Mara had to sit down on the grass after twenty minutes to chasing her son around the yard. As she sat there and watched as they continued to play and horse around, she smiled. It was wonderful to see her husband be so carefree for once.
"A flower for your thoughts?" Jaelle's voice asked from beside her as the younger woman sat down.
Mara glanced at her, then turned her attention back to the three men and the child running around in front of them. "Not much to tell."
"Sure there isn't." Jaelle sorted in laughter at Samir being hit with a levitated dirt clod and Luke giving Ben a stern look that the three-year-old laughed at in response. "That... was... I don't know. Quite a revelation you gave us."
"Jaelle, it's over and done. It happened. End of story."
"Mara, I don't believe that for a moment. Yes, it happened, and yes it's over, but that doesn't mean that you are not still bothered by it."
Mara turned to her, and Jaelle saw the pain reflected in her eyes. "I don't want to re-live it."
"Is that what talking about it does?"
"Yes."
"And have you forgiven yourself?"
"Jaelle, it happened five years ago, and I had a man by my side who wouldn't let me not talk about what happened. It was bad, yes, but life... got better. And as much as I am certain you would like to hear all about what gave Renna recurring nightmares... No. I'm not going to tell you."
Jaelle let the silence hang between them before reaching out and pushing a stray strand behind Mara's ear. "I already knew. Before. Renna's not the only one with dreams."
"What?"
"Just what I said... That's why I was confused about how you could say it didn't matter like you did."
Mara studied her for a moment, suddenly reminded of something and chuckled slightly.
Jaelle blinked at her, not having expected that reaction. "Huh?"
Mara shook her head with a slight smile. "Just reminded of something. A paralelle, if you will."
Jaelle glanced at her with a quizzical expression before shrugging. "A paralelle?"
"It's not important, Jaelle. Not now, at least." Mara turned her attention back to Ben and the grown men that were playing with him, and laughed when Ben grabbed onto Samir's leg and refused to let go. "Think we should rescue him?"
Jaelle shook her head, a smile forming on her lips. "No. We really shouldn't."
"Didn't think so, either..." Mara glanced at her and they shared a giggle. Mara patted her knee, and went to rejoin in the fun.
~*~*~*~
While Jaelle was in the kitchen putting away the dishes they'd used earlier, Luke came in and leaned against one of the counters. She glanced at him and continued to put dishes away.
He stood there for a long moment before saying anything. "Mara had an interesting theory earlier."
"She did, huh?"
Luke noticed that she didn't look at him again, and had to shrug. "Yes... but I don't know if it's right, or not. All we have right now is vague speculation."
Jaelle put the last dish away and turned to regard him seriously. "And the vague speculation is?"
"It's about my family."
"Your family... What are you trying to say here, Master Skywalker?"
Luke sighed, almost weary at having to explain anything. "Does the Naboo government keep a DNA registry?"
Jaelle narrowed her eyes, wondering where this was leading. "Of course they do. The Old Republic kept one by law, and as a Republic planet, that meant Naboo had to have one as well. It wasn't as well kept during the Rebellion, because a lot of children were born in hiding, but... Why?"
He hesitated before looking at her in the eyes. "I need you to test me."
Jaelle blinked in surprise. Of all things she'd expected from him, that hadn't been one of them. "Why?"
"I want to know if we're right about something."
Jaelle wanted to ask him what the something was, but thought the better of it. She would find out what he meant eventually. "All right. Let me go get what I need to do a test like that, and I'll set it up."
~*~*~*~
"This should go here..." Han sat on the floor and tinkered with the innards of the game table in the lounge area of the Falcon, having taken it apart to get it to work better than it already did.
A beep from the console sounded, drawing his attention away from his project, and he saw the light for the holocomm blinking at him from across the room.
He smiled as Leia appeared on the screen. "Hi."
Leia smiled back at him. "Hi yourself… Han? Is Luke there with you?"
"No, he's with Mara at her family's house."
Not having expected that, Leia blinked in surprise. "Her family?"
"Yes… why?"
Leia's eyes seemed to go distant for a moment before she looked at him again. "I… don't know."
He grew concerned. He had seen that distant expression before. On Luke. "Leia?"
Leia shook her head and smiled again. "It's nothing. We'll be landing in twenty minutes."
Han nodded, still wondering why she seemed distracted. "Right."
~*~*~*~
Luke was sitting at the kitchen table when Jaelle returned through the back door, carrying a two bags. "Where did you go?"
"Torath and Alena's. We weren't sure where Alena would be giving birth, so I stashed all this at their house, just in case."
"So... You could do DNA tests on the baby?"
Jaelle rolled her eyes at him. "No. We know who her parents are, so that would be somewhat redundant... The reason for this was simple: the government requirement for a DNA registry was put back into effect three years ago." She pulled a piece of equipment out and considered it thoughtfully, then set it aside. "Won't be using that one. Not on a Naberrie baby."
"Huh?"
"That one is for implanting a tracking device under the skin. Because Alena is a Naberrie, use of a tracking device... isn't legal. Not that we've used it since the registry was put back into effect, but... on principle, the kits still come with it. As for why... protective messure."
