Obi-Wan was beyond relieved when Olivia was rescued after being in the clutches of Darth Maul, Savage Oppress, and perhaps even worse... Mariverde.
Knowing Mariverde posed a threat to the galaxy, and not just Enchanted members, Obi-Wan became more determined to protect his daughter than ever. He told the guards to double up on security around the nursery, double the guards, and he even told Peppermint she needed to brush up on martial arts and protection spells so she could aid in protecting his baby girl.
There was a lot of damage done to the nursery caused by the attack right before Olivia was kidnapped. So, Obi-Wan saw fit to take Olivia off of Mandalore for a while, at least until the damage was repaired.
Satine was hesitant to be away from her baby, so naturally she went with her husband, and he chose a place they could stay. One place Obi-Wan knew no Sith would dare come to: the Jedi Temple.
Olivia lay in her pram as her parents walked into Obi-Wan's apartment at the Temple. It was just as well that they'd go there too. Olivia had never been to the temple before, and Obi-Wan decided it was time
"See, Olivia? This is the Jedi Temple." Obi-Wan said, looking into the pram. "This is where I grew up."
Olivia just looked around, sucking on her pacifier.
Obi-Wan brought his family into the apartment, where a crib was already set up in the bedroom.
Satine held the baby and started to feed her while Obi-Wan set the crib up with some blankets and baby toys.
"There we are. Everything our Olivia needs for a perfect crib." Obi-Wan smiled.
"It looks wonderful, Darling." Satine said, burping the baby.
Just then a knock came at the door.
"I'll get it, Satine." Obi-Wan said. He pet Olivia's hair. "You be good for Mommy while Daddy answers the door, okay, Olivia?"
Obi-Wan went to answer the door and saw that Master Windu's kids had come over.
"Hello, Master Kenobi," greeted Myra.
"Hello, Myra. Kade. What a pleasant surprise." Obi-Wan said. "What brings you over?"
"Kade wanted to say hi to the baby." Myra said.
"I thought you were the one who wanted to see the baby," said Kade, looking up at his sister.
"Kade!"
Obi-Wan chuckled and said, "Well, you both came at a good time. Olivia is awake. Come on in."
Obi-Wan let the children in and brought them in as Satine was just finishing changing the baby's diaper.
"There we are, sweet Olivia." Satine smiled, buttoning up Olivia's onesie.
Olivia cooed and kicked her little feet. Satine picked her up and kissed her little face.
"Satine. We have visitors." Obi-Wan said.
Satine greeted Kade and Myra.
"Say hello, Olivia." Satine cooed.
"She's so cute!" Myra smiled. "Hi, there."
Myra let the baby grip her finger.
"She's so little." Kade said.
"Indeed she is," said Satine. "Most babies are very little."
"It's true. You were this small once too." Myra said. She looked at Olivia and giggled as the baby started cooing at her. "Can I hold her?"
"If you're very careful."
"Hey, I've held Kade loads of times. I can handle it." Myra said, sitting down.
Satine carefully passed Olivia into Myra's arms.
"Hi, Olivia." Myra cooed. "I'm Myra. You know, you're really lucky. You've got a mom and a dad who obviously love you. Things are a little crazy right now, but I'm pretty sure your upbringing won't be boring."
Kade looked curiously at Olivia. He hadn't been around many babies in his life, and being the youngest in his family didn't really teach him much about how to be around babies or what they needed.
"You seem curious, Kade. Have you ever met a baby before?" Obi-Wan asked.
Kade shook his head.
"Nuh-uh. I don't know a lot about babies." Kade said.
"Well, there's a lot to know about them." Myra said. "They're cute, but they're also not toys. You gotta be very careful with a baby. You were a baby once, Kade. I got a lot of practice with you."
"I don't remember being a baby."
"No one really can, but we all were babies once. You were, like Myra said. And she was a baby once too. So were your parents, myself, Satine, even your grandparents started out as infants, like little Olivia here. Even Master Yoda was a baby at one point, but much longer than before all the Jedi combined were born."
Kade found that hard to believe though. So, Obi-Wan decided to take out an old holo-scrapbook he had been putting together. With Olivia's arrival, he saw fit to make this one an album of pictures featuring everyone they knew when they were babies.
"Take a look, Kade. These are some pictures of some of my friends when they were babies."
Kade couldn't believe some of the baby pictures in the album. Obi-Wan was so cute as a baby too. He almost looked exactly like Olivia did now.
