Carmine and Caroline looked with no other expression but love as they gently lay down their new baby in her crib for the very first time after finally bringing her home.

Lamenta looked so peaceful as she lay there swaddled up, fast asleep, occasionally sticking her little tongue out.

"Look at her." Caroline smiled. "So beautiful. So perfect. And she's ours."

"I'd expect nothing less from a baby so lucky to have you for its mama." Carmine chuckled.

Baby Lamenta stirred a little bit but remained asleep. Carmine gently stroked the pretty curls her little head.

"Daddy's going to always be here for you, Lamenta." Carmine said. "No matter what, you won't be without a father."

Caroline and Carmine went to bed that night. But less than two hours later, Lamenta started crying, no doubt needing something.

Caroline was still exhausted after giving birth, so Carmine, being a good husband, got out of bed to let his wife rest and went to the baby's room to take care of whatever she needed.

"What is it, Lamenta?" Carmine cooed, picking the baby out of her crib. "What's the matter?"

Lamenta just kept on crying. Carmine gently placed his finger into the baby's mouth, and she started to suck on it. She was hungry.

Luckily, there were already a couple of bottles of milk prepared in the fridge, one of which Carmine got to warming up.

"Shh. It's okay. Don't cry. Milky will be ready soon." Carmine said. He sighed.

Carmine couldn't remember, but he knew from when Grandma Miranda showed him some home movies she'd made of him, that she often would say that to him whenever he cried while waiting for his milk when he was a baby. It was moments like this that made him miss his grandmother even more. He wondered, though, if the way he felt now holding his baby girl in his arms, matched how his father and his grandmother felt when they each held him in their arms for the very first time. It felt so magical, so wonderful getting to see this little bundle of joy, feeling her tiny hand gripping his finger that looked huge to her, and feeling her heartbeat when he held her close to him, and it was a relief to see her settle down once she was finally drinking her milk.

"Good girl." Carmine said, taking Lamenta over his shoulder and burping her.

Carmine kissed Lamenta goodnight and placed her back in her crib.

One hour later,

Lamenta was crying again. This time, she needed her diaper changed.

"Shh. Daddy's got you, little one." Carmine said, getting Lamenta on the changing table and cleaned up.

Carmine sang a little song to Lamenta to keep her calm as he changed her and got her onesie buttoned up again. Then he rocked her back to sleep and went back to bed.

Three in the morning...

WAAAAAAHHH!

Carmine groaned.

"This is gonna be a long night." Carmine yawned.

Taking care of a baby was proving to be a lot harder than Carmine and Caroline imagined. It was always crying at least once every hour, Lamenta needing to be fed, changed, rocked to sleep, sometimes it took ten guesses to figure out what the poor girl needed.

It was especially difficult on Caroline.

One day, as Caroline was taking another online class...

Caroline was grateful to have some peace and quiet this morning. With her husband at work, it was left to her to look after Lamenta. And luckily for her, Lamenta was now peacefully taking her nap.

Suddenly, Lamenta started crying as Caroline was having a video call with her professor about extra credit to keep her grades up while she was caring for her baby.

"Excuse me, Professor." said Caroline.

And Caroline went to the nursery and looked into the crib where Lamenta was crying.

"Shh." Caroline shushed her baby, gently stroking her baby's soft curls before gently picking her up. "There, there, Lamenta. Mommy's here."

Caroline started gently rocking her baby and got her a pacifier.

"Sorry about that, Professor." said Caroline, returning with the baby in her arms. "Little Lamenta here was calling for me."

"Oh, and she is an adorable one, Mrs. Jinn." Said the professor. "You are a lucky lady."

"Yes. Carmine feels very lucky to have her too."

Caroline looked at the little bundle in her arms and gently started to rock her again until she needed her diaper changed.

"You're barely two weeks old, and you're already making your father and me feel like we've aged ten years."

Lamenta looked at her mother with curious eyes as she sucked on her little fist.

A little later that same day, Caroline heard a knock at the door. She carried Lamenta in the crook of her arm as she went to answer it, and they found a data tablet left hung on the mailbox outside their apartment. Caroline took it inside and placed Lamenta in a bassinet she and Carmine had set up just in case they needed to set her down.

But, when Caroline looked at what was on the tablet, it was not good news.

Carmine came home late for dinner that night after a long day at work.

"Carrie, I'm home." Carmine yawned, exhausted after today's shift. "You would not believe the day I had today."

"Carmine, I have some bad news." Caroline said, placing dinner on the table. "You'd better sit down."

Carmine did sit down and started to eat his dinner as Caroline explained to him that she'd received an important data tablet in the mail earlier that day, and it had some news that didn't look good for the young couple.

"The rent has gone up." Caroline said. "Two hundred credits."

