Demendora: They are miserable without each other. That was a bond that was never meant to be broken. I really want them to feel somewhat whole again, with each other or without. It's such a delicate situation. Thank you for reading!

Rarobin: I hope that you'll love the conclusion to this story. I love a happy ending. I'm glad you could see the subtle shift there. I hope you'll continue to see it as the chapters pass. Thank you so much for your wonderful comments and for reading!

Ellaisintheair: Believe me, it gives me a headache, too! LOL I think this Mara is very similar to Luke's Mara, but you'll find out more in this chapter some of what makes her different. And I'm so glad you liked their first meeting. That was one of the first ideas for the story that came to me all those many years ago. Thank you so much!

EmeraldEyedJedi: I think you might be right. Now he knows that he's missing not just one Mara, but potentially two. Hopefully their time together will help him out, though... Thank you!

Luke Skywalker fan: I stopped reading them, too, until I picked up Outcast, so I totally understand. It was such a waste of Mara (and Jacen's) characters. I'm glad you enjoyed Luke and Mara's characterization. That is a wonderful compliment to me. Thank you! I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the story.

LynnO.o: Both of them are still so sad, it breaks my heart, too. Thank you so much for reading!

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Last time Luke revealed that he'll be stuck in Mara's dimension for 24 standard hours. Let's see if Mara decks him again… I hope you'll enjoy and stay tuned for Interlude 1, "Birth", on Wednesday!

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CHAPTER 4

"Twenty-four hours!" Mara let go of his arm and jumped up from the couch.

"Yes." Luke spoke calmly, but his stomach rolled as he worried about her reaction. She had panicked when he was going to leave; he felt it through the Force and saw it in her eyes. Mara didn't like to be caught being vulnerable. And his presence did that to her, he was sure of that. As always with Mara, it was one step forward and two steps back. Some things never changed, and that thought gave him a small smile.

"And just what did you expect to do here for twenty-four hours?" Her voice was frosty cold again. She folded her arms in front of her chest and glared at him.

"I guess…I guess I hadn't really thought that far ahead."

Mara rolled her eyes as she regarded him from her towering position. "I guess some things never change."

Luke's face stretched into another small smile as she echoed his thoughts. Then silence fell between them then. He began to feel awkward, unsure of what to do or say. He ached to hold Mara in his arms, but it was clear to him now that she was not his wife nor he her husband and that wasn't going to change any time soon. "I'll go," he said, as Mara continued to perpetrate their silence. "Find a diner or walk around or something until the time is up."

He walked to the door. Before he left he turned to look at her again. He stared at her as if memorizing her features, imprinting this woman who was so full of life over the memories of Mara on an autopsy table or on her funeral pyre. She was standing in profile but turned toward him when he spoke again. "I'm sorry about your husband," he said.

"Luke being dead makes it somewhat easier on you," Mara retorted. "Imagine if you had showed up here and found him, instead of me. Would you have waited the time limit and tried again?"

Luke took a breath and thought about what she was asking. "I don't know," he answered honestly. "I really don't."

She didn't say anything further and he turned to palm the door open.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Mara's voice behind him was still so unexpected and his shoulders hunched. "I'm leaving. I thought that's what you wanted."

"I didn't ask for anything in this situation, Skywalker." She sighed and some of her frustration bled out through the Force. "You can't just leave, go walking around out there or here in the Temple. Luke Skywalker is dead."

"I can use the Force to disguise myself, Mara," Luke reminded dryly. "It'll be fine. I'll hang around until the limit is up and then go back home."

"Then will you use the device again? Find another Mara? What if she's married still?"

Luke let out a puff of excess air and leaned his head against the door. "I just don't know, Mara. I didn't…I didn't really think this through." He wasn't about to mention the vision he'd had, the one that had led him to use the device in the first place. He could only imagine Mara's reaction to that.

She appraised him with a long look, and then her inner practicality seemed to take over. "Just come back in here, Skywalker. Sit down. We'll eat this cold takeout of mine and you can tell me just what the hell your thought process was to get you here."

Luke didn't meet her eyes, barely hoping to believe that she would let him spend his time there with her. "What about your kids?" he asked. "I wouldn't want to upset them."

"They're gone for the week. They went with Han and Leia's bunch to Naboo." Mara turned abruptly and headed into the sitting area to grab the forgotten bag of takeout.

He trailed after her, following her into the kitchen. She grabbed a couple of plates from the cabinet and methodically set out the food. He wondered if the mundane tasks were helping to ease her mind.

"Do they…the kids, I mean…live here with you?" He itched to help her, to do something other than stand in the doorway like a sleemo.

"Ben does, of course." Mara sat at her table and started spooning food out of the containers onto two plates. "He's only sixteen. Betrys has her own room in the same wing as the other Knights that are based on Coruscant."