"If it weren't for the slight difference in eye color and boy clothes," said Myra. "I would probably think that was a picture of Olivia."
"You do resemble your father quite a bit, don't you, Olivia?" Satine cooed.
"You were so cute, Obi-Wan." Myra laughed, looking at some of the pictures.
In one of those pictures, baby Obi-Wan made a mess of himself as a younger Qui-Gon was feeding him what looked like mashed bananas. Myra couldn't help laughing at how adorable and messy Obi-Wan used to be.
"And a very messy eater, by the look of this picture." Satine chuckled, making Obi-Wan blush.
"Well, Myra, here's someone you might recognize." Obi-Wan said.
And Obi-Wan pulled up a few pictures of another baby boy. This one, however, had dark skin and a little tuft of curly black hair.
"Hold up! Is that... my dad?"
"Yes. And from what I've heard, he wasn't always the very serious man you may know."
And it was true. Myra couldn't help laughing seeing pictures of her father as a baby, playing with his feet, chewing on a rubber ducky in the bathtub, or sleeping in his bassinet.
It was hard to believe the cuteness of any Jedi Masters featured in the scrapbook. Aayla Secura, Ki-Adi Mundi, Kit Fisto, even Qui-Gon Jinn. All of them were so adorable as babies and little kids, and they definitely behaved a lot differently back then than they did now.
Olivia started to babble and move around.
"What is it, Olivia?" Satine cooed. Olivia just seemed to get a little restless. "Do you want to go for a walk again?"
Olivia seemed to calm down as she was placed into a stroller. But, Satine was tired, so Obi-Wan volunteered to take Olivia around the Temple.
Kade decided to come along too, still curious about babies.
The moment Obi-Wan walked out of the apartment, however, he was immediately bombarded with Jedi and workers who wanted to see the baby in the stroller.
"Hello, Princess Olivia." Master Plo cooed, letting the baby grip his finger. He chuckled as the baby looked very curious.
"Would you look at her?" Aayla smiled.
"Isn't she just precious?!" Jocasta practically squealed when Obi-Wan brought the baby to the library to find a book for her.
As he sat down to listen to Obi-Wan read a book to help Olivia fall asleep, Kade was a little confused about how the grownups were acting. Sure, he thought Olivia was cute too, but he didn't get the big deal.
"Obi-Wan? Why do grownups act weird when they see babies?"
"Weird?" said Obi-Wan. "How so?"
"Uh... you didn't see everyone squealing and acting gaga just now?" Kade said. "aww, Olivia, you're so cute! They were acting like my grandma whenever she sees me."
Obi-Wan laughed. Naturally, Kade's lack of experience with babies had something to do with why he didn't understand how the grownups were acting. But, he might understand better if he spent a little more time with a baby.
Olivia was taken to the nursery where there were a few other Jedi younglings, including some of Anakin's children, playing with toys or reading books.
Obi-Wan pushed Olivia's pram into the room while Kade went to start playing with the other kids.
"Did you guys hear?" Kade said. "Master Obi-Wan brought his baby to the Temple and the grownups are acting weird now."
"I'm excited Olivia's here." Gabby said. "Uncle Obi-Wan isn't around as much ever since he got married."
"Well, he is technically a leader to Mandalore too." Lamenta said. "It's not exactly easy to balance being a public figure and a parent. Watching my parents, I should know."
"I don't get it. Why is everyone so crazy about babies?" Kade asked.
"How can we not be crazy about them?" Gabby said. "Babies are so cute, and they can be fun."
"But don't cry a lot and stink when they need a change? I see that on TV a lot."
"Have you ever actually met a baby before Olivia?"
"No."
Gabby took Kade's hand and took him to the play pen where Luke and Leia were crawling around, well trying to anyway, among a few other babies.
"Having a baby around is actually pretty great." Gabby said. "Being a big sister or big brother means you get to teach a new baby all kinds of things."
Luke looked up at Gabby and she picked him up.
"Hey, Luke. Let's show Kade what we learned."
Gabby lifted up her hand, palm facing Luke.
"High five, Luke."
Luke didn't do anything at first, looking curiously at Kade.
"High five." Gabby repeated, and this time, Luke placed his little hand on Gabby's. "Yes! That's right, Luke. I taught him that. And Leia too."
"Can they do anything else?"
"Well, no. They can't do much now since they're only babies. Most babies can't do much. Not every baby is advanced for their age like my dad and I were. Even I couldn't quite do everything as a baby. That's why they need us to help them and teach them."
