~@~New Beginnings

   The ceremony was to be intimate, only friends and extended family. Guests had been arriving for days and although Luke continued to feel a strong sense of honor in seeing so many familiar faces – old and dear friends that he counted among that extended family – he still couldn't help but recognize a loss. He shook himself away from the heavy emotion and walked to the entrance of his suite to answer the door. 

   Leia stood there waiting for him.  She smiled graciously as she stepped inside, beautiful as always in fine dress, and Luke hugged his sister.

   She stepped back and looked him over expectantly before she smiled again.  "Are you nervous?"

   Luke smiled and shook his head.  "Excited," he admitted.

   "That's close," she kidded him.

   "The good version," he returned.

   Leia smiled again; she could see that it was true. Her smile gently faded into serious emotions as she nodded to him. "Luke, I've done a lot of thinking, a lot of asking myself why I feel the way I do, and I can't get past it just being something that I feel," she shrugged. Then she sighed, her careful gaze coming to rest on him again.  "Then I see how happy you are, and I start to doubt myself all over again..." she conceded, her lips pursed, briefly troubled. "But I did come to one thing that I know – two things," she corrected that decision. "I know I love you," she said quietly. "I've always tried to be there to help you.  And I can see you, a little too well at times, because I know that there are places I've never been able to reach."  She smiled, letting the lingering sadness that she felt over that fact give way to a begrudging acceptance. 

   "Maybe I'm a little worried, and maybe even a little jealous, but I know that she has reached those places.  You're better for it, and I'm glad for that." She was silent for a moment. "You said that you wanted a blessing. Here it is." She took a deep breath.  "If this is what you want, and you've got no doubts in it, then do it.  And be happy.

   "If she's right for you, and you love each other, that's all that matters, Luke."  Then Leia paused, a mischievous gleam flashing in her eye. "But if she ever hurts you, I promise, she'll answer to me."

   Luke laughed, nodding as he hugged her.  He didn't doubt that Leia meant business in that promise, but it felt as though a great weight had been lifted from his heart in receiving her permission.

   "Thank you, Leia," he breathed, pushing back to look in his sister's eyes.

   She smiled at him again and placed a soft hand to his cheek before she turned away and let herself out.  Leia hadn't been gone for very long when that feeling of loss came back over him.  Luke recognized the difference this time.     

~

   Lara was standing silently at her suite's living room window when Luke came in; she hadn't heard the door chime.  Her thoughts were elsewhere as she watched the traffic slowly filter through the city outside, and her back stayed turned to the room.  But Luke felt her sense flash with embarrassment when he entered. He winced in sympathy for it as he walked up behind her.

   Lara dropped her head. "I'm sorry," she managed softly, regretfully.

   "No," he whispered.  "Don't be sorry," Luke consoled her.  "There are so many people who should be here.  I feel it too," he admitted, holding back a sigh.

   "I really didn't see it coming," she struggled with the sadness. He could hear it in her voice and feel it in her sense. Luke wrapped his arms around her waist and let her lean back into his embrace.

   "I love you."  She reached up to touch his face. "Why can't we just have that today?"

   "We will.  Today and everyday after," he whispered. 

   The silence kept while he held her.

   "You know," Luke finally stated quietly, "Han offered to stand up with me. I turned him down," he admitted a second later. "Maybe I shouldn't have. I was honored that he wanted to."  He hesitated, considering it again and coming to the same conclusion.  "But it didn't feel right," Luke admitted regretfully, "and that made me realize how much Ben meant to me, on a whole other level.

   "When I think of him now," Luke confessed cautiously, "it's usually because I'm missing his guidance, his reassurance. Missing that stabilizing effect that his presence always had for me... but thinking of him today made me realize something that I'd almost forgotten. Ben was there, watching over me, my whole life.  I never got to tell him how much that meant, or how much I thought of him.  Above all the other things that were left unsaid, or unanswered...." He shrugged behind her as his voice trailed off. "He's simply the only person I could imagine standing up with me today," Luke decided quietly. Then he fell silent.

   "I tried not to think too much about the future when I was growing up," Lara spoke softly, "but any thought I had of this day, I always saw Mark there.  He'd be happy for me, and proud, and I'd know that what I was doing was right."

   The silence held again. 

   "You think he'd like me?" Luke asked cautiously.

   Lara felt herself smile unexpectedly, and she turned to face him.  "Yeah.  He'd love you," she breathed, smiling again.

   Luke grinned sheepishly, dropping his eyes.  It was then that he noticed the pendant she was wearing around her neck. He reached to cup it into his hand as he looked back to her, only his eyes questioning. 

   "It was his good luck charm," she said softly. "He gave it to me when I left."  Lara's eyes returned to it.  "I lost it at Rousel... but Mara returned it to me, while you were gone at Rhaci." 

   "It's beautiful," he said, turning the small pendant over between his fingers. With another grin he asked, "What is it?"

   She smiled again, shaking her head at him. "Sometimes I still forget your home world was desert," she chided him playfully.  Then she explained, "It's a harsen shell that's been worn smooth by the water." Her finger trailed against the wedged side, showing the change in color from the grainy green-black surface to the smooth white inner layer lying beneath it. "I can't imagine how long it took to smooth those edges," she mused.

   Then she looked back to Luke again, remembering the rest of the story. "Mark got caught at sea in really rough waters, a terrible storm. Just when the winds were about to force his ship into the rocks, he found a harbor tucked in-between the cliffs; he narrowly made it to safety, and he said that this was sparkling up at him from the calmest, clearest harbor pool he'd ever seen. After that day he always took it with him when he sailed, for safe harbor." 

   Her voice trailed off, coming back slowly from memory, and she looked into Luke's eyes for a long moment.  "I really wish you could have known him," she whispered.   

   Carefully, Luke let the pendent fall back to her neck, and he rubbed her arms reassuringly.  "I feel like I do."

   She smiled at that, and she hugged him.

   They stood quietly together for a long while. 

   "You know, we are supposed to get married today," Lara finally intoned from the embrace.

   "Is that today?" Luke returned easily.

   She laughed and tightened her arms around his waist as she leaned back to smile at him. 

   "I love you," he said softly. 

   "I love you too," she answered.

   Neither wanted to break the embrace.

   Lara grinned. 

   "I know," Luke answered wryly, grinning in return. Their eyes held for one more moment – one more moment and one more smile, saved to memory, before Luke leaned to softly kiss his bride-to-be. He forced himself to part quickly from her kiss so that he could leave, but he paused again, a step away from the door, to look back.  They both wore the same uncontrollable grin. 

   She lifted her eyebrows warningly, and tilted her head toward the door. 

   Luke could only smile at his own hesitation, the unique paradox underlying it. He couldn't wait for her to become his wife, and he never wanted to forget the joy behind this excruciating state of anticipation.  It was something that only the two of them could understand; there were only a few final hours of hopeful waiting left before they would begin their life as one.       

~

   The Tea Room was small by Coruscant standards. It had once been a private meeting hall for Palpatine, and a place with Jedi origins before that.  It was one of the few places that had survived both his reign and the transition nearly unscathed, and one of the few places on world that didn't feel tainted by Palpatine's reign. It had managed to keep its own mystique and still retain a sense of the peace that it had once known.  That was why Luke wanted their wedding to be here. 

   The New Republic used this as a hospitality room, so it was normally scattered with comfortable seats of all designs.  Today, about a third of that space had been cleared for the ceremony. The room had no windows but its high-domed ceiling was tinted in soothing shades of blue, and gently lit.  Lightly colored hanging fabrics draped across every wall, lining them horizontally and dipping in wide, curving layers toward the floors. Even the floor's marblesque rock incasing reflected the soothing light that bathed the ceiling and walls, further aiding the room's soft atmosphere. 

   At the front of the Tea Room two clusters of soft lights stood at eye level, one to each side of the room, marking the two corners of the room's semicircle shape.  Between the two lamp stands a semicircle of flowers arched across the floor, light blue and pink blossoms clinging to dried branches.  White petals had been carefully scattered across those branches and into the semicircle where the honored couple would stand in just a few moments. 

   A bell chimed several times in succession, and the gathered guests quieted their conversations and found seats. A few seconds later Luke and Lara entered at the front of the room, facing one other from across it. They came forward, following the arch of flowers that lined the floor but staying to the outside of its semicircle shape. They met each other at the center of the room and paused there to acknowledge their guests.

   She wore a simple, elegant dress that was light in color and in weight.  Her hair, drawn up in loose curls, fell to frame her face in places. Luke wore the cream and brown of his Jedi robes with two distinctions.  At his side his lightsaber was accompanied by two white and gold intertwined circles, and at his waist he wore a white sash that tied there and reached to the floor. At the material's center fold, before it trailed off into a beaded tassel, was revealed an embroidered gold design. Lara wore the same garment as a shawl, draped around her waist and through her elbows.  The embroidered gold design in hers patterned the material's edges, and it tapered off into the same lightly beaded tassel as it reached for the floor.

   After they had spoken to their guests Luke and Lara joined hands with one another and stepped over the flower blossoms to walk to the center of the semicircle; there they joined both hands and faced each other, smiling.  After a moment Lara let go one hand and turned from Luke, leaving her back to face their audience.  Luke followed her gesture and, a few steps in front of them, to the center of both, a hologram appeared. 

   A ripple of surprise ran through the audience. Lara cast a mischievous glance toward Luke, and he favored her with only the slightest of questioning smiles. The Jedi Master's hologram stood before them.  Master Neese made eye contact with each of them and smiled.  Then he looked beyond them to welcome the guests as he introduced himself and explained the special day that they were to witness.

