8--Spellbound
     Callista had told him he was home. He knew she hadn't meant the resort. She had meant with
Mara. And nowhere with Mara was more home than their bed.
     He lay on his side facing her, his right leg slung over hers, his arm stretching across her chest, 
just above the life in her womb. His face rested comfortably in the curve of her neck and
shoulder, her hair pillowing his face. Her arm was wedged between them, her palm against his
face, her fingers entwined in his hair. 
     This was home, with her. The peace between them, during these moments, when he could
feel how strong she was, how she radiated that vibrant life that had always drawn him to her,
even when she was consumed by bitterness and hatred. That love was still there, underneath her
skin, waiting for someone to come along and bask in it.
     Luke basked in it as if it were the sun. All of his life, he had been protecting someone. With
Mara, he felt as if she protected him, enclosed him in her aura of strength. It was in these
moments that he loved her so much it was painful to even move.
     *Well, you have to move eventually, Skywalker, or your hand is going to go to sleep.*
     Luke let out a stream of hot breath against her skin. He wiggled his fingers, the ones that were
wedged underneath the pillow under their heads. *I'll live,* he sent back. 
     She turned her head away from him, her breasts heaving up as she filled her lungs with air.
Luke raised his head, his cheek sliding against the arc of her neck. His lips found her
cream-colored flesh and he began to kiss her. He felt her purr in the back of her throat, and
intensified his enthusiasm. Soon his teeth joined in the effort, and the corners of his mouth lifted
wickedly as he reached all the way for the most sensitive spot on her skin, the back of her neck
where it met her shoulders. He bore down with his lips, his teeth, and his tongue, and Mara
jerked with the impulse to back away. The sensation was almost too much, but Luke held her
down and let out a low growl.
     But suddenly she wasn't having any fun anymore. In one second, the pleasure caved in on
itself, and a small cry of fear fell from her lips. Instantly, Luke let go and pulled himself up on
his arms, giving her as much room as she seemed to need.
     "What is it?" he asked soothingly. "Did I hurt you?"
     She was panting, her eyes shut underneath the hand she had clamped over them. "No," she
managed. "Just...just don't ever do that again. Okay?"
     "Okay. I'm sorry." He wanted to hold her, to kiss her, to make her forget that the last moment
had even happened. Never in all the time they had been together had she ever acted this way
toward him when they made love. Nothing he had ever done had been wrong before. Of course,
he had never done that before, either.
     Was there something about her he still didn't know?
     She caught her breath and looked up at him, then managed a small smile. She reached up and
cupped his cheek in her hand, her cheeks slightly tinted with a blush. "Actually, I'm the one
who's sorry. I don't know what got into me."
     "Are you sure?" He lowered himself again, positioning himself beside her, his arm curving
over her, bringing her close--tenatively at first, and then more confidently as the moment got
farther and farther behind them. 
     "Well...the last person who did that to me, I didn't take that kindly to it." She laughed lightly,
but it fell flat. "I haven't thought of him in years."
     "Him?" Luke echoed, trying to sound innocent.
     Her eyes flashed at him. "Jealous, Skywalker?" she said, a touch of the old Mara in her voice.
     He gave her an innocent farmboy grin. "Why would I be?" he asked.
     "No reason, really. His name was Cal Saphringer. I met him while I was sloshing around the
galaxy for the five and a half years after Palpatine bit the lightsaber. I was twenty, he was
eighteen...but he acted older."
     "A younger guy?" Luke arched an eyebrow.
     "You wouldn't have known it to look at him. Not every man is as boyish as you." She seemed
lost for a moment in the memory. "I don't know what I saw in him. He was pretty captivating,
though, at the time. One of those tall, dark and handsome types that usually cause nothing but
trouble."
     "Ah, I know what you mean. You mean those guys that always wear those heavy black
cloaks, black outfits, and carry lightsabers. A...a..." he snapped his fingers, searching, "....a Jedi
Knight, right?"
     She punched him in the chest, sending him onto his back, laughing. "I'm being serious!"
     "I know, and I want you to stop!" He caught her fist and kissed it. "Talking about another man
while you're in bed with your husband...I knew the old Mara Jade was still in there."
     She pouted for a minute. "Fine," she muttered. But he wouldn't give her back her fist.
