When She Was Gone

Chapter 2

~11 years later~

Luke screamed in fright as the fighter went into a nosedive toward the planet's surface. Leia slammed the button that switched the controls to the copilot and yanked them up. Anakin was laughing.

"Daddy! That was not funny," Luke said angrily from the gunner turret, but he couldn't stop a smile from spreading across his face. Leia slumped in her seat, face white as a sheet. She punched her father's arm. He grinned and turned the ship towards home.

"I think that's enough practice for now," he said, still laughing.

"You think?" Leia cried, but she was smiling too.

Anakin set down next to the house. Padmé leaned against one of the signal poles, shaking seeds out of pods into a bowl. Her husband snatched it away and twirled her, then fluffed the bangs out of his eyes. Padmé giggled.

"All you're telling me is that you need a haircut," she said. Anakin lifted his scarred brow. Leia rolled her eyes on the way into the house.

She trailed her fingers along the walls absent-mindedly on the way to the kitchen. Once upon a time, when she was a baby, the uncovered brick could cut your fingers. But after years of being smoothed by constant moving of stone furniture, the walls became less lethal.

Leia swung around the kitchen entrance and whacked into R2, falling flat on her bum. He laughed. She scowled at him. "Don't worry about me, I can get up perfectly fine," she muttered. He beeped at her back as she turned the corner into the kitchen.

It wasn't really very much of a kitchen; there was a stove and counters and cabinets, but it wasn't very elaborate. Leia had always liked the simplicity of their house. Some of the extravagant places they had been to on missions (the ones the twins were allowed to come on) were frankly too much. Knickknacks covered every surface, surfaces that were made of slabs of extremely rare rocks. Embroidered tapestries from faraway planets hugged the walls. Did those people want to get robbed? Their wealth could be seen a mile away.

The Skywalkers' house was only lived in about half the time. The other half, Padmé had to go to a diplomatic meeting or the Rebellion needed them for another mission.

The bedrooms were what Anakin called "classic temple style," with only a bed, a bookshelf, a floor cushion, a box for personal treasures and a box for clothes. The living room/dining room had chairs and couches and a holo-board, but the toys were declared unnecessary when the twins turned five. The garage out back was the family's only indulgence. It was covered in shelves and tables and whatever Anakin's newest contraption was and whatever Luke and Leia's newest project was and whatever Padmé's newest designs for whatever she was working on was.

Leia snapped herself back from her mental tour of the house and pulled down a ration pack from the snack cupboard. She wandered out to the garage, munching on the dry cylinder. Luke was currently stationed refilling an oil pod.

"Hungry?" Leia held out another cylinder.

Luke jumped and spilled oil down his front. "Not currently," he said angrily, wiping his apron. She laughed at him.

~~

Makari removed her cape, sank onto the cushioned seat, and crossed her legs tightly beneath her. She allowed herself a moment of thought before sinking into meditation.