"They're just so precious," Shmi cooed, holding Leia snuggly in her arms after finishing dressing her in a white and gold "My First Christmas" outfit with red and white stripped socks. It was Christmas Eve, just two weeks after the twin's birth. Soft Christmas music played from the speakers in the house, and the smell of cooking ham and fresh-baked apple pie filled the air. Padme's mother had helped her friends finish decorating the house while she was in the hospital, and despite there being no snow outside, Padme felt like it was the perfect Christmas. She had her parents visiting. Her nieces were playing in the backyard. Anakin's mother was with them. Most importantly, she was with her husband and her Luke and Leia.

Leia, as she always did when someone put socks on her, began to squirm and kick her tiny feet, making noises that Padme could instantly tell, even just at two weeks old, that she was beginning to get unhappy. "They remind me so much of Anakin when he was this small." Shmi sighed wistfully, seemingly unconcerned about the squirming baby in her arms.

"I don't know," Sola commented with a grin, holding a comparatively calm Luke in her arms, "Leia looks more like Padme to me."

Padme leaned back against the couch next to her mother, taking that moment for a needed break from the twins. They were so much work. People said that one baby was a lot of work, but two?! Double the diapers, the feedings, the laundry...She'd barely made it through her finals, though her professors had been more than accommodating as she had done them while still recovering from labor, since she and the twins were in the hospital for five days after delivery. Mindy had proclaimed her a superhero for not only completing them, but aceing them as well.

"Like you remember what I looked like as a baby," Padme teased, even though she knew her sister was right. All anyone had to do was look at the twins and they could tell instantly who looked like who. Luke looked like Anakin. Leia looked like Padme.

"Of course, I remember," Sola challenged with a grin, "I also remember asking mom to take you back to the hospital."

"She did," Jobal remembered dryly, "Thankfully, it was a very short phase."

Thankfully indeed. Padme and Sola didn't always see eye-to-eye, but they had grown close in both galaxies.

Suddenly, Jedi trotted into the room, followed closely by Artoo. As soon as the dog spotted the babies, he stopped, his ears perking up, and he immediately sat down to stare at what he probably considered to be hairless, loud puppies that had suddenly shown up in his home. "Well," Jobal smiled, amused at the dog's antics. "I think someone is fascinated by the kids."

"He's done this every time he sees the babies. He just stares at them." Padme reached over and scratched the dog's ears and laughed—she personally thought it was adorable. Anakin, however, had gotten annoyed with it already, and whenever he caught Jedi doing it, he would usually take the dog outside. He didn't do it to be mean to the dog, but rather because Anakin was very protective of his children, and since Jedi had yet to actually try to approach the babies, they didn't know exactly how the dog would interact with them.

Artoo, knowing his master's feelings on the dog staring at the babies, bumped gently into Jedi, causing the dog to jump back up with an irritated woof, which drew the twin's attention immediately. Artoo made a few annoyed chirps at Jedi, and reluctantly Jedi moved on to go sniff at the Christmas tree and the wrapped presents underneath it. Artoo continued over to the back door, pressed the automatic door button Anakin had installed just for Artoo, and rolled outside to go play with their nieces. From their squeals of delight, Padme could tell they were happy the 'fun' droid (as they called Artoo) had come out to play. The girls had taken to calling Threepio, 'The Stiff.'

"So," Sola said as Leia continued to fuss over the socks on her feet, "What are these two babies really like, besides adorable?"

Oh, Padme could go on for hours. Any waking moment she had that wasn't occupied with studying, she was focusing on her children. It felt like she was making up for lost time, as if she would go to sleep one night and wake up in the morning to find them gone (which was a stupid worry, since they woke her up without fail at least twice a night every single night to be fed and changed). Her mother and Anakin's mother had been quite helpful, but after Christmas, they would both be going back home. As much as Padme appreciated their help, she was ready to have her children all to herself. She knew Anakin felt the same, as much as he adored his mother.

When Padme wasn't with the kids, Anakin always was. In fact, Anakin had taken to doing most of his work from home so that he could be with his kids, and he already doted on them probably more than Padme and both their grandmother's combined. He would help Padme burp and rock the babies after she finished nursing them. He also loved to help give them their baths, and he had become very adept at diaper changing since their birth. There was just absolutely no doubt that Anakin loved and adored his children.

