Summary: This is the second-to-last piece in the series starting with For a Thousand Years. I'm trying very hard not to deal with anything that will be in the movies. Consider this an AU story that occurs outside the action of the movies. J
Disclaimer: As always, it all belongs to Lucas. I'm making no money off this I'm just feeding my obsession. I would like to thank George for casting Ewan McGregor as Obi-wan. Life is good.
Never Apart Again"Are you comfortable?"
I snorted in derision, "Do I look like I'm comfortable?"
"No, actually, you look like you're trying to smuggle a bantha."
"You're not as popular as you think around here. No one would really miss you, I think it's more likely it would be called justifiable homicide."
"Nonsense. You need me to change diapers."
"You'll change diapers?"
"Yes, I promise. I'll stand across the room and use the Force to do it, but I'll do it."
"Be tough to make faces at the baby if you do it that way."
"Damn, it will, won't it? Then I'll do it the normal way most of the time, unless she smells really awful." He moved the table back, sat on it, then picked up my feet to rub them gently.
"Oooooooooohhh. That's marvelous, you're forgiven."
"Even if I have to leave for Naboo tomorrow?" Obi-wan looked down at my feet, holding them gently, letting the news sink in. I felt as if I'd just been slapped.
"B-but the baby's due in three weeks." Sensing my distress, the occupant rolled and kicked out, making the side of my gown bulge slightly. He reached up and laid a hand on the spot and immediately the child calmed.
"I'll be back before then, it won't be more than five days. Anakin's been missing for more than a month now and that other project Bail and I have been working on needs some attention." He raised his face and met my eyes. I saw the awful pain he managed to keep hidden from everyone else, the sadness and worry over what had become of his beloved apprentice. And the other weights that had settled on his shoulders showed there too. The disappearances of other Jedi, the increasing hostility of the emperor, and whatever secret plans he and Bail were developing were making the faint lines around his mouth and eyes heavier every day. It made me sad to see the little streaks of white that were steadily growing at his temples; he was only 38 years old! And of course there was me.
It still made Master Yoda angry when he saw me. How does one explain an accidental pregnancy to a Jedi? The shock of it had nearly overwhelmed me as well. With the limited number of times Obi-wan and I actually saw each other in a year, no one was more surprised than I when the med-droid said my morning queasiness and periods of tiredness were due to the fact that in eight months I was going to be a mother. Me? A mother? The thought was almost unimaginable. To my astonishment, the only one not upset or even nervous about the situation was Obi-wan.
"Did you want wine with dinner tonight sweetheart?"
"No, um, nothing alcoholic for me thanks." I made a quick exit from the kitchen where we were enjoying our first dinner together in just about exactly six weeks. He followed me out though. The one real drawback of dating a Jedi is that you can't hide anything from them.
"What? Del, are you feeling alright?" He captured my hand and pulled me close.
Looking up into his eyes I had no idea how to tell him, so I took one of his hands and placed it on my tummy. "I'm not sure it would be a good idea to drink for a while." I had no idea what to expect; he often surprised me with his reactions.
And he did it again. His eyes closed and I could feel him examining me. We felt it at the same time as he mentally he took me with him. There it was, the beating of a tiny heart, no bigger than the tip of my finger. A surge of emotion blasted through his entire system. His temperature went up, his heart rate skyrocketed and the urge to move in every direction at once effectively froze him in place. Then he was kissing me. Holding me so tightly against him it hurt, his lips bruised mine with the furor of his sudden passion. And I tasted salt in the kiss too, as the tears leaked down his cheeks to run into our joined mouths. He broke off suddenly and lifted me in his arms, spinning me in a circle, laughing and crying at the same time.
"Oh Del! I love you so!"
I was happy about the baby too, never in my life had I expected to have a child, not even after I'd met him. When I found out mostly what I felt was nervousness and not a little fear. But now I felt his joy wash over me and felt it myself. How could I not be happy in the face of his reaction? As he set me on my feet again I felt my own surge of quiet happiness. Obi-wan's baby, I was going to have his child. A warm glow spread through me, a feeling of contentment like I'd never known.
