Here it is at last, the final chapter! I wanted to thank you all for continuing to follow, favorite, and review this story as well as being patient with me as I, unfortunately, allowed life and writer's block to get the better of me for far too long.

To those who reviewed with ideas of where to take this final chapter (as well as those who thought it could end where it was left), thank you so much for your insight and for caring enough to lend me your thoughts. This final piece was where I had wanted the story to get to from the very get go, and I knew there was more Anakin needed to face with the situation that he had created for himself before he could actually move forward, and only two people could really do that for him. So, without further ado, the final chapter!

CHAPTER 9

"Oh Master, they're so cute!"

Anakin chuckled, sitting beside his former apprentice as Ahsoka Tano, now a bright, worldly young woman threw a lekku over her right shoulder so she could cradle his nearly seven week old son closer. His sister still slept peacefully after a long and arduous night that was, unfortunately, becoming quite regular for her, but Luke was bright and cheery, granting Ahsoka a wide smile as she offered him her fingers. He managed to grip one as she waved them for him to see, bringing a bigger smile to hers and his father's faces.

"Careful, Snips, he's already got a good grip," Anakin teased. Ahsoka merely gave her former master a sidelong scowl before returning her attention to the baby in her arms.

It had taken some persuasion, but his old friend Rex had finally given Anakin the contact information he needed to make this moment possible. His final encounter with the Council had thrown his only recently healed mind into overdrive, and two days later, he realized his strong, deep desire to reconnect with his pupil. He didn't know why, but the Force led him to Rex, urging him towards Ahsoka, making him feel that he wouldn't fully feel right again until he saw her, knew she was well and thriving. Something in the pit of his stomach knew the reason why, but he refused to give the thought relevance yet. Within five days of receiving his transmission, here she was, but he was pensive, allowing her to engage with his son while he fought to admit why he had asked her to come back.

Luke grunted happily as Ahsoka shook one of his toys above him, the infant reaching up for the brown speckled plastic rattle shaped like a shaak, and though he couldn't quite squeal with laughter yet, Anakin was certain his son would be doing just that every time the toy flew just out of his reach.

"He's so happy," Ahsoka said, finally peeling her eyes away from the infant to regard Anakin. "He must get that from Padmé." She laughed at the indignant look on his face.

"Hey, I'm happy! I'm downright cheerful nowadays."

"Sure, Skyguy, sure," she shrugged, and the pair fell silent once more as Ahsoka returned her gaze to Luke.

"It's been too long, Ahsoka," he said with a faraway voice. She nodded in agreement.

"I know. I'm sorry, Anakin," she said, her voice laced with that determined tone she always adopted when she was about to reiterate something he already knew. Sighing in resignation, Ahsoka raised her eyes from Luke's smiling face to her former masters'. "But you know I had to leave. I couldn't have had any influence from you or any of the other Jedi, and…"

"I know, Ahsoka," he said calmly, cutting off any need for explanations, and Ahsoka let out a breath.

Silence reigned between them as they stared at each other, Luke looking forlornly at his shaak where Ahsoka held it absently just out of reach as Anakin gathered his thoughts. Quietly, he felt a probe against his mind, and he shored up his walls against his still impulsive, impatient friend. She was prying none to delicately, and he rolled his eyes, crossing his arms with an undignified huff. "Don't do that, Snips." She huffed right back.

"Then tell me why you asked me to come back, why you contacted me at all!" she burst. Anakin continued to avoid her direct gaze, glancing at her stubbornly from the corners of his eyes. Sensing the brewing tension, Luke's smile faded, and he stared up at the strange but loveable woman holding him apprehensively until Anakin finally sighed.

"I just wanted to see you."

"That's poodoo, and you know it."

His stare on the floor hardened at her admonishment as he stubbornly refused to look at her, and she sighed. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I'm here." Her tone unexpectedly shifted as she looked at Luke once more. "I'm so glad," she cooed to him, tickling his chubby face and neck, and he wriggled happily against her touch, "yes I am!" Anakin unclenched his jaw and allowed a small smile to crack his façade at his sons' happy noises. Ahsoka lifted her eyes. "But there's no way that you would have asked me to come back to Coruscant unless it was something big."

