I certainly like this chapter alot more than the last one. Something about the last one really bugged me. I don't know what. Regardless, here is the next chapter!

DISCLAIMER: If you haven't guessed by now, I don't own Star Wars...

Chapter Eight

"We should be coming up on him soon," Mara called over the snow. "His signature is really close."

"I don't see anything out here," Han said worriedly. "We need to find him fast."

"Yeah I know," Mara grumbled, and scanned the horizon again. This time though, she spotted something dark against the white snow. "There! Let's check it out!"

The two rode their TaunTauns forward, and confirmed that they had indeed found Luke.

"Luke!" Han called and jumped off his Taun and ran to his best friend. Mara followed suit, and fell into the snow next to Han. "C'mon Luke, don't die on me. Give me a sign."

As if on cue, Han's TaunTaun shuddered and fell to the side, dead.

"That's not good," Mara said, and eyed her own TaunTaun. It wouldn't last the trek back to Base in this cold, let alone carrying three of them.

"We can put Luke in my TaunTaun and keep him warm," Han told her, already dragging him towards the dead animal.

"Ben..." Luke moaned out, and Mara's eyes snapped to him.

"Ben?" she asked, and Han shrugged.

"Dagobah... Yoda... Yoda!" Luke kept moaning out as Mara snatched her lightsaber and sliced open the TaunTaun's belly.

"This may smell bad, Kid," Han grunted, sliding Luke's limp form into the animal, before resting on top. "And I thought," he panted, "they smelled bad on the outside!"

"No time to rest, Solo," Mara said, and began setting up their shelter for the night. She eyed her TaunTuan again, as it shivered in the extreme cold. Han started digging and packing the snow, and within a half hour they constructed a rudimentary cave for themselves to block the wind, and a deeper hole for Mara's TaunTaun, whether it survived the night or not.

"Do you think this will hold?" Mara asked, gesturing to their cave.

"I hope so," Han sighed. Their shelter was large enough to sit up right in, and they'd utilized the emergency packs situated on the TaunTauns. A small lantern lit the space, and a portable heater kept the temperature around zero for them. That would help them survival wise as the storm raged on.

Mara glanced at Luke, still unconscious with his face sticking out of the dead TaunTaun just enough to breathe. She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them, extremely worried for Luke.

"He'll be alright," Han said, and Mara looked at him. Han flashed a sympathetic smile before continuing. "The Kid's tough. We'll get him back to base and into some Bacta and everything will be fine."

"I can't help but worry about him, still."

"And I'm not worrying about him?" Han asked, and watched Luke's form again. "What's between you and the kid, anyways? Truthfully."

"We're friends," Mara answered automatically.

"Like how the Princess and I are just friends," Han said as a statement rather a question.

She hesitated a second, before smiling a nodding. "Yeah, like you and the Princess."

"Thought so," he grinned and looked towards the small exit of the cave that allowed oxygen in.

"Why don't you just tell Leia how you feel?" She asked carefully. Han didn't answer for awhile and she almost thought he wasn't going to answer at all.

"I'm too afraid she'll hate me for it," he said quietly. "I'd rather hold her at arms length and be able to be near her, instead of not anywhere near her at all."

"Wow," Mara breathed. "She has feelings for you."

"Everyone has feelings."

"You know what I mean, Solo," Mara said, rolling her eyes.

"Whatever," Han shrugged. "What about you and Luke?"

"We're just friends."

"We've covered that base, sister," he told her. Mara bit her lip in thought.

"He makes me feel wanted," she confessed. "No one's ever done that before for me. I was just a tool."

"You worked for the Emperor," he told her. "Of course you were nothing but a tool to him. He's power hungry."

"And I don't know that?" Mara asked, slightly annoyed. "Look, I like Luke okay. A lot. More than I should and if I lost him, I don't know what would happen. I'd go insane or something and become hooked on spice while I travel the Galaxy."

"Don't do spice," Han shook his head. "That stuff messes people up."

"But you see my point," she said. "I probably care about Luke as much as you care about Leia and we are both too afraid of what will happen if we lost them."

"Two peas in a pod, those two," he sighed. "They're so alike and at the same time, totally opposites."

Mara shrugged, and watched Luke's face again. She touched the side of the TaunTaun and was relieved that the animal still held some warmth. She heard a groan and a thump and closed her eyes as she realized her Taun had just died.

"It's not your fault," Han said quietly and she looked up at him. "For the TaunTaun I mean."

"It is," she shrugged. "I just feel bad that these animals lost their lives due to us."

"Circle of life."

"You don't honestly believe that, do you?" she grinned and Han laughed and shook his head.

"No, but after I've seen all the stuff you and the kid can do I'm wondering if half the stuff I don't believe in are real."

"Like the Force?"

