CHAPTER 10

Ben sat watching the children on the playground, half listening to Lana, who hadn't stopped to draw breath since they'd had arrived at the park a half hour before.

He wasn't ignoring her, but he wasn't exactly paying avid attention to what she was saying, something she hadn't failed to notice.

"You haven't listened to a word I've said have you?" she complained.

"I have," he assured her, "I'm just not in the mood to talk at the moment."

"Ahh," she said, feigning complete understanding, "another one of your mood swings?"

"I do not have mood swings!" Ben exclaimed defensively.

She raised an eyebrow at his tone.

"Well maybe," Ben grudgingly agreed, "but it's not my fault, it's this thing's." He pointed to his ever-expanding belly.

"Oh sure blame the poor, innocent, unborn child. Maybe you should blame it on this illusive partner of yours."

Lana immediately apologised, realizing her mistake as Ben quickly turned away from her, any resemblance of a good mood disappearing.

"I'm sorry Ben."

"Its alright, I just miss him," he couldn't stop his voice from hitching at the end of his sentence and cursed his raging hormones, not for the first time.

Lana scooted closer and wrapped him in a warm hug, "You'll see him again." She assured him.

"How can you be sure?" he questioned, "He's in prison and even when he does get out there is no guarantee the council will ever let me see him again."

He felt rather then saw her shake her head, denying his worries, "It's only a four year sentence. If he loves you as much as you claim, then he will find a way to see you. Even if he has to go up against the great Jedi Council." There was no small degree of distain in her voice for the heads of the Jedi Order.

Ben opened his mouth to comment further but Lana suddenly stood, dragging Ben to his feet with her. "Come on enough wallowing, I promised you parents I wouldn't keep you out late."

"I am not wallowing," Ben denied then looked at his timepiece, "Lana it's not even noon."

"Exactly, I have ten minutes to get you home before you parents brake out the knives to skin me alive."

Ben rolled his eyes, "I seriously doubt they would go the effort of skinning you alive, they have a perfectly good boiler in the basement." He said it so calmly that Lana stopped a moment wondering if he was being serious before they laughed together and Ben allowed himself to be dragged back towards the house.

When they got to his street, Ben noticed that there were more transports then usually seen in the area. Lana made some comment about one of the neighbours having a party, immediately making Ben think something was up, only to have that thought confirmed as they got closer and the Force gave him a gentle warning that something was about to happen. Automatically he slowed almost to a halt.

"Come on, you're going to get me into trouble," Lana said pulling at his hand.

"Something's going on, but I don't know what."

Lana rolled her eyes, "honestly, nothing ever happens around here. You just worry too much." She pulled him through the front door and into the living room. The house was strangely deserted; usually at least one of the children could be heard moving around the house loudly, more often then not with a friend in tow. Even more strange was according to Lana, his mother was 'desperate' to have him home yet she didn't appear to actually be there.

Lana walked him through the house moving him towards the back garden, chatting to him as they went, Ben only half listened to her as he scanned the house for signs of life, the further into the house they got the more convinced he became that something was about to happen.

As they walked past the laundry a man he had never seen before sped around the corner and Lana made a surprised noise which Ben took as confirmation that the man was not suppose to be there. Before the man even knew Ben was there, he was on his back nursing a broken nose and a matching headache.

"Who are you?" Ben asked evenly, as the man cried out and clutched his face. Moments later a large group of people came running through the backdoor from the garden. Terrian, Bella and Asha pushed to the front of the group followed closely by some other children whom he had never met before.

"What the hell did you do that for?" One of the older girls demanded, glaring at him and pushed past him to get to the man.

"What's going on? Who are all these people?" he asked his brother who, along with all the other boys in the group, were looking between Obi-wan and the man on the floor, who was obviously taller and more muscular then Ben.

"How'd you do that?" One of the boys asked.

"Yeah, can you teach me?" Another chimed in. This drew a chuckle from some of the adults, who had relaxed after seeing that the man Ben had hit was alright if slightly bruised. Their laughter helped to break the awkward tension that was building in the room.

"If you weren't pregnant I would so kick your ass!" the man said, gently touching his nose, wincing at the pain it caused and the blood that came away on his fingers.

"Well then it's a good thing he is Marcus because I don't relish the idea of having to explain to your mother why we're sending you home in a matchbox when I promised her I would keep you out of trouble." Sara said as she reached the front of the group, "Come on Ben." She took hold of her son's arm and gently led the teen outside.

"I didn't mean to hit him. Well I did but I didn't know who he was, he just surprised me and I reacted." Ben explained.

"That's perfectly alright; he's needed someone to put him in his place for awhile now."

