A/N: Well, here's another chapter. I think y'all will enjoy this one...no evil cliffies! And L/M mush! :)
Remember, due to 's REALLY STUPID new way of doing things, ((this)) is Force talk and scene breaks are denoted by these:
Thanks for taking the time to read my story!
Mara tossed and turned on the narrow cot in her assigned quarters on Home One. She heard a muffled grumbling from her roommate, a young tech who worked in the communications center, and immediately tried to still her restlessness. It certainly wasn't fair of Mara to keep Elina awake just because she couldn't sleep. The sleep cycle never seemed to last long enough as it was.
Sighing quietly, she wondered why sleep was eluding her. Well, that wasn't precisely accurate. The question was, which of the many crises that she had endured in the last several weeks was the one keeping her awake? She had lost her Y-Wing, been captured - again - by Darth Vader, seen Han almost killed, and nearly lost the man she loved to his own despair.
To top all that off, General Rieekan had temporarily relieved her of command of Ghost Squadron. He had droned on about how she had been through a 'trauma' and that she 'needed time to recover' before she took charge of her boys again. Of course, there was also the fact that she no longer had a ship. Most pilots who lose their ships have the decency to die along with them, Mara thought morbidly. Funds had always been tight for the Alliance and a replacement Y-Wing was not in the immediate future. She let out a little sniffle as she wondered how long it would be before she got to fly again.
Luke was in the same predicament. Han, Wedge and Mara hadn't told him about his grounding yet, worried about how he would deal with that in addition to the ordeal he'd been through. The High Command weren't exactly pleased that Luke had gone off on his own and missed the rendezvous. He hadn't been debriefed yet, and although Mara had explained about his Jedi training in her own debriefing, the Alliance leaders had been very skeptical.
Mara recalled the conversation with Luke when he'd first awakened after the operation to replace his hand. He had frightened her for a moment there, truly frightened her, and she could not remember ever being scared of Luke before. It was as though, in that moment, she'd seen the potential for Darkness in him and it had chilled her to the bone. Only seconds later, he had been apologizing and he was her Luke once more. Mara hoped to never see that other side of him again.
Groaning silently, Mara knew that she was never going to get any rest if she didn't cease with these heavy thoughts. She tried to think of something lighter, happier, hoping that it would relax her enough to help her fall asleep. Her thoughts turned to the kiss she and Luke had shared back on Hoth and she could feel herself blushing in the darkness of her room. Mara had not exaggerated when she had told Han that it was an amazing experience.
Since the destruction of Alderaan, she had not really allowed herself to feel anything. Certainly, she felt friendship for Han, Chewie and Wedge, and she even loved them in a decidedly friendly way. But what Mara felt for Luke went so far beyond that. She could vividly recall the slightly daring gleam in his eye as he'd leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. The tingling that kiss had started had reached all the way down to her toes and she smiled softly to herself even now.
Mara wondered if Luke ever thought of that kiss. He was still not quite his old self after what he'd been through on Bespin, but they had almost kissed again when he'd awakened. Frowning a little, she recalled Han and Wedge's intentional interruption. However, she didn't allow herself to dignify wasting any thoughts on the two Corellians' little wager, having stung their ears enough that day. Still, she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to kiss Luke again when they weren't under an emergency evacuation.
She wondered if Luke was asleep right now. Was he thinking of her if he wasn't? Was he dreaming of her if he was? Mara blushed again as she thought of some of the dreams she'd had herself in the last few weeks. She and Luke had always been close, but since Bespin when they'd somehow communicated across the distance of the Falcon and the bottom of Cloud City where he'd been trapped, there had been an even stronger bond between them.
Sometimes she'd even been able to feel a little of what he was feeling...his lingering upset over his battle with Darth Vader, his frustration at being confined to the medbay, his irritation with Han and Wedge's interruption. And then there had been some kind of argument with Arica Alie. Mara frowned as she thought of the petite brunette who caused her protective instincts to surge forth.
Luke hadn't wanted to discuss it with anyone, which caused Mara some hurt, but she chose not to dwell on that. She clenched her teeth as she realized her thoughts had started to drift to negative things once again. Stang, I'm never going to get to sleep at this rate!
Determined to fall asleep, she closed her eyes and focused her thoughts on Luke and how much she loved him. She could almost sense him next to her. He was awake and he was thinking. Mara gasped and her eyes flew open as she became conscious of the fact that she really was sensing him and he was extremely distressed. Sitting straight up in her bed, she ignored Elina's irritated mutterings, and shuddered as she felt the overpowering Darkness that seemed to be surrounding Luke.
