Embers: Sequel to Crash and Burn

“Come on, Allana,” Jacen said impatiently. “Just pick something.”

“I can’t pick,” Allana whined. She looked desperately at the dozens of outfits hanging in her small closet. “There are too many dresses. And I don’t get to wear them very much. Can I wear two?”

“No. That will look ridiculous. Just pick one. You like blue and purple, so why don’t you pick one of the dresses that’s blue or purple? Or both?”

“There are eight blue ones, five purple ones, and three that are both.” Allana pushed several of the gowns out of the way and indicated the many hangers holding blue and purple dresses.”

“Two of them don’t fit you anymore, though, so, um… how about this?” Jacen pulled one of the dresses down, a pale blue dress with pastel lavender lace all over the bodice and a fringe of purple stones hanging from the hem.

“No. We don’t wear light colors to dinner.” She rolled her eyes in exasperation at Jacen's lack of manners. She grabbed a deep purple dress with blue trim and sapphires. “I will wear this one.”

“And exactly how are you going to explain where you got it? Someone might ask, and everybody knows that I don’t have enough money to buy something with that many sapphires.”

“Your mom and dad know about me. And we can tell them that they’re just glass.”

“You don’t mind if people think you’re wearing glass?”

“I mind. But I don’t want anybody to take me away.”

Jacen smiled. “All right. Deedee will help you get dressed and put your hair up, and then we’ll leave. We have to be at my parents’ condo in an hour.”

“Where’s Uncle Anakin? He’s going to be late if he doesn’t get home soon. He still has to take a bath and put his clothes on and he takes too long. He needs a droid to help him.”

“He had to work on a ‘fresher leak at the Temple. He’s going to be a little bit late, but that’s okay; your grandmother already knows about it.”

Jacen’s comlink buzzed and he stepped into the hall to take the call while Allana got dressed.

“Jacen, this is Anakin. I couldn’t get Mom to pick up her comm. Can you tell her that I’m not going to be there tonight? The leaky pipe is a lot lower in the wall than we thought and it’s going to take me a few hours to fix it.”

“Can’t you do it later?”

“Not unless we want raw sewage spilling out into the lightsaber training room. And you know how long the stench of Yathusan sewage lingers.”

“All right, fine. Who’s there with you?”

“I’m fixing the leak myself. That’s why it’s going to take three hours. I have to dismantle the wall and re-route all the wires running through it.”

“Look, I have a better idea. This is their thirtieth anniversary and we can’t just skip the dinner. I’ll come over and help you, and we’ll both get there a little late, but we won’t really miss much.”

“Yeah. That would be great... but who’s going to take Allana?”

“I’ll page Jaina and ask her to pick Allana up.”

Jacen waited until Allana came out of her room, all dressed up and in a pair of flat blue shoes. “Allana, there’s an emergency at the Temple. Nobody’s hurt, but Anakin needs help fixing something that broke, and I’m going to help him.”

“You have to take me to Princess Leia’s house,” said Allana.

“I’ll meet you there later. Jaina will come and pick you up in about fifteen minutes, and you can ride with her and Zekk and Nilla and Verayan.”

Allana hmphed, but nodded. “All right.”

“Good. Thank you. Now I have to go, and Deedee with be here with you.” He started to go for the door. “Oh, damn. I forgot all about Jaina’s wrist chrono. I keep meaning to bring it back to her but I never remember to get it. See if you can find it in the junk drawer; it’s black and small, and it would fit you if you put it on the tightest setting. Give it back to Jaina when she gets here. Don’t go near the knives.”

Allana agreed, and Jacen left. Eager to do something all on her own, Allana rushed into the kitchen and started pulling open drawers. She found the junk drawer, but didn’t see a chrono; she found cards, a few keys, dice, coins, plastic caps, twisty ties for bread, and all sorts of things that should have been thrown away except that someone might have thought they might come in handy at some point. She didn’t see any chrono.

Allana sorted through the rest of the kitchen drawers, carefully avoiding the silverware drawer, but didn’t find anything other than kitchen towels, poultry basters, and other boring things. Wait, maybe it’s not in the kitchen, she thought. Maybe Daddy took it to his room and forgot!

