Title: There is the Force
Author: Jedikma
A/N: Thanks, as always, ewan's girl. And to bandgeek, I had given up thinking anyone was reading this. Your thoughtful reviews are most appreciated and so this next chapter is dedicated to you. :)
Chapter 7: Mystery
Siri slowly woke up and found herself in the med clinic with its familiar white walls. She felt groggy and dazed.
"Obi-Wan?" she whispered as she saw him slumped in a chair beside her med couch.
Obi-Wan jumped to attention at the sound of her voice. "Siri, you're awake! Thank the Force you're awake!" He leaned over her and put his hand on the top of her head stroking her hair.
"What happened, Obi-Wan? The last thing I remember was that the girl was finally born." Siri noticed that Obi-Wan looked haunted. "What is it, Obi- Wan? What happened?"
"Maybe now is not the time to talk about it. You need to recover," Obi-Wan replied in an effort to put off the task of filling her in on what transpired.
Siri suddenly felt a strong feeling of grief through the Force and she felt it coming from Obi-Wan. "You have to tell me now, Obi-Wan, I know something terrible has happened. I can feel it."
Obi-Wan sucked in a breath of air and nodded his head. "Siri, our son didn't make it. Something went horribly wrong and you passed out. Quan said the boy was strangled by his umbilical cord. He was stillborn." Obi- Wan paused and Siri noticed his eyes glisten as he tried to tell her what happened. "You started bleeding and the healers couldn't stop it, so they had to do surgery."
"Surgery?" Siri questioned, but at this point she was barely hearing what Obi-Wan was trying to tell her. She was still trying to absorb the story about their son.
"In order to stop the bleeding they had to remove your uterus." Obi-Wan hung his head. "I'm so sorry, Siri."
Siri just stared at him in a trance and the room filled with silence. Then Siri reached for Obi-Wan with her hand and he grabbed it with both of his. He pressed his lips to her fingers.
"Obi-Wan. I had a strange dream, but I don't think it was a dream, now."
"What do you mean, Siri?"
"I saw Qui-Gon and he told me he had the baby. He told me that he and Tahl and many other Jedi were taking care of the babies and that he would take care of our son. I thought he meant the first baby, but he meant this one." Siri gave Obi-Wan a sad smile as a puzzled look came over his face. "Qui-Gon had a message for you, too. He said to tell you he was proud of you for paying so much attention to the Living Force these last nine months. He said the children were a gift even if you couldn't keep them, and that he was glad to see you taking advantage of the gift."
Obi-Wan laid his head on Siri's shoulder and Siri put her arms around him as they both shed quiet tears.
Siri sat propped up on pillows in her med couch and waited. "Come on, Obi- Wan, when do I get to see her?"
Obi-Wan adjusted Siri's pillows behind her. "Master Adi is going to bring her in very soon. Patience, Siri. You're worse than my Padawan." Obi- Wan smiled at her. "She is beautiful, too, just like her mother."
"I went through a whole lot of work to have that child, you shouldn't make me wait so long to see her!"
The door of Siri's room opened and Adi Gallia walked in carrying a small bundle in her arms. "Padawan, I've brought you something. It seems she is the talk of the Temple and I do believe everyone has already seen her, except you."
Siri put her arms up anxiously to take the child from her former Master, but to her frustration, Adi didn't hand the child over to her. "Please, Master, can I have her now?"
Adi gave Siri a big grin. It was like old times when Siri had to wait for her Master to do something or give her something. Siri could still be just as anxious. Adi sighed behind the smile. "Ah, Padawan, no matter how hard I tried with you, some things never changed."
Adi leaned down and put the baby into Siri's waiting arms. Obi-Wan sat on the bed next to Siri to look at the little girl, too. Siri quickly glanced at Obi-Wan and a happy smile spread across her face. "Oh, she is so beautiful!"
Siri held the bundle in the crook of one arm and put her free hand on the baby's tiny head. The child's eyes were closed, but she moved softly under her mother's touch. She had a lot of soft hair and it was dark brown. "She has your mouth, Obi-Wan, and your chin." Siri gave Obi-Wan a big grin. "Well, what I remember of your chin, anyway."
Obi-Wan laughed and returned her lighthearted taunt. "Wait until she opens her eyes. They are just like yours, Siri." Obi-Wan responded proudly as he put his index finger under the child's hand. "One day they will spark fire just like yours, too."
"Force help us!" Adi sighed.
Siri could only laugh. "Oh, Master, wouldn't it be wonderful to have another one of me running around here?" Siri teased.
"As long as I don't have to be her Master, it will be just fine." Adi teased back as she took a seat in the chair next to the med couch. "Siri, Obi-Wan. It is probably time to have another talk."
"Master, you don't need to worry about us. We know the Code, we intend to keep it." Siri quickly said, anticipating what her former Master was going to talk about.
