Mara Jade is SHIELD's ☕ Queen (marajade) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2016-03-01 12:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, luke skywalker, mara jade |
RP Log; Mara Jade & Luke Skywalker
Who: Mara Jade & Luke Skywalker
When: 5 February (way backdated, oops)
Where: A restaurant.
What: They have a few things to talk about…
Rating: Lowish.
Status: COMPLETE.
Mara had known for a while that eventually she was going to have to have this conversation. She'd been putting it off, mostly because things with Nick were complicated, and this was going to also be complicated and trying to deal with those two complications at once was more than she really wanted to do. But the time had come and Mara knew that. So she found herself waiting for Luke Skywalker at a restaurant, watching the door out of habit, not just for him, but for anyone that looked amiss for some reason. It was something she'd done as the Emperor's Hand, and done for years after when she'd known that the Empire and Ysaard and her ilk were looking for Mara, and then after arriving here and beginning to work for SHIELD the habit had simply been reinforced again - only now it was HYDRA. Perhaps she was just destined to always be a little bit on the edge of things. When she saw Luke though she smiled, and with the Force she reached out to nudge him. The quiet Jedi equivalent of waving her hand across the restaurant. And as he approached she tilted her head to one side. "You look good for a man who has had so many family members showing up in the past few weeks." Luke had been looking forward to seeing Mara, it had been too long since they’d talked. The last time he’d seen her for an extended period of time was at the wedding. Since then there had been all the flurry of getting the Space Station ready to go, the holidays, so many things and despite the fact that they didn’t share their lives here, he missed her. When he walked in and felt her nudge, he smiled and made his way to the table and sat down across from here. “Thank you. I am not so sure about that but I’ll take the compliment,” he sighed. “I’ve lost track of how many people have shown up to be honest. It’s not a matter of who now, it’s a matter of when and that’s even more confusing.” Luke shouldn’t have been surprised. With the new film out, he’d expected it. Somehow the Tesseract seemed to know when things like that were going to happen and starting spitting out people like crazy. “I’m expecting to meet myself any day now and I’m not sure how that’s going to go down.” Mara couldn't help a grin at that, but it was a somewhat sympathetic one. It was obvious that there was another Luke Skywalker out there living some other life, maybe more than one. And while there might be another her out there living another life… well, that had so far been far less obvious. "I'm not certain how you interact with one's self from another life," she shrugged. "You could ask Captain America for some tips I suppose. "I've heard very good things about the fish they do here, but there are lots of options," she reached for the menu as she changed the subject just briefly so that they could focus on ordering as one of the wait staff headed their way. Thankfully, whatever nerves her stomach had decided to give her during the first few months, seemed to have mostly gone away. She wouldn't claim that she always felt one hundred percent normal - queasiness could still happen - but largely she'd been able to eat more normally, even be ravenously hungry. Mara ordered and waited for Luke to follow suit before she leaned forward. "So how's Carol?" He’d just handed his menu to the waiter when she spoke and he nearly swallowed his tongue. Not that it was odd for Mara to ask about Carol, she knew they were together and she was acquainted with her but he knew Mara well enough to know there was more to the question than a simple inquiry. “She’s good. Busy with the Space Station and very happy with that but she’s good,” he took a sip of water, trying to decide how to bring up what he knew he needed to say. “Why? I mean it’s nice of you to ask..it’s just that you usually don’t ask so I was curious.” Luke never asked about Nick, not because he didn’t like him, he barely knew him. He’d met him twice in his life and their conversation had consisted of just a few words. Besides he wasn’t even sure if he was supposed to ask since not everyone knew that he and Mara were together. “But she’s fine.” Mara took a sip of her water and considered whether or not she wanted to bring up to Luke the fact that Jaina may have let slip certain pieces of information regarding Carol. She knew him well enough to see the slight level of unease in the line of his back and shoulders, and it was probably a little mean to let him fret so. She decided to let him down… although perhaps not gently. "When does she take her leave?" She put the glass down on the table and turned her green eyes to match Luke's blue ones. He had just taken a sip of water and somehow managed not to spit it all over her when she spoke. Clearly Mara knew and he felt a twinge of guilt that he hadn’t been the one to tell her. “Um...I...um..she hasn’t decided yet. I think she plans on working right up until the end…” Luke hadn’t asked her but he knew Carol well enough to know that she wouldn’t quit until she had to. He put down his glass, put his hands on the table and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I wanted to be the one to tell you but I wanted to wait until after Anakin and Rikki’s wedding and then things at work