This chapter is titled for Satine's great talent for understatements.

I meant to wait until tomorrow to post again... But I'm having too much fun. Enjoy!

Bo-Katan was her sister and her life-saver but still had a great deal to learn, and Satine had no intentions of following her advice. She called Obi Wan when Korkie was sleeping soundly in his bassinet and would not interrupt them. She drew herself up to her strongest posture and pinned her hair smoothly back from her face. She was not an anaemic mother to be pitied and to bring this man back into her line of service. She was the Duchess of Mandalore and she ruled with honesty and respect. Hence, she was doing Obi Wan the simple courtesy of full disclosure concerning his progeny, in addition to offering condolences for the loss of Master Jinn and congratulations for the success on Naboo. A standard political transaction, really.

Except, of course, that she cared.

That she was sweaty and trembling as she dialled. That the ringing tone of the comm-call had her already racing heart thumping painfully in her chest. Stars. How was she going to say anything to him? Her mouth was dry and her tongue didn't seem to work. He would think she was having a blasted stroke. Perhaps she would have a blasted stroke. Sewlen seemed to think she was going to fall apart at any moment, taking blood samples every day and fussing over her wound and blood pressure and the lot of it. Maybe that was why.

Slow breaths, Satine. Slow breaths and chin up.

"Satine."

Obi Wan appeared before her. It was early morning in Theed; Satine had known that he would be awake. He was dressed in the familiar linens that he had worn when they had been together – although Satine had seldom seen them so clean – and sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"Obi Wan."

So she could form words, after all. Satine took comfort in this.

"I'm so sorry to hear of Master Qui Gon's passing."

Obi Wan accepted her condolences with a gracious nod.

"Thank you, Satine."

There was a brief silence between them, as both searched for impossible words, and then spoke at once.

"I must congratulate you also on your great success on Nab-"

"It's been an awful time, if I'm honest, Satine."

Silence once more, as Satine digested the raw emotion in Obi Wan's face. She would not offer any more formalities. She'd told herself a hundred times that she was the Duchess of Mandalore but she didn't want to be that for him. She couldn't kid herself that this was some kriffing courtesy call. She looked at him in his grief and her heart ached so hard. She still loved him. She suspected that perhaps she always would.

"I'm so sorry, Obi Wan," she repeated, instead. "I wish that I could-"

Satine stopped herself short. It was useless to remind him that they could not hold each other. She took a deep breath and searched for the right words.

"I know that he cared for you very much, Obi Wan. It was beautiful to see the bond between you during our time together," she told him earnestly. "It must be such an enormous loss."

Obi Wan nodded wearily, closing his eyes and rubbing a hand across his face. He looked at her and pondered her, as though deciding whether or not to speak, before shifting restlessly in his posture and talking again.

"You know, Satine, it's- well, it's complicated, but I think you might understand-"

He faltered once more.

"Master Qui Gon and I… we'd been going through something difficult together. About my training. It was- I mean, it was nothing to feel so hurt by, really but- Well, I'd hoped that it would heal with time. And now we…"

He trailed off helplessly.

"That time for healing has been taken from you," Satine finished. "I understand."

"As it was with your parents," Obi Wan ventured.

"Yes."

Obi Wan gave another sombre nod.

"There is always life in the Force, of course," he murmured. "Our journey is far from over. But it is difficult."

"Yes."

He offered her a bruised smile.

"I'm glad that you called, Satine. Thank you."

Satine effortfully returned the smile.

"It is good to see you, Obi Wan. Even in this sad time."

A sad time that was sure to become more difficult, with the news she had to share.

"And I take it you're well on Mandalore?" he asked.

The territory into which he'd unwittingly stumbled. It was all Satine could do not to laugh in his face.

"I am well, yes," Satine agreed, steeling herself. "Although it's been a rather eventful week-"

"Hold on a moment, Satine," Obi Wan murmured.

He was looking beyond Satine's projection at a figure she could not see, a small frown between his brows. He half rose to his feet.

"Anakin, are you al-"

A child in nightclothes walked into Satine's field of view, twisting his hands in agitation at his chest and blubbering with effortfully suppressed tears.

"I- I- I- I'm sorry but I just…"

The child was crying harder now.

"…had this d-d-d-dream and I s-s-s-saw-"

Obi Wan opened his arms and beckoned the child towards him.

"Oh dear, young one," he murmured, taking the child in his lap. "It's alright."

Satine felt something enormous and powerful in her chest as she watched them. Obi Wan's movements were inexpert but tender, as he rubbed the boy's back and dabbed at his tears with the hem of his cloak.

"And I shouldn't have interr-rr-rrupted you on your holo-call b-b-b-but it was like it was r-r-r-real and I j-j-j-j-just n-n-n-needed to-"

"It's alright, Anakin. You've not caused any trouble. Now, no more talking, young one, just breathing."

Obi Wan managed a smile at Satine over the child's head.

"My apologies, Satine."

"Not at all," Satine hurriedly assured him. "Perhaps I'd best leave you for now…"

"It's quite alright," Obi Wan reassured her in turn, before turning his gaze back down to the quietening child. "You ought to say hello to the Duchess Satine Kryze of Mandalore, Anakin. She is a good friend of mine, and of Master Qui Gon."

