Chapter 15 – Aunts and Uncles
"We're back," Anakin announced as he carried their bags into the house.
"I'm gonna put Leo in the nursery," said Padme as she carried the baby.
"Alright, I'm gonna go see what Obi-Wan's up to," Anakin said.
Padme placed Leo into Luke's old crib, and once she was sure he was sleeping, she activated a device on a table in the room. Then she crept out, carrying another device with her.
On her way to the Living room she stopped in the study and picked up her datapad.
"Yes, Owen and Beru left a few minutes before you got home. They said they had to get back to the homestead, but look forward to seeing you later. Um, Beru said that the twins just ate, and are with Yoda for their lessons. And Owen says that your mom wants to plan another family supper, but it's more than likely she just wants another excuse to come over and see Leo," quoted Obi-Wan.
Anakin laughed. "You know what, I think he's right."
Padme entered while the two were talking. She placed the device from the nursery on the kitchen counter and activated it.
"What is that," Obi-Wan asked.
"It's the baby monitor. It'll let me hear if Leo cries," Padme answered. Then she pulled out her datapad and began scrolling through her most recent messages. "Oh, this is good. The renovations are all on schedule. It looks like we can start to plan the big opening."
"Yes, I've actually started making notes on that. Look for the file on there titled 'Community Center Opening,'" said Obi-Wan.
Suddenly Anakin straightened. He got up and started walking towards the nursery. Obi-Wan got up to follow Anakin. On their way out they heard a baby start to cry from the monitor.
Anakin never needed the monitor to tell him when his babies needed something. He could sense a dirty diaper from the other side of the house with the force. It was a trick you wouldn't find on a Jedi Holocron, but it was one he found very useful.
"What's wrong?" Obi-Wan worriedly asked as he followed Anakin into the room.
"Nothing's wrong. Leo needs a change." Anakin began pulling out the necessary items onto the changing table. Then he picked up Leo.
Obi-Wan watched with both eyes scrunched in confusion. "You're changing a diaper! You know droids can do that."
Anakin smiled. "Yes, but it isn't the same. This is gonna smell," he warned before pulling off the old diaper.
Obi-Wan immediately stepped back and scrunched his nose. "You, who built a droid especially to do your chores at the temple, are arguing this."
"Yeah, well the council only assigned laundry duty to punish me, for a situation they completely overreacted to. And my TL-89 would've become a household name if they'd had a little more imagination."
Obi-Wan tilted his head slightly and looked at Anakin through the corner of his eye. "They assigned you laundry duty to teach you responsibility. And it still only makes my point. Why are you changing his diaper when a droid could easily do it for you?"
"When I take care of him it promotes attachment. He learns that he can trust me. That I'll always make things better." Anakin picked up Leo again and sat with him in the rocking chair, soothing him to sleep with it's movements.
Obi-Wan still looked a touch confused but he nodded. "And he won't learn this with you passing him to the droids."
Anakin laughed. "Not fast enough to really matter. When he grows older. When the things that upset him aren't as easy to fix as a dirty diaper or a feeding. Being able to settle him with just my calming presence makes every difference in the world."
In a few minutes Leo was asleep again. Anakin silently got up and placed him in the crib. Then they walked softly out of the nursery.
Over the next few months, as Obi-Wan stayed with Anakin and Padme, he watched the experienced father care for his son with great curiosity. Though he never got brave enough to try a diaper change, he did get used to picking up and even rocking his body in the soothing way Anakin did.
Obi-Wan also found himself helping Padme run her community center and charity site. On some nights he went to bed feeling very peaceful. This is what the Jedi are supposed to do: Promote peace. For so long we were at war, and we lost what really mattered. Did it really take loosing everything for us to find it again?
When Cliegg arranged the last apartment it was to a place close to Anakin's, which made Obi-Wan happy. After all the surprises his former padawan recently laid on him, he didn't want to move that far away. So he went to the new place with Cliegg to look around and see if it suited him.
"I thought you'd like it." Cliegg said. "The owner is an old friend of mine. He says to tell you that the air cooler doesn't work anymore."
"Oh, that doesn't bother me. I know a talented repair man." Obi-Wan said and they both laughed. They knew Anakin would be able to fix the old system, even if he had to rebuild it from scratch.
"There are two more bedrooms down there," Cliegg indicated towards a hallway. "And a second full refresher too."
"Thank you. This is more than enough. I doubt I'll ever have use for so much space," said Obi-Wan.
"Well, you never know. Anakin tells me the Jedi Order is growing. You may decide to take on an initiate, like some of the others have done," suggested Cliegg.
Indeed, the youngest Jedi were all divided up between the other Jedi, who were taking well to his and Anakin's revised methods and were trying out training the younglings even before they were old enough to become padawans. The methods they used still had Anakin's flare, but with a little more of Kenobi's control and reason. Even Yoda approved! The younglings were all forming healthy attachments to each other too.
