Leia, age 17 months

She spoke her first word today. It should have made them smile. It should have made them laugh and praise her. It should have made Owen beam with delight. All it really did was drive in the fact that she was not theirs and that Anakin was dead.

Beru smiled a sad smile as she rocked the baby girl to sleep. She was growing up so quickly. Perhaps tomorrow she will be running instead of taking teetering steps. Perhaps next week she will be going to school, and then driving, and bringing home boyfriends. Perhaps one day she will ask of her parents, like she did today.

"Da!" It was just another silly sound in a string of silly baby gibberish. It wasn't that word that caused Beru and Owen to share a sad look with each other. It was the fact that Leia looked around, as if something or someone was missing.

"Da? Da? Dada?" and that she kept on doing it.

Obi-Wan had warned them that she might show signs of Force Sensitivity. She was, after all, Anakin's daughter and Anakin had a very strong connection to the Force. Perhaps this was the first of many signs to come. That she called for Anakin and knew he wasn't with her.

She looked at Owen and tears began to fill her eyes.

"Da?" He picked her up.

"I'm sorry sweet. I'm sorry your Daddy isn't here. But don't worry, your Uncle Owen isn't going anywhere."

Beru placed Leia in her crib and tucked her in. She didn't know how Owen did it. That he wasn't going to let Leia call him Daddy. All Beru knew was that when Leia started saying Mama – which according to the parenting books she'd been reading said it happens a few weeks after the child learns to say dada – she didn't think that she could tell Leia that Beru was not her mother.

Three weeks later when Leia repeated the incident, only this time looking for her mother, Beru found that she could indeed tell Leia that she was not her mother. Unlike Owen, however, Beru instantly tried to teach her how to say Auntie and even Beru.

And eventually, Leia stopped looking for her parents. However she still looked around, as if someone was missing.