Ch. 3

"Hey Taryn, what's up?" Luke asked as he and Leia slipped back into their house, finding Taryn watching the HoloNet alone in the main room.

"Well, I've been watching this all night, seeing as a certain sister abandoned me," she said angrily, looking frustratedly at Leia.

"Taryn," Leia sighed, rolling her eyes. "I take you places all the time, this just wasn't a good night for you to come, ok?"

"Whatever," Taryn shrugged, annoyed.

"Why didn't you call your own friends?" Luke asked calmly, trying to mediate the dispute between his sisters.

"No one's around," Taryn complained. "Almost everybody is on missions right now, but naturally Obi Wan's been stationed on Coruscant for almost a year now. We haven't done anything interesting in so long."

"It's not like they're doing anything interesting either," Leia pointed out. "Nothing of note has happened in the galaxy since Luke and I were little. They're doing the same kind of boring policing you and Obi Wan are doing here."

"She's right though, Obi Wan can be pretty boring sometimes," Luke laughed, fondly recalling his time as Obi Wan's Padawan. "Leia's the lucky one, she had dad."

"Right, try having your own father as your Master, it's really a lot better," Leia sad sarcastically. "You guys have it way better, Obi Wan's much more fun than dad."

"They're both pretty dull lately," Taryn pointed out, as Luke and Leia nodded, amused. "They must have been so much cooler during the Clone Wars. Dad was telling us tonight about how one time, Obi Wan fell into a nest of Gundarks. It seems like it was way more exciting back then…I wish they would talk about it more, or better yet, some big problem would break out now and we could deal with it."

Leia and Luke eyed each other warily, both thinking about what they wanted to ask their parents.

"What?" Taryn asked interestedly, noticing their look and also sensing their excitement mixed with uneasiness.

"Nothing," Leia lied, and though Taryn knew they were hiding something she didn't push it. "You're right though, they don't tell us much about those days." She looked at Luke seriously, who nodded.

"Where is dad?" Luke asked, trying to sense any other family members nearby and only finding distant force presences.

"Well, let's just say this is one of those times where Obi Wan's Padawan is way luckier than dads," Taryn said, nodding to her left to indicate Anakin's whereabouts. Looking speculatively down the hall, Luke and Leia followed Anakin's force signature and found themselves approaching the balcony at the far end of the house. Confused, they walked out onto the balcony to find Anakin carefully surveying Zeke and Bail who were kneeling on the ground, apparently scrubbing the tile of the balcony floor.

"I said scrub, not sit around lazily and make the Force do it for you," Anakin scolded, as Bail sat back and used the Force to move his brush in front of him. Luke and Leia looked at each other and almost burst out laughing- this kind of thing was typical punishment if Anakin got mad. There was absolutely no reason for any of his punishments, yet he invented them all the time just to instill 'discipline' in his children (and Padawans). They themselves had done so many of his menial tasks for punishment that they couldn't help but feel little pity and mostly amusement upon watching their younger brothers. Plus, Anakin had been such a troublemaker himself, as they knew from Obi Wan's stories, and so often encouraged pranks, that they found it funny that at random times he would punish them with such harsh measures.

"My hands hurt," Bail complained, looking angrily up at his father and Master.

"Consider that a sampling of how much someone might have been hurt had your laser blasts hit one of us," Anakin said sternly, as Bail groaned and grabbed the brush back into his hand, dipping it in a bucket of soap and water and continuing to scrub.

"If I can use the Force, why shouldn't I?" Bail argued contentiously as he scrubbed.

"Because, Jedi need to be strong, not just in the Force, but physically," Anakin informed him strictly. "And as my Padawan, you will learn that."

"But I'm not even a Padawan yet!" Zeke whined, pouting at his father. "Why do I have to do it?"

"This is more about the punishment," Anakin reminded him. "You set off two blasters in the- oh, Luke, Leia, hello!"

"Hi dad," Luke greeted, as he and Leia bit their lips to hide their amusement. "What did they do?"

"Almost killed us, that's what," Anakin informed him angrily.

"Dad, the blasters were set for stun," Leia reminded him, gradually feeling more and more pity for her little brothers out here in the cold.

"How do you know?" Luke asked her, seeing as she had spent the last two hours with him at a party.

"It happened before I left," Leia informed him.

"So they've been out here for two hours?" Luke asked, also beginning to pity his brothers.

"Not quite," Anakin said, a twinkle of amusement still in his eyes despite his harshness with the boys. "They had to repair the holes in the wall first."

"I think it's been long enough, don't you?" Leia asked sweetly, giving Anakin a kiss on the cheek that she knew melted his heart.

"Well, I guess, but-"

"Daddy don't be too mean," she chided him. "Remember all the things you did to Obi Wan?"

"I guess you're right," Anakin nodded, unable to disagree with Leia. "Ok boys, that's enough, go put your buckets away and you can go play."
"Thanks Leia!" Bail yelled, giving his sister a hug as they all stepped inside.

