I spent the rest of my time walking the gardens and clearing my mind, I feel the force better when my mind is clear. I made my way over to a clear spot in the gardens and sat myself down and closed my eyes to meditate. I liked to meditate, it made all of the nonsense around me make more sense to me. I spent a few hours outside connecting myself to the force; strengthening my bond to it. If it were up to me I would spend all night out here mediating but I needed to accompany the chancellor and the Queen to dinner tonight, then be off back to Coruscant as soon as dinner was over. Which meant I had a lot of preparations to get to. I got up from my spot in the gardens and started to communicate with the pilot and the rest of the security team to be ready to leave as soon as dinner was over. Once that was all taken care of I walked over to the chancellors room to inform him we would be leaving as soon as dinner was over.

"Yes thank you Anakin, I will have some of the servants here pack my belongings and have them put aboard the ship." He told me.

"Thank you chancellor. If you don't mind I have a few more things to look after before dinner tonight." I said and excused myself before leaving and heading back to my room.

Once I was in my room I tried calling Ahsoka again. I wanted to talk to her as my girlfriend and not my student at least once today. Yes it was risky to call at a time where we weren't scheduled for one of our personal talks but I had to take the risk for her. When she did answer she was without her cloak and her growing stomach was visible to me; meaning she was alone.

"Hey there Snips, how are you?" I asked excitedly.

"Hello Master, I am doing fine right now." She said and rubbed her stomach.

"Everything okay?" I asked, I could tell by her voice she wasn't telling me something.

"Nothing is wrong, the baby just won't stop kicking me." She said and gave a small laugh and rubbed her stomach again in hopes of calming the baby down.

"Let me talk to him."

"So now it's a boy?" She asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Or her." I corrected myself.

"Much better." She said and moved her hologram communicator on her wrist closer to her stomach.

"Hey there." I whispered to the baby. "This is your dad. I can't wait to meet you. But in the meantime I need you to be nicer to your mom. Go ahead and give her a little kick every once in a while but also remember to give her a break. She has a lot of important work that needs to get done to help thousands of ? I wish I was there to watch you grow more in person and to also feel your kicks in person but this is the best I can do for now. I love you, don't ever forget that." I said to my baby. When I had finished talking Ahsoka pulled the communicator away from her stomach and back to her face.

"I love it when you talk to the baby." She told me and smiled big at me.

"I love talking to the baby." I responded. "Are you still mad at me?"

"No, I was overreacting, hormones. I know you and Padme are just friends and I have nothing to worry about."

"You don't Ashoka, if it were up to me I wouldn't care if I never spoke to her again. It is our jobs that make us work together." I explained.

"I know, I know. I am just feeling a lot lately. And it's hard to always hold everything in." She said.

"You don't always have to hold everything in."

"So then it is okay that I burst into tears when I have to explain a mission to my men and I stutter on a word?" She asked.

"Okay maybe like that no." I answered laughing a little, she couldn't help but laugh along as well.

"See! Being pregnant is a lot different then I imagined it to be. But I am enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I just wish I didn't have to hide it and I could be with you."

"I wish I was with you too. Nothing would make me happier than being at your side and watching our baby grow in person. But this is the card we were dealt and we can do this. Just when this is over we need to make sure we don't have to do this again."

"So you don't want me to get pregnant again and go through hiding another pregnancy?" She joked.

"Preferably not. One baby and one hidden pregnancy is enough for us." I laughed.

"Hey we still don't know, it could be twins." She said, eyeing me.

"Okay fine, then two babies is enough for us. Hell, it can even be triplets."

"Okay no, three is too many." She said and laughed and I joined her.

"In all honesty though, this isn't the first time you've said it could be twins. Do you think it is twins?" I asked her.

"I don't know Anakin, I am not a doctor."

"No, but you are a Jedi. Use the force, trust yourself. You're the mother carrying the baby. You could probably sense better than anyone else if there is more than one baby in there." I told her.

"True…"

I raised my eyebrows at her, asking what her hesitation was about all with one look.

"I don't know if I want to know. So much of this has been a surprise to us, I kind of want to keep it a surprise." She explained.

"That is all true, and if you don't want to know then we won't know until you give birth. This is your choice." I told her.

