Didn't want to leave you all hanging any longer, though it may be a couple more days before I have time to put up the next chapter. Thanks to all who reviewed the last one.

A Journey of Discovery ― Book Three: Prism

Chapter Ten

Han made a showy pretense of cleaning out one ear. "I think all this laser fire has affected my hearing. I could've sworn you said you were married to Mara Jade."

Luke gritted his teeth and braced himself for the backlash. "I did. I am."

"Aw, kid." Han ran a hand through his hair. "Just cause you've been in bed with her doesn't mean you had to go and marry her."

"I love her, Han, and she loves me. We wanted to get married, the opportunity came up, and we took it."

"Just like that." Han leaned back against the outside wall of the building they were passing. "So you just happened to cross flight paths with an officiator somewhere between Coruscant and here, and thought 'What the heck, let's get hitched.'"

"It was on the planet where we landed for ship repairs," Luke muttered. He wasn't about to mention that the wedding came about because the villagers wanted a couple to marry so their harvest would be blessed. He was already feeling the same way that he had when Uncle Owen chewed him out for busting up his skyhopper.

"Oh, well, that's different," Han said sarcastically. "It was the B-wing's fault."

"I thought you'd be happy for me," Luke said quietly, holding Han's gaze until the older man looked away. Luke didn't look back up until he felt Han's hand on his shoulder.

"It's just gonna take me awhile to get used to the idea, kid." Han gave Luke's shoulder a friendly shake, then folded his arms officiously. "But don't you know you're supposed to consult with me before doin' something like that?"

"Consult with you? I—" Luke's annoyance was suddenly replaced by anxiety as a jolt of panic, then pain, speared into his Force-sense. "Mara!"

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Thoughts came randomly to Leia as she struggled to clear her mind – her body hurt; the floor had given way; it was dark; Mara had shouted to warn her; dark – where was Mara's lightsaber?; where ... Mara!

"Mara!" Leia tried to call out, but her voice emerged as a whisper, echoing in the darkness. "Mara, where are you?"

A moan came in answer, somewhere to Leia's right.

"Mara? Are you all right?" Leia attempted to drag herself toward Mara's voice, and immediately discovered that her left wrist felt broken. She pushed aside the throbbing pain and held her wrist as still as she could.

There was a shuffling sound from across the room as Mara stirred.

"Leia?"

"I'm here," Leia answered shakily, checking for any further injuries and sighing in relief when she found none. "I think my glow rod must've broken on the way down." She shook the instrument one more time, then laid it aside. "Do you still have your lightsaber?"

"I ... Hold on."

Leia could hear Mara begin to rummage around in the darkness, then suddenly fall silent.

"Mara? What's wrong?"

After a few moments, Mara replied "It's Skywalker, checking up on me. On us," she amended. "I told him not to worry, that we just ran into a slight delay."

"You can communicate with him telepathically from this far away?" Leia asked, now more certain of all the instances where she had suspected Luke and Mara of having silent conversations. "I thought perhaps it was only when you were close together."

"We seem to have a bond that allows us to ... well, we're not sure how far it extends," Mara replied. "Anyway, I convinced him that we were fine, and that they didn't need to come charging in for the rescue."

"And they agreed? You're more skilled than I thought." Leia looked upward, trying to gauge how far they'd fallen, but all she could see was a dark cloud of dust. "So, is this only a slight delay?"

"I can answer that better when I find my saber." Mara resumed her search, but Leia didn't think it sounded like Mara had stood up. "Blast, where did it go?"

"Luke claims he can call his to his hand even when he can't see it."

"I don't doubt it." Mara sighed loudly, almost as if groaning. "He hasn't taught me that trick yet."

"Something about he focuses on it in his mind, visualizes it in his hand, and poof, it flies right into his grasp."

"Luke said 'poof'?"

"He might not have used that exact word," Leia admitted, chuckling to herself.

Leia's attempt at humor had the desired effect, and Mara snickered in laughter, though Leia wasn't quite sure why she was trying to humor the former assassin.

"All right, I'm visualizing."

Leia held her breath and reached out with her fledgling Force sense, hoping to feel a residual of Mara's efforts. But she couldn't contain her gasp of surprise when a rattle sounded nearby and soon Mara's face appeared, illuminated by the bluish glow of her lightsaber. Leia remembered the astonishment she'd felt when Luke revealed several months ago that he had given his first saber to the young woman who'd faced the Emperor with him, a woman he'd just met. It was one of several actions that had suggested to Leia at the time that there was more between the couple than Luke had let on. Well, it wasn't as though Leia wanted anything to do with the weapon, even if Anakin Skywalker hadn't yet been Vader when he'd wielded it.

