Thank you all so much for reading this little ficlet. Much thanks to Taramidala, Salanderjade, RaRobin and JediMara77 for all of their help with this story. Thank you all for reading and if you'd like to see the fate of Luke, Mara, and Betrys you can read "Echoes of Always", otherwise just end here on this happy family moment.

EPILOGUE

The 200th
Day 3, after-birth:
This week, reality sets in — you have a baby! She's all yours, she's home with you, and she's dependent on you for love, care, and feeding.

The baby was impossibly tiny. Everything about her was miniature from her teeny fingers to her even smaller toes. When her eyes were closed and her lashes fanned out on her cheeks she looked so fragile and precious, sweet and quiet. But deceptive looks came in small packages because when those eyes would snap open she would open her mouth and let loose a cry that could force a grown man to snap to attention, drop whatever it was he had been doing, and run to her side.

Betrys Skywalker already had her father wrapped around one of her delicate little fingers.

Only three days old she seemed to know that she was the center of attention, and she demanded it lustily, crying out for it in a way that seemed much too loud for the little body that created the noise. But she was a benevolent dictator because just when her exhausted parents were ready to give up, she would open her big eyes and stare at them with her little scrunched face and make them remember all over again why they had fallen in love with her in the minutes after her birth.

Mara looked down at the baby lying contentedly in her arms, satiated for once. But though she knew that wouldn't last for long and she should try to get some sleep, she couldn't help but sit and look down at the baby that had so changed her life. Trailing the back of her fingers across Betrys's cheek, she marveled at the silky soft feeling of her skin and thought back to the night she had discovered her pregnancy. "We've come so far since then, Betrys," she whispered.

"What about me?"

Mara looked up into Luke's smiling face. He was still grinning, much as he had been for the last three days. For the last nine months, actually. Lack of sleep didn't seem to stop him. If anything he was willing to let her sleep as much as she could, eager to spend time with his daughter. She pursed her lips. "I think you were ready for all of this on day one." She purposefully moved her ringed hand to splay across the baby's tummy.

"Maybe not day one, but definitely after that first real proposal," he teased, sitting next to her and putting an arm around her.

"I think that was the only one that really counted."

"You're saying that I could have saved my breath the other one hundred ninety-eight times?" Luke shook his head and looked down at the sleeping baby. "Now she tells me!"

"Only one hundred ninety-nine proposals? It felt like a lot more than that." Mara playfully rolled her eyes and shifted so that Betrys was lying in the crook of her arm. She leaned against Luke's arm.

"Hm. Cute." He touched his forehead to her temple and placed a hand on the baby's head, gently rubbing her blonde hair. "I actually have one more proposal for you."

"Of course you do. Two-hundred proposals? What is it this time? That I don't kill you?"

Pulling back, Luke made a face at her.

Mara propped her head back against him and smirked up at him. "Or that I have your baby?"

"Been there, done that." Luke's voice was dry.

"Is it that you'll change all the dirty diapers for the next few years? I won't hesitate to say 'yes' to that."

Luke exhaled an amused puff of breath. "Ha-Ha. That humor really comes out when you haven't slept for a few days, doesn't it?"

Mara rolled her eyes again. "It can't be another marriage proposal…"

"I think we can count marriage as another 'been there, done that' moment. It is, after all, our three day anniversary." He kissed her forehead and pulled her and Betrys even closer. "But my two hundredth proposal is even more important that that. Mara, I propose that that we—you, Bets, and me—that we be a happy family."

Throat closing with emotion, Mara struggled for a moment to gain her composure. She wanted that, too. More than even she had ever known. She closed her eyes only to have an image of another baby flash into her mind's eye, a redhead this time, a redheaded baby she somehow knew to be a boy. Her arms reflexively grasped Betrys, imagining that one day she would be a big sister. But as she opened her eyes she realized that was only a tantalizing glimpse of a possible future and the present was there in her arms. Holding her small family close, she answered this proposal without hesitation.

"Yes," she said. "We are and we will be a happy family. Ever and always."