"Well," Padme said, trying to think of a place to start, "Leia is the loud one. When she wants something, you know it. The neighbors probably know it, too. Honestly, she's the one that keeps Ani and I up the most at night."

She almost mentioned how Anakin said that she was also very direct in what she wanted through their Force connection, but Sola still didn't know about the Jedi.

Padme was determined to keep it that way, too. If her parents had reacted badly to the news of Anakin's secret lifestyle, Sola would have reacted worse. When Padme had mentioned that to her parents, they had completely agreed. Sola not knowing was for the better.

She thought back to the moment they brought them home. "The first night the kids were here, I was nursing the twins. While I was busy with Luke, Anakin was with Leia. He was going on and on about how beautiful she was, and how much she was his little princess, and her response was to spit up all over him. And, I mean, all over him. Anakin spent his childhood as an only child, so I don't think he was expecting it. The look on his face was priceless!"

That got a laugh out of the women. "Oh no, Ani has no experience with babies." Shmi confirmed, "Even before his, ah, accident, he had very little experience with them."

After more laughter at her poor husband's expense, Padme managed to calm down and continue. "Luke is usually the quieter one. If it wasn't for Leia, we probably wouldn't hear him crying at night, because his cries are relatively soft. They're more like irritated whimpers, really. However, if Luke is crying, you can guarantee that Leia will start crying. It's very obvious that those two are extremely close." In fact, Anakin described their bond as going beyond normal twins. According to him, their bond extended into the Force, and they were pretty much always communicating with each other, not with words, but with emotions.

Padme looked at her newborn twins in her family's arms and wondered if they were communicating now, and what they were showing one another. Leia is probably expressing her absolute displeasure at the socks on her feet, Padme thought with wry amusement.

"Twins are said to be that way." Shmi remarked with a smile, "I love those stories about twins growing up separately but having identical lives. It's interesting."

Jedi continued to sniff at the tree, inspecting it thoroughly, as if some other dog had come in and marked its territory since the last time Jedi had sniffed the tree. Padme was happy that Jedi had grown out of his "I-Must-Pee-On-The-Indoor-Tree" phase.

As he moved to inspect a different part of the tree, his paw slipped, pressing down on one of Luke's presents her parents had gotten for him. The wrapping tore a little, and whatever was inside began to make noises, a series of beeps and whirls. Jedi jumped back, alarmed, staring at the box he'd stepped on as if it had bitten him. Luke began to squirm. "Uh oh," Sola laughed, "I think Luke heard his present."

"Padme said he seemed to be drawn to noisy toys. He's not old enough to play with it yet, obviously, but when he is, it's available to him." Jobal replied with a soft smile as Luke began to fuss louder.

"Yes, but he likes looking at it." Padme reminded her. Artoo was Luke's favorite thing in the world as a result, with his plethora of what Luke probably thought were strange noises. Luke was always calm whenever Artoo was in the room.

Jedi stepped on the present again, causing the noise to go off once more, a different jingle this time. Luke began to cry, and with a sigh Padme got up to pull Jedi away from the tree and the presents. If she didn't calm Luke down, Leia was sure to start crying too, and then it would take forever to get them both to calm down.

"Lukie, you need to wait for…"

Suddenly, the presents exploded out from underneath the tree, flying off in all different directions, knocking the tree sideways into the wall, sending several ornaments flinging off, clattering across the living room floor, while loudly jingling the rest. All of the women in the room gasped, ducking their heads, waiting for the flying boxes to settle. A few hit the back glass paneled door with a resounding WHACK, cracking it in two places, while another hit the TV with a loud WHUMP and knocked it off of its stand onto the living room floor with a loud CRASH. The noisy commotion freaked Jedi out, and the dog barked wildly and scurried outside to join Ryoo and Pooja in the backyard, who were drawn to the patio door by all the noisy ruckus.

It only took a few seconds, but to Padme it seemed much longer, and when it finally stopped, she stared at her messed up living room, her jaw dropping, as her brain struggled to fully process what had happened. Luke was wailing now, louder than he had since he was born, and this time, Leia was quiet. When Padme turned and glanced over at her daughter, she was no longer fussing, but completely content, an almost amused smile on her face.

