Author's note:  It bothers the hell out of me that no one ever goes back and frees Shmi.  Every explanation I have ever read in any fanfic has failed to work for me.  This chapter includes my reason why they are not able to free her.  What do you think?  Do you buy it?

****

Anakin was able to retrieve all but one of the hydrospanners.  Obi-Wan had been right: Anakin actually enjoyed the diving exercise, and he was so happy about Obi-Wan's affirmation of him that he scarcely worried about how the Prince would react when he found out what had happened to his tools.

When Bail returned home that evening, Anakin dutifully apologized to him in proper Jedi fashion, having been drilled by Obi-Wan in how to do it.  Normally Anakin would have found the ritual silly, but after all, the tools were very, very important and deserved such solemn treatment.  Bail had some experience with ritual Jedi apologies, so he knew exactly what to do.  He even had the perfect punishment in mind.

"Since I'll have to replace that hydropanner, perhaps you can pay for it in kind.  I think you should give my speeder a tune-up."

Anakin's face lit up.  "Yes, sir!"

"Only your speeder?" Obi-Wan asked, looked at Bail over Anakin's head.  "It was a very expensive tool."

"You're right."  Bail put on a show of calculating the worth of the hydrospanner in labor hours.  "Perhaps you should tend to my skyhopper and my swoop bikes as well."

"Sure thing, manu-bai.  When I'm done with them, they'll be better than new!" Anakin gushed.  He threw his arms around Bail's waist in a quick hug, then ran off to get to work.  May all his punishments be this fun!

"I hope he destroys more of my tools," Bail quipped.  "I'll never have to hire another mechanic for the rest of my life."

"Don't encourage him," Obi-Wan cautioned.

Anakin did enjoy the work, but the incident got him thinking.  The Prince sure had an awful lot of vehicles.  He lived in an enormous house and owned some very expensive tools.  Anakin began to add it all up, and the total came to a very big price tag.  That could only mean one thing: the Prince was *rich*.  Richer than Watto.  Probably as rich as the Hutts.  Maybe even richer.  Anyone who owned that many vehicles could probably afford a podracer.

Or something that cost the equivalent of a podracer.

And the Prince was likely to be sympathetic to his cause.  While the Jedi were well off by Anakin's standards, he knew they weren't rich enough to buy slaves, and they certainly weren't sympathetic to the whole notion of family.  But Bail had parents.  He would understand.  Maybe….

Anakin kept alert for a time when he could catch the Prince alone.  The opportunity presented itself one evening when Obi-Wan was making one of his weekly calls to the Temple on Coruscant to report on their progress, and Anakin wasted no time.  Tugging on Bail's pants leg, he asked, "Can I talk to you, manu-bai?"
"Certainly," Bail replied.  He knelt down to face the boy, noting his serious expression, and sobered.  "This looks important."

"It is."

"Something Obi-Wan shouldn't know about."

Anakin froze.  That didn't sound good at all.  He would prefer to leave Obi-Wan out of it entirely, but he didn't want Bail to think he was trying to go behind his master's back.  "It isn't anything bad."

"Just the kind of thing you can't talk to a Jedi about."  Anakin nodded gratefully, and Bail smiled in sympathy.  "I know exactly what you mean."  He stood up.  "Let's go to my room. We can talk privately."

When they were safely alone, Anakin blurted out, "Are you rich?"  He knew Obi-Wan would say it wasn't polite, but he had to know, and he didn't know how else to ask.

Bail blinked in surprise, taken aback.  "Well… yes, I suppose I am."

"I was wondering if you could lend me some money."

Oh, dear.  What was the boy up to?  "How much?"

Anakin hesitated.  They used different money here, and he had no idea how much it would cost.  "A lot," he confessed.  "I don't know for sure.  Like maybe…300,000 wupiui."

Bail had never heard of that currency before.  For all he knew, it was the equivalent of fifty dataries.  Somehow, however, he doubted it.  "That sounds like a lot of money."

"I would pay you back," Anakin offered eagerly.  "I can work it off.  I'm really good at fixing things, and I can work really hard.  Watto always said I was worth a slave twice my age!"

"Whoa, whoa," Bail hastily stopped him.  This talk of slavery worried him.  "What do you need the money for?" he asked, although he was beginning to have an idea.

Anakin looked up with an expression on his face far too resolved for someone so young.  "I need to buy my mom."

"Oh, Anakin," Bail sighed, kneeling to the boy's eye level.  "This won't be easy to understand.  Slavery is illegal in the Republic."

"I know.  I want to buy her so I can free her."

"But it isn't that simple.  In order to have good relations with worlds that exist outside the Republic, we have to follow their laws.  That means representatives of the Republic cannot legally interfere with…."  He paused.  Force, this was hard.  "With the…*legal* trade of slavery on non-Republic worlds, even for the purposes of freeing people.  If Republic representatives bought slaves on non-Republic worlds and then freed them, those worlds would not want to have anything to do with the Republic."  Or so the logic went.  "That means that as a senator, it is illegal for me to do anything to help free slaves.  It is illegal for Obi-Wan as a Jedi.  And since you're a Jedi now, I'm afraid it is illegal for you as well.  If you tried to free her, you would go to prison for a very long time."

