Author's Note: I want to thank all of you for the follows, favorites and reviews! I'm glad you like the story! I am a big fan of the NFL and Anidala, I also love the twins and wanted to combine them all into one drama-filled story. This chapter is from Anakin's pov, we'll see his reactions to seeing Padmé and her son, who looks a lot like him... we'll also see more of Mike Gray, the tight end for the 49ers and his family. I hope you like him, he and his family will be major characters in the story, since Anakin and Gray are practically brothers but we'll also see other people from the SW universe in the chapters to come. Be aware that there is some adult language here and later in this story, I may be upgrading this to M for adult situations.

Without further ado...

Second Chances: Chapter Two

Anakin Skywalker

Life has never been easy for me but I don't think it was ever as hard as it is right now. Padmé was the love of my life, the woman I knew I'd one day marry and have a family with. She was the one I wanted to spend my life with and I wanted to give her everything. The world even, if she wanted it.

Then, here she comes back into my life after twelve years and... she has a son?! A son who is at least ten or eleven years old... a son who looks a lot like me and I wish he was mine but I know better than to think of such fantasies. Padmé was never a woman like that, she may have cheated on me and done a number of stupid things in her youth, just like me but she wouldn't have a kid, my kid and not tell me about it.

Our last night together though brings that into question. A month before our breakup, we had unprotected sex. I really wanted her and she really wanted me, yet I forgot a condom and was going to stop myself but she didn't want me to stop. She wanted me just as bad and we were drunk. If we weren't, we probably wouldn't have been as foolish but she was on the pill and she said we'd be fine, what were the chances she'd actually get pregnant?

We didn't talk about that night after that, at least we didn't talk about the chance that I knocked her up. It was prom night, so we did talk about prom, just not about our private after party. It was definitely a night that I'd always remember, she wore a tight red sleeveless silk dress that left little to my vivid and creative imagination and she wore her long hair down just the way I liked it. She was beautiful and looked every bit like the angel I claimed her of being.

If she was pregnant when she broke up with me, would she have told me or kept me in the dark like she had? Did she really cheat on me way back when or did she just try to use that as an excuse for me to stop trying to keep us together? Was that her way of trying to protect me? She was protective of me, she would always go off on me about my school work and how important it was for me to do good if I wanted to go to college to pursue my dreams of becoming an NFL star and she was the reason why I got into Arizona State on a full athletic scholarship.

She knew I couldn't afford it any other way. If she was pregnant with my child at the time, would she keep that secret from me just so she didn't ruin my career in football before it even really started? In my heart, I know she would. She always wanted me to succeed. Besides mom, she was my biggest fan- my biggest supporter and she wouldn't ruin my dreams knowing how much I wanted them and knowing how hard I worked to make them a reality.

She is the woman I owe everything to for making me the great man and player that I am today.

I'm not going to lie and say that it doesn't hurt, if she did in fact keep my child from me all of these years but if that was her reason for doing so, I can't really be that upset with her. She knew what I'd do and that is support her, which would've meant dropping out of college before I even went in the first place and got a job to help take care of her and our eventual baby, our eventual son.

Son.

I may be a father... who am I kidding? I saw the kid and I know he's eleven. I was curious and right after the meet and greet, I peeked at his admission forms and his birthday coincides with the timing of our prom night... mishap? If one would call it that, it certainly wasn't planned but if we did have a child come from it, I wouldn't call it- him, a mistake.

Luke certainly didn't look like that Palo, the idiot she married after breaking up with me. That son of a bitch who had the balls to send me an invitation to their wedding, three months after she broke up with me. He's just lucky that I was in Arizona and not in San Fran or I would've knocked his teeth out. She was mine, yet she married him instead of me.

And for what?

To cover up her unplanned pregnancy?

I look down at the black velvet box in my hand at the half carat diamond ring that I bought for her (I couldn't afford anything more expensive at the time). That night was supposed to be the best night of our lives, the night that I asked her to marry me. Instead, she broke up with me and I kept the ring in my pocket, tempted to return it or just throw it over the railing of the Golden Gate Bridge but I'm a sentimental sap and kept it.

