"Anakin, you acted very… strangely back there. Is something troubling you?"

Anakin looked over his shoulder at the door to the hospital wing, "He was trying to hide it, but you can't help making it obvious."

"Anakin?"

"He's in pain. He's in pain, and he won't talk to me about it."

"Anakin, what are you going on about?"

"Don't tell me you didn't notice!" he said in agony.

"Notice what, Anakin? You're not making sense."

Anakin grabbed his robes in his fists, "He's a slave."

"They're refugees."

"No," Anakin shook his head fiercely, "He's a slave. His friend is a smuggler, like he tried to tell us."

"Why would Luke lie?"

Anakin clenched his teeth as well, feeling the metal of his right hand start to get tangled in the fibers of his robe, "Do you think it's easy to admit? It's not like being a Jedi. It's one thing to say that you've dedicated your life to a worthy cause, and something else entirely to say you were born into the ownership of someone who doesn't care about you, who beats you, who might well work you to death," he forced himself to look up, "It's not the same at all."

"Anakin, I know it was hard on you, but I think you're reading too much into this."

"Master, I am not reading too much into this. He- Luke is an escaped slave."

"What proof do you have? I know it's been even harder for you since Ahsoka left, but that's no reason to hear things people haven't said."

"I haven't got any conclusive proof, obviously. It's just, everything he said adds up. And it has nothing to do with Ahsoka, who didn't leave, she was thrown out!"

Obi-Wan held up his hands, "She was invited back, and you'll remember that I was against throwing her out from the beginning. What do you mean that what he said matches up?"

"That wound on his side, which his friends tried to help him heal, but couldn't afford a bacta tank for long enough. That embarrassed, frightened look he got when we asked him where he was from. The way he treated his injuries, like they were nothing."

Obi-Wan nodded, "That reminds me, have you had a med droid look at that slash on your arm?"

"Huh?" Anakin asked, distracted, "No. Why?"

"Perhaps if he is, in fact, a refugee, he has simply gotten used to the pain, like you have? Or haven't you noticed that your nails have dug through your skin?"

Anakin looked down at his left hand, and, sure enough, blood was trickling from the palm. He wiped it off on his robes, "That's beside the point. Believe me, I can tell these things about people. He's been abused, and I think that it's because he's a slave."

Obi-Wan merely nodded.

Anakin grabbed him by the hood, "You're not listening to me, Master. Luke is a slave. I need to find out who his master was so I—,"

"So you can what?" Obi-Wan asked mildly, "Put your future with the Jedi in jeopardy again?"

"He needs someone to care for him!" Anakin argued.

"He has his best friend here. The smuggler will take care of him."

"Solo is not his friend. Over the course of every ridiculous thing we've ever done I've met one or maybe two kind hearted smugglers. I bet anything there's something he wants from Luke. Luke needs us to care for him!"

"Anakin," Obi-Wan said with the same infuriatingly calm tone he always used when he was about to hugely misunderstand his friend, "You're projecting the protective things you felt for Ahsoka on him. You're trying to bring the girl you trained back to the Order by befriending a lost refugee. It won't work, Anakin, you need to let go."

"I can't. I can't let go of my need to care for people!"

"Oh, Anakin, you do have a hero complex."

Anakin sighed, "Maybe I do, but it's an improvement on not caring about them."

"Perhaps we should try to find you a new apprentice. Being so attached to this boy is strange. People might get the wrong impression," Obi-Wan warned.

"I don't want a new apprentice. I feel like the fact that I taught Ahsoka didn't help her in her trial."

"If you don't want an apprentice, why are you being so protective of the boy?"

Anakin shrugged, "I don't know. I just feel connected to him somehow, and I have an awful feeling that someone has hurt him because of who he is. His wounds, and the way he treats them, seem to indicate that someone was aiming for him exactly. He is not an average victim of war."

Obi-Wan opened his mouth to disagree, but Anakin shook his head, "Trust me, Master. I'm completely certain."

"Anakin, I do trust you. You just seem to be making too much of it."

Anakin exhaled slowly and was about to retort when the smuggler approached them from behind.

"There you are! I'm so glad," he panted.

"And why is that?" Obi-Wan asked.

"The kid, I can't get him to lie still."

"What does that have to do with us?" Anakin demanded. He still didn't trust the smuggler at all. The man had seemed kind enough in his treatment of Luke, even carrying him, when need be, but Anakin still felt something wrong with the situation. He told himself it had nothing to do with wanting to care for Luke.

"He seemed so calm when you were with us. I'm just hoping if you come back, he'll calm down. I guess he got attached to you, but he's usually better than this. I dunno what's going on in his head," Han grinned, rolling his eyes, "Then again, I usually don't."

Anakin glared at him, but he couldn't help noticing that Han's expression did seem truly concerned.

"If one of you could just come back, I think he might be willing to lie still, as long as he can pester you with questions."

Obi-Wan chuckled, and Anakin shot him a glare.

"Great, now if we can just get back before he destroys the hospital, we're golden."

Anakin blinked at him, expecting him to grin, and say he was joking, but the smuggler merely turned around, and hurried back towards the hospital.