Obi-Wan could only stare at his former master in absolute wonder. He had not thought that Qui-Gon would be able to manifest himself in any physical way. Simply being able to hear the older man's voice had been comfort enough for him. Yet there he was, standing before him as though he were a living being.
"You raised him far better than the farmers would have been able to, good intentioned though they were," Qui-Gon said to him once Luke had wandered off to visit with Anakin.
"I can't believe you're really here," Obi-Wan marveled, unable to erase the smile from his face.
"Believe it, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon assured him. "Unfortunately, when they occur, my visits will be rather limited in their length."
"That I can see you at all is a wonder."
Qui-Gon smiled genially, inclining his head briefly. "I am relieved to see you doing so well given recent events."
"Then I am doing a good job at masking it for I feel about ready to drop at any moment," Obi-Wan revealed, slumping into the pilot seat. "Yet, if I am honest, I am quite surprised to still be alive. I was quite certain that Anakin would allow Sidious to kill me."
"Even now the boy is full of surprises it would seem."
"Do you think that he can be saved?" Obi-Wan asked, needing to know that his efforts would not be futile ones. Or ones that could quite possibly place Luke in danger. While Obi-Wan had no problems risking his own life to bring Anakin out of the darkness that had swallowed him, he would not risk Luke.
"I believe there is still good in him," Qui-Gon said after a brief pause. "Anakin had not lost himself completely."
Obi-Wan released a relieved sigh. "It is good to hear my hope's confirmed."
"It is good to hear that you still have hopes."
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Anakin was roused when he felt himself being lifted from his chair. He immediately attempted to lash out, but found that he could not. It took a moment for him to recall the reason for it and swallow the panic the lack of control over his limbs created.
"I assume Luke told you where we are," Obi-Wan said conversationally.
The calm way Obi-Wan spoke caught him off guard. He was still expecting to be treated as a prisoner.
"In case he didn't, we're on the Forest Moon of Endor," Obi-Wan continued. "I need to stay close to the Water Moon so that I can retrieve a few things at a later date. We were forced to leave rather abruptly."
"Where's Luke?" Anakin demanded, desperate to regain some type of control.
"Sound asleep in our current lodgings," Obi-Wan assured him. "For the time being you and I will share a room so that you can wake me if you need anything."
"I don't need your help," Anakin spat, only aware of the foolishness of his words after he spoke them. He attempted to cover it with, "I want to see Luke."
"In the morning you will. For now this day had continued on far longer than I would prefer so we are going to sleep."
Anakin scowled up at Obi-Wan. "I'm not tired."
"Then lie quietly and allow me to sleep. So long as you don't disturb me," Obi-Wan said around a yawn.
It was only because he could sense how utterly exhausted Obi-Wan was that he decided not to protest further. Whatever had compelled him to save Obi-Wan's life hadn't done so just so that Obi-Wan could fall dead from a combination of exhaustion and his injuries.
It was strange to be lying next to Obi-Wan. During the war, more often than not, they shared either a room or a tent on all of their missions. Even when two rooms were set aside for them they would share quarters in order to ensure that there was someone watching their backs.
That had been a whole other life. A life that seemed like only a dream for all that had happened since.
Obi-Wan had fallen asleep almost immediately, but Anakin remained awake, listening to him sleep. He refused to admit to watching Obi-Wan sleep. It was too dark to see him in any case. He could only hear the steady in and out breathing of the man he would have once trusted with anything. And provided things had not changed much over the years, Obi-Wan was a relatively heavy sleeper when exhausted. It would be so easy to simply squeeze the life out of him while he slept. He would finally be free of the man who had ruined his life.
"If you kill me now, who will put you back in working order?" Obi-Wan mumbled sleepily. "Luke is a very intelligent boy, but he is only four and doesn't knkow how to rewire prosthetic limbs."
Anakin scowled at him. "You have no right to read my thoughts.
"Then quit projecting them so loudly and I won't."