I kept it and would look at it from time to time like I'm doing right now and wonder what life could've been like, had that night turned out differently, the way that I imagined it. And I don't even know how it could've been now. I still planned on going to Arizona State and she was planning for Harvard University, it isn't like we would've been together but I probably would've went to Boston College, had she said yes and had she not been pregnant. I got a full athletic scholarship for there too (because of her) but I liked Arizona State's football program better and that's where my best friend, Mike Gray was going. We planned on going together and we both got in, that was our number one choice for college and then we both made it to the pro's together and even made it to the same team. The 49ers traded for an extra draft pick and got two first round picks, they used them both to draft us.

It was a great night to remember.

Me and mom crying on national TV for my dreams finally coming true and then Gray and I celebrating later that night at a club with a bunch of college girls, yet the person I wanted most to be there wasn't. She was the one I wanted to celebrate with. The one I had to thank for always being there and supporting me when I needed it most.

Now, I realize she was at home with a four-year-old child, possibly our four-year-old child. Did she watch the draft though? She wasn't a big fan of football, I know that but she knew enough about it from me and her father (who always was a big avid football fan, even if he didn't like me much) to be able to watch it and know what's going on. She even watched the NFL Draft with me a couple of times, she would've known about me being up for the draft. Was she able to watch it though or did it only hurt her to think of me?

A big part of me wishes that it did hurt her to think of me, another part of me chides that part of me for ever wishing her to feel that way. After what she did though, leaving me without explanation and fumbling the way she did throughout her whole pathetic attempt at breaking up with me, I do hope she hurt as much as me.

I shouldn't hope that but I can't help how I felt then or now. If she was pregnant with my child, I should've been told. Even if she did cheat on me, like she said she did, something that I still don't buy, and the chance of me being the father was fifty-fifty, she still should've told me.

I had a right to know.

It should've been my decision to make with my life, even if we both knew what I'd choose and that would always be her. If I had her, I would've been happy enough and would've found something else to love besides football and that would be the child that we created together. I always would've been in love with the game, there's no doubt about that but if I had a family, they would've been my first priority, what my life could've been like would've taken a backseat. We may have been drunk that night, but we still knew what we were doing and the potential consequences that go along with it.

My iPhone vibrates on the nightstand, where I put it when I pulled out the ring. It's Gray.

"Hey," I say answering the phone, sounding pathetic even to my own ears.

"What are you doing?" He asks without a greeting, typical Gray never beating around the bush.

I sigh, no point in lying but he continues before I can answer.

"Nevermind that, your probably looking all pathetic looking at that stupid ring." I grin but fail to do so fully, he knows me well. A little too well, he must've recognized Padmé too and saw her with the kid- mykid?! "Thought so, drop what your doing and come to my place, hang out with us and take your mind off the past."

Gray is married to a girl who went to college with us, she was a cheerleader at Arizona State and Gray fell in love with her. I knew he was in love for months before he admitted it. It was obvious to me because of how I felt about Padmé and I recognized the signs, like how he'd always blush and tell me to fuck off when I brought her up and questioned him about her or when she walked by us and smiled at us the way she did but it was really directed at him because they were secretly hooking up. He ended up marrying her in Vegas after we got drafted and I was his best man, as if anyone else could even compete with me for that. A couple of years later, she was pregnant and they had a boy, a boy they named Michael (Mike) Joseph Gray Junior. He's six years old now and taking up right after us, with a deep love of football.

Never in a million years did I think he'd get married and have a kid before me. He was the one who liked to go out and party with as many women as he could and have the time of his life doing it. His attitude was always infectious and it was hard not having fun around him, even if you were in a bad mood and his ways slipped off onto me in college. I slept around too, never seeing the same girl twice. None of them could ever replace Padmé, so I didn't even try. I tried to push her from my mind repeatedly and move on but she was always in the forefront of my thoughts.

