This is my answer to the 'Talk' challenge. Since we've
decided to have fun and post stories already I thought
I'd do the same. Hope you like. ATTN: Veronica, I read
chapter 29 all the way through and I have to say I
loved the Xen-Macor scene at the end. Very nice.
~Patrice

Get Off Her!

By: Patrice

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, but I like to write
about it.

Mara was looking forward to taking a nap that
afternoon. It had been a long, trying day and she
needed some rest. 'If only Luke were here.' He would
sooth her tension away with a massage or possibly
more. But alas, he wasn't due home until tomorrow.

She was getting old and knew it. It seemed like
yesterday that Ben was born. He would be seventeen
soon. Seventeen. Where did the time go? It was funny
though. While the birth of her son seemed like
yesterday, the end of the Vong war seemed like ages
ago. Time passed differently for different people and
experience altered perceptions.

She opened the door to the Skywalker home and was
greeted by Artoo. "Hi little guy. Is Ben home yet?"
She knew he had been out with some his friends today
while she was teaching.

Artoo replied that he was. Mara went to the kitchen to
make a cup of hot chocolate. Luke had converted her to
the drink years ago. It warmed her and nearly all of
her tension left. She decided to just nap on the couch
since dinner had to be made soon and if she went to
her bed she would never be able to get up.

Walking over to the couch she spotted Ben's jacket and
boots. 'Ben, how many times have I told you not to
just throw things on the floor as soon as you walk in
the door?' She picked up the jacket for what was
probably the millionth time in Ben's life and went to
his room to hang it back up in his closet, also for
the millionth time.

Her hand was almost on the doorknob when she paused.
There were soft sounds coming from the room. It
sounded suspiciously like there was someone else in
the room with him. She took a deep breath, prayed to
all the gods in the universe that she wouldn't find
what she thought she would find, and opened the door.

"Ben Skywalker! Get off her this instant!" It wasn't
as bad as she feared, but it was still bad. Her
'innocent' little boy had a girl in his room and they
were lying on the bed in the middle of a serious
kissing session. Thankfully no clothing had been
removed.

Ben looked up at her in horror at being caught. The
girl, who Mara recognized as Kari Wyn, scrambled out
from under him. "Hi, Mrs. Skywalker. You're looking
nice today," Kari improvised. "Did you get you hair
cut again? It looks lovely. Umm..I gotta go now." She
practically ran from the room. "It was nice seeing you
again. Bye." Mara heard the front door closing.

Now she was alone with her son. 'Why? Why did this
have to happen today?' Ben was now standing in front
of her. Enunciating very carefully she said, "What was
that?"

He put up his hands in a very Solo gesture, "Mom, we
were just studying."

"Studying what? Her tonsils? I came home hoping to
relax and what do I get? You know you're not allowed
to have girls in your room. Especially when we're not
here." Ben was silent. "Well? What do you have to
say?"

"How was I supposed to know you'd be home before
dinnertime?" Ben mentally smacked himself. 'Idiot. You
just told her that you knowingly broke the rules.'

She was amazed she hadn't throttled her boy yet.
"Since for some reason your father loves you and wants
you to have a future I'm going to forget you said
that."

Knowing she had to calm down to talk sense to Ben she
took another deep breath. Now more calm and rational,
she sat down on the bed and looked at her blue-eyed
wonder. "Is there anything that we need to discuss?"

"What? No!" Ben looked terrified.

Undaunted, Mara continued, "How far has this thing
with Kari gone?"

"There's nothing," Ben sputtered. "It's not a
'thing'."

"All I know is that I came home to my son tongue
wrestling with a girl like there's not going to be a
tomorrow. I want to know what's going on with you."

"I'm not going to discuss my sex life with my mother."

By the time Mara came back to Courscant and reality
Ben had fled the apartment. 'Sex Life??!!'

~~~~~~~~~~

After much useless pleading with his wife Luke
consented to have a 'talk' with his teenage son.

When she had called him on the Jade Shadow he nearly
took out a nearby freighter in the entrance lanes to
the capital planet. On one hand he knew Ben was
growing up, but on the other hand he just wasn't
prepared for it to come now. His son had had a few
girlfriends already but they hadn't been as serious as
his relationship with Kari. They talked on the comm.
so much the frustrated parents had placed time limits
on the conversations simply in order to be able to use
it themselves.

Luke thought back to his own teenage years in order to
figure out what to say to Ben. He remembered the
feelings those hormones caused all to well. Tatooine
didn't lend itself very well to dating and so Luke had
been relatively older than his peers when he finally
did lose his virginity. Mara had had a good chuckle at
his expense when he told her the story.

However, despite a puberty spent in a desert and the
prime of his life fighting a war, he knew he could
talk to Ben about this.

