Life Day Miracle
A/N: This story originally started as little more than a shameless rewrite of the 1987 cartoon "The Adventures of Candy Claus" with the Star Wars characters in it instead, but during the writing process it became a very different kind of story altogether. Hope you enjoy!
The sign on the store read 'Saun Dann Curios'. Another sign in the window read 'Find that perfect Life Day gift'. The inside of the store was full of all kinds of odds and ends, a lot of it not expensive, not extraordinary, but on occasion the older human bought and sold rare treasures as he found them and as he called them. It was a lot to look through, especially for someone who was just browsing. If you had something specific in mind it was trickier because Saun Dann didn't always remember where he'd put all his inventory.
It was late morning and the shop was just about empty. Saun Dann alternated between ringing up an order for a pocket sized aquarium, and taking a wall screen order for a large shaggy carpet. While his attention was diverted, it would be so easy to just pocket some small item from off the shelves. But...
Exasperated, 10-year-old Kotto Zullox sighed to himself. He had proven to be a dropout from the Jedi temple, but that alone seemed like a lousy reason to rip someone off. He stared at the two large crystals on the shelf. They were practically calling him. It had to be a mistake they were here in the first place. And if it wasn't, there couldn't possibly be any way he could afford what they must cost. But, hesitantly, he picked up the two gems and carried them to the front counter.
"Hey there," Saun Dann just now seemed to notice the dark haired boy, "I thought you were away training to be a Jedi."
"They kicked me out," he answered as nonchalantly as he could.
"Oh yeah? They did?" the grayish white haired man with glasses and slight pot belly on him responded, "I didn't know they were that smart." He caught the murderous glare the 10-year-old boy shot him and raised his hands, "Oh hey, hey, just kidding. What've you got there?"
"Are these real kyber crystals?" Kotto asked as he set them on the counter.
The older human glanced over his lenses at the large stones.
"Could be," he picked them up, felt their weight and looked them over, "I mean they have to be, if they're not kyber crystals, what are they?"
"Where'd you get them?" the boy asked curiously.
"Hard to say," it was obvious Saun Dann was trying to recall that himself, "I inherited a bunch of crates a few months ago full of all kinds of stuff, the estate of some wizard I think. What do you want them for?"
"I just want them," Kotto said defensively, "how much are they?"
The gray haired man looked at the child. He'd known Kotto's parents for years, the boy had a reputation that preceded him all throughout the city, but he wasn't a bad kid, just short tempered, impatient, impulsive, and the proverbial wookiee in the china shop.
"They a present for someone?" he asked.
"Maybe," Kotto said dismissively.
"Oh, well that makes a world of difference," Saun Dann said. "See it's my business to make sure everybody gets just what they want for Life Day...what say...five credits for both of them?"
Finally he saw a smile on the kid's face, a very easy one to miss, but it was there.
"I got that," he said as he reached into the pocket of his tunic.
"Oh good, always a pleasure to do business with you," Saun Dann said as he deposited the money and handed him back the crystals. "Tell your parents I said hi."
"I will," Kotto shoved the crystals in his pockets and all but ran out of the store.
"Nice kid," Saun Dann said to himself once he was the only one in the shop, "nice kid...glad he didn't set anything on fire this time."
"There," 9-year-old Mara Tau announced. The blonde girl put down the set of shears she'd used to cut off the long blonde locks of her companion.
"Finally," 9-year-old Zeno Stoll replied as he ran a hand over his head to shake off the loose strands.
"Why didn't you just get your hair cut before?" Mara inquired.
"My mother wouldn't let me," he answered. "This way there's nothing she can do about it."
"Tell me about it," a third voice said. That belonged to their friend, Weena Mondoon, also nine years old, unlike her two friends, she had dark brown hair, most of which had been cut off in two long braids and she now held it in her hand.
"I still think this is a dumb idea," Zeno told the girls.
"No it's not," Mara said.
Their discussion was broken up by the sound of an approaching speeder. Weena looked up and pointed, "There he is."
A mini speeder touched down and Kotto hopped over the side, proudly proclaiming, "I got them!"
"Got what?" the other three kids asked.
"Two kyber crystals," he answered as he took them out of his pockets.
The other three kids gathered around and looked at them. Nobody said anything, and if anything they only looked skeptical.
"Where'd you get them?" Zeno asked.
"Saun Dann's shop."
The other three kids exploded in a chorus of groans and jeers.
"If he had them, they're not kyber crystals."
"How much did he charge you?" Mara asked.
The dark haired boy felt his face getting warm at that question. "Five credits."
"Each?"
"For both."
"That proves it, he'd never sell a real crystal that cheap," Zeno said. "Probably just junk."
