By Becky Sims ([email protected])

The Twins (slightly revised from fanfix.com): Leia finds Luke in a dream; or is it a nightmare?

The Tea Party (Sequel to The Twins): Leia takes charge.

Disclaimer: These characters and the general situations belong to George Lucas, etc., and I'm not making any money from this -- just getting a lot of writing experience! -- so I'm not breaking any current copyright laws.

She was seeing now with a curious double vision. The motionless form of her brother lying on the bed was overlaid with an apparition. A young boy--his sun-bleached hair almost as white as his rugged desert clothes--stood in the doorway of a small sandstone hut, surrounded by nothing but bare, flat wasteland.

"Won't come out," he was saying with a pout. "Can't make me."

"Please," she murmured in her softest voice. "Please come out and be with me."

"Won't come out," he repeated with the bluntness of a child. "Hurts."

"What hurts?" she asked, looking carefully for scrapes or bruises. "What hurt you?"

Scared now, the child shook his head violently and backed quickly into the dark room behind him. "No! Don't want to talk. You go 'way. Grownups hurt…"

"Wait, please!" But the boy was gone, and all she saw now was the man, distressingly silent on the bed.

*****************

Stunned, Leia turned to Han, reaching for his comforting arms. "They hurt him. They hurt him so much he ran from them in his mind, hiding in a dark room where they couldn't find him."

"Ah, hon," he groaned. "Is he still there, did you find him?"

"Just a small boy, guarding the door," she wept. "He was even afraid of me. 'Grownups hurt,' he said."

Han looked over at his friend. The breeze from the window lifted a lock of Luke's hair, teasing it across his forehead. There was barely a mark on him, just the flat white bandage around his left wrist that hid dark bloody grooves from some sort of restraint. His unnatural paleness was accentuated by the bright sunlight that streamed through the window onto the thick brown and gold coverlet.

'How did they get to him,' Han wondered. 'With all those fancy Jedi powers, he could've stopped them if he wanted to.' Grimly Han acknowledged that his brother-in-law was entirely capable of choosing not to stop them. After all, if it hadn't been Luke it would have been someone else with no protection at all.

"Leia." He turned her face gently from his chest and wiped two silent tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. "Can you show yourself to him as a child?"

"He never knew me as a child." Her voice was rough with emotion. "He wouldn't recognize me."

"Why not? You recognized him--and after all, you're twins. You two are ...I don't know...connected somehow." Running a hand alongside her head, he buried his fingers in her soft, thick hair, then pulled her head to his chest again. "Try, hon. You have to try."

Leia sniffled a small laugh. "'Try.' Whenever someone says they'll try to do something Luke always says, 'No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.'" She pulled away from Han and turned back to the bed, renewed purpose flowing through her from the poignant memory of one of her brother's favorite axioms. "You're both right. I'll do it."

*****************

She twisted her heavy chestnut hair into a large knot on her nape and mentally reached out again, once more seeing the small boy standing frightened and alone in the doorway. But this time, she remembered what it was like to be that small, to be in need and wondering if there was anyone who cared, anyone who could help.

Leia stepped forward, her hair free and flowing around her shoulders as her proper aunts had rarely allowed when she was young.

"Luke, please come out and talk to me." Her voice once again had the sweet breathiness of a little girl.

Suspiciously, he asked, "What do you want? Who are you?"

"Your sister. You know me, in your heart." She could see his confusion and tried again. "I'm your twin."

"No...yes-s." She felt confusion from him, then recognition, which changed swiftly to panic; he slipped behind the door to hide. "Go! Go 'way, they'll hurt you, too! Run, fast as you can!"

"Luke," she called gently, "they're gone. They can't hurt me, and they can't hurt you anymore either."

The heartbreakingly young Luke peered out, his hair a brilliant contrast to the dark room behind. So softly she barely heard it, he asked, "They're gone? Really gone?"

She held out her hand to the boy, took the bandaged hand of the man on the bed. "Yes. Please let me come in, let me show you."

"I had to run away. I had to hide." His eyes pled with her to understand. He must have seen some reassurance in her face because after a moment he hesitantly stepped toward her, out into the fierce sunlight.

*****************

"I had to let them do it." The boy's voice gradually changed to the man's deeper timbre as he spoke. "They took so much pleasure in tormenting me they left everyone else alone. But I waited too long. When it was time, I didn't have enough strength left to fight back. All I could do was...go away."

"Oh, Luke." She wanted to cry, but instead, like his, her voice changed, growing into the dark, smoky tones of the adult whose own life had contained many terrible hurts. "Luke, let me help you. Let me come in, please."

The young Leia in the vision could see the child Luke extend his hand trustingly for her, folding her small hand in his and leading her to the doorway; and the Leia at the bedside realized that she felt, ever so slightly, the warm familiar resonance of her brother's mind. She reached for him with her feelings, struggling to remain calm and strong; her grip on his hand connecting them in the physical world as she sought the same connection through the Force.

