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by Ladyhawk

CATEGORY: A/U, Angst, Romance, Non Q/O
SPOILERS: TPM, and the following Star Wars books: The X-wing books by Michael Stackpole and I, Jedi (Note: You don't need to know the books to enjoy this story.) Just be aware that it's approximately 13 yrs after ANH and that the New Republic has taken over Coruscant.
RATING: NC-17
PAIRING: Luke/Wedge
SUMMARY: Wedge finds his uncles diary about the greatest love among the Jedi.
DISCLAIMER: Same as Part I

"What did you find, Corran?" I look into the ruins of one of Coruscant's large towers carefully, not wanting anything to fall on me.

"Watch it, General. The floorboards are cracked." Gavin Darklighter, one of the captains under me in Rogue Squadron steadies me as I make my way toward Commander Corran Horn. Corran is my subordinate, friend, and the only Jedi in the Starfighters units of the New Republic, not that too many people know this fact.

"Look at this, Wedge." When I reach his side, Corran hands me what looks like a very dusty datapad. "I bumped it as I was looking under this pillar. I must have accidentally turned it on because it started flashing."

I examine the pad and see the screen flashing a pattern very familiar to me. Small green stars wink in and out on the black background of the screen. That design, the one my father wanted to use for his chain of refueling station before he was killed, once graced my most precious of posessions, my X-wing.

Wondering how something belonging to my family got off Corellia without it coming with me, I push a button to activate the file inside the pad. Instantly, text begins to scroll in Aubresh, the main written language of both Republics.

This journal is the account of Rojer Antilles, Jedi Knight of Corellia.

I look up and see Corran staring at me, with the same amount of shock as I feel plastered on my face. "Who is this Rojer, Wedge?"

"I had an uncle Rojer. He was my father's brother. He was going to help with the refueling station chain, but he was killed in the Clone Wars. Dad never told me he was a Jedi." I sit down on the pillar next to us as I try to puzzle this out.

"Probably for the same reason my dad never told me about my grandfather, Nejaa Halcyon. It was too dangerous to admit to having Jedi blood in your veins while the Emperor ruled over all of us." Corran sits down next to me. "You know, you should show this to Master Skywalker. He'd be interested to see what your uncle has to say."

I nod. "Do you know where Luke is these days? Is he still on Yavin 4?"

"No, ironically enough, he went to Corellia. Now that his sister and brother-in-law made some headway into getting the Corellian government to consider joining the New Republic, Luke has gotten permission to look around the ruins of the Jedi temple there."

I nod, then turn my attention back to the mysterious datapad in my hand. "Why is this here, and not there?"

Corran gazes around the ruins of the part of the city we're trying to clean before the building droids come in and reconstruct the building. We don't usually go over the areas of reconstruction this carefully, but Corran insisted we do that here. And after watching Luke for many years, I'll be the last to not follow the instincts of a Jedi.

"We're not that far from the Imperial Palace. The Emperor tore the Jedi Temple down to build that monstrosity. Maybe your uncle had to report to the Coruscant Jedi for some reason during the Wars."

"And you think we were supposed to come here to find this?" My third-flight leader nods.

"Well, I was never one to deny the Force. Let me go find Leia and try to get passage to Corellia so I can show this to Luke." I get up and start moving toward the crumbling entrance to the once-grand tower.

But Corran isn't finished with me. He grabs my arm as I stumble slightly over the debris on the floor, then stares into my eyes. "When's the last time you talked to Luke?"

I sigh. I don't need Jedi abilities to figure out where this is leading. Corran and I have had this argument before, ever since I admitted to him my feelings for Luke. It happened not too long after the incident in which one of Luke's students, Kyp Durron, went on a rampage with the Sun-Crusher. "When I visited both of you at the training center on Yavin 4. And no, I am not going to tell him how I feel about him. He has enough with his students and helping his sister and her kids. I'm not going to add to his burden."

Corran shakes his head. "Don't you think that your love and support may just lighten that burden instead of add to it?"