"What do you know?" Mara sounded almost surprised. "It worked."

"You didn't think it would?" One of Luke's frequent lectures centered on not doubting oneself when practicing the Force.

"Luke has a closer connection with this lightsaber than I do." Mara shrugged lightly and busied herself with examining their surroundings.

Maybe you have a close enough connection with him, Leia thought to herself. But she said nothing, and followed Mara's lead in studying their predicament.

It didn't look promising.

From the limited range of the lightsaber, the two women determined they'd crashed through two floors, landing in what appeared to be some type of storage cellar. Crates and boxes were scattered around them, many of which had obviously fallen from shelves along the duracrete walls. Some were broken open, with a variety of foodstuffs mixing with the dust and debris. Splintered pieces of flooring covered everything, their jagged edges jutting ominously from the rubble.

Leia let out a disappointed groan when she finally spied what she'd been searching for. The remains of a wooden staircase lay crumpled in one corner, and as Mara aimed her blade to the edge of what was left of the ceiling, they could just make out the stairway opening. No doors were visible along any of the walls. There was nowhere to go but up.

"Can you sense anyone close by?" Leia asked, reaching out with the Force as much as she was able. She couldn't detect any life forms, but she did notice that the laserfire sounded more distant.

"No," Mara replied after a slight pause. "The building seems to be empty." She pressed her lips into a straight line, grimacing as she lightly rubbed one ankle. "Any ideas?"

"I'm working on it." Leia narrowed her gaze at Mara. "Is your ankle broken?"

"Just twisted, I think," Mara said dismissively. She flicked a glance back, noticing how Leia cradled her wrist. "What about you?"

"It might be broken." She glanced at the scratches on Mara's bare arms, then looked down at the rips in her own jumpsuit. "I guess we're lucky that we weren't injured any worse."

"I cushioned our fall as much as I could with the Force," Mara said.

Leia was impressed in spite of herself. The two-story fall could have killed them. "Ah, that's right. No such thing as luck."

Mara shook her head with a smirk. "Do you want me to contact Skywalker again? You know he'd come running in an instant."

Leia regarded the other woman, knowing how independently she always carried herself. "Do you want Luke to come?"

A myriad of emotions played across Mara's shadowy face ― longing, affection, pride. "I'd like to think we can get out of this mess by ourselves," she finally said. "He already had to come rescue me once." At Leia's confused look, she continued. "On the planet we landed on. I was hiking to the village, to look for a part for the B-wing, while Luke did other repair work on it." She paused and shifted her position, carefully stretching out her injured leg. "I foolishly fell down a ravine and was knocked unconscious. Luke ran all day to reach me."

Leia noted that Mara had been increasingly calling Luke by his first name, a seemingly rare occurrence for her. And Leia didn't voice her wonder at how Luke knew that Mara was injured – no doubt it was due to that cryptic bond they shared. A bond apparently more potent than the one she herself shared with her twin.

"It was winter there, and I was suffering from hypothermia. Not to mention spraining this same ankle." Mara reached down to rub her ankle once more. "He saved my life," she finished quietly.

"I think he considers rescuing damsels in distress his specialty," Leia joked lightly. "His term, not mine," she added at Mara's scowl.

Mara nodded, then looked overhead at the gaping hole that had been the ceiling. "Too far to jump, with this blasted ankle."

"I know I can't jump that high," Leia said, struggling to her feet. "Could you levitate me up there?"

"Maybe." Mara pulled herself up to sit atop a nearby crate. "But then levitating myself that far, I'm not too sure about. And since ..." She gave Leia a pointed frown.

"And since I do well to levitate a datapad," Leia finished matter-of-factly. She glanced around at the assorted crates and canisters, then up at the ceiling. "Time for Plan B?"

"Time for Plan B," Mara repeated dispassionately. A disapproving glare crossed her soot-streaked face. "If you'd let Luke train you, we wouldn't be in this hole. You would've sensed the danger in time to avoid it."

"I did feel that something was wrong, but I didn't ..." Leia paused, knowing deep down that Mara was correct. "You're right, I should take the time to learn more about the Force. I'm just so busy all the time."