"Luke!" she whispered urgently, and without stopping to consider what she was doing, Mara flew out of her bed and went to him.
On board her ship, the Windrider, Arica jerked awake from the light doze she had fallen into. A presence filled her senses, one she hadn't felt in so long. She reached out for him, needing to feel his strength.
((Master?))
He did not reply to her call. Desperately, she tried again.
((Master, are you there? Please don't abandon me!))
A sob worked its way past her throat as he continued to ignore her. He seemed to be centering all his attention on Skywalker.
Skywalker! Why him, and not me, Master? Have I not served you well? Arica thought as bitter tears began to streak down her face. A hoarse cry was ripped from her and she turned to bury her grief in the pillow of the narrow bunk on her ship. She had never felt more alone.
In his meditation chamber aboard the Executor, Darth Vader's eyes snapped open as he felt his son's hesitant Force-probe for his father's presence. Before he could respond to the boy, his Master's presence overwhelmed his senses.
((The son of Skywalker is looking for his father, my Apprentice. He will not find him here, will he?))
The sharp tone of Palpatine's voice in his head made Vader hesitate. He had to tread very carefully around the Sith Master. He did not want his plans, or the uncertain feelings that had been surging through him lately, to be discovered.
((No, my Master.))
((Good. No need to worry about this, Lord Vader. I will speak to the boy for you.))
Again, the tone was sharp and sly and Vader felt a tremor of fear for Luke's safety. He firmly tried to squelch it before his Master could sense it.
((If that is your wish, my Master.))
((It is. You will take the Executor to Endor to ensure that the progress on the Death Star is going according to my plans. I will expect a report when you arrive.))
((Yes, my Master.))
Abruptly, Palpatine cut the connection between them. To his horror, Vader realized the connection to his son had somehow also been blocked by the Emperor. He had to restrain himself from searching for it in the Force, as he knew that would severely anger his Master.
Agitated now, Vader stood and paced around the small meditation chamber. Pausing, he tried to understand why he was so upset when it suddenly hit him. He was worried. He was worried about what Palpatine was doing to Luke. And it wasn't just because this interfered in Vader's own plans for the boy.
He was concerned about Luke simply because Luke was his son and Vader...cared about him? No! He would not allow himself to have those feelings ever again! He had cared about the boy's mother, cared very deeply. Force, he had loved her more than anything in the galaxy, yet she had betrayed him. She had kept his child a secret from him and betrayed the vows they had made to one another.
A strangled cry of frustration and anger escaped his lips as Vader clenched his fists at his sides. Images of her face kept pushing their way into his consciousness and he was having an increasingly difficult time keeping them at bay.
Thoughts returning to his son, Vader had to vigorously restrain himself again from reaching out towards Luke. Perhaps the boy's mother was watching over him from wherever she was. Force knows, he had thought she was an angel when she was alive.
Vader became aware of the fact that he was thinking of her without the piercing pain that normally wounded him whenever she crossed his mind. Was that Luke's influence?
"Padmé," he whispered, half-afraid Palpatine would know he was speaking the forbidden name. "Padmé, protect him." Instantly, it occurred to him that he should wish for her to guard Luke against both Palpatine and himself. He did not care to examine that thought too closely.
Darth Vader fell to his knees, tears falling from his eyes for the first time in years.
Luke could feel himself being inexorably sucked into a dark void and no matter how hard he tried to pull away, it would not let him go. He was being swallowed alive and there was no way out. His awareness of the small room on Home One dimmed as he felt his consciousness being drawn closer and closer to the Dark presence that was invading his mind. He couldn't even scream. Every muscle in his body was utterly paralyzed.
"Luke!"
A tiny pinprick of light pierced the darkness that was surrounding him. Luke turned towards it, grasping for it with everything that he had. It was so hard! But he sensed that this was his only hope for salvation.
"Luke! What is happening to you?! Wake up!"
The pinprick grew until it was a small hole and amazingly, the Dark hold on him lessened slightly. With renewed strength, he surged towards the light. The Dark rumbled angrily, sensing its prey escaping and pulled more viciously at him. Luke strained with all his senses to reach the light. Soft hands were touching his face and from far away, he could see frightened green eyes staring at him, pleading with him to respond.
"Mmm...muh...Mar..." he tried to speak her name, realizing at last who his savior was and reaching out for her.
Her relief flooded over him and she began to pull at him, pitting her strength against the Dark one. The Light slowly burned away the Darkness and he could almost hear a howl of frustrated anger. He could feel the hold of the Darkness weakening as he stretched towards Mara and the Light. It washed over him, warming him, sweeping away the lingering coldness of the Dark.