"Me? I can barely keep up with you sometimes, and you're under my command. What am I going to do for the head of the new generation of the most powerful people in the galaxy?" I head out of the ruins quickly before Corran can say more. I know I'm right. Why can't Corran leave well enough alone?

I get permission from Leia to head to Corellia with my discovery, so I load up my X-wing and head out. I keep the journal safely tucked away in my emergency pack the entire trip. Instead of finding out more about my family, as I would have liked to during the eight hour trip, I mull over Corran's words, my feelings, and our roles in the current galaxy. It's hopeless. I can never be more than a friend to Luke. He probably doesn't look at me as more than a friend anyway.

I land on Corellia at the Coruscant City terminal and check through customs. Once I leave the building, I hear my name called. "Antilles! General Antilles!"

I turn to see an older man walking toward me. "Yes?"

He holds out his hand. "I'm Ralstek Horn, Corran Horn's grandfather. He called me and asked me to look out for you."

I shake the hand of the man who helped Corran find the courage to follow his destiny as both Rogue and Jedi. "Thanks. I'm here to deliver something to Luke Skywalker. He's here excavating the Corellian Temple."

"I know. Corran said you found your uncle's diary on Coruscant. There's so many Antilles' on Corellia that I didn't realize Rojer was the uncle of one of the New Republic's finest."

This peaks my interest. "You knew my uncle?"

He nods. "He was one of Nejaa's students. I assume Corran told you about his biological grandfather?"

"Yes. He said that he was your best friend, and a good Jedi. And a good man."

Ralstek takes my arm and guides me to a speeder. "Your uncle was also a good man. It's a shame he died on Coruscant, when Palpatine and the clones finally broke through the Old Republic's defenses. He was there to report the destruction of the Jedi in Coruscant City to the main Jedi Council on Coruscant. Other than Valin, Corran's father, who was still a youngster at the time and under my protection, Rojer was the only Jedi here that survived the attack. Nejaa was on the other side of the planet at the time."

I get into the speeder as Ralstek takes the controls. "My father rarely spoke of him, other than to say he was loyal to his family."

Ralstek turns and smiles at me as we head off to his home. "And to his friends. Nejaa once told me that Rojer was friends with Obi-Wan Kenobi, and that Kenobi considered himself in debt to your uncle for something."

"Did he ever say what?"

"No, Nejaa said it was something personal, so I didn't question him about it."

This makes me even more curious about my uncle's journal than I was on the way here. What did my uncle do that Kenobi so highly regarded?

My thoughts distract me as Ralstek drives through the streets of the city, and ever closer to Kenobi's famous student.

"Master Skywalker's staying at the Oceanside Resort. It's about a kilometer or two away from the temple ruins. I can loan you my speeder, if you want." After a night in Ralstek's guestroom and some much-needed sleep, he greets me with breakfast and this announcement.

"Thanks. I better get out there then. The journal might help Luke in his excavation of the temple." Suiting my actions to my words, I munch on the pastry Ralstek gave me, grab my caf, and head out the door.

Once I get to the resort, it takes only a few minutes to talk to the deskclerk, find Luke's room, and knock on his door.

It opens almost before I knock. "Hi, Wedge. I was just about ready to go back to the temple. Leia said that Corran's grandfather was meeting you. I figured you might spend the day swapping stories with him." Luke gazes at me with a smile. Somehow I find a way to suppress the shiver of arousal that has gone through me every time I've seen this man since I met him almost twelve years ago and smile back at him.

"I thought my uncle's journal might help your work here, so I didn't want it to wait too long."

Luke nods as he waves me into the quarters. "Thanks."

I hand him the datapad before we both sit down in comnfortable chairs set across from each other. He begins to scroll through the text, then stops and looks at me.

"Have you read this?"

I shake my head. "No."

Luke's blue eyes shine directly into mine as he hands the pad back to me. "You might want to read this before I do then."

I look back at him, mystified. "Why?"

"The whole journal is addressed to you." He get up and lays a hand on my shoulder. "Why don't you read it here while I spend more time at the temple. You can tell me what you want to do with the journal when I get back later today."

"Fine." I watch Luke leave, wondering why I feel my life is going to change if I read this datapad.