He placed his hand over my abdomen again and smiled, "A girl, a beautiful, perfect little daughter. She'll have your eyes and your hair, but she'll have my nose and mouth." He kissed my forehead and leaned down to rub his nose against mine, "And she'll be strong in the Force, very talented."
"I wish it was a boy. A boy with your eyes and your silly grin." I said softly.
"No, I wouldn't trade our little girl for anything, and we can have another one, that one will be a boy." He said it with a faraway look in his eyes and I knew we'd have a boy too someday.
But Yoda had not been nearly so enthusiastic. "A man grown and Jedi Master are you! Know how to prevent this you should! Use protection did you?"
"Of course my master-"
"Why then is the captain pregnant? His eyes bulged almost out of their sockets, and for Yoda, that was saying something.
Obi-wan was the soul of calm tranquility; "No birth control is 100% perfect. I expect it failed."
"Used the Force you could to prevent this." The tiny master pounded his walking stick on the floor.
"Yes, a-hem, sometimes I do that, but this time we had been apart for a long time, and I was thinking more of her than any possible outcome. That's the reason we used protection actually, normally I just take care of it."
Yoda looked back and forth between us, "Want the child I suppose you do?"
I couldn't stop myself from saying it; at that point I was the angry one. "That's kind of a stupid question."
The big yellow eyes fixed on me and narrowed. I instantly knew exactly why students feared him. Then the wrinkled green countenance relaxed into one of impudent amusement. "Married you should be then."
My mouth dropped open and I blinked stupidly, but Obi-wan shouted, "Yes!" He had been standing calmly beside me, now he knelt and took my hand, "Master Yoda is right love, and say you'll marry me."
I looked from one to the other, earnest young Jedi Master to wizened green one. "Really?" I asked Yoda.
"To Obi-wan your answer you must give."
Looking down at the hand that covered mine I knew that my life as I had known it was over. My independence, my freedom had ended. No longer was I a freighter captain who helped the Republic and the Jedi when needed and tended to my own affairs other wise. No longer would I meet Obi-wan when I could and go for months, sometimes nearly a year with a holo our only contact. Even if I said no, the child belonged to us both. But if I said yes, it would no longer be my life and his life; it would be both of us living his life.
"No Del, it will be OUR life. It's been our life since the day we meet, we've just postponed it." He squeezed my hand.
"For once Kenobi, get out of my head!" I jerked my hand free and walked across the room to look out at the endless city. We were in the council chambers, empty of its members now. There would never be another council meeting in that room. Three of the members who had meet there before were dead and soon many more would be, though we did not know it at the time. But I sensed it; even as the life within me grew, the world we had known died. Perhaps that was why I was so upset. As all around me old ways died, I wanted at least one thing to continue as it had.
"Meant to happen this was." He had moved up close to me while I pondered the view. Looking down, I saw compassion in the wrinkled little face and lowered myself to one knee. "Needs you he does. More difficult his task grows with every passing day. Danger and betrayal his future holds, only you can give him the strength he needs to see it through."
"But what about me Master? Do I have to throw all my wants and needs to the wayside?"
"Love him do you?"
"Yes."
"Committed to him you did, long ago. Important his task is, on this ALL depends. More important I think, than how fast a ship gets to Kessel and back."
I rolled my eyes, then looked over Yoda's head at the waiting Obi-wan. "He is awfully nice."
"Yes?"
"And quite good-looking."
The little master made a disgusted face.
"Oh, alright. I don't suppose anything better is likely to come up." I stood and walked across the floor, putting my hands in his. "O.k., yes. If you promise to lose that awful beard until after the baby comes."
He chuckled, "If you promise to spend less than an hour in the bathroom every morning."
"Unless I need to for the baby I promise."
Yoda cleared his throat, "Are those the vows you wish to make?"
I looked down at him, "What? Why?"
"Need to hear your vows I do, if marriage service you wish me to perform."
"You can do that?"
"Of course."
Obi-wan laughed and pulled me close, then turned slightly to face his master. "We're ready Master."
