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Part VIII
Earlier That Night
Han and Leia had volunteered to oversee the transportation of the younglings from the Errant Venture to the surface of Zonama Sekot. Aboard the Star Destroyer, there was something akin to chaos.
Children of dozens of species were excitedly milling about, looking for friends, talking loudly, excited to finally be free of their lengthy exile in the Maw and aboard the big red ship. Parents and friends were looking for particular children, and the Kam and Tionne were attempting to simultaneously keep watch over the youngest of them and organize them into groups to ferry down to the planet.
Leia smiled in relief at Mara who approached from the hangar area, and handed Ben over to her. The happiness and contentment on Mara's face were contagious, though it briefly gave Leia a pang as she thought about her youngest, Anakin.
She forgot the sadness though as she watched her son Jacen dash after a small bothan child.
The chaos slowly diminished as the adults got their respective groups of children organized and began leading them to the hangar and the proper shuttles. Iella Antilles took her daughters, Syal and Myri, to the Falcon along with a young twi'lek female and the bothan Jacen had been chasing, where they would await the Solos who ensured no one was left behind.
Someone was though.
"Kam?" Leia asked amusedly. "You forgot one."
Indeed, the Jedi master had a sleeping child wrapped up in blankets in his arms; in fact, Leia couldn't recall having seen him put the child down the entire time he'd been running around after the rest of the younglings.
His eyes widened a fraction before he grinned. "Special delivery instructions on this one," he said wryly.
Leia walked over and smiled down at the sleeping girl. "She's beautiful. Who is she?" she asked curiously. "I don't remember seeing her when we were last at Shelter to visit Ben."
Kam was inexplicably tongue-tied. "Ah- well, she was only brought to us about a month ago…" the rest of his stilting response was cut off by the sound of fast approaching footsteps.
"I'm sorry, Master Solusar," a familiar voice called. "We had to put our fighters in the next hangar while they got everyone situated in this one…"
Leia and Han turned in surprise to see Jaina and Jag hurrying down the corridor. "Hey, honey," Han called out, "you're a bit late, we seem to have everyone under control."
Jaina stopped dead. She stared back and forth between her parents and Kam until Jag put a comforting hand on her shoulder and strode toward the Jedi master.
And then Leia realized that she wasn't looking at the Jedi master at all; rather, she was looking at the sleeping child in his arms. "Jaina?" she asked breathlessly. Han and Jacen seemed a little slower on the uptake, but a soft cooing noise drew everyone's attention to the child who had passed from Kam to Jag, who was drinking in her appearance and stroking her soft curls lovingly.
Han was spluttering. "Wha- you mean…? Jaina? Jag?"
The little girl in Jag's arms was awake; she began to wriggle and fuss, and Jaina drew her almost reluctantly into her arms and calmed her. Still staring at her parents and brother, she worried her lower lip. "I didn't think you'd still be here," she confessed. "We'd planned on telling you everything tomorrow."
"Oh," Jacen looked pale. "Right. Tomorrow."
Jaina sighed and walked towards her family slowly, as though afraid she'd frighten them away. "Mom, dad… Jacen. This is Leyla."
The three Solos stared silently at the wide-eyed little girl. Jaina wasn't sure whether to be more concerned about someone yelling or fainting.
And then Leyla giggled.
Jacen laughed delightedly and leaned over to tickle her belly. The baby stopped laughing and eyed him with an almost suspicious expression, and even Han chuckled. Jacen drew Jaina into an awkward hug as best he could with her arms full. "She's great, sis. I can't wait to hear all about her tomorrow."
And the spell was broken. Leia hugged her daughter and softly touched her granddaughter's cheek; Han slapped Jag on the back- perhaps just a bit too hard, but Jag did a good job of not wincing too noticeably.
"Whenever you're ready," Kam broke in a bit awkwardly, "the second shuttle has room for you," he directed towards Jaina and Jag. "Tionne is waiting."
Jaina nodded and spoke haltingly to her family. "Jag and I have some things to take care of tonight…"
"It's alright, sweetie," Leia said softly. "Come see us in the morning, okay?"
And so she followed Kam to the waiting shuttle, while last stragglers were still clambering aboard the others ships. She saw Valin Horn scramble aboard the next craft over after giving her and Jag a piercingly inquisitive look.
Her parents and Jacen broke off to join Iella Antilles aboard the Falcon and Jag helped her aboard the indicated shuttle, piloted by Tionne. They'd retrieve their X-wing and clawcraft later. "Shuttle Gee-Ex-Four has completely boarded," Tionne called in her soft tones over the holocomm. "Standing by." Jaina and Jag took up the two empty seats, and Jag took Leyla as Jaina fastened her crash webbing.