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Obi-Wan was not fool enough to think that Vader could be so easily erased from Anakin's mind. He was simply relieved that the possibly existed for his best friend to have survived in some form. More for Luke's sake than for his own. At the moment, that small fraction of himself that was Anakin was still fragile. Sidious' timely demise would give it a chance to flourish, but it was not a sure thing.
"Why are you helping me?"
He had not been fool to think that Anakin had fallen asleep. Likewise, he had known that the question was an inevitable one. Obi-Wan had hoped to be slightly more alert when the question was asked, but not everything could be planned so precisely
"I am helping you for the sake of the good man I would like to believe is still inside you," was the answer he decided upon. "For the man who was once my best friend. "I would like to believe that Sidious and Vader have not destroyed him completely."
Anakin remained silent, but the air around him was not fizzling with restless energy as it had been before.
However small, it was a start.
And though he would rather stay awake to ensure that Anakin's doubts did not begin to creep up upon him again, Obi-Wan was far too exhausted to keep his eyes open for more than another minute.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
The bed was too big, too soft, and it didn't have his blanket. Luke didn't like the bed. He wanted to sleep in his own bed. He liked his bed. Daddy had made it for him. It looked like a podracer. He wanted to drive a real podracer, but Daddy said he was too little and that it was too dangerous. But Daddy also said that too much chocolate was bad and that he needed to have a bath every day. Daddy was just silly sometimes.
Sliding out of the too big bed, Luke looked around for Daddy. He knew that Daddy wasn't far away because he could feel him humming. The Sad Man was humming too. Luke yawned as he followed the humming towards Daddy and the Sad Man. Everything was dark so he had to be careful not to trip. He didn't want to wake up Daddy or the Sad Man since they were both sleepy.
Daddy and the Sad Man were sleeping on a big bed. It wasn't fair that they got to sleep in the same bed and he was all alone. Daddy was never not fair. Walking over to Daddy's side of the bed, Luke tugged on his hand until Daddy started moving.
"I wanna sleep wif you, Daddy."
Daddy blinked for a long time before finally looking over at him. "Luke?"
"I wanna sleep wif you, Daddy."
Daddy yawned very big and then reached out both his arms. "No wiggling about, though. Your father needs to sleep."
"No wigglin'."
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Luke was asleep again before Obi-Wan even had him fully settled on the bed. The poor boy was exhausted. Obi-Wan carefully laid Luke down between them, almost surprised that he didn't fling his arms and legs out in his usual sprawled sleep position. Instead he just settled down in an exhausted heap.
More than willing to continue sleeping himself, Obi-Wan was almost disappointed to see Anakin staring at him as he began to settle back down.
"I had hoped that he would not wake you," Obi-Wan said quietly as he slumped back onto his pillow.
"He still calls you 'Daddy,'" Anakin accused him, the last word practically snarled.
"Because he is four years old and has never known another father aside from me," Obi-Wan sighed, fairly certain that Anakin would not be allowing him to sleep any time soon. "And while I have no intention of ever taking your place, I will never stop being in his life. I have loved Luke since the day he was born and that will not change."
"But I am his father."
Obi-Wan released a deep breath, struggling to remain calm during what he was certain was about to become a tiring argument. "Yes, you are Luke's father. He knows that just as well as I do."
"Then have him stop calling you 'Daddy.' You are not his father," Anakin insisted, Obi-Wan's words obviously making no impression whatsoever.
"I cannot force him to do anything like that and Luke will call me Daddy just as he always has because that is who I am to him. Likewise, once you cease to be quite so consumed with your anger he will no longer see you as the Sad Man."
Anakin was quiet for a time and Obi-Wan hoped it meant that he was getting tired. Obi-Wan himself was on the verge of sleep. He would have preferred unconsciousness right then; joining Luke in oblivion. He knew that it was not to be when he heard Anakin draw a slow, deep breath.
"Why does Luke call me the Sad Man?"