"Thanks Leia!" Zeke echoed, also hugging her as he hurried away. "Thank the Force for Leia," they heard him say to Bail as the boys hurried down the hallway. Leia and Luke laughed, and Anakin looked slightly perturbed at how he had been manipulated so easily.

"You two are home early," he commented, wondering why his eldest children, who usually stayed out all night, had suddenly decided to come home before he had gone to bed. They headed towards the sitting room, where Padme had Elsé on her lap and was reading her a story. Elsé was in her pajamas and falling asleep, but as soon as she felt her older siblings' presences nearby she jumped up and ran to great them. As Anakin watched, he realized how completely fulfilling his life was right now. He loved his family so much, and that sight of his beloved wife reading to their youngest daughter just reassured him that he had been able to provide for his family and make them happy and at peace- the dream that had eluded him for so long finally seemed complete.

"Hi Lukey! Hi Leia!" Elsé greeted enthusiastically, as Luke picked her up and she giggled with delight. Anakin laughed fondly at his youngest daughter's enthusiasm, again filled with happiness as he looked at his oldest son, now grown up, holding his youngest daughter affectionately.

"You two are home early," Padme echoed Anakin's earlier sentiment, eyeing them suspiciously.

"Yes, we actually-" Leia began, but Elsé soon interrupted her.

"Leia another boy called you tonight!" Elsé yelled excitedly. Anakin looked at Padme, flustered, and Leia and Luke laughed.

"Do you know who?" Leia asked calmly, smiling at her little sister.

"No," Elsé said sadly, ashamed that she couldn't be of more help. "Oh, Taryn knows though!" She informed Leia.

"It was Kale, I think," Padme told Leia, who nodded.

"Don't worry dad, he's just a friend," Leia told Anakin, as Padme and Luke tried not to laugh.

"Isn't it time for your bed, kiddo?" Luke asked Elsé who pouted angrily at him.

"Thanks for bringing that up," she sighed, crossing her arms.

"Sorry, Els," Luke laughed, putting her down.

"He's right though," Padme said firmly. "It's way past your bedtime."

"I'm going," Elsé pouted, turning sulkingly towards her room. "Daddy aren't you coming to say goodnight?" She asked, pulling on the sleeve of his robes.

"Of course," Anakin smiled, grabbing his little girl's hand and leading her to her room. As they walked out, Luke and Leia sat awkwardly down on the couch with their mother- she could tell something was up, and they knew it.

"Now, why did you really come home early?" Padme asked, eyeing her twins suspiciously. Anakin, as gifted as he was with the Force, could sometimes be oblivious to the more subtle feelings of his children, especially when it came to Luke and Leia. As they had grown up they had become increasingly good at keeping Anakin peacefully ignorant of their behavior, but as a mother Padme could usually see through their white lies. She usually knew what was going on with them, and could always tell when something was bothering them, especially Leia. At this moment she knew both twins had something serious on their minds, and she intended to find out what it was.

"We…we…" Leia stumbled, she and Luke both at a loss for words. She looked at look nervously, who shrugged at her, just as unable to explain the situation as she was.

"Is something wrong?" Padme asked, suddenly concerned for her children.

"No, don't worry, we're fine," Luke assured her. "We just… we…"

'Luke, what if I talk to mom alone,' Leia asked through the Force. Luke knew this was probably a good idea, Leia and Padme were very close, and he certainly felt awkward in this situation.

'Just ask about what she meant earlier, about ruining dad's life,' he suggested to Leia. 'And then later we can confront them about that guy, and our own past.'

'Yeah, I think that's a good idea,' Leia agreed. 'Go talk to dad, tell him some stupid story about the party tonight that when you tell it he'll think is hilarious, and if I told it he'd freak out that I was at a party like that.'

Luke laughed, and Padme, who had been staring at them bewilderedly during their silence, suddenly realized that they were again talking through the Force.

"I really don't appreciate it when you do that," she said sternly, as Luke and Leia looked guiltily at her.

"I'll go see what dad's up to," Luke said, a little overenthusiastically. Leia rolled her eyes as he gracelessly got up and left the room, looking at them uncomfortably the whole time.

"What's wrong, Leia," Padme asked worriedly, knowing that Luke had left for a reason.

"What did you mean earlier?" Leia asked, and Padme knew immediately to what she was referring.

"You told Luke?" Padme asked nervously, biting her lip. She really hadn't meant for her children to find out this way (if ever) and she knew that it wasn't her place to tell them without first discussing it with Anakin. They had made the decision together to refrain from mentioning their past, and the old code. Because it concerned Anakin more than her she had to talk to him first. Now that Leia had told Luke, it would be impossible to let the issue be forgotten, and she knew the truth would soon come out.

"Of course I told him," Leia said, surprisingly angry. She hadn't realized how hurt she was that their parents had been deceiving them for so long about something so important. Suddenly, as she began to discuss it, she realized that she felt insulted to have been kept in the dark so much about the past.

