17 (Guest): if only Obi Wan had your lateral thinking! But I suppose a life lived in the Jedi Order takes a little more time to unlearn. Thanks so much for your thoughtful reviews!

Back to our dear, disastrous Anakin.

"Can I see the baby please?"

Obi Wan's jaw dropped. The Duchess Kryze's jaw dropped. Anakin worked on an endearing smile.

"It's only that I've never really had a chance to see one, and I sensed it, and it led me here, and I was hoping-"

The Duchess asked something of Obi Wan in Mando'a, her voice low and demanding. Obi Wan shrugged haplessly.

"Anakin is… sorry Satine, my Mando'a really isn't good enough to explain… he is unusually attuned to the Force. Even for a Jedi."

Obi Wan pinched the bridge of his nose and grimaced.

"I perhaps… should have anticipated this."

The Duchess growled something else.

"I know, I know," Obi Wan groaned. "I'll ensure he doesn't share the information, Satine."

Anakin could guess what the livid Duchess said next; presumably it was along the lines of, "But you can't even ensure he keeps himself occupied with some droids for an hour."

"I know," Obi Wan repeated again, defeated.

"I'm really sorry," Anakin volunteered. "I don't mean to cause any-"

"Trouble," the Duchess finished curtly.

The Duchess was way scarier than Obi Wan. Anakin felt as though he might cry.

"Satine," Obi Wan implored, before kneeling down. "Listen, Anakin, the Duchess Kryze does not wish to share the news of the baby with anyone for the time being, so-"

Anyone except you, Anakin did not say.

He thought Obi Wan might have heard him. When he continued speaking, there was an edge of irritation in his voice.

"It is of the utmost importance, Anakin, that you do not tell anyone, anyone at all, that you sensed a baby in this palace. You cannot discuss it on Mandalore, you cannot discuss it in the Temple. You cannot discuss it anywhere."

He was in so much trouble. Anakin nodded sombrely.

"Do you give your word that you will not?" Obi Wan prompted.

"I give my word."

Obi Wan gave a tight smile.

"Thank you, Anakin."

"I'm sorry I made you mad," Anakin blurted.

Obi Wan stood once more, rubbing his weary face.

"I'm sorry for becoming angry, Anakin," he replied, eventually. "And I am sorry that I was not honest with you about the nature of our visit to Mandalore."

Anakin realised then that all he wanted to be when he grew up was as gracious and forgiving as Obi Wan (as well as the galaxy's best pilot and lightsabre duellist). No Master had ever said sorry to Anakin before, even when things were definitely their fault. Anakin turned to the Duchess.

"I'm sorry, your Highness."

"Your Grace," Obi Wan corrected him quietly.

"I'm sorry, your Grace."

She did not look scary, then; she simply looked worried.

"I really, truly promise I won't tell anyone," he resolved. "I give you my word."

The Duchess inclined her head in a stiff nod.

"Thank you, Anakin."

She turned to Obi Wan and placed a hand on her hip.

"Well? Do you want Anakin to meet him, or…"

Obi Wan gaped in renewed shock before composing himself.

"I mean… if it were possible… I don't want to keep him from resting, so-"

"Anakin can see him without handling him," the Duchess suggested curtly. "You take him in. I need to go find Almec before he comes looking for me and asks why we're not in the archives. See me before you go."

And with those rapid instructions she swept off down the hallway, grimacing in pain. Anakin suspected she wasn't leaving them because she was worried about Almec; more likely, she was leaving them because she needed some time alone to breathe and get out all the energy that crackled like lightning all around her. Anakin had never been comfortable knowing more about people than they chose to share, and today it had really landed him in trouble.

Obi Wan watched her go in a state of half-shock, before turning to Anakin and kneeling down before him once more.

"Alright, Padawan, if we're going to see the baby-"

Obi Wan did not seem to have noticed the power of what he had just said, but Anakin felt his heart swell to fill his whole chest. Padawan.

"-we're going to have to be nice and calm. He was born very early, he needs us to be very gentle with him, even in the Force. I'll help you quieten your mind. Place your hands here, just like mine-"

They were locked together by hands on each other's shoulders.

