My apologies for not updating… I know an apology won't make a difference really, because all the months I've spent not updating are in the past, but if I'm going to write an A/N I feel like it's important. Just warning you about future updates that school starts soon and this fall I'm really busy, so another update will probably come around Christmas. I'm sorry!
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Stiffness in his neck brought him to his senses. Obi-Wan woke up to find himself lying face up on the floor in Siri's quarters. And Siri was awake on her sleepcouch.
"You were talking and you fell asleep, so I just left you there," Siri explained. "Sorry the floor isn't all that comfortable. No hard feelings I hope." A ghost of a smile appeared on her face. "It's not like I wanted me and you to be the center of the Temple's next scandal."
"You're mean," said Obi-Wan, rubbing his shoulder and stretching out to kick her sleepcouch. "You're mean, but for some reason I feel like I need you to be."
Siri rolled her eyes. "Don't beat yourself up yet. I just got a call from Bant. Or rather, you did, but I took your com-"
"-What is it?"
"Tahl's in the medcenter. Giving birth for real, this time."
Obi-Wan got up. "Qui-Gon will be there. I should go."
"Hold it, Kenobi. I think it might be best if you left them be for now," Siri suggested.
Obi-Wan scowled. He hated it when she tried to act like his superior. "Who put you in charge?"
"I'm just trying to keep you out of trouble," Siri frowned back. "Think about it, if they're about to be torn to pieces by the Council, you want to steer clear of all that."
"You follow too many rules." Obi-Wan's scowl deepened.
"Your master will contact you when he's ready," said Siri, growing softer. She slung her arm around him. "Hungry?"
A knot was forming in Obi-Wan's stomach.
"You're a good Padawan. Relax," said Siri as she led him out the door.
Obi-Wan let her take him to the morning meal. He ate, but he wasn't hungry. It was best if he got into a routine, though, he figured. A routine he was sure to be locked into until he could get his master back.
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Tahl had never felt so relieved in her life. Or as nervous, but with that aside it was ultimately the best day of her life. The best day of Qui-Gon's life, too, she was sure.
A son, named Travis. In her arms. A healthy boy and a healthy mother too, she noted with pride. She didn't even need the healers to tell her what to do anymore, after over a year of being led around by them.
For today, forget the Codes and Councils with every meditation and drill they've pushed on you. This is life now. Everything feels alright.
He gently put his hand on her shoulder. Tahl studied him. He was eye level to her in a chair while she was in the recovery bed. She felt a stab of worry when she realized how easy lately her communication with the Force could be disrupted. She couldn't tell what he was feeling.
It pained her. She wanted to know his feelings; she wanted him to share her thoughts, like they used to be able to do so easily, even back when it was inconvenient or intrusive. He didn't even voice his thoughts aloud to her anymore. Not with the eyes and ears of everyone in the Temple watching them.
There was a knock at the door. Qui-Gon opened it from the control panel by the sleepcouch.
Jocasta Nu paused in the doorway, taking in the sight of the three of them. "Tahl."
"Master Nu. It's nice to see you," Tahl said with as blank as expression as she could muster. "Meet Travis."
Tahl was grateful to her colleague; she didn't react with judgment. "You must be so happy he's here." It was a true Jedi reply; maintaining serenity, celebrating life.
"We are." Tahl knew she could trust her. Qui-Gon trusted her, too-they had been friends for years. Working under Nu made her realize how valuable a friend like her was, with wisdom that stretched far beyond the boundaries of the Archives.
"I just came to stay briefly. I should be going." With a polite nod towards Qui-Gon, she gently pressed some folded datasheets into his hand. His fingers closed around them, surprised and interested, as a quick glance between the women confirmed what it was. "May the Force be with you."
As the door closed behind her Qui-Gon began unfolding the datasheets and scanning the texts. Tahl explained, "Information on Noori, my homeworld. I think I left them on my desk in the Archives… before Travis came."
