Luke stood at the edge of a precipice. Strong gusts of wind blew his hair around his face and the twin suns were setting. It was very hot, so hot that his outfit clung to his body.
How did he get on Tatooine? The last thing he remembered was standing of Brakiss's body and talking to Mara.
"Luke?"
He turned to face his wife, startled. He had never been with Mara on his home planet of Tatooine. If this were a dream, why was she here?
"It's not exactly a dream, Luke," Mara informed him as she came up beside him. "We are in your mind. This is something Palpatine taught me to do when he wanted a slow death for someone I was to kill."
He raised an eyebrow. "Are you finally going to fulfill his last command?" He asked, wryly.
Mara rolled her eyes. "We haven't been married long enough for me to want to kill you."
"Then why are you doing this?" He had no idea what she was doing or why.
She stared at him and he was surprised to see tears in her beautiful emerald eyes. Softly, she answered, "To keep you alive."
Shocked, he let her words absorb before he asked, "So, I was injured that badly?"
She nodded and then rested her head against his shoulder, wrapping an arm around his back. "I don't want to lose you, Skywalker. We're not going to make it to Coruscant; you're bleeding too badly. So Han is going to take us to Ithor. Concentrate on healing between now and then. Stay with me."
Luke intertwined his fingers with hers. The last time he had shared an intimate moment with someone through the Force it had been with Callista on the dreadnaught, the Eye of the Palpatine. Since he felt fine here, in his mind, he wondered if he could share a few precious moments with his wife.
Mara glanced up at him, a sly smile on her face. "Yes, Luke," she whispered and then reached for his face for a passionate kiss. When they were laying together on the ground, she explained, "I am here, with you in your mind, united through the Force. And I deeply love you."
Luke smiled at her. "If it should be my time to finally depart this galaxy, at least I'll know that I was allowed a few more moments with you."
"Oh, shut up and kiss me again," Mara teased, bringing him to her.
Leia was leaning on the bulkhead of the Falcon, watching Mara breathing deeply and evenly. Her sister-in-law was sitting cross-legged on the floor next to the medical bunk where Luke was laying. She had told them two days ago that she was going into hibernation with Luke, and had given her a code phrase to snap her out of it when they reached Ithor. She had explained to Leia that she knew a technique that would help keep Luke alive longer, no matter how close to death he was—and Leia could feel that death was very, very close to her brother this time. Brakiss was dead, but extremely close to getting what he had wanted.
"How long can she go without food or water?" Han whispered from behind her.
Leia glanced up at her husband. "A few days. But we'll reach Ithor tomorrow so we'll get her out of hibernation early so she can recover."
"What is she doing?"
Leia shrugged. "I'm not entirely certain. Something she must have learned while being the Emperor's Hand, no doubt. I really didn't think Luke would even make it to Ithor with all the blood that he's lost, and continues to lose. But now the bleeding has slowed and he shows a tad bit more color than he did so I have hope. Whatever Mara is doing is working so I'll leave her to it." She turned away and walked into the galley.
Han lingered a few more minutes, taking in the sight of a woman in love desperately trying to keep the man she loved from leaving her. Then he joined his wife.
"Would you do something like that for me?" He asked, poking her gently in the side.
Leia frowned, her brows furrowing. "What do you mean, 'would I'? I have! Or do you forget so quickly me going into Jabba's palace in disguise to free you from the carbonite?"
He chuckled. "I don't think I could ever forget that. Or that outfit he made you wear. I never did get a chance to thank him."
Leia punched him hard in the arm. "Han! That was humiliating! Me, Princess of Alderaan, dressed worse than a cantina girl. Honestly!"
"Wasn't nothin' honest about you in that outfit, sweetheart," her husband teased. "I was so very glad that my sight returned so I could see you in it."
Leia was still laughing when he finally got up to fix them some dinner.
Mara paced around the room for the millionth time, and suddenly Leia could not take it anymore.
"Mara! Please! Sit down! You're making me more nervous," she implored her sister-in-law.
Mara sat down with a grunt and dropped her head into her hands. "What's taking so long? He's been in there for ten hours!"
Leia could sympathize with her new sister. When they had landed on one of Ithor's large city-ships, medics had quickly whisked Luke away to their state-of-the-art medical facility. And there he had been in surgery for the past ten hours.
"We just have to be patient," Leia told her, also for the millionth time.
Han and Chewie both growled their dislike of that idea.
Fortunately, the head Ithorian doctor walked in, to spare them from killing each other.
Mara immediately sprung to her feet. "How is he?"
