Beyond - Legends Like Diamonds, Love is Forever (LM Romance/Angst)

Title: Like Diamonds, Love is Forever
Author: Briannakin
Timeframe: 94 ABY
Characters: Luke/Mara, Ben, OC’s
Genre: Romance/Angst
Notes: Written for SJRS’s February/March Challenge. I had to include:
- Something that traditionally represents the anniversary (75th – Diamond)
- The phrase “I’ve been with you far too long”
- A kiss

Note 2: This was originally not going to be angsty at all, but my muse is dead and I’m suffering from a nasty head cold. If I have time between my 9000 essays due this month, I’ll try to do a more romantic piece.

Luke lay awake in bed. He had woken up an hour ago. Even almost 100 years after leaving the moisture business, he still kept the hours of a farmer. He had yet to get out of bed, even the most simple of task were getting hard for him because of severe arthritis and he didn’t want to wake Mara by attempting to get up unassisted.

He looked to his side and smiled. Mara’s white hair covered the pillow beside him. A respiration mask covered her mouth and nose, fogging every few seconds when she exhaled. She needed nightly doses of three dozen different chemicals to keep her illness at bay. She was dying. Then again, at 112 and 114 years, they both should have been dead long ago.

Luke moved his hand under the blankets to hold Mara’s hand. He tried not to wake her, but he failed.

“Hey Farmboy,” she mumbled, her bright green eyes fluttered open. Mara had Spinal Dystrophy Syndrome, or SDS. Her spinal cord had slowly withered away over the past 20 years. It was only a matter of time before she would lose the ability to speak, then her ability to breathe would go shortly after.

Luke rolled onto his side and kissed her cheek. “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you.” His words were a bit unclear, due to the fact that he didn’t have his dentures in. He turned and grabbed them out of the glass on his nightstand and put them in. An unfortunate run in with a gammorian thirty years ago made his false teeth necessary. He had the option of getting implants, but didn’t want a two month recovery time where all he could eat was guara. Luke turned back over and turned off Mara’s respirator.

“It’s okay,” she replied as he pushed off the mask. “I should be used to your strange hours by now – I’ve been with you for far too long.”

“My hours are not strange. Oh-seven-hundred is a perfectly normal time to wake up.”

Mara rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“Anyways. How are you feeling this morning? Are you in any pain? Do you want me to massage anything?”

“I’m fine, Skywalker,” she sighed. “It’s our 75th wedding anniversary, or have you forgotten?”

“How could I forget?” He lied back down and held her frail body close.

“Well then kiss me properly.”

Luke obeyed her request. Age may have taken many things from their lives – their age and Mara’s illness had robbed them of the more physical aspects of their relationship – but they still enjoyed cuddling and kissing.

There was a knock at the door. “Come in!” Luke shouted, his voice going a bit horse.

The door slid open and Lukia – Luke and Mara’s 19-year-old great-granddaughter – walked in. She had her great-grandmother’s red hair, but she had grey eyes. Her tan Jedi robes were wrinkled. In her hands was a vase of flowers. “Happy anniversary,” she said with a grin.

“Thanks,” Luke said. “Where’s your father?” Lukia’s father, Anakin Skywalker II, typically helped Luke get ready for the day before going to his job as Master Healer. Lukia was following in her father’s footsteps. But for now she was Mara’s main caregiver and typically spent all day with her great-grandparents.

“There was an emergency at the healing ward so I commed Grandpa and he’s going to help you get in the sanisteam.” She put the flowers on Mara’s bedside table. “He’ll be here in a few moments.”

Luke shifted uncomfortably. It was hard enough to accept help from his grandson, even though Anakin – Kin for short – was a medical professional. Accepting help from his son was another whole set of emotions. “That’s fine. I think I can make it to the sanisteam on my own.”

“Pa, no you can’t.” Lukia had inherited the family bluntness. “Please wait for Grandpa. I really don’t want you falling and spending your wedding anniversary in the med-center. Ma’s physical therapy isn’t for another three hours. You have plenty of time to get ready.” Lukia turned her attention to Mara. Since adding the ‘great’ onto grandmother and grandfather made them feel old, Luke and Mara insised that their great-grandchildren call them Pa and Ma. “Ma, did you sleep alright last night?”

“Yes, that is until your great-grandfather woke me at an ungodly hour this morning. Can you please make him bathe in that calming tea you gave me last night?”

Lukia chuckled. “So that tea worked in combination with the bath?”

“Yes. It kept away the pain and got me to fall asleep.”

There was a quick knock at the door, it opened and Ben walked in. He looked a lot like his father did in his late 60’s. The grey in Ben’s hair overshadowed the few red tones left. “Hey Mom, hey Dad. Happy 75th anniversary. Goodness you guys are old.”