Padme knew that she was too young to consciously smile—everyone said babies this young did it because of gas. Still, if Leia was enjoying her brother's attempt to use the Force…

"What," Sola breathed, looking around the room wide-eyed, "Was that?"


15 minutes earlier…

"I'm sure Padme just loves that you're using the garage again for your work, huh?" Darred said dryly as Anakin pulled out his recently completed plans, rolling the large parchment out on the wooden table in the center of the garage. Ruwee, Darred, and Threepio stood in the room, which was sort of awkward for Anakin, since Ruwee still gave Anakin suspicious looks whenever Darred wasn't looking.

"Oh, she hates it." Anakin agreed, grinning, as he used tools to hold down the edges of the paper. "But we're calling a truce on it for now, at least until the twins are old enough for me to go back to my workshop at the factory."

Ruwee, as had become usual the last few months, said nothing, only moved to look at the plans Anakin had spread before them. "So. This is it." He finally said, moving straight to business.

Anakin ignored his father-in-law's skeptical tone, his own eyes running over the plans he had completed for his finals at Stanford. "This is it." He confirmed with a nod. "This is the ship that's going to take us to Mars in three months instead of the estimated year." He couldn't help but grin proudly. He had done his best with what resources he could find in a short amount of time, but if he wanted to get NASA's attention, he had to put his plan into action. Fast.

"And, you're the one to build it." Ruwee didn't ask. He already knew the answer. Anakin nodded. "How do you know this is even possible?" Ruwee continued skeptically.

Oh, years of experience, he wanted to say, but he didn't. "I don't go to college to just stare at the classroom walls, you know."

"Yes, Anakin, but there are a lot of people who graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering, but very few of them actually draft plans for and build a spaceship to get them to distant planets in an unreasonable amount of time," Darred pointed out. "This isn't like building a droid, Anakin. This is…way more complicated, not to mention, life threatening."

"I beg your pardon, Master Darred," Threepio objected, "But, we droids are, in fact, very complicated! I, myself, am able to communicate in…"

"It's going to work, okay? You'll have to trust me on this. Remember, my other degree is in physics. " Anakin interrupted before Threepio could go on a tirade, but he had to admit, now he was annoyed. He wanted to reveal that he had built way faster ships in his past, ships that could have made a trip to another planet within the same system within an hour. He had built ships that could travel to other solar systems in a matter of hours, the same amount of time it would take for them to get from California to China. If they only knew everything he did…

But, they would still think he was crazy...

Perhaps more so, if he told them he was really from a different planet in a totally different galaxy. Of course, they are, too, but can't tell them that, Anakinthought.

Already, Ruwee wasn't reacting well to the news that Anakin was a Jedi. He had yet to tell Ruwee and Jobal that their grandchildren were also gifted with those powers…

"When it's built, and if it works," Ruwee started, but Anakin couldn't help but interrupt.

"When it works."

Ruwee rolled his eyes. "Right. When it works, who is going to be brave enough to fly it?"

"That's easy," Anakin shrugged, "I will."

Darred and Ruwee exchanged uneasy glances. "By yourself?" Darred asked cautiously.

"No. Obi-Wan will be with me." Anakin assured them. That didn't seem to reassure them at all.

"But, you don't have any training!" Ruwee argued, "Our astronauts spend years training before they go up into Space. What you're suggesting is completely insane!"

"I beg your pardon, Master Ruwee, but if Master Anakin says he can do it, then he can. I have personally calculated the plans, and I predict that the plans have an 88.1 percent chance of being successful!" Threepio defended, but that didn't seem to calm Anakin's in-laws much.

"So, there's still room for disaster there," Ruwee pointed out, "And, besides, the droid could be programed to just agree with whatever you say…"

"I beg your pardon…!" Threepio started, but Anakin quickly shut him off before he could launch into another offended rant. It would likely happen when he turned him back on, but at least by then, things would be calmed down. Besides, Anakin knew Threepio was anything but agreeable to whatever he or Padme said. Anakin figured he was probably standing up for the design because he had already been assured that he didn't have to go on the ride with them to Mars.

"I'm going." Anakin said firmly, "That's final."

There was an awkward silence. Ruwee crossed his arms, clearly not looking pleased, while Darred sighed. "Is Padme okay with this?" He finally asked.