"Sure, be there in ten." I hang up and sigh. I really need to talk to him about this, though I'm sure he noticed the resemblance too. That's probably why he called, its either that or I'm crazy seeing things that aren't there. Even if I did peek at Luke's photo on the admission forms when I was looking at his birthday, just to see if I was crazy that I saw myself in him. But then I noticed our cleft chins, his shade of blue eyes which are exactly the same as mine, he even has the same sandy blond hair and our noses and jaws are the same and I knew then that I wasn't crazy or just seeing things that I wanted to see. He may be short and a bit scrawny but so wasn't I at that age.

Taking a deep breath, I put the ring back in the drawer of my nightstand, put my iPhone in my pocket and stand up to head out to Gray's. He lives nearby in a huge house- mansion really, with a huge inground pool in the backyard and a man cave in the basement. Things we always dreamed about as teens. Me, I bought a really nice expensive penthouse that is huge by the very definition of the word and more than I could ever need but houses like Gray's are for families and that was something that I didn't want to dwell on. Not to mention, I get room service twenty-four/seven, valet, privacy from the media, paparazzi and crazy stalker fans and a beautiful view of the city along with the Golden Gate Bridge on top of that. Things that I would trade in a heartbeat to have a life like Gray's, a life with a wife and a kid or even kids.

Before heading out, I walk into my massive walk-in closet in my master bedroom and take off my sweaty clothes that I wore to the meet and greet earlier tonight to change into something fresh and appropriate for Gray's. Its nice out, so I may take a dip in his heated pool so I grab a bathing suit and a gray tank top off the shelves and throw them on and head on out. Leaving my suite, I make sure the door behind me closes fully and press the call button for the elevator and the doors slide open immediately. It's my own personal elevator, an elevator that is for the penthouse suite only.

"Evening, Anakin," the regular evening front desk attendant says when I exit the elevator on the main floor. "Would you like your car brought around?"

"Yep, I'll be heading out for a while." He nods and calls the valet to bring my car around and I continue on outside. The doorman holds the wide glass door open for me as I head out and he nods in greeting, I nod back.

It's a beautiful day out here in San Francisco, the setting sun is shining bright without a single cloud in the still clear blue sky and its a warm sixty-two degrees out. I can hear my 2017 Bugatti Chiron before she even makes an appearance from the underground garage, she's a beauty and one that costs over two and a half million dollars. I didn't buy it, however, the owner made a deal with me and agreed to lease it to me for a dollar a month if I did a thirty second commercial for his exotic auto dealership and allowed him to hang up a picture of me with the car at each of his dealerships. How could I refuse? Especially when he offered me my choice of cars on the lot. I could've easily afforded my own but I'm not going to waste money on an offer like that. It was like love at first sight when I saw the blood red Chiron sitting in the massive glass display window, it was like seeing Padmé for the very first time except it's a car and not the most beautiful woman that I ever laid eyes on.

I shake my head in vain.

No matter what I think about, she always strays into my thoughts. She always did and I have a feeling that she always will, we have a lot to talk about and I would love to see her again but the words she said to her son about how we knew each other, they just don't sit right with me and they won't leave me alone.

"We went to high school together."

That's all she said to him to describe our relationship.

She didn't even say we were friends, just that we went to high school together like I was just one of the many faces she saw in passing through the halls of our high school and not the one face she couldn't wait to see in the morning and the last face she wanted to see at night when we snuck out of our houses just to be together. From the short conversation we had between Luke, Padmé and myself it became clear to me that Padmé never mentioned knowing me to him at all. It isn't like Padmé didn't know I'd be there or that her son worshipped a man that she used to be very intimate with. She knew who I was and she had to have known that Luke's biological father wasn't Palo. She has to know it was me, but she never told Luke about us which means he doesn't know that there's a good chance that I am his father. I don't even know how to react to the news, how would he? He looked pretty pissed and albeit surprised that his mother knew me and never told him, how would he react to knowing that's just a very small bit of the truth? He calls another man father, or dad, or whatever he calls him and his last name isn't Naberrie, rather its Jemabie after Padmé's husband...

Wait a second.