Allana waved Deedee’s protests away and went into Jacen’s bedroom. The bed was made neatly for once, and the floor was picked up. She tiptoed over to his dresser, and pulled out the top drawer.

I bet the chrono is in here. Daddy is silly. Allana didn’t see a chrono, but she did see a lot of other pieces of jewelry. She saw a pair of blue sashes, made of silk, but slightly warped, as if they’d been tied and twisted tightly a few times. That’s not how you take care of silk sashes! She held one of them up to herself in the mirror. It perfectly matched her gown.

Allana tied one of them around her hair – the blue went nicely with the auburn color, she decided – and took off the purple ribbon at her waist to replace it with the second sash. There, much better! I wonder what else he has in here for me that he’s been hiding!

She picked up a silver ring. It was much too large to be a finger ring, but too small to be an adult’s bracelet. It was shiny silver with clear, smooth-polished stones set into the outside surface, and it clasped closed with a smoothly locking clasp on one side that wouldn’t pinch skin but wouldn’t come open unless it was snapped in a certain way. Allana fitted the bracelet over her right wrist and snapped it closed. It was just the right size for her.

Now excited to be finding such treasure, Allana searched deeper in the drawer. She pushed aside a half-empty jar of petroleum jelly, a poor man’s version of jewelry polish and protectant, and a few other bottles of scented oil. Necklace! She pulled out a soft faux gold chain. The chain links were delicate-looking but actually made of a flexible, yet strong, soft polymer that looked like gold. On the polymer string were seven 40-millimeter beads, silvery and pearlescent. Allana wasn’t sure that the pearls would match her clothes, but she put them on anyway, and decided that she liked them after all. Pearls that big must be very expensive, and she didn’t get to dress up very often anymore.

There wasn’t much more in there that interested her, until her hand brushed against something large and cylindrical in the back of the drawer. She pulled it out and her mouth dropped open. Uncle Anakin left his lightsaber here! I should take it with me to Princess Leia’s house so I can give it back to him. He might need it. But what if he needs it at the Temple and doesn’t have it?

Allana examined the lightsaber very carefully, making sure not to touch the activation switch. She noticed that the base didn’t look quite right, and thought maybe the lightsaber was broken. What if it’s broken and Uncle Anakin doesn’t know about it? She knew that broken lightsabers could be very, very dangerous. But she had to find out whether this one worked or not, because Anakin needed to know, too.

She took a deep breath for courage, pointed the lightsaber away from her and away from all the furniture, and pressed the activation button.

A small purple stick, not glowing, extended out about twenty centimeters from the handle. Allana frowned at it, then hesitantly poked Jacen’s bedpost with it. Nothing happened.

It’s a training lightsaber, she thought, and pushed the second button on the handle. The inert blade hummed and thrummed and made the handle shake a little bit, much like a real lightsaber would. A training lightsaber – for me!

Allana deactivated the saber and clipped it to her waist sash. She couldn’t wait to show Nilla and Verayan. A training lightsaber to practice with, so that she’d be able to make her own real one when she knew how to use it and not get hurt.

The doorbell rang, and Jaina came to the door. Allana smoothed out her hair and stood on her tiptoes to see through the peephole. It looked like Jaina, at least. “What’s the password?” she asked.

“Blue eggs and bantha beef,” Jaina called back.

Allana opened the door and nodded. “Very good. You remembered this time. But I couldn’t find your wrist chrono.”

“What chrono? Oh, the one I lost here. Don’t worry about it; I already bought another one. Now, are you ready to go? Is Deedee coming with us?”

“I don’t think so. You can watch me until we get to Princess Leia’s house and then Daddy will come over.”

Verayan sat on Zekk’s lap in the front seat of the speeder car. Allana and Nilla squeezed into the back with Zekk’s sister Ingvor, who had actually put on clean and ironed clothes that matched and weren’t faded. “You should wear a dress,” Allana said.

“I don’t do dresses,” Ingvor said. “Can’t run in ‘em.”

“I don’t think we’re going to have to do any running. We’re going to my in-laws’ condo,” Zekk pointed out.

“Yeah, well, you never know. And where am I supposed to find human dresses for a woman my height?”

“Same place I do,” said Jaina.

“And where is that?”

“At the tailor.”