     "So he broke your heart, huh?" Luke said, his voice a little softer.
     "No," she snorted. "I didn't have a heart to break then. I was too obsessed with...." And she
stopped, suddenly unable to say it.
     "Killing me," Luke finished, and kissed her hand again. "Even then, I still had your heart."
     "More like my undivided attention." She gave him a half-hearted grin. "But no, he didn't
break my heart. More like I broke his. He was kind of angry at me for a while, but I just assumed
he got over it. He was a little on the obsessive side. I remember being flattered by that,
considering he had an ego the size of the first Death Star and could attract people like the maw
of Kessel--"
     "Especially women, like one bitter ex-Hand I used to know."
     "Damn skippy. God, he was so good looking. But no, there was nothing. I broke it off with
him when he tried to go to far. He used that little manuver on me, and I sort of freaked. I think it
was some dilluted version of Force lightning that he got zapped with. Some kind of automatic
self-defense I can never use when I need to. I had more Force powers back then, and they were
dark in nature. All that atrophied within a year after Palpatine died.  I haven't seen it again. But
you doing that...it wasn't a pleasant memory."
     "It explains why I didn't do it before. But why would that thought suddenly occur to me
now?"
     "Maybe it has something to do with what I sensed earlier," Mara whispered.
     "But what did you sense? If not Palpatine, it was something of the dark side."
     "It was beyond Palpatine," Mara said, her voice still hushed. "Palpatine was only mortal.
Even with the dark side. What I sensed was...immortal. But it was only there for a second."
     "Something worse than Palpatine."  Luke shuddered. "But what would that have to do with
Cal Saphire...or whatever his name was."
     "Saphringer," Mara corrected. "I don't know. Cal had a lot of potential. Potential for being
bad." She grimaced, her face going into those old sharp angles and shadows. "He was Force
sensitive, but was abusive with it. He'd cheat everyone at cards, even his own friends. No one
knew he was Force sensitive but me, and he made me swear never to tell. After he tried to...you
know...I just sort of cut out. Never even looked back. Didn't even say goodbye to him." She gave
a wicked little grin. "Bet he loved that."
     "Well, it's nice to know I wasn't the first broken heart you left behind."
     "Oh, shove it down your sarlacc pit, Luke." She pulled the pillow out from under her head
and whalloped him with it. 
     "I thought that was your job!" he said, muffled through the pillow. "Oh, wait, but you botched
that one up, didn't you?"
     She hit him again, harder this time. "Insensitive, ungrateful swine! I can always correct that
mistake!" 
     "How? You're just a barefoot and pregnant female!" he howled. She pulled herself up on her
arm, glaring down at him. Then, she abruptly calmed. Luke looked at her, his laughter fit
temporarily stilled.
     "What?" he asked, almost afraid.
     "Anger is of the dark side, Luke," she whispered. "Why get angry...when I can get even?" And
she abruptly Force-shoved him right out of bed, stark naked onto the freezing cold floor. The
glass of water on his bedside table suddenly lifted and upturned itself, and the shower landed on
the place he would have least wanted it to.
     "MARA!" he shrieked, jumping up.
     "Why, Master Skywalker, is that your lightsaber, or did someone just freeze you upright?"
Mara asked, her eyes wide.
     He just stared at her a second. Then he lept onto the bed, straddling her.
     "If you wanted it again, Mara," he purred, "there were better ways to ask."
     "Oh, no!" she hollered, using her elbows to try and scoot away, but there was no escape.
"You're not going to warm that thing up inside of me!"
     He smiled. "You started it."
     "And I'll finish it!" And she lifted up her leg and shoved him off her. He grunted at he hit the
bedpost, but it wasn't hard enough to hurt. Then she bent her knee and wedged it against his
chest, keeping him there with a Force grip.
     "OK, Mara. You win. I give." But he was smirking at her in her undignified position.
     "Apologize," she demanded, but her eyes were glittering.
     "I apologize."
     "Sounds pretty sincere, but I think you're going to have to prove it to me. I'm not quite
convinced."
     His smirk took on a more naughty appearance. "Take off the Force grip and I'll convince
you."
     "The Force grip? My knee is doing most of the work."
     "I know, but I don't want you to put your leg down...yet."
