Author's Note: The first draft of this chapter had been written by my beta reader, Loteva, who, at my request, wrote what I hoped would better explore Jacen and Danni's relationship beyond the physical. Loteva, I can only hope that you like and appreciate the additions and alterations that I made to your draft.

And to NoImagination; I'd appreciate it if you set up an account so that I would be able to talk to you about how I can improve my portrayal of Jacen and Danni's relationship. This chapter was essentially created with you in mind, so I can't wait to read your thoughts on this one.

Jacen couldn't sleep.

The night had fallen on this side of Zonama quite a long time and the inside of Danni's lodge was dark and quiet. By all accounts, Jacen should have been soundly asleep, tired and relaxed after the passionate love-making with the woman currently resting in his arms. However, the sleep effortlessly escaped from his grasp time and again. The Jedi didn't try to reach into the Force – the planet was so full of life, even at night, that it wouldn't help him to find the rest he was seeking. It would have, instead, pulled him into another of his contemplative and even more exhausting internal monologues; and while it may have sounded like a good idea to have something exhausting pull him back to sleep, it wasn't necessarily a good idea, in Jacen's mind, to have that kind of exhaustion lead him back into a peaceful slumber.

He imagined that, somehow, the contemplation that once plagued him when he learned of Danni's pregnancy would carry on into his dreams. He had a feeling that they would act as nightmare fuel, worse than any horror genre holodrama.

All Jacen could do in his situation was lay on his back and stare against the dark, organic ceiling above. The blanket of darkness covered his and Danni's nakedness as well as the actual cover over their bodies, but it didn't stop his other senses from heightening, save for his already-maximized Force-senses given the planet's flourishing life, as his sight lacked the stimuli. Jacen heard Danni's light breathing; he felt its soft puffing against his chest where her head was laying. He smelled the sweet scent of her hair and tasted the remnants of her on his tongue from the many kisses they had shared.

His thoughts meandered aimlessly, but always circled back to the uncertainty of the future.

Jedi Master Jacen Solo could do a lot of things – create chemical compounds from his body and from his immediate environment, manipulate lightning energy in a way unlike a Sith or Dark Jedi, flow-walk – but never before had he felt as powerless as he did now. Events had spun out of his control and he found himself confused with the abrupt shifts in his life.

Even though he made up with Danni, how long would the peace and contentment between them last? And Jacen wasn't even thinking about whether or not another crisis would spring up that would require the attention of the Jedi to stop. No, he was simply thinking about whether or not his relationship with Danni would last even if peace and prosperity would reign for the rest of the galaxy's existence.

The fear crept up on Jacen as he began theorizing about the future. What if Danni would feel disappointed with how little he could give her and their unborn child? What if he would be a bad father simply in that regard? Could he even consider himself to be a good father if Danni didn't? What if this relationship, this family, was going to fail because of him?

Jacen moved slightly due to his uneasy thoughts. Danni's breathing pattern changed and he knew just by that that he had awakened her, so he stilled himself, hoping that she would return to sleep.

"Jacen?" she whispered sleepily.

"Yeah?" he replied quietly. But his voice was too alert and she picked up on it right away.

"What's wrong? Why aren't you asleep?" she asked.

"I can't," Jacen admitted reluctantly.

"Do you want to talk?"

"What about?"

"Why you can't sleep?"

"Well, maybe because you were snoring," Jacen quipped with a small laugh.

"I was not," Danni protested with a cute whine.

"Oh, you were," he continued the teasing.

Danni tickled his ribs in retaliation and Jacen writhed with giggles.

"So? What is it that keeps you up at night?" Danni asked. By then, Jacen was busy returning his breathing to normal after the bout of uncontrolled laughing.

Despite her light tone, he caught on to her serious disposition. "Nothing," he said finally.

What right did he have to place his problems on her shoulders? She had enough on her plate already – her research work, her piloting, and now her pregnancy. He didn't want to add to her burden. So it was better to remain silent.

"Usually when someone says 'nothing', it means 'something,'" Danni remarked calmly. "Mind telling me what's on your mind?" When his silence persisted, she sighed. "Jacen, please... Just tell me. You know I can keep anything you say to me in confidence. If this relationship... if you want this to work out, we need to open up to each other. Please."

