Star Nomad Cast (starnomadnpc) wrote in starnomad, @ 2016-06-11 11:38:00 |
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Entry tags: | character: anakin solo, character: han solo, date: [63.04], location: mon calamari (dac) |
Who: Anakin Solo & Han Solo
When: 63.04
Where: New Coral City, Dac (Mon Calamari)
What: Han's there when his kid wakes up.
Rating: Low
Status: COMPLETE.
The first thing Anakin became aware of was a faint beeping noise, the sort of electronic sound that had not been something he'd heard much of recently. His first thought was that they'd found something in the lower levels of Coruscant that was still running off of back-up generator power - not unheard of, if not terribly likely - but the thought made no sense and he drifted out again. The next time he woke, it was to the same noise but with the greater awareness that he was someplace too clean and well-kept to be the underlevels of Coruscant, or really any place on Coruscant under the current conditions. His eyes followed his command more easily this time, and he pushed them fully open, checking his body as he might a space-craft: could he feel everything, what wouldn't work, did anything seem in need of further care or exploration. At the end of it, he reached out in the Force to find Rikki, but she was nowhere particularly nearby. "Rikki?" He asked, trying to keep the edge out of his voice. He turned his head, making to roll over on his side and push up to see the room more clearly, but that was aborted after his body alerted him to the terribleness of that idea. "Rikki?" There was a presence in the room though, and it was one he recognized although he wasn't certain it made sense for where he'd last been - "Dad?" "Woah, hold on there." Han spoke soft, a warm rumble in his chest as he sat up. In the hours sitting next to Anakin's bed Han had drifted off, his mind wanting to be anywhere but having to stare at his son's pale face and hoping that he would wake up. It didn't matter if the med droids and healers had all said Anakin would be fine, Han was too close with the edge of losing his boys forever that he didn't want to be stood right in front of it center stage. Leia was finally asleep, weariness taking over her as Han dozed back and forth between reality at Anakin's side. Somehow in the space of a few hours they had gone from having lost both their sons to them both coming back, little miracles that Han wasn't entirely sure he deserved but knew he'd take even if somehow they had tricked fate to get them. her hand reached out, resting heavy on the pillow next to Anakin's head. His boy's eyes were awake, growing more alert by the second. Maybe waking up would even bring some color back to his cheek, the blood lost replaced by medicine and the force. "You got hit pretty bad, kid. Don't get up." It was his father and it felt as if a weight has lifted off of him as the voice was recognized and the face came into focus. Anakin had been making his own decisions for so long with no one really there to support him outside of most recently Rikki, and he'd forgotten what it felt like to feel for an instant that maybe his parents had him and he'd be all right to keep laying down for a second. But there was some confusion that followed that, because where was he? Where was Rikki? They'd been on Coruscant. He'd felt Jacen. He had been nowhere near his parents but everything after he'd been hit - cause his dad was right he'd been hit - was kind of a blur. His tongue flicked put to moisten his lips and his inventory of his muscles and body said he could move his arm so he did, just enough to find his dad's hand on the pillow to cover it. "Where am I? Where's Rikki? I thought I-" he hesitated. Had he dreamed Jacen? There was a quiet ache in his chest that Han couldn't tell anymore if it was good or bad when Anakin reached for him. Right now in this bed he looked every bit the kid that really he should have gotten the chance to be. Not that he could argue against what Anakin had done, not really. How much trouble was he in when he was Anakin's age? Hell, Leia was on her way to running a rebellion. Luke was the only one who was even pretending to maybe still be a kid. So instead he bit back that sight even as he kept his hand still to keep Anakin's resting against his own. "Daq, military's medbay, and she's with Luke and Mara last I checked. And thinking won't be a strong suit for you right now." Han commented easily as he leaned closer to the bed. "Luke dragged her off soon as he could." Rikki was with Luke and Mara. Anakin relaxed a little bit further at that point. He could feel her in the Force, even if it wasn't the incredibly close brilliance that he'd more or less grown used to, but he could still feel her in a way that he still wasn't entirely used to. Whatever had changed on Coruscant - it seemed to have permanently altered his ability to know that she was alive and breathing and well. And Anakin couldn't consider this a bad thing at all. He nodded at his Dad's words, and for a moment he ran that information over in his head. They were back at Daq, so somehow he'd made it back into New Republic space - and Rikki had. "Good," he finally offered and he turned to look at his dad, hesitant to bring up Jacen, but he was almost certain that he'd felt his brother. Hesitantly, because maybe he really had dreamed it, he couldn't quite be certain except that whatever had happened, he'd been out for the length of time between Coruscant and Daq, which wasn't an insignificant period of travel time even at lightspeed. His hand shifted a little, but stayed with his Dad's. "What about Jace?" Han took note that Anakin asked after Rikki before anyone else. Sure from what little he had heard apparently they had been together for a at least a little while on Coruscant doing whatever it was that Anakin had ran off to do. Whatever their relationship was, a situation like that only