Anakin managed a teary smile and a small bow of his head.

"It's v-v-very nice to meet you, your Highness."

"You can probably call her Satine, Anakin," Obi Wan suggested, with a dimpled smile in Satine's direction.

"It's very nice to meet you, Satine."

Despite her puzzlement, Satine couldn't help but smile in return.

"It is a pleasure to meet you too, Anakin."

"Anakin is a long way from home on Tatooine," Obi Wan explained to Satine, as he continued to hold the child in his lap. "He helped Master Jinn and the Queen Amidala in a time of great need. He's very gifted in the Force. Master Jinn had hoped to train him as his Padawan…"

Satine caught the slight strain in Obi Wan's voice and felt a surge of angry righteousness in his defence. So this was the dispute that Obi Wan had alluded to. Had Qui Gon intended to abandon Obi Wan's training to make way for Anakin? She did not think she'd ever heard of a Jedi Master taking on two Padawan learners.

"But I will do my utmost to train Anakin in his stead," Obi Wan finished, giving the child's shoulder a comforting squeeze.

Satine blinked, stunned.

"Are you not still a Padawan yourself, Obi Wan?"

Obi Wan could not hide a grimace even as he spoke in a calm voice for the child in his arms.

"Master Yoda came to Naboo for Qui Gon's funeral. He has bestowed upon me the title of Jedi Master."

He turned his head slightly and indicated with this hand at where his learner's braid had once been, mounting a brave smile.

"A sooner graduation that I had imagined, but…"

Satine tried not to gape. That braid that she had held between her fingers. The very last part of him that she had touched.

"Master Kenobi," she murmured, in disbelief.

"I still prefer Obi Wan," he muttered, with a wry smile.

Satine nodded vaguely. The last time she had known him he had been a Padawan with a braid and now he had a tiny Jedi in his own lap. How could this possibly have happened so fast when he surely was not even close to being ready to train a Padawan? How could the galaxy have engineered that he would take on an apprentice before having had a chance to know the child of his own blood? Satine felt dizzy and caught out and faintly angry. But she would have to tread carefully within earshot of the apprentice in question.

"Is it… is it common, Obi Wan, to take on one's own Padawan so soon as-"

"No one else in the Council wanted to train me," Anakin contributed morosely, his voice muffled in Obi Wan's chest. "Only Master Qui Gon."

And such a terrible silence fell across their connection.

"Master Qui Gon has taught me a great deal about defying the Council, young one," Obi Wan advised with a weak smile. "We'll be alright."

The words were kind but arrived a few moments too late.

Satine felt dizzier and angrier and tearful all at once now. That Qui Gon Jinn would leave Obi Wan bound to such a task. To an unexpected Knighthood. To defy the Council. To teach this child when he surely had so much to learn still himself.

"It's been a rather eventful few days," Obi Wan summed up, with thin bravado.

Had it ever.

"What were you going to say earlier, Satine?" Obi Wan prompted. "About things on Mandalore?"

Satine looked at him and the child in his arms and she could not say it. But what choice did she have? If she delayed telling him today she would delay another, and another, and he would never forgive her that lost time.

"It's been very busy here," Satine repeated lamely. "Rather too much to recount on a holo-call, unfortunately."

Her words were vague but he knew her so well. She watched him nod and frown with the suppressed tension in her voice. Anakin blinked placidly, the unsaid passing him by.

"You know, Satine," he suggested thoughtfully, "It's fortunate that you called because just recently Master Nu in our Temple Archives reviewed our mission report from Mandalore, and she was lamenting a paucity of detail about the origins of the Old Guard. With your permission, of course, she had hoped I might return sometime to Mandalore to review your own archives…"

Blessed Obi Wan. She couldn't know whether it was convenient truth or a lie, but it did not matter.

"With appropriate supervision, such a venture may be appropriate," Satine replied conservatively. "I cannot promise the Jedi unfettered access to our archives."

"Of course not," Obi Wan agreed graciously.

Satine wished her racing heart would quieten. She wondered if the Jedi could sense it, so far away.

"When will I expect you, Master Kenobi?"

"Anakin and I could visit en route back to Coruscant tomorrow," he suggested lightly. "Of course, that being short notice, we could certainly-"

So he knew how desperate she was already. Satine threw all pretence of composure to the wind.

"You can come tomorrow."

Mandalore here we come!

Fun fact: when I first wrote this idea I ended it here, at "Satine looked at him and the child in his arms and could not say it." Because perhaps in one universe she is too selfless to do so. But I think we're going to have a lot more fun (and a much longer story!) with a bit of honesty.

I hope you enjoyed the debut of our new Master and Padawan duo. Little Anakin woken from a nightmare and needing a hug breaks my heart.

Next chapter, Anakin and Obi Wan travel to Mandalore. Let me know your thoughts on chapter length so I can split up our next few scenes appropriately. At the moment my chapters seem to be getting longer, but I'm not sure whether that's a problem!

Much love

- S.