Anakin sighed and schooled his expression once more. Kark, she could still read him so well. He clenched his jaw as Ahsoka patiently turned her attention back to Luke, though she kept one very observant eye open for any movement he made. His mind raced as he tried to calm his nervous energy, attempting to shield his racing heart from his children and guest, while also struggling with his sudden clamped throat. Why exactly had he asked her to come? Why had the Force compelled him to seek her out if not only to see an old friend? The sinking feeling in his stomach as he pondered his lightsaber, still hanging from his leather-clad hip, useless, told him everything, and he glanced at Ahsoka, who still played quietly with Luke.

"So, how's Padmé?" It was asked with complete nonchalance and pure, genuine curiosity, but Anakin felt himself relax as his former padawan shifted her attention away from him. Lifting his head, Anakin glanced in the general direction of Padmé's home office.

"She's working to put the Senate back together," he said with a slight chuckle. "Apparently she, Bail Organa, and Senator Mothma have nominated each other to succeed Palp… Sidious." The sound of the Sith's name on his lips sent shivers down both their spines, and they glanced away from each other as a cold discomfort washed over them.

"Sounds incredibly boring," Ahsoka stated plainly, pulling another chuckle from his loosening throat. Chancing a short look at her, Anakin shook his head thoughtfully.

"I don't think Padmé's going to accept it. She likes being a senator, and these two keep us busy enough as it is." Ahsoka nodded.

"Who do you think will get it then?" Anakin shrugged.

"There's so much upheaval at the moment with the Separatists still making trouble, anyone'd be lucky to be a clear choice. I think Padmé wants Bail, though they're not the only ones with nominations out there."

"I thought they would have dealt with the Separatists by now." Anakin glanced at her.

"Like I said, the Senate's a mess, not that it wasn't before. Sidious had too much power, too much control, and too many people agreed with him. I don't think anyone knows when it'll be over." He huffed a breath as he pictured his wife, hunched over some bill or statement in her office, segregated from the happiness of the living quarters, from him and her babies, and his face hardened. "I don't know why she stays sometimes."

He felt a soft touch on his tense shoulder, and Anakin suddenly realized how strongly his arms had been clenched. He met Ahsoka's blue eyes and released his breath, his anxiety, and his frustration over what his wife currently had to deal with. "I'm happy the Queen let her keep her position, but it's so hard when I can't do anything to help her."

Anakin dropped his gaze from Ahsoka's again, unexpected feelings of fear, nervousness, and worry seeping slowly into his countenance as his eyes landed on his sleeping princess, breathing softly in and out contentedly, oblivious to her father's anxieties. He filled his lungs, closed his eyes, and released his breath.

"I left, Snips."

"I know."

His head shot up, and he regarded Ahsoka's understanding look. She laughed, and he closed his mouth and clenched his jaw, not realizing it had fallen open at her unexpected statement. She shook her head, still giggling. "Master, if you were still in the Order, I wouldn't be here holding your son talking about your wife."

He finally allowed her smile to fully ignite his own. "Don't get snippy with me, Snips." They chuckled together as remembered moments spent fighting, planning, and bantering side by side sprung to each other's minds. It had been two, almost three years since they had last been together like this, and it made Anakin's heart ache that he had been too engrossed with what was immediately happening around him to realize how much he had missed Ahsoka's friendship.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" she asked with much more caution than he had been expecting as she lowered Luke gingerly into his bassinet, placing the rattle on his chest where he could entertain himself to his heart's content. Anakin smiled adoringly as his son grasped one of the stubby legs of his toy and shook, delighting in the muffled rattling of the contents held within before bringing the shaak to his mouth, loosely sucking on the smooth plastic. Satisfied with his son's content, Anakin looked up at Ahsoka, who was waiting patiently, his former apprentice realizing that this was something that, until now, he had held tightly guarded to his chest.

Anakin held her gaze, searching her expressive, inquisitive blue eyes so like his own for something he found difficult if almost impossible to see in anyone else's: kinship. With kinship came understanding, and with understanding came acceptance, something Anakin had only truly felt completely in his wife's presence, something he thought he had finally found within the gilded walls of the Temple. But, unlike the feeling of acceptance his wife gave him every day, he was hoping that Ahsoka could give him what Padmé never could, and that was the understanding of someone who had already been through what he now found himself facing. He found that even describing the overwhelming darkness he had seen in his Force given visions hadn't been as hard as hoping, yearning for someone to understand where he now stood.