"Hmm... did your big brother and sister teach you things like that too?"
"Well, no. Remember, the twins in my generation of the family were adopted. I didn't meet Boba until I was two, and then he got adopted a few months later, and Omega didn't get adopted until last year. But, they did both still teach me things like older siblings do."
It was true. Boba had more time to teach Gabby things than Omega, but both of them taught her how to do a lot things since she was very small. Boba helped Gabby when she was learning to read and count, how to be on target, and he even showed her some martial arts he'd learned in his bounty hunter training so she could defend herself. When Omega came around, she taught Gabby all kinds of first aid procedures she knew, and even gave Gabby a few lessons on strategy, which helped her beat Qui-Gon three times in a row at a game of checkers.
Kade thought Gabby was lucky to have been taught lots of useful skills by her older siblings. He thought about Myra then. Since before he could remember, Myra taught him lots of skills too, like how to play guitar. She'd even given him her old ukulele when he began to get interested in playing guitar so he could practice. But music wasn't all Myra was good at.
Myra had always been good at school, so naturally when Kade was having trouble with his spelling and math, his big sister was there to help him out. And Myra was persistent; she didn't give up, no matter how much her brother struggled to understand the math problem. But, he was also curious about Lamenta; currently she was an only child, soon-to-be big sister.
"Lamenta, you're an only child, right?" Kade said.
"Only for a few more months, then there's gonna be another baby in the palace." Lamenta said. "I have a little experience with my baby cousins, and I used to play with Lammy like she was my baby all the time when I was a little younger."
Kade felt a lot of things regarding all this fuss about babies.
"You're not worried about how things'll change?" Kade said.
Lamenta didn't need to use her truth magic to see that something was bothering Kade besides the fact that he didn't know much about babies.
"Kade... Is something on your mind?" Lamenta asked.
"Why do you ask?"
"Well, I was curious about babies like you once too, and I felt unsure, but I kinda get the sense you're worried about things changing."
Kade just sat and didn't say much.
"Kade, you can always talk to us. We're your friends."
But, Kade wasn't so sure another kid would understand how he was feeling. Or even a grownup.
Obi-Wan picked Olivia up from her pram and started introducing her to some of the other children.
"She's so cute!" Ahsoka said, taking a turn to hold Olivia. "Cootchie coo."
Olivia cooed at Ahsoka, making the Togruta smile. Ahsoka had a feeling this was similar to what she might feel when she would meet her future little brother for the first time. Except, her new brother wasn't going to be a baby when she met him.
Ahsoka had looked after Gabby loads of times since she was two. She remembered how little and cute the human girl was; it was amazing how fast babies grew. Olivia was so little now, but she wouldn't be forever.
"You're very good with her, Ahsoka." Obi-Wan smiled. "Your little brother will be lucky to have you watching over him."
"Except he's eight years old. I doubt he's gonna need me to change him."
Obi-Wan chuckled and said, "True, but chances are he will still need you to teach him things. That is a big part of being an older brother or sister."
"I wish I had a baby sister." Ganodi said, looking at Olivia. "Can I hold her?"
Obi-Wan gave the okay, and Ahsoka guided the young Rodian how to hold her properly. And then Olivia started drooling.
"Uh oh!" Ganodi gasped.
"Not to worry." Obi-Wan took a soft burp cloth and gently cleaned Olivia's little mouth. "With babies, there are bound to be a few messes."
And then Olivia started crying.
Kade peeked into the room and watched as Obi-Wan was tending to the little baby to settle her crying.
Obi-Wan got the sense that something was on Kade's mind. He decided he needed to speak with him.
As Kade was trying to sneak away, Obi-Wan stopped him.
"Kade, a word?" said the Jedi Master.
Obi-Wan had Kade sit down in his apartment.
"Did I do something bad?" Kade asked.
"No, Kade. But I do sense you seem troubled." Obi-Wan said. "I've noticed you have been curious since I brought Olivia over, but I can sense you seem worried too. Would you care to tell me why?"
Kade looked down. He was kind of a shy kid. For as long as he could remember, he'd always felt different. He never had a chance to really know his dad; ithad just been him with his mom and his sister his whole life. Everyone else was taking care of him, and he'd never had to take care of anyone before. But now, his mom was getting married... to Myra's long-lost dad. It wasn't that he didn't get along with him, but he worried about what would happen after the wedding.