"That's it, Padawan, very good. Now close your eyes and connect first with your breath…"

Obi Wan's Force presence curled around him like a tender embrace, and all that had happened on this strange day seemed to fade away. Padawan. Anakin Skywalker was a homeless, motherless child, and it was the sweetest word he could possibly hear.

Hovering over the bassinet, Anakin regarded the swaddled infant with the intense curiosity a child gives an exotic animal at a zoological garden.

"Is it a boy?" he asked, voice dutifully subdued.

"Yes. His name is Korkaran."

"He feels like a boy," Anakin agreed, not lifting his gaze from Korkie's sleeping form. "How old is he?"

"Five days."

"But he was born early?"

"Very early. At twenty-two weeks of gestation, rather than forty."

"Like a Rodian," Anakin contributed knowledgably.

Obi Wan resisted the urge to chastise Anakin for having compared his son to a Rodian.

"Extremely early for a human infant," he reasserted instead.

Anakin nodded thoughtfully.

"Are his fingers and toes very tiny?"

"Very tiny indeed."

Anakin gave a contented sigh and finally tore his gaze from the infant, landing his smiling gaze instead upon Obi Wan.

"You must be very proud of him."

Obi Wan gave a slow smile. He supposed it had been a little optimistic to hope that Anakin had at least not sensed the child's paternity. How in the stars was he supposed to keep up with the blasted Chosen One as his student?

"I am proud, Anakin," Obi Wan conceded. "Despite the… complexity of the situation."

Anakin frowned.

"You mean because the Duchess is mad at us?"

That is only the beginning of it, child. Obi Wan took a steadying breath and broached the subject.

"No one's talked to you about the Jedi Code, have they, Anakin?"

Confusion contorted Anakin's round face.

"You mean, like a secret code?"

Obi Wan's heart sank. Do not be mad at Qui Gon, do not be mad at Qui Gon, do not be mad at Qui Gon…

"The Jedi Code is a series of resolutions that govern the behaviour of Jedi Knights."

Anakin grimaced.

"Like, rules?"

"They are more than rules, Anakin, they are a way of life."

He saw the child's scepticism.

"In practice, I suppose they could be likened to rules."

Anakin frowned and turned back to Korkie.

"And what are the rules?"

Obi Wan sighed, and began his recitation. How many times had he said these words in his lifetime?

"There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force."

Anakin chewed at his lip in troubled silence for a few minutes before speaking.

"Don't you have emotions all the time, Obi Wan?" he asked tentatively. "I have them all the time."

"Of course I do, Anakin," Obi Wan reassured him. "What the Code means to say is that despite our emotions, we find peace. A Jedi is not lost in their emotions. I will teach you how to find peace when your emotions run strong."

Anakin nodded, somewhat reassured.

"Then what does the Code have to do with-"

He gestured to Korkie in his bassinet. Obi Wan sighed.

"The Jedi are not in the habit of taking romantic partners or having children, Anakin," he explained. "Emotion, passion… It is considered dangerous for a Jedi to form attachments to others. A Jedi might lose their peace, and serenity, and come to fear death."

Anakin's face scrunched with displeasure.

"That's just being a normal parent!" he remarked indignantly.

"It is," Obi Wan agreed, with a heavy sigh.

Which is why I'm not quite sure that I can be both.

Anakin shook his head, mouth clamped shut, and Obi Wan could see the sheen of tears in his eyes.

"No one ever told me that the Jedi can't have families."

By the stars, Obi Wan's chest ached in that moment. What have we done, Master? He was failing Anakin. They had been together only a few days and already he had failed him. The child had been taken from one slaver to another.

"I'm sorry, Anakin," Obi Wan murmured, fumblingly. "I can appreciate that it… would have been important to know."

"I love my mum," Anakin professed, tucking his arms protectively around himself. "And… and I love Padme."

Even in this time of crisis, Obi Wan could not help but smile.

"You've only known Queen Amidala a few days, young one. Perhaps we could give that particular issue some time to resolve-"

"I know I love her!" Anakin retorted petulantly. "Didn't you know, Obi Wan? Straight away? When you first saw the Duchess?"

