Ella's BP Challenge fic

It's still Dec 4th here, I swear. Jack is lying in bed saying "Come to bed, Ella" and I am throwing in the towel:) My day in the life became a bit of an epic, which I feel I need to control before posting, but here is a start -

Before Dawn.

This is what you get when you madly scribble wandering
sentences onto Air Canada napkins. Please forgive my babble and dewey
outlook on pregnancy (I am still in the phase where I like to consider the events with rose colored glasses). Oh and I warn you I am a sap. So this is what it is like to be attacked by plot bunnies. Looking forward to reading everyone's work over coffee tomorrow.
-Ella

-Insert Standard Disclaimer of choice. TThanks to Lucas, Zahn, and Tyers for their creations - and the fun they provide us.

*A word of thanks to KT for making "disheveled" such a sexy look for Luke.

************** SPOILERS *****************

/Blue./

/Green./

/Blue./

Mara Jade Skywalker propped herself up on one elbow starring determinate into her husbands shining blue eyes. "Blue eyes, blonde - I might as well be carrying a Luke clone."

"Green." Luke answered with a wry smile. Drawing her into a kiss, he cut any attempts at a rebuttal. "I'm willing to concede the blonde hair although there is a definite tint of red."

Rolling back onto her pillow, Mara ran a hand over her expanding stomach and Luke's quickly reached out to join her. "We'll just see whose right." She quipped smugly.

Lovingly Luke sent a wave of the Force to their son as he leaned in to brush his lips against Mara's belly. "She'll see," he whispered, grinning up at his wife's skeptical face with eyes a glow, "won't she… Han."

"When Hutts can run, Skywalker." She spat, knocking him in the head with a pillow in one clean swoop. "We're not naming him after that scruffy looking nerf herding ex-smuggler brother-in-law of yours."

Luke had nothing in his defense but a wry smile and eyes of admiration for his wife. He loved her like this, blazing like Tatooine's twin suns. Debate and jest had become a cornerstone of their relationship. She could feel his emotions, his joy and happiness. This had become their time; the few hours before day break, when hopes mingled with reality. As newlyweds Mara would reach out to him in her dreams, waking in his arms to make love. Sometimes they would meditate. Often discuss the trivial aspects of life. In the worst days of her illness she would wake to find his eyes swollen and red, and in these fleeting moments she could open herself to his love and comfort, and cry softly in his arms. A part of her had come to rue the dawn, which pulled her from the warmth of their bed. Only a few weeks ago she even dreaded the first few rays of sunlight. The waves of nausea began at first
light and would stretch into midday. Mara was certain their son had inherited Luke's farmboy chrono. Lately they basked in the joy of impending parenthood, negotiating the attributes of this new life. Nothing existed beyond the view of their room. The day was unsullied and full of possibility. There was peace.

"Does this means Talon and Chewie are off the list as well."

/You are enjoying this aren't you Skywalker/, she thought. In the years since they married she had discovered her husband's love of baiting her, as she did him. Mara knew this game; it had become a sort of dance, playful and sexy, and he only got better at it. She rewarded him with her typical green-eyed stare. /Point/.

Reaching up Luke pulled a damp curl back from her cheek. "Mara," he breathed bringing them to the truth of the matter, "we are going to have to call him something other than "him" or "he" at some point." Luke leaned a back on a wall of pillows, "What about it Jade." He threw it out there partly to goad her some more, but she knew there was a part of him that was serious.

Mara sighed and rolled back onto the bed to gaze up at the ceiling. "I liked Ben, or Owen." She turned her head back to those blue eyes.

Luke tangled a hand through her unruly mane, and suddenly her farmboy was lying next to her. "I thought we decided to give him a name that means something to both of us."

"Yes." She whispered softly, /I know I'm the one waiting, holding back. You have learned patience./ Mara was thankful for his lightheartedness; it calmed her own uncertainties. "I just don't want him to bear the responsibilities of the past." Gently she pulled him closer, she had taught Luke to laugh again and he in turn had shared his capacity for tenderness. Even after seven years of marriage the intimacy their relationship created frightened, excited, and pushed her forward everyday. "There will be enough on his shoulders simply being our son, the Skywalker legacy alone" she paused feeling his twinge of remorse for his heritage. /There is more than only the
past Luke./ "He'll have both our names regardless, I want him to have his own as well."

"He will", Luke murmured. His breath was warm on the side of her face,
making her inhale languidly.

Just as she knew he loved to see her fiery spirit, Mara loved the simplicity of a dreamer in Luke. It was the first thing, which attracted each to the other, the one quality that was the most unlike themselves. She craved the man that lay beside her each night, with his hair disheveled and the emotions of his heart so clearly on his face, the titles and robes stripped away. It was that man with whom she had built a future, created a new life. Falling in love with Luke meant loving each aspect of him. The Jedi Master and his sense of responsibility, calmness, humility, and his quest for wisdom and
balance. Under all that resided a rogue; the spirited pilot and warrior who was her comrade, her partner, the man who could match her wits for wits. But it was the earnest eyes of a farmboy she had said yes to when he proposed a lifetime ago. It was that earnestness, his faith in good, and his quest for peace, which were the qualities she wished the most for their son. /You have your father's light, little one./

Turning into his embrace, she ran her fingers through the disarray of Luke's hair, and gave in to the rush of hormones, which seemed to besiege her body of late. Now in the latter half of her second trimester Mara began to see why some woman claimed to relish pregnancy. She might even dare to say she felt sensual. Healthy and strong, her stomach and breasts showing the growth of life. After months of illness, she truly felt alive. Though part of her
continually stood guard like she had for the Emperor waiting for the enemy virus to make its attack. It was a battle she still prepared herself for, one she would not fail. /Thank the Force/, it was one she had not yet had to fight again.

Vibrance radiated from Mara, in the shelter of shadows, where she had no need to hide the curves of her evolving body from the rest of the galaxy. Luke's fascination with her lines led his hands over the smooth surface of her skin. Her mouth sought the taste of him. Both of them eagerly taking what the other offered, and demanding more. /I love you, Mara/, echoed in the back of her mind. His spirit washed over her, mingling with her own, and then wrapping their son, who's tiny presence reached out with recognition, in warmth and unwavering love.

For those joyous moments before dawn they were one whole. It was only the three of them and peace.