Okay guys, after a couple of good stiff drinks, I have worked up
courage to post the beginning of a story I am working on. This is my
first attempt at a fanfix. I hope I won't be stinking up the place!
:-)
Anyway, all comments and criticism will be considered useful help.
She takes a deep breath...okay, here goes:

A Tangled Web

Disclaimer: The major characters belong to George "the King" Lucas
andTimothy Zahn. I'm only borrowing them for a little while. I'm not
making a dime out of this, only having some fun and sharing it with a
few friends.

Time: A few months after The Last Command, by Timothy Zahn, Chief of
State among the Star Wars professional writers.

Chapter One

Han Solo yawned, ran his fingers through his thick, dark brown hair,
and leaned back in the comfortable rocking chair. It was late and
he knew he should return to bed, but the lightning and its subsequent
thunder were keeping him up. He, Leia and the twins had arrived on
Yavin IV the evening before to pay a short visit to his
brother-in-law, Jedi Knight, Luke Skywalker. Then they would be
heading on to the resort where they would enjoy their first real
vacation since he and Leia had been married. The galaxy seemed at
peace for the first time in many years. With the death of Grand
Admiral Thrawn, the remnants of the Empire had retreated to lick
their wounds. For once, it appeared that the almost constant bickering
among the New Republic contingents was at a lull.

In fact, everything seemed to be downright soporific now. Even the
uproar of the press over the events at Wayland had died down. He,
Leia and Luke were used to the mob scenes that could form whenever
they ventured out in public. It had been a regular occurrence for
them since the early days of the Rebellion.

But he had really enjoyed watching Mara Jade try to deal with all the
attention. Han chuckled softly. The ex-Emperor's Hand had spent her
life moving in the shadows, as unobtrusively as possible. But now,
she was a major public figure, a heroine of the galaxy. Her life had
changed forever when it became known that it was she who had killed
the evil Jedi clone, Joruus C'Boath, saving all their lives in the
process.

The press had been relentless and had hounded her every move. Han
rocked gently in his chair as he remembered, his small smile
widening. Even he couldn't believe the ferocity with which the holo-reporters
had gone after her, and indeed Luke, too. Both were young, single,
attractive people, making them choice pickings for a press whose
methods could only, at the best times, be described as questionable.
What it couldn't prove, it seemed satisfied to invent.

Even something as innocent as attending the theater with him and
Leia,became a horrible mistake. They agonized through the subsequent
headlines on the evening holo-news: "Jedi Couple In Love", and "Luke
Skywalker Takes Lover". Luke and Mara had gotten to the point where
they avoided each other like the plague.

Han laughed aloud, then quickly smothered it so as not to disturb the
other occupant of the room. He supposed the crowning point had been
when Mara had returned late one evening to her Coruscant apartment,
only to find that a rather resourceful holo-reporter had bribed his
way in. She had found him going through her personal data cards and
rifling through the drawers and closets in her bedroom. Han leaned
forward, his hand over his mouth and his shoulders shaking. He had
decided afterwards that Mara had shown remarkable restraint, at least
for her. When the medics had arrived to remove the guy, he was
suffering from only a broken leg, a rupture spleen and a dislocated
jaw. Nothing some time in the bacta tank wouldn't cure!

But the consequences of that particular incident had convinced Mara
that Coruscant wasn't the place for her, and she had lit out from the
planet like a Moyock with its tail feathers on fire. Han supposed
she was off somewhere with Talon Karrde's Smugglers' organization. Luke
wasn't long after her, retreating from Coruscant to Yavin IV and
hiding out in the peaceful seclusion of the old Massassi temple
buildings there. For several years, Luke had spoken of starting an
academy and scouring the galaxy for other potential Jedi. His dream
was to build a school where Jedi could live and train, and hopefully
after awhile, the Jedi would once again be the defenders of peace and
justice for the galaxy. Luke was just beginning to get the school
started. In fact, as far as Han knew, the people here with Luke
weren't even Jedi. They were just employees and potential employees
to help Luke run his new academy.

He glanced over at the bed as a streak of lightning lit the room,
followed by a tremendous boom of thunder. His wife moved and then
setup.

"Han?" Leia queried, peering around the darkened room.

"I'm here," he replied softly. "Go back to sleep. It's just a
storm."

He wasn't surprised when Leia got up from the bed and approached his
chair. She knew as well as he did that sleeping through an
electrical storm on Yavin was virtually impossible.

He grinned up at her and then pulled her onto his lap. She nestled
closer, touched his face with her fingers and then sighed. "I hope
all the noise doesn't wake the babies. Sometimes, this place can be
quite depressing."

Han squeezed her. "Yeah, it sure seems to rain a lot here, doesn't
it?"

They sat for a while longer, watching the steady fall of the rain
against the window. Another streak of the planet's incredible
lightning lit the courtyard area outside their room like the sun at
high noon.

Han frowned and narrowed his eyes. A figure was leaving the building
across from theirs, hurrying through the rain, splashing water from
the puddles as she ran. She sprinted across the courtyard and into
another building that was housing the new, potential employees who
were arriving almost daily to become a part of Luke's Jedi Academy
workforce.

Leia sat straight up in his lap. "Did you see that?"

"Yeah," Han muttered, not liking where his thoughts were taking him.

He felt his wife looking down at him. "That was a girl."

Han shrugged, moving a little in the chair. "She was definitely
female," he noted, smiling a little. "When a person doesn't have
many clothes on and is wet, it's rather easy to tell."

Leia looked out the window again at the building across the
courtyard, the one from which the woman had fled. "That's the communication
center. There is only one person who has rooms in that building . .
.
Luke."

Han grimaced. He knew where his wife was headed. "Now, Leia, it's
none of our business," he warned. He was attempting to keep Leia
calm, although he had to admit that he was surprised at Luke. This wasn't
like him at all. However, Han supposed he could understand it.
Living on an isolated planet such as Yavin IV,with its depressing
climate would probably make a man do a lot of things he wouldn't
normally do.

"None of our business?" Leia questioned, getting up from his lap.
"Of course, it's our business. Luke can't be . . . he wouldn't . .
."
She couldn't finish the sentence. She was amazed, shocked, and a
slow anger was beginning to build in her.

"Leia," Han warned again, taking her arm in his hand.

Leia shook it off. "I'm going over there." She headed for the
closet and started pulling out some clothes.

Han got up from his chair. "Leia, he's a grown man, twenty-eight
years old, for Hoth's sake. If he's having a little fling, it's none
of our business." He walked to the wall and pressed one of the glow
panels, creating a soft, delicate light in the room.

His wife looked up from the bed, where she was putting on her boots.
"You can't be serious, Han," she retorted. She yanked hard on her
left boot. "That girl was an potential employee. She couldn't be
very old." She stood up, walked to the closet and pulled out some
rain gear. She stared hard at Han, her lips pressed in one straight
line. "Luke can't be carrying on with his female employees, Han.
Think of the scandal if it got out to the press." She shuddered at
the very thought. "It would be the end of his academy before it even
started. She walked to the door of their room and pulled it open.
"Besides," she said, "you know, as well as I do, that it's just plain
wrong."

****************

As Leia walked down the temple corridor towards Luke's rooms, she was
surprised to see a light pouring out from under the door. She had
not expected him to be awake.

She hesitated before the door, dreading the next few moments, but
finally squared her shoulders and sent out a tendril of the Force.
"Luke?"

Behind the door, Luke whirled around in surprise. Leia! Leia was
outside. What in Kessel was she doing here? And why hadn't he felt
her presence before now? He rubbed the spreading red spot on his
cheek and grimaced. He supposed he had been too preoccupied to
notice.

He hurried to the door, slapped the release panel and watched the
door ease up. "Leia, what . . . It's 0300, what are you doing up at this
hour?" He motioned for her to come in.

She came in without looking at him. Her gaze swept around the room
as if she were looking for something. Whatever it was, she didn't seem
to find it.

She turned to look at her brother. "We have to talk," she said grimly.

At her tone, Luke sighed heavily and waved for her to take a chair as
he moved toward another one. He sank into it, enjoying the feel as
the chair conformed to his shape. He looked over at his sister,
knowing that whatever she had come to talk about, it wasn't going to
be an exchange of pleasantries. He sighed again. He had already
dealt with his share of angry women for the night.

"What is it, Leia?" he asked, leaning back in his chair.

Leia started to speak and then frowned, looking at him closely.
"What's wrong with your cheek?"

A faint pinkish tint tinged one of his cheeks, contrasting sharply
with the fiery red on the other side of his face. He put his hand to
his face, covering the spot. "Nothing. There's nothing wrong."

Leia's brown eyes narrowed and it was obvious she didn't believe him,
but she let the matter slide. At least, for now.

It was her turn to squirm in her chair a little. As he watched the
conflicting emotions warring in her face, he was surprised that she
was having some difficulty in starting the conversation.

"Luke," she began hesitantly. "I know it is not a sister's place to
interfere," she paused, and then finished with a rush, "in her
brother's love-life, but I really felt that I should speak to you
about this."

Luke's eyebrows disappeared under the sandy-brown locks that fell
across his forehead and he eyed his sister warily. What was she
talking about? And what had brought it on? Love-life? He snorted
silently. He only wished he had one.

He leaned forward in his chair, closing the distance between them a
little. "I don't understand, Leia," he said softly.

His sister looked away from his earnest face for a moment and then
said, "Han and I were awakened by the thunder. We were sitting in
that marvelous rocking chair you gave us when . . . when . . ."

Suddenly Luke understood and he sat back in his chair again with a
flop. "You saw Meika leaving here, didn't you?" he asked a bit
harshly.

Leia nodded unhappily.

Luke pushed the loose hair back from his forehand. "Leia, it's not
what you think. I . . . " he began only to have her cut him off.

"Luke, you know I wouldn't believe you had done anything . . . wrong,
but . . ."

"You can't discredit the evidence of your own eyes," he finished for
her.

Leia looked down and then peered at him from under her eyelashes. He
didn't seem to be angry, but it was obvious he was trying to figure
out just exactly what to tell her. She glanced about the room again,
noticing for the first time the robe thrown carelessly across a desk.
The robe was a deep yellow, a color she had never seen her brother
wear and one she knew he would never choose. It had to belong to . .
. what had he said her name was . . .Meika?

She sighed inwardly. Who was this Meika? And what was she to Luke?
Did he care for her?

Her brother cleared his throat and she looked back at him. "You
know, now that I think about this, I'm really glad you're here," he said
softly, looking at her a bit quizzically. "I have been at my wits
end on just how to handle this."

"Handle what, Luke?" Leia asked.

"I don't know," he started, getting up from his chair and walking
over to her. "I don't know exactly how to tell you or even explain. It's
been the strangest thing."

Leia looked up at her brother. "Maybe you ought to just tell me,"
she encouraged him.

Luke walked away from her and stood for a moment with his back to
her, then he turned. She was surprised to see that he was having a hard
time trying not to laugh.

She raised a regal eyebrow. "Luke," she warned, in her best princess
voice.

"All right, all right," he laughed and sank back down in his chair.
"I guess there is no easy way to do this, but I'm going to sound like
such a stuck-up, conceited . . ."

"Nerfherder," she finished for him succinctly.

He grinned at her, looking much younger than his twenty-eight years.
"Exactly."

"Leia," he started and then seemed to peer off in space for a moment.
"Do you remember when we all - you, me, Han, Mara and the others
returned from Wayland?"

"Yes," Leia said quietly.

"Do you remember how the press was, how I could hardly go anywhere
without being mob?"

"Yes, it was difficult for you, and Mara too, for that matter," Leia
nodded.

That seemed to give Luke pause for a moment. "I wonder," he
whispered. "I wonder if she's having the same problem."

Leia frowned, "What problem, Luke?" she insisted.

Luke sighed and looked back at her. "Women, Leia, women everywhere!"
He paused again and then murmured, "I suppose for her it would have
been men, though. I wish I could talk to her. Maybe that is why she
left Coruscant in such a hurry."

Leia was now totally confused. Women? Someone leaving Coruscant?
What in stars was he talking about? "Luke," she began.

But he waved her off. "Leia, every since we returned from Wayland,
the women . . . the women won't leave me alone." He waved his hand
again. "Everywhere I go, they seemed to be there . . . chasing me,
following me." He looked up at her. "Leia, you should see some of
the datacards I've received. Hundreds. . .thousands of them . . .
all wanting to marry me or . . . or sleep with me," he whispered.

Leia's eyebrows lifted.

He didn't seem to notice. "And they have even sent me haloids. And
the women in them . . .they're . . . they're naked, Leia." He looked
up at her, his eyes wide with shock.

Leia looked down quickly, pressing her lips tightly together. Oh my
stars, she thought. Her dear brother was probably the greatest hero
in the history of the galaxy but sometimes, sometimes he was such an
innocent. She took a deep breath, stifling the laughter that wanted
to well out of her.

"Luke, I'm sorry. I had no idea you were going through this," she
said.

"Yeah, well . . . it's not exactly something you bring up in everyday
conversation with your sister," Luke said, ruefully.

Leia smiled gently, but then frowned. "But what happened tonight,
Luke? What was all that about?"

Luke sighed heavily. "Unfortunately, I think that's even a bigger
problem."

Leia waited, but he didn't continue. Finally, she asked, "This
girl, does she mean something to you?"

Luke turned a horrified face to her. "No! No, not at all." He
glanced over at the robe on the desk. "She is just one of those I've
been telling you about."

"So you sent her away," Leia asked.

He nodded numbly.

"Then you did the right thing, Luke," she said comfortingly. "You
shouldn't worry anymore about it."

"I wouldn't," he commented, a little bitterly, "if she were anybody
but who she is."

Suddenly, Leia had a very bad feeling. She frowned again, trying to
remember the name he had told her. "Meika?"

Luke nodded again. "Yeah, Meika Daiashuut."

"Daiashuut?" Leia repeated, a feeling of dread washing over her.
"General Daiashuut's daughter?"

Luke confirmed her worst suspicions.

Leia leaned back in her chair, her eyes closing. General Dongrono
Daiashuut, one of the New Republic's more capable military leaders,
was a hero of the Battle of Endor. But he was also a very difficult
man, demanding and receiving respect and obedience from just about
everyone he can into contact with. Leia had told Han many times that
she rather deal with Fey'lya, the argumentative Bothan Senator, than
work with Daiashuut, with his harsh, obstinate and exacting manner.

"Tell me what happened," she asked softly, watching Luke.

He shrugged and got up from his chair again. "She knocked on the
door and I let her in. I should have never done that, Leia."

Leia nodded, but there wasn't anything they could do about it now.

He took a deep breath. "Well, she came in and she had that yellow
robe on." He waved his hand in the general direction of the desk.
"She started telling me immediately how much she . . . liked . . .eh
.
. .loved me," Luke was having some difficulty relaying this
information and wouldn't even look at Leia. He was clearly
embarrassed by the whole situation.

"What did you tell her?" Leia asked.

Luke sighed. "I told her I was very flattered, but that I didn't
have . . . those sort of feelings for her."

"That's good," Leia encouraged.

Luke shook his head in exasperation. "It didn't make any difference
to her. The next thing I knew she took off her robe and threw it on the
desk. Leia, she didn't have anything on but . . ."

"I know, I saw her, remember?" Leia cut him off, the memory of the
girl's soaking wet lacy nightshift clear in her mind.

Luke nodded dully. "She threw herself in my arms, telling me if I
would just . . .," he squirmed uncomfortably, "just take her to bed,
she would prove how much she loved me."

Leia rolled her eyes. Was the girl insane? Obviously, she had been
watching too many of the daytime holodramas. "What happened then?"

"I pushed her away and told her nothing like that could ever
happened."

Leia leaned her head on her hand, watching her brother carefully.
"And?"

"She didn't believe me," Luke whispered. "She grabbed me by the
hair, pulled me down and kissed me. . .I mean, really kissed me."

He paused for a moment, as if remembering the scene. "I pushed her
away again. . .a bit roughly, I suppose, because she almost fell. I
told her that there would be none of that and that she needed to
return to her room, immediately."

He looked over at Leia. "She started crying then, sobbing that she
couldn't understand why I couldn't love her when she loved me so
much. That if I would only give her a chance, she knew I would love her."

Luke shook his head sorrowfully. "I didn't want to hurt her, Leia.
She's just a kid. Sixteen years old."

Leia groaned audibly and then asked, "So what did you tell her?"

Luke suddenly looked very uncomfortable, afraid almost. Leia frowned
at him. "Well?"

He sighed. "I suppose I was a coward. I told her I couldn't love
her because I was already in love with someone else."

"Oh, Luke," Leia whispered.

He nodded sadly. "She immediately jumped on that and said, 'You have
a girlfriend? Then where is she?'"

Luke looked uncomfortable again, but he continued, "I told her that
she was away on business. That she was a great fighter, but very
jealous and...that she had a horrible temper, and that if she found
out that she...Meika...had been in my room, then she would probably
kill Meika and me both."

A puzzled light appeared in Luke's eyes. "You know what she said
then?"

Leia shook her head, a little weakly, knowing what was coming next.

She said, "So the news reports are true. Mara Jade is your
girlfriend."

Luke's eyes widened. "I couldn't believe she came up with that. I
never said a word, not one word, about Mara."

Leia closed her eyes in exasperation. Men! They could be the
greatest of heroes, but were incredibly stupid about women. Any
woman with any sense would have recognized that description of Mara from a
galaxy away. "What did you say?"

"I didn't get a chance to say anything," Luke said wonderingly. "She
came over to me again, kissed me on the cheek and said that she was
sorry. If she had known for sure that Mara was my girlfriend, she
would never have come to my room." Luke cleared his throat, rather
roughly. "She said Mara was her hero, and that someday she wanted to
be just like her."

Leia leaned back in her chair. "And?" she asked.

"She stepped away from me and then slapped me as hard as she could."
Luke rubbed his cheek in memory. "She said if she found out I was
lying to her that she would make things very difficult for me. .
.that she would tell her father a completely different story about what
happened in this room and that she would make very sure that the
Coruscant press heard all about it. She walked to the door and then
looked at me over her shoulder. She said that Mara was the only girl
she would give me up to, and that I better be telling her the truth.
Then she left."

"Charming little thing, isn't she?" Leia commented dryly.

Luke scratched his head and asked, "What do you think I should do?"

His sister looked at him pityingly. "I think you and Mara Jade had
better become a couple and very soon."

Whew! <she wipes her sweaty brow> Thanks, everyone, for all your
comments and encouragement. I feel a lot better now, believe me.

I want to send out a special thanks to Ki for all her help and
encouragement in this little endeavor. Without her, the story would
probably never have been posted. Thanks very much, Ki.

As for the rest of you guys...Muchos gracias, ya'll (after all, I am
from Texas!) :-)

Well, here's the next chapter. Please feel free to point out any
inaccuracies or just plain bad writing. Every comment will be deeply
appreciated.

Chapter Two

The Z95 Headhunter landed gracefully onto Yavin IV's spaceport. Luke
ran a hand through his dark blond hair, pushing it back away from his
forehand, and walked towards the rather beat-up old tub. It might
not look like much, but everyone knows that looks can be deceptive.
Mara Jade had souped-up the engines and added the most sophisticated
weaponry available for a ship of its size. It could more than handle
any space battle it might run into.

The departing ramp settled to the ground with a slight bump and Luke
walked to the bottom of it, waiting for Mara to descend. He waited
and waited, until it became obvious that she wasn't coming out of the
ship.

So, she meant for them to meet inside. Luke walked slowly up the
ramp, wondering just exactly what he was going to say to her. He
sent out a tendril of the Force, but couldn't seem to sense her
presence anywhere. He knew she had to be somewhere on board, but he
also knew she wasn't going to be very happy. How Leia had ever
persuaded her to come to Yavin in the first place was beyond him.
His sister's diplomatic skills consistently left him in awe.

Mara wasn't at the top of the ramp, so he headed for the cockpit,
usually her favorite place on any ship. He stuck his head through
the arch of the doorway and called softly, "Mara?"

Afterwards, all he could remember was a sudden, sharp pain along his
jaw and absolute surprise that the deck of the cockpit seemed to be
rushing towards him before everything went completely dark.

When he awakened, the coolness of the deck floor was a comfort
against the stinging pain in his jaw. He rolled over onto his back
and sat up carefully. A thousand Ewoks were celebrating with forest
drums in his head. He closed his eyes and sought the comfort of the
Force, drawing away some of the pain. In a moment, he felt much
better and opened his eyes.

Black combat boots stood in a spread stance before him. His eyes
traveled up a pair of shapely legs, a trim and fit torso, and then to
a face, startlingly beautiful and surrounded by a cloud of red-gold
hair, a tight braid hanging across one shoulder. Glittering green
eyes were narrowed to tiny slits.

"Hello, Mara. Nice way to greet a guy," Luke told her, rubbing his
jaw; grateful to realize it wasn't broken or dislocated. At least he
had made out better than the holo-reporter in her apartment.

The braid flounced over to her back. "I should have killed you when
I had the chance," she snarled.

Luke pulled himself from the floor, found one of the cockpit chairs
not far behind him, and dropped himself in it. "Yeah, well, I
thought you just tried."

"There is no try, only do or do not, remember?" Mara quoted one of
his favorite Yoda sayings.

Luke grinned. She had him there. "You must be getting pretty good
at shielding. I didn't feel you at all when I came on the ship," he
pointed out.

Mara took another of the chairs, the farthest away from him, he noted.
"I didn't want you to know where I was."

"And that was an excellent right hook. You'll have to teach it to me
sometimes," he continued ruefully, rubbing his jaw again.

"You know you deserved it." Mara watched him carefully, then shook
her head. "Just how did you get yourself in this little mess,
Skywalker?"

Luke sighed and then said hopefully, "I thought Leia told you all
about it."

Mara nodded. "She did. I want to hear it from you."

Luke thought that she probably deserved that much. In fact, he was
pretty much shocked that she was even here. He would never have
believed she would come. He winced mentally as he visualized the
meeting between her and Leia. He knew he was going to owe her big
time when it was all over.

So he told her about it, miserably.

She listened without comment, just watching the emotions flicker
across his face as he talked. When Leia had contacted her and asked
her to come to Coruscant for a meeting with her, she hadn't known in
the least what she was getting herself into. She became lost in her
own thoughts as the memory of their conversation played back in her
mind.

After waving her to a chair, Leia hadn't hemmed and hawed about it,
but had come directly to the point. "Mara, I need your help with my
brother."

"Again?" Mara had replied, a little humor in her voice.

Despite herself, Leia smiled. Although she didn't know Mara very
well, she liked and respected her. In many ways, they were two of a
kind, strong-willed, determined, and fiercely loyal.

"I should tell you that you are probably not going to like this...at
all," Leia said and then told her what had happened on Yavin IV.

A long stretch of silence had occurred after Leia finished her story.

Mara had stared out of the large transparisteel window in Leia's
Senate office. Leia suspected she wasn't really seeing anything
though.

At one point, Mara murmured, "Imbecile" to herself.

Leia turned away quickly so Mara wouldn't see her smile and pretended
she had found something very interesting on one of the datapads on
her desk.

The silence lengthened until Leia began to worry a little, but she
refrained from saying anything.

Finally, Mara sighed and stood. "There's really nothing I can do
here, Leia," she said and walked towards the door.

Leia let her hand almost reach the door panel before she commented,
"There is something you can do, Mara, and you know you should do it."

Mara turned around lazily and looked at Leia. "I don't have to do
anything I don't want to, you know," she told her nonchalantly, too
nonchalantly.

Leia smiled sweetly, not letting Mara's tone bother her, and said
with infinite patience, "He's your friend, Mara."

Mara stiffened and came away from the door. "Not that kind of
friend," she hissed. She looked over to the window again at the
lights of the city just beginning to twinkle as evening begin to fall
over Coruscant. Absentmindedly, she fingered the lightsaber hanging
from her belt.

"That's a low blow, Princess," she finally accused, the use of the
royal title sounding remarkably like an insult.

"Of course," Leia had countered, inordinately please with herself.

Coming back to the present, Mara sighed. Now she was here on Yavin
IV. She didn't really understanding how she had ever allowed herself
to be talked into this...this stupid plan. But, hopefully, it
wouldn't take more than a day or two, and she could be on her way.

"Well, I couldn't just break her jaw and leg, and leave her there,
you know," Luke finished his story teasingly and watched for her
reaction.

"Why not?" she countered coolly, not giving him any satisfaction.
She lifted an eyebrow. "I suppose the girl is still here?"

"Yes," Luke replied, wondering why she asked.

Mara sighed again. She supposed it would have been too much to ask
for the girl to have had any sort of conscience and gotten herself
off of Yavin IV as quickly as possible.

She leaned back in her chair. "You know, Skywalker, I've told you
before that you're pretty pathetic when it comes to being devious.
Just how do you think you're going to carry this off?"

Luke shot her a crooked grin. "Carry what off?"

"Don't start that with me," she snorted. "You know what I'm talking
about."

Luke was teasing her, but he knew she had a point. "I guess I
haven't really thought about it," he confessed.

"Figures," Mara snapped. She got up from her chair and walked over
to him. "Stand up," she ordered.

Luke did as she asked, and found that they were only centimeters
apart. In fact, he didn't think he had been quite so close to her
before, at least, in this type of situation.

She was only a few centimeters shorter than him, but was all wiry
power and tensile strength. He was close enough to her to smell her
scent, delicate and pleasant, reminding him of some of the flowers in
the jungle on Yavin.

She startled him by reaching up and grabbing both of his ears. When
she pulled him over and pressed her mouth against his, to say that he
was shocked, astonished, would be a major understatement. He just
stood there, until her warm, full lips hit his senses, which
immediately went into systematic overload.

His hands hurriedly went to her waist, intent on pulling her closer,
and he opened his mouth against hers.

She pushed him away so roughly that he fell back into the chair he
had just vacated. "That's enough, flyboy," she growled.

She turned and disappeared down the corridor toward the sleeping
quarters of the Z95. Luke was left in the chair, his mouth slightly
open and breathing a little heavier than usual. He blinked. Did
that
really happen or did he dream it?

She was back in a short time, carrying a large bag and an extra
battery for her holdout blaster. She snapped the battery into a
small case on her utility belt and dropped the bag in front of Luke.

"Here, you carry this. It wouldn't look right if I did," she told
him, walking over to the console of the Z95.

Faint laughter floated up through the open door of the ramp. "Looks
like our welcoming party has just arrived," she acknowledged. She
shut down the computer on the Z95 and prepared it for storage. She
turned to Luke, "So, who can I expect out there?"

Luke shrugged. "There aren't many. There's Dayvids, he's a building
engineer. Big guy, dark. He has several workers with him, Nikos,
Joquin, and Kern. There's Noimi, she's the communication controller
and she also does most of the cooking around here. Makos is her
aide. Noimi is a nice woman, you'll like her. Then there are the
young
students who are applying for various positions in the temple."

"How many of them are there?" Mara asked.

"Eight," Luke replied, standing and picking up her bag.

"How many females in that group?" Mara walked over to him, watching
him closely.

"Three," he answered, frowning. He looked up, consideringly.
"No...maybe there are four." He shook his head. "I can't remember,
three or four."

For the first time since she arrived, she laughed aloud. "You can't
remember how many females there are? That clears you of being guilty
of any hanky-panky with the hired help then, doesn't it, Skywalker."

He grinned rather sheepishly at her.

She looked towards the ramp and took a deep breath, "Well, I suppose
we had better begin this little charade."

He reached out and touched her hand. "I'm going to owe you, Mara."

She shot him a crooked grin. "You're damn right, Skywalker, and you
better believe I'm going to collect on it, too."

"I'm sure you are," he laughed.

They turned toward the ramp. "Wait," Mara stopped him. "Carry the
bag in your right hand." She moved to his left side and slid her arm
around his waist. "Okay, flyboy, put a smile on your face and don't
take it off until we reach your quarters."

Well, here's Chapter Three, such as it is.

I should tell you guys that I'm wrestling with Chapter Four right
now, and it definitely has me in a headlock, so I'm sure it will be a few
days before I can get it up.

Enjoy! (I hope) :-)

Chapter Three

As they walked down the ramp, Luke was very conscious of how close
together they were. He glanced over at her and noticed for the first
time the delicate creaminess of her skin, and the elegant line of her
neck. The smile she had ordered him to wear turned into a slight
smirk. Her neck, he realized, was just long enough from shoulder to
head for his face to fit perfectly.

He felt first a slight mental pressure and then her words thundered
in his head. *Don't even think about it, flyboy. You're not going to
get that close.*

He chuckled, slid his arm along her shoulders and pulled her against
his side, knowing it would annoy her. *You know, Jade, sometimes
you're just no fun at all,* he shot back to her.

It was easier than either of them had expected. Everyone whom Luke
had mentioned was waiting for them when they reached the bottom of
the ramp. There were so few visitors to Yavin IV that it was a real
occasion when someone arrived. It had become a custom for everyone to
come out and greet the visitors or, in this case, visitor.

*Stang, it's hot,* he heard in his head. *How do you stand this
dripping wet heat?*

*I like it,* he replied. *It's quite different from Tatooine.*

Noimi came forward, wiping her hands on a large, white apron, and
interrupted their mental conversation. She appeared younger than her
sixty standard years and she looked first at Luke and then at Mara,
her face warm and friendly.

Luke put down Mara's bag and pulled her over in front of him, his
hands resting on her shoulders. "Hello, everyone. I want you to
meet Mara...Mara Jade...my..." Suddenly, he stopped, unsure of what to say.

*Girlfriend, you idiot,* blasted in his head, and he finished
quickly, "My girlfriend."

Noimi smiled in delight and offered her hand to Mara, albeit rather
tentatively. Apparently, Mara's reputation had followed her all the
way to Yavin. Noimi seemed relieved when Mara shook her hand warmly.
"Oh, Miss Jade, we have heard so much about you. I mean, the
holovid..." she stopped, a little embarrassed and then said in a
rush, "We are so glad you have come to Yavin IV. It is such a pleasure to
meet you."

While Noimi and Mara talked, Luke let his eyes wander lazily over the
rest of the group. When Dayvids realized Luke was looking at him, he
winked, clearly approving of Mara. His workers apparently agreed
with Dayvids since they couldn't seem to take their eyes off of her.

Finally, Luke looked over at the younger group who were standing off
to the side, whispering and giggling among themselves. He caught
Meika's eyes and she gave him a huge smile. She was obviously
thrilled that Mara was actually on Yavin, and apparently had forgotten that
there had ever been any trouble between them.

Noimi had taken over the introductions, and she was bringing each
person forward to greet Mara. When it was Meika's turn, Luke's hands
tightened slightly on Mara's shoulders.

*Is she the one?* Mara asked dryly in his mind.

*Yes.*

Mara smiled and greeted Meika cordially, but her eyes held the other
girl's very intently. Then Mara reached up and squeezed one of
Luke's hands on her shoulder. It was a possessive gesture, and everyone who
saw it recognized it as such.

Meika's smile wavered a bit and she looked up at Luke, who kept his
face carefully bland. He knew she was wondering if he had told Mara
about the incident in his room.

Meika quickly excused herself and returned back to the safety of the
group, eyeing Luke and Mara over the shoulders of two of the male
students.

*I think you scared her,* Luke said, dropping his hands from her
shoulders and taking one of hers.

Mara chuckled, *Good, a little fear is a healthy thing.*

Despite himself, Luke had to laugh aloud. He choked it off quickly
when he noticed everyone looking at him a little strangely.
Obviously, no one had said anything in the least funny.

"You are just in time for dinner, Miss Jade. We'd love for you to
join us," Noimi told Mara.

"That's very kind of you, Noimi, but it's been a long trip. I'm
really rather tired," Mara said calmly. "I wonder if you could send
our dinner to us in Luke's rooms."

A few eyebrows rose in the group, but Noimi replied, "Of course, Miss
Jade, it's no problem at all. We hope to see more of you tomorrow,
then?"

