Potential

"C'mon Ben, meet your uncle."

Luke reflexively pressed himself against the window of the hospital room as Han moved towards him with his newborn son in his arms. The baby's tiny head and hands stuck out from the periwinkle blanket he was wrapped in, looking so delicate that a mere touch could damage them.

"See Ben?" Han continued in a tender, almost singsongy voice that Luke wouldn't have been able to imagine him using when they first met. "That's your uncle Luke. Do you want him to hold you? Huh? Do ya?"

Luke gulped, briefly glancing over at his exhausted sister sleeping in the hospital bed. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea. What if I hurt him?"

"You won't, kid," said Han, grinning as widely as was possible.

Luke glanced down at his metal hand which could probably snap a newborn's bones with no effort. "Are you sure?"

Han snickered. "Is the great Jedi afraid of holdin' a baby? C'mon, Ben wants to meet his uncle."

After a deep breath, Luke held his arms up in front of him in a rounded stance – he thought that was how you were supposed to position your arms to hold babies – and almost before he knew it, Han had placed baby Ben into them.

Even through the blanket, he was so soft – Luke could feel his skin yielding to his touch. The baby's tiny eyes were half-shut, as if they couldn't yet fully handle the room's light. Luke felt himself wanting to run his finger through Ben's little tuft of damp dark hair, but he'd heard that newborns had a soft spot in their skulls and he wasn't sure exactly where it was, so he resisted the urge.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Han murmured.

Luke nodded, though he was unable to look away from the child. Something seemed to be radiating from him, as if electricity were flowing through the baby up into Luke's arms. No, it went deeper than his arms – it seemed to be flowing through his whole body.

As if Ben were feeding him energy.

Luke gave a small gasp. He was feeling his nephew's raw Force energy.

For several moments he just savored the sensation. So pure, so untapped – did it feel like this with every Force-sensitive baby or was Ben just extra-strong in the Force? Whatever it was, it felt so intense that Luke had to glance at his feet to make sure the baby wasn't levitating him. So much energy, so much energy . . .

"Uh, Luke?" Han suddenly asked. "Can I have my kid back now?"

Luke blinked as if waking out of a dream, unsure how long he had been standing there, but he still felt Ben's raw Force energy pulsing through him.

"He's so strong in the Force . . ." he found himself whispering.

"What?"

Luke slowly looked up at his brother-in-law. "Your son . . . the Force is really strong with him."

Han's eyebrow shot up. "He ain't even two hours old and you're already talkin' Force stuff?"

"Han, if you were Force-sensitive you'd be able to feel it," Luke said as he somewhat-reluctantly handed the baby back to his father, though the buzz from his energy remained. "It's like . . . like nothing I've ever felt before."

Han's teeth ran over his lower lip. "Yeah . . . well, he's still a baby, we'll worry about that stuff later."

Still a baby . . . but Luke had read that the old Jedi Order took babies to be trained. No, no, he wasn't going to do that, that was too cruel to the families . . . but then again, Yoda had said he was too old to be trained. Did the early potential wear off as they got older?

"Han, he could be an amazing Jedi," Luke blurted out. "If I started training him early . . ."

"Wait, whaddaya mean trainin' him early?" Han exclaimed.

"The Jedi started training their younglings as early as possible." Luke wasn't quite sure why he was telling Han that, but the aftermath of the rush from Ben's Force energy seemed to have loosened his tongue.

"And what the hell's that s'posed to mean? That we're s'posed to just hand you our baby? I thought you weren't gonna make the stupid mistakes the old Jedi Order made!"

"I'm not, but . . ."

"Well don'tcha think he oughta decide for himself whether he wants to be a Jedi?"

"By the time he's old enough for that, it might be too late."

"Too late?" Han's face was reddening with anger. "What the hell do you mean, too late?"

"I mean he's so full of potential now – some of that potential could be lost if it's not harnessed soon . . ."

"What part of 'he's a baby' don't you understand? You ain't takin' away my kid like the old Jedi did!"

Suddenly, as if he sensed that his father and uncle were arguing about his future, Ben started to cry, silencing both men and waking Leia up.

"Mmm?" she muttered from the bed. "What's going on? Is Ben hungry?"

Without a word, Han made his way to the bed and handed the wailing baby to his mother so he could drink. Luke averted his eyes as Leia undid the top of her hospital gown, listening to her murmur, "There there, it's okay, Mommy's here."

Mommy's here. How many babies in the old Jedi Order had cried out to mommies who never came? No, Han was right, he didn't want to be like them . . . but still, wasn't it his duty to make sure the Jedi were as fully-trained as possible? Didn't he owe the galaxy the best possible protection?

"Is something wrong?" Leia asked once Ben had settled down and started drinking.

Luke glanced over at Han, who gave a long sigh before answering. "Nothing. Just discussing the Jedi."

. . .

That night, while mother and son slept, Han gazed down at little Ben in his bassinette, the lights outside illuminating his tiny face and highlighting his chest as it slowly rose and fell. He looked like the very image of peacefulness, yet somewhere inside him was that raw Force energy Luke wanted to harness.

Why did Leia have to be Force-sensitive? Why did Ben have to inherit his mother's Force-sensitivity? Why couldn't they just be normal?

He reached down and gently pressed his thumb into his son's soft, yielding cheek. "It's okay, sweetheart," he whispered. "Daddy's here, Daddy's gonna take care of you." He felt his voice wavering. "Daddy's not gonna let your uncle take you away. You're gonna have a normal childhood and you'll get to choose what you wanna do with your life, I promise."

But even as he uttered those words, he didn't know if he'd be able to keep that promise.

THE END