   "We are here today as witness for these two persons who are about to undergo a deep and lasting commitment to life's journey.  Luke and Lara stand here today to take vows indicating their readiness for the serious trials ahead.  Their vows express a common willingness to be in service to the Force and the greater good, even to the point of personal loss.  Their commitment to one another reveals a common desire to give each other strength, guidance, and perseverence in their partnership." 

   The silence held for a long moment before he looked between them and then asked them each. "Do you understand that which is asked of you? And do you give yourself freely into that offering?"

   Both answered, "yes," twice.

   Jedi Master Neese smiled and addressed the audience again.

   "This dedication of spirit has been entered into with omniscient conviction, faith, and love.  Where there were two now stands one: one resolve, one being, one essence in the Force.

   "May that Force always intertwine you, as these dedication bands symbolize." He motioned to the circular bands that Luke carried, and as Luke unhooked them from his side they rose into the air.  The bands twisted and turned about each other, flashing slightly in the light, until finally they clicked into place, together, overlapping one another, and they lowered between Luke and Lara.

   She placed a hand under the pair and he over, and with that the two circles easily slid apart.

   Luke placed the white band, with its center trimmed in gold, around Lara's arm.  He held it there, just below her elbow, while she placed the gold band, with its center trimmed in white, around his arm.

   Both in place, they tightened into fit.     

   "You will forever be strengthened by this connection, and each will always carry with you a part of the other." 

   They turned back to the Jedi. 

   "The dedication is fulfilled," he said, smiling kindly.  "May you keep each other, in a partnership of emulation," he weighed the words carefully.  "And may the Force forever be with you." 

   They looked to each other, smiling.  Neither heard the offering of polite applause or noticed when the hologram closed down; the new bride and groom only had eyes for one another.

   The crowd of friends and family came forward for congratulations, forming a circle around them.  Then once the well-wishing had died down, the circle moved backward a few steps to allow the newly married couple to share a dance.

   Surrounded by the warmth of their extended family, Luke and Lara Skywalker stood close to one another and they danced slowly, moving together to a sweet melody whose lyrics spoke of love's endurance.

Endure with me

Endure with me, all to see,

all that life and love will be,

all of good and all of bad,

all the richest soul has had.

Endure with me a love divine,

a love to span the test of time,

a love to conquer deepest night,

a love to make the past's wrongs right.

Endure with me the hardest task,

of all I know and cannot ask,

of all I see and would deny,

of all my pain, the tears I cry.

Endure with me....

That I am. That I feel. That I can.

Endure with me....

My love for you.

My truest gift, returned fold two.

   And when the last of the music faded, while they still stood in each other's arms, Luke kissed his bride.

~

   Han and Leia had arranged for the new couple's inconspicuous exit, with Leia covering Luke's duties on Coruscant and Han providing an alternate ID for them in the Lady Luck.  Its loan had been Lando's wedding present; it was a generous contribution, his message had conveyed, to apologize for his inability to be there in person. But since breaking with the New Republic to go back out on his own, Lando had stayed busy with one venture after another, waiting on the one that would finally pay off for him.

   "Still the gambler," Luke noted from behind a smile. They had just gotten away to hyperspace.

   "I guess even destroying the second Death Star isn't enough to force some people into respectability," Lara observed.

   Luke only smiled at her assessment.  "But you can't argue with his generosity, or his good taste." Luke was even more impressed by the ship as they walked through it. Unlike most of the ships they each had seen over the years, the Lady Luck was clearly built with luxury and the comfort of its passengers in mind.

   Luke stretched out on the plush couch that ringed two sides of the Lady Luck's spacious crew room, seating himself at its corner, and he extended an arm to invite Lara to sit beside him.  She smiled at the unexpectedly curious sensation as she sank down into the soft seating, then she quietly stretched herself out opposite Luke, pillowing her head against his rib cage. 

   His arm slid around her to rest at her waist just as Lara closed her eyes. "So when do I get to know where exactly it is that we're going?" she asked after a moment.

   She could see him smiling even without opening her eyes.

   "Probably–" Luke considered, stretching the word.  "When we get there," he decided abruptly.

   She made a face.

   "You had your secret.  I have mine," he chided her softly.

   Lara opened her eyes to see him grinning down at her.  Luke leaned to kiss her, and she saw the change in his face as his emotions gradually shifted. 

   "I had no idea," he offered with a slight shake of his head, followed by a shrug.  "We knew everything we could, going in, from the Master's hologram," he trailed off. "But actually having a Jedi to marry us....  You gave me something impossible, and it made everything even more real."  His expression went thoughtful for a moment before it lightened again, and Luke smiled.  "I'm not sure I can top that." 

   Lara smiled back, lifting her chin to him. "What if I give you the next, fifty or sixty years, to try?"

   Luke Skywalker's grin widened. "Then I guess I'll have to keep trying," he agreed softly.

~~ ~ () ~ ~~

   The trip was less than a day's before they sat waiting in the cockpit, watching as the hyperspace timer counted down to their arrival. On cue, Luke moved the handle back into place and a large green-blue planet appeared in the forward viewport. He was checking the readings for the planet's landing patterns when he felt the change in Lara's sense.

   "Areisabia," Lara breathed in recognition, staring ahead intently. "I've seen holos of it a million times." She paused, breaking her gaze away from the sight to look back at Luke.  "I never told you that," she realized.       

   Luke only smiled.  "I wanted to take you somewhere that had horses.  And it has a reputation for privacy and peace," he added.

   "Luke – it's perfect," she whispered.

~

   There was only one spaceport on world, and it was surrounded by a duly massive city. The rest of the planet was rolling fields and pastures, interrupted by only a light scattering of farms, estates, and resorts. A shuttle transport was provided to take them to one of the planet's many secluded resorts, so Luke and Lara were free to sit quietly, admiring the beauty of the planet's scenery over the final distance of their trip.

   The main building of their resort became visible well before they reached it, seen in glimpses as they approached from winding roads that wove leisurely through a series of barns and paddocks.  Standing four stories high and triangular in structure, its composition was an unusual combination of native rosewood and imported crystalline granite. The two unexpectedly blended the rustic and the elegant into one impressive structure. 

   They got out of the transport and briefly shouldered the weight of their bags before several staff members came forward to greet them and to take their luggage to their suite. They smiled to each other at the novelty and Luke handed the bags over, along with their reservation documents, which were listed to Han's false ID. It felt a little strange to be traveling so openly incognito, but as Han had pointed out: having their presence become public knowledge, and then pass into spectacle, would kill their privacy in a hurry. Luke had been resigned to agree, and this was the easiest compromise.  Besides, after they had settled here they could just be "Luke" and "Lara" to the beings they met....

   They had only taken a few steps toward the main building when they heard the sounds of hurried motion and voices raised – a struggle. They glanced to each other briefly, and headed in that direction. 

   The source of the chaos became visible as they turned the corner. 

   Luke's first instinct was to rush forward, to intervene somehow, but Lara gave him pause.  "Wait.  You don't ever want to rush in," she explained, her voice hurried and hushed as they moved forward the rest of the distance. "These are smart animals," she told him, "but they aren't thinking animals.  They learn patterns of behavior and react to their environments, especially when they're pushed."

   "Pushed," was an understatement in this case, Luke thought as they advanced. Two men were dangerously and stupidly aggravating the animal in question, to the apparent amusement of a third. It was obvious that they didn't have the skill for what they were attempting to handle, and it would only be a matter of time before someone got hurt.  Luke's instincts screamed at him to do something.

   Lara caught his shoulder again as he took a long forward step. He turned to her, surprised, an urgent and questioning expression on his face.  She was looking straight ahead, watching the horse, he realized. 

   "You don't want to get in there now," she warned softly, speaking of the small confines. She glanced to him, directing her thoughts more toward Luke this time. "Look at its language – the head and the ears." He looked back, watching the animal more carefully this time.  He could see that its restless was increasing, and he understood what Lara had already seen.  It wouldn't take much more of this unfair treatment before it would fight back in defense. There wasn't enough time to stop it, and it was already too late to prevent it.  Their intervention would only unnerve the animal further, increasing the danger for everyone. 

   It was an awful feeling, but Luke knew she was right.  All they could do was wait for the breaking point. Only a moment later the animal reared, going up on its hind legs, reaching for the sky as it let go a piercing cry of outrage.

   Luke glanced back to the three men.  They realized that they were in over their heads now, and they were scared; the two inside the ring nearly tripped over one another in their hurry to get out of that enclosed space. 

   Luke almost didn't notice Lara's movement from his side until he took a rushed step after her.

   She glanced back to him, giving him a tight grin as she came to a pause for just long enough to meet his eye. "It's okay," she assured him, glancing between his worried face and the horse that was now standing alone in the middle of the walled ring.  "This is what I know."

   The man who had been observing the fracas from outside tried to object as Lara crossed into the ring, but Luke headed him off. The steady confidence in her voice had allayed his worry a moment before.  Now he only hoped that she was right as he watched Lara step into the space that the two men had just exited in panic.  

   The animal stood silently beyond the chest-high rosewood wall that enclosed it, breathing heavily and taking in this new human warily. Lara slowly walked closer until she stood beside it, but remaining several strides away.  Then she stopped and stood still. She hoped to prove herself to the animal through her actions. She would not try to restrain it, she had no intention of using force to subdue it, but she had to somehow show the creature that she wasn't going to be a threat to it, that it didn't need to fear her. 

