Tatooine, Dune Sea, 12 BBY

"You knew Uncle Elan?" The Balosar's eyebrows raised.

"'Uncle' Elan?"

"Well, he isn't really my uncle. I think he's my godfather or something. Anyway, I'm named after him." The boy paused. "He never mentioned meeting you."

"I don't see why he would," Obi-Wan replied, shrugging. "We only met twice; the one time with your mother, and then again several years later. He didn't recognize me the second time, nor I him at first. He tried to sell me death sticks."

"And you made him kick the habit." The boy grinned. "I remember him coming to visit us on Telos, and he told us someone had suggested that he rethink his life. But," he went on, and the self-satisfied look that had come across the Jedi's face faltered, "a few years later he went into weapons dealing. I don't think he's been arrested yet – at least, as far as I know. And that's more than you can say for Mom." He shrugged.

Obi-Wan frowned at this last statement. "I take it you weren't close to your mother when she was alive?"

"I was only five when they killed her," Elan said. "The only thing I remember about her is how she used to tell stories about you, and even those are hazy. I think I might have made about half of them up myself while I was trying to remember them."

"Like which ones?"

The boy thought for a moment. "She told me you single-handedly saved an entire planet from an invasion by the Trade Federation's droid army."

Obi-Wan looked affronted. "It most certainly was not single-handed. The entire Gungan army fought against the droids as a diversion while the queen and her men captured the Viceroy."

"So where were you during all of that?"

"I was battling a Sith Lord with Qui-Gon. Your mother was with the queen and her men. I assume she was, at any rate. Running down the streets of Theed, she shot more droids than the rest of them put together." A distant look came to his face, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "I do miss her. The last time I spoke to her was just days before her execution; she was completely unrecognizable as the woman we had arrested seven years before…. She was less than a shell of what she had once been. She was hollow, lifeless. Just looking at her, you would never have believed she would have been capable of assassinating a senator."

Elan leaned back in the chair he was seated in, folding his arms across his chest. He looked at the Jedi silently for a long moment. "You're wrong," he said. "You said you never loved my mother. I think you did. You must have, to go through the trouble trying to find me and honour her last wish. And you said she was the one who called you Ben – why else would you keep the name she gave you if you didn't love her?"

Obi-Wan was quiet for a time. "You don't want me to have loved your mother," he said at last. "You want a reason to be able to call me your father. And I'll say this: if you truly want to believe I'm your father, I can't stop you from doing so. At this point in your life, I don't know what I could do for you as a parent. You're a grown man now; I doubt there are many people who could have a strong influence on your opinions."

Elan shifted in his chair. "Why did she call you Ben?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Your mother liked to go drinking, as I'm sure you know," the Jedi said. "One night, she was in especially bad shape – I could hardly understand the words that were coming out of her mouth – and she slurred 'Obi-Wan' into something that sounded more or less like 'Ben.' After that, it stuck. It became her pet-name for me, I suppose; I don't know what else you could call it. She only used it when she wasn't physically able to say my full name or when she wanted a favor."

The Balosar couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, that's her. I remember when she used to leave. She'd take me to stay with Uncle Elan or one of her other friends. Sometimes she'd just go out for a drink and be home in a few hours. Sometimes she'd be gone for weeks. She never told me how long she'd be gone; I think sometimes she didn't know. And then I remember one time… she didn't come back. That was when she got arrested. I kept waiting and waiting for her to come home, but she never did."

"The only things you can remember about her are her stories about me and her leaving?" Obi-Wan gave the boy a pitying look. "Can you remember nothing else about her?"

Elan thought for a moment. "Yeah," he said. "I remember there was one night where she came home from… from I don't know where. I was four, maybe. She was crying."