~~~~~~~~

"Ben? You out here?" Luke called in to the garage
which housed the family speeder.

"Yeah, Dad."

Luke could see he was cleaning the control console
with a rag. "How you doing?"

"Ok." He stopped what he was doing and went over to
the tool counter. "I'm going to replace one of the
repulsor cells. It's worn out."

"You want some help?"

"Sure."

Luke and Ben got to work on it. Luke underneath and
Ben handing him the tools. It was one of the things
they had always done together and the time they spend
out in the garage was always quality time. Mara seldom
if ever intruded.

Ben interrupted his memories, "The cell just gave out
a couple of days ago and I guess this is as good a
time as any to replace it. I've been a little busy
lately."

'Don't say busy.' Deciding he couldn't prolong it
anymore Luke gathered his thoughts. "Timing is very
important, you know. One should do things when it's
the right time." 'Wonderful segue', he thought.
"Spanner."

Ben placed it in his father's hand. "Hmmm? What are
you talking about Dad?"

"Well, for example, you don't rush out and try to
score in boloball do you?"

"Yeah you do."

"That's right. You do in boloball." Luke thought some
more. "In baking you don't take boscake out of the
oven before it's done."

"Of course you do. If you left it in it would be
overdone. It's supposed to come out of the oven
early." Ben bent down to look under the speeder at his
father. "You're not making any sense Dad."

'Damn it! Why isn't this working?' "Alright take
mechanics. If you rush the job then any number of
things could go wrong." Luke sighed, 'That one has to
make sense.'

"Sure, if you don't take your time and do it right
then the whole machine could break."

'Yes!' Luke thought. He finished tightening down the
new cell and crawled out from under the speeder. "You
wouldn't want to take this speeder out with a broken
repulsor cell, right?"

"Right. I want it to be perfect again."

"In fact the best thing is to keep it in the garage
for awhile. And when you do drive it you want to think
about protective hull plating."

"You've lost me again." Ben gave his father an utterly
confused look. "What are you trying to say?"

Luke sat down in the passenger seat. "I want to know
about you and Kari. How far it's gone."

Ben turned away. "Dad! There isn't anything to say. I
don't want to talk about this."

"Well I do, so sit down." Giving up Ben took the
drivers seat. "Your mother and I love you and we want
to see you make the right choices and that includes
choices about sex."

"We didn't have sex! We were just kissing!"

"You do realize that kissing is the first step right?"
Ben didn't say anything so he continued determinedly.
"Have you had sex with Kari?"

"No! Not with Kari. Not with anyone!!"

Luke felt the weight of the world lift from his
shoulders. "I'm glad to hear that son."

Silence reigned for several long moments until Ben
said softly, "How old were you?"

Luke almost hadn't heard him. "Umm.... I was several
years older than you. But I probably wasn't mature
enough. There's a difference between age and
maturity." He paused. Ben had turned to face straight
ahead. "While I knew the mechanics of it just as I'm
sure you do, I didn't understand the incredible
responsibility of an intimate relationship. It was a
lot to handle and nothing was ever the same between
the girl and I.
"An adult relationship was new to me, but it wasn't
for her. We weren't able to work out our differences
quite the same way anymore. On top of that all new
problems surfaced." Luke was proud and embarrassed at
the same time to be sharing this with his son. It was
important that Luke put something personal into this
talk. That would make all the difference. "I was
insecure about myself and she probably just didn't
want to put up with those insecurities anymore."

Ben looked down at his hands. "I can assure you I
don't want to do it before I'm ready. But I'm worried
that I won't know when that is."

"I know you Ben, and you'll recognize the time. Just
don't go looking for it. It'll happen when it happens,
ok?" He put an arm around his son's shoulder.

"Ok, Dad," Ben laughed. He was glad the talk went as
well as it did and it wasn't nearly as embarrassing as
it could have been. He smiled at his father, "Oh, and
you can spare me the lecture about 'protective hull
plating.' They talked our ears off about it in health
class in school."

Luke laughed along with Ben. "Good. One less lecture
is always a good thing." He stood up. "You want to go
see if Mara has finished baking the boscake?"

"Oh, yeah. I can smell it already."

~~~~~~~~

"So, how did it go, Farmboy?"

"Just fine love."

"What did you tell him?"

He turned off the bedside light and kissed his
beautiful wife. "What he needed to know."

The End.

Note: If you're a fan of Home Improvement you may have
recognized several things. :)