Anakin hesitated. "She's known about these plans since before we were married," He said, "I kept her informed every step of this drafting process while she was pregnant. But, with the kids…well, we're working the details out. We still have about a year of building the ship before we really need to make solid plans."

Darred still looked skeptical, and Ruwee apparently agreed with this. "I somehow doubt my daughter would be okay with her husband literally traveling across space for months at a time while she's stuck at home with the twins by herself."

To be honest, Anakin hadn't really thought about it. Back when he'd started putting the plans to paper, the twins were still tiny embryos in the womb. But, now that they were here, and he could hold them and care for them, even he was suddenly worried about leaving for a total of six months. Sure, he'd left Padme for much longer periods as a Jedi in their old galaxy, and he knew he would need to go on Jedi missions in the future as well, but to completely go off planet in a ship that was not as fast as the ones from his galaxy?

Suddenly, he wasn't so sure.

"That's between Padme and I," was all he could think to say.

Darred sighed and continued to say something, but Anakin didn't hear him.

There was suddenly a large spike in the Force, full of both desire and distress, coming from within the house.

Coming from his son.

The twins were very strong in the Force, and even stronger when they were together, just as he and Obi-Wan had suspected. Anakin had already begun to get used to feeling that presence in the back of his mind all the time. Usually, he could feel when one of them was about to cry, and sometimes he could even figure out why they were crying and fix the problem immediately.

But this…this was a deliberate use of the Force, or as deliberate as a newborn baby could be.

"I'm sorry," Anakin interrupted whatever his brother-in-law was saying, "But, I'm needed inside. My son is upset." He turned, flipped Threepio on again, and without bothering to put his ship plans away, he walked back into the house.

Behind him, he could hear Darred ask, "How does he know that? I can't hear anything…"

"Master Anakin always knows when the children need him." Threepio, back on again, assured him, as if that were an adequate answer to Darred's question.

The garage door shut behind him, and he was suddenly hit with the intensity of Luke's wailing. That in itself was odd, because Luke hadn't cried that hard since he was born. The other thing that struck Anakin as odd was that Leia was not crying with him, like she usually did.

He all but rushed into the living room and stopped in his tracks, frozen, staring slackjawed and wide-eyed around at the chaos that the room had become. The presents underneath the tree had been rocketed all over the room and the tree rested sideways against the wall. Ornaments littered the floor. The TV had been knocked from its stand, screen down, onto the living room floor. The back door's glass had been cracked in several places, and the dog and the Ryoo and Pooja were now checking it out from the backyard.

Luke was wailing at the top of his lungs in Sola's arms, and Leia was radiating amusement from her place in his mother's arms. All of the women were staring at the room in shock, including his wife.

"Ok, Ani," Padme breathed, "What was that?"

Anakin translated Padme's real question, the question that they couldn't outright discuss in front of Sola: Could the twins really use the Force at this age?

Yes. Oh, Yes...they most certainly could.

Most Force sensitive children exhibited signs of being able to use the Force at a young age, but few would be able to do it to this extent.

Luke being his son, however…

Well. This could easily be the result. He hadn't worried about that until now, but he suddenly realized he should have been.

"I don't know," Anakin said, though he gave Padme a look that said I'll tell you later, "But, it seems like Luke needs a little break from all of this."

"Yes, it seems so." Padme threw him a grateful look as she stood, taking their squalling, squirming son from Sola's arms. "We'll clean up in here. Why don't you go try to calm him down, Honey?"

"Good idea. I think I'll take Leia with me, so she doesn't start crying, too." He took his wailing, aggitated son in one arm, and his mother stood and helped him cradle Leia in his other arm. Thankfully, she still seemed rather calm, because handling two crying babies at once would have been difficult to do. Even for the Chosen One.

As he turned to leave the room, he caught Jobal's eye. She frowned as she watched him with the twins, as if she were putting the pieces together. "What?!" He asked, struggling to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

She shook her head. "Nothing, it's just…" She hesitated. "They're like you, aren't they?"

Anakin clenched his jaw. They had known they would need to tell Padme's parents eventually, but Anakin really was not in the mood to tell them right that second. "They're perfect the way they are, Jobal," was all he was able to say without completely snapping at her. If she treated his children any differently than before because they were Force-sensitive...