Carmine spat out his drink when he heard this news.

"What?! Are you serious?" Carmine said, taking the data tablet to see for himself. "This can't be right."

"I called the landlord. He said either pay the rent or move out."

Caroline explained to Carmine that she'd already researched for any available apartments for a lower price. None were available close by, and the ones she could find that were affordable at all were in the even lower levels of Coruscant, in more dangerous parts.

"The semester will be ending soon," said Caroline. "So, I've been updating my resume and-"

"Whoa, whoa, Caroline. No. Lamenta needs you here to take care of her." Carmine said.

"But how are we supposed to afford rent? Lamenta has an appointment with her pediatrician in a couple weeks, insurance needs to be paid, and how are we going to feed our baby, let alone ourselves?"

Carmine's current salary was barely enough to make do as it was. And he knew how tired Caroline was taking care of Lamenta and doing her classes everyday. The last thing he wanted was to add to that stress by making her get a job too. So, he decided there was only one thing to do.

"I'll just look for another job." Carmine said.

"But, Carmine..."

Caroline worried about Carmine sometimes. He was barely eighteen and already he was working a full-time job and working himself sick to take care of her and Lamenta. And now getting a second job?

"I'll be fine, Babe." Carmine said. "I promised your parents I'd take care of you, and I promised you that the moment we decided to get married. And I made a promise to Lamenta to be her father and take care of her. If getting a second job is what I have to do, so be it. Once you've finished your classes, then you can find a job so hopefully then we each only need to have one, and that way we'll each take turns being at home to take care of our little one."

Carmine kissed his wife and told her as exhausted as he was from work, she and their daughter were worth it.

So, while Caroline continued with her classes, Carmine drew up his resume, and got a job as an assistant piano teacher. The hours were only a few on the weekend but pay was decent, and Carmine and Caroline could cover their rent, but they still needed money for insurance on their speeder and medical care. For about two months, things seemed to go okay, but then costs for other things went up.

And as Lamenta started to grow, they started needing to get new baby supplies. Baby food, a new high chair, a seat for their speeder, and more diapers. Groceries were also getting more expensive too, as well as fuel, water, electricity, and other necessities.

Carmine started looking for a third job then too. But, that took a little longer than hoped. Eventually, money started to get so bad that Carmine had to sell his speeder and get a used one that took less fuel, and then at one point, Caroline even started having to sell her parents' stuff just so she and Carmine could afford rent and food.

The couple started having to really ration out their food in favor of feeding their baby, and setting what money they could aside for Lamenta's college fund. Sadly, Caroline was resorted to even selling the last thing she had of her parents: her silver charm bracelet. She was devastated that it was gone.

Carmine eventually got a third job working nights in clothing store retail. The three jobs helped him and his wife in affording everything, but providing for his girls came at a much higher cost than any amount of money.

With all his jobs, Carmine was hardly home, he was exhausted all the time, and he barely had time to play with Lamenta in the morning at breakfast time."

Late one night as he was in bed with Caroline, Carmine woke up, unable to sleep peacefully. He sat up and looked at Caroline sleeping. Then, he carefully got out of bed and looked at his daughter as she was sleeping soundly. Already, she was ten months old, and starting to walk too. Pretty soon, she was going to need big girl things, all of which did not come cheap.

A big girl bed, big girl clothes and shoes, real food, and school too. And Carmin couldn't imagine how he would be able to afford to get her some big girl toys. Butmore importantly, he'd made a promise to be Lamenta's father, and that meant being more present in her life than his father had been. Qui-Gon only got to spend one full day a year with his son, and Carmine now barely got to spend twenty minutes a day with his baby.

Carmine put on his glasses and sighed as he looked at the picture in his locket. "I'm a pretty sorry excuse for a father. I'm sorry, Dad and Grandma. I failed you. I have to work three jobs to be able to take care of my wife and our baby, and I never get to be at home with them."

Carmine felt tears come to his eyes and started to cry. Wiping his tears away, he looked in the corner and saw the guitar his family made him for his tenth birthday, and then, he remembered something his grandmother told him about her late husband.

As it turned out, Carmine's grandfather was where he'd inherited his love of music from. And something he used to tell Miranda was that when life got you down, all you had to do was think of a song. Life itself was like a song. Everything surrounding them had its own rhythm to find and follow. Some rhythms were trickier than others, but if one really took the time to listen and feel the rhythm, he or she could find their own song and use it to get through the tough times.

And now, Carmine knew just what he needed to do.

Carmine picked up his guitar and looked at it with determination in his eyes.

"I'm going to turn things around for us." He said.

Carmine looked into a box of some of his grandmother's things and managed to find an old camera she used to make home movies of him. And then, he got ready to get to work.