Thank You All very Much for the reviews!!! You're very nice and I'm glad that you're all enjoying the fic so far. I wasn't all that sure on the first chapter but I guess it was an ok start huh? =) Hope you enjoy this chapter as well!

Ch. 2 The Shadow's Forgiveness

Tears In Heaven

He didn't know what to do…What was he supposed to do? Obi-Wan had first seen Jinn from Carlie's office door and he nearly turned back in and would have probably locked the door. But he didn't. He didn't because of the way the Jedi reacted to Carlie and TiFin when he saw his name.

"Obi-Wan…" Qui-Gon murmured, he looked surprised. Probably wished he hadn't come here. He probably figured Kenobi had failed and died a horrible, lonely death. No, he didn't die, and he WASN'T lonely.

"You're mistaken. My name is Ben." Obi-Wan ignored the disapproving gaze Carlie gave him as he stood from the medic chair and moving towards them. He wanted to show him he didn't fail. He wasn't a failure like he'd thought him to be.

"I don't know an Obi-wan Kenobi." He said calmly.

"I've been…I've been looking for so long Padawan." Qui-Gon said, he sounded short of breath.

"You had nothing to find or look for." Obi-Wan replied. "Remember, Obi-Wan Kenobi was nothing, why look for him? Just what was a small burden in your life."

"Don't do this-"

"Do what?" Obi-wan interrupted before the Jedi could say anything more.

Qui-Gon didn't say anything. What was he supposed to say? He'd recieted this meeting millions of times in his mind. And he Had planned for Obi-Wan to be angry or resenting, but right now all those words he'd practiced so carefully slipped away.

Obi-Wan's words slid through his mind again and he spoke again softly. "You weren't nothing."

"I wasn't? Fooled me." Obi-wan replied, his gaze hard.

"No, you weren't…I've been looking for the biggest part of my life for 22 months padawan."

Obi-wan grunted and the doctor and what looked to be a security guard began to back away for privacy. "Don't go any where Carlie, Fin. Maybe I should introduce you right?"

"Ben.." Carlie started in a calming tone. "Don't."

"No, really, I was impoliet. Qui-Gon Jinn, this Carlie Grandai and TiFin Belkin, they've been my family for the past 22 months. My teachers, my friends. They found me on a street side. Like a stray dog, abandoned. Carlie, Fin, this is the great Qui-Gon Jinn, a Jedi of course. He was MY master you know. But you know how you put things so fit Carlie, go with your first instincts with everything. Well he didn't. He's a Jedi and he didn't follow his first instincts. He didn't want me as a student. Didn't want me as a companion, partner,..family." Obi-Wan was letting all the frustration, all the nightmares, all the thoughts from just weeks before his 13th birthday till this moment.

Carlie and Fin glanced at eachother not sure what to do. Qui-Gon's eyes, however, never left the boy he'd been so desperate to find. Now that he'd found him, he realized it wasn't he who needed to find Obi-Wan Kenobi, it was Ben Kenobi looking so desperately. Ben Kenobi who'd lost Obi-wan. And Jinn wasn't sure on who was more desperate to find him.

"I was nothing. Nothing to you, just a burden." Obi-wan said dangerously low glaring at Jinn.

"I was a fool." Qui-Gon said softly.

Obi-Wan's gaze tightened on him. He glanced at Carlie and she only looked back to him, she couldn't guide him through this one.

"That night Obi-wan, was a mistake. One mistake I'll never forget and forever regret, but I came to my senses. I saw you, the real you. I regretted everything I ever did that hurt you, I still do. You deserve to be a Jedi, and just because I was a fool shouldn't depribe you of what you deserve."

Obi-Wan swallowed, more out of anger and confusion than anything. "Just because you had a revalation doesn't mean I have to." He said tightly.

"I know.." Qui-Gon replied, his eyes dim.

Obi-Wan didn't know what to do, think, or say.

"You shouldn't have come here." Was all he said turning away.

"Ben." Carlie said sympathically.

"I'm going home Carlie." Obi-Wan told her over his shoulder.

