Beyond - Legends Can't Sleep (Mara, Luke)

Title: Can?t Sleep

Author: Tarsier

Timeframe: AU, ~40ABY

Characters: Mara, Luke, mention of Benji (OC)

Genre: vignette

Notes: A silly little late response to the SJRJ Late Nights Challenge. This is a missing scene from my story Worth Fighting For. If you haven?t read Worth Fighting For, all you really need to know is Benji is Luke?s son and Luke's wife/Benji?s mother is deceased.

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?Can?t sleep?? Mara asked as Luke walked onto the bridge.

Luke nodded vaguely. He hadn?t been certain that Mara herself was awake as he approached. She was lying flat on her back across the passenger bench with her right arm draped across her face and her thoughts quiet. ?Welcome to club,? Mara said.

Luke cracked half a smile. ?Not a lot of clubs the two of us belong to these days.?

?Mmm,? Mara responded noncommittally. Then after a moment she added, ?You might be surprised.?

Luke looked curiously at Mara. ?Yeah? Care to elaborate??

Mara was silent for several seconds. Just as Luke was beginning to wonder if she had fallen asleep, she replied. ?Not really.?

Luke, exhausted despite his sleeplessness, chose not to push Mara. ?Thank you for picking up me and Benji,? he said instead.

?No trouble,? Mara replied, still not moving from her position on the passenger bench.

It seemed an odd thing for her to say. Luke had certainly caused her quite a lot of trouble. And she was not the type to wave off an opportunity for someone to owe her a favor. Luke knew Mara had never been good at expressing gratitude, was she equally uncomfortable receiving it?

Perhaps picking up on his line of thinking, Mara said, ?You may know how to work every last one of my nerves, Skywalker, but your son . . .? Mara drifted off and Luke once again thought maybe she?d fallen asleep. When she continued, there was a strange tone to Mara?s voice and Luke couldn?t help but wonder if the lack of sleep was starting to get to her. ?Your son isn?t too bad to have around. Not half as irritating as most Jedi.?

Well that was something, wasn?t it? Mara liked Benji so much he made even Luke?s presence tolerable to her. There was a certain relief that came with this realization, and a gentle sleepiness began to ebb at his insomnia. His lids began to grow heavy, but he felt an odd compulsion to linger on the bridge, so Luke settled into a seat by an empty station several feet from Mara. The seat was large and surprising well-padded. Luke was trying to come up with a suitably snarky response to Mara?s backhanded remark when his mind drifted off into the sweet nothingness of sleep.


[b]* * *[/b]


Mara, unlike Luke, had been awake because she had been fighting sleep. She was supposed to be manning the bridge. She had lain down to rest her body, but had intended to keep her mind alert and ready in case trouble came knocking, which it seemed inclined to do lately.

Mara had been doing just fine staying awake?right until Luke showed up and threw her off her game, as he was inclined to do. Somehow the fact that he was a few feet away caused Mara to let her guard down and allow sleep to inch its way in, threatening to overtake her.

Her sudden sleepiness was especially bizarre because the brief conversation she just had led Mara to a startling revelation. A revelation that should have put Mara even more on her guard, perhaps even should have sent her into a near panic. But somehow the revelation didn?t cause her any panic at all, there was just a calm understanding:

Mara had fallen in love.

Not with Luke. No, Luke was complicated, and Mara?s feeling was very simple?she would rather die than see the one she loved suffer, she would travel to the ends of the galaxy just to see him safe and happy.

In the languid state between sleep and wakefulness, Mara?s mind tranquilly wrapped itself around the notion that she had fallen, completely and utterly, f

 

Sweet response. I have read a bit of your story - Worth Fighting For. I love Mara Jade in this.


Do you want this indexed with the rest of the responses? If so, please put a link in the SJRS thread for me. Thank you.

 

Hi!

I enjoyed this a lot.

At the sentence that Mara had fallen in love, I was about to squee until -- I read Not with Luke

Bummer unless it's just Mara-esque denial

Yeah, I'll pick option B. LOL

 

Well, that was original.

Very well written and very smooth way to take the reader to that last very surprising revelation.

 

Briannakin - I have read a bit of your story - Worth Fighting For. I love Mara Jade in this. I love the idea of an older, wiser smuggler Mara. I'm glad you like her too! Thanks so much for commenting!



Jade_eyes - Hi! Thanks so much for reading, I'm really glad you liked it!

Bummer unless it's just Mara-esque denial That's not beyond the realm of possibility...



Hazel - Well, that was original.

Very well written and very smooth way to take the reader to that last very surprising revelation.

I just want to be totally clear Mara has fallen for Benji in a very maternal (not romantic!) way. I think that's probably pretty clear if you've read Worth Fighting For, but maybe not so much if you haven't. I almost didn't post this just because I was afraid of that coming off wrong, but then I figured I wouldn't know unless I tried it.

Anyway, thanks so much for reading and commenting, Hazel!

 

Very sweet!

?You may know how to work every last one of my nerves, Skywalker, but your son . . .?
I really liked this line, it was cute!


I'm assuming that the love Mara feels for Benji is one that you feel for a child you've become close to, not a romantic love?? It's kinda vague and maybe you intended for it to be that way (?), but it might just be a little off putting for some to think that she could be in romantic love with a child.

Good job!

 

I liked this - Mara was especially great (and I assumed that the love she had for Benji was of the maternal kind)

Haven't read your fic, but I'll have to check it out!

 

mavjade - Thanks so much for reading! I'm glad you liked it!

I'm assuming that the love Mara feels for Benji is one that you feel for a child you've become close to, not a romantic love?? It's kinda vague and maybe you intended for it to be that way (?), but it might just be a little off putting for some to think that she could be in romantic love with a child.
I actually worried about that a lot. It is definitely supposed to be purely maternal, parent/child sort of love. I was afraid it might be a little unclear, but couldn't think of a better way to word it and decided I would just post it and see what people made of it. Thanks very much for your comments, I'm always interested to know if what makes sense in my head will come across clearly in my writing.



JadeLotus - Thanks so much for reading and commenting!

I assumed that the love she had for Benji was of the maternal kind
That's good to hear, that is definitely how I intended it.

Haven't read your fic, but I'll have to check it out!
Awesome! It's always exciting to get a new reader. But I have to warn you, Worth Fighting For is not finished and unfortunately is likely to remain unfinished for some time.

 

So who's Benji's Mom? I bet I could find the answer to this in your other story, right?

I really liked this. It was cute but still real, if that makes any sense.

 

Ceillean - Callista is Benji's mom. (And yes, that is very clear if you read Worth Fighting For.) Since this is for a L/M challenge, I thought it might be best not to mention Callista's name if I didn't have to.

It was cute but still real, if that makes any sense.
Makes sense to me. Actually, that sounds like exactly what I was going for!

Thanks so much for reading!