   Lara waited patiently, giving the horse time to calm itself, then she moved slowly toward it again.  When it didn't react any further than a light toss of its head, she took one more slow forward step. Only an arm's distance away now, she stood still for a long time. Both figures stood there silently, eyes slightly averted, and the moments stretched so long that Luke started to grow restless, wondering what Lara saw in the animal to cause her so much hesitation. Then the animal moved, shifting its weight very slightly.  Carefully, it reached its nose out toward her, sniffing her.

   It reached out gingerly, clearly not wanting to get close enough to let her take away its ability to escape, and Luke understood why she was waiting. If she acted too soon, or too suddenly, the animal would flee.  Instead she was letting it choose to come to her, to befriend her, instead of the other way around.  Lara continued to stand quietly and when the horse finished its sniffing, instead of shifting its weight backward, it took a small step toward her. 

   After another heartbeat Lara reciprocated the greeting.  Moving easily and smoothly, she reached a careful hand to its shoulder and rubbed against the muscles there. The animal showed no resistance to her touch, so she slowly turned her body and reached out with her other hand, moving the same type of contact along its muscular neck.

   A few more quiet moments passed as they each gained confidence in one another. That had been the easy part; now Lara would begin to test that newfound confidence.  She tried to move with the same ease of motion as she took up one of the ropes that was still attached to the animal.  Luke grimaced as it threw its head in objection, but Lara kept close and her motions remained slow and easy, letting the animal become comfortable with her presence once more.

   She stepped closer, speaking softly as she moved to slip away the rough, tightened ropes.

   Luke grimaced again at the raw, sweat-soaked marks they left behind, and at the animal's reluctance to give Lara the motion. But she stayed close beside it again, making her presence a constant at its side without becoming a pressure to it. It seemed to Luke as though the creature wanted her there, trusted her somewhat, but would that be enough for what she was asking of the animal? 

   The minutes continued to pass as Luke watched the scene unfold, and he realized that others were watching this too. Luke and Lara hadn't been the only bystanders attracted by the earlier scuffle.  Apparently this animal was a problem case, and the small crowd was watching anxiously; judging from the nervous tension building among the bystanders, they were waiting for Lara's hold over the animal to fade.  Lara didn't seem to notice. Her attention stayed firmly focused on the animal before her.  She ignored its previous show of restlessness and kept speaking softly, kept moving alongside the cautious horse until it let her lift the ropes away. 

   Then she took a step back and, speaking softly once again, she began to shift the loose rope that she held in her hands. The animal watched her warily while Lara seemingly ignored it to untie knots and begin looping the rope through itself. Once she almost had the rope how she wanted it, she turned on her heel just enough so that her back was partially turned to the horse, and she glanced over her shoulder with a small smile as it started to step toward her cautiously.  She had given the animal no reason to fear her and now its curiosity for the strange object she hid from it was starting to overpower its need to be cautious of her.

   Luke watched, smiling in awe, as it reached its curved nose over her shoulder and then lowered its graceful neck toward her hands.  Lara moved the roped contraption a little further away, encouraging the horse's curiosity. It pulled its head back for a moment, sniffing her again, as though the animal was still deciding what she was. Lara laughed softly as its sniffing tickled her ear and brushed against her shoulder.  Slowly, she gathered the long end of the rope and reached back to lay it across the crest of the animal's neck. It allowed her the motion and she rubbed its shoulder again as she moved back, standing aside.

   Standing at its shoulder for a second time, Lara began working through the rope, rubbing it along the animal's neck and shoulder to tell it that it had nothing to fear of this either.  She let the long end drape across its shoulder and rest there.  Then holding the other end more prominently, she began moving her hands up its neck.

   She did not try to hide the strange roped contraption this time, only to work through it, using it as she continued rubbing the animal.  Lara concentrated on continuing the reassuring contact, slowly rubbing its neck and ears, seeking out the places where it liked to be scratched, and she slowly moved the rope toward its face until gradually the contraption slipped over the horse's head. Gently Lara moved the rope's curves into place around the animal's ears and nose.  Then she stood back a step to let it shake its head and feel the new fit that would neither fall away or tighten around it, letting it see that it had nothing to fear of this either. 

   She smiled as the horse shook its head and then stood calmly looking back at her.  Some of the people behind Luke clapped and murmured approval.  The horse looked over at them, as if just taking notice of the crowd and wondering what the fuss was about. Lara's eyes didn't leave it. She stayed where she was for a few more moments, rubbing the animal and talking to it, gently tightening the rope halter into a fit that would hug against its head without causing discomfort or fear.  Most of the crowd outside began moving away a few minutes later, and Lara slowly turned away to walk from the center of the ring over to the spot where Luke stood at its edge. 

   When Lara started walking the animal followed her by its own choice; the long end of the lead rope was still draped out of the way over it shoulder.  It had made up its mind now, accepted her.  Luke shook his head.  He had never seen anything like it. "That was unbelievable."

   The animal hesitated a little at approaching him; staying a few steps behind Lara, it edged forward slowly.  She smiled, keeping an eye for the horse at her side and just a few steps away, watching as it edged forward again. "He's decided he likes me now," she explained, making a slight motion over her shoulder; "he just doesn't know how far it's going to take him yet."

   Luke looked past her to study the horse. "He's beautiful." 

   Muscular and graceful, the dark brown body was offset by a black mane and tail, and his color darkened nicely down into his lower legs. 

   "He is," she agreed as the animal stepped forward again.

   It was watching Luke now.  "What should I do?" Luke asked her cautiously. 

   She smiled.  "Slowly, just set your arms up on the fence."

   He did. 

   The horse stepped back, shaking his head. 

   Luke watched the reaction warily. 

   "That's okay," Lara assured him. "We just changed the rules on him. He was only following me; he doesn't know what to make of you yet."

   The animal shifted its weight and stretched his nose out only to pull back again, prompting Lara to smile. "That's good.  He's playing, showing you he's not afraid.  It's a bit of a game," Lara said softly, "to feel you out.  He's waiting, expecting you to do something that lets him run away. When you don't give him that," she shrugged, "then he decides maybe he'll try you out, see what you'll do next."

   The horse moved forward, sniffing Lara's shoulder again. Gradually he came forward again. "Just stay still," Lara told Luke quietly. "He's gonna smell you, maybe give you a nudge. Just give him that."

   Luke watched the soft head bob forward and lower toward his out-folded arms. The big eyes were wide, and warm breath snuffed at him, followed by the brush of soft skin and tickling little whiskers.

   Luke smiled.

   Its ears pricked forward a little more at the sound of Luke's breath, and the animal hesitated one more moment.  Then the ears returned upright and he moved back, brushing against Lara again as he did. 

   Lara grinned at Luke as she gave the horse a pat on its shoulder.  "That was good, both of you," she couldn't resist adding. 

~

   Luke had gone to check their arrangements by the time Lara had spoken with the remaining crowd.  Most of those who had stayed behind were employees who worked at the stables.  They were eagerly hoping to get on the animal's good side through her, and she was able to make plans through them to work with the horse again over the week to come. Lara reached back over the top of his stall door to give him one last rub before she parted from her new friend; she had been explaining to him, much to amusement of remaining crowd, that it was her honeymoon and she didn't want her husband to miss her. The animal didn't care much for her excuse, she joked as she patted the horse and bid the last of the staff goodbye.

   It was growing twilight when Lara met Luke just outside the resort's main entrance.  He smiled, and offered his arm to his wife. She accepted, and they walked together through the first floor's impressive great room, past the staff desk and restaurant area to reach the liftway that would take them to the upper floor guest suites.

   Their smiles for each other grew as they stepped over the threshold into their suite and drew close to hold one another, as they looked forward to their first night together as husband and wife, their first night as lovers. They knew that they would learn to translate the emotional comfort between them into physical intimacy. They would see each other's vulnerabilities anew as they drew closer to each other than they ever had before, asking more and giving more, loving with a completeness... that neither had imagined.

~

   Luke awoke the next morning with the lightening sky peeking in through the curtains. Lara's breath was a soft tickle against his chest as she slept, her body warm against him. Slowly, his fingers traced the soft skin of her shoulders and the arm that wrapped around him.  This was real.  And Luke was happy. Just lying still in the early morning dimness, his arms around the woman he loved....  It was a happiness he never thought he'd have, this love, that slept so contentedly at his side. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against his pillow.  All of it was real, and forever; he couldn't get enough of that feeling....

   Gradually her breathing changed, and Lara stirred. He smiled at the soft feel of her in his arms, and loosened his hold as she shifted against him. 

   "Good morning," Luke whispered. 

   She smiled; Luke could feel her smile in the touch of her breath against him. 

   "Morning," Lara returned softly. Her eyes were heavy, and she still felt comfortably drowsy as she squeezed her arm around him in greeting. The motion of Luke's gentle breathing and the warmth of his body only added to that sleepy sensation....

   "You sleep okay?" he asked.

   She nodded against him as memory flowed over her.  Feeling his arms around her and listening to his heart beat... she had slept as soundly as she ever had in her life.... "You?"

   "Yeah," he mumbled, kissing the top of her head. "I woke up a couple of times," he confessed into a sigh, "held you a little tighter to remind myself I didn't dream this." 

   Her lips brushed against him, and her arm reached further across him as Lara shifted again to lay facing him. "It's still so incredible, Lara."  He reached a hand to her face, to push back her hair and caress her cheek. "I never thought this would happen for me," Luke said quietly, and he shrugged a little at the thought. "When I was young there was so much else that I wanted... falling in love never entered the picture. Then my life changed – and I tried not to think about it.  There still wasn't a time or a place, but for completely different reasons.  My life was too dangerous, too uncertain, and settling down wasn't an option. 

