Widia studied her guests as they all sat down in the well-decorated and restored common room. She could tell that they were a family just by watching them. The man and the woman, whom she now suspected to be Marani in truth, sat down on the couch across from her, and the little boy on the man's lap.
"So how did you find out?" Widia asked curiously. "That you have family, I mean?"
'Marani' frowned and shook her head. "That's... not important. That I'm here now, is."
"Why isn't it important?" Two could play that game, Widia thought. She didn't miss the silent glare that 'Marani' directed at the man, and that interested her all the more.
'Marani' took a deep breath, let it out, and then looked Widia in the eyes. "I was looking through a book on flowers a week ago. One of the images stirred a memory... and here I am." Again she turned and glared at the man. "No."
Widia cocked her head to one side and narrowed her eyes. "No, what?"
"Mara's not telling you everything," the man explained quietly.
"The bad man," the little boy said. "He hurt Mamma. She forget."
Widia frowned. "Forget? What?"
"Family," Mara explained as she absently rubbed the little boy's back in comfort. "I didn't know I had family that I'd been taken away from until after I saw the flower. It's hard to explain, really."
"Oh..." Widia stood up, and moved to pluck a holopicture off the wall. She handed it to Mara. "Did it look like this?"
Mara studied the picture. It was of a man sitting on a stool, taking notes and staring at a familiar plant. The one from her flashbacks. "Yes... I know this is going to sound odd, but... who was at the door?"
"Excuse me?"
"I was helping set the table for dinner, and someone knocked. You sent me out to the green house to get daddy, and were then in a stated when you came out there, and told me to stay." She glanced up to see Widia staring at her. "What?"
Widia wordlessly sank to her knees in front of Mara and hugged her again. "Welcome home, Marani, welcome home." And this time, she was absolutely certain.
Mara hesitantly hugged her back.
"Hey mom?" a voice called from the direction of the kitchen. "We brought your groceries in and... Oh. Have we interrupted something?" Jaelle stood in the entrance of the kitchen with a blonde woman who was wearing a flowered sundress.
Reluctantly, Widia broke the embrace, got up off her knees, and turned around to see her daughter and daughter-in-law standing there. "Thankyou, Jaelle, Alena. No, you're not interrupting anything. In fact, I'd like you to meet someone."
The two women came in and sat down. Alena did so gingerly, with a slight grimace.
"This is Marani-"
"Mara," Mara corrected.
Widia smiled. "Jaelle, this is your sister. Marani, now called Mara. Mara, this is your sister Jaelle, and your sister-in-law, Alena Naberrie-Jaden."
Jaelle stared for a long moment before regaining her composure and smiling. "Hi. Pleased to meet you."
Alena just nodded diplomatically before frowning and rubbing a spot on her rather large stomach. "Ow. Wish it wouldn't kick so hard."
Widia glanced Alena's way and smiled. "And just where is Torath?"
"Fixing up the baby's room," Alena told her, and then turned her attention to the man sitting next to Mara. "And you are?"
"Luke," he said simply, not wanting to cause a stir with his identity. "And this is our son, Ben." Ben smiled at her.
Mara was going to say something when Ben spoke up again.
"Bad dreams?" Ben had an expression of confusion on his face. "Momma? Help with bad dreams."
Mara turned to her son and cocked her head in question. "Who, Ben?"
"Don't know... She hurts and won't eat."
Widia's eyes widened and she stood up suddenly. "Excuse me. I have to check on someone."
Jaelle looked at her mother in surprise. "He's talking about Renna?"
"I think so."
Mara patted her son on the back and stood up. "Can I come with you? Ben seems to think I should."
Widia nodded and gestured for Mara to follow her.
As the two of them left the room, Jaelle looked over at Ben and smiled. "Thankyou, little man."
"For what?" a confused Luke asked.
"Ben may have just figured something out for us."
Luke glanced down at his son, who was smiling at him. "Right..."
~*~*~*~
Widia was just about to open the door to Renna's bedroom when the thought occurred to her that Mara might not be aware of certain things.
"Widia?" Mara asked, concerned.
Widia turned around and leaned against the door jam for a moment. "There's something you need to know before I open the door. Renna's been ill for a while."
Mara's brow furrowed. "How so?"
Widia didn't miss Mara's hands going protectively to her abdomen, and a suspicion began to form. "She's not contagious, and it's not physical. At least, that's what the healer said. I still don't completely believe that healer, but..."
"But what?"
"Some days are better than others." Widia turned around and opened the door.