Luke stepped further into the room and looked at a flimsi holograph of Betrys and Ben that was stuck to the cooler. "She's beautiful," he said, looking at Mara's daughter. She was unmistakably his—a Skywalker—but her eyes were the same dark green as Mara's and they set off her blonde hair. The sight of her sent a spasm of longing through Luke, to think that he could have been the father of a daughter, that he could have had more children with Mara.

"She is," Mara agreed. "She looks even more like yo—like him than Ben. Acts somewhat more like him, too."

She seemed more willing to talk about her children and Luke listened eagerly. She glanced up at the holo he was studying. "It's amazing how similar our Bens are," she said. "From what I saw in your memory, he's quite like my own son."

"He's very like Mara," Luke said. "A good kid. Better than I deserve."

"I feel that way about mine sometimes," Mara admitted.

She gave a pointed look to the seat across from her. He sat down and looked at the food on his plate for the first time. "My—"

"Favorite," she cut in. "Yes, I know. I was having a sentimental moment earlier tonight."

"Maybe it was the Force at work," he murmured, delighted and enchanted when Mara released a small huff of surprised laughter. She immediately coughed to cover it.

They focused on their plates then, eating for a few awkward moments. Luke was not very hungry and pushed his meal around on his plate, and noticed that Mara was doing the same. He searched for safe topics to talk about, and found himself coming back to the children. "If I can ask, how old is your daughter?"

Mara put her fork down next to her plate. "She'll be thirty-one next week. She was born in 12 ABY…on my wedding night."

"She was born on your wedding night?" Luke exclaimed, putting his own fork aside. "That's more than I can even imagine. Did you go into labor at the altar?"

"No, it was afterward. It was a small ceremony and then…well, she has father's timing," Mara said with a chuckle.

"In 12 ABY," Luke said with wonder. He thought about his own dimension and how he had been involved with Callista at that time. He had only seen Mara once that entire year, when she had come to the Academy and spoken with Callista. His heart clenched to think of what he could have had in that year. Though he had loved Callista, she hadn't been the love that he yearned for.

"What was your wedding like?" Mara asked. Luke realized that she must be relaxing if she was willing to find out more about him and his life.

"Ah, it was eventful," he answered. "Our Jedi ceremony was beautiful and the one we really felt was our actual wedding. The public ceremony was for everyone else. It was interrupted by a terrorist."

Mara's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Well, it was right after the peace accord with the Empire. I feel strange here, but I don't know how different things actually are in this…place. I assume you had a war with the Empire and—"

"Yes," Mara spoke over him. "From what I saw in your memories things are very similar in our respective galaxies. And I remember the pockets of insurrection after the peace treaty. Ours was signed in 14 ABY."

"Then you managed to achieve peace a few years before we did. We didn't broker peace until 19. Mara and I married in 20. We had…well…issues to work out."

"So it seems." Mara took his plate and put it in the recycler with hers. She watched him as he stood and placed their glasses and silverware in and closed the door, expertly turning the machine on to start a rinse cycle.

An awkward silence stretched between them again, and Luke thought about how different things would be if this Mara were his wife. How they could go into the living room and watch the holovid, his hand idly stroking her hair as they laughed over some inane comedy. Their bond would be open between them and words would be unnecessary, but they would use them anyway, genuinely interested in what the other had to say.

The awkwardness was unnerving, especially with this Mara looking so much like his own Mara had. In a way, it would be easier to have found a galaxy with a younger Mara, one where he would have expected open hostility or stilted interaction. Though he kept reminding himself that this woman was not his wife and never had been, it was so hard to look at her and to remember that.

It had grown late as they talked and the skylanes had thinned out to the nighttime flow of traffic, their bright lights dimmed through the reflective transparisteel windows. Luke suddenly felt exhausted and knew that Mara must feel the same. He didn't want to sleep away his time with her, but felt that she needed a break, a moment to be by herself and absorb his presence.

"Do you mind if I were to use your guest room?" he asked, and could see relief in her eyes.

"No, that's…fine. Let me show you to it." She led him down the hall to the room that in his universe had been Ben's. "There's a refresher…you probably know that."

"I do. Thank you, Mara." He palmed open the door and stepped inside the room. "I really am sorry that I…surprised you."

"He always did," she said, again echoing his earlier thought. She didn't meet his eyes as she turned to walk away.

Luke let out a loud sigh and collapsed backward onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling again just as he had back in his own apartment. He reached out with the Force and felt Mara's warm presence, so missed in his life. Hot tears gathered in his eyes, but he didn't give in to them. Instead he focused on her steady presence and the fact that when he awoke, he would at least have a little time with her before he would need to leave her again. He let go and allowed her warmth in the Force to lull him to sleep.

Sometime later he twitched in dream and turned over. Mara's presence seemed so close and his eyes fluttered open. "Mara," he murmured. He reached out with his hand, but the other side of the bed was cold and empty as it had been for several years.

His waking mind returned to reality when he heard the soft slide of the door and light spilled in from the hall, leaving bright imprints on his eyes. He blinked and felt Mara's presence move further away.

