Beyond - Legends A Mother's Journal--Diary Challenge (AU Fels, Skywalkers, Solos)--Complete 1/3--Co-Winner!

I just finished reading all of your stories that come before this one, their all great. You have a wonderful writing style. Can't wait for the next part of this one

~JJQ

 

HyperionRising: It is a funny image, and I'm pretty sure it's canon, too.

KT: I agree with that statement.

Emerald: I think it's easier to write to a cluster of cells than to an actual baby. When it's that small you can feel ok with thinking you're just talking to yourself. That is, if you're okay with talking to yourself.

Gabri: Well, I was going to keep him away longer, but I guess I won't be that mean and save the post I was going to do this week for next week. So I hope you're happy.

VaderLVR: Thank you

Blue_Milkshake: I'm so glad to see you back. Thanks for reading!

dm1: I have a feeling I'll be the same way once I get into that situation. Hope you're sleeping well.

Lola: Of course she won't admit that fact to Airen; in her family that's seen as some type of surrender, and that is never acceptable. I'm so glad I don't live in that family, aren't you?

Z: Two for two? I'm thoroughly surprised and impressed (and I'm sure I'll pay for that comment later). And yes, "smug" is a good word to describe Jag as a grandfather.

JJQ: Thank you so much for catching up to us! I love hearing that. And no need to wait any longer for the next post, because it's just a few lines below this.

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[b]Entry #3[/b]

I just finished talking with your father. If I had been thinking, or had known he was going to call, I would have set up the comm to take a holo capture of his face when I told him about you?it was priceless. Poor thing was caught so off guard. All he was planning on doing was checking in for a few minutes to see how I was and if my parents got back safely from their trip.

He asked me how I doing, and I replied ?Pregnant.? I?ve seen Airen surprised before, granted it doesn?t happen very often; but I have never seen your father?s jaw literally drop. It was a small movement, but it was there; you should wear that fact like a badge of honor.

He sat there for probably two minutes without moving. I only knew he was breathing because his lips didn?t start turning blue. So I did what I normally do when someone gets quiet?I start talking nonstop. I told him how I saw the healers this week and that I am six weeks along, that you?re completely healthy and so am I. I told him about not feeling nauseated unless I go out of the atmosphere (tested that theory again by the way, and if you?re going to keep me stuck on this planet for the next eight months, you?re going to be in huge trouble), and that my biggest problem is trying to not fall asleep at my desk in my office (did that twice this week).

I then waited for him to respond, but all I got back was a delayed, ?What?? I laughed and just said, ?I?m pregnant; the baby?s fine and so am I.? He then let loose that giant smile of his. I sincerely hope you get his dimples; they?re one of my favorite parts about him. You can always gauge how happy he is about something by how deep his dimples go into his cheeks.

But it only took a few seconds for the protective fatherly attitude to kick in; you would think he had been taking lessons from my father in preparation. I spent the next ten minutes convincing him that there was absolutely no need for him to cut out of his mission four week early to come home. I was only somewhat lying through my teeth. Of course I wanted him to be here and experience everything and have someone along with me being terrified at the thought of becoming a parent, but I know his job is important to him and these new recruits need to have the best training they can get. Besides, my family has raised a number of children and rarely with both parents at home at the same time, and we all turned out okay. But then again, I might be biased. So if for some reason, you feel your life is messed up because your father was absent for the first fou

 

I love how she's already giving advice to her kid about how to deal with it's family. She seems a lot less stressed and a lot more excited about having it now that she's told her husband. I also like how she's going into motherly mode and threatening to ground her unborn child if it keeps her dirtside for the next eight months. It sounds like something my mother would do.

Update soon!

Emerald

 

This is amazing. Sometimes I forget she's not Jaina, just the way she talks and everything makes me go all "Solo alert" and everything. This is really good and I hope you post more soon.

TWIN_SABER

 

But it only took a few seconds for the protective fatherly attitude to kick in; you would think he had been taking lessons from my father in preparation. I spent the next ten minutes convincing him that there was absolutely no need for him to cut out of his mission four week early to come home. I was only somewhat lying through my teeth. Of course I wanted him to be here and experience everything and have someone along with me being terrified at the thought of becoming a parent, but I know his job is important to him and these new recruits need to have the best training they can get. Besides, my family has raised a number of children and rarely with both parents at home at the same time, and we all turned out okay. But then again, I might be biased. So if for some reason, you feel your life is messed up because your father was absent for the first fourth of my pregnancy, I am the one to blame, not him.

Loved it!

 

Excellent. Do pregnant people actually think about their kids like this?