Mara smiled, "I'm looking forward to it."

*Okay, Flyboy, lead me to your mansion,* Mara whispered in Luke's
mind.

Luke had been standing quietly, smiling to himself. Mara had called
him 'Luke'. It wasn't often she used his given name and it always
pleased him when she did.

"Goodnight, everyone," he told the group and tugged on Mara's hand,
turning her towards the communication center. He picked up Mara's
bag with his other hand to a chorus of 'goodnights' and they walked away.

It didn't take them long to reach Luke's building. Mara was
surprised to see that it wasn't the usual residential area.

"What's this?" She asked, looking around at the rows of computers
and
commlink stations. "You live in the communication center?"

"Yes," Luke replied, pressing his palm against the door panel to his
rooms. The door eased open without a sound. "I was happy to find
this suite at the back of the building. It suited me perfectly." He
smiled a bit sheepishly. "You know, I'm not one for crowds."

It was true, Mara thought. Both she and Luke were very similar in
that regard, loners who had depended only on themselves for most of
their lives. People, especially in groups, made them uncomfortable.

They entered into a small living area filled with a couch and two
chairs, a computer/commlink station and a desk. Off to the left was
a very small kitchen area, obviously not meant for any serious cooking
or serving. A door to the right of the living area led to a small
bedroom with a double bed, a chest and a storage box. At the end of
bedroom was the door to the refresher.

"Not bad, Skywalker," Mara commented after the small tour. "It's not
anything to send to the 'House and Home' holozines, but it's looks
neat and comfortable. I like it."

Luke dropped her bag on the bed and smiled. Mara was surprised when
he looked at her almost shyly. "I think it's the first real home
I've had in years. Coruscant's okay, but I've never really felt it was
home."

A sarcastic retort died on Mara's lips and she just mumbled, "Yeah, I
know what you mean." Coruscant had been her home for most of her
life, but that had been when it was under the control of the Empire.
It was different now, not necessarily worse. In fact, its newfound
sense of freedom had impressed Mara. Its citizens walked about with
happy, satisfied faces, going about their lives with a joy she had
not sensed from them when the city was under the thumb of Palpatine.
Yet, she hadn't really felt comfortable there and only kept an apartment
in the Imperial Palace for business purposes.

"Why did you put that there?" She asked, motioning with her hand
towards her bag.

Luke looked at the bag on the bed and frowned. "Because this is
where you're going to sleep."

Mara pursed her lips and then said sharply. "Look, Skywalker, I
agreed to do you a favor, but not that big of one."

At first, Luke didn't understand what she meant, but when realization
came, so did a faint tinge of pink to his cheeks. "I was planning on
sleeping on the couch, Mara," he told her wryly, the humor in the
situation finally getting to him.

She shot him a dirty look. "I can sleep on the couch just as well as
you, Skywalker."

His lips twitched. "I don't know, Mara. Both of us on the couch
would be a tight fit, I think, but if that's what you want to do..."

"You know I didn't mean that," she snarled, cutting him off and
walking out of the bedroom.

He followed her, laughing quietly. He didn't often get one over on
Mara, and it was so much fun when she did rise to the bait.

There was a soft knock on the outside door panel. Mara scowled,
"Who do you think that is?"

Luke reached out with the Force and received a bit of a shock. "It's
Meika."

Mara's eyebrows lifted. "The girl's got nerve, I'll give her that."

Luke was thinking. "I'll bet Noimi sent her with our dinner. She
helps in the kitchen most of the time."

Mara grinned meanly. "The General's daughter works in the kitchen?"

Luke nodded, appreciating the irony with her.

"Quick," Mara said suddenly. "Take off your tunic and give it to me."

Luke frowned, "But, Mara, I don't have an undershirt on."

"Just give it to me, flyboy, and go answer the door. Invite little
Miss Meika in, please." She held out her hand for his tunic.

Luke shrugged, undid his belt with the lightsaber attached, dropped
it on the couch, and pulled the garment off. She took it and
disappeared into the bedroom.

He ran a hand unconsciously through his hair, mussing it completely.
He had no idea he looked like a small boy, tousled from sleep.

Another soft knock sounded and he went to the door, pressing the door
panel.

Meika's mouth fell slightly open as she took in his appearance. Her
eyes traveled up and down his body, stopping on his firm, muscled
chest and the budging biceps on his arms.

"Your dinner, sir," she all but squeaked.

Apparently, they were back to formality between them which, when he
thought about it, was probably for the best.

"Come in," he said politely, waving her into the room.

She came in tentatively, and he realized she was probably expecting
Mara to be in the room.

"I'll take those into the kitchen," he said, reaching for the metal
dinner trays.

"Luke, sweetheart, who is it?" A soft, husky voice he barely
recognized drifted from the bedroom.

"It's Meika," Luke called. "She's brought us our dinner."

"Oh, good, I'm starving," Mara said, stepping into the doorway of the
bedroom.

Luke almost dropped the dinner trays. It was all he could do to keep
from gasping.

Mara leaned lazily against the doorframe, smiling slightly. She was
wearing nothing but Luke's tunic, and she had let down her hair from
its long braid. It fell in a glorious red-gold cloud about her
beautiful face and shoulders.

But Luke couldn't keep his eyes off her long, shapely legs. He had
seen them many times, encased in her skin-tight combat pants, but
never had he seem them the way they looked now. When she moved
slightly, her quadriceps tightened in her thighs, and he startled
himself by having to suck in a breath.

Mara pushed away from the door and walked into the room with her
lean, catlike grace. "It smells wonderful, doesn't it, dear?"

Luke thought he said something in agreement with her, but he wasn't
sure. His mind was a chaotic mess. He watched her warily as she
approached him.

His heart went into his throat when she slid one of her long, elegant
hands down his bare chest. Did she have any idea that she had left a
scorching trail of fire, he wondered uneasily.

Then she turned, smiling sweetly, "Hello...ah...it's Meika, isn't
it?" She gave a marvelous impression of being pleased with herself for
remembering the name.

"Goo...good evening, Miss Jade," Meika stammered, unable to take her
eyes off Mara. Luke sympathized; he couldn't stop looking at her
either.

"Luke, why don't you take our dinner into the kitchen?" Mara ordered
languidly and watched him disappear with the trays. She smiled
again, "Meika, would you like stay for dinner? I'm sure we have enough."

"Oh, no! I mean, no, Miss Jade, I need to get back and help in the
kitchen," the girl explained in a rush. "I just wanted to let Jedi
Skywalker know that I have received a message from my father."

Luke walked back into the living area. "Oh? Does he want you back at
Coruscant already?" he teased her gently.

"Oh, no, he just wanted to let me know that he's arriving here
tomorrow. He said he was thinking about taking a week's holiday. My
mother has told him how peaceful and beautiful everything is on Yavin
IV."

Meika wondered briefly why the other two occupants in the room seemed
to have suffered a severe shock. But she was already unnerved by
apparently interrupting them in an intimate moment, and all she could
think about was getting out of there.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she said, fleeing through the open door.

After a long moment, Mara spat out, "Sithspawn!"

Luke didn't know what to say. The arrival of General Dongrono
Diaishuut was an unmitigated disaster. Both he and Mara had thought
she would only stay a day or so and then fly out on one of her many
business trips. No one but the small group on Yavin would have ever
had to know about her visit.

Now, one of the most important dignitaries on Coruscant was about to
descend on them. More than likely, he would be bringing his entourage
of hanger-ons and loyalists with him.

Luke felt awful. "I'm sorry, Mara, I had no idea."

"Yeah, right," she snarled and then stalked into the bedroom. She
was back in only a few moments, her combat pants back on. Luke noted,
though, that she had left off her boots.

"Let's eat," she said, marching towards the kitchen. "Then we can
decide what in Hoth we're going to do."

It wasn't a comfortable meal, although quite tasty. Even Mara
mumbled something about the stew being delicious, but mostly, she ate in
determined silence.

Luke had tried to talk with her, but she only snapped, "Later." And
they had fallen into an uneasy silence.

Luke sat, absentmindedly spooning the stew into his mouth, thinking
of one possibility after another of just how they could get out of the
mess they were in. None of his ideas, once he thought them through,
would work.

He was startled when Mara pushed her chair back, gathered up her
dishes and took them to the electronic washer in the corner.

He sighed. "It will be best if you just leave in the morning."

Mara turned from the washer, its slight hum barely making any noise
in the tiny room. "How do you figure that, flyboy?" she asked
sarcastically.

Luke stood up, gathered his own dishes and joined her at the washer.
Placing the dishes over hers, he glanced at her and said. "You know
Diaishuut will have holo-reporters with him. He doesn't go anywhere
without them. I suppose they feed that incredible ego of his. You
know as well as I do the uproar they will create if they find you
here with me."

Her emerald eyes flashed. "Better me than that sixteen year old tart
who just left."

Luke felt immensely guilty. "But, Mara, it's too much to ask. If
you leave in the morning before they get here, none of them will ever
know you were here."

Mara laughed, incredulously. "You know, Skywalker, just when I've
decided that farmboy innocence of yours is just a ploy, you come up
with something like that." She waved her hand in the direction of
the other buildings. "Do you honestly believe that little group of yours
out there won't let on that I was here?"

"They won't say anything if I ask them not to," Luke mumbled, not
sure if he believed it or not.

Mara rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. Maybe the others won't, but you
can bet Artoo that little Miss Meika will. She wouldn't pass up the
chance of being the center of attention with a bunch of
holo-reporters. She's not her father's daughter for nothing." Mara
frowned, looking around. "By the way, where is Artoo?"

"He's on Coruscant, having some of his circuits upgraded. I'm
supposed to pick him up at the end of the week," Luke told her, still
deep in thought on a possible way out of their problem.

"Hmmm, so you're going to leave Yavin at the end of the week?" Mara
pushed her mass of hair away from her face. "I suppose we'll just
have to stick it out until then. It's only five days."

Luke looked at her in astonishment. "But Mara..."

She cut him off. "The only other solution is that I take my
vibroblade and sneak in that dormitory..." Her tone was grim, but
Luke knew she was joking...he hoped.

In spite of himself, he grinned. "You know we can't do that."

"Who said anything about you coming along. You would just be in the
way," she retorted, smugly satisfied.

"You realize what it's going to be like, with Diaishuut and a bunch
of holo-reporters," he warned her softly.

"Of course I do," she snapped, pushing away from the counter and
heading out of the kitchen. "I don't really want to think about it,
but we'll do what we have to."

She stopped in the living area. "I suppose in a few weeks, we can
stage a big quarrel and break up," she mused, then snorted rudely.
"That ought to sell a few holovids for that sorry bunch we call a
media."

"But, Mara, I don't want to quarrel with you," Luke whined.

She looked at him quickly, then saw his lips twitched. "Don't fool
with me, Skywalker," she warned.

"I would never have that much courage," he told her truthfully.

She flounced her gorgeous hair back over her shoulder. "Well, I'm
going to bed. It's going to be a horrible enough day tomorrow and I
need some rest." She headed for the bedroom.

"Mara," Luke called after her.

She stopped and turned her head to look at him over her shoulder.

"Thank you," he said softly.

She blinked, taken off her guard for a moment, and turned to go in
the bedroom. "Yeah, well you're welcome, farmboy, just don't get use to
it."

Chapter Four

The new morning dawned as usual on the fourth moon of the gas giant,
Yavin, hot, damp and sticky. The humidity was so thick that the
windows in Luke's small suite of rooms were fogged over and
running with tiny rivulets of water.

Mara rubbed determinedly at one of the windows in the small bedroom,
trying to clear a portion so she could see out. When she finally
did, she wasn't pleased. Dew clung so heavily to the enormous
trees around the old Massassi Temple that it fell from the leaves
with the same impact as rain.

"Stang," she muttered. "How can anyone live in this
sauna?"

During the early days of the war, the Rebel Alliance had had one of
its major military bases on Yavin IV. Governor Tarkin, in his bid
for personal power and recognition, had let his eagerness to destroy
the Rebel base override his common sense and had gotten the first
Death Star destroyed, along with himself and thousands of the
Empire's best troops.

Emperor Palpatine had not been pleased.

A sardonic smile lifted the corners of her mouth. She wondered what
old Palpy would think if he could see her now. The Emperor's
Hand, his most trusted agent, disheveled and groggy from spending the
night in the bed of the man who had destroyed his Death Star. It
would almost be worth it...no, what was she thinking; nothing would
be worth having that monster alive again.

She pulled her sleeping shift away from her chest, grimacing as it
clung to her breasts. Even with the computerized climate control of
the room, the encroaching humidity invaded everywhere. She knew
perfectly well why the Rebels had stationed their base on the fourth
moon. No one else in the galaxy, at least anyone in his right mind,
would want to be any closer than a light-year to it.

She went into the refresher and set the small shower going. Pulling
the shift over her head, she stepped in, gasping a bit at the
coolness of the water. She spent a few moments soaking her hair and
then stepped back, searching for where Skywalker kept his shampoo. A
small shelf high in the corner rewarded her, and she poured a little
of the liquid in her hand. As she was about to spread it in her
hair, she stopped, the scent of it filling her nose. Skywalker!
Stang! She leaned against the side of the shower, pressing her face
against the cool tile, the shampoo still in her hand. She remembered
the night before when she had leaned back against him, his hands
resting on her shoulders as they had greeted his staff. He had
smelled of the shampoo then, and she had been so conscious of his
hands, as he had moved them gently about her shoulders. And now here
she stood, in his shower, thoughts of what he was like when he was in
there filling her mind. Mara licked her wet lips, letting her
imagination take flight.

Stop it! Just stop it right now! As if she would ever see him like
that anyway! She pushed away from the wall of the shower and
determinedly began to wash her hair. She didn't often lecture
herself, but Skywalker seemed to cause her to do it more and more of
late. He was forever invading her thoughts, and she spent a lot of
what she considered her precious time, trying to toss him out of
them.

A short while later, she eased open the door to the bedroom and
peered out cautiously. The couch was empty except for some rumbled
bed linens, and there was a faint whistling noise coming from the
kitchen. Apparently, Farmboy was already up and at it.

She left the bedroom and wandered into the kitchen.

"Good, you're up." Luke gave her a crooked grin. He
placed a plate on the small table, heavy with scrambled eggs and
toast. "Want some tea?" He asked, getting some cups down
from the
tall cabinet.

"Do you have any milk?" Mara asked, trying not to meet his
eyes. Her thoughts from her shower were still a little too fresh in
her mind. "I like it with breakfast, and then tea afterwards, if
that's okay."

"Sounds good." He opened the refrigeration unit and took out
a large bottle.

Mara was seasoning her food, and only noticed that he had the milk
ready when he placed it by her plate. She glanced at it cursorily,
then did a double take.

"What is that?" She asked in astonishment, pointing a finger
at the glass on the table.

He blinked. "It's milk."

"Skywalker," she said, enunciating her words carefully.
"That can't be milk, it's blue."

Luke chuckled. "It's milk from an Ionuie, a farm animal from
Tatooine. I grew up drinking it. Taste it, I'll bet you like
it."

His voice was nonchalant, but he watched her carefully. The Ionuie
milk wasn't for everyone, and he didn't know what her
reaction would be. The first time Han had tried it; he spit it halfway across the
room.

Mara was looking at the milk as if it might bite, but then she
shrugged and took a sip.

She held the milk in her mouth for a moment while Luke watched her
with some trepidation. Then she swallowed and quipped, "Well, I
don't think you'll find it in the best restaurants, Farmboy,
but it's
okay."

Luke was extremely pleased but just a little surprised that it had
meant so much to him that she liked it. He got his own plate and sat
across the table from her.

They ate their meal in a comfortable silence. Mara seemed deep in
thought, but Luke kept stealing little glances at her. She had left
her hair down, and it hung in long, elegant curls around the sides of
her face and down her back. It wasn't as long as Leia's, but
he liked it, especially how the light coming in through the windows
picked out the gold highlights in that sea of honey-tinted red.

It wasn't the first time he had noticed that her hair did that.
When they were in the forest on Myrkr, the sun would break through
the heavy trees at times and light up her hair with pure strips of
gold. He had been fascinated by it and couldn't take his eyes
off her whenever they past through a clearing.

"Why did you leave Coruscant without telling me?" Luke
blurted out suddenly, surprising them both.

Mara froze him with a glare. "I didn't know I needed to
report my whereabouts to you," she retorted sarcastically.

Luke leaned back in his chair. "You don't. But it would
have been nice. I just thought...well...that we...that you and I..."

Mara's emerald eyes glittered in the early morning light.
"You know, Farmboy, that's your problem, you think too much."

Luke sighed. Would he ever understand this woman? He had thought
they were becoming quite close on Coruscant, spending time with each
other and learning about one another. A day didn't pass when
they didn't see each other. He had used every excuse he could think
of to be with her. He told her that she needed to brief him on all
that she knew of the Imperial Palace, then told her that he needed to
continue training her in the ways of the Force. Before long she was
spending most of the day in his apartment or he in hers. And they
were friends, real friends. He had been happy, really happy for the
first time in years. Each day he woke with the happy thought that he
would see her again, be with her again. And then she had just up and
left, without even a word, leaving him to find out from his sister
that she was gone.

"I don't think what I was thinking was wrong, Mara," he
said softly.

"It wouldn't be the first time you were wrong about
something, would it, Farmboy?" She snapped, got up from her
chair and stomped out of the room.

Luke took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. Breaking through
those barriers of Mara's was incredibly hard work. Just when it
seemed he was making headway, something occurred that caused her to
slam up the walls again.

Luke wasn't even sure why he bothered to try. Their
relationship, if one could call it that, was the biggest puzzle in his life. Most
people would have given up on her long ago. Her abrasive personality
usually alienated people very quickly, and although he knew Mara was
sometimes sorry for the things she said and did, it was very
difficult for her to make amends. Her life under Palpatine's
rule had never prepared her for dealing with other people's feelings or to
worry about how her actions might affect them.

Yet, Luke had gotten glimpses of what lay beneath all that
toughness. Those barriers that she had erected were strong and hard,
but for him, they were transparisteel windows covered in pieces of
gauze. He might not always be able to break through them, but he
sporadically he got to see what lay behind.

He knew she had a great heart and that when she made up her mind to
be a friend, it was for life. He trusted her explicitly. In fact,
except for his sister and brother-in-law, there probably wasn't
another person in the galaxy whom he trusted as well.

He followed her into the living area. She was at his
computer/commlink station, obviously sending out some messages. He
grimaced; feeling guilty that his rather ridiculous problem had
dragged her away from what he knew was a flourishing business.

She finished her last message and turned to him. "So, what's
the agenda for today, Skywalker?"

Luke knew she was deflecting any attempt to continue their
conversation from the kitchen, and he decided to follow her
lead. "The transports from Coruscant usually come in during mid-
afternoon, so we really don't have to worry about the General and
his crew until then," he told her. "What would you like to
do?"

Mara took a deep breath, considering. "I'm not too excited
about staying around here, being peered at by all your little
buddies."

She looked up at him. "Are you up for some climbing?"

Luke lifted his eyebrows. "Climbing?" The nearest mountain
range was several hundred kilometers to the west. "I suppose we could take
a speeder over to the Mastanna Mountains."

"No, that would take too much time to go all away out there,"
Mara disagreed. "I was thinking more about the Great Temple."

"You want to climb the Great Temple?" Luke asked,
astonished. "But, Mara, there's a stairway up the side."

"It only goes about three quarters up and just to a viewing
platform," Mara argued. "I've been wondering what the
view was from the real top, the rounded one." She cocked her
head to the side and peered at him. "Too much exercise for you, Jedi?"

"Are you challenging me, Emperor's Hand?" Luke answered
with a wry grin.

She made a face at his use of her former title, but said smartly,
"Of course."

"Then let's do it," he said simply.

It didn't take them long to dress and then head out to Mara's
YT- 2400. Luke had only some rudimentary climbing gear and he wasn't
surprised to learn that Mara was fully stocked with the most up-to-
date equipment. One of the first things he had learned about her was
that she was always prepared. The Emperor had been a complete
bastard, but Luke had to give him one thing: he trained his people
well.

It seemed as if they ran into every person in the compound on their
way to the YT's hanger. They were always greeted cordially and
warmly, but the curiosity towards them was almost palpable. Even
Noimi had given them an uncomfortably thorough once over when they
passed her in the hallway.

"What's with everyone around here, Skywalker?" Mara
growled after they were safely by the compound's communication officer.
"Do I have dirt on my nose or something?"

Luke shrugged, watching as Noimi disappeared around a corner.
"No, you don't have any dirt. Maybe it's me, do I have
food in my teeth?" He bared his teeth at her.

"No, of course not, don't be silly," she snapped,
laughing a little at him, but annoyed that everyone viewed them with
such interest. She had never been comfortable with the notoriety she
had gained since that business at Wayland, and all this staring by
Skywalker's crew was reminding her too much of it.

They had reached the YT-2400 and Mara keyed in the entry code. Luke
followed her up the ramp and down a short hallway. She punched a
panel near a bulkhead and walked though a door into what looked to be
sleeping quarters.

Suddenly, she remembered he was behind her. "No, you stay out
there. I'll bring the stuff," she ordered, pushing him back
out into the hallway.

Luke was surprised when she shut the door in his face, but not before
he had caught a good glimpse of the room. It wasn't like any
sleeping quarters he had ever seen on any other YT. It had been
carefully decorated, the color scheme in ocean green and white. The
walls were covered in artwork, depicting many different styles. But
one painting caught his attention more than the others. He could
have sworn it was a delicate watercolor of the desert dunes of
Tatooine. Now, why on earth would she have that in her sleeping
quarters?

The door opened, startling him.

"Here," Mara called, and threw a large backpack at him. He
caught it as she walked out of the room. She already had her climbing gear on,
a heavy rope hanging across one shoulder, strong metal snaps and
rings attached to a heavy utility belt. "All the stuff you need
is in the pack. You can put it on when we get there."

She walked past him, pulling on some tight, leather gloves. "I
want to start from the ground up, not the stairway. After all, that
would be cheating, wouldn't it, if we only climbed a
quarter?" She shot him a crafty grin across her shoulder.

He followed after her. "Mara, the temple's very high.
It'll take us all morning to make the climb if we start from the ground."

Mara waited for him to catch up. As they walked down the ramp out of
the YT-2400, she commented, "I suppose we could start at the top
of the stairway if you feel you're getting too old for this type of
thing."

"Too old?" He sputtered, jumping off the end of the ramp as
she had already started the closing code. "Who are you calling
old, woman, I'm not even thirty yet.

"You're still more than a year older than me," she
insisted, grinning at him. "How am I supposed to know? Maybe you are slowing
down."

"Slowing down?" He repeated, aghast. "Listen, you get
your little butt over to that temple. And stay away from the stairway! I'll
show you who's old!"

Mara laughed and started jogging towards the temple, tossing her red-
gold braid over her shoulder.

He quickly ran after her, catching up with her as they neared the far
wall of the giant sanctuary, glad that they had found their old
camaraderie again.

Mara glanced over at him and he shot her a lopsided grin, his big
blue eyes twinkling. She almost stumbled. Stang it, she hated it
when he did that. It always caused the funniest feeling in the pit
of her stomach, as if a giant hand had reached in and twisted her
insides. Lately, that feeling had been happening more and more often
whenever she was with him. And Mara was determined not to explore
the reasons why. She wouldn't admit it in a billion light-years,
but it was one of the reasons that she had left Coruscant in such a
hurry. It wouldn't do at all, no not at all, for her to get
attached to Skywalker in any way.

A Tangled Web - Chapter Five

Three hours later, they were about thirty meters from the top of the
old temple. It hadn't been an easy climb, but at least the sides
of the temple had not been completely smooth nor altogether straight up,
offering them good, if not excellent, hand and footholds. They each
took turns taking the lead. Luke went up first about twenty meters,
then Mara, connected to him via the climbing line, would work her way
up to him, then go about twenty meters more. She would ground
herself and wait for him to climb up to her, then pass her for the
next twenty meters. It was tedious, hard work and the top was a
welcome sight, especially since they had agreed not to use the Force
during the climb, but depend only on their own physical abilities.

Mara wiped the constant steam of sweat from her face, watching as
Luke climbed the twenty meters up to her. She could feel the fatigue
in her calves and quads, in fact, her left leg was trembling a bit,
but she knew she had enough stamina left to make it to the top.

Luke finally reached her level and pulled himself up next to her. He
was breathing heavily and staring up at the top. He wiped his face
on his shoulder. "Next time you suggest something like
this," he muttered, turning his head to look at her, "remind me to say
no."

She laughed softly, handing him her small towel. "Too much for
you, Jedi?"

He pursed his lips. "I shouldn't have let you talk me into
not using the Force during the climb. Maybe I wouldn't feel like I've
been caught in a Dew back stampede." He wiped his arms with her towel
and handed it back to her.

"Well, I'm sure you could have just levitated us to the
top," Mara commented caustically. "But what good would that have done
us?"

"I would probably still be able to walk when we get back to the
ground," Luke shot back, "of which there is some doubt right
now."

"Quit complaining, Skywalker, and go the next twenty meters. If
you don't get moving, we'll be hanging here on the side of this
temple for the rest of the day." Mara started feeding some line out to
him.

He sighed and glanced back up to the top. It looked fairly easy the
rest of the way, and it was a good thing. He hadn't been joking
whence had told her that there was some doubt whether he would walk when
they were through. The muscles in his legs were protesting
vehemently, and he knew he was going to be stiff and sore.

He gathered the extra line and glanced over at her. They were very
close, their sides pressed up against one another. For the first
time, he noticed the lines of tiredness around her eyes. He looked
down and smiled. So...she was feeling it, too, but he knew she would
die before she admitted it.

He took a deep breath and started his climb. There was a great spot
almost exactly twenty meters up. Then there was only ten more. The
thought gave him a surge of energy and he pulled himself up the
difficult temple side.

Mara watched him climb, feeding him more line as he needed it.

He actually made the twenty meters faster than any they had done
before, and it was her turn before she hardly realized it.

He tugged on the rope and called down, "Ready?"

"Yep, coming right up," she answered, checking out the
various hand and footholds. No wonder he had made it up so fast, this was the
easiest section of the climb so far.

When she reached him, she didn't stop but continued on past him,
the lure of the top almost seductive. Only a minute or so later, she
reached it, pulling herself over and flopping on her back, breathing
heavily.

The climbing line around her jerked a couple of times, and
Skywalker's voice floated over the edge to her. "You ready
for me yet?"

Mara took a deep breath, trying to calm the heavy beating of her
heart. "Give me a second," she called.

Luke waited a bit impatiently. He was an anxious as she had been to
reach the top, but it was only a short time before he felt the line
grow taut.

"Okay, Skywalker, come on!" Mara peered over the side at him
and then moved back a bit, bracing her feet against the slight curve of
the top of the temple.

Luke started up, moving quickly. The top was a siren, calling him.
That was probably the reason why he wasn't as careful as he
normally was. He was only five meters from the top when he missed a hold.
When his foot slipped, it forced his hands from their rests and
suddenly he was swinging freely against the rough side of the temple.

The first Mara knew of Luke's impending fall was her own sudden
slide towards the edge of the top. "Luke!" She cried, trying
desperately to stop her own descent and the slip of the rope around her waist.
Finally, her feet caught against the edge of the temple's crest
and she braced herself, the muscles in her arms and legs tightening and
screaming for release.

A short distance below, Luke crashed against the side of the temple,
scraping the skin off his right arm. Desperately, he reached for a
hold, either by hand or foot, as the tight rope at his waist seemed
about to cut him in half. He banged once more, hard, against the
rocky side of the temple, and was about to grab a very promising
handhold when he was jerked violently upwards.

He was going so fast when he came over the temple's edge that he
barreled straight into Mara and flattened her against the temple roof
floor.

"Whoosh!" the air left Mara's lungs and she lay stunned,
with Luke's body covering her.

For long moments, neither said anything. Both struggled to get their
breaths, and Luke was concerned with the burning pain in his arm.
Then something occurred to him and he looked down at Mara. "I
thought you said we weren't going to use the Force," he said
pointedly, his chest heaving.

Mara drew in a long breath, held it for a moment, savoring the new
oxygen flooding into her system, and then let it out in a rush.
"I thought you were falling...I thought the rope was breaking."

Luke nodded, thinking she must have felt that last hit against the
temple wall and believed their lifeline was snapping. "I was
about to gain control again when you pulled me up." He looked at her
consideringly. "That was some pretty impressive use of the
Force, Miss Jade. I don't think I have ever seen you exhibit that much
strength or control."

She looked away, swallowing audibly. He was too close, lying
completely over her with one of his legs pressing tightly between
hers. "Adrenaline, probably," she murmured, trying to answer
his comment, but then she squirmed under him, unable to handle her
body's reactions to him anymore. "Do you think you could get off me?
You're heavy."

Luke blinked. It wasn't that he hadn't known that he was
lying on top of her; it was just that he hadn't been aware of how it felt
until her words. He marveled that she could feel both hard and soft
at the same time. She was in such great shape, her body firm and
sinewy, but her feminine parts screamed out to him, yielding and
pliant.

He bit his bottom lip, noticing that she had turned her head away and
wouldn't look at him. He moved to slide off her when he changed
his mind. Leaning down, he shocked both of them by gently kissing her on
the cheek. "Thanks, Mara," he whispered before rolling off
to the side.

They both lay on their backs, staring up at the Yavin sky, lost in
their individual thoughts. Then Mara sat up suddenly, her hand going
to her cheek. Quickly, she jerked it down again, turned her back to
Luke and started to gather in the loose rope lying about them.

Skywalker had kissed her. She knew it wasn't a big deal, a
simple kiss on the cheek, really just a symbol of affection between two
friends. But that was the problem...they were friends, as much as
two people like them could be friends. But, they had never, ever been
affectionate before, and she wasn't at all sure how she felt
about it. Trouble was, she didn't have that much experience with men.
Oh,she knew people believed that wasn't the case, and she let them.
It
wasn't anybody's business but her own anyway. But the truth
was that she was well into her mid-twenties and had never had a serious
relationship. The Emperor wouldn't permit it when she was
younger, telling her that she didn't need those sorts of distractions if
she
were planning to be his Hand, and that he simply would not permit
it. After his death, in the years that she had wandered about the
galaxy, the kind of men she ran into weren't conducive to the
type of relationship she had in mind. More than once she had to dissuade them
rather harshly from trying for more than she was willing to give. It
wasn't until she joined Karrde's organization that things
seemed to calm down for her. It probably would be considered hilarious in some
quarters to say that some smugglers were gentlemen, but they were.
After a few tentative advances on the part of several of Karrde's
men, which had been firmly, but politely rejected by her, life had
settled down pretty much the way she had wanted it. And then she met
Skywalker...

She stood up, shaking the rather disturbing thoughts away, and
determinedly began to curl the rope around and around her elbow and
fist until she had a tidy circle. She glanced down at Luke and saw
that he had sat up. He was inspecting the deep, bleeding cuts on his
right arm.

"You're hurt, Skywalker," she hissed, squatting down
beside him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He wiped some of the blood from his arm. "It's nothing,
really. Just a few scratches. I thought it might have messed up some of the
electronics in my hand, but everything seems to working okay."
He turned his hand over and back again, moving the fingers back and
forth.

Mara was digging in the small backpack she had carried up the side of
the temple. After only a few moments, she had spread out a series of
bandages, bacta patches, and tape. "Let me look at it," she
ordered, pulling his hand towards her. After inspecting the injury carefully,
she took a soft, cloth bandage and pressed it hard against the
scratches. "I don't think I'll have to stitch anything,
but we have to get the bleeding stopped before I can bandage it." She
removed the soaked bandage and pressed another against his arm.

