Mother Nature

"Uhm, Master, uh.. I..I'm struggling."

Anakin was less than concerned when he heard those words come from his Padawan. She said that to him many times a day, mostly with the follow up of "I got my skirt caught on a chair and I need some help" or "Master Kenobi asked me to fix this part for him, but I kind of got my fingers glued together, would you stop laughing and help me?" or even, in a more serious case, "I am being attacked by the wasp mafia, please give me some assistance".

So his natural response was to give a simple, "What is it?" from his place on the minimalist couch placed in the common room that connected his and his Padawan's living space. It was early morning, around 0700, and Anakin was enjoying the rare quiet morning he had. But now, with the call of his Padawan letting him know that she had awoken, he resigned to the fate that his quiet morning was done.

Her voice hesitated before it came again from her room. "I mean, I-I don't think I'm dying, I don't really feel like it, but it sure does look like I might be and I don't really know what's happening, and-"

"Woah, Ahsoka. Slow down. What happened?"

She paused again, and he could sense her fear and discomfort from across the apartment.

"Can you just come here, please?"

Unlike her confession to struggling, these words never had a good outcome. Sighing, Anakin hauled himself up and walked to her room. He opened the door, expecting the worst.

What he was not expecting, however, was to see his Padawan sitting up on her sleeping mat, surrounded by a pool of blood. She looked up at him, her face incredibly pale and panicked.

"Master, I really don't know what's happening? I- I don't remember anything about getting hurt last night, and I don't really have any pain, I mean.. .I had kind of a stomach ache last night, but I didn't think anything of it, and now I'm covered in blood and, in reality, I'm kinda scared."

Anakin had been married to a woman for quite some time now; It wasn't as if he were oblivious to what females went through every month. He did, however, never quite expect to have to talk one through it. Really, he thought, this was more of a job for Padme, or maybe even another Master - Maybe Shaak Ti, who probably knew much more about the anatomy of a Togrutan female than he ever even wanted to know.

He could feel his face turning a bright red, and could also feel the growing fear from Ahsoka's force signature. This child honestly had no idea what was happening to her, but the only thing Anakin could muster was a stuttery,

"I-It's okay, this is normal."

That did nothing to ease her fear.

"Master, what's wrong? There's literally no reason for you to be embarrassed right now, I could be dying."

"Oh, gosh, Ahsoka. Did the temple ever even teach sex education?" Anakin said, turning to the side and putting an exasperated hand on his forehead. He really expected that she would have gone through this already; she was almost sixteen for Force's sake. Even if not, he expected her to have some knowledge about it.

"Well, no, I mean, I did get that reproduction talk from Plo, but you saw how that went. You remember The Great Duck Debacle of 1774, don't you?" The girl paused. "Wait, what does that have to do with this situation?"

Anakin groaned and held up a finger to indicate a pause. He vaguely remembered something about Master Ti's recent departure on a month long mission, then made a quick decision and dialed a number on his comlink.

"Yes, Master Unduli? Skywalker here. Can you come- Oh, no, I understand that you're busy, but could you maybe...I don't know, send your Padawan down to mine and Ahsoka's quarters?" There was a pause. "No, no, everything's fine, it's just, uh, I just, I think that Barriss would be more...equipped to handle this situation than I am. Yes, thank you."

At this moment, Anakin was quite jealous of all of the other Knights that were assigned Padawans of the same gender. But, what could he say. He and Ahsoka did make a good team, even if he couldn't tell her about her 'Decent into Womanhood' as Barriss put it.

The Great Duck Debacle of 1774 was explained in my last story, Questions. :)

I mean, Ahsoka's character model didn't start to change at all until what, season three? That kinda made me think she was a late bloomer, and then. Oh. Anakin would be the only one there. Oops.