A scene from Chapter 20 of Purpose of Heritage from Luke's POV.
Leia seemed different, though Luke couldn't place how exactly. She looked mostly the same as she had before her stint with the pathfinders, and she still treated him with the same kindness and affection she always had, but she seemed to come alive more on the rare occasion Han and Chewie were around.
Han had always been able to draw energy out of her, now that Luke thought about it. He was usually the one to gravitate toward her when she separated herself from the rank at get-togethers — he always said he wasn't really a part of their group, so he wasn't going to hang around as if he was — and he usually got a reaction out of Leia in one way or another. It was just that, since their time together in SpecForce, that reaction seemed more consistently positive and friendly than it had previously.
Luke was glad they seemed to be getting along more often than not, but he hated how withdrawn Leia seemed to be without Han around. Though, maybe it wasn't fair to blame her distance on a lack of Han; he hadn't been around much on Home One, and Leia isolating and overworking herself corresponded more with the move planetside than it did anything related to the smuggler. She was busy, of course: she and General Rieekan were both in charge of the newly established outpost on Saijo and were working on getting the new base on Hoth up and running. But Luke couldn't help but notice that she seemed to rarely have time for anything other than work, especially, it seemed, when the non-work activities involved the river.
He thought he knew why. After all, just the year prior, he had spent an unnecessary amount of energy on avoiding any situation in which he might need to swim because he simply couldn't. Luke was from Tatooine, a planet so dry on the surface, his uncle's entire farm had been dedicated to pulling moisture from the air in order to supply the local beings with enough water to survive. Lakes, ponds, and rivers simply didn't exist, so there hadn't been a need for Luke to learn to swim while living at home, nor would it have been possible to learn even if he'd had interest in picking up the skill.
Tycho and Wedge had taught him the basics of swimming while they were stationed on Renatasia, and though Luke wouldn't win any competitions any time soon, he could at least keep from drowning. He found being in the water a strange sensation, but it was refreshing, especially when the sun was high in the sky on Saijo. The planet overall had a pleasant climate — the hottest days were nothing compared to an average morning on Tatooine — but swimming at the river was a nice way to cool off in the heat of the day, and the off-day river excursions had become a bit of a tradition amongst the pilots.
Luke, Wedge, and Shara all invited Leia every time they went to the river for a while, but after enough refusals, Wedge and Shara stopped asking. Luke kept up his invitations, though, not wanting Leia to feel left out and, somewhat stubbornly, wanting her to admit why she was avoiding the river.
It had to be that she couldn't swim. There was no other reason Luke could imagine that Leia would be avoiding the river. She wasn't nervous around water in general; she and Han even had some private joke about the Alliance seeming to station their troops around inconvenient water all the time, and while Luke didn't fully understand what was funny about it, he knew their observations weren't wrong. Leia never seemed frightened by the general presence of large bodies of water — she had even been to an ocean-covered planet with the pathfinders — so Luke had to assume it was a simple skill issue, and one that he understood all too well.
Getting her to actually admit the reason for her refusal to join them at the river was another issue entirely. Wedge and Shara had clearly given up on convincing her to join their outings to the river, but Luke was pretty sure if he just told her he knew, and admitted his own shortcomings when it came to swimming experience, she would 'fess up. She might even agree to swimming lessons, though Luke didn't think he was the right person to offer those.
After she turned down yet another invitation to a river outing, Luke finally pulled Leia aside as she left their table in the mess to throw away her trash. "I think I know why you're avoiding the river," he said in a low voice.
He had placed his hand on her arm in a friendly gesture as he spoke, and felt her tense immediately. Leia's expression became inscrutable, a skill she had apparently developed in order to hide her most emotional responses while in the public eye. Luke envied the ability at times; his facial expressions almost always gave away exactly what he was thinking. He noticed her eyes dart to the pilots' tables before she focused back on Luke.
Her simple response of "Oh?" sounded careless and casual, and he wondered if she'd been taking note of Han's general demeanor and applying it to her own speech. She seemed far more on-edge than her tone indicated.
