Part Three

On Saturday, Anakin was home by 4:30. Obi-Wan was in the kitchen making supper with help from the twins when he heard the door open.

"You're back early," Obi-Wan stepped to the kitchen doorway.

"Yeah," Anakin sounded distracted. Obi-Wan watched as the young man slid off his jacket and threw it over the arm of the couch. That was unusual, Anakin always put his coat away. "Watto let me go early."

Watto was Anakin's boss at his day job. "That's great," Obi-Wan said. "We're making stir-fry for supper."

Anakin smiled, but there was something tense about his face. "That sounds good. I'll come and help you in a minute," then he headed towards the bathroom.

Anakin didn't come to help them for almost a half hour. Finally Leia went to grab something from her and Luke's bedroom, when she came back she glanced up at Obi-Wan and said, "Daddy's asking for you."

"Okay…" Obi-Wan frowned and left the kitchen.

Anakin was leaning against the bathroom door. When Obi-Wan got close, the younger man grabbed him, dragged him into the bathroom and closed the door behind them.

Obi-Wan was just about to ask what was going on, when he looked down and noticed that Anakin had wrapped a towel around his right hand. The towel was covered in something red.

"Is that blood?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin lifted a finger to his lips and jerked his head at the door. "Don't talk so loud, I don't want them to freak out."

"Are you bleeding?" Obi-Wan asked in a whisper.

Anakin nodded.

"What happened?" Obi-Wan demanded.

"I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this, but my first shift and weekend job is at a car factory," Anakin said leaning back against the door, he kept the towel wrapped tightly around his hand. "I cut my hand open on a sharp piece of metal."

"Are you alright?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Anakin said. "The bleeding's mostly stopped now and I don't think I need stiches. It just needs to be bandaged, and I can't do that with one hand."

"So you need me," Obi-Wan said.

"Something like that," Anakin agreed with a wan smile.

Obi-Wan found the things he would need, and Anakin slowly unwrapped the towel from around his hand. The cut was long, but not particularly deep, hopefully Anakin was right in believing it would heal fine without stiches.

Then didn't speak while Obi-Wan bandaged the hand. He was almost done before he said anything. "You didn't tell me you worked in a factory," he said.

"Car factory," Anakin said like that made a difference.

"You know how to build cars," Obi-Wan said trying to ignore how dangerous working in a factory must be.

Anakin grinned. "I didn't before I got this job."

Obi-Wan couldn't agree with the young man's humor. He bit his lip as he finished up the bandage and began to put things away.

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Relax, Obi-Wan, I only do the really intricate work. I'm not around the big factory machines most of the time. I'm comparatively safe."

"Need I remind you that we just finished bandaging up a huge cut in your hand?" Obi-Wan asked.

The nonchalant shrug that was Anakin's response proved that he didn't see Obi-Wan's point. "It happens."

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan snapped.

Anakin heaved a sigh "The point is, Obi-Wan, that I actually like this job. It's a million times more interesting than that Walmart job I work second shift, and I probably get way more hands-on experience than I would have if I'd actually gone to college and gotten a degree in engineering."

"That's all fine," Obi-Wan said. "But what happens when you lose a hand?"

"I'm not going to lose a hand," There was a smile on Anakin's face, he wasn't taking Obi-Wan seriously. "How careless do you think I am?"


On Sunday night Obi-Wan found himself walking up to the front door of Satine's small but well-kept house. He stood on the front porch for a minute, gathering his courage, then reached out with shaking fingers and pressed the doorbell.

Satine answered quickly. She was dressed casually, but was still pretty in a pair of jeans and a sweater. Obi-Wan was about to compliment her when he realized she was on the phone.

She pulled him inside and held up one finger. "One minute," she mouthed then turned her attention back to the phone. "Bo," she said. "This is the third time you've called me about this. I'm giving you any money. Get a job."

Whoever was on the other end evidently said something Satine didn't like because her face got even redder than it already was. "I know that Mom and Dad won't give you any money, you wouldn't be calling me if they had." She paused as the other person talked, then sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Listen, Bo, I have to go. I have a date. Don't call me about this again, you're not getting a cent off me," then she hung up.

Satine took a deep breath and turned to Obi-Wan with a tired smile. "Sorry about that. That was my younger sister, Bo-Katan. She's the founder and leader of this protest group she calls the Nite Owls. They keep getting charged with all these bills for property damage related to their protests. Bo can't pay them because she quit her job when she started this thing, so she keeps trying to get someone else in the family to pay them. Once our parents refused, I was the next best option."

"I'm sorry," Obi-Wan said.

Satine shrugged. "I guess I probably should be thankful for it in a way, because she doesn't call unless she needs something. At least this way I hear from her every once and a while." She sighed. "I'm really sorry we had to start off the night like this. Let's just put this behind us?"

"Let's," Obi-Wan agreed.


After the movie, Satine's sister was the last thing on either of their minds. They were laughing together when they walked back to Obi-Wan's car and went to get ice cream.

"That was great, Obi-Wan," Satine said as they were sitting inside the shop sharing a banana split. "I'm so glad we did this."

"I was a little worried you'd think the movies were boring," Obi-Wan said. "My last girlfriend did," then he spluttered wondering if he'd just implied something he hadn't meant to.

"She must have really been something," Satine said, she didn't appear to have noticed anything. "The movies are classic. I'm glad you didn't listen to her."

Obi-Wan grinned. "I'm glad too."

