[Legacy Of The Force] - 02(46)

Ben stopped at the lift doors. “I don’t know. I was coming back from Fleet ComCen. Look, this is Jacen’s apartment. I ought to ask him if it’s okay to just go in.”

“It’s your home, too,” said Luke carefully. So Jacen really did control Ben now. This was a boy who didn’t even obey his mother when his life was at risk. It scared Luke, and then he found himself tearing his heart apart to be sure that he was genuinely afraid of Jacen’s influence, tinged with darkness, or if he was just hurt that his nephew had more of a paternal relationship with his kid than he did. “Come on.

Ben usually sighed and showed dissent. But now he just nodded, resigned, as if he’d suddenly grown a lot older in a matter of days.

They rode the turbolift in an uncomfortable silence punctuated only by Ben’s sniffs and coughs. His robe was dirty, as if he’d been rolling on the ground. When they got to the apartment, his first reaction was to head for the refresher. He stopped a few paces back from the doors and turned on his heel.

“Bottled water in the conservator,” he said.

The water supply to most of the center of the city was still cut off. Luke turned on the taps in the kitchen to drain off any water still standing in the pipes and header tanks. There was no point taking any chances.

“I can feel that you’re angry, Dad,” said Ben hoarsely. He slopped a bottle of water into a bowl and soaked a washcloth to wipe his face. He flinched when the cloth touched his skin, but he didn’t make a sound. “But it’s not Jacen’s fault. It’s mine. I decided not to go with him when he had his meeting.” He seemed about to expand on that but checked himself visibly. “I’ve learned my lesson.”

“It’s okay.” Mara caught Luke’s eye as Ben covered his face with the washcloth for a moment. Her expression said it all: Is this the rebellious son we know? “Let me get you something to drink. You sound awful.”

They ended up in the living room, the three of them sitting as far apart from one another as the room would allow. Ben sipped a glass of juice and occasionally broke into a hacking, uncontrollable cough that left him wheezing with tears streaming down his face. His sobriety stunned Luke.

Maybe Mara was right. Perhaps Luke was too mired in his own anxieties about where he had lost Ben along the way that he was mistaking Jacen’s motives. Apart from his terrible dreams and the darkness that trailed Jacen, he had nothing concrete to lay against his nephew, only evidence that Ben was settling down far better in his care than he ever had at home.

But they could sit in silence for a while. They didn’t have to talk. Almost out of habit, Luke let himself drift to pick up impressions from the apartment and felt nothing beyond a sense of unease, as if Jacen was having problems.

A man having a difficult love affair. Maybe that’s all it is.

But something told him that wasn’t true. What he did begin to feel, though, was his sister, somewhere near-and Jacen.

The doors opened and Jacen walked in with Han and Leia. It should have been a family reunion     of sorts, and a relieved one at that, but the expression on Han’s face said otherwise. Luke decided to take the lead.

“It’s okay, Jacen,” he said. “We made Ben let us in. He got caught up in the rioting. Dispersal gas.”

“I’m fine,” Ben sighed. “It’s wearing off.”

“Well, we’ve all had a little drama in our day, then.” Jacen ushered Leia and Han into the room. He radiated only concern and sympathy, nothing dark at all. “Mom and Dad nearly crash-landed, and Dad was nearly assassinated.”

Mara got up to plump cushions around Leia. “Sounds like a regular day in this family ..

“We’ll be heading back home as soon as we can find a replacement ship.” Han barely made eye contact with Luke. “The Falcon’s not so hot right now. Artoo’s carrying out repairs.”

“Why didn’t you let me know?”

Han shrugged. “We were kind of busy, trying not to plummet in flames. If Jacen hadn’t projected the Force through Leia, you’d have needed a shovel to pick us up at the spaceport.”

Luke tasted a chance to broker some peace, at least within his own family. It didn’t bode well for the galaxy if he couldn’t persuade even his own family to stick together. “Corellia doesn’t have to be home, Han. Come back. You’re safer here anyway.”

“Yeah, but there’s the small matter of my being Corellian, which isn’t fashionable right now, and your buddies attacking my homeworld because it won’t roll over and be the Alliance’s stooge while it plays at being the Empire again.”