Title: The Table Was Crowded
Characters: Luke and Mara
Genre: romance/drama
Timeframe: AU around the middle of Dark Force Rising
Notes: How'd I get to here from "Elizabeth Lucas Pinckney had a hard life"? I'll never know... Enjoy.


The table was crowded, though there was only two of them. She couldn't look at him. Wouldn't look at him, because to look at him meant acceptance of the life that had been thrust upon them. So she continued to draw invisible circles on the table top, hoping the entire situation would evaporate is if it had never been.

It had begun yesterday. Begun so simply that neither one had realized it at first. Why would they, in the middle of a rescue operation with so much at stake? With Karrde's freedom at stake? there had been no time to ponder such things.

"Mara, we are going to have to talk about this at some point," he said gently.

She shook her head but did not raise her eyes. "No."

"Why not?"

"You know why, Skywalker. I don't want any part of this."

His silence at that statement almost made her want to look at him, wondering what she would have seen in his eyes. Instead, he reached over and took her hand in his. "We made this happen, Mara. Doesn't matter how it happened, or when, or why, just that it did."

Now she was compelled to look at him, but she couldn't. Was he right? Had they both made it happen? Was it that simple?

"Yes. It is that simple."

"Stay out of my mind," she told him, voice edged and sharp.

"You're projecting. Can't help but overhear it."

In the midst of the chaos, they'd been thrown together and for one moment, everything had fallen into place as they'd held each other for support. Looking into his eyes, nothing else had mattered, and all she?d had to do for an instant was trust him. Trust that they would succeed in what they'd set out to do... it hadn't been until the danger was behind them, when the adrenaline had faded, that the bond revealed itself.

As she stared at his hand, solid and warm against hers, she found herself nodding? maybe this wasn't so bad after all.

Suddenly, the hand started to twitch, as if having a spasm, and she frowned. Taking hold of his hand, she caressed it, waiting for the twitching to cease... and then she looked into his eyes. She found compassion, and a half-smile, and she smiled in return.

They would talk later, but for now... silence and company was enough. The table no longer felt crowded...