They ate their ice cream in comfortable silence for several minutes. Every couple minutes, Satine glanced at the TV in the corner which was playing the news. Obi-Wan followed her gaze to see the station was talking about the latest debate for the upcoming presidential election. The debate in question had been between the candidates from the two major parties, Senator Bail Organa and Senator Sheev Palpatine.

Obi-Wan wasn't as knowledgeable about the politics of the two candidates as he would have liked to be. Four years ago, he spent hours understanding the positions of the all the candidates, but this election he was too busy with teaching and watching the twins to spend much time on politics. As far as Obi-Wan could tell, Palpatine was the more upstanding of the two candidates but that could have just been because his party was running a better smear campaign than Organa's.

"He's coming to our school district," Satine said.

"What?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Palpatine," Satine said. "He's coming to the school district to speak in a couple months. I just heard Principal Windu talking about it on Friday morning. Apparently, we're going to take the whole of WES to see him."

"But, the majority of the students in the district aren't old enough to vote," Obi-Wan said.

"Yes, but you what they say about politicians kissing babies," Satine smiled. "Plus, a lot of adults will go even though it's in the school, and it'll be a good experience for the students."

"You're probably right," Obi-Wan agreed and they moved on to talking about other things.


It turned out that Satine was right about Palpatine coming to the Works School District. Within days of her and Obi-Wan's first date, Principal Windu made an announcement about it to the staff and began to tell all the teachers what they would need to do with their students. The event would be held in May and though it was still a few months off, there was still a lot to be done.

It was one of the last days in February when every student was sent home from school with a permission slip for their parents to sign. If the student had the paper signed they could attend the function and participate in a special meeting with Senator Palpatine.

Obi-Wan brought the twins' permission slips home and stuck them to the refrigerator with a magnet. That way if he forgot to mention them to Anakin, the twins' father would still see them.

Obi-Wan and the twins had a nice evening doing homework, watching a movie and going to bed on time (Obi-Wan was very anxious to avoid a repeat of the photo album incident), in fact by the time Anakin got home, Obi-Wan had completely forgotten about the permission slips.

He probably wouldn't have remembered them either, if not for Anakin. Obi-Wan was tying on his shoes when he heard the rustling of paper in the kitchen where Anakin was raiding the refrigerator.

Suddenly, Anakin stormed into the room waving something in one hand. "He's coming here?" he snarled.

"What?" Obi-Wan had been asleep on the couch when Anakin had gotten home so he was still half asleep and couldn't work out what was going on.

Anakin waved the permission slips in front of Obi-Wan's face. "Palpatine! You're bringing that monster to Coruscant and you want me to let him near my kids?"

Obi-Wan blinked in surprise. "I take it you aren't fond of Senator Palpatine."

"'Aren't fond,'" Anakin snorted. "I wouldn't vote for him if he was the only person running!" he ruffled the permission slips. "I'm not signing these."

Obi-Wan bit back an annoyed sigh. He hadn't ever imagined being in this position. Anakin Skywalker had never struck him as having strong political beliefs. "Anakin," he said. "Do you have any idea how amazing this experience would be for Luke and Leia? Did you get to meet a presidential candidate when you were in school?"

"That's irrelevant," Anakin said. "Why would I want to my kids to go to a pointless publicity stunt to meet a hypocrite who only cares about himself?"

"I'll admit I'm not as knowledgeable about this election as I'd like to be," Obi-Wan said carefully. "But you don't know Palpatine, Anakin, regardless of what you've heard from the media."

There was a very long pause. Anakin looked like he was debating saying something but couldn't decide if it was a good idea. Finally he nodded curtly and said in a very flat, detached voice, "I guess I wouldn't, would I?"

Obi-Wan was taken off guard by the sudden change of mood. He felt like he was missing something extremely important, but he couldn't figure out what. "Regardless of how you feel about Palpatine's politics," he said soothingly. "I think you should sign those permission slips. Luke and Leia would really benefit from this; it's not an experience every child gets," Anakin said nothing, so Obi-Wan pushed on. "Promise me you'll at least think about it?"

Anakin sighed, and looked away, suddenly he looked very, very small and forgotten. "I'll think about it," he promised.

The next day when Obi-Wan opened the twins' folders there were the permission slips, carefully smoothed out and signed. Inside of Leia's folder was a small slip of paper bearing a note from Anakin:

Obi-Wan,

Consider this a personal favor, I still think it's a terrible idea.

-Anakin


The next few weeks passed in what began to seem like an endless routine. Obi-Wan got up, rode the subway to work. He taught his class, foiled Han and Lando's latest plot, unjammed the copier again and moaned about the copier with Satine, Principal Windu or whoever else happened to be in around. Then he cleaned up the classroom, packed up his school things, took the twins to the apartment and made supper.

After super, the twins helped with the dishes and then they did their homework on the kitchen table while Obi-Wan planned his lessons. Sometimes he brought along his laptop and used it with the help of his phone set on hotspot mode (unlimited data had its perks). On these days he let the twins play computer games after they finished their homework. The computer was a novelty to the twins because, while Anakin had a laptop (a model that had probably been state-of-the-art five years before), the machine was stored in on the top shelf of the closet in Anakin's room and rarely (if ever) used. If Obi-Wan didn't have the laptop, they played with the twins' toys or board games or watched a movie until it was time for bed.

Once the twins were in bed, Obi-Wan had a couple hours to himself. He finished up whatever lesson plans and grades he still had to do then curled up on the couch and slept until Anakin got home. Obi-Wan had found that if he didn't sleep while at the apartment, he was exhausted the next day. He didn't know how Anakin lived off the amount of sleep he got.

