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Mara and I went to see Leia about getting away that evening. Heading over to my sister's apartment, we were bombarded by holocams and media droids. Mechanical smiles, nods, and absolute silence got us through… eventually. I think that was the longest trip of my life.

But Mara was beside me, and although she was probably tenser than I was, her presence was something for me to lean on.

Once we got inside the building, the bombardment ceased, and Mara sighed quietly, resting her head against my shoulder. //Thank the Force and all true gods they're gone.//

//You can say that again, love, but they'll still be there on the way out.//

//Don't remind me. They're almost enough to turn me Sith.//

We stopped walking, and I turned to face her. "We'll be fine," I said quietly. "As long as we're together, nothing can harm us."

She smiled, and said, "Nothing. We're destined to be together, this is our right path, and no one can take that from us."

The kids were the first ones at the door, jumping up and down in excitement. They ran out into the hall as soon as we arrived (we didn't even need to knock—they're really good at sensing who's coming). Jacen and Anakin latched themselves onto me, while Jaina hugged Mara.

When we'd told the kids about our impending marriage, they'd been thrilled, Jaina especially because she and Mara had managed to become good friends. Anakin had informed me that he was glad I was getting married because he wanted cousins. I told him, needing to raise my voice to drown out Han's guffaws, that Mara and I would take that under advisement.

As they ushered us inside today, they were full of impatient questions. "When is your wedding going to be?" "How big is it going to be?" "Has your dress been designed yet, Aunt Mara?" Those were essentially the same questions they'd asked the other day, when we told them.

"We don't know, hopefully not very, and no," Mara answered.

"That's part of what today is," I added, "planning."

Leia and Han were waiting for us in the living room. "Hey, you two," Han greeted us casually. Then he turned to the kids. "You three, outside for a while. You'll know when we're done."

Mara glanced at him curiously about that last statement, and he explained, "After a couple informal meetings, we told the kids not to come in every three minutes and ask if we're done. They just ask Leia or check me."

"Sounds like a good idea," I said.

Han nodded. "It works. It's an efficient system, because the kids like an opportunity to practice what they can do."

"Anything in particular bring you two here?" Leia asked.

I glanced at Mara. "Well, yeah," I said.

Mara took over the thread of conversation. "We've been having too bad a time with the press. We'd like to get away for a while—a week or two, maybe. You're in charge of the wedding plans anyway, so nothing should go too badly astray, and I especially need to get away from the press."

Leia shrugged. "Sounds logical. Any ideas where you'd be headed?"

"We're not sure," I said. "I think we'd just sort of knock around for a while, kill time while the press find someone else to bug, then come back in a few weeks."

"The one dilemma," Mara added, "is that we need a ship." I could sense her thoughts turn towards the Jade's Fire.

Leia smiled. "Take the Alderaan."

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"Jumping to hyperspace in five, four, three, two… one. Mark." I pulled the hyperdrive lever and starlines surrounded us.

Mara sighed quietly as she looked around the cockpit of Leia's Alderaan.

"What's wrong, Love?" I asked her softly.

"I miss the Jade's Fire." She pressed her lips together. "It seems so silly, missing a ship, but I do, desperately."

I moved behind her and started to massage her shoulders gently. "Mara, we can start looking for a ship anytime you want. We could get one commissioned, even."

"That's more naivete then I expect even out of you, Farmboy," she said, half-sadly and half-teasingly. "Do you have any idea how much that would cost?"

I nodded. "Actually, I have a pretty good idea. I remember when Leia commissioned the Alderaan."

"And how would you propose to pay that much on a Jedi Master's not-so-large salary?" Mara asked.

I smiled, very slightly. "I've got quite a bit of money hidden away," I said softly, wondering how Mara would feel about the money's origin. "Quite a bit."

"Oh, sure. From your oh-so-large Commander's salary from the war?"

"No." I bit my lip. "You wouldn't have heard about this, and I haven't told anyone other than Han and Leia, but… about three weeks after the Battle of Endor, the executors of my father's estate contacted me. He left me everything he owned."

Mara's mouth dropped open. "Bright Force! How… how much, or don't I want to know?"

"Well, there was some real estate and such. Through intermediaries, I had all the property liquidated. In cash, the total value is," I stopped, hesitant. "It's, I think, somewhere between three and four billion credits."

Mara's mouth dropped open. "Between three and four billion credits?! You are telling me, Farmboy, that I'm marrying one of the galaxy's richest men?"

"There've got to be people out there with more than that," I pointed out.

"Not a lot of them."

I shrugged. "How did you think I lived while I was Jedi hunting for three years? I dipped into the income the money pays me whenever I needed money. I still do. As you pointed out, Jedi don't get paid so much."

"How much income does this thing pay?"

"Ah, the bank I have it with gives me ten percent interest per annum."

Her mouth worked silently for a moment. "That's… Luke, that's thirty, thirty-five million a year!"

I looked at her. The money had always bothered me slightly, although I couldn't explain why. "I can safely say that commissioning a ship for you would be realistic," I pointed out.

She smiled at that. "I guess it would be. I think I can also see why you're not exactly eager to tell people."

I laughed. "You should have met the executors. They were so shocked that Darth Vader had left his fortune to a Rebel. They couldn't believe it."

"Neither can I."

"Well," I said, "it's true. Financially, I'm exceedingly comfortable."

"I should say," Mara exclaimed.

We sat in silence for a few minutes. I could sense that Mara was still amazed about the money. "Three or four billion," she murmured.

I kept rubbing her shoulders, feeling he relax into my hands. I allowed myself to bask in her nearness, her presence in the Force both surrounding and within my mind. I could sense her doing the same. This wasn't an awkward silence, but a natural one, where we didn't have to say anything, just understand that we loved each other.

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