"Luke," she said out loud, as the twins in her vision entered the pitch-black darkness together. Her voice sounded scratchy and too old in her ears.

"Luke!" she called again.

She felt a tentative touch in her mind, and then without any warning the pain and shock of his hideous experience shrieked toward her through their link. She had only a moment to brace herself before the paralyzing wave of raw emotion broke full force over her, a torrent that tried to sweep her away along with his agony. She heard a cry, dimly aware it was her own; felt Han holding her up as she battled to maintain the fragile connection. Then she gave up any thought of the outside world, any thought of protecting herself as she fought to reach her brother, to help him as he tried to come back to her.

*****************

Pain in her hand brought her gradually back to the bedside. She saw with mixed relief and concern that Luke's eyes were squeezed shut, his breathing fast and shallow. Her hand hurt from his powerful grip; fueled, she knew now, by shattering memories. When she gently touched his face with her free fingers he cried out and his eyes flew open, staring in terror at scenes that no longer existed.

"It's all right, Luke, you're safe, you're here with us now." She hardly knew what she said, sure only that he needed to hear her voice, to know that he truly was safe and no longer in that room of appalling violence.

Han's deep voice added a deliberately casual note of reassurance. "Hey kid, welcome back to the land of the livin'."

"Leia? Han?" Luke said faintly, his voice harsh over the faint rustle of trees outside the window. A lock of hair, dark now that he didn't live under the brutal suns of his childhood world, fell over his shadowed eyes as he gradually focused on his sister and best friend. "Then I'm not dreaming," he breathed.

Leia smiled joyously at Han, then her brother. She delicately brushed the errant lock of his hair back. "No, you're not dreaming," she said, her soft voice soothing and calm.

"But--" Remembered horror clouded his eyes, remembered pain triggered excruciating cramps throughout his body.

Leia grabbed his hand in both fists and said fiercely, "No. Don't think about it. We got everyone out, and they're all safe." Her voice gentled and she sent soothing, healing thoughts to him through the link.

The vicious spasms slowly subsided as she continued talking. "You saved them all, Luke. Now we just have to get you well."

He searched her face with pain-filled eyes, then looked over at Han who grinned his lopsided smile and nodded in agreement. "She's right, kid. So just relax and get better, okay?"

The tension suddenly left Luke's battered body and he looked exhausted. Ever so slightly he nodded, then his eyelids started to droop as he slipped towards healing sleep. "Okay, but," haunted blue eyes opened hazily to meet warm, feminine brown, "stay with me?"

She smiled. "For as long as you need me."

A slight smile touched his mouth in return, and as he closed his eyes she thought she heard him say very faintly, through the remnants of the fading link, "Twin."

Flanked by the same wordless, clanking protocol droid that had ushered him into the empty sitting room, Chief Investigator Oran Kalo'an scrutinized President of the New Republic and Royal Princess of Alderaan Leia Organa-Solo as she entered the richly decorated chamber, quietly shutting the door behind her. With great dignity he rose from the embroidered chair the droid had previously indicated for his use and bowed slightly. He'd heard that the Chief of State was a small woman and intended to use his height and bulk to intimidate her into letting him talk with Luke Skywalker. He saw in that first instant, though, that he'd grossly underestimated her and quickly changed his approach.

"Madam President," he said gravely. "I hope your brother is recovering."

She directed a searching look his way, her dark eyes wide and innocent. "Thank you for your concern, Chief Investigator. We see some improvement, but he is far from well."

The Investigator relaxed back into his chair as she took a seat on a small couch across from him and motioned to the golden protocol droid. It left the room to the sound of untuned servomotors while they sat, silently evaluating each other. Kalo'an was just about to speak when it reentered, unsteadily bearing a tea service. He eyed the droid uneasily as it set the tray with a small rattling thump on the petite chenya-wood table between them. It then clanked its way to a stance just inside the door, and he had the distinct feeling it was watching him.

The President behaved as if it were perfectly normal for one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in the galaxy to have a broken down and obsolete droid in her service. She merely asked, "I hope you'll join me--by the way, are you always addressed as Chief Investigator, or may I call you Mr. Kalo'an?" At his nod she continued. "The tral'yor tea of your planet is one happy memory I will have of our trip here."

He controlled a wince at her slight emphasis on the word 'one,' and acquiesced with a wave of his hand.

She poured for them both, startling him. He'd never had a senior politician serve him tea before; the lines of power were very carefully drawn on his world. After sipping from the delicate cup she leaned back and spoke with the precision of an experienced politician. "How may we assist you with your investigation?"

He drank briefly from his tea, tacitally agreeing that it was indeed one of his home world's finest products, and put the cup back on the tray. "Madam, to be perfectly blunt, I need to speak with Master Skywalker."

Her reaction was swift and emphatic. "No. Absolutely not."

"Is he unable to talk?" Kalo'an frowned. "I'm sorry, I was given to understand he had recovered his senses."

She set her cup on the small table and sighed. "Your information is correct, but he is far too weak for questioning."

