Luke Skywalker (red_five) wrote in the100, @ 2015-11-21 11:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, luke skywalker, mara jade skywalker |
Log: Luke, Mara and Ben
Who: Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade Skywalker and BB Ben (NPC)
When:Tuesday November 3
Where:Their apartment
What:Luke meets his son for the first time
Rating: P for Precious
Status: Complete
Luke hadn’t know what to think when he found himself waking up in a pod on a strange planet. The last thing he remembered was talking to Mara on the comm and then he was here. When he managed to get himself out of the thing he was in, he reached out with the Force and felt the presence of many others. Most importantly he felt familiar presences and wondered how that could be possible. After he’d spent some time in Medical and they’d explained where he was, how he’d gotten here and a few other things, Luke had been given access to the network and found Mara but she wasn’t alone. Their son was with her. They’d wanted a child ever since they’d married but it hadn’t happened. Mara’s illness, the war, it seemed that it just wasn’t meant to be and Luke had come to more or less accept it even if part of him just couldn’t give up hope. Then….a miracle. In the middle of everything and with her disease in remission, Mara was pregnant. They hadn’t known for very long from Luke’s perspective but Ben was here now and he was six months old. As he headed for the housing area, Luke couldn’t stop smiling. After all this time, all the disappointments, he was finally going to meet the child he never thought he’d have. He reached the door of the quarters they’d been assigned and knocked on the door even though he had a key and could have just walked in. Sometimes he was too polite for his own good, he supposed. Mara could sense him in the Force and with the knock on the door she couldn't help but roll her eyes in good-natured amusement at her farmboy. He had been assigned the quarters with her, it was home for him, and he didn't need to knock, but he had. Well, some things never changed she supposed. Except that things had changed, and very much so. In the time since Luke was from and the time when Mara was from much had changed, and it wasn't just (fortunately or unfortunately) the birth of their son. On the bright side Mara's illness had disappeared with Ben's birth, even if it had been a long, hard fight. On the less bright side… well, the galaxy had fallen to pieces. The New Republic shattered, Coruscant fallen, Anakin - the truth was, Mara wasn't certain how to tell Luke, but she knew that she would need to say something. It was too much for her to try to keep from him with how connected the two of them were. But for the moment, there was Ben, and Luke would be well occupied with their son while she sorted out how much to say of the future. "Well, there's your father," she said softly to Ben as she walked towards the door with him on her hip, his baby arms wrapped around her. The nicest thing about being here had been not having to put him down just yet. It had been difficult enough at home in the aftermath of everything, and here in a strange place, she really wasn't willing to let someone else hold him, but Luke was not someone else. She pulled open the door. "It's your house too, Farmboy," she said with a warm smile and a teasing tone. "Come on in." “I suppose it is,” he said with a grin, giving her a soft kiss and then he looked at the baby in her arms who was reaching for him. “Hi fella,” he said softly, emotion evident in his voice. “I am very glad to see you.” Luke took Ben into his arms, marveling at the way it felt to hold him. He’d held babies before, all three of Han and Leia’s but this was different. This was the child he and Mara had hoped and wished for, the child they’d never thought they’d have. “I forget you’ve already met me but I haven’t met you,” he said. “so I don’t have to tell you who I am.” Luke looked up at Mara, still smiling. “He looks like you.” "Well, if you go by the hair," she said with a warm smile. "I think his eyes and face are pretty much all you, but then I've never seen much in the way of holos of you as a baby, so maybe you're right." She relaxed just a bit as she watched the two of them together. There was no battle siren that was likely to go off here. Neither she nor Luke were likely to be called off on a mission immediately. And certainly not to lead one. It was difficult for her to realize that she could put Ben down, and go to work, and it would more than likely be safe. This had been the most challenging thing in the past few months. After Coruscant, and everything that had happened around it, letting someone else hold or care for Ben had been a challenge. She didn't have to have that here. "This must be a bit odd for you," she commented. "But I don't think he's phased. You do, more or less, look precisely how I remember you looking, and so likely for Ben too. You certainly feel the same," and she reached out to give him a small nudge in the Force, warm and gentle. He felt the nudge and returned it with a smile. “I don’t think he’s phased either plus there’s not that big a time difference between us.” Luke looked at her for a moment, searching her face. “Was it...the birth. Was it hard for you?” He knew very little about childbirth and he’d been worried that the birth would be difficult or maybe even bring back her illness. The illness was gone though, he could sense that through the Force. Mara was healthy although a little tired which made sense. They were both tired of war, the news of Ben’s impending arrival had been nothing short of a miracle and now here they were. Oddly enough, when it had come to pieces of her future that she was focused on telling Luke, the birth had not been one of them. The truth, of course was that it had been difficult, but that the three of them had made it through it together, and that the specifics of that difficulty could not be solved here and they were in her past despite yet being in Luke's future. There had been other things on her mind more challenging than the birth - because they didn't affect her, she supposed. What