Obi Wan gave a wry smile and came to sit on the floor. Anakin followed suit, his still teary eyes firm with resolve.

"Honestly, Anakin? I did not."

Anakin's frustration cooled into curiosity.

"You didn't love her when you first saw her?"

"When I first saw the Duchess Kryze, Anakin, she was essentially dead from hypothermia. I'll confess I was rather too concerned with reviving her to feel much emotion for her."

Anakin would not be deterred.

"But after she got better?"

Obi Wan snorted.

"When she awoke, the Duchess was not very pleased with me. And for many months we did not much get along. It took me a very long time to realise that I…"

Obi Wan's mouth had gone suddenly dry. Why was he speaking of this with this child?

"That I cared for her."

"That you loved her," Anakin corrected.

"Have it your way, Anakin," Obi Wan chuckled.

Anakin maintained a stern sobriety.

"You're just saying that because you don't want to have broken the rules."

Obi Wan shook his head in wonderment. This child was going to be the death of him, and they had been Master and Padawan less than a week. He did not know how to answer, and instead let silence fall.

After a few moment's reprieve, the silence was quickly shattered.

"I know how babies are made," Anakin announced, as though he had not already tested Obi Wan enough today.

Obi Wan raised a weary brow.

"Aren't you a little young to know that?"

"I saw some people having sex in the back of Watto's shop once," he informed Obi Wan matter-of-factly. "I think he was making some money by renting the room. Problem is he didn't tell me he was doing that so I went in to get my poncho after work was done."

Obi Wan couldn't help but groan.

"By the stars, Anakin."

"It wasn't my fault!" the child retaliated.

Obi Wan sighed and conceded the point.

"I'm sorry that you had to see it."

Anakin nodded, and fixed Obi Wan with a look of intense judgement.

"It's really yucky, you know."

Obi Wan couldn't help but laugh quietly, dropping his head and rubbing at his weary eyes.

"I suppose... well, look, Anakin. I'm glad you think so."

"Grown ups are weird," the child muttered fervently.

Obi Wan could only shrug.

"I'm just telling you that I know so that you don't try to tell me that your baby was delivered by a special krayt dragon during the nighttime," Anakin went on pertly.

Obi Wan scrunched his nose.

"You think I would tell you that?"

Anakin shrugged.

"That's what some people on Tatooine say."

"A krayt dragon would eat a baby."

Anakin shook his head.

"Babies are too small. They prefer Jawas and banthas. Plus, I said a special krayt dragon."

Obi Wan nodded slowly.

"You are teaching me a great deal, Anakin."

Anakin was pleased at this, and leaned warmly into Obi Wan.

"Can I tell you something?"

"Depends on whether it has to do with how babies are made."

Anakin looked at him with earnest, glowing tenderness.

"I like you more now that I know you've broken a rule. Even if it's yucky."

Obi Wan smiled wryly and leaned his head back against the wall, allowing his gaze to slide upwards, where his view of the ceiling was obscured by Satine's many gowns. He breathed quietly for a moment, to find some clarity, and returned his gaze to Anakin.

"I appreciate that, Anakin, thank you," he began. "Sadly, no one else in the Temple will be of the same opinion. So if I am to avoid being expelled from the Order, and ensure that I can keep you as my Padawan, we will need to be exceedingly discreet about all of this."

Anakin nodded sombrely.

"Does that mean we won't see Korkaran again?"

Obi Wan swallowed hard against the emotion building in his throat.

"We'll see him when we can. Small visits. But it won't be so often as…"

As I should.

Anakin understood.

"I feel like I'm making you do something bad, Obi Wan," he professed, becoming tearful once more. "I feel like I'm causing a lot of trouble."

Obi Wan sighed heavily and shook his head.

"You are not the cause of any of this trouble, Anakin," he intoned firmly, lifting a hand to rest upon the head that leaned into his shoulder. "I promise."

Anakin shook his head silently, not consoled.

"But Master Qui Gon made you promise to train me, didn't he?" he asked. "It was never… never your idea."

Another steadying breath.