When Anakin finally got home from work. Obi-Wan packed up his things and made sure Anakin ate if he hadn't already and actually went to bed instead of just passing out on the couch. Then he left the apartment and rode the subway home. Once there, he went straight to bed and woke up in the morning to do the whole thing over again.

The only changes from this routine were Wednesdays and weekends. On Wednesdays, he went back to his own house after school and made super or went out to eat with Satine before heading over to Anakin's apartment and doing the same routine as the rest of the week. On Saturdays, he was up early and back over at the apartment before Anakin needed to leave for work. He watched the twins until suppertime when Anakin came home. He normally ate supper with Anakin and the twins on these nights unless he had plans with Satine. Sundays were the only days when he didn't go to Anakin's. On these days, he got up and went to church with Satine (it turned out that they went to the same church), then they went out for brunch at a café they'd found called Dex's Diner. Somedays they did things together afterwards, other days Obi-Wan just went home and relaxed as best he could.

At first these changes in routine had been enough, but soon Obi-Wan began to feel like he was trapped in a loop doing the same thing over and over again. He felt like no matter what he tried things just happened the same way they had a million times before. It was becoming almost maddening.

He could tell that he wasn't the only person struggled with the repetitive nature of his life. As the weeks went by, Obi-Wan noticed that Anakin becoming more and more irritable. This didn't really surprise Obi-Wan. The more time he spent around the Skywalker family the more he realized that Anakin didn't do much aside from work, sleep, eat somewhat infrequently (though he rarely forgot to feed the twins, he was constantly forgetting to eat himself) and play with the twins a little on the weekend. It probably didn't help that both of Anakin's jobs were basically doing the same thing over and over again. Anakin was fairly vocal about how boring Walmart was, but though he claimed to like working at the factory, Obi-Wan could see that the monotony of that job was getting to him as well.

Irritability wasn't the only thing Obi-Wan had noticed in Anakin recently. Anakin also seemed to be becoming increasingly anxious. This nervousness manifested in small ways that seemed relatively harmless when taken by themselves. Anakin's worries about bills—which were fairly constant—became even more all-consuming. He began second guessing everything he did. Several times he called when school was in session and left messages asking if he'd remembered to send this paper or that paper along with the twins, or wondering if he'd turned the TV off before he'd left the apartment. All this had come to a head the night when Anakin had worked himself into a near panic when he'd become convinced that he had left his cell phone at work even though he'd already plugged the phone in to charge in the kitchen.

Obi-Wan figured that something really major was bothering Anakin and that his worry about that thing was spilling over into everything else. The only problem was that Obi-Wan couldn't figure out what Anakin found so troubling. The only plausible thing was the bills, but as far as Obi-Wan could tell (and he didn't go rooting through Anakin's mail) that front hadn't changed much in the last few weeks. In fact, the only thing that had happened recently that he knew Anakin had been upset by was that business with Palpatine's visit and the permission slips, but surely that wasn't important enough to merit such a reaction. There had to be something Obi-Wan didn't know about going on.

Still he wished he could figure out what. He couldn't shake the feeling that he and Anakin were trapped in some kind of maze that was winding into a huge finish.

Or maybe explosion would be a better term…


If it wasn't for the date on his phone, Obi-Wan would have been too lost in the routine to know what the date was. However, he phone told him that it was early April. There was just over a month of school left, then Obi-Wan would babysit the twins full time. Though he wouldn't admit it to anyone, Obi-Wan was dreading that. Teaching school was the only thing that added some variety to his life. Once school was over, life would just be the apartment day in and day out.

He tried not to think about that too much, instead he focused on preparations for Palpatine's visit. Obi-Wan was ridiculously excited about the event. It gave him something different to grasp onto and work towards. He taught the kindergarteners about history and how presidents were elected. He did some research about both candidates on his own when twins were asleep at night. Bail Organa was something of a pacifist and his wife, Breha, was almost as politically active as he was. Organa was either a great man or a terrible one depending on what news station you listened to.

Palpatine's wife had died years before, but they had a grown son. There wasn't much about either Mrs. Palpatine or the son, but Obi-Wan figured that probably was a good thing with the way the media worked.

Palpatine also had a nearly spotless record. People didn't seem to have much bad to say about him. If Obi-Wan had been a more pessimistic person, he might have said that was suspicious, but he was fine with taking Palpatine's character at face value. He couldn't figure out what Anakin had heard about Palpatine that had made him so angry.

On that Wednesday in early April, Obi-Wan, Anakin and the twins left WES at the same time. As they walked by the office they heard Principal Windu cursing by the copier.

"Is it jammed again?" Obi-Wan asked from the doorway.

"Of course it is!" Principal Windu snapped. "Is it ever not?"

"There's something wrong with your copier?" Anakin asked, he sounded far more interested than one would expect given the topic.

"It jams all the time," Principal Windu said. "And I know that all copiers jam—that's what the school board tells me every time I bring it up—but this one jams far more than it should."

"Do you want me to look at it?" Anakin asked. "Maybe I can figure out what's wrong with it."

Principal Windu blinked, it was obvious he hadn't expected that response. "I guess you can if you would like to…"

"I would like too," Anakin's eyes were shining and he looked alive for the first time in weeks. Obi-Wan could tell that he was looking forward to doing something different.

"Alright," Principal Windu said, Obi-Wan got the feeling he was so sick of the copier he'd let anyone try to fix it.