affected her could be dealt with, always, it was the complications with others that were difficult to know what to do with, but for the moment she smiled. "There were challenges, but we got through them, and yes, I am free of the disease now - which, considering the med center I saw, and the lack of Cilghal or the tears, I am very grateful for that. The only thing pulling at my energy now is a lack of sleep. You'll get to share in that very soon," she glanced at him with a twinkle in her eyes. "Ben will be happy to pull you awake at 1am as well as pulling me awake then." She stepped back across the room towards the sofa and motioned for Luke to bring Ben and come and join her. "Did they give you a job here as well?" He hadn’t even registered the fact that they were still standing by the door, he was was so caught up in the wonder of seeing them both but when Mara sat, he want to join her, grinning at Ben who immediately reached for his mother once they were sitting. “I won’t mind him waking me up,” Luke said, resting a hand on Ben’s back. “in fact I’m just glad he’s around to do it and that we’re all together.” he looked around the apartment. “They told me a few things about this place but I can’t say they registered really, not after I recognized that you were here but yes, they did give me a job. Infrastructure they called it. I’ll be helping keep things working, mechanical stuff, things I know how to do even if it’s been a good while since I’ve done them.” At one time that had been his life but once he’d become a Jedi Master, that part of his life had taken a backseat. “I’m kind of looking forward to it. It’ll be good to work with my hands again. The only thing better would be if I had something to fly.” he laughed. “I don’t think that’s going to happen though.” Mara smiled. She had to admit that even if she might hate the wake-up in the moment, there was truth to Luke's statement. So much had been lost in the past few months, and that she had her husband and her son yet - and now had them both here in this place with her - it was something for a good deal of gratitude from where Mara was standing. "I'll be working with the scouts, and rescue, which I believe is grabbing the pods we arrived in. I've only just gotten here myself so I'm still trying to sort out everything, but if they have spaceships they're certainly hiding them well." She reached over and brushed Ben's hair back gently. "I'm glad you're here Farmboy, I wasn't looking forward to doing this whole world by myself." “I’m glad I’m here too,” he said, smiling at her. “but I have to say it. Why do we always seem to end up in or around mountains? I’m beginning to wonder if that’s a thing for us.” From Mount Tantiss to the mountain caves on Niraun, it seemed as if significant events in their lives were meant to be surrounded by rock. “My next question was going to be how long you’d been here. I didn’t think it had been very long from things that Leia said when I posted after I got here. Speaking of this world, what do we do with this little guy when we go to work? Is there someone who takes care of the children here? Assuming that there are other children here of course.” If they had to, they could work opposite shifts he supposed although he didn’t want to do that since he’d never see Mara. There was also the fact that he knew nothing about taking care of a baby but he could wing it if he had to. Mara laughed and shook her head, leaning forward to gently press a kiss to his lips. "I don't know. I suppose it's one of those mysteries we may spend our lives trying to sort through. In the meantime, so long as I'm in the mountain with you…" But Luke's other questions were legitimate - things that Mara was still sorting out herself. She'd had the plan to do some asking about things for a baby. The apartments they'd been given seemed furnished enough, at least with the basics, which was all she really needed for herself, but for a baby there were a few other little essentials. "Just a couple of days," she responded. "I'm going to do some asking about things here and see what sorts of resources are available. Depending upon the type of work they have me doing, I may have him with me some - at least at first. I did that at home for at least some of the time, and -" she stopped, her memories conjured to the surface of some of the problems that they'd encountered. "Well, I'd rather not leave him with anyone at this point until I have a better idea of what the situation is here. There have been difficulties at home and I'm cautious." Luke gently touched her cheek when he pulled away from the kiss. “I agree with that. I’ll live in any mountain as long as you’re there.” He wasn’t surprised when she said there had been difficulties at home. The war was bad enough and Luke well remembered the kidnapping attempts that had been made on Leia and Han’s children simply because of who they were. “I understand, I don’t want to leave him with anyone just yet either. We don’t know know enough about this place, who we can trust and who we can’t, to think about doing that. Outside of our family, I want him with us.” He’d known his son for not quite an hour yet but Luke was already in love with the boy which was no surprise since he’d already loved him from the moment Mara had told him that she was pregnant. “I don’t suppose I have to ask what kinds of things happened at home to make you wary. I remember when the twins and Anakin were little, some of the things that happened and that was without a full scale war.” Mara offered a smile to Luke, but her eyes floated down to Ben as she considered. Yes, there had been many things, many of them directly related to the war and the near year and a half between her and Luke meant there was plenty to catch up on and some of it was very painful - Anakin, in particular, and Jacen's kidnapping, but both were here now. "It's gotten bad," she said softly. "I know that it was bad when you were from, all of the planets, but it's gotten worse. I don't know that you want all of the story now. I'm not certain I want to tell you all of it now, but it has been challenging. But we're alive, and Ben is, and