So that was it. And now, aside from being Mount Baby, I was also Mrs. Kenobi. It was wonderful and frightening at once.
I followed his orders for exactly five days. Then I demanded to accompany Lan to the market. Susendra insisted on going to protect me if I was to leave the compound. Too delighted to going outside I acquiesced without a complaint. We went every day then, the three of us, for the next week. On the fifth day our adventures ended.
He appeared across the market. One minute not there, then that tall handsome profile that I recognized developed before my eyes. I didn't hesitate for a moment, "Ani! Jedi Skywalker!" I jumped as much as I could and waved my arms. He turned to look for the person calling his name and I saw, even at that distance, the change in his features, the evil that lived there. When his eyes met mine, the creature I'd seen vanished and I doubted my impression. His sunny smile met mine and he hurried to me through the crowd.
At 22 Anakin was a formidable sight. More than two meters tall, wide at the shoulder, dressed all in black, he parted the crowd like a rampaging bantha though he moved slowly. "Lady Jerika! Force, you're about to explode! He laid his hands on either side of my belly. I had a sudden urge to jerk back, but suppressed it.
Yes Ani, a little sister for you." I made myself hug him and he melted against me, chasing that cold, scary feeling away. "I've missed you kid. I haven't felt safe without my Jedi around me." In later years I wondered what it was I said wrong. The sweetness my hug had rekindled died and in spite of everything that Obi-wan would do later, I always thought that he was lost at that moment.
"All your Jedi are gone? Obi-wan went off and left you alone?" His hands tightened on my arms, bruising the sensitive skin. "Where is he Mrs. Kenobi? Gone looking for his lost padawan has he?" The sneer on his face matched the sarcasm of his words.
"Ani, stop it, you're hurting me."
"As much as you hurt me Aunt when you stole his affection?"
"What the f-k are you talking about?" I was more than a little confused by his behavior. He'd gone missing for months, now here he was on Coruscant, right under our noses.
"He thought he could replace Qui-gon in my heart and he did. And I thought I had replaced Qui-gon in his, maybe I even had, but then YOU showed up!" All trace of sarcasm or humor had vanished from his face. Anger, fear and Goddess help me, hate made him look 33 instead of 22. "You, another maverick, another person living by their own rules. He couldn't help but love you! You couldn't just f—k him a couple of times and let it go could you? Oh no, you had keep showing up, taking him away from me!" The venom in the hiss of his words made my face burn with shame, even though I knew what he said was unjustified.
"Anakin, I love you as much as any mother could. How many times have you saved my life? How many times have I listened to you tell me your troubles, soothed your hurts? I fell in love with Obi-wan first, but you've been in my heart from the first moment we met!"
He ignored the last part of what I said, "I had a mother Jerika. One I loved and who loved me, one the Jedi wouldn't save and wouldn't let me save."
"I know, and I never agreed with that, neither did Obi-wan. How many times did he try to get the council to let him free her? A dozen? More? He loves you! He'd die for you! Here I am four weeks away from laying this damned egg and he leaves me because he hears a vague rumor of where you maybe, possibly could have been a month ago!" His grip on my arms loosened. I thought perhaps I was getting through to him. That, of course, was the moment my passenger decided to tell me she didn't care for me being in pain and shouting. Nor did she like being shoved against this scary stranger.
He laid a hand on my belly and this time I did shrink back, but he still held me firmly and said in a new, calm, emotionless voice that scared me more than his fury. "She is strong in the force, she would have made a formidable Jedi."
I tried again to pull away and succeeded this time, "W-w-would have?" All my blood pooled in my stomach, my limbs went cold and my knees buckled. Susendra, who had watched the encounter silently, now stepped between Anakin and I while Lan wrapped her arms around me and kept me on my feet, even though black spots appeared before my eyes.
"You must leave now, your presence is upsetting the lady." Susendra, despite her small stature was a formidable bodyguard. An adversary twice her size was left bloodied and broken from confrontations where she barely broke a sweat. Anakin knew none of this and he didn't bother finding out.
