I heard one of them crying on the baby monitor. I looked at the chronometer and 02:33 in the morning. Sitting up, I looked over at Padme. She was fast asleep, snoring softly. I smiled as I put on a shirt and walked toward the hallway.
The first door I came to was Jinn's. I walked in, and quietly approached his crib. Jinn was sleeping soundly in his crib, secured loosely in his green blanket drooling on his stuffed Ewok stuffed animal he was snuggling. I watched him dream for a minute, just amazed at him.
Then, I heard Ashla cry. Quickly, I went existed Jinn's room and went to Ashla's. When I went into the room, I went to Ashla's crib. She was wide awake and reaching for me, crying, so I picked her up. I felt her diaper, and saw that she was clean, then I felt her forehead for a fever. She had none. She kept crying and kicking, like she was in pain. I tried burping her, but that did nothing.
At a lost, I brought her into the living room and placed her gently on the couch. I grabbed a HoloNet pad and typed "why baby still crying?" After scrolling through some non-helpful articles, I found something that suggested it might be gas. Obeying the article, I took her tiny feet and starting pushing them up and down like in a circuit motion. In a minute, she made a face, then she passed gas. That moment, she stopped crying.
"Ha," I said, picking her up, "You are just like your mother. Rather be in pain then consider un-ladylike. What am I going to do with you?"
She gurgled, and nestled into my chest. I got up and walked back into her room. I wrapped her up in a blanket, then placed her down in the crib. I turned off the light, leaving the nightlight on.
As I stumbled back towards our room, I heard crying. Groaning I thought that somehow Ashla had woken up again, but then I realized that it was coming from Jinn's room. A double-header, back to back, there better be an award for this, I thought as I stumbled into his room. Jinn had a pair of lungs, and when the door opened, you would have thought it was a banshee screaming.
"Jinn, buddy, I'm here. Shh. Stop."
I walked over and picked him up. He was wet and it looked like he pooped too. I walked over to the changing table laid him down and opened his onesie, then got the diaper off of him, and threw it away in the L-9 droid we had in his room. Then I whipped him off and threw those away. Next, I got the new diaper on. I smiled, thinking about the first time I did this when we brought them home for about a month and a half ago. I could not figure out the mechanics of the thing to save my life, and they would not stay on. I was asking Padme to help with everything. But now I had gotten the hang of it.
I put him back down in his crib and just looked at him for a minute. He was already loud and crazy, like me, but I loved him so much. He drifted back off to sleep, and I decided I needed to get some if I was going to be any use to the Council in the morning. I flipped off the light on my way out.
I stumbled back to my bedroom and slunk back into the bed with Padme. I tried to close my eyes, which were really heavy from being up at 02:30 in the morning. Just when I was about to drift off, I felt Padme touch my arm.
"Are the kids alright?"
"Yeah. I took care of it."
"Thanks."
"Sure."
"Are you going in tomorrow?"
"The sith are still on the loose, and they actually value my opinion, so yeah I was going in. But I can ask for some time off."
"No. They need you. You are one of the best they have. Is it a council meeting tomorrow?"
"Yeah. They are uneasy about Palpatine."
"What can he do?"
"Who knows? They probably don't need me with the subject being Palpatine and all. I can ask for time off."
"No, this is your life."
"You are my life. Being a Jedi is just an alternative of being a Sith."
"What about you? When are you going back?"
"Shouldn't we have had this conversation before 2:30 at night?"
"Hey, a lot happened these last few weeks."
"I already told them I am coming back soon. But I still haven't found anyone to watch the kids. I just have to arrange for more time off."
"What about your parents?"
"They went back to Naboo."
"And my mom?"
"That… could happen. We could let her watch them until we got them tested by the Temple."
"Who is your favorite?" I asked suddenly.
"What?"
"No, honestly. If you had to pick one, if you had to. Which is better?"
She looked at me, appalled, "Neither!"
"Honestly?"
"Yes!"
I smiled. "Me too. I think I would kill for both of them."
She scoffed. "They are both our children," she said and snuggled in close to me.
We fell asleep in each others arms, for thirty minutes. Then we were woken up by one of the twins crying on the baby monitor. It was Jinn, he had dropped his pacifier.