Chapter 4

By Ash Darklighter

Disclaimer: The characters and situations used in this story are the property of George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd. I am only using them for some entertainment and will not even make one republican credit from this endeavour.

Mara hit her door control and stumbled wearily into her apartment. A quick check of her chrono made her blink. No wonder she felt like death. It was the middle of the night. Skywalker had kept her talking in the spa pool for longer than she had thought. He always managed to get these weird ideas into his head but she'd never seen him so worked up about something she considered quite unimportant. Luke wasn't the only one who had given up on the idea of having love and a family to share it with.

She waved her hand at the bank of light switches and the lamps turned on, giving the dark room a soft, welcoming glow. Mara threw herself on the sofa and hugged a cushion to her chest, knees up tight.

Luke? Married?

"He can't get married," she muttered aloud. "He would drive any woman to distraction in minutes." Mara considered her friend. What would a woman see in Luke Skywalker? What would make her want to marry him? Luke was impulsive, accident prone, endearing and stubborn with an air of naïve Old Republic charm. He spent more time in bacta than out, she thought wryly. Then she recalled the reason that he ended up injured so often was that he had a tendency to put his own life in danger for the sake of something greater than himself. Sometimes she just wanted to knock some sense into his handsome… Mara took a mental double-take. Luke's handsome face. Farmboy - handsome? For the umpteenth time that evening Mara questioned her sanity. He was just Luke. Yes, he had the bluest eyes she had ever seen and when he smiled you felt a warm feeling in the pit of your stomach, but handsome?

Her com centre emitted a loud, howling squeal. This had to be fixed before the noise drove her insane. Somebody wanted to speak to her really badly. Mara swore inwardly. What kind of idiot would contact her at this time of the night? Skywalker was one – if he had some burning issue he had to raise with her, it didn't matter what time it was. But she doubted it was him as they'd parted only an hour previously. Most sentient species in the galaxy were aware of Coruscant time. Therefore, she concluded, it had to be Karrde. Something urgent had come up.

With a groan she flicked a switch. "Did it have to be now, Karrde…? Oh!" Mara gaped at the image which formed on the screen before her.

The monitor showed the beautiful but impatient face of Leia Organa-Solo. The phrase 'most sentient species' obviously did not cover the Jedi Master's overprotective sister.

"Do you have a chrono in your house?" Mara demanded. "Most sensible beings are asleep by now, including me. Or don't you ever sleep?"

"So… Did you see him?" Leia ignored the question.

"Did I see whom?" Mara was wilfully obtuse. It was the middle of the night after all. "You woke me up," she lied. "How can I see anybody if I'm sound asleep?"

Leia snorted delicately. "Rubbish," she dismissed. "You answered far too quickly."

"I'm not a heavy sleeper," Mara parried. "I've been taking care of myself for far too long. It is the middle of the night. I wouldn't have answered it but I thought it was Karrde with an emergency." Mara played it cool, knowing it would rile the other woman.

"I'm sorry," Leia apologised, refusing to rise to Mara's bait. "If it makes you feel better?" she said evenly, a hint of frost in her voice.

"It does when the apology is sincere." Mara answered the tiny jab with one of her own as she let her finger hover over the switch. "Goodnight, Leia."

"Mara!" Leia sighed. "I'm sorry for wakening you, although I don't believe you were actually sleeping." Leia raised one perfectly groomed eyebrow, disdain evident in her voice. "Unless you fell asleep in the tunic you wore at dinner tonight? This is an emergency. Did you manage to find my brother?"

Mara groaned. She was tired and irritable. Her little session with the Jedi Master hadn't filled her with anything but misgivings. Luke Skywalker was one big emergency. The only man who had a bacta tank dedicated to him and a team of Vratix permanently assigned to producing the sticky health-giving substance Luke found himself dunked in regularly. 'Saint Luke of the bacta,' she thought nastily.

"Please, Mara."

"What!" Mara blinked away the tiredness.

"You said you would help him."

"I did what! Leia… I never agreed to anything." Mara forced herself to concentrate or Leia would have her singing in the Senate hall to commemorate the destruction of the first Death Star. The former Chief-of-State had a way of persuading you to do things that sometimes you had no desire to do.

"Did you see him?"

"Did I see whom?"