“That’s different. You can always take up a hem. You can’t just create one where it doesn’t exist. And I’m not paying two hundred credits for one made to measure. I think you’re just mad that I look better in men’s pants than Zekk does.”

Zekk reached behind the seat and pulled Ingvor’s hair. She pulled his right back.

“Kriffing hells. You two are thirty, not three.” Jaina looked away from the spacelanes for a moment to glare at Ingvor, and then she elbowed Zekk in the ribs.

“Mommy, you’re not supposed to say kriffing,” Nilla sang.

“Mommy, Nilla needs soap in her mouth because she said the K-word too,” Verayan said.

“Daddy, Verayan tattled on me.”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“SHUT UP!” Jaina shouted. “Do you want me to wreck into somebody?”

They got to the condo without incident, though, and the whole group was admitted without delay to the large apartment belonging to Han and Leia.

Allana had never been there before, and she tried very hard to remember her manners as she walked around. It didn’t look much like the palace on Hapes, and was a lot smaller, but it was a few steps up from the bachelor pad on the other side of town that she was stuck in. “I like the walls,” she said, since she remembered Jacen telling her that if she couldn’t say anything nice, it was better to say nothing at all, but her grandmother had taught her that to say nothing was also rude. The walls were all that she could think of that were very pretty, with painted and etched molding along top and bottom edges and multi-colored plants embedded into the surface of the walls, growing in curlicue patterns that changed as they matured.

“Thank you, Lannie,” said Leia. She was a small woman, hardly any bigger than Jaina, and she had silver in her brown hair. She reminded Allana just a little bit of Teneniel; they were both her grandmothers. Leia then glanced over at Ingvor, who was already lounging on one of the couches.

“Ingvor knows,” Jaina said. “It’s the Force bond.”

“The Force bond?”

“She has a twin bond with Zekk, and it kind of, um, extends to anybody else they’re bonded with, but it weakens at a few levels out. So she has a little bit of a bond with me. And an even weaker one with Jacen. And just a little itty bit with, uh, Tenel Ka. So she knows about Allana.”

Ingvor smiled without changing any other part of her expression and nodded.

“But Nilla and Verayan...”

“Yeah, there’s that. So she’s still Lannie. Uh, Mom, Jacen and Anakin are going to be late. Something about a sewage leak at the Temple. They should be here in about an hour.”

“Maybe we should wait and eat later, then,” Leia mused. “They’ll probably be hungry.”

“But Princess,” C-3P0 protested, “the food will get cold! You can’t eat amari oysters when they’re cold, because they won’t taste like food to humans.”

“Can’t you just put them back in the oven for a little while?”

“Yes, but they might still get the wrong color. The red patches will turn blue.”

Leia nodded. “All right, then, we can eat now, and save some of everything else for Jacen and Anakin.”

They sat down at the table, with Han at the head of the table. Allana started to protest and say that that seat should be Leia’s, but she was starting to learn that manners on Coruscant were different than manners on Hapes. On Hapes, he wouldn’t have dared to do such a thing, but on Coruscant, it was okay. And Leia didn’t seem to mind, so that was good enough for Allana. She, Nilla, Verayan, and Ingvor sat on one side of the table, across from Leia, Jaina, and Zekk.

“It’s a shame Jacen and Anakin aren’t here,” Leia said after the food was passed around. “I don’t get to see them very much.”

“I do,” said Allana.

“I know you do, sweetie, because you live with them.” She paused thoughtfully. “Zekk, do you happen to know any single women?”

“Hi,” said Ingvor, and Zekk nodded in agreement.

“Ah, well, I don’t know... I was thinking that it might be a good idea if he would meet someone. It’s been a few months now, and he seems to be doing better now that Anakin and Lannie are with him, but I still think he might be better off if he was dating someone.”

Jaina suddenly found her tuber salad fascinating. “Uh, I don’t mean this the wrong way, Lady Solo, but I don’t think I’m Jacen’s type,” Ingvor said. “OW. Jaina, that wasn’t necessary. What I meant was, well, he needs a Jedi, right? OUCH! Stop it! Besides, I don’t know if I really like men that way.”

Han threw up his hands. “Damn it, not you, too. It’s bad enough that Anakin was with another man. Don’t tell me that you date women.”

“I don’t date anybody,” Ingvor said.