got busy and...well I should have made a point of getting in touch with you but I didn’t know how to tell you,” their relationship was hard to define most of the time but this situation? Well it was nothing if not unique. “but the baby’s due the first week in April. I hope she takes a break before then but I doubt she will.” "Careful there, Farmboy," Mara said with a warm smile. "It's all right. Jaina mentioned it assuming that I knew, and I didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise. You probably have had a few things on your plate since then." Did it hurt a little bit? Yes, of course it hurt a little, and Mara would have been lying to say otherwise, but she also could hardly blame him. She was four months into her own pregnancy - easily - and she hadn't yet mentioned a thing to him. This was, of course, a large portion of the reason why she was here tonight. To actually tell him this, even if it wasn't something she was widely sharing. She probably could have stayed out of sight of the tower for a while longer and put it off longer still, but what was the point to that really? He would have to know sooner or later, and it might as well be sooner. "Carol strikes me as the sort of person who would be bored by too much standing still time - I'm sure she'll be fine working right up until." Luke gave a small chuckle and smiled. “That’s an understatement. She doesn’t like down time at all, she gets antsy. Kind of reminds me of you in that respect.” It was funny but he could see little things about Carol that reminded him of Mara especially now that they were living together. They were totally different in other ways though but it was easy to see how he’d been attracted to both of them. “I don’t know how she made it through morning sickness. That just seems like a miserable thing to go through.” He was relieved that it was out in the open now, Luke didn’t like keeping secrets from his family and despite everything, Mara was still family. “What about you? How are things going? You’ve been around the Tower more lately and now I haven’t been poking at your brain but I can tell when you’re around, you know that.” He grinned and then looked at her, searching her eyes. There was something there, she had something on her mind but he had no idea what it could be. “Is everything okay?” Mara shrugged. She'd never liked standing still for very long. Some reflection was one thing, but reflection inevitably had to be followed by action, and Mara had never been able to be bored for long. She would find a place for herself, and she would move forward doing what it was she felt was important. That was how she had found herself with SHIELD, how she had found herself in a safehouse… and ultimately how she found herself with Nick Fury. It hadn't really been an intended path for her life to take, and sometimes she still wondered at it, but it had been an obvious one in the long-run. Everything was… complicated. That was the best way to describe everything, but for now she reached for the glass of water and took another sip. "Morning sickness is not fun, it's also not really morning sickness, it's more like day sickness, or afternoon sickness, or random moments of feeling queasy at 9pm sickness - but maybe that was just me." It took a moment for her words to truly sink in. The first thing Luke thought was how could she possibly know that when she hadn’t any memories of giving birth to Ben? Then it hit him and he couldn’t help it, he laughed. “Are you serious?” he said. “I’m sorry but that’s kind of perfect. Both of us are here, we’re with other people and we’re both having babies. Somewhere Yoda is laughing.” This time last year if Mara had told him she was having a baby with someone else, he would have been devastated. There was a part of him even now that felt a pang but they had Ben at home, they had gotten to spend time with him here, it was more than he could have hoped for when he first got here. He took a deep breath and shook his head. “Forgive me, I’m just….the timing is ironic. Are you feeling better now?” She looked healthy and now that he knew he could sense the presence of another life in her, not as strongly as he could sense his own child in Carol, but he could tell. “When is the baby due?” Mara couldn't deny that the fact that Carol was pregnant and she'd known this hadn't made this a little bit easier to do. She and Luke had a complicated relationship here, one where they both acknowledged what they could be to each other, what they were even, while supporting each other elsewhere. She didn't know if she could have done it with many other people which, to be honest, it told her a good deal about the relationship she had with Luke - it was something built on mutual love, respect, and trust and Mara could see how much good there was even in their friendship. "A bit," she said with a smile. "Mostly I'm able to eat something besides milkshakes. Otherwise we'd be having this dinner somewhere else. You're not the first person I've told, but you're one of the first. It's… a little complicated with all of the various pieces that are going into it. But I'm showing - well probably and if not quite yet, I will be… and I figured it was time to just say something. The baby is due in June." “I can imagine it’s complicated,” he said, his tone more serious now. “How did Nick take the news? I know he’s not publically dead anymore but he’s still keeping a low profile from what I can tell,” There were things that he was privy to from working at SWORD, there were also things he knew from being