I took a bit of a break, and with school starting up I might be a bit erratic with posting. But I'll try to stay regular and not leave you guys hanging for super long. Anyhoo, THE BABIES ARE HERE.

I will also try to correct my grave mistake of not including more 501st. My only excuse is I forgot.

Ahsoka groaned, stopping again to lean against the wall and breathe through another contraction. Her due date was still a week out, but the twins seemed determined to come early. "Come on, this is the one day I have anything for the last month. Just wait until I get home okay." She pushed back off the wall and kept walking, though waddling was probably a better term at this point, toward the Council room. "Although it'd be pretty on-brand for a child of mine to come on the most inconvenient day."

Master Plo fell into step with her as she turned into a different hallway. "Ko-to-ya, Little 'Soka."

"Hi." She huffed out a short breath, feeling the muscles in her stomach start to tense again. "Sorry, these babies are determined to kill me. Of all the days, they had to pick this one. The only day I have anything going on for the next year. This day. It has to be this one."

He chuckled. "They will come when they come, Little 'Soka. As inconvenient as it may be."

"Don't I know it."

She made it to the Council chambers before another contraction started. Unfortunately, she did have to stand, since they couldn't bring in chairs for anyone else apparently. Anakin and Obi-Wan were already there in their seats.

"Padawan Tano."

"Good morning Master Yoda." She folded her arms over her belly, working on slow, deep breaths.

"Been told the purpose of this meeting, have you?"

"No. I was just told to show up." Ahsoka shifted her weight slightly as another contraction built.

"Given the recent events, we decided to stop putting off your knighting ceremony. Your master believes you are ready for this next responsibility." Master Windu frowned. "Padawan, are you alright?"

She nodded, letting out a slow breath. "Yes, just give me a second. Actually, does anyone mind if I sit down?"

Immediately, four of the nine physically present Council members vacated their seats and offered them to her. Obi-Wan's was the closest, so that was the one she picked.

"Sorry, the twins are trying to kill me. So what were you saying?"

"We were going to hold your knighting ceremony now, if you have no objection."

Before Ahsoka could answer, she felt a sudden, sharper pain and a rush of fluid down her legs. "Well, I have no objections, but I think the babies do. Oh, ow…" she winced, resting a hand on her belly. "Come on, you guys have terrible timing."

"Meaning?" Master Windu raised an eyebrow.

"My water just broke. Right now. Sorry about your chair, Master."

Obi-Wan chuckled and sighed. "It's alright, little one. Although we probably should postpone your knighting ceremony for a few days."

"Yeah, that'd be a good idea."

Barriss was straddling the line between panic and excitement. On the one hand, this was scary. She knew from her studies that Togruta and humans didn't mix well. Human babies were on average a pound and a half heavier than Togruta babies, as well as having larger heads. There were too many potential complications for her to be comfortable. The doctors had told Ahsoka that having a C-section was more than a possibility and personally Barriss thought that was the best option.

On the other hand, she was so incredibly excited. The twins were on their way. She wanted to cheer and squeal like a crazy person. Her mind ran with so many thoughts she had no idea what any of them were, just that they were excited and happy and ALL THE GOOD THINGS.

Her comm rang, startling her out of her head and she answered it.

"Barriss, you were going to the hospital correct?"

"Yes?"

"Were you coming back for the gift you made later? Because it's still here on the couch."

"Oh. Oops. I'll come get it."

"Okay."

Barriss ended the call and spun around, running back toward their rooms. As Luminara had told her the box was on the couch and it was, where she'd left it when she'd gone to grab her comm and then seen the time and left. She picked it up this time, waving to Luminara as she left a second time.

Ahsoka had commed her to tell her that her water had broken, in the middle of her knighting ceremony of all times, and so now she was headed to the hospital. She'd decided that she wanted Carter and Barriss with her while she was in labour, and maybe Padmé if she could make it. Unfortunately she was in the middle of debating a bill and couldn't get away.