“Look who’s talking. When are you going to retire and let Uncle Ryac take over the galaxy?” Lukia jibbed at her grandfather – the two were always going at it.

“Shut up you.” Ben went over to his father’s side of the bed. “Was I that unruly at that age?” he asked his father as he pulled down the covers.

Luke huffed. “You were worse – much worse.”

Ben rolled his eyes as he helped his father sit up. “That was also fifty years ago – I think your memory has finally started to fail, old man.” He helped his father stand up and they slowly walked to the refresher.

“When 900 years old you get, remember as much, you will not.”

* * *

Mara rolled her eyes at her husband’s come-back, then looked up at her great-granddaughter who was gathering Mara’s clothes and other things Lukia needed to get her ready. “I really don’t get why I do this whole physical therapy thing.”

Lukia started to undress Mara. “Because it eases the pain and Pa is a lot easier to deal with when you’re not in pain. Plus it keeps you breathing and Pa is a lot easier to deal with when you are breathing.”

“Yeah, I forgot about that,” Mara mumbled as she was dressed in a dark brown skirt and matching tunic. “Can I tell you something, Lu?” she asked, quietly.

Lukia sat down on the edge of the bed. “Anything.”

“I don’t think I am going to live much longer. I don’t want your grandfather or anyone else to know, but today is my last day.”

Lukia cocked her head in confusion.

“When you have lived as long as I have, you just know when time is up,” Mara answered the unasked question. “Your great-grandfather knows too. He and I have talked about it and we will go tonight.”

Lukia solemnly nodded. She had taken after Mara in terms of her personality, especially after her mother died when she was ten. “What do you want me to do?”

“Well, at dinner we will sort of be saying goodbye to everyone. At that point don’t rush us. After you and your father put us to bed, can you leave us alone, but stay in the apartment? We’ll probably take some time to ourselves before going. We are going to try to go together, but your great-grandfather thinks that there is a possibility he may take a few minutes. If that happens, he doesn’t want anyone rushing in. Just stand guard and tell anyone this is what we wanted. And when it’s all said and done, gather the family before coming into the room, say something comforting – or at least try. At that point we will become one with the Force.”

“Okay. But the saying something comforting might be hard.” Lukia winced at her lame attempt at humor. “Is there anything you and Pa want to do today?”

“Is there any way you can get me out of therapy? Your Pa and I would much rather spend the time in the gardens.”

“I’ll see what I can arrange.”

* * *

Lukia watched her great-grandparents from afar. Two of the greatest Jedi were lying on a blanket by the fountain in the Temple’s botanical gardens, enjoying the beauty around them and each other. She heard her father come up behind her and sit down on the bench beside her.

“Hey,” he said. Anakin Skywalker II was a very tall, lean man with greying red hair and blue eyes. “How did this morning go?”

Lukia shrugged. “Grandpa and Pa got into it over breakfast. It was quite amusing. And Ma told me something she doesn’t want me to repeat.”

Her father nodded, knowingly. “Okay.”

For a while they sat there, watching. “Dad, do you believe in true love?” she asked.

“Yes, I do – especially when I look at your great-grandparents. However, I don’t think everyone is meant to have it,” he said with a sigh. “I loved your mother dearly, but only for a time. You know we were considering getting a divorce before she got sick with tumuclus?”

She nodded, remembering how, even though the love was not there like it had been, her father had still cared for her mother until she died.

“And now what I have with your step-mom is wonderful and we are very in love, but not like your great-grandparents. I lived on after your mother and if Sontine dies before I do, I will probably life on. However, your great-grandparents are going to go together.”

“Yes, they are,” she confirmed. Sighing, she said, “I don’t think I’m meant to have it – true love, I mean.”

“You don’t know that. Your great-grandparents were in their late thirties before they found each other. However, if you decide to marry the Jedi order – so to speak – I know you will be happy. You never met her, but the Master Healer Cilghal never married. She was married to her work till the day she died and she was a very happy Mon Calamari... except when I called her a fish.”

Lukia rolled her eyes. “How you ever survived your youth, I will never know.”

* * *

Lukia served Luke and Mara lunch in the garden before taking them back to their apartment for a much needed nap. After, she arranged a visit with a few of their friends and distant family still alive. Jaina and Jagged Fel came by along with three of their four children and most of their grandchildren.

Valin Horn also came by with the two other Rogues still alive – Corran Horn and Gavin Darklighter. Neither man had many days left themselves – or marbles rolling around in their heads.

After they left, Lukia said, “It’s almost time to head to Grandpa’s for dinner. Is there anything you guys need or want?”

Mara shook her head. “I’m fine.”

“Lukia, in my top dresser there’s a small ring box. Can you get it for me? Then we can head over to Ben’s.”

