Beyond - Legends Traditions and Irreversible Change (SJRS December challenge - L/M, A/P, L/M, ocs)

Title: Traditions and Irreversible Change
Author: Briannakin
Timeframe: End of 20 ABY (Alternative Universe)
Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Padme Amidala, Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, Ben Skywalker, Jaina Solo, Anakin Solo, Jagged Fel, and way too many OC’s
Genre: Family fluff, Holiday randomness, general plotlessness
Notes: Written for the 2013 December SJRS challenge:

The Challenge details: Write a fic where Luke and Mara are celebrating the holidays. It can be in any time frame, AU or canon and any length. You must include:

- Horrible weather
- The phrase "Do you remember when…”
- A holiday tradition/event that is unique to YOUR family
- A reference to something that has happened to YOU this past year

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is set in Hazel’s and mine “Meditations on Maturity” AU, but you really don’t need to have read the fic to get it. Basically, all you need to know is that Anakin never went Sithy, reformed the Jedi order, and had lots of babies with Padmé. And Obi-Wan had a kid, named Mara Jade. Then all the babies had lots of babies. (And FYI, Shmi here is Anakin and Padmé’s kid, named for her grandmother).

How I fulfilled the second two details: I have way too many cousins. So a tradition we have is, every Christmas, we will get as many of us together as possible and do REALLY stupid, somewhat illegal, stuff involving snowmobiles and ATVs in the woods behind our grandparents’ house (a throw back to when a good many of us lived with our grandparents and did stupid stuff - we already did our get-together this year, and I’m glad to announce that no one nearly died, unlike in previous years). As for the reference to something that happened to me in 2013, many of you know that my grandfather (on the other side of the family) died suddenly. Ok, I’ll shut up now.



“Wow,” Mara said as she looked around. Her youngest child was in her arms, sleeping oh her shoulder. “I can’t believe you guys got this place for the holidays.” The senior Skywalkers had gotten a ‘cabin’ on Hoth for Fete week. The cabin was more like a mansion with a very open lower floor and plenty of bedrooms on the second floor. The main centrepiece was the fireplace, which Anakin and Padmé were sitting in front of, along with two of their youngest grandkids: Ira, who was Aymee’s 4 year old daughter, and Nikhal, Ayden’s 3 year old son.

“Well, being the Grand Master of the Jedi Order has its perks,” Anakin said with a grin. His hair was streaked grey with age, as was Padmé’s.

Padmé rolled her eyes. “I managed to get it. The current senator of the sector owes me some favours from my time as Chief of State, so I asked her for a place my entire family could spend.”

Mara’s other children came in after her, carrying luggage. “Happy Fete week Grandma and Grandpa,” the kids said. Ben was 20, and the twins, Anakina and Amidala, were 15.

“Hey you guys,” Anakin said with a smile. “Your rooms are just up the stairs. You have your own, Ben, and Ana and Ami are sharing one with Jaina and Pentdé.” It was decided that all the older granddaughters were going to share a room, but the grandsons were going to be split up. “Their all up there unpacking.”

“Where should we put Mom’s and Sabé Jade’s stuff?” Ana asked.

“The last room on the right,” Padmé answered.

The kids nodded and headed up.

“How are they doing?” Padmé asked with a hushed tone as she slipped off the floor and onto the couch. Anakin continued playing with Ira and Nikhal, but looked up intently.

Mara sat on the edge of the couch, careful not to wake Sabé Jade, her youngest at 4. “They seem to be alright. But they all take after me, they don’t exactly show what’s going on under the surface, well, except for Sabé.”

“We all knew she was her father when she came,” Anakin said with a smile. Sabé had been born with a rare genetic condition that had affected her heart. She had been fighting for her life, since day one. Three months ago she had undergone a successful heart transplant. It had saved her life, but at a great cost.

“She’s finally off the anti-rejection meds, as of last week,” Luke said, coming in from the blizzard outside. “The doctors and healers said she should start perking up once they’re all out of system in a day or two.” He was carrying two large bags of wrapped presents from the ship. “Happy Fete Mom and Dad.”

“Hey Luke, just put the presents in the corner,” Anakin said. “You guys are the last ones to get here. Everyone is upstairs, unpacking and Shmi is already in the kitchen.”

“Can I hold her?” Padmé asked, her arms out, expectant, for Sabé. “Anakin and I have decided we want to be the babysitters for the week, and give you, Aymee, and Ayden a break from the little ones.”

“But especially you,” Anakin said. “After everything that has happened…”

“That would be great,” Mara said, forcing a smile as she passed Sabé and all her blankets to her grandmother. “I want to get some unpacking done.” Mara hurried upstairs.

Sabé, meanwhile, let out some moans as she slowly woke up. “Grandmama?” the little girl asked, blinking her eyes.

“Yeah, thats right Sabé,” Padmé said with a smile.

“How are you feeling, baby girl?” Luke asked, walking over to the couch.

