Part 2: Family Dinner
After confirming that the document Luke and Mara had retrieved was, in fact, the original and unaltered document Leia had spent the day in one meeting after another. She had nearly forgotten about her bet with Han by the time she stepped through the door to the Solo's apartment and was nearly trampled by her three children.
Hugging each and smiling uncontrollably while each one explained what she had missed the last few weeks. Jacen had found three new creatures he was attempting to keep as pets. Jaina had talked one of the x-wing techs in the old Imperial hanger to let her fly a simulator run. In which the young girl proudly proclaimed to Leia, she had lasted a full two minutes before crashing into a cliff-side. Anakin, similarly to his sister, had talked the hanger techs into helping him reassemble a broken droid then had brought it home. Only for Winter, who had been watching the children, to dismantle it and return it to the junk pile after the droid had thrown away her entire packed suitcase.
Having gotten the kids settled and working on schoolwork, Leia and Han begin prepping dinner. The couple talked little. Leia was preoccupied with how she was going to prove Han wrong.
The more she thought about it, the more she was convinced Han couldn't be right. Back when Luke had been dating Callista, it had been so clear to Leia that Callista had been exactly the type of women for her brother. In some ways Callista leaving in search of finding her connection to the Force again had been as big of a shock to Leia as it had been to Luke. Luke needed someone who was just as thoughtful and kind as he was. Someone who could appreciate long Jedi philosophical conversations and didn't mind the slow pace of life on Yavin 4.
In contrast, every time Mara had gone to Yavin 4, she had been in a hurry to leave. Mara was sarcastic, blunt, emotionally distant, and at times just downright mean. Leia didn't fault the other woman for having those traits. Anyone who had been raised and manipulated by Palpatine would be bound to suffer some off-putting character flaws. However, Leia just couldn't fathom Luke deciding to settle down with someone like Mara.
It baffled her that Han was so damn confident in his assessment.
It had to have been that hug.
Thinking back to that afternoon, Leia could admit Luke and Mara's embrace had lasted - maybe- a tad longer than two friends hugging might have. Then there was the fact Luke never turned down the opportunity to spend time with Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin.
Being as subtle as Leia could manage, she attempted to reach out to her brother in the Force. He was there and not too far away and sensed of contentment and calmness. In the moment their minds touched, the only reaction she received was a be there soon. Then Luke broke the contact.
Less clearly, though just as close, Leia felt Mara. The sharpness that Mara seemed to carry constantly was there, and unlike Luke, Mara's reaction to Leia's touch was quick and harsh. Mara's training in the Force was more advanced than Leia's and the other woman rebuffed Leia's mind like she would swat at an unwanted insect.
"They'll be here in a few minutes at most." Leia informs Han.
"Don't you find it interesting," Han says too casually. "That Mara agreed to come over for a family dinner." He finished dusting the last touches of seasoning onto the frying vegetables in front of him.
"Obviously, Karrde isn't back from his search for Car'das, and she has some time to kill," Leia states.
"Right." Han drawls out.
"If you have cold feet. I can be gracious and call the bet off right now."
"I've never had cold feet in my life."
The door chimes indicating Luke and Mara had arrived.
"I wonder," Leia muses as she sets down the hand towel she'd been using to wipe down the counter. "If I'll get more credits in selling the Falcon as scrap or to the highest bidding collector."
She laughs to herself as she hears Han mutter some choice curses as she heads to get the door.
She'd barely opened the door and ushered the pair inside, before the twins and Anakin were there, all three excitedly greeting their uncle. In a similar fashion, they recounted the stories Leia had heard upon arriving home to Luke. Only after the kid's initial excitement had worn off did the three seem to notice Mara.
"Miss Jade, what are you doing here?" Jaina asks. At least she remembered her manners. Better late than never.
Mara visibly looked overwhelmed.
"Hi, Miss Jade." Anakin said and Jacen soon echoed.
"I…" Mara glanced at Luke as if trying to figure out how to respond.
"I asked her to come." Luke answers.
"Have you arranged plans to rendezvous with Karrde yet?" Leia asks, gesturing for Luke and Mara to sit on the sofa while shooing the kids away. "Go help your father with the last touches for dinner." Leia makes herself comfortable on the chair facing her brother and the smuggler.
Luke and Mara take the offered sofa, and Leia notes how close they sit to each other. "No, I haven't." Mara says. She had changed clothes since that afternoon. Still wearing causal clothes, they were more in line with Mara's style that Leia typically saw the other wear.
"So he's still out of reach?" Leia presses. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Luke give her a questioning look. As well as Leia knew Luke, he knew her just as well and clearly suspected she was up to something. Let him. Leia had a bet to win.
"I couldn't tell you." Mara says.
"Oh, I figured you'd have spent the day getting caught up on work, is all." This line of questioning wasn't getting Leia the answers she needed. In fact, she was rather glad Han was still in the kitchen, so she didn't have to see his smug face.
"No, I had to buy some clothing. Unless I wished to continue using Luke's."
Mara's statement reminds Leia about Luke's reaction to her asking about Mara's ship. "What happened to the Jade's Fire? Luke said you should be the one to tell."
Leia feels a spike of sadness from Mara, but the other woman's voice when responding is steady. "I crashed it."
Leia wasn't sure what she had excepted the answer to be, but it hadn't been that. Also, had Mara just said she'd been wearing Luke's clothes? It made sense. The Fire had been practically her home, and it seemed she hadn't exactly retrieved personal items from the ship before it had crashed.
"Leia, how did the authentication go?" Luke asks, changing the subject.
Leia was obliged to recount her afternoon's work. "Before I left for the night, I'd gotten word all fleets above Bothawui were dispersing."
