Am I excited for the coming chapters or what? I spent most of yesterday writing chapters six and seven, and this story is progressing exactly how I want it to!

The Falcon scene sort of came out of nowhere, but it fits very nicely from a plot point of view. I'll explain more at the bottom.

DISCLAIMER: Still don't own Star Wars. But I did have a Star Wars dream the other day that Luke and Mara were in. That was nifty. I seem to have SW dreams alot from all this fanfic I read right before bed... But I still don't own Star Wars.

Chapter Four

Mara rubbed at her temples furiously, willing her headache to go away. She slumped through the halls of Echo Base, head down, a tired look etched into her features. It had been almost two weeks since she'd garnered her position as Rogue Five. It was two weeks filled with fun games of after-hours Sabacc with the Rogues, TaunTaun patrols, and basic around the base duties. She still couldn't seem to shake the stares of the Alderaanian Princess, though. She wasn't sure as to whether the Princess knew who she was actually in the Empire, or if she just had harsh feelings for her.

Every time Mara probed the force surrounding the Princess for any hint of suspicion or hatred, she came across a wall. The Alderaanian Princess had had someone teach her how to guard her mind, and that didn't surprise her. That girl had spent almost a week of Darth Vader's torture to pull Rebel secrets from her mind and Vader had failed.

But today, none of that mattered to Mara. She was due to return to Coruscant three days ago. Obviously, she missed that rendezvous with the Emperor. Yesterday, an automated message she had recorded was sent from her quarters in the Palace to the Emperor's personal comm unit in his office. In that message, Mara had simply explained that she was defecting, and it was his actions, along with Vader's and the Late Moff Tarkin.

It seemed the only way to get her Master to break the link between their minds, and it worked well. Too well considering the now painful headache she was going through, as well as the odd light-headed situation occurring now that his oppressive presence was gone.

Mara entered the mess hall and flopped down at the table. She leaned her head on her arms to block out the harsh lights of the base, and tried to use the Force to will away some of the pain. Unfortunately, the Force was just not in her favor today, and she had considerable trouble even touching it. She wondered idly if it was due to Palpatine's presence being gone from her mind, or if the pain was just making it too hard to call upon it.

She sincerely hopped it was the latter.

"You okay?" a voice asked and she looked up into Luke's light blue eyes. She tried to nod, but then groaned and clutched at her head. "Headache?"

"You have no idea," she mumbled, leaning back onto her arms.

"C'mon," he said, walking around behind her and started pulling her up out of the chair.

"What are you doing?" she asked, suddenly alarmed.

"Taking you to the Med Bay. There might be something Two-Onebee can do for you."

"No," she pushed against him, but her headache made it too hard to put much force behind it. Luke just held her in a firmer grip.

"No, calm down," he said calmly, almost consoling her in a child-like voice. "Onebee might have something for the pain."

"No shots," she mumbled, as another wave of pain crept it's way across her forehead. She rubbed at her eyes as Luke led her through the base.

"I won't promise anything," he whispered in her ear, tickling her hair against her slightly. Luke seemed to notice her hair right then and grinned. "You should wear your hair down more. You look really good with it this way."

"Stop it," she said, squeezing her eyes shut against the sudden influx of butterflies to her stomach.

"Stop what?" he asked, completely confused.

"Stop complimenting me," she said. "I don't want to have to seek revenge on you like I did to Janson."

Luke chuckled and turned her around another corner. "I wasn't hitting on you, Mara. I was merely stating a fact."

"I know," she said. "You're too nice to act as crudely as some of the Rogues. Why do you have to be so nice?"

"Aunt Beru always told me to respect women," he said with a smile. "Here we are."

Mara forced her head up to look around the Med Bay. The room was heated, one of the few on base that was. The walls were reinforced with Durasteel, and had some of the most advanced equipment benefactors could buy. Princess Leia funded a lot of this herself since she'd inherited so much from those on Alderaan that had no family. Leia claimed to not care about money until the Empire was dead and Democracy ruled again.

Two-OneBee rolled over and greeted the two of them. "Hello, Commander Skywalker, how may I be of service?"

"Hey, OneBee, Mara here has a killer headache and is having a lot of trouble with it," Luke said, his hand still wrapped around her shoulders. "Do you have anything to alleviate the pain some?"

"I do, but I'm afraid to administer any medication, Alliance Protocol requires a blood test to properly diagnose someone."

"OneBee, you can't tell if someone has a headache from a blood test," Luke said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I am aware of that sir," OneBee said in his even electronic voice. "I am a Medical Droid. But it is Alliance Protocol and also it is needed to keep every recruit's data files up to date."