The girl yawned, “Tired.” She looked around. “Can I play with Grandpa?”

“Sure,” Padmé said, letting Sabé down to toddle over to her grandfather and cousins. “How is Mara doing?” she asked.

“She was doing alright, but I just think the holidays are just getting her down. We’re glad to be here and to have everyone around.”

“Obi-Wan’s death has been hard on everyone, but we are here if you or Mara or the kids need anything.”

“Thanks, but I think the best thing to do is just avoid the subject. We have grieved and now we are just trying to move on,” Luke said.

* * *

“Hey, are you people almost done unpacking?” Ruwee, Leia and Han’s 13 year old son, asked as he, his younger brother Han Jr., who was 10, and Dayanan, who was Shmi’s youngest at 8, stuck their heads in the girls’ room. “Ben found a bunch of snow speeders in the garage. Grandpa said we can take them out!”

“Awesome,” Ana said, jumping up. As a herd, they ran down to the garage to see their Uncle Brath, Shmi’s husband, holding snowsuits and helmets.

“You can go out, but I want everyone to wear proper gear and two to a speeder. Try to be back in a few hours.”

The cousins paired off: Ben with Dayanan, Jaina with Han Jr, Ana with Pentdé and Amidala with Ruwee. Then they geared up and picked their speeders.

Brath opened the garage doors and they sped off. Ben was in the lead. They went speeding towards the mountains. “Race you guys to the summit?” he asked.

“More like beat you there!” Amidala screamed as she took off, leaning into the throttle all the way.

The cousins took off towards, then up the mountain, as the weather slowly got worse.

Jaina and Han Jr. ended up being the first ones to the summit, followed quickly by Amidala and Ruwee, then the others.

When Ben got up there with Dayanan, he took off his helmet and frowned. “The visibility is horrible. I can barely see anything.”

Jaina did the same. “Yeah, should we comm Grandpa to pick us up? I wouldn’t doubt that Grandma or my mom is already harassing him to do so.”

* * *

“Dad, I’m worried,” Leia said as she paced around the main room. Her siblings and their significant others were all on the couches, having drinks. Her mother and father were still on the floor, playing with their youngest grandchildren.

“They all have comms,” Anakin reassured her. “They’ll comm if they need any help.”

“They’ll be fine, Leia,” Luke assured her. “Do you remember when we were, what, 17? And we went out on snow speeders on a night like this in the North continent of Naboo? It was a blast.”

“Yeah, you took a wrong turn, got us loss and we nearly froze to death,” Shmi reminded him. “Thank the maker Obi-Wan found us…” she trailed off after she received a glare from Padmé.

Mara let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s alright to mention his name, you know.” When she got stares from everyone in the room, she leaned down and picked up Sabé. “Yeah, I’m a little down because it’s my first Fete Week without my dad, but it’s okay to talk about him, because as difficult as it is to talk about him, he should not disappear from our lives and memories. He gave up his last few years to save Sabé’s life and I don’t think he could have gone happier.”

A week before his death, Obi-Wan had been diagnosed with intestinal tumonicuas. The doctors and healers had given him 2-3 years to live. This had happened when Sabé’s condition had begun to rapidly deteriorate. Obi-Wan had shared his intentions with Luke, Mara, Anakin and Padmé, then injected a nurotoxin which had rendered him brain-dead. Doctors were able to harvest his healthy heart and use the tissue to form a perfectly healthy heart for Sabé that would grow with her.

Anakin’s comm went off and he answer it with a smile. He got off of it and smiled at Han. “The kids need an ‘evac’. Shall we use the Falcon?”

Han smiled as he got up, “Certainly. Meet you out there, old man.”

Anakin scowled as he left.

* * *

Han heard cheering as he hovered over the summit of Mount Malean. Anakin easily got the kids in and they were headed back to the cabin in no time.

When they returned home, they found dinner waiting for them, along with cups of steaming hot cocoa. The entire family sat down to eat their first feast of Fete week.

* * *

“Are we going to play Quelk?” Ana asked as they finished cleaning up the dishes.

“Certainly,” Anakin said. “The box and cards are on the fireplace mantle.”

“But Grandpa!” Sabé exclaimed as she yanked on his tunic. “We have to go to bed or else Preeni Pi won’t come!”

Anakin laughed as he picked up his granddaughter and straightened her dress. “We still have a few hours before Preeni Pi comes. Do you want to be on Grandpa’s team?”

“I guess so, but we gotta all be in bed by midnight.”

“Don’t worry. We will be,” he assured her. He then sat down with her in his lap as Padmé set out the game. The came was simple, but had been a classic in the Skywalker household. The family split up into four teams of 5 people each (while Aymee put Ira and Nikhil to bed). The game consisted of a board with four holographic figures that moved back and forward. Whose-ever’s turn it was, they would get a random task from a deck of cards, it may be an acting or musical task, or it might be finding something random around the house. The other teams would bet spaces on if the team could do it or not. If the team succeeded, they and whoever bet on them won that many space and those that bet against them would move back. The opposite would happen if the team wasn’t able to do it.