"That's great!" Luke says.
"Dinner is served." Jaina calls bounding back into the room. "Mom, can Miss Jade sit by me?" Brown eyes pleading up at Leia.
Leia glances from her daughter to Mara.
Mara glances at Luke and the two seem to have a silent conversation before Mara says, "That would be welcomed. And call me Mara."
Jaina beams at Mara. "During dinner, can you tell me what it's like flying as a smuggler?"
Mara returns a nervous smile. "Sure. Though it's not as exciting as you'd think."
"You don't have any bounties on your head then?" Jaina asks, sounding disappointed.
"I'm good at my job."
"I heard that." Han growls as the family and Mara sit down at the table. Han sat at the head and Leia sitting next to him on the same side of the table as Jacen and Anakin. Jaina sat across from Leia by her father, with Mara beside her and Luke across from Anakin.
"You were meant to." Mara quips.
The conversation through dinner was light-hearted and everyone, including the three children, was in a joyous mood. As dinner progressed, Leia watched Mara and Luke banter back and forth, and Mara slowly seem to warm up to the kids. It was obvious the kids all liked her too, and though Leia was sure they had met before, she couldn't recall Mara ever really interacting with them.
Yes, Darth Vader was the reason Leia and Luke hadn't grown up together, but Anakin Skywalker was the reason Leia had her family together that night, able to celebrate the end of a war. But that same war, as hard and devastating as it had been, had brought them all together.
It was nearing the end of dinner when Leia noted Mara and Luke leaning close to each other and talking in hushed tones. When the pair broke apart, Leia noted how Luke had a hold of Mara's hand, almost as reassurance that whatever they had decided just then would turn out okay.
Again Leia noticed the shift she had sensed since talking to Luke that morning. The one that promised change and growth. Though perhaps not as impactful, directly for Leia as the revelation on Endor had been, this would be no less exciting.
Luke's blue eyes sparkled as he turned his attention to his sister and brother-in-law.
Leia saw Han give her a smirk before watching Luke with palpable interest.
Mara's eyes focused solely on Luke. As if he could somehow keep her from bolting up from her seat and racing out the front door.
The kids also grew quiet without even being asked.
"Mara and I are getting married."
Leia stared at her brother. Suddenly, peace with the Empire seemed minuscule. Luke and Mara bringing home the Caamas document was an unwanted distraction.
She found herself briefly back on Endor in the Ewok village. "He's my father." Luke had said so quietly.
"Your father?" Leia had been disgusted and horrified.
"There's more." Luke had continued. "It won't be easy for you to hear." In that moment, he had proceeded to tell Leia the truth she had unconsciously known since their meeting on the Death Star, but had stubbornly refused to face. For it would mean facing the fact she had been adopted. Something she had known since being a small child, but had never wanted to think about. Because it hadn't mattered. Bail and Breha Organa had been her father and mother to admit otherwise would raise the question why had her actual parents not wanted her.
Looking at Luke and Mara now, Leia understood. For as much as Mara had hated Luke before Wayland, he would have been in a position to understand the type of betrayal she had experienced in learning the truth about the events above Endor. Both had had their identity and sense of where they had come from shattered and had been forced to rebuild from that. That bonded people. Even if that bond had just been a tenuous friendship till recently. In Mara's own way, she had been there for Luke (and vice versa) in an area where Leia couldn't bring herself to be there for her twin. Luke and Mara's relationship the past ten years didn't seem so baffling anymore.
Leia had accepted Anakin Skywalker as her father, and that before becoming Vader had been a good man. But unlike Luke, she had never dreamed of knowing her biological father. Therefore, despite the horror mixed with the unmeasured joy Leia had felt on Endor, Leia had never wanted to talk about their parents and what that meant, despite being overjoyed with having Luke as a brother. It was the reason she still avoided finishing her Jedi training. Part of her still could not accept something that so closely linked her to her biological father.
Today she had done similar. Refusing to confront what the Force had so clearly been telling her. When would she be able to accept her Force abilities? Mara clearly had finally embraced that part of herself, and Leia now could sense a newfound sense of peace in the other woman. It'd probably been there all day, and Leia had been too stubborn to see it.
"Married!" Han exclaimed. "To each other?"
"Yes, that's what getting married means." Mara says.
"That'll make you my aunt!" Anakin states.
"Are you two gonna give us cousins?" Jaina asks.
Mara's jaw dropped, and for a moment there's a look of pure horror that crosses her features.
Han gives his daughter a disapproving look.
"I think," Luke stammers. "One thing at a time."
"So are you now a Jedi?" Jacen asks Mara.
Mara smiles. "Yes, Jacen."
Leia brings her mind back to the present. Standing, she swiftly walks around the table and gestures for Luke and Mara to get up. Luke stands first and Leia engulfs him in the fiercest hug she could remember ever giving him. "Congrats!" It's a long moment before she releases him and then turns to Mara and likewise embraces her. "Welcome to the family, Mara."
Leia hadn't noticed Han get up, but her husband was there when she released Mara. With a serious expression, Han states, "Now, in this family, we have one rule."
Mara looks at Han, then at Luke, then back to Han, unsure. "That is?" She asks.
"Practicing your hokey religion is fine, but we talk like normal people when together."
"That's the only rule?" Mara asks.
"The other would be if you hurt my friend, I'll hunt you down and kill you," Han says. "However, I don't see myself managing that in this case."
"Well then, I accept these terms." Mara says.
Luke laughs and pulls Mara into a firm embrace and kisses his future wife, and this time Leia didn't mistake it for two friends simply celebrating. Too bad, because there would be no living with Han after losing today's bet