"Who do you think?"

"Leia… it's late. I need to sleep."

"You did see him."

Mara reluctantly capitulated. Leia had the power to wear her down through sheer, dogged determination. "Yes, I saw him. You could have told me, Leia."

"I didn't feel it was my place."

"I think you could have dropped a few more clues. It might have been helpful. He thought I knew already. You have one very confused Jedi Master, Leia."

"Did he tell you who she is?"

Mara shook her head. "No, he wouldn't."

"You're not protecting him?"

"Leia," she stressed gently. "He did not tell me the identity of his bride-to-be. If he did, I still couldn't tell you unless he gave me leave but in this case I asked and he refused."

"Oh! I thought he might open up to you?"

"He's stubborn, Leia. He just hides it well. Under all the farmboy fluff and Jedi Master starch is one stiff-necked man. Just be there for him when it all gets to be too much because I can assure you it will."

"I'm sorry, Mara. I just worry about him so much."

"I know, but he's a big boy." She tried to push the memory of his muscular, naked body from her mind. Any more of that and she wouldn't sleep at all.

"He's done so much for us all and yet he's not happy. He is almost content with his life as it is but he deserves so much more. I wanted to find his bride-to-be and tell her to love my brother as much as she can."

"We cannot love to order."

Leia nodded. "I think he's in love with someone already and considers himself unworthy of her."

Mara's chin lifted abruptly. This was news to her and it set all her nerves jangling. "What makes you think that?"

"It was just something he let slip. I don't think he meant to. He said that 'he'd begun to hope' but 'how could he ask her now?'"

"Oh!" Mara's voice was glacial.

"But he probably would have done nothing about it. Loved her from afar and watched as she lived her life with another."

"That's rather a romantic view of a load of nonsense but it would be what he would do." Mara's brusque comment registered with his sister.

"It's not nonsense." Leia was defensive.

"It is if he does nothing about it."

Leia sniffed and ignored her. "I've contacted the people who see him most often and none of them have noticed anything unusual about his dealings with anyone."

"They're not telling you if he has a woman stashed away on Yavin 4 or not?" Mara grinned maliciously. "I hope you were at least more subtle. I thought politicians were more discreet than that."

"I had to ask."

"He won't like you doing that. He's not thinking clearly at the moment, Leia, and he is very short-tempered. I know I'm not sweetness and light but..." She lifted a casual shoulder. "Part of him resents the Force's interference; part of him doesn't believe that his visions are real. He assumes that he's being tested again."

"Why should the Force test him again? It's ridiculous. I've only seen him for an hour since he arrived on Coruscant. Normally he comes and stays over. The kids are fretting to see him," Leia said with a sigh. "He was very hostile."

"Yes, I thought that," Mara concluded. "Not like himself at all. He kept giving me strange looks as if he wanted to say something but couldn't quite get the words out." Mara gave the other woman a searching look. Leia had sounded as if she was more concerned with her own feelings in this rather than that of her brother's. Luke had only told her about this because she would pick up on his worry and tension and not leave him alone until he divulged the whole story. He hadn't told her enough so she was using other people to find out. Leia did not like being kept from her brother's affairs.

"He refused to come for dinner."

"Now that should tell you immediately that there's a problem," Mara quipped and then yawned. "He thinks with his stomach."

Leia glanced at the chrono on her desk and gasped. "Mara! Why didn't you tell me that it was so late?"

Mara yawned again. "I did – several times."

"Did you? I'm sorry. I'll see you tomorrow and we can discuss this properly."

Mara shook her head. "There's nothing to discuss. I don't know any more about this than you do. Anyway, I have to meet your brother tomorrow. He mumbled something about saber training."

Leia's eyes brightened. "Keep at him, Mara."

"Sure," she said dismissively and cut the connection. Making her way to her bed she pulled off her clothes and slid in between the sheets. She was asleep instantly.

The nightmare, when it came, woke her immediately. With a gasp, Mara wrenched herself from her dream and propelled herself upright. She hadn't had a dream like that since just after the death of the Emperor. Pulling the covers around her shoulders, Mara shivered. She'd been cold and alone and had been trying desperately to reach the warmth and light that lay in front of her. For a moment she tried to process the jumbled images whirling inside her head.