"Leia, I… I can't tell you," Padme said sadly, staring lovingly at her daughter whom she knew felt very resentful towards her right now. "I have to talk to your father…"

"Why? What can be so important?" Leia asked frustratedly. "We're just interested… we wouldn't be angry. Look, I know the war was really difficult, whatever happened I'd understand…"

"What are you insinuating?" Padme asked suspiciously, suddenly aware that whatever Leia was thinking was way off. Both Leia and Padme, as politicians, were so good at speaking around a subject and never really addressing it that often their conversations got nowhere.

"Were you pregnant with us before you got married…you didn't want to tell him? Is that why it would 'ruin his life?'" Leia asked, deciding to be blunt. She and Luke had discussed it on the way home, and decided that this was the most plausible scenario. "It's ok, like I said, we don't-"

"No Leia," Padme said sternly, slightly insulted that her daughter would think that but realizing that it really did seem fitting after what she had said. "No, that's not it," she said more quietly, looking past her daughter.

"Sorry, it's just-"

"I know…" Padme nodded, understanding. "And just to clarify, having the two of you could never have ruined either of our lives. You were the best thing to ever happen to us, really… it's just that you were born at a very difficult time for us, for the Jedi and the Republic, for the galaxy…"

"I know, because of Palpatine," Leia said- they all knew about how the Chancellor had turned out to be a Sith, and how Anakin had defeated him. However, Padme and Anakin, and the Jedi order, had left it at that, trying to keep the fact that Anakin finally killing Palpatine had happened four years after the Clone Wars, after they had established the New Republic. Everyone just assumed that when Anakin caught Palpatine, he had killed him- only the Jedi Council, Padme and her family, and the high ranking Senators knew about the Sith camps, Plaegus, and Palpatine's final demise on Kashyyyk. And also the Jedi never discussed the old code, though, were a Padawan to go look in the archives, the record was there. No one actively hid the information, but no one spoke of it either. But most importantly, the children knew nothing of the fact that Palpatine had tried to turn their father to the dark side- that he had almost been successful.

"Yes," Padme nodded, not wanting to delve into the subject anymore than she had to. "Actually, your father and I were married three years before you were born," she smiled, remembering how they had secretly fallen in love and hidden their marriage for three years.

"Then what?" Leia asked, seeing the strange look of nostalgia, but also of sadness, in her mother's eyes. "Please, tell me."

Padme took a deep breath, looking into the pleading eyes of her daughter and wanting desperately to tell her, to share with her the excitement and the pain of hiding their marriage, the fear she felt when she found out she was pregnant, the joy of finally letting the secret out…but how could she tell her, without first asking Anakin?

"Ok," Padme sighed, suddenly ready to tell. "But your father will be angry with me."

"I can handle dad," Leia smiled, excited that she was getting somewhere in this quest for the truth. Her real motive, of course, was to get her mother talking so that Luke and she could finally ask about their own past, and the fact that her mother was talking excited her. However, she suddenly felt an extreme desire to know this secret, and was eager to hear it.

"Leia, when your father was a Padawan, the Jedi code was… different," Padme began warily, guilty that she was sharing this secret but happy to be talking with her daughter.

"Different?" Leia asked, now thoroughly confused. "I thought the code had been around for thousands of years."

"It had, which is why we were so afraid to…Leia, your father and I married illegally," Padme explained, looking nervously up at Leia.

"Illegally?" Leia asked incredulously. "How could it be- wait, you mean… the code?"

"Jedi weren't allowed to marry, or to have attachments of any kind," Padme told her daughter. "They were expected to dedicate themselves to the order, they could never fall in love or have a relationship."
"But- but that's…so dad broke the code?" Leia asked, in absolute disbelief.

"He was assigned to protect me, when I became victim to several assassination attempts," Padme explained. "He was your age, and still Obi Wan's Padawan… it was his first assignment on his own, and we had to go into hiding, in the Lake Country of Naboo. We spent so much time together, and there was this tension in between us, but we couldn't speak of it. I felt so strongly about him, and he openly flirted with me and told me he loved me- but I refused to allow him to break the code and be expelled from the order. When he kissed me, it was like…like everything I hadn't even realized I was missing in life was suddenly right in front of me- but I couldn't have it, I couldn't- I told him we had to pretend we didn't feel anything, we had to ignore it…" Padme stopped, remembering the pain of that moment vividly.

"I can't believe it," Leia said softly, entranced with her mother's story. "That's so sad, and so romantic at the same time… I can't believe how strong you were, to hold back…"

"I had to Leia, I was the responsible one, your father was impulsive, angry, frustrated," Padme told her. "I couldn't let him do this, we were all to afraid he'd-" Suddenly she cut off, realizing she had gone too far with what she was willing to reveal.

"What?" Leia asked, suddenly feeling uncomfortable about what her mother had to say, but dying to know. "Afraid he'd what?"

"Turn to the dark side," said a sad voice from behind them. They looked up and saw Anakin leaning in the door frame, a sight Padme had seen so many times that suddenly made her feel very cold. Anakin looked angry and hurt, an expression on his face that Padme knew too well, but that Leia had never seen before.