"Yes, it was Master Qui Gon's idea," Obi Wan conceded, with a heavy sigh. "But the only reason it was his idea and not mine, Anakin, is because he was much wiser and knew much more of the Force than I. He sensed you were the Chosen One."

"And you didn't sense it?"

"I'll confess not."

Anakin spoke next with tremulous voice.

"And do you believe him?"

Obi Wan looped an arm around the almost-crying boy and held him close against his side.

"Yes, Anakin. I do."

I didn't, to begin with. But now I do. There was something about this boy and the way that he had shone like the sun as he beamed over the infant that should have, in a child's mind, been his enemy.

Anakin could not seem to find words, and instead focused on wiping his tears away.

"Of course, not having actually sat the Trials, I'm underqualified to take a Padawan, and even more terribly underqualified to train the Chosen One," Obi Wan informed him brightly, pushing for some levity. "But I suspect that once I start to train you, and everyone sees what a good Padawan you will become, all the Masters will be lining up to teach you and you can have your pick of the bunch."

Anakin spilled a few stray tears as he laughed.

"I don't think that's true, Obi Wan."

"I suspect it will be."

"I'd rather have you, anyway," he confessed, before quickly adding, "Unless you want to leave and live on Mandalore."

Obi Wan gave a tight smile.

"It will be as is the will of the Force, Anakin," he advised. "A Jedi must focus on the present moment."

Anakin nodded.

"And what do we have to do in the present moment?"

Obi Wan rose to his feet and extended a hand to help Anakin up.

"We must say goodbye to Korkaran, and then go say goodbye to the Duchess."

Obi Wan let his gaze finally return to his sleeping child. How much would Korkie grow, in the time until they next saw one another?

"We'll see him again as soon as we can, Anakin, I promise."

But the child beside him was not in need of such consolation; the promise was for himself.

It was as though there was something between them, a physical mass, invisible and awkward. It seemed impossible to Anakin that these two people had once pressed skin to skin and made a baby as he watched them reach clumsily for each other around this bulky obstacle.

"I'm afraid I can't know when-"

"Of course not. That's fine. A few days' notice will be fine."

"I appreciate that it's not ideal. I'm sorry."

"Not at all. No obligations, remember?"

This seemed too difficult for Obi Wan to address; he paused a moment and massaged the bridge of his nose.

"We'll find an appropriately discreet way to manage the visits?" he asked, instead.

"Of course," the Duchess reassured him, her tone businesslike. "I'll make up a landing code for you so that you needn't speak to anyone at the space border. You can land in my personal hangar out of sight. With a few days' notice it should all be manageable."

"I'll give you as much notice as I can, Satine."

"Thank you."

"It is my…"

It is my pleasure, was something that Obi Wan often said to Anakin when he thanked him, and he always said it earnestly, even when Anakin woke him up at night with a dream and it seemed absurd that it could have been any sort of pleasure to sit awake with a child you barely know when you should be sleeping. Now, Obi Wan seemed to force the words back down.

"I will do all that I can, Satine," he said instead.

The Duchess raised a sceptical brow.

"To what end?"

Obi Wan's hands hung open and earnest by his sides.

"Friendship. Fatherhood. Knighthood. All of it."

The Duchess appraised this with a slow nod and a sad smile.

"Grand plans, Master Kenobi."

A flashing, self-conscious grin from Obi Wan.

"Obi Wan. Please."

It seemed to Anakin that they were trying to learn some intricate dance together, stumbling over each other's words. They felt in the Force like Anakin had felt when he had first visited the Jedi Temple and hadn't known what to call anyone or where to look of how to stop them reading his mind.

"Travel safely, Obi Wan. And take care of your Padawan."

"Keep well, Satine."

And so much bright, twisting, strangled love between them in the Force. All unsaid.

Anakin was both saddened and relieved to leave Mandalore.

A big chapter! I hope you enjoyed riding the highs and lows of it with me. The special krayt dragon made me laugh; people tell kids the silliest things in the place of the facts of life. Although our beautiful family has sadly parted we will be back together soon.

In the next chapter, Obi Wan and Satine live the challenges of single parenting with Anakin and Korkie respectively.

Please let me know your thoughts! I love hearing from you.

xx - S.