I move the chair I'm sitting on to the window and open the shades. Outside, I can see a narrow beach of white sand, and the ocean. Bright blue dolphins jump out of the water and toward the sky as I watch. The water must be pretty deep here for the dolphins to be close enough to shore for me to see them.

I shake myself out of my musings and turn back the datapad. I can't shake the feeling that I'm headed for a big change, but I do my best to ignore it and begin reading.

I can't help thinking as I record this, my nephew, that you will grow up in a world without love. For some reason, the Force tells me I have to preserve the memory of it for you. So here I am, doing just that.

Luckily, my uncle, you were wrong about that. I have been loved, by family, by friends. I have some idea why he thought that, however. Things must have looked pretty dismal at the end of the Clone Wars.

Here I will record my experience in helping the greatest love I have ever seen come into existence. Love that surpassed death, and is, as I write this, conquering the pain of failure and hopelessness. I can see it in my friend's eyes as he pilots the ship that is taking me to Coruscant.

I met Obi-Wan Kenobi in my twenty third year. I was the student of Jedi Master Nejaa Halcyon at the time. Master Nejaa had received a communication from the Jedi Council on Coruscant concerning Obi's arrival with his master, Qui-Gon Jinn. Master Nejaa told me, before the two arrived, that Master Yoda, the Jedi who all of us respect as leader, wanted us to help him with Master Jinn and Padawan Kenobi, as students are called on Coruscant.

Master Yoda had apparently been talking with Master Jinn, who had been his Padawan years earlier, when he noticed something strange. Now all master/student relationships among the Jedi include mental bonds, created by the Force. They are necessary for the master to explain Force manipulation and for him or her to know when the student is having trouble, or is in danger. But when Master Yoda had casually probed Master Jinn's mind, he noticed a bond much stronger than any master/student bond beginning to develop. Master Yoda questioned his former student, but Jinn seemed unaware of the new bond.

Wondering at the source of the bond, Yoda asked Master Mace Windu, his advisor, to see if Obi was aware of this new bond in his master's mind. What Master Windu found when talking to Obi was what prompted Yoda to get us involved. Master Windu found, in Obi's mind, the other half of the developing bond.

Now, Jinn and Obi were already scheduled to come here at that time. It was time for our Temple to make its report to Coruscant, and Jinn was encouraged to be the liason because he and Obi hadn't had a decent rest in months. Obi told me later that his master jumped at the thought of a vacation because he feared that his student had forgotten the meaning of the word fun.

Both Jinn and Obi were bright men, but they were also stubborn. Yoda feared that they were trying to protect each
other by hiding the bond from each other and themselves. That's where my master got involved. Master Nejaa is a kind, gentle man, but his best friend, Ralstek Horn, is one of the most manipulative men on Corellia.

Yoda knew to get through the walls that Obi and Jinn put up to protect each other, deception would be necessary. So Master Nejaa and I consulted with Ralstek about the issue. We told him that we were trying to get two stubborn lovers together, but we never told him that the potential lovers were Jedi.

Ralstek, in his ever-mischevious way, asked about the current relationship between the two. When we told them that one was the subordinate of the other, he laughed. "The best way to get those two to see what is going on between them is to change their points of view." He went on to describe a club in Coruscant City that catered to people wanting dominance/submission relationships without or with only mild sadomasochism involved.

Master Nejaa wasn't sure about Ralstek's idea, but wanted to compare the idea with the people in question before making a decision. So we went to the Coruscant City terminal to await their arrival later that day.

When we met them, it quickly became obvious why Yoda asked for help. These two were broadcasting their feelings about each other to everyone except each other. I imagine the Coruscant Council had earlier disregarded this broadcasting as part of an unusually strong teaching bond, and maybe it began that way. Now, however, it was enough to rock an unprepared Jedi in his boots.

Once we both spent some time with them, Nejaa pulled me aside and we agreed to go along with Ralstek's idea. He would recommend the club to Master Jinn. If Jinn showed interest in the club, one way or another, I was to find a way to get his student there. I recommended using the pretense of the opening night of the Festival of Unity, which is a raucous affair. Master Nejaa agreed. Nejaa and I also agreed that we would, on the surface, attempt to keep them separated to avoid either of them finding out our plans. So I took Obi and invited him into my home for a few evenings.

