Their Lady Adyé [Star Wars]

Consoling Ben

She couldn't fight the feeling that something was wrong. Wrong enough that Beru had contemplated leaving Luke at home while she went out on her errand. But there was no one to leave him with. Owen was busy out by the south ridge—fixing the condensers out there again, by the sound of it—Neva was off planet and, by the time she dropped her nephew off with any of the neighbours able to watch him, her day would be gone.

Anyway, if Neva had been available, Beru would have had little reason to worry. She should have been long back by now. Beru had been expecting her to show up for days with her new baby girl in tow, ready to show her off and introduce her to little Luke. If she hadn't been growing so worried, Beru would have smiled at the thought.

Beru had seen the holo Neva had sent to her to pass on to Ben. Their new baby was absolutely beautiful; tiny and precious. Beru had barely managed to take the time to come up with an excuse to go out, she'd been so eager to deliver the news to the new father.

In fact, her trip to deliver that very holo had been the last time she'd been over this way. That time she'd been so excited.

This time she very much was not.

She glanced down at the seat next to her in the speeder. Luke was playing with his toys on the floor of the passenger's side seat. Beru couldn't help the flicker of happiness that cut through her worry at the sight of the sweet-natured little boy. Though just over a standard year old, Luke was already adventurous and impossibly cheerful. Unable to hold back a small chuckle as the little boy threw the toy speeder he'd been playing with, giving it a perplexed look when it didn't return before smiling and grabbing another toy, Beru turned her attention back to her route.

The cheer her nephew had inspired didn't last for long, though. As soon as Neva and Ben's little house came into view, the anxious feeling returned. Especially when Beru caught sight of the hunched figure sitting outside. It took her a long moment to recognize the man as Ben.

As she cycled the speeder's engine off, she hesitated before getting out. She knew from the way he hadn't even looked up that something terrible had happened.

Beru had to steel herself against running through successively worse scenarios that could explain the heartache that she could practically see hanging over him like a shadow. But staying in the speeder wouldn't get her answers, nor would it make the bad news any less bad. Gathering up Luke, Beru made her way toward the crushed-looking man. Beru's fear warred with her need to know and her need to know kept her walking forward.

"Ben?" she said softly as she came to a stop in front of him. He didn't even look up, though he did raise a hand to scrub across his face, brushing off some of the sand clinging to his cheeks as though just waking up from a stupor. Beru noticed with a start that the dust had been clinging to dried tear-tracks. Her heart sunk, quivering and shrinking in her chest as the gravity of his expression said more than the words he hadn't said yet. Shifting Luke in her arms, Beru crouched down next to where Ben sat slumped against the wall of his and Neva's home. She swallowed thickly before speaking again, trying to sound as gentle and soothing as she could.

"What's happened?" It was a long, heavy minute before he answered, his voice hoarse and painfully hollow.

"They're gone." Beru couldn't help the sharp intake of breath that hissed past her lips. Ben's cracked lips had half-heartedly continued moving, though after those two horrible words, no more sound escaped.

But Beru didn't need more words. She could read everything else she'd needed to know on his face.

Her arms inadvertently tightened around her nephew's squirming form. The little boy had pressed himself into Beru's side and was eyeing Ben warily, his expression confused at the man's odd behavior before his attention was drawn elsewhere, his usual cheerful energy resurfacing. Luke simply wasn't old enough to recognize the kind of grief written across this man's whole body. It was beyond anything Beru had seen yet, and she'd seen Cliegg's grief at losing Shmi, her own mother's grief at losing her father and more; Tatooine was a hard planet. Its citizens were no strangers to loss. With a pained sigh, Ben's eyes slid shut and for a moment Beru nearly thought he'd passed out.

It looked like he hadn't been inside in days. His clothes were dusted with sand, as was his sunburnt face. His beard, usually so neatly trimmed, was beginning to look ragged and the skin around his eyes was tired, puffy and bruised looking. He looked like he hadn't slept in days.

Ben looked awful and it made Beru's heart hurt all that much more. But she was a practical woman, Tatooine born and bred; tears were water. So she swiped away the few that managed to escape and forcibly swallowed the rest. Then, clearing her throat, she stood and all but dumped Luke in Ben's arms. The toddler squirmed and looked up at her in bewilderment. The action startled Ben too, which was as she hoped. He looked up at Beru with an almost identical expression of confusion, though his was shadowed by exhaustion and grief. Beru nodded once, assuring herself at the success of her action and turned to enter the little house, her sense of practicality pushing her own grief aside.

"I'll get us something to drink. And you need to eat something," she said firmly over her shoulder. She spared a glance at the pair, pausing as Luke continued to squirm in Ben's loose arms, his little gaze wandering hither and yon and his small hands grasping and reaching for something to explore and investigate. A half-comprehensible, babbling demand escaped as the boy caught sight of something he wanted a closer look at. Suddenly eager to be free of the lap and restraining arms that held him, his wiggling intensified as, in his pidgin baby-talk, he began demanding more insistently that Ben release him to his investigation.

But then the toddler looked up to the heartbroken man holding him and stilled.

And Beru had to restrain herself from bursting into tears at the little boy's reaction.

His prospective adventuring forgotten, Luke's vibrant blue eyes fixed on Ben's haggard face before the toddler nestled himself against the grieving man's chest, his little thumb sneaking toward his mouth as he let loose a comforting stream of unintelligible baby noises. Ben froze—not that he hadn't been still before—his sightless eyes finally focusing on the sandy-haired boy in his arms. Then after inhaling a deep, shaking breath, Beru watched as his arms tightened and his bearded cheek lowered to rest against Luke's silky-soft hair. Beru couldn't help but smile, a small, hopeful feeling warming in her chest at the sight. It didn't chase away the grief, but it cheered her considerably.

He'd be all right, she assured herself.

Then she turned and ducked into the house to make them all some lunch.

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