He turned over again and looked out the large transparisteel window. A small smile threaded across his face as he realized she had been watching him sleep.

She missed him, too.

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He never really fell back into a deep sleep, drifting in and out instead and counting the hours until dawn broke over the sky. He had only been in the parallel reality for seven hours and had quite a few hours left, but they both stretched out in front of him and seemed far too short. He tried to meditate, to find some direction for the vision that had inspired him to use the transportation device, but couldn't relax or find enough peace to drop into the meditative flow of the Force. He surfed the HoloNet instead and read up on the state of the galaxy. He was pleased to find that Daala was not the Chief of State in this reality, and that it was in fact still Cal Omas. He and Omas had not always seen eye to eye, but practically anyone would be preferable to Daala, who was anti-Jedi to the extreme.

The entire galaxy seemed to be in good order, no rogue Sith ruining the government for a second time. In fact, reading about the peace that had bloomed since the Vong War set Luke's heart to a kind of serenity, to know that his friends and family were flourishing here, even if their Luke Skywalker hadn't lived to see it. It was something he would want for them, to be happy.

His own heart and mind were in disarray, however. He felt there was a reason for him to be in this galaxy. Though he had assumed that he was supposed to see Mara, he was beginning to wonder if there was another reason. He felt that there was something off in this galaxy, but wasn't quite sure what it could be. He resolved to ask Mara about it, but still lingered in the quiet room, almost embarrassed to venture out and face her.

He had wanted so badly to see her, but now he felt foolish and chagrined at his impetuous nature. Of course this Mara wouldn't rush into his arms or declare her love for a man who had never been her husband, and how unfair of him to impose himself on her.

After she had left the night before he had thought of his Mara, of happier times with her and Ben, before her death had ripped their family apart. After perusing the HoloNet he couldn't help but contrast how he had handled Mara's death with how she had handled Luke's, and found that he was lacking. He thought of Ben and what he must be doing on Adumar, and realized that he had a lot of making up to do with his son. Sixteen years old and a Jedi Knight, Ben hadn't the chance for a real childhood. Luke smarted with that knowledge. He wanted to make things right with his son.

But then, there was Mara. As much as his actions embarrassed him, his heart still ached for her. To be so close to her was both unnerving and intoxicating. She belonged in his life, and even just her presence in the Force was like a drink of cool water after a long trek through the Jundland Wastes. He felt alive again, energized in a way that he hadn't in so long. To know that he had only a few scant hours with her made it even more bittersweet, because there was not time to say the things he wished to say or to bask in the warmth of her presence as he would like.

But now he had only to face her and not make a further fool of himself. He didn't want to waste this gift that had been given to him.

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"Good morning." He walked into the kitchen to find Mara sitting at the table with a cup of caf. She nodded toward the pot and he helped himself. He sat across from her at the table.

Mara didn't speak further as she tapped at her datapad and appeared to send a message. She noticed him watching her and answered his unasked question. "Just cancelling my classes for the day. I can't take you with me, and I can't leave you here alone."

"I'd be fine," he said immediately. "I don't want to cause any disruption to your life."

Mara's right brow raised in a look he had seen from her countless times before. "Now you think of that."

Luke flushed, and looked down into his mug. "What I mean is that you should go on. I'll just…watch the holovid or something. Maybe walk around."

"I'm not sure I should let you out," Mara said. "If you're anything like Luke, trouble will find you."

He grinned at her. "Mara used to say that all the time."

"She sounds very practical," Mara said, the corners of her lips turning up as they often did whenever she tried to squash a smile.

"You would know," he said. "Anyway, if I can ask you—who is in charge of the Jedi here? How are they faring in the galaxy? Are they flourishing, I guess I should ask?"

"Why wouldn't they be? And there's no one person in charge of the Jedi, we all are. We have a Council of Masters that listens to complaints and concerns. Together we make decisions on behalf of the Order."

"The council," Luke repeated. "That's a relief. I wasn't sure that the Jedi would be thriving here. Where I come from, there's been a lot of unrest. Unbalance to the Force. That's why I became Grand Master. Can I ask you…where is Jacen?"

"Jacen's with Han and Leia and the kids on Naboo," she answered, brow furrowed. "Why?"

Luke took a deep breath. He had to know. "Because my Jacen…my Jacen was Mara's murderer."

Mara drew in a breath, her shock in the Force huge. "Jacen? Jacen Solo? My nephew?"

Luke nodded. "He had fallen. He was a Sith. His death and yours…so entwined. Two of the greatest regrets of my life."

"Show me," Mara demanded, her caf forgotten as she reached out and grabbed his hand. "I can't even process this. Just show me."

Unsure if it was the right thing to do, but unable to go back now, Luke grasped her hand in his and allowed her to see into his mind, to view the rise and fall of Darth Caedus.

When it was over she snatched her hand back and looked at him, equal parts horror and pity on her face. "Jacen is a healer and Master. He's Ben's Master…but that Jacen is not our Jacen."

"Thank the Force," Luke murmured.