Skywalker Quartet
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A/N1:This is a companion piece to "Ocumwhowurst" featuring the Skywalker Family at random points after the events of that story. You do not have to read "Ocumwhowurst" to understand this, just know that Luke and Mara had quadruplets (4 babies) in the epilogue, and that there may be things pointed out in this series that reference "Ocum.".
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A/N2: I do not own Star Wars.
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Just Breathe:
Luke Skywalker sat at the desk in his study, perusing the next report in the stack that had come in recently from the Jedi Academy on Yavin VI. He and his family were on Coruscant for a while as Mara worked to complete her most current assignment in a long list of tasks given her by Talon Karrde. Mara had worked for Karrde four more years after they'd married due to a contract she'd signed with him when she was first hired. Luke knew she would never renege on a legally binding contract, especially where Talon was concerned.
The man was like a father to Mara, the closest thing she'd ever had to such a figure in her life. And Luke would never dare ask her to just quit: because he knew well that Mara would never do something like that to Talon.
This was her fifth year, in which she was working to cut ties officially.
When she finished with the job she was on right now she would have two months to herself. They planned to return during those two months to Yavin so Luke could be at the Academy to teach in person. The last several weeks he'd been schooling via hologram, which felt a little odd to him, but it was better than nothing.
Luke paused in his perusal of his report as a muffled rumble of toy blocks sounded from behind one of the hall's partially-open doors. No one fussed, however, so he wasn't worried, and returned to his report.
His four children were entertaining themselves in their playroom while he worked. Luke could hear the sounds of their playtime through his open door, and smiled warmly to himself. He loved those four with all his heart, a love only surpassed by that of his utter devotion to his wife.
His mind wandered as two voices sounded loudly for a brief time while they argued over a toy- Ben and Beru, he surmised.
He set the report down for a moment and stretched tired legs. That was when the voices settled again, their squabble worked out. Luke glanced at the small assortment of framed holos on his wall, his eyes fixating on the most recent one of his children eating a frozen treat while at the zoo. Their small, treat-smeared faces grinned back at him with all the innocence of their five years.
Ben, his first-born out of the quadruplets was on the back left of the table beside his sister, Beru. Sitting across from the older pair of siblings were Luke's younger daughter and son: Adia and Rowan. Ben liked to tease Rowan that he was the baby of the family, since he'd been born last. Even though it was a true fact, Rowan hated it when it was pointed out like that.
The sounds of another bunch of fallen toys sounded, and he smiled softly.
With a sigh, Luke returned to his work, trying to make a dent in the pile of reports.
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"Ben that's not fair and you know it!" Beru railed. "You have to share with us!"
Ben looked up from his large pile of toy speeders. "No I don't."
"Do too!" Beru insisted. "Daddy says it's good to share with us, and anyway, you can't play with…" she counted them as quickly as a five year old could "ten speeders at once!"
Ben glared at her. "You gonna tattle, Beru?"
Beru folded her arms across her chest, and pitted him with the cool blue of her gaze.
"I am not a tattle-tale!" She insisted. "But you need to stop being so mean!"
Across the nursery, Rowan kept his chocolate gaze fixed on his drawing, trying to tune out his sibling's argument. He shifted uncomfortably as their bad feelings brushed him in the Force.
Their parents had explained what it was like to feel other people's emotions, and though he as only five, he knew the difference between good and bad emotions. Not to mention he always felt uncomfortable when his brother and sister argued.
So he focused instead on coloring in his book, doing his best to stay in the thick black lines on the page. Beside him, his sister Adia plopped down tiredly. Rowan glanced at her to find she was eyeing their older two siblings warily.
"Do they always have to fight?" she asked, and didn't mind when he kept silent.
His sister's green eyes looked away from Ben and Beru. She leaned closer to peer at what he was doing, her head cocked curiously.
"Can I color too, Rowan?" she asked.
"Sure." He tore a page form his coloring book and she took it with a large smile.
When her face scrunched up momentarily, Rowan frowned.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Adia smiled back. "Yeah! Let's draw!"
Rowan shrugged, and did as she suggested.
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Beru finally gave up trying to reason with Ben and she stomped over to the small table where her younger siblings were coloring.
"Are you willing to share, Rowan?" Beru asked loudly so Ben could hear.
Rowan swallowed, but Beru missed his discomfort when she looked to her sister, who was coloring slowly… a little too intently for her liking.
"Adia, if you keep pushing that crayon into the paper so hard, it'll break." Beru warned her with all the seriousness she could muster.
"Oh," Adia rasped, looking a little confused as she glanced from the page to Beru, and then back to the page.
