Beyond - Legends Absolutely Perfect - L/M Update - 05/27

I am doing some catch up reading. The last two posts are great. Very sweet.

 

Very sweet. I'm glad he could help her to rest. I remember the 9th month of pregnancy vividly. It is a time of no sleep and swollen feet and not much fun!

 

Note: I think you'll find I did not give these parents a break until the end of this one shot. at JL
Thanks to all who are reading this thread, Jedi_Lover, ginchy, Stone Jade, Jade_eyes Hazel, mayo_durron_666.

Hazel: Thanks! It's fun to do ongoing themes like this.
Jade_eyes: They are. Luke knows his wife too well and he is a big sweetheart.
Stone Jade: Thanks!
Jedi_Lover: Well, I do love writing sweet.
ginchy: I'm glad I captured it accurately. I just imagine what it must be like since I've never had a kid myself. (Mom wants a grandchild though lol)

***​

“Oh, sweetie please.” Mara pleaded. “Go to sleep.”

Her infant son however continued to cry at the top of his lungs. Mara paced back and forth bouncing the baby gently in her arms as she did. He’d been at this for three hours straight and she didn’t know what was wrong within. She’d fed him, burped him, and checked his diaper to see if he was wet. She’d taken to singing to him, rocking him in his bassinet, playing his mobile, but nothing seemed to ease whatever ailed him. She fought the urge to grit her teeth, but she was tired and frustrated; she was at her wits end on the verge of tearing out her hair.

“Please, sweetie, Mommy’s so tired…she doesn’t know what’s wrong.” Mara was bedraggled by this point. She shuffled along in her slippers, her eyes dangerously close to shutting. She felt like crying; there was no reason in her mind he should be crying, but he was.

As a new mother, she felt so helpless at this moment that she couldn’t find out what was bothering her child.

Ben’s little face was red and he squirmed uncontrollably, kicking fitfully at his blankets.

“Oh, please, Ben.” She whispered.

Against all her instincts, she had the greatest urge to call upon the Force. She knew she could have used it easily, but…

“Mara.” A soft voice called out to her.

Mara turned, tears of sudden relief springing to her eyes, and looked at her husband standing in the doorway of their bedchamber.

“Oh, Luke, he won’t go to sleep. I don’t know what’s wrong.”

His heart nearly broke at the distraught look on his wife’s face. A strong woman like Mara reduced to tears.

“It’s all right, Mar.” He said gently, tentatively approaching her.

“No, it’s not.” She shook her head. “I haven’t slept one wink and he hasn’t stopped crying, I don’t know how to get him to sleep, Luke. What am I doing wrong?!”

“Nothing. You’re doing nothing wrong, Sweetheart.” He extended his hands. “Here, let me take him.”

Mara, at first, didn’t let go.

“You’re tired, Sweetheart. Let me take him, I want you to get some sleep.”

Tears ran down her cheeks.

Luke took a step forward and slowly extracted the hollering child from her arms. He then leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Go to sleep. I’m not taking 'no' for an answer this time.”

She gave a relieved smile, tears still in her eyes, “Thank you, Luke,” She then kissed him on the cheek and headed for the bedroom

.​

​

When the door to the bedroom slid shut, Luke looked down upon his squalling infant son. He sighed in a bit of exasperation.

“So, Son, what is the problem?” He asked, tucking the baby closer to him. “You’ve really got your mother in a frazzle.” He began to walk as he talked to him.

His son’s cries seemed to become louder the minute he’d been switched over to his father’s arms. Almost as if the child sensed the change in his parent’s life force—i.e. his father was not tired.

Luke steeled himself against the torrent of screams from the baby. He would never be able to completely shut Ben out, nor would he want to, it would be cruel. Instead, he tried a probing technique while he filtered out the cries. He knew Mara would be against using the Force, but he wasn’t going to abuse it by putting Ben to sleep—and he could have- as an alternative he used it to probe into his son’s brain. He shifted around gently, like pushing aside sand, hoping to find out what was ailing the boy.

Perhaps if not discomfort of the common sort, it was something else. Some type of pain.

Luke kept searching, until he found something. In the baby’s right ear canal, Luke came across a small anomaly. Bingo.

An ear infection? He wondered. It was a possibility, he’d often read about such circumstances.

He checked the time: four in the morning.

He knew he needed to get Ben to see a doctor. There were plenty of emergency care clinics on Coruscant, but he knew he’d never get anyone to see his son that way. There was only one way his boy would get the attention he needed right away. He walked quickly over to the comm station.

Leaning over, Luke placed a comm call to Clighal.

He sat down in front of the monitor rocking the baby back and forth, waiting for the Mon
Calamari to pick up. Ben’s screaming increased and Luke had to draw on the Force once more. He made shushing sounds, but unfortunately this didn’t help. In fact, it only seemed to drive Ben to lift his voice further. Luke looked down into the infant’s face; it was red and screwed-up.

He sighed heavily, knowing how much the ear infection had to be bothering him.

“I’m sorry, Son, I know it hurts.” He patted the baby’s bottom and looked up at the screen again. It was taking Clighal longer than usual. Luke was just about to give up and head to see her himself, when the Mon Cal finally answered.