"You know what, I don't need anything after all, Luke, sorry," Mara said, trying to spin in Luke's arms before he turned her back around to face OneBee.

"Fine, run the test, but can you still give her something for the headache?" Luke asked, annoyed with the droid.

"Of course," OneBee said, spinning around and getting the pain medication shots and the equipment needed to run a basic blood test.

"Luke, I really don't want a blood test," Mara pleaded. She wasn't sure what the rebels tested for, but if Midichlorians was one of them, her cover was blown. The Empire would have exterminated her at the Academy with a count like hers. It wasn't high by any standards, but it was higher than the average person.

"Mara, they just run for DNA and basic blood illnesses and sexual diseases," Luke said, leading her over to a chair.

"I don't have any of those," Mara said, blushing. "Well, I have DNA, but not the second two."

He cracked a grin. "Good to know. Now come on, just relax."

"Fine," she huffed as OneBee took her blood and then administered the pain serum. Immediately, she felt the floating sensation of the pain killer run through her veins, and it surprisingly did help with the headache. She'd been unsure as to whether or not it could help with a Force related case like hers.

"How do you feel?" Luke asked, and she smiled lightly up at him.

"Better, thank you," she said. OneBee rolled back over to them, and the both looked at the droid.

"It appears that aside from the headache, you are perfectly healthy Ms. Jade," the droid stated, using her last name since he'd run her DNA and pulled up her file.

"Thanks OneBee," she said and started back out of the Med Bay and into the cold of the Base.

"Have you eaten yet?" Luke asked her, walking next to her.

"No."

"Good," he grinned and led her to the Hangar Bay. She threw him a confused look before leading her over to the Falcon and up the ramp. She was hesitant at first, seeing as how she wasn't exactly the favorite person of Princess Leia, and was probably not Han Solo's either by consequence.

But instead, she was greeted with a grin as Han stepped into view, holding a pitcher of Caffe.

"Hey Luke," Han grinned, and then tipped his head at her. "Mara."

"Hello," she mumbled slightly, suddenly embarrassed to be there.

"Leia's already here, we were just waiting for you and Mara and then we were going to get started," Han told Luke, and then led them over to the Dejarek table where Leia was seated next to Chewbacca. Leia grinned at Luke and waved to Mara slightly. Mara smiled back, wondering what exactly she was doing there.

"Do you like Nerf, Mara?" Han asked as they sat down. Mara was situated on the accelerator bench between Chewie and Luke, and Han took his seat next to Leia in a chair pulled up to the table.

"Um, sure, but I'll eat almost anything," she admitted. She was used to eating almost anything since sometimes her missions led her to the oddest parts of the Galaxy.

"Don't say that near Chewie," Han laughed, and Chewie grumbled beside her. Luke laughed, being one of the few at the table that really understood the Wookiee dialect.

"Chewie, you served it raw!" he laughed, and Chewie just shook his head in dismay. Mara glanced at Leia and the two shared an amused smile.

"So, Mara," Leia asked after the laughter died down some. "Are the Rogues treating you okay? I know some of them could be... abrasive."

Luke burst out laughing, and Mara shot him a dirty look.

"Leia, you should have seen it when Wes and Wedge tried to flirt with her! Oh, that was priceless," he laughed. Mara just shook her head.

"I just informed them that I'm not the kind of woman that really allows people to flirt with her before she even knows them. I don't exactly have room right now for a relationship."

Leia glanced quickly at Han and then away when she noticed him looking at her. Even if the Force was a bit elusive right now to Mara, there was no missing what that look meant. Leia stared down at her plate and took another bite of the Nerf steak they were having along with the eggs.

"So, um," Luke began, to end the awkward silence that had befallen the table. "Han, how are the repairs coming to the ship?"

"Alright, I guess," Han shrugged, leaning back against his chair. "I still can't get that damn navi-computer to check the Hyper drive without wanting to engage it first. Sometimes I feel like I just need to gut the system and rebuild it again. It would take days though, and until it was complete, we'd be a sitting duck should the Empire come knocking."

"Well, if you ever need any help at all, you know where to find me," Luke told him.

"Thanks Kid," Han grinned. "If I'd trust anyone near the mechanics of this ship it'd be you and Chewie."

"Well I'm glad I have your approval," Luke said sarcastically. "I can send Artoo by later if you want him to see if the issue lies in the computer itself or if it's the Hyper drive."

