"Senator," one of the guards chased Padme out of the senate building just as she was getting ready to board her shuttle, "Senator Amidala, you have a package."
Padme turned to the guard, confused. "What is it?"
"A gift, Miss, some children came by earlier and asked that you get it."
"What children?" Padme asked as she took the box and noted its light weight.
"I don't know, Senator, I changed shift with the guard who took it initially. He gave me orders to tell you they merely asked that you accept it on behalf of all the children in the system."
"Oh, how nice." After the week she'd had, starting with the disappointing diagnosis, this was a pick-me-up Padme wasn't even aware she needed, but she felt like her heart had lightened at this revelation. "Thank you very much."
"You're welcome, Senator, I hope you and your husband have a happy Life Day."
"Thank you, you too."
Outside the sun was starting to go down, the waning natural light made the would-be nursery dark, matching Anakin's mood perfectly as he stood there with his forehead pressed against the wall. He had truly hoped that by Life Day they would have a child, or at least that Padme would be with child. He hoped that next year things would be different, but he reminded himself that he'd told himself the exact same thing last year, and the year before that, and the year before that.
His conversation with Palpatine replayed itself in his mind. He knew that Palpatine didn't do anything without a catch, a string attached somewhere so to speak, but he couldn't help wondering if what the chancellor had said was true. If somehow, the Dark side could help them where everything else had failed.
He heard the shuttle before he saw it. Padme had returned home, safe, sound, and now he had to figure out what to do. He never knew after they got the medic reports if he should suggest they try again, or when, he wasn't an expert when it came to how women's minds worked and he never wanted to say the wrong thing and come off as insensitive to what his wife was going through. After all if they did have a child, she was the one who had to carry it, she was the one who would have to monitor any abnormal symptoms, she was the one who would have to be put in the med bay for the delivery, and recovery. He only understood his own side in this, which was very lacking by comparison.
Anakin headed outside to meet his wife. As soon as she was off the shuttle she ran over to him and wrapped her arms around him.
"You're home," were the first words he could actually think to say.
"How have things been here?" she asked.
"Oh...Chancellor Palpatine's been..." Anakin made a gesture that was enough said to get the point across.
"I don't trust him, Anakin."
"I know, I don't either. He wants something from me, but for the life of me I can't figure out what," he replied as they pulled away.
"Then why do you continue to help him?" Padme wanted to know.
"I'm obligated to him, you know that," he responded, "besides, I figure if I stick around long enough, I'll be able to figure out what his plan is, and I'd rather it be me than someone he actually can manipulate."
"Just be careful, Anakin," Padme said as they walked up to the house, "we don't know what he's truly capable of."
"I'm not sure he does either," the Jedi remarked.
They'd just gotten in the front door when Anakin felt something...he wasn't sure how to describe it. Not a disturbance in the Force, but something that should not be there.
"Did someone come back with you?" he asked and turned back.
All he saw though was one of the droids carrying a box as it stiffly walked up to the door.
"I beg your pardon, Senator," it said, "but this was left in the shuttle."
"Oh I forgot about that, thank you," she said as she took the package.
Anakin felt the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. Whatever was in the box was where the presence was emanating from.
"Padme, what is that?"
"Oh, some of the local children brought a gift to the senate building, I haven't even gotten around to opening it yet," she explained.
Anakin's mind was racing, trying to figure out a plausible explanation for whatever was coming from inside the box, but he couldn't think of anything. Padme not having the Force, she was clearly unaware of what he was experiencing.
"Put it on the table, and let me open it," he said.
She laughed, "What?"
"Padme...whatever's in there...I can sense it...it must be alive whatever it is."
"Oh really, Anakin..."
"I'm serious," and she could see he was.
Padme clearly didn't get it, but she put the box down on the table and took a step back. Anakin had one hand on the hilt of his light saber, ready to take it out, activate it and bisect whatever it was if need be, with the other he grabbed Padme by the arm and nudged her behind him incase whatever it was attacked. He used the Force to untie the knotted twine, then reached out with his free hand and knocked the lid off the box, but stayed where he was and waited to see what happened. When nothing did, he took a step closer and looked in the box.
"What the...?"
Padme looked as well, and she couldn't believe it.
Inside the box was a cloth doll, a boy, two feet long with gold curly locks, shining blue eyes, a threaded smile, wearing a white tunic and pants and boots. Obviously its creator had put a lot of time and effort into it.