As Mara got her first look at the bed-ridden Renna, she stared, frozen where she stood.
Renna was thrashing in her sleep, the sheets twisted around her body and sweat glistening on her face as she moaned. "No... No..."
Widia hurried to the bed and shook her awake, and had to step back when Renna sat up with a scream.
"Dad!" Renna blinked and looked around wildly before finally looking at Widia in astonishment. "Mom?"
Widia sat down and motioned for Renna to scoot closer to her. "It's okay, Renna."
"It feels like yesterday that the funeral was held," Renna whispered brokenly as she felt a dam burst within herself.
Widia held her close as she sobbed. "I know, dear heart. I know." She glanced over at Mara, who was still standing in the doorway, staring at them. "Come over here, Mara."
"Huh?" Renna asked as she followed her mother's gaze to see a woman timidly entering the room. She stared as she recognized her. "Who?"
"Renna, this is Marani, your sister." Widia paused and kissed the top of Renna's head. "Thank you for the warning, child."
"Warning?" Mara asked as she sat down on the end of the bed. "What warning?"
Widia smiled. "Renna had a dream earlier this week about a red haired woman and a blonde man showing up at the door and also that I would slam the door in your faces."
"Oh." Mara smiled comfortingly at Renna. "Hi."
As Renna's sobs tapered off, she had a flash of insight. "It'll be a girl."
"Excuse me?" Mara looked at Widia in confusion. Widia, for her part, was staring at Mara in disbelief.
"Your baby. It's a girl."
For a moment, silence reigned, and then Widia cleared the air. "You knew before she told you." Her eyes flashed from one daughter to the other.
Mara nodded, not even bothering to hide it. "Yes."
"Pain," Renna whispered, her eyes distant. "He hurt you... you served him. Killed."
Mara looked away from Widia's prying eyes. "It was a long time ago."
"I'm not judging you, Mara," Widia said softly. "But I would like you to explain. When you're ready. Not before."
Mara nodded slowly and looked at Renna. "You weren't trained, were you?"
"Huh? Trained for what?"
"The Force. I can feel it... in both of you."
Now Widia looked away and sighed almost inaudibly. "No. It wasn't safe. It was risky. So we didn't."
Mara stared at her, dumbfounded at that admission. "What do you mean, 'we'?"
"That is a story for another time, Mara." Widia glanced her way and saw the raised eyebrows. "I have to tell it now?"
"Yes."
"Alright. I was in the Jedi Agricorps as a plant biologist, which was how I met Temaru." When there was no recognition of the term in Mara's eyes, she continued. "The agricorps were where jedi trainees who were unsuited for politics or law enforcement were sent."
Mara stared at her in mild disbelief. "So you're a..."
"Jedi, yes. Not a knight, mind you, but Jedi trained. Renna? Remember those breathing exercises I taught you?"
Renna nodded. "I think so."
"Use them and let yourself go back to sleep. We'll talk tomorrow."
"But this is getting interesting," Renna whined.
"Renna..." Widia gave her a look and Renna sighed before closing her eyes and slowing her breathing down.
Mara watched as Renna put herself into a healing sleep and then turned and looked at her mother. "But you said you didn't train her."
"Only breathing exercises. Very helpful in times of stress."
"How is that not training?"
"I didn't include the Force in the lessons."
"I don't understand..." Mara glanced at Renna, who was now sleeping soundly. "Ben said she's having bad dreams and wouldn't eat, but..."
Widia sighed. "It's not as simple as bad dreams. If it were, it would be easy..." She trailed off in thought, trying to connect the dots.
"You were saying?"
"Hmm? Oh, right. Sure, she's having nightmares and has been ill off and on, often instantly, but there's a reason for that. She didn't stop to grieve when the fighting was over."
Mara considered that statement carefully. "Didn't stop to grieve?"
"Yes. Instead of taking the time, she threw herself into the reconstruction efforts and helped rebuild peoples lives. I'm not sure when she slept during that time, or even if she did, unless she was utterly exhausted... The symptoms she's displaying now started just after the reconstruction was completed four months ago when she had nothing left to throw herself into." She smoothed out Renna's hair, trying to think for a moment.
"You're saying that she's suffering from stress?"
"This goes way beyond stress, really... I've been waiting for her to talk about it, but I'm not sure she knows consciously why she's been having headaches, getting dizzy, and becoming nauseous." Widia glanced once more at Renna before standing up and leaving the room.
Mara got up and followed her.
Out in the hall, Widia stopped and looked curiously at Mara. "What do flowered Jedi robes have to do with anything?"