"Mara!"

It was Luke's voice. He was calling to her. She stretched out to him, seeking his presence and found it mired in cold, dark fear.

"Mara! I can't… can't reach…!"

She closed her eyes in sudden understanding. The nightmare hadn't been hers. It was Luke's. He was projecting out to her – calling to her to help him. She connected with him again and tried to send warmth and light to counteract the darkness around him. "Do or do not, Jade," she muttered. "You used to be good at this."

"Mara… I need you!"

She felt his despair. She'd been able to contact Palpatine from anywhere in the galaxy. Luke's suite was only minutes from her own and she was having trouble reaching him. He wasn't consciously calling to her – he just was. As if she were his anchor - the most important thing in the galaxy to him. Mara knew that wasn't true. He'd told her he was getting married and wanted her to help him. She would do her utmost to aid him. Sweat broke out on her forehead as she felt him toss and turn. Taking a deep breath, Mara focused her entire concentration on the Jedi Master and relaxed.

"Mara!" His desperate cries reverberated through her mind.

Suddenly she was there with him. It was all so clear and easy. "Ssh!" she soothed softly. "I'm here. Calm…"

"Mara?" he questioned sleepily.

"Rest…"

"No dreams…"

"No, no more dreams. Not tonight." She withdrew carefully and felt him ease into a deep peaceful slumber.

Glancing at her chrono, Mara noted the lateness of the hour and closed her eyes. She needed to sleep, too.

*******************************

As a result of Leia's call and Luke's vivid nightmare, Mara overslept the next morning. The sun was high in Coruscant's sky as she opened bleary green eyes, focused tiredly on the chrono and then came instantly awake.

"Sithspawn!"

She leapt from her bed and hit the shower running.

Twenty minutes later, washed and dressed, with a cup of steaming caf in her hand she wandered into her office. She'd have to contact Karrde and apologise for missing the first meeting that morning.

A light was blinking intermittently on her desk console. She was going to have to get the damned thing fixed. At least it wasn't screaming at her this morning. She suspected that the sound module had died and become one with the god of mechanical things or whatever deity droids worshiped.

"Yes?" she mouthed into the com.

"Message left on audio only," a mellifluous, yet bland computer voice announced.

A message? Probably Karrde, although he usually used visuals. She flicked a switch, expecting to hear Karrde asking her where she'd got to but, instead, the pleasant voice of the Jedi Master filled the sunny room making it somehow seem even brighter.

"Mara!" Luke's friendly voice came over the speakers and echoed around the office. "I'll pick you up at your apartment later this evening. How about dinner?"

Mara's lips moved into an unwilling smile. His practise first date. He was making sure that she would accompany him. "Ask her first and then say what time you'll pick her up, Skywalker," Mara murmured. Then again, a thought struck her. Perhaps he had it the right way after all. "Don't give her the chance to say no. Very good, farmboy."

She moved through to her bedchamber and opened the door to her dressing room. The clothes she had worn in her various careers as smuggler, trader, socialite and Jedi trainee, lined the wall. When was the last time she'd worn half of this stuff? With a mental note to herself to have a good clear when she had time, Mara began flicking through her wardrobe.

"I don't know where he's taking me," she muttered. "I could arrive in the wrong outfit." She pushed past the half dozen jumpsuits and tunics she favoured and frowned. The fact that it was Luke who was to be escorting her and that she normally met him wearing her trademark jumpsuits and tunics didn't cross her mind. This was a date and she had to do it right. Mara's hands lingered on her favourite suit of durable black leather but discarded it quickly.

"I didn't know I had collected so many clothes," she murmured. Carefully stored were her smart tunic suits, her all-weather gear for whichever situation she found herself in and finally her evening gowns. It had been a long time since she'd worn something beautiful. The jobs she'd been doing for Karrde over the past year had taken her to many far flung places in the galaxy. Dressing up had not been of high priority.

Pushing aside one of the protective covers, Mara fingered the soft shimmersilk of a pale green evening dress. She'd never worn it. She'd bought the gown on some outer rim world a couple of years before; she couldn't remember exactly where it was. "I'd forgotten I had this," Mara said reverently. She remembered vaguely stopping at the star port to rest and refuel. Shopping hadn't been on her agenda. The shop had drawn her to it. The feminine side of Mara Jade didn't get out to play too often but she loved beautiful things. The dress had been the sole object displayed. Mara had walked in, as if in a dream, and had asked to try it on.

