The sense of connection, of belonging, was heady. Dangerous. He hadn't done this with anyone in years, and now he remembered why. Not only had his isolation seemed imperative for the safety of the galaxy, but his own need for connection sometimes overruled rationality.

He regretted, slightly, any sense he might have given her of actually being injured, but it seemed to pass quickly and at her question he smiled ruefully. Her words came through loud and clear. She was a natural, not just in this but in all of it. So like Ben...

Had the Force sent her as the opposite, counter to his nephew? Was she the balance, now that he'd removed himself from the equation?

I'm not sure I knew at the time. I mostly wanted... a friend.

He might have been eroding all her fantasies of the heroic, mighty Luke Skywalker, revealed as an old hermit who used to be a young orphan desperate for friends.

This was not the way get them, if you were wondering.