"Maybe I should go and see if he's alright." Ben started back in the direction he'd come but Sara tugged him back on course.

"He'll be fine just stay away from him for awhile and let him cool off."

Looking behind him Ben could see the man arrive in the kitchen, where he was pushed to sit at the table, while someone when through the freezer and produced a bag of frozen vegetables to put against his nose.

After seeing that the man was getting proper care and intending to apologies later Ben turned his attention back to his Mother.

"Who was that anyway?"

"That would be your cousin Marcus."

"Your very annoying cousin, Marcus," Terrian said. "He thinks he's the Forces' gift to the world. He deserved it."

Lana popped up on his other side, "Besides, if he'd stayed in the garden like he was suppose too he wouldn't have surprised you."

"That was so cool Ben, remind me never to surprise you." Terrian remarked, "Can you teach me how to do that?"

"No he can't," Sara interrupted. "Now shoo, I need to introduce Ben to the family."

Ben looked around the garden at the large group of people milling around chatting, many looking in his direction as they spoke. "Is everyone here family?"

"Yes, you are related to nearly everyone here in some way, we thought since you were too young to remember the family last time you met and they haven't seen you since you were tiny, that we would have a family get together. You seem to have started things off with a bang."

Ben winced but his mother squeezed his shoulder in comfort, "Don't worry about it, he'll be fine."

They approached the first group of people and Sara introduced them.

"Ben, this is your Aunt Elinor and her husband Jacob." Sara said pointing to each in turn, "their children are Rupert and Jake, they will be around here playing somewhere, I'll introduce you to them later."

Sara proceeded to take him around all the people in the family introducing them to him.

Finally Sara steered him towards a corner of the garden where an old man was sitting. "And here we have my father, Obi-Wan."

Ben studied his namesake; he had the same eyes that Ben shared with his mother, and if he had to guess he'd say that the man's now grey hair had once matched his daughters and grandson's shade as well.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Sir," Obi-wan Jr said, giving a short bow in respect.

"Well, come here and let me look at you." Obi-wan senior ordered.

Ben approached and stood waiting for the elder to speak again.

"He takes after me," the old man said after a moment confirming Ben's thoughts.

When nothing else was said Ben glanced over to his mother.

"He likes you." She whispered.

Ben spent most of the afternoon getting acquainted to all his relatives. In the end he counted eleven uncles and eight aunts, twenty or so cousins and three grandparents.

This include one married couple who were both male, Simon and John, who had three girls, Sandy, Laura and Alexandra.

"So do you know what it is?" his Uncle Simon asked, gesturing to Ben's abdomen.

"No, I want it to be a surprise."

Simon shook his head, "Personally I couldn't stand the wait; John on the other hand is like you."

"That's why I made him have Alex," John interrupted, "I couldn't cope with his whining anymore."

Simon simply smirked at his husband, "You know you love it."

They had a late lunch at 3 o'clock and during the meal everyone wanted to know about Ben's life as a Jedi so he spent the rest of the afternoon recounting his numerous missions with his master, to his family.

"What was your worst mission?" his cousin Laura asked.

Ben thought for a moment, "I've had so many missions go wrong that I couldn't really pick one, but the first that comes to mind ironically is when the Syndicat of Phindar tried to erase my memory. They almost succeeded too"

"What stoped them?"

"Qui-Gon had given me a gift for my thirteenth birthday a few days before. I held that through the procedure and I was able to keep my memory through the procedure."

"What was the gift?" one of his other cousins asked eager to see this magic item.

"This." He said pulling the river stone out of the pocket on his pants, "I've kept it with me ever since."

"It's a rock." One of the boys said obviously disappointed.

Ben laugh softly, "That's what I said. I think he'd forgotten it was my birthday and just pull out whatever was in his pocket and gave it to me. But I later found out that it was force sensitive, though he didn't know that, he just thought it was pretty." Obi-wan turned the stone over in his hand remembering the conversation he had had with Qui-Gon on that day.

He quickly wiped a hand across his face, as tears threatened to fall.

"I'm sorry, excuse me." He got up and ran out of the room.

Sara excused herself and followed him to his room. She found him sitting on his bed wrapped in the too large brown cloak he had brought with him and looking at a picture of Qui-Gon.

He didn't look up when she entered but allowed her to take him in her arms and she held him until he stopped crying.

"I'm sorry." He repeated.

"Nonsense, It's only natural for you to miss him, you'll see him again."

Ten minutes later they went back outside and the rest of the day was spent talking to his many relatives until late into the night.

Reposted: 4 November 2011, 1:26am