Luke leaned in close and kept his voice quiet. If Leia's reaction right then — which was, in reality, a commitment to not react — was any indication of anything, she clearly didn't want attention drawn to the fact that she couldn't swim. He smiled at her earnestly. "It's okay. I get it. I only learned to swim last year. Tycho and Wedge had to teach me. They weren't mean about it, though," he assured her.
Leia's entire expression transformed from the unreadable mask meant to cover emotion to open skepticism. She arched one eyebrow and somehow managed to blink pointedly before assuring him that she knew how to swim. She was, in fact, a very strong swimmer, apparently.
Luke wasn't sure what to do with that information. He had been certain Leia's reasoning for avoiding the river had been about swimming. Maybe she just doesn't enjoy swimming? He squinted at her curiously. "Oh. Do you just not like it?"
She glanced away, shaking her head slightly and seeming almost ashamed. "No," she said slowly. "I like swimming."
He really wasn't sure what to do with that revelation. He looked at the pilots still eating, wondering if her avoidance was less about the river and more about the company. Luke tried not to jump to conclusions. Leia didn't seem upset with him, but maybe someone else had said or done something to make her feel unwelcome.
"Is it…us, then? Did someone do something?"
She shook her head and denied that anything had happened, but…there had to be a reason she was avoiding hanging out when they shared off days.
"It just seems like you keep avoiding us during off hours," he pointed out.
Leia hesitated, and Luke watched as the flicker of several emotions crossed her face. After a long moment of silence, she sighed. "Okay," she said. "I'll go with you tomorrow."
Luke couldn't have been happier, and nearly enveloped her in a hug, but Leia seemed distracted, so he resigned himself to patting her shoulder and reminding her that they would leave right after lunch the next day.
She seemed in better spirits on the way to the river the next afternoon, and Luke didn't regret pushing her to join them. Leia had been working too much in his opinion, and had been far too isolated since they arrived on Saijo. He was still pretty sure it had something to do with the river, but he had decided to let her tell him when she was ready to.
They warned her about beesbies on the walk over. The bright blue parasitic worms that Wes had named "bloodsucking bastards" were plentiful in the river, but didn't cause much damage as long as they were found within ten minutes or so. If they weren't, med had to get involved, and it became a much bigger deal than it needed to be, so the pilots who frequented the river made sure to perform regular beesby checks so they could avoid med altogether.
Leia seemed like a natural in the water. She explained that she had learned to swim as a small child in the lakes near the palace, and that it had always been a favorite activity during the warmer months on Alderaan. After some time spent splashing near the bank, she gleefully challenged Wedge, Hobbie, and Tycho to a race across the width of the river and back.
She wasn't just a natural, Luke realized as soon as Wes yelled, "Go!" to the racers; Leia was fast. She passed Hobbie easily, and gained on Wedge with grace and agility, and, had the river been a few meters wider, might have beaten Tycho. She headed straight toward Luke as soon as the race was over, grinning.
"Told you I could swim," she gloated.
"You're pretty fast!" Luke agreed. A bright blue spot on her upper arm caught his attention. It disappeared partially under the sleeve of her t-shirt. "Ugh, hold still, Leia," he warned as he reached for the beesby. He pulled it off her skin and grimaced, tossing it back into the river.
Tycho and Wedge ran past them, heading toward shore and shouting about a swarm of beesbies. Their backs were covered in the insects. Leia looked at Luke, clearly distressed. He wrinkled his nose, but attempted to exude calm as he grabbed a worm that had attached itself to her neck.
"C'mon," he said, nodding toward the riverbank. "I'll help you find them all."
He wasn't worried about Leia. Worst-case scenario, she would go to med, and they'd be able to pull the beesbies off using a method they had devised involving syringes full of saline solution, but Luke had helped nearly all of the Rogues and half of Green Squadron rid themselves of the parasites at some point or another during their river trips. He was pretty confident he'd be able to help Leia before they attached themselves solidly to her skin.
There was just the matter of…Well, there was no way around it: Luke was pretty sure there were some beesbies under her clothing. When he mentioned what he saw to Leia, he noticed the color drain from her cheeks. Her eyes, which had been alive and shining right after the race, took on a distant, dull appearance. Luke realized too late that he had assumed she'd be okay with him helping her out, but he hadn't asked. When Leia's body went rigid as he notified her that he thought he saw beesby-shaped lumps under her shirt on her back, he searched desperately for a solution.
