The timeline is completely screwed up in this chapter, but it fits.

Also, the links in the previous chapter don't work. How embarrassing! *hides*

Chapter title: A Second Time

AN: I'm a little upset with the lack of reviews the story is getting. Is it bad or something? Just drop a review, I don't care if it's an "I hate this story you suck at writing", but I at least want some feedback. Otherwise, what am I working on the story for? Please let me know if I should keep going with this. Thanks guys :)

Qui-Gon looked up as his apprentice walked in the door. Anakin hadn't seemed to notice him, and Qui-Gon took the moment to observe him. His padawan looked very tired – but also very pleased. Although he had dark bags under his eyes, his blue eyes were shining and distant. There was also a small smile on his face… he also looked sweaty, as though he'd either just woken up or he was doing some training. Something had happened last night that had made Anakin happy, but also tired at the same time. Qui-Gon mentally sighed, trying to remember if he'd had to do this much guessing with Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan had been hard to figure out, as he tended to not betray his emotions. Anakin must have been his complete opposite. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and a part of Qui-Gon encouraged it, even though he knew that it wasn't the jedi way. Time seemed to stop when Anakin suddenly noticed him. His eyes widened slightly, but then narrowed as he studied Qui-Gon as intently as Qui-Gon was studying him. The light went out and his eyes became guarded as he observed him.

"Master…"

"Where were you last night?"

Anakin almost winced. There was no emotion in his voice, which was a very bad sign. "Erm… I was at a cantina… I must have passed out…"

Qui-Gon closed his eyes, and Anakin prepared himself for the worst. Sure enough, Qui-Gon – collected and kind Qui-Gon – was yelling.

Though Anakin was taller, he still cowered away as Qui-Gon ranted on and on. Something about "what were you thinking!?" and "breaking the jedi code" and "you'd better not be lying". That wasn't all; it went on and on and on.

It was the last thing that had gotten to him. Anakin had been lying… somewhat. He had gone to a cantina last night, running into a certain senator (which was certainly NOT an arranged meeting…that anybody but them knew of…) and one thing led to another…

He'd found himself waking up in Padme Amidala's bedroom that morning. He blushed slightly as he recalled all that had happened the night before, but couldn't let his thoughts linger, as Qui-Gon was still lecturing his padawan. Still, he could feel the kiss of her lips all over his body, tingling as though to remind him of last night. Qui-Gon was still yelling, and it was starting to make Anakin scared.

Qui-Gon rarely lost control like this. He'd only shouted at Anakin once before. Anakin had been fourteen; they'd gone on a mission together to Andara, along with Tahl and Tahl's apprentice, Orykan Tamarik.

It was no secret that Anakin and Tamarik were rivals in the temple. It was also no secret that Qui-Gon was great friends with Tahl, so Anakin had to put up with Tamarik, if only for his mentor's sake. Long story short, Anakin may have accidentally-on-purpose pretended that he didn't know where Tamarik was when the young twi'lek went missing. Yet another thing that fueled Anakin's hatred of the girl was her resemblance to Lena.

Upon finding this out, and putting everyone's life in unnecessary danger, Qui-Gon hollered at Anakin for the first time.

It seemed like hours until Qui-Gon finally stopped yelling at him, though Anakin knew it had only lasted about five minutes, maybe even less. By the time Qui-Gon stopped lecturing, Anakin felt shaky and nauseas. Qui-Gon never lost control like that. There were so many times that Anakin had wanted to tell Qui-Gon the truth about him and Padme, but if this was how Qui-Gon would react about him going to a cantina, he was terrified to think of his reaction to his relationship with Padme.

On more than one occasion the thought crossed Anakin's mind that Qui-Gon and Tahl, when she was alive, had been much more than just friends. These thoughts soon banished when Qui-Gon didn't take vengeance for her. If he really loved her, wouldn't he have killed the one who murdered her? If anybody had killed Padme, Anakin would hunt them down and make them wish they'd never heard the name of Padme Amidala.

Anakin stared at the ground, wanting nothing more than to either yell right back or start crying. Neither of which he planned doing anytime soon. So he stood there, rigid, and trying to sort out his emotions. He'd blocked the bond between him and Qui-Gon so that he could get his emotions in order, and he noticed that Qui-Gon had done the same thing. It made him feel sick to his stomach; oh what had he done? They never fought, and Qui-Gon never yelled at him.