Driving always had a way of calming her mind. She had to focus on timing and pressure on the pedals, keeping a steady eye on the speeders around her and just how much pull on the steering wheel was needed to turn. It made it hard to think about anything else, like whatever might be bothering her. She took a long, deep breath, trying to be mindful of her body and where she was in space and centered in herself.

It worked for all of five seconds, but they were a very peaceful five seconds. Well, it was a small win.

Padmé had pulled some serious strings to get Ahsoka into what was probably the best room in the hospital. It took a bit of hassle to get her allowed back there, and finally Carter had to leave and tell the staff that she was who she said she was and Ahsoka wanted her there.

Ahsoka was curled up on her side in a mountain of pillows. She looked up when the door opened. "Oh Barriss, hi!"

"Hey Ahsoka. Can I give you a hug?"

"Yeah, just let me find my arms." Ahsoka extricated her arms from the pillows and held them out. Barriss hugged her loosely, not sure what was sensitive and what was not, but Ahsoka hugged her tightly, so she returned it.

"How are you feeling?"

"Hurts." She let go, lowering herself back down. "Contractions aren't fun. But the rest of the time I'm pretty okay. For some reason contractions make my lekku cramp up and that sucks. And every time someone comes in to check my dilation they have to stick their hand up my lady bits and I don't like that and it makes me want to kick them in the face but Carter says I can't, so that's also fun."

Barriss snorted. "I'm sorry."

Ahsoka made a grumbling, whining noise. "I wanted to have the twins at home, but since I'm at such a high risk for complications they won't let me. Especially since I might need an emergency C-section if things go south."

She winced. "That isn't good."

"No it's not. And every time a nurse or someone shows up, they hassle me about lying down. Apparently Togruta are built to give birth kneeling or sitting, but they missed the part about I don't want to. I swear, the next time I get a patronizing nurse walking me through the freaking basics of my body, I really am going to kick them in the face and I will blame it on a muscle spasm."

Carter sighed. "They're just doing their jobs, love. They just know that you're a teen mother. They don't know how much you know."

"I've told them. More than once." Ahsoka grimaced. "Someone hold my hand."

Barriss immediately took the proffered hand and Carter took her other one on her other side. Ahsoka groaned, squeezing her eyes shut and squeezing their hands just as tightly. "Oh man, these ones hurt way more than before. Ouch."

"Just breathe, 'Soka. You'll get through this."

"Yeah. Breathing. Breathing's good. And maybe I won't have to kick anyone in the face." She grinned in spite of the pain and Barriss and Carter laughed.

Anakin jumped when his comm went off, scrabbling for it and checking the caller ID.

"Who is it?" Padmé frowned, pausing the holomovie they were watching.

"Barriss." He answered, heart suddenly pounding. "How's everything going?"

She looked frazzled. "Not good. First twin is a girl. She's out okay and healthy. Second twin got stuck. They can't get him loose and Ahsoka's hemorrhaging. They're rushing her into surgery now."

"Surgery?!"

"Emergency C-section. I'll comm you when she gets out." Barriss ended the call.

Anakin slumped back into the couch. "I knew it. I knew something was going to go wrong."

Padmé curled into his side. "What do you mean?"

"Just weird dreams I've been having. Someone dying. Babies crying. And this weird feeling. I was certain something was going to go wrong, but I was trying to take a deep breath and trust the professionals. I do trust them, but I'm still worried. Things happen. No system is perfect. And Ahsoka was already high-risk."

"She's got some of the Republic's best surgeons working on her. And she's tough. She's not going to let herself go out like this. Not when her children need her."

"Thank you, angel. I know all that, but I needed to hear someone say it."

"Of course. We should probably wait to go see them. Give Ahsoka some time to recover and bond with the twins before we bother her."

He smiled. "I think I can be that patient."

"At least twenty-four hours. Can you really say you'd want people bothering you hours after you woke up from a major surgery?"