"I know you do know the Code and I don't worry about the two of you following it. In fact, what I am going to propose is because I have watched you handle yourselves so well in the last nine months.
Siri looked at Adi with a puzzled expression. Adi smiled. "Siri, would you like to feed the baby yourself?"
"Could I, Master? Aren't you worried about bonding?" Siri sputtered in surprise.
"Most children don't come to the Temple until they're over six months old. It's very rare to have a newborn in the nursery. Naturally, it would be most ideal for the infant to have mother's milk and I don't see why you can't nurse her until she is as old as six months. Unless you feel it would be harder for you to separate from her, then I wouldn't recommend it, Siri. You will need to go to her in the nursery, you won't be able to keep her in your room."
Siri glanced again at Obi-Wan and saw a pleased expression on his face. "I think I could handle it, Master. I want to do it."
The baby stretched and yawned in Siri's arms and her eyes flickered open. She stared at Siri with a blank expression. "Hello little one! I'm your...I'm Master Siri and I have feeding rights."
The baby began to fuss and Adi stood up to go. "I think she is hungry, Master Siri. You had better feed her."
Before she exited the room Adi approached Siri , put her arm around her and gave her a gentle squeeze. It was an unusual display of affection for Adi Gallia.
Siri sensed some relief coming from her former Master. "Thank you, Adi," Siri said in acknowledgement as she watched Adi leave.
Siri fiddled with the front of the sleep gown she wore to get ready to feed the baby as Obi-wan settled in next to her and put his arm around her. "I counted her fingers and toes," he announced.
Siri laughed. "You would!" she said. After a brief pause she asked, "So what did you find?"
Obi-Wan grinned. "They were all there. Five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot."
Siri gave Obi-Wan a sideways glance of amusement as she shifted the baby's position in her arms. "Maybe I had better check her for fur. Looking at you and all the hair you have on your face and head, I'm beginning to wonder if there may be Wookiee blood in your ancestry."
Obi-Wan laughed at Siri's taunt as he nuzzled the side of her neck with his bearded chin. Siri squirmed under the tickle and giggled.
Obi-Wan watched as Siri helped the baby latch on to her breast and the little one began to suckle vigorously. He pressed the side of his face against Siri's head and let out a big sigh. "I can't believe this, but I'm finding myself envious of my own child."
"What are you talking about, Obi-Wan?"
"I was just thinking of all the time she will get to spend on to your breast and I can't even get a good look."
"Ooooh, poor baby!" Siri cooed as she put a hand up to touch Obi-Wan's cheek.
Obi-Wan chuckled and craned his head forward to see the view. "Maybe, I should get her feeding schedule and make sure I'm here to see that she gets what she needs," he said seriously, but Siri could feel a grin spread across his features.
"Perhaps, you should." Siri smiled in return and nodded. "I'm sure it's important that you look out for her interests."
As the baby continued to nurse, Siri settled back comfortably in Obi-Wan's warm embrace. It was good to hear Obi-Wan joke and it was good to be able to laugh.
Siri was kept in the med clinic for days because Healer Trin insisted on watching her and he wasn't going to let her check out until he was sure she would be fine. Siri didn't find herself bored, however, because she had an endless stream of visitors. Obi-Wan was in and out and the baby was brought to her with a regular schedule for feeding. Master Adi dropped by often and even the busy Council members Masters Mace and Yoda came to see her.
Ferus and Anakin, too, stopped in often, sometimes timing it so that one of them brought her the baby. During one visit the two padawans insisted on sneaking her out of the med clinic, with the help of Obi-Wan, and taking her to the Jedi Gardens. There they showed her that they had planted another flowering bush right next to the first one they had planted with the white blooms, but this time the blooms were a warm yellow in color. The bushes were beautiful together and their sweet fragrances blended in a heavenly way.
Siri and Obi-Wan were both delighted and touched. The padawans had found a bench to place across from the bushes so that their Masters could sit and enjoy the flowers.
After several days of putting up with the sterile atmosphere of the med clinic, Siri realized that there was one visitor that hadn't come by to see her since her surgery. She decided to ask Healer Trin about it one morning, when he was fussing over her.
"Trin, why haven't I seen Healer Quan? It's been nearly a week now and I haven't seen him at all. Isn't that odd?"
Trin shifted nervously at her inquiry.
"What is it Trin? Is there something you aren't telling me?"
Trin cleared his throat and avoided her gaze. "Master Siri, there is something, but the Council has asked me not to say anything until there is more proof."
Siri suddenly had a feeling of dread as the healer spoke these words. She was about to start her own interrogation of the healer when Obi-Wan came into the room. "Obi-Wan, I'm glad you're here. Do you know anything about Healer Quan?"
"No, Siri, what's going on?"