   "So it was a sacrifice, one that I'd chosen because I should choose it." He smiled dimly, looking away as he remembered the feeling of forced determination.  "And accept it," he tacked on softly. "I thought I had," he said, lifting his eyes back to hers, brushing his thumb against her cheek.  "Then it changed. That day on the roof – the first time I held you. I knew I cared for you much more than I intended to. Much differently. I had found the one person who could share my life, the good and the bad, and I didn't want to let that go." Luke smiled again as he shook his head.  "But this was still too much for me to hope for."

   "I know I didn't exactly make it easy for you," Lara breathed, moving closer to him. "Falling in love was the last thing I wanted. Lucky for me – I don't think you've ever given up hope on anything in your life."

   "Nothing worth having ever comes easy," he persisted, smiling at her.

   She was grinning at him. "Nothing in my life has ever been more worth having."

   "A part of me refused to believe that this was possible, right up until I asked you to marry me," Luke admitted, and he came to a pause, his eyes searching hers for a long moment. "Easy or not, you made it possible; you were willing to stand beside me and hold on to me, unflinching.  You give me the strength and the understanding that I've needed, more than I knew."

   Her fingertips softly traced his hairline....  That touch was familiar to him. Luke looked into her eyes and felt the incredible emotions return to wash over him, memory, reality. Her touch said the words again, in intimate whispers, surrounded by passion – her love for him, her trust, only for him.  Without a word her eyes echoed that promise, giving all she was to him, always. 

   They both smiled, watching each other through this new strength of love, the new sense of peace that came of this belonging to each other.  They had promised their hearts and their lives. They had promised and they had given everything in themselves, freely, in love to the other.

   "I love you so much, Lara. I want you with me always," Luke whispered. 

   "Always," she whispered back as she smiled softly, feigning consideration. "I can do that," she decided as softly, and she kissed him.

   Luke made a promise to himself in that moment, as he moved to kiss her; he never wanted to let himself take the things she felt for him, gave to him, for granted.

   The kiss was soft, lingering, and it gradually grew deeper, becoming passionate as they held closer to each other.

   "We should get up, you know," Lara managed through a grin.

   Luke nodded, grinning back at her. "We should." He kissed her again, a soft, sweeping motion. 

   "They might miss us at the stable," she pointed out, kissing him back.

   "They know we're on our honeymoon. They'll understand," he grinned.

   Her smile widened as Lara lightly shook her head at him, and she pulled her arms around him as Luke kissed her again.

~

   They spent the following week soaking in the peace, knowing that their days on Areisabia would pass too quickly. Lara taught Luke to ride and he learned aptly under her careful instruction. It had been a little strange at first; Luke had a great deal of experience with various beasts of burden, but he had seldom set foot upon an animal more fleet or as unintelligible as these. The combination was a little daunting, but his natural ability along with Lara's straight-forward coaching had helped him adapt easily. In her own way, she had explained how to read the animal and respond to it as much as she taught him the more solid fundamentals that he would need. 

   He saw her joy and skill, and the sense of freedom that these animals brought to her.  She was good, and she obviously loved this.  It brought a lightness to her sense that Luke had never seen before, like a window into the person she had once been, back when this way of life was what she had wanted most.

   Seeing her in that light, he could almost imagine the person she had been before the Empire... and he couldn't help but find himself wondering about that time in each of their lives. They had both been young and high-spirited, more than a little naive, but full of life. He wondered if they would have fallen in love then, under different circumstances, almost different people.

   It was a thought that made him smile. 

   Lara kept working with the horse that she'd bonded with on their arrival.  Luke was told that she'd really accomplished something, though he already recognized that from the ever-present gathering that stood to watch whenever she worked with Orion. He'd seen it from the very first day he stood with her, watching as she patiently worked to get the horse ready to ride.

   "Why does he give them such problems?" Luke had asked as he watched the animal's ears prick toward Lara who stood at his shoulder and then curiously back to the small crowd that was looking on.  "He's not bad-tempered at all." 

   She glanced thoughtfully at the animal's ears and rubbed its neck. "No. He's not at all mean.  Just a little stubborn, I think." She paused.  "It's a vicious cycle after that. It's gotten him the reputation of a troublemaker, so they try to be tough with him.  But he doesn't respond to tough. 

   "Some do," she acknowledged cautiously after another moment's thought. "I've see horses that'll think nothing of mowing over you if you don't give them strong enough boundaries.  It takes a lot of careful discipline and consistency from that point forward, for them to learn decent behavior and respectful manners, to understand that you make the rules and no matter how they test you the rules don't change. Then once they understand what's allowed, and what's expected, it's like someone flipped a switch in them.  They don't feel threatened anymore. They start listening, and responding.  From then on it's like dealing with a completely different animal.  For them, it's simply a matter of having to learn respect, and how to respond to it.  And some may never learn that," she admitted more quietly.  "But that's the rare case," she was quick to add, "and it's almost always a defensive reaction to something they've been shown. Instead of letting themselves learn respect, trust, they choose to live in that state of constant defense, just trying to keep themselves safe."

   She blinked. "I guess it's easy enough to do, when you feel you've no other choice," she trailed off quietly, introspectively.  Then she paused again, redirecting her thoughts.  "That could be in his future if something doesn't change for him," she noted tightly.  "But it doesn't have to be. It shouldn't be." 

   She fell silent for a few minutes, letting go of her tightened emotions and concentrating again on the animal, knowing that it would respond to her differently through tension or calm.  "His stubbornness is pretty easy to get around," she picked up the thought, her sense again quiet, patient, and calm. "It just takes a little extra patience, to give him the time up front to get used to something new. It's amazing how quickly these animals will respond once things start working out for them. He wants to work with people, he just can't always figure out what they're wanting from him. With a little effort and patience, he'll come right around. Try to push him into it...."

   "And he decides he'd rather fight against you," Luke finished easily.  "I've met a few people of that type," he noted dryly.

   She lifted her eyebrows, conceding to his assessment.  "That's how it looks to me so far." Then she smiled at Luke with just a hint of a reckless gleam in her eyes. "We'll find out if he surprises me when I get on him."

   Luke shook his head, tempted for a moment to ask her if she was sure.  Then he looked back to the crowd, still watching expectantly, and he remembered her telling him, "this is what I know."

   "These animals are individuals," she continued her thought as she worked around the animal's side, grooming him, "and a delicate balance. Some things you have to insist from them and some you have to ask of them. The trick lies in knowing when which rule applies. And the real talent," she smiled at him conspiratorially, "is appreciating the difference between the two."

~

   Orion provided no unpleasant surprises for Lara that day, and she and Luke rode until the early morning sun was high overhead. They came to a pause by a cool stream and unbridled the horses, letting them graze in the tall grass and drink from the clear waters.  The sun above peaked through the trees as the wind rustled ominously through the leaves, but the day was bright and beautiful.

   Lara gave one last tug on the lines that she had fastened to a high tree branch, making sure that the horses would be held securely but still be given room enough to move and graze.  Luke sat down a short ways away, finding a spot in the shade and leaning back against his hands. Lara smiled at him as she dropped down to her knees beside him and then flopped to the cool ground, exhausted. She was tired, but she felt completely alive.

   "It's amazing," she murmured as she turned onto her back to watch the patches of sky waving through the canopy of moving shade.  "I still feel the same freedom that I knew all those years ago."  She glanced to Luke, and he turned to lay back on his side, watching her contentedly.  "It doesn't seem like it should be possible," she finished warily.

   "You still love it," he answered at a murmur, his eyes searching her face.

   "It still frees me," she responded with a smile.

   Luke edged a little nearer.  "And I thought it was me that was making you smile like that," he teased.

   She laughed and sat up, letting him pull her into his arms.  Lara leaned into his embrace as Luke lay back against the ground. She felt him stroke her hair back, and she closed her eyes again.... Some time later Lara was awakened by a soft snuffing noise.  Orion.  She restrained her surprised laughter and held her breath as she watched him snuffing at the ground beside Luke's head. Lara sat up, watching, and she laughed outright as the horse decided that it was more concerned about the snack lying underneath Luke's shoulder than Luke himself. It gave his shoulder an unceremonious shove, and Luke's eyes blinked open in sleepy surprise.

   Lara was hiding a smile behind the back of her hand, trying to restrain her laughter while Orion chomped grass at his shoulder. Luke only looked between the two of them as if he suspected a conspiracy.  Then he reached a cautious hand to rub at the animal's head.  It paid him no mind and continued chomping at the spot of grass Luke had been hiding from him. Luke only shook his head, grinning at Lara as she stood and began making ready for them to go.

~

   That night Luke awoke to a tapping sound at their window.  He left Lara with a light kiss and edged from under her arm to creep to the window. He opened the curtains partially and peeked through them to watch the rain falling outside. He smiled and glanced back to the bed where Lara lay sleeping. He would have hated to admit it to her, but heavy rainstorms still awed him.  On Tatooine, people like his Uncle Owen spent all their lives trying to coax just enough moisture out of the arid atmosphere to make another day of life possible through the ruthless desert heat. To see all that water falling freely from the sky... no matter how many times he saw it, the sight was amazing to Luke. 

   He stood transfixed for a few moments longer before letting the curtain fall back into place, but he pushed the window hangings open by just a crack before he crawled back into bed to lay by his wife's side.  Pulling the covers up around her shoulders and trying not to wake her... Luke settled onto his back to watch the rain.

