Letting out a stuttering breath, Ben stepped forward then, reeling her in gently by the hand, his other arm sliding around her shoulders. His childhood had been full of a great many hugs, all of them warm, all of them loving, but the barren stretch of time since his mother sent him away to the Jedi temple loomed before him, cold and lonely. That loneliness was, of course, by his own choice, but it was a choice he'd made for all the wrong reasons, with all the wrong information.

Pulling her against his chest didn't feel strange at all. It was the closing of a loop. The return of something lost. The acknowledgement of something gained.