Mara closed her eyes and lowered her head dejected when the boarding ramp of the Wild Karrde sealed shutting Luke outside and away from her and their son. Talon Karrde came up behind her with Darik in his arms.

"Mara, maybe we should talk about this." He set Darik on the deck. "Go on and play." The little boy gave a big smile and then ran off. "Mara , I know it's your decision to make, but I'm part of this situation now and I really should know what's going on."

She ran a hand over her face wiping away the tears. She didn't realize how hard it would be to turn Luke away. She looked over to Karrde. "Okay, let's talk. Do you want to go to my cabin or yours?"

"Yours is fine," Talon remarked.

They turned and walked down to Mara's cabin which was adorned by dozens of holos of Darik. Many of the holos included her or Talon and sometimes Darik's "uncles" Chin or Aves.

Talon went and sat down at the edge of her bunk. "What did you tell him?"

Mara took a seat next to him. "I told him not to interfere. I said we were married and Darik thought you were his father."

A grin covered Talon's bearded face and his eyes shone with amusement. "We're married? I'm honored…but I'm afraid I missed the honeymoon somehow." His eyes narrowed. "Did you get me drunk and drag me to one of those 24 hour chapels?"

She playfully slapped him across the chest. "Knock it off. I made up a story that we were married in Corellia."

Talon nodded his head in understanding. "I get it. You're using the strict paternity laws of the planet to keep him from trying to get joint custody. What if he finds out you lied to him and that we're not married."

She gave him a narrow gaze. "Then I just might have to marry your sorry behind."

Talon chuckled. "Can I at least have a real honeymoon then?"

Mara rolled her eyes. "What would your girlfriend think about that?"

Karrde laughed. "I'll invite her along." He grinned mischievously. "After all, I am way too much man for any one woman."

Mara made a choking sound. "Force you are insufferable."

Karrde laughed but then turned serious. "Why don't you want Luke around his son? Luke's a good man."

Mara shook her head. "It's not him…it's Callista. I don't trust her and I am sure if she knew Luke fathered a child with me, she would do something to make my life miserable…like talking Luke into fighting for custody."

"Joint custody may not be too bad for Darik."

Mara glared at Talon. "You are totally oblivious to our situation aren't you? We are smugglers and Luke's a Jedi Master. A court won't see the loving environment we have forged on the Wild Karrde for Darik. They'll only see a bunch of hardened smugglers and the Former Emperor's Hand raising the child of their most cherished war hero. I wouldn't be surprised if my parental rights were terminated outright and the judge gave full custody to Skywalker. And then my son will be raised by…that bodysnatching nutjob."

Talon ran a hand through his beard in thought. "You may be right." He stood up and moved towards the door. "I'll abide by any decision you make."

"Thank you." Mara said as she watched her friend leave her cabin.

.

.

~Two Months Later~ Taris

"Mara, can I talk to you?" Talon asked as he crossed paths with his second-in-command in the corridor of the ship.

"Sure."

Karrde pointed to his cabin. "Privately."

A concerned look crossed her face, but she nodded and followed Talon into his quarters. "What's wrong?"

Talon sighed. "Mara I got a private message from Han Solo. He requested our help."

Mara shrugged. "Does he want us to bring him spare parts for that antique ship he flies?"

Karrde rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "No, he wants us to go to Yavin 4."

Mara looked at Karrde in shock. "Why?"

Karrde walked over to his desk and sat down. "It seems the Solos are worried about Luke. Callista left him shortly after we saw him on Coruscant. Solo thinks Callista believed Luke would dump her over the paternity issue and she didn't want the responsibility of raising a son…so she left, leaving Luke to raise Ben alone. He hasn't seen her in almost two months."

"Gods," Mara moaned as she sank down on the edge of Karrde's bunk. "Poor Luke. Callista has to be crazy to leave her family like that. I never thought she was right in the head. You can't have your conscious trapped in a computer system for thirty years without going insane."

Karrde nodded sadly. "It gets worse. The Jedi Academy's Information Technology technician disappeared the same day as Callista. There are rumors that an affair had been going on for some time."

Mara gave Talon an incredulous look. "The I.T. guy…are you saying Callista ran off with the school's computer technician?" She knew she shouldn't laugh but it just struck her as funny. "The woman who lived in a computer for decades ran off with the computer expert."

Even Karrde had to laugh. "Maybe he knew how to turn her on."