"I'm sorry, I don't have time for this." His face twisted into a vicious sneer and he lifted one black-gloved hand, clenching his fist. Susendra made a gargling noise and clutched her throat. We watched, unable to do anything as she collapsed to her knees, then her face, twitched once or twice, and then lay still.
I looked at Anakin's face and found it cold, cruel and twisted into a façade of evil pleasure. My limbs froze and all the blood rushed from my head. The baby sensed my distress and kicked frantically. ~ Obi-wan our son is dead, Goddess save our daughter. ~ My knees sagged and I slipped into the first faint of my life.
+++++
Black clouds rolled over the sky, their undersides laced with green and purple, giving notice that a storm of enormous proportions was on its way.
"Father! Look at this! You cannot mean for this to happen!" The older woman looked down at the still pool at the base of the tree on the top of the hill.
"Events proceed as they must daughter, I cannot intervene."
"But the boy, t-the baby…Jerika!"
"She set these events in motion. The Force must have balance. It may not be achieved as she planned, but it will be the end result."
+++++
No matter what planet you are on, med-bays smell the same. So I knew I was in one before I opened my eyes. And there were two people in the room with me, but they were not Susendra and Lan. I peeked out to find Anakin and another black-clad figure along with a standard med-droid watching me.
"Lady J, allow me to introduce you to my new master." The man beside Anakin reached up and pulled back the deep cowl that hid his face. I was a lot less surprised than I thought I would be.
"Well your eminence, you managed to fool quite a large number of people. How did you manage to fool the entire Jedi council?"
"People see what they wish to see, Mrs. Kenobi, though I doubt it will stay a secret much longer. It is of little concern. Those my apprentice has not taken care of the propaganda will destroy." I looked again at Anakin and thought of the Jedi that had disappeared over the last year – scientists, scholars, and two-thirds of the council. ~ Oh Ani, why, Why?! ~
Raising myself up on my elbows I attempted to brazen it out. I inclined my head to the emperor, "Very effective, I'm impressed. So what do you want with me? I'm not a Jedi and your plans are already a success."
He smiled and the temperature in the room dropped fifteen degrees. "No defeat of the Jedi would be complete without Kenobi."
I nodded, "Too bad I don't know where he is."
"Yes, it would be simpler for everyone involved if we could just pluck the information out of your head. However, I'm sure he is listening for you, so the right persuasion and you will likely bring him to us."
"Not for anything. Any promise you'd make to do or not do something to myself or my child would be a lie."
He chuckled like a fond uncle and I wondered if it was possible to go insane from fear, "That is true Madam, but we are not talking about making a deal."
I swallowed, having no comeback for that line.
"Let us begin then shall we?" He turned to the droid, "You may proceed." The droid turned and pressed a dermal spray to my neck and pulled the trigger. In minutes, a ripple of squeezing pain ripped through me and another followed right on its heels. The shriek it ripped from my lips echoed through the room and was joined in my mind by the baby's own force cry. I bit my lip and merely grunted through the next dozen. ~ Hang in there with me little one, we will be just fine. ~
~ Mama! You are scared! ~
~ Yes, but we are together, it will be alright. ~
~ Where is Daddy? ~
That was a damn good question. ~ He'll be here soon darling, very soon. ~ One way or another, I knew this was true. Try as I might, Obi-wan would be listening for this very event, and not being a Jedi, there was little I could do to block him out. With the contractions right on top of each other he'd feel my pain and the baby's fear on the other side of the galaxy. Worse, I could feel we were really getting down to business, and doing it much faster than we should.
"Any reason why – argh – we've got to – Ooh! Do this at lightspeed?"
"It is more likely to have the desired effect my dear."
"Which is?"
"Your death or the child's of course, that should bring Kenobi on the run."
Only my concern for the baby kept me from blacking out. "Not very good bait if we are dead."
"We only need one of you. Even if you did break down and cry out for help he may not hear it, but he should feel either death no matter where he is." He cackled again and a whimper escaped my lips, how the hell could I protect my daughter from that?
