It was getting late. Wedge had not really paid attention to the holofilm he was watching for quite some time but he did not want to go to bed now. Luke would be home soon and he just knew as soon as he went to bed, his spouse would come home and wake him up. He spent the last hour trying to decide whether he should go to bed or not. He was wondering, in a very distracted sort of way, what kept Luke that long, but he was not really bothered about it. Every now and then he would fall asleep briefly and wake up with a start when there was a loud sound from the film he was watching. He had been dozing again when the com-link started to beep. For a second he tried to fit the sound into the film until he realized that somebody was trying to contact him. He got up and walked over to the com unit.
“Receive message.”
The screen went on and Wedge nearly fell over when he saw who was calling him, or rather the state she was in.
“Hi, Dad.” It was Rohanna. She grinned a bit sheepishly at him.
Whatever had happened? Her hair was matted with blood and there was a cut just at her hairline held together by a few brand new stitches. A dark bruise showed on her jaw and her clothes were dishevelled and torn.
“I am sorry to call you now, but …”
“Rohanna! What happened?”
Rohanna paused for a moment. “Can I explain this to you later? I wanted to ask you whether you can pick me up? I am at the security station at the port?”
“You’ve been arrested?”
“No. I just … well. If I had been arrested you wouldn’t be able to pick me up, would you?”
Wedge glared at his daughter, or tried to glare, he assumed that he was far too worried to look like the strict parent like he wanted to.
Rohanna looked at him, waiting for his reply. “Are you?” she asked again.
“Ok, I’m on my way.”
Wedge cut the transmission and went into the hall. Pulling on his boots he wondered for the ten-thousandth time whatever had possessed him to get involved with the Skywalkers. Or what he had thought when he and Luke had decided to have kids. By now - Gods, Rohanna was eighteen now - he should have figured that one out, but he had not. He threw on his coat, checking whether the keys were in the pocket, which they were, of course, and made to leave. Only as an afterthought he popped up the little note saying ‘back in five minutes’ on the shoe-box. Just in case Luke would come home just now.
It was freezing outside and would probably snow later. Thank goodness the c-wing had a good heating system.
Children. Who needs them? Whatever had they thought when they decided to have children. Twenty years of trouble, his mother had always called children. He just couldn’t see that their troubles would be over in two years time – five, Aneirin was only fifteen. They always thought that now they could relax, now the kids were over this particularly nasty phase, just to realize that they just entered a different but equally nasty one.
What the hell had happened? Rohanna was at the security station, completely messed up, and wanted to go home? She was living down at the academy now. Somehow, old-fashioned as he was, he had thought that at least he would not have to pick his daughter up from security. Once more he had been completely wrong.
The way down to the station took only took ten minutes and he was able to park his c-wing right in front of it, after all it was nearly one o’clock at night, not too many people around. He jumped out of the c-wing and nearly ran into the station. Dammit he was worried about Rohanna. She always got into trouble.
Rohanna sat on one of the chairs in the entrance hall of the security station, her jacket wrapped around her. There was a security guard behind the counter brewing something, coffee probably.
When Wedge stormed into the station Rohanna looked up a small, guilty smile on her face. Her jacket slipped down over her shoulder revealing a bandage around her right shoulder. Her left hand was wrapped in bandages as well.
“Rohanna! What the hell happened?”
The security guard grinned at him. He probably had seen this scene so often it only caused vague amusement now.
“So you’re here to pick up the Miss.”
“I got into a fight, ok.” Rohanna said defiantly. Then seeing the panicking expression on her father’s face she continued, “I didn’t use the force, those idiots were not worth it.”
She got to her feet, slowly.
The security guard grinned broadly. “So you’re her dad?”
“One of them anyway.” Wedge heard himself answer.
“Oh.” The guard looked perplexed for a moment, then he pulled some papers and stuff out of a drawer. “Everything's alright anyway.”
Rohanna hobbled over to the counter, or hopped on one foot.
“You just have to sign here.” The guard said to Wedge. “She’s still under age so you have to take care of the formalities.”
“Yeah.” Wedge stared at the paper, trying to read what the hell he was supposed to sign, but he just could not concentrate. “What happened to your foot?”
“I sprained my ankle.”