“What the hell is wrong with people nowadays?” Han went on, barely registering Ingvor’s remark. “Even when we were running from the Emperor, a few things were simple. Men marry women. They have children, or maybe not, but they could if they wanted to. None of this wrong-hole business.”

“Dad, can we change the subject?” Jaina asked. “There are six little ears here who would probably be better off hearing about this when they’re a few years older.”

“Fine, daughter. What do you want to talk about? The different varieties of caf? Decorations? Maybe lightsaber techniques that only make sense to three people in the room?”

“Calm down, Dad. Take a deep breath. Drink some of your wine.”

“I have a training lightsaber,” Allana said.

“I’ve been putting up with this rycrit dung for too long, Jaina. I kept my mouth shut for seven years when Anakin was running around the planet with his gang reject boyfriend, because your mother didn’t want to upset Anakin. Look where that got him! Twenty-seven and still confused and still rooming with his big brother, and no partner in sight!”

Jaina sagged back into her chair, and Ingvor drew little circles and stars on her thin-sliced steak with the tines of her fork. “He might like to talk to you later. I don’t know. But right now can we try not yelling, for a change? This is your anniversary. It’s supposed to be about thirty years of happiness, right?”

“Right,” Leia said firmly.

“Right,” Han echoed.

Everybody went silent.

“I picked up some nice bath towels at Danziger’s Import shop,” Jaina finally said.

“Nobody cares about bath towels, Mom,” Nilla told her.

“But these were really nice. There were all kinds of matching accessories for the bathroom. I thought about buying some for you but I wasn’t sure what color scheme you were wanting when you do your remodeling.”

“That was nice of you to think of us,” said Leia.

“You should have picked up some plastic bedsheets, too,” Zekk said.

“Zekk, I know.” Jaina glowered at him.

“I don’t pee in my bed anymore!” Verayan cried. “That was a long long time ago!”

“Two weeks isn’t that long,” said Zekk.

“Well, it’s a long time when you’re a kid!”

“It’s okay, Verayan,” Allana said, trying to be helpful. “A lot of boys don’t make it to the ‘fresher. Uncle Anakin has accidents, too.”

Leia grimaced. Han stuffed a large piece of steak into his mouth and scowled at Ingvor. Ingvor shot Han a dirty look and then looked quizzically at Jaina. Jaina looked at Allana with a blank expression on her face. Nilla laughed. Verayan pouted. Zekk just looked confused.

“And he’s old. He’s big; he’s a lot more than ten years old, I think. Daddy is twenty-eight and that’s more than ten. I think Anakin is twenty-six.”

“Twenty-seven,” said Zekk.

“Is that like seven?”

“Um, no.”

“Then why does it sound like seven? Years are funny and they should sound different.”

“It’s twenty plus seven,” Jaina said. Math! Anything was better than discussing her brothers.

“And twenty is more than ten. So… twenty-seven is big. And if he pees in his bed then he has to sleep somewhere else, and it happens a lot.”

Allana, no! Jaina shot Ingvor a help! look and fumbled for a response. “You’ll learn all about math soon at the Academy,” Jaina said. “Math is very important if you want to fly ships or do just about anything. Even make cakes.”

Allana nodded and went on. She finally had Leia and Han’s attention, and maybe they could help Anakin if they knew what was going on. It was very sad that he still had accidents. “Then he has to sleep in Jacen’s bed. And that’s bad because the bed is small and if Jacen has an accident in his clothes then they have to sleep naked and that’s bad too. What if somebody broke in to the apartment? Then they would see their bottoms.” Allana made a face.

Jaina covered her face with one hand and put her head down, clutching her husband's arm with her other hand. “Force help us! Zekk, say something. Do something!”

“Al - Lannie, you’re making this up,” Leia said. Her voice trembled.

“No, I’m not. I saw them when I had a nightmare and went into their room when I was scared. And I think Anakin was trying to stop Jacen and get him into the ‘fresher because they were wrestling and Jacen was all gasping like he could hardly breathe. And he told me not to say anything but I need to say something because they’re too old not to get to the ‘fresher in time. Yuck, messy!”

Ingvor lit up a cigarra and shrunk in her chair. “For the record,” she said in a small voice, “I didn’t say a damned word.”