The fabric had clung to her curvaceous figure, its delicate neckline hinting rather than revealing, nipping in to hug her waist and then sweeping softly down to her feet, layers of thin fabric, the pale outer skirts subtly shifting underneath to darker green where cloth met skin. It had left no doubt in the vendors' mind that Mara was female. It added an element of allure, yet there was something chaste about it. She'd bought it, without even asking for the price and then stored it away carefully.

Mara wondered why she had never worn it and then the reason came to her. It had made her feel special, almost like… a bride.

With a little gasp, Mara stopped fingering the silk and turned away. Yes, she should have a clear out. What was the use of hoarding clothes she was never likely to wear? But a lingering glance at the gown showed her sudden vulnerability.

Moving back to the office, Mara slapped her hand on a switch. "Skywalker!"

"Yes." His voice answered hers immediately.

"It's Mara," she murmured, taken aback at the swiftness of his reply.

"I know. I was expecting to hear from you."

She frowned. "You were?"

"Yes and you're the only person who barks 'Skywalker' into a comlink in quite that fashion. It's quite endearing really."

Mara gave a dry chuckle. "You are so funny, farmboy. About this evening - you need to give a girl some clue about where you are taking her."

"I do?"

"Of course, nerf brain."

"Why?"

"So she knows what to wear."

"I'm glad I have you to advise me," Luke's disembodied voice said and Mara could hear the smile in his voice. "I would have never thought about that."

"Well, you should," she mock scolded him. "But then you never think about your own wardrobe either, so I should have expected that."

"But it's supposed to be a surprise," he pleaded plaintively. "I thought women liked surprises."

He sounded like a little boy and Mara could see him in her mind's eye - his chin raised at that dare-the-world-to-tell-him-what-to-do angle and his lower lip stuck stubbornly out in a pout. No woman could resist him.

She froze.

No woman? What about Mara Jade – could she?

"Mara?"

Luke's query made her realise that she hadn't answered him. "Let me give you some advice, farmboy."

"What, more of it?"

"Any more of that insolence, Jedi boy, and you'll be winning your own bride."

"Sorry, Mara." Luke's voice was suspiciously meek but, again, Mara could see the twinkle in his sky blue eyes as clear as if he was standing in front of her.

"So you should be," she said shortly. "Now, where were we?"

"You were going to give me some advice?"

"Yes, Skywalker. Women do like surprises…"

"I knew it," he crowed triumphantly.

"I wasn't finished."

"Are you including yourself among them?"

Mara blinked. "What?"

"The women."

"Of course not," she snapped. Really, the Jedi Master could try her patience faster than any other man in the galaxy.

"But you should," he told her earnestly. "If I can satisfy you…" his voice faded away.

"Yeah, yeah!" she said, wondering why the strange note in his voice made her feel uncomfortable.

"Mara?"

"Yes?"

"Do you like surprises?"

"My advice is…"

"You do," he declared gleefully and Mara felt herself blush.

She tried again. "My advice is…"

"Mara Jade loves surprises as much as the next woman."

"Skywalker!" Mara essayed from between gritted teeth. "Will you stop interrupting and let me finish?"

"Sorry, Mara." He didn't sound in the least bit sorry and Mara tried not to grind her teeth.

"So you should be. What I was saying was…"

"Mara Jade likes surprises," he whispered.

"You can be very annoying." But there was a curve to her lips at his audacious banter. Only Luke talked to her in this way. Only Luke could get away with it. Her wrist blaster was still an integral part of her daily apparel.

"I know. Part of my charm?"

Mara snorted. "That's debatable. Where are you?"

"At the Rogue Squadron hangar."

"Flying with the boys again, Rogue leader?"

"The X-wing needs an overhaul. What time will I pick you up?"

"About nineteen hundred hours?"

"I can do that. And Mara…"

"Yes?"

"Smart casual."

"Why you… You knew all along," she seethed.

Luke's warm chuckle sounded along the com line. "Guilty as charged. I'll see you later. Looking forward to it."

Mara was left standing in her office mouthing obscenities into the air.