 

He asked me how I doing, and I replied ?Pregnant.? I?ve seen Airen surprised before, granted it doesn?t happen very often; but I have never seen your father?s jaw literally drop. It was a small movement, but it was there; you should wear that fact like a badge of honor.

Wow! That was, um, blunt. No wonder the poor guy had a hard time processing the information.

 

I LOVE Airen's response to Nawra's surprise. I can see that being about the same response that 90% of men have when they find out they're going to be fathers.
Poor, gullible Nik, I hope he's not too sad when he finds out he's going to be an uncle.
More posties please

~JJQ

 

Sure, but I don't know any who have written a journal. I know my last pregnancy, that one kept me up all night with her kicking, and the nausea was the worst, I think it was for almost half the pregnancy I couldn't eat any meat or chicken, except for hot dogs. I used to vent on her, a little... but most of the time I was relieved that she was showing such signs of life, kicking around all the time. We won't even get to the birth yet... until this story does.

Anyway, very realistic, and hubby's reactions were fantastic! I love the jaw dropping thing, and then the grinning, then the protective mode kicks in. Guys are such goofs when it comes to such things! Gotta love them!

 

Emerald: Her family can be a lot to handle; I'd want all the help I could get if I were in the kid's shoes. And, no, being dirtside is not something a member of that family would be happy about.

TWIN_SABER: Thank you very much. Nawra is very much Jaina's daughter. I'll try and get an update done soon.

VaderLVR: Thank you

HyperionRising: Thank you. As for the pregnancy question, having never been in that state, I have no idea. I'm just trying to do the best I can with research and stories I've heard from moms.

Blue_Milkshake: Someone in that family being blunt? Noooo. She can't help it really.

JainaJediQueen: Oh, Nik. I'm sure he'll recover. He'll just guilt his sister for a lengthy amount of time.

dm1: I'm so thankful you think this is realistic. Thank you so much. That and excellent characterizations are my favorite things to read. And I personally think that guys are goofs most of the time in about any situation, but that's just me.





I will do my best to have the next update done by Sunday. It's my drabble thread's turn for an update and then I'll get to this. Again, if you want to be added or removed to the PM list, please let me know.

 

I did!


Excellent update, Fatty! My favorite so far. I love Nawra; she is so real with her random interjections during a 'monologue'. And poor Nik... he will understand someday (considers this)... or not. More likely he will forgive and never understand fully because he is completely clueless about life and girls. Good thing he has a feel for starfighter and small arms tactics!

Zonoma

 

Oh, I love this entry too.

I can't believe Nawra just blurted it out like that, over the comm. But she was probably so excited about it she couldn't hold it in for fear of busting. I mean, if she was real that would probably be the reason.

Airen has dimples?

(tested that theory again by the way, and if you?re going to keep me stuck on this planet for the next eight months, you?re going to be in huge trouble)

Wow, just in the womb and the baby is already in trouble. Hope that's not a sign of things to come.

 

I'm always happy.

He asked me how I doing, and I replied ?Pregnant.?

Best ever way to announce that. Seriously. I'm going to remember that presentation just in case I ever get married and have a child, just so I can tell my husband like that. Even though it won't have quite the same impact if it's not long distance. But still. Poor Airen.

 

Z: Yes, Nik is clueless, but we (as well as the ladies in his galaxy) love him for it. It means they can stare longer without him noticing.

Lola: Oh yes. Airen has dimples, it just takes a lot for them to come out and play...

[image=http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b157/sea102883/Art/ac3ff4ad.jpg]



Gabri: Oh, it's probably how I'll tell my husband, too, if ever put into the situation. I have a knack for being blunt.

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[b]Entry #4[/b]

It?s snowing here. Granted that?s not too uncommon for winters here on Ossus, but the severity of the storm is. We haven?t had weather this bad in years. And while we?ve had blizzards like this one a few times before, it?s the snowstorm that happened a little over twenty years ago that won?t leave my head.

Her name was Asha, and she was my little sister. It was during the start of a blizzard like this that she and two of her friends went missing. She was five, and we never heard from her nor saw her again.

We searched the galaxy for years hoping to find some kind of clue as to what happened, but nothing turned up; nothing that was true at least. It wasn?t till years later that I learned there had been a number of hoaxes directed at my parents about her. I will never understand how and why some people in this galaxy can stoop so low as to do that to a father and mother of a missing child.

We don?t know what happened to her: if she?s alive and trying to get back to us, alive and not know who she is, dead this whole time, or alive and given up hope of being saved. Honestly, I?m not sure which outcome is worse.