But, instead she sighed, as if she had already suspected the inevitable, and she nodded her head in acceptance. Anakin relaxed, glad she hadn't reacted with the same revulsion she and her husband were treating him with, before he turned and left the room.

He took the twins to the nursery, using the Force to shut the door behind him, as he settled down into Padme's plush rocking chair in the corner of the room. He began to rock softly as he sent both of his children calm feelings through their Force connection. It's okay, little ones, he told them, I'm here. You're safe.

Leia immediately began to respond with drooping eyes and burying her face closer to the warmth of his chest, but Luke continued to wail. Clearly, Luke was not worried about safety. So, what, exactly, had caused his use of the Force? Anakin gently used the Force to try to coax something out of his son, a feeling or an image, since the boy couldn't form words yet.

He was rewarded with a clear picture of Jedi stepping on a present that made a lot of noise. He could feel Luke's desire to see what the thing was, to hear it make those noises again, but when Luke had reached out for it…

Well. It explained the explosion of presents.

Interesting. Very interesting.

With no training and being so young, Luke's use of the Force had, thankfully, only thrown all of the presents everywhere...

And, tilted the tree sideways.

Cracked the glass in the back door.

Plus, knocked the TV to the floor.

Suddenly, Anakin was very, very glad that Darth Vader had not known about his children. If Vader had known and taken the twins for himself…

Anakin shuddered. It would have been catastrophic.

He needed to thank Obi-Wan and Yoda when he saw them next. It's okay Luke, he told his son through the Force, You'll get to see that present tomorrow and every day after that. I promise.

Luke must have felt the sincerity behind his father's words, because he began to calm down, sniffling. Leia was already fast asleep in his other arm, one of her tiny little hands fisted in his shirt. Anakin smiled, once more marveling at how lucky he was to be holding both of them, after everything they had all been through. He looked back down at his son, who was also starting to fall asleep from the rocking of the chair and the calming feelings Anakin was sending his way.

"Luke," He said aloud, quietly so as not to interrupt his son's drifting off, "I swear, Luke, that I won't leave you alone again. I'll be there for every sports game, birthday party, and school award, even if that award is one of those silly awards they give to make kids feel included. When you're old enough, I'll train both you and your sister in the ways of the Force. You'll never have to feel ashamed of your abilities, and I'll never do anything that makes you wish that I wasn't your father. I will be the father you always wanted, my son. I swear."

He doubted Luke understood any of that, but the moment he spoke the words, he felt as if their bond through the Force strengthened, as if that promise had literally bound them together. It felt that if he broke it, something more disastrous than ever before would happen, and he would truly lose his precious son forever.

Luke was asleep now, and Anakin slowly stood up and placed his son gently in his crib, covering him with a blanket, before carefully walking to Leia's crib to set her down. As he did, he pulled her pink fleece blanket over her little body, and paused, staring down at her. She was so at peace when she slept. She looked just as angelic as Padme did.

Beautiful.

He smiled softly and reached down to gently brush her soft tuft of dark hair with his fingertips. "Leia," he whispered, his throat tightening. "I swear to you, too, all of what I swore to your brother, and more. You're my little princess, and I will make sure you know it every single day of your life. I won't…I won't hurt you again, or the people you love…even if I disapprove of them," He thought back to that smuggler she had been dating back in their galaxy and winced. As much as he didn't like the guy, torturing him and freezing him in carbonite had likely not earned him any points in Leia's eyes. "I promise to be a father that you can be proud of. I hope…I hope someday you'll love me the way you loved Bail...even more so. I'll work extra hard to earn that love, Princess."

Again, he could feel that binding between he and his daughter, and he swore to himself that he would do everything in his power to uphold it. He wouldn't break it. Not this time. He would die before that happened.

With that decided, Anakin smiled, at peace himself, and watched as both of his twins slept peacefully, home where they belonged, at long last...With both their parents.


Just two more weeks of school...just two more weeks of school...just TWO MORE WEEKS of school...

As you can guess, these next two weeks are going to be busy, so I will try to update before then, but no promises.

Basically, the next few chapters will highlight major points in Luke and Leia's childhood. So there will be some time skips.

Thanks for all of the reviews! They make my day! I'm glad you enjoyed the birth scene!

Review!

Love,

Sarah