The hammerhead-like being smiled gently at her. "Master Skywalker is out of danger now. Once we began to work on closing his artery, we discovered that he had other, internal problems as well. We can only deduce that the lightsaber blade went into his side more deeply than first thought, which also explains—besides the severed artery—the volume of blood loss. Whatever you did," and now he gazed at Mara alone, "saved his life."
Mara briefly closed her eyes in relief. "When can I see him?"
"You may all see him right now, though briefly," the doctor assured them. "He is sleeping. As you can imagine, with the amount of loss of blood that he had, he is very weak. While his body recovers, he'll need to stay here. It is too dangerous just yet for him to be moved or walk around."
"He'll hate that," Han remarked.
Leia elbowed him in the stomach to quiet him.
Mara smiled at the doctor. "Please, lead the way."
Luke appeared to be sleeping soundly, though monitors scattered all over his room showed in detail his vital signs. Through the thin sheet covering him, Mara could see a large white bandage covering the wound on his side.
"We will place him in bacta in a few days," the doctor said to her questioning glance. "He is too weak to even be placed in bacta."
Mara nodded. She had come that close to being alone again. So close. Thankfully, when she had joined him in his mind, he had not wanted to leave her, therefore it had been easier for her to use the Force to slow down his body's dying process.
"Luke, if you can hear me," Leia was whispering close to her brother's ear. "I'm going to try to donate some of my blood for you. You lost too much. Hang in there—we all need you." She gently squeezed her twin's limp hand. "I love you, Luke." Then she turned away, tears in her eyes. Evidently she realized how close she had come to losing her brother.
Chewie lightly patted Luke's face, and wuff wuffed his sentiments for him to get well.
Then Han cleared his throat. "Hey, kid, I know you're tough stuff so I won't waste mushy talk about you getting better. I mean, you had your spirit locked away in a temple, for Sith's sake! I know you'll be back to bugging us in no time." Leia hit him.
"I…I want to stay here, alone," Mara said, gazing at the doctor.
After a moment's hesitation, he nodded and ushered Luke's family out.
Mara clasped Luke's hand in her own. "Stay with me, Skywalker," she murmured. "Stay with me." She dragged up a chair to sit in near him, and then sank into the Force to help him heal.
"Ah, Master Skywalker! So good to see you awake again!"
Luke weakly lifted his head an inch or so from his pillow to see the doctor stride in. Behind him was Mara, Han and Chewbacca. He frowned.
"Where's…Leia?" He inquired, those two words alone sapping him of most of his strength.
"She gave you some of her blood, kid," Han informed him, leaning in the doorway. "She's next door, recovering. She should be here to bug ya by tonight."
Luke smiled and then let his head sink back into his pillow.
Mara immediately sensed his feelings and came over to rub his arm. She smiled down at him. "How do you feel?" She asked as the doctor checked the monitors around the room.
He flopped his hand a couple of times to indicate 'so-so'.
"You almost made me kill you, Skywalker," Mara said, her voice deepening into a threat as her eyes narrowed.
Luke's eyes widened in shock and he indicated that he had no idea what she was talking about.
"If you had died," she explained, "I would have brought you back and then killed you myself." She smiled.
Luke gave a short laugh. He had to marry a feisty one.
The Ithorian doctor returned to him and grinned, showing his flat, herbivore teeth. "You'll recover nicely, I think. Now take it easy and don't try to walk just yet. We might try you on bacta tomorrow. I'll leave you alone for your family." He started to walk out and then barked in surprise to someone standing at the doorway. "What are you doing up? You need to be in bed!"
"I will once I talk to my brother," Leia's voice returned. "I promise."
The doctor tsked, tsked and walked away, shaking his large head.
Leia poked her head into the room, looking as tired as he felt. "Hi, Luke. I felt you wake up and wanted to be here." She pulled her robe more tightly around her figure. Han wrapped his arms around her.
"Thank…you…" Luke told his sister.
She smiled. "Blood is thicker than water," she joked, then winced. "But it sure does hurt to share it."
They all chuckled at her words.
Luke gazed at all of them. They had risked everything to come with him, and then to save him. He looked up at his wife. Blood was indeed thicker than water, but the unifying Force was stronger than even blood. He smiled. With his family's help, he'd recover and once again be off in the galaxy trying to set some wrong to make it right. But until then…
He winked suggestively at Mara and she laughed.
"Recover first, farmboy, then we'll see what we can do to make you feel better," she promised silkily.
Luke couldn't wait to get out that bed.
THE END