Thanks everybody for your kind reviews. Please keep in mind that these are just weird little "What if" stories. Don't take them too seriously. :)
DMS
TITLE: The Ties That Bind
Disclaimer: Star Wars belongs to George Lucas. I do not own these characters. I am not profiting from this fic in anyway.
"Push through the contraction." The elderly midwife instructed the young mother. "You have to bear down and push through the count of ten."
"I am trying." Gasped the young mother. "You need to count faster!"
Elba, the senior midwife on call and her young female assistant, Allena, chuckled at the mother's outburst. They were in the clinic's birthing rooma white, austere chamber, holding only the essential furniture and equipment needed for childbirth: A bed, basin, warming table, and bassinet.
"You're almost there. I can see the crown of the child's head. One more big push and the baby will be out." Elba encouraged the petite woman in labor. "When you feel the next contraction, bear down and push."
The next contraction arrived and the woman began to push with a groan.
"That's it!" The midwife exclaimed. "The head is out!" She rotated the child slightly and gently pulled its shoulders free. The baby slid slowly from its confines. "It is a boy!" She shouted joyfully.
The mother raised her head slightly and smiled. The assistant brought over a clean towel and tenderly wrapped the baby up. With a snip of the umbilical cord, the child was free and rushed over to the warming table.
The mother's gaze followed her baby. "Is he alright?" she asked concerned.
"It is standard proceedure." The midwife assured her. "We will check him out, clean him up and bring him back to you."
"He's not crying!" the mother shouted, "Is he alive!"
As if sensing his mother's concern the baby began to wail. The midwife laughed softly. "He is fine." She explained. "Some babies don't cry right away when born. He looks fine."
The young mother smiled brightly at the sound of her son's voice. The smile faltered when a horrible pain shot though her abdomen.
"What is wrong with me?" She gasped.
The midwife checked the woman's still distended abdomen. "It is probably just the placenta being pushed out of your uterus. It's normal." The midwife softly felt around the mother's midsection. She suddenly stopped and looked up in shock.
"There is another!" she whispered.
"Another what?" The mother asked incredulously.
"Another baby…you are having twins!" The midwife explained.
"Oh…you gotta be kidding me?" The mother said in shock.
"I am afraid not." The midwife laughed and then turned to her assistant "Allena, come here quick and bring another towel!"
The assistant carefully placed the baby boy in the bassinet adjacent to the warming table and hurried over to her employer's side.
A few moments later a second child was born.
"Congratulations!" The midwife exclaimed. "It is a girl."
The baby girl let out a loud wail as the umbilical cord was cut. She was also wrapped up quickly and rushed off to the warming table to be cleaned.
Elba brought a cool wet hand towel to the new mother and gently wiped the perspiration from her forehead. "You did a good job. Both children look healthy. Just a moment and we will bring them to you."
The elder woman rose and went to her assistant's side. The young mother noticed them talking in hushed tones as they cared for her children. After swaddling the babies in small white blankets they returned to the mother. The exhausted mom propped herself up on her elbows to gaze at her babies. Her eyes filled with tears of joy as she was handed the two precious bundles.
"They are so beautiful!" The mother cried. She looked down at her babies. One laid in each of her arms. She gently kissed each on the forehead and then smiled up to the midwives. She then noticed an odd look on their faces.
"What is it?" She asked.
The midwives said nothing at first. They old woman glanced at her assistant for a moment. They nodded to each other knowingly and turned back to the mother. It was the elder midwife that broke the silence.
"Honey," she said softly to the mother. "Allena and I both know of your situation and the danger to the children. We are the only ones who know you gave birth to two children. Your Master Skywalker only knew you were pregnant. He only expects one child." The old woman hesitated, but then leaned forward and placed a gentle hand on the head of nearest baby. "We could take one of the children and place it in a good home. A place where he or she would live a normal life. You would want that, wouldn't you?"
The mother looked at her two children, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Yes." She sobbed.
Allena stepped forward. "If you do this, you must never breath a word of what we have done. It would put us and the baby in extreme danger."
"No, I would never say a word. Never." The mother cried softly.
"You will have to decide which one to keep and which to send away." Allena whispered.
The mother looked back and forth at her two children. "Take the girl." She said. "I think a boy would be better suited to survive the challenges he will face."
The two midwives nodded.
"You are the mother." Elba said, "You have a right to name the children. Do you have names?"
The mother looked down to the boy. "I will name him Anakin."
"And the girl?"
The mother gave the baby girl a sad look. "She is so beautiful. I want a name that means that. I will name her Callista."
Allena nodded as she gently picked up the small baby girl. "I have a cousin on the world of Chad. She is barren. I know she will gladly care for Callista."
The mother nodded, then sobbed quietly.
The elder midwife took the washcloth and wiped away her tears. "Shmi, we have to notify your owner now. Remember, if you tell your Master, then Jorel Skywalker will want to reclaim what is his property. The children of slaves are the property of the master. Do you understand?"
"I understand." Shmi nodded. "Nobody will ever know there were two children born, not even Anakin."
Two Decades Later:The head pediatric doctor silently slipped out of the birthing room and quickly made his way to the waiting area.
"Obi-Wan." He whispered to the Jedi Knight who was pacing nervously. Obi-Wan Kenobi quickly moved toward the doctor – A man who he has known for decades and the only man he now trusted in this situation.