“Cilghal speaking. Is there something wrong with, Ben?”

Luke let out a breath of relief. “That would be correct.” His own ears were now starting to hurt—he doubted as much as Ben—but his he pushed forward. “I think it’s an ear infection. He’s been crying for three hours straight.”

“It’s not colick?” She inquired.

Luke shook his head. “He cries no matter whose arms he’s in. I did a Force probe and I like I felt something within his right ear canal.”

“Hmm. Very well; can you have him down here shortly...or I could come to you?”

“No, I’ll be down. “

He got up.

“And Mara?”

“She’s sleeping finally. I’m not going to wake her.

“Very well. I’ll see you shortly then.”

“Yes…”

The screen winked off and Luke started to head for the door. He paused, deciding whether to tell Mara he was going out, but listening to his son, he opted not to.

.​

​

Luke arrived at Clighal’s clinic a few minutes later. The Mon Cal confirmed that Ben indeed had an inner ear infection that was the cause of the baby’s discomfort and crying. Clighal employed a bit of Force healing which could temporarily numb the pain. After she was done, she handed over a small bottle of ear drops which she told him could help with the infection.

After he had administered the ear drops—three in Ben’s right ear—and waited awhile, his son began to fuss a great deal less. However, Luke would like to think it was due to Clighal’s temporary healing than the ear drops. He rubbed the back of his ear slightly. Little Ben was still a tad unhappy over the inner ear pain that didn’t seem to relieve itself as quickly as Luke would like, and who could blame him. Luke sat down on the chaise lounge and turned over onto his backside.

Ben made tiny mewling sounds, his fist brushing against his ear.

Luke’s heart cracked a bit more.

“It’s all right, Ben.” He softly stroked his son’s head.

The baby fussed, but Luke could tell the drops were working. He rubbed the child’s back soothingly and then began to sing a lullaby his Aunt Beru had sung to him
.

‘Oh dear, child…lay your head down. The sky is your blanket, your pillow the ground.'​

'Above the stars twinkle alight, bidding you good evening and wishing you good night.'​

'And if you ever choose to roam, the stars will guide you straight to home.’​

All the while he was making gentle rocking motions. It’s all right, Son.

​

'So fear not the night, for it cannot hurt you. Trust in my love, for it will not desert you’​

'Listen to the wind, it's my sweet lullaby. For it is my love that will last throughout time’​

'Dream of shooting stars that seem so far away…Tonight is only tonight, tomorrow comes a brand new day.'​

​

.​

​

Mara woke up to find her bed bereft of her husband and the crib of her child. She got up in frenzy, stumbling out into the livingroom. Her heart was hammering wildly in her chest. She stopped short, robe barely pulled on, and stared at the sight before her. Luke lay on the lounge with their child cradled in his arms. He had stayed with Ben all night, until the boy had finally gotten to sleep. She smiled, carefully picking her way over to them.​

She wasn’t sure how he had done it, but it really didn’t matter at this point.

She sat down at the foot of the lounge, looking upon him and Ben as they both slept. Mara reached up, stroking the baby’s hair then her husband’s. He had seen her frustration and her fatigue and had sought to alleviate both. Luke had stayed up the entire night, sacrificing his own sleep, so that she could get a goodnight's rest.

She realized reasons like these right here were one of the many that she loved and had married Luke Skywalker. And she would have picked no one else, to be her husband or the father of her child.

Life wasn’t always perfect. She acknowledged there would be hellish nights and days like these which would test both their wills—but they were worth it in the long run. She crawled slowly next to her husband and laid back against it, watching him and their child as they both slept on.

***​

​

Lullaby (known as Aunt Beru's Lullably) is of my own creation. Also known as Ben's lullably from the Redhead Chronicles. ​

 

That final scene was beautifully touching as was Mara's conclusions about Luke. Luke was essential in giving Mara a break and finding out what was really the matter.

 

Poor Baby Ben But that last scene was really sweet.

 

Ear infections suck. Before I had kids the neighbors asked me to watch their baby. They told me, "He's teething so if he cries put some of this numbing gel on his gums." Well about ten minutes after they left the kid starts crying, crying, and crying. I put so much of that gel on his gums he probably couldn't feel his face. The kid was hysterical. The neighbor came back three hours later and I am frantic. I told them he won't stop crying. I fed him, changed the diaper, put on the teething gel but nothing helps. They looked at me like I did something to the kid when they left.

The next day they came and told me they felt really bad because they thought I accidently hurt the baby and didn't want to tell them, but when they brought him to the doctor they were told it was a severe ear infection.

Ugghh...that experience put off having kids for me for another seven years.

Nice realistic post.

 

Poor little Ben! All parents should have the Force for this reason.

 

Poor baby Ben. I can definitely understand Mara's frustration, though. There's nothing worse than not being able to comfort your own baby. But that's what Daddies are for!

 

Great story and realistic -- I had ear aches as a kid and colic as a baby. I'm lucky to still be here -- I had colic for the first 9 months of my life. The only thing that put me to sleep was my Dad's warm belly or driving around in the car.

 

Thank you. I realized I haven't written further for this series. I really should.

 

SQUEE!

 

Beautiful family moments.