Star Wars EU Ships and One-Shots

Together, Forever

This is going to be really sad and depressing, so bear with me! Make sure you have a box of tissues near you. Seriously.

Coruscant Apartments, Rotunda Zone, 0100 Hours

Luke didn't feel alive.

In fact, without Mara, he wasn't alive. As they had discovered back on Nirauan all those years ago, they really were two halves of a single person, their Force presences complimenting each other's perfectly. After what happened, Luke and Ben had grown significantly closer. It surprised Luke to see how much his boy had grown in just the past few months. He was so much like his mother...

Luke sighed and rolled over. He remembered all of Mara's sleepless nights, awakening him so he could pour all his love and affection into her very soul. But that was when he could still feel her, still hold her in his arms. He got up, turned on his datapad, and made a cup of caf. He tried to be quiet; he didn't want to wake Ben, still asleep, in the other room. When it was ready, he took the datapad and cup of caf to the window, looking at the lights of the former Imperial city down below. He remembered when they would stand there together, arm in arm, trying to catch a peaceful moment while the rest of the galaxy was being torn apart by one threat after another.

But now she was gone. Forever. To Luke, the galaxy would never be peaceful again. Suddenly, Ben's presence awoke. It was so much like his wife's; a pang of remembrance and loss filled him, causing tears to blur his vision. The Jedi master blinked them away to see his fourteen-year-old son before him.

"I couldn't sleep," Ben said simply. Luke looked at him, unable to speak. Memories flashed through his mind of his amazement from feeling his and Mara's presence inside of her, the joy of holding his little baby boy in his arms, the way his heart jumped to his throat whenever Ben and Mara would be together, understanding and loving the other eternally. But with these thoughts came the despair of when he thought the disease would consume Mara and their unborn child, and the pain of Ben's distance and lies to his own father. Which brought him back to why Ben was here now with him instead of his mother. Yet Luke knew, somehow, Ben would make the hole inside Luke heal, just a little. It was then and there that Luke made his decision.

"Neither could I." The father handed the cup in his hand to his son. "It's getting cold, so drink it now."

He patted the sofa behind him and turned on the holonews. "Why don't you stay here awhile. I think we have a lot to catch up on."

He would make Her proud. He would help his son, who he knew would in turn help him. Hopefully, the bond he would make would fill up a little bit of him, would take away what was missing. Mara was irreplaceable, of course, but Ben was part of her. And with that, he would become part of Luke. Father and son, together.

Just as they had thought back on Nirauan all those years ago, they were to be together.

Forever.