Mara smirked "Or it could be she was just really user-friendly."

"Maybe she liked how he booted her up." Karrde added.

"Stop it!" Mara said holding up her hands in a halting motion. "Skywalker would kill us if he knew we were joking about his wife."

"Hopefully soon-to-be ex-wife," Karrde added.

"Hopefully," Mara grimaced. She could joke about it because it wasn't her life. Luke must be devastated and the fact that his wife was carrying on an affair with an employee at the Academy must make life on Yavin 4 very uncomfortable. "What does Solo want us to do on Yavin 4?"

"He wants us to retrieve Luke and bring him to Coruscant. We will be paid for the…Solo called it an "extraction"…like we are rescuing him."

Mara's face fell. "Damn that Skywalker," Mara growled. "It sounds like Solo knows about Darik. Why else would he ask us to help? He probably thinks only Darik and I could lure Luke away from that Jedi infested moon. I knew Skywalker couldn't keep his kriff'n mouth shut. I should…"

A pained expression came over Talon's face. "Mara, umm…I accidently may have let some things slip out when I saw Solo a month ago on Nar Shaddaa. He promised not to tell anybody…and it looks like he hadn't or we would have had Leia contacting us instead."

She shook her head. "I'm not going to save Skywalker's miserable butt…look what it got me the last time I tried that."

Karrde cocked his head to the side and gave her a stern look. "What it got you? It got you a son. And I don't think you regret that." He stood and put his hand on her shoulder. "Mara, no matter what your feelings are for the man, he saved your life, he saved mine and he is the father of your child. Don't you think his butt is worth saving?"

She snorted, but then smiled. "It is a cute butt."

Karrde turned away. "That's too much information, Jade." He glanced over his shoulder and smiled. "Should I change course to Yavin 4?"

She nodded reluctantly. "We might as well. "

.

.

~Yavin 4~

Karrde maneuvered the small shuttle down to the Academy's landing pad. As they set down on the jungle moon Mara went through the ship's shut down and post-flight procedures. As she crawled through the steps in a methodical manner Karrde turned and gave her an impatient look. "You're stalling."

She glared at him…mainly because he was correct. She didn't look forward to this confrontation. She noticed movement outside the ship viewport. It was Tionne the Academy's archivist and foremost scholar on Jedi history walking up to the shuttle accompanied by an unhappy looking boy about Darik's age.

"I assume that is Ben Skywalker." Karrde said as he stared at the dark haired boy.

"Yes, I recognize him from the holos." She finished her work and pushed the boarding ramp descend button. "We might as well get this over with."

They both moved from the cockpit and down the ramp to face the silver haired Jedi scholar. Tionne smiled brightly as they exited the shuttle. "I'm so glad you came. I hope you can help. The Solos were here a couple weeks ago, but they weren't able to get Luke off the moon." She looked down at the young boy. "I think it would be best if Ben and Luke had a change of surroundings."

"We'll do what we can." Karrde said softly. He looked down at Luke's son. "Can you keep Ben with you until we're ready to go?"

"Of course. Do you need an escort to his quarters?"

Mara shook her head. "No, I know my way around." She nodded to Talon and they silently walked toward the Jedi Master's small apartment within the temple.

They knocked at the door a few times, but there was no answer. Mara impatiently entered the apartment uninvited. "Skywalker!" She called out. "It's Mara and Talon, we're coming in."

The apartment was dark and smelled like food left out in the trash can too long. Mara turned on the lights and walked over to the windows, pulling open the curtains and cracked the windows open to allow some fresh air in. Mara pointed to Luke's bed chamber. "Karrde, can you check his bedroom and make sure he's decent."

Karrde gave her a smirk. "Getting shy now?"

"Just do it," she shot back.

Karrde cracked open the bedroom door and spotted a large lump under the bedcovers. "Luke!"

There was a moan and then the lump moved. "Who's there?" Luke's voice sounded tired and strained.

"It's Talon and Mara. Didn't Han tell you we were going to pick you up?"

Luke sat up and ran a hand through his unruly hair. "Yes, but I thought there was no way in the nine Corellian Hells that Mara would actually come out here."

Karrde smiled as he entered the room and closed the door behind him. "Well, the impossible has happened. Get dressed."

Luke threw the covers off and stood. He was dressed in shorts and a stained t-shirt. His eyes were bloodshot and he had a mangy version of a beard growing on his face. He was a mess. He looked around the floor and picked up a pair of pants and started to put them on.