In that very short time that I looked at her, I didn't notice a wedding ring on her ring finger. She did have one ring on, a ring that I know is a family heirloom but she didn't have a wedding ring on. Does that mean she's divorced? I smile at the thought of that, the thought of knowing she isn't with that creep anymore. My day lightens a bit, its nice to know that he didn't last with her all this time, he probably bored her or she realized that he had absolutely nothing on me. He was an artist, he painted pictures- that was about the only thing he was good at but he knew her ever since they were little kids and he always had a crush on her, that was painfully obvious but Padmé never felt that way about him. She would always drone on about him, she didn't like him at all but she would never say that to him. It wasn't in her nature to hurt people. Which is why it hurt when she said she cheated on me for him, of all people even if I knew it to be a lie all this time.

My mind knows that logically, she wasn't going to be thinking straight. If she was trying to protect me (as if I needed protection, other than the condom on that fateful night which I'm glad I didn't have now) by not telling me that she was pregnant with my kid to let me pursue my dreams knowing how hard I worked to get there then Palo would be a logical choice for her. He was crazy about her, almost in a stalker-like manner and his family was well off, way better off than my family where my mother had to work three jobs just to put a roof over our head, food on the table and clothes on our backs. Padmé may not have loved him but he loved her and he would accept her, even if she was pregnant with another man's child and that is what she needed. She needed a man to claim to be her baby's daddy, she was responsible and always strived to not disappoint her parents. They liked him, way better than me and would prefer him to be the father of their eighteen year old's baby rather than me.

And logically, he is a good choice. But my heart doesn't agree. My heart is breaking that I couldn't be there to see our son grow into the young preteen he is today. I saw Little Gray, Mike Gray Junior grow up and I even held him just hours after he was born but I didn't get to do that with my own son. Not because I wasn't responsible or didn't care but because I didn't know and didn't get the chance to be with the woman I loved and the baby that I would've loved because he was my son. He should've been calling me father or dad or daddy, not some other man that looks absolutely nothing like him.

But my heart and mind knows that it can't change the past. What's done is done. Padmé did what she felt was right, it may not have been in my eyes but she did raise him right, he was clearly well taken care of and I accomplished my dreams.

I hope that she's happy with her decision, she got what she wanted but there is no way I'm just going to pretend that I don't know the truth. We're not eighteen years old anymore, we're both twenty-nine almost thirty and we're both responsible adults. Her reason for ending things back then aren't valid anymore and if she doesn't want me, then that is her choice but I'll be damned if I'm not apart of our son's. If he is mine, which I am ninety-nine percent sure of then I should be apart of his life and I want to be.

The valet pulls my car up before me and steps out, leaving the door open for me. I hand him a hundred dollar bill and take my seat. She's vibrating under me and I adjust the mirrors slightly before pulling out of the drive way of the luxury hotel that I reside at.

Focusing on the road ahead of me, I take a deep breath and lose myself in my driving and the music on the radio, pushing my wandering mind to the side.

It doesn't take long to reach Gray's neighborhood and I take a moment to look at the passing houses. They're all beautiful, multi-million dollar mansions of various styles and designs. I pull up at Gray's pushing the button clipped onto my sun visor, the steel iron gates slide open and let me in. Gray gave me the gate remote control to his house along with the key and he has the keycard for my elevator and penthouse. We're as close as brothers, even if neither of us have any.

Parking my Chiron behind his silver Gallardo, I push the engine off button. Her purring comes to a halt and I step out, walking around the side of the beautiful mansion to the backyard. The grass is glistening under the setting sun, the sprinklers must've went off recently since it didn't rain today and the fresh grass smells good, looking like it was recently mowed. He has professional gardeners that take care of his garden and lawn, they do one hell of a job.

I hear Gray and Little Gray laughing, then a splash and I see Gray standing shirtless in just his bathing suit with little Gray surfacing after being thrown into the pool by his father. "Uncle Ani!" Little Gray shouts, waving to me from the deep end of the pool. He quickly swims over to the ladder and starts running my way with a huge grin on his face, I grin back.

"Hey, Junior." I say, catching him when he pounces on me. His wet little body drenching me in the warm water of the heated pool and the smell of chlorine. "Geez, what are you like eighteen now?"