"No, not really. I'd just want to sleep."

"Yeah. So we'll finish our movie, keep an eye on your comm, and be patient."

"I'm not good at patience."

Padmé rolled her eyes. "There is absolutely nothing you can do but sit here and watch movies with me. Barriss will tell us if anything new happens."

It was nearing two in the morning and they were on the last movie of the truly horrible pulp fiction movies they were wasting time on by the time Anakin started to get tired of the wait.

"It's been four hours. We should've heard something by now."

"It's okay, Ani. You know Barriss can forget things. I'm sure everything's fine. Besides, these things take a while. You can stay up and wait for a call, but I'm going to bed. I have to be up and awake at the Senate tomorrow. But if you do get a call, wake me up! I want to know!"

Anakin sighed. "Okay. Goodnight angel. Sleep well."

"Goodnight." She pecked his lips gently.

"Hey, gimme a real kiss." He pulled her onto his lap and kissed her firmly, tilting her head back a little for a better angle.

She laughed as he pulled away. "Okay, okay. There's your real kiss. Now I'm going to bed. Goodnight."

"Night."

He lasted all of two seconds in silence before he needed to do something.

"Hey Artoo, anything need a tuneup?"

The astromech beeped back a negative.

"You sure? Nothing? No little upgrades or anything?"

Another no.

He sighed. "Threepio, what about you?"

"I am just fine, Master Ani."

"Come on, you're always complaining about something. You're sure there's nothing you need fixed."

"Well I suppose my knee joints could use a tuneup."

"That's more like it."

It was still another hour, in which time he tuned up everything either droid found even a minor inconvenience before Barriss finally commed. She couldn't even get a word out before Anakin asked, "Is she okay?"

"Mom and baby are both fine. Ahsoka is exhausted and a little loopy thanks to the anesthesia, but we stopped the bleeding and there's far less damage than we had feared. She will probably have a hip brace as a precaution once she's released, but that isn't a very big deal. The younger twin is a boy. I can't tell you their names yet, but they are both healthy little things and they're doing wonderful."

"Oh, one of each, that's awesome. Can we come visit tomorrow or should we wait?"

"I would give it a day. Ahsoka needs time to recover and bond with her twins before being swamped with people. And only one group of visitors at a time."

"Got it. Day after tomorrow, or I guess it would be tomorrow, since it's past midnight."

"I suppose so. Regardless, give her some time."

"Alright. Okay." He let out a long breath. "Wow. Little Snips is a mom now. That's…a little weird. I keep thinking she's still fourteen and forgetting that no she's not. She got married last year and now she has twins. Unplanned obviously, but still. Jeez."

"It is a little disconcerting. I can't send you pictures of the twins, but I can tell you they are very, very cute. Now, I'm headed back to the Temple to get some sleep. You should go to bed too. No sense in staying up any longer."

"Yeah, you're right. I'm going to bed. Night."

"Goodnight." She ended the call.

Anakin sighed, rubbing his forehead as he scooped his tools back into their poorly-organized box. A servo poked him in the side and he glanced over. "Yeah Artoo?"

The droid beeped a question.

"Ahsoka's fine. She had the twins, actually. A boy and a girl. We can't go visit them tomorrow, but we can go the day after. Don't worry buddy, she's fine. Just tired."

He made a plaintive sound.

"I know. Go power down. I'll see if I can get pictures tomorrow, but right now we should go to sleep. Goodnight."

Artoo made the droid equivalent of a sigh and rolled away.

Padmé shifted when he crawled into bed next to her, blinking sleepily. "Did she call?"

"Yeah. Everyone's healthy and fine. Ahsoka's doing good. Both twins are okay."

"Boy or girl?"

"Hm?"

"The other twin. Boy or girl?"

"Boy."

"Heh. One of each." Padmé yawned, snuggling into him. "Did she say when we can visit?"

"Barriss said to give them a day."

"Okay. We'll do that then."