It was not a question Obi-Wan had been expecting, but it was certainly one that he was willing to answer. "Luke has always had an awareness of you, whether picked up from my thoughts or from the Force itself I'm not sure. But he has always been aware of you and you have always been sad."
"Always?"
"From what I can tell," Obi-Wan said with a resolute nod, swallowing a yawn immediately after. "He's been talking about the Sad Man for nearly as long as he's been talking. It wasn't until he started mentioning things I remembered that I realized he was talking about you."
Even in the darkness he could see the hopeful look that flashed across Anakin's features. "He knows me."
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Between them Luke shifted, wiggling about a bit in his sleep. His son knew him without even having met him before. And as much as an inner voice shouted at him to deny Obi-Wan's words as utterly falsehoods, he couldn't. So many years ago he had felt the same way about Obi-Wan when they had first met. As though Obi-Wan was someone he should have known. Padmé had been something else entirely. She had and always would be his angel. Anakin had never been able to define his relationship with Obi-Wan. Over the years, Obi-Wan had been father, teacher, brother, friend, confidant, partner, savior and enemy. And so many other things that Anakin didn't know the name for.
Furious as he was with Obi-Wan for leaving him to die in the flames on Mustafar, a more rational part of himself reminded him that he had not actually given the other man much of a choice. Obi-Wan had tried to talk him out of it, but all that he had been able to hear were Sidious' words in his mind repeating over and again that all the Jedi must die. Including Obi-Wan. And had it not been for the lucky strike the older man had gotten in, Anakin would have killed him and felt no remorse about it whatsoever.
Anakin could not contain a shudder that overtook his system then. He would have killed Obi-Wan. In that moment it seemed an utterly unnatural thing to do.
Yet he tried to kill you, a slithery voice whispered into his mind. He left you to die on that planet. He took your wife and your child and left you to die.
"Shut up," Anakin grumbled under his breath, not wanting to wake Luke or Obi-Wan. "You're dead. You don't exist anymore."
Yet you do not question Master Jinn's presence and he has been dead far longer than I have.
"Go away."
Still so pathetic, Sidious' voice cackled, the sound reverberating in his skull. It is a wonder I ever thought there was potential in you. You are weak, Vader. You always have been.
At his side, Luke began fidgeting a bit. He didn't look upset, but rather annoyed with whatever was disturbing his slumber. A moment later, Luke rolled onto his side, his small arms winding around Anakin's upper arm. It was still flesh that Luke gripped so Anakin could feel the heat from Luke's sleep-warmed body seeping into himself. Luke wiggled about briefly and then was still, a small smile on his face.
"Papa," Luke yawned as he nuzzled his face into Anakin's shoulder.
Luke knew him. Even in his sleep, Luke knew him.
Anakin would have given anything in the galaxy, his own life even, if he could have simply drawn Luke into his arms then and feel him with arms that were not made of durasteel. Even if he could have only one arm that was his own he would have been content. Being without his own limbs had never bothered him overly much in the past. It had even been a bit of a novelty in the beginning. Padmé had always seemed a bit hesitant about it; Obi-Wan, however, had always seemed amused by Anakin's tinkering with the limb.
And while he could not hold Luke at the moment, Anakin drifted off to sleep content in the fact that his son was near.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Obi-Wan was relieved to feel somewhat more alive when he awoke the next morning. He still felt entirely exhausted, but no longer as though he was about to collapse at any given moment. Of course it would probably be more prudent to test that theory when he was actually out of the bed.
Blinking his eyes open slowly, Obi-Wan glanced to his right and the bed's two other occupants. What he saw there instantly brought a smile to his face. Anakin and Luke were both still utterly asleep, but sometime during the night Luke had wound himself around Anakin's torso, using his father as a living pillow. He couldn't see Luke's face, but there was no mistaking the blissful expression on Anakin's as he turned his face into Luke's rumpled hair. Nothing would have been able to incite Obi-Wan to waking them then.
So instead he shut his eyes and allowed himself to drift back off to sleep.