He laughs, shaking his head with his semi-long dark blond hair waving side to side. "No, silly! I'm only six!" He says grinning, looking up at me with the grayish-blue eyes that are exactly like his father's.

"Six?" I ask in mock shock. "I don't know, you look a lot bigger than six."

He looks to his father and stands back up on his feet, letting me go. "I'm gonna be big, like daddy." Little Gray says, admiration and pride in his eyes. I have no doubt he'll be big like his father. Gray is six feet six inches and over two hundred and sixty pounds, Junior is already working his way there. He's the tallest kid in his first grade class and looks like a third grader already and from the pictures of Gray that I remember, he was the same way.

I smile, leading him back to the pool. "I have no doubt about that, you'll be bigger than me soon enough." He smiles, looking like he's proud of that. I may be big myself at six foot two and two hundred and twenty-five pounds but Gray is still quite a bit bigger than me. Gray walks over to me, Amanda-Gray's wife-waves to me from her position lying down on one of the beach chairs that line around the pool with her shades on soaking up the setting sun while she can and I wave back.

"Anakin!" Gray shouts, lifting me into a bear hug making Little Gray laugh hysterically.

"Gray Gray!" I try to say, but his bear hug cuts off my breathing and he releases me with a huge grin on his face, so much like his son's except for the few teeth Little Gray lost that haven't quite grown back yet. "Geez, I need my body to be in good functioning order if I'm going to play this year."

He waves off my grumbling, knowing I don't mind his bear hugs in the least and we walk to the table on the side of the pool. The table has an umbrella attached to it through a circular hole in the middle of the table with the stand directly below it on the ground, providing shade. I take a seat at the table on the side that's still sunny and let it wash over me.

"Uncle Ani," Little Gray says, running over to me with a soft rubber football made for kids and he hands it to me. "Throw the ball to me?"

"Sure," he smiles and runs off. Gray sits opposite me and hands me a beer. "Thanks," I take a swig and wait for Little Gray to tell me he's ready. "He's getting big."

Gray nods, taking a swig of his own beer and smiling at his son as he jumps off the diving board and looks to me with a look that tells me to throw it. I do and just before he lands in the water, he extends his hands into the air and catches the ball bringing it under with him. "He is, he's growing up too fast. We got him new clothes just a couple of weeks ago and he already outgrew them. He also eats like a pig, remind you of anyone you know?" Gray asks with a smile, taking another swig of beer shaking his head.

Little Gray throws me the ball, it bounces on the cement walkway around the pool and I catch it. "Well, sounds like both of us." I shrug, feeling hurt that I know Little Gray better than Luke. I was there with them when Amanda's water broke and I was still there when Little Gray was born. I may have waited outside their hospital room because that would've just been creepy otherwise but I was there and held him in my arms before anyone else besides Amanda, Gray and a couple of the nurses. It was pretty incredible to hold a brand new baby in my arms and even then, I could tell how much he looked like Gray just like I know that Luke must've looked just like me. Even if Padmé really wasn't sure who the father was, in the event that she did in fact cheat on me, she would've known when she first held him in her arms and saw how much he looked just like me.

"Okay, spill it." Gray says, his big muscular arms resting on the table with his beer in his hand and his eyes dead set on mine.

I sigh, turning to face him. "You already know what's bothering me. Her son, Luke- he looked exactly like me and he was born in February, the year after we graduated high school. That time frame matches senior prom and you know that story which was nine months before he was born."

Gray keeps looking at me, looking as if he is either debating on what to say or waiting for me to continue. I have nothing else to say, Luke is what's bothering me. If he is mine, then what? Even if she is divorced and currently single, she ended things with me and she already broke my heart once, I'm not about to let her break it again even if she is well worth the risk. Things may change and we may end up together again and I'd be over the moon if that was the case but I refuse to let my thoughts dwell on that, if it didn't happen then I'd only be hurt again and I don't want that. A man, even one who is used to being tackled by three hundred pound linebackers, can only be hurt so much. Physical pain though is tolerable over that of the emotional kind that she dragged me through. Love hurts, who knew such a thing could hurt so much?

"True, I did know that was on your mind which is how I knew you'd be looking at that ring." Gray takes a swig of beer and puts it down on the table. "If he is your son, then what are you going to do?"