served to strengthen it. After all hadn't he met Luke and Leia under just as dire conditions? And look where that had gotten them. With the mention of Jacen, Han let a breath go he hadn't known he was holding. Leaning back against his chair but keeping his hand in his son's, Han shrugged slightly. "He's off with that boy of his. Lyric. And the kids. Slipped off right after they cleared him." "Then I didn't dream him," Anakin whispered, and he closed his eyes and let out a breath of his own. Somehow, and Anakin wasn't even certain how it had happened, because he'd believed it would be a nearly impossible situation, he and Rikki had managed to find Jacen and somehow - which Anakin had even less knowledge about - they'd managed to get themselves back to Daq, back to his parents, and Jacen back to Lyric, where Anakin had accepted back on Hapes was really where Jacen seemed to belong. His brother was okay, alive, with Lyric. His throat tightened a little and he drew a breath in before turning back to his Dad. "I'll hunt him down when they let me out of this bed." He shifted a little, winced, and decided that first thing after he cleared this conversation was going to be a healing trance. Instead he rolled enough to his side to look at his Dad's face. He looked older. That had been true for a while Anakin realized. It had been true since Sernpidal, really. There was grey mixed in with his Dad's hair that Anakin was pretty certain hadn't been there a few years ago while the lines on his face looked a bit more haggard. Probably Anakin had caused a few of those himself running off... it had been necessary, maybe, but adding to his Dad's worries really wasn't something Anakin ever wanted to do. "Any idea when that'll be?" "Longer than you'd like." Han offered, because he knew the kid likely already wanted to get out of bed. He was just like his mother that way, even if Anakin might think Luke. But Leia could never be kept in bed, no matter what was wrong with her. "Which means about as long as it takes you to sweet talk a doctor into letting you out early. Which I won't be helping with, you've been through a lot and could use the rest." Anakin needed rest, they all needed rest. Han wished Jacen was in the bed next to Anakin, so that he could watch over them both and make sure they were real. For too long he'd worried that Jaina was the only one left, even if Leia insisted that she could still feel their sons in the force. For the longest time Han never thought the hole in his chest could get any larger, and then the galaxy had teased him the loss of both his sons. Somehow he had them back and Han wasn't sure he'd ever been so grateful for a miracle or the force or whatever was behind it. "You brought him back." Han turned his hand to grip onto Anakin's, squeezing. "You came back. Should have seen your uncle's face when they told him Rikki was along for the ride with you two...." Han fell quiet for a moment. "you did good, kid." Something in Anakin broke and he found his eyes heated with tears. For so long he'd thrown himself into the fight to fix something that was broken. Maybe it hadn't just been the galaxy either. It had been the look in his father's eye's ever since Sernpidal, ever since he'd left Chewie behind, and no matter how many times he could replay it in his mind to remind himself that he'd done his best - the best that he knew how and that even now, with all the experience later that he had, he couldn't see anyway to do it differently, ever since then he'd been pushing himself to do better, be more, fix... everything. Even if he had at times throughout the past year felt that he couldn't fix anything. And right now, he wasn't certain he'd fixed anything really. Finding Rikki had been a stroke of luck, or maybe the Force, but either way, Anakin had truly had precious little to do with the reality of it. Jacen, even less so - that had been Rikki's knowledge, and a stroke of good fortune he hadn't believed that he would have. "I thought I wasn't going to find her," the words tumbled out. "I could feel her, I was certain she was still alive, but I had no idea how to find her, and then I just stumbled upon her patrol. She'd set up a resistance on Coruscant, and Kunra and I stumbled into it. It had to be the Force, because I had no idea except that I didn't think she was dead. And when she told me about Jacen, I -I couldn't feel him? In the Force, I couldn't before and I couldn't then, and -" He looked over at his Father although Han's features were blurred through the tears. "It all had to be the Force. It wasn't me. I had no idea what I was doing, I was just ... trying to help right things one being at a time?" "Woah, hold it there." Han sat up, leaning forward fast enough that the chair followed with him. The words were tumbling out of Anakin faster than Han really knew how to deal with them, not that he knew how to deal with them in the best of times. None of this was stuff he had ever been very good with but right now a son he'd thought was gone forever was instead next to him and putting the entire galaxy on his shoulders. And the little Leia that lived in his head was reminding him ever so helpfully that this was his fault to begin with. He should have been there for Anakin and he hadn't, he couldn't. He'd failed as a father and this was his shot at being less of a screw up. "You did good, okay?" Han looked straight into Anakin's eyes, even as that clear bright blue was blurring with tears. "I'm proud of you." Anakin nodded, his gaze staying focused on his dad's as he grabbed on to it and held and for a moment - even if it wouldn't last - he was grateful for the chance to hold onto something more tangible than the Force. Something real and beside him right now. His hand squeezed around Han's and he nodded again, while his other hand lifted to his eyes to brush away the moisture. "Thanks," he managed, just barely above a whisper. For