"Do you want me to get Samoc?"
She shook her head so abruptly, Luke wondered if suggesting Samoc help had been the wrong move somehow. Leia didn't know Samoc Farr too well, Luke didn't think, but she knew her sister, Toryn. Luke hadn't seen Leia interact much with the few other women who had come along to the river, though, and with Shara running drills with the rest of the Green Squadron, Samoc was the most logical choice.
She asked where he thought the beesbies were on her body and, when Luke said he had seen a few on her shoulders, she pulled her t-shirt over her head swiftly. She still wore a tank top, but the garment allowed him to easily remove the insects from her shoulders. Luke noticed Wes standing nearby, staring, and was about to shoot a glare his way to get him to knock it off — sure, Leia usually stayed mostly covered, but her shoulders were hardly scandalous — but he got distracted by more lumps under her clothing.
"I think there are a couple more on your lower back, Leia," he said, and before he could finish offering to get Samoc again, Leia shook her head and rolled up the bottom of her tank top, clearly wanting the entire ordeal to be over.
The moment her back was exposed to air, Wes inhaled sharply. Luke looked at him sternly, intending to tell him to stop making things weird, but was silenced by the unbridled rage in his eyes.
Luke followed Wes' sightline and suddenly saw what he had been staring at before. Luke had been so focused on the beesbies, he hadn't noticed the scars that covered Leia's shoulders and back. The number and severity of the marks made his stomach churn. Bright pink slashes and puckered divots marred what he imagined had once been smooth, pale skin. Two columns of angry red and purple dots bordered either side of her spine.
"Kriff," Wes said, voice tense. He looked and sounded as if he was readying himself for a fight. "How'd you get those, Organa?"
"It's rude as all hells to bring up scars, dumbass." Appearing seemingly from nowhere, Wedge planted himself in front of Leia's back and glared at Wes.
Wes paled, a nervous expression crossing his face. "Sorry. I—Organa, I—"
"Go help Celchu, Janson," Wedge commanded. "Think Hobbs stumbled into some, too."
Leia hadn't said anything more, and Luke busied himself removing the remaining beesbies from her back alongside Wedge. He felt the same sort of anger he'd seen on Wes' face spark deep in his chest. He knew—Well, he didn't know much, but Leia had told him once she had been tortured on the Death Star. He had to assume the scarring was the result of that. He couldn't imagine she'd have been injured so badly prior to being imprisoned, and he'd surely have known if she had been hurt that extensively since then.
Vague memories of Leia sick on the Falcon as they worked to pack up on Yavin flitted through Luke's head. Han had been strangely protective of her considering their earlier spats; he'd even negotiated with her to get her to see a medic apparently. Luke still didn't fully understand the way Han and Leia related to one another — they seemed to get along well enough and appeared to understand each other on levels that others simply didn't grasp while continuing to get into the dumbest arguments — but now he wondered if Han had been made aware all the way back then, if he had seen the scars as fresh wounds.
Luke and Wedge removed the remaining beesbies from Leia's skin and stepped a meter or so away to give her space. Luke glanced at Wes, who had gone to help Hobbie and Tycho as Wedge had directed, but still looked like he was waiting for a fight. When Luke looked back at the spot where Leia had stood, she was gone.
"Leia?" Luke called, unsure of which direction she had headed.
Wedge caught his eye. "She'll be okay, Skywalker."
Luke wasn't so sure. Leia had seemed upset…overwhelmed, maybe. He wasn't as good as she was at placing his finger on exactly how someone else was feeling, but she certainly had not seemed okay. He shook his head and tried to think like Leia. Where would I go?
"I don't think she was okay," Luke insisted, everything in him screaming that Leia had been — and was still — distressed. "I think she might need us right now."
Wedge stared at him unnervingly for a few seconds before nodding toward a rock formation about thirty meters away. "Pretty sure she headed that way."
Luke and Wedge walked quickly after Leia. When they neared the rock formation, Wedge stopped abruptly and turned to Luke. "Stay here a minute."
