A/N: We'll be getting to the diplomatic package soon enough, but for now… update!

As a child, there had been a game she'd often had to play. It was called 'the waiting game,' and was usually played in such a way that was not only uncomfortable, but incredibly memorable. The lesson usually began with a lecture that boiled down to "There's a moment. All you have to do, your only job, is to wait for it," and ended with her somewhere she never wanted to be. It didn't ever matter what moment or thing she was waiting for, just that there would be waiting for something involved in some form or another.

It never mattered where she had to go, either… even if it was a revolting sewage waste tunnel far underground. The lesson had always been the same… and she always had to wait for it. A cold, miserable hour on a rooftop, a night in the darkness in a smelly tunnel far underground, waiting for just the right moment to ricochet a blast up an out take tube… or dancing for a crime lord, waiting for a moment of opportunity that would never come.

It was that lesson that came to mind now as she watched her mother singing softly to the newborn baby girl in her arms. She had a question which had been trying to force it's way past her lips for weeks, but the time had never been right to ask. Now, here with just the two of them while her husband slept on in the healing trance… now felt right to ask.

"Why didn't you come and get me?"

For a ceaseless, unending span of time, her mother froze and simply blinked down at the infant in her arms, and Mara wondered if she'd really spoken the words at all.

When she finally did reply, Widia did not raise her head and look at her, and her voice was nearly a whisper. A very controlled whisper. "What did Vima look like when she caught up to you?"

Mara frowned. What did that have to do with anything? "A really raggedy homeless street person. Why?"

"That's why we didn't rush headlong into danger. Didn't do anything, really, except get drafted into the Nubian resistance." At Mara's answering silence, Widia finally looked at her, and the unbridled emotions in the woman's eyes startled and stunned her. "I wanted nothing more than to go and get you, to steal you back just as you had been taken, stolen from us, but… we would have been rushing headlong into danger without any back-up to speak of." Mara stared at her, not quite understanding at first what she meant. "The Purges, Mara. It wasn't just one or two or ten that were killed. It was very nearly the entire Jedi Order. And we weren't trained as warriors, but as scientists."

Mara continued to stare at her. Everybody? Slowly, little things about Vima's observed began to make sense. "So that's why someone, anyone, calling for help, would have gotten Vima's attention. It meant there was someone out there who could ask. Who knew how to ask."

"Exactly."

Mara nodded slowly. "I think I understand."

"Understand what?" the doctor asked from the now-open door, startling them both.

Widia smiled slightly at the sight of her son-in-law. "A mystery that needed answering, Nerun."

"Ah." He came to her side and looked down at the infant, then at her mother, then at the still-sleeping Luke. "Mara?"

"It's a healing trance," she told him curtly. "I woke him at an early hour with labor-induced violence, and I could feel the soreness… after."

Nerun frowned as he took in that information, obviously not sure what to think. "Oh. I was going to set about discharging you, but…"

"Shouldn't be too long before he wakes," she offered. "And I'd really rather not have to spend the night again unless it's absolutely necessary."

He looked at Widia, then looked back at Mara. "It's not. I'll go and get the process started."

Renna watched as the shuttle set down, wanting to shake her head in disbelief that they'd been incommunicado for so long, but then maybe the politics had been interesting. She smiled when her brother and his wife saw her waiting for them and shared nearly the same look of surprise.

"Weren't you going to be on that project for eight months?" Alena wondered when they got close enough.

Renna chuckled. "Something came up and Jaelle commed me in the small hours of the morning. Cryptically." She glanced at her brother, who was holding three travel bags to Alena's small one. "And you're an uncle again. How was the summit?"

"Educational," he grunted as she took one of the bags from him. Then he paused, frowned, looked her up and down. "Wait. What?"

Renna simply smiled in return as she led the way to the speeder.

When Luke awoke, it was to his brother-in-law studying him and poking around at his shoulder at close range, and he couldn't help but stare at the man. "Nerun, I'm not your patient."

The doctor chuckled and continued to examine him. "For right now, you are. Mara wanted me to check your shoulder."

Luke looked past him to find Mara sitting on the bed in non-hospital issue clothing, holding their daughter. "It's fine."

"Let me be the judge of that, if you don't mind," Nerun told him pointedly. "Especially since you slept through having vitals taken by three different nurses, food trays coming and going, a diplomatic courier turning up to confirm your identity with a scanner, and everybody talking and visiting in here while meeting your newborn."

Startled, Luke blinked at him. "It was a healing technique."

"Which, until Mara finally explained that she injured you when she went into labor, actually reminded me of a coma, and not some Jedi thing." Nerun sat back and regarded him with calm, if slightly irate, brown eyes. "I can't find anything wrong with your shoulder."

"Good," Mara said from behind him. "Thank you, Nerun."

He turned and looked at her, smiled. "And now that he's awake, you're free to go."

Luke watched the man stand up and leave the room. "Are all medics like that, or do I just seem to catch them on off days?"

Mara laughed. "Be glad you weren't at Pinnacle Base. We had a medic run away screaming because of Rogue Squadron's mascot, and Cam, suffering from having been attacked by his patient."

Luke frowned at her. "What mascot?"

"Janson has a stuffed Ewok toy and made Roganda carry it around with her due to an anger issue."

"Oh. And Cam?"

"Quest jumped him, gave him really specific amnesia, and managed to escape with drugs." Mara moved to stand, and sighed when Jaelle appeared at the door with a wheelchair. "I am not sitting in that thing. I can walk."

Jaelle smiled at her. "I'm sure you can, but it's policy. Humor me."

She motioned to Luke. "How about he sits in it, then?"

Jaelle looked at Luke appraisingly, smirked when he shook his head, and looked at Mara again. "Nope. Besides, Mom and Dad are waiting with the speeder outside, and Dad threatened to recite every plant genus he knows backwards in reverse alphabetical order if you protested sitting in the wheel chair."

"Backwards?"

"Yep!"

Mara considered that possibility for a moment as she handed her one and only bag they'd brought to the medical center, and the baby bag given to them by the hospital. "In which language?" At Jaelle's good-natured laugh, she sighed. "All right, fine. Stupid wheel chair it is."

Luke followed them, wondering what it was that Mara had against being wheeled anywhere.