"What have you heard about Sidious?" he asked, deciding that taking his explanation slowly might help calm his racing heart as he worked towards admitting his deepest fears not only to himself, but to someone who used to call him "Master."

Ahsoka quirked a brow at him, but answered anyway. "Just what the holonet reported, that the Jedi had uncovered him as a Sith, and that you were sent to kill him."

"That's not…" Anakin paused and sighed, annoyed at how much the media was glossing over what was quickly becoming the most traumatic experience of his life, even more so than feeling the life leave his mother as he held her in his arms. "That's not how it happened. I wasn't supposed to be there at all, Ahsoka." She nodded, continuing her patient vigil for his story. "Sidious… revealed himself to me, tried to convince me that the Dark Side was more powerful than the Jedi way, but I told Master Windu that he was the Sith Lord. Master Windu told me to stay behind, but I disobeyed and went after him. I saved Master Windu's life and killed Sidious."

He glanced up at Ahsoka, and her face was a knot of confusion. "But, that's good, right? You destroyed the Sith."

"They made me a Master."

Her entire face opened into a look of bewilderment, brows raised, eyes wide, mouth searching for the right words. It only lasted a moment at the hardened resolve in his own face, and Ahsoka composed her expression. He knew he was leaving out an incredible amount of detail, but, as resilient as Ahsoka was, he knew she didn't yet need to know the darkest of what he had faced. Not yet. "A Master! Anakin, then why…?"

"It wasn't right, Ahsoka," he stated, so simply and softly, but the deep look darkening his eyes made her blink. "There are those on the Council who didn't want me to be a Master, who still don't trust me. No matter what I had done, experienced, and understood about the Force, I was still the outsider, let in only because they found me exceptional, and only wanting what they were willing to take from me. It just… wasn't right."

Ahsoka moved closer to him on the sofa, and Anakin's gaze softened at the empathetic expression she now held on her face. She knew what he wanted to say, what he was desperately clawing his way towards, and it made Anakin relieved that though much had changed with them, between them very little had.

"What did you do?" he asked quietly. "When you left, what did you do?"

The sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that had been slowly growing heavier suddenly felt like permacrete as her eyes fell and focused on her hands briefly before beginning an aimless wander around the room as she spoke.

"Well, at first I didn't know what to do. I just knew that I needed to get off of Coruscant, give myself the space I needed between me and the Jedi. I managed to get on a refugee shuttle to Corellia, and I worked in a cantina for a while. Probably not the best idea I've ever had, but…" She trailed off sheepishly, and Anakin began feeling his heart pound even more. Ahsoka, at some seedy cantina on that smuggler ridden world; he did not like the sound of that at all. She met his gaze.

"After a year of hearing the holonet talking about nothing but you, I knew I needed to leave, get back in the fight however I could instead of doing nothing. I was able to charter a ride to Onderon. I thought that if Lux was still there that I could help the war effort, but the war in the Republic was the least of their worries. Things were still pretty ugly after the king was deposed, and Lux and the new government were trying to avoid another civil war. Things got… heated, and there were a few skirmishes here and there."

"I heard about that."

"But, really quickly I realized that being on the front lines wasn't where I needed to be either. I wasn't discovering anything new about myself that would help me with my connection to the Force. Fighting wasn't the answer."

Anakin chuckled. "How many times have I heard Padmé say that?"

Ahsoka smirked. "Probably more than you'd like, Skyguy." She laughed as he rolled his eyes and glared at her. "Anyway, I decided that what I needed was somewhere I've never been before, or at least I don't remember being. So, I went home to Shili. Saving that village from the Zygerrians…" Anakin growled low in his throat at the mention of the slavers, "… made me remember that I did have a home away from the Temple. I've been helping protect my people from the Separatists. It's quite quiet, actually; you would hate it, Master. But, I started teaching younglings self-defense, educating them about the galaxy, and, well, just blending in as best I could."

They both fell silent as she finished. It had indeed been a long time, Anakin reaffirmed for himself, as everything Ahsoka had told him sunk in. She had grown so much, experienced so much.