Beru frowned at the odd behavior. Adia had always been quiet, yet she wanted to do everything the right way, which meant that she concentrated too hard a times. And normally that didn't matter, but there were periods when Adia could be too thorough for Beru's taste. For example, it irked Beru that Adia would take an hour to eat her marshmallow cereal because she liked to eat around the sweet morsels; saving them for last.
Beru couldn't understand her sister sometimes, but there was something about Adia today that frightened Beru. She remembered how her Daddy had said she was good at sensing when something wasn't right. He and Mommy had told her to trust that instinct.
Beru said nothing as she sat opposite Adia, and simply watched her sister, trying to figure out what the feeling was telling her. Adia looked up at Rowan after she finally completed her ronto coloring page to her satisfaction. When she spoke, Beru knew something was definitely wrong.
"S-see!" Adia said with difficulty, and she coughed strangely. "I- I can color… t-too!"
Adia's face contorted momentarily, and even Rowan paused in his work on what was probably his fourth picture of the day.
"Adia, are you really okay?" Rowan asked, concerned.
Adia coughed again, her face going pale, and she trembled in her seat. Then her face panicked, and she placed a hand to her chest.
When her mouth opened and closed several times wordlessly, Beru leapt from her chair, screeching for help.
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Luke rubbed his eyes, adjusting the fourth mistake he'd discovered in the Academy's monthly shipment listing. They had nearly ordered fifteen cases of lettuce, when ten was more than enough to feed the entire school.
He paused as he sensed unease in the Force, and was about to stretch out with the Force when frightened screams sounded from the nursery.
"Daddy!"
Luke was on his feet instantly, racing from his office to the children's door. He felt it then, much more clearly: something was wrong… something was horribly wrong.
"Beru!" He burst inside.
His heart stopped for the space of two beats to find Adia hunched over the small table, gasping desperately for air. Her sister was patting her back erratically, looking near-hysterical herself.
"Daddy, help!" Beru cried, seeing him arrive. "Adia's sick!"
Luke dove for his youngest daughter, gathering her into his arms and laying her on the floor. Luke turned his head toward the door when he heard wheels approach.
"Artoo, call an ambulance!" Luke shouted.
"Doo-eep!" Artoo-Detoo sped away with an affirming warble.
Luke turned back to Adia, who was going slightly blue from lack of air.
"Did she put anything in her mouth?" he questioned aloud to his other three children.
"I don't know, Daddy," Beru answered.
Luke put a finger into her mouth, checking her mouth for any obstructions, but found nothing. He promptly began emergency resuscitation, carefully pumping her chest and then breathing into her small mouth. He did that a few times, but found it wasn't working very well.
Doing his beast to hold the panic at bay, Luke stretched out with the Force, searching for the issue.
He knew the problem was breathing, so he focused on her airways. After tense seconds, Luke discovered that Adia's bronchi were closed up for some reason, preventing his daughter from taking a breath.
Using the Force, Luke urged her muscles to relax and Adia gasped desperately for air, her blue lips opening wide with each intake. But when he retracted his probe, her breathing ceased again, and her eyes went wide.
"D-ad-dy!" Adia wheezed in terror.
Luke instantly used the Force again, and held the contact so she could breathe. She was quaking, and so Luke picked her up in his arms, and cradled her head to his chest. She was breathing erratically, her body spasming lightly from the lack of air.
Recalling how Mara had helped him breath when he was recovering from their time on Drionia, Luke used that tactic now.
"Adia, listen to my breathing sweetheart," he instructed with gentle firmness. "Try to relax, and just breathe with me."
Adia still shook but she pressed close to him, hugging her body into his for comfort and protection. She pressed her ear against his breast, and Luke deliberately took slow, even breaths so she could match it.
Luke felt Mara's frantic touch on his mind, and belatedly realized she had been trying to reach him for some time now. He heard a loud pounding on the door and turned to Ben, sensing the orderly fashion of the minds outside their home.
"Get the door, Ben," he ordered. "The paramedics are here."
His eldest looked pale with fear, and his eyes were fixated on the scene unfolding before him, but he obeyed without argument. That was when Luke saw that both Beru and Rowan were huddled both against the wall and each other as they waited fearfully to see what was going to happen to their sister.
All four of them had a close bond since they'd been in Mara's womb together, and Luke knew that when something happened to one of them, in a sense it happened to them all.
Luke didn't have a chance to soothe either his wife or his children though, because the medics arrived, heading straight for Luke.
"Her airways are constricted," Luke informed them as he turned his daughter toward them. "I am keeping them relaxed with the Force, but if I let go, she stops breathing."
The younger man looked shocked at that revelation, but he was professional enough not to question it then.
"We can take it from here, Master Skywalker." The man gestured for Luke to lay Adia on the floor.