He watched her as she work, deciding not to remind her that he could
go in a short healing trance and the scratches would soon disappear.
He was more interested in just looking at her. The gas giant Yavin
was high in the noon sky, the light so dazzling it caused eyes, even
those covered with sunshades, to squint against its glaring
brightness. But Luke appreciated it because it once again brought
out the brilliant highlights in Mara's honey-tinged red hair.

Those radiant streaks continually fascinated Luke, and he feared they were
becoming an obsession for him. More than once in the time that he
had known her, he had caught himself staring at that sea of gold and
red. He had first noticed it in the sun-dappled clearings in the
forest on Myrkr then again in Wayland when they had trudged their way
to the Emperor's storehouse. He loved the way she wore her hair
one long braid that hung almost to her waist, and he longed to take
that braid and let it flow through his fingers. He smiled a bit
sadly, thinking that if he ever tried that, he'd probably lose
another hand!

"There...better?" Mara asked, giving the light bandage on his
arm apat. She sat back on her haunches and looked at him. She frowned at
the strange look on his face, especially when his head leaned slowly
to the side, his eyes wandering all over her face.

She cleared her throat. "I said, is that better?"

"What?" Luke asked, suddenly realizing she was talking to
him.

Mara pursed her lips. "I asked you if your arm is all right?
Where were you? Endor?"

Luke shook his head, feeling uncomfortable. It wouldn't do for
Mara to realize what he was thinking about her. He felt along the
bandage, noticing the perfect job Mara had done on it. "It's
great," he said. "Nice work. Sorry, I guess I was lost in thought."

Isn't that the truth, Mara thought, gathering up her first aid
equipment and placing it in her pack. Whatever he had been thinking
about, it had been quite intense, causing him to literally forget
where he was.

She glanced at him, but he was busy picking up his own equipment.
She stood up then, looking around them for the first time. They had
been on the crest of the temple for some time now, yet neither had
taken the time to look at the view, their reason for climbing the
temple in the first place.

Mara walked across the curved roof to the other side, looking out
over the largest jungle she had ever seen. It was immense, so thick
that from this height, it looked like an enormous olive green carpet
covering the entire surface of the planet.

"Great burning comets," she breathed.

Luke came up beside her. "It's really something, isn't
it?"

Mara nodded her head. "I don't think I've ever seen
anything quite like it."
She glanced over at him and asked, "How far into the interior
have you explored?"

Luke moved a small, but painful rock out from under his foot and
handed her a water bottle. "I haven't been very far. Over
towards the south, maybe several kilometers in distance, are some more ruined
temples. There's a small lake, too." He waved his hand
towards the northeast. "I haven't been that way at all, but I found some
old Alliance data cards from when they were here during the Rebellion.
They reported that a small exploration party had gone in a hundred or
so kilometers into the interior. They met a couple of different
tribes of humanoids, primitive and a bit barbaric. It was the
Alliance's decision to leave them alone."

Mara took a long drink from the bottle and then handed it back to
Luke. She walked closer to the edge of the temple roof, fished around
in her pack and brought out a small pair of macro binoculars. She
swept the area with the binoculars, but couldn't penetrate the
solid jungle. "You haven't had any contact with them since
you've been here?"

"Nope. Couldn't even tell you what they look like." He
squinted in

the harsh noon light. "Mara, can I borrow those binoculars for a
moment," he asked.

She handed them over without a word.

He put them to his face and peered at a small speck of light on the
horizon. "Looks like the transport from Coruscant has
arrived."

"Where?" Mara asked, putting her hand over her eyes to
shield them from the glare.

Luke gave her the binoculars. "To the north, near the mountain
range."

Mara saw it. "What are they...about two hours out?"

Luke nodded, considering. "Yes, probably that, give or take a few
minutes."

Mara rubbed her hand along the bottom of her jaw, wiping away some
sweat. "I suppose we should get back then."

Luke frowned ferociously. He didn't want to go back. "Why
don't we just stay here?" he growled.

Mara laughed. "Afraid, Jedi?"

"Of course not," he snapped, fingering the bandage on his
arm. "It's just, in the best of times, I can't stand the man." Luke
thought about the many different times the General had disgusted him. The
man was crude and offensive, and Luke struggled to control his temper
when around him.

Luke gathered the remaining equipment and then glanced over at
Mara. "How well do you know Daiashuut?"

"I've never met him," she replied, attaching the lead
rope to the rings on her waist. "I hear he is a capable general, but that his
personality is a bit suspect."

Now, there's an understatement if I ever heard one, Luke thought.
He made a quick decision. "Look, Mara, the man is capable of saying
anything. You need to be careful around him."

Mara looked up at him in surprise. "I can take care of myself,
Skywalker."

He smiled, "I know you can. He's an obnoxious guy, though.
He can say some appalling things. More than once, Leia has threatened to
tear his tongue out with her bare hands."

Mara laughed, envisioning that particular image in her mind.
"Don't worry, Skywalker, I won't let him bother me."

Luke stared out at the transport in the distance, a bit surprised at
the strong feelings swirling in him. He knew she was more than
capable of taking care of herself, but he felt a strange and powerful
urge to protect her. If the General were to say something he
shouldn't to Mara, Luke was a little afraid of just what he might
do about it.

Chapter 6

They stayed on top of the Great Temple for quite some time, enjoying
the view and talking quietly. Luke showed Mara a few more Force
skills and made her practice her levitation skills. At one point,
she even had him hovering a meter or so in the air until she set him
gently back on the surface.

When they finally began to descend from the Great Temple, they
repelled only to the top of the stairway. They secured their
climbing gear then walked the rest of the way. That choice surprised
Luke somewhat, but Mara insisted, telling him there wasn't any
use in straining his arm anymore.

As they came around the corner of the Temple on their way back to
Luke's quarters, he grabbed her hand, pulling her back into the
shadows. "What is it?" She asked, trying to peer around him.

The General and his party were just entering the long barracks
building, led by Noimi and a few of the young workers. Noimi was
obviously showing them to their rooms for the night.

"Let's wait until they go inside," Luke murmured, holding
her close against him as he leaned back against the wall, out of
sight of the group. "I don't want to talk to them now."

"Good idea," Mara agreed. "We need to clean up before we
see them." She stood on her tiptoes, craning her neck, trying to
see past his shoulder. "I can't believe he brought that many
people with him. What did he think this place was, a holiday
resort?"

"How many did he bring?" Luke asked, dread washing over him.
He hated entertaining people, especially large groups.

"Looks like twenty, maybe twenty-five," Mara told him,
pulling away from him and walking around the corner, heading for the
communication center. Luke followed after her. "I can't be
sure, because they're all in the building now, but it looked as if
there were at least that many," she continued.

When they reached his suite of rooms, they found several messages
awaiting them. One from Noimi put a huge damper on Luke's
evening. She had planned a welcoming reception for the General and his people
for that night. She was sure Luke and Mara would be able to attend,
etc., etc., etc.

"We're not going," Luke said firmly, dropping his
climbing equipment on the floor near the door.

Mara looked at him in astonishment. "You have to go, Skywalker.
He's your guest."

"I didn't invite him here," he snapped. "I don't
want to go, and I don't want to talk about it."

Mara drew herself up to her full height. "Well, we are going to
talk about it, buddy boy," she began, determined not to let him
make such a social blunder.

And then, to the amazement of them both, they quarreled...like a
couple of petulant children. Luke stomped around the apartment,
sputtering and snarling. He didn't want to go, he didn't
have to go, and he wasn't going! He was a grown man; he could make his own
decisions. Mara followed him, trying to coax him one moment and
yelling at the top of her lungs the next. Through it all she tried to
reason with him. Didn't he realize that the General was the
father of one of his workers, he was ex-military and the General was a
higher-ranking officer? When that attempt at persuasion failed,
she tried another. What it would do to his school if he snubbed the
general? He had to go to the reception, there wasn't any way he
could avoid it. The argument went on and on for some time, with Mara
using all the persuasive techniques she could muster. Finally
exhaustion overtook them both and they just gave up.

"I'm going to take a shower," Mara snarled, stomping
towards the bedroom. She fired one final salvo before disappearing
through the door. "You're probably already clean, after
wallowing around in all that self-pity!"

"I am NOT feeling sorry for myself!" Luke shouted after her,
thoroughly annoyed. Mara could make him angrier in a flash than
other people could in hours. He plopped down on the couch with a
loud thump and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. What really
angered him was that he knew she was right, but while they had argued
he hadn't wanted to give her the satisfaction of admitting it. He
knew they were going to have to go to the party, whether he liked it
or not.

When Mara exited the shower, he was waiting for her. When he
reluctantly admitted that she was right and they did have to go to
the party, she only looked at him, one eyebrow raised slightly. To
his relief, she refrained the sarcastic retort he expected and
instead went into action, telling him they needed to spend some time
getting ready. She would make sure that they made the proper
impression. Her mind already swirling with plans, she sent him to
the refresher and told him to leave his hair wet when he came out.
He was puzzled by it, but did what she asked.

When he came from the shower, he was wearing only an old pair of
pants. He had a towel slung over his bare shoulders, and his hair
was still slightly dripping from the shower.

As soon as she saw him, she motioned for him to take a straight-back
chair that she had placed in the center of his living area. She was
wearing a pair of exercise pants and a loose-fitting white cotton
shirt that had no collar.

When he sat in the chair, she whipped out a pair of scissors from
somewhere and began to run her fingers through his wet hair.

"What are you doing?" he asked, eyeing the scissors with some
trepidation.

"I'm going to give you a trim," she said, taking a long
comb and pushing it through his hair, combing his hair straight back
from his forehead, thinking how it looked like fine golden silk. She
glanced down at him for a second and marveled at how young he
looked. This was probably how he looked like when he destroyed the
first Death Star, she mused.

"But Mara, I like my hair the way it is," he protested,
raising his hand to his head.

She batted it down. "Don't worry, Skywalker, I'm not
going to do anything radical. It's just getting a little bit too long and
scruffy looking. It doesn't look neat and tidy anymore. It
won't take long to shape it a little."

Luke started to argue the scruffy looking comment when he looked up
at her out of the corner of his eye. She was standing a little to
his side and intent on his hair, running the comb through it from
front to back. The intensity of her gaze warmed him, and he was
inordinately pleased. It surprised him that she had been looking at
him enough to notice that he needed a haircut. There were times when
he thought she didn't even know what he looked like.

He decided to relax and enjoy it. He leaned his head back and closed
his eyes, liking the feel of the comb running through his damp hair.
He wasn't even concerned when he heard the snipping sound of the
scissors.

She went around to his back, pushed his head forward and snipped off
a little of the long hair near the nape of his neck. Then, she moved
to his other side, trimming along his sideburns some, all the time
moving her hand through his hair, smoothing and shaping. It was so
soothing and restful that he was almost asleep when she stepped
around in front of him and slipped her long, slender legs in between
his as she moved even closer to him. She ran her fingers through his
bangs again, pushing them back from his forehead.

Luke stiffened, his eyes flying open. Her arms were on each side of
his head and their bodies were as close as they had been when she had
suddenly kissed him the day she had arrived in her freighter. He
began to breathe shallowly between his slightly parted lips as she
said softly, "Hold still. I need to trim the top a little."

She was fresh from the shower and her scent filled his nostrils,
warm, comforting and intoxicating. He took a long, deep breath,
drawing it in and savoring it, her sheer seductiveness almost
overwhelming him. Emperor's bones! How long had it been since a
woman had been this close to him, and such a woman!

And then she leaned forward.

Luke stifled a groan, all at once feeling as weak as a newborn
vornskr. Her loose cotton shirt was almost transparent at this
distance, and it was obvious that Mara had neglected to put on any of
her underwear yet. Her well-shaped, firm breasts swayed gently in
the thin shirt, scant centimeters from his face.

When she reached across to cut a particularly long section of his
hair, her breasts moved with her, the tiny, pink nipples staring him
straight in the eye.

Heroically, he fought an unbelievably powerful urge to lean forward
and take one of those nipples, shirt and all, inside his eager
mouth. Although he fought the urge, he lost the other battle he was
raging. There wasn't a thing he could do about it, no matter how
Force-strong an individual he was. His loins burst into a frenzied
fire, blazing uncontrollably, and inside his old pants, his manhood
went as hard as a block of demarcate. He jerked the towel off his
shoulder and into his lap, grimacing horribly.

"Stop fidgeting," Mara ordered, clipping away. "I'm
almost through."

Luke took a long breath, then released it slowly, feeling it
shuddering its way through his dry, parched lips. She was going to
kill him after all. She had just decided on a different method. A
low moan escaped him. He couldn't stop it.

Mara frowned and put her hand on his bare shoulder. Then she jerked
it away. His skin was so warm, so flushed. She looked down and then
wished she hadn't. His face was a centimeter away from the front
of her shirt and for the first time, she could feel his quick, hot
breath, flowing right through the thin fabric onto her...

She stepped back quickly, her mouth falling slightly open as her face
filled with color, and they stared at one another. There wasn't
any use in either one of them denying anything; it was perfectly obvious
what had just occurred.

Luke looked at her helplessly. "I'm sorry..." he began,
but she cut him off. "No...no, I..." she didn't finish, but turned
quickly and all but ran into the bedroom.

She was back in a nanosecond, walking quickly across the living
area. "You probably need..." she started, "I mean, you
need to wash your hair again since I cut it. The refresher...it's...it's
empty," she finished in a rush and disappeared in the kitchen.

Luke looked down and then laughed weakly. He thought he had just
witnessed an all-time first. Mara was disconcerted. The Mara Jade,
Ms. Self-Possession herself, was flustered. He was glad he had been
there to see it.

He stood awkwardly, holding the towel in front of his waist and
walked stiffly into the bedroom, heading for the very cold water of
the shower.

In the kitchen, Mara sat at the small table, her head cupped in her
hands. She was breathing heavily, her mouth open, the sound
extraordinarily loud in the little room. She sat up, looked down at
herself, and slowly pulled her shirt away from her chest. She
swallowed, staring at her breasts as if she had never seen them
before. The pink tips were hard as nails, straining forward, and
aching...aching for someone to touch them. Mara released her shirt
and dropped her head back into her hands. Oh gods, she moaned
silently, castigating herself because she knew exactly who she wanted
to touch them. And what if he had? What would he have done, she
wondered, if she had fallen into his arms like a starving bantha?

But she had just stood there, like some awestruck teenager, running
her fingers over and over through his hair as if she couldn't get
enough of the feel of it. Mara groaned again. This was getting out
of hand, she told herself fiercely, completely out of hand. She
needed to get out of there...and quickly...before something happened
that they both would regret. But you can't leave now, a little
voice argued with her. He needs you more than ever with the General
arriving to cause who knew what kind of trouble. She breathed a heavy
sigh and worked to reclaim the trademark Jade composure that had so
totally fled.

Across the suite, in the shower, the cold water wasn't doing any
good. Luke rubbed his hot face against the cold tiles but his
overheated body was insistent. Slowly, his hand moved across his
thigh. Damn it, Mara, he thought, I'm sorry. His hand gripped
and then began moving as images from the evening formed in his mind.
Those beautiful, tantalizing breasts swayed and bounced on the back
of his eyelids. Only this time, his mouth closed on one of them, his
hands moving behind her back to press her tightly into him. His
tongue laved over the tiny tip, wetting it, soaking it, worshipping
it. He felt her hands stroke through his hair again and he moved to
her other breast, pulling the tip in and sucking fiercely.

A harsh groan burst out of Luke and his body convulsed, once, twice
and then again, emptying his desire against the side of the shower.
A Jedi knows no passion, his old master's voice echoed faintly in
his head. "Shut up, Yoda," he moaned against the shower
wall." You never met Mara Jade."

 Chapter Seven

When Luke came out of the shower a few minutes later, some of his
clothes were already lying on the bed. He walked over, a little
surprised, yet pleased at that same time. Mara had taken the time to
rummaged through his closet and set out his clothes for him. A pair
of black formal trousers lay nestled against a silky white dress
shirt with four lines of delicate loinae lace running down its
front. Near it laid a jacket he had forgotten he owned. It was dark
gray and short-waisted with two longer tails in the back. Thin, red
piping circled the end of the sleeves and around the high stiff
collar. He had bought the jacket on a whim and had worn it only once
many years before at one of the ceremonial events after the Alliance
had defeated the Empire. He sighed, feeling a bit uncomfortable with
the formality. After all, he was just a farmboy from a dustbowl
planet, and deep down, that's all he would ever be.

He glanced at the door to the living area knowing that Mara was
there, waiting for him to dress before she could have her turn in the
bedroom. He pulled on his clothes quickly, then took just a bit more
time to comb his flaxen hair before the big mirror in the refresher.
Mara had actually done a great job on it, as good as any barber he
had been to. It might still be a bit long on the top,
but...well...that was understandable. He had spent almost all his
time in the shower wondering what in Hoth they were going to say to
one another. But the more he thought about it, he decided that
knowing Mara, the details of what had happened in the living area
would not be atopic of conversation between them. That wouldn't keep him from
thinking about it, though. Something had happened between them that
was affecting him greatly, and he was unsure if it had affected her
at all. But he was too honest a person not to admit that his
feelings for Mara had been steadily growing over the past few
months. He had been attracted to her from the very first, even when
she had stared at him with all that hate in her eyes and a blaster
pointed at his heart when they had been in the forest on Myrkr. Yet,
he had sensed even then that there was something special about her.
They had a certain affinity between them that he had never
experienced before with anyone. The closest he could compare it to
was his link with Leia. But Leia was his sister, and his feelings
for Mara were anything but brotherly.

When Luke opened the door of the bedroom and walked out into the
living area, he was shocked to realize that Mara wasn't there.
He hurried into the kitchen, knowing even as he did so that he
wouldn't find her. As he moved back into the living area, panic beginning to
boil inside the pit of his stomach. Surely, she couldn't have
left. But he knew in his heart that she was very capable of doing just
that.

With a sinking feeling, he caught sight of a blinking light on his
comlink station and he knew it was a message from her. He walked
slowly over, dreading it the whole way, and keyed in the code.

"Skywalker," Mara's voice filled the room. "I've
gone over to the YT for my clothes. I'll dress on the ship. When you're ready,
why don't you come by and we'll leave from there."

The relief he felt as her words sunk in, stunned him so much he had
to sit down. The fact that he could feel such a sense of despair,
such desolation over the idea that she could have left again without
even a word was a revelation in itself. His crystal blue eyes were
wide, yet he saw nothing but the secrets in his heart. Loving Mara
Jade had not been something he had set out to do, nor anything he had
ever planned on. But it existed now, as deep and as abiding as
anything he had ever felt or would ever feel again.

Luke put his elbows on the comlink desk, rested his head in the palms
of his hands and stared at the beige carpet of the living area. He
didn't suppose that anything was ever going to be easy for him in
his life. Nothing so far had been, so why had he thought that falling in
love with someone would be simple, uncomplicated, and straightforward.

He leaned back in the chair. If by sheer luck he were able to
convince Mara to share his life, living with her would not always be
easy. More than likely, it would be a daily challenge that would
push him to his limits. They were both too stubborn, too quick-
tempered, and too full of angst and regret for past mistakes. But if
this was to be his fate, he knew he would embrace it with all his
being. He loved her, he literally adored her, and there wasn't
any use in denying it any longer.

When Luke got to the small freighter, he found that she had left down
the entry ramp, and he had walk on, calling her name. She answered
him from her sleeping quarters, so he turned and entered the room by
its open door, briefly appreciating its warm softness and art..

He stopped abruptly when he saw her sitting at a tiny vanity across
the small room. Their eyes caught in the large mirror behind it and
a thousand things were revealed in that glance, although unspoken
either by mouth or through the Force.

Luke moved farther into the room until he was beside her, and she
stood to meet him. "You look beautiful, Mara," he said
softly, meaning every word and fighting the desire to touch her. Her hair
had been unbraided and pulled up onto her head in long, elegant curls
that caressed the back of her neck and the sides of her face. Small,
sparkling pieces of glitter were sprinkled randomly throughout her
hair and warred with the glorious natural radiance in which they
nested.

She was wearing a long, emerald green gown, form-fitting with one
long slit that rose to the thigh on her right leg. The neckline
plunged, exposing enough cleavage to cause Luke to swallow abruptly,
memories of those breasts swaying in front of his eyes all to new.

She smiled shyly up at him. "You're look rather handsome
yourself,Farmboy." And then her eyes dropped and she stepped away from
him, his nearness a little too intoxicating.

"Luke, I..." she started, but he stopped her, raising his
fingers to her lips. "Mara, I know we have many things that we need to
discuss, but I want us to have all the time we need...not have a party or
reception hanging over us when we do. Let's get this reception
over tonight and then we'll talk."

Mara searched his face with her eyes and even tentatively reached out
with the Force to touch him mind, trying to assess his emotions, but
then she stopped, worried that he would resent her probing.

She was so scared, frightened at what had occurred between them and
frightened where it all might be leading. She had so little
experience in what one could call a real relationship. And for them,
there were so many problems, so many complications...but he was
right. Now wasn't the time to discuss it.

She smiled. "Well, let's go and impress the guests,
Farmboy."

"After you, my fair lady," he replied, taking her hand and
sliding it though his arm. They walked out of the freighter and headed for the
Great Temple.

***************************

The party was in full swing with they entered the Great Hall. With
all that had happened in the evening, they were more than fashionable
late, but it probably couldn't have worked out better if they had
tried to arrange it. They stood in the center of the huge double
doors to the giant room. Their appearance created such a sensation
that the entire reception came to a grinding standstill while every
eye in the place focused on them.

"Told you we would knock them dead," Mara murmured, pressing
a little closer to him. After all, these people had to think that Luke
Skywalker was her man, and maybe, maybe just for this evening,
she'd actually let herself believe it a little too.

Luke squeezed her hand on his arm, smiling and nodding to each person
as they walked into the great hall. People were whispering and
pointing at them as they made their way across the huge room. Luke
was uncomfortable as always at being the center of attention, but
then saw someone who made him sigh with relief. "Look," he
whispered. "There's Noimi." Then his voice changed
noticeably, "and that's the general and his wife with her."

Mara couldn't believe her eyes. "That's the
general?" She asked in utter astonishment. The small human male next to Noimi, the older
woman who served as Luke's joint communication officer/cook, had
to be a centimeter or two shorter than Mara. He was so corpulent the
buttons of his dress uniform where strained to their maximum extent.

*Size matters not,* Luke murmured in her head, steering her in that
direction. *Watch yourself.*

*What do you think he's going to do, Skywalker, jump me in front
of everybody,* Mara retorted with a chuckle.

Noimi's smile almost split her face when she saw them. "Jedi
Skywalker and Miss Jade, we are so glad you were able to make
it."
Luke flinched a little at the slight admonishment in her voice,
feeling guilty that he had left everything to her.

"I'm sorry, Noimi, we were a little detained," Luke
smiled, taking her hand and holding it gently, not wanting her to be upset with
him.

Apparently, he succeeded because Noimi's smile widened even
further and then she turned to the man beside her. "Have you met the
General yet, Luke?"

Luke glanced at Diaishuut and said, a bit coolly, "Yes, I have
andhow are you, General?" He couldn't bring himself to welcome
the man, but he was doing his best to be polite. But the general hardly
noticed at him, his eyes were firmly fixated on Mara. Luke cleared
his throat, "May I introduce my very good friend, Mara Jade."

The general's eyes roamed all over Mara, as if he was mentally
undressing her, one piece of clothing at a time.

*See what I mean,* Luke snapped in Mara's mind. "The
man's a Hutt in
disguise.*

*I'm beginning to get the idea,* Mara answered, her face trying
notto mirror her distaste as the general took her hand. *You're
right,* she laughed. *But I think he looks much more like Bubo!"

Luke did his best to smother his laughter at Mara's referral to
the bug-eyed, frog-like creature who had been a spy for Jabba the Hutt.

"I must say, Skywalker, you certainly know how to surround
yourself with beautiful women," the general smirked. "First, that
gorgeous sister of yours and now this beauty." The general tried to pull
Mara closer, but she resisted, politely removing her hand from his. Very
pointedly, she moved it, so that her two hands linked over Luke's
arm.

"How nice of you, General Diaishuut," she said sweetly and
gazed up at Luke adoringly, acting for all she was worth.

Noimi entered the conversation again. "I'm sure you would
like to meet the general's wife." She turned to the woman next to
her. "Mrs. Diaishuut, may I present Luke Skywalker and Mara
Jade."

Mara blinked. The woman was at least five centimeters taller than
Luke and as thin as a durasteel railing. Her face reflected a
haughty, superior attitude and the pinched nose of a very unhappy
person.

*Luke,* Mara whispered astoundingly in his mind. *Can you believe
they're married?*

After some cursory words of greeting, the general's wife ignored
them.

"Well, if it isn't Mara Jade herself and in the company of
the hero, Luke Skywalker, no less," a voice interrupted them. "Now,
who would have ever believed that?"

They turned to see a humanoid male, with long dark strands of coarse
hair and enormous brown and gold eyes. Mara all but
gasped, "P'faaru!"

*Who's that?* Luke asked in her mind, wondering at her startled
expression.

*He's the reporter who was in my apartment,* Mara explained in
astonishment. *The one I found going through my things.*

*This just keeps getting more and more interesting, doesn't it?*
Luke replied, looking the holo-reporter over.

P'faaru grinned, showing some large fine-pointed blue
teeth. "Surprised to see me, Jade? A few days in the bacta tank
had me as good as new, no thanks to you."

"I wouldn't have hurt you, P'faaru, if you hadn't
been sneaking around in my apartment in the dead of night," Mara replied
tartly.

To her surprise, the holo-reporter nodded. "Yes, I suppose I
deserved everything I got. I shouldn't have done that." He
looked over at Luke and grinned. "It appears as if I had just waited a
little while I would have gotten my story anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean," Mara questioned warily.

"Well, just look at you two," the humanoid answered smugly.
"After all that denying and renouncing on Coruscant, I come to this backward
jungle of a planet and find you playing house." He grinned
unabashedly at them. "Lucky I decided to come on this little
trip with the dear old general, isn't it?"

"Look," Luke said, taking a step towards him.

"No, Luke," Mara said, warning him. She slipped away from
Luke and took the holo-reporter's arm. "Why don't we dance,
P'faaru, and we'll talk about it."

The humanoid's toothy grin got larger. "Sounds like a good
plan tome, Jade. Just promise you won't hurt me," he teased,
half-serious.

Mara laughed. "I never make promises I can't keep,
P'faaru."

The holo-reporter put his head back and barked out a string of hoots
and squeals, obviously his species' version of laughter.
"There is never a dull moment with you, Jade, is there? But you know, I think
I'll take my chances." He offered her a long, thin arm and
off they went to the dance floor.

Luke watched them leave with disgust. He had wanted the first dance
with Mara.

"Quite a woman you got there, Skywalker," a voice intruded on
his thoughts. "I bet she keeps you plenty busy in bed, doesn't
she?"

Luke turned to find Diaishuut beside him. "Tell me, General, do
you have to practice being crude or does it just come naturally?"

Diaishuut smiled nastily. "Watch out, Jedi boy, don't forget
who you're talking to."

Luke scratched his ear and looked the general directly in the
eye. "Oh, I don't think I'd be able to forget that."

"You think you're quite something, don't you, boy, you
and that smart-mouth sister of yours, but one of these days, you're going to get
exactly what you deserve," Diaishuut spit out viciously.

Luke frowned, a bit puzzled by Diaishuut's obviously intense
dislike, but not wanting things to develop into a confrontation, he only
said, "I'm sure we'll all get what we deserve in the end,
General. Now, if you will excuse me, Noimi promised me a dance.">>

Sorry this has taken so long, but I've gone back to the land of the
working since my summer break and haven't had as much time as I
usually do.

Hope everyone enjoys this chapter:

Chapter 8

Mara was surprised at the skill of the holo-reporter who twirled her
around the dance floor so expertly. He was tall and lanky, and
Mara's head barely reached his chest, but they moved together very well and
she was enjoying herself. It had been a long time since she had
danced with anyone so talented.

The humanoid dipped her low over his arm and then spun her a few
times as they glided across the floor, skillfully avoiding the other
dancers. "So, Jade, what do you have to tell me?"

Mara put on her most innocent face. "Nothing, P'faaru, nothing at
all."

"You're fracturing both my hearts, Jade," P'faaru grinned, capably
swinging her around again. "You know the news is going to break
eventually, so why not give me an exclusive. Then you won't have to
deal with the rest of the pack of Wok sniffers over there." He
nodded over her head to where a mixed group of humans and aliens had
gathered in the corner.

"All of those people are holo-reporters?" Mara gasped, sizing up the
group. There had to be more than a dozen.

"Yes, the illustrious general requested a full allotment from most of
the New Republic press corp," P'faaru told her. He glanced down at
her, lifting one of his very bushy eyebrows. "Do you suppose he
thought we might find a good story here?"

"I have no idea what the general was thinking, P'faaru," Mara said
darkly, some of her enjoyment in the dance fading away. "As far as I
know, the general had no idea I was here. Besides, with his ego, I
would think he wouldn't want to share the limelight."

"I tend to agree with you, my dear," P'faaru concurred. He glanced
over at the general who was staring angrily at Luke Skywalker as he
danced somewhat awkwardly with his communication officer. "The
general definitely wants more than his fair share of attention."
P'faaru did a rather complicated dance sequence that Mara followed
perfectly. He grinned down at her, appreciating their dance and
complimenting her about it. "Well done, Jade." Then his smile faded
as he seemed to come to a quick decision. "You know, Mara, if I were
you, I'd stay away from the general...you and Skywalker would do well
to avoid him."

Mara looked up at him in surprise. "Why do you say that?"

P'faaru sighed. "It's nothing I can put my finger on, but all the
way here from Coruscant, he kept making...well, I suppose you would
characterize them as mildly derogatory remarks."

Mara couldn't keep the astonishment from her face. "About Luke and
me? Why would he...he hardly knows us."

"He did mention you both a few times," P'faaru said, his brow
wrinkled with concentration. "But I had the feeling it was more about the
Jedi order than you two in particular."

Mara glanced over at the rotund figure of the general. "That's very
interesting, P'faaru. I'm glad you told me."

"Enough to consider you might owe me something?" P'faaru grinned.

"Owe you something?" Mara repeated cautiously.

Giving a huge, exaggerated sigh, P'faaru intoned, "A story, Jade, a
story. Surely you haven't forgotten!"

Mara laughed out loud. "You never give up, do you?"

"Of course not, my dear. I wouldn't get very far in my profession if
I did!"
P'faaru laughed with her.

Suddenly, the music ended and they found themselves standing near one
of the huge bay doors that led out to one of the many balconies that
surrounded the Great Hall.

"I'll tell you what, P'faaru, when and if there is a story, I'll make
sure you get an exclusive on it," Mara offered, deciding that she
rather liked him after all. Just for a moment, she felt a twinge of
guilt over hurting him so badly when she had found him in her
apartment on Coruscant.

P'faaru studied her for quite a long moment, then said, "I'm going to
have to settle for that, aren't I?"

Mara nodded, smiling at him gently.

He sighed, then lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it with his
large lips. "Thank you, my dear, for a lovely dance. Perhaps we can
share another again sometime?"

"I'd like that, P'faaru," Mara told him, meaning it literally. "Now,
I think I'll go out on the balcony for some nice, fresh air and a few
moments to myself."

P'faaru nodded and left her to join some of his colleagues across the
room.

Mara wandered out on the balcony.

**********

For once, in the hot, humid climate of Yavin IV, a breeze was
blowing.
It felt wonderful against Mara's skin, which was slightly damp from
the exertion of dancing.

She walked to the edge of the balcony, which wasn't really all that
high, no more than fifteen or twenty meters from the ground, and
leaned against the demarcate railing. The wind lifted her curls back
from her face and she closed her eyes, enjoying it.

The night was loud and electric with the jungle sounds of Yavin IV.
It teemed with life as the nocturnal creatures went about their usual
concerns.

Mara leaned a little farther out over the railing, peering into the
darkness, trying to catch a glimpse of some of Yavin's more exotic
organisms.