"Are you happy, Ahsoka?" He wasn't looking at her, but he felt her inch even closer to him, her boot brushing his as she did.

"Anakin, please look at me." He blinked and swallowed before complying with her very simple request. The look that greeted him was filled with everything he had been hoping for from the start of their first encounter in what felt like a lifetime. There was understanding, empathy, acceptance, and the overall feeling of looking into the eyes of someone who truly knew him. Kinship.

"Yes, Anakin, I am. And you will be, too." He bowed his head away from her gaze, reassuring as it was, feeling the overwhelming fear that refused to be controlled by rational thought consume the beat of his heart.

"I can't do what you did, Ahsoka," he stated firmly, standing heavily and beginning to pace as calmly as the little rational he was left with would allow, the piece that told him that both of his children were blissfully asleep and that he shouldn't wake them. "I've been a Jedi almost my entire life. I was never a youngling only living at the Temple before being chosen as a padawan, I was always a padawan. There's always been a new mission, some assignment for me to fulfill. I'd travelled the whole galaxy even before the war started, and it feels like I've never been still for more than a month or so."

He abruptly stopped pacing as Leia stirred, both he and his former padawan reigning in their feelings as the girl stretched, yawned, but then settled back down into her nap. Though his inner turmoil was still very prevalent, Anakin calmed his voice as he looked to Ahsoka, that patient expression that had once been his grounding point now beginning to send irritating tingles up his neck, as he feared that perhaps she might not understand after all. "I don't know what to do, Ahsoka," he finally confessed. "I'm afraid that I don't know how not to be a Jedi. I want nothing more than to be a good husband to Padmé, a good father to Luke and Leia, but without being a Jedi I don't know who I am."

"You're Anakin Skywalker!" Ahsoka shot back incredulously, yet her tone was laced with complete understanding as she stood as well. An inaudible, humorless snicker left his throat at her easy words, the simplicity of them playing directly into the insecurities that had been brought to the surface of his being as he had said his final words to the Council.

"What does that even mean?"

"It means that you're one of the best people I've ever known, Master." He huffed indignantly at her use of the word.

"You mean I'm one of the best Jedi you've ever known." Ahsoka crossed her arms and set her feet, refusing to indulge in his anxieties anymore.

"No," she said firmly, but it was the quiet of her voice that caused him to stop fidgeting and look at her. He had expected her eyes to be fiery with defiance, but instead he saw a gentle spark that caught his attention and kept it. "It means that being a Jedi isn't what made me like you and look up to you, Anakin. You're kind, selfless, loyal, you can fix anything, and you make others want to be better than they are. At least, that's how you were to me."

He paused, the immense gravity of the compliments she paid him sinking in, but still they failed to quell his ultimate fear at what he had potentially given up. He ducked his head, focusing on his boots as he shifted back and forth on his feet, fighting to admit what he was most afraid of, but losing the battle all too quickly.

"What if I'm not enough?" he almost whispered. "What if all I was ever meant to be was a Jedi? What if I'm nothing without the Order?"

"Would you be nothing without them?" Ahsoka asked gently, her arm stretching towards the two bassinets. She pointed towards the back of the apartment. "Without her?" Anakin glanced at both his twins and reached out for where his wife was hard at work, doing what she loved without hindrance and with the greatest of devotion, and his heart slowed as he felt her presence soothe him.

"Yes," he said just as quietly.

Ahsoka dropped her arm, staring at him, and Anakin could feel how grown up his former student felt compared to him in this moment. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, only opening them to look upon his precious twins again. "I left for them, Ahsoka," he said quietly, finally lifting his gaze to hers, and she glanced briefly at the infants, who slept so soundly. "The Council was never really going to accept my family, no matter how badly they wanted me to stay. But now I just… sometimes I wonder if my life was all just a waste."

"Have you talked to Padmé about this?" He hung his head and she sighed in knowing consternation.

"I wanted to see you first." He sighed. "I just wanted to know that you were all right."

Ahsoka smiled at him, and he suddenly felt very small, like a teenager being gently reminded about the years of wisdom their parents still had over them. "I'm doing really well, Anakin. I found my place outside the Order. You and Padmé will figure it out."

