Here is the next chapter. InsaneJediGirl, thanks for the review! Now for the wedding...

Chapter 12

Less than a week later was wedding day. Jaina was woken up early by her new entourage of handmaidens who brought her to the area where she would be preparing for her wedding later in the day.

After a mourning filled with painting, plucking, and curling, Jaina was finally made up and ready to go with all of her makeup and hair. The last thing left to go was for her and her bridesmaids to get dressed. As Jaina's gown was brought out for her to put on, an incredibly sad feeling came over the girl. Today was her wedding day and she wasn't marrying her dream boy. Even the gown wasn't right. Although it was extremely beautiful, it was much to large and fancy for her tastes. Then there was her bridesmaids. Out of the twenty girls, Jaina had only known two of them for longer than a week.

As Leia and Mara came back to see Jaina and help her get ready, tears threatened to fall from her eyes. "Mom, I don't know if I can do this."

"Sweetheart, you don't have to if you don't want to. You never did. But just so you know, all brides get a little shaken up right before their wedding. It's natural."

Mara stepped forward and began to speak, "Leia's right. You don't have to go through with this. Isolder is a good man, but maybe he isn't the man for you. He will understand if you back out."

"I know he would, but I don't want to give up. I have never in my entire life been a quitter and I don't want to start now. I can do this."

"Ok," said Leia, a little sad at her daughter's decision. "Let's get you ready for a wedding."

A few hours later it was time for the ceremony to start. Han, Jaina, and her bridesmaids all stood behind the closed door leading to the area where the wedding was being held.

Turning to his daughter, Han tried once more to talk her out of making what was, in his opinion, the biggest mistake of her life. "Sweetie, you know you don't have to marry this guy, right? I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of good looking guys out there that are a little bit closer to your own age. Like Kyp! He's a good Jedi guy and like him a lot. Why can't you be marrying someone like that?"

"Believe me dad, I'm definitely not marrying Kyp anytime soon. He's lucky I haven't killed him yet. Besides, marrying Isolder isn't that bad, right?" she asked, trying to convince herself more than her father.

"Whatever you say, princess."

"That's future Queen Mother to you, mere commoner," she

said with a laugh, still trying to make herself believe her own words.

"Well it's about time for this commoner to escort his queen down the aisle, if it is alright with her."

"You may proceed," Jaina responded with a smile.

As the doors opened and the wedding party began to file down the aisle, Jaina knew once again that something was not right. As she looked upon her future husband while walking down the aisle, butterflies should be filling her stomach and she should be having trouble breathing. None of this was happening.

Once Jaina reached the front of the room, she handed her bouquet of flowers over to Tenel Ka, her maid of honor and future step-daughter. Taking Isolder's hands in her own, the wedding started.

As the two started saying their vows, a single tear ran down her cheek. Isolder reached his hand up to brush it away as he spoke the words, "I do."

When the minister turned towards Jaina and repeated his question of whether or not she would take Isolder as her husband, she paused without answering. Moment of truth. Do I say yes or no? And finally she answered, "I do."

Once the vows were spoken, the officiate clasped his hands together and announced "I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Slightly nervous, Isolder lifted up Jaina's veil and looked into her eyes. There he saw a deep sense of sadness. He knew the child did not love him and was most likely questioning her decision to marry him, which just added to his growing mountain of guilt. Finally, he leaned down for what was not only the couple's first kiss as man and wife, but also their first kiss ever. It was nothing special, only a soft peck on the lips which seemed to greatly relieve both of the participants. As the newlyweds turned to face the crowd, Jaina looked at her mother who had tears streaming down her face, and Jaina knew that they were not tears of joy.

The crowd slowly began to make their way towards the banquet hall where the reception was going to be held. Once there the bride and groom took up their places to begin their first dance. As the music began to play, both Jaina and Isolder stood there in silence. It was painfully obvious that the two were uncomfortable with each other just by the fact that neither of them would look the other directly in the eyes.

As the two began to sway hesitantly, Isolder made an attempt at conversation. "So…the wedding came off nicely, don't you think?"

"Yes, it was great," was Jaina's unenthusiastic reply.

"Well, you look lovely. Whenever I look at you I remember back when you and Tenel Ka first met. You have grown up so much since then."