“Anakin is with Jacen?” Han shouted.

“I’m sure Lannie is grossly misinterpreting things,” Jaina said. “And so are you. Dad, please. Stay calm. They must have been... fighting. You know, sparring. Hand-to-hand combat is very important, even though a lot of Jedi neglect that skill.”

“Jaina, you shut your goddamned mouth! Oh, bloody kriffing karking hells, Anakin is having sex with Jacen!”

“Oh, my,” said C-3P0. “I thought they were at the temple fixing a sewer leak. Is this a Basic idiom that hasn’t been entered into my databank?”

Zekk turned to Jaina, enraged. “You knew about this!” he yelled.

“What the hell was I supposed to do, Zekk? Tell everybody in the world? It’s nobody’s damned business!”

“Lannie, how would you like to stay here?” Leia asked. Her face was drawn and her mouth was a flat, stretched line. “You could live here in the condo with me and your grandpa Han.”

“No. I like Daddy’s apartment. Well, I don’t like the living room, but I like my room. He built me a chair.”

“No, you can’t stay there. There are bad things that happen there and you shouldn’t be in the same apartment as them, not until they stop and Anakin gets his own apartment.”

“Not even then,” Han growled.

“Mommy, what’s sex?” Nilla asked.

“Nothing you need to think about yet,” Jaina said.

“I’m taking them home,” Zekk said, standing up. “Jaina, you can come or you can stay. I don’t really care. But I’m leaving and they’re going with me.”

“Zekk, sit down and stop being a brat.”

“It’s nice to see that somebody has sense,” Han said. “I can’t believe this. My own sons – and you were covering for them, Jaina! Covering! Now I know why Jacen left Hapes in the first place. How long has this garbage been going on, Jaina?”

“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask them. It’s not my place to talk about their affairs.”

“I think you’d better start spilling, Jaina,” Leia said tightly.

“A little before I picked them up from Cee-Vee-Two,” Jaina admitted. “And I did bitch them out. I really did, I swear!”

“Jaina, get out of here.”

“Fine.” Jaina jumped out of her chair and walked around the table. She pulled Nilla and Verayan out of their seats. “Come on. Zekk, you win. We’re going home.”

“But I didn’t even show you my lightsaber yet,” Allana whined. “It’s nice. It’s just for training and doesn’t cut anything.”

“You can show me your lightsaber,” said Leia.

Allana placed it on the table for Leia to pick up. Leia pointed it straight up and pressed the button. When the thick purple blade extended, she frowned, and then shrieked and dropped the mock weapon. It hit the table and landed halfway on her plate. She shoved the saber to the floor, with a napkin over her hand, and pushed her plate away.

“It’s not going to hurt you,” Allana said.

“Lannie, oh, Lannie, that’s not a lightsaber!” Leia covered her mouth with the hand that hadn’t touched the lightsaber. She looked at Allana, and her eyes bugged out of her head, with veins in her forehead bulging. “Oh, oh, no. Where did you get that necklace?”

“Daddy’s dresser drawer,” Allana explained. “And my bracelet, too.”

Leia started to cry, which made Allana’s eyes burn, too. She didn’t know what she did wrong, but now everybody was mad.

The doorbell rang. Everybody froze, except for Leia, who was still sobbing.

“Don’t answer it,” Han said.

“How else am I supposed to leave?” Jaina snapped. She and Zekk stormed towards the door – Jaina furious with both of her parents, Zekk furious with Jaina, and Nilla and Verayan, bewildered, both in tow. “Ingvor, are you coming or staying?”

“She’s going!” shouted Han.

“Emperor’s black bones,” Ingvor muttered, and got up to follow Zekk. She grabbed two breadsticks from the woven brown basket on her way up.

Jaina threw the door open, and Zekk, Nilla, Verayan, and Ingvor marched out. “You guys are in trouble,” Jaina said. “Just a heads-up.”

“We’re fifteen minutes earlier than we thought we would be,” Jacen said.

“Mom and Dad know. Your daughter accidentally told them.”

“They know who she is.”

“Not that. They know what you two are up to and a little of how. Allana brought something that she thought was a training lightsaber. And now they don’t want to let her go home with you.”

