"Okay, there we go," Birka Mars said, finishing with her keypad and pushing it away. "Piece finished."

Her boss looked at her.

"What?" Birka asked. "Like I said. Piece. Finished."

"Is it properly finished, this time?" Hemarr said. "You remember what happened last time we ran a story you hadn't finished."

"I'd finished the writing," Birka defended herself. "I just hadn't got all the sources quite lined up. And it was true anyway, right?"

Hemarr rubbed his temples.

"Yes, eventually," he said. "After a five month court case and a visit from the Coruscant Guard. We've been over this, Birka – your gossip pieces earn you big bucks but they have to be weighed against the risks."

"Right, right, I get the point," Birka muttered. "Okay, okay. So send it over to Legal. What kind of issues could there be, anyway?"

Hemarr opened up the file on his own datapad, and scrolled through it.

"Senator Amidala's baby bump," he said. "Well, at least you're not accusing anyone of… you didn't, did you?"

"Not at all," Birka said. "I made sure I only ever insinuated without ever actually asserting."

"It'll probably do," Hemarr muttered, scanning down the page. "Experts say… they did, right?"

"Geetwo said there was a ninety-four percent probability," Birka replied. "And he is an expert, he's got the programming for it."

"That droid needs recalibrating," Hemarr said. "But his ninety-four is probably good enough for us to be covered… all right, there's only one thing you missed for us to be sure."

"I thought I caught everything," Birka protested.

"Almost," Hemarr replied. "But you said 'out of wedlock'. That's an actionable claim."

"Oh, come on!" Birka said. "Senator Amidala isn't married."

"Then make sure we can prove it," Hemarr told her. "Look, I know gossip pieces are time sensitive, but but they're not that time sensitive. Go to Naboo, confirm it, get some interviews with her family and we can roll them in as soundbites if they're particularly good."

Birka Mars was still smarting two days later.

"Really," she muttered, flicking through paper files of all things. "Naboo could do with being a damn sight more… up to date. Let's see… Amaryllis… Amecorian… Amidala, let's do an exhaustive check…"

Her grumbles trailed off, as she held the one document with that name on it up to the light.

Then checked again.

"Padme Amidala, daughter of Ruwee and Jobal Naberrie," she said, frowning. "That checks… Naberrie is her birth name, since Amidala is a regnal name. But…"

Birka put the paper down, slowly and reverently.

"Oh," she said, and hugged herself. "This is… this is so much better! I have an article to rewrite!"

Some days later, two matched Jedi Starfighters landed on one of the temple landing pads.

Anakin was out first, and he jogged over to Obi-Wan's starfighter as the cockpit opened.

"So?" he asked. "Willing to accept that you're actually an all right pilot, yet?"

"Believe it or not, Anakin, I can accept that I'm reasonable at something without at any point deciding that I like it," Obi-Wan replied, with a sigh. "Which is where I currently sit with regard to flying a spaceship. It's not something I get on with well."

He lifted himself out of the seat, and clambered down. "Well… now we need to report in."

"Yeah, that's true," Anakin conceded. "What do we know, anyway?"

"We know – for sure – that the Sith were involved with the clones," Obi-Wan said. "That's useful and potentially vital information, for the Republic and for the war. But we still have questions."

He shook his head. "And it may be that sharing this information will simply lead the Senate to dislike the clones, or… we don't know, that's the truth of it."

Then he looked up, as someone came running up – Bant Eerin, a Mon Cal Jedi who was one of his oldest friends.

"Bant!" he said. "It's nice to see you!"

"It's nice to see you, too, Obi," Ban replied, but her attention was mostly on Anakin. "Is it true?"

"...is what true?" Anakin asked. "We fought Dooku, but he got away."

"You did what?" Bant said, then shook her head. "No – not that, I mean… you know!"

"I'm afraid he doesn't," Obi-Wan noted. "And nor do I, I fear. We've been out of touch recently."

"Oh, yeah, the mission you were on," Bant realized. "Oba Diah, right? I guess it must have been serious – but – are you really married to Senator Amidala?"

Anakin froze. Completely.

Obi-Wan shot a sideways glance at his former Padawan, and decided that his good friend's brain was probably in the process of trying unsuccessfully to recover from a boot loop.

"...people are asking about that?" Obi-Wan asked. "I assume they must be, if you assumed that we must have heard it."

"There was this gossip column that published a scoop thirty hours ago," Bant explained. "Said that they'd analyzed the Senator and found she was pregnant, and that she'd been married to Skywalker a couple of years ago."

"But – what?" Anakin said, finally breaking out of his paralysis. "I – it was a secret marriage!"

"Yeah, they said it was filed as paperwork of all things," Bant said, with a laugh. "Guess Naboo really is old fashioned about some things, right?"

"There was paperwork?" Anakin asked. "But… secret. Marriage…? Secret?"

"You know, Anakin, perhaps it would help to meditate on what a marriage actually is?" Obi-Wan suggested. "It's a legal contract. That's what separates it from having a girlfriend, after all – in many ways a marriage without a legal contract simply doesn't exist. So the contract has to be there if someone looks for it."

He folded his arms. "No, Anakin, I'm very disappointed in you. Because the other thing about a marriage is that it's meant to involve your closest friends. If you were going to elope you could at least have told me about it – I've had the robes to wear as your best man picked out for two years now."

Anakin turned utterly frazzled eyes on Obi-Wan.

"You knew!?" he asked.

"Anakin, when you came into the arena you were kissing," Obi-Wan said. "I assumed she was your girlfriend, and that you were going to get married and quit the Order when the war was over. The Code forbids marriage, because it's a formal statement that you prioritize the other person over the Jedi Order and the Code respects that, but it merely looks down on love."

"I'll take that as a yes, shall I?" Bant asked. "Also, uh. Fair warning? Don't leave the temple, or you'll get swarmed by reporters."

AN:

Marriage is a legal contract, after all.