I won?t lie; there?s a part of me constantly on the lookout for a twenty-six-year-old woman with curly brown hair and big, brown eyes. In fact, I?ve scared a number of women from questioningly staring at them for longer than what?s polite because I have to be sure it?s not her standing meters away from me in a marketplace or starport.

Mom and Dad have been amazing through it all. Sure, they?ve had their rough times, but they?ve survived. Mom started the Asha Fel Foundation, which helps pass strict legislation against those who place children in danger as well as help parents search for their missing sons and daughters, with Aunt Wyn then being the one responsible for taking the bad guys to court. And while those two run the show, Dad supports his wife and sister from behind the scenes.

Normally, watching a storm like this roll through doesn?t affect me this strongly, but I have a sneaky feeling that I?ll never be like that again. If you?re reading this journal meters upon meters underground on some far away, uninhabited moon it?s because I got my hands on Grandpa Han?s schematics for a hidden fortress and have locked you away because the thought of losing you is already too much for my heart to handle.

 

Normally, watching a storm like this roll through doesn?t affect me this strongly, but I have a sneaky feeling that I?ll never be like that again. If you?re reading this journal meters upon meters underground on some far away, uninhabited moon it?s because I got my hands on Grandpa Han?s schematics for a hidden fortress and have locked you away because the thought of losing you is already too much for my heart to handle.

Yup, impending motherhood forces more introspection than usual, about the past, about the future, about everything you thought you knew.

Loved the comments about Grandpa Han's schematics for a hidden fortress; I think he often wanted to lock Jaina away. Men are like that about their daughters!

 

Normally, watching a storm like this roll through doesn?t affect me this strongly, but I have a sneaky feeling that I?ll never be like that again. If you?re reading this journal meters upon meters underground on some far away, uninhabited moon it?s because I got my hands on Grandpa Han?s schematics for a hidden fortress and have locked you away because the thought of losing you is already too much for my heart to handle.

Sweet, sad, and funny! My favorite combination!

 

Great update!

 

I nearly forgot about Asha.

Loved the part about locking her baby up in a fortress. *sighs* If it was only that easy.

Nice update BF.

 

dm1: Oh, I'm sure Han has quite the elaborate plans in his mind, and even though she's in her mid-thirties in canon, I'll bet he's not afraid to put them in action.

VaderLVR: Glad I could provide your favorite emotional trifecta.

Blue_Milkshake: Thank you

Lola: Shame on you for almost forgetting her. I guess it's hard for me to let her slip away in memory since I live with all of this, but I can understand how a reader could. And yes, if only it was that easy.



If anyone else wants to be added/removed from the PM list, all you have to do is ask!

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[b]Entry #5[/b]

Your father returns home in five more days. He sent me a brief message last night to tell me so, and managed to ask about seven times if I was doing alright. I love him dearly, but if he's going to constantly pester me about how I'm feeling for the next thirty or so weeks, he's going to endure some serious bodily harm.

As for me, I've been busy with work. I've been trying to get as much done now as I can so that I can spend time with Airen once he gets back. Right now, it isn't too terribly at the Academy, but it will be in a few weeks. I guess I should explain what it is that I do.

I work for the Jedi Academy here on Ossus; my responsibility is pairing up padawans and masters. The particular Force-related ability I possess is analyzing personalities and demeanors. It allows me to clean out accounts at the sabacc table, be useful on intelligence missions (how I met your father) and decide who would make a good Jedi learning pair based on similarities and ways that the two can compliment each other.

It's difficult to explain how I do this, but the easiest way for me to tell people is that it's like seeing individuals represented as different colors; in order to make a good pair, you look for two colors that complement each other and don't clash. I don't actually see these colors, it's just a way of explaining that everyone (unless you're a species with monochromatic vision) can wrap their minds around. For me, it's actually sensing vibrations when comparing two beings. I blame this on having space junkies for family. The way you know a ship is running smoothly is by the particular vibration you can faintly feel through your boots. That's the way it is when putting together learning pairs; you have to mix and match until you find that frequency that hums and tells you things will work nicely together.

In order for me to do that though, there are steps that proceed it, like doing interviews with all the potential padawan learner candidates and the knights and masters who are available to teach them. I've talked with so many of them this week I'm surprised I didn't lose my voice. But the interviews are only one part of the information gathering process; there are also observations (public and secret) that are made, as well as conferences with instructors, dorm parents, friends, and family members. We have thirty-seven potential padawan learners eligible for pairings, and I'm going to need every bit of time I can get doing research and feeling things out before the learning pairs have to be announced in less than four months' time.