Principal Windu stepped aside and Anakin, Obi-Wan and the twins entered the office. Anakin stepped over the copier and began taking it apart, within minutes he had it more disassembled than Obi-Wan had known possible. Anakin studied the guts of the copier for several minutes, then he burst out laughing.

"What's so funny, Daddy?" Luke asked.

Anakin just kept laughing.

"Would you like to enlighten us on the joke so we can laugh with you instead of just staring at you like you're insane?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin swallowed and turned to look at Obi-Wan, laughter still creased his eyes. "Someone assembled parts of this backward," he said and burst out laughing again.

Obi-Wan looked at Principal Windu who raised his hands. "Why are you looking at me? I didn't put it together!"

"Sorry," Anakin said pulling himself together again. "I meant that the factory put parts in backwards," he smothered another giggle. "I don't know how they managed that, because it must have been difficult to get the pieces in wrong."

"Can you fix it?" Principal Windu asked.

"Yes," Anakin said. "Do you have a screwdriver?"

As Principal Windu went to find the requested tool, Obi-Wan glanced at the twins. "Do you want me to take the twins home?" he asked.

Anakin shook his head; he was looking over the copier intently. "This won't take me very long."

He turned out to be right. After Principal Windu returned with the screwdriver, it took Anakin less than twenty minutes to turn the parts the right way and put the copier together again.

"That should fix your problem," he told Principal Windu, handing back the screwdriver. "It might still jam every once and a while because all copiers do, but if it doesn't get better or if it gets worse, let me know and I'll think of something else to try."

"That's wonderful," Principal Windu said. "Thank you so much. What do I owe you?"

Anakin blinked, he looked confused. "Nothing…"

"I must owe you something," Principal Windu said. "You've solved a persistent problem, and I'm grateful."

"You don't owe me anything," Anakin said. "I'm just happy to be able to help," he turned to the twins. "Alright, are you two ready to go home?"

He and the twins left Obi-Wan and Principal Windu standing in the office.


The small diversion with the copier did wonders for Anakin's mood. He was laughing with the twins when Obi-Wan showed up later that night and his high spirits even survived his night at Walmart. Obi-Wan found himself hoping that the mood lasted. What Anakin really needed was a change of pace, but Obi-Wan figured a change of mood would do in a pinch.

However, it wasn't meant to last. Anakin came home from work on Thursday night back in his cycle of stress. He didn't even wake Obi-Wan up the way he normally did, he just walked into the kitchen and began going through the bills and statements frantically.

"What's wrong?" Obi-Wan asked.

"This isn't going to work," Anakin was saying, he shuffled through the papers feverishly. "There just isn't enough money for this!"

"Anakin, what's wrong?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin whirled around, his eyes were wide and panicked. "Watto offered me a promotion."

"That's great news," Obi-Wan said. "I don't see how that's bad."

"Okay, he said he wants to promote me," Anakin said. "The position he wants to give me is a good one. I could cut back the hours I work at Walmart, maybe even quit there."

"I still don't see what the problem is," Obi-Wan said.

Anakin fisted both hands in his hair. "He said the promotion is mine, but I'm not qualified for it until I get my GED."

There was the reason Anakin was freaking out. "Oh."

Anakin looked at the papers again. "I'll need to take a couple weeks off of work at Walmart so I can get ready for it. It's a test that you have to appear for in person like you would the ACT or the SAT, so I won't be able to work that day, and I'll need some time to go over things. Who knows how much I've forgotten," he ran a hand through his hair, but the motion became closer to him ripping his hair out. "The problem is that I need all the money I would be making at Walmart to pay the bills and pay you and buy food…I don't have savings anymore, Obi-Wan."

"What if I were to just watch the twins for free for a month?" Obi-Wan said.

"I can't do that," Anakin said. "This is your job, I can't just not pay you."

"I'm also your friend," Obi-Wan said. "Look at it like a friend doing a favor for a friend."

Anakin shook his head. "I can't, Obi-Wan. I can't take advantage of you like that."

Frustration soared through Obi-Wan. "You won't be taking advantage of me! I'm your friend, I want to help you!"

"I can't!" Anakin shouted. "I have some pride you know!"

They probably would have gone on arguing but at that moment Luke appeared in the kitchen door rubbing his eyes. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

Anakin and Obi-Wan looked at each other. "Nothing's wrong, Luke," Anakin said giving the little boy a shaky smile. "Obi-Wan and I are just talking."

Luke pursed his lips. "You're sure?"

"We're sure," Obi-Wan said and turned to Anakin. "I'll put him back to bed. You get ready for bed and get some sleep. We can talk about this more in the morning."

He got another dull, stressed smile as Anakin headed off for his bedroom.


Friday went by without much fuss, just like any normal day in the endless routine. The thought of having to discuss the GED problems that night kept Obi-Wan from feeling too bored, in fact it made him a little nervous. He was totally willing to forgo his pay for a month if it helped Anakin and the twins. He knew how much the twins needed to spend more time with Anakin and he knew Anakin needed to have time for something other than working. This promotion could do wonders for them, and Obi-Wan was willing to do anything he could to help Anakin achieve it.

Now he just needed to convince Anakin it was okay.


That Friday night, Obi-Wan put the twins to bed and then went to bed himself. He was woken up at one in the morning to the sound of someone throwing up.

He was on his feet in a moment, thinking that one of the twins was sick. He darted to the bathroom to find Anakin leaning against the toilet. The bathroom lights were off even though Obi-Wan normally left them on so Luke and Leia could see if they got out of bed.

"Are you alright?" Obi-Wan asked even though the answer was pretty obvious. He reached for the light switch.