   The crown of Lara s head rested lightly against his arm as she stirred in her sleep, rolling over onto her side and reaching the arm that she'd curled under her pillow up over his head. Luke smiled and reached to brush his fingertips against her forehead.  She was beautiful, sleeping so peacefully.... It took his breath away to think that even across the barriers of sleep something in her reached out to pull herself nearer to him....

   That was the last conscious thought that he could remember when the rain woke him from the doze that it had lulled him into. The wind was picking up, and Luke opened his eyes to see that it was buffeting the rain against their window. Lara blinked at the sound, slowly awakening. She tilted her cheek against his arm, watching the rain outside as she let her own arm reach over his chest.

   Luke turned his eyes to her and she looked up to him, smiling, as his hand found hers. They let the silence hang easily around them and listened to the rain outside.... His fingers played against her hand as Luke absently lifted its weight, taking a deep breath, feeling drowsy again. Lara squeezed his fingers in return, and Luke smiled. Letting his other arm slide around her, his fingertips and the heel of his hand pushed at her shoulders, loosening the muscles there, causing Lara to sigh sleepily.... 

   Luke felt the slight change in her sense before she pushed the stray bit of emotion away.  Just a hint of self-consciousness showed in the change, and she moved nearer to him in its wake.

   "What," he asked softly.

   "Just a stray memory," she admitted reluctantly. His hold around her changed, enveloping, comforting, and she sighed against him. 

   He could feel her reluctance, the self-consciousness behind it.  "You can tell me," Luke whispered.

   She smiled against him, and he touched her softly, searching her eyes as she tilted her chin to him. Her smile had come easier than he expected. 

   "It was a bittersweet feeling. Being half asleep, hearing the rain, and feeling you rub my back.... That was one of the things that used to always put me to sleep as a kid," she whispered.  "It just triggered some of those feelings."

   He kissed her forehead softly, and he searched her eyes again. "I'm sorry," Luke whispered.

   She shook her head.  "I don't want you to feel like that," she whispered; "it's only a memory, Luke. This is what's real," she breathed, pulling closer to him.

   A tight smile crossed him. "I love you, Lara." 

   "I love you too."  She answered and kissed him. 

   He let go her hand to wrap both arms around her, returning her tender kiss and falling into her soft embrace....

~

   Luke sighed, closing his eyes at his wife's touch. Her elbow brushed at his ribs as her arm moved around him and her hand slowly rubbed over his chest.  He leaned back into her hold as her hand came to a rest against him, and she pressed her lips to the back of his shoulder. The rain and wind picked up again, and again they watched it trickle down the window outside. 

   Lara smiled playfully against him. "I don't imagine you saw too many stormy days as a kid."

   He snorted a light laugh.  "Sandstorms, maybe. Rainstorms – no," he concluded. 

   Luke's arm curved around hers to cup his fingers into the hand she rested at his chest.  "You?" he asked, his head bobbing slightly back toward her. 

   "Some," she answered.  "Certain times of the year it would rain like this for days.  Being a kid, I hated it because it meant I had to stay in – but I could also see the peace in it too, especially at night."

   "Gives you a warm, safe feeling," he spoke the emotion she remembered and gave it the reason she recognized, "to be curled up inside with the storm raging outside."  She smiled and nodded against him, letting her hip shift closer to him and her feet brush his as she playfully pulled her shoulder close against his.

   "It still does," she admitted.

   Luke smiled and curled her hand in his to press her fingers against his lips.  He murmured in agreement and closed his eyes. Her breath was soft at the nape of his neck and her kiss was softer still as he drifted asleep.

~

   Late that morning they awoke and dressed in comfortable clothes to go down to the main floor for a midday meal. They sat at one of the tables across the isle from a series of great windows, where they could watch the rain that still came down in sheets outside. The conversation turned to how long the rain would last and if they would be able to go out tomorrow as several staff members stopped by to speak to them. Luke and Lara had become popular guests over the course of their stay, between the story of Lara's success with Orion and the occasional whispers about Luke's identity. But more than that, they radiated that rare quality of people in love and comfortably happy. 

   It was a lightness of spirit that tended to pull people toward them easily – a contradiction to selfish love and unhealthy relationships, which created an awkward barrier to the rest of life surrounding them.  Their true love created a natural extension of the comfort and honest ease between the two of them, drawing others in with the same ease. 

   Their stream of guests wandered away as their meals arrived, leaving the two of them to sit talking and laughing, sharing the occasional soft smile, soft touch. At the meal's end, Luke had the great joy of introducing Lara to hot chocolate. It was similar to the coco she'd grown up with on cold days but richer and sweeter.

   She nodded to him and smiled over her first sip. "You were right. I've never tasted its like."

   A mischievous grin crossed his face, causing Lara to turn a bright shade of red.

   "Oh, no. Don't you dare say that," she said, grinning from behind her cup. 

   Luke smiled, caught. He tried one of Han's patented innocent looks on her, but Lara only laughed harder, which caused her to have to set her cup down. 

   Luke leaned forward as he set his own cup down and crossed his arms to enfold it.  "As long as you know I was thinking it," he whispered, smiling as he reached a hand toward hers. She smiled and shifted her eyes away as Luke let his thumb rub against the back of her hand.  But the smile stayed as she reached for his hand and lifted her eyes to his again.

   "Thank you," Lara answered softly, watching Luke smile back at her. 

   They finished their hot chocolates and went for a short walk.  Luke offered his wife his arm and they strolled the outdoor covered walkways, chatting lightly for a few minutes before they returned inside. The temperatures had started to drop with the rain as noon slowly drifted into afternoon, and they stood by the fire in the great room to ward off the chill for a few moments before returning to their suite.

   Lara hooked her arm around Luke's waist a few minutes later, slipping out of her shoes as they stepped inside their suite.  Luke kicked his shoes off too and turned to Lara, slipping his arm around the small of her back to pull her closer.  They kissed each other, but only a second later they each broke into laughter.  There was the taste of hot chocolate between them.  Neither one knew who had been the first to laugh, but the humor tickled them both with peals of laughter that they couldn't stop.  Lara started to kiss him again, her lips to his, still smiling, and she dissolved into laughter for a second time. Luke bowed his head to Lara's shoulder and held her waist to him, feeling her laugh, feeling her hand cup at his ear and her hair brush against his face. She tried to face him but neither of them could stop laughing. Finally, Luke was able to turn his face to her, and she smiled up at him. He bent to kiss her, and her smile turned mischievous.

   With a playful shove Lara dashed away from him, ducking through the doorway a step ahead of Luke and vaulting into a slide over the unmade bed. Her feet found the covers and his brushed against hers as he followed her. His arm crossed over her and she laughed out loud as Luke caught her up. Lara ducked her head as Luke grabbed her and she squirmed a little, smiling as she tested his hold. His arm had slipped around hers to hold her shoulders against his chest while his legs intertwined with hers to tie her up, making it so that she could hardly move at all.  Luke gave her a squeeze in return, playfully assuring that he wouldn't let her go.  Then he kissed the nape of her neck, and Lara felt something in her relax.

   He had felt the brief moment of tension in her and he felt when it melted away.  Luke closed his eyes to breathe her in, and he smiled as he let his hold loosen.  He knew that she trusted him to this; there was no need to test that.  He was rewarded when Lara didn't try to move free of him but let herself stay in his hold.  She had felt a moment of fear when she had realized that she couldn't move from Luke's grip, but when she had felt his kiss the fear had slipped away.  He had taught her to trust his touch, shown her that she could, even when such a thing didn't come easily to her. She knew with everything in her that he would not hurt her, and she knew that he would never put her trust to the test.  He held her close out of love and affection, and this bit of play was only a silly means of expression for those things, showing off the intimacy he felt with her as he would do and feel for no one else in his life.

   Luke closed his eyes and felt the softness of her hair brushing his face between him and the pillow. He kissed her neck again and rubbed her arm as he shifted closer to his wife with a smile.  Lara bent her head to kiss his arm and he felt her breath sigh against him.  She was content now, content to the closeness, listening to the steady sound of the rain outside their window.

   The rain had picked up again and they both lifted their eyes to it.

   "Luke?" she said softly.

   "What, Sweetness?" he breathed. 

   "Tell me something I don't know about you."

   He opened his eyes and lifted his head to nuzzle his cheek against her neck. Nothing came to him. "Are you sure?" he asked with a sly smile. "You might get another hot chocolate comparison."

   She smiled.  "And he stalls," she observed in a teasing intone.

   Luke laughed.  "Okay, you go first then," he challenged her. "Something I don't know about you."

   "And avoidance," she breathed in mock disbelief.

   "I'm still waiting," his voice returned, the same.

   "Ok," she paused, thinking.  His smile grew as the silence gradually lengthened. He was just about to tease her again when something clicked for her.  "Ok," she started softly, "the first time I ever saw you," she stated.  Luke's amusement quickly faded into interest, waiting for her story. 

   "It was at the Rebel camp on Nigea.  You couldn't have been much over twenty-four, with that same combination that most of the fighting force wore: youth and idealism, matched with an underdog's rugged fighting spirit. But you carried an added weight of leadership: Commander.  It was more in the morale of the men and women around you than in the title; you had their respect, and it showed.  You had mine, too, that day. I watched you put down a local dispute that would have turned into an injustice if no one had stepped in."

   His sense flickered as his mind went back over the old memory. "They were going to execute that kid on the spot, an Imperial defector, because he was a danger to them."