involved with Carol which he couldn’t talk about, and he was sure there were even more things in Nick Fury’s life. “I was actually surprised to see him at the wedding but I’m glad he came with you.” He paused for a moment and took another sip of water and then went on. “So does this somehow in some strange cosmic way make our children related? Cousins? Hopefully by the time they’re both old enough to understand, Anakin and Jaina will have their family tree presentation put together and we can just sit them down and explain it to them that way.” "I was surprised he agreed to come to the wedding," Mara laughed lightly. "I'd been considering inviting Sam just so I'd have someone to sit with." But Nick had come, granted he'd asked a number of questions about who was going to be there, and probably had the area secured way beyond what would have typically been required for a wedding of a young and still training SHIELD agent like her nephew had been at the time. The questions were legitimate though and Mara was still working out how to respond to them. The truth was she didn't know exactly how he was taking it in its entirety. In some odd way, she felt that frequently she stated the terms of their relationship with Nick, and he followed suit -- which felt like an odd thing to say about Nick Fury and a knowledge that was too intimate to share even with Skywalker. She had no idea when that had changed and she didn't dare to spend too much time really dwelling on it. Mara Jade was perfectly capable of dealing on her own - they both knew it - so if the time came when the terms no longer were something Nick could live with, then she would probably figure that out and she'd go back to dealing on her own. Aloud she said only, "he ordered the crib I wanted, so I think things are all right." With a smile, she shook her head. "That presentation is probably longer than a TED talk is allowed to be. I'm not really certain what this makes our children in terms of relations anyway. Technically not, but I've never exactly given up my membership card in your family - so I have no doubt they will see each other occasionally, and if poor Ben shows up again, he can deal with having two much younger siblings. “I bet it’s the most secure crib in the existence of cribs,” he said with a grin. His tone was teasing but the truth was that it was something he’d thought about in relation to his and Carol’s baby but Mara’s child with Nick Fury? Luke leaned forward, not wanting to speak too loudly because even if he didn’t sense any danger (and he knew Mara didn’t either or she would tell him) he still didn’t want to be overheard. “I worry about that, about keeping the baby safe. It’s kind of hard to hide the fact that Carol’s pregnant at this point but I’m not sure who outside of SWORD and our families knows who the father is. That she’s Force sensitive is a given, I knew that from the beginning plus we’ve seen the evidence that it’s a dominant trait. Leia and I both are, we don’t know if our mother was, Leia and Han’s children are we know Han isn’t and if he was, he probably wouldn’t tell us because he’s always called it a bunch of ‘hocus pocus’.” Han had never pretended that he believed in the Force or understood anything about the Jedi path but he hadn’t stopped his children from following that path or kept Leia from studying it either. Luke suspected that Han believed far more than he let on. Luke shook his head. “There’s also the fact that Carol is half Kree and we don’t know what that means for the baby. She could inherit her mother’s powers, she might not but if she did and those are coupled with being Force sensitive, I want to make sure she’s safe. HYDRA or some other group like them would find her very interesting. Not that we’re hiding anything but as long as we can keep her safe, we’re going to.” He sat back and let out a breath. “and I’m kind of scared to death if you want to know the truth. My experience as a father has been for the month or so Ben was here and he was certainly well able to take care of himself. I don’t want to screw this up, Mara. I don’t know how long I’ll even be here, none of us do but I want the time I’m here with my daughter to count for something.” "Sitwell's supposed to be working on a full system for it," Mara grinned back in return. Truthfully, Nick's paranoia annoyed her even as she was sympathetic to it. She understood why he might be anxious, and a child like theirs was very likely to have Force sensitivity which would be a whole other story. So she could also be sympathetic to Luke. To add in an aspect of an entire species that they didn't know much about. "Have you thought of what you want to do to perhaps hide her or keep her safe?" Mara asked, curiously. "I've been given a number of ideas that are not feasible or realistic, but I also am well aware of the fact that the danger is possible." “One thing I’ve thought of is the Jedi aspect of it, I’ve talked to Anakin and asked him that if something happens to me, that he’d train her. There’s no way to know what else she’ll be capable of. As long as we’re here, I feel that she’ll be safe, there are enough people to keep watch and make sure nothing happens.” Luke took a sip of water and shook his head. “It’s just so hard to believe. Becoming a father was the last thing I ever expected to happen when I found myself here. There are times when I still can’t believe it’s real. but it is and it’s happening soon.” Carol was due the first week in April and Luke had read enough to know that didn’t necessarily mean the baby would come