obi-Wan both looked at him expectantly, and he turned to Han for help.

"Where are you from?" Obi-Wan asked finally, "And what were you doing in the Outer Rim?"

Luke opened his mouth to answer at the same time Han actually did.

"We're smu—," Han started.

Luke kicked him as hard as he could, while still trying to hide it, "We're refugees."

Both Jedi's eyes flicked to Han, who had subconsciously moved to touch the spot on his thigh where Luke assumed a bruise would soon arise. Luke guessed they'd both seen his not-so-subtle action.

Much to his relief, Han was nodding eagerly, although that might have been only to avoid another kick, "We're refugees."

"From where?"

Luke looked down at the bed he was lying on, wrapping his prosthetic right hand in the sheet. He felt himself blush, already imagining trying to explain where he was from.

"Nowhere," he said, but the word came out very small.

"Sorry?" Obi-Wan asked.

Luke took a deep breath and forced himself to answer louder, "Nowhere. We're refugees from a place I'll bet you've never heard of."

"The Separatists," Han supplied, "You know how it is."

It sounded an awful lot to Luke as though he was grasping at straws, and Anakin and Obi-Wan seemed to feel the same way, but they both nodded. He was very surprised when Anakin's answer was gentle, and accompanied with a sad look at Luke.

"Yeah, I know how it is," the smile he gave as he continued seemed forced, "Get some sleep, Luke, and you can ask us anything you want when you wake up."

"Really?" Luke asked eagerly, sitting up quickly again, "Ow," he added, his hand springing to his side.

"Are you all right?" Anakin asked in concern.

Luke pulled his shirt up a little bit and groaned, "It's split again."

Anakin yanked his shirt up further, staring in horror at the wound.

"What?" Luke asked, almost laughing, "It just never healed right. Nothing worth worrying about."

"This is bad!" Anakin argued, touching it gently and yanking his hand back when Luke flinched, "Is it infected?"

"No, I don't think so. I mean, we did our best to take care of it."

"We?" Anakin demanded.

"Me and my friends," Luke answered, slipping back a little bit. His father's response was starting to worry him, "Except we couldn't afford to have me in a bacta tank for very long, because it's only a flesh wound."

"Only a flesh wound?" Anakin asked, and Luke could feel anger rising in him. It's nothing like Vader's anger, though. He's feeling this way because he… cares about me.

He smiled at the man, "I'm fine, honestly. These things happen all the time. You know what I mean, don't you?"

Anakin only seemed to sink deeper into his dark mood, "Yeah, I do."

Luke had been expecting a glance at his prosthetic hand, or maybe a touch to the scar that cut through his right eyebrow. Instead, he put a hand to a faded scar on his left wrist, "I know."

"Then you know it's nothing, right?" Luke asked cautiously. His father's reaction frightened him. He liked being cared for, of course, but he had a terrible feeling it was making Anakin feel a thousand times worse than it was making Luke feel better.

Anakin seemed quite discoloured as he nodded hesitantly, "Nothing. Yeah, if you don't want to talk about it. It's just… what did you do to deserve this? What did he do to you?"

Luke, now thoroughly unsettled, smiled carefully, "I promise you, I'm all right. I've had worse stuff happen to me."

Anakin only seemed further hurt by his words, but he nodded slowly, "If you need to talk about it, you can always come to me."

Obi-Wan stepped forwards, carefully putting a hand on Anakin's shoulder, "You're a Jedi, Anakin, control yourself."

Luke caught sight of tears in his father's eyes, and found himself swept into a hug, "You're safe here now, Luke. I- I won't try to force you."

Luke returned the hug, basking in the attention for a moment before letting go, "I promise I'll come talk to you if anything goes wrong."

Anakin stood, apparently now aware of what he'd done. He smiled at Luke, and Luke was glad to see that the smile was a little less forced. He scruffed Luke's hair, "You're a good kid, Luke."

Then he turned to leave, Obi-Wan following him with an expression of amusement on his face, "He's almost as old as you are."

"He's still younger," Anakin answered, and Luke was glad to hear that he had recovered.

The two Jedi left the room and Luke turned to Han, "What happened?"

"I don't know. Is he your dad?"

"I think so," Luke answered, glad that he hadn't had time to explain Vader to Han yet. That would have made their predicament much more confusing.

"Huh. Now I know where you get your craziness from."

"Hey!" Luke hit him with his pillow, smiling, "Is my mom here too?"

"I dunno, Kid. What's your mom's name?"

Luke shook his head, "I have no idea. Has he been… huggy with anyone? Besides me, I mean," he said, rubbing his arms where Anakin had squeezed.

Han shook his head, "No. What was that all about anyway? Have you been communicating telepathically? He seemed to have a pretty good idea of what Vader's done."

"I don't think it's that. I mean, he might sense a connection, I can definitely feel him, but… I can't help feeling he was just misunderstanding me."

"Everything you said?"

"Yeah," Luke said, looking up at his friend, "Everything. I just wish I knew what he was hearing."