   "Imperial entanglements," Lara remembered the old expression darkly before she continued on. "You didn't have to do that.  Some of your own probably opposed it." 

   "It was the right thing to do, and that paid off, not only for me. That kid joined up with the Rebel Alliance.  Allad was key to our breaking one of the Empire's new encrypts; enabled us to get off system a step ahead of the probe droids, and he's been an asset to NRI ever since."

   Lara was quiet for a moment. "That was a breath of fresh air for me, just realizing that I respected you. Most anything short of an escaped death sentence convict, I would have been grateful to fight for," she admitted with a light snort. "I needed something decent to fight for, needed to remember my own sense of decency – I needed it that much," she trailed off, having a hard time with the words.

   Luke pressed his lips to her neck, and she shivered in spite of herself at the brush of his breath against her skin.

   "I'm sorry it wasn't love at first sight," she admitted through a smile, and Luke could feel the twinge of regretfulness in her emotions. "But it was a lot of other things: respect admiration....  I believed in you at a time when I didn't believe in anything around me, even myself... especially myself," she corrected softly.

   Luke didn't know what to say to that.  He held her a for moment more before she leaned back to face him, her expression prompting him: your turn. 

   He smiled. "The first time I saw you...."

   "What an original idea," she was quick to tease him.

   He tightened his arms around her, squeezing her playfully. "You want to hear this?" he grated in her ear.

   Lara laughed at her husband's play, the tickle of his voice against her ear as he teased her back; she nodded against him and he lay back, letting his arms enfold her easily again as he took a breath to speak.

   "I came to in a med ward on Aci. The last thing I really remembered was getting a danger sense and then feeling unconsciousness crash in on me. Then I started to get flashes of memory, of things that happened while I was unconscious: Mara, set to kill me, and then you, freeing me.  I saw you leaning over me to take my pulse, and then you looked away.... Nobody really believed me; I had a concussion and was in and out... but I knew it was real.  I could see your face in my mind, your eyes.... That stayed with me, for a long time, after. So much that I tried to find you." He was quiet for a long moment.  "It wasn't love at first sight," he echoed her earlier regret, "but it was close," he whispered. "It could have been, the way your eyes stayed with me...." 

   Lara took a deep breath and let it out a stunned and mystified sigh. She was sad to think about the way she had been, the person that she had been then, and Luke felt the change in her as those feelings slunk in, heavy and self-deprecating. 

   "I don't know what you could have seen in me then," she whispered with a shake of her head, catching him off guard. Over the past few days Lara had been as happy as he had ever seen her, and Luke had almost forgotten the depth of her anguish over a hurtful past that she couldn't change. 

   He let go his own disbelieving breath and shifted closer to her. Gently, he shifted his hands against her shoulders, encouraging her to face him.  Then his thumb softly caressed the line of her cheek. "I saw you," he whispered, looking deep into those eyes that had captured him, mind and heart alike, so long ago and so many times since.

   "I could hardly see myself then," she managed softly, fighting her own disbelief as she gave him a grim smile.

   Luke shifted again, to place both hands against her face.  "You saved my life, Lara. When you stood over me and bent to touch me, I could feel your compassion for me. My safety was all you saw and all that you wanted. Helping me was the only thing that mattered to you, at no thought to your own safety.  Unselfish. I could see that in your eyes and I felt it in your sense. You were open to me then, just like when you reached out to me on the roof...."  He touched her softly again.  "I could see you, he managed softly, "so beautiful and strong, so solid and real." 

   Her face was soft as she watched him in awed disbelief, one more moment, before she wrapped an arm around his shoulder and felt Luke bend close to wrap his arms around her.  She closed her eyes to feel his lips on her throat and she let the shadows of the past sink away into the oblivion of her husband's kiss, his touch, and the amazing warmth of his love.

~

   They didn't feel themselves fall asleep in the storm-darkened afternoon twilight, but the rain woke them somewhere deeper in the evening. Lara blinked awake, listening. Her arms were folded harmlessly in front of her as she lay on her side facing Luke. She remembered leaning her forehead against him as he had bent to kiss the top of her head.... There had been much before that, but that was the last she remembered of his affections before sleep had taken her. Her eyes narrowed as she sighed at the wisp of memory, feeling her heart swell for the third time in as many days in a feeling that she never considered herself capable of, much less desiring.  She belonged to him, from the deepest places in her heart, with all the love she felt for this incredible man.

   He began to stir, the sound of the rain gradually pushing into his sleep as well.  Lara only smiled and nuzzled closer to him, prompting Luke to shift his arms around her, encouraging her still closer.  Half awake, Luke kissed his wife's hair and opened his eyes to the dark room as he let his hand move down the midline of her back.

   They dozed, listening to the storm as the wind picked up in strength, pushing the tapping of raindrops into a beating rain against their window.

   "Sounds like it's picking up again," Luke mumbled. "It might blow itself out before morning at this rate."

   "It'll be too wet to do much tomorrow," Lara noted softly, a hint of regret coming through in her sleepy voice.

   Luke smiled. "I hope you're not getting stir crazy on me." 

   She laughed and pulled herself up to face him; Luke still got a shiver up his spine when he felt her body brush against him.

   "No. I love this," she whispered and kissed him, playfully leaning her forehead to touch his. Her arm curled around his shoulder and they smiled at one another before she squinted at him, her face screwing up in thought. "How do you know when that storm's gonna blow out?" she questioned him suspiciously.   Luke grinned back at her.  "Sandstorms were that way on Tatooine; the wind was always worst at the end."  His smile grew thoughtful.  "They're not all that different," he decided, "and I used to be able to call 'em pretty close back home," he added.

   Lara's smile widened.  "A hidden talent," she teased him softly, but his expression remained fuzzy with memory.  She squeezed his shoulder and gave him a smile as his gaze returned to her. Lara watched him for another moment.  "What was it you saw," she finally asked curiously, "in those adventures you dreamed of?" This time she could imagine a starry-eyed boy, wanting for more... needing to know what he was capable of, and wanting more out of life than the farm could offer.

   Luke smiled, though it was slowly, "never the same thing twice," he quipped.

   Lara smiled in return, watching Luke shrug as he sought an answer from far off memories, dreams that had faded long ago.... "I wanted to travel the galaxy – farther the better."  He paused in the thought. "Sometimes it was Biggs and I, after The Academy, navigating some daredevil track or fighting pirates, generally playing the hero and saving the day... wining a kiss from a grateful girl."  Lara's mouth twisted into a half smile at the vague shyness that lingered in his admission.

   "The ones I liked best," he continued, "always ended with me returning to Tatooine, a hero.  The people who'd put me down, said–" Luke trailed off, his voice lowering.  It took an effort to remember that those things didn't matter now; he was no longer an awkward teenage boy with a hunger to prove his worth. But the words had cut him deep then, and the old hurt still stung.

   Lara's hand moved on his shoulder, a kind acknowledgment of the turmoil that she was feeling in him. The gesture was born of her own gentle compassion, along with an intense love for him. Luke smiled begrudgingly at the thought of continuing, but her support made the task easier, as it had made his life easier...  "The people who said I wouldn't amount to anything would see how wrong they had been.

   "Aunt Beru would be proud, and Uncle Owen would have to admit that he had been wrong too, that I was meant for more than the farm...."  Luke trailed off again; this time he was realizing anew how terribly far life had taken him from those simple times and simple dreams.  He sighed and lifted his eyes slowly as Lara's hand moved to touch his face. A smile slowly crossed him, one that managed to accept the past as he embraced the present.  He cupped her hand with his own and turned his head to kiss her palm.

   Lara smiled back at him and let her arm fold back into the space between them.

   Luke leaned a little closer, propping himself on one elbow as he reached his other hand to touch her.  "What about you?" he asked her.  "There must have been something you let yourself dream." 

   Lara smiled with the stray memory. "My dreams were much simpler.  A year, maybe two ahead; Moranda, Mark, and I would be partners in the farm, run a successful business....  It was something I could see happening... I couldn't look any further, or for any more."  She felt Luke's fingers trace at her hair, stroking her temple.

   "What about marriage?" he asked softly.  "You told me you imagined it." 

   She smiled out of mild embarrassment.  "The picture popped into my head sometimes, but I didn't know what to do with it. I was pretty young that way....  I thought that falling in love was something that fixed everything that was wrong in life."  She paused. "I wanted my own strength, but I still wanted to believe that someone who loved me would give me what I was missing in myself." She paused again.  Luke didn't quite understand, but he let her finish. "I thought that love, marriage, family – those things were a second chance."

   "At what?" Luke asked gently. 

   "Security, safety, a future without fear."

   He winced as he touched her again. He felt her sadness at the lack, the longing for such necessities. She tried to smile as she looked away from him, but the effort didn't quite come off.  Her pain cut him deeper than it had before. He had stayed beside her when she had been a friend in terrible pain.... The pain was only remembered now, but now she was the woman he loved, more than he had known he could love anyone, so completely and so intimately, down to the deepest corners of his soul. Luke pulled closer to her, and he felt her laugh; it was a small and deprecating emotion. 

   Lara was frustrated at herself for giving the lingering emotion so much power over her, and him too. She could see it there in his eyes: his love for her, all wrapped up with her pain and his own longing to free her from his weight.  Lara felt him pull nearer, and she buried her head in his shoulder, just feeling his arms, so gentle and so strong, around her. He wanted this, needed to hold her, as much for himself as for her.