He snapped back to total awareness with a jerk, his startled gaze meeting Mara's frightened one. She was literally sitting on his stomach, holding his face in her hands, shouting at him to wake up.
"Mara!" he gasped.
"Luke, what was that? Are you all right?"
"I...I don't know. I'm fine-" he managed to mumble before he fainted.
"Don't you ever do that to me again I was so scared I didn't know what was wrong with you I was about to call the medtechs back in here to give you shock treatment or something -" She had to pause to take a breath.
Luke took the opportunity to reach up and put his arms around her, hugging her in return. "Mara, I'm okay. At least, I think I am."
She reared back and looked him in the eyes. "What do you mean 'think'?" she asked fearfully.
"I mean, I'm not sick or anything."
"So, then what was that?"
Luke's expression grew pinched with worry and fear as he looked up at the ceiling with a sigh. "I'm not sure. I thought it was a nightmare at first, but it was more than that. More, and much worse."
"Can you tell me a little about it?" Mara asked softly. She moved to sit up beside him on the bed, and began gently stroking his hair.
Luke groaned and brought his hands up to cover his face. "Oh, Force, I'm not sure if I can, Mara! It was...it was horrifying! It felt like I was suffocating."
Just the memory of what he'd gone through was enough to cause Luke to begin to shake. He could feel the panic rising in his belly and tried to fight down what his head knew to be merely a physical reaction to the stress of the situation. But his body was not listening to his head at the moment. How much was he supposed to endure? How many more shocks would his system be able to take before he completely lost his sanity?
He desperately wished he could bury himself in a deep, dark hole somewhere. Luke wanted nothing more than to simply hide and not have to face any of this! A low moan of agony escaped his throat, and his fingers curled around to grab the sides of his head.
"Luke. Luke. Please, calm down. It's going to be all right," Mara said soothingly as she tried to pull his hands out of his hair.
"I can't...it's not...Mara, it's not going to be all right!"
Mara quickly leaned down to embrace Luke again, wrapping her arms securely around him and putting her head next to his so that she could speak directly into his ear. "I'm here, Luke. I will protect you with everything I have and everything that I am. I will not let them hurt you anymore, I swear it!"
Luke felt hot tears begin to stream down his cheeks, the sobs forcing their way out of him against his will. He buried his face in Mara's neck and she slowly rocked him as she would a child, whispering reassurances the entire time. He had no idea how long they lay there on his bunk in the medcenter, Mara giving comfort and Luke grasping it with frenzied desperation. Gradually, his sobs lessened and the two of them were lying quietly in the bunk, still clinging to one another.
She had been his lifeline for so long - even more intensely in the last few days - that her solace felt as natural as breathing to him. Maybe that was why it took Luke a little while to realize that Mara was not only soothing him with her words and embrace, she was also reaching out to him through the Force. For a heartbeat Luke was so astonished he forgot why she was consoling him. He suddenly recalled the way the two of them had communicated in Cloud City. He had not given that incident another thought with everything else whirling in his brain. Perhaps a test...
((Mara.))
"I'm here, Luke. I won't leave you," she whispered immediately.
Luke frowned. Okay, that could have been a coincidence. Something more specific, he thought.
((Mara, have you cut your hair?))
"Why on Alderaan are you worried about my hair right now, you idiot?" she said quietly, making the term an affectionate gibe rather than an insult.
Luke pulled away from Mara and stared at her with a wide-eyed expression. She looked at him in surprise and finally said, "What?" when he continued to gape at her.
"Mara, I think you might be Force-sensitive!"
Luke winced inwardly at the way he'd blurted the words out. Sith, Skywalker, you could have done that a little more gently. Mara's face paled as she returned his gaze.
"Wh-why do you think that?" she stammered in confusion.
"I didn't ask out loud if you'd cut your hair. I asked you through the Force, and you heard me. Just like you heard me when I was in trouble on Bespin," he said.
"I thought that was because you were Force-sensitive," she protested weakly.
"No, I've never been able to communicate with anyone else like this," Luke said. Immediately, a small voice in the back of his head whispered Liar! as he remembered conversations with another Force-sensitive being while hanging from that weathervane. And he didn't even want to think about Arica right now. Resolutely, Luke told that insidious little voice to shut up.
"What does this mean?" Mara asked, her face tense with fear and a little excitement.
"I'm not sure," Luke admitted. "I could take you to meet Yoda, I suppose. I need to finish my own training, anyway."
"You didn't finish your training?"
Luke's face flushed with embarrassment. "Um, I left kind of quickly because I sensed you and Chewie and Han in danger. I wanted to save you. And I ended up having to be saved myself," he said, rather glumly.
