Age: 11 standard years
Ben waved happily at his mother from his seat in the cockpit as he and Jacen finished the post-flight checklist. Mara waved back, glad to see her son again. She had worried so much about him while he was gone. When they were finished, he bounded down the boarding ramp and into her arms.
"I missed you," he said.
"I missed you too, sweetie." Not letting go of her son, she turned to Jacen. "Are you two done here?" Jacen nodded. "Care for some lunch?"
Mara finally released Ben, and the three of them drove together to the Galaxy Grill, a restaurant Mara remembered from her days as the Emperor's Hand. Once they were seated and had ordered their drinks, Mara decided it was time to ask them about their mission. "So, how was Joralla?"
"Hot" was Ben's one word reply.
Mara snorted. "You should've known that was coming when you read the place was tropical. I mean, how was your mission?" She looked over to Jacen, becoming concerned when her nephew would make eye contact with her.
"It was awesome! All these Tikiarri attacked us one night. There were like a hundred of them, and they had blasters and they wanted to kill us, but Jacen fought them off. Jacen deflected four bolts all at the same time! When can I learn to do that?" Mara's jaw dropped at Ben's story. This mission was not supposed to be dangerous. The Tikiarri had wanted to have a child examined to determine if she was Force-sensitive. Luke had decided that the errand would be a suitable first mission for Ben, allowing him to witness a Jedi's duties firsthand with little threat of danger.
Ben must have noticed her shock, because he ended his story abruptly. He paused for a few seconds, then added, "But it's okay. Neither of us got hurt."
She turned her attention towards Jacen, who was now staring back at her, his features set in a mask of grim determination. He was afraid of how she was going to react. Good. She decided to stay calm for now. She could always kill her nephew later if she was still angry. "Why did these Tokiarii want to kill you?"
To her surprise, Jacen answered first. "There was a powerful movement against the Galactic Alliance that was new enough that it hadn't yet been documented by Intelligence. They attacked us because of the Jedi's relationship with the GA." Ben nodded. Oh, good. Now she only had to kill a few of Intelligence's more inept workers. It was probably better this way. She was supposed to meet Leia for drinks in a few days, and her sister-in-law might be upset if Mara had killed her son.
Jacen was still watching her worriedly. Mara smiled warmly at him. "Thank you for taking such good care of Ben. I feel much better knowing that you're with him in these kinds of situations." She hoped Jacen could sense the truth in her words.
Ben's stomach growled. "When do you think the food will be here?" he asked. Mara checked her chrono.
"We've only been waiting for ten minutes," she answered. "It'll probably be a while."
"But I'm hungry!"
Mara smiled. "Patience, you must have, my young apprentice." Her son groaned.
"Now you sound like Dad. Anyway, I don't think that's even a real quote!" Jacen laughed at Ben's outburst. Their conversation lulled until their food arrived. Mara thought of the errands she needed to run after she dropped off Ben and Jacen. A trip to Intelligence headquarters was definitely in order.
A/N: Sorry for the wait everybody! A new Hunger Games fic has been taking a lot of my time the last couple days. Anyway, thanks for reading. The ever-wonderful Loteva suggested that Jacen intervenes when someone tries to hurt or kidnap Ben. How could I resist that opportunity to insert super-protective Mara? Thank you to Loteva, NoImagination, and SiouxFan for reviewing! Catch you later,
~finnicko-loves-anniec
