Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter. Sorry it took so long, but I had to spend pretty much this entire last week on homework. But, I now have a bit of a break between major assignments, so I'll try and get a few chapters posted before I have to slow down again.
This is one I felt was really important to include for Luke's character. I hope you like it.
Let's get to it.
MangoWango21: No, he absolutely does not.
MatbeK01: By modern standards, yes, Nantz is a more moderate Repbulican. And yes, I have one more story planned. And considering how modern special forces have taken so long to allow women, I figured it wasn't out of the realm of possibility.
Ke-Pa: The timeline page is not to document every single event in world history, only things that changed or are relevant to the story. So no, I won't be adding those events, and due to past changes to the timeline page, I've locked it down to edits from everyone but myself. As much as I love the participation of my readers, at the end of the day, this is my work, and not a place for other people to live out their own ideas.
Chapter 65- On the Road Back
(April 3, 2051)
As the sun rises over the eastern United States, in the kitchen of the Skywalker home in West Virginia, Luke smiles as he downs the last few bits of his breakfast. Looking up from his plate, he smiles at Kelly, who's sitting across the table from him. "This was nice," Luke says cheerfully.
"Agreed. We need today," Kelly agrees.
It's been a few days since Ben and Rey's wedding, and the two are currently on their honeymoon in Ireland. With Luke and Kelly alone at home, they had decided to take the time to spend some quality time together, and continue to work on fully repairing their relationship after Luke's exile. It had been about a year and a half since Luke's return, but recovering from his exile was not a week-long endeavour.
"Did we confirm our dinner reservations for tonight?" Luke asks.
"Yes. You know I don't forget things like that. I am the organized one, after all," Kelly says with a mischievous smirk on her face, which just makes Luke roll his eyes.
"Alright. Let's clean up, and then we can head out," Kelly says.
The two get up together and clean up after breakfast, which thankfully doesn't take too long. Once they're done, the two change clothes to more appropriate ones for an outing. Luke is dressed in his customary black trousers and tunic, while Kelly is dressed in her favorite flannel and jeans. Once the couple is ready, they head out to the truck and set off for their day together.
The two make their way to the highway, turning east towards DC. They had set out a day of exploring in DC, including visiting some of the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo, attending an orchestra concert at a theater in DC, a quick detour to the White House for a quick meeting with President Nantz, and rounding out with dinner at a nice restaurant in DC.
As they are getting onto the highway, Luke smiles as he looks over Kelly. "Are you ever going to let me drive this?" he asks.
Kelly smirks a bit before she says, "Never. Your driving skills are too rusty, and this truck is my baby." Luke rolls his eyes in response, and the two share a laugh.
A few moments pass in silence before Luke speaks again, now in a more serious tone, "Kelly…I know that you want me to think that you've forgiven me completely for me leaving…but I know that you're not over it. I want to work out what's happened between us."
Kelly sighs a bit before she responds, "I know, Luke. I understand that you did what you thought was right, and that it might have increased our chances of winning this war and restoring peace. I know that you feel you needed to serve your penance. And I've worked on forgiving you, and while I can say that I have for the most part…it's still hard to let go of all of it. Those years were hard on me, and affected me deeply. Those effects will stay with me for a long time, and I still have a lot to talk out with me. A lot to get off my chest."
Luke nods in response, completely quiet. After a few moments, Kelly says, "How about we focus on enjoying the day, and when we get to the restaurant, we can talk a bit more over dinner?"
"Okay…so long as we don't spoil the meal," Luke says, ending in a joking tone, and the two laugh together as the sun is lighting up the landscape of northern Virginia.
(That night)
Luke and Kelly smile at their driver as the taxi speeder they took comes to a halt. After a wonderful day out seeing the sights of DC, they had taken the taxi speeder to the restaurant.
"Here we are," the driver says.
"Thank you much," Kelly thanks the drivers, handing over some cash to pay for their fare, and also leave the man a good tip.
"Thank you, maam," the driver says gratefully. He opens the door of the speeder to allow them out, then closes the door and heads off into the streets of DC. Meanwhile, Luke and Kelly look ahead at the restaurant, with the large pitchfork wreathed in flames behind the large letters "HK" in front of it: Hell's Kitchen in Washington DC.
The Hell's Kitchen in DC remained one of the city's many fine dining restaurants even to this day. Although Gordon Ramsay had opened and closed many of his restaurants over the years, his Hell's Kitchen restaurants were some that remained open. Gordon had continued to run his restaurant company and continued cooking until he finally retired in his early 70s, at which point he had handed over the reigns to his daughter Matilda, or Tilly as she was often called. Ever since, Matilda had run the Gordon Ramsay Restaurants group, and continued his legacy as a restaurateur.
Luke and Kelly walk together into the restaurant. As they enter, the maitre' d approaches them. "Mr. and Mrs. Skywalker. Welcome to Hell's Kitchen. Please, follow me," he greets them, gesturing for the two of them to follow him.
"We are very happy to have you here tonight. And you are being given the best seats in the house," the maitre' d says as he leads the both of them over to the door leading into the kitchen itself. They can already see into the kitchen, which is of course divided into red and blue kitchens, where the chefs are busy at work. And to their surprise, Matilda is in the kitchen, running the pass for both kitchens. They know the chance of her being in any one of her restaurants on any given day is extremely low, so they can't help but smiling a bit knowing they'll get to meet her in person.
Luke and Kelly are escorted into the blue kitchen and allowed to take their seats at the chef's table. As they take their seats, Matilda walks over.