Poor Obi had it badly, I found. All this guy could talk about was his master! I knew we were dealing with two men who severely stifled their emotions, but I was unprepared for what came forth when I gave Obi the chance to relax a bit in your grandparents' home. Qui-Gon this, Master Jinn that. I wondered how Qui-Gon Jinn couldn't be aware of the feelings of his student. Obi practically wrote them on the waves of the Force!

Master Nejaa told me the next day that Jinn had taken the bait. Ralstek had bribed the clerk in the club to tell him if a certain man came into the club. Nejaa had provided the clerk with the picture and assurances that the information would not be used to hurt the man. The clerk had called Ralstek last night, with a positive response, but said that he only sat in the main room watching the dancers most of the night.

The next night, the clerk called Ralstek with even better news. The man in question had signed up to be a servant!This made my part of the plan much easier, because now all I had to do is sign Obi up to be his master in the club.

Master Nejaa gave me the form the next morning. I filled it out for Obi and included a note to the clerk that this master was to be teamed up with the man that Mr. Horn was asking about. According to the form, such a deliberate pairing without the people's permission was not allowed, but I assumed Ralstek knew how to bypass this.

So that night, I took my friend out for a night on the town. I told him that the Festival of Unity was a time for single people to find others to join with sexually, which was indeed true. However, usually they find friends for this expression of unity, rather than finding it with a stranger in a club.

But Obi, being rather naive in Corellian custom, followed me docilely as I took him to the Shining Jewel and gave him the black hood that denoted a master in the club. I thanked the Force for Master Jinn's concentration on diplomacy. After settling him in a room and assuring everything was being done according to custom, I let the clerk pretend that they just found a match for him and the his servant, Hawkbat, would be along presently. After hiding in a corner for a few minutes and making sure Master Jinn arrived, I headed for home.

Obi never told me exactly what happened that night, other than to say it was just what they both needed to pass on to
the next stage of their relationship. But I swear I felt when their minds met for the first time in the fullness that comes with a soulbond. I was reading over some text on diplomacy when I suddenly felt this wave of the Force flow through me. It felt like love. It felt like peace. I know in my heart that, despite the Jedi code, THROUGH passion, those two found serenity.

The next day, I had to laugh when Obi and his master walked into our training rooms in the temple. All the confusion, all the tension caused by their thwarted feelings was gone.

To this day, I consider that my greatest mission for the Jedi.

I raise my head from the text and look out the window. Uncle Rojer's account of his labors to make the two Jedi see how much they love each other sparks a memory in me. I lean back in the chair, watch the dolphins, and remember...

It was on Hoth. We had just gotten there and were drilling out the caverns. Luke was leading the excavation of the room that would be our hanger for the speeders, and off to the side, the stable for the tauntauns. I am standing to one side of him with my ice cutter, using it to smooth out the wall in front of me when I notice a violent shiver wrack Luke's slim form.

"Luke, are you all right?" I shut the cutter off and grab for my Commander as he almost falls to the floor.

"C-Cold." I wonder if his winter gear is damaged or something, because he's wrapped up as warmly as the rest of us. Then I curse myself. Of course! If this planet is freezing to me, a lad from the cool shores of Corellia's great ocean, this must be the very depths of frozen hell for Luke, who's home is a sweltering oven. According to Biggs Darklighter, there's not a spot on Tatooine that has ever felt cooler than a baking tray. How I wish Biggs was here now to help Luke adjust to the cold. But there's only me.

I wrap my arms around him, holding him up as I feel him begin to shiver uncontrollably. I call to Hobbie Klivan. "Have the Rogues finish up this wall, Hobbie. Luke's been hurt by a chunk of ice." I figure that's less humiliating for our young leader than telling his subordinates that he can't stand the cold.

I'm sure Hobbie can see the small convulsions run through Luke's body, but he either dismisses them or realizes the same thing I did, because he just nods his head. "The medcenter is being built in the east wing, Wedge, but the droids aren't here yet."