“Training... oh, kriff.” The color drained out of Jacen’s face and he clutched Anakin’s arm.

“Don’t do that in front... you know what? It doesn’t matter now.”

“You said something!”

“No, I didn’t. Allana did.”

“Jaina, come on!” Zekk yelled.

“Bye,” Jaina said shortly, and trotted down the hall.

Jacen and Anakin looked at each other. “Wipe,” Jacen said, and his voice shook. “We’ll just erase their-“

“No, Jacen. Not this time. You remember what happened before. We’re not using dark side powers to cover up.”

“You’re right.” Jacen tried to breathe evenly, and he walked into the living room.

Han had his arms crossed across his chest, and he glared at Jacen with a look that would have made anybody else wither. Leia stood behind him, wringing her hands and trying to contain her tears. Allana sat a few chairs down, looking miserable.

“Allana played dress-up in our toy drawer,” Anakin whispered.

“I noticed.” Jacen raised his head and met his father’s gaze. “I’m sorry we’re late. There was an emergency at the temple.”

Han slowly climbed out of his chair and took four long strides. He stood in front of Jacen, only inches away, and he was barely keeping his rage in check. It seeped into his voice. “How – dare – you?”

“How dare I what?” Jacen asked innocently.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. You’ve been raping my son with your own daughter in the next room! You've been manipulating him and making him fill your sick fantasies!”

“No, I haven’t,” Jacen said.

Anakin interjected, “Dad, Mom? Can we sit down?”

“No,” Han growled.

“Yes, you may,” Leia said softly. “Sit. And don’t touch the silverware. And stay away from Allana.”

“I’m Lannie,” said Allana.

Leia ignored her and waited for one of the men to start talking. “Dad, Jacen isn’t doing anything wrong to me,” Anakin said. “I’ve known ever since I got back from the war that I don’t want to be with a woman. I know going with Dyar was a mistake, but it’s not because he’s a man. He was just dirt. Jacen is good to me.”

Jacen only turned red and struggled to maintain his own composure. He knew that even Anakin’s calm demeanor was faked, but at least he was doing a better job of faking it.

“Anakin... you let him... Have you lost your minds?” Han yelled.

“Not at all,” Anakin continued. “Jacen and I love each other. Right?”

“Right,” Jacen weakly echoed.

“Well, you shouldn’t!” Han reached for the side of his plate, and Leia hastily pulled his napkin and knife away. “Not like this. It’s filthy, it’s disgusting, and it’s not something either of my sons would do. I’m going to lay it all out on the table, boys. If you two want to be deviants on your own time, then you go right ahead. You’re adults and I can’t stop you. But I promise you that I’m not going to let Allana live anywhere near that kind of indecency. You want to have a gay incestuous love affair? Do it. But I’m keeping your daughter.”

“I’m not going to choose between Anakin and Allana,” Jacen said, finally finding a little bit of his strength.

“I’m choosing for you. Get out and stay out. Both of you. I don’t want to see either of you again.”

“Han, please,” Leia said. “We don’t have to go to that extreme.”

“Yes, we most certainly do, dear.”

“The Hapan Ereneda did not send the Chume Ta’ to live with you,” Jacen said. “She wanted Allana to be cared for by me. And I am not going to let you subvert her command. I still care for Tenel Ka, and she is the Queen Mother of sixty-three planets. If she wants me to raise Allana, then I will. You don’t have to like it.”

“Tenel Ka also doesn’t know that her ex-husband is in bed with his little brother.”

“And you’re not going to tell her,” Jacen said.

“Oh, I most certainly will.”

“You can’t, Dad! Think about it; if she does find out, and pulls Allana away from me, then where is Allana going to go? There are only two places she can go. Either back home to Hapes, or to Dathomir. If she goes to Dathomir, Ta’a Chume’s spies will find out and kidnap her. The witches are no match for Hapan Battle Dragons and legions of trained soldiers. Ta’a Chume might not be the Queen Mother but she can pull together enough resources to attack the Singing Mountain clan and every other clan that helps them. And if she goes to Hapes, then Tenel Ka is going to be assassinated and Ta’a Chume will force Allana to take the crown. Allana is six. She can’t be the Queen Mother. Ta’a Chume will have free reign over the entire Consortium as the regent Queen Mother for about ten years, and by then, she’ll have been able to mold Allana into anything she wants to.”