After a moment of tense silence, Qui-Gon cut in, his voice (thankfully) low and calm. "You look tired, you should retire."

Anakin couldn't do anything but nod, and he all but raced into his room.

Qui-Gon closed his eyes and let out a sigh. There was more to the story than what Anakin had told him, and that more than anything had made Qui-Gon lose his temper. He hadn't meant to start yelling – that had just sort of… happened… like the time back when…

He didn't like thinking about that. Tahl had been alive back then. Maybe it was the memory of Tahl that had made him angry at Anakin. Either way, he was starting to feel very guilty, and decided that meditating might be the best thing for him now…

Six months later

Anakin had spit out his drink when he'd heard about the birth of Ahsoka Tano. He'd jumped up so quickly he'd nearly spilled his jawa juice all over Aliyah. Shaal hadn't delivered the news himself, he was with Karal. Karal, it appeared, had gone into an early labor. Lena was bouncing up and down from beside him, appearing more excited than anxious.

"Do you think it's a girl or a boy?" Lena asked as they raced through the hallways towards where the healing chambers were.

"Well, the name is Ahsoka," Aliyah replied in a dry voice that Anakin rarely heard her use. "What do you think?"

Lena mumbled something under her breath, but didn't have an answer to that. They skidded to a halt just in time to avoid crashing into jedi masters Surenit and Satele (Shaal and Karal's mentor's respectively). The two human jedi were looking down at the padawan's, their faces rather expressionless. Anakin felt like laughing just to cut in the awkward tension. This would have been the part where Ash-Ke would cut in with his humor, and everyone would have a good laugh…

Finally, Aliyah cleared her throat, "Excuse me Masters," she said with a small dip of her head. Surenit and Satele shared a look, before turning back to look at the three padawans with small smiles on their faces.

"I'm assuming you want to see your friends Shaal and Karal?" Satele's voice was very light, and it matched her doll-like features perfectly. Anakin knew, however, that though the jedi master looked timid, she was a fierce warrior.

"Erm," Anakin bit his lip and glanced over at his two friends. Finally Lena nodded.

Anakin wondered if they knew about Shaal and Karal. Almost as soon as the thought crossed his mind, the two masters spoke at once. "We know."

"Oh, okay," Lena said, seemingly relieved. Anakin frowned, "are you going to report them?"

He saw Aliyah wince and sensed Lena giving him a warning glare; he knew how rude it sounded, and how arrogant it might have looked taking that tone with jedi masters, but all Anakin cared about at the moment was his friend.

"The council knows only what they wish to know," Satele said finally, giving them a small wink. Anakin felt like laughing with joy, this meant his friend was safe! But…

"Karal… is…?"

"She's suspended from the jedi order," Satele cut in quickly, "and after her year of suspension is up, the council will decide if they will allow her to train as a jedi again. I have full confidence in her."

The pride was evident in Satele's voice, even though her padawan had broken one of the biggest rules in the jedi code. Surenit nodded, "It would be wise of you to keep the meeting brief, as I have already told Shaal. Satele and I have agreed that we will not tell the council," Surenit looked like he was going to say something else, but then shook his head. "Only time will tell what will happen. Things will change."

Was it just Anakin, or did that sound ominous?

Once the jedi masters walked away, Lena shuddered from lekku to foot. "Well that was awkward."

"Come on," Aliyah looked excited. "Let's go see Ahsoka."

They lessened their pace as they strolled through the halls of healing, and only stopped once they felt the familiar Force signature of Shaal Tano.

Aliyah carefully opened the door and both of the togrutas looked up at the trio. They both wore the same identical smile, and they both looked equally tired. Anakin noticed that Shaal didn't look as stressed as he normally did. At any rate, the bags under his eyes weren't quite so obvious.

"Anakin, Aliyah… Lena!" he sounded thrilled to see them, and Karal gave them all a tired smile. In her arms was a pink bundle – which confirmed the gender. As they hesitantly approached Karal held out the bundle, and Anakin could see a small russet baby inside. He couldn't help but to grin when he saw her. Her eyes were squinted open, but Anakin could detect the same blue in her eyes as Shaal's, as well as the golden spiked crown on her small, fragile-looking lekku. However, the markings on her face were more similar to Karal's than to Shaal's, and the lip color was a perfect gray mix between the two new parents.