The next three hours were filled will hilarity, including Han Sr. trying to recite King Theoplo’s monologue from the famous Aleraani play, Shmi and her team racing around the house trying to find a rusted bolt (they ended up taking it off C-3PO, much to his horror) and Anakin’s team wrapping Sabé up as a present in under two minutes. Padmé and her team of Han, Ben, Aymee and Dayaman ended up winning.

“Alright children, time for bed,” Padmé announced.

Ben took Sabé out of his grandfather’s arms and turned to his parents. “Do you want me to take her tonight?” When she got home from her heart-surgery, Sabé had required 24 hour care, so Ben had offered to take the night-shift, and he often did. She no-longer required her night-care taker to stay awake, but someone had to sleep in the same room as her encase something went wrong.

“You don’t have to,” Luke said. “You deserve a holiday too.”

“So do you guys, plus she’s worried that I might try to sneak a peek at Preeni Pi,” Ben said with the roll of his eyes.

Sabé nodded. “Ben thinks she’s hot!” This caused her aunts and uncles to laugh. “I don’t want to catch him kissing Preeni Pi!”

Luke simply shook his head. “Alright Sabé Jade. You can sleep with Ben. Let him get you ready. Mommy and I will be up in a few moments to read you a story and kiss you goodnight.”

* * *

It was another 3 hours before Luke and Mara crawled into bed. They had cleaned the kitchen, read a story to Sabé Jade, saying goodnight to all their kids and setting out the presents, both from them and “Preeni Pi”.

Luke leaned over and kissed Mara. “How many hours before you think we will have before we are woken by some rowdy kids?”

Mara chuckled, “Shmi and Brath told the kids that they were up before 0600 that they’d lock them outside.”

“Well then,” he said, tucking a bit of her hair behind her head. “I think we have some time to share some body-heat.”

Mara grinned. “I am a bit cold.”

“Then we are going to have to work up a sweat.”

* * *

“Ben,” Sabé called from the play-pen she was sleeping in.

Ben rubbed his eyes, groggily. “What’s wrong?” he said, sitting up.

“I hear voices. Is it time to get up?”

He tapped his crono. It was 0613. He heard the whispers of Dayaman and Han Jr in the room next to his.

“I guess so, lets go see Mom and Dad.” He shuffled out of bed, put on his housecoat and slippers. He then got Sabé out of the play-pen and put her housecoat and slippers. Together they walked down the hall to their parent’s where Luke was on the edge of the bed and Mara was in the refresher. “Here is your daughter,” Ben said. “I need caff.”

Sabé toddled up to her father and he picked her up. “Come on, hun, let’s go get a good seat.”

* * *

After all the presents were opened, Mara leaned back and too in the scene, all the kids - young and old - and their grandparents, were on the floor, playing with toys, including Sabé. The parents were all on the couches, caff in hand, leaning against their significant other in a half dazed state.

It had been a year of loss, but some things never changed.

 

What a sweet story! They sound so loving to eah other. I come from a really small family, but this is what I would imagine it would be like with lots of sibs and cousins to play with. Loved it!

 

Bri! That was delightful!!!! Thanks for returning to the wonderfully wacky world of MoM. Very loving and sweet. And tons of fun! For parents and kids alike.

 

Wow!! These Skywalkers sure have a lot of kids. This get-together sounds like fun.

 

Wonderful fic, Bri! I had a hard time keeping track of everyone, but I loved seeing that big happy family and all those kids! And I'm so sorry about your grandpa.

 

Thanks.

I had a hard time keeping track of everyone myself (so some people like Ayden's and Aymee's husbands weren't even mentioned). I think that's a very accurate reflection of my own family (except it's bigger).

 

You mentioned Preeni Pi, too!! Loved that scene with Ben and little Sabe. I love that this universe has such happiness for all of our favorite characters, even if the loss of Obi-Wan is felt so deeply. But what a noble sacrifice, and one that any grandfather would make. Wonderful fic for Christmas!!

 

Christmas is a fun time for some people. In my family the children living at home get each other presents that are opened on Christmas Eve night. We make popcorn balls, drink soda, apple cider, maybe homemade hot chocolate, play games (Apples to Apples is my favorite), we read the Christmas Story and a few other things. We don't own snowmobiles or ATVs but my mom would like to have at least one ATV; my parents have close to 98 acres of land.

But we would get up early on Christmas Morning, something my mom started with Harley and Raquel, and we would get into our stockings (presents were off limits until mom got up and dad either woke up or came home from work). But presents were usually opened by six, pancakes and sausage and/or bacon are started not long after that.

Christmas will be late this year because my mom and I are in Idaho waiting for my little nephew to come and aren't due back in Maine until New Year's Eve (although a woman we know said we will be trapped in Idaho until January fifth).

Have a Merry Christmas Bri! May your family have joy and pleasant memories this year.