Anakin took a moment to process this, his mind working furiously.  "But Qui-Gon freed me.  Why can't I free my mom?"

Bail shook his head.  "I'm not quite sure how he managed to get away with it.  And he might not have gotten away with it if he had lived."  Bail could scarcely believe the story Obi-Wan had told him about how Qui-Gon had won Anakin's freedom.  He suspected the Jedi Master had pulled it off because gambling was involved.  For once he had to agree with Obi-Wan.  It was the stupidest thing he had ever heard of anyone doing.

Anakin continued to ponder his options, weighing different possibilities.  "I don't mind going to prison if it means my mom is free."

"They wouldn't let her stay free. They would send her back. I'm so sorry, Anakin."

The boy's eyes filled with tears, and he scowled to keep from crying.  "That just doesn't seem right."

"It isn't."

"You're a senator.  Can't you change the laws?"

"It isn't that easy.  There are very powerful forces who want to keep things the way they are."  He sighed in frustration.  "It's all about economics.  Even our anti-slavery laws are more about protecting labor rights than they are about protecting people."

"But it's wrong!"

"I know."

Anakin's eyes hardened.  "Then why don't you do something about it?"

"Even in the Republic there are many things that are wrong, and not even the Jedi can fix them."

Anakin looked away, fists clenching at his sides.  He refused to believe it.  The Prince might be too afraid to do anything about it, but Anakin was not.  Someday he *would* change things.  He *would* free his mom.  He didn't care what it cost him.

Bail watched the boy carefully.  There was no way he could explain such a travesty of justice to a nine-year-old boy, especially when he didn't believe it himself.  His heart ached with his own powerlessness.  Sometimes he hated being a senator in such a corrupt government.  "I'll ask my mother if she knows of any legal precedents that can help you," he offered, though he doubted she would find any.  The law was all too clear on this point.

Anakin practiced releasing his anger, the way Obi-Wan had been teaching him.  But he didn't release it into the Force.  He stored it up in a safe place in his heart.  He had a feeling that someday he would have need of it.  Until then he would just have to be patient.  "Thanks," he mumbled.

Bail sat back on his heels, immanently dissatisfied that he couldn't offer the boy more.  But there was one thing he could offer, something Obi-Wan, who never had a mother, would never think of.  "Why don't you tell me about her?" he said.

Anakin looked up gratefully.  No one at the Temple wanted to hear about her.  "Is it all right?"

"Of course it's all right," Bail said, folding his legs under him and indicating for Anakin to sit in his lap.  "So tell me everything.  I bet she's wonderful."

Anakin smiled, climbing into his big brother's lap.  "She is," he affirmed.  "She's the best mom in the whole galaxy…."

******

They talked for a good, long time, swapping mom stories and sharing their experiences as only sons.  Bail discovered that Anakin had never had a father, and Anakin learned that Mimi was Bail's step.  Oddly enough, considering what little connection Obi-Wan had to his own family, it had always bothered him that Radha was not Bail's birth mother, but Anakin accepted it without question.  Among slaves, family was constantly shifting.  What mattered most was loyalty and love.

"Did Obi-Wan ever meet your mother?" Bail asked.

"No, he stayed on the ship the whole time.  Qui-Gon met her. He liked her, and my mom wouldn't have let me go with him if she didn't trust him."  Anakin paused.  They had come round to another topic he wasn't comfortable discussing with Obi-Wan. But Bail had proved very sympathetic.  "I miss him," he confessed.

"Did you know him so well?"

"Yeah.  He was great.  I think he was the best Jedi that ever lived.  He was my master first, you know.  Before Obi-Wan was."

Bail's brow furrowed.  This was news to him, and it didn't fit with what he knew of Jedi tradition.  "Your master?" he asked in confusion.

"Yeah."  Anakin hesitated, then said, "Obi-Wan didn't like me at first because of that.  He didn't want Qui-Gon to be my master."

Carefully, Bail observed, "Usually a master has only one apprentice at a time."

"I know.  I think that's why they were all so mad at him when he said he was gonna be my master."

"They?"

"The Council.  And Obi-Wan was really mad, but I guess he got over it.  But sometimes I wonder…."

"Wonder what?"

Anakin shifted uncomfortably.  "If he still hates me."

Bail was at a complete loss.  None of this story made any sense.  The boy must be confused.  However, Bail could reassure him, "I know he doesn't hate you."

"I hope not," Anakin said, though he didn't look convinced.  "But he did at first."

"Well…sometimes we have to get to know a person first.  For that matter, he wasn't too crazy about *me* at first, either, but now we're the best of friends."

"Why didn't he like you?" Anakin wanted to know.

No need to go into that!  "It's a long story.  Anyway, he likes me well enough now, and I *know* he likes you, as do I."

"I like you, too," Anakin smiled.

"Good.  Then it's all settled."

But Bail did not forget their conversation, or the many questions it raised.