A wry voice sounded over Jaina's shoulder. "You two are just full of surprises, aren't you?" Jaina turned to see her aunt's calculating expression eyeing the half-awake child in Jag's lap. "I can't wait to hear this."
Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.
"Well," Mara Skywalker stretched out on the bed, watching Luke undress the exhausted toddler and wrestle him into a sleep shirt. "That was certainly unexpected."
"Hm?" he asked distractedly, kissing his son's head and carrying him to the bed.
Mara stared. "Your niece? Jaina? Has a daughter. Has had a daughter for a year and a half and never told anyone."
"She told Jag."
"Haha, farmboy, real funny." Mara stopped and considered him shrewdly. "You know… you don't seem all too surprised by this, now that I think about it…" He just met her gaze evenly, brows quirked; he knew she'd realize eventually, there was no sense trying to hide it. "You knew, didn't you?"
Sighing heavily, he laid down beside her. "Yes."
Her eyes narrowed. "And just out of curiosity… and no offense… but how is it that she tells her uncle that she had a baby and never bothered to mention it to her parents, her twin…?"
"Her aunt under whom she apprenticed?" Luke asked slyly.
"Well, yes," Mara snapped, "I did think I ranked higher up the confidante chain than you."
Luke shrugged. "It wasn't planned; it just happened that way. Besides," he thought, "I was never so much a confidante as just someone who was… distantly aware of what was going on."
"Huh," she huffed, pulling her sleeping son's form more snuggly against her own. "Twenty months… she would have been born just before Jacen escaped, wasn't she?"
"Eh, about six weeks or so before, yeah."
Something in his tone caught Mara's attention and her eyes narrowed once more. "Six weeks. You remember that?" He nodded, sensing a trap but not quite sure where it was. "So you were aware of when she was giving birth and weren't… surprised? Didn't find it strange that your niece who had run off… what? Seven months prior?... was pregnant…"
Her voice faded away and he sensed a cold calculation go to work in her head. "Mara…" he said warningly. She held up a hand.
After a minute, she turned slowly to him. "I'm going to kill him."
"Mara…"
"Don't you 'Mara' me! I knew something was off about this! The timing, it's too perfect to be coincidental… that night, when she'd been in the infirmary… and you never told me? He'd been living with us…"
"Mara, please. Jaina's asked her whole family together in the morning, let's save the speculation until then. Besides," he added, "you can't kill him tonight anyway."
"Why's that?"
He gave a half-smile. "You should reach out in the Force and feel how happy and awestruck he is. Jaina and Jag have just introduced him to Leyla; he didn't know about her either."
Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.
The Next Morning
Jaina sat nervously in her parents' dwelling and eyed her family who had gathered. Han and Leia sat together holding hands on the small bench that served as a sofa of sorts, Mara occupied a chair by the table in the corner, and Jacen sat on the floor, eyeing her serenely. There was a general air of trepidation with a tinge of confusion.
"Where's the VIP of this event?" Jacen asked.
Jaina spoke haltingly. "It seemed… best… if I told you all a few things first. And Leyla's a bit sensitive to high emotions, so I thought it best if I had Jag occupy her elsewhere for a bit."
"Where's Luke?" Leia frowned.
"He, ah- he's with Jag. And Ben."
Han eyed Mara who was gazing steadily at her niece. "Shouldn't we wait for him?"
She winced almost imperceptibly. "It's alright; he knows everything I'm about to tell you." Jacen's brows shot up and Leia frowned. "Maybe I should just…"
"Go ahead, sweetheart," Leia said softly. "We know the big news," she smiled encouragingly, "what else can there be to worry about?"
Jaina sucked in a deep breath and sighed heavily, forgetting every way she had carefully rehearsed this. "When Leyla was born, Jag offered that we name her Leyla Fel. I refused," she saw Han blink in surprise; perhaps he'd already assumed the child had Jag's last name. "I didn't refuse because we weren't married, I refused because…" she looked down and spoke quietly, "Jag is not her father."
A ten second silence greeted this statement. Finally, Jacen broke it with a half-joking question. "Does Jag know that?"
Jaina laughed weakly and the tension seemed to lesson a little.
"He does," she shot Jacen a dirty look. "And it was his decision to come after me when I left the Mon Mothma more than two years ago; I ran from him because I didn't want to put him in such a situation, but he didn't care. I, uh… accidentally told Uncle Luke that he could explain everything to Jag, and, when he did, Jag resigned from Twin Suns and transferred to the Ralroost in the blink of an eye to be with me. I owe him a lot."
"Honey," Leia said sadly, "if Jag isn't the father…?" she let the question they were all thinking hang in the air.