And his words were true and even more terrifying. Obi-wan, a man who hadn't rushed into a situation unprepared since he was 16 would not stop to think for an instant if he felt my death or our baby's. I couldn't even save him with my silence. He would come, no matter what I did.
The emperor turned away from me and went to the wall terminal for something I could not see. No matter how they hastened this birth it was still my first and likely to take some time. ~ Well nothing like catching up on the paperwork I guess. ~ Looking away from the emperor, my gaze met Anakin's. He tried to look away, but I held him, reaching toward him with one hand. He looked at my hand, then at the emperor. Wordlessly he grasped my fingers. I pulled him to me with a strength I didn't know I had. "Promise me something!" I hissed between the pains.
"I can't –"
"You can! You f-king owe me! For love, for friendship, for your first Corellian ale, for your first lay! You owe me for f-king droid parts if you want to be petty!"
He shook with some nameless emotion and his voice nearly broke, "What then?"
"Take care of her."
He paled and started to shake his head, but a contraction hit me just then and I squeezed his hand, grinding the bones together as painfully as possible and locked his eyes with mine. "My daughter must live! You will take care of her!"
A heartbeat, two, three, and then slowly, slowly, he nodded.
I nodded in return and then screamed in his ear as the next contraction hit. The emperor whipped around to see me screaming and Anakin's face once again twisted with cruelty. "Yell all you want, he won't get here in time to save you!" He shouted at me, but the desperate pleading on the face turned to me gave me a tiny spark of hope. Maybe we could hang on long enough for a rescue after all.
"Oh yes, he'll come. And you will have to face the truth of what you've done." I closed my eyes and boosted by the pain of the next contraction sent my thought out in a last desperate plea. ~ Obi-wan! Help! ~ I opened my eyes to watch the emperor cackle with dark glee. "Don't get too excited your unholiness. He's been kicking your ass for 12 years without even knowing whose ass he was kicking. If you think giving him an actual target to focus on is going to make it easier to defeat him, you are gravely mistaken."
His eyes narrowed and his lips thinned. The delight in his eyes vanished, and some of the confidence too. "We shall see Mrs. Kenobi, we shall see."
+++++
Everyone has weaknesses. So it was with Palpatine. After the defeat of his apprentice on Naboo he had kept a low profile and been very careful to keep his machinations as far from the watchful eyes of Obi-wan Kenobi as possible. The temptation to turn the general's apprentice, however, had just been too strong. Anakin's anger was so strong and multi-layered, that turning him to the dark had been almost too easy. So now that he had the apprentice on his side, the wife in his power, and the Jedi order in ruins, he felt confident enough to take the last step to destroy Kenobi.
The general would arrive to find his wife and/or his child dead, and his apprentice not only turned to the dark side, but party to his family's demise. The emperor couldn't help smiling when he pictured the look on Kenobi's face. And when the Jedi was dead, Palpatine would have his body preserved as a reminder to others, a trophy to gloat about, and a last debasement of the Jedi. Their greatest hero would be denied an honorable cremation. Every time the picture came into his head, Palpatine chuckled with glee.
The emperor's confidence came from his knowledge of the Jedi. He felt he knew Kenobi better than his own wife did. Indeed he had studied the man for years, and now he had Vader's intimate knowledge from which to draw upon. But a tiny voice in the back of his head said that this man had defeated an extremely talented and well-trained apprentice when the Jedi had been barely more than a boy. In thirteen years how much stronger had such a man become? Still, Kenobi knew nothing about him, the emperor, so he definitely had the upper hand. But the tiny voice would not be silent.
Palpatine ignored the voice, and ignored some of his own observations, for Obi-wan had not left Coruscant. The emperor had assumed that Kenobi would chase after any substantial rumor of Anakin regardless of the cost. But, although he might have wanted to, Obi-wan would never actually leave the planet with Jerika less than a month away from her time.
