Missing and Presumed Dead

Luke and Leia

"I can't believe you shooed Darth Vader."

Leia's shoulders slumped, all of her righteous fury evaporating. She sat down on the forest floor...or the dream forest floor. She hadn't actually stopped to get a good look at the scenery before she'd launched her tirade.

Every time she'd envisioned this moment, it hadn't quite looked like this. She'd pictured tears and hugging him, forbidding him from leaving her sight again. And she'd hoped Luke would actually be there, not in a dream and still stuck on some distant planet. But she'd entered the dream, taken one look at him, and just...lost it.

"It's not hard."

"I wouldn't dare."

"You'd probably get away with it too."

"No. I'm certain I wouldn't."

Their eyes met, and despite the fact that he looked terrible with dark circles under his eyes and the lost weight, she couldn't help but smile. A smile he returned, though it didn't quite touch his eyes.

Now that he was here, now that she could see him....

Could she touch him?

Carefully, she reached out with trembling hands, and found his.

Warm, calloused skin on the left; cool, unnatural smoothness on the right. And the moment they touched, his hands gripped hers, firmly.

She let out a shaky breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. "Luke..." She breathed his name like a reverent prayer, and tears swam in her vision. "Luke..."

Luke frowned. "I'm sorry."

Yes, she'd been angry with him for foolishly throwing his life away despite her orders. Yes, she hated the situation he was in. But mostly, she was terrified for him.

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have ever suggested you fake your death." The tears spilled onto her cheeks, and she was surprised at how potently she felt Luke's alarm before he reached up with his mechanical hand and brushed them away.

He hadn't ever been that good with tears. At least, not hers. If he ever found her crying, he always attempted to find the root cause so he could fix it. She'd assumed it was because he was her best friend, and maybe that was still the case, but now? Now she wondered if he could feel her emotions just as potently as she did his.

"You... we thought we were doing the right thing," he reminded her gently.

"But I was still wrong." She grabbed the hand that was still wiping her tears away. She needed him to understand. She needed him to listen.

And she didn't have to ask. He fell silent, and waited.

He knew her. More so than anyone. It was...strange, and yet... right.

Twins, indeed.

She took a few deep breaths before she continued. "I wanted to protect you from him. I didn't want to see you like this anymore. I just wanted to help ."

And she could feel his guilt echoing hers...

"Instead you're injured and lost, and everything's gone wrong, and now I have these powers I know nothing about--"

"Nothing? Really?" Luke motioned around them. "Leia, if you haven't noticed, this isn't nothing. It took me forever to figure out how to meditate, and even then, Master Yoda said I was doing it wrong. I didn't even know dreams like this could happen until I ran into Vader."