     She sighed. "Okay, I give, Skywalker. Just thaw that thing out first."
     Before she could get out a laugh, Luke was on top of her, and she found out that cold wasn't
the only thing that made things stiff.

     Ghent called back that morning. Mara was impressed with how quickly he had gotten into
action, and Callista was nearly estatic that anything on Jabba's fist had been that easy to find. 
     What Ghent found out, however, could have meant anything.
     "This has got to be one of the biggest coincidences ever," the blue-haired man said, shaking
his head, "but it turns out that Jabba's Fist had their last base somewhere on Endor. It was right
before they wound up disappearing off the records."
     "On Endor?" Mara echoed with a frown. "The Ewoks didn't scare them away? I thought scum
like that was allergic to cute."
     "You should know," Luke said lightly. She gave him the raspberry.
     Ghent cleared his throat. "Well, I'm sending you a map to where it was, and a map of the
inside. It turns out that the reason they wound up disappearing is that they were infiltrated by
some outside source. There is no mention of whether it was Imperial, or just some competitor.
All they know is that he was a Force-sensitive."
     Luke had his face resting on his crossed arms, which were sitting on the back of Mara's
console-chair. He didn't lift his face when he said the name. "Cal?"
     "Could be," Mara muttered. "Explains why I was thinking about him last night."
     "All of last night?" Luke teased.
     "Shut up, Skywalker," but she was grinning. "Okay, Ghent, go ahead and send the stuff. We'll
check out any leads. There might be some leftovers in their old hide-out that we can use.
Thanks."
     "No problem." He gave them a small, half-salute. "I'll let you know if anything else comes
up." And he was gone.
     In a few minutes, Mara had a copy of the map in her hands. "I guess Endor would have to
have more on it than forests," she muttered as she looked it over. "I mean, how can a planet or a
moon all have one environment anyway? Even Tatooine has to  have some water on it
somewhere."
     "Hoth was all one environment," Luke said as he purused the lines and pictures. "All ice."
     "Well...that's different. But even by the equator there had to be something mildly thawed."
     "I didn't know Endor had a history of miners." Luke traced his fingers over the ridges, his eyes
widening. "Listen to this--a spice relative, called 'sugar' for slang. It was all dried up centuries
ago, and when the miners left they must have left their work behind for anyone else to use."
     "It explains it. Where are these mines, anyway?"
     Luke snorted. "From the looks of this, at least a hundred or so miles away. It'll take us the
better part of the afternoon to get there."
     "Then let's get Callista and go," Mara said, straightening. The she grasped the small of her
back, adjusting to the sudden shift in weight.
     "Correction---Callista and I will go. You stay here."
     Mara didn't have to speak. The way she looked at him told him enough.
     "Mara, great Force, you're three weeks away from giving birth!" He threw his hands in the air,
exasperated. "You shouldn't be doing anything!"
     "Luke, when have you known me that I've been able to stay sane and not do anything?
Especially when someone has asked for my help?" Then she added, "You didn't have this
philosophy when we were fighting last night."
     "That was different. If I had thought you were overexerting yourself, I would have stopped
you. But this is different. These caves might be dangerous. I don't like the idea of you going one
bit, and for the first time in my life, I'm going to forbid it. AND expect you to obey. Got that?"
     Mara had given Luke many dangerous looks in his life. Some he didn't even know about. But
the way she was looking at him now was beyond what he had seen previously, and he had to
resist the urge to reach for his lightsaber. However, he knew this was right, and that Mara, once
her infamous temper could be pushed aside, would realize it. 
     And sure enough, like a flame extinguishing, it did. She turned her head to the side, unable to
look at him, and when she turned back, Luke realized with a sinking feeling that she really
meant it when she said she was going to go.
     Now her eyes were totally soft and pleading. A combination he had no defense against. "Oh,
Mara, please don't," he begged.
     "I'm sorry, Luke. I really am. But I have to be there. You can't leave me alone here. Not with
all the things that have been happening. Look, I promise that if I have any trouble, you can bring
me right back. The first sign, I PROMISE."
     Luke sighed. "I guess it doesn't do much good to go without you anyway. Since you're the one
who knows the most. But I'm going to hold you to that promise, Mara. And we're only going to
stay for three days, and then we're leaving. I'm not going to let you give birth to our child in a
cave."