I'm healed - that was a… a gift with Ben's birth, I'm still not entirely certain how that came to be, but it did." “I don’t need to know right now,” he said, reaching out touch Ben’s head gently stroking his hair then looking up at Mara. “Right now I just need to know that you’re both here, that you’re okay, that we were granted a miracle in the middle of chaos and whatever this place is and whatever we face here, the three of us are together.” Luke had no idea how they’d come to be here or why they’d been brought here but he believed that they could face the challenges might be as long as they were together. "We're all right," Mara said immediately. That much she could promise, the three of them, their family, had thus far been undeterred by the violence around them. It had come close with Ben and the kidnapping, but it hadn't succeeded, and they'd been able to fight together thus far. Now outside of their family things had gotten darker, but Mara decided that Luke didn't need to know that right now. It would come out and more than likely within the next few days. Mara couldn't keep that from him in her Force sense, and she would rather tell him than have him sort it out on his own, but it could wait. Right now she had him here, and Ben here, and there was no one trying to kill them, and so far as she could tell - no one was trying to kill these people most of the time either. There were some dangers potentially, but she was still sorting out exactly what those were. "It may not be a perfect haven here," she cautioned Luke. "It won't be as home, certainly, but I've gotten wind that there are some disputes here, but it's been unclear to me how dangerous they are likely to be." “I would be surprised if there weren’t some disputes. Anytime people get together in a confined area like this, they’re bound to happen.” Luke wasn’t particularly fond of the public aspects of his life but at home they were necessary, here they wouldn’t be. “at least we won’t be in the middle of whatever disputes there are. Hopefully anyway. We seem to end up in the middle of things without having to try,” he laughed. For a moment he just looked at Mara and Ben, thanking the Force that they were here, that Mara had come through childbirth, her illness was gone and they had a beautiful baby boy. “I love you,” he said. “sometimes I don’t think I can say that enough and I’m very glad that the two of you are here. Even more glad that your illness is gone and that Ben is healthy. It’s so much more than I could have ever hoped for.” Even though he’d been ecstatic when he’d found out that Mara was pregnant he’d been worried too and he imagined that he had probably driven her crazy in the time that he hadn’t yet experienced. “Was I terribly overprotective?” he asked with a grin. “how many times did you threaten to kill me?” "I've gathered there are some dangers from outside the mountain as well," Mara mentioned, although she wasn't sure she wanted to dwell on that currently. Luke had a fair point that they tended to end up in the middle of everything no matter where they were or what the situation was like. If it wasn't quite as dangerous at home she could live with that although she didn't know if she was going to be easily and quickly able to relax. But Luke's question brought her back to this moment and she gave Luke a wicked grin. "Oh, I'd say only roughly half as many times as I did in the first few months we knew each other." “We’re making progress then,” he said. “because you not only threatened to but were seriously plotting ways to do it. I’m glad we got past that.” Luke often joked about the fact the way they’d met but he knew that Mara had still been somewhat under the influence of the Emperor and the last command he had given her was to kill Luke. “I wasn’t happy about having a clone but it did work out rather nicely. I got to live and I got you. Ten years later but that’s beside the point.” he leaned over and kissed her. "You were just too annoyingly good," Mara teased him back. It had worked out though, and she would certainly not have had it any other way. She had found in Luke Skywalker a partnership that she hadn't anticipated that she would ever want. And even though there had been times in the past few years that it had been extremely challenging, she had never once been given reason to doubt Luke. It had taken them long enough to find each other, but once they had done so, they both knew they were better together than separate. "I think tomorrow I'm going to spend some time finding the library and figuring out as much as I can about this world," Mara said. "I might take Ben with me - I think I can manage to pull together a bit of a wrap for him, and also I need to find out about supplies for caring for him. However, I suspect having him with me might distract people from the fact that I'm snooping," she smirked briefly. "And I'd like to get a better handle on what is here. I need to talk to Jacen more as well - he's from further on - and I'd like to figure out how far on." “That sounds like a good idea. I’d feel better if we knew a little bit more about this place,” he said. “and you’re right. He’s a pretty cute kid, I think he’d make an excellent cover as well as a distraction. No one would ever suspect that you were snooping.” Luke knew that Mara wouldn’t be happy until she knew exactly what they were dealing with and he expected nothing less from her. He would be the first to admit that he made a lousy spy, he always ended up giving himself away. “I’d like to know that too. What Jacen has seen and what’s happened.” he raised an eyebrow at her.”and I want to know what you know too because there’s something you’re not telling me but since this is our first night together here, I won’t ask. I can wait until you’re ready.” Luke had a feeling that whatever it was, it wasn’t good but it could wait. Tonight he just wanted to enjoy time with his wife and son. Mara raised her eyebrow at him and leaned forward to kiss him gently. It was not unexpected he knew she was holding back. It was, in fact precisely expected. "Get out of my head Farmboy," she chided him gently. "All in good time." |