With that simple statement, a platitude coming from anyone else, Anakin felt the weight of his fears begin to lift, those that had been so strong since his meeting with the Council that he had kept them a secret from his own wife. As Ahsoka came towards him and wrapped her slender arms around his waist, Anakin couldn't help but return the embrace. He allowed his worry to be assuaged for the moment as he felt Ahsoka release the happiness and fulfillment she truly felt at her new life through their bond for him to experience. He knew that everything in his life as he grew farther and farther away from the Jedi was still uncertain, but suddenly he felt as though it wasn't as important as this moment with the one person who understood him completely.

He rested his cheek against the space between her horns, and his eyes caught sight of his unnoticed wife. Padmé stood just on the threshold of the living area, wordlessly watching former master and padawan with watery eyes, and he realized how much she had been privy to hear as she came out of her office for a break. She smiled affectionately at the pair, and their embrace broke as Leia woke from her nap and began to cry.

The shuddering in his body subsided and Anakin released a heavy, contented breath, feeling his wife's mussed curls flutter against his lips. He turned his head slightly and placed a light kiss against her ear before lifting his head from where it had been resting in the perfect curve at the juncture of her neck and shoulder made just for him. His blissfully sated eyes met her own and he smiled adoringly at how his heart sored as she gazed up at him with equal love. Untwining their hands that had remained locked above their heads, Anakin brought his down to cup Padmé's face and rested his forehead against hers, his eyes fluttering closed as her arms wrapped themselves securely around his shoulders, stroking his back, and he simply savored the feeling of complete calm, relaxation, and happiness he felt in this moment with her.

He sighed once more, humming with the release of air, and began peppering his wife's face with delicate, chaste kisses, switching from passionate to sweet as he always did, but this was somehow different. He was a new man, no matter how much of him remained the same, and though he couldn't help but continue to wonder about his future, his insightful padawan had reminded him how much it didn't matter so long as his wife and children were in his life. Padmé's arms squeezed his shoulders as he continued to lavish kisses upon her face, and one hand travelled upwards, threading through his loose waves to hold the back of his head, and he knew it was her own way of reminding him just how present she was and would remain.

He placed one last kiss on her cheek before finding her lips for a quick but meaningful kiss. Breaking away, he looked into her eyes and smiled. She brought the hand in his hair to his cheek, gently stroking his smooth skin as he continued to stare at her.

"I love you," he said quietly, his voice hitching as he declared his love for the amazingly tolerant, understanding woman who called him husband. She beamed at him.

"I love you too, Ani."

The intensity of his smile equaled her own as he placed one last lazy kiss to her lips before he rolled to his back, the cool sheets of their bed a stark contrast to his heated skin as he stared up at the ceiling, feeling his body deflate further and further into relaxation.

"Feel better?" he heard his wife ask with a hint of humor in her voice. He chuckled and turned to his side to face her, mirroring her new position on her side, head propped on her hand while her other arm provided modesty she only seemed to have in the aftermath. He suddenly narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"That was only to make me feel better?"

She blinked, and as she looked at him incredulously, the smirk he had fought so hard against cracked through his façade. Her eyes widened in mock indignity and he burst into a fit of laughter as she playfully smacked his bicep. She rolled her eyes as he continued to laugh deeply, trying and failing to hide her own mirthful smile.

"I hate you."

"You love me, Mrs. Skywalker," he said effortlessly, returning to his side and her eyes, "and you know it."

She was silent for a time, and Anakin's smile receded as he saw the thoughtful look that had taken over her countenance. He reached out, concerned, and took her hand that rest on the sheets, pulling her out of her sudden reflection. "Angel?" he asked. When her eyes met his, he couldn't name the powerful emotion that had caused her eyes to mist and her cheeks to flush.

"You called me Mrs. Skywalker," she said wistfully, and he blinked as he replayed his words in his head. He had never called her that before, had never felt as though he could, and it had become a force of habit to swallow the words he hadn't known that he had been so desperate to say aloud. A feeling of absolute freedom swept through his heart as the realization hit that he could now call her what he wished, that she could publically call him husband, and he could call her wife. His face lit up as the feeling overtook his whole body, and he could almost imagine himself humming with exhilaration as he gently cupped her cheek with his flesh hand.

