Title: 200 Proposals

Author: ginchy

Timeline: AU post TTT, 'Echoes' verse

Disclaimer: I don't own this galaxy. That belongs to George and Disney. But I certainly love it and them!

Summary: Luke and Mara's long walk down the aisle.

Notes: As AU!Mara mentioned in 'Echoes of Always' Luke proposed to her 200 times before they were married. This is that story. You do not have to read EoA to 'get' this (though I'd love it if you would). Romance and sweetness, basically. My speciality. ;)

The First
Day 1

Today a single-cell organism forms from the union of your ovum, or egg, and your partner's sperm. Over the coming months, your daughter or son will develop from this barely visible single cell called a zygote. This beginning is called conception or fertilization.*

Mara worked hard to catch her breath. She gasped in huge lungfuls, panting in the cool air of her bedroom. She clutched Luke's sweaty shoulder and brushed her lips somewhat carelessly against his neck, feeling his pulse-point as it jumped erratically.

"I love you." His voice was soft and rich in the darkened room and she shivered from the intimacy of his words. He must have mistaken her shiver for her being cold, however, because he felt around blindly for a moment, reaching for the blanket.

"I think it fell on the floor earlier," she murmured, now sleepily content in his arms. The words had barely left her lips when the soft blanket floated down around her, and she let a smile turn her lips upward. It was quiet in the room as their breath began to even out, but even as she found an amazingly comfortable position against Luke, she could still feel the harsh beating of his heart. Her brow furrowed in confusion, but she dismissed it, curling in closer and patting his chest. "I love you, too," she whispered haltingly, those new words still so foreign to her tongue. But maybe he couldn't relax, and that's why his heart still tapped out such a rhythm.

Luke hugged her to him with his arm, the fingers of his hand playing gently through her hair. Even with his rapid heart rate against her cheek she began to doze, the comfort of his hold lulling and soothing her into sleep. The blackness behind her eyes was just darkening into the abyss of sleep when she was tugged out by her name. "Hm?"

"…Nothing, go back to sleep." Luke seemed to realize he had awakened her, and even without seeing his face she could picture his sheepish expression and it now dominated the backs of her eyelids.

" 'S'okay." Mara nuzzled her head into his chest. "I was just-" She cut herself off before she could admit the contentment she found in his arms, but she knew that he knew it anyway. Could read it in the Force, or even just in her body language. It was an open secret, at least to him.

"I just wanted to say that… I mean...I didn't mean to scare you earlier."

Mara shook her head against his chest. Scare her? "The only thing I remember you doing earlier was making me very, very happy," she murmured, her voice thickening as flashes of the earlier encounter replaced his sheepish expression in her mind. Her body tingled in response to the memories.

"So you don't… uh… so you don't remember me whispering in your ear? Askingyou something?" His fingers twisted into her hair, not hard but with definite nervous pressure.

Mara tried to make her sleepy mind concentrate. She did remember him whispering in her ear. He'd said a lot of…things. Things that made her cheeks hot and her body thrum. Words that he would never utter in the light of day, or anywhere other than the bedroom. Words that were for her ears only. But after awhile, as her body had hurtled toward that perfect moment of completion, she had tuned him out, interested only in the unbelievable pressure and promise of ecstasy that he could bring her as she caressed his naked back.

"It's okay," she said, more awake this time. "We all say strange things during the moment."

Luke let out an amused puff of laughter, the seriousness of the moment breaking a little with her words. "We do?"

"Oh, all the time." She stretched her legs out and pointed her toes, brushing them over the prominent bones of his foot. "I think I might have referred to you as my 'love machine' at one point," she lied, trying to make him laugh.

It worked. He did laugh, and his heart rate seemed to slow back to normal. "That's good because…I didn't want to scare you."

"It would take more than that to scare me, Skywalker." She started to settle against him to go back to sleep. "Wait," she said, eyes opening again. "What did you say that you thought was so scary?"

He was silent again and she was not amused. Using her elbow to rise, she poked it hard into his chest, ignoring his fake cry of pain. She loomed over him and glared. "What?"

She was unprepared for the intimate smile that spread across his face, and the soft hand that reached up to push her hair from her face. There was a look in his darkened eyes that called to her, but also…scared her. "Luke?"

He licked his lips, and seemed nervous. "I told you….I asked you….To marry me."

.

.

Mara Jade didn't do speechless. It wasn't in her makeup. She knew how–and when–to keep quiet. You didn't grow up in the Imperial Palace without learning that. But speechless? That was a new and wholly unpleasant thing. But there she was, still hovering over Luke in her darkened bedroom, the amazing sex they had just had virtually wiped from her mind with those words.

Marry him.

Marry Luke.

It…part of her wanted to say yes. She did love him. Loved him with all her heart, in a way she had never known she could love another person. Loving him was a new and unique emotion in her life. It was unexpected and fragile and something she cherished.

But marriage.

Marriage was…big. Marriage was binding and legal and…babies. Married people had babies. Like Han and Leia. Two babies at a time.

Mara's eyes were huge.

And Luke didn't look sheepish. He looked panicked. Extremely panicked. "See? I scared you!" He grasped her face in his hands and rubbed his thumbs over her cheekbones. "It's okay," he soothed, sending out loving vibes through their fledgling bond in the Force. "I would never ask you something that you weren't ready for."

"I…" Mara stopped as her voice croaked. Ready? She was almost positive she would neverbe ready for marriage.

Almost.

"I," she tried again, "I'm just not…Luke. Things are...wonderful."

"They are," he whispered, but she put her finger to his lips to gently shush him.

"But I'm not…I'm not ready to…" She closed her eyes and tried to lower herself to roll away from him, stiffening in his arms. But he wouldn't let her. Had, in fact, anticipated the reaction and tightened his grip. She sighed. "I'm just not ready for that." She didn't have to go into details. He knew.

"I know." He stroked her back until she loosened in his arms again. He continued the slow rubbing of his hand until her body, at least, started to feel somewhat more of the drowsy contentment she had felt earlier.

Her mind wouldn't rest, though. It was now firing on full alert, half-formed thoughts worrying her. She was trying not to dwell on them, but…

"One day you'll be ready," Luke said softly, cutting into her thoughts. "I have faith in that."

She swallowed hard. He had more faith in her than the galaxy had stars. And it humbled her.

"And I'll wait until you're ready," he promised. "I'll wait forever."

She didn't speak, knowing that he didn't need any words. That just her staying in his arms and not running from the bed was enough for him. And eventually his arm stopped moving and grew heavy as he fell asleep.

But Mara stayed awake, his final words scaring her. Intriguing her. And scaring her some more.

A proposal. Mara Jade shook her head. But, in that moment, she knew that her life had just changed in some very important way.

.

.

.

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*All pregnancy day by day quotes came from The Pregnancy Diary. The exception is the quote on proposal #200 which came from BabyCenter.