   "I had no idea what love was," she whispered from his embrace. "I could never have given so fully at any other time in my life, to anyone else."  He eased from her hold just enough to look into her eyes, and Luke nodded to her; he knew exactly what she meant.  The words were so true that he could feel them within himself.  He brushed his forehead against hers and eased back again with a soft kiss to part them, but Luke couldn't help but reach out to her again. Along with affection and desire there was a touch of sadness in him.  He felt her sense change subtly as her thoughts shifted back, and he could clearly feel the sadness and regret that mingled in her for thought of the girl she had once been. 

   "In a strange way the Empire did something good for me.  Those little girl's dreams of the impossible died, along with a lot of other things," she had to add darkly.  "I had to believe that everything I needed was in me. If I was going to survive, I knew it had to be on my own."

   "You had to grow up almost overnight.  I know that feeling," Luke conceded. 

   She grimaced.  "I know you do," Lara whispered, and they were both silent, facing the reality of a past that had been too harsh, and each of them too young to be asked to face what they had faced. They had each come through, and now that was only one of the things they each felt for the other, in love and understanding. Recognized, with respect and strength. Those times couldn't be changed, but they had this time now... to comfort and protect, to love and shelter each other.

~

   When they awoke the next morning the room had taken on a cold chill, the overnight rain bringing on a cold front.  It was the kind of morning to be spent snuggled under covers, an excuse for lovers to stay close to one another.  It was a dash across the cold floor, braving the cold room for a hot bath, time to soak in the hot water until cold toes pruned, and then downstairs for breakfast. By the time they arrived downstairs the rain had become intermittent. Luke had been right; the storm was on its way out. They could see the clouds blowing overhead through the restaurant's great windows, and as they lingered over their meals the sun began to peek through the clouds. 

   The bright, scattering rays of light created prisms through the heaviest of the mists as they strolled toward the outdoor covered walkways, Luke holding a casual arm around his wife.  It would be too wet to ride today, but she had been happy that they could walk outside... by the stables.  Luke had to smile.  He could see what she was thinking; after a day lost indoors, Lara wanted very much to be outside and to see Orion.  It was all he could do to convince her that they needed to go back inside for another layer of clothing before they went wandering through the heavy mists, but in the end she only smiled up at him, amused at just how well he knew what she was thinking.

   "I can see I'm going to have a hard time putting anything over on you," she teased as she reached her arm around his waist to give him a squeeze.  "But I don't know about you, Skywalker..." she decided mischievously. "I wonder if you're just trying to get me alone again."  Luke let his hand slip into hers as she moved away from his side.  He was smiling at his wife, completely oblivious to the rest of the world as they walked across the great room, returning the way they had just come.

   As they neared the reception area, a modestly built humanoid glanced in their direction and then stepped toward them. Lara quickly gave Luke's hand a soft squeeze.  She looked toward the approaching being watchfully before she let her hand slip from Luke's. Luke remembered that he had seen this being on their first trip through this morning; he had been in conversation then with some of the desk staff and hadn't spoken to them, but he clearly had the air of authority about him now, a fact that was soon explained. 

   He politely introduced himself to them as the manager of the resort. Luke immediately felt Lara's flash of suspicion, and he knew that she was thinking not of the beautiful surroundings that they had been enjoying but of their arrival here.  This was the man responsible for Orion and the near disaster that Lara had averted. He went on to tell them that he had been away this past week and his staff had been catching him up, excitedly, about the events of the week.  Lara's mood darkened further.

   He gestured and a made slight bow to them before saying, "An honor to make your acquaintances."

   They smiled and returned the pleasantry, Luke doing so a little more easily than Lara. He couldn't help but think that he had never seen his wife truly angry. He was quite amazed that the manager hadn't picked up on it... but then it wasn't in her expression, he realized as he casually glanced toward her.  Lara was nothing if not controlled.

   "You have a beautiful facility here," Luke made the complement honestly, but he suddenly felt like a diplomat again for the first time in a long time; like Lara, he didn't yet know what to make of this being. 

   "You are most kind to say so; and I certainty hope that you enjoy you time here."  He paused.  "But I feel I must apologize to you both. My staff has told me of what happened during my absence and I am truly appalled by what you witnessed here. I assure you that if I had been here it would not have occurred, but I still must accept responsibility. 

   "I took the word of a few individuals, believing that they were capable of the work and, in my haste, I made a poor decision.  In any event, they were most certainly not capable, and I am grateful for your intervention," he offered, bowing slightly to Lara, who responded only with a grim nod.  She was still cautious of the manager's intentions, but glad at least to hear an admission of responsibility from him.

   "I hate to imagine the damage that might have been done if you had not been there to help," he persisted.

   Lara nodded again, unmoved by his flattery.  "At the risk of overstepping, I hope you saw fit to remove the individuals you spoke of."

   "I agree, and it is already done."

   Lara took an easier breath.  "Then I hope you'll come and see Orion; he's truly a fine animal."

   "Rest assured, I will; I'm told the change in him is simply–"  One of the staff called his attention away. "You'll have to excuse me; but please, leave word when you go out tomorrow," he asked.

   They each nodded as he began to make his exit, but the manager turned back as if in second thought. 

   "And may I say," he added, "I'm simply honored, both personally and professionally, to have you as guests."

   The complement was unexpected, and Luke slowly recovered to smile and thank him as the manager bustled away, offering, "If you need anything at all while you're here, I'm completely at your service."

~

   Lara noticed that Luke was particularly quiet as they returned to their suite for the extra clothing, and also on the walk outside, but she didn't press him.  Orion was happy to see them, giddy and playful after being confined from the rain.  Lara groomed him and they walked him around the stables before letting themselves into an open paddock where he could graze. 

   Lara gave his neck a pat as Orion quickly bent down to chomp at the wet green grass. Luke had taken a seat on the paddock fence in front of her; Lara walked over to him and stood following his gaze for a moment.  It had turned into a beautiful day; the sun was warm on their shoulders, though the air was still crisp. The hills seemed to roll into the horizon in endless layers before them, broken only by the occasional lines of fences and distant mountains.  Lara brushed Luke's shoulder to draw his attention, and she watched the light breeze ruffle his tawny hair as he looked to her.  At another time it would have been hard to resist making a farm boy crack, because she would've sworn he belonged here, but right now she just shrugged a little. 

   "It bothered you," she said softly, "the manager's complement." 

   Luke shrugged evasively. "I wasn't expecting it," he corrected, deliberately meaning to keep the conversation light. 

   Lara smiled. "I thought Han was just being a little adventurous when he fixed us up with those IDs, but people do notice," she admitted softly. 

   "I guess I was hoping that too.  I've never really minded it," Luke thought out loud, "but I'm usually on Coruscant or on mission for the New Republic, so I'm used to having people know me before I know them." He paused. "It's a little strange when it happens so casually," he finally decided.

   She could feel his discomfort. Lara gave him a smile as he looked to her cautiously. 

   "Do you mind?" Luke asked, his voice a blend of worried and curious.

   "It's a little strange," she agreed, "but there's no harm in it; they respect you," she added, hoping that he would find that thought reassuring. 

   "But they don't know me," he said softly. 

   Lara nodded, abruptly understanding. Such shallow adoration felt hollow to him.

   Lara reached to take his hand. She wanted a way to show him that he wasn't alone, and the rest went unspoken as his eyes flickered to hers.  She did know him, as much and more than anyone in his life ever had. She knew who he was and who he wanted to be... and she loved him madly. 

   A smile turned at the corner of his mouth as Luke jumped down from his spot on the fence to reach for her. Lara laughed at Luke as he apologized to Orion for cutting in on them and took the lead rope from her hand. Playfully, he took his wife's hands and turned to face her while the horse grazed on unnoticing, but Lara's smile softened as she reached a hand to Luke's face.  She leaned back against the paddock fence and Luke kissed her.

   It was only a moment.  They were both cautious now, thinking about the possibility of prying eyes, and she let her hand slide from his face reluctantly.  "I love you, Luke," she whispered. 

   Luke grinned at her and, taking a line from Han's book, he whispered back, "I know."

   He had always wondered how Han got away with that, and somehow Leia never seemed to mind it....  Luke knew that lacking Han's suave demeanor, he should have had even less hope of pulling it off.... But looking into his wife's disarming smile, he understood.  It didn't matter. She knew perfectly well that he was completely and hopelessly in love with her.  Luke suspected that his sister had learned the same secret years ago....

   Lara's eyes flickered over him and Luke reached a hand to her waist, just barely brushing her side as he moved to kiss her again, and her laugh quickly muffled the kiss. 

   Luke grinned.  "How could I not know that you're ticklish?" he mused teasingly. 

   "Don't you dare, Skywalker," she warned him slowly, grinning.  He shook his head.  "I think I've got to," he confessed to her in mock regret.

   Her eyes tried to warn him, but she couldn't keep a straight face against his playful grin.  His other arm moved around her waist and his fingertips arched against her side. Lara arched away but there was nowhere to go with Luke standing so closely to her, his arm around her.  He laughed with her as she leaned against his shoulder, keeping her elbows against her sides, defending against the next attempt.

   Suddenly she was laughing and gasping. She tried to tickle him back, causing them both to laugh harder, until Luke finally called a truce, pulling his arms around her.  She responded more cautiously, letting her hands rest against his back, keeping her elbows at her sides a little longer as she worked at catching her breath from laughing.

   Luke was smiling down at her.  "I love making you laugh," he whispered in her ear.