"I find it all just too interesting, you know." The unfamiliar voice
intruded on Mara's solitude and she wasn't happy about it, as she was
enjoying her few moments alone. She was even more unhappy when she
turned and found the little general standing only a short away.

She leaned her back against the railing, and asked with a sigh, "And
what do you find so interesting, General Diaishuut?"

He walked a little closer. "You Jedi, of course. You have such
intriguing talents. What were you doing now, conversing with the
mass
of tropical animals below?"

Mara frowned slightly, puzzled about where this conversation was
leading. "I can't talk with animals, General." She waved her hand
at
the jungle. "I was just appreciating life at its fullest."

He joined her at the railing. "So you can't talk with them, but you
can make them do things if you want, right? Things against their
will. You can even make sentient beings do things you wished them to
do, whether they want to or not. Isn't that true?"

Mara moved away a little along the railing, turned, and peered down
into the well of darkness below. "Some Jedi have the power to
suggest
things, I suppose," she murmured, not willing to admit much.

"Suggest!" the general exclaimed scornfully. "You seriously don't
expect me to believe that it's as simple as that!"

There was an uncomfortable few moments of silence between them, with
the cries and calls of the Yavin nightlife the only sounds.

Finally, the general slide his short, plump body along the railing
until he was next to Mara again. He had a peculiar expression when
he
turned to her, his eyes wandering over her face and body. "So, Miss
Jade, how long have you and Skywalker been an item? For some time
now? I suppose, when one thinks about it, it was only a matter of
time."

"Time, General?" Mara asked quizzically.

"Of course. Jedi have always gravitated toward one another for
relationships. What history we have left of them speaks of those
strong, binding associations."

"You make it sound like a business deal, General," Mara returned
smartly.

He turned so his side was to the railing and he could see Mara's
face.
"Business deal? Far from it, I'm sure." He leaned a little closer
to her and Mara fought not to move away. There was something not
right about the general, something that caused her danger sense to
flare ever so slightly, even though he had done his best to keep from
giving her that impression. Mara watched him warily, even though she
tried not to show it.

"I would expect that the Jedi would turn to each other because of
what
they could share in the bedroom, don't you think, my dear?" the
general continued, his pale brown eyes watching her.

Mara's green eyes narrowed. "I don't have any idea what you're
talking about, General."

"Oh, come now, Miss Jade. First the Emperor's plaything and now
Skywalker's." The general pushed himself away from the railing, his
hands rushing forward and gripping Mara about her waist. "You
probably
know every erotic Jedi trick in the book."

Mara couldn't believe her ears. "General," she warned, a vision of
removing his hands, not from her body, but his, dancing in her mind.

He interrupted her in a breathy rush. "Skywalker's just a boy
though,
so he probably can't teach you very much." The General tightened his
grasp and pulled Mara toward him. "I'm sure you do all the teaching
with him, but with Palpatine..." The general's hot, excited breath
scorched Mara's cheek. "Listen, Jade, why don't you show me the
things you learned from the Emperor? I'm sure I could really make it
worth your while.

That did it. Mara had been warring with herself on just how to
handle
this delicate, little situation with the general. After all, it was
only a few hours ago that she had shouted and yelled like a crazed
mynock because Luke hadn't wanted to come to the welcoming reception.
So it certainly wouldn't do for her to break the General's pudgy
little neck for him, would it? And what sort of scandal would it
cause for Luke's Jedi school? But that last remark from the tubby
general was too much and Mara found the battle taking a decidedly
sharp shift. So with a little push from the Force, she threw him out
over the balcony to let him hang in mid-air, like a trussed up dinko,
above the huge, jungle trees of Yavin.

*Luke!* she shouted through the Force. *Get out here!*

Standing and talking with a group of minor officers who had
accompanied the general on his trip to Yavin, Luke was smiling and in
mid-sentence when his head suddenly jerked up and his eyes glazed
over. *What's wrong?* he sent as he started quickly towards the
balcony, leaving the group of men to watch after him in puzzlement.

*Just get out here. We've got a problem!*

Luke tried not to appear as if he was running across the dance floor,
but he did move as rapidly as possible towards the balcony. He came
to an abrupt halt after he passed through the big, heavy bay doors.

Mara was standing near the railing, her right arm extended from her
body and shaking visibly. A trickle of sweat rolled down the side of
her face. "I can't hold him much longer, although it might be a good
idea if I just let him fall," she said, her voice betraying the
strain
she was under.

"Who are you talking about?" Luke asked as he walked towards her.
That's when he saw him. "Emperor's bones, Mara, what are you doing?"
he gasped, as the general's floating body slowly began to drift
downward.

"Skywalker, get me down from here," the general snarled. His arms and
legs were flailing about, making him look remarkably like an insect
stuck through with a pin.

"You had better take him and quickly," Mara gasped. "If he keeps
moving around like that, I'm going to drop him."

Luke extended his arm and the general suddenly ascended a meter or so
into the air. "What did he do?" Luke asked Mara, ignoring the
sputtering and stammering general who was cursing them in what seemed
to be several different languages.

Mara's trembling arm dropped and she sagged against the balcony
railing. Using that much Force always left her a bit weak, and she
took a moment to regain her composure. Wiping the sweat from her
cheek with her hand, she said simply, "He made me mad."

Luke shot the general a dirty look and quickly let him fall a meter
or
two to just above the treetops. "Skywalkerrrr!" the portly Diaishuut
screamed, before his sudden stop choked his cry off.

Luke flinched at the noise the general was making and was glad that
the music was so loud coming through the bay doors. He looked back
at Mara and anger suddenly cruised through him. "Did he touch you?" he
snarled. If that nasty little man had had the nerve to...

"No, no, not really," Mara told him quickly, staring curiously at
him." He never had the chance. It was more what he said than anything
else."

Just for a moment, Luke took his gaze from the general and looked at
Mara. "Come here," he ordered.

Mara lifted an eyebrow at his tone, but decided now wasn't the time
to argue over it. She moved over until she was slightly in front of him.

He looked her directly in the eye. "Did he touch you?" he asked
again.

Puzzled, Mara shook her head. "He put his hands on my waist, but
that wasn't really anything. It was just that he made some rather
inappropriate remarks. I didn't let him get any farther than that."
She waved her hand towards the jungle. "I put him out there before
head a chance."

Luke nodded, transferring his attention back to the general. Very
slowly, he lifted the general until he was even with the balcony
again, and Luke brought him gently over the railing and deposited him
onto the floor about five meters from where he and Mara were standing.

The general was furious, his puffy face red and blotchy with anger.
"You...you Jedi freaks," he growled viciously. "So help me, I will
see the end of all of you. The Emperor was right when he rid the
galaxy of your kind. You're nothing but a monstrosity, an accident
of nature, and you should have been put to sleep when you were born.
Both of you...and that sister of yours, too!" He glared at them,
straightened out his uniform and stomped through the doors into the
ballroom.

He left behind one stunned and one not-so-surprised Jedi.

"You know," Mara said wonderingly. "I have heard of it, but I think
it's really the first time I've ever encountered it."

"What's that?" Luke asked softly, acutely aware of how close she was
standing. He took her hand and pulled her to him. He didn't want to
think about the general. The man had done so many despicable things
in the past, that nothing concerning him surprised Luke anymore.

Mara looked up at him in astonishment as his arm went around her
waist. "Pre...Prejudice," she stammered, spellbound by the intense
look in his eyes. "Prejudice towards the Jedi," she finished with a
rush.

"Don't worry about it. Most people aren't like him," Luke whispered
as his head bent towards her. "Did he hurt you?" he breathed, his
lips only a fraction away from hers.

She shook her head slightly, as mesmerized as a womprat in the
headlights of a landspeeder. "No," she whispered so softly he didn't
even hear it. Her lips opened slightly when his hungry mouth closed
over them, and all coherent thought vanished in a cloud of vaporized
smoke.

He pulled her tightly against him; his mouth crushing hers, as if
something he had been holding inside had finally been released. He
squeezed her so firmly it was almost painful, but she didn't
complain. She laid her hands against his chest and then wandered them slowly
up until they passed over his strong shoulders and around to his back,
pulling him even closer.

She had been kissed before, mainly experiments in intellectual
curiosity on her part, but nothing in her life had ever prepared her
for kissing this Jedi. His emotions flooded into her, her barriers
slapped down before she had even thought of raising them...burning
desire, intense longing, seething need and something so powerful her
mind flinched from it.

She pushed away from him, gasping, "Luke?"

But he didn't give her a chance to say anything else. "Shhh..." he
whispered, his hand going to the back of her head, pulling her to him
again and holding her steady as he covered her mouth once more with
his. And suddenly, the self-confident, self-assured,
always-in-control Mara Jade vanished somewhere over the balcony
railing, disappearing into the Yavin jungle below. Left behind was a
quivering, shaking woman who opened her mouth and welcomed the tongue
of the man she knew instinctively was meant to be her lover.

Chapter 9

The kiss seemed to last forever and when it ended, they were gasping
for breath and clinging to one another. The extent of the emotion
between them had taken them both by surprise. And finally, albeit
reluctantly, Mara pulled away.

They stared intently at one another, at a loss for what to say. Mara
eventually moved to the balcony railing again, apparently finding
something terribly interesting in the jungle below.

Luke moved up beside her. "Mara," he said softly, and put
his hand on her shoulder, turning her towards him. "That...that was
incredible."

A slight pink colored Mara's cheeks. "Well, that's all
well and good, Farmboy, but I don't think that was part of the agreement,
waist?" she said, stepping away from his hand. The kiss had
touched her like no other she had ever experienced, but it also frightened
her. Just what was she getting herself into? And was she ready for
what a kiss like that could lead to?

Luke watched her move away, and then followed her. "If we are to
convince everyone we're a couple, Mara, then I suppose we have to
kiss occasionally," he rationalized; knowing the kiss they shared
had nothing to do with their little charade of pretending to be a
couple. If he had his way, kissing and a lot more would be all they
would spend their time doing. Something about Mara moved him more
than any other woman he had ever been close to, and if it were left
up to him, their friendship would deepen into a much more meaningful
relationship.

She laughed. "I know we have to kiss, but it should be when and
where people can see us, right? Well Luke," she waved her hand
around the vacant balcony, "there's no one around but us, and
kissing...kissing like that when we are alone was not part of the
bargain."

"Mara, you can't tell me you weren't touched by that
kiss," Luke argued softly, stepping closer to her. "You can't tell me
you didn't feel something, too. Forget the bargain...I think it's time we talk
about us."

"Us?" She turned to look up at him in astonishment. Yet
there was something else Luke could see deep in her eyes, something she
couldn't quite hide...hope, expectation, wistfulness? He smiled
gently, placing his hands on the sides of her face. "Yes,
us."

Behind them, careening through the open bay doors, came a group of
the young people who served as workers on the academy construction
site. Laughing too loudly, too exuberantly, and bouncing crazily off
one another, they failed to notice Luke and Mara until the one in the
lead stopped abruptly, causing the others to bump into him.

"Oh, sorry, Mr. Skywalker," Deco, the oldest boy in the
group, said. "We didn't mean to interrupt." He waved his hand at
the others, urging them to be quiet. Quickly, they complied, but their curiosity
was almost palpable in the heavy night air.

Mara turned away and Luke stepped in front of her, hiding her from
their concerted gaze. "It's alright, Deco, we were just
going in fora dance, weren't we, my love?" He took Mara's hand and
gently pulled her towards the doors.

As they entered the Great Hall, the reception was at its height,
dancers zigzagging about the floor to loud music and laughter. At
their entrance, most of the eyes in the place centered on them again.

Mara sighed heavily. "I don't think I'll ever get used
to being so...stared at. First all those kids, and now this."

"Just ignore it. After awhile, you don't even notice
anymore," Luke told her, sweeping her suddenly onto the dance floor.

Mara struggled for a moment, trying to match his steps, then fell
perfectly into rhythm with him. "You know, Skywalker," she
said sternly, "you're suppose to ask a woman to dance, not just
drag her into the middle of the floor."

He grinned down at her, turning her expertly.

She lifted an eyebrow. "Not bad, Farmboy. Where did you learn
to dance like this?"

The music was one of those songs that wasn't particularly slow,
nor particularly fast, a simple and uncomplicated rhythm that was easy to
follow. "Leia thought I should have a few lessons after she saw
me attempting to dance at one of the government receptions she forced me
to attend," Luke told her, humming a little with the music.

"I would never have believed it after seeing you dance with Noimi
earlier," Mara joked, enjoying the feel of his arms around her
again.

"I suspect it's the change in partners that makes all the
difference," Luke countered, pulling her closer.

To their mutual regret, the song ended, and Mara stepped out of his
arms, turning to walk off the dance floor, but Luke took her hand and
pulled her back to him. "Wait...one more, please? I've been
waiting all night to dance with you, Mara."

His eyes were mischievous, teasing, and Mara smiled in spite of
herself. "Alright, but after this, I think we should go.
It's getting late, and we've probably made enough of an impression on
this group."

To their surprise, the lights dimmed and a slow, romantic melody
started. Mara's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You didn't
have anything to do with that, did you?" she accused.

Luke laughed aloud. "Now, Mara, how could I have done anything
about the music?" He pulled her into his arms, sliding his hands
around her waist and nestling her against his chest. "Come on, put your
arms around my neck and let's dance."

Mara wasn't totally convinced, but she complied, easing her hands
around him to clasp them together at his nape.

He smiled down at her, his big blue eyes caressing her, and Mara took
a deep breath. She was a bit surprised at Luke, not quite believing
that the Farmboy she thought she knew would be so good at the
somewhat intimate banter couples exchanged. Yet, she was pleased
too, appreciating his confidence and strength.

She laid her head on his shoulder, listening to the husky voice of
the female singer.

`In a way I know my heart is waking up

As all the walls come tumblin' down

Closer than I've ever felt before and I know and you know

There's no need for words right now...'

Mara wasn't surprised when she felt Luke's head turn and
nuzzle against her hair. The song was slow and romantic, and their bodies
moved easily together. She closed her eyes as Luke turned her
gently. They were hardly dancing, just swaying really. She sighed
and opened her eyes, then stiffened abruptly. Not far away, along
the wall, stood General Diaishuut. It didn't take any Jedi power
to sense the anger and hatred emitting from him.

"What is it?" Luke whispered, not understanding why she had
gone so rigid.

"The general," she whispered back, turning her face into
Luke's neck. "I don't think he's very happy with us."

"Where is he?" Luke sighed. Was that man going to
continually try to ruin their evening?

"Over against the wall," Mara mumbled and Luke turned her
until her back faced the wall. The look the two men exchanged was not pleasant
and Luke had a feeling it wouldn't be the last time they would
have to deal with the general. But then Luke casually danced on,
effectively ignoring the general, and moving them away until they
were far across the room.

"Forget him," Luke murmured, caressing her hair with his
lips. "Let's just dance and forget him...forget them
all." He hugged her tighter to him and Mara locked her arms around his neck,
pressing her body against his. They were virtually in an embrace,
the dancing almost forgotten as they were caught up once more in the
slow, dreamy song.

`Cause I can feel you breathe, it's washing over me

Suddenly I'm melting into you

There's nothing left to prove, baby, all we need is just to be

Caught up in the touch, the slow and steady rush

And baby, isn't that the way that love's supposed to be

I can feel you breathe

Just breathe

I can feel the magic floating in the air

Being with you gets me that way...'

"Mara," Luke whispered, rubbing his face against her hair,
squeezing her against him. They weren't moving anymore, just holding
tightly to one another. He wanted to kiss her so badly, it was an ache deep
in his gut. "Mara," he whispered again, hoping she would
lift her face to him. Never had anyone felt so good in his arms, so light,
like a feather.

Mara tilted her head back, her heart pounding in her chest, and the
blue and green of their eyes blazed into one another.
"Mara," he breathed and their mouths came together as if pulled by magnets.
They had just begun to enjoy the kiss, savoring the taste of each
other, when a flurry of bright, dazzling lights burst upon them.

They tore their mouths apart, blinking in the sudden brilliant
explosions, and then froze. Somewhere, somehow, in the middle of
that slow and seductive song, they had levitated right off the dance
floor! They were at least two meters in the air, staring in startled
surprise at the group of laughing, excited people below them. Holo-
reporters lifted their holo-cameras above their heads for better
shots and the flashes went off in their faces again.

"Luke, put us down," Mara gasped quickly, her cheeks as red
as her
hair.

Slowly, they descended and Mara glanced at Luke, only to find him
fighting hard to keep from laughing. "Don't you dare,"
she warned him.

They touched the floor and the first person Mara saw was P'faaru,
hisholo-cameraman clicking away beside him. The big humanoid touched
his large fingers to his lips and blew her a kiss. "Thanks,
Jade," she heard him say over the laughter.

She glared at him, a pleasant vision of him floating in bacta again
entering her mind, but then the humor of the situation got to her and
she stifled a laugh. It was their own fault; they couldn't blame
anyone else. She grabbed Luke's hand and tugged him along with
her. "Come on, let's get out of here before any more
disasters happen!"

Luke couldn't hold it in anymore and he burst into laughter,
causing her to join him. Giggling together like a couple of naughty kids,
they ran lightly through the big open doors of the Great Hall and
disappeared into the night.

************************

Neither of them could have explained how they made it back to
Luke's apartment. They had some vague and foggy memories of somehow
slipping away from the reception and twirling each other around in
some amorous dance as they made their way across the courtyard only
to stop in the shadows of the buildings to kiss and cuddle and
giggle. Finally, they were at his door. As soon as it opened, Luke
pushed Mara through it and then against the wall of the living area,
devouring her mouth as if it were his only lifeline to existence.

He groaned hoarsely, his body so inflamed it was painful. He tore
his mouth from hers and buried his face in her neck, grimacing as if
in agony. He had to regain some measure of control or soon he would
find himself dragging her into the bedroom by her gorgeous hair. He
closed his eyes and concentrated on several Jedi calming techniques,
finally feeling a sense of relaxation.

Her hand nestled at the nape of his neck and she turned her head, her
lips caressing his cheek. "Luke?" Mara whispered huskily,
her voice heavy from all the ardent kissing.

He smiled against her neck. He loved the way she said his name, and
struggled to resist the impulse to pull and suck at the tender skin
beneath his mouth. He moved his head until his forehead rested
against hers.

"Luke?" she asked again, rubbing her face against his, around
and around, sensuously, like a Corellian sand panther might its mate.
Never in her life had she felt so close to anyone, so intimate, so
tied, as if they were two halves of a whole. She was intoxicated by
it, so drunk with the feeling that she was physically reeling,
clinging to him to simply stay on her feet. She just wanted to be
with him, exist in him, as close as two beings could possible be.

"It's all right," he murmured against her lips, their
breaths mingling. Suddenly, he slid an arm behind her knees and lifted her
against his chest. A few steps across the room, and he sat on the
couch, holding her in his lap.

Her arms snaked their way around his neck again, and she sighed
heavily, her head on his shoulder. "What are we doing, Luke?"

"Still dancing?" he offered teasingly, and rubbed his cheek
against
hers.

She put her hand against his head and turned him, so that her mouth
brushed softly against his. She smiled against his lips. "You
know,Skywalker, I did a stint as a professional dancer. I don't
remember training for this particular dance."

He pulled away to look at her. The overhead lights sparkled like
diamonds in the emerald depths of her eyes. "You don't?"
He asked wonderingly.

"No," she whispered, her voice a warm caress. She pulled
herself even closer to him. "But I'm willing to learn. Would you be
my teacher?"

"Mara?" Luke was having a hard time getting his breath. He
couldn't believe what she was telling him, at least what he thought she was
telling him. "Mara," he started again. "Do you...I
mean...you've never...?"

He felt her smile against his neck. "That's right, Farmboy.
You're going to be my first."

He held her away from him, his blue eyes searching her face.
"Mara," was all he could say, his emotions an enormously confused jumble.

She leaned her head to the side, watching him. Finally, she pushed a
strand of his sandy hair back from his damp forehead. "Are you
surprised?" she asked softly.

"A little," Luke admitted. Afraid she would misunderstand,
he hastily started again "I mean..."

"You mean that I have been knocking about the dregs of the galaxy
for years so I must have..."

It was his turn to cut her off. "No, I didn't mean
that." He laughed slightly. "If there were ever a woman who could take
care of herself..." his voice trailed off. He flushed slightly. "I
just thought...you know..."

She laid her head back on his shoulder. "You thought what?"

He sighed and then mumbled uncomfortably. "Well...Talon Karrde
is an attractive man."

Mara sat up in his lap, her eyes wide and disbelieving. "You
actually believed I was sleeping with Karrde?" she asked,
incredulously.

Luke hugged her to him again. "Gods, Mara, any man in the galaxy
would give anything to sleep with you...Talon Karrde included."

Mara suddenly giggled, rubbing her face against his. "Well, he
did try once..."

Luke pulled back a little and looked at her.

She laughed, her hand sliding over his shoulder and tugging him to
her again. "I quickly dissuaded him of that idea."

Luke slid down on the couch, pulling her on top of him. They kissed,
soft, delicate little touches of their lips, their tongues gently
playing with one another. "You didn't hurt him very badly,
did you?" Luke finally asked, his darkened blue eyes dancing with
mischief.

Mara tenderly caught his bottom lip with her teeth, and then laughed
softly, "Not really. After all, he is my boss."

Luke ran his fingers through her hair, and his smile slowly
faded. "Mara," he began seriously. "It might have been
better if you had...slept with him." He broke off when she frowned
heavily. "No...it's just that, he's probably a very
experienced man and..."

Mara quickly moved off of him and sat up on the couch. She glared
down at Luke. "You think he would be a better lover than
you?"

Luke flushed a dark red and sat up beside her. "I've slept
with women before, Mara, but I'm not...that experienced." He
looked at her and said earnestly, "I'm afraid I'll hurt you."

Mara's mouth fell slightly open in astonishment as his word
registered, and then she smiled gently. "You still don't get
it, do you, Farmboy?" She put her hands on each side of his face.
"Don't you understand, Luke? I've never wanted anyone else. But I want
you," she whispered softly. "I want you as much as you want
me." Her eyes widened as a thought occurred to her. "You do want me,
don't you?" she asked, suddenly uncertain.

His arms went around her and crushed her to him. "Oh, gods,
Mara, you'll never know how much!"

"Then, show me...Farmboy," she whispered in his ear.
"Just show me."

***********************

For a long time the only sounds in the living area were the soft,
moist, open-mouthed kisses of lovers intermingled with occasional
gentle sighs and moans. Suddenly, it was no longer enough for either
of them and almost as one they stood and walked to the bedroom, arms
wrapped tightly around one another.

It was delicious torture to slowly undress each other, hands
lingering over all their intimate places as clothing piled on the
floor. At last they were nude and they stood next to the bed, just
holding one another tightly.

Luke rubbed his cheek against Mara's hair, pressing her against
him. "You're so beautiful," he whispered, his hands
beginning to
roam over the planes of her back.

Mara tilted her head back to look at him. "I want to be,"
she said softly, "for you."

He caught her mouth, kissing her with all the pent-up emotion in
him. He took her shoulders and gently laid her on the bed, climbing
in beside her quickly.

She turned on her side to greet him and her eyes wandered over his
body. "You have an amazing body yourself, Skywalker," she
teased.

He took her hands and put them on his chest. "You think so?"
he asked.

She nodded, her hands softly moving along his shoulders and side, and
then sliding along his abdomen. "Yes," she breathed.
"So muscular,
so hard, so perfect."

He leaned over and kissed her again, plunging his tongue between her
slightly parted lips, ravishing her warmth. She responded quickly,
opening her mouth so that her tongue could duel with his. The hands
roaming over him were setting him on fire and he fought himself for
control. Slowly, he thought, go slowly. Reluctantly, he tore his
mouth from hers and buried his face in her neck, taking deep calming
breaths. Finally, he gently laid her on her back and rose up on his
elbow to look at her. The eyes peering at him through half-opened
lids had turned a glowing, deep green like the enormous oceans on Mon
Calamari. He began to drown in them, mesmerized by her extent of her
passion.

He slid his body against hers, and put his lips to one of her
breasts, gently kissing the soft, delicate skin. He pulled the
creamy flesh into his mouth, licking and wetting it, consciously
avoiding the hardening tip on the top.

Mara's hands gripped his shoulders, as she was consumed by the
feelings he was arousing in her. She threw her head back on the
pillow, squeezing her eyes shut. She focused her concentration on
each and every new sensation he was causing.

Luke took her nipple into his mouth, pulling gently on it with his
lips. A harsh moan erupted out of Mara, but he was so lost, he
barely heard her. Her breast was so tender, so soft, its tip a light
rose against her velvet skin. He pulled more of it into his mouth,
rolled his tongue around and around it, then sucked fiercely.

Mara arched beneath him, her nails digging into his shoulders.
"Oh
Luke," she groaned.

His fingers slid down her side, across her abdomen and buried
themselves in the curly forest they found there.

Immediately, Mara closed her legs, squeezing his hand between them,
embarrassed by the warm wetness he would find there.

"No...no," he whispered hoarsely. "Don't hide
yourself from me...not
ever. You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

He kissed her again, over and over, his lips playing with hers, and
slowly, she opened her legs, allowing him access.

Luke rose up for a moment, took one of her hands and placed it on his
manhood. "Touch me," he rasped. "Touch me please."

Mara's hand slowly closed about it, and he expelled a shuddering
sigh.

He's so smooth, she thought as his skin moved under her fingers,
so
warm, so hard. Although she didn't have much experience with
men,
she instinctively felt that he was larger than most. Her thumb
rubbed across the tip, spreading the fluid she found there. He
shuddered, gasping out his pleasure, and it both surprised and
pleased her.

Luke collapsed back onto her, gasping harshly and trapping her hand
between them. Gently, she let go of him, and then he slid down her
body, planting warm, moist kisses across her chest and stomach. His
hands moved to her thighs and gently separated her legs. He slid
between them, kissing first along the inner thigh of one leg and then
the other, moving slowly upwards.

Mara began to squirm on the bed, the powerful, intense feelings
driving her wild. When his mouth touched her inner core, she bolted
almost upright, her fingers digging into his hair, her toes curling
under her feet. She was already so sensitized that when his tongue
caressed her, she exploded, her climax taking her completely by
surprise. She cried out, her body convulsing and her legs wrapping
tightly around his head, holding him in place.

She fell back on the bed, weak and defenseless. Her body felt fluid,
as if all her bones had dissolved.

Luke moved back up her body, his own screaming for release. He
pressed his mouth against her damp cheek.

"I'm dead," she whispered weakly.

He grinned, his lips moving along her cheekbone. "Not yet,"
he said
softly. "Don't die yet."

He settled himself between her legs and eased carefully into her,
slowly, giving her time to adjust. He growled deep in his throat,
grimacing with the effort not to plunge and plunder. He heard her
gasp and her arms went around his waist, hugging him closely to her.

"It may hurt, Mara," he warned regretfully, pressing his face
against
hers, trying to comfort her.

"It's all right," she whispered, lifting her head and
burying her
face in his shoulder. "I want you."

He pushed and she moaned. "I'm sorry," he gasped
hoarsely. "I can't stop...I just can't." And he moved forward again, slowly
easing further into her.

Her eyes opened and she gritted her teeth. It stung, but it
wasn't too bad. Slowly, she drew her knees toward her chest, opening
herself, and he thrust in again, crying out her name as he did so.

This time the pain was quick, sharp, tearing and she arched off the
bed, her fingernails digging into his back. Stang it, she thought.
She had done every athletic endeavor offered by Imperial
Intelligence, trained in every form of hand-to-hand combat, rode
every four-legged beast in the galaxy that a saddle could be thrown
over and her damn hymen had still been intact. It wasn't fair.

Luke turned his mouth into her neck and caressed the soft skin with
his tongue. He held himself totally still to allow her body time to
get use to him. It tore at him to be causing her pain. His lips still
pressed against her neck, he whispered. "Are you okay?"

She laid back, pulling him with her. "It's alright, Luke," she
moaned. "I want this." She braced herself in anticipation of his
next movement. He's not even all the way in yet, she thought,
taking a deep breath as she felt his hips move again. He would have to be
big, she thought ruefully.

He thrust quickly this time, another hoarse groan escaping him, and
Mara felt him slide high and hard into her, until his hips bumped
against hers. He collapsed on her, his body covering her completely.

They lay perfectly still, the only sound in the room, their harsh,
ragged breathing. Finally, Luke rose onto his elbows and looked down
at her. Gently, he brushed the damp hair away from her forehead. He
laid his cheek against hers and whispered again, "There...there
now...are you okay?"

Mara nodded slightly in response, feeling as stuffed as a jubba bird
during Freedom Day celebrations.

He pressed soft, warm kisses along her face and ran his tongue along
the line of her jaw. "Beautiful, lovely Mara...my Mara," he
breathed in her ear and caressed the tiny crevasses and hills he found there.

Still, he didn't move.

Mara closed her eyes, savoring the gentle caresses; chill bumps
feathering across her skin. Who in the galaxy would have thought
that an ear could be so sensitive? Slowly, she relaxed and lowered
her slender legs, sliding them along his hips and pulling him to her.

"Luke...make love to me," she gasped, her hands roaming over
his shoulders and back, feeling the strength in his hard, corded muscles.

And he did.

He moved gently at first, then more quickly, his breathing sounding
harsh in her ear. Memories flooded through her: Luke in the forest
on Myrkr, pulling Artoo behind him on a travois; Luke on Wayland,
gently teaching her to levitate tiny stones; and Luke, throwing his
body in front of hers to protect her from the Force lightning of the
mad clone, Jorums C'baoth. She gripped him tightly, feeling him
thrusting inside her, steadily, rhythmically, time and time again.
And she welcomed it, relished it, her breathing becoming as harsh and
labored as his, her hips rising up to meet him.

Suddenly, the Force seemed to crystallize around them, a bright,
shining, glorious light, surrounding them, enveloping them,
encompassing them. They flowed into one another, like twin rivers
merging into a great ocean, and they became truly one. Luke was Mara
and Mara was Luke, one luminous, glowing, incandescent being.

With a cry, Luke erupted deep within her and Mara convulsed, her
inner muscles gripping him tightly, squeezing him, forcing their
fluids to unify as completely as their souls.

Chapter 10

Sometime later, Mara awoke in the darkened bedroom. She was lying on
her back, a heavy weight across her stomach and legs. She took a
deep breath, let it out slowly and felt along her stomach. She
wasn't surprised when she encountered a muscular arm lying there,
and
she was sure it was one of Luke's strong legs across her own too.

She turned her head to the right. There was just enough light in the
room to see that his face was pressed against her shoulder and he was
deeply asleep.

What had happened between them was beyond anything she had ever
expected. The sex had been great. Even with her lack of experience,
she knew that it had been exceptional. But what had occurred within
the Force was what was literally astounding. Never in her life had
she come close to experiencing anything like it, and she had a very
good idea that she now understood what General Diaishuut had been
talking about when he mentioned that Jedi formed relationships
because of what they could experience in the bedroom. She frowned,
thinking of Leia. She wondered if Leia knew what she had missed by
not forging a commitment with another Jedi. Leia and Han had one of
the best marriages Mara had ever seen, but even in their greatest
moments they couldn't have experienced what she and Luke had
shared
tonight.

Mara turned her head to the right again and very gently, pressed a
soft kiss against Luke's forehead, so lightly that her lips
barely
touched him. Then as slowly as she could, she eased out from under
his arm and leg, pausing when he mumbled in his sleep. She moved
again when he only turned onto his back, dropping into his deep
asleep again with the sheet twisted around his waist.

She sat up on the side of the bed, grimacing a little at the soreness
in some muscles she rarely used. Finally, she stood and made her way
to the refresher, closing the door behind her before activating the
light. She turned on the water in the sink and cupped some of its
coolness onto her face. Then she looked up into the mirror. She
smiled a bit wryly. What was she expecting? That she would look
differently? She laughed at herself, then decided that a nice hot
shower would help ease some of the tenderness between her thighs.