"You took the time to come chasing after Luke when you thought he was in danger," Mara returned.

"I owed it to him to make sure—"

"You owe it to him to accept your Force heritage," Mara chastised. "You say you don't want to see him hurt? It hurts him every time you deny your father, deny that the Force is strong in you."

Leia stared at the red-haired woman. Who is Mara Jade to be lecturing me?

"Who am I?" Mara blurted out. She ignored Leia's indignant look at sensing her thoughts, and rushed on. "If anyone has cause to regret being endowed with the Force, it's me. It was the reason Palpatine took me, and trained me to be his Hand. It was the reason I was his best assassin, and his brainwashed servant." Mara's voice shook slightly. "It took your brother to show me that the Force wasn't to blame, wasn't something to be ashamed of ― that it could be used for good just as easily as for evil." She drew a breath, and continued. "I know people will criticize him for training me to be a Jedi, especially when my background is revealed. But I vow ..." Mara's green eyes blazed defiantly. "I vow never to shatter his faith in me."

For one of the few times in her life, Leia was stunned speechless. This wasn't just Luke's rhetoric; this was Mara talking from her heart. Any doubts Leia may have still had about Mara's loyalties were quickly ebbing into oblivion. And the realization began to creep in that embracing the Force would not turn her into another Darth Vader.

All business once more, Mara stood up and limped over to some of the larger boxes. "We'll begin with these bigger ones on the bottom." Mara glanced Leia's direction. Wedging the lightsaber hilt between two sacks of grain, she pulled a dishtowel from a stack of linens. "Come here."

Leia picked her way across the room, a vague sense of Mara's intentions making itself clear. Her suspicion was proved right as Mara folded the cloth into a triangle, making a sling for Leia's wrist. "Thanks."

With a grunt of acknowledgement, Mara began shoving a crate into position, and Leia hurried to help. In her own unique way, Mara was making an effort at forming a rapport between the two of them. Leia was determined not to be outdone.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"What do you mean, a slight delay?"

"Just what I said." Luke began walking again. "They had a mishap, and they'll get to the Falcon as soon as they can."

Han began muttering under his breath, and Luke made little attempt to decipher Han's ranting.

"Stang, I wish Leia had a comlink with her."

"You already said that, Han," Luke said dryly.

"I don't like relying on third-hand information," Han retorted. "Especially from someone with no more common sense than a bantha has."

"Don't you trust me to tell you the truth?" As soon as the words were out of Luke's mouth, he regretted them.

"The truth?" Han snorted loudly. "Like the dozen different tales you spouted about you and Jade? Not involved with her back on Coruscant, my foot. Next you'll be telling me you've never even slept with a woman until your wedding night."

Luke sighed, but didn't answer. What he did or didn't do wasn't any of Han's business, no matter how good a friend he was.

"Kid ..." Han stopped, an incredulous look on his face. He grabbed Luke by the upper arms, towering over him.

Luke winced in vexation. On second thought, maybe he should've made up a little white fib, just one more time.

"You ... never ..." Han snickered loudly, shaking his head. "Kid, I coulda fixed you up with a woman a dozen times over."

"No," Luke said defiantly, his chin tilted upward. "Han, it was the most wonderful night of our lives. That is not something I would want to experience with some stranger I'll never see again, or worse yet, some casual acquaintance that I pass in the hallway everyday."

"Okay, okay. Don't get so defensive."

Luke sighed quietly. "Look, I'm not judging, or criticizing, you or Leia or anyone else I know. Each person has their own path in life, and this was the right path for Mara and me."

"Mara, too? The Imperial assassin?" Han narrowed his eyes skeptically. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Luke rolled his eyes in exasperation. "The bond we share means it's impossible for us to lie to one another."

"If you say so, kid."

"And I'm not a kid anymore."

Han eyed him carefully, then broke into a grin. "No, I guess you're not."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The two women coordinated their efforts in building a makeshift stairway out of their dungeon. Leia would locate appropriate-sized, sturdy containers and shove them with her foot to the corner of the room where the steps had been, Mara would levitate them onto the stack, then Leia would one-handedly straighten the boxes into position.

Luke had contacted Mara once again, just to make sure that she and Leia were still all right. Mara had sarcastically complained about Luke's overprotectiveness, but the expression on her face while 'talking' to him told Leia otherwise.

"Luke's a warm and caring person," Leia countered. "He deserves ..."