That question has been on my mind and I already came to that conclusion. I'm going to be apart of his life, just like I should be and should've been and I doubt Padmé would have a problem with that. After all, it was her decision to keep the truth from me, not the other way around.

"What do you think I'll do, Gray?" I throw the ball to Little Gray again, this time he jumps off the side of the pool and catches the ball in mid-air. "She kept him from me for over eleven years and she kept me from him. He looked happy and is well taken care of but I've been robbed of the chance to get to know him. He didn't even know I knew his mother, nevermind was more intimate with her than that idiot she married. He probably calls him father, how would he react to knowing his mother lied to him all his life and that his father is the man that he worships? What would he think of me? He would think that I put my career first and totally abandoned him to pursue my dreams when I never got the choice in the first place!"

"Anakin," Gray says sharply, shutting me up and I already know I'm in for a lecture. Hopefully this lecture will actually help me out. "I didn't see a ring on her finger and I think you'd make a great father. You play with Junior all the time and you've even watched him for us on numerous occasions and you enjoyed doing it. He loves you, your family to us and we're your family. Luke will love you too, he's obviously a big fan of yours already. You may not have seen him before he came up to you, but his eyes lit up when he saw you and he was clearly nervous too. If you both are father and son then I think, yeah he'll be angry at his mom for lying to him. He'd have every right to be. But when you tell him the full story, both you and Padmé, I don't think he'll hate you. We all make stupid decisions, decisions we thought were best at the time but were the wrong ones but we don't discover that until its usually too late. Well, Anakin, you're not too late. He may be eleven-years-old and you may not have been able to see him grow up thus far, but you can talk to Padmé and become a part of his life and eventually tell him the truth. Don't lay it down on him all at once, that'd be the wrong move and too much for him to handle. Take it slow, he'll be at the mini-camp and you'll be there too. Get to know him and take an interest in him, talk to him, talk to Padmé and get reacquainted. If she broke up with you for the reasons you believe and only had your best interests at heart, then yeah she may have done what she thought was best for the reasons she believed was right. It may not be to you but we can't change the past and neither can she. You can only live in the present and move into the future, that doesn't mean you can't be angry or hurt. Hell, if Amanda kept Junior from me and never told me about him, I'd be downright pissed but that isn't going to help me, her or Junior. It'll only hurt us and there would've been enough hurt. If the reasons were good, and made out of love then you shouldn't be too hard on her. I'm sure she wanted you to be a part of his life as much as she wanted him to be a part of yours. She always was an intelligent young woman and I know how much she loved you, I don't buy that she cheated on you either and that boy is clearly yours. Even someone with bad eyesight could see that. So, just talk to her and take things slowly in regards to Luke, move too fast and things won't go as planned. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to know your his father though. Just like any kid would be, you'll be great at it."

Well, that was definitely more than I bargained for and actually does help. He said many things that I already thought of which only reinforces those as good ideas and he had other ideas that I didn't even think of. Sure, she may have broke my heart and hid my child from me for all these years but she didn't do it maliciously. Even Gray saw that and I can only hope that he's right, that I would make a greatfather, as he put it and that I don't let my son down.

"Thanks, Gray." I mutter, tipping my beer towards him in thanks before taking a swig and putting my thoughts to rest. I have a gameplan now and I am going to follow it through to the letter.

One step at a time.

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter and the Gray family! You probably noticed that Anakin isn't quite the Anakin we know and that is because this is a modern AU with him having a totally different life thus far and because he's more mature than the nineteen and twenty-two year old we saw in the movies. He also has a support system that works, people to lean on when he needs them the most and that is something that Anakin always lacked in canon.

Chapter three will be from Padmé's pov and will be just like this chapter, taking place after the meet and greet where we will see more Luke and hear Padmé's explanation as to why she kept the truth from her son. The truth being her knowing his idol and not telling him about it. How much will she tell him? A little more than she already did, I want to take this story slow but move it along. This should be long and that is how I'm planning it.

Please follow, favorite (if you haven't already!) and review! Thank you for reading!