Here's the half-way point a little early. The TF.N boards are moving so I wanted to post another chapter over there beforehand and thought I'd go on and post it here, too. Chapter 9 will be on Monday. I've also decided to start using the PMing tool to answer reviews. Thank you all so much for reading! I hope you continue to enjoy.

Chapter 8

Karrde didn't get back with them on Niargen for two days. The time crept by. Mara returned to teach her classes, but turned down a diplomatic mission. She used the excuse that her children would be home soon, but Luke knew that she hated having to rearrange her life and her schedule. It was something that they couldn't do indefinitely, but for now their lives were in constant motion while trying to find a solution to Luke's situation.

They ate their meals together and talked little. Luke was still overwhelmed with the idea that he had brought this on himself, that he had stranded himself a galaxy away from his son and the rest of his family.

There was a tension between him and Mara now, a feeling that if one word too many was spoken that something between them would break. Luke wished for their bond now and realized that he hadn't known how often he had relied on it to see what Mara was feeling or thinking. She was so adept at hiding her emotions and she was using that ability now.

"Credit for your thoughts?" Luke asked as they entered the second day of waiting for Karrde to get back with them on Niargen's whereabouts.

Mara's mouth quirked. "I'll have to see the creds first. To make sure they're legal standard here."

He grinned, dropping his head to the side and running a hand down the back of his head. "Really?"

"Skywalker." Mara rolled her eyes. "I was just thinking about the vision you showed me. About your life with…Mara. Thinking about how differently things could have turned out."

"You said earlier that our relationships had a similar beginning. Should I assume that you were operating under a certain Last Command when you met your Luke?"

"Hardly an auspicious beginning, but yes. I assume that your Mara killed your clone, unless you spell your name L–u-u-k-e?"

"Nah, would take even longer to sign an autograph," he joked.

Mara's lips quirked again but she looked somewhat uncomfortable with the conversation.

"It is interesting to think of the paths our relationships took, though. You and your Luke, married with a baby in 12 ABY and I was…floundering then."

"Floundering." Mara said. "I was wondering what could have happened to you and Mara to keep Betrys from being born—what happened to change things so drastically?"

"You see, I've been wondering the same. What happened with you and Luke to change things so drastically here? The idea that I—we—could have had a child together so early… It amazes me, Mara."

"She is amazing," Mara said, her eyes shining with pride as she thought of her daughter. "He was so besotted by her. The first time he held her, his grin…" She trailed off and closed her eyes as if remembering that moment.

Luke tried to imagine. A daughter at that time in his life would have given him purpose, the same resolve Ben had given him when he came along later in his life. He had never felt such peace as he had when he had held Ben and imagined his bright future. Perhaps that could have happened for him much earlier in the form of a daughter with Mara, and her very presence could have inspired in him changes to the Jedi Order that could have helped it withstand the dark times to come.

But at that time he had felt his purpose was to pave a way for his niece and nephews through the Force, but had found the task monumental. There was never a moment's peace, but he had thought he was doing the work of a Jedi by jumping headlong into so many missions and battles. Plus the Solo kids were kidnapped so often by those seeking to distort their powers in the Force, and he had made so many mistakes with them. So many mistakes that at the time had seemed the only viable options for the kids' safety.

"How did it happen? How did the two of you manage to work through so many issues so fast? Mara and I—even before my failures we were just friendly, at best."

"At best?" Mara asked. "I think that was just… me, the way I was at the time. I was so closed off and angry, but you showed me a new way. A new path. I wasn't ready to be a Jedi, but the Smuggler's Alliance gave me a sense of purpose and peace like I had never had."

"Yes, Mara once told me that she enjoyed her work with the Alliance. She left it when we married to devote her time to becoming a Jedi."

"I did eventually, too, when I realized that the Force was calling me. That I couldn't have the Master without the Force," she said, with a small, pained smile.

Luke imagined that had been a private joke between her and Luke and felt a surprising stab of jealousy. "But Betrys…I'm sorry. Her very existence is overwhelming to me."

"It's even harder for me to believe that she doesn't exist where you come from. She is, like her father before her and her brother after her, my reminder of the good things in the galaxy. When I realized I was pregnant, Luke and I hadn't been together for very long. We kept running into each other on Coruscant and, well, you had that sex-ed class back on Tatooine. You know the rest."