"Huh?"
"I just got this mental image of Jedi robes with a flowered pattern." Widia chuckled and shook her head for a moment. "Strangest thing."
"I'll explain it sometime," Mara said evenly. "Not now."
Widia chuckled again before leading the way back to the common room.
~*~*~*~*~
Alena looked at the man sitting across from her with an interest born of knowledge. "So... When were you going to say that you're a Skywalker?"
Luke startled and fidgeted. "Um... How?"
Alena snorted and glanced at Jaelle, who was staring at her. "What?"
"Tact, Alena. It's good to observe it occasionally."
"So you don't see the family resemblance?"
"I wasn't going to even mention it until the subject came up in conversation." Jaelle looked at Luke in consolation. "Sorry, Jedi Skywalker, but my sister-in-law tends to speak her mind and get straight to the point. All that political training she had didn't serve to curb the habit much."
"Hey!" Alena protested.
"Well, it's true. It didn't."
"It's fine, really," Luke said calmly. He looked at the rather expectant Alena in question. "And how did you know?"
"I'm a historian and keep abreast of galactic politics. That, and your wedding WAS broadcasted far and wide, you know."
Luke was about to roll his eyes when Alena suddenly cringed in pain. "Are you all right?"
Alena shook her head and panted. "No. Jae?"
Jaelle turned and assessed her. "Want me to comm Torath or do you want to go home?"
Alena's expression eased as the pain dissipated. "Comm him. I'm not going anywhere right now."
Jaelle nodded and went to go comm Alena's husband, leaving Luke and Ben alone with her.
Luke glanced at Ben and noticed that he was staring at Alena. "It's okay, Ben."
"She hurt," Ben told him.
"Don't worry about it, Ben." Alena smiled at him. "This is a good thing."
"Hurt not bad?"
"Well... it's both good and bad. Bad that it hurts, but good that the baby is coming finally." She was careful to word it so he could understand, not wanting to scare him.
"Oh." Ben looked at his father. "Momma going to hurt too?"
Luke was saved from answering that because Widia and Mara came back into the room, Widia still smiling about something.
Widia glanced around and noticed that Jaelle was missing. "Where is Jaelle?"
"She went to comm Torath for me," Alena explained before she cringed again. "Ugh."
"Oh my! Alena, when did those start?" Widia moved to sit next to her and rubbed Alena's back soothingly to help abate the pain.
"Hours ago," Alena said when she could talk again. "They were far apart and really weak, so I didn't worry about it."
Mara shook her head and smiled toward Ben whimsically. "That's when you should worry."
"And your reaction to early labor was what, exactly?" Luke asked her.
"Not now, Farmboy."
Luke glanced at Widia who was looking at him quizzically. "She ignored it and went to an Intelligence Meeting."
"You are so going to be wearing the flowered robes later," Mara threatened, her eyes suddenly very fierce. "Finish that story and you'll be wearing them for life."
Luke blanched and turned to stare at her. "You brought them?"
"Sure. I wanted to be prepared."
Widia took that in amusedly as she turned her attention to Alena, who was looking at Mara with wide eyes. "Do you want to stay out here in the common room, or..."
"She'd make him wear flowers?" Alena wondered, aghast at the thought.
"Of course I would," Mara said smugly.
"Daddy looked pretty," Ben helpfully explained-- much to Luke's chagrin.
Alena laughed for a moment before her attention was taken again. "Uhg."
Widia frowned and glanced at the chrono on the wall. "That's two minutes."
Jaelle came back into the room and looked around. "Torath will be here shortly. After he's done boiling water, that is." Widia glanced her way in question. "He panicked. I told him to boil water and sterilize some sheets. By the time he's done with the water, he should be sufficiently calmed down."
"Ah. Good plan. Alena?"
"No, not out here."
Jaelle and Widia helped Alena up and escorted her to a bedroom, leaving Luke, Mara, and Ben in the living room.
Luke looked at Mara. "Prepared for what?"
"Any contingency. Formal occasion, picnic, you putting your foot in your mouth..."
"Ha-ha, very funny."
"Momma?" Ben asked.
"Yes, sweetie?"
"Are you going to hurt too?"
"Huh?" Mara looked at her son in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"He means labor pains," Luke supplied helpfully. "Though how he knows, I have no idea."
"Oh." Mara sat down and looked Ben in the eyes. "Yes, there will be hurt, but there will also be joy, Ben. Just have to go through the hurt to get to it."
Ben nodded and then took on a serious expression. "Lady with bad dreams?"
