Jaina stared at Mara, confusion at the outburst etched in her
face. The Jedi Master was staring at Jaina, her expression a mixture of
overflowing happiness and annoyance...anger? No, not either. Worry? That
might've been the best thought take on the emotion.
"What, Mar-" Jaina cut off her sentence as she felt Mara's Force presence wash
over her, the understanding at what Mara had discovered seeping with it. She
hardly noticed that her jaw had dropped or that her hands were coming up to
cover her mouth in disbelief.
Mara seemed to realize what was going through her head because she grabbed at
Jaina's elbow and quickly helped Jaina lower herself into the nearest chair.
Her thoughts were whirling around what she and Jag had decided to do and what,
apparently, her consequences were. But it wasn't the worst thing that could
happen, was it...? Sweet Force, she was pregnant and she wasn't even married to
the child's father! A sudden panic gripped her as she remembered why she'd been
so sad earlier. Jag was gone. He'd left, disappeared into the endless black
with white starlines space to return to Csilla. And he might not even return.
Not until her aunt's fingers were wiping her face and then her arms were
wrapping Jaina in a strained hug did she realize tears had escaped her control.
This was all too much. What if Jag never returned? What if he got shot out of
the sky in some dogfight? What if-
Her aunt's fingers snapped in front of her face and Jaina stopped staring into
space to look at Mara.
"Don't even go there, Jaina. If you do, you'll 'what if' yourself insane."
Jaina offered a small smile, saying, "Mara, I have the feeling that I lost my
sanity a long, long time ago."
"Yep." Mara raised her hand to Jaina's forehead. "Even under stress or anxiety
you Solos still manage to maintain your sense of weird humor. Luke owes me major
credits now."
Jaina broke out into laughter, her worry temporarily forgotten in the humor
Mara's words brought out. Some bet. Well, why not? It was always worth it to
win something that was absolutely impossible to lose, especially if the other
party in the bet thought that your deductions were wrong. But Uncle Luke,
of all sentient beings, how could he have taken up on Mara's bet? He who had
flown with her father during the Rebellion. Honestly.
Mara was looking at her again, her face growing more serious with each passing
moment of silence. She sat down across from Jaina and put her elbows on her
knees, chin in her cupped hands.
"What?"
"Jaina...look, I realize you'll probably want to tell Jag- I'm assuming Jag's
the father here- first, but have you, in the short time you've known you're
pregnant, given thought to the fact that he may not return?"
Jaina stiffened in her chair, blinking slowly. Of course the thought had come
to her mind. It had been one of the first things to cross her mind. But Jag had
promised...he'd promised he'd never leave her. She just had to go by
that. And hope to the ends of the universe that Jag would be coming home. Soon.
Really soon.
Her aunt seemed to be guessing what was going on in her mind- either that,
she'd probed through her barriers and figured out the thoughts she held.
"Look, I'm not going to make you do anything and I'm not going to say a
word to anyone, but I think you should either tell your parents or find some
way to send a transmission to Jag. While that may not be the easiest way to do
things like tell someone you're pregnant, it might help the situation of his
returning or not-"
Here, Jaina cut her off angrilly. "Jag's coming back. I know he is. He
promised me he would."
Across from her, Mara merely shook her head, something that Jaina didn't
exactly want to see. Heaving a sigh, Jaina finally nodded.
"Alright, fine. I'll find a comm station."