He was nothing if not practical. Obi-wan had disguised himself and Jerika, then left her so that no one could trace his force signature and find her too. However much he might love Anakin, logic demanded he look at the boy's disappearance objectively. Doing so he could only admit three possibilities. One – that Anakin was dead, Two – that he was a captive, Three – that he had turned. Number one wasn't true, surely Obi-wan would have felt his death. Number two; he would have been able to find some clue as to who was holding him. That left the very painful number three, which try as he might, he could not discount; it fit the evidence better than any other solution.
So even though the pain was just as devastating when he felt Jerika's cry for help, he was prepared for it. And though he rushed headlong to save her, his heart crying out in wordless agony, his Jedi calm remained, his mind clear. Neither the emperor or his new apprentice was read for the fight that was headed for them, but Obi-wan was.
+++++
"The patient is fully dilated sir, shall I proceed?"
"Yes, immediately." I came back from my second blackout of the day to see the emperor rubbing his hands together in dark delight. The med-droid reached down to pull my daughter into the world as an all-mighty contraction pushed from the inside. I dragged a screaming-growl from the depths of my soul and sat up, shoving with all my might.
A faint mewling noise came from the tiny creature the droid lifted up and then an angry shriek split the air. He held her up for me to see. A thick crop of bright red hair, only a shade darker than her skin, covered the baby's head. Her tiny face resembled a clenched fist at the moment as she drew her first full breath and screamed in newborn indignation. I forgot everyone and everything but her and reached out for one tiny hand. She stopped howling and gripped my finger, her little face relaxing into a miniature, and baby-fied version of Obi-wan's.
"Oh darling, you look just like your father!" I cried out, trying to take her from the med-droid. But I was too slow and Anakin snatched her up and laid her on a nearby table. "No! My baby! Give her back to me! Lila! Give her back!" I tried to climb down from the table, only the arms of the med-droid catching me. "Anakin! Give me my daughter!" I screamed out and the baby joined me, her angry wails rising in pitch.
The emperor had joined Anakin at the table, and the crying abruptly cut off. I went suddenly cold as a great hollow darkness filled my spirit. The sense of the baby I had felt through the Force vanished. Palpatine turned a glacial smile on me.
"Forgive us my dear, babies are so fragile." He took a step to one side and I was able to see the completely perfect, completely still form of my daughter.
When my father died I felt the bottom drop out of my world. Now the world simply ceased to exist.
+++++
On the hill, beneath the great tree, all was dark and silent.
+++++
The man getting out of the speeder froze in his tracks and more than one passerby stopped to look at him. His handsome face suddenly crumpled in on itself and he dropped to his knees, one hand bracing him on the ground, the other clenched against his chest, covering the heart that was breaking inside. Those who had stopped instinctively continued on, knowing without knowing how they did, that touching this man would be a mistake. He made no sound, though his mouth was open as though held by a vise. What felt to him like ten minutes but was in reality only one, went by as he knelt frozen in position. Then he closed his mouth, drew in a deep breath from his nose and screamed a soul wrenching, "NNNNOOOOOOOOO!!" Into the air of the plaza. For a moment it looked as though he would stay like that, his sorrow freezing him forever. Instead he climbed to his feet, dashed angrily at his eyes with one sleeve, and started up the steps into the half-built imperial palace. One small man, his face set in such grim lines that the guards simply stepped back without a word and let him by. ~ I'm coming Palpatine; I hope you're ready. ~
+++++
When I swam up out of the foul darkness that had claimed my consciousness it was to the sound of a barely recognizable voice shouting at the med-droid.
"Where is she?! Where's our daughter?! Tell me now or I swear no one will ever be able to put you back together again!" I had seen Obi-wan angry before, but it lasted seconds and he never raised his voice. Now he sounded as though anger was all he'd ever felt and he'd been shouting for hours.
I blinked slowly, then rapidly, trying to bring him into focus to tell him to stop pounding on the table. Flailing blindly I at last succeeded in grabbing his hand.
His grip was firm and comforting and his voice, though still hoarse, became calm and reassuring, "Del, darling, wake up now. I am here and everything is going to be all right, but we have to –"
"No, n-nothing's ever gonna be-"
"Shhh – hush now sweetheart. Focus for me, sit up." He slid an arm under my shoulders and raised me up. "Good, that's my girl. Can you open your eyes for me? Come on, that's the way."