"Oh, I don't think so. I don't think I have the talent for taking care of an infant, and our older younglings are all accounted for already." said Obi Wan. "But Yoda will need a place to stay when he's on Tatooine. That'll have to suffice for my youngling rearing skills." they laughed some more. "Don't tell him I said that."
"I never will. But you never know." Cliegg smiled knowingly. "Are you and Master Yoda still coming to the family supper tomorrow night?"
"Are we invited. I thought that was for family."
"You are family," said Cliegg.
Obi-Wan smiled warmly. "Well then we'd love to."
"Very good. I'll let you get settled in. See you tomorrow night." Cliegg handed Obi-Wan a key.
The first night Obi-Wan slept in his new apartment, he found it almost too quiet. Before the purge, he'd spent his life in the Jedi temple and slept where they could make arrangements to on missions. Then lately he stayed with Anakin and the twins who were always making noise. Add to that the most recent addition of a newborn baby crying whenever he needed something, and his parents getting up at all hours of the night. Obi-Wan never would've guessed, but without all of that, he had a hard time falling asleep. In the end he activated a droid just so it would make some background noise from its shuffling around in the dark.
At least Master Yoda will be back tomorrow, He told himself. I should sleep better then. And I'll get used to this, eventually.
Obi-Wan wasn't the only one who struggled with the change, though.
"We miss Uncle Ben," Luke's bottom lip stuck out in a pout.
"Why does he have to go away? Why can't he stay here?" Leia began to whimper.
"Now, kids." Anakin tried to sound firm. "Uncle Ben is only up the road a bit. He needed his own apartment where he can have his own room at night. You can see him tomorrow. We'll all see him tomorrow for family supper."
"But why can't I see him now?" Luke whined.
Anakin sighed. "Why don't I tell you a story about Uncle Ben and the time he fell into a Gundark's nest." The twin's eyes went wide.
"I'll get it," Anakin shouted. He was at his mother and Cliegg's house on the Lars homestead. He went to the door and opened it. "Master Yoda, welcome back. Obi-Wan, we missed you. The twin's especially."
"Uncle Ben… Uncle Ben…" Luke and Leia shouted in unison.
Obi-Wan bent over to embrace the twins as they ran up to him.
"Uncle Ben, why did you climb above the Gundark nest?" Luke immediately questioned.
Obi-Wan looked up at Anakin, who shrugs innocently and whispered, "I had to get them to sleep."
Obi-Wan laughed, "Well kids, I have a few stories to tell you. Did you know your daddy used to podrace?" He immediately had the twins full interest, especially Luke's.
"Whether we wanted him to or not, he did," Yoda added.
"There were these garbage tunnel races under Coruscant…"
Anakin turned away to investigate another ship that was landing nearby. Out of the ship popped a Togruta.
Even before she pulled off her helmet, Anakin was walking up to her with a big grin on his face. "Ahsoka, how wonderful."
She smiled and ran up to Anakin, giving him a slap on the back. "Yeah, C3PO told me you'd be here. It's nice to see you too. Listen, I've got to..." Then her face became very serious. Her eyes went wide. "There here," she whispered.
"Auntie Ahsoka… Auntie Ahsoka." Luke and Leia suddenly abandoned their uncle Ben to run to her.
Ahsoka pushed whatever thoughts she had aside and turned to the twins. "I've brought gifts for you." She turned to her ship and retrieved three wrapped items and a datastick. The last of which she shoved into her pocket quickly.
Walking into the house she handed one item to each of the twins. They both ripped off the wrapping in a flash and began jumping with glee over their new toys. For Leia there was a youngling Twi'lek doll. And for Luke there was a toy speeder in a flashy red color.
"Whoa, whoa. What do you kids have to say to Aunt Ahsoka." Anakin barely managed to catch them before they'd gotten too far.
"Thank you," Luke said with a smile.
"Thank you." Leia, who was nearer, gave Ahsoka a hug.
"Awe you're welcome," Ahsoka responded. "I've also got something for the newest little one." Ahsoka indicated the third package she still carried.
"Well, come in and meet him." Anakin led her into the living room to where Shmi was holding Leo.
"Oh, do I have to give him up now," she complained, before smiling and handing the baby over to Ahsoka.
Anakin carried Ahsoka's package over to Padme and the two of them opened it with a touch more care than the twins did theirs. They revealed a hand made blanket from Alderaan.
"Oh, Ahsoka this is beautiful." Padme gushed.
"Ahsoka, so how long have you known about Anakin's family?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Only since our mission to Arell. She knew nothing before then." Anakin answered.
"I think it's very good of Anakin. He stayed with and took care of his family, even when it wasn't convenient." Ahsoka's eyes glanced briefly towards Yoda, but quickly returned to Obi-Wan with a stern glare.
"Need to defend Anakin, you do not. Decided to do things differently, we have," said Yoda. Ahsoka's eyes went wide in shock.
"Yes, I think you would like some of the changes we've made," said Obi-Wan. Ahsoka's eyes glanced up at Anakin's and down towards Yoda again.