Forcing himself to read the piece of paper he realized that it was basically only a statement that he was the legal guardian of the underage person Rohanna Skywalker-Antilles who had been temporally taken into custody but was released without charges. He signed it.
“There is your weapon.” The guard said, pushing Rohanna’s lightsaber over the counter.
“You said…” Wedge started but Rohanna interrupted him before he could finish his sentence.
“Daddy! How can you live with Luke for twenty-two years and not know that you don’t need the Force to use a lightsaber.” She picked it up. “And I didn’t really use this either. You can just… .” She flipped the lightsaber over, holding it near top and made a swinging motion with it, at least she started to but stopped abruptly, suppressing a wince. “You know what I mean.”
“What happened to your shoulder?”
“I dislocated it.” Rohanna glared at him. “Can we go now? I would like to have a shower and get into some clean and whole clothes.”
“Dammit, Rohanna. Don’t you just act as if it was the most natural thing in the world that I have to pick you up from security. I want to know what happened.”
“Really nothing to worry about, Mr – Antilles.” The guard said. “She was just defending the family honour.”
“Did she.” Wedge could not really imagine this, particularly, what family honour?
“Wedge.” Rohanna sounded irritated. “Could we discuss this on our way home?”
“Alright.” Wedge nodded a goodbye to the guard and walked out of the security station. Rohanna was right, this did not have to be discussed in front of other people. The Gods alone knew what the girl had done this time. By now she was nearly as good with words in persuading people to believe whatever she said as she was with the Force. And what would Luke say? Damn, only recently they had said that they were convinced Rohanna was now a responsible person. It was only when Wedge climbed into his c-wing that he noticed that Rohanna was way behind, hopping awkwardly on her good foot. He should have probably helped her to the c-wing, but he was just too mad at her now to get out and go back for her. Would do her some good to learn to bear the consequences of one’s action.
Rohanna’s face was covered with sweat, despite the cold outside, when she climbed into the c-wing. She carefully arranged her leg and closed the door.
“Now?” Wedge asked while starting the motor.
For a few moments Rohanna sat completely motionless, then she sighed. “Ok, Wedge. It is all very innocent.” She shot him a brief glance. “I went out for a beer with a few guys from the academy, you know, the usual suspects.”
Wedge nodded, Rohanna had her small circle of close friends with whom she usually hung out.
“We first went to the bar of the college but, boy, that was so crap we decided to go to the port to the Flaming Basryt. We had a good time.”
Wedge found himself wondering whether ‘having a good time’ meant snogging in a dark corner. Really he shouldn’t get upset by this, after all at Rohanna’s age he had spent quite some time doing just that. But he had been, well he, and Rohanna was just a tall child.
“Then Kiernan and Chick left.” Wedge first thought was still that Chick was a girl, with a rather tasteless nick-name but Rohanna had explained that it was indeed an abbreviation for a very long, Mesorian man’s name.
Rohanna sighed again. “Then Rowney went to the loo and this idiot tried to chat me up. Well, I told him I was not interested.”
That obviously translated into ‘fuck off.’ Rohanna was not one for subtle hints when directness worked equally good, or better. Wedge looked at his daughter – traffic was non-existent so he could risk it – and wondered what other men saw in her. Apart from the fact that he was generally not particularly interested in women, Rohanna was his daughter, and he seldom, if ever had thought of her as … a woman. He guessed she was quite stunning in her own way, tall, dark and fierce. Somehow he always imagined she must resemble her grand-mother, Luke’s mother, but he had never dared to ask his father-in-law about it.
“One of his friends came over and told the idiot that he would not want to be seen with me, as I was the unnatural daughter of two queers and the granddaughter of the greatest war-criminal in history.” The smile on Rohanna’s face was genuinely amused. “I tried to ignore them but they would not go away. The friend, he is also in the academy but in the third year or so, kept on how the records of my family’s involvement in the rebellion and all that were exaggerated and so on, so I told him that if my father had cowered on the planet’s surface during the Battle of Moltokan while others risked their lives and still wet his pants in fear I would keep my mouth shut and not bitch about my family who after all fought in the battle.” Rohanna looked at Wedge, “That’s true, I have this from a very reliable source. – I guess I must have hit a tender spot there, as Mr Smartass quite lost his temper. He grabbed my bottle of beer and hit it over my head, I was not quite sober anymore so I couldn’t dodge that.” Touching the stitches on her forehead gingerly she looked out of the windows. “That was just when Rowney came back from the loo and of course she tried to stop the bastard from hitting me again. One of his friends knocked her out and that made me lose my temper.”