Other than being exhausted with work, I've been feeling fine. My emotions, on the other hand, have been all over the place. I'm sure that won't be helpful when trying to center myself and meditate about work, but again this is something I'm going to blame on you.

It's been embarrassing the number of things I've cried over this week. I'm not usually a crier; no one in my family is really. But I'll recount for you the things that have made me tear up just this past five days alone: putting away laundry and looking up to see my wedding dress, Uncle Jacen making me leave my office and go home for the night and then walking me home and giving me a huge hug, some little girl picking a flower for the garden and giving it to me (

 

This was a REALLY good explanation of her talents.

It's difficult to explain how I do this, but the easiest way for me to tell people is that it's like seeing individuals represented as different colors; in order to make a good pair, you look for two colors that complement each other and don't clash. I don't actually see these colors, it's just a way of explaining that everyone (unless you're a species with monochromatic vision) can wrap their minds around. For me, it's actually sensing vibrations when comparing two beings. I blame this on having space junkies for family. The way you know a ship is running smoothly is by the particular vibration you can faintly feel through your boots. That's the way it is when putting together learning pairs; you have to mix and match until you find that frequency that hums and tells you things will work nicely together.

Great work!

 

Loved your way of explaining the master/padawan matching process.

Airen is going to come home and wonder who this crazy woman is that has replaced his wife.

Aw, I think he'll understand.

 

Actually, I like the ship vibrations through the boots analogy; it suits her and her family very well.

Poor girl, all those emotions flying through! You do start to see things differently once you're pregnant! I love the line about her husband not knowing who this crazy woman is who replaced his wife!

 

My emotions, on the other hand, have been all over the place. I'm sure that won't be helpful when trying to center myself and meditate about work, but again this is something I'm going to blame on you.

Poor baby. I hope Nawra doesn't leave this journal around for her child to read someday.

Airen is going to come home and wonder who this crazy woman is that has replaced his wife.

Poor Airen. I'm not sure how he'll cope with this Nawra. Hopefully she won't harm him much.

Another great post Sara.

 

VaderLVR: Well, my plan is to be a teacher, so it's always nice to hear that I described something well.

Blue_Milkshake: Thank you very much.

dm1: We'll see how Airen handles things with the next post.

Lola: She does plan on giving it to the kid, but knowing this family, the child will probably be used to that kind of talk by the time they can read. And yes, poor Airen indeed.




As for the next update, I plan to have it up within the next 24 hours so I can get it out of the way and finish my Dare Challenge. If you want to be added to the PM list so you know when that update goes up, just let me know.

 

Entry #6

Sorry for not writing to you in a while. Your father got home last week and has been keeping me busy for the last few days.

He?s already head over heels for you, by the way. But I didn?t expect anything less. He constantly asks how you?re doing and what you feel like. Dad volunteered to talk to Airen when he needs it, which I appreciate. Grandpa Han did the same thing with Dad when Mom was pregnant with me. There?s already a connection barrier dads feel with unborn children since they?re not the ones carrying the child (in humans at least), but when the mother also happens to be a Jedi, that barrier just grows wider and wider. I don?t want Airen to feel left out of your development, but I also know that Dad will be better at helping him through that then I ever could.

When your father finally did get home, I figured he?d walk in and engulf me in a Wookiee hug, and I think he almost did on instinct. But then his eyes shot towards my stomach and he froze. I?ve spent the past week telling him that I won?t break if touched, and still haven?t gotten it completely through his head, but we?re mostly there.

He?s so excited. Airen asked when we could start telling people about you. I cringed when I told him that most people?my parents, Uncle Jacen, Gavin, Great Uncle Luke and Great Aunt Mara?already know. I felt so guilty for telling him that and making his face fall like it did. Causality of marrying a Jedi, I guess. I told him that we would still need to inform Nik, and I strongly suggested that he be the one to do it after I lied to him about having the flu when my brother took me flying.

I felt bad that my husband wound up in an atypical marriage. I often wonder what it would be like to be a normal couple; the kind that got to debate when they would tell their friends and family members they?re expecting instead of wondering if it would be worth the energy and effort to put up shields all day to hide the fact you?re pregnant from your life-sensing co-workers. That must be nice.

But on the other hand, there is an advantage to working with individuals who can sense life. Several of my non-Jedi friends have kids, and the few times I got to go out with them to lunch or some function I felt sorry for them. The number of times they were asked, ?When are you due?? and ?Boy or girl?? in the span of time it took for us to eat a meal were enough to make me go crazy, and I wasn?t the pregnant one. I told them they might as well get it temporarily tattooed to their foreheads and save everyone some time.