"I'd normally say no, but I think I might take you up on that," Han sighed. "But keep Goldenrod off the ship. I don't want him anywhere near here after he tripped and fell into the Navigator Panel. I was tinkering with that thing for a week until I got it tuned back inline with the stars. I don't know how he did it, but he managed to put the coordinates for Corellia out in the Outer Rim, Naboo into Pirate Space, and Tatooine to the Core!"

Luke and Mara laughed and Leia smiled down into her food again. Chewie's rough laugh resonated through the cabin, making Han throw a leery eye to him.

"You guys laugh, but I had to pull out my old hard copy of "The Coordinates of the Galaxy" and manually input a bunch of systems before the system could properly correct itself!"

"You should have told me when it happened!" Luke laughed. "Artoo has all the coordinates in his memory banks! He could've had that thing up and running in two hours flat!"

"Yeah, well, I don't trust droids," Han rolled his eyes. Mara shook her head. Typical Corellian bravado practically radiated off of Han, Force or no Force. Wedge was less cocky about it, but he was the same way. No one could help him, he did simple tasks by himself so he could boast about it.

"Oh, please, Han," Leia laughed, and Mara watched as she broke out of her shell some. "You just don't want to say a droid did something in half the time you did!"

"That's not true!"

"Name one time you let a droid do something for you that you had the most remote chance of doing yourself?" she countered, crossing her arms across her chest.

Han scoffed, mimicking her action. "I let that piece of junk Med Droid patch up my arm last year when I slit it open against the engine."

"Oh please! I had to drag you there with Chewie's help because it wouldn't stop bleeding and you were ignoring it!"

"But I let that droid help me afterwords!" he grinned, pointing a finger at her. "C'mon, Your Worship, you know I was compliant after I was there!"

"Captain, he had to give you a sedative to get you to that point."

"But I was compliant."

Leia rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air. "You just can't admit you're wrong, can you?"

"Can too," Han baited like a three year old. Mara glanced at Luke and saw that he was leaning back with a grin on his face.

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact I can, Your Highness," he smirked. "But I'm not wrong in this case, so I don't need to."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about!" she yelled. "You won't let anyone else's opinions in and will only take your own!"

"I can take other people's opinions!" he shouted. Chewie rumbled something and Han snapped his head at the Wookiee. "Now is not the time, you big fur ball!"

Luke leaned down and put his mouth to Mara's ear before whispering, "Chewie just said 'You won't, and I can prove it to you'."

Mara grinned and snickered along with Luke as Leia and Han's fight escalated.

"You're just too full of yourself to see reason, Captain!" Leia shouted.

"You're just too afraid that you'll lose this fight with me in front of Mara and that she'll see you as weak," he taunted. Leia fumed, anger rolling off her in waves.

"Captain," she hissed, her voice low and rough. "I can assure you that that is not the case. And might I also remind you, you have TaunTaun duty today, and I can add clean up to directly after that."

"Your Worship, your threats won't work on me," he grinned. "I see right through you."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, I do," he said. "I can tell that you're just too afraid to commit to me."

"Commitment? You want to argue commitment?" she asked, wide eyed. "How about you, Mr. I don't want to join the rebellion? What will happen? Nothing, because you've done everything but sign your name already."

"Yeah, well, I don't take to authority well," he said, pointing at his chest.

"Obviously, Captain," she said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I actually have a Rebellion to contend to!" She stood up and stalked off and down the ramp.

"Nice seeing ya' Your Worship! Stop by soon to authoritate some more!" Han yelled after her, and waved her off dismissively. He turned back to see Luke, Mara and Chewie watching him. "What?"

"This is good steak," Luke said coolly, taking another bite and grinning.

"Shut up, Luke."

Okay, I promised to explain the importance for the Falcon scene. Besides my obvious love for all things Han and Leia, it also sets the stage for further Mara and Luke interaction on a less friendly scale and a more romantic one. It's small changes now, but give it a few chapters to build as they start to really realize their feelings.

Now, I don't want to sound like a Corellian here, but I think I've been doing a fairly decent job having them slowly fall for each other. My biggest issues with Fanfics are either I am horrible about having people subtly fall for each other, or I start a multi-chapter fic and don't finish it. Or it's just crap and I delete it. But in my opinion, this is turning out to be my best fic so far. So let me know your guy's opinions. Anything I could do to adjust? What are your predictions to upcoming chapters? Any Alliance Protocols you think I should've touched on and didn't?

Alrighty then! Next chapter will be up Tuesday! Oh, and it's Hobbie's turn to ask Mara out. He'll be the last one to try his hand at asking her out, and you'll understand why in Chapter Six. And yes, the next chapter is chapter five. So we have Hobbie asking her out, Mara discovering some things about Luke, and an all around touching scene that made me tear up writing it!

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