"Don't," Anakin groaned.

"Don't what?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Turn the lights on."

"Why?" Obi-Wan was confused. "It's pitch black in here."

Anakin gagged and Obi-Wan turned away as the boy threw up again. It had to be vomit didn't it?

"It's a migraine," Anakin grunted when he'd finished. "Lights just make it worse."

A migraine? Obi-Wan had never known anyone who had them, he wondered what he was supposed to do. "Why are you throwing up?" he asked, "Isn't a migraine just a really bad headache?" then he winced. Way to put your foot in your mouth, Kenobi.

Anakin was pressing his hands against his temples like he was trying to hold his head together. "The worst headache you could possibly imagine," he swallowed hard. "They make me really nauseous."

"What should I do?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Stop talking," Anakin gagged again. "Sounds, lights, smells: not exactly my friends right now."

Obi-Wan pressed his lips together and nodded even though Anakin wasn't looking at him.

An uncomfortable silence fell over them, Obi-Wan shifted from foot to foot. He felt like he should be doing something to help, but he didn't want to make Anakin feel worse.

Anakin swallowed heavily after several minutes. "I have some medication in the cabinet up there," he pointed a shaking finger at a cabinet above the sink. "Can you please get it for me?"

Obi-Wan opened the cabinet and squinted through the dark at the bottles in the cabinet. "Which one?"

"Not Tylenol, not Advil," Anakin had his eyes squeezed tight closed. "Something else."

That barely narrowed it down at all. "Prescription?"

"No."

Obi-Wan picked up out a likely looking bottle and held it out. "This one?"

Anakin opened his eyes and squinted up at it. After a moment he shook his head. "Sorry, my vision's a little blurry. What is it?"

Obi-Wan read the name out loud and Anakin shook his head. "Not that one, something else."

Obi-Wan searched through the cabinet again and pulled out another bottle. "What about this one," he said and read the name.

"That's the one," Anakin slid backwards so he was leaning against the bathroom wall. He winced and closed his eyes again. "I need two of those and a glass of water.

There was a cup sitting by the sink that Obi-Wan filled with water, then he shook two of the oval-shaped white pills into his hand. He turned back to Anakin who was still huddled against the wall. "Are you sure you can keep this down?" he asked.

Anakin bit his lip. He looked like he was in a lot of pain. "I'm going to have to."

Obi-Wan handed over the meds and the water. He watched as Anakin swallowed the pills and curled in on himself, head resting on his knees, arms wrapped around his head. He didn't move for almost twenty minutes.

When he finally did he lifted his head and squinted at Obi-Wan. "Alright, I think I'd like to go to bed now."

Obi-Wan helped Anakin brush his teeth and move into his bedroom. Then Obi-Wan found an old tee-shirt and a pair of pajama pants in the dresser and turned away while Anakin changed. As soon as he was done changing, Anakin sunk onto the bed and lay there pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes.

"This one's worse than the last one," he muttered.

Last one? "When was the last time this happened?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Sometime last fall," Anakin waved a hand. "A while ago."

Last fall. Obi-Wan thought about it and something about Anakin that had never made much sense clicked. "That day we ran into Yoda!" he exclaimed. "Leia said you weren't feeling well and you told her you had a headache!"

"Yeah," Anakin nodded slightly. "That was it."

"You could have said something," Obi-Wan said.

"What good would it have done?" Anakin answered.

"You're in pain," Obi-Wan pointed out. "You shouldn't have to deal with that alone."

Anakin moved his hands away from his eyes and squinted up at Obi-Wan. "Can we talk about this when I can actually think straight?"

Anakin obviously wanted some peace and quiet to sleep this off. Obi-Wan nodded and tucked the blankets around the young man. "I'm going to stay the night," he said.

"You don' hav' t' do tha'," Anakin muttered words beginning to slur.

"You're sick," Obi-Wan said. "I'm going to say in case you need someone. I'll be in the front room if you need me."

He had expected more of an argument, but Anakin was tired and sick and in pain, and just nodded. "M'kay…" and curled up in the blankets.


Obi-Wan found a spare blanket in the closet in the twins' room and curled up under it on the couch. He slept fitfully with one ear open because he wasn't convinced Anakin would actually call if he needed help. The rest of the night was quiet, however, and Obi-Wan had just fallen into a fairly restful sleep when an alarm sounded.

It wasn't a very loud alarm, but Obi-Wan still alert enough that he woke up. Sitting up he reached for his cell phone on the coffee table and checked the time, it was 7:00am. He swore under his breath, he'd totally forgotten that today was Saturday. Anakin worked on Saturdays.

The alarm turned off. Obi-Wan hoped Anakin had the sense to just go back to sleep and not try to go into work. There was no noise from the young man's bedroom. Obi-Wan sat on the couch and fought the urge to go and check that Anakin was still in bed. No one was crazy enough to try to go to work in that state. Still he couldn't settle down so he walked to the bedroom and slowly opened the door.

Anakin was awake and sitting on the edge of the bed pressing the heels of his hands against his temples. Judging by the way he winced when the light from the front room hit his eyes, he wasn't feeling much better than he had the night before.

"What are you doing up?" Obi-Wan asked even though he had a sinking feeling he already knew.

Anakin didn't look up at him, he was too busy rubbing his temples. "I have to work in an hour."

Obi-Wan couldn't completely hold back a groan. Was this man insane? He crossed the room to the place where Anakin's jacket hung on the closet door, he looked through the pockets and was unsurprised to find Anakin's cell phone, completely forgotten in all the commotion the night before. Obi-Wan moved back across the room and held the phone out in front of Anakin's face.