Luke choked out a laugh, thinking of a long ago class he had taken as a teenager in Anchorhead. Aunt Beru had seemed relieved that the school would be teaching that topic, and he was thrilled, not wanting to hear any stories about his aunt or uncle. He embarrassed easily then, and the idea had been horrific. But the class had been worse. Camie and Windy had been in there with him, and though they could be friendly when Fixer wasn't around, Camie had seemed angry with him for some imagined slight. She then tried to embarrass him by teaching him how to put a prophylactic on a phallic-looking fruit the teacher had brought in for demonstration.

"Um, yes," he said, rolling his eyes. "I do remember that. I'm somewhat embarrassed that you do, too." He couldn't help but notice that Mara had changed the subject somewhat, trying to steer away from heavier topics to humor.

Mara looked entirely too pleased with herself.

But Luke still had questions. "Did Luke give you our father's—Anakin's—lightsaber?"

She nodded. "Yes," she said, looking as if she were warring with herself on whether to say more. She sighed, almost as if speaking about all of this was painful for her. "That was the turning point for our relationship, at least for me. I realized what a gift the saber was, and that it had absolutely no strings attached to it. That was almost more amazing to me than the gift itself. It was after that that we started to see one another. A year later, Betrys was conceived."

"So Ben must have been a big surprise."

"I told him when I was pregnant with Bets that I would vape him where he stood should he do it to me again. I guess I grew soft in my old age."

Luke grinned but his mind was racing, trying to take it all in. He tried to imagine himself on Coruscant in those days after the Thrawn campaign. He had been close to realizing his dream of a Jedi Academy but then it had all been waylaid and almost ruined by the reborn Emperor on Byss. He snuck a look at Mara, amazed anew to be sitting so close to her, to be able to see the freckles that spread across the skin of her nose and cheeks. He knew he should tell her about Byss and his struggles there and afterward, but he was selfish and didn't want to see the rejection in her eyes when she knew that he had touched the Dark Side.

"Ben is the greatest joy in my life, after Mara," he said instead.

"Ben was such a gift, like his sister. We were so tired and worn down but then there he was, a reminder of the Light, or that's what Luke always said," Mara said, looking somewhat embarrassed to show so much emotion.

"I'd imagine my grin when I first held him matched another one in this galaxy," he said, thinking back to the day of Ben's birth and his joy at having not just a son, but his wife restored to health.

Mara looked into his face, her eyes somewhat glassy. "Yes," she said. "I can imagine that, too."

.

.

After the drawn-out days Karrde finally commed the suite, telling Mara that Regelie Niargen had been located. But he was not anywhere Luke expected to find such a highly regarded scientist.

"He's in an asylum on Crseih Station," Mara said to Luke after she hung up with Karrde. "Does that ring any bells to you?"

Luke grimaced. "Yeah, it was an asteroid prison in the Outer Rim. Leia's kids were once kidnapped and held there. That was about…" Luke thought for a moment. "14 ABY."

"That was right after we got married," Mara said. "The kids weren't kidnapped then—I've never even heard of this place before."

"What about a creature called Waru?" Luke asked warily.

"From the expression on your face I think it's probably best that I haven't."

"Yeah, you could say that." Luke had thought that perhaps Waru was from an anti-galaxy of sorts, but now he wondered whether perhaps this had been Waru's home. He hoped not. He didn't want to deal with Waru or his cult of followers again. "I'll tell you about Waru later, if you really want to know. When do we leave?"

Mara shook her head. "I just turned down a diplomatic mission and now…my kids are going to be back in five days. How far out in the Rim is this place?"

"Pakunni System."

"That far," Mara said, then swore. "Well, the Sabre will make it in a day and a half if I push it."

The Sabre. She had said it so casually. He thought of the ship he had commissioned for his wife after the loss of her beloved Fire. He had pored over every detail, wanting to make the ship a place of security and peace for her, a gift grand enough to show his ever expanding love. Mara had delighted in it and had been crushed when it was lost. He had been crushed, too. He had taken pride in being able to give her that gift and to have it lost so quickly and to the Vong War had troubled and saddened him.

"We'll leave within the hour," she said. "I'm going to go ahead and request our clearance."

She swept over to the comm and he went back into the guest room to pack the clothing he had been wearing. Three days on the Sabre with Mara. One and a half there and back. It would be quite the interesting trip, not to mention what they would find when they arrived.

Luke took a deep breath and sought to center himself in the Force. He found that he looked forward to those days, away from Coruscant and the Temple. He had been so focused on what he had done wrong and on the fact that Mara wasn't really his Mara that he wasn't appreciating what he had. He hoped they would find answers on Creish Station, but if not, at least he had that time with Mara.