"Deserves better than me?" Mara kept her attention focused on the additional bag of mill-flour she was levitating to a spot underneath her ankle, to keep it elevated just a bit higher.

"I never see you smile, even when you're with him."

Mara finally gazed directly at Leia. "He makes my heart smile."

But does he know that? Leia wondered. "Can I ask you something?"

A guarded look returned to Mara's face. "I suppose."

"Do you love my brother?" she asked bluntly. Leia had the feeling that any attempt at diplomacy would be wasted on this woman, even though their conversation so far had been considerably more amicable than usual. But she had to know the truth.

Mara's expression barely wavered, and her hesitation in answering was infinitesimal. "Yes. I do."

Leia has suspected— No, she had hoped for that answer, for Luke's sake. What she hadn't really expected was Mara being so forthcoming with her admission. "Good," Leia replied succinctly, not knowing what else to say. "Good," she repeated softly to herself.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Han and Luke continued threading their way between the besieged buildings of the palace compound, stopping occasionally to give aid where they could. To Luke's relief, Han gradually let up on his taunting of Luke's new status as a married man. But that didn't mean he'd forgiven Luke for sabotaging his hoped-for engagement to Leia.

"The least you could do is have another little chat with your sister," Han said, stepping over a fallen piece of ornamental fencing. "You know, convince her what a great catch I am." He gave Luke a sly wink. "Tell her how wonderful married life is."

"I will, as soon as I've been married enough days to be able to appreciate it myself." Luke smiled wanly. "Han, would you really want to marry Leia knowing that someone had to talk her into it?"

"No," Han said resignedly. He gazed ahead at the distant columns of flame dotting the horizon. "I still think we need to track down the girls. If your, uh, wife is anything like Leia, and I think she is, they're too stubborn to ask for our help even if they need it. I'll feel a lot better when we're all aboard the Falcon."

Luke barely heard him. A sense of dread filled Luke as they neared the location of Regent Ke'lor's offices ― offices he had left little more than an hour ago. "You go ahead," he quietly said to Han.

"What about you?"

"My place is not on the Millennium Falcon."

"What? You gonna fly that B-wing into battle?"

Luke shook his head, his gaze still fixed on the battered edifice in front of them. "No."

"Listen here, kid—"

"Leia and Mara were in the servants' quarters," Luke said distantly. "Mara said it was a long, barracks-type of building, near a short-cut that you and Leia took."

"Yeah, I think I know the place." Han stared at Luke, a worried expression on his face. "I don't want to leave you here by yourself."

"I'll be fine, Han. I just feel I need to check out this building."

"All right," Han finally conceded. "As long as I don't have to come back looking for you next."

"You won't." Luke gestured for Han to get going, then turned to enter the crumbling doorway.

He had a really bad feeling about what he would find inside.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The ziggurat of crates stretched two-thirds of the way to the hole in the ceiling when Leia noticed Mara wiping beads of perspiration from her brow. Leia's own clothes were soaked. Whoever said that princesses don't sweat hadn't seen one push and tug more than a dozen heavy boxes into place. And Leia had witnessed enough of Luke's mental exercises to know that continuous, strenuous use of the Force sapped a person's strength, too.

"Ready for a rest break?" Leia asked, breathing heavily as she found a seat on a plasteel barrel.

"I'm fine," Mara said.

Leia could read the proud contradiction in Mara's tired eyes.

"Let me rephrase – We're taking a rest break."

Mara nodded, pushing a damp strand of red-gold hair back from her face. She reached behind her head and began rebraiding her long thick tresses. Leia recalled that Mara's braid had already been half undone when she'd clambered off the couch in her suite. The slightly disconcerting thought suddenly flickered through Leia's mind that most likely Luke had been the one responsible for undoing the twisted coils. It was hard to imagine – no, she didn't want to imagine – her shy brother being intimate with a woman. He always turned three shades of red whenever anyone introduced him to a new female recruit.

Not that Leia hadn't tried to fix him up on a date, especially after the death of the Emperor had brought the war to a precarious standstill. But Luke balked at the idea of going out with anyone she suggested. He always had a kilometer-long list of excuses, usually topped by an urgent need to practice his Force training. He did, however, always seem to find time to spend with Mara.

"By the way, Mara," Leia began tentatively, "I apologize for the way Han and I interrupted your ... uh ... evening with Luke."