"It's your choice too, do you want me to try and sense it?" She asked.

"Not if you don't want to. I am one hundred percent okay with waiting."

"Good. I think I want to wait." She told me.

"Then we will wait." I said, officially declaring it, but if at any time she wanted to change her mind I would be okay with that, this was her body and her choice. "How has the mission been going?"

"Very good, we're meeting our timeline very well. Everything is on schedule, construction should be done about a few weeks after my due date then it will be operational." She told me.

"You'll have to take a few days off after you give birth but then it will be expected of you to run the operations for a while before we set a team of clones to run it. That was our agreement with Jabba."

"Yes Master I know. Hopefully the baby sticks to our timeline." She said, smiling down at her stomach. "Rex is being such a big help, running the mission for me at the watchtower when I can't. He offers to do a lot to help me. We need to thank him properly when this is all over." She told me.

"Of course, but he doesn't know that I am the father. We need to try and keep it that way." I reminded her.

"Of course. Do you know when I will be able to see you again?" She asked me.

"I leave with the chancellor tonight after dinner. It depends if the council has another mission for me or not. If not then I'll go up there to help."

"Without the council's permission?"

"Don't you know me by now Snips." I said laughing.

"True, if you taught me anything, is to disobey orders." She said and laughed too.

"Hey!" I tried but then gave up and just laughed, she was right. "I love you… soon to be wife."

"I love you too, soon to be husband." She said with a huge smile on her face. "I'll talk to you later."

"Goodbye." I said then she ended the call.

I can't wait to be with her and have her in my arms again. As I sat down on my bed and waited for dinner with the Queen and Chancellor I took the ring out of my pocket and took another look at it. Ahsoka would love it, it is perfect for her. I can't make it into a ring for her because a Jedi walking around with a ring and a huge crystal on it would be suspicious to anyone. This is a symbol of our engagement, as important as it is it needs to blend in with her. I don't want to cut it into earrings, I want it to stay whole. A necklace! Perfect! All I need to do is fashion the rest of it. I am amazing at building things so it shouldn't be too hard.

"R2" I said into my wrist communicator. He beeped happily in response. "I need you to find me a couple long strands of leather. Make them very long." I Instructed him.

He beeped happily again in response telling me he would get it done straight away. I smiled at that. I could always count on R2 to get things done for me. He was by far the best droid I have ever had. I put down my wrist communicator and stopped down all of my clothes. I needed to shower and clean up before dinner with such important people. I had a bathroom attached to my room so I didn't have to worry about anyone walking in on me. The entire time I showered my mind was on Ahsoka; her body to be exact. Her curves, her lips, her waist. Everything about her was enticing. I needed to be with her...soon. I know we were just together but just thinking about her makes me crazy. I need her; and not in the living soon to be married way, in the primal way a man needed a woman. I want her body. I want to feel her hot breath on my skin. I wanted to run my hands up and down her body.

Before I knew it my member was painfully hard, but since I needed to be at an extremely formal dinner soon I didn't have a lot of time; I needed to make this quick. I took my hand and wandered it down to the part of my body that was for Ahsoka only and quickly wrapped my fist around it. I was fast about it as I stroked myself and imagined Ahsoka's body. In a matter of a few minutes I had taken care of myself and had stepped out of the shower.

I quickly dried myself and dressed for tonight's dinner. Even though I was a guest and not just a security guard to this dinner I still made protecting the chancellor myu number one priority and made way for his room to escort him to tonight's event.

"Ah Anakin." The chancellor greeted after I knocked on his door, "Perfect timing as usual, I had just finished getting ready. You look charming, anyone in particular you're looking to impress?" He asked me as we made our way to the dining hall.

"Just you." I joked with him and he laughed in response.

"How sad. If anything I was thinking you were trying to impress Queen Amidala."

"The Queen is just an old friend, nothing more." I told him.

"Really? Because the way she speaks of you and the way she talks about you make it seem different."

"We have a deep connection because of what we went through together all those years ago. I think of her as a close friend like I do Master Kenobi."

"I don't mean to sound accusing in my words Anakin. I was simply stating that if you two were close that secret is safe with me." He told me.

"I greatly appreciate that chancellor. But I plan to dedicate my life to the Jedi." I told him.