He closed his eyes and smiled.

.

.

The Jade Sabre was as beautiful as he remembered, its gleaming hull a pointed blade that was a beacon in the darkened dock. He crept forward under a Force disguise and used the beacon call to lower the ramp, quickly running up it and entering the cockpit. He slid down into his familiar co-pilot's seat and waited, watching out the windows to make sure no one saw him in there. The room stayed quiet, though, no one around to see a dead man enter his wife's ship.

Mara entered a few minutes later, efficiently starting the pre-flight checks on her ship, her hands moving effortlessly over the controls. He started to ask if she needed his help, but realized with a pang that she was used to doing it on her own now and didn't need, and probably didn't want, his help.

They left Coruscant with little problem, jumping to lightspeed as Mara explained that she'd told the other Masters that she was off to Naboo to visit in the last days of the family's vacation.

"What if the kids make it back before we do?" Luke asked.

"They won't. But if they do…well, we'll deal with that later," she dismissed, but Luke could see the tell-tale creases around her eyes that signaled she was worried about something. "Now, this Niargen, just what are we going to talk to him about?"

Luke let out a puff of air and watched the starlines as they raced past the window. "Would you smack me if I said 'I don't know'?"

"Try it and see."

He gave her a sideways glance. "I don't—" He grinned as her hand came up. "I'm not sure," he amended. "It just seems to me that if he could create this device once, why not again? And if the codes are fixed to each universe, why couldn't I just jump right back?"

"Why indeed?" Mara murmured.

"And maybe there were more than two created. At least, that's my hope. We'll see how that hope gets stomped once we're there. This also might be a good time to mention that the last time I saw the Creish Station of my galaxy it was nothing more than space dust."

"Now you tell me. Cute, Skywalker."

He grinned at her and leaned back into a comfortable and familiar position in his chair, throwing his arm over the back of it and hugging it to him as he turned to look at her. He watched her eyes widen as she took in his new position and he frowned as she pressed her lips together. "Mara, what?"

"It's nothing," she said, standing and checking the auto-pilot. She turned to leave the cockpit, but looked at him once more. "It's just…sometimes you remind me so much of him."

Luke watched her go.

.

.

The Sabre had three cabins, and Luke had left his things in the smallest spare one, the one furthest from the stateroom. He smiled to himself as he let his hand trail down the wall of the ship, the ship he had worked so hard to build. He found himself wondering when the Luke of this galaxy had commissioned the ship for his wife. Under what circumstances he had done so and if it, too, had been a wedding gift. He saw all of the same attributes in this ship that had been in the original, but he noticed other things, as well. How the second cabin connected to the stateroom almost as if that room had once been for a child. How there was a game table in the main hold and extra seats at the counter in the galley. He thought of Mara and the children on this ship and had a pang at the thought that his Ben had never seen the Sabre, knowing only the Shadow as his mother's ship.

He trailed around looking, feeling even more surreal in the ship than he had in the Temple. He still had the Temple to go to on his Coruscant, and the Shadow. But the Sabre was another ghost from his past, like Mara. He remembered how astonished she had been when he'd gifted her with the ship, how she had remained so still in the aftermath of his pronouncement and had not looked at him or at the ship, but at the ground. He had thought that maybe she was disappointed or overwhelmed but when she had looked up at him with glassy eyes, he had taken her in his arms and held her until she started to laugh through her tears. She was still so unused to gifts given out of love then and had been overwhelmed, but only in the best way, she had been quick to assure him.

They had christened the captain's chair that first night. He found himself smiling at the memory, the familiar pain that came with remembering her not as raw in his chest. Instead it felt good to remember her. Right.

He found Mara in the galley, sitting on a stool at the low bar that served as the table. "Hey," he said, sticking his head around the corner. "Can I come in?"

Mara didn't look up but he could see a half smile on her face. "Hungry?"

"Usually," he answered and watched her smile grow larger. "What's to eat?"

"You have two hands," she pointed out.

"That doesn't sound very appetizing," he muttered, looking at his hands as if he had never seen them before. "Maybe with some hot sauce—"

Mara laughed. "You're crazy, Skywalker."

He shook his head. "Sometimes. But seriously, are you hungry? Can I make you something?"

She gave him an appraising look. "Sure, do your worst."

"What? Didn't your Luke ever cook for you?" He turned and opened a cabinet behind him, rummaging through to see what supplies Mara kept on hand.