"She'll be fine too. She's sleeping soundly now." To Luke, Mara said: "You ever come across any information related to agriculture in the Jedi order?"
"It was sketchy, but yes. Why?"
"Just confirming something. I'll tell you later."
"No, Mara. Not later. Now."
Mara sighed. "Widia was in something known as the Jedi Agricorps as a plant biologist. So was my father."
"Which might explain why you suddenly went flower-crazy."
"It might, at that." She studied the room in deep thought and noticed something odd. "This room is different. I don't know how, but it... just is."
"Different how?"
"Almost like it was restored from a mismatching photograph or something, but that doesn't make any sense."
Right then, an unfamiliar man came through the door leading to the kitchen, saw them, and stopped in his tracks. "Who are you people?"
Mara turned and saw a young man, maybe in his early twenties, with hazel eyes and auburn hair. She smiled at him. "You must be Torath... done sterilizing sheets already?"
"No. Again, who are you?"
"My name is Mara, this is my husband Luke, and our son, Ben. We were visiting with Widia." Mara smiled at him again. "Congratulations, by the way."
They could almost see the wheels turning as Torath processed through the information. "Marani? You're Marani?"
"Um... yes?"
"Where've you been all this time?"
Mara put her hand over Ben's mouth to keep him quiet and shook her head. "That's not important right now... and doesn't your wife need you?"
Torath blinked, nodded, and made his way to the back of the house without another word.
Mara removed her hand from her son's mouth and he looked at her funny. "Why you do that?"
"Information can wait for later, Ben. It really, really can."
Torath entered the bedroom to find his sister and his mother coaching his wife through a contraction. His mind was still on the matter in the other room, however. "Was that Marani in the common room?"
Widia spared him no attention until the contraction wound down, and then she looked at him. "Your wife is having a baby and that's the first question you ask?"
"Just wondering, mother."
"Yes, it is what you think it is, Torath," Jaelle sternly told him.
Torath nodded and then sat down on the bed next to Alena, who smiled at him. "Just a back ache, hmm?"
"I thought it was indigestion." As they all looked at her incredulously, Alena tried to be cute about it. "Really intermittent indigestion?"
"Um-hmm..." Jaelle sorted through supplies that had been stashed in the closet for times like this, taking note of what they had. "Okay. Looks like we're all set to do this. Alena?"
"Yes?"
"Has your water broken yet?"
"No. Should it have?"
Jaelle sighed and glanced at Widia. "Go talk to Mara, mom. I can take it from here. It'll be a long while as it is."
"If you're sure."
"Very."
Widia looked at Alena in question. "Do you want me to stay?"
"Go talk to your daughter, Widia. I've got the man I love by my side and Jaelle knows what's what. All is well."
~*~*~*~*~
Widia came back into the common room and sat down in a chair. She smiled at Mara. "It'll be a while."
"Shouldn't a medic or a healer be here?"
"Not really. Jaelle's a nurse-midwife and the medics wouldn't be here in time, even if we called them now."
"I have a question."
"Yes?"
"I can't figure out why this room looks wrong. I'm not sure how I know it's wrong, but it is."
Widia sighed. "Three years after you were taken, a Stormtrooper team destroyed what we left behind when we went into hiding with the resistance."
"A stormtrooper team? Why?"
Widia considered her answer very carefully before speaking. "Because of what Temaru was and I am. Because we weren't killed. There's a lot of reasons, Mara."
"They somehow found out you were Jedi?" Luke wondered.
"No, not quite. You see, when Palpatine rose to power, he got his hands on all the information that the Jedi had at their disposal. Personal records, mission assignments, where people were stationed and when and why... You name it, he had it." Widia waited for the two of them to realize the magnitude of what she was saying.
"But... why go after you? Why me?"
Again, Widia hesitated before answering. "Because our family is, was a powerful one."
"What?"
"Imagine the irony of making the multiple times great grand daughter of a Great Sith War heroine into a darksider... I'm not sure if that was the reason, but it was the best one I could think of."
Luke turned to Mara. "Did you ever hear Palpatine talk about anything like that?"
"No, but that doesn't mean anything, really." Mara looked at Widia for a moment, her eyes cool and calculating. "You knew?"
Widia shook her head in the negative. "Not until Renna confirmed it, actually. I suspected, but I wasn't certain... You asked about who was at the door earlier, remember?"
"Um..."
"It was a messenger from the local resistance, telling us that our cover had been compromised. How, they weren't sure, but that is what they knew."
"Now I'm really confused."