She smiled half-heartedly. "I'm getting there. It will be… difficult… to hear what I have to tell you, but I need you all to keep an open mind; for me and for Leyla." Everyone nodded and she felt the curiosity in them peak. "Leyla's… conception," she cringed as Jacen and Han went red, "was not an act of my choosing and it occurred very much under the influence of the dark side. It happened a month after Jag and I began dating, and it was not an act in which I was… a willing participant." The faces in the room went from red to white. "I think you all understand me."
"Oh, sweetheart," Leia whispered, "why didn't you tell us…?"
"I couldn't. It was too painful for me, when I realized what… what had happened. I couldn't bear the betrayal I felt over the actions of someone who… someone I once loved and who loved me." Jacen stared at her blankly, but Han and Leia looked like they were beginning to piece together the truth and the timing, and understanding what had truly transpired the night before they found her comatose…
She took the plunge. "Kyp is Leyla's father."
Jacen coughed in alarm, Han looked like he couldn't quite fathom his own anger, Leia looked sadly resigned and Mara… Mara was curiously impassive.
"I know you all probably want nothing more right now than to dump Kyp out the Falcon's escape-hatch mid-hyperspace jump," she continued sadly. "But it's very important that you understand a few things, not least of all how heavily influenced by the dark side Kyp was at the time. When I first realized I was pregnant, I hated Kyp. I vowed never to forgive him, and I made my plans to get myself and… my unborn child… as far away as I could. The possibility that Kyp would escape, unredeemed, still in the thralls of the dark side- the risk was too great and I knew he could never know that I was carrying his child while he was still unstable. I left, and only Uncle Luke- who knew because it was he and Cilghal who had pieced together what happened while I was unconscious- he alone knew the truth of the matter.
"I asked him to explain to Jag once I was gone; he did, and Jag came after me. But even knowing that people would assume Jag was the father, I still hid the pregnancy; the Yuuzhan Vong were still determined to find me, and the last thing I wanted was for people to start using my child, born or unborn, to get at me. When the time approached, we took an indefinite leave and went to Csilla where we would be hidden from the Vong. Jag's mother arranged everything so we could be discreet and comfortable. A week later, I gave birth to Leyla, a few weeks early, but healthy. For almost two months, we stayed on Csilla while Jag worked with rookie pilots in flight simulators- and then Uncle Luke managed to get word to me about Jacen."
She sighed heavily. "I knew I had to go see him, and Uncle Luke told me his plans for the knighting ceremony; but I was stuck. The knowledge that I might end up facing Kyp again… but then it clicked into place."
"What did?" Mara frowned.
Jaina looked down at her hands folded in her lap and fought for words. "It's hard to explain how it felt… but looking at Leyla, a part of me softened towards Kyp. His betrayal still stung, but the edge faded after so many months of hating him. I realized that, as much as I loved Jag and our new daughter- and Jag has always considered Leyla his own- something would be missing if I could never get over my own anger. Leyla is so… perfect. I just couldn't understand how something so wonderful could come from somewhere so dark, so hurtful. And I knew I'd have to forgive Kyp or else everything about Leyla would be tainted by my refusal to let go of the anger, my bitterness towards her biological father.
"So I went to Mon Calamari. And on the day of the ceremony, I went to Kyp, who was doing everything in his power to avoid me. I had to know. Uncle Luke said he had changed, was doing better, but I needed to see it, to sense it for myself. And when I cornered him, his remorse, regret… it was heart-wrenching to be near him. The dark side had been chipped away and left behind was a man who could barely tolerate his own self. So I did the only thing I could at the time to help him- I forgave him."
She could tell by Han's expression that he found this unwise. She ignored him.
"There was never the question of telling him about Leyla; he was obviously still too raw to handle hearing about the consequences of his actions when he snuck aboard the Mon Mothma. But when I left, I knew that someday I'd be able to tell Kyp the truth and that eventually, Leyla would understand everything as well, when she was old enough.
"As the war drew to a close, Jag and I knew we couldn't sit idly by; we discreetly secreted Leyla to Kam and Tionne on our way to prepare for the final fight over Coruscant. And since we've been back among you all, I've spoken to Uncle Luke and… well, he thought it was time, that Kyp was ready to handle the full truth. So we told him last night. He's… taking it well."
Jaina fell silent, voice hoarse, as her family took in this story.
Leia finally broke the silence. "You're amazingly strong, Jaina," she said seriously. "To go through all of that, nearly alone…"
"I'd never have been able to do it without Jag," she replied softly. "I never dreamed that he could be so understanding, but the things he's put up with in the past two years…" Jaina hesitated. "We were ah… thinking about getting married at the end of the conclave," she said quietly.
Jacen laughed. Han started and grumbled, "Well, you've already got the kid, you may as well spring it all on a poor father at once…"
End Part VIII