Karrde shook his head and stepped up to the Jedi. "Luke, those clothes are filthy and you are smelling a bit ripe. Go into the 'fresher, shower and shave and I'll scrounge up a fresh outfit and put it out on the bed for you."

Luke looked like he was going to protest, but he then nodded and wandered into the 'fresher. When Karrde heard the water running he picked up the clothing on the floor and put them into a hamper. He then went through the Jedi's dresser drawers and laid out a complete outfit on the bed. He then went to Luke's closet and found a small carry-all bag and filled it with a couple changes of clothing and exited the room. Mara was outside on the Jedi's couch tapping her fingers on her knees impatiently. "What's keeping him?"

Karrde dropped the bag on the floor next to her. "He smelled worse than a Vornskr. I'm having him shower and shave. He looks like he had the mange."

"So, he's coming?"

He nodded. "It looks like it."

Mara sat silently. This was going to be a very awkward flight to Coruscant.

After about fifteen minutes Skywalker came out of his room thoroughly scrubbed and in fresh clothing. Mara couldn't help but notice the feeling of misery that projected off of him. His face was drawn and there were dark bags under his eyes.

"I didn't think you'd show up," he confessed. "The only reason I told Han I would leave with you was I didn't think there was snowball's chance on Mustafar that you would actually come here."

Mara stood and picked up his luggage. "I'm just full of surprises."

Luke sighed dejectedly. "I am really getting tired of surprises."

Her face softened. "Luke I'm sorry."

He just stood looking at her blankly. "For what?"

She started to get agitated. "For what Callista has put you through the last couple months." She fidgeted for a moment. "And for what I put you through." She said softly. "I know the last few months must have been extremely difficult."

Luke walked over and sat in a cushioned arm chair across from Mara. He reached over to a side table and picked up some paperwork. "It'll be over soon." He tossed the papers over to her. They made it half way and ended up on the ground between them. Mara reached down and picked up the stack of papers. She dropped Luke's travel bag and then sat back down on the couch to read the documents. She looked over the first page and then looked back to Luke forlorn. "Divorce papers?"

Luke nodded. "She's wants out of the marriage as quickly as possible so she can get on with her life. She doesn't want anything from me…not even Ben." When he said the last words Mara felt a pang of despair and anger emanating from the Jedi.

"Luke, let's get to the shuttle," was all she could think of saying. "I'm sure Ben and Darik would love playing together." She knew it was a low tactic…using his sons as a way to pry him away from the academy.

Luke looked up surprised. "You would let us see Darik?" He turned to Karrde questioningly. "How do you feel about this?"

He didn't wait for an answer. He looked back to Mara. "I really think that's a decision that you should discuss with your husband first."

She noticed he stretched out the word 'husband'. Mara wasn't sure if he knew she lied to him or he was just trying to emphasis the need for married couples to stick together—something Callista was obviously bad at.

Karrde cleared his throat and gave her a strained, pleading look. "Mara…please."

He didn't need to specify what he wanted, she already knew. Karrde wanted an end to the charade. She looked at Luke with unsure eyes, not knowing if what she was going to tell him would help heal or just hurt the Jedi worse. "Luke," she said slowly.

She looked back to Karrde who just nodded to her encouragingly. "Karrde and I are not married. We are not even lovers. He's simply helping me raise Darik."

Luke sat up straight in his chair and looked between Karrde and Mara. "Does Darik know Talon's not his father?"

Mara took a deep breath. "He sees him as Daddy Talon. To Darik, Talon is his dad, but not the man who fathered him." She closed her eyes and sighed. "He's five years old. I didn't go into details."

Luke nodded. "So what does this mean to me? Can I see him?" He looked at Mara grief-stricken. "Will he ever know I'm his father?"

Mara chewed on her lower lip in thought. "Luke, let's go at this slow. I don't want to dump this all on Darik suddenly. I assume Ben doesn't know you are not his biological father…how do you think he'd react to that news?"

Luke's face distorted in pain. "He'd probably take it as well as the news that Mommy's gone and not coming back." His head dropped and Mara's heart clenched. Luke did not deserve any of this. Before she could stop herself she walked over and stood in front of him. She reached out and grabbed his hands and pulled him out of his chair…and then hugged him. Luke hugged her back fiercely, both of them fighting back tears.

"It's going to be alright Luke," Mara whispered to him. "I promise you that. There will be a happy ending to this story."