Damn. Now what? My mind centers on the small personal heater I grabbed from Biggs' possessions before we left Yavin. Maybe that would help.

I move Luke so he leans on my shoulder as I steer him toward the crew quarters. "Let's head back to my room, Luke. I have something that should help."

Luke shakily nods his head. He has trouble finding his voice because his teeth are clenched. He must be so cold that it hurts. So I move him as quickly as I can to the room I share with Wes Jansen.

The room is empty. Jansen's in the hanger with the rest of the Rogues. Knowing he won't be back for awhile, I lock the door as we enter the room.

I settle Luke onto one of the beds and scramble to find the tiny heater. As I do, I try to keep him alert. "You should've said something before, Luke. We all know about Tatooine from Biggs. Considering how hot it is there, this cold must be quite a shock to your body."

"Y-yeah. I thought I could handle it though. I figured I needed to set an example too, now that I lead all of you." I grab the heater from under the bed on which Luke sits and look up at him.

"Nobody expects you to be invincible, least of all your squadron. We tend to be practical people. Well, except for Wes, who's a clown and Dak, who's just a kid." I turn on the heater and place it on the crate that serves as a nightstand.

"Take off your coat, Luke. You'll warm up faster if the heat doesn't have to go through all those layers." I help him peel off his gloves and unfasten his coat and some of the clothes under it. Luke's shivering increases as the cold air hits his skin, so I move the heater to face him more directly before I help him pull his arms and legs out of his clothing.

After I throw his outer clothing on a chair, I watch Luke shiver in his underwear for a minute as he tries to get as close as he can to the heater. He doesn't look like he's warming up.

Well, they say that the best way to warm someone is body heat. So I quickly discard my outer clothing and move onto the bed to sit behind him. I pull his back against my chest.

Finally, his shivering begins to dissapate.

Luke turns his face up to mine as I grab a blanket from the foot of the bed to wrap around us. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. I couldn't let our commander go down before the fighting began." I smile gently at him, trying to tell him I don't think any less of him because he showed this weakness.

In fact, I think Luke is one of the strongest men I've ever met. He's still basically a kid, but he's blown up the Death Star and organized the whole starfighters' group in our move to Hoth. He has done all this while dealing with the death of his family and his teacher. And while dealing with the guilt only a few of us know he harbors: the guilt of killing almost a million people in a single blast from his S-foils. But he's survived, and is all the stronger for it.

Like I said, one of the strongest men I've ever known. As well as the kindest, most practical, and the most damned attractive. I don't know if what I have is a crush or the beginnings of falling in love, but I know I have to pause to catch my breath every time he walks into a room that I'm in.

Now, the man of my most secret dreams pushes back against me slightly, trying to absorb more of my body heat. I watch his face as his eyes begin to close. The hypothermia has sapped a lot of his energy.

So I pull away slightly and shift him to lay down, then pile a couple of blankets on top of him. I grab another blanket for myself and move off the bed to sit in the chair and let him sleep in peace.

"You don't have to do that, Wedge. I don't want you to freeze after doing all this to help me get warm." Luke holds out his arm as I turn back to him. "Please. There's room for you here."

I really shouldn't, but I find myself climbing into the bed behind him. Once I'm settled, Luke leans his back against my chest again and falls asleep.

I don't know what Wes does that night, but he never enters our quarters. Instead, I remain undisturbed as I hold our
commander in my arms.

Although I am tense the entire time, Luke barely moves the entire night, except for the one time I almost give into a fantasy.

I fall into a light doze soon after climbing into bed with him. But sometime later, I am pulled partially from my slumber as I feel Luke shift his arm out from under mine. Not completely awake, and not completely pulled from my dreams about the man in my arms, I kiss the back of his neck as he settles down again. I awake more fully as I hear him whisper after my lips meet his skin. "I love you."

Realizing what just happened, I pull back, not wanting to wake him or do something that would offend him. As much as I wish otherwise, I have to assume that his words were spoken as part of a dream, probably about Princess Leia. I sigh and resolve to stay awake the rest of the night before I do something stupid.