Anakin stared at the phone for a minute then lifted his head and squinted up at Obi-Wan. He didn't say anything, but his confusion was evident enough.

"You're going to call in sick," Obi-Wan said.

Anakin blinked. "Obi-Wan, this is my job. I can't just not go. I need to be reliable. Especially if I want Watto to hold true to his promise of promoting me."

Obi-Wan couldn't believe Anakin would even try to make that argument. "I'm not saying you should just no show up, I'm saying that you should call in sick."

"I'm not sick," Anakin argued. "It's just a headache."

"It's a migraine," Obi-Wan growled. "You were throwing up last night. You're sick, and you're not going work. I'm not going to let you."

Anakin glared at him, the effect slightly marred by the pained grimace the expression caused. "What makes you think you need to 'let me?'"

Okay, maybe Anakin had some problems with authority; that wouldn't be surprising given the things he'd said about his father. Fortunately, Obi-Wan wasn't authority. "You're right," he said. "I don't have any control over what you do, but I am your friend and as a friend I'm saying that I think it would be best if you didn't go to work today."

Anakin sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Alright," he said holding out a hand. "Give me the phone."

Obi-Wan handed over the cell phone and watched while Anakin made the call. Once that was done, Anakin set the phone aside and curled up on the bed again, drawing the blankets over his head.

"Do you need anything?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin shifted slightly. "Can you get those meds from the bathroom? The dose I took last night is wearing off."

"Okay," Obi-Wan said. "I'll be right back."


Obi-Wan didn't bother going back to bed, instead he sat around trying to work on his grading but mostly just worrying. He'd been staring at the same worksheet for over twenty minutes without making any progress when the twins came into the front room in their pajamas.

"Hi, Obi-Wan!" Leia said loudly.

Obi-Wan barely stopped himself from snapping at her. "Quiet," he said as gently as possible. "Your daddy's trying to sleep."

"He's home?" Leia sounded confused.

Luke pursed his lips looking worried. "Does he have a headache? Is he sick?"

Obi-Wan had been afraid of worrying the twins and was planning to just tell them that Anakin was tired. He'd never considered the fact that Luke and Leia probably already knew about Anakin's migraines. He cursed himself for not thinking of that.

"He has a headache," Obi-Wan admitted. "He's fine, he just wants to sleep."

"Why did he go work?" Leia asked, looking a little suspicious. "He always goes to work."

"Well, I convinced him to stay home," Obi-Wan said. "He's going to rest today."

The twins looked at each other, considering Obi-Wan's words, then Luke nodded. "Okay,"


The day passed quietly enough. The twins played and did some of their homework. Anakin slept, but his migraine didn't seem to be getting any better. Eventually, Obi-Wan asked if he was sure everything was alright and if they should go to a hospital. Anakin snapped that he would be fine if Obi-Wan would just leave him alone, and Obi-Wan made a hasty retreat before he could anger the young man even more.

After that, Obi-Wan didn't check on Anakin again until eight o'clock. He opened the door carefully, clutching a glass of water. Anakin was lying on his back staring up at the ceiling of the room, unlike the other times Obi-Wan had checked on him. He was still pale, but he didn't look like he was in pain.

"Are you okay?" Obi-Wan asked softly.

"It's almost gone," Anakin said. "I'll be alright."

"That's good," Obi-Wan said and held the glass of water. "You should drink something."

Anakin sat up slowly and took the glass. He raised the glass, then paused. "I'm sorry for yelling at you," he said.

"It's fine," Obi-Wan said. "You were hurting."

"I still shouldn't have yelled," Anakin said. "That wasn't fair to you. You've done nothing but help me, and you're not the first person to suggest that I should go to a hospital. I tend to forget that the rest of the world doesn't know that I'm not going to have an aneurysm or something and die."

"It's fine," Obi-Wan repeated. "I'm not mad."

"I'm sorry anyway," Anakin raised the glass again and took a long drink. "You can go home now if you'd like; I'm sure you're sick of being here."

"Actually," Obi-Wan said. "If it's all the same to you, I was planning to stay the night. That way you can rest and not have to worry about the twins."

"You don't have to," Anakin protested. "I'm pretty much fine now; just tired and a little dizzy."

"It doesn't matter that I don't have to," Obi-Wan said. "I'll stay tonight and you can sleep."

Anakin sighed. "Fine," he said, shaking his head.

"Hasn't a friend ever tried to help you?" Obi-Wan asked, somewhat bemused.

"It's been years," Anakin admitted. "In case you haven't noticed, I don't have much of a social life here."

"Even Ahsoka didn't try to help?"

Anakin shrugged. "For all her playing at being a million feet tall, I think my migraines kind of freaked her out, it wasn't hard to convince her to go home."

"Well then consider me an exception to the rule," Obi-Wan said. He was just trying to figure out what to say next when he heard Leia calling him from the front room. He turned to go, but Anakin's voice stopped him.

"Obi-Wan."

He turned back. "Yes?"

Anakin gave him a cautious smile. "Thank you."

Obi-Wan smiled back. "No problem. What are friends for?"


The next morning was Sunday. When Obi-Wan poked Anakin's sleeping form the young man barely twitched, so Obi-Wan wrote a note, got the twins up and took them to church. They had to stop at Obi-Wan's house so he could change (he was not going to wear the clothes he'd been wearing and sleeping in for the last two days to church), and were almost late. Afterwards, they met up with Satine and went to Dex's. Luke and Leia feasted on chocolate chip pancakes while Obi-Wan and Satine talked and ate omelets. When Satine asked where Anakin was, Obi-Wan just said that Anakin wasn't feeling well and left it at that.