While she did her great-grandfather’s bidding, she heard her great-grandmother, “Luke, I specifically told you not to get me anything. I didn’t get you anything.”

“I know, but please, I have to do this before I die.”

“Whatever, but just so it’s on the record, write a note saying whatever it is, Lukia inherits it for the time she spent taking care of us.”

Lukia was about to yell something in protest when her great-grandfather said, “I’ve already taken care of it. She’s our only female great-grandchild anyways and our only living female descendant. None of the boys will want it.”

She left the bedroom and gave the small velvitine box to her great-grandfather, who stuck it in his pocket. “Help me up, please?”

Lukia helped him up and helped him take hold of the back of Mara’s hoverchair. He had needed a hoverwalker for many months now, but no one had ever made him get one since Mara’s hoverchair served the same purpose for him, plus he got to push the love of his live.

* * *

Luke, Mara and Lukia were the first to arrive at Ben’s, and his wife’s – Riannia – apartment. Ben helped his father sit in the seat of honor and put Mara beside him.

Shayne Leon Skywalker – their 14-year-old great-grandson – was already present as well, helping his grandmother with preparing the food. Shayne was the only son of Ben’s only daughter, Mayree. Mayree and her husband, Nemy Leon, had both died when Shayne was only an infant. Ben and Riannia had raised him.

Lukia’s father and three older brothers were the next to arrive. Asher, Airac, and Anakin Skywalker III were triplets, all 20 years old. The triplets were all Jedi Knights and the bane of Lukia’s existence.

Ben’s youngest son, Ryac, along with his wife and two sons were the last to arrive. Leelin ushered in the 10-year-old Obi and the 7-year-old Mal.

Dinner was chaos, yet Luke and Mara enjoyed every minute of it.

Near the end, Luke got everyone’s attention by clearing his throat. He then turned to his wife and took her hand in his. “Mara, I want die confident knowing I have given you all that a husband should give a wife. I need to do one last thing before I can.” He turned to Lukia. “Can you help me kneel?”

Lukia nodded, helped him stand up and kneel at Mara’s feet.

“Skywalker, what in the galaxy are you doing?” she asked.

“Something I should have done long ago,” he said. From his pocket, he took out the ring box, opened it, and then placed the gold ring with a magnificent diamond on her finger, next to her old wedding ring. “Mara Jade Skywalker, I have longed to give you a proper proposal. I really don’t think the first one counted, although I did get 75 wonderful years of marital bliss out of it. I love you with everything I have. You made this long life worth living. I would be nothing without you. Everything I hold dear to my heart I have because of you. Will you spend the rest of eternity with me?”

It took a stunned Mara several moments to find words. Finally she smiled. “Yes, Farmboy.”

* * *

“Do you two have everything you need?” Anakin asked as he tucked Luke in. After the celebration had died down, Anakin and Lukia had taken Luke and Mara back to their suite and gotten them ready for bed, purposefully forgetting some of the more unenjoyably aspects of their routine, like medications.

“No, we are fine,” Luke answered, shifting so that he was holding Mara.

“Okay,” Lukia said. She found herself surprisingly calm. “I love you guys.”

“We love you too. Take good care of your grandfather for us, alright,” Luke and Mara said together.

Both Anakin and Lukia nodded. Not knowing what else to say, they left in silence. When they were out in the darkened living room, Anakin enfolded Lukia into his arms. “I’m going to stay with you, alright?”

“Thanks, Dad.”

Without turning on any lights, they sat down on the couch. “It’s going to be a long few days, but I think you are ready to start training under me to become a healer - when you are ready, of course.”

* * *

“So, are you ready?” Mara asked. Her voice was weak and her energy was fading fast.

“Yes, my love.” He used their last moments alive to kiss her. Together, they faded into nothing.

 

Captivating, potent, and such a beautiful premise! Well done!

 

I don't usually read AU stuff, but this was great.

 

Okay, thanks for making me all out bawl early in the morning

 

I love that they had a long, happy life together. And a long, happy marriage. As it should have been. I also love how they entered the Force together. Forever, now, for sure.

 

This is from 'Dawning' AU isn't it?

I really loved that they went out together.

 

I guess it could be a continuation of Dawning, but I really didn't mean it to be since Ben marries Tegwen in that (my) universe. I have plans to one day do a third instalment of Dawning, but it will have nothing to do with this.

 

Well written as always...but sad. Why does it always have to be sad? I like the ending with the two fading away. That is how I wish they did go. And not with Darth Stupid killing Mara. Nicely done!

 

I could only hope to have half as much time with someone as Luke and Mara did.

 

Hi, Bri. Love the big! family and the many years together. Snark and poignancy - totally L/M's trademark

 

Just beaut! Perfect and so poignant.