Kotto scowled at his friends. "I don't care if you think they're real or not. You said to find something we can use, and I did." He handed them over to the girls and told them, "Now it's your problem."
Weena looked at the one in her hand and shrugged, "I guess we can find a use for them."
"Yeah well good luck," Zeno said as he got ready to leave, "from here on out, leave me out of this plan."
"Coward," Mara said.
"You got that right," he replied without missing a beat, "My mom's already going to kill me for getting my hair cut, last thing I need is the Senate after my head because they think I took part in a ruckus."
"Nobody's going to accuse us of anything," Weena said, "we're simply going to present a gift to the senator when she comes next week."
"I don't know why," Zeno told them, "we've got a hard enough time getting something for our parents for Life Day and you want to waste all our resources on a gift for a senator who doesn't even know we exist."
"Maybe not but she's helped our people before," Mara replied, "so we want her to know how much we appreciate what she's doing."
"I still say it's a waste of time," Zeno insisted. "Senators are some of the richest people in the galaxy, they have everything they need, everything they want, everything they could ever want."
Anakin Skywalker found himself once again standing in the doorway of the room that was going to be the nursery for their child. Right now it was a barren room, but when the time came, it was going to be ready, and it was going to have everything their son could need.
When the day came.
He felt static rumbling in his stomach. Padme was supposed to let him know as soon as she got the results of the medic scans. She was away on senatorial business in the Middle Rim, but she'd taken her own personal medic droid with her.
They had gotten married seven years ago, but publicly they'd only been wedded for three. It hadn't been a good public image, the senator of Naboo marrying a former slave turned Jedi knight. It had also been a bad image for the whole Jedi order, it defied their protocols about not forming emotional relationships. Anakin didn't care, they didn't care, they loved each other and wanted to be together, and after a few years they didn't care if the entire galaxy knew it. It had created a lot of problems, but they'd been able to work through most of them.
Now they were working on the next part of it, starting their own family.
In his mind he went over the entire layout again. The crib would be over by the windows so their child could see the sun in the morning, and all the stars at night. He looked towards the ceiling and pictured the large mobile he would build out of durasteel parts that would catch the light and fascinate the baby as it slowly turned overhead. In time the whole floor would probably be littered with stuffed banthas and frog dogs and stuff like that. And when their son was old enough, he was going to have a rocking tauntaun, which would go right in the middle of the room.
Anakin about hit the ceiling when C-3PO finally let him know there was a holo-call for him. He all but ran down the stairs, finally, they were going to know!
His brain could hardly even function as he took in the sight of his wife's holographic image.
"Padme?" he huffed as he tried to catch his breath.
It only took a second or two for him to realize what the sad smile on her face meant as she shook her head.
Just like that, Anakin Skywalker felt his heart drop to his stomach.
Not again.
"Padme, I'm so sorry."
As many times as they had been through this, he felt like he should have something more meaningful to offer, but no other words came to mind. They kept trying, and the scans always came back the same way.
Padme wasn't strong in the Force but she didn't have to be to read his mind. Her own feelings aside, she forced herself to smile a little brighter, and responded in a voice that was stronger than she actually felt at the moment, "It's just not the right time."
Anakin didn't know what that even meant. Padme said it every time they found out she wasn't pregnant, and every time it was just as confusing to him. They'd been married for seven years, they should've had at least one child by now, surely more.
Either she was better at reading his mind than he thought, or he'd actually said that out loud, because she told him, "We will have our family when the time is right. That's all there is to it."
It was starting to seem to the young Jedi that that time was never going to come.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
She nodded, though he could tell her heart wasn't fully in it.
"I'm fine, Anakin. I'll be back next week and, we'll figure out what to do then."
"I love you."
That had been the case since the day he met her, and whether or not they actually would have kids, that would never change, but he wanted to make sure she knew it.
"I know," she replied.
He shot her a look, she laughed in response.
"I love you too," she told him.
After the call ended, Anakin went back upstairs to the empty room. Ten minutes ago it had looked so bright and cheerful and full of life. Now it was cold and dark, like a tomb, and he worried that was all it would ever be.
It wouldn't have done well for either of them if Padme had gotten pregnant early into their marriage, but they were far enough along now that they were ready to have children. They were ready, he was ready, he couldn't wait to have a son. Or daughter. It wasn't that he wouldn't have loved to be the father of a girl, but there were just so many things that he wanted to be able to pass down to a son, one who could carry on the Skywalker name, the bloodline.
He couldn't get rid of a gnawing feeling in his stomach that this constant disappointment was an omen that they were doing something wrong. If the Force and the galaxy in general weren't punishing them for something, or maybe more to the point, him for something, then why couldn't they have a child when everyone else in the universe did?