When they were finished eating, Obi-Wan ordered something to take back to the apartment for Anakin. Satine gave them a ride back to the apartment in her car, which was an adventure for the twins, because they didn't remember a time when they'd gone places on anything other than the subway. Thankfully, neither of them remembered the incident with Barriss until they were climbing the apartment steps.

Anakin was up when they got back, his hair wet like he'd just gotten out of the shower. "I read your note," he told Obi-Wan. "Why didn't you wake me? I would have gone with you."

"I thought about it," Obi-Wan admitted. "But you were out cold so I decided to let you sleep. We brought you brunch," he held up the takeout box. "I hope you like chocolate chip pancakes, the twins wouldn't let me order anything else."

Anakin smiled. "At this point, Obi-Wan, I'd eat anything."

Luke and Leia went to play with their stuffed animals on the balcony, and Anakin sat in the kitchen to eat his food. Obi-Wan sat in the kitchen as well and paged through a copy of the Sunday paper that he'd picked up while they were walking to Dex's.

They sat in silence for several minutes, then Anakin frowned. "Last night, when we were talking, what time was it?"

"About eight," Obi-Wan said looking up. "Why?"

"Sometime after that alarm went off yesterday I unplugged my clock because its digital and the light was hurting my eyes," Anakin said, then he was silent for a minute, lips moving slightly like he was doing math. Finally he seemed to reach a conclusion. "About 28 hours," he said. "Definitely the worst migraine I've had since we moved to Coruscant. Though, all things considered, that's not surprising."

"Are you sure you're alright?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Yeah," Anakin grinned. "Relax, Obi-Wan, that was nothing. I've had worse."

"But you just said that this was the worst-"

"I've had in the last couple years," Anakin corrected. "The longest a 'normal' migraine is supposed to be is 72 hours. I've had more than my fair share of 72 hour migraines, but that was back when I was in high school, ever since I moved here they've been a lot milder."

"So this is…" Obi-Wan searched for the right word, but couldn't find one and settled for, "normal?"

Anakin shrugged. "I've been having migraines since I was a kid. Mom had them too, which means there's a good chance one or both of the twins will have the same problem."

"Why?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to ask what causes them?" Obi-Wan nodded. "As best any of the doctors I saw in high school could tell: stress. Which didn't exactly work in my favor as a kid, because whenever I would get a headache my father would assume I was faking it to get out of something I didn't want to do or trying to get attention like you would expect from a spoiled rich kid. At best, he would just tell me to get out of bed, take a Tylenol and go to school," Anakin snorted. "What great fatherly advice: Tylenol doesn't help and neither do bright buildings full of noisy kids."

"Didn't he take you to see a doctor?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin shook his head.

"That's…" Obi-Wan couldn't even fathom it. "How could he do that? What if you'd had a brain tumor?"

Anakin looked evasively down at his food. "He either truly believed I was faking it—which he couldn't have, not towards the end—or he remembered Mom's headaches and figured I wasn't going to die. Either way, he didn't want to risk someone in the media figuring out about it, so he didn't think taking me to see a doctor was worth it."

Obi-Wan wondered exactly what Anakin's father was that he'd be worried about the media figuring out he'd taken his son to the doctor. He thought about asking, but instead settled for another pressing question, "You did end up seeing a doctor in the end, right?"

"Yeah," Anakin put a bite of pancake in his mouth and chewed. He seemed to be thinking about how best to answer the question. "You remember how I said that I should have been Valedictorian, right?"

"Yes," Obi-Wan answered.

Anakin took a deep breath. "I slipped out of number one in my class my junior year. The year started out simply enough, my father was pushing and asking impossible things from me, per usual, but that year it was different. Before I knew it I was having more migraines than I'd ever had before, and I was sick all the time," Anakin stuffed another bite into his mouth and chewed almost convulsively. "As I'm sure you can imagine, it's really hard to do your homework when your head hurts too much to focus on anything. My grades started to slide and Ferus got ahead of me. That made Father mad and it turned into this feedback loop I couldn't get out of.

"Father still wouldn't take me to see a doctor," Anakin continued. "I think at that point he was knew something was wrong and was terrified of having to explain why he hadn't taken me to see someone sooner. Eventually, though, things forced his hand."

Anakin ate in silence for several more minutes. Right when Obi-Wan was about to prompt him to go on, Anakin took a deep breath.

"My basketball team had had an undefeated season," Anakin said. "We were playing our championship game. The team we were playing was really good, we'd beaten them before, but it had been close. The championship could have gone either way and we all knew it. My father made it very clear that he wouldn't accept anything but victory from us and that he didn't want my 'weakness' to be the downfall of the team.

"That's probably what did it, because that day I had the worst migraine I'd ever had in my life," Anakin sighed and looked up at Obi-Wan. "Normally when I have a migraine it's just everyone else who's afraid that I'm dying, but that time I was afraid that I was dying. Ki-Adi—that was our assistant coach—took me to the ER. My team lost: everything fell apart because they were worrying about me.

"The doctors made sure I didn't have a tumor or an aneurysm then put me on some kind of preventative medication," Anakin continued. "It worked wonderfully, and is probably the only reason my senior year didn't go the same way as junior year did. I don't take those meds anymore because it turns out that being away from my father removes most of the stresses that usually trigger my migraines. I also never saw anything about the incident on the news or the tabloids, so I don't know who my father paid off to keep the whole thing quiet."

