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A/N: Before I start, I'd like to say thank you for the overwhelming positive reaction to the oneshots I posted before this. Like, wow. Thanks guys, thank you so much. I smile so hard every time I think about it my face hurts. This is going to be my first chaptered fic in almost a year, and I'm really excited about it, especially since it's post TCW series finale and concerns Anakin and Ahsoka. But enough small talk… without further adieu, allow me to present the first chapter of Once a Jedi!

The first and only thing Ahsoka Tano became conscious of as she awoke was the pain in her chest. Though the edge was taken off—with what she knew were military grade painkillers—it was still overwhelming, making her head pound. Slowly, she opened her eyes. She closed them back almost instantly, and then opened them again just slightly, squinting through her thick eyelashes.

A medical center… I'm in a medical center…

The white walls and floor reflected the florescent lights blindingly, covering the room in what, to her, seemed like death—a bright white haze. Except for one, shadowy corner that a chair was crammed into with a person sitting on it, dozing—a person she'd never thought she'd see again in her life:

Anakin Skywalker.

Her barely stifled gasp startled him out of his sleep, and he quickly sat up, surveying the room and rubbing at his blue eyes.

"Oh, you're awake," he murmured tiredly, relaxing back into the chair. Immediately, he stiffened. "You're awake." He got to his feet and began to pace the small room. "That was a stupid move, Sni… Miss Tano. You should have waited for me and the clones to arrive, not charged into an entire battalion of droids, unarmed. According to the med droid, two inches to the right and you would have gotten shot in the heart."

Ahsoka blinked, trying to make sense of what he was saying. Her brain was processing things at an annoyingly slow pace, thanks to the painkillers.

"Oh, that," she muttered, mildly surprised by how weak her voice sounded. She moved to Christophsis a little over two months ago—with some help from Padmè Amidala—soon after leaving the Jedi Order. The planet finally just finished rebuilding from the first Battle of Christophsis, and even though it held memories—painful memories—it wasn't often bothered by the Clone War or frequented by Jedi.

It was the perfect escape from her old life.

Well, that's what I thought.

She glanced down at the thick white gauze poking through the neck of her hospital gown. It was almost a visual confirmation she couldn't hide from the Order or the War. Trust both to show up in the form of a man not much older than Anakin pounding on her door at five in the morning, yelling about battle droids and telling her to run.

And trust her to do the exact opposite.

Ahsoka started to sit up, but she stayed put when a wave of nausea washed over her. "…don't you have more important things to do than yell at me?" she asked quietly, closing her eyes. "It's not exactly your job anymore."

She and Anakin hadn't even been reunited for ten minutes and the Jedi Knight didn't so much as say hello before chewing her out. Like this was some sort of almost failed mission, she was still his padawan and he had the right to scold her for going into a situation she'd made a conscious choice to enter—with the complete knowledge that unarmed and out of practice, she might not survive. Whatever time warp Anakin's mind was in, he needed to get it out of there.

Anakin said nothing in reply to her words, instead turning to the cold, empty void of space outside of the windows. He sighed, and then faced her again. "Ahsoka, look—"

Beep.

Anakin turned a cold glare down at his comlink, but answered the call anyway. "…Skywalker here."

"The Jedi Council requests your presence, General." The clone's voice was distorted by the com's speakers. "The transmission is live, not prerecorded."

"Tell them I'll be right there." Anakin cut the signal. He looked up at Ahsoka again, an almost apologetic look on his face. "I'll be back."

Ahsoka didn't bother to acknowledge this, simply watching him leave. Her eyes darted to the window he'd stood in front of, and she took in the stars. Mere months ago, her mind would have raced, trying to guess which ones were actually planets and if she'd ever get to see them all.

But now… she just wanted to go home, to Christophsis. And get as far away from the Jedi Order as possible.

Anakin marched through the halls of the medical center, hands held tightly behind his back and his nose filled with the smell of antiseptic. Its bitter scent seemed fitting, considering how in a mere forty-eight hours his life had been shaken out of the agonizing but needed order he'd managed to attain in Ahsoka's absence.