"Do you think my mom and Master Windu will have another baby after they're married?" Kade asked.
"Oh... is that what you're worried about?" Obi-Wan asked.
"And if they have a baby of their own, what if they don't want me?"
"Now, why would you think that?"
"Well... I'm only a half-brother to Myra, really. We have the same mommy, but not the same daddy. But Myra has her real mom and her real dad now. And if they have another baby, I'll still be the only kid who doesn't have a dad."
Kade started to cry as he thought of that happening.
"Kade, Kade... even if your parents do have a baby, them loving you any less than they do now... that is never going to happen."
"How do you know?"
"I know because good parents never love one child over the others, adopted or biological. I've known Master Windu for a long time. While he may be a little rough around the edges at first glance, he has a good heart. And while he may not be biologically related to you as he is to your sister, he does care for you as his own. You don't have to be related to be a family."
"We don't?"
"No. Just look at Boba and Omega. They're biologically related to each other and their brothers in the Bad Batch, but Anakin and Padme adopted both of them into their family. And they love both of them as their own. Boba knew his biological father, but he still loves Anakin as a father too. So, you could say he sort of has two fathers he loves, the way Carmine has two mothers. Ms. Susy isn't even the same species as him, but she looked after Carmine and loved him as her own when every foster family who ever took him in only saw him as free money. And no matter how much Carmine grew up, he and Ms. Susy have a strong bond any mother and son can have if they only put in the effort. Just as he now holds with Shmi as well."
Kade looked down again and thought about what Obi-Wan was saying, but he still felt unsure.
"You know, Kade. I didn't know my father either. Or my mother. I came to the Temple as an infant and lived under the old code where the Jedi Order became my family."
"But... who taught you how to do everything? Did you have to figure out everything by yourself?"
"Well, no. We did have the caretaker droids in the nursery. But, there were at least a few Jedi who acted more like parents than the old Jedi Masters I knew then. And I grew close with one of them."
"You did? Who was it?"
"Master Qui-Gon. He always had this natural gift with children, and he took care of me as though I were his own child. And now I know why he had such wondrous fatherly instincts. Now he's been making up for lost time with his children and his grandchildren. But when Anakin first came around, I felt jealous that my master would love him more than I. But, he didn't. And when I took on the role of raising and taking care of Anakin as my little brother, it wasn't easy at first, but over time, Anakin did grow and become more independent. And if your parents ever do have another baby, they'll need your help the way your mother needed Myra's help to take care of you."
"But what if I can't do it?"
"I'm sure your parents would be happy to teach you. Even after babies learn to walk and talk, there is always so much more they can learn as they grow. You're young now, Kade, but someday you'll grow to be as big as your sister, and one day a full grown man."
Olivia cooed again, prompting Kade to look at her and how cute she was.
"Perhaps I can teach you your first lesson about babies." Obi-Wan said. "Would you like to hold Olivia?"
Kade seemed a little scared at first.
"What if I drop her?"
"You won't if you hold her properly. Just hold your arms out and I'll guide you. Be firm, but gentle."
Obi-Wan carefully placed Olivia into Kade's arms and guided him how to hold the baby girl.
"Always hold under a baby's head." said Obi-Wan. "Good, Kade!"
Satine walked in after prepping another bottle for Olivia.
"How is our little one doing?" asked the duchess.
"She's doing well in Kade's hands." Obi-Wan smiled.
Kade seemed a little less nervous as he looked at Olivia in his arms, and Olivia started to suck on Kade's finger.
"Ew! Gross!" Kade whined, trying to pull his finger out from the baby's mouth. "She's trying to eat my finger."
"Olivia is just a baby," chuckled Satine. "She doesn't know any better. Besides, it is likely that she is hungry. Would you like to help feed her?"
Myra soon came into the room, looking for her brother, when she saw an adorable sight. Kade was holding Olivia and feeding her a bottle. She couldn't help feeling impressed by how good Kade turned out to be with the baby, and Obi-Wan found it very sweet that he was able to teach Kade about babies and help him feel better about how his own family was about to change. Becoming a father was a big change for him, and it was for everyone else too.
Satine took Olivia when she was finished with her milk and started burping her.
"You're very good with babies, Kade." said Satine. And Olivia burped. "And I think Olivia agrees."
"I think she just burped." Kade said.
The grownups both laughed. One thing that would never change: no matter how big the kids got, they were always babies to their parents, their godparents, and honorary aunts and uncles.