"It's been two days, Luke," the cerebral behaviorist said as he sat at the table in the padded room on the academy base.
"I don't care," Luke haggardly replied from where he lay curled in a ball on the floor, his face stained with a neverending barrage of tears.
"Have you spoken with your father?" the older man asked.
Luke whimpered as he drew tighter into himself. "I haven't even been home."
"I'm sure he's worried about you."
"I don't care."
The time passed in mostly silence after that. Luke wiped his face with the back of his hand, then realized there weren't anymore tears building up in his eyes. After a couple minutes he uncurled himself and pushed on his hands to stand up, and asked the doctor in a series of short dry sobs, "Can I have another glass of water? I'm getting dehydrated again."
The behaviorist gestured to a glass and decanter that rested on the table. Luke poured himself another glass and shakily drank it down. When the glass was empty he put it down and wiped his mouth on his sleeve, he seemed to have calmed down slightly.
"I can't believe he did that," Luke said, "and he didn't even tell me what he was doing."
"Is that what bothers you the most?" the behaviorist asked. "That he did this without informing you?"
"I don't know...maybe," Luke said. "He should've told me. I shouldn't have just stumbled across that thing and thought it was real, he should've told me."
The doctor nodded. "I agree, he should've...how should he have done it?"
"What?" Luke looked at the man.
"What would've been a good way for your father to explain he was having droid replicas made of the alien creature, to train you to be able to defend yourself from them in a future attack?" the behaviorist asked Luke. "How should he have explained that that you would've taken it better?"
"Well he...he should've...he could have...he..." Luke paused, and realized, "I don't know."
"Fathers do the best they know how, Luke," the older man told him. "Unfortunately they find themselves in many instances where they don't know what the right answer is and have to make a judgment call, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. A strange but true fact is parents have been raising kids for millions of years, and it never gets any easier, if anything it only gets more difficult to know what the right thing to do is. A few generations ago, a man in your father's position would not have been so understanding about what you went through. In fact it might've been culturally acceptable to hit you a few times and tell you to be a man and get over it."
"Whoa," Luke's eyes widened when he heard that.
"So I can certainly understand your frustration at what your father did," the behaviorist said, "but at least appreciate his intentions were good, and there are many worse ways he could've gone about it."
Luke slowly nodded and pursed his lips together. "I guess that's true."
Luke blinked and his eyes widened as he remembered something. "He did hit me, though...but it didn't really hurt."
"Well and what your father did wasn't done out of anger, that was concern for the deep shock you were in," the older man told him.
The behaviorist intertwined his fingers and leaned forward in his chair. "Now something I wanted to discuss with you, during one of your previous sessions you made a comment about 'the way everyone on the ship looked at me afterward', can you elaborate on that?"
Luke groaned and raked his hand down his face. "Do I have to?"
"I think it would be beneficial," the man answered.
"I can't explain it," Luke said, "I can't even describe it, once I was finally able to leave the med bay, everybody there just looked at me like...like..."
"Are you aware that other people have been attacked by these things, Luke?"
"I am now."
"And you're apparently the first person to survive both the initial attack and the alien embryo implanted in your chest," the behaviorist said.
Luke silently nodded, not trusting himself to talk and not seeing any reason to respond verbally.
"At the time, nobody onboard the Executor knew that," the doctor pointed out, "all they knew was they had no idea what they were dealing with, but they realized it could very easily have actually killed you simply because they'd never seen anything like it before."
"True," Luke hesitantly nodded.
"So is it possible that what in fact you saw when the ship's crew looked at you...was a combination of awe, and relief, that you had in fact survived, and that they were actually witnessing a medical miracle?"
Luke stared down at the table that rested between them. After a minute he looked up at the behaviorist and responded, "I never thought about that."
Luke was silent for a minute before he broke it by asking, "Are you a droid?"
The behaviorist was largely unresponsive to the question except to slightly raise his eyebrows and ask, "I beg your pardon?"
"Well," Luke shrugged, "I don't know...you seem a lot smarter than a real human, like a droid, they're programmed to know almost everything."
The older man lightly chuckled and answered, "You flatter me, Luke, however, a humanoid droid with synth skin is far beyond the academy's budget to have on staff. No, I'm just someone who...also had a father who often did what he thought was right."
"Oh..." Luke got quiet again.