"And your plans to have him there," Qui-Gon said slowly, carefully folding them back up. "Why would Madame Nu bring them now?"
Tahl looked over at him, at his profile as he stared at the door. While he was brooding, and unaware of his surroundings, she could tell that his thoughts were really elsewhere. They were on his Padawan and the Council and all the other things that faced them outside of their tiny medcenter room. She turned back to Travis so he couldn't read her expression, but the baby was growing heavy in her arms. "Because. Still…" she gave up, thinking of Bant, and Qui-Gon and his compassion for the galaxy, and how she couldn't let him leave…
"I'm tired," she whispered.
"I'll let you be." Qui-Gon stood and put Travis in the crib by her sleepcouch.
Tahl slowly lulled herself to sleep.
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It was already late in the afternoon. Qui-Gon was heading to the cafeteria for a meal. Hopefully later he would have time for meditation. He found himself needing meditation more and more to keep his thoughts and emotions in check.
"Qui-Gon Jinn." A voice behind him made him whirl around to attention, a reflex from all those years ago…
Master Dooku stood before him, an aging and intimidating Jedi who he had been apprenticed to.
"Dooku," said Qui-Gon, hesitating at Dooku's tone of voice.
"I have, of course, heard all about your latest clash with the Jedi. When on your path did you develop such a lust for rebellion?" Dooku's eyes glittered with something Qui-Gon wasn't sure about, was sure he was just imagining- because those eyes seemed ashamed of him. He quickly let go of his irritation at the insult. "I am a student of the Force."
"I knew you were always one for compassion, with a particular weakness for the living Force. But never, never would I expect this."
"I stand by my decisions."
"And I thought that you disobeyed the Council and hunted down Tahl on a foolish boyish whim, one they would let pass. Now you're lost to the will of the Council, and I've lost the trust of a hundred Masters who saw you trained under me. You will be expelled."
"I won't be expelled, therefore whatever arrogance you hope to maintain will remain untarnished." Qui-Gon turned and walked away without another word, trying to unclench his fists, smarting at the words of a man he barely knew.
He spent an hour brooding over his food then made his way back towards the medcenter. He hadn't seen Obi-Wan all day. But was he ready to seek him out? He needed to be with Tahl first.
Tahl was awake when he came and was feeding Travis. He said, "I came across Dooku."
"And?" Tahl prompted. But his silence gave away everything.
"We can't stay here," he finally said.
"Can we?"
"Tahl, why did Jocasta Nu bring you your files on Noori?"
"It was a thought. If Travis and I had to go… it'd be a place to start."
"What about me? If you go I go too, you know the Council will have it that way."
"You have reason to stay. You still have something here. If you plead your case to the masters, state your options-"
"We're married. And one of the reasons for that was so that they couldn't separate us!" Qui-Gon exclaimed. "What's wrong?"
Tahl looked at him with a bit of irritation, like the Tahl he had known for so long would. "Nothing, Qui."
"Well, say something," he smiled as a smirk played across her lips.
"Just watch yourself. You haven't been your usual pleasant self lately."
"Can anyone blame me?"
"Watch them. They will."
"So we'll go before they let us go. We'll make a life for ourselves, for our family." His hand brushed her cheek, tracing her smile.
"No regrets that way." Tahl looked at their child, quietly resting in her arms.
And so, three days later, Qui-Gon led them out of the Temple. At midnight Coruscant glowed like it did every night he had left the Temple at this hour. Those times he was alone and on his way to see Tahl. Now she was at his side, a few necessities in a bag. He pulled his robe closer around him, wrapping Travis in its warmth to guard against the cool night air.
They boarded a freighter and rose into the sky, to a different world, leaving behind their claim as Jedi.
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Maybe it's because I haven't written something in ages. I don't know. But for some reason I'm not completely satisfied with this chapter, and I've spent two weeks worrying about it and I still can't figure out what I think is wrong with it.