That's exactly what I do. And to this day, I have never spoken to Luke about the incident.

I stare out the window of my room at the ocean and wonder what General Kenobi would think of my actions and my reluctance to put any kind of pressure on Luke. He and Master Jinn basically had to be tricked into getting together, so I know it wasn't easy for either of them. Oh, but once they got past the hard part, the benfits must have been extraordinary. I turn my focus back to the datapad and I read on.

Qui-Gon Jinn died a week after the celebration of Obi's twenty fifth year. They had three wonderful years together before Jinn became one with the Force. Even after he died, they were together. Their bond kept Jinn anchored to Obi, and still does. Jinn is most likely the only thing holding Obi together now that he lost his Padawan, Anakin Skywalker, to the dark side. That, and the necessity of seeing Skywalker's wife, the Nubian queen, to safety before she bears his children.

I wrote this story down for you, Wedge, because the Force tells me you might need it. Remember that there are times that, through passion you may find serenity. I love you, may the Force be with you.

Included at the end of this narrative are notes he probably used for his meeting with the Coruscant Council. I disregard these and instead raise my head again.

I open the window to let the cool ocean air in as I watch the dolphins. It must be mating season for this group, because I can hear their cries over the wind.

Mating season. I repeat Uncle Rojer's words in my mind as I watch the beautiful animals. Though passion, you may find
serenity. Maybe that's what Corran was trying to tell me, back on Coruscant. Perhaps the dolphins aren't the only ones who have come to this part of my home planet to find a mate.

With that thought, I remember a line of a poem that Mirax, Corran's wife, once showed me. /When the time is right, come sweetly, come to me./

For a short time, I let my imagination drift to fantasies of Luke Skywalker.

And then suddenly, a voice speaks up from behind me. "Is the time right, Wedge?"

I turn around and find Luke standing behind my chair. "What did you say?"

"I heard your thoughts through the Force just now. That line, when the time is right, come sweetly, come to me. It's from a Corellian love sonnet, isn't it?"

"Yes." For once, I am very suspicious of my friend. "Why were you trying to read my thoughts?"

"I wasn't, they just came to me through the Force. I knew they were from you." Luke's face shows his sincerity. I sigh. What is happening here?

My mind grasps on the first possible explanation for this occurance, given what I just read. "Do you know anything about Jedi soulbonds?"

Luke moves a chair next to mine and sits in it. "Was that in your uncle's journal?"

I nod.

"I don't know much. I know they usually form between two people who are deeply in love. I also heard of an instance where the bond formed through without the bondeds' knowledge. They found out about its formation once both of them acknowledged their love for each other. The bond creates a telepathic connection between the people's minds, which cannot be broken, even in death."

Luke ponders his own words for a few minutes. When he turns to me, his eyes gleam of discovery. "You finally acknowledged it, didn't you? That's why I heard your thoughts in the Force."

I try to turn away from him, but find I can't. "What are you talking about?"

As an answer, Luke gets up, brushes my hair to one side, and kisses my neck. I gasp as I feel the soft lips meet my skin and whisper to me. "I acknowledged my love for you ten years ago, Wedge. I was just waiting for you. I feared you didn't feel the same way, even after that incident on Hoth."

Tears sting my eyes as I realize that I waited ten years of my life for something I already had. "I was afraid. Of you, of our positions in the New Republic keeping us apart. Can you forgive me?"

//There's nothing to forgive.// His thoughts enter my mind directly as I fully acknowledge that this man is my soulmate.

I reach up to the standing blond man and pull his head down for a kiss. Then I pull back and say the words being carved on my heart. "I love you, Luke."

//And I you.// Luke's love pours out of his eyes as he pulls me to my feet. But I can feel a question in his mind when I concentrate on the link between our minds. "Why was your uncle writing to you about soulbonds?"

I move us to the bed as I answer him. "He seemed afraid that I wouldn't find love in my life. So, he wrote down the story of how he helped two people find it."

"Your parents?"

I smile. "No, actually General Kenobi, and his master, Qui-Gon Jinn."

"Ben?" Luke's interest peaks.