"Ah…well, somewhat," Mara answered. Her voice wasn't as guarded as it had been before when she talked about her husband. "He could make one or two dishes really well, and I had three or four I could do…We got by."

"Was one of those dishes teltiar noodles with cream sauce?"

"Actually, no," Mara said with a confused half-grin. "Where did you pick that up?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," he said mildly, putting the noodles on to cook. Mara didn't say anything, just watched him as he poured a pasta sauce base in a bowl and started adding seasonings. He looked up to see Mara watching him speculatively.

"Did I—she teach you?"

He grinned. "Nope. But she loved the meal. Would eat seconds."

"Really? Must be good. Anything I can help with?"

"No, I'm good. Just adding the last bit of spice here. It'll cook for about ten and then we'll be ready to eat." He put the bowl in the cooker and hopped up on the counter to wait for it to finish.

Mara sat quietly in her spot, but after a moment broke the silence. "So seriously, where did you learn to make this dish?"

He smiled. "Would you believe me if I said an ex-girlfriend?"

Mara made a face. "Maybe I don't want to know."

He laughed. "Mara said the same thing," he said, his memory tracking back to a similar conversation that was held not on the Sabre but in their quarters on Yavin IV. "But after she tasted the dish she didn't care where I had learned it."

The timer went off and Luke prepared them each a dish, setting Mara's in front of her with a flourish. She rolled her eyes, but took a bite and her whole face changed. She chewed with gusto and swallowed, only to quickly take another bite. "Stang! This is good, Skywalker." She dug into her plate.

"I'm glad you like it." He watched as she ate, his own hunger forgotten as she devoured her meal. Mara had always liked this simple dish. It wasn't hard to throw together and he had made it for her often. It was nice to see Mara enjoying something again. He took a bite and smiled to himself. He hadn't made this since before Mara had died and it was good to eat something familiar again, something that reminded him of home.

After she had died he had catalogued so many things that he missed about her. The obvious things like her scent, the color of her hair, her smile and the warmth of her Force sense had been the most missed. But as time moved on, he realized that he missed traits of hers that were even smaller, such as the sound of her foot tapping impatiently as she tried to figure out a problem, the whisper of her breath over his skin, and the sight of her enjoying something she found pleasurable.

It was just nice to be with her again.

After the edge of hunger was gone they lingered over the meal, having nowhere else to go and little else to do.

"So," Mara asked, tapping her fork against her lips. "Just who was this ex-girlfriend with great taste in pasta sauce?"

"And men," Luke couldn't help but point out.

"Debatable."

He good-naturedly rolled his eyes and grinned. "I thought you wouldn't care who it was, like Mara didn't."

"That was her. This is me," Mara said, and something crackled between them with that response. She caught his gaze and stared and he swallowed hard—emotion, not pasta, in his throat.

"Her name was Reliy," Luke answered quietly. "And I guess I wouldn't really call her an ex, not in the strictest sense of the word. But she did teach me the sauce."

"When did you know this Reliy? Luke never made this sauce so I'm assuming he either didn't know her, or didn't want to bring up an 'ex' with me."

"Maybe he didn't know her or didn't know her as well as I did. It was during the war…the Rebellion. She was a fellow pilot and we shared a…fondness…for a time."

Mara rolled her eyes. "A fondness. And when did you have time to date during the Rebellion? Luke always joked that all the time on Dagobah with Yoda really cut into his personal life."

"But I wasn't on Dagobah very long really."

"Not long?" Mara said, her eyes widening. "Luke was there for close to two years." She paused, noticing his shocked look, and said, "It's just so strange, how similar our galaxies are, but dissimilar, too. Do you think that one galaxy has sprung from the other's changes? The decisions made or not made?"

Luke thought about that for a moment. "I'm not sure. If Naelli is to be believed then there are infinite galaxies, but then again, there are also infinite decisions."

"It's a lot to take in."

"It is. This place we're going to, the station—when I was there last there was the creature I mentioned to you, Waru. He was believed to be an inter-dimensional traveler."

"What happened to him?"

"We're not sure. My hope is that he was able to go back to his galaxy. I've speculated that a rip in the time/space continuum opened to take him home, but…that's all it is, speculation."

"Is this place susceptible to rips in the continuum of time?" Mara asked wryly, standing and rinsing her plate to place it in the recycler.

"If it is I suppose that would only be a good thing for me." Luke handed Mara his empty plate when she motioned for it.

"Yes," Mara agreed. But her agreement strained the conversation and they were left quiet once again after their meal.