Felix looked at the gathering, the day, the people, and was content. He loved the outdoors, and this place was one of the best he'd seen. The working ranch wasn't his thing, but he could see the pleasures Corso would get from living here. The younger man had seemed unsettled when they'd arrived, but appeared to have worked out whatever was bothering him before. Magdalane must have talked to him, he thought, she surely would have felt his earlier unease. His lovely wife walked toward him, holding Colin and smiling, and the sight of her with that small bundle melted him inside. He did want children, her children, but knew that until she had resolved the issue of Jedi training, the issue would be moot. He still thought she might have been hasty about her decision, but as long as he had her, he would be happy.
"You look radiant holding a child," he told her then, noting her aura pick up intensity. He smiled down at Colin, who was blinking his green eyes at his aunt. "Wow, he's grown so much in the past month."
"He has," Magdalane replied with a grin, "and he's going to be tall, like his daddy." She handed him to his uncle, and went to get a bottle from Maura. Felix couldn't keep a smile off his face looking down at the little guy. His thoughts went to the house they'd looked at earlier this week, the back yard and the already built nursery area, and realized that Mags hadn't commented on not needing them. When she returned to feed Colin, he turned to put his arm around her shoulders, and gingerly approached the subject.
"You're rethinking it, aren't you," he asked with a grin on his face, "the whole baby thing?"
"Maybe," she answered with a small smile, "I hesitated to say much until I could talk to Satele, but yes, the urge is there. I didn't want to get your hopes up, but it's really been on my mind. Can we wait to discuss it until I can get more answers?"
He kissed her cheek, "Of course, sweetheart." He thought about growing up a Jedi, wondered how stressful it had been on her, that she would reject the thought of children of her own in order to spare them. He'd had a relatively normal childhood, up until the raid on Coruscant had pushed them out of their home and into a camp. Even then, he had his brothers and his sister, both parents. His dad had restarted his produce business, selling to area restaurants and markets, all organically grown. It was then that Felix had a flash of memory- he'd seen Magdalane as a child, on Tython!
"Hey, sweetie, I just remembered something exciting! I think, no, I know I saw you as a child, near the temple on Tython!"
She smiled gently at him, "I wondered if you would ever remember that, if it had even registered with you at the time."
He had gone with his dad to deliver produce to the temple. They'd always just shipped it before, but one of the masters there had asked his father to come and visit, give him some advice on growing a few things of his own. So, he'd begged to come along, just to get away from all his younger siblings, and his dad had taken him. He'd been fascinated by all the robed figures milling about and was looking at everything, when he spotted a small girl with silvery blonde hair sitting by herself on a bench, being scolded by a robed woman. The girl was told to stay there while the woman walked to a nearby booth, and she did, looking miserable. As Felix stared, it was as if the girl felt him, and turned the most beautiful green eyes to his with a small smile. He felt peace flow through him like a river, every chaotic thought in his young mind stilled, and stood there, open mouthed, staring. His dad had spoken to him several times before he could look away from those eyes.
"She's quite a pretty child, but son, she's a Jedi, she wouldn't be allowed to play," his dad told him. He was ten years old, Magdalane would have been seven. It was shortly after her own father had died, he thought, so many changes in her young life had to be difficult to navigate. He remembered watching her walk away with the robed woman, looking back over her shoulder to smile at him once more.
"Why did you never remind me? What a wonderful memory I have of you," he told her, not understanding.
"Felix, love, I wasn't sure you'd remember, since your memory issues after the datacron incident. I thought it might upset you to not remember. Besides, I wasn't even sure myself, until I saw you on Hoth, that I hadn't imagined it. At that point, if you'd remembered me, I'd have known it, and you didn't."
He sighed, knowing she was right, but savoring the image he had of her as a child. "You took my heart even then, at ten years old. I thought about you many times growing up, wondered what your fate had been." He'd never been back to Tython, until he went before the Jedi council. He took her free hand in his, gently squeezing it, feeling her calm aura, and with it, hope.
Maura approached them, Calleigh in her arms. "How's the little guy doing there? He must be going through a growth spurt, he's been eating more." She took Colin and gave Calleigh to her aunt, "Assembly line feeding, we've got it down to a science," she laughed. Aric brought a warm bottle for Calleigh and handed it to Magdalane.
"You look quite natural doing that, Master Jedi," Aric teased. Mags gave him a wavering smile, unshed tears in her eyes. "Oh no, Magdalane, I'm sorry, I truly didn't mean to upset…." She shushed him with a hand on his arm.
"Aric, it's fine. I'm loving being with the babies, and if I could be sure that my own wouldn't have to endure Jedi training, we'd be planning one now." She looked away, unsure how to proceed. "Force sensitive children are taken from their families and trained at the temple, and I'm just not sure I can do that."
Aric glanced at Felix then, searching for an adequate response. " I guess I'd heard that somewhere but didn't know if it was true. How old were you?"
"Almost four years old. I missed three years with my dad before he died, even though I saw him almost every day, but only for a few minutes here and there. "
Aric thought for a few minutes. "Maybe it's different now. Maybe enough have had bad experiences that things have changed."
"Maybe," she responded in a soft voice. "Maybe it would be worth it regardless." She leaned on Felix, seeking his strength, and found it easily. Would it be enough, she thought, to sustain me, us, through that kind of separation?
Aric hugged her, and left her with Felix and a sleeping Calleigh. Felix waited a few seconds, then spoke softly, "Mags, I know it's scary, but we've overcome some pretty huge odds just getting to where we are today. We'll figure it out, together." He held her close as they watched the sleeping baby, all of them dreaming.