Chapter 16: Return to the Fleet

Luke pushed up on the hyperdrive lever before him and watched as the star lines collapsed into single points of light. He angled the ship to the right and the sight of the star field was replaced with a sight Luke was familiar with. Luke smiled slightly at the sight of the fleet of Mon Calamari cruisers and frigates now filling the Emerald Dawn's viewport. He had been gone too long. The ship's communicator soon crackled as the ship's approach was noticed by the nearest cruiser. "Unknown vessel, you have entered restricted space. Please identify yourself."

Luke flipped on the comlink as he entered his personal identification code into the terminal in front of him. "This is Commander Skywalker piloting the Emerald Dawn, requesting clearance to land. I'm transmitting my access code now."

The speaker remained silent for a moment as Luke maintained the ship's approach toward the fleet. The communicator soon came to life once more with an obviously excited controller on the other side. "It's a pleasure to have you back, Commander Skywalker. You've been given permission to land in the main hangar of Home One, sir. It was an honor to be the one to greet a hero of your stature, Commander."

"Thank you." Luke shook his head as he shut off the comlink to end his discussion with the overly excited controller. One thing he did appreciate about the past couple months away was being able to avoid hero worship from the new recruits. Luke moved to place the Emerald Dawn on an approach vector with Home One, but stopped to turn toward the copilot's seat at the sound of Mara's amused laughter.

"So is this normal behavior, oh great hero?" Luke turned his attention back to the piloting the ship, trying to ignore Mara's sarcasm. Mara, however, was not about to let it slide. "You didn't tell me I was supposed to worship you. How will I fit in if I'm not fawning over the great Commander Skywalker?"

Mara's face sobered up when she noticed a troubled Luke flash across Luke's face. Apparently, she had crossed a line she didn't even realize was there. "I'm not a hero, regardless of what they may believe. Taking lives is an ugly but necessary part of war, but I don't want anyone to think me a hero because of it."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

Luke placed one hand over Mara's as he guided the ship toward the hangar with the other. He turned and gave Mara a small smile to let her know he wasn't mad. "Don't worry about it. You didn't know."

The cockpit of the Emerald Dawn remained silent for the remainder of the trip into the Home One's hangar, but Luke kept his hand on Mara's until it came time to begin the landing cycle. Working in tandem, the pair soon shut down the ship and made their way to the exit ramp. Luke chuckled slightly when he found R2 rolling back and forth excitedly by the slowly descending walkway. As soon as the ramp made contact with the surface of the hangar, R2 rolled his way down with Luke following closely behind. Luke smiled as R2 rolled straight for C-3PO, obviously excited to tell the protocol droid about his latest round of adventures. A familiar voice soon caught Luke's attention to his side. "You see? I told you he was fine."

With a broad smile, Luke turned to find a smirking Han Solo making his way across the hangar following the path along which Leia was running. Leia almost knocked Luke over when she reached him as the petite woman ran into her brother with all of her might. The embrace was short lived, however, as Leia broke away to give Luke a piece of her mind. "Don't you ever pull something like that again!"

Luke shuffled his feet slightly as he looked down, not wanting to face his sister's angry stare. He had known this was coming. "I left a note."

"And that's the only reason I didn't send Han and Chewie to hunt you down." Luke was relieved when Leia pulled him toward her again. Apparently, the sight of Luke safe and sound was enough to quench her temper. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." Luke was about to turn his attention to Han when he felt something from the direction of the ship. He glanced toward the transport to find Mara watching him from the top of the ramp. Luke had to do his best to keep down a small smile at the feelings he was picking up from Mara. She was jealous of the attention Luke was getting from his sister. Luke was tempted to laugh at the situation, but thought better of it. He did not want to be on Mara's bad side.

Luke let go of his sister and gave Han a sign to wait for a moment. He turned to fully face the Emerald Dawn's ramp and waved for Mara to join them. Feeling a slight sense of hesitation, Luke decided to make an attempt at lightening the mood. "You can come out. They won't bite. I promise."

Luke's bad attempt at humor earned him a scowl from Mara as she finally emerged from the shadows at the ramp. In his embarrassment, Luke missed the curious glance exchanged by Han and Leia behind him. They didn't expect Luke to have returned with company, especially not of the beautiful, red haired female variety. When Mara finally reached the group, Luke gave her a supportive smile and turned to make introductions. "Mara, this is my sister, Leia and my friend, Han. Leia, Han, this is Mara. I met her while I was away and I've started to train her as a Jedi."

Luke could feel a small sense of relief from Mara upon hearing that Leia was his sister. He knew it wasn't fair to Mara, but he had kind of enjoyed knowing she was jealous at Leia's affection. Before Luke could consider this any further, he was distracted by Leia stepping forward to greet Mara. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Luke couldn't help but notice something uneasy in the way Leia greeted Mara in spite of the unreadable expression on his sister's face. He got the impression that Mara felt it too when she hesitated slightly to accept Leia's hand. Luke decided that it would be better to separate the two before anything happened. Hopefully, it was just Leia's overprotective streak coming out and not anything more. He would clear things up soon enough. "I don't mean to run off, but we've had a long trip and I want to secure Mara quarters so we can both get some rest. I'll catch up with you two soon."

"It's been nice talking to you, Kid. Sleep well." Luke turned to Han to wave goodbye as he made his way toward the hangar's exit. He snapped his gaze away quickly, however, when he saw the mischievous wink Han gave him. Surely, Han hadn't picked up on what was going on between him and Mara so quickly. Luke wasn't even sure what was going on between them, but he knew that the smuggler already had his suspicions. Luke pushed those thoughts out of his mind and led Mara toward the appropriations officer's office.

After an hour of bureaucratic red tape, Luke was getting exasperated at the process necessary to get Mara a place to stay. Apparently, starting up a new government led to paperwork being necessary to complete the relatively simple tasks that had been done within a minute under the Alliance. Luke was almost tempted to use the weight of his hero status to push the man along faster, but he wasn't sure if that would help any. For all he knew, this was the man working fast.

Luke let out a loud sigh and turned to give Mara a small smile. From the seat next to his, she returned his smile and rolled her eyes at the ridiculous process necessary just to get a room. "Maybe I could just stay with you. I'm sure it would be comfortable."

Mara's hand shot up to cover her mouth as soon as she finished her statement. She had no idea where that comment came from, even if she did think it was true. She peeked to her side to find that Luke obviously didn't know where her statement had come from either. At least she wasn't alone in her thoughts. "I didn't mean to stay that. It just came out. Not that I've had a problem staying with you in the past, but the close quarters and all…"

Luke placed a hand on Mara's arm and smiled to stop her rambling. "It's fine. We'll get something figured out. Don't worry about it. I am a war hero you know."

Mara let out a small laugh at Luke's sarcastic remark. He obviously hadn't made a big deal out of her slip of the tongue, so she had no reason to either. The pair sat in silence for a few more minutes before the appropriations officer finally returned. "I'm sorry it took so long. As it turns out, the room next to yours is free, Commander Skywalker. Princess Leia cleared it so that Miss Jade can occupy those quarters."

Luke smiled, realizing that their holdup was likely due to Leia pulling strings to allow them to stay near each other. He just hoped Leia's reason was because she knew he was training Mara to be a Jedi and not because she suspected something like Han did. The last thing he wanted was to get his sister involved in his love life. Leia's part in his romantic endeavors was already awkward enough. Luke rose from his seat and extended his arm to Mara with a broad smile. "Would you allow me the honor of escorting you to your quarters, Miss Jade?"

Mara rolled her eyes at Luke's display and gave him a shove in the back to get moving, but couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "Just get moving, Skywalker."