A/N: And here's the end (really, this time!) of the story. I hope y'all have enjoyed the ride. I know I did (most of the time, when I wasn't stressing...)

See you next time!

Narrowed green eyes watched as her husband's opponent attempted to sneak up on him. Mara was pondering whether she should send a little warning over their bond to the Jedi Master, but decided that if he wasn't paying attention, then he deserved whatever he got.

What he got was a wet head from a hastily thrown water bomb, and a ton of giggles as the villain made his quick escape. Luke gasped and whirled around just in time to see a tiny body try to hide behind one of the potted plants in the Solo garden.

"I see you, Aric! And you'll pay for soaking daddy like that!" Luke growled playfully and swooped in to grab his son up into his arms before he could get away. The toddler squealed helplessly as Luke immediately initiated a tickle attack.

"Daddy, you'll make Aric tinkle in his pants if you keep doing that," an exasperated voice said from beside Mara. The redhead had to stifle her laughter at the scolding tone from the three-year-old.

Luke looked up at his daughter with an abashed grin. "You're right, sweetheart. I should stop."

Aric, breathless from laughter, heaved a sigh of relief.

"I should stop…" Luke said, and turned back to the child who was sprawled across his lap, with an evil grin on his face. "…but I won't! I will have my revenge!" And the tickle attack continued unabated until Aric was gasping for air.

"Boys. So silly," Aryn said, with a little cluck of her tongue, and then she went back to working on her latest drawing.

Mara exchanged a grin with her sister-in-law, who was sitting beside her, both of them relaxing in the afternoon Coruscant sun. It had long amused everyone familiar with the Jade-Skywalker family how Aric was so much a mixture of his mother and father, yet his twin Aryn had somehow grown into a little carbon copy of her Aunt Leia.

Mara was about to comment again on how unfair it was that Leia had somehow used her body to produce a second daughter when there was a cry from the doorway to the garden.

"Pile on Uncle Luke!" Anakin and Jaina Solo shouted as they rushed forward and commenced with their attack. Poor Luke was helpless to stop them as two of the Solo children leapt upon him and tickled whatever spots they could reach. Aric was delighted to have the tables turned on his father and gleefully joined in the fray.

The shrieking grew to frightening decibel levels until Leia finally whistled sharply, causing all of the combatants to pause and look up at her.

"That's enough of that," she said firmly.

The slightly guilty look on her husband's face made Mara snicker quietly, although truthfully, she was thrilled to see Luke enjoying himself so much with his family. There'd been a time when she believed, when they all believed, that they'd never see that smile again.

Mara didn't like to think on the events of four years ago too often, but she also never wanted to forget either. To forget would mean letting her guard down and not being careful, and that would never happen again, she had sworn to herself it would not.

Luke had far more 'protectors' than he knew…his wife, his sister and brother-in-law, his fellow Jedi, his former pilot comrades…all of them had sworn that Luke would never have to suffer again like Viktor Berdin had made him suffer.

Even when he had finally agreed to come back to Coruscant with her, his recovery had not been easy. He was still skittish about being around too many people, being touched, and anyone who tried to get him to talk about what had happened during his captivity got their heads bitten off. Eventually, he had grudgingly admitted that he needed to talk to someone about what he'd been through.

Mara would have loved for that person to have been herself, but she knew that Luke needed someone a bit more distant from the situation that he could confide in. After some intense discussions and arguments about whom they could trust, they'd decided to ask Cilghal. Luke already trusted her and as a healer, she was familiar with patients needing to work through personal trauma. And as a Jedi herself, she could also help Luke with reconnecting to the Force after he'd cut himself off from it for so long.

It had been a long and tenuous journey, with several setbacks along the way, one of which was when Mara had realized that their time together on Tatooine had resulted in her getting pregnant. She'd been so busy worrying and searching for Luke in the six months after he'd run away, that she hadn't given a second thought to her monthly contraceptive hypospray. And it had definitely been the last thing on her mind that day.

Luke didn't react well at first, which caused Mara to feel alone and hurt, but Cilghal had managed to get him to admit that he was scared of being able to be a good father, messed up as he was at the time. Surprisingly, Han was the one who'd been able to talk him through that fear. He told Luke about how nervous he was when Leia had told him she was pregnant with Jacen and Jaina. Besides all the havoc that was going on in the galaxy at the time, Han had feared he'd be a rotten father, never having had any kind of example as to how to be one.

Luke had listened, still a little skeptical, but then had laughed when Han offered to show him all of his 'father of the year' awards. Han had sworn that Luke had just never been in his trophy room, that was all, but there were in there, really! Leia had had to duck out of the room quickly as she was suddenly teary-eyed at seeing her beloved twin laugh so freely, the first time he'd done so since he came home.

He had been right at Mara's side from that moment on, and when the babies were born, Luke had been so emotionally caught up in the moment that he'd asked Mara to marry him again. She had returned to him the ring he'd bought so long ago, telling him to give it to her again when he felt ready. Mara was horrified that she cried a little, already sensitive as she was at having just given birth, when she saw that Luke had had the forethought to have the ring with him. When he slid it onto her finger, she said yes tearfully, and then made him promise not to tell anyone that she'd been so disgustingly weepy.

Gradually, his sessions with Cilghal had become less and less frequent, until this past year, he'd only felt the need to see her on the anniversary of the date he'd been taken. They didn't like to use the word 'cured', as he would never be able to completely forget what had happened to him, but he was moving on. He was living his life unafraid of what the future held, and Mara was so proud of him for that fact.

"Jaina, where's your father and Jacen?" Leia asked.

"Oh, Jacen was just asking dad if he could keep the baby scrub lizard that some guy on the street sold him yesterday," Jaina said nonchalantly.

"What?!" Leia screeched and immediately jumped to her feet to run into the house, angrily screaming her husband's name as she did so.

"Ooh, this should be good. Let's go watch!" Anakin said excitedly, and leapt up to follow his mother, Jaina two steps behind him as the they giggled wickedly.

"We have that to look forward to in a few years, you know," Mara said wryly as Luke shook his head ruefully over the Solo children's antics.

He laughed softly as he stood up, a still panting Aric tucked under one arm. Walking over to Mara, he leaned down to press a gentle kiss to her upturned lips. "Love you," he said.

"Love you, too. We should probably get in there and help put a stop to the fireworks," she said, and indeed, the tumult from inside the Solo household was steadily growing in volume.

"Probably," he agreed. "Want to ride on Daddy's back, Aryn?" he asked as he smiled down at his daughter.

She quickly agreed and set aside her sketchpad to clamber up onto her father's back, hanging on to his neck when he began to sway like he was going to fall from the added weight of the two youngsters, staggering dramatically as he headed towards the door. Mara paused a moment to appreciate the laughter of all three of her family before she got to her feet and started to follow them. Movement from the corner of the balcony caught her eye and she was spinning around with her lightsaber in hand before she had a second thought.

She nearly dropped her weapon in shock at the sight that met her eyes. It had been a long time since she'd seen him, but Mara still recognized the handsome features of her husband's father. And he was not alone this time. Standing on one side of him was an older gentleman that she knew to be Obi-Wan Kenobi, and on the other side was a small elfin-like creature that had to be Master Yoda from Luke's descriptions of him.

Her mouth dropped open in astonishment as the three Jedi Masters smiled at her, seeming to give her their blessings. When they looked past her to the doorway, she turned her head to see Luke standing there smiling as well, and she knew that he saw them, too. Her husband turned his loving gaze to her and beckoned her towards him with a nod of his head.

With one last glance at the ghostly images of Luke's mentors, who were even now shimmering out of sight, Mara went to join her family.