then. “Another thing, if you need or want my help with anything, you know you’ve got it. Even if neither of us has raised a Jedi baby yet, we at least kind of know what to expect. Plus we know that we did it once.” he shook his head. “Why do I have a feeling that some of these ideas involve putting you somewhere that you can’t be found? I figured that might be part of the reason you were back in the Tower more.” Mara raised an eyebrow and smirked slightly. "He's getting the impressive, Mara Jade is stubborn and does not get put away easily, reminder. It's healthier for everyone when they remember that." But she knew where Nick was coming from even if she didn't agree with it. "It isn't as if there is a place we can hide them here with the protection of other Jedi. There are just us and to be honest while there isn't anyone that has the same power to corrupt them, but there are others that could try to corrupt them from other ways or use them against us. It's a fair worry," she sighed slightly. "But I won't be put off to some quiet corner. It is possible however that I need to start interviewing nannies." She laughed gently as she reached for the water in front of her. “I’m familiar with that treatment,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ve seen it a few times. Carol has her own version of it but it was more like ‘there is no evidence that pregnant women can’t fly in space’ and I couldn’t argue with that because while I might have no memory of it,, I’m sure you did so she knew she had me.” Luke had learned that some things just weren’t fighting over so as long as Carol didn’t seem to feel bad or wasn’t in any danger, he didn’t say anything. Even if he was quietly watching. “Too bad Chewie isn’t here. He makes a really good nanny even though you’d never guess he could be so gentle with kids as big as he is, He was great with Han and Leia’s three.” For all that he was an eight foot tall wookiee who could be deadly when he had to be, Chewie had a huge heart and when it came to the kids, he would do whatever he had to do to keep them safe. Mara laughed outright at that, knowing that there would have been no way Luke could have kept her from flying. Her disease may have tied her down a bit, but Luke Skywalker wouldn't have been able to. She sat the glass of water down on the table, still smiling. "Yes, him, or Winter for that matter." Mara shook her head. "Not that she would likely want to watch my child, but still, it would be nice to have someone with an idea of the potential stakes and some experience. I suppose I'll just have to keep looking for someone, and hopefully someone that will match Nick's insane list of expected qualities." “I’ve only ever exchanged a few words with Nick but I can only imagine what going through one of his security checks must be like. Although I have a sneaking suspicion that he probably already knows more about me than I do,” he laughed. “but good luck. I hope you find someone. Right now I believe the baby is going to be coming to work with us although I’m trying to talk Carol into doing some work from home. You can imagine how well that’s going, I’m sure.” He paused for a moment and looked at her. It was strange, having this conversation with her yet it didn’t feel nearly as odd as he’d expected it to feel. “Mara, how do we do this? I mean we both know what our future holds, we know how we feel about each other and a lot of people would not understand how we can still be friends even though we’re with other people. It hasn’t always been easy but I can’t imagine you not being part of my life in some way. It doesn’t seem right.” Mara tilted her head as she looked at him and considered. Yes people probably thought it was odd, but somehow even when on some level she felt it was odd, she never really felt that it was. When Luke had shown up, she'd known that she couldn't just ignore him and that she didn't want to. She had loved him, did love him, that she loved Nick too… Well, it was just a given. "Because our relationship has always been about mutual respect and friendship. It's what we built it on together," she suggested. "Because of that, when we got here, when I was with someone else you respected it, even if you were disappointed by it. When you found Carol, I did the same. Because ultimately you are a man that I love and admire and wish good things for, in whatever shape those things come and I assume you feel the same." Luke reached across the table and gave her hand a squeeze. “That’s true. We built a solid foundation and even if we’d never become more than friends, I would still trust you with my life. I do trust you with my life.” He let go of her hand and smiled at her. “I was disappointed, I won’t deny that but good things came out of that and I do feel the same way. I love you, I respect you, I’m a little bit in awe of you, knowing what you went through in the past yet you came through it without giving into the Darkness. We’re also very lucky to be with people who understand the way we feel about each other.” Mara squeezed Luke's hand in return and offered him a smile. She knew that she was fortunate to have this understanding both from Luke and from Nick, but perhaps it was at least partially because with both relationships and with both men she had found that mutual respect and to have found it twice… well it was more than she could have ever asked for. "It's a good life, Skywalker, and I'm glad that you've found it too." She reached for her glass once again and her lips turned up mischievously. "So have you come up with a name yet?" |