The shower was luxurious and she reveled in it, letting the hot water
flow over her for a long time. After drying herself, she wrapped a
big white towel around her and ventured back into the bedroom, trying
to be as quiet as possible. She felt wonderful, invigorated by the
shower.

She almost shrieked aloud when Luke suddenly appeared out of the
darkness of the bedroom. "Luke!" She paused, trying to get
her
breath. "I thought you were still asleep."

He came closer. "Mara, are you all right?" He pulled her
into his
arms and she went willingly, rubbing her face gently against his
naked shoulder. He pressed his cheek to her damp hair. "Are
you...hurting, Mara?"

He sounded so worried, so guilty, that Mara smiled into his
shoulder. She toyed with the thought of making him suffer just a
little, but decided against it. She pulled back to look into his
face. "I'm fine, Luke. It's nothing...really," she
assured him.

"Are you sure?" he asked anxiously, his blond hair gleaming
in the light coming through the open door of the refresher. "I could
put you in a healing trance for awhile."

"No," Mara laughed. "No healing trances." She
kissed him gently on his chin. "I don't want to waste the time...I want to make
love again."

"You do?" he asked in astonishment, his blue eyes widening.

She rubbed her head against him again, moving her cheek against his,
around and around. He loved it when she did that. It was cat-like,
feline, and reminded him so much of the graceful way she moved and
walked.

"Don't you want to?" she asked, her voice almost a purr. He
wasn't
certain, but he thought he could feel her smile against his face.

"Of course, I do," he assured her in a rush, pulling her
tightly against him. "But I don't...I mean...you're..."

She let out a breath and stepped away from him. "Luke," she
explained patiently. "I'm probably going to be a little sore
in the morning anyway, so what does it matter if we make love again? And I
would like to." She flashed him a slightly impish grin, then her
expression turned serious again. She started to walk away. "But
if you don't want to..." she said, sighing regretfully.

He snatched her back in his arms, crushing her lips with
his. "You're just a great big tease," he finally groaned
into her mouth.

"And you love it," she countered, her lips playing gently
with his.

"Always," he muttered. "I'll always love it...just
as I will always love you."

Mara pulled back slightly, incredulity filling her face. "You
love me?" she asked in a shaky voice.

In the dim light of the room, Luke was astonished to see Mara's
lovely emerald eyes fill with moisture, and then one lone tear
meandered slowly down her cheek. He pulled her back into his arms,
holding her tightly, a sudden fear gripping him. "Don't cry,
Mara. It's alright." He took a deep breath, trying to still the
sense of  panic rising in him. "It's alright if you don't love me,
I have enough love for both of us."

She tilted her head to look at him. "It's not that,
Luke," she said seriously. "It's just...I've never had anyone tell me
they loved me before."

Luke felt as if a giant hand had reached in and squeezed his heart.
He pressed his face against her hair. "You have now, Mara, and from
now on you always will...I love you. I adore you." Luke felt like
crying with her, his mind visioning her lonely life as the Emperor's
Hand and of her childhood... He swallowed, images of a forlorn, red-
haired little girl wandering the great halls of the Imperial Palace
with not a single person showing her the slightest amount of
affection or compassion. Everyone was too afraid of that miserable
excuse for a human being, Palpatine, Luke thought, too afraid to
offer a child the slightest comfort.

I'll make it up to her, he vowed silently. I'll show her what life
can be like when it's filled with love and laughter and joy.
I'll make sure those memories of Palpatine and the Empire fade away from
her like old ink on a sheet of aged parchment.

He smothered her mouth again, tasting the tears on her lips. "I love
you, Mara, I always will."

"But Luke," she whispered, her damp eyes shining in the dim
light. "I don't want to hurt you...don't you see, I don't know how
to love...I've never...I'm not sure..."

"It's alright," he soothed her. "Don't worry about it, we'll
learn together."

"I don't deserve you," she suddenly cried, a sob breaking out of her.

"Yes, you do," he argued, pushing her damp hair away from her
face. "Mara, listen to me, you are a good person; you're a wonderful
person."

She shook her head violently, her hair flying back into her
face. "You don't understand. I have such guilt...I've done so
many..."

"No, Mara," he stopped her, pulling her back in his arms and pressing
her damp face against his warm chest. "That's all in the past. You
can't do anything about those things now, you can only move forward,
and try and do your best from now on. That's all any of us can do."

She sobbed in his arms, her tears wetting his shoulder. Her grief
and sorrow finally, after all this time, pouring out of her, and he
held her close. He let his emotions flow into her: his love, his
respect, and his admiration. She whimpered and cried, clinging to
him tightly about the waist. They stood that way for some time with
Luke gently rocking Mara in his arms, comforting her, just being
there for her.

"I'm so glad I found you," he finally whispered softly into her ear,
caressing it with his lips as he felt her tears begin to
lessen. "Without you, I would not be complete."

He heard what sounded like one last strangled sob and then she pulled
away slightly. She looked at him and laughed weakly. "Luke, we
really are going to have to get this straight," she said, her voice
mockingly stern. "You didn't find me...I found you."

They laughed together. Luke knew Mara was turning the conversation
away from its serious tone with her caustic wit and he decided to let
her. He had a deep suspicion that from now on, he would let her do
anything she wanted. Her fingers spread across his chest, wandering
over the smooth muscled flesh, as if she were trying to memorize
him. "The day you found me was the luckiest of my life,"
Luke
murmured, pulling her back into his arms and nuzzling against her
hair.

One of her hands drifted down between them and encircled him,
squeezing and pulling gently.

His breath expelled from him in a loud gasp and he laughed against
her temple. "You know, for a virgin, you sure learn fast."

"Virgin?" she retorted crisply, caressing him gently.
"Who's a virgin? I don't see any virgins around here." She squeezed
him softly again, feeling him hardening beneath her fingers.

He took a long shuddering breath and then pulled her head around,
capturing her mouth with his. The kiss was long and ardent, and told
them both more than a thousand words would have. They enjoyed it
immensely, and spent some time lost in it, their tongues filling each
other's mouth.

Mara finally moaned, arching against him, pressing her lower half
against his. "Love me, Luke, love me, please."

"I do," he whispered, his heart swelling until it felt as if
it might
burst. He slid his hands behind her, below her buttocks, and picked
her up against him. Instinctively, her legs lifted and encircled
him, her arms going around his strong shoulders. He stood in the
dimly lit room, holding her tightly, loving her with all his being.
Their mouths devoured each other again, and they moaned in unison, a
passion so fiery it sparked and flickered like electricity between
them.

"The bed," Luke mumbled, kissing her fiercely, then he turned
and stumbled towards the rumpled bed.

"Yes," she answered hoarsely, her hands on his cheeks, her
tongue thrusting madly into his mouth.

Somehow they made it without falling and when they reached the bed,
Luke turned and fell onto his back, carrying Mara down with him.
They fell with such force, they bounced and the bed groaned under
them. Luke flipped Mara over, not giving her the chance to undo her
legs from his hips, and he entered her swiftly, quickly, sliding
easily into her.

Her eyes flew open and she looked up at him. "That's
better," she
whispered. "Much better." And she lifted her hips, pushing
him as
deeply into her as she could.

Luke arched above her, and Mara thought him beautiful, glorious, a
naked god with his skin gleaming and his blond hair shining like silk
in the faint light. He thrust into her over and over again, the
muscles in his chest and shoulders rippling, and she threw back her
head, overcome by sheer sensation. A strange and brilliant light was
forming around them, like lightning flickering out of distance storm
clouds. It flashed over them, around them, into them.

"Luke!" she screamed hoarsely, her back arching completely
off the bed and faintly, as if from far away, she heard him cry out, and then
they both collapsed, making the bed groan under their combined weight
again.

Finally, gasping for breath, Luke eased off her and fell onto his
back. They both lay still, staring at the ceiling, their harsh
breathing the only sound.

"Did you see those flashes of lightning?" Mara asked weakly,
her chest heaving from her exertion.

Luke nodded, then realized that she probably couldn't see him in
the dim light. "Yes," he gasped, still trying to catch his
breath.

"What was it?"

"The Force," Luke told her, moving to his side and pulling
her over
to him. He kissed her gently, quickly on her lips.

She smiled and snuggled closer, enjoying the feel of his skin against
hers. "We're going to have to be careful where we make
love," she teased, tracing the scar on his cheek with her finger. "We could
start fires."

He laughed aloud, hugging her to him. "I don't know about
that, but if there's a power shortage, we may be in big demand!"

They giggled like children, but their hands roamed over each other,
exploring, learning. Luke cupped her breasts in his palms and then
rubbed their tips with his thumbs. Mara gasped and put her hands
over his, then gently, slowly removed them. "That's enough,
big boy, enough for tonight, at least," she told him, reaching over to
kiss him on the nose.

He pretended to pout and ran his hand caressingly down her leg.
"Are you sure?" he said plaintively.

"I'm sure if I want to be able to walk in the morning,"
she said briskly.

Instantly, he was contrite, pulling back to look at her with his big,
blue eyes. She laughed and kissed him quickly. "I'm
teasing, Luke." He didn't look convinced. "Really," she said, trying to
reassure him. She could have kicked herself for saying it, knowing he was now
upset. "It's alright, love, really...I'm fine."

Something flickered deep in his eyes and she frowned, "What is
it?"

He pulled her to him and kissed her so deeply she was gasping for
breath when he let her go. "What was that about?" she asked,
sucking in much needed air.

"You called me `love'," he answered, his blue eyes
twinkling in the dim light.

He turned over again onto his back, pulling her with him.

She nestled onto his chest, as surprised as he was at her
endearment. A warm, glorious feeling filled her and she nuzzled
against him like a child. "Well, don't get used to it,
Farmboy. You may have to continue to make love like that just to
hear it."

"I think I can arrange that," he murmured, kissing her hair,
and then yawning hugely.

They settled down to sleep.

Chapter 11

His farmboy's inner chrono woke Luke first so he eased out from
Mara's light grasp and left her lying draped across the middle of
the
bed. He sat on the edge for a while, watching her as she slept and
trying to absorb everything that had happened between them.

He pushed a stray strand of red-gold hair back from her face and
tucked it gently behind her ear. She mumbled softly in her sleep and
he froze, afraid that he had awakened her. But after moving a
little, she settled down to sleep again.

He couldn't get enough of just watching her, knowing what she had
come to mean to him. He knew he had always been attracted to her.
What man wouldn't be? He also knew that in recent weeks, he had
developed much stronger and deeper feelings for her. But until they
had made love, he had not known the extent of those feelings.

He laid down beside her, careful not to awaken her, again watching
her face as she slept. Her lips were slightly parted and he could
hear the gentle intake and outtake of her breathing. He drew in a
long breath and released it slowly, timing it with hers. That's
what
she was to him, he thought, the very breath in his body. As this
realization struck, the depth of his feelings overtook him. He was
suddenly afraid that he was so in love with her that he wouldn't
be
able to breath unless she breathed with him, wouldn't be able to
laugh unless she laughed too, wouldn't be able to see unless she
saw
too.

With his heartbeat picking up its pace, Luke's blue eyes
continued to
wander all over her face. It was true. She had become everything to
him. Probably no one else would ever understand, ever comprehend,
but he knew, he understood completely that she was his life, his
reason for being. And it didn't matter if no one else
understood.
Only she...she was the only one who had to understand, that had to
believe he felt that way for her and her alone.

Luke leaned over and gently kissed her temple. "I love you,
Mara,"
he whispered, his voice a tender caress. The words seemed
inadequate, deficient for what he felt, but they would have to do.
She didn't awaken, but a slight smile drifted across her lips,
and
her head rolled back a little. He wanted to kiss her beautiful
mouth, but he didn't.

He sighed and eased carefully off the bed, then headed into the
refresher. It wasn't long before he was out again and moving
towards the living area. He stopped momentarily to pull the blanket
a little higher up her body, and then went out of the room.

He was placing some breakfast bread in the tiny oven to heat when the
comm- unit went off in the living area. He hurried to stop its
beeping before it could disturb Mara.

An eyebrow lifted in surprise when he saw whom the caller was, but he
took the time to close the bedroom door before he answered. Why was
Leia calling at such an early hour? It wasn't like her unless
something was wrong. With that thought in mind, he flipped the
switch, "Good morning, Leia. What has you up so early?"

Leia frowned in confusion. "It's not that early on
Coruscant, Luke,
mid-morning to be exact." She looked at her brother carefully,
her eyes dancing a little with amusement. "I was wondering if you
had seen today's holonews yet?"

Luke shook his head. "No, I only got up a little while ago.
Haven't even turned the holovid on."

Leia rubbed a finger across her mouth. "Perhaps you had better
watch it, brother. Especially since you seem to be the big news this
morning."

"Me?" Luke asked in surprise. "Why am I in the news?"

Leia lost her battle with her smile. "From the looks of it, you
and
Mara put on quite a show for General Diaishuut and his group last
night."

Luke had a sudden sinking feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. He
had completely forgotten about the mass of holo-reporters and
cameramen who had been at the reception the night before. He
sighed, "So, we are all over the news?"

"Lead story on every network," Leia informed him. She had
spent over
an hour that morning watching the different broadcasts, and she still
was having trouble coming to terms with those photos of her brother
and Mara Jade. All her life, she had been trained to scrutinize and
to observe and from those observations, to draw conclusions. It was
one of the skills that made her such an effective politician. And
her instincts were telling her that the photos contained a realism
that she had not been expecting. Their laughing faces, the way they
held each other as they danced, and that kiss! Leia made sure she
kept a carefully neutral face for her brother's benefit, but her
mind
was reeling. That kiss was the type that lovers exchange, and the
reports had said that while kissing, the pair had actually levitated
right off the floor, apparently without realizing it!

Han appeared behind Leia's shoulder. "Here, hon, want some
caf?" He
placed a steaming cup beside the comm-unit and grinned at the holo-
image of his brother-in-law. "Hey there, kid!"

Luke smiled. "Good morning, Han."

Han put his hand on his wife's shoulder. "Interesting photos
this
morning, Luke."

Luke shrugged. "So Leia's been telling me."

"You haven't seen them yet?"

Luke shook his head. "No, I was just making breakfast."

Han grinned. "Well, when you do see them, it's going to be a
real
treat for you, kid. I have to hand it to you and Mara Jade...never
knew either one of you had that much acting ability. You've both
have been holding out on us about all your...eh...hidden talents."

"Han," Leia warned softly.

Han laughed and patted his wife's shoulder. "Well, have fun,
kid.
Sure looks like you are anyway."

Leia turned in her chair and glared up at Han. He laughed again,
patted her on the cheek and said, "All right, all right, I'm
leaving." He glanced at the holo-image. "See ya, kid."

"Bye, Han."

Leia turned back to face the holo-image of her brother. He was
smiling a little sheepishly at her. She shook her head.
"Don't mind
Han, Luke, you know how he is."

Luke chuckled. "I know."

"So...where is Mara?" Leia asked and took a long sip of her
caf.

Involuntarily, Luke glanced to his left, in the direction of his
bedroom. "Still asleep," he mumbled, quickly looking back at
his
twin.

The implication of her brother's slight head movement caused the caf
to go down the wrong way, and Leia started to choke.

Luke frowned. "Leia, are you all right?"

The coughing continued, although Leia waved her hand at her brother
and managed to gasp, "No...I'm okay...just give me a
minute."

After a moment, the coughing stopped and Leia looked up at her
brother, her eyes watering from the effort of getting the caf clear
of her lungs. "Mara is asleep? She's staying with you?"
she
croaked hoarsely.

Luke nodded resignedly. "Yes, Leia, she's here. We
wouldn't look
like much of a couple if she stayed in another room, would we?"

There was some logic to that, Leia decided, but those photos and that
kiss...
"Luke..." she began, watching her brother closely. She
wanted to
reach out to him with the Force, but was afraid he would be angry at
her probing.

Her brother looked at her calmly. "Don't ask, Leia."

Leia blinked in surprise. Apparently, her brother was telling her as
politely as he could to mind her own business. She opened her mouth.

"Leia...," her brother warned gently, tilting his head a
little in
her direction for emphasis.

Leia sat back in her chair, her eyebrows raised.

A little smile played about her brother's mouth, but all he said
was, "How are the babies?"

Leia cleared her throat again. "Fine. Growing like a couple of
Wookiees and eating like a pair of them too." So her brother
didn't
want to talk about Mara Jade who just happened to be sleeping in his
bed at the moment. Mmmm...very interesting. Well, she would be a
good sister and mind her own business, at least for now. But that
didn't mean she wasn't going to keep a very close eye on her
brother
and his...eh...friend.

They talked a little while longer about the twins. Leia was about to
sign off when she remembered why she had called in the first
place. "Oh Luke, droid maintenance left a message at my office
yesterday. Artoo's upgrades are all complete and you can pick
him up
any time."

Luke's brows knitted. "Why did they call you instead of
me?"

"Said they couldn't reach you at your apartment and my office
number
was the back-up one listed on your file."

"I told them I was going to be on Yavin." Luke sighed. He
missed
Artoo and wanted to have him back as soon as possible. He had taken
particular trouble to make sure the maintenance people knew he was on
Yavin IV, but it looked as if that had been a wasted effort. Well
there wasn't any use in getting annoyed over it. It wouldn't
do any
good. "I'll call them and tell them I'll be there in a
day or so and
collect him."

Leia nodded and they signed off. After her brother's image
disappeared, she sat a little longer at the comm-console.

Han wandered back in the room. "Luke gone?"

Leia nodded, still staring at the commlink view screen.

"What's the matter?" Han asked, coming over and seating
in a chair
near her.

Leia shook her head. "Nothing...it's just..." and her
voice trailed
off.

"Well?" Han encouraged.

"It's nothing..." she started and then looked at her
husband. "Mara
is there with him."

Han frowned. "Of course she's there with him. You sent
her."

Leia laughed ruefully. "I did, didn't I? But, I mean,
she's there
with him."

Han lifted an eyebrow. "You mean, in his apartment?"

Leia nodded.

"In his bed?"

Leia nodded again, pursing her lips.

"Sharing it with him?" Han persisted.

"Han...," Leia warned him with a glare.

A sly look came on Han's face and he leaned back in his chair,
propping his feet up on the arm of hers. "Well...well," he
said smugly. "I'm not surprised."

Leia frowned at her husband. "What do you mean, you're not
surprised?"

Han put his hands behind his head. "I was with them on Wayland,
remember, on that long trek to Mount Tantiss. They were really
sizing each other up even then. To tell you the truth, I'm a
little
surprised they've waited as long as they have."

Leia snorted impolitely. "You don't know that for a fact.
You're
guessing. They're just friends...good friends." Leia was
determinedly putting out of her mind her earlier suspicions.

Han laughed at his wife. "You just don't want to face the
fact that
your brother is finding a life of his own."

Leia glared at him and then asked sarcastically. "What is that
supposed to mean, General Solo?"

Han dropped his feet to the floor, stood, and pulled his wife up in
his arms. "It means, my beloved wife, that Luke Skywalker's
sister
may not be the most important woman in his life anymore."

Leia rested her cheek against his broad chest. "I know, Han.
And
I'll be happy for him if you're right." She rubbed her
face against
his shirt. "I just don't know if I would have chosen Mara
for him,
but it's really not my place to choose."

"You don't like Mara?" Han asked, pulling back to look
at her.

Leia shook her head. "No, it's not that. I like Mara quite a
bit.
It's just that...well, she was the Emperor's Hand and Luke is
definitely a hero of the New Republic. I know the press insinuated
some things about them right after Wayland, but no one really
believed any of it. And when Mara left Coruscant, all that talk died
down anyway. But if you're right about Luke and Mara now, there
are
a lot of people, very powerful people, who aren't going to be
happy
with such a relationship."

Han whistled softly. "I hadn't thought about that.
You're right, it
could get messy."

Leia stepped away from him. "But there is no use in us jumping
to
any conclusions. There may not be anything to this at all. Mara is
probably just doing the favor I asked of her."

Han tried to hide a smirk, remembering the photos in the morning
holonews, and thought that that was some favor if Mara was climbing
in Luke's bed with him. But who knew, Leia might be right. It
would
be best just to wait and see what was going on between Luke and Mara,
if there was anything going on at all.

*******************************

Across the courtyard on Yavin IV, General Dongrono Daiashuut sat in
his suite of rooms, brooding. The events of the night before weighed
heavily on him and anger danced like lightning along his nerve
endings. That little red-haired bitch!

He hadn't been that interested in coming to Yavin IV. But his
daughter's glowing reports on the planet and young Skywalker had
peaked his interest, so he had talked his wife into paying their only
child a visit. He had been very curious about Luke Skywalker. The
boy had a reputation for bravery, yet at the same time, gave the
impression that he was shy and a bit gullible.

The general twisted his mouth. Part of the reason for the trip had
been to reconnaissance Skywalker himself...if he could have gained
enough control over the young Jedi to influence his actions, then the
general knew his own position and power would have increased
dramatically. And that was what he wanted more than anything else.
Someday, he intended to control the New Republic, as he firmly
believed he was meant to. No one was going to stop him, no one.

What he had not been expecting was for young Skywalker to be so self-
reliant and to have that Imperial harlot with him! Mara Jade, the
Emperor's Hand...a fissure of anger ripped through Diaishuut
again, the memory of the night before stinging like an aching canker. If he
did nothing else, he would see to the end of that bitch...and if
Skywalker insisted on being with her, then he would go down right
along with her. The New Republic didn't need Jedi. If people
read history closely enough, they would see that the Jedi caused more
problems than they did solutions. And they were freaks,
mutants...the galaxy would be better off without them.

The memory of floating helplessly in the air above a jungle filled
with who knew what kind of vicious animals flowed over him again, and
the general's teeth gritted until the noise attracted the
attention
of his wife across the room.

Hawah Diaishuut glanced at her husband and sighed. She knew he was
pouting over the events of the evening before and she didn't have
any
sympathy for him. They had been married for over twenty standard
years and she had no more illusions about her husband. It hadn't
been a love match in the first place, as her family had arranged the
marriage for her when she was in her early twenties. In the first
few years, she had been hurt by her husband's wandering eye, but
as
the years passed, she no longer cared about his philandering and his
many affairs. She has searched out her own comforts and left him to
his life. Any respect she had held for him, as a man, had died long
ago. She wasn't actually sure of what had transpired on the
balcony
last evening, but she had seen her husband follow the Jade woman, and
had also noticed Skywalker's rather hurried walk to join them.
It
had been not long after that that her husband had reappeared, red in
the face and obviously shaken.

Hawah Diaishuut smiled to herself. She rather wished she had seen
what had happened out on the balcony. Apparently whatever Dongro had
tried, the Jedi woman had taken exception to, and the results had not
been to Dongro's liking.

She glanced at her husband's angry face. Obviously, he was still
seething over whatever the Jedi had done, and if she knew him like
she thought she did, he was plotting some sort of revenge. A vague
sense that she ought to warn him passed over her, but she quickly
dismissed it. If her husband wanted to go up against the Jedi then
she would just let him. He needed a good lesson.

**********************************************************************

Chapter 12

Mara 's eyes blinked open and she flinched from the sunlight
streaming in through the window. Groaning, she turned over onto her
stomach and buried her face in the pillow. She lay there a moment,
waking up slowly, surprised that she had slept to such a late hour.
She took in a deep breath, inhaling the masculine scent of Luke that
permeated the pillow. She rubbed her face against it and smiled,
memories of the night before flowing through her mind. Finally, she
sighed, turned her head to the side and opened her eyes again.

She was facing a small table near the bed and Luke had placed a
couple of holo-photos on it. They were both of Leia and her family,
and one was particular nice. Han Solo was standing with his arm
around the princess and each of them held one of their twin babies.
They looked so happy and contented.

Mara frowned slightly. Something was nudging at the back of her mind
as she looked at the photo, but she dismissed it and rolled over onto
her back. Yawning, she sat up. A tiny twinge in her legs again
reminded her of the previous night's activities, and she looked
around, wondering where Luke was.

A soft sound from the living area answered her query and she smiled.
Apparently, their activities had not changed the farmboy's habit
of getting up a dawn. She smiled at the thought as she left the bed
and headed into the refresher.

A short while later, dressed in a loose shirt and exercise pants, she
entered the living room to the tantalizing aroma of breakfast cooking
in the kitchen. Her stomach growled in appreciation, and Mara
realized that she was very hungry. All that exercise, she thought
ruefully.

"Something smells wonderful, Farmboy," she said as she strolled into
the tiny kitchen area.

Her heart leapt when Luke looked up from where he was preparing some
food on the cooking unit, his sparkling blue eyes lighting up at the
sheer sight of her.

Somehow they met in the middle of the kitchen, the food forgotten, as
they moved quickly into each other's arms. Their lips met and it
was as if they trying to devour one another. It was a marvelous kiss,
hungry and excited, as if they hadn't seen each other for
hours...days...weeks.

"Mmmmm...good morning, beautiful," Luke mumbled, teasing her
lips with his. "Breakfast may smell good...but not as good as
you."

Mara laughed softly, her arms moving up his chest and around his
shoulders. Her tongue delicately touched his. "I'll bet it doesn't
taste as good as you do, either."

Luke gently cupped her face with his hands and kissed her deeply,
letting his emotions flow into her. *I love you, Mara,* he sent her,
opening his heart to her across their incredible bond.

*I know,* she sent back, opening her mouth for him and pressing her
body against his. They became lost in the emotions that flowed
between them, absorbed in the feel of each other and their incredible
bond in the Force, which was beginning to flicker about them.

Luke backed Mara up against the wall and buried his face in her neck,
kissing and sucking at the delicate skin under her chin. She lifted
her head, giving him better access. Closing her eyes and relishing
the movements of his mouth, she drew in a deep breath. As she lost
herself in his caress, the realization that she had never expected
that she could be so happy, shimmering across her mind.

Suddenly, she sensed a subtle change about her. Her nose crinkled
and she sniffed, then sniffed again. *Luke,* she sent, her eyes
flying open.

*Mmmmm...?* he answered, his mouth too busy to form the words.

"There's smoke in the kitchen and something's burning!" Mara gasped
aloud, pushing him away. "On the cooking unit, Luke, look!" Mara
pointed a finger at the pan on the unit where flames were shooting
towards the ceiling.

Luke whirled around, taking in the situation at a glance. Closing
his eyes, he lifted his arm and the flames danced for a moment longer
and then died quickly, leaving a smoldering burnt mess in the bottom
of the pan.

Mara coughed, blinking her eyes in the smoke. "What was
that?"

"Breakfast," Luke said succinctly, walking to the cooking unit and
then taking the pan to the sink and dropping it in. He flipped the
switch for the water and watched the last of the smoldering ash die
out.

He turned and smiled at her sheepishly. "What's that old saying
about living on love?"

Mara lifted an eyebrow. "I don't know about you, Skywalker,but I do
know I need food!" She walked over to him, slid her arms around
his waist, and nuzzled against his face. "As cute as you are, buddy
boy, I still need my breakfast. I had a rather energetic night, you
know. That's why I slept so late!"

Luke burst out laughing and hugged her tightly. "So much for
romance!" he teased. "Okay, I'll make you some hot chocolate to
tide you over and then cook you a big, marvelous breakfast."

"Hot chocolate?" Mara asked, pulling back a little. "What's that?"

A huge smile split Luke's face. "You've never had hot chocolate?
You're in for a treat, woman." He started pulling out more pans from
a cabinet.

"Well, I'll leave you to it, then," Mara said, watching him bustle
about. "I think I'll go into the living area and watch the morning
holonews." She turned and headed out of the kitchen.

Luke looked up quickly. "Mara!"

She turned, lifting an eyebrow in query.

Luke's mouth opened and then he shut it again. Finally, he
said, "Ah...nothing. I'll be in there in a moment." It
might be best just to let her see it all for herself, he thought.

Mara nodded and then disappeared into the living area. It wasn't
long before he heard music coming from the holovid. Luke looked up
at the ceiling, "Ben...if you are around somewhere, I think I'm going
to need some help here in the next few minutes." Then he shook his
head, laughing a little at himself, and went about preparing the hot
chocolate.

*********************

Mara flopped down on the couch and pointed the remote control at the
holovid. Instantly, it sprang to life, only to have its screen fill
with one advertisement after another. Mara sighed. It was always
the same.

She propped her feet up on the small table in front of the couch and
leaned back, closing her eyes for a minute as she absentmindedly
listened to the holovid.

"And now, for today's top story! Can we assume that the long
suspected love affair between Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker and
smuggling queen, Mara Jade, is in fact an actuality? We take you now
to Lado P'faaru on Yavin IV for more on this developing story."

Mara's eyes flew open and she sat straight up, her feet dropping off
the table.

To her disbelief, the holovid screen was now filled with scenes from
the reception held for the general the night before. She and Luke
were slowly dancing as the camera zoomed in on their faces. She
couldn't believe it. They looked so...so in love.

"Skywalker!" Mara yelled.

Luke came out of the kitchen carrying two steaming mugs of
liquid. "What?" he asked, in a concerned tone. "What is it?"

"You had better sit down and watch this," Mara said, patting at the
place beside her on the couch.

Luke placed the two mugs on the small table and joined her on the
couch. He looked up to see the holo-reporter who had danced with
Mara the night before.

"Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, renowned hero of the rebellion
against the Empire, has obviously found his soul-mate in Mara Jade,
the young ex-Imperial who joined him in fighting against the forces
of her former leader, the late Emperor Palpatine. The young couple
has been spending some quality time together here on Yavin IV where
Skywalker is implementing plans to start a training school for young
Jedi. Yesterday evening they attended a reception held for General
Dongrono Diaishuut."

The camera switched to Luke and Mara kissing passionately as they
slowly floated into the air. Mara's mouth fell open and she
muttered, "Sithspit!" She turned to Luke, who was taking a
sip from his mug of hot chocolate. Shock flowed through her as she
noticed that he was watching the holovid with no apparent concern.

"Did you see that?" she demanded, infuriated that he wasn't as
outraged as she was.

Luke took another sip of his chocolate and shrugged. "Leia told me
about it when she called this morning."

"Leia called?"

He nodded and placed his mug back on the table. "Yes, she did,
earlier. You were still asleep."

Mara's spitted him with a glare. "You mean you knew that was going
to be on the holovid and you didn't tell me."

He shrugged again. "I didn't think it was that big a deal." He was
hoping, probably in vain, that if he remained calm then maybe she
would too.

Mara stood and put her hands on her shapely hips. "Luke Skywalker,"
she said softly, too softly, then she whirled on her heels and
disappeared into the bedroom.

Luke sank back on the couch, sighing. It looked as if his beautiful,
wonderful morning had just taken a turn for the worse. He glared at
the smiling face of P'faaru on the holovid, putting all the blame
directly on the poor alien's head.

He had absolutely no warning when a pillow slammed down with
considerable force onto his head. He took a moment to appreciate how
good Mara was getting at shielding as he had hadn't realized that she
had even reentered the living area. Then he jumped up from the couch
and spun around.

Mara stood behind the couch in a combat stance, the pillow raised
high as a weapon. "So, Farmboy, you think you are going to keep
secrets from me, do you? Well, you had better do some rethinking."
She started advancing around the couch.

Luke grinned and started around the other way. "Oh, is that so,my
love?" he teased, picking up the pace as she came after him. The
pillow barely missed him as she took a wild swing. "So what are
you going to do, beat me to death with that pillow?"

She surprised him by doing a Force leap over the couch, landing as
lightly as a cat in front of him. "I think a few bruises in
strategic places might be called for," she snapped, but Luke
could see the twinkle deep in her emerald eyes.

She lunged at him, but he was quicker, ducking under her swing and
grabbing her by the waist with both hands.