Luke had an asteroid in his stomach as he headed for the door leading out of the behaviorist's office. He had no idea what he was going to do now or even where he was going to go. He knew he should go home but it didn't seem like a possibility to him now.
The door slid open and Luke stopped dead in his tracks and his breath caught in his throat at the sight of his father standing straight ahead of him.
"Father?" Luke's voice was thick with tears. It had seemed too much to hope for.
The dark lord stayed where he stood but called to his son, "Luke."
Hot tears rolled down Luke's face as he ran towards his father and threw his arms around him.
"I'm sorry," the young blonde wept, his voice completely choked.
Luke felt like he was standing on a vibroblade's edge, just waiting for whatever came next. He wasn't expecting it to be his father's strong arms wrapping around him and hugging him in return. Luke collapsed against Vader, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Let's go home," the modulated voice said.
Luke felt like he was only even half conscious by that point, surely his father must've actually carried him out because he wasn't aware of his feet making contact with the floor. He didn't seem or feel capable of doing anything other than clinging to his father and crying his eyes out.
Luke was still crying once the shuttle took off, but he'd partially regained his voice and was able to talk as he tearfully explained, "I didn't think you'd want to see me again."
The man in the other seat in the cockpit turned and those red unblinking lenses stared at him until they practically bore a hole in him.
"You are my son, Luke," Vader said simply and poignantly as he reached over with one gloved hand and brushed away the tears running down Luke's cheek. "I love you and nothing can change that."
"I know," Luke nodded, "I know...but I also know just because you love someone...doesn't mean you want to see them."
Behind his mask, Vader grimaced. If only Luke knew how devastating the last two days had been on the dark lord. He'd waited for Luke to come home, hoped he would come home, and when he didn't, he had to rely on all his training not to give in to panic. He'd tried to figure out just where Luke would go, and there was only one answer he could think of. When the behaviorist commed Vader to inform him that Luke had shown up for an impromptu session, Vader had flown his shuttle over to the academy so he'd be right there when Luke came out, hoping his son actually wanted to see him and dreading what would happen if Luke tried to run away from him again.
"I'm sorry I said I hate you," Luke said so quietly it was practically a whisper.
Vader was silent for a minute. It had hurt to hear those words come from his son who he'd done nothing but love and protect, but he reminded himself most teenagers said those same words to their own parents at least once in their lives, it seemed like an unwritten rite of passage, and admittedly, most parents did far less to deserve it than he had.
"I hope you understand it wasn't my intention for you to stumble across those droids the way you did," Vader told him. "I was going to explain what I'd done and give you time to get used to the idea before showing them to you."
Luke closed his eyes and nodded, "That probably would've been better." He opened his eyes and looked at his father and added, "I know you had a reason for doing everything that you did...but I still wish you would've told me at the start."
"How would you have reacted if you knew?" Vader inquired.
Luke thought for a moment and concluded, "I don't know."
"Exactly," Vader said. "I know this isn't something you want to do, Luke...but I believe it is necessary. Since you were born my job has been to do what I believe is in your best interest, regardless of if you agree or not, my duties weren't rescinded simply because you grew up, it is still my job as your father."
Luke slowly nodded. "I understand...and I appreciate it...I appreciate everything you've done. I know it hasn't been easy."
Vader reached over and brushed away the new batch of tears streaming down Luke's cheek.
"Everything is going to be all right, Luke."
Darth Vader walked alongside Luke with one arm draped over the boy's shoulders, half guiding him towards his bedroom as the dark lord told his son, "I know the past few days have been hard for you, so I want you to lie down and rest for a while, we will figure out the rest later."
Luke realized where they were going and asked, voice still half choked with tears though he finally seemed to be calming down, "You moved my bed back?"
"Yes, I know how important your privacy is to you."
It felt like it had been forever since he'd even seen his room, it didn't even look familiar at first. His father led him over to the bed and sat him on the edge. Luke pulled off his boots and settled back against the pillows.
"Thank you, Father."
Vader stood over his son and lightly ran his leather clad fingers through Luke's hair.
"I love you, Luke."
Luke tiredly nodded. "I know."
Vader reached down with his free hand and lightly grabbed Luke's in his, stroking his thumb over the back of Luke's hand. Luke closed his eyes, and his breathing gradually slowed down, and in a few minutes he was asleep.
"Sleep well, young one."