“He has a point, Han,” Leia said gently. “We’ll keep Allana here, and take her to the Academy ourselves. And Jacen can visit her when we’re here with them.”

“I said you’re not taking my daughter, Mom. I made that very clear.” Jacen took Anakin’s hand, and Anakin squeezed him.

“At least for a few weeks, then. Just a little while. We can talk about it later when our heads are all clear, and in the meantime, she’ll be here where she can be safe.”

“I’m safe at Dad’s house,” Allana said. “They’re Jedi Knights. And I have Deedee.”

“We’ll bring Deedee here,” Leia assured her. “Jacen, Anakin, there is a lot that we don’t know. I know that you went through a lot of terrible things when you were trapped on that planet. And you don’t have to talk about it to me. But that’s why you’re doing sick things. Because you’re both sick. You don’t know it, but there’s something in your heads that’s making you act this way, and you need to get with the healers and work through it. So you can be normal again and live honorable lives. Maybe you can get back with Tenel Ka, Jacen. And Anakin, you’ll find a nice girl that you can love, instead of not wanting to, and settle down too. And all this will be in the past. A lot of people did worse things. Look at Kyp. He blew up a star. This isn’t quite as bad as blowing up a star. You’ll get better, if you get help now.”

“Not quite as… I can’t believe this,” Anakin said. “I liked it better when Dad was yelling. It’s better than you feeling sorry for me because I’m happy in a way that you don’t like. You’re comparing what Jacen and I do behind closed doors to exploding a star and wiping out millions?”

“Mental sickness can lead to the Dark Side,” Leia pleaded. “Please go to the healers.”

“I am not going to listen to this,” Jacen snapped. “Come on, Anakin. And Allana.”

“I’m not Lannie anymore?” Allana asked, confused.

“You’re not going anywhere, Allana,” Han said. “Sit down.”

“But I want to go home! You’re being mean, Grandpa!”

“Your grandmother and I know what’s good for you. You don’t and it’s been made very clear that your father doesn’t have the slightest clue, either.”

Allana drew in a deep breath and screamed at the top of her lungs: “I WANT TO GO HOME!”

“We have a very, very nice guest room that you can have,” Leia said.

“NO!” Allana swung her arms when Leia tried to catch her, and she threw a few weak punches, and then ran behind Jacen’s chair. “I’m going home with Daddy! I’m not staying here. You can’t make me!”

“Mom, there is nothing wrong with me,” Jacen said, now sounding angry. “The problem is people who think everybody else’s private business is their business, too. I would never, ever do anything to hurt Allana or put her in danger. She is safer with me than she would be here, and she wouldn’t be as much in the public eye. The Hapan spies don’t need to know about her.”

“If I ever find out that you’ve done anything to her, Jacen,” Han said, “you’ll be so far down the pipes that even the Force isn’t going to save you from me. Do you understand?”

“I understand perfectly, Dad. And you have absolutely nothing to worry about.”

“Get out of my home.”

Jacen and Anakin got up and Jacen motioned for Allana to follow him. She scowled at Han, and stomped on his foot as she walked past. “Don’t yell at my daddy,” she said.

“Allana, let’s get going. Now,” Jacen urged.

Allana was very quiet as they made their way out to the speeder. “Daddy?” she asked uncertainly.

“What?”

“Did I get you in trouble?” Her gray eyes filled with tears. “I didn’t mean to. Honest. I was just trying to help.”

Jacen hugged Allana. “No, you didn’t really get me in trouble. I didn’t do anything wrong, but they think I did, and that’s why they’re mad. They’ll figure it out eventually.”

“I don’t like it when they yell,” she said.

“I don’t, either.”

“Why were they mad? What did they think about you that wasn’t true?”

“Remember when I told you that there were some things you’re not ready to know about yet? This situation is one of them. I know it’s confusing, but when you’re grown, you’ll understand it all. Just not yet.”

“I want to go home and sleep,” Allana said. “Now! Uncle Anakin, drive faster.”

“Nobody’s going to break up our family, Allana,” said Jacen. “I won’t let them.”

She only nodded and rested her sleepy head on his arm. She was asleep before they got to the apartments.