     She positively beamed. "Thank you, Luke," she said sincerely, and then added with her
traditional cockiness, "I do always win, don't I?"
     Luke shook his head. "I just hope you did win, Mara. I have a bad feeling about this."
     And when a Jedi had a bad feeling, it was not to be taken lightly.

9--Jabba's Fist
     They managed to rent a small shuttle, although the resort was very hesitant because of all the
legal trouble they had had keeping the environmentalists happy. If it had been any other guests
than the Jedi Knight Skywalkers, relatives of Chief-of-State Leia Organa-Solo (also a Jedi
Knight, although unoffically), perhaps they would not have been rented the extremely nice
four-person shuttle that Han eyed appreciatively as he watched his best friend, his best friend's
wife, and his best friend's former lover pack up into it and prepare to leave on some crusade he
wasn't sure he understood. No one had given him the whole story. He wasn't even sure Leia knew
the entire details, although she was not attempting to get any, which was unlike her. 
     "Callista came here for Mara's help," Leia explained to him when everyone was out of
earshot. 
     "Why would Mara help Callista? I can't say I'd be inclined to help a former lover of yours out,
I don't care how Jedi-minded and noble it would be."
     And that was when Leia dropped her bombshell. "It's about Luke's son."
     There hadn't been many times in her life when Leia had left her husband speechless. Not even
when she had told him she loved him. In fact, the only other time she could really think of was
when she told him Luke was her brother. But Han's face was white and his jaw was slightly
slack. 
     "Son?"
     "His and Callista's. I don't know the whole story. I don't think I want to. They'll tell me when
they're ready." Leia looked over her shoulder as Callista appeared in the doorway to the shuttle.
The woman didn't look much different than she had nearly eight years ago, on Nam Chorios.
Except there were no smoky colored veils draped about her head--this time it was a bare-basics
grey flight suit. The malt-blond hair was yanked back into a tail that did not flatter her much, but
served its purpose. Callista's eyes had changed, though. They looked very tired, and very old.
     Suddenly Leia felt very guilty. She hadn't exactly been warm to the woman over the last few
days. She hadn't been rude, either--more like totally avoidant. She didn't have that right. It wasn't
her place to be cold to Callista--she had no reason, really. Except that Mara and Luke were very
much married, and Callista was.....well, she was....
     Absolutely no threat at all, Leia realized as Mara stepped out after her and gave Callista a
reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. 
     "She doesn't bite," Mara said to Callista, casting a look at Leia. "If she did, trust me, I'd be the
person to have found out by now."
     Leia turned toward Callista, feeling extremely foolish but determined to correct that. "I'm
sorry, Callie. I haven't exactly been a good hostess, have I."
     Callista smiled. It made her look young again. "I've been a partycrasher. Don't worry, I don't
blame you. I know how important your family is to you." Her eyes took on a look that was light
years away. "It is to me, too."
     "I know." The two women just stared at each other for a moment, and a sudden foreboding
washed over Leia.
     This was the last time she would see Callista. She was absoultely sure of it. So she reached
out and embraced her.
     "May the Force be with you," Leia said.
     "And you," Callista said, her voice a whisper over the pain of the words.
     
     Mara used as many techniques as she could think of to keep herself comfortable on the
shuttle. It wasn't exactly designed for pregnant women, she had realized rather quickly. But if
she had the entire backseat to herself, she managed rather well.
     Callista had insisted on driving. That left Luke in the passenger seat to give moral support (as
well as disapproving looks) to his wife. 
     "If it's bad, we can turn back," he said.
     She shook her head. "It'll pass. Sith, if I'd known that being pregnant was like swallowing a
giant grainfruit and then trying to pass it I would have quelled my sexual urges a lot more
forcefully. No pun intended."
     Luke smiled gently. "They say the pain of childbirth is quickly forgotten."
     "Yeah, so women get pregnant again. If they remembered how much it hurt to give birth
they'd never have sex again."
     At that, Luke's gentle smile narrowed into a knowing smirk. Mara sighed. "Okay, it's passed."
She turned in her seat. "How much farther, Cal?"
     "Actually, at the time we're making, we'll probably be there within the next hour."
>From the corner of her mind, she could hear Luke turning a word over and over in his head.