But I want his interest on me, not on his former teacher. "Yeah. I'll let you read the journal later. Right now, there's something else we need to do. Uncle Rojer suggested that I should try to find serenity in my life through passion. Do you have any Jedi training exercises that can help me achieve this?"

Luke laughs as he pushes me back onto the bed. "No, but I'm sure you and I could invent a few together." He follows me down and his lips reach for mine in a devouring kiss.

My mind cries out in joy as his body settles on mine. This is right, this is love. But I want it all, and I want it now. I find myself tearing at his clothes, trying to remove them.

Luke reaches out mentally to calm me as my passion for him gets out of my control. //I'm not going anywhere, Wedge. This is real.// His arms wrap around me and turn us until I am looking down on him.

The calm depths of his eyes draw me in and I find the implicit trust I've always had for him. It is enough to help me find my equilibrium as I begin to undress Luke more slowly this time.

Luke closes his eyes. His face relaxes into the expression he usually wears when I see him call on the Force.

That is my only warning before ghostly hands begin to unfasten my clothes. He smiles as he feels my astonishment. "I just thought I'd make it easier for both of us."

"Yeah, right. And here I thought you left your mischevious nature back in Rogue Squadron." His action brings back the times we ran through the halls of the headquarters on Yavin 4, screaming and laughing at our victory, the late night parties we organized on Hoth, and the good-natured ribbing Luke gave me when he officially gave the Rogues over to me.

He pulls me down for a kiss once we're both naked. Our mouths explore the depths of our souls as they meet, plunder. When I pull up for air, Luke runs his hands lightly down my chest. "Of course I left that part of me in Rogue Squadron. I left it with you, for safe keeping."

I laugh as joy suffuses me. Then moan at the sensations Luke's hands are beginning to create in me. My nipples peak under his fingers, then I gasp as his hands trail lower.

When I open my eyes, that mischievous glint in his eyes is back full force. "Do you trust me, Wedge?"

As if I can do anything but trust him. "Of course."

With that, Luke moves us so he can sit up against the bed's headboard and turns me so my back is nestled into his chest, much as he was nestled into mine that cold night so many years ago. But this time his erection is warm and tempting against my lower back.

My lover whispers in my ear. "Let me love you. Let me show you the things Rojer wrote to you about, both passion and serenity."

"Yessss." The word comes out of me as a hiss, because Luke lifts me and impales me on his cock. I can only guess that he is using the Force to help him, because I feel no pain.

Then I feel a wave of thought break over me. I cry out as the love he has for me washes over my mind, enveloping me in its heat. Without conscious volition, my body responds to his thoughts, and begins to move upon him.

One of Luke's hands clutches me tighter to him as the other one reaches for my shaft. I feel him gasp into my mind as he wraps his hand around it and my mind instinctively sends him the sensations I'm feeling.

Gradually, our minds and bodies become so intertwined that I'm not sure where he ends and I begin. Not that it matters, I would be thrilled to stay like this forever. But soon enough, our cries echo those of the dolphins outside the window as we find release.

As I collapse back against Luke, our minds settle. I am now wrapped in the comforting peace of the New Republic's first Jedi Master. And I discover what my uncle meant about serenity. I know being with Luke won't be easy, we both have our place in this new galaxy. But as I listen to the dolphins outside the window, I know we can work it out.

Luke kisses my neck at my thoughts. "We will find a way, Wedge, I promise you that."

I smile. "The Force must have meant this to be. It seems everybody was shoving me at you. Even my uncle, who I don't ever remember meeting. How can I deny the will of the Force?"

After a few minutes, a thought hits me, and I move to get out of his arms. But seeing my intentions through our bond, Luke pulls me back against him and uses the Force to grab the datapad I left on the chair by the window.

As I show him what is written in the journal, I feel a breeze wash over us from the ocean. I can almost hear a whisper in it, the voice of an old man I met once when I joined the Rebel Alliance. //Trust in the Force, Wedge, and trust in Luke. For we are stronger when we are loved.//

As the whisper dies, I reach to kiss the lips of my beloved. And feel our combined strength wash over me, giving me peace.