Fin and Carlie looked at eachother. TiFin tilted his head towards Obi-Wan, Carlie nodded and the large humanoid glanced at the Jedi and turned away jogging after the distancing youth.

"So you're him…" Carlie said dully, Jinn drifted his eyes to her.

"Him?" He asked quietly.

"The one he calls out for when he's sick, or in a nightmare, or scared, or-" Carlie closed her eyes and stopped herself. "You're the person he looks for when he wakes on a hospital bed, or comes into the kitchen, or needs to confid in. And no matter how he tries to hide those needs of you, he always did need you. You're the one who made tears in heaven."

Qui-Gon continued to look at her. His face passive again with the absence of Obi-Wan. This was not what he expected. No amount of dreams, recieting, or hopes would have ever added to what he'd felt, heard, and saw today, just in those past minutes.

"I never meant to hurt him." He told her shamfully.

She paused a moment, shifting the chart in her hands. "Well, you did." Was all she said before silence claimed again.

---Book of the New Day---

"This is it." Moh Jehn, a young human, said opening his arms and twirled around the large entrance to a place called The Shadow's Own. "This is home." He said facing Obi-wan again with the rest of the group beginning to spread around the area.

"It's very nice." Obi-wan said polietly.

"It's a bantha's stall." The twi'lek, Skilar said kicking a bag out of her way as she went towards the left stairs. "You people and your messes, I swear."

"She's picky." TiFin, or as he proferred, Fin, told Obi-Wan.

"I heard that." Skilar yelled from the top of the stairs, slowly disappearing into the large hallway.

"I never meant for you not to!" Fin called back.

"Guys, kids are sleeping." Aden, another human, said firmly. He was probably one of the oldest and certainly the leader of the group.

"There are half a dozen other kids like us here." Fice, a rodian, said.

"Us?"

"Runaways."

"Independents." Moh and Carlie corrected.

"That too." Fice said.

"This is a no profit home Ben. We help other young people get back on their feet. Just like others did for us." Aden explained.

"Oh, I see." Obi-Wan said looking around the huge area.

"Would you like a room?" Carlie asked shedding her long, wet, coat.

Obi-Wan looked at her in question. Did she mean for the night, or…other.

"The reason we call our people Independents is because as soon as they're ready, they can leave and become truly independent, or they can become Shadows. A shadow of society and to remain whatever they were when we found them." She explained softly as Moh yelled loudly, despite Aden's warning, a good night and Fice and Fin followed him.

Obi-wan still wasn't sure what to say.

"You don't have to explain how you got here, why you're here, or if you're wanting to stay, we just know you're Ben and that's all we need. We don't need to know you're life story if you don't want to tell it." Aden supplied.

Obi-Wan thought a moment and looked at Carlie again.

"One night?" She offered.

"Ok, one night." He agreed. He didn't want to burden anyone…He didn't want to be around anyone at all. People hurt, they hurt a lot and many a form.

"Good. Now, one thing you have to get used to is that here- there's always a New Day..A new life, and whatever, or whoever, has hurt you in the life that has come to pass cannot anymore. And will not, we promise." Carlie said guiding him towards the stairs.

"Can't anymore.." Obi-wan repeated quietly as he was lead up the stairs.

--- End of Sequence ---

Qui-Gon Jinn sat on a bench just outside the hospital. He hadn't expected the boy to run to him with open arms, or for him to be accepted…But just because he didn't expect it didn't mean that he didn't wish it would have happened. How could he convince a shadow of his past to forgive?

Looking to the side with a sigh, Jinn caught the sight of Dr. Grandai walking with another male human and the twi'lek from the morge. She obviously knew Obi-Wan, now better than he did…Obi-wan said he was going home and she knew exactly what he meant. Did he live near her or with her?

Jinn stood and followed the three from a good distance amoungst the crowds. He wasn't going to give up. He still hadn't found Obi-wan Kenobi.

TBC…

---Next chapter is almost ready, I'll be waiting on you guys, which means what? Reviews! Maybe, hopefully? ---