"Oh. Makes sense." Or it would, if he knew what being a Naberrie meant.
She paused again and looked at him. "Actually, I wouldn't say 'tracking device' so much as 'intra-dermal identification device' that can emit a signal if it has such a capacity to do so." Jaelle held up the device that she'd set aside. "This one has that capacity." She set that one aside and held up another, almost identical to the first, minus a red tag. "This one does not." Jaelle set the devices aside again and sat back to consider him. "I have something to mention before we do this."
"And that would be?"
"What ever it is that you find out here? It changes nothing. It doesn't change the person that you are, and have become... Do you understand that?"
"I think I do," Luke said after taking in her serious expression for a minute.
"All I'm trying to say is that your DNA didn't make you... well... you. It didn't determine who you've become, just where you started."
"I know that, Jaelle." He looked away from her, shaking his head in thought. "My father loved someone. I just want to know who the someone was."
"And then what?" Jaelle asked, unable to resist prodding him. He'd made her uncomfortable with the sudden request as it was. The thought of anyone having loved the man who had become Darth Vader... Intrigued her, now that she thought about it.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Luke answered, still lost in thought.
Jaelle nodded in new-found understanding for herself as well. All this man had were unanswered questions. She'd met a few people over the years since the end of the rebellion like him, where they'd just wanted answers... "I just wanted you to understand that this..." Here she motioned to the equipment. "Doesn't change a thing. It just... adds a wrinkle if I somehow manage to get a hit. Now... good or bad... do you understand?"
"I think I do."
"Good... I have asked and explained twice, and been told that you understand or at least think you do... So let's do this."
Luke blinked at her. "What?"
"Just what I said. It's a DNA test, not an elective surgery." She held his gaze for a long moment, waiting... and then Luke snorted in laughter. "There's a difference, believe me."
"Thanks."
"Anytime."
~*~*~*~
As much as he hated to admit to it, Luke still hated waiting. He was just better at it now. So, as he waited while Jaelle ran the test, he couldn't help but ask questions. "Aren't these usually done in a lab?"
Jalle glanced at him with a smirk. "Usually, yes... But since I have both the equipment and the training, I can do it when not in a laboratory..." The machine beeped at her momentarily, and she turned her attention back to it. Seeing the results, she frowned. "That's odd."
Luke, having felt her surprise through the Force, looked at her sharply. "What is?"
"Tell you in a minute," Jaelle said as she shook her head. "I'm going to run this again... That's really, really odd."
"Odd, why?"
As the same exact result came up a second time, Jaelle's jaw dropped open and she turned to stare at him with wide, unblinking eyes.
Luke frowned at the sudden, shocked attention. "What is it?"
Wordlessly, Jaelle stood up and left the room, leaving Luke to stare after her in confusion.
~*~*~*~*~
Mara was sitting on the couch in the living room talking to Widia and Renna when Jaelle tore through with all the subtlety of a hurricane and disappeared down the hallway. "Now what was that about?"
Widia glanced at Renna, shrugged, and was about to say something when Mara's commlink beeped. "You might want to answer that."
"True," Mara said as she pulled her commlink out of her pocket and activated it. "Mara here..."
~*~*~*~*~
At the sound of feet marching down the hallway and coming to an abrupt halt, Alena looked up to see Jaelle enter the bedroom with an utterly shocked expression on her normally calm face. "Is something wrong?"
Jaelle stared at her for a very long moment before shaking her head. "Did the authorities ever look into Senator Amidala's death? With an investigation or something?"
Alena frowned, surprised by the question. "Not that I know of... Why?"
Jaelle moved to stand next to the basinette that had been set up next to the bed, and gazed down at the baby. "Because they should have. They really, really should have." Carefully, Jaelle picked the sleepy babe up and held her, then smiled at Alena. "I'll be right back, all right?"
"All right..." Alena was left to wonder what Jaelle had meant by that question about a cousin whom she'd never met.
~*~*~*~*~
Mara was in the middle of a comm with Han explaining that Leia, apparently now in-system, had been acting strange, when Jaelle came back through the living room with the baby in her arms.
Suddenly, she was very glad that Ben had gone down for a nap...
~*~*~*~*~
Jaelle came back into the kitchen and handed the baby very carefully to a confused Luke. "Here you go. Luke Skywalker, meet your cousin, Novami Naberrie Jaden."
Luke stared first at her, then at the baby in his arms. "What?"
Jaelle sat back down in her chair and smiled at him. "You were looking for information on your mother, right?"
Luke nodded slowly. "Yes."
Jaelle glanced at the readout on the analyzer again, still not really believing her eyes, then smiled at him again. "Her name was Padme, also formally known as Queen and Senator Amidala, but her given name was Padme Naberrie... And, like I said before, Alena is a member of the Naberrie family."
Luke just sat there, blinking from the surprise. "Oh."
"Is that what the theory was?"
Luke nodded wordlessly as he stared down at the yawning child in his arms with new understanding.