"Hey!" she yelled as she felt herself lifted off her feet,and the
next thing she knew she was thrown over his shoulder like a sack of
darsen grain. He took off running around the room with Mara bouncing
on his shoulder.

Mara was trying desperately to hit him again with the pillow and was
annoyed when it caught on the edge of the desk as they quickly went
by. The pillow ripped and then virtually exploded, flinging bits of
stuffing all over them and the room.

Luke continued to run, but now they were both laughing hysterically.
Mara clung to Luke, a bit afraid that he was laughing so much he
might drop her.

He circled the room again and as he near the entry, the door chime
sounded. Luke, without thinking, reached out and slapped the door
panel.

"Luke, no!" Mara screeched, but it was too late. The door eased open
without a sound and Noimi stood there, blinking in surprise, on the
other side.

Luke skidded to a stop with Mara lurching awkwardly on his
shoulder. "Noimi!" he gasped.

The older woman bit her lip and said, "Luke." Upside down, Mara was
trying to peer at her from around Luke's shoulder, so Noimi
added, "Miss Jade."

Mara's face flamed with color and she hissed, "Luke, put me down."

Carefully, Luke pulled her down from his shoulder and set her on the
floor. "Noimi, sorry," he said. "We were..." he trailed off, not
sure exactly how to explain what they were doing.

Mara brushed some fluff from the pillow off her nose and said hello
to Noimi. Her face was still pink, both from exertion and
embarrassment. "Excuse me, please," she said softly and hurried off
to the bedroom.

Luke glanced back at Noimi who had lost her battle with her
blossoming smile. He grinned ruefully. "I'm sorry, Noimi, did you
need something?"

Noimi laughed lightly. "I just wanted to tell you that General
Diaishuut has decided to cut his vacation short. He said something
has come up on Coruscant that he needs to handle." Noimi looked
down and then back up, her eyes twinkling. "He wanted me to tell you
that he regrets having to leave so soon."

"Yeah, I'll bet," Luke laughed. Obviously, his staff had picked up
on the fact that Luke and the general weren't the best of friends.

"He plans to take today's transport," Noimi told him.

Luke nodded. "I'll make a point on being there to see him
off."

Noimi chuckled and nodded. "Then I'll see you later." She turned
and walked down the corridor, her smile widening. It certainly was
good to see the young Jedi so happy. Noimi had been worried some
about him because he seemed such a serious and solemn young man, so
intent on making his school a viable operation. The scene she had
just witnessed allowed her to put those fears to rest. Obviously,
Mara Jade was very good for him. Noimi laughed out loud, remembering
the young woman's horrified face. She wondered if Mara even realized
that she was quickly becoming the envy of most of the women in the
galaxy!

***************************

When Luke entered the bedroom a few moments later, Mara was sitting
on the edge of the bed, staring at the holo-photos of Leia and her
family. Instantly, Luke felt a wave of strong emotion from her and
he frowned in puzzlement.

"Mara, what is it?"

Mara turned to look at him, and he was shocked to see that her face
was pale. "Luke..." she said, her voice hardly above a whisper.

He hurried to her and sat down next to her on the bed. "Mara, is
something wrong? Are you okay?"

She pointed at the holo-photos. "The babies, Luke, the babies."

Luke was having difficulty following her train of thought, but he
agreed, "Yes, they're beautiful, aren't they?"

Mara slowly nodded her head. "They are. I wonder if our baby
will be as beautiful."

Luke looked at her quickly and she met his gaze, her green eyes huge
in her pale face. "Luke," she whispered, her voice breaking a
little. "We...we didn't use protection." She got up from the bed
and started pacing about the room. "I forgot...I never thought..."
she muttered.

Luke took a deep breath, the implications of what she was saying
thundering in his brain. "You're not on...," he started. "I
mean..."

Mara stopped her pacing to glare at him. "I was a virgin, remember?
Why would I be on prevention meds?"

"I just thought...," he stopped, figuring it was safer not to
finish that remark. He scratched his cheek, got up from the bed and
went over to her. "I should have remembered. It was as much my
responsibility as yours." He took one of her hands in both of
his. "It doesn't matter, Mara, if you...if you're pregnant, then
we'll just get married."

"Married?" she echoed, as if he were suggesting some strange
custom of which she had never heard. She glanced away from him and
muttered, "I don't want to get married."

Luke was surprised by how much the little remark hurt, but he hid it,
saying nonchalantly, "Why not? It would solve the...problem."

"Problem?"

Luke nodded, wondering if she realized she was beginning to sound
like one of the chinchi birds on Garqi who were famous for repeating
everything they heard.

He pushed a strand of hair off her forehead. "Mara, would it be so
bad to be married to me?"

She looked at him quickly, sensing the hurt he was feeling behind the
words. She eased into his arms and hugged him. "Luke...no...that's
not it. Anyone would be proud to be married to you...me, included.
But Luke...it's me, remember, the Emperor's Hand...his personal
assassin."

He slid his arms around her waist. "Mara, I don't care about your
past. I never have. I love you, and I want to marry you...whether
you're pregnant or not."

She pulled back to look at him and then said softly, "Are you
asking me to marry you?"

He nodded quickly. "Yes."

She was dumbfounded. "Luke," she whispered. For a moment, she
couldn't think, her mind bombarded with conflicting emotions.

Luke took her face in his hands. "Mara, I truly believe we
belong together. I love you more than my own life."

His words literally frightened her. Just for a moment, his serious
and earnest face swam before her eyes and she felt faint.
Love...there was that word again, that four-letter word that she knew
absolutely nothing about. She knew she had some kind of feelings for
Luke, that she was very attached to him, but was it love...the sort
of love he was talking about? She just didn't know.

She closed her eyes and leaned against him. Why? Why hadn't
there been anyone in her life...just one person when she was growing
up who could have explained, who could have taught her what love was
and how it worked.

Luke's arms went around her and he pulled her to him, hugging her
tightly. She knew that through the Force he could feel the confusion
inside her, and he wanted to be there for her, to comfort her. It
was so like him to do that.

Tears flooded into her eyes, and she wiped at them angrily. She knew
she would rather cut off her own hand than hurt him, but that was
just it...if she couldn't love him in the same way that he said he
loved her, then it wouldn't be fair to him. In the long run, she
would end up hurting him more. And if anyone deserved to be
unconditionally loved...then it was Luke, the finest person she had
ever known.

She pulled back to look at him. He gently removed a tear from her
cheek with his thumb. "Luke," she whispered. "Can you give me some
time?" She felt his disappointment like a burning shaft through her
heart, and she watched him try to hide it.

He smiled a bit stiffly. "Sure, Mara, if that's what you
want."

She hugged him fiercely. "Oh, Luke please, try to understand.
This doesn't have a thing to do with you...it's me. I'm the
crazy one. It's just...my life..."

"Mara," Luke interrupted. "Love, you never give yourself enough
credit. Forget the past, we can build a future together."

"I know," she whispered against his chest. "It's...oh, Luke..."

She felt him sigh and one of his hands caressed the back of her
head. "Alright, Mara, we'll wait...whatever you want."
He pulled back to look at her. "What if...what if there's a baby,
Mara?" he asked tentatively.

It was her turn to sigh. "We'll just have to face that when
or if it happens." She stepped out of his arms and moved away a
little. "I probably need to go to Coruscant as soon as possible. You
don't have a medical droid here on Yavin, do you?"

He shook his head. "No, it's on our list of things to get in
the near future."

"Luke," Mara said, turning to look at him. "If I'm not pregnant, I
want to...I mean, I'm going to ask the droid for prevention
meds."

Luke looked at her quickly, and she smiled. "I may not always
know exactly what to do...but I do know this. I want to be with you,
Farmboy. I want to make love with you."

He crossed over to her quickly and she went back into his arms
willingly. She rubbed her face against his. "Let's just continue
this way for awhile...then we'll see," she whispered.

He nodded and kissed her deeply.

Here's the next installment in this never-ending story! No, just
kidding. It will end one day, I promise.

Disclaimers were on the first chapter.

This chapter is NC-17.

The Tangled Web

Chapter 13

Coruscant - a few days later.

Mara stood in the corridor outside the women's wing of the
medical
center located in the old Imperial Palace, letting the relief wash
over her. She wasn't pregnant, thank the Force. Although if she
had
known exactly what a pregnancy examination involved...Mara shut down
those thoughts immediately, grimacing at the memory of being examined
by the medical droid. Talk about a total loss of dignity! But there
was no baby and that was what was important. After a moment of just
relishing in the fact, she turned and walked down the corridor,
stuffing the small packet of prevention meds into her pocket. After
a long discussion with the medical droid, she had chosen and then
took while she was in the office a prevention medication that began
working effect immediately. As long as she took the medication
faithfully, there would be no chance of pregnancy but if she missed
even one day...

While her hand was in the pocket of her jacket, it brushed against
her mobile commlink and she thought about calling Luke, but decided
against it. She knew he was probably as anxious for the news as she
had been, but she wanted to tell him in person.

Luke had wanted to come to the medical center with her, but she
hadn't let him. There was too much chance of someone seeing them
there together and starting another rift of rumors. Mara scoffed
silently...rumors that might be too close to actuality for comfort!
She could just see the headlines now - "Jedi Couple Expecting
Baby?"
with an extra large photo of her and Luke in the women and
children's
wing. She shuddered and glanced around, half expecting to see
P'faaru lurking in the corner.

She and Luke had only arrived on Coruscant earlier that morning.
When he had told her that Artoo was ready to be collected after his
upgrades, she had suggested that he come with her to Coruscant on the
YT-2400. There was plenty of room and he wouldn't have to wait
for
the transport from Coruscant that arrived on Yavin in the late
afternoon. After a few words with Noimi, they had left the planet
posthaste. Once on Coruscant, after a hurried discussion of the best
way to avoid the press, they had parted and gone their separate ways,
she to the medical center and Luke to droid maintenance.

As she turned a corner in the corridor, Mara heard a noise. Looking
up quickly, she caught a glimpse of a figure disappearing around the
far corner. She frowned and her danger sense suddenly tingled at the
back of her mind. She stopped abruptly, her right hand reaching for
the tiny hold-out blaster she kept in a sleeve holster on her left
arm. Reaching out with the Force, she tried to sense the other's
presence, but curiously encountered a complete void of emotion. Mara
eased over to the wall and continued down the corridor, her hold-out
blaster held ready in front of her. When she reached the end of the
corridor, she stopped and then eased her head around the corner.
Quick as a flash, the figure appearing to be a male human disappeared
around the last turn. Mara hurried after him, her danger sense
blossoming into full awareness. As she turned the corner, she caught
another brief glance of him as a turbolift door slowly closed in
front of him. He lifted a blaster pistol and aimed at her, but she
threw herself against the wall and out of his sight. He didn't
fire
and the turbolift closed, taking him down to ground level.

Mara stepped away from the wall, her mind frothing with
possibilities. Had she really been his target or had she just scared
him when she had chased him, her hold-out blaster held in front of
her? Why would anyone be coming after her with a blaster? Could she
have done anything recently to anyone that would make someone want to
kill her? And that man...she was positive she had never seen him
before. Yet, she trusted her danger sense implicitly. It had never
been wrong before.

Mara was still musing it over in her mind as she stepped into another
turbolift and punched the number for Luke's suite on the
residential
floors. As the lift rose, Luke's voice entered her mind.

*Mara, are you all right?* he asked anxiously.

Mara sighed, knowing he must have picked up on her heightened
emotions in the corridor. *I'm fine, Luke. It was nothing.*

*I thought I sensed some anxiety from you,* he said. *It wasn't
anything from the doctor, was it?*

Mara leaned against the side of the turbolift. *No, it wasn't.
Have
you got Artoo yet?*

*Yes, we're just leaving droid maintenance now,* Luke answered.

*Are you coming straight home?* Mara asked.

*Mmmm...should be there in about half an hour.*

*Good,* Mara said. *I'll meet you then, and I'll tell you
everything.*

*Okay,* Luke agreed.

The turbolift door opened and Mara stepped out. Quickly, she moved
down the hallway, knowing that Luke's floor was also the home to
several influential members of the military. She wasn't
interested
in being seen going into Luke's apartment. She had had enough of
other people's speculation into her private life to last her a
lifetime.

To her relief, she met no one and was able to key in the entry code
to Luke's door and eased into his living area with no problems.
She
had been in Luke's apartment many times over the past several
months
and was quite familiar with it, at least the front rooms. His place
was more than twice as large as hers, which was located several
floors below his. His apartment definitely befitted the status that
Luke held in the New Republic. Too bad he didn't know how to
furnish
it, Mara groused silently to herself. The oversize living area had a
couple of deep, overstuffed chairs and a large couch built in two
sections in one area of the room. A large entertainment center
dominated the opposite wall with one of the biggest holovids screens
that Mara had ever seen. But those were the only furnishings and
there was enough space left to hold a game of sling ball. However,
Luke had filled the corners with numerous big, green plants, adding a
fresh and bright aura to the living area. It was the one thing she
truly liked about his apartment.

Mara walked through the big room and headed into the kitchen. It was
enormous compared to the one on Yavin IV. A person could create a
formal dinner for more than a dozen guests in a kitchen of such
size. Mara grinned, knowing she wouldn't know one end from
another
when it came to formal cooking. For herself and maybe another person
or two, she could turn out a decent meal, but extravagant dinner
parties were beyond her.

She rummaged around in the cupboards and the refrigeration unit,
looking for anything that would be quick and easy to fix. Luke would
be hungry when he arrived. If there was one thing she had learned,
that man was always hungry. Mara had been astounded by the amounts
of food he could consume, especially since on many days she was
satisfied with just light snacks or ration bars.

A little later Luke and Artoo opened the door to the delicious aroma
of cooking food seeping out from the kitchen. "Mmmmmm...,"
Luke
said, heading in that direction with Artoo trundling behind.

Mara was standing at the cooking unit in the kitchen when they
entered, and she said, "Dinner will be ready in a moment."

Luke laughed, knowing she has sensed him before he even came through
the front door. He walked up behind her and patted her on the
rear. "Mmmmm...good," he mumbled, resting his chin on her
shoulder.

Mara snorted as she turned the grilling Dewback steaks. "Are you
talking about my butt or dinner?"

Luke grinned and kissed her on the cheek. "You think you're
going to
get me on that one, don't you?"

"It wouldn't be the first time, Skywalker," she retorted.

He ran a hand caressingly down her sleek rump. "Well, my love,
your
butt wins hands down...every time." He took her head and turned
her
face to him, then kissed her, lingering over her lips.

They kissed for a while and then she took her mouth away.
"That's
enough, Farmboy. I don't want to burn the food like a certain
other
cook I know!" But she said it gently, her own heart beating a
little
quicker than normal. She took the steaks and placed them on a large
warming platter.

A series of peeps and chirps sounded from Artoo who was waiting
patiently in the doorway of the kitchen.

Mara grinned and waved a spatula at him. "Well, hello Squirt!
It's
good to see you!"

What suspiciously sounded like a groan erupted from Artoo and then a
gurgle of greeting. Mara laughed, knowing he disliked her nickname
for him, but really didn't hold it against her. He trundled over
to
them and twittered and chirruped for several seconds.

Mara looked at Luke. "What was all that about?"

Luke shook his head. Through the years, he had become quite adept at
deciphering Artoo's electronic language, but that little spiel
had
been too much even for him. He leaned over to view Artoo's small
screen. Suddenly, he choked off a laugh and looked up at Mara.

She cocked an eyebrow. "Well?"

*You're not going to believe this,* Luke sent into her mind.

*What do you mean?* Mara asked.

Luke patted Artoo on his domed head. *He wants to know if we are
mating now...like Han and Leia.*

"What?!" Mara exclaimed out loud, looking at Artoo as if he
had
suddenly grown horns. Her cheeks filled with color and she sent to
Luke, *Where did he get that from?*

*Well, he saw us kissing, but it probably comes from Threepio.
He's
always been very fascinated by all...eh...human customs,* Luke
answered, his eyes dancing.

*Somebody should put a muzzle on Mr. Goldenrod,* Mara snapped,
annoyed that she could be embarrassed by a droid. *Quit laughing.
What are we going to tell him?*

Luke laughed aloud, amused by her discomfort. *I love you, Mara.*

She sniffed audibly, but her eyes softened. *Well...yeah...alright,
but you didn't answer my question, Farmboy.*

*I think we should tell him the truth,* Luke said. *And then tell
him not to speak about it to anyone, especially Threepio.*

*You think we should tell him...that we're sleeping together?*
Mara
asked in astonishment.

*He does live here, Mara,* Luke explained patiently. *He's
going to
notice.*

Mara shot Artoo a look. *Well, he may not know it now, but he's
going to be powering down a lot!"

Luke couldn't help it, he burst out laughing.

It was his turn to receive the look and Mara said aloud. "Well,
you
take him into the living area and explain it to him. I don't
want
any part of it. Besides, I have to set the table."

Luke nodded, but teased her gently, "Coward."

Mara waved the spatula at him. "Out, I said, out!"

********************

When they were almost through with dinner, Luke said quietly,
"You
haven't told me how it went today at the med center."

Mara swallowed her mouthful of salad, and they looked at each other
for a long moment across the small table in the kitchen. Mara
sighed, "Well, Farmboy, I have good news, I suppose. You're
not
going to be father after all. At least, not anytime soon."

She received a brief flash of emotion from him before he quickly
dampened it. Disappointment? Sorrow? She reached across the table
and took his hand. "Luke..." she began.

He shook his head and squeezed her hand. "No, it's alright,
Mara."
He smiled gently. "But you know I wouldn't have been upset
if you
had been pregnant."

Mara got up from her chair and went to him. He pulled her into his
lap and she hugged him fiercely. They stayed that way for a quite
awhile.

Finally, Luke kissed her hair and said, "You want to tell me now
why
you were feeling so anxious when you were at the clinic?"

Mara sat up in his lap and sighed. "Oh that, I had almost
forgotten
about it. When I was coming out of the clinic and walking down the
hall, I noticed someone lurking about and my danger sense started
tingling."

Luke craned his head to look into her face. She shrugged. "I
saw a
man not far down the hall, so I followed after him after taking out
my hold-out blaster. When I caught up to him as he entered the
turbolift, he pointed his blaster at me. When I thought about it
later, I can't be sure if he had his blaster out already or pulled it
after he saw me with mine."

Luke shook his head. "Your danger sense has never steered you
wrong
before."

"I know...but it's just odd. Although I felt danger, I
couldn't
sense any of the man's thoughts or intentions. It was just
strange."

Luke stared off into space for a moment and then murmured, "Yes,
it
is...very strange."

After straightening up the kitchen, they went into the living area
and sat on the huge couch. Luke suggested turning on the holovid to
watch the evening news, but Mara shook her head. She reminded him
that they would probably be the top news story since they had arrived
together on Coruscant that morning. Surely, the information had
gotten to the press by now, and she really didn't want to hear it.

Luke grinned and turned on some music instead. They listened for a
while and talked quietly. Luke sat with his back to the arm of the
couch with Mara nestled between his legs, the back of her head
resting on his shoulder. Occasionally they would kiss softly, but
mostly just sat, content to listen to the music and just be with one
another.

Finally, Luke asked, "When do you think we should tell Han and
Leia?"

"Tell them what?" Mara mumbled, half dozing in his arms.

"About us," Luke answered, nuzzling against her hair.

Mara's eyes flew open and she stared at an enormous green plant
against the wall across the room as she pondered his words. "Do
we
have to tell them?" she finally asked.

Luke pulled back his head to look at her. "Why shouldn't
we?"

Mara shrugged. "I don't know. I just thought maybe we'd
keep it to
ourselves for a little while." She turned in his arms to face
him. "It's just so new. I think we need to get used to it
ourselves
before we start letting other people know."

Luke ran a finger down her cheek. "I don't know if I can
keep it
from them, especially my sister."

"Oh, come on Luke, I know you've kept things from Leia
before, even
if she does sense your thoughts!" Mara scoffed.

"Of course," Luke said, smiling. "But I just think
she'll probably
notice when I drool every time I see you."

Mara looked at him a moment and then rolled her eyes. "Oh,
please."
She shook her head at him and then laid her cheek on his shoulder.
He took the opportunity to capture her mouth with his.

The kiss lasted a long time and was very passionate. They were both
gasping for air when it ended. "See what I mean," Luke
teased gently.

Mara squirmed a bit in his arms. "We don't have to do that in
front
of them, you know."

"I have a Force-sensitive twin sister, Mara. Don't you think
she'll
be able to pick up on our emotions occasionally no matter how hard we
try to hide them?" Luke argued. "It would be best just to
tell her
and Han and be honest about it."

Mara sighed. "I suppose you're right. Hopefully we
won't have to
see them for a few days. I still would like for us to have some time
just to ourselves."

Luke drew in a long breath, looking guilty.

Mara tilted her head slightly towards him. "What?" she asked
ominously.

"Well, I talked with Leia earlier today on the commlink."

"And?"

"She wanted me to come for dinner tonight, but I told her that it
wasn't a good time. So, she asked about tomorrow night and I
agreed."

"So?" Mara said off-handedly. "You're going to
dinner at your
sister's. What's the big deal?"

"I asked her if I could bring you with me and she said of
course."

"Luuke," Mara extended his name in a groan. "You could
have ask me
first, you know."

Luke looked a little shamefaced and then took the wind out of her
sails by saying, "I just didn't want to spend a whole evening
without
you near me."

Mara watched him for a moment and then whispered softly,
"You're
sweet, Farmboy." Her tone of voice was totally different than
before.

He pulled her close. "I love you, Mara. So much. I want to be
with
you every second of every day."

She rubbed her face against his. "That could get a little
awkward at
times, don't you think?"

"It would be worth it," he muttered against her lips and then
kissed
her deeply again.

Soon they were sprawled across the couch, one kiss leading to another
and then another. As the kisses deepened, their hands were beginning
to roam over one another.

Luke undid the belt around Mara's tunic and let it fall from her.
He
slipped a hand under the tunic and began to gently caress one of her
breasts. She moaned softly and pressed closer to him, one hand
around his back, the other against his face.

Luke pulled her further down onto the couch, then took her tunic and
pulled it over her head. She helped him, dropping the clothing on
the floor and then insisted he remove his too.

When they pressed their partially clothed bodies against each other,
they both groaned. Luke held her tightly, one hand at the back of her
head, the other easing under her bra.

"Mara, my love," he whispered and then gently detached the
clip on
the bra. After helping her out of it, he tossed it over the back of
the couch and then buried his face between her breasts. She pressed
his head to her and one of her slender legs wrapped around his.

When his mouth covered the tip of one of her breasts, a sharp, loud
moan erupted from her and she squirmed beneath him. Her fingers
buried themselves in his hair and she began to breathe a little
quicker.

Luke hardly heard her. He pulled the little tip into his mouth and
gently suckled, his eyes closing like a child. They lay there for
some time, Luke moving from one breast to the other while Mara gently
caressed his hair.

When his hand attempted to slide under her waistband though, she
stopped him. "Luke."

He sighed heavily and then rolled over onto his back, pulling her on
top of him. "Okay, okay," he muttered, taking a deep,
calming
breath. "I know."

She rested her chin on his muscled chest. "And what do you know,
Farmboy?"

"I know we can't," he mumbled, distracted by her fingers,
which was
gently pulling on one of the tiny hard nipples on his chest.

"Can't what?" she asked softly, and he looked at her,
noticing for
the first time the darkened green of her passion-filled eyes.

"We can't make love," he whispered, memories of those
days on her
freighter on the way to Coruscant fresh in his mind. Without the
prevention meds, they couldn't take the chance, and it had been
sheer
agony, having her around that close and keeping his hands off her.

"Ahhh...but you forget, Farmboy," she whispered teasingly,
her tongue
taking the place of her fingers. "I saw the medical droid this
morning."

Luke blinked, and then without saying a word, sat up, dumping Mara
off of him and onto the couch. She looked at him in astonishment.
He grinned, got to his feet, and picked her up off the couch. He
headed for the bedroom.

Over his shoulder, Mara looked about the room. "Skywalker,
where's
Artoo? I don't want the little Squirt to be watching anything
here."

"Is that why you stopped me on the couch?" Luke asked, and
then
didn't wait for her reply. "He's at his recharging
station, powered
down for the night," Luke chuckled and then laughed out loud when
Mara snorted indelicately, "Well, it's a good thing. I
don't want to
have to deal with any more questions about mating."

When they reached the bedroom, Luke sat on the side of the bed,
holding Mara in his lap. Mara was glancing around the
room. "Sithspit!" she suddenly cursed.

"What?" Luke asked, slightly alarmed.

Mara pointed at the huge transparisteel windows that took up one
whole wall of the bedroom. Just at the moment, although not a sound
could be heard, a transport bus-speeder filled with what appeared to
be a bunch of partygoers sailed by. She couldn't believe it.
"How
can you sleep in here with all that traffic? And I'll tell you
right
now, buddy boy, we are not making love where half of Coruscant can
see us!"

Luke pulled her face back around and placed a gentle kiss on her
outraged mouth. "Mara, it's reflective transparisteel on the
outside. We can see out, but no one can see in."

She looked at him quickly and then said abashedly, "Oh."

He lay back on the huge bed, pulling her with him. They nestled
together and then Luke kissed her again. It was a soft, tender kiss,
more a gentle playing with one another's lips than a deep
passionate
one. They enjoyed it very much and their emotions begin to flow into
one another, along with an almost mutual understanding that there was
no reason to hurry.

Their first joining had been a bit of a struggle for them both and
their second, a hurried rush of passion. But not this time. They
had plenty of time, all night if they wished, to explore, to
investigate, to become comfortable with one another as never before,
and they didn't want to waste the opportunity.

After they shed their remaining clothes, their hands and mouths
roamed over each other, learning, discovering, gaining knowledge and
skill. When Luke finally deepened their kisses, slipping his tongue
between Mara's lips, she was already limp and a bit weak with
desire. Her body tingled in all the places that Luke had touched,
kissed and caressed.

Her mouth opened wider and her tongue met his joyfully. She groaned
into his mouth, pulling him closer. "Luke, I...I..." she
moaned.
Gods, why couldn't she just say it? Why couldn't she tell
him she
loved him? It had to be love. She hadn't a clue what love
really
was, but surely, this...this had to be it. No man had ever touched
her like Luke and she didn't mean just physically. This man
touched
her soul, her essence.

"Luke..." she started again in a hoarse whisper, but his
mouth cut
her off, filling her own with his tongue. His hands began to move
with more purpose, more intent and all coherent thought fled from
Mara's mind.

He moved her gently underneath him, settling himself between her
thighs, and she was ready for him, lifting her hips. He looked down
at her with those beautiful blue eyes and let his emotions flow into
her, mesmerizing her even as he gently, easily entered her body.

She arched underneath him, taking him in as deeply as she could, and
the last of her barriers dropped, letting all her feelings, her
emotions, even her confusion flood into him.

His arms slid tightly around her, holding her against him, even as he
began to thrust, slowly, steadily. "I know, Mara, I
know...," he
groaned against her cheek.

She had no idea what he knew, she didn't know herself what she
felt...but she did know that she craved him and their bond, that
strange and wonderful connection they shared, craved it like an
addict did a drug.

His thrusts became quicker, harder and she lifted herself to him,
encouraging him for more. And the light...the brilliant, amazing
light was beginning again, flashing around them and into them and she
held him, held on for dear life as they fused together, body and soul.

Her mouth opened and she cried out his name, in sheer, unadulterated
joy.

This is still a bit rough as a chapter as I was planning on working
on it a little more, but since the natives are restless around
here! :-))

Any feedback about this would be appreciated. Especially dealing
with the new character Parrin - is he realistic?

A Tangled Web - Rating for this chapter is PG-13

Chapter 14

The next morning.

Captain Maat Parrin entered General Drogrono Diaishuut's
elaborate
and highly decorative office suite. He glanced around, amazed again
that the general could get so much...stuff...in one office. And in
Parrin's opinion, the place was just too ostentatious and
pretentious, altogether a fair representation of the general himself.

Parrin nodded to the attractive young female who sat at the desk in
the outer room. "General Diaishuut wanted to see me, I
believe," he
told her. She nodded, her eyes openly traveling his trim figure,
cased tightly in his neat and crisp officer's uniform.

Parrin's lips tightened perceptibly. How like the general to
have
such a forward young woman as his military receptionist. The
general's penchant for women was well-known and viewed for the
most
part as scandalous behavior for a man in his position, but he was so
firmly entrenched in the hierarchy of the military that nothing was
ever done about it.

The receptionist got up from her desk, smiled invitingly and told him
that she would inform the general that he was there. She waved at
the chairs in the small reception area and asked him to take a seat.
She then disappeared into the inner sanctum of the office.

Parrin took a chair and waited. A quarter of an hour later, he
glanced at his chrono for the umpteenth time, annoyance beginning to
seep into him. The general was apparently up to his old tricks
again...he loved to keep his subordinate officers waiting around on
him, probably gave him some sick sense of power. And with that
willing young tart in there with him...

A door opened and the receptionist came out, smoothing her hair back
into place. Parrin tried to keep the distaste off his face, but he
wasn't very successful.

"The general will see you now," the girl cooed, her eyes
traveling
over him again.

Parrin ignored her and walked into the big office of his commanding
officer. Diaishuut was sitting behind his oversized desk, a thin
cigarra held in one of his pudgy hands.

"Ah...Parrin. Just the man I wanted to see," the general
said,
propping his feet on his desk. He took a long pull on his cigarra
and then blew the smoke in Parrin's direction.

Parrin's lips tightened, but he didn't say anything. He
lived for
the day that his tenure with the general would be finished. If only
he could get that promotion. He drew in a silent breath. His
promotion depended on the overweight blob of guts sitting behind the
desk, and he knew it. One wrong move that upset the general and his
dream of being a major would go right down the tubes.

"Well? Did you carry out my orders?" the general demanded,
suddenly
swinging his feet to the floor and slamming his hand on the desk.

Parrin didn't move. He was used to the general's silly
little tricks
of intimidation. When he had been first assigned as his aide-de-
camp, the general had terrified him. That is, until he realized just
what a small man he was, small in stature and small in spirit.

"Yes, sir. The droid reported back from the medical center
yesterday."

"And? Listen, Parrin, this had better be carried out carefully.
I
didn't pay a small fortune in getting a human replica droid for
this
scheme to not work. Well, did he see Jade?"

"He did, although he made no contact with her. He said she
pulled a
blaster and came after him in a corridor at the medical center. He
barely got away."

Some of the ruddy color in the general's face faded. "How
the Hoth
would she have known there was any danger?" he demanded
hoarsely. "Damn Jedi! Parrin, you had better not bungle this or
I'll have you stationed on a planet in the farthest corner of the
Outer Rim. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, general," Parrin replied stiffly.

The general sat back in his chair, his mind racing. "Did you say
the
medical center?"

"Yes, sir."

"What was she doing there?"

"The replica droid said she was examined by one of the medical
droids
and given some sort of medications. He wasn't able to obtain
information on what kind."

The general frowned. "What kind of medical droid did she
see?"

"A gynecologist, sir."

The general chuckled nastily. "A female doctor? Maybe
Skywalker's
been giving her too much of a workout." He rubbed his chin.
"Where
did she go after that?"

"Skywalker's apartment."

Diaishuut's lips tightened. "Was he waiting on her?"

"No, he came later."

"And?"

"They haven't left the apartment since then, sir."

"Of course not," the general snarled. "Too busy with one
another,
I'm sure." His small eyes narrowed, "Did they see anyone
else?"

"No, sir. Skywalker had his R2 droid with him when he came to
the
apartment, but no one else has been there."

"Not even his sister?"

"No, sir."

"Hmmmmm... Alright, Parrin, you're dismissed, but I want to
see you
here at 08:00 sharp tomorrow. And bring that droid with you. I want
to talk to him myself."

Parrin came to attention and saluted the general smartly. The man
behind the desk waved his hand impatiently and began to shuffle some
datacards.