"That's horrible," Obi-Wan said trying to process it all. He couldn't imagine a parent being so cruel.

Anakin shrugged. "It's not all bad, if Father had taken me to see a doctor sooner and I hadn't been so sick junior year I probably would never have met Padmé."

"Really?" Obi-Wan asked, latching onto what he hoped would be a happier story.

Anakin nodded. "A week or so before the championship, my team was having a party at Rex's house. It was a totally upstanding party, Jango was going to be there and everything. He was all about creating a reputation for the basketball team of being these good, clean guys who played great basketball unlike the football team. (I won't tell you anymore about them. If you want to know about the football jocks at Theed, all you have to do is Google them and you'll know more than you ever wanted to.)

"Anyway," Anakin went on taking another bite of pancake. "We were having this party and Rex wanted me to come because I'd been skipping out on a lot of social stuff because I'd been feeling so crummy all the time. I ended up promising I would go, but there was still the problem of convincing my father to let me go. He wasn't known for letting me go anywhere with friends let alone to parties, even though he knew Jango wouldn't let us do anything illegal. Eventually, I ended up telling him that I was going to check out this new exhibit that the public museum. Rex and I figured that we'd go there and buy tickets in case Father tried to check my story, look around a little so it wasn't a total waste of money, then go to the party. Kitster and Tru refused to go with us, but Ferus came along, not because he was actually our friend, but because he was the only guy on the team who thought going to the museum actually sounded interesting."

"Very clever," Obi-Wan said. He had never told a lie that big to his own parents.

"Unfortunately, for me, the universe was conspiring against me," Anakin said. "Or maybe for me, I guess it depends on your point of view. Either way, by the time we got to the museum, I had a migraine. I remember I was sitting on the floor in one of the rooms, curled in on myself, when a hand touched my shoulder and someone asked if I was alright. I looked up and the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen was standing over me."

Anakin smiled somewhat shyly at Obi-Wan. "You have to realize, that at this point I wasn't thinking very clearly. I just said the first thing that came into my head and that was…" Anakin chuckled. "'Are you an angel?'"

Obi-Wan couldn't keep from laughing. "Smooth."

Anakin's smile was big and unafraid now. "Very," he agreed. "She volunteered at the museum, so once I got meds and I was feeling better, I started to go there just so I could her. After a while, I was talking to her, and then hanging out with her after school and then I was dating her." He paused, smiling softly as he thought. Then he looked up suddenly, eyes intense. "I don't know if you've ever been in love, Obi-Wan. Really in love. So in love that you feel like the whole world could stand against you and it wouldn't slow you down. That was what loving Padmé was like, and I was seventeen and reckless and I'd never felt more alive."

Anakin stopped again to think. "I asked her to marry me on her eighteenth birthday," he said. "She'd just gotten done telling me that she'd stay in Naboo because I was there, and I just went for it; didn't think about it at all. I didn't even have a ring, but she said yes," he smiled. "She claimed to be the more sensible of the two of us, but in all the ways that counted, she was as reckless as I was.

"Her birthday was in late August, but we had to wait until mid-September when I turned eighteen, and it was a really small wedding," Anakin went on. "Just me, her, Rex, her best friend, Sabé, and a priest in a little church. No one else knew. Actually, Jango and Zam didn't know until I got disowned, and you already know how my father figured out."

Anakin sighed. "Marrying Padmé was, I admit, absolutely foolish, but the strange thing is, even though I'm working two jobs and living in an apartment the size of the living room at my father's mansion, I don't regret it. Yes, maybe I did get disowned and maybe my father made sure I wouldn't graduate high school out of spite, but my father was, quite honestly, a terrible father and I'm better off without him. Plus, I have two wonderful kids and I got to spend just under a year married to the most amazing woman to ever live," his eyes seemed to bore into Obi-Wan. "I don't think I'll ever be able to regret that."

Obi-Wan didn't know what to say. He swallowed, hard and searched for something eloquent to say. "Thank you," he finally got out. "For sharing your story with me."

Anakin snorted. "It's not a very good story; there's no happy ending. She's still dead," He bit back a sound that sounded a little like a sob, Obi-Wan saw tears welling up in his eyes.

Anakin stood up suddenly and threw away the empty takeout box. He moved to the sink and began washing his fork and cup. He took a very long time, but Obi-Wan saw his shoulders shaking and didn't say anything, letting Anakin have his moment to compose himself.

When Anakin finally dried the dishes, put them away and turned around, his face was dry. "I should go check on the twins," he said. "They've gotten awfully quiet."

He crossed the kitchen in several long strides. He was in the doorway when Obi-Wan mustered up the courage to ask his last question, the one that he thought would finally fill in the cracks in the portrait he'd been constructing of who Anakin Skywalker was and who he had once been. "Anakin, who is your father?"

Anakin froze. He stood there for almost a minute, every muscle in his body rigid. Then he took a deep breath. "Obi-Wan," he said. His voice was as tense as his body. "I don't think you want to know."

Then he walked out of the kitchen to check on the twins.


All will be revealed in Part Four!

Sorry for the wait, I really wanted to get this out sooner, but first I was procrastinating, then it was just taking a long time. I had the actual writing done last night, but it was taking me a really long time to read through it (in Microsoft Word this part is 17 pages of size twelve font). Eventually, I just went to bed and decided I'd post today. I'm hoping to get Part Four out quicker but I have an original story that I've been neglecting that I need to work on as well.

Please fav, follow and review!

Emjen