"Welcome to Hell's Kitchen, Mr. and Mrs. Skywalker," Matilda greets them with a brilliant smile, extending her hand to shake theirs.
"A pleasure to meet you, Chef. We're very excited that you are here on the night we came. And thank you for giving us the honor of eating at your chef's table," Kelly greets Matilda.
"Of course. It's our pleasure to have you here in Hell's Kitchen. And we hope you enjoy your time here," Matilda says. She then turns them back over to the maitre' d to take their order and returns to her position at the pass.
After giving their orders to the maitre' d (lobster risotto appetizer and salmon entree for Kelly, and scallop appetizer and beef wellington entree for Luke), Luke and Kelly start watching the brigade in the blue kitchen as they work. Luke turns to Kelly after a moment as he says, "This is definitely going to be fun. I haven't gotten to do this before, and it's definitely going to be interesting to see how Matilda runs a restaurant compared to her dad" That statement makes Kelly laugh a little.
As they watch the chefs working, Luke turns to Kelly. He is quiet for a moment before he says, "Kelly, I appreciate the day that we've had today. And watching you at the concert, and how you were getting so into it, and your smile…it took me back to when we first fell in love," Luke says. Kelly smiles in return, memories of their early romance flooding through her mind.
"We certainly did have an unusual dating stage, didn't we? Trying to date in the middle of a war," Kelly says.
"We certainly did. At least it was a little more normal than Ben," Luke says, and the two laugh together.
Luke looks at her for a moment before he says, "I want to recapture that feeling, Kelly. I want to truly fall in love with each other all over again. Even with our duties to the Alliance and the galaxy, our first duty is to each other. And I want us to be able to fully move on together."
Kelly smiles softly at her husband. "That's what I want too, Luke. I want us to be back to how we were. Well, maybe not exactly how we used to be, as I doubt we ever can get back to that place, but I want to be able to move on together," she says.
Luke is quiet for a moment before he says, "How about we commit to dating each other again? Try and heal what rift remains and fall in love with each other all over again while we're at it."
"I like that," Kelly says softly.
Right then, they hear Matilda call out, "This risotto is completely mushy! Take it back and remake it!" They look up and see Matilda handing the risotto back to the cook manning the appetizer station.
The two look back at each other and smile a bit. "Matilda is definitely nicer than her dad, but she still knows when to throw the hammer down," Kelly says, and she and Luke both chuckle a bit.
It's only a few more minutes before the second try at their appetizers are brought up, this time meeting Matilda's standards. "Serve the chef's table!" she orders the cook after she finishes plating up the dishes.
The cook, who has the name Jake on his jacket, brings over their plates. "Welcome to Hell's Kitchen, Masters Skywalker," he greets them before saying, "Here is your risotto, and here is your scallops," he says as he sets their appetizers down in front of them. Luke and Kelly thank him, and he quickly returns to his station.
The couple dig into their appetizers. Although they are now more focused on watching how things are unfolding in the kitchen, they are both thinking about the discussion they've had, and hoping that they can work through this together.
(Galway, Ireland)
As the city of Galway, Ireland is beginning to wind down for the night and many are heading to bed, in a suite in one of the city's premier hotels, Ben and Rey have just settled in for bed. They had spent the day exploring some of the lands around Galway, ending the day with the afternoon and evening in the nearby village of Athenry before returning to Galway for a nighttime stroll through the city. At last, they are ready for bed.
"Today was wonderful, Ben," Rey whispers as she holds squeezes Ben a bit tighter.
"I'm glad that you loved it so much," Ben says with a chuckle.
Rey is quiet for a moment before she says, "You know, I've come to love Ireland. The people are so kind, and just being me makes me feel at home. Part of me wishes we could settle here permanently, and raise our child here."
"I know. But we have many responsibilities, and its our destiny to lead the Jedi into the future," Ben says. He pauses, then says, "But maybe, once this war is over, if my dad and mom decide to return to Andromeda…maybe we could live here for a few years, and raise our child here for their early life."
"I would love that so much," Rey whispers, and the two soon drift off to bed in each other's arms.
And, I'll end the chapter there.
I hope this was a good chapter, and you enjoyed the exchanges between Kelly and Luke. I wanted to actually show them trying to repair their relationship after Luke's exile. I'll try and give them some more spotlight in future chapters.
Now, to the part I'm sure many of you found a little funny that I included: them going to Hell's Kitchen. I recently started re-watching Hell's Kitchen (currently in Season 4), and decided to slip it into the story by having Luke and Kelly go to the Washington DC Hell's Kitchen location for dinner.
Also, as I promised, I will begin to detail some differences in characters and ships in this universe's Galaxy of Heroes game. In this AN, I'll start off by explaining which characters from the real game are not in this universe's version, and which characters are changed.
First, these characters in the real game are not in this universe's version: Mara Jade, Darth Talon, Starkiller, all the First Order characters, all the Resistance characters (not including R2 and 3PO), Ahsoka Tano (Fulcrum), Dark Trooper Moff Gideon, Echo (Bad Batch), Omega, and Ben Solo. Also, in this universe's version, the Third Sister is massively nerfed compared to what she is in reality. And in this version, Commander Ahsoka Tano is instead Colonel Ahsoka Tano (with her Galactic Republic tag replaced with a Terran Alliance tag, and instead of working with JMK, works with one of the Terran Alliance Galactic Legends).
Next chapter, I'll explain all the non-journey characters that are in this version of the game.
Alright, that's it for today. Next chapter will be up soon. Until it is, please leave a review, and stay tuned!