a moment it seemed possible that maybe his family would make it through this without any further losses. After all, Jacen's loss had been enough, right? Rikki's loss? His mother's time spent recovering from serious injuries? Chewie? Their home? It had all been enough, when they'd fought so hard to try to make it better. "I found... some Yuuzhan Vong that weren't all bad. Seems like some of their slaves and shamed ones have different views on everything." "You're the one that did all the work, don't thank me." Han nodded slightly anyway and gave Anakin's hand a squeeze. At least for now the kid seemed to be calming down, which meant the racing of Han's own heart subsided. He might be a jedi and he might have spent a fair bit of time in the tank but Han had been around enough injuries to know just how dire the looks on the doctors faces had been. Anakin nearly hadn't made it and Han wouldn't surviving losing his son again. "Yeah? Sounds like something you'll need to fill me in on." "I had help," Anakin said quietly. "Kunra, and Rikki, and a lot of Rikki's people. I couldn't have done it on my own. Rikki - helped a lot really. I don't think I've ever met anyone quite as determined as she is." He stopped and looked at his Dad for a minute. There was a lot to say about Rikki and about everything on Coruscant, and he couldn't feel that he could speak of Rikki without saying way more than he probably should. And that was a conversation he really wasn't certain he was ready to have with either of his parents. Would they even understand just how much she meant to him? He pressed his lips together for a minute before he decided questions might be safer anyway. "What about everything here? Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara are all right? Jaina? Ben?" "You have, her name's Leia." Han drawled easily with a sigh. Anakin had always wanted to be too much like him, even if he really as the spitting image of Luke. Still Han remembered that girl from the Undercity, more determination than survival instincts. She had a way of just worming into his good graces at a time when most people couldn't stand to be with him for more than a moment. And somehow the girl had ended up in Luke and Mara's good graces, though neither of them had decided to fill him in on how it fit in. There was no way that girl was actually Mara's niece. "Jaina's on her way, she was on mission when you came in." Han nodded slightly along with his bits of information. "Your mother's doing well, better now that you both are back. The Skywalkers are as foolhardy as always, but they're all stationed here and in one piece." Anakin's cheeks flushed a little even as his lips turned up in a lopsided grin that was so much like his father's. He supposed his mom was pretty determined. He wasn't certain if his mother or if Rikki would win the determination race. Rikki had stayed alive despite all odds, which possibly inched her up just a little bit. Maybe. It might still be a pretty close tie. "Good. I want to see Jaina. And I want to be out of this bed," he sighed then and glanced at the hand he'd kept in his Father's. "But it's nice to be home." "And she wants to see you." Han fell silent for a moment as he watched Anakin. From what little he had heard, Anakin was following way more in the footsteps of his mother than him. Reaching out to people, pulling them together, that was what Leia was good at even if she could be a little hardheaded about it at times. He had to wonder if any of his kids really took after him. Maybe that was a good thing, really. "We thought we'd lost both of you." Han's voice was quiet. Anakin looked up to meet his Dad's eyes, holding the gaze for a moment before ducking his head and looking away. "I'm sorry, Dad," he said quietly. "I should have talked to you and Mom first. Or I guess anyone really. I just was afraid you'd tell me not to go, and I had to. Other people can fly X-wings, or do the sorts of things the Jedi here were being asked to do, but after Yavin IV, I just felt I needed to do something out there. I didn't want to make you worry." "You get that from Leia, you know." Han sighed, shaking his head. Of course Anakin would decide to do what he thought needed to be done, running off without telling anyone. Not that Han could in theory disagree with him. But right now this was his son and Han didn't want to admit just how close they had all come to losing each other forever. Han's heart couldn't handle that much loss, he knew it. "You should get some more rest. You hungry? I can try and charm up some food for you." Anakin gave his Dad a lopsided grin. "Right, cause you never just ran into something just to help someone before." It was maybe a risk, that tease, but it didn't feel like it. For the first time in a really long time Anakin felt like it was possible that he and his Dad were all right. It inspired a sense of feeling almost giddy and he realized he hadn't been aware of how much he'd worried about what his Dad was thinking of him. Having brought Jacen back, and Anakin didn't know if he wanted to think about what would have happened if Jacen hadn't been with him, but having done so, he could breathe again. "Yeah, yeah, I'm going to do a healing trance so I can get out of here. But maybe some food first," he shrugged. "That doesn't sound like me at all." Han offered the slightest bit of a grin to match his son's. He was getting older and so were his kids. They couldn't even be kids anymore, or had they ever really had the chance to be? All Leia and him had wanted was the chance for them to grow up without all this. And the galaxy as usual had had other plans. But right now his boys were alive and Anakin was smiling. Maybe for today that could be enough to keep him together. "All right then." Han stood up, slowly letting go of his son's hand. "I'll scrounge something up. Try not to fall asleep while I'm gone or i'll eat it myself." |