He leaned forward in his effort to impress upon her the urgency of his request. "But I must talk to him. I have to know exactly what happened." His words triggered a flash of irritation in her dark eyes as she straightened.

"That is exactly why you will not speak with him. He needs more time to recover before bringing back those terrible memories."

Now a thread of anger entered her tone. "As a Jedi Master, he is more resilient than anyone you have ever met, sir. That is why he survived. But his strength of character does not entitle us to take advantage of him, to deny him the compassion he deserves, to deprive him of the time he needs to heal."

"But we don't have time." He pushed harder. "That's what I'm trying to tell you. He must give us the information we need to hold these people for trial and to protect the citizens of this world. It's his duty."

"His duty!" the President repeated scathingly. She rose, seething, and in spite of her diminutive stature towered over him as she gave her royal temper full rein in measured, biting words. "Mr. Kalo'an, my brother's duty was fulfilled when he walked into that room of his own free will so that your citizens would live. His duty was more than fulfilled over those three long days when that scum tortured him and he held on, knowing that every hour he lasted was an hour one of your citizens was spared. He protected the people of your world and it almost cost him his sanity and his life. Don't talk to me about his duty!" she spat, sharply turning her back on him.

Abruptly released from her bitter regard Kalo'an collapsed backwards into his chair, trembling inside. Never in all his years with the planetary investigations branch had he dealt with such a powerful personality. He searched blindly for his tea, and only his training kept his hand from shaking.

A sip of the hot brew gave him a moment to try to bring his thoughts together. Compelled to be honest with himself he conceded her point. Luke Skywalker had done more for people he didn't know, for a planet he'd never seen before, than had the citizens who were born and raised here. Kalo'an wanted to accommodate the Chief of State but, unfortunately, her brother was their key and only witness.

"You're right," he said finally.

She turned to face him in surprise.

Kalo'an went on quietly. "He has no obligation to us, but I have to ask. You do know that if I don't have official verification by tomorrow morning, I will be required to set that very scum loose? By our laws, I can't hold them any longer."

He silently implored her to reconsider. "You know they'll leave the planet and we'll never find them."

*****************

"By your laws..." she said thoughtfully, and slowly returned to her seat.

She picked up her teacup again, gazing absentmindedly at him over its rim, and then asked conversationally as she settled back into the couch, "Did you know that the citizens of Yavin 4 have special protection under the interplanetary laws of the New Republic?"

"What?" The President had thrown Kalo'an off balance once more, an experience he began to suspect was distressingly normal for those who worked closely with her.

"Um-hmm." Amazingly, her eyes were twinkling at him. "A crime against a citizen of Yavin 4 is a crime against the government of the New Republic, and could possibly be considered treason." Dryly she added, "Of course, I'd have to get an official opinion on that. Until the legal issues are sorted out, the New Republic holds jurisdiction and it, as I'm sure you know, can hold the citizens of any member world indefinitely."

Kalo'an might be a provincial where interplanetary politics were concerned, but he hadn't risen to his present rank by being a fool. He asked idly, "And Master Skywalker, would he happen to be a citizen of Yavin 4?"

She nodded slightly, much as if she were addressing a class of particularly talented law students. "My brother established the Jedi Academy several years ago on the fourth moon of the planet Yavin. The Senate felt that it rated special consideration and protection, since it would be training the Jedi of the future. He is the primary Master of the Jedi and resides there whenever State duties do not require his presence elsewhere." Her mouth curved upward in a demure smile. "Tell me, do you know a judge?"

*****************

The Chief Investigator stood, his mind racing. After a moment he asked, "Perhaps you would be available to host a small gathering this evening? Just a thank-you to a few select people who were instrumental in rescuing the Jedi Master?"

She rose as well, holding her hand out to him. As he took it he was struck again by how petite and delicate she appeared. He mentally shook himself. He really should know better.

Her soft voice carried a trace of amusement as it broke into his thoughts. "I'll expect the guest list from you within the hour. Drinks at sunset, dinner afterwards."

Accompanying him to the front door she grew serious again. "Mr. Kalo'an," and this time his name didn't sound like a swear word, "I will eventually allow access to my brother, but it must be when he is ready."

"I understand, Your Highness, and may I say that working with you is a pleasure." He realized with a start that, in spite of feeling like he'd been dragged through a gauntlet, for once he was saying that trite phrase with complete sincerity.

"Your protocol droid will have the list as soon as I return to my office. And I would also like to say," he added in a courtly voice he hadn't known he possessed, "I hope, for his own sake and no other reason, that Master Skywalker continues to improve."

He bowed again, and suddenly found himself on the outside of the guest quarters. Taking a deep, slow breath, he let the air flow out of his lungs with a whoosh, and ran lightly to his aircar.

*****************

Leia returned to the sitting room and collapsed on the couch. She'd accomplished her goal--time for Luke to sleep, to heal; time before he had to face his memories. An evening's entertaining was a small price to pay.

"Threepio!" she called to the golden droid who had played his part so perfectly, "I need your help..."