Anakin couldn't figure it out. No presence should be coming from an inanimate object like a doll.
Padme didn't even try to figure it out.
"Oh, it's beautiful," she proclaimed as she picked it up out of the box and looked at it.
They both got a better look at it now, and the timing for the whole thing was just unbelievable. It looked, Anakin knew, like what they had often envisioned their own son would look like, when...if they ever had one. Their son, who they so badly wanted to have, who they would love so much.
Bonded through the Force or not, in that moment each seemed fully capable of knowing just what the other was thinking. Anakin reached over and took Padme's free hand in his and gently squeezed it, creating a physical bond between the three of them.
A small contented sigh was the only sound in the room.
"Did you say something?" both turned to the other and asked, before they realized the answer.
Padme's eyes widened as her palm started to feel like it was burning.
"Anakin, the doll's getting warm!" In a panic, she dropped it on the table.
Anakin pulled her behind him, with no idea what was going on but whatever it was, he was going to protect his wife from it.
Suddenly, the doll was engulfed by a bright light. Anakin and Padme both shielded their eyes, a few seconds later the light disappeared, and both felt their jaws drop.
Lying on the table was no longer a doll, but a young boy. He had to be nine years old, if even that much, with blonde wavy curls, dressed in the same white clothes the doll had on, and when he opened his eyes, they shone a bright blue.
Anakin felt his mind go literally blank. This couldn't possibly be happening, it couldn't be real. It had to be some kind of trick. It had to, but how...
"Anakin," Padme said in disbelief.
"I know," he responded, neither of them able to take their eyes off the child.
The boy blinked his eyes a couple of times and balled up his hands to rub them, then he put his hands on the table and pushed himself to sit up. He looked at the two people standing in front of him and asked in a voice that was inquisitive and eager, "Are you my mother and father?"
Anakin's eyes moved rapidly, scanning the entire surrounding area, looking for some answer, some explanation, and finding none. The doll was gone. His mind couldn't accept what he knew he was seeing. It was too impossible to be true, but he could come up with no alternative explanation. The doll had become this boy, had become...he truly couldn't believe it, the boy even had their features, it was impossible, but it was true, it had to be.
"What's your name?" Padme asked the blonde child.
The boy shrugged his shoulders and pursed his lips together, "I haven't got one."
Padme pressed the tips of her fingers against her lips as she also struggled to comprehend what was taking place just now. She took a step towards the boy, Anakin reached for her but she shrugged his hand off. She bent her knees so she could look the child in the eyes and she asked him, "Would...you like us to be your parents?"
In answer, the blonde boy smiled so innocently and so brightly he seemed to light up the whole room.
Anakin stepped towards both of them, he and Padme exchanged a look, silently contemplating the possibility this could be some kind of test. Everything had fallen together so perfectly, too perfectly, he wasn't sure either of them actually dare think too far ahead, for fear this golden opportunity would be taken away from them.
"Your name," Padme told the boy, "is Luke. Luke Skywalker."
The name they had decided on years ago when they first started trying to have a child.
The boy appeared largely unfazed by this revelation except to nonchalantly respond, "Okay."
A single laugh escaped Anakin. It was just that simple. He picked the boy up from the table and held him against him, felt a real human, flesh and bone body, against him. He laughed again, and the boy laughed in return. Then his eyes widened as something else occurred to him and he exclaimed, "Holy banthas."
"What's wrong, Anakin?" Padme turned to him.
"We never even got the nursery ready," he answered, "now we need to get a bed and clothes and..."
Anakin was jolted out of sleep by the incessant sensation of little feet and knees jabbing him in his side. He opened his eyes and in the darkened room he was able to see Padme over on the other side of the bed, and their new son sleeping between them as Luke tossed and turned in his sleep.
Padme was awake, she turned her head to the side and smiled at her husband. Anakin tried to inch his way closer to her and whispered, "I knew we had this coming but I always thought we'd have a few years to get ready for it."
She laughed silently, then she whispered in response, "It's wonderful, isn't it?"
He nodded. Finally, after seven long years, they had their family now. He still didn't understand it, but he decided he didn't care. Their son was finally here, and he was perfect.
Tomorrow they were going to get started on Luke's room, in the meantime he was going to have to sleep in their bed with them, and the fact he'd likely be black and blue the next morning aside, where Anakin was concerned, it was the greatest experience in the galaxy. He was finally a father.