"Like the Force."

Mara nodded and they slipped into silence for awhile while listening to the storm rage on outside. Luke regained some amount of consciousness and began mumbling things in his sleep again.

"Ben... Ben!" Luke moaned and Han shot the boy a quizzical glance.

"Do you know what he's talking about?" Mara asked and Han furrowed his brow in thought.

"If I'm not mistaken, he's talking about that old wizard that Vader cut down on the Death Star," he said, and shook his head again to clear it.

"Kenobi?" Mara asked, remembering the rumors that floated about the Navy and the holonet after the confirmed death of Obi-Wan Kenobi's death.

"I think that's what he said his name was," Han scratched the back of his head as Luke continued to moan and mumble.

"Ben... Yoda... Go to... Dagobah... Dagobah..."

"Any idea about that part?" Han asked with a grin.

Mara shook her head. "None whatsoever. But I'd say this Yoda is on Dagobah... Wherever that is."

"I'd wager it doesn't have a lot of inhabitants if neither or us know what it is."

"You're probably correct." They fell into silence again and remained that way for most of the night, not daring to sleep because of the chance of freezing. The storm let up sometime close to dawn, and once the sun began to rise, so did the temperature. Han fiddled with the comm unit, hoping to be able to pick up a signal from base once they decided to send the search party.

Another half hour after that, the signal came.

"Commander Skywalker, this is Rogue Three, come in. Captain Solo, this is Rogue Three. Come in. Rogue Five, Mara, Come in. This is Rogue Three."

Han jumped to the Comm unit.

"Good morning," Han said, sarcastically to hide the relief he felt. "Nice of you to drop by."

"Stay put, Han," Wedge laughed. "I've got your location."

"'Bout time, Antilles. Send a speeder with Medical Equipment," Han told him.

"Who's injured?"

"Luke," Han said sadly. "We need to get him warm and in some Bacta."

"Right away," Wedge called, and then commed for the med speeder, and it arrived quickly, since the exact location of the three were already known.

They got Luke on the transport and back to base quickly, with Han and Mara following in the speeder behind him.

As they landed in the Hangar Bay, Mara saw Leia run up to them, and stop herself right before she hugged Han, instead clutching at his arm.

"How's Luke, I heard he needed medical attention," Leia asked, worry in her eyes.

"He's okay for now," Mara told her, only half believing it herself. Luke's Force Signature was still strong, but that didn't necessarily mean that he would be alright. "Han and I got to him in time to keep him from freezing."

"Oh, gods," Leia whispered. They rushed off towards the Med Bay where the healers as well as the Med Droids were tending to Luke. By the time they got there, Luke was already stripped and dunked into the Bacta.

Mara gasped at the sight of Luke unconscious in the bluish fluid. She and Leia took up the walls near the tank, trying to stay as far out of the way of those tending to Luke as possible. Han leaned his shoulder against the wall behind Mara and watched the healers tend to Luke.

"Devaad," Leia called out to one of the Healers. The blonde haired, aging man looked up at Leia from his datapad. "How's Luke doing? Will he be alright?"

"It's a little early to tell, but Commander Skywalker's vitals have shown an immediate improvement from when we first dunked him in the Bacta," Devaad told her. "We believe he'll be out of the Bacta within the hour, actually. He only needed enough time to stabilize him, which we've achieved, and time to heal the nasty scratch to his face."

"Oh, thank the Force," Mara smiled. Devaad grinned and nodded to her.

"We'll let you know when he is available to see visitors after we take him out of the Bacta," the healer said, and returned to his work. Han pushed off the wall and started heading towards the exit. Just before he left, he turned to Leia.

"Leia," he called, and she jumped at the sound of him using her real name. She turned and looked at Han. "How about we go to the Mess and get some caffe and real food. Neither of us have slept properly lately."

Leia glanced back at Luke before making her decision. "Alright," she nodded and followed Han out of the Med bay.

Mara watched them leave before looking back at Luke. She almost lost him. Fear stabbed at her heart again and her eyes welled up with unshed tears. A few of the healers left, leaving only Two-Onebee and her alone. Mara walked up to the tank and tried touching Luke's presence in the Force. It glowed brightly and she smiled as a tear slid down her cheek.

Luke's eyes fluttered open and she placed her hand up against the glass. Luke reached out and put his hand against hers and nodded before she felt him probing at her mind.

I'll be okay.

Mara smiled and nodded at Luke before his hand slipped away from the glass and he fell back into unconsciousness.

So my favorite part of this chapter is by far the Bacta Tank part. That scene says a lot for our two main characters, and the part right before it says a lot about Han and Leia. I managed to bring both their relationships closer in, what? Four paragraphs? Oh yeah...

NEXT CHAPTER: Med bay scene! And the dreaded Probe droid...

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