I leaned weakly against him, trying to bring my vision into focus. When I did, I wondered where he got the strength to hold me up. Blisters decorated the side of his face where the hair had been singed to stubble. Blood oozed from a cut above his left eye and trickled from the corner of his mouth. His tunic was shredded; numerous burn marks decorated the holes. The knees were out in his trousers and the buckles were broken on one boot.
Bringing my eyes up to meet his I whispered, "Wow, I'd hate to see the other guy."
Grief and pain filled his eyes, "He's dead." And I knew he didn't mean the emperor.
"No! You-you didn't have to-"
"No, I-I didn't. He fell, I couldn't reach him…I tried – oh Del-" He swallowed, his eyes filling with tears.
I cupped his face with my hands, careful not to touch the burn, "Oh Obi, don't, I'm sure you d-did everything you could love." I kissed his unblistered cheek.
"I did! Del, h-he-he turned back! I convinced him, but the emperor was too strong, and so foul, and Anakin was so angry…" His eyes met mine and all his Jedi control seemed gone. "When did I ever say Anakin was a burden? Never! Our, m-my…" He pressed his forehead to mine and whispered, "My son-"
I knew we should go pursuit couldn't be far. I could feel the ugly dark beast called grief lurking just out of sight creeping ever closer to consume me and take away the comforting numbness that was making the coherent thought that would get us out of here possible. But the rock my world was built on was crumbling before my eyes and I could not force him to do anything. Instead I held him, stroking his back as he sobbed.
Only in rare moments like this did this man get to be a MAN. For a brief span he was a fallible being, not the superhuman Jedi who had no emotion and could do not wrong. Awful to behold as his pain was, I knew he needed some release in order to be functional.
When he calmed slightly I took the cloth the droid held out to me and gently whipped away the blood on his temple and then the rest of his face. It stopped the bleeding and the machine gently turned Obi-wan's head to spray something on the burn, the redness and blisters faded almost immediately.
"Here sir, drink this." I took the cup from the 'droid and held it to Obi-wan's lips, watching him drink it down.
"Ug, that was terrible, what was it?"
"A restorative. It will set your internal injuries and give you some energy."
"Good, I believe I will need it. Now please, tell me what happened to our daughter?" His face was restored to its usual calm demeanor. The droid was less so. I wondered how a being with no facial expression managed to convey fear and shame, but the robot achieved it nicely.
"The emperor and Lord Vader took the body with them when they left. They ordered me to kill the lady, but it is against all my programming to do harm and I could not."
"You did what you could to save her. I think I can repay you for sparing my wife." He squeezed my hand and smiled briefly at me, then got to his feet and unclipped his saber, igniting the blade. His eyes rested on the blade, frozen for an instant. Then he sighed and squared his shoulders, and turned to the droid. "You can tell them I came in and took her away and you could do nothing about it." So saying he swung the blade and cut the droid from its base, knocking it to the floor with a crash. He switched off the blade and turned to me, taking my hands as the general took over from the man again.
"Come on Del, it's time to go." He pulled me to my feet and helped me into my clothes then towed me to the doorway and looked out.
"Obi-"
"Hush, we can talk when we get out of here."
"No! I-I just want you to know, I d-did, I-I tried to save her, tried to get them angry enough to kill me instead, but it didn't – I'm s-sorry-"
Pulling me tightly to him he stopped my words with a kiss. He moved his hands to cup my face gently, but his kiss was fierce, not passionate but reassuring, as though trying to share his strength with me. Stopping, keeping his forehead pressed to mine he whispered. "Then you would both be dead and I could not go on without you." He leaned back and slid his arms down to cradle me against his chest. His eyes met mine and he dredged up a smile from somewhere. "You are all that's normal, easy, joyous in my life. How can I do what I must without you to come back to? You are my life now, how can I live without my life?" He kissed my forehead gently, "We've spent all this time apart, but never again." He turned and checked the hallway again, then took my arm, holding it firmly. "Be my brave Del again, because we've still got to get out of here."