"Will she be alright." Kenobi asked anxiously, grabbing the doctor by his shoulders. Dr. Galen Peramum was a short, squat human that normally didn't take kindly to being handled in such a manner, but Obi-Wan was his friend and he also understood the Jedi's panic. Padme was near death when she arrived to the hospital.
"She lost a lot of blood, Obi-Wan, but we think we have her stabilized now." Dr. Peramum looked around nervously and then continued in a whisper. "I need to talk you about the babies."
Obi-Wan dropped his hands to his side in shock. "Babies?" He whispered incredulously. "As in more than one?"
"As in more than two." The doctor responded.
"What!" Obi-Wan shouted.
"Shhhh!" the doctor implored as he grabbed Obi-Wan by the arm and roughly guided him down the hall. "Let's go to my office where we can talk privately."
Kenobi and the doctor quickly moved down the corridor and into Dr. Pergamum's spacious office. The doctor locked the door behind them and then ushered Obi-Wan to a small couch.
"Obi," the doctor began, "Padme never had pre-natal care before today, is that correct?"
Kenobi sat on the couch and buried his head in his hands. "No, we wanted to keep this pregnancy as quiet as possible." Obi-Wan looked up at the doctor. "We couldn't risk her going to a hospital…until today when she started hemorrhaging." Suddenly the Jedi remembered what the doctor said in the waiting room. "Wait, you said there was more than two babies! How many?"
"Three." Galen said softly. "She had two girls and one boy."
"Oh Force!" Kenobi swore and he raked his fingers through his hair. "This complicates matters. I had arranged for one baby to be safeguarded by a friend, but now I will have to find safe havens for two more."
Dr. Pergamum gently placed a hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder and looked at him somberly. "That is what I want to talk to you about Obi." The doctor sat down next to the Jedi. "No matter how careful you were, people in this hospital saw Padme enter and there was no hiding her pregnancy. But there are only three people who know she gave birth to triplets…well, four including you." The doctor corrected himself. "And I trust them all explicitly to keep this matter quiet."
"If Padme leaves here with no children people will be suspicious." The doctor continued, "And if she leaves here with three babies Anakin and the Emperor are bound to find out."
"What do you suggest?" Obi-Wan asked.
"I suggest Padme leaves here with one baby. You can go along with your original plan with that child. The remaining babies will be smuggled out to you later and you can place them in safe homes then. This way, if the Emperor and Anakin do find out about her stay here, they will only be searching for one child, not three."
The Jedi Knight considered his friend's words and then nodded in agreement. "I concur. I will talk to Padme."
"I have already discussed the options with her and she said she would go along with whatever you decide is best for the children." The doctor replied. "Do you wish to see the babies now?"
Obi-Wan stood. "Yes, I would like that very much, Galen."
Kenobi and the doctor returned to the birthing room. Padme Amidala lay in the lone bed that occupied the chamber. Dr. Pergamum's two assistants were tending to the exhausted mother and her three babies.
"Padme!" Obi-Wan whispered as he rushed over and kneeled at her bedside. He grasped her small, pale hand gently. "Are you alright?"
Padme turned to her protector and smiled sadly. "I am very tired, Obi-Wan. Can you believe it, triplets?" She laughed softly.
Kenobi shook his head in disbelief. "No, it is hard to believe. Don't worry Padme. I will take care of them. But we feel it is best that you leave the hospital with only one baby. We doubt your entry into the hospital went unnoticed. This would give the other two the best chance of remaining undetected." Obi-Wan stopped and gave the young mother a pained look. "You must decide which one to keep."
Padme looked over to the three babies sleeping in their bassinets. "The boy looks so much like his father, "Padme said with a shiver, "I don't think I could bear looking into his eyes every morning and thinking of Anakin." Tears started streaming down her face and she sobbed quietly. "I think I will take one of the girls. One looks like me very much, but the other looks like my mother. I think I will take the child that looks like my mother." She began sobbing in earnest when she realized this might be the last time her children were together.
"Do you think they will ever be reunited?" She asked Obi-Wan quietly.
Obi-Wan nodded and said with a smile. "I am sure the Force will see to it." He hesitated for a moment and then asked, "Do you have names for them?"
Padme smiled. "Yes, the boy I will call Luke. The baby girl that looks like me I will call Leia, and the baby that looks like my mother I will call Mara."
Epilogue: 70 years laterBen Skywalker pored over the genealogy report he had painstakingly assembled for his parent's' 30th wedding anniversary. He had spent the last two years scouring through numerous libraries, medical histories, and archives. He investigated every rumor and interviewed dozens of people until the truth of his ancestry was known. Now that he completed the final report he was uncertain as to what to do.
'The Force is the tie that binds our family together.' Ben contemplated silently as his finger slowly traced the flow of the Genealogy chart on the Datapad.
'The Force was attempting to reunite our family.' Ben thought. 'Dad must have felt the pull of the Force, but did not understand its intent.'
As he gazed at the family tree flow chart, he looked at how the various family lines branched off and sometimes intersected. It was those intersections that were troubling. He looked at the report for a moment longer before he made his decision. He reached up with his thumb and pushed the delete button.
"Sometimes there are things about our past that are best left undiscovered." He said sadly.