After he'd done so, the medic scanned her throat and chest with a hand-held device, and then placed an oxygen mask over her face.
"Use the specialized air in container six," he instructed his assistant. "Her airways are clogged and constricted."
"Yes sir," she answered, selecting the correct formula of air.
"Please release the girl in the… Force, Sir," the medic asked, looking at Luke. "We need to see if this works."
Luke nodded once and did as the man asked. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ben shuffling over to join his siblings in on the floor, leaning against Beru. The sight pulled at his heart, and Luke again glimpsed Artoo in the hall.
"Artoo, call Leia, tell her I heed her here immediately to watch the kids." Luke asked. "And say please."
"The girl is breathing, but she slipped into unconsciousness," the head-medic said, gesturing to his aid.
Together they lifted Luke's little girl onto a hover-gurney, and then the man turned to Luke.
"We are taking her to the Manarai Medical Clinic." He looked at the other children. "However, there will only be room for one person to ride with the child."
"Luke!" Han's voice sounded as he and Leia burst into the room.
How they had gotten here so fast, Luke didn't know. All he knew was he hadn't been so happy to see Leia before in his life. They caught sight of Adia, glanced at the children huddled together on the floor, and waved Luke out.
"Go," Leia said. "We will keep the others."
"Thank you." Luke turned to Ben, Beru and Rowan. "Your sister and I are going to the hospital. You be good for Aunt Leia and Uncle Han." He kissed each child on the head. "I love you."
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Mara Jade Skywalker burst through the waiting room doors in a flurry of red-gold hair. She leapt to the front counter, taking the nurse by surprise.
"What room is Adia Skywalker in, please?" she demanded breathlessly.
"One moment please." The woman typed away briefly, and then looked back to Mara. "Third floor up, room 319."
"Thank you," Mara said over her shoulder, already heading for the turbolift.
The ride up was tense, and Mara had to consciously restrain herself from running to her daughter's room once the doors parted. As it was, the moment she entered, the sight of her husband hunched over his unconscious youngest daughter froze her in place.
But only for a second.
"Luke?" she called as she lurched forward.
He jerked, looking to her over his shoulder.
"Mara!" he leapt from his chair and engulfed her in a hug. "I am so sorry I didn't get back to you, it all just happened so suddenly."
Mara touched his face in silent reassurance, and then pulled away to step up to the bed.
"Is she okay now?" Mara asked fearfully. "And where are the others?"
"Han and Leia have her brothers and sister we will fill them in when we get home." Luke came to stand beside his wife. "As for Adia, the doctor said she's doing much better; he's working on a diagnosis as we speak."
He was holding back tears, Mara heard, and she turned her gaze from her pale daughter to her red-eyed husband.
"Luke?" she asked, eyeing him with concern. "What happened?"
"She stopped breathing, Mara." Luke swiped at a tear that escaped. "I came into the room after Beru screamed for me, and the first thing I saw... was Adia gasping desperately for air." He took a ragged breath. "I haven't been so scared since I almost lost you to Sar."
Mara drew him into her arms, and he buried his face against her shoulder. Their moment was interrupted, however, when the door opened to admit Adia's doctor. He paused upon seeing them in their embrace.
"I do apologize if I interrupted anything," he said quickly. "I can return in a moment if you like."
"No, that's okay, Doctor Barneto." Luke smiled at the male Togruta who'd delivered their children five years prior.
"Please tell us what's wrong with our little girl." Mara added on.
"I can do that." He gestured for them to sit on the couch in the room, and he took the smaller chair beside the medical bed. "Adia had a severe asthma attack, I'm afraid."
Mara and Luke shared a shocked glance.
"Asthma?" Mara asked. "But, no one else in our family has it."
"It is not hereditary, Ma'am," Barneto explained. "However, it is likely that she picked up an irritant while very young, and since her immune system was still developing, it wouldn't have been able to fight it off."
He looked to a datapad, and then spoke again.
"I am afraid that asthma is not curable, but that is no reason for obsessive concern. Adia will have to adjust to the asthma, true, but it is controllable. In fact, she could still have an active and healthy life if she keeps ahead of her disease," he said, showing them his notes. "She will be given medications: one type she will need to keep with her at all times in case of another attack, and the second she must take daily."
Luke, Mara noted, hadn't looked up once since the doctor had mentioned an 'infection', and Mara knew exactly where his thoughts lay. She thinned her lips, but said nothing while the doctor was present. She could reprimand him later for being foolish.
Sensing the train of her thoughts, Luke shot her a mild glare, but didn't snap at her.
Oblivious to the silent communication going on, the doctor continued.