Siri related the conversation she was having with Trin to Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan turned to Trin with a look of concern on his face.
"You both have a right to know," the Healer said. "I have done my investigation and I don't need any more proof. I suspected when Quan was doing the surgery that something was not right. My investigation uncovered that Quan caused the hemorrhage that Master Siri experienced and that it could have been stopped without the radical surgery."
Obi-Wan and Siri both stared at Trin in shock. He continued, "That isn't the worst of it, Masters. Quan killed the baby. The cord was not wrapped around the baby's neck as he claimed. He somehow managed to smother the baby himself."
Obi-Wan sunk down on the bed next to Siri and Siri could feel a fresh sense of grief welling up in both of them. "But why, Trin? Why would he do that? He has a reputation of being the best healer on Coruscant."
"I know, Master Obi-Wan. That is the question that the Council is investigating, but Quan has disappeared and no one has been able to find him. Even his wife claims to not have seen him since last week."
As Obi-Wan and Siri were trying to absorb this information, Adi came into the room, followed by Mace and Yoda.
"Told them, you did, Master Trin?" Yoda asked.
"I thought it was time for them to know, Masters."
Adi turned to Obi-Wan. "We may be able to solve this mystery now. Obi-Wan there is someone here to see you, but she insists on only seeing you."
Obi-Wan nodded in assent, but he had a puzzled look on his face. With that a young woman the same age as Siri and Obi-Wan was escorted into the room. Her eyes were swollen from crying and Siri sensed she was full of fear. In her arms squirmed a toddler girl with fine white hair.
"Master Obi-Wan Kenobi?" The woman's voice shook as she looked towards Obi- Wan. "I am Healer Quan's wife and this is our daughter."
Obi-Wan stood and nodded for her to continue. "I know about what my husband did to your wife and your son. He didn't want to, but he was threatened." The woman began to stumble over the words she was saying and the information came out in pieces. The woman pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket "I found a note, but he didn't write much more than that he was sorry. He wrote that if he didn't do it, our daughter and I would be killed."
Obi-Wan took the note from the woman, but it didn't say anything more than she had already revealed. "Where is you husband now?"
"Dead, sir. He consumed a huge dose of poison, but I think it was forced upon him. He begged me to come here with the baby and beg the Jedi for help. He made me promise."
"Did he say anything at all that would give you a clue as to who might have forced this crime upon him?" Mace asked her.
The woman turned to Mace and in a voice that quivered with fear she said, "He said only that the person that met with him wasn't just evil, he was demonic. I don't understand what that means, but I could see in my husband's eyes that he experienced something truly dark. He was a good man. He would never have compromised his practice or his life if he weren't pushed into something like this. He would have done it for us. I'm so sorry." The woman broke down in tears.
Siri looked to Obi-Wan; his face had grown ashen. "That description fits only one being in this galaxy," Obi-Wan muttered. "The Sith."
Further investigation didn't initially reveal any more answers than the Healer's wife had given them. The Jedi saw to it that Quan's wife was given a new identity and a new home away form Coruscant. The Council decided not to involve Chancellor Palpatine in the relocation of the woman for fear it was someone in his office that may have leaked the information about Obi-Wan and Siri and their offspring. That Obi-Wan was the target of the crime seemed clear, after all, he had defeated the Sith at the Battle of Naboo.
Siri was finally released from the med clinic and she was given odd assignments that kept her at the Temple so she could be near the baby. She felt sick about the death of her son, but she knew Obi-Wan felt even worse. The Council stepped up security on the baby, but they doubted that the Sith would attempt to strike again. It would be too risky for the Sith to be discovered toying with Obi-Wan when they had a bigger goal in mind. The Jedi knew that what had happened to Obi-Wan and Siri was a message for all of them.
Siri pushed the ugliness of it all out of her thoughts. It was the Jedi way not to dwell on things that could not be changed. She decided that she would be grateful that they had one child and she relished every minute she got to spend with the baby, too. She always had to go to the nursery for her to feed her, but Siri didn't care. Often she would take the baby somewhere else in the Temple to sit down with her, the Room of a Thousand Fountains, the map room, or the Jedi Gardens. Sometimes curious initiates would gather around her to see the little one when she was out.
On the morning the little girl turned six weeks old, Siri awoke with a terrible feeling of dread. She hurriedly dressed and raced from her quarters to check on her daughter. When she arrived in the nursery she felt a strong void in the Force and fear gripped her.
"What's wrong?" Siri asked before anyone in the room even realized she had arrived.
Healer Trin was there and he wasn't usually in the nursery. "Master Siri, you need to sit down."
"Just tell me what is wrong, Master Trin."
The healer looked at Siri with a deep sadness in his eyes. "I'm sorry, but the baby was found this morning, lifeless. It appears she just stopped breathing."
Tbc