"Back then I bet you could never could have guessed that you would one day be marrying me, huh?"

"Nope, never could have dreamed up that one."

The song ended while Isolder was speaking, and Luke then came up to stand beside the couple. "May I cut in?" he asked politely while bowing to the Prince and his Queen.

"Of course," replied Isolder while backing away.

"You look beautiful Jaina," spoke Luke to his niece.

"Thanks Uncle Luke. I don't know how I got myself into this mess. I don't know how to be a queen and rule an entire system."

"Have faith in yourself Jaina, everything will work out for the best."

Across the room stood Tahiri, watching the proceedings of the wedding reception. Suddenly, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning to see who was trying to get her attention, she saw Han Solo.

"Look kid, I didn't mean to blow up at you like I did the other day. I was just really shocked and upset and I wanted to tell you that I was sorry and that Leia and I will do whatever we can to help support you and our grandchild. Wow, I still can't believe those words. I'm going to be a grandpa."

"I forgive you, but I still don't think I want to keep the baby. It will just bring back too many painful memories and I don't think I can handle that right now. The last thing I want is to have to look into Anakin's face for the rest of my life knowing that I can never see him or talk to him again."

"I can understand your fear but I would also like you to reconsider your decision. Maybe it will help you get over Anakin by raising his child. Besides, if it ever gets to be to much, you have myself, Leia, Luke, and Mara to help you."

"I know, it's just-"

"Think about it."

As the night drove on, Jaina began to search the many faces at the reception for one particular pilot who promised he would attend her wedding. Finally spotting him, Jaina began to walk in the direction of the refreshment table. "Jagged Fel," she spoke, standing behind the young Imperial.

"Your highness," he answered with a respectful bow after turning to face her.

"I'm really glad you made it."

"Yeah, me to. Would you like to go someplace where we can talk or something?"
"Yeah. Here, lets go out onto the patio." As the two walked outside, they both began to relax noticeably.

"So, you're a Queen now. Are you excited?"

"No."

"No? Not even a little? You have to at least be excited about the wedding night."

"Oh yeah, just what I want, my first experience to be with a man old enough to be my father. I'm dreading it actually."

"Your first experience? I didn't know you were a virgin. You're probably just nervous."

"Spoken like someone who has lots of experience."

"No, not really. Not at all, actually," he replied with a bit of a blush.

"So now that we know each others sexual history, was there anything else you wanted to discuss?"

"Not really I guess. Just wanted to say you look beautiful," Jag said while leaning over to give her a kiss on the cheek. "Oh, and good luck with tonight," he added, wiggling his eyebrows.

Unfortunately for Jaina, the reception ended all to soon, signaling that it was time for the bride and groom to leave to go consummate their marriage. As the newlyweds walked to Isolder's suite in the palace, Jaina became more and more nervous.

"Here we are," announced Isolder as he opened the door to his room. "Welcome to your new home."

"It's great," announced Jaina, looking around the royal suite. "I think I could get comfortable here."

"That's the idea, to get you comfortable with this new lifestyle. You're a queen now so you should get used to being treated like one. It's probably a lot to take in, but if you have any questions or need any thing, you should know you can always come and ask me or Tenel Ka for help."

"Ok… it's kind of weird to think of Tenel Ka as my step-daughter. She is almost a whole year older than me!"

"I know. Look Jaina, I'll understand if your not ready for anything to happen tonight. You're young and uncomfortable in this situation and so am I. Believe me, I feel guilty about marrying a girl younger than my own daughter, and I understand if you would like to wait for a little while until we get to know each other better before anything physical happens between the two of us."
"Thanks, I really appreciate you saying that, and yes I would like to wait a little while before we do anything. Wow, that takes a big weight off of my shoulders."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I am exhausted," claimed Isolder as he kissed his wife's forehead. "There are clothes for you in the closet if you want to get ready for bed because right now I am going to sleep. Good night."

He quickly got dressed, climbed into the large bed, and fell asleep. Jaina followed suit and eventually got into the bed next to him. Finally all of her pent up tears from the day were released as she cried herself to sleep.

I hope everyone enjoyed! Coming up in the next post...a confrontation between Jaina and Jag, and dinner with the newlyweds.