For a few moments neither of them spoke. Wedge wanted to ask whether she really did not use the Force but … either she told this of her own, or she didn’t.
“There was a major fracas, I knocked one of them out, broke another one’s wrist, and had made good headway with the third, when smartass pulled his blaster out. I managed to dodge that one, but fell over an upturned chair. – Therefore the sprained ankle.” Rohanna scowled down at her foot. “The bastard then grabbed me by the arm and pushed his blaster in my face and threatened to fry my face if I didn’t apologize. I didn’t, instead I twisted my arm out of his grip – and out of it socket – and broke his silly face on the next table top. When I was just about to smash his ribs, security came. And that’s it.”
“That’s it?” Wedge asked, incredulous at her calm.
“Yes.” Rohanna stared straight ahead.
“What … what happened to Rowney?”
“She was out cold during the fight. She only came round when the medics were checking her out.”
“And the others? What…” Wedge forced himself to look where he was flying, there might be no traffic but smacking into a building would not be comfortable either. No, not with the Skywalker’s family history. “You’re telling me you knocked out … four men – without using the Force?”
“Yes.” Her voice was tense.
“What happened to the others?”
“Rowney was sent home from the Flaming Basryt, she only had a few bruises. The others and I were taken to security to patch us up. Three of them are still in hospital there. I guess the other two will be released as soon as they’re mended, but smartass, he will have to face criminal charges.”
“Criminal charges? What for?”
“Manslaughter. I dodged when he fired his blaster but his buddy did not. – He shot him, dead.”
“Hell.” Wedge pulled the c-wing down on the roof of their apartment.
“Satisfied?” Rohanna said crisply.
“Let me help you.” Wedge walked around the c-wing and offered his shoulder to his daughter, who was by now half a foot taller than him. After some hesitation Rohanna accepted his help and together they crossed the few yards to their door.
“We will try not to frighten Luke. I don’t know whether he’s at home yet.”
“I’ll do my best.” Rohanna straightened up. When Wedge opened the door he could hear the sound of the holo inside. Had he forgotten to switch it off?
Rohanna walked inside, almost without limping.
“What the hell does that mean?” Luke shouted at her.
“Hi, Dad.” Rohanna said, sounding flustered.
Wedge followed her quickly to find Luke standing next to the holovision, which was on some news channel. ‘Bar fight at space port’ read the caption.
“It was not her fault.” Wedge tried to explain.
“So you’re in it as well!”
“No, I’m not, she just explained it to me.”
“There’s Rowney!” Rohanna pointed to the holovision.
Rowney was standing in front of her parents’ house, a multicoloured bruise on her temple but otherwise unscathed, grinning and obviously enjoying being the centre of attention.
“Don’t try to distract from the topic.” Luke snapped at Rohanna but turned his attention back to the news as well.
“They were four of them,” Rowney explained, “and they were saying a few nasty things about her family, so she retaliated in kind, and one of them started the fight. I tried to help, but I was knocked out. – Pity, I would have liked to see that.”
“Rohanna Skywalker-Antilles, daughter of the rebellion’s heroes Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles was briefly taken into custody but has since been released and no charges will be pressed …”
Luke switched of the holovision, turning his attention back to his daughter.
“Dammit, Rohanna, I thought you’d be over that.”
“It wasn’t my fault!”
“So, it wasn’t your fault – directly. But, tell me how come it is always you who gets into trouble. Aneirin never comes home all messed up.”
“I don’t know! He’s just not the kind people like to pick on, or …”
“I guess it’s because I have this shirt,” Aneirin said from the door to his room, his face showing he just had been roused from sleep, “with ‘Rohanna is my elder sister’ written on the front, and ‘Darth Vader is my grandfather’ on the back, and ‘so do you really want to hit me?’ under it.”
“That would never fit on one shirt, Aneirin.” Rohanna said.
“I know.”
Luke glared at his daughter, then turned to his son, who leaned against the door frame, rubbing his eyes. “I’m sorry that we have woken you.”