"She's so cute!" Lena squeaked, and Aliyah let out a delighted laugh at the sight of the small Togruta baby, looking as though she were about to hug Karal. She possibly would have if Karal wasn't holding baby Ahsoka. Shaal beamed at the statement, "She's perfect."

Anakin exchanged looks with Aliyah and Lena, before turning back to Shaal. "She certainly will make a good jedi someday."

Karal, for some odd reason, looked slightly displeased by this statement. Anakin wondered if he'd said the wrong thing. "You… is she Force-sensitive?"

"She is," Shaal said quickly.

"We were sort of hoping she wouldn't be though," Karal sighed, looking down at her baby with loving eyes. "Because of…"

Because of the code. How it had forced her and Shaal to live a lie. How it corrupted the minds of children.

"At least you'll be able to see her whenever you want," Lena pointed out, and Aliyah nodded vehemently.

"Not many Force-bearing parents can say that."

Karal smiled at that, her features smoothing out considerably. "I never thought of that."

Shaal grinned at his lover, "I told you that her being a Force-sensitive wasn't all that bad."

Karal let out a tired chuckle, "Well, I'll love her either way."

They stayed there for another twenty minutes or so, with Ahsoka falling asleep, when one of the med droid's came in. "I'm sorry, you'll have to leave miss Karal Nik alone now. She and the child both need rest."

Shaal looked like he needed it too.

...

Being a father, Shaal decided, was tougher than he'd ever thought. And a jedi father at that! He was allowed to see Ahsoka when he wasn't in training or taking classes, but he didn't want things to seem suspicious.

He hadn't thought that he wouldn't be able to see her take her first steps, or hear her say her first word. Almost as soon as Karal and Ahsoka had been released from the med bay, they'd taken Ahsoka to the crèche. He and Karal both tried visiting on numerous occasions (even though they weren't technically supposed to) but his aunt Mishka always made allowances for the two of them.

Shaal was at least comforted by the fact that his Aunt was the one taking care of Ahsoka. Just as she had taken care of him, although she's almost twenty years older than she was back then. It meant that she had more experience.

The one time Anakin had gone with them, his aunt had seemed even more thrilled than when Shaal visited. Shaal wasn't too bothered, but it did make him wonder if she had picked favorites when they were all in the crèche… and why Anakin instead of him, her nephew?

He squashed these thoughts away, knowing that jealousy was not a good emotion for a jedi to have, and instead focused on the little baby Togruta before him. She let out a mighty yawn, shaking her whole body and making her lekku tremble. Shaal grinned down at her and rested a hand on her head, lulling her to sleep.

Mishka came up behind him and raised an eyebrow, in which he shrugged sheepishly. "She looked tired."

"I didn't approve of Jedi coming in here working their mind games when you were a baby yourself," Mishka said impatiently, "and I still don't approve of it. Father of the child or not."

Mishka gave Shaal a quick wink to take any sting out of her words. Mishka still looked young for her age, but Shaal could tell that she was tired. "You don't look like you're getting much sleep."

Mishka laughed, "Don't worry about me, Shaal. You'd be surprised how much I can handle – after all, you, Ani and Ash-Ke were three of the loudest ones."

"What about Lena?" asked Shaal, surprised. Lena was always very outspoken. Mishka shrugged, "She babbled a lot, but she didn't keep me up all night. She didn't levitate babies out of their cribs either."

"Levitate babies…?" asked Shaal, wide-eyed. Mishka's face suddenly broke into a wide grin. "I never told you that story, did I…?"

And so Shaal Tano walked out of the crèche that day with a lot of new information on his friend.

Alright first off, because I know that a few of you might complain. The reason I had Qui-Gon freak out like that was because:

A – he's still human and capable of human emotions, and I wanted to test waters with that.

B – he was worried about Anakin, since he had disappeared the whole night

C – The streets of Coruscant are dangerous and if Anakin really had passed out, something horrible could have happened to him. We'll save the horrible stuff for later though ;)

And there we have it! Baby Ahsoka Tano, to the ones who guessed correctly. When we first found out that Karal was pregnant, she was almost two months, so technically she was 8 months when she had Ahsoka. It's not like Ahsoka is a huge preemie baby.