Chapter 12: Broken
Vader landed several feet away, the force of his landing enough to crack the rock beneath him. Luke stared up at him, eyes wide with disbelief. He shakily propped himself up on his forearms, feeling a bead of sweat drip down his temple even as he shivered from the cold.
"F-father?" He asked, unable to tamp down his relief at seeing him. Vader stared at him for a long moment, just long enough for Luke to wonder if he had actually started hallucinating. Considering the circumstances, Luke would have been bitterly disappointed if that were the case. And beyond that, there wasn't a not so insignificant part of him that desperately wanted to know his father, that was pleased with the idea that his father cared enough to come find him, though he didn't know how Vader had come to do so this time.
But then Vader moved, coming and squatting down beside him. Luke pulled back just a little when his father's hand reached out to touch his face.
"What have you done to yourself, little one?" He asked, his voice rumbling. His hand swept hair out of Luke's face and gently pressed against his forehead as if checking for a fever.
Luke swallowed, suddenly feeling utterly exhausted. He was hungry, sore, feverish, and his head and leg were still pounding from his fall. But his father was here. He was real. And Luke didn't need to figure this out on his own anymore. He slumped back to the ground, gesturing blindly to his lower half.
"I broke my leg."
Vader shifted, his helmet turning to look over his shoulder. "I had noticed." He said dryly.
There was a slight prod at his mental shields, a silent request, one that felt oddly patient. Luke hesitated, strengthening his shields instinctively for a few long moments before hesitantly lowering them and granting his father access to his mind.
He got the sense of deep concern for his wellbeing, of satisfaction and pleasure at having found Luke at all, and something cautiously uncertain at how to move forward, though that was tucked away before Luke could think deeply about it. His father sifted through his thoughts, searching for something, though he couldn't say what.
He probably should have been more concerned than he was. On another day, he would have. But instead, all he felt was… safe. An odd concept after a few days alone on a deserted planet, fending off non-sentient monsters in the dark with a compound break in his leg.
His father had obviously come prepared. Luke watched with some bemusement as he pulled a few hyposprays from his belt and laid them on the cloth he'd laid out. Taking Luke's arm with more gentleness than he'd have expected, he rolled his sleeve up, exposing his bare skin. Using an alcohol wipe, he swabbed the crook of his arm and Luke sent him a tired mental inquiry, wondering about what the contents of the hypospray his father had pulled the cap off of was.
He winched at the slight pinch he felt when the needle broke his skin.
"That was an antibiotic, for the infection. This one," Vader took the other protective cap off the second needle and then quickly repeated the whole process on his other arm. "Is a narcotic that will numb the pain until I can get you back to the Executor."
A/N an abandoned scene/idea from when I was writing When It All Falls Down. that story had a lot of different versions it went through before the final product.
anyways, keep your eyes peeled for chapter 5 for What Lurks in the Dark in the next few hours. I'm finishing my final edits today. :D Thanks for reading!