   Lara wrapped her arms around him more easily.  She was really tempted to tell him to find another, easier, way... but his feelings were at ease now.  Truly, he wanted nothing more than to be close to her, and to make her laugh; Luke, in that wonderful farm boy innocence of his, never dreamed that she would truly take offence, only jokingly... and why should she, when all he wanted was the feel of her laughter?  She smiled through her own stubborn feelings, looking up to him, letting go the indignant offence that she was still holding on to, letting go of her own stubborn pride, giving in to his kiss.

~

   The ground was still largely soaked the following day, in spite of bright sunshine and warmer temperatures.  Luke and Lara spent the morning doting over Orion and doing their best to forget that this would be their last day here.  Around noon Lara tacked him and they worked in one of the rings over a series of jumps and other complex maneuvers. Lara was impressed by the animal's talent and willingness. The resort manager soon joined Luke, standing at the walled rail to his side.  He was throughly amazed by the formerly unruly animal's transformation....

   Luke smiled. Given what he had seen upon their arrival, he totally understood the manager's feelings. Now, a week later, they were standing here watching Lara coach someone else into riding Orion. As impressed as the resort manager had been thus far with what Lara had been able to do, he wanted to see if the horse would accept another rider before he made his final decision on keeping the animal.

   The manager had explained to them that he'd brought the animal on an implicit risk, knowing the reputation of its genealogy without actually seeing him before the sale. Over the past month he'd reconciled himself to having to sell the horse for a loss. None of his staff worked with problem animals and he couldn't afford to keep one around any more than he could afford to hire a specialist to work with it.  It was bad for a tourism-based business. 

   His last option had been to allow the three men Luke and Lara had seen making a doomed attempt on that first day their chance to try.  They had given the impression that they were capable of doing it, and they had since been dismissed for that indiscretion.

   The talkative humanoid stopped in the middle of a thought when Orion started to get nervous, and his apprentice rider became decidedly more so as a result. She got off and Lara took her place, demonstrating something for her.

   "Your wife is quite talented," the man said as he and Luke watched her easily settle Orion and bring him around the girl in a tight circle. Once the girl had had a chance to see what Lara was doing, Lara sent the horse off across the wide ring, trying something new to ask of the animal.  Luke could see the change in its motion, but Lara asked it of him so seamlessly. 

   "All beauty and grace," the manager noted in awe beside him. "Just incredible."

   Luke smiled at the thought of asking him if he meant the horse or the rider.

   The other rider got back on a few moments later and was able to make the correction. Lara turned on her heel from the center of the ring, watching and nodding to her.

   "You've become quite a good rider, yourself," the conversation on the rail turned back to Luke. 

   "She made it seem easy," he replied, brushing off the manager's complement.  "Lara has a gift for it," he added quietly.  He'd seen that very clearly this week, and he was glad to have given her this. 

   Done with the new rider, Lara walked back to them. After speaking with the manager for a brief moment she smiled to Luke. "Are you ready?" she asked eagerly.  Luke grinned back, nodding. They were both looking forward to heading out on their last ride.

   The afternoon was bright and alive with crisp autumn air.  They rode out into the countryside and found a trail that followed one of the mountain streams up into the hills. They climbed for some time before the ground beneath them started to level out and the forest began to thin as the stream gave way to reveal its source.  They heard the peaceful sound of water trickling through a small brook, and beyond that a beautiful lake spread out before them with a small valley of deep, green grass reaching away from its edges.

   The whole day seemed to reflect back at them in the bright blue sky that shone beyond those shimmering waters, and they sat beneath the shady trees as the horses drank, just watching the sunlight cascade in brilliant colors through the turning leaves.  They sat together, breathing in the crisp air and feeling alive.

   "If I haven't told you already, thank you," Lara said softly.  "I couldn't have asked for a more perfect gift, a more perfect week." 

   "It's been a gift for me too," Luke agreed softly, "this past week with you," he smiled and continued. "Seeing how much you love this, it's like I've seen you for who you were, before the Empire," he explained with a hint of quiet wonder in his voice. 

   "You already know me, Luke, better than I've liked at times," she was quick to point out wryly.  "But I understand what you see," she said more seriously. "This, is the best of me.  So much of myself, my life, I can reach from here."  She paused. "I've felt at my most open, most free," she decided, choosing the words carefully. "Truly alive.  I feel that," she breathed and she smiled to him, that uncontrollable grin coming over her again. "And all of it, wrapped up with my love for you, Luke."  She touched him softly. "Thank you for helping me find that freedom, find my own peace in myself, here, between us."

   He was quiet for a moment as he returned her touch with a gentle smile.  Then his eyes flickered across hers as he decided to ask the thing he'd been thinking since they had first arrived here. "If there had been no Empire," he started quietly, cautiously, "none of the hard times, just us, the people we were before it all. Do you think we would have fallen in love then?"

   Lara smiled at the curious thought.  "Do you think so?"

   "I would have fallen hard for you," he answered.

   She grinned back at him, her chin tilting to him in a half nod.  "And you would have swept me off my feet?" she questioned lightly, the slightest edge of scepticism hiding behind her smile.

   "I would have tried," he returned, smiling though the blunt earnestness in his voice.

   "And I would have seen through – the bravado," she teased him with the last, smiling.

   Luke laughed at the truth of it, and he grinned as he tried to imagine her, seeing through him and melting him. Her eyes were soft and steady on him now. 

   "And I would have loved that beautiful man underneath," she finished softly.

   He touched her, feeling himself let go a held breath.  "You would have seen straight through me," Luke said softly, overwhelmed by the emotion. "And I would have loved you completely," he whispered.

   Her smile widened. "So we'd be pretty much, right where we are now," Lara added softly.

   Luke smiled in return. "Completely," he breathed, and he kissed her softly, still smiling as he reached an arm to rest across her shoulders. Her arm encircled his waist as she leaned into his side and they sat still again, enjoying the quiet in the coming evening and letting the horses rest until the sun began dipping down toward the hills. Then the air began to take on a deeper chill and they knew that it was time for them to start back.

~

   By the time they reached the resort the bright day had turned to cool twilight.  They shook off the chilly air as they stepped inside the main building, and they sat by the fire in the great room to drink hot chocolates and warm up. 

   Occasionally, staff members or other guests would come by to wish them well. Some had recognized Luke throughout the week, and generally they tended to watch him curiously but they also respected his privacy. However, without his Jedi robes, or his lightsaber worn prominently, most people didn't recognize him at all.  Others knew of Lara and would congratulate her on her success with Orion. There were also the occasional whispers of the two them, they knew, of who they were and why they were here.  They chose, accordingly, to keep their public affection discrete, not wanting to encourage the talk or draw unwanted attention.... This would be curious, Lara realized.  She knew that Luke was a hero, and a public official, and a Jedi Knight.  Somehow she had never thought of his status as being celebrity, and certainly not of its reflection upon her. 

   He finished his cup and set it aside.  In the finished motion he put both arms around her, and she closed her eyes to lean her head back against his shoulder. 

   "I can't believe it's been a week," he said, leaning his cheek to touch her hair. 

   "But a good week," she said easily. 

   "The best," he agreed, smiling.

   Luke could feel someone's gaze on him, and after a moment more he glanced over his shoulder. Looking away from the privacy between them and the firelight, he let his senses search through the open great room behind them. 

   Lara opened her eyes, picking up on the discomfort that had edged into his emotions.

   "Do you want to go?" she asked gently.

   "No," he answered. He had already returned his gaze to the firelight; now he slowly brought the rest of his attention back.

   He held her hand in his for a moment, folded his fingers through hers. "Sometimes, it would be nice," he spoke softly, "to be just a little more, anonymous."

   "Just Lara Dare's husband?" she teased him easily.

   "Lara Dare Skywalker," he corrected her softly. 

   She could feel the quiet pride in his voice, and she smiled. "As long as it doesn't become Mrs. Luke Skywalker," she warned him through her smile, mock contempt thick in her voice.  The idea of it bothered her far more than the reality. 

   He laughed and kissed her affectionately, understanding the joke that was intended and the delicate balance beneath it.  She did feel pride in being his wife, and would never shrink from that designation, but it was a pride in him, in her love for him, and in the life they chose as one. The thought of it being her status, her identity even in name, provoked too many painful connotations: of degradation, and dismissal, and domination.  It was a hard blow to the weak spot in a strong spirit, and a blow to the greatest strength of their partnership.

   It was something the underlying sense of defiance, so vital in that spirit, wouldn't allow.  She would dare anyone to treat her as no more than his wife. "That's a deal," he conceded softly, knowing that her extraordinary strength of spirit was one of the things that had drawn him to her most, and that the honest equality in their marriage was undoubtably one of its most extraordinary strengths.

   Someone approached them, and stopped cautiously while still a few steps away.  It was the same one who'd been watching a moment ago.  Luke lifted his eyes easily.  An alien female shifted uncomfortably in front of him as he turned his face to her. Lara's gaze followed his, her expression open and patiently waiting.

   "Forgive me please, the intrusion. They told me you are two newly married." She motioned to the staff desk across the great room at their backs. "And I am reluctant. It is not my intent to disturb that privacy."   

   "It's okay," Luke said, sitting up a bit more, feeling from the being's sense that something was amiss. 

   "I have just come from sector."  She handed Luke a datapad.  "Is urgent truth." 

   Lara felt his sense fall with his downcast face as Luke read the news line:  Force-welding Renegade Continues to Wreak Havoc. 

   Lara took a deep breath as Luke glanced to her.  They knew that their week's peaceful honeymoon was over.      ~@ ~ ~