"I want to make sure she's okay—"
"Luke, I know. Just…Give me a minute."
Wedge was trustworthy, and Luke knew he had known Leia longer than nearly anyone left alive at this point. She considered him a a friend, and seemed to have an almost sibling-like rapport with him. Wedge probably wanted to make sure she was okay and keep from crowding her. It made sense to approach her one at a time if that was the case.
Luke nodded and Wedge gave one tense nod in return before disappearing behind part of a boulder. A couple of minutes passed before Wedge reappeared and waved Luke closer. Luke jogged a couple of steps until he reached him.
"She said she wants to see you," Wedge said, pointing toward a spot near where the boulder and rock formation nearly touched.
Luke went in search of Leia and found her right where Wedge had pointed: crammed on a shelf in the formation, hidden from the immediate view of passersby. He met her gaze for a second before looking for a way to reach her. The boulder was craggy and Luke was able to locate handholds pretty easily. He scaled the rock until he was able to push himself next to Leia on the rock shelf.
Leia stared at the boulder in front of them, a blank, shielded expression on her face. Luke tried to think of the right thing to say, and opened his mouth several times, thinking he had them, only to realize what he'd come up with wasn't the best a second later.
"They're from my interrogation, if that wasn't obvious," Leia finally said, her voice flat and emotionless.
Luke nodded. "Figured. Wedge didn't seem surprised."
She's had an allergic reaction on her back to something on Renatasia, she said, and Wedge had been the only one around who could check to see if she needed med. Luke had thought Wedge's lack of surprise at seeing the scars had been tied to his having been with the Empire, that maybe he had seen an interrogation like Leia's before.
"No," Leia said, shaking her head when Luke said as much, "he was about as shocked as anyone else has been. There aren't a lot of lower-level officers involved in interrogations we don't think, unless they're the type to step out of line. We're pretty sure they use viewing them as an intimidation tactic to rein the troublemakers back in."
An amusing thought occurred to him, something that might make Leia laugh. "So, how many do you think Han's seen?"
She didn't laugh, though. Instead, she soberly told Luke that Han had apparently seen three interrogations, but he didn't like to talk about them. Luke immediately felt guilty for making the joke, even when Leia said Han had made a similar one.
Silence fell between them, and Luke searched for something, anything to say that might make Leia feel better. He had a thousand questions that he didn't feel he could ask, and he didn't think, based on past experience, that she would open up on her own.
She surprised him, though, linking her arm through his and asking him what he wanted to know.
Luke both wanted and didn't want to know what had been done to her at the hands of the Empire. The description of her time on the Death Star had always been vague, shrouded in heavy implications that only made sense to those in the know. Knowing more details wouldn't make what had happened any better, but he thought maybe he'd be able to help her out if he just knew…something.
His voice almost cracked when he finally came up with the simplest question imaginable. "What did they do to you, Leia?"
They'd stunned her — Luke knew from firsthand experience that that was painful and disorienting in and of itself. After she was on the Death Star, they asked her questions, and when she didn't answer, she'd received cuts and burns from some sort of device the called 'the rack'. And then Vader used a truth serum on her, something she said she hoped would be the most painful thing she'd ever experience, and tried to dig through her mind using the Force.
Even in the midst of some amusing comments she made about the way she had apparently interacted with Vader, Luke couldn't stop thinking about how strong she must have been to go through all of that and never break. The remnants of the cuts and burns he had seen had been horrific, cruel, and the truth serum coupled with Vader trying to get to her sounded unbearable, but she had endured all of it. Luke was far past his hero-worship days of Leia, but he couldn't help feeling as if she was more resilient than all the rest of them combined.
The overwhelming desire to hug her hit him, and Luke found himself debating asking for permission or just throwing his arms around her. He and Leia had always been physically affectionate, but she had also seemed unnerved ever since her scars had been visible.
He cleared his throat nervously and looked at her, affection for his friend causing an ache in his chest. "Leia?" he asked quietly. "Can I hug you?" She nodded and he wrapped his arms around her, relaxing a bit when she slid her own arms around him in return. "I think you're the strongest person I know."