She was so earnest, so hopeful, in her request that it broke his resolve. Danni wasn't one to ask things of him and he found himself unable to refuse her. Besides, wasn't she right? Wasn't that what all the other good couples he knew, like his parents or Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara, had with each other?

"Danni... I'm... I'm just worried."

"What about?" she asked gently, putting a hand on his shoulder.

She was so open, so accepting...

The dam broke and the words spilled out of him uncontrollably. Jacen related his earlier thoughts, his doubts and fears, and Danni listened patiently, without interrupting, until he finished, suddenly embarrassed at his own outspokenness.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have made you listen to all this," Jacen apologized.

"No, it's okay," Danni said, her hand moving up to gently stroke his cheek. "I'm glad you confided in me. It's a huge relief. Thank you."

She fell silent again, no doubt lost in her own thoughts, and Jacen felt increasingly more nervous with every passing second. He had bared his heart to her, shown her his vulnerability and she could destroy him if she chose to. Oh, sure, she loved him as much as he loved her, that much was obvious enough; but he was still worried that, because of the doubts that he had expressed, she might somehow reconsider the question of whether or not Jacen could be a suitable father. He waited for her with a bated breath.

"Jacen, I..." She sighed. "I don't want you to be unhappy with me. You shouldn't stay if it makes you miserable. It was never my intention to keep you away from the galaxy. Yes, I have this selfish desire for you to stay with me forever, but... I know it's not going to happen."

The pained sincerity was like a punch in the gut.

"Danni, no," he said with worry. "I'm not unhappy when I'm with you; I'm just worried, is all. Being with you doesn't make me miserable, it's one of the happiest things in my life; I daresay... maybe even more so than when I achieved oneness with the Force. But, at the same time, just as I had come down from that experience all those years ago, being with you is frustrating not because of you, but because of me. I know it sounds like that old cliche where, 'It's not you, it's me,' but here, it's true, because you weren't the one being selfish; I was. I wanted to explore more of myself and what the galaxy could open up to me, but Jaina was right when she talked to me about selecting my responsibility; I was past exploring myself, and I just didn't know it yet. I put the past before me and my future behind me, and that was one of the worst things that I could ever do to myself and to you.

"But you're right about one thing in this matter; I just can't stay, now that I have responsibilities to the very Order that I helped usher towards adopting the Unifying Force. Even you, who wants me to stay just as much as I do, agree that I can't just shunt that responsibility for this one; it's what I need to do, what I have to do, with the powers that I have, even if I don't want to. Danni, right now, all I want to do is be with you and our child every step of the way, and it pains me to know that I can't do that now; as I said, I'm nervous that, if not now, then over time, you'll come to think that all I can offer you and our baby won't be enough, at least on an emotional level."

Danni was silent for a long moment; she simply stared back at her lover with deep concern and contemplation. Jacen held himself back from breaking her gaze, as if doing that would be the straw that broke the back of their relationship.

"Jacen," she said finally in a soft whisper, "I'll be content with anything you're willing to give. You don't have to ever worry about that; so long as I know in my heart as much as my head that you're giving it your all into this. Because we were apart for years and seeing you once a month... it sounds like a good deal in comparison." He could hear the tears in her eyes as she spoke.

"You said to make it count," Jacen murmured thoughtfully, then pulled her to him and ran his hand down her back comfortingly. "I will. We will. I promise."

"You will be a good father, I'm sure of that," Danni said fervently.

Her confidence in this soothed all of his worries. Jacen kissed the top of her head and by an unspoken agreement, they shuffled around to get comfortable and sleep.

Long after Danni fell asleep, Jacen stayed up. He still didn't understand just how lucky he happened to be tonight. Was this the famous good Solo fortune? Was it the will of the Force?

In any case, his throat tightened from the surge of appreciation and gratitude he experienced at that moment as he realized that this incredible, brilliant woman accepted him in his entirety, with his obvious flaws, doubts, and misgivings. Danni wanted him so much but she also loved him enough to let him go. She couldn't be selfish even if she tried.

She had the heart of a true Jedi, even if she wasn't one or would ever be one.

Jacen could never be more happy that he was the one that she, a woman who wanted no emotional attachments before the last war, gave her love to.

With that last thought, he drifted off to sleep, his spirit finally at ease.