"We will schedule a therapist to teach all of you more about asthma and how you can help Adia cope and live with it." He finally looked up. "She will be fine, Masters Skywalker. We will keep her for one day to be certain she doesn't have a relapse, but I do not believe she will."
"How long will she need to recover after any attacks?" Mara asked.
"That depends on the severity of the episode; but usually it does not take very long, especially since she is young." He smiled. "Youth have far more energy than we adults do, after all."
The couple smiled a little with him, all too familiar with how much energy five children could muster. It was a miracle their home wasn't in shambles some days.
"I will check in on her again throughout the day, but for now allow her to rest." Dr. Barneto stood. "And do try to get some rest yourself, Luke."
Luke nodded. "I will."
As soon as the doors closed, Mara opened her mouth, but Luke cut her off.
"Please don't say it," he whispered.
"You know I am right, Luke," Mara said firmly. "This is not your fault."
He blew out a frustrated breath and shot to his feet, pacing like a caged animal. "How do you know it's not, Mara?"
"Because Barneto said it wasn't hereditary." Mara supplied, watching him. "So you did not infect Adia."
Luke shook his head. "No, it wasn't hereditary, but what if there were lingering effects I was not aware of? What if Adia was exposed to… Dolf… in some way?"
Mara took a moment to think on that, knowing that Luke would continue to eat away at himself until he knew for sure he wasn't the source of Adia's predicament. He did, after all, have a point. There very well could have been lingering bacteria from Luke's time as the wolf: things that an adult's immune system could handle. Not something a developing infant could battle.
She didn't realize her gaze had dropped until she lifted her gaze to find Luke standing tensely by the window, one arm propped against the glass as he gazed without seeing at the horizon.
Mara sighed inwardly, standing. She moved slowly to stand a little behind and to his side, wrapping a supporting arm about his waist. It was a little while before she spoke, and though he didn't turn toward his wife, Mara knew Luke was listening to her.
"Luke, if Adia was infected during my pregnancy, then why aren't the other children sick as well?" she murmured against his shoulder where she'd propped her chin. "Adia shared my womb with her siblings for nine months. I really don't see how something would affect only one of four embryos like you seem to think it did."
Luke dropped his own chin to his chest, squeezing his eyes shut.
"You're right, Mara." He allowed softly. "Ben, Beru and Rowan should by all counts be sick too, and they're just fine."
Luke ran a hand through his hair before he opened his eyes and turned around. "I'm sorry, Love."
Mara kissed his cheek tenderly. "Don't apologize: it was a valid theory. I don't know what she was exposed to, but that's in the past. All we can do now is help her with the future like Barneto said."
"Momma?"
Both adult Skywalkers snapped their heads to see a heavy-lidded green gaze focusing on them.
"Adia!" Mara was by her side in seconds, Luke close behind.
"Daddy?" Adia turned her gaze to her father, who gave her a loving smile.
"We're here, Baby." Luke gently tucked a lock of strawberry-blonde curls behind Adia's ear.
"Where am I?" she asked weakly, coughing some.
"You're in the hospital, Sweetie," Mara answered.
"Oh." She looked around for a moment, and then to her parents again. "I wanna go home."
"I know you do," Mara told her gently. "But we have to wait until Dr. Barneto says it's okay."
"Am I sick?" their daughter asked.
"Yes," Luke replied, taking her hand. "And you will have to take medicine from now on." His voice cracked slightly, although he managed to be strong for Adia. "But you will be fine."
Adia moved a small hand to rest on Luke's, her eyes filled with absolute trust in her father.
Luke's heart swelled and he lifted their joined hands to lay a kiss on her knuckles. She giggled slightly, the action causing her to cough, but her smile never dimmed.
"You kissed me just like the prince did to the princess in my storybook, Daddy." Adia's grin reached her eyes, unimpeded by the fact that she'd come so close to death.
Luke felt Mara rest her head on his shoulder as he chuckled with their little one.
She's definitely your daughter. Mara's wry voice said in his mind. Farmboy optimism and all.
Luke didn't deny it; and he knew his daughter would need that trait to be happy throughout her life, what with her newfound illness. Adia's eyes were drooping again, and Luke caressed her hand with his thumb.
"Go back to sleep, Sweetie," Luke murmured. "You're body needs time to get better."
"Okay, Daddy." Adia yawned.
As her eyelids fluttered closed, Luke couldn't help but check her airways once more. To his great relief they were functioning properly.
Luke and Mara retreated to the room's couch once the child was fast asleep, Mara taking the same hand Adia had held.
"And you were concerned about how good of a father you'd make," she remarked.
Luke shrugged sheepishly, not commenting: but then, there was no need to.
Watching the setting sun together, they both knew that their daughter was strong and resilient, just like her parents.
Adia would be fine.