"And so we have the community center where we have been giving our initiates their training. But we've also been offering a number of classes to the community too. Master Yoda was even considering giving a basic meditation class to some of the non-jedi students." Anakin had been explaining their latest news to Ahsoka as they ate.
"Trouble with anger management, some of them have. A valuable lesson it will be," Yoda replied.
"Yes, even I've begun to teach a class on Basic language skills. Though I don't think I'm that good at it. Not like Jocasta Nu. Now she can teach any student," Obi-Wan put in. Anakin thought he noticed Ahsoka avoiding eye contact with his former master, but he wasn't sure. And he couldn't think of a reason why she would.
"I'm still curious about this raise younglings with attachments thing. I mean, the old order was so against it. How did you convince them?" Ahsoka turned again to Anakin.
"I really can't answer that. It still surprises me." Anakin waved his hand to Obi-Wan and Yoda. "You'd have to ask the masters."
"I remember feeling so shocked when Anakin first confessed," said Obi-Wan. "Walking through here, it was like I was seeing a whole new world, and a whole 'nother side of Anakin. At the end of that day I had a real long meditation." Anakin noticed it again, Ahsoka looked down at her plate instead of up into Obi-Wan's eyes.
"Meditate real long we both did," said Yoda. "That things need to change, recent losses indicate. Feel in the force this is the way, I do."
Ahsoka smiled. "Perhaps then there really is hope left in this galaxy."
"And what news do you bring from the rebellion?" Obi-Wan asked.
"A message for us, you have," Yoda stated, in a way that implied he knew more than was stated.
Ahsoka spit the broth she was eating out, then quickly covered by pulling out her napkin and coughing into it. Her eyes got really big. She looked away, but the grandmaster's eyes were still on her. Then with a resigning breath she pulled the datastick out of her pocket and placed it onto the table in front of her.
Yoda immediately picked up the datastick and carried it over to the holoscreen in the living room. "This, May we use?"
"Ahsoka." Obi-Wan seemed to sense her anxiety and he reached out to her, but she pulled away. She wiped her mouth with the napkin one last time and got up.
"I'll take the kids outside." Ahsoka passed Anakin and she whispered, "You'll understand." She took the twins and went out to the backyard with them and their new toys.
"I'll go and nurse Leo." Padme left the party as well.
Anakin was feeling very confused. He wondered why Ahsoka was behaving so strangely, and what was on this datastick. She didn't really want to hand it over, he sensed.
"Do you want us to go?" Shmi asked Anakin.
"No. Sensitive news it is not. No warnings to me the force gives," Yoda answered, as he slid the datastick into the device.
Anakin gasped in shock when a familiar blond with curly hair was projected on the Holo. It was a face he'd thought was dead. Satine Kryze, Dutchess of Mandalore, stood on the holo glaring at them. She was breathing hard, like whatever she had to say came with great difficulty.
Anakin glanced at his comrades. Yoda held his chin, and focused his gaze. Thinking deep about what he was seeing. Obi-Wan's eyes went wide, and Anakin sensed longing and fear from him, but not surprise.
"I Satine Kyrze am sending this message to the rebellion, and asking them to pass it along to Obi-Wan Kenobi, or failing that, any member of the Jedi Order yet surviving." her eyes seemed angry, but her voice was clear and strong. "It is a matter of life and death that this message gets delivered as soon as possible." Satine paused for a moment and looked down past the holocam for several seconds. She seemed to breath deep and recenter herself. Then she looked back up at the camera.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi!" She sounded like a school teacher scolding a naughty child. "The famed Negotiator. Never have I met a man so full of Bantha Fodder. Let me make this clear. Since you left, I've been stronger. I have no need for you or your Brain Bolted, Gungan's Ear of an ego." She glared at the holocam.
Well, she's got a lot to say about you Obi-Wan. Something tells me she's talking about a time a lot more recent than Maul's invasion of Mandalore. What exactly did you do to get on her bad side. I thought she loved you, Anakin thought to himself.
"I can take care of myself, Obi-Wan. But I can't take care of her." She turned the holocam around to show an infant with strawberry blond hair, a Kenobi nose, along with her mother's proud chin and jawline. Then Satine pulled the holocam back around to face herself again. "She is force-sensitive, and I've already had to fight off an inquisitor to keep her from them. I can't keep her safe much longer. If you want her, come get her." Her voice broke with her last words.
Well that answers that question, Anakin quipped to himself, as the recording ended and the whole room looked to Obi-Wan for an explanation.
Happy Father's day. I was going to wait to post this, but it does have a few paternal themes, not just the obvious. This is something I have been planning for a very long time, and I did try to put little hints in earlier chapters, without making things obvious. And I know I did just break cannon with the whole Satine being alive thing, but I will explain that in the next chapter. I don't know if you'll buy it, but I will explain it. Her character was just the best one to use for this. It was either that or create an OC love interest, which is something I'm not really a fan of. Anyways, If you're angry with what I've done to the Obi-Wan character, please give me just one more chapter to finish his side of things.