*Cal?*
     "Good. I'm going to doze a bit. Wake me a little before we get there."
     Okay, so Luke was freaking out a bit over her use of a name that hadn't exactly come up in
pleasant conversation. With a pang of guilt, she remembered the look on his face when he had
backed off of her. *Don't worry about it, Love,* she said, giving him a sleepy look. *Cal, Callie,
Callista...sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.*
     *What?* 
     *Nothing. Another time.* She squeezed his hand. *Just don't talk too loud, okay?* And she
was asleep.
     Leaving Luke and Callista alone. Again. However, Callista didn't seem to care much. She was
very lost in her own thoughts, a scowl touching her face as her brain whirled away. For a few
minutes, Luke didn't say anything. In those few minutes, he decided he wasn't going to, period.
Obviously, Callista had moved beyond dealing with  him and his losses and gains. After all, this
child was all she had. There was no family on Chad waiting for her, no relatives or close friends.
He had been everything. She had sacrificed all of her past for a future that had wound up holding
nothing.
     Nothing except a child that had been stolen from her. Four years ago, Luke would have
destroyed himself with guilt over that. But Mara had taught him so much. You learn, you move
on. And he was not responsible for the choices those around him made. Even Mara, on this trip
against better judgement, even hers, was making her own free choice to be here and help
Callista. Perhaps she was only helping Callista because of Luke, but that was still her choice. 
     It had been Callista's choice to leave him, and her choice to return after it was too late. It was
just a shame that he now felt like a complete stranger to her.
     "No, you don't."
     Luke jumped and glanced at her. She was looking at him out of the corner of her eye, and she
shrugged. "I don't have to be Force sensitive to know what you're thinking, Luke. Body language
says enough. Anyone ever tell you that you have a tendency to wear your feelings on your face if
you get too comfortable?"
     "I wish I was. Maybe then we'd have more to say to each other."
     "What is there to say? Do you want to relive those days?" She shook her head in distaste. "I
really don't. Neither of us were happy."  
     "You still aren't. You're still carrying around regrets."
     "We all carry around regrets. Sometimes, I wonder if my whole life has been one big regret."
She sighed. "I'm sorry, I don't want to be bitter."
     He chuckled. "Bitter doesn't bother me."
     "Oh, that's right. You're turned on by women who hate you." The look she gave him was
sharp. "I don't hate you, Luke. I never did, I never will."
     Luke didn't know whether to be insulted or reassured by her words. He felt kind of both. "I get
the feeling there's something you really want to say to me that you're afraid to say."
     "And here I thought I wasn't Force sensitive." She took a deep breath. "I would be lying if I
didn't admit that I still have feelings for you, Luke. I know everything I've said over the last few
days about the way things turned out for us being right and all, but it would be wrong for me to
say I liked it. I don't like it. And it wasn't easy for me to come here and ask your new wife for
help, considering I would have liked nothing better than to have....well, I can leave that much
unsaid." She blinked at a few tears. "I regret the moment Cray stepped aside for me. I wouldn't
have been tempted to take it. You could have cherished a memory that would have been pefect. I
would have had a place in your heart that would never be touched."
     "But you do."
     "It's not the same. Coming back spoils the memory. You remember all the bad things, all the
reasons 'why not.' None of the good looks as good after it's over." She sniffed. "I just feel like a
walking emotional timebomb and I'm terrified I'm going to go off."
     "I'm sorry, Callista."
     "And that's just it. You're not, not really. I know I said that before, but I'm saying it again.
You and Mara...I was just an interlude. A temporary. A distraction. Sooner or later, it would
have gotten ugly. Either she would have come between us, or you would have wound up
wondering for the rest of your life 'what if.' With you and me, there is no 'what if.' It had no
chance of happening. And what hurts the most is that you're okay with that."
     Luke had no idea what to say. What did she expect of him? And then, she finished, and Luke
knew she didn't expect anything from him. She just wanted him to know. "I just wanted to be the
one that got away, you know?" She gave him a sad smile. "I wanted to be the perfect memory.
There are women you put on pedestals and women you hold in your arms, and she's both. I don't
know how, but she is. And I don't have a chance at either. I just wish...I had."
     They didn't speak again until they neared their destination.