"Hey, you have nothing to be ashamed about. I don't know many other people who've faced Vader and lived to tell about it."
"You did. On the Death Star," he said quietly.
Now Mara's face showed her discomfort. "Yes, well..." She trailed off, seemingly unable to think of anything to say to that.
It suddenly struck Luke how intimately they were lying there, their arms wrapped around one another, faces centimeters apart. Force! Where I've wanted to be for so long...and I'm bawling on her shoulder, he thought to himself with a rueful little grin.
"What's that smile for?"
"Oh, I was just thinking. I've dreamed about being in your arms so many times. Me blubbering like a baby was never how I envisioned it, though."
"You've dreamed about being in my arms?" Mara said with a little smile of her own.
Luke's face turned an even deeper shade of red as he realized what he'd just admitted to her. "I...well, um...that is -"
His rambling explanation was cut off as Mara leaned forward and kissed him softly. This time, there were no annoying Corellians to interfere as Luke and Mara lost themselves in the kiss. A moment or a lifetime later - Luke wasn't sure which - they pulled apart and met each other's eyes.
"Wow," Luke murmured and then winced as he thought how immature and inadequate that response was.
Mara's lips curved into a smile as she whispered, "My thoughts exactly, Farmboy."
He lifted his hand to caress the side of her face and she closed her eyes as she turned her head slightly into his palm. Luke was nearly overcome with the need to tell her everything, but he suppressed it, unwilling to ruin this moment with ugly truths. There was one truth, however, that he wanted to be certain she understood.
"Mara, I love you."
Her eyes flew open and she gazed back at him, her joy shining in her face. "I love you, too, Luke," she whispered.
Emboldened by her words, Luke initiated the next kiss. He could feel his heart pounding furiously, could almost hear the blood rushing through his veins as he deepened the kiss. One arm crept around her back and pulled her even closer to him, until a breath of air couldn't have slipped between their bodies.
Somewhat reluctantly, he ended the kiss, worried that things were getting out of his control. Luke couldn't help a little self-satisfied smirk as he looked at Mara's flushed face. Her eyes were still closed and her mouth was open slightly, her breathing coming in sharp little pants. Her eyes slowly opened and Luke felt his control slip a bit further at the need he saw there.
"Force, that was incredible," he whispered.
"Yes, but not enough," she replied, her tone as reverent as his.
They both sensed that something special, something important, was happening between them. Luke's concern was that they might be moving too quickly. There were many things still left unsaid between them, things that Luke feared would change the way Mara felt.
"I'm not sure-"
"Luke, I am. I want everything. I want to know you completely, your taste, your scent, your feel," she said passionately. A hint of color appeared on her cheeks and a glimmer of doubt suddenly shone in her eyes, as though she feared having said too much. "Unless...unless you don't feel the same?"
"No, I do! Of course, I do." He sighed as he gently kissed her forehead. She nestled her head into the hollow of his shoulder and he thought for a moment how wonderfully right it felt.
"Then what's wrong?" her voice, muffled by his chest, floated up to him.
"Our timing isn't exactly perfect. We're in the middle of a war," he mumbled.
She pulled her head away from his chest to meet his gaze once again. "All the more reason why we shouldn't squander this chance, don't you think? None of us are guaranteed tomorrow, Luke. I...I would hate to think that this might be the only time we could have and we wasted it."
As Luke looked down at her beautiful face, a vision of the two of them filled his mind's eye. He and Mara, both older, sitting in a cozy room with a huge fireplace. They were laughing as they watched two small children playing on a rug in front of them. The two little ones looked up and smiled and Luke was mesmerized by their striking green eyes...
He blinked to find Mara watching him with a curious expression. Smiling down at her, he pondered whether to tell her what he'd seen. Yoda had said 'Always in motion is the future.' Certainly, Luke hoped that this vision would be the way his and Mara's future would go, but perhaps it would be best to keep it to himself for now.
Kissing her again, Luke tried to convey all his emotions and love to her. Pulling away to whisper in her ear, he said, "I think, my love, that we are going to have a lifetime together. Maybe we should start that lifetime right here."
Mara's grin looked almost ready to split her face as she eagerly tried to find his mouth with hers once again.
"Wait," Luke said softly.
His gaze focused on the door of the tiny medcenter room and Mara turned to look with him, a little frown of confusion on her face. There was an audible click as the lock on the door slid into place. Luke glanced at Mara and his face somehow shone with a mixture of triumph, mischievousness, and shyness.
"Just making sure there aren't any interruptions this time," he said.
Mara laughed softly. "I can see where having the Force might come in handy. Maybe we should see what else we can come up with?"
Luke blushed again, but willingly showed her everything she wanted to know.