Mara's hands stopped in the middle of looping one hank of hair over the other. She then nonchalantly continued her plaiting, as if Leia's comment hadn't thrown her for a loop. "No apology necessary," she murmured, keeping her head bent down.

"Yes, but, I imagine you haven't had a lot of chances to spend time alone. I mean, if you really haven't been, hmm... together ... before leaving Coruscant."

Mara gave her a sharp look, as if she were about to berate Leia for not believing Luke's claim of when their relationship began. But then she seemed to reconsider. "No, not nearly enough chances," she said quietly.

Leia pursed her lips, wondering how far she could push Mara.

"Has Luke asked you to marry him yet?"

This time Mara's hands did fall away from her hair arranging. "What? Why? What makes you think he would?" she stammered.

"You two have already admitted that you're sleeping together." Leia shrugged lightly, though she was dying to hear Mara's answer. "Knowing Luke, he would feel honor bound to make it legal."

"I didn't think most men felt that way," Mara said evenly.

"Most men don't," Leia returned. "But this is Luke we're talking about. He's got honor oozing out of every pore."

"Do you think that's why Han asked you?" Mara asked, sidestepping the question.

"No. Well ... I don't think so." Leia's thoughts turned to her own topsy-turvy romance. "It's not that Han isn't honorable. He's just more surreptitious about it."

"He loves you."

"I know." More memories flitted through Leia – wonderful memories of recent days, ... and recent nights.

"And yet you turned down his marriage proposal," Mara said, jolting Leia back to reality. "That has to be hard on a man's ego."

"I didn't really turn him down, not completely." Leia clasped her hands, fingering the empty spot on her left hand where Han wanted to place a ring. "He was so sweet, so nervous. We were only halfway through our meal, and I could tell something was on his mind. He was fidgeting, and Han never fidgets. Suddenly, in middle of discussing the trade proposal with Lorrd, he got out of his chair and knelt down on one knee. And he just blurted out 'Marry me, Leia.' Just like that." Leia glanced over at Mara, who seemed to be listening with rapt attention. "You said earlier that Luke told you about the discussion I had with him last night." Leia winced inwardly, remembering that last night was yet another occasion when she'd unknowingly intruded on Luke and Mara.

"Yes, he told me," Mara said.

"Well, I tried to explain to Han that right now wasn't a good time to get married. Maybe in a few months, or next year, when the New Republic is better established."

Mara didn't seem impressed by Leia's justification for dashing Han's hopes and dreams. "So you put government above happiness."

"Did you not put the Emperor's commands above any consideration for your own happiness and well-being?"

"Yes, until I met Luke," Mara said. "But I wasn't allowed a choice. You are."

"I have responsibilities to the people of the New Republic."

"You have a responsibility to yourself, and to Han."

Leia pressed her lips into a straight line. She couldn't believe Mara Jade was trying to convince her to marry Han. Up until today, she wouldn't have thought there was a romantic bone in the woman's body. Leia narrowed her eyes at Mara, who sat staring back at her.

"You never answered my question," Leia said.

"Question?"

"Has Luke asked you to marry him?"

"Yes." The word was so soft that Leia had to strain to hear it. "He asked."

"And ...?" This was worse than trying to drag information out of Luke.

"Luke was supposed to tell you," Mara said in a rush of obvious exasperation. "He was starting to tell you, tonight, but he should have told you right away. He ... Oh ..." Mara halted her uncharacteristic babbling.

"Hold on, hold on." Leia leaned forward and laid a hand on Mara's arm. "Are you saying that you two are engaged?"

"No," Mara breathed. "Not exactly."

Not exactly? What was that supposed to mean? On second thought, she and Han weren't exactly engaged either. Did Mara turn down Luke's proposal, just as she had Han's?

"Mara ..." Leia trailed off as she gazed at the gritty determination in Mara's eyes. The woman was warring with herself about whether to say any more or not, that much Leia could tell. Leia waited with as much patience as she could muster at the moment.

"We're already married," Mara finally said – simply, calmly, quietly. "We got married in Zembuhl, six days ago."

Leia hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath, and now she gasped loudly. The room spun in slow motion as she digested Mara's words. Married ... Luke and Mara ... already married. Leia's mouth formed the word 'What?' but no sound came forth. It was several more minutes of Mara's expectant stare boring into her before Leia was finally able to choke out "Oh, my stars!"

And here you were all waiting for Luke to tell Leia the big news. :p