"Temaru and I weren't here as Jedi. We were here as teachers and biologists to study the plant life, when the Old Republic became the Empire. The only people who knew we were Jedi, was the Jedi Council, who assigned us here, and the Queen of Naboo, who had to know for security reasons... and Apailana died protecting the secret around the time you were taken, so it wasn't her." Widia took note of how Ben kept looking toward the hallway every so often. "Hmm..."
"You mentioned something about a Great Sith War heroine?" Luke prompted. "Didn't the Great Sith War happen 4000 years ago? How do you know?"
Widia pulled out an ancient Jedi Holocron and handed it to him. "Look and see, young Jedi. This is my family's Holocron. It dates to the Great Sith War."
Luke stared at it, then looked at Widia in shock. "But... but... Where did you get this?"
"My father gave it to me, and his mother gave it to him, and so on and so forth."
"Oh."
"Luke?" Mara asked, frowning.
"Yes?"
"Would you go get Han from the space port?"
"You know he won't leave the ship with that vest on, Mara."
Mara rolled her eyes. "Tell him he can take it off, then." She looked toward Widia, and then shook her head, as if she were going to say something she almost didn't believe. "That doesn't make any sense."
"What doesn't?" Widia asked, probing gently.
"A friend in the shadows? From the past?" Mara glanced down at Ben, who was looking at her with wide eyes. "Ben?"
"Talk strange?" Ben turned to Luke. "She talks funny."
"Right." Luke looked at Widia, who was looking on in amusement. "What do you make of that?"
"Hmm... Be on the look out for someone who is standing in the shadows, whom you know, that kinda talks funny." Widia glanced at Mara. "Force warnings are tricky, but a warning is a good thing. Usually... What vest?"
"Mara made my brother-in-law wear a flowered vest because he made her mad."
"What? Why?" Widia looked at Mara in confusion. "Care to explain that?"
Luke stood up and patted Mara on the shoulder. "Still want me to go get Han? Or should I stay?"
"Go. And take Ben with you."
"Don't wanna go," Ben said defiantly. "Wanna stay."
Mara turned to her son and smiled. "I need some private time to talk with Widia. Okay, Ben?"
"Wanna stay. Wanna see baby."
"That'll be a while, actually," Widia told him. "And you can see the baby when you get back, okay?"
Ben nodded slowly. "Okay. Go with Daddy." He took Luke's proffered hand and they left.
Widia turned and looked hard at Mara. "You want to explain, or should I guess?"
"He laughed at my outfit, and Luke had been wearing it the day before. Those flowered Jedi robes?" She leaned back and rubbed her temples. "It's been a long week or so, but basically... I found out I was pregnant and then went... flower-crazy, I guess you could say."
"Flower-crazy? And why was Luke wearing flowered robes?"
"Because he always wears black and I hid his clothes." She shrugged. "It made perfect sense at the time."
"And what was it that prompted your going, as you put it, flower-crazy?"
"Memories." Mara looked away from Widia's gaze, unable to look her in the eye. "Of you, and Daddy Palpat, and..."
Widia blinked in surprise. "Daddy what?"
"He lost a holocube once and then Vader found it, and then there were boxes and boxes of potato chips." Mara shrugged off the memory and then noticed that Widia was looking at her with wide eyes. "What?"
"You called him 'Daddy Palpat?'"
Mara nodded somberly. "Yes... long after he convinced me that I was his. Not saying how."
Widia sighed. "I can guess. Jaelle had nightmares when she was little, and would be hysterical at times. She kept saying things like there was so much pain, and he was hurting her, and..."
"...and that someone was filling a hole in the wrong way?" Jaelle said from the entryway.
"Yes. How's Alena?"
"Fine for the moment..." Jaelle smiled at Mara. "I remember those dreams. Some of them, anyway. They were pretty bad."
Widia looked from daughter to daughter and sighed. "I should have gone after you, Mara."
Mara shook her head. "No. That would have been suicide. And it wasn't all that bad once I forgot."
Jaelle's eyes widened at that admission and she looked at Widia. "I'm going to go back to Alena now." Widia nodded and she left.
"Was it something I said?" Mara wondered.
"Yes. I want you to be honest and tell me everything, Mara. Everything about that time, whether you think it's important or not."
Hesitantly at first, Mara began to relate what it had been like in Palpatine's service. Widia listened and probed, piecing the puzzle together of what her daughter had gone through.
A little at a time, through candid and often brutal honesty, a bond formed and Mara felt something she hadn't felt for a long time. Peace.