Parrin turned on his heels and left.

*********************************

Later, that evening.

As Luke rode the turbolift down to Mara's floor in the old
Imperial
Palace, he was thinking over how he was going to tell Han and Leia
about the new relationship that he and Mara shared. He knew that
both of them still had some reservations about Mara and her past as
the Emperor's Hand, but he also knew that once they understood
the
extent of the feelings between him and Mara that they would be happy
for him, for them both.

Mara lived in a more modest section of the Imperial Palace than he
did, and it seemed to teem with people compared to the relative
silence of his own. As he exited the turbolift, a small group of
three or four children raced down the hallway and passed him on both
sides, heading in the direction of a large transparisteel window at
the end of the corridor. One of the children, an older boy, skidded
to a stop and glanced back over his shoulder. His pale eyes widened
and then he turned and ran after the other children, calling for them
to stop.

Luke sighed. Obviously the child had recognized him and was alerting
his friends. He hurried over to Mara's door. *Mara?* he sent
to
her.

*Come on in, the door's open,* she told him. He pressed the
entry
panel and the door slid open without a sound. He walked in and
caught sight of Mara at her comlink center. A tiny transparent
figure of Talon Karrde wavered over a small hologram projector.

"Yes, I understand," Mara was telling him. "No, it's
no problem.
I'll take care of it."

Karrde said something that Luke didn't catch, and Mara said,
nodding, "Yeah, alright. Then I'll say goodbye for now."
Mara
pushed a button on the unit and the hologram of Karrde disappeared.

Luke walked over to her and kissed her on the top of her head. He
slid his hands down her arms and nuzzled under her ear.

Mara sighed, tilting her head back to give him access to her
throat. "Mmmmm...you had better quit that or we won't make
it to
your sister's for dinner."

Luke started undoing the buttons on the front of her full, fluffy
shirt. She slapped his hands away. "Stop it, Luke. I've
already
taken a shower and dressed and I'm not doing all that over
again."

He put his hands on her waist and pulled her to him. They rested
against each other for a moment. "If it were anybody but my
sister..." he mumbled into her hair.

She snorted. "Well, it is, and this was all your idea, so we may
as
well go and get it over with." She sighed heavily. "Just
what are
you going to tell them?"

"About what?" he muttered, nuzzling under her hair.
"Nice scent,
what is it?"

"Nlorna," she replied, mentioning the fragrant flower used in
many
perfumes. "And don't try to change the subject."

"Do you mean what am I going to tell them about us?" he
asked.

"Come on, Skywalker, you know what I'm talking about."

He chuckled. "I'm going to tell them I'm madly in love
with you and
can't wait to drag you into bed every chance I get."

Mara pushed him away. "Stop it, Luke. I'm serious."

"Alright, alright," he said. "Mara, you know I love and
adore you,
that I want to marry you."

"Are you going to tell them all that?" Mara exclaimed,
horrified.

Luke frowned and took her hand. "Why not? It's the
truth."

"I know, Luke," Mara sighed. "I just...I just don't
think we should
tell them that you...that we...have that serious a..." her voice
trailed off.

"Mara," Luke said, running a finger down her cheek.
"I'm not ashamed
of our relationship. It's the best thing that ever happened to
me."

Mara closed her eyes and leaned against him. "I'm not
either, Luke.
Our relationship is very important to me, too. I just want to savor
it without too many people knowing, at least for now."

"Then what do you think we should tell them?" Luke asked,
willing to
compromise. "As I said before, I don't think we can hide it
from
them."

"Well, let's just say we have decided to date for awhile and
let it
go at that," Mara whispered, rubbing her face against his.
"That
way, we can gradually work our way into telling them everything."

Luke nodded. "Alright."

Mara kissed him gently on the lips. "And let's wait to tell
them
until after dinner. I don't want to give Leia too much time to
ask
questions or Solo too much time to smirk!"

Luke laughed out loud and hugged her tightly. "Alright, Mara,
we'll
do it your way."

Meanwhile in the Solo apartment:

"So you don't think I should ask them any questions?"
Leia said,
putting some final touches on a huge roasted Uln that had been
prepared by the kitchen droid. The bird was one of Luke's
favorite
meals, and the droid had spent most of the afternoon preparing it.

"No," Han replied, laying the dinner wine on ice to chill.
"I think
we should let them tell us in their own way. They'll get around
to
it when they want us to know."

Leia let out a huge sigh. "But I want to know nowww... All
right. I
know, I'm nosy, but he's my brother and I want him to be
happy."

Han laughed. "Have you sensed any unhappiness from him
lately?"

Leia shook her head. "No...actually quite the opposite. He seems
more contented and relaxed than I've seen him in a long time."

Han walked over to her and tried to steal a taste of the Uln. She
shooed him away, but he still managed to get a small piece. Popping
it into his mouth, he said, "Then leave them be, Leia.
They'll let
us know when it's time."

Not long after that, the door chime sounded and Han opened the door
to see a smiling Luke and, to his surprise, a somewhat nervous Mara
Jade. He waved for them to come in. "Right on time, guys,"
he said
and then called in the direction of the kitchen. "Leia,
they're here."

Han wasn't surprised to see Artoo trundle in behind them.
Usually
when Luke paid a visit, he brought Artoo with him so the droid could
spend some time with his old friend Threepio. Han smiled when he saw
the droid immediately head for the small chamber off the living area
where Threepio spent the majority of his time when the family
didn't
need him.

Han led Luke and Mara into the lounge and headed over to the small
bar in the corner. "What will you kids have? We have just
enough
time for a short one before dinner."

Luke grinned at the expression on Mara's face. He knew what she
was
thinking; it had probably been years since she had been referred to
as a `kid', if she had ever been.

"I'll have a small Corellian whiskey," Luke told Han,
taking Mara's
hand and pulling her over to the big couch in the center of the room.

"A glass of wine for me, Solo," Mara said, sitting down on
the couch
and pulling her hand away from Luke's. *Remember?* she sent to
him. *No public displays of affection. We don't tell them until
after dinner.*

*All right,* Luke groused, resisting the urge to cup her face with
his hands and cover that pouting mouth with his. His intent showed
clearly on his face and she frowned heavily at him. *Don't even
think about it,* she warned, glaring green daggers at him.

"Alderaanian?" Han suddenly said, causing Mara to jump
slightly. She
looked up, startled to see him standing directly in front of them.
She swallowed and said, "I'm sorry?"

Han cleared his throat, watching the two of them. Obviously, they
had been deep in conversation. He hadn't lived around Jedi for
most
of the past ten years and not known when they were having one of
those infernal mind conversations. "I asked if Alderaanian wine
would do?" he told Mara.

She looked a bit flustered, but answered him calmly enough. "Of
course, Solo, that would be perfect." She took the glass of wine
from him, took a small sip and leaned back against the couch.

Han dropped into a cushy chair across from the couch. "Well,
what
have you two been up to lately?"

The wine glass jerked in Mara's hand and spilled some of its
contents
on her full, loose shirt. "Sithspit," she cursed, wiping at
her
shirt with her hand.

"Here, let me," Luke said, leaning closer and pressing a
small cloth
napkin Han had given him with his whiskey against the damp spot.
Unfortunately, the spot was right over Mara's left breast and at
Luke's touch, they instantly became aware of one another. They
looked at each other; the air virtually sizzling between them.

Across from them, Han's eyebrows lifted and he didn't even
attempt to
hide the huge grin that widened his mouth. He stood, waiting for
them to notice him. He waited in vain, so he cleared his throat
again.

They looked up, startled, and Luke quickly removed his hand from the
front of Mara's blouse.

Han said, "I think I'll go check on Leia and dinner. You two
make
yourselves at home." He didn't hide the teasing tone in his
voice
and was pleased to see the color flood into Mara Jade's cheeks.
Han
had never seen her so nervous or so...shy? It wasn't a word he
usually associated with her.

He sauntered out of the living area into the dining room where Leia
was giving final instructions to a serving droid. He came up behind
her, slid his arms around her waist and nuzzled the back of her neck.

"Whoa," Leia laughed, turning in his arms. "What's
that about,
Captain Solo?"

"Just copying the mood your dear brother seems to be spreading
all
over the place," Han teased, capturing her lips for a long,
passionate kiss.

When they parted, Leia looked up at him in astonishment. "You
mean
Luke and Mara are..."

Han threw back his head and laughed. "No, at least they
weren't when
I left them in the living room, but it's obvious they can hardly
keep
their hands off one another."

Leia's dark brown eyes grew large. "Then it's true? You
think they
are lovers?"

"If I were to go by my instincts, I would say a whopping big yes,
but
I still think we had better let them tell us in their own good
time,"
Han said, hugging his wife to him again.

Leia sighed. "I'm glad, Han. I'm so happy for
Luke...and Mara too.
They will be very good for one another."

"Yeah, I think so too," Han replied. "I can already see
a change in
Mara."

"You can?" Leia asked.

"Yep. She doesn't seem as abrasive as she used to be. Looks
like
Luke may have sweetened her up a little."

Leia burst out laughing. "I wouldn't bet any credits on
that! She's
probably just that way with him!" She stepped out of his
arms. "Well, go and get them, dinner's ready, and I
can't wait to
see the happy pair!"

When Luke and Mara entered the dining room, Leia rushed over to them,
grabbing her brother and hugging him tightly. "Luke! It's so
good to
see you!" She stepped back and gave him a big smile.

He grinned and dropped a kiss on her cheek. "It's good to
see you
too, sis."

Leia turned and took Mara's hand. "I'm so glad you could
join us for
dinner, Mara. It's always wonderful to have you here."

Mara smiled and squeezed Leia's hand. "Thank you, Leia."

Leia looked from Luke to Mara and back again, her eyes dancing with
laughter, but she didn't say anything more, just motioned for
them to
take their seats at the table.

They ate their meal, bantering lightly among themselves, not even
realizing how much a family they all seemed.

Finally, Luke asked, "Where's the babies?"

Leia laughed. "Asleep, Luke. The Noghri are with them.
It's long
past their bedtime anyway." She laughed again. "You're
going to
have to get more familiar with the routines of babies, I
suspect."
She shot a glance at Mara who determinedly kept her attention on her
meal, not rising to any bait Leia might be throwing out.

Luke asked another question. "You said the Noghri are with them?

Where's Winter?"

It was Han who laughed then. "Oh, she's out with her new
boyfriend."

"Han," Leia warned. "You know she said they were just
friends."

"Yeah, I know," Han said, his tongue firmly in his cheek.
"But you
didn't see how he looked at her when he came to pick her up.
Like
she was his favorite dessert or something."

"Who are we talking about?" Mara asked. She hadn't
known that
Winter was dating anyone.

"I don't know if you know him, Mara," Leia said.
"But Luke does.
He's one of his old Rogue Squadron buddies."

"Really?" Luke asked. "Who?"

"Tycho," Han told him, laughing. "Tycho Celchu."

"You're joking," Luke said. Then he nodded his head.
"I suppose
when you think of it, it's a logical choice. After all, they are
both Alderaanian."

"That doesn't make any difference," Han laughed, glancing
at his wife.

Leia nodded. "And Winter says they are just friends, although
they
have been spending a lot of time together."

There was a pause in the conversation and Luke glanced at his sister,
who was watching him with a slight smile on her lips.

*Well, brother?* she asked in his mind and then stifled a giggle
when she saw Mara's head come up. Obviously, Mara had caught the
thought too.

Luke sighed. *Not now, Leia.*

Leia decided not to tease them anymore, so she asked aloud. "So,
Mara, how long are you going to be on Coruscant?"

"Actually, I'm going to have to leave tomorrow," Mara
said, taking a
bite of her Uln. "By the way, Leia, this is delicious."

No one seemed to notice Luke, who was looking as if he had been
suddenly slapped in the face.

"What do you mean, you're leaving tomorrow?" he asked,
his face
hardening into a scowl as he turned to Mara.

Mara blinked in surprise at him. "Yes, in the morning. Karrde
called earlier and said he needed me to take care of some business
for him."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Luke demanded harshly.

Mara's mouth pressed into a tight line, showing her annoyance at
his
tone. "You didn't ask."

They both had forgotten the other two people who were watching them
with wide eyes.

"What does he want you to do and where are you going?" Luke
was
relentless.

Mara sighed heavily. "Luke, it's my job. I have to work,
you know
that."

Luke put his napkin on the table with a little more force than was
necessary. "Mara, answer my questions," he demanded again,
not even
attempting to control his rising temper. How dare she not tell him!

"Uh...kids...uh, maybe...," Han started.

They both shot him a dirty look, so he subsided, glancing at Leia who
raised her eyebrows.

Luke turned back to Mara. "Where are you going?"

Mara tossed her red-gold braid over her shoulder. "The Corporate
Sector."

"The Corporate Sector?" Luke repeated, in shock.
"It's full of
thieves, cut-throats and..." He trailed off, thinking better of
his
last thought.

"Smugglers?" Mara finished for him icily. She stood up from
the
table, glaring down at him.

Luke stood with her. "It's too dangerous, Mara. You're
not going.
I forbid it," he growled, glaring at her in return.

Leia gasped in shock, but neither of them paid her the slightest
attention.

"You...FORBID...it?!" Mara repeated unbelievably, looking at
Luke as
if she thought he had gone insane. She took a long, deep breath.

And before the other two stunned occupants at the table, Luke and
Mara dissolved into a screaming, yelling fight worthy of any two
babies wrestling over a favorite toy.

It continued for some moments as Leia and Han watched, their eyes
bulging from their sockets.

Finally, Mara snarled. "I will do what I want, when I want and
where
I want, Skywalker, and don't you ever forget it!" She
stomped
towards the dining room door.

Luke followed her, raised his arm and force-turned her around to face
him. "Don't you dare leave. We have to talk this out."

Enraged that he would use the Force on her, Mara opened her mouth to
blast him again when Artoo trundled into the room, squealing and
beeping at the top of his electronic power. He rolled over to them,
never letting up on his constant chatter.

Mara looked at him in astonishment. "What the...?"

Luke scowled horribly. "Artoo, what do you want?"

Artoo went into a long bout of rapid beeps and hoots, his grappling
arm waving in the air.

Threepio came through the door. "Master Luke, I tried to stop
him,
but you know how he is when..."

"Hush, Threepio," Leia said from the table. She couldn't
believe her
eyes. It looked for all the world as if Artoo was scolding Luke and
Mara.

Luke and Mara both leaned over to read Artoo's small screen.

Suddenly, Mara straightened up and said defensively. "He started
it,
Squirt, blame him." Then she glared at Luke, whirled on her
heels
and disappeared through the door. A few moments later, they heard
the front door open and close.

There was a moment of utter quiet in the dining room, and then Artoo
started beeping and chattering again. Luke sighed, staring angrily
after Mara. "No, Artoo, it's okay, you don't
understand."

A high-pitched squeal erupted from Artoo, clearly another scold, and
then he, too, turned abruptly and disappeared through the door from
which he had come. Threepio followed him. "See there, Artoo, I
told
you it wasn't a good idea to interrupt..."

More loud squealing from Artoo cut Threepio off.

Luke started towards the front door.

"Luke?" Leia called, rising from the table.

Luke turned, glared at her a moment, mumbled something that sounded
suspiciously like "Women" under his breath, then left the
room. A
moment later they heard the front door open and close again.

Leia looked at Han in astonishment, but all he did was lean back in
his chair and down the rest of his glass of wine.

"Han," she demanded. "What in the galaxy was that all
about?"

Han laughed, got up from the table and strolled over to Leia. He
slung his arm about her shoulders. "You know, sweetheart, I
think we
just witnessed their first lovers' quarrel. I haven't seen a
couple
fight that passionately since...well...since you and I!"

They looked at one another a moment and then both burst out laughing,
hugging each other tightly.

Okay, don't scream at me too much when you get to the end of this
chapter. Suffice to say I am working desperately hard on Chapter 16
and hopefully will have it up sometimes this week.

A Tangled Web

Chapter 15

Luke stood in front of Mara's apartment door, fluctuating between
still seething and controlling the fear that was rising within him.
How could she be so unreasonable? Didn't she realize how much he
loved her? He would never want to see her placed in danger of any
kind. If something happened to her, he didn't know if he could
go on
living.

He sighed heavily, knowing the next few moments weren't going to
be easy. *Mara?*

*Go away,* she answered quickly. He knew she had sensed his
presence even before he reached the door.

*Open the door, Mara. We need to talk,* he told her, trying to be
as patient and reasonable as he could.

*Why doesn't the big, powerful Jedi just blow it down with his
mind!* she snarled sarcastically.

Luke leaned his forehead against the door. *Mara, I'm sorry
about that...I acted before I thought. I know I shouldn't have
used
the Force like that.*

She didn't say anything, and he could feel her anger, her barely
contained fury.

*Mara, please... If you are going away tomorrow, are you really not
going to let me in? At least, to say goodbye?"

There was a long, difficult moment of silence.

Luke waited, his forehead still pressed against the door. "Mara,
please..." he mumbled under his breath. What if she had left in
the morning without seeing him, without giving either of them the
chance to talk it out? They would be right back to square one in
their relationship. He straightened and ran a hand over the tight,
tense muscles in the back of his neck.

The door eased open.

They stood there for some time, just staring at one another, and then
Mara slowly moved aside, motioning with her hand for him to come in.

He walked into her small living area and took a seat on the couch.
Mara followed, but sat down in a chair across from him. He felt a
stab of hurt that she didn't sit beside him, but he tried not to
show it.

"Mara, look, I'm sorry," he started, then shook his head.
"I didn't mean to yell at you like that."

At first he didn't think she was even going to acknowledge his
apology, but she finally said, "Then why did you, Luke? You
know as well as I do that I have a job with responsibilities and that
I can be called away at anytime to do it. You have seen me leave
Coruscant before when Karrde needed me elsewhere."

He nodded. "I know, Mara. This time...well, it's
different."

"How's it different? Because we've slept together? I
can't and I won't give up my job just to be your mistress,
Luke."

He worked to hide the hurt from the comment and looked at her
sharply. "I would never ask you to do that, Mara."

"Then why the big scene tonight...in front of your sister and
Solo?" Mara demanded. She looked away from him, faint color
coming
in her cheeks. "Gods, Luke, that was so embarrassing." She
wasn't the type of woman who cried easily, but Skywalker had
reduced
her to tears more often in the last few days than she had been in her
entire
life. She was determined not to cry this time, though a knot in her
throat the size of a Hutt threatened to choke her.

Luke watched her for a moment and then tried a tentative probe,
risking that it might make her even angrier. But she had her
barriers up strong and tight; there was no way he was getting into
her mind.

He sighed and stood up, walking over to her chair. She watched him
warily as he neared, but didn't say anything. When he reached
her, he didn't give her time to object. He just pulled her up
into
his arms, covering her mouth with his just as she opened it to say
something.

He kissed her with all the pent-up emotions he had been feeling all
evening, with all that he had ever felt for her, the love, the
desire, the need. But now, along with it, came the sudden fear for
her, the anxiety that consumed him when she wasn't near him. He
opened his heart and his mind, pounding against her barriers until
with a gasp into his mouth, she let him in.

"Damn you, Luke Skywalker," she cried hoarsely, clinging to
him, as his emotions poured like an avalanche into her mind.

He pulled her over to the couch and they collapsed onto it, holding
each other tightly.

"I love you, Mara," he whispered. "I know I was wrong
this
evening." He swallowed. "I know I'm going to have to
apologize to
Leia and Han." He wasn't looking forward to it. There was
no way
Leia and Han didn't understand the relationship between him and
Mara
now, and they would be full of questions that Mara had not wanted him
to answer...at least, not now. All in all, he had pretty much failed
her the whole evening.

He turned her face to him, determined to make her understand.
"Mara,
look, I know that I can't hold you to me like that; I can't
keep you a prisoner. But I wanted you to know...to understand why I
reacted that way. I've never loved anyone...anyone at all in my
life
like I love you. You mean everything to me. And you'll just
have to
understand that sometimes...I'm going to be afraid for you, that
I will want to protect you."

"Luke," she said gently, one hand going to his cheek.
"I'm not a child to be protected. I'm Mara Jade, the
Emperor's Hand.
I've had more training in how to take care of myself than most
people
would receive in ten lifetimes. You don't have to worry about
me."

"Yes, I do," he groaned, pulling her into his arms.
"You're my other half, without you I'm not whole, I'm
empty. If
something
should happen to you, Mara, I..."

She put her fingers against his lips. "Shhh..," she
whispered
softly. "Nothing's going to hap..."

But he didn't give her a chance to say anymore, covering her
mouth
with a kiss so desperate that when they finally broke apart, they
were both gasping for air.

Mara leaned weakly against him, a tiny worry tickling the edge of her
mind. Why this sudden, irrational fear for her safety? It
wasn't
like Luke. Sure, he could be overprotective at times, but he also
understood and respected how capable she was. It didn't make any
sense for him to have acted the way he did.

Luke pressed his forehead against hers. "I will never hold you
back,
Mara. I know you have a life to lead, the same as I do. I just want
to be a part of yours, always."

"You will, Luke," Mara reassured him, kissing him gently on
the
nose. How could she stay angry with him? He smothered her anger
with a love that she could hardly believe, much less understand. But
deep down, somewhere in her core, she knew that what they shared was
very, very special and she would never, ever, be able to live without
it.

Luke leaned back against the arm of the couch, pulling her with him.
They snuggled together. "Promise?" he whispered against her
cheek. "Promise I'll always be in your life?"

"I promise," she answered, just as softly. She felt him
relax then and she did too, laying her head on his chest.

Later that night:

General Diaishuut keyed in the code to his office and the heavily
enforced door slid open. He motioned for the tall, slender man with
him to enter the room first. After glancing in both directions down
the hallway to make sure no one had noticed them, Diaishuut followed
the man into the office.

He walked into the larger, more elaborate room that served as his
personal office and turned to the man who had followed him in.

"Well?"

The slender man stood rigidly at attention, but he wasn't wearing
any type of military uniform. "Captain Parrin said I was to meet
with you in the morning."

"I changed my mind," the general told him. "That's
why I called you
in tonight. I've made a decision about Parrin, and I'm going
to need
you to take care of it."

The man nodded his head towards the general.

Diaishuut's eyes wandered up and down the slim figure. He
sighed. "Amazing, simply amazing. Were you made by Massad
Thrumble?" The general was referring to the director of the
enormous
Droid Research Facility that had been one of the late Emperor
Palpatine's favorite projects. The construction of human replica
droids had been a high priority at the height of the Empire, but the
cost was extremely high and in the end, only a few of the HRD's
had been made.

The one standing across from the general slowly nodded his head in
answer to the general's question.

Diaishuut grunted and walked to his desk. He dropped into the
heavily cushioned chair behind it. "It was sheer luck I found
you.
If I didn't have some information on Chertec, I would not have
come
close to affording what one of you droids cost." He leaned back
in
his chair, propping his feet on the desk, a favored position.
Because of his movement, he missed the slight sneer that flickered
across the HRD's face.

Chertec, an underground crime lord, who worked his business dealings
between the slimier side of Coruscant and the Hutts, had been
reluctant to release his HRD to the general. In the end, he had had
no choice. Diaishuut's network of intelligence had enough on
Chertec
to send him to Kessel for life.

"What do they call you?" the general asked.

"Erdar," the HRD replied.

"I'm assuming that your additional programming has been
performed and
there were no malfunctions."

"Everything worked perfectly. My functions are all
operational."

The general stood up and walked over to the droid.
"So...you're the
only one in existence now that the first one, Guri, had herself
reprogrammed." The general walked around the droid, looking him
over
carefully. "The perfect assassin...powerful, intelligent, and
without one iota of conscience...how utterly convenient."

"Yes, sir," Erdar replied.

Diaishuut walked back to his desk and leaned against it. "You
understand what you are to do."

Erdar nodded. "I will eliminate the Jedi woman, Mara Jade."

"When are you planning on doing this?"

"Tomorrow."

"Ahhh...very good," the general smirked, rubbing his hands
together. "That will be perfect too. It will be good to be rid
of
another Jedi. They are more trouble than they are worth." The
general looked sharply at the droid. "You understand what you
are to do if Luke Skywalker is with her."

"I will kill them both," Erdar said, his cold, emotionless
eyes watching the general.

The general was pleased. "There is one more task I have for you
and you must do it tonight." The general turned to his desk and
took
a datacard from it. He handed it to the droid. "This is the
address of Captain Parrin. Go there and eliminate him."

The droid took the card, but seemed to hesitate.

"What is it?" the general asked.

"Captain Parrin is your aide-de-camp, General. He is the one who
gave me my instructions concerning the Jedi woman."

Diaishuut nodded briskly. "True, but do you recall what I said
about
you a few moments ago."

"I recall everything, General Diaishuut. I have perfect
memory."

The general was amused. "Yes, you do and perfect skills with the
added plus of absolutely no remorse. You see, Erdar, that is the
problem with Captain Parrin. He has a conscience and someday that
conscience will get the best of him, and we certainly don't want
that
to happen, now do we?"

The HRD stood motionless.

"Eliminate him," the general said harshly. "Tonight."

A few blocks away.

"No, I'm alright, Asnee," Maat Parrin assured his sister
for the
third time. Her gentle face still contained a worried frown, and
Maat adjusted a quality button on his comm unit, bringing her face
into sharper focus.

"I've been worried about you, Maat," she said. "You
have been so
preoccupied. Do you realize you missed your niece's birthday
last
week?"

Parrin closed his eyes. Oh gods, he had totally forgotten.
"I'm
sorry, Asnee. General Diaishuut has really been putting me through
my paces the past couple of weeks. I'll make it up to Mari, I
promise."

His sister sighed. "It's not that, Maat. She's already
forgiven
you." Her frown deepened. "When do you think you are going
to get
that promotion? I...I don't like Diaishuut, Maat, he's not a
very
good person."

It was Parrin's turn to sigh. "I know, Asnee. It can't
be much
longer, and if I do get the promotion, I'm fairly certain that I
will
be assigned somewhere else. Believe me, you can't want that more
than I do." He paused a moment and then continued. "Asnee,
listen...eh...I'm sending you a datacard. It contains some
information that I want you to deliver to Alliance Headquarters...if
something should happen to me."

His sister's eyes widened. "What does that mean, Maat? Do
you think
you are in danger? What's going on?"

"No, Asnee, no. Now, don't get upset. It's strictly a
precaution."

"I don't like this, Maat. I don't like it at all,"
his sister
insisted.

"Asnee, I need you to do this for me," Parrin said.
"Please?"

Asnee looked intently at her younger brother. "Maat, you know
I'd do
anything for you, but I'm so worried about you. The
general..."

"I'll be fine, Asnee," Maat cut her off. "And soon,
this will be all
over. I'll get my promotion and then life will be good. I
promise."

His sister watched him for a moment. During the past few years that
Maat had worked for General Dongrono Diaishuut, he had asked her
several times to keep datacards of information for him, yet this time
seemed different. The tired lines around his eyes had deepened and
suddenly her younger brother looked older than his age.

"Maat," she began. "Please be careful. If there is
anything more I
can do..."

"You'll do it," he finished for her again, smiling at
her. "Thanks,
Asnee. I'll see you over the weekend, alright?"

She nodded. "I'll hold you to that, Maat."

He signed off, then leaned his head back against his chair. He just
hoped he wasn't in a prison cell along with the general by the
time
the weekend rolled around.

The next morning.

Something tickled Mara Jade's nose and she wrinkled it, trying to
get
rid of whatever was pestering her. It didn't help, so with a
soft
groan, she forced her eyes open.

The early morning light was easing into her small bedroom through the
one transparisteel window that the room contained. Mara blinked
against the light and suddenly became conscious that she was laying
on something quite warm and it was gently rising and falling.

She smiled and gently rubbed her face against the warm surface. Then
she pressed an open-mouthed kiss to it.

"You can do that all morning if you want," a slightly husky
male
voice whispered. "I won't mind."

Her smile grew feral, and she nipped his skin with her teeth.

"Owww, Mara," Luke protested, rubbing the spot.

She sat up in the bed, stretching. "That's what you get for
tickling
me with those skinny, little hairs on your chest," she informed
him.

She was taken totally by surprise when his hands gripped her
shoulders and flung her back down on the bed. He covered her body
with his.

She lifted an eyebrow. "And just what do you think you're
doing,
buddy boy?"

He grinned. "Revenge, my sweet."

"I thought Jedi didn't do revenge."

He mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, "Only on
other
Jedi", before his mouth covered hers.

Mara ran her fingers into his hair and pulled him closer. If this
was his idea of revenge, she might have to figure out a whole list of
ways to get him to seek payback.

They lay on the bed for some time, just enjoying the kissing and the
soft caressing, but both knew they couldn't take it any further.
Mara's ship was scheduled for departure in just over an hour.

Finally, Luke pulled back and lay on his side next to her.
"I'm going to miss you so much," he said gently.

"And I you," Mara replied just as softly, smoothing back the
loose
hair from his forehead.

"I could go with you," he offered, watching her closely.

Mara turned on her side to face him. "I would love that, Luke,
but do
you really think it's a good idea? I wouldn't get any work
done if
you were with me. You're too much of a distraction."

Luke laughed, nuzzling against her face. "I've been called
many
things in my life before now, but never a distraction."

Mara sighed and sat up. "Well, you are for me. Besides, if I go
by
myself, I'll get finished sooner and will be back here before you
know it." She stood and looked down at him on the bed.

He lifted his eyebrows suggestively. "You sure you don't
want me to
go with you?" he asked again, teasingly.

Mara smiled, her eyes running over him appreciatively. "I
can't lie,
Farmboy, that's a very tempting offer, but I don't think
so...not
this time anyway."

She turned and walked towards the refresher. Luke heaved a big sigh,
watching her, and said, "Have I told you I adore your backside,
Miss Jade?"

Mara wiggled her hips and smiled at him over her shoulder.
"It's all yours, Farmboy, all yours."

An hour later, they left Mara's apartment and headed for the
spaceport.

"Luke, you don't have to go to the hanger with me," Mara
told him.

"Hush, Mara, you know I want to," Luke replied, taking her
hand as
they rode the turbolift down. The realization that she might be gone
for weeks was settling in on him with a thud. Their relationship was
so new; her leaving scared him. Would she feel the same when she
returned?

Mara stepped in front of him. "Yes," she whispered. "I
will."

He looked at her quickly and then chuckled softly. "I can't
hide anything from you anymore, can I?"

She leaned up and kissed him softly on the lips. "No, Farmboy,
not after what we've shared."

He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. "I love you,
Mara."

She smiled against his cheek. "I know."

The turbolift doors opened and they pulled apart quickly. There was
a group waiting on the lift, but Luke and Mara ignored them, walking
out hand in hand. For once, Mara didn't care who know about them
and their relationship. In fact, she squeezed his hand and pulled
him a little closer to her. He smiled down at her, pleased that she
didn't seem concerned who knew about them anymore.

They made a very attractive couple and more than one pair of eyes
followed them as they walked out onto the moving walkways that would
take them to the speeder cabs.

The trip to the spaceport was made in almost total silence as they
sat in the back of the cab, their hands clasped tightly together.
Their emotions flowed between them, their hearts and minds opened
completely. There was no need for words.

When they reached the huge outer building of the spaceport, they
walked in and turned down the long corridor that led to the numerous
hangers. The corridor looked endless, but for them both it ended
much too quickly.

Mara stopped a few meters away from the door that led to the hanger
that housed the YT-2400. "Don't go with me in there,
Luke," she whispered, tugging on his hand to make him stop.

He turned to her, a worried frown creasing his brow. "Why not,
Mara? I want to."

She shook her head, tears gathering in her eyes. "I
don't..." she got out around the lump in her throat. "I
don't want
to see you standing there when my ship leaves. I don't want to
see
myself leaving you."

"Oh, Mara," he said softly and pulled her in his arms. They
stood in the corridor for a long time, just holding one another,
oblivious of the passersby who stared at them curiously.