“Shouting does that usually. – The doors are not really sound-proof.”
Wedge flopped down on the sofa. “Luke, come on. It wasn’t her fault. And if your family wouldn’t be as famous the news wouldn’t give a shit about a bar fight.”
“A bar fight that ended with three people in hospital and one in the morgue.”
“I didn’t kill him! ," Rohanna yelled. "I did not even use the Force or the bloody lightsaber, – that is just its hilt.”
“Still. For heaven’s sake, Rohanna!”
Wedge couldn’t help to feel the same. Somehow, Rohanna attracted mischief. Now she was standing, balancing on her good foot, glaring at Luke.
“You know, what really pisses me off about you, both of you.” She stared at Wedge for a second. “That you never even consider that it’s not my fault. You just don’t want to believe that I could be, for once, innocent. Dammit even now, you don’t believe that I am not somehow responsible for that bastard shooting his buddy. You’re oozing disbelief, I don’t even have to try to read your mind to get this. Some idiot smashed a bottle of beer on my head and nearly killed me and all you worry about is whether I acted correctly, or that I did not act correctly. You just …” She shook her bandaged fist at Luke, so furious that Wedge had the impression she was surrounded by an aura of anger so intense it was nearly visible, like a halo of energy. “Fuck you. Both of you. I should have called grandpa, he would have understood.”
Wedge was dumbfounded, and a bit scared. She was right, somehow, but … . “I’m sorry, darling.”
“Fuck off. I don’t want your shitty sympathy now.” With that she hobbled out of the room and into the bathroom, banging the door shut behind her.
“O, shit.” Luke sat down, looking rather shaken. “You seen that?”
“Yes.” Aneirin said. “Pretty impressive.”
“What?” What the hell were they talking about now? This family was just … beyond him.
“The force. Sweet lord, I have never seen somebody gathering enough force around her for it to be nearly visible.” Covering his face with his hands he leaned back, exhausted. “So much anger.”
“The Force runs strong in your family.” Aneirin quoted with a mock accent.
Wedge edged closer to Luke, putting his arm around his shoulders. “Come on, she was angry but she didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Why did we ever decide to have children?” Luke moaned.
“Thanks a bunch, Dad.”
“Sorry.” Luke dropped his hands and grinned guiltily at his son.
“You know, you’re still doing it.” Aneirin left his post at the door and came into the room. “You’re still only worrying about what she does wrong or might do wrong. She got nearly killed tonight and all you say is that she is too angry. I guess I would be pretty pissed off as well.”
Wedge squeezed one of Luke’s hands. “I guess you’re right, Aneirin.”
“Don’t guess, Wedge. I am.” With a sigh he sat down on the comfy chair. “And I would suppose you both go to bed and I will wait up for Rohanna. I care for her, so she wont be any more infuriated. Perhaps I make her something to eat.”
“You care for her?” Luke stared at his son. “You make that sound as if we would not.”
“Do you?” Silently he watched his two parents. “You are far more afraid of her than you want to admit.”
“I do care, she is my daughter.” Wedge didn’t like the defiant sound in his voice. What kind of a father he was! trying to justify himself in front of his fifteen-year-old son. But he did care, though he also was afraid of his daughter.
“Come on, go to bed. I don’t think Rohanna wants to see you tonight.”
Luke got to his feet and Wedge followed, though unwillingly. They were one hell of a absurd family. “I am sorry, for what I said about us having children.” Luke said.
“I know. Good night, Wedge. Good night, Luke.” Leaning forward Aneirin picked up the remote and switched the holovision back on.
“Night, son.” Wedge ruffled Aneirin’s hair. Holding hands they walked towards their bedroom. The could hear Rohanna having a very noisy shower. All of a sudden Luke turned around looking at his son with a worried expression on his face. “Aneirin are you sure that you want to wait for her?”
“Damn, dad. She won't strangle me!”
“Ok.”
Wedge wished once more to have an ordinary family, where nobody had the Force and they had ordinary problems, but he just had to get involved with Luke. Not that he really regretted that, just the entire shit that came with Luke and his delightful family. Guess one couldn’t have one without the other. He could of course, simply shoot the rest of the family, though he doubted that would really help.

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