Clones didn't even bother to salute when he passed, hurriedly shuffling aside to let him through. They knew the look on his face. It meant General Skywalker was on the warpath, and anyone who got in the way was as good as dead.

Anakin hadn't known what to think when Rex had called him to the side after the battle, saying there was something he should see and avoiding his eyes. But he should have guessed. Christophsis had always proved to be a pivotal place for him and Ahsoka.

He just hadn't expected to enter the tent the medics had set up to see her with a hole in her chest, half dead. The clones who were present debriefed him on everything—Ahsoka rushing to their aid, refusing to abandon the fight even though she was unarmed and there wasn't a blaster to spare, Force crushing droids left and right, one battle droid getting in a lucky shot…

The med droid's words still haunted him: "Two inches to the right and all her vital functions would have ceased."

Two inches, one for every year she had been his apprentice.

"It's not exactly your job anymore."

Ahsoka was right. It wasn't his job to go out of his mind over her anymore. But it had been his job once, and so far no one else stepped up to the task. Or, frankly, proven they were capable—and, if such a thing existed, worthy—of it.

Maybe, if he fooled himself, he could let pretend he did have more important things to do than look after Ahsoka, if only to give her some peace… but reporting to the Jedi Council sure as the living, breathing Force was not one of those things.

"Masters," he said, bowing as he entered the comm room and found flickering blue holograms of Yoda, Mace Windu, Plo Koon and Obi-Wan waiting for him. "You asked to see me?"

"True it is that Former Padawan Tano has been located?" Yoda didn't waste time, and Anakin knew by the troubled looks Plo and Obi-Wan traded they thought the words Former Padawan Tano might set him off.

"…yes, on Christophsis. She was injured while defending fellow civilians from droids. Nothing too severe, just a bad blaster wound. She should make a quick recovery." Anakin crossed his arms. Why was the Council so interested in Ahsoka—she was merely a civilian on record, and sans Obi-Wan they didn't exactly have a history of treating her right.

Mace Windu stepped forward. "In light of past events, Skywalker, the Council has decided to allow Tano to stay in the Temple med bay until she recovers from her injuries, so that she may receive the best care possible."

Anakin nearly burst out laughing. If he was Ahsoka, he wouldn't have even wanted to lay eyes on the Jedi Temple, much less step inside of it while he was at his most vulnerable. After all the stunts they pulled, the Council just expected her to forgive and forget? They had to be on deathsticks—strong ones, at that. "Are you… sure, Masters, that Ahsoka will be open to this? I, by law, can't move her out of this medical center without her consent unless her life is in danger. And to be fair, she's tired and on painkillers."

"True," Obi-Wan cut in, breaking his silence. "Her judgment could be clouded. We do not need her making a choice she'll regret later."

Anakin resisted the urge to glare at his former Master. Ahsoka's judgment wasn't clouded, especially not because of some cheap Republic meds. She was exercising better judgment than all of them by simply staying far, far away from the Order.

He wondered if her even knowing he was on this medical station was a good thing. Perhaps he should have left well enough alone and made her room some sort of restricted zone for him and any clones she knew. Ahsoka pushed the Jedi and the War out of her life for a reason—it wasn't his choice to bring either of them back into it, no matter how many droids she got rid of.

Plo Koon nodded in agreement with Obi-Wan. "Even presenting her with this choice could cause unnecessary stress. But a decision has to be made, and only by her. The Council has little to no bearing on her life now."

Anakin hoped he imagined it, but Plo's voice sounded a little sad at the end.

"Matters to attend to, the Council has, but await an answer from Former Padawan Tano, we do." Yoda inclined his head. "The Force, be with you it may, Skywalker."

"And with you, Masters." Anakin nodded as the holograms dissipated, turning and leaving the room. As he moved back into the main part of the bridge the clones shot each other alarmed looks, but then relaxed when they saw the purposely calm expression he had forced his face to take on.

They, like almost everyone else, overestimated his ability to brush off things the Council did—things that drove a part, if not all of him, insane.

Original version posted 3.28.13

Current version posted 10.1.13