"Luke?" Mara asked from the doorway as she entered the kitchen to find him staring at the baby and Jaelle watching him with a smile.
"He's fine, Mara," Jaelle assured her. "A little shocked, but that was to be expected with something like this... You were right, by the way."
"I was?" Mara examined the equipment on the table with a wary eye before looking at her sister. "You can't mean what I think you mean."
"Sure I can... How did you figure out who his mother might be?"
"It was what you said about Alena's family having a history of twins," Mara said as she pulled up a chair next to Luke and gently took the baby from him. When he turned to her with wide eyes, she held eye contact. "We'll talk about it later, all right?"
"Yes," he said as he graced Novami's cheek with a finger. "It's so much..."
"To take in. I know." Mara handed the baby back to Jaelle, who was now standing beside them. "Thank you, Jaelle. Take her back to Alena now."
Jaelle nodded and left them alone in the kitchen.
Mara took Luke in her arms, knowing that he'd been shaken by the information actually being correct.
"We have to comm and tell Leia," Luke mumbled after a long silence.
"And tell her what, exactly?" Mara asked after thinking about it for a moment. "That your mother died under known circumstances, but at least you know who she was now?"
"But..."
She pulled away and looked at him. "Look at me, all right? You have the answer you were seeking, and that's enough for now. Besides... this kind of isn't something you tell someone over an open comm channel."
Luke stared at her, the truth of her words sinking in. "Oh. You're right. It isn't." He pulled her datapad out of his pocket. "You wouldn't happen to have in depth records on this thing, would you?"
"What kind of records?"
"The kind that explain causes of death."
Mara shook her head, not surprised in the least that his curious nature had gone right to that. "They didn't investigate, Luke."
Luke looked up from the data pad in question. "What?"
Mara tapped a finger on the data pad in his hand. "I looked already... The people that brought her body home were two unnamed Jedi and the Alderanni senator. And the family... didn't want an investigation... I know you want answers, but on this, here, there aren't any."
"But who wouldn't want an investigation..." Her sudden hard expression cut him off. "What?"
Mara continued to silently glare at him for a minute, then she sighed. "A war had just ended and she died under unknown circumstances... that's what I was able to glean on it, really... And since you and Leia are alive and kicking, one can only guess what the circumstances were."
"What do you mean?"
Mara stared at him, finding it hard to believe that he was still puzzled. "You want me to extrapolate?"
"Yes."
"All right... Leia's official life day was three days before the funeral, yours is a week to the day. What does that sound like to you?"
Luke stared at her, feeling as if Mara had just doused him with cold water. He'd forgotten about that detail. "Oh."
She picked the data pad out of his hand, set it on the table, and then took his hands in hers. "Most assuredly 'oh.'"
Thinking back on some of the time they'd spent with various members of the Wave Rangers, Mara found it hard to believe that she'd never asked them what they knew about Luke's family. They'd known about the Sun Crusher, and other key incidents, so why not that one? Mentally, she shrugged. Too late for that, now. She did wonder why they hadn't brought it up themselves, though...
~*~*~*~
Once Jaelle had returned with the baby and left again, Alena was once again resting with the baby in her arms. She didn't have much time to enjoy the quiet, however, when a little girl appeared out of thin air with a big smile on her face. "Uh..."
"Hi!" the little girl greeted her exuberantly, almost bouncing even though she was standing still.
Alena blinked, only just realizing that the girl was translucent and reminded her of her new-found sister-in-law. "Hello."
"Can I see the baby?"
Alena nodded and moved so the girl could see her better, and the girl's smile, if it were possible, got bigger. "Cute, huh?"
The little girl nodded. "Yes." Suddenly, she frowned and looked to her left. "But Grandpa! I wanted to see the baby! And visit? Please, can I stay?"
Alena frowned as the girl began to pout. "He's not going to let you stay?"
"No. Says I'm breaking a rule... But Grandpa Temaru! It's family! You always say that it's okay to visit family! ...what do you mean? It was good that she taught me to talk! ...Yes it was!"
Alena was confused as the little girl disappeared, a cute and infuriated expression on her face. Then she paused... 'Grandpa Temaru?' Temaru was here? As she looked down at the babe nestled snugly in her arms, she smiled at that gift of knowledge.
"Um..." The girl said as she faded back in momentarily with something in her arms. "Do you like animals?"
"Yes... why?"
"Because he can make me leave, but no one tells Momma's companion what to do." Alena sat there blinking in surprise as the girl set a translucent black cat on the bed. "Oh, and can you tell Momma something for me?"
"All right..." As soon as she figured out who this kid's mother was, at least.
"I liked Daddy in the flowers." And with that, she faded out with a grin.
As the cat looked up at her with translucent golden eyes, Alena suddenly realized who the girl was. Funny... Mara hadn't struck her as a cat person.
~*~*~*~*~
Han met Leia at the boarding ramp for the Alderaan. "It's good to see you... Everything all right?"
Leia nodded. "I think so..."
"Ah..." Han would have said more, but the twins and Anakin ran down the boarding ramp and latched onto his legs excitedly.