Finally, Mara pulled away, her hand slowly falling away from
Luke's.
They stared at one another a moment more and then she turned to walk
toward the door.

She was an emotional mess. Perhaps that was why her danger sense,
for the first time in her life, failed to warn her in time. But as
she pressed the panel to open the door and it began to ease open, the
danger sense flared, screaming into her mind, at the very same time
she heard Luke cry out.

She turned quickly to see him charging towards her, yelling her
name. In sheer astonishment, she saw him leap towards her, flying
through the air.

Just as his feet caught her in the chest, flinging her through the
door and into the hanger, an explosion ripped through the doorframe,
shattering it into pieces.

Mara hit the floor of the hanger with a thud, jarring the breath out
of her, but she backflipped quickly, landing on her feet, and
activating her lightsaber in her hand. She was barely in time to
deflect the blaster bolt that sizzled by her head, singeing some of
her hair. Not far away, she saw a slender man crouched beside one of
the repulsor lifts of the YT, firing shot after shot from his E-11
blaster rifle. Mara blocked them with her lightsaber and then Force-
leapt towards the man, twisting and turning in the air to avoid his
shots. She landed gracefully beside him. Lifting her hand, she
called the blaster out of his hand and flung it across the hanger.
It fell to the floor, clattering on the hard surface. Then Mara
raised her lightsaber and cleaved him into two pieces, slicing
through his shoulder to his hip. She stood in astonishment as the
corpse fell over, wires and computer chips sparking and flaring.

"A droid," she whispered in disgust, outrage ripping through
her. "A HRD assassin."

She stared at him a moment, noticing the remote control device on the
ground beside him. Obviously, he had set off the explosion as soon
as he saw her coming into the hanger.

Then she turned quickly, remembering, her emerald eyes searching
frantically.

Her heart stopped in her chest when she saw Luke lying in a crumbled
heap near what was left of the door that led into the corridor.

Mara started a stumbling run towards him as suddenly there seemed to
be people all around her, yelling and crying out. But she didn't
hear any of them. All she could see was Luke, bleeding and broken on
the floor.

She dropped to her knees beside him, horrified at the bloody mass
that was the back of his head. "Oh no...oh gods, no."

Okay, guys, here it is. I want to thank everyone for all the
wonderful comments and encouragement you have given me over the
months it took to write this thing! :-)

I especially want to express my deepest gratitude and heartiest
thanks to Ki G. and Michele W. Without them, this little story
surely would never have been written. Thanks, pals. You are the
world's best.

A Tangled Web

Final Chapter and Epilogue

Four of the Noghri bodyguards forced their way through the crowd at
the front entrance of the medical wing of the old Imperial Palace.
Leia and Han followed closely behind them. Usually, only one
bodyguard accompanied them, but the events of the past few days had
caused them to tighten security considerably. Han's arm was
firmly
around Leia, but he didn't think she was even aware of it.
Although
she seemed to still be in a bit of shock, her years of political
training allowed her to automatically acknowledging the words of
sympathy and encouragement that some in the crowd called out to her.

They made their way into the huge hospital wing and walked the long
hallways until they reached the intensive care unit. A large
transparisteel window allowed them to see into the room where Luke
laid, various wires and tubes connected to him.

"Well, at least he's out of the bacta tank," Han said,
leaning
against the railing next to the window. The Noghri had taken up
positions at each end of the hallway, and he knew that they would not
be disturbed by any of the well wishers they had passed through.

"Two days, Han," Leia said quietly. "It's been two
days."

Han nodded, watching Luke through the glass. It all seemed unreal
somehow. The assassination attempt, Luke in a coma, it just
didn't
seem as if things like that could happen to them, not anymore
anyway. Sure, during the war, but now...now, it just wasn't
fair.

"If only he would come out of it," Leia said, her voice
trembling. "I
know he could heal himself."

Han sighed and put his arm around her again. "Sweetheart, this
is
Luke, remember? He's going to be alright."

Leia glanced up at him and then looked back into the room. "Tell
Mara that."

Han looked at the other figure in the room with Luke. She sat in a
small, rather uncomfortable looking, straight-back chair that had
been drawn as closely to the bed as possible. Mara Jade held
Luke's
hand as she sat slumped in the chair, her eyes closed.

"Madame Minister of State?" a voice said beside them and
they turned
to see the hospital's Director of Surgery.

"Doctor Nairi," Leia said politely, extending her hand.
"How is
Luke?"

The female Twi'lek, one of the New Republic's best surgeons,
took
Leia's hand and squeezed it. "About the same, I'm sorry
to say. His
wounds are almost healed. Another hour or so in the bacta
tank..."
the doctor's voice trailed off. Then she took a deep breath.
"We
just can't seem to get him out of the coma. The head wound was
severe, and it could take some time before he becomes conscious
again."

If ever, Leia thought the doctor had been about to say before she
stopped herself.

"There is the possibility of some neural reconstructive
surgery," the
doctor continued. "But I would rather wait a few more days and
see
if your brother can come out of this on his own."

Leia nodded, taking in a long breath. Whatever was best for Luke was
what she wanted. She glanced back into the room. "How long has
Miss
Jade been here today?"

The doctor sighed and stroked one of her head tentacles.
"She's
never left, Madame Minister of State."

Leia's eyes widened. "You mean she's been here the whole
time?"

Nairi nodded. "Yes, and she's very tired. She hasn't
slept at all.
We've tried to talk her into going home to get some sleep, but
she
refuses. Perhaps you...?" the doctor asked, tilting her head
towards
Leia.

"Me?" Leia asked in astonishment. Obviously, the doctor
didn't know
Mara Jade very well. If she wanted to stay, she'd stay. There
was
no force in the universe that could make her leave if she didn't
want
to. Then Leia sighed, knowing Mara must be on the verge of collapse
from exhaustion. "I'll try."

"Thank you, Madame Minister of State," the Twi'lek said.
She was
then was interrupted by a nurse who whispered something to her.
Doctor Nairi nodded and then turned to Leia and Han. "If
you'll
excuse me, something has come up I need to attend to."

"Of course, Doctor."

Leia turned to Han. "Let's go in then."

Han shook his head. "Why don't you go alone? You may have
more luck
with Mara if I'm not in there crowding up the room."

Leia considered what her husband had said. She really didn't
want to
leave him, but knew he was right. "Alright. I'll let you
know when
to come in."

He nodded and Leia made her way into the room. Mara sat in the
chair, her hand loosely gripping Luke's and her eyes closed.

When Leia's hand touched her shoulder, Mara jumped, and Leia
realized
that she must have been dozing in the chair.

"I'm sorry, Mara, I didn't mean to wake you," Leia
said softly. She
couldn't remember a time when Mara looked worse. Her hair was a
curly, unkempt mess about her head and lines of weariness deepened
the corners of her mouth. Her eyes were slitted with tiredness and
straining against the light.

"Leia," she said quickly, straightening in the chair.
"I'm glad
you're here. I think we should try again."

Leia nodded. "Yes, I do too, but Mara, you're exhausted.
Perhaps we
should wait until you have rested..."

"No!" Mara cut her off viciously. "I don't need any
rest. I'm all
right. It's Luke we have to worry about." She stood from
the chair
and laced her fingers through Luke's. "Come on."

Leia moved to the other side of the bed, knowing there wasn't any
use
in arguing with Mara. She bent over her brother, looking at him
closely. A huge lump formed in the bottom of her throat and she
swallowed around it with difficulty. He looked so vulnerable, so
young. He reminded her of the first time she had seen him, when he
had taken off that stormtrooper's helmet, declaring he was Luke
Skywalker and he was there to rescue her. She laid her hand on
Luke's forehead, careful not to disturb the mass of bandages
around
his head. *Luke?* she sent to him. *Luke, hear me.* she pleaded,
not even aware that subconsciously she had chosen the same words he
had used so many years before when he had clung desperately to the
weather vane on the bottom of Cloud City. It had been Leia he had
called to then, just as now she was calling to him, to come back to
her, to come back to them all.

A bitter disappointment swept over Leia when she received no response
from her twin. His mind seemed an empty void. He looked young, his
body strong and tough, but she could sense his light in the Force was
dim and muted, diffused like a street lamp in fog.

A strange sound made her look up and she was horrified when she saw
Mara. The smuggler, the ex-Emperor's Hand and trained assassin,
stood with tears running like rivers down her face. She was fighting
desperately for control, her body visibly shaking.

Leia reached across the bed to her. "Mara!"

Mara made the strange little sound deep in her throat again. Like an
animal in pain, Leia thought, as Mara took her hand, gripping it
tightly.

"We have to help him, Leia," Mara gasped, struggling to get
the words
out. "We have to find a way."

"I know," Leia reassured her. "And we will, Mara, we
will." She
squeezed Mara's hand. "Come on, let's try again."
Leia wasn't sure
if it would work. They had tried to reach him several times during
the last couple of days, and it had not brought Luke to
consciousness. But Mara was right, they had to keep trying.

She laced her fingers through Mara's and took Luke's other
hand.
Both women closed their eyes and took long, deep breaths. Then,
together, they stretched out to the Force.

Outside the room, at the big window, Han watched in amazement. Both
women seemed to shimmer, a brilliant, shining light coalescing around
them. It enveloped them and the man lying between them on the bed,
flowing in a huge gleaming circle around them.

Then suddenly, Mara's head snapped back onto her shoulders and
she
arched her body. Han knew she was putting all the effort she had
into calling forth the Force. Even from where he stood, he could see
Leia grimace with pain as Mara viciously squeezed her hand.

And the light around them grew brighter, more intense, and a surge of
hope tore through Han. "Come on," he whispered, his throat
closing
in excitement. "Come on, do it this time."

But then Mara let out a cry, staggered on her feet and collapsed
across the foot of Luke's bed, almost pulling Leia down with her.

"Mara!" Leia cried, then glanced quickly at her brother.
There was
no change. He lay as he had before, still and motionless. They had
failed. They had been unable to reach him once again.

She moved to Mara who lay on the end of the bed, gasping for air, her
eyes tightly closed. Leia put a hand to Mara's forehead. "I
told
you that you were on the verge of collapse," she scolded.
"You need
to rest. I'll stay with Luke. Go home and get some sleep."

"No," Mara growled, her green eyes flying open. "I'm
not going
anywhere."

Leia rolled her eyes. Of all the stubborn... She looked up, caught
Han's attention and motioned for him to come in.

When he had reached them, Leia tried again. "Mara, Han's
here, too.
We'll stay with Luke. If there is any change, we'll let you
know
immediately."

"No," Mara said again. "I'm not leaving him. You
don't understand."
She struggled off the bed and would have fallen flat on her face if
Han hadn't caught her.

"Oh, for the love of..." Leia started. "Put her in the
chair, Han."

Han sat Mara in the straight back chair and stood back to look at
her. "If she's going to stay here, we need someplace she can
lie
down. She can barely sit up now."

Leia agreed. "Why don't you go and see if they will move a
cot in
here? I don't think we're going to get her out of this room,
even if
I take my lightsaber to her."

Han nodded and disappeared out the door.

"You don't understand," Mara mumbled again, her head
lolling back on
her shoulders.

Leia sighed and pushed some of the unkempt flame-colored hair out of
Mara's face. "What don't I understand?"

"I never told him I loved him, Leia," Mara said in a tortured
whisper, looking up at her.

Leia almost flinched at the agony she saw in the emerald eyes.

"I tried," Mara continued, so softly Leia had to strain to
hear
her. "I tried so hard, but I could never say it." She
closed her
eyes against the remembered pain. "I thought I didn't know
what love
was, that I wouldn't be fair to him if I told him I loved him and
it
turned out I didn't."

Leia knelt beside Mara's chair. "But you know you love him
now?"

Mara looked at the still figure on the bed. "I think I always
have...from the first moment I saw him."

"But you said you wanted to kill him," Leia reminded her.

A faint smile flickered across Mara's lips. "You told me
yourself
once that you didn't think I meant it. You were right."

Leia smiled and then stood. "He knows, Mara. I'm sure of
it."

Mara looked up at her quickly. "How do you know?"

"I've seen you two together. There's always been
something
there...something unique. He has to know how you feel."

"But I want to tell him. Don't you understand, Leia? He
deserves
that much. I want him to hear me say it," Mara bit out
forcefully,
leaning back in the chair. The effort to talk seemed almost too much
for. Weariness weighed on her like tons of duracrete.

"He will," Leia reassured her.

The door to the room opened and Han came in, followed by two droids
carrying a portable cot and an extra chair. They set the cot up in a
corner of the room, put the chair next to Luke's bed, and then
left.
Han walked over to Leia and Mara.

"Now, I want you to lie down, Mara, and try to sleep," Leia
said.
She held her hand up when Mara opened her mouth to protest. "No,
I
don't want to hear it. You're going to lie down. You
aren't going
to be able to tell Luke anything if you're passed out from
exhaustion, Mara. And you know I'm right."

Mara glanced over at the cot and sighed deeply. "I suppose I
could
lie down for a little while, but..."

"No buts," Leia ordered, taking Mara's hand and pulling
her up in a
standing position. She motioned for Han to help her and he took
Mara's other arm. Between them, they got her to the cot and made
her
lie down. "We will stay here with Luke, and if there is the
least
change, we'll wake you immediately."
She pulled a thin blanket up to Mara's chin. "Now,
sleep."

"Yes, Madame Minister of State," Mara mumbled drowsily, her
eyes
closing. In seconds, she was deeply asleep.

"Well, I'll be a bantha's dinner," Han muttered
disbelievingly. "Look at that. She must have been asleep on her
feet."

"She was," Leia said grimly. "And when we drew on the
Force to reach
Luke, it was the last straw. Whatever strength she had left she used
up then."

Han glanced at Luke. "I guess their relationship is a lot more
serious than they let on."

Leia took in a deep breath. "Obviously, it is," she agreed.
"But
it's not going to do either one of them any good if Mara ends up
in a
hospital bed too."

Han walked over to Luke's bed, looking down at his
brother-in-law.
How many times had he seen Luke a similar condition? It didn't
warrant thinking about, but the kid had always come out of them
before. "There's no change?" he asked Leia.

She sighed heavily. "No, not yet. But I know he's going to
pull out
of this."

Han looked at her. "Jedi hunch?"

Leia shook her head. "No, sister hunch."

Han nodded and then turned to face her. "I got a call on my
commlink
from Wedge while I was arranging for the cot."

Leia looked at him quickly. "And?"

"You remember that young captain they found yesterday...the one
who
was murdered in his apartment?"

"Yes, that was terrible," Leia said.

"Turns out he was aide-de-camp to General Diaishuut," Han
told her.

A horrible feeling of dread swept over Leia and she sat down abruptly
in the chair next to Luke's bed. "Diaishuut?" she
repeated. "What
is it, Han? What are you trying to tell me?"

Han felt a renewal of the anger that had surged through him at
Wedge's call. "That young captain's sister paid Wedge a
visit this
morning. She gave him a datacard her brother had left with her."
He
put his hand on Leia's shoulder. "It was the general,
sweetheart.
He arranged everything...the HRD, the assassination attempt,
everything."

Leia gasped, reeling with shock. "Han, I can't believe it.
But
why? Why would he do such a thing?"

Han shook his head. "Apparently, he was after Mara more than
Luke.
Maybe she can tell us more when she awakens, because the general
certainly isn't saying anything."

"They've arrested him?"

Han nodded. "Yes, earlier this morning. Of course, he's
denying
everything."

"I can imagine that he is," Leia mused, recalling her
dealings with
General Diaishuut. He was one of the most insufferable men she had
ever met, egotistical and overbearing, but she would never have
guessed him capable of such an action as trying to assassinate Mara
Jade.

Leia glanced over to the sleeping Mara. What in the galaxy had Mara
done to the general? "He's going to be put on trial?"
she asked Han.

Han nodded. "As soon as everything can be arranged, but you know
as
well as I do that could be months from now. But the datacard given
to Wedge was very thorough. Apparently, that young captain was a
smart guy. He's got the general nailed."

Leia's lips compressed into a hard, tight line. "Too bad he
didn't
live to see it."

**************

The Next Morning

Mara stretched, easing the tight muscles in her back. That narrow,
uncomfortable cot could have served as a torture implement on its
own, and she had been so tired that she must not have moved at all
during the night. She was stiff and sore, but it wasn't the
first
time in her life that she had been in such a state.

She was in the chair again, close to the bed, but Luke hadn't
moved.
It had been over an hour since Leia and Han had left. They had
wanted to go home and spend an hour or so with their babies before
they returned to the hospital, and Leia had looked really tired.
Mara had told her to get some rest before she came back.

Leia had shot her a quizzical look and then laughed weakly. "Of
course, Mara, anything you say."

The door behind Mara opened and a nursing droid came in. She checked
on the tubes and wires connected to Luke and keyed in some
information on a small datapad.

"How is he?" Mara asked.

The droid looked at her. "The same, Miss Jade. We can only be
grateful there is no deterioration."

Mara swallowed abruptly and mumbled something like "Of
course."

The droid put the datapad into her pocket. "Can I get you
anything?
Caf? Tea?"

Mara looked up. "You wouldn't happen to have hot chocolate,
would
you?"

The droid inclined her head. "As a matter of fact, we do.
I'll
bring you a cup." Then she left.

Mara reached over and took Luke's hand, rubbing across the top of
it
with her thumb. "No deterioration, eh, buddy boy? There had
better
not be." It was a weak attempt at a joke, and she bit her bottom
lip, feeling the lump forming in her throat again. She pulled his
hand to her lips and pressed a kiss against it. "Luke, please,
don't
do this," she whispered. "Come back to me." She closed
her stinging
eyes and rested her face against his hand. She remembered the
argument they had had and how they had talked it out afterwards in
her apartment. Luke's sudden fear that something might happen to
her
had puzzled her deeply, but now she thought he had had some
subconscious warning, a Jedi hunch maybe, that he hadn't
understood.
But he had been wrong all along. He shouldn't have been
concerned
about her; he should have been worried about himself.

She was still sitting with his hand pressed to her face when the
nursing droid returned with a large mug of hot chocolate a short time
later. Mara thanked her and then took a sip of the warm liquid as
the droid left the room. Its smooth creaminess was like a tonic and
she could feel it easing quickly through her veins.

Mara leaned back in the chair, her eyes wandering to take in the view
from the large window in the room. She got up and went over, looking
outside the hospital for the first time in days. She stiffened
abruptly and her mouth fell open. Below her, on several tiers of the
street levels, were large groups of people, human and alien both.
They were ordinary people, some in uniforms that identified them as
technicians and workers of all kinds. There were even some dressed
in the standard clothes of businessmen and women. They stood
silently for the most part, watching the hospital and the people
coming in and out of it. It was if they were waiting, she thought
frowning, but for what? And then it dawned on her...they were there
for Luke. Luke Skywalker, the great hero of the New Republic, and
those people down there were worried, worried about him, because Luke
Skywalker might be dying.

Mara turned from the window quickly, the hot chocolate sloshing in
the mug. She fought against the sudden rise of tears again.

Mara, she told herself. Pull yourself together. How are you going
to help Luke if you can't even get control of yourself? She
closed
her eyes tightly, narrowing her focus onto her own inner strength.

"Wanna share some of that chocolate?" a weak, raspy sounding
voice
asked.

Mara looked up quickly to see Luke smiling weakly at her from the
bed. The hot chocolate dropped from her suddenly nerveless fingers,
shattering into numerous pieces on the floor. She didn't even
notice
as she raced across the room to the bed. "Luke," she cried
hoarsely,
grabbing his hand. "Oh, Luke."

He tried to pull her down onto the bed with him, but he was too
weak. So Mara gathered him in her arms and hugged him fiercely,
tears spurting out of her eyes. The relief was overwhelming, and
just for a moment she was dizzy from the pure joy of it.

Luke kissed her on her cheek and whispered, "Mara," as if
just saying
her name was all he'd ever need.

She pulled back to look at him and he smiled gently at her. He
lifted a shaking hand and wiped some of the tears off her face.

"Oh gods, Luke," she whispered and they just held each other,
their
minds and hearts opening to one another. She could feel him growing
in the Force now, his essence flickering and growing brighter. He
was weak, very weak, but he was going to be all right. He was going
to be all right.

She held him desperately, pressing kisses along his cheek and
forehead. He tried to return them, but she stopped him.
"No...no,
just lie there. Don't do anything. Let me hold you. I just
want to
hold you," she whispered against his lips.

He struggled as disjointed memories flooded into his mind and asked
in a breathy whisper, "Mara, are you all right? Were you
hurt?"

Mara lifted her head. "I'm fine, Luke, perfect. You pushed
me out
of the way. I didn't even get a scratch." Her voice choked.
"You
took the whole blunt of the explosion yourself."

He nodded slowly, the events coming back to him. He put his hand to
the back of her head, pulling her face down to his and nuzzling
against her. "Don't cry," he said softly.
"There's no need to worry
now. We're okay...we're okay."

For some time, they stayed that way and then finally, a weak little
chuckle escaped Luke. Mara pulled back to look at him.
"What's so
funny?" she asked in disbelief.

He pointed to the shattered mug on the floor, "Looks like you
made a
big mess over there," he teased gently, his blue eyes caressing
her.

She choked back another sob that rose in her throat. Here he was,
worried about a broken cup when he almost... Mara shook her head; she
couldn't even think it. She pressed her mouth to his
forehead. "You're the one that's been the big mess,"
she told him.

He coughed, trying to clear a throat that hadn't operated
properly in
days, and then asked, "Been a lot of trouble, have I?"

"I'm just going to tell you one thing, Jedi. If you ever do
this
something like this to me again, I'll kill you myself."

Luke laughed out loud and then groaned, grabbing the bandage on his
head.

"Are you in pain?" Mara cried in alarm, turning to go for the
doctor,
but Luke grabbed her hand and tugged her back to him.

"Only when you make me laugh," he teased, feeling his
strength
returning with every minute. His eyes wandered over her face, as if
he was memorizing her all over again. "You know, Miss Jade,"
he
whispered softly. "If I didn't know better, I'd think
you cared."

Mara's heart stopped and then she leaned over him again,
caressing
his face with her hand. "You always were a pretty perceptive
Jedi,
Mr. Skywalker," she whispered just as softly.

Luke's eyes widened. "And just what does that mean?"

She pressed her mouth to his, kissing him long and hard. When she
pulled back, they stared at each other for what seemed an eternity,
and then she said, her voice as tender as a caress, "It
means...it
means I love you, Farmboy." And it wasn't hard to say, she
thought,
it wasn't hard at all.

Luke's eyes closed for just a second, as if he were savoring the
moment. It briefly crossed his mind that he ought to make her suffer
just a little, but he was too tired to even consider it. He looked
up at her and traced her cheek with his finger. "I know," he
said
gently.

Mara's mouth fell open and she stood, her hands going to her
hips. "You knew?" She paused, looking at nothing in
particular and
muttered to herself, "Leia said you would know."

Luke's smug face caught her attention again and her eyes
narrowed. "Just how did you know, buddy boy?"

Luke smiled, fighting the urge to laugh because he knew it would
hurt. He reached up and pulled Mara back down to him. With her face
only centimeters from his, he whispered, "Mara, no one could make
love with as much emotion as we do without both people...

"being in love," she finished for him.

He nodded gently and Mara sighed. Of course, he was right. When she
thought about it, it was completely obvious.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked softly, rubbing her
face against
his.

"Mara, I knew that you had to work your way through this in your
own
way," he told her. "I just wanted to be there for you when
you did."

Mara closed her eyes for a moment. He had to be the most wonderful
man in the galaxy. When she opened her eyes again, he was watching
her calmly. She pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. "I love you,
Luke Skywalker."

His beautiful eyes lit with a burning blue fire. "And I love
you,
Mara Jade."

She laid her cheek against his. It was the first time ever that she
had told someone that she loved him. She had a feeling she would be
saying it every day for the rest of her life.

Two Days Later

"You know, Skywalker," Talon Karrde drawled, his voice laced
with
humor. "I've seen men go to some impressive lengths to keep
a woman
with them, but trying to get yourself blown to bits has to be the top
of the list."

He walked to the door, patting Mara on the shoulder as he passed
her. "Next time, just give me a call. I'm sure I can
arrange for
her to have a few extra days off." He gave a short bark of
teasing
laughter and left through the door.

Mara and Luke looked at one another, then Mara sighed. "I
don't
suppose we'll live this down for a very long time."

Luke refrained from reminding her that he had wanted to tell everyone
about their relationship and suggested instead, trying to suppress
the smile playing about his lips, "We could always run away
together
and hide."

Mara snorted. "You're not going anywhere but someplace where
you can
sit and do nothing. You need rest and a lot of it."

Luke rubbed his lips to hide his grin. He knew he was almost back to
full strength, but it was obvious the woman in his life was going to
make sure he didn't overdo it.

"So what do you suggest?" he asked her, as seriously as he
could.

"You could go back to Yavin and recuperate there," Mara told
Luke,
her emerald eyes wandering over him. He was sitting up in his
hospital bed and he looked wonderful. After two days in a self-
induced healing trance, most of the bruising around his head was
gone. He wasn't even wearing the bandage anymore, and the
doctors
were talking of releasing him the next day.

"It's quiet there, and you could rest," Mara continued.
She was
sitting in the straight-back chair next to his bed, one of her hands
clasped in his.

"No, I don't think so," Luke said. Mara looked puzzled
and he
hastened to explain. "Oh, I know I could rest there, Mara, and
we
could continue with the construction of the school. But I've
been
thinking...that I want to put the Academy on hold for a while."

"Really?" Mara asked, surprised. It was the first he had
said
anything about it to her.

Luke smiled at her surprise. "Yes, I think I'll leave the
construction crews there, they can finish their work. But, I've
been
thinking that first I want to go out into the galaxy, to the various
systems and look for potential Jedi. Maybe I'll start the school
for
real in...oh...I don't know, a year or so."

Mara nodded, liking the idea. She had been thinking that Luke was
going a little too fast with the school, pushing too hard. Something
of that magnitude should be taken gradually, each step worked out
carefully before being taken.

"Mara," Luke said softly.

She looked up. "Mmmm?"

"I want you to go with me...I want you to marry me, and then
we'll go
out into the galaxy and find the new Jedi, together."

Mara stared at him for a moment and then licked suddenly dry lips. A
year, maybe two, traveling throughout the galaxy that she loved so
much, traveling with this man who meant absolutely everything to
her...it was the closest thing to paradise she had ever heard.

"I think I'd like that, Luke. I think I'd like to marry
you...very
much." She stood and leaned over him. They shared a wonderful
kiss,
opening their mouths and their feelings to one another. When it
ended, she didn't move away, but pressed her cheek against his
forehead and whispered, "And yes...oh yes, my love, I'll
come with
you."

EPILOGUE

One year later.

"Well, that should do it, brother mine," Leia said, smiling
broadly
at her twin. They were in her enormous office complex on the top
level of the old Imperial Palace. All around them, visible through
the huge transparisteel windows, Coruscant lay like a great sea of
technology, yet at the same time, bursting with life and hope, a hope
for a future promised by the New Republic.

Luke released his thumb from the data-recorder and heard its small
whirl as it stamped his signature to the official document. He
looked up at his sister. "I need to thank you for all your help
in
this, Leia."

"It's not necessary, Luke. Believe me, the government will
certainly
reap the benefits of this as well as anyone else. Having additional
Jedi to work for peace and justice in the galaxy is something
everyone can appreciate."

"But Leia," he insisted ruefully. "I never expected the
government
to help with the financing of the Academy. I always thought we would
have to depend on private contributions."

"Luke," she replied patiently. "It's just a grant.
It doesn't
obligate you to the government, you know."

Luke smiled at his sister. She could always read him like an opened
datapad. "How are you doing?" he asked, changing the
subject.

Leia patted her bulging stomach. "It won't be long now, and
the
galaxy will have another Solo whether they want one or not!"

Luke laughed. "I'm sure they're all very happy for you
and Han."

Leia eyed him. "And when can my children expect a little cousin,
brother dear?"

Luke lifted an eyebrow and grinned at her. "Don't rush
me." He
laughed again. "Actually, Mara and I have discussed it, and
we've
decided to wait a while. We got married in such a hurry, we'd
like a
little time to ourselves."

Leia snorted indelicately. "You've been all over the galaxy
by
yourselves for over a year, don't you think that's time
enough?"

One glimpse of the look her brother stabbed her with and she heaved a
sigh, raising her hand and showing him her palm. "Alright, I
know, I
know...it's your life." She grinned. "Where is Mara
anyway?"

"Home," Luke answered and then closed his eyes. He reached
out to
the Force and sought the familiar presence of his beloved
wife. "She's in the kitchen," he told Leia, and then
chuckled. "She
and Artoo are cooking."

"Artoo is cooking?" Leia asked in astonishment.

"I don't know how much help he's being, but he's
gotten very attached
to Mara. He spends as much time with her as he can."

Leia blinked, envisioning the scene in the kitchen. "Well,
I'll be
a...," she trailed off, sounding suspiciously like Han.

She struggled to get out of her chair, and Luke came around the desk
to help her. Together, they managed to get her on her own feet.
Leia glanced at Luke as they walked around the desk and she
cracked, "I'm beginning to think Mara has the right idea."

"You know, I think she's secretly looking forward to being
pregnant,"
Luke assured her. "But in the future," he added quickly.

Leia laughed out loud and then turned serious. "I suppose you
heard
the results of the trial?"

Luke nodded solemnly. "I do feel sorry for Mrs. Diaishuut and
Meika,
though. It must be really hard for them."

Leia agreed with him. "Yes, it's a horrible shame, but,
Luke, I
think they'll be fine. I talked to Hawah a few days ago and she
told
me that she and Meika were returning to her home system. They'll
live with her family. You knew she came from a very prominent family
there, didn't you?"

"Yes, I heard. I'm happy that they're going to be okay.
Meika was a
good girl, and in a strange sort of way, Mara and I owe her a
lot."

Leia thought that over for a moment. "Yes, I suppose you're
right.
If it hadn't been for her, you and Mara would never have spent
all
that time together." She put her hand on her brother's arm.

Luke looked down at her. "That's another thing I need to
thank my
sister for."

Leia raised an eyebrow in question.

"If you hadn't talked Mara into coming to Yavin..." Luke
let his
voice trailed off.

"Ahh..." Leia said. "Bribed her is more like it, but
I'm happy the
way things turned out."

She could see he was still concerned and she put her hand on her
brother's arm. "Meika will be fine, Luke, even if her father
is going
to spend the rest of his days on Kessel."

Luke sighed heavily. "It's a difficult situation, no matter
how you
look at it."

Leia agreed, but knew there wasn't any use in discussing it
anymore.
What was done was done, and the general had to pay for what he did.
He took ne young captain's life and almost took her
brother's...

She patted Luke's arm again. "So, tell me, when are you and
Mara
leaving for Yavin IV?"

Luke smoothed his sandy-colored hair back from his forehead. "At
the
end of the week, and then I think Mara will be back here next month
sometime, for a little while anyway."

"Oh, why is she coming back to Coruscant?"

Luke chuckled. "She and Karrde have worked up this little scheme
between them. Mara is thinking of opening up a legitimate trading
operation."

Leia's eyebrows rose in surprise. "She is?"

Luke slid his arm around his sister's shoulder as they walked
into the reception area. "Yes, if we learned one thing during this
past year, traveling about the galaxy, it's that Mara is not the
teachingtype."

"It took you two a year to learn that?" Leia joked. "I
could have told you that months ago."

She stopped her twin at the outer door of her office and enveloped
him in a big, if slightly awkward, hug. "You're happy,
aren't you, brother?" she whispered in his ear.

He hugged her tightly. "Yes, Leia, more than I ever thought I
could be. Being with Mara has completed my life. I could not be
happier."

"I'm so glad, Luke," his sister told him, kissing him
gently on the cheek. "I'm so glad."

The End.