"I guess I did. Do you have a problem with that?" She shook her head in vehement denial and smiled brightly.

"No," she affirmed. "I like it."

"Good." He smirked. "'Cause I've got a lot of time to make up for… Mrs. Skywalker."

She giggled as he stroked away the lone happy tear that escaped her eyes and she leaned into kiss him fervently, her fingers tunneling into his hair. Anakin wound the hand on her cheek through her dark tresses while he shifted to be flush against her as they deepened the kiss. He relished in the feel of her lips on his and the passion behind the act, so different from their sweet, chaste kisses shared as she brought him back to himself. This one spoke of a new life ahead, one together out of the shadows, a life they were both looking forward to very much.

Padmé broke away from the kiss first but kept her eyes closed as she cuddled further into Anakin's warm arms. He kissed the top of her curled head gently before fully enclosing her tightly in his embrace. They lay in silence, drinking each other in as they hadn't really done since he had returned home from the Outer Rim Sieges, when this whole ordeal had truly begun. Then, they had been reveling in the happiness that came not only with his homecoming, but also with her revelation that they were to be parents. Things had been even more direly uncertain with the birth of their unexpected children looming over their heads, threatening their life that had become, in its own way, painfully normal. But, that great weight had been lifted when Anakin made the most important choice of his life.

"Ahsoka's grown up so much, hasn't she?" Anakin nodded at his wife's statement.

"Yes, she has," he said. "I'm glad she's doing well." Padmé nodded against his chest.

"It was so good to see her."

They fell into silence once more, the ever-present traffic lights of Coruscant dancing across their dark room. Anakin found himself absently stroking his fingers lightly up and down Padmé's arm as he watched the shadows grow and fade like a whisper, and for once he truly relished the tranquility of their bedroom, which no longer felt like a crushing silence dripping with worries of war, or fear of loss. It seemed as though some complication had always haunted his steps, whether it was seeking Obi-Wan's hard-won acceptance when he first became his padawan, the certain war that loomed over his and Padmé's wedding night, or the frightening possibility that only the Dark Side could save his beloved wife. The overwhelming feeling of never amounting to anyone's expectations, regardless if they were what he desired for himself or not, had always been with him, but for the first time, Anakin felt a sense of peace and belonging that he had always been seeking, but hadn't felt in his whole life.

"Ani." He pulled himself from his musings and looked down at his wife's penetrating eyes. She swallowed, almost as if she were collecting her thoughts before she spoke. "Why didn't you tell me why you left the Jedi? I've been so worried about you."

He sighed, and suddenly he found it difficult to meet her gaze, choosing instead to take her hand that rested on his chest and run his fingers along hers.

"I don't know," he finally admitted, raising his blue eyes to her brown ones. The words suddenly felt lodged in this throat as she silently begged him to open up to her as she had done so many times before. He locked his lips and clenched his jaw. "You had enough to deal with." She huffed, pulled her hand lose from his aimless grasp and cupped his cheek.

"Ani, please." He lowered his eyes to the sheets and squeezed his eyes shut tight.

"I was afraid."

"Why?"

"I had just thrown away my whole life, Padmé," he stated, perhaps a bit too harshly, but, as always, she heard the incredible insecurities lacing his tone, and she stroked his cheek. He felt himself relaxing again under her warm gaze and gentle touch. "I didn't want to disappoint you."

"Ani, how could you leaving the Jedi for the sake of your family ever disappoint me?" She smiled at him compassionately, and his doubts began to recede even further into obscurity. If it was even possible, she shifted closer to him. "I know your whole life has been about being a Jedi, and if I'm honest, I'm sorry you left." He lowered his gaze again, only to have her soothing touch pull his eyes back to hers. "But, I also know that if being a Jedi, even one who is allowed to have a wife wasn't what you really wanted, then it was the right choice, and I will always stand by you for it." She cocked her head, her expression shifting from powerful to playful. "We'll just have to find something else for you to do."

"Stay at home dad might not be the worst thing in the world." Padmé smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Well, you do have a lot of dirty diapers to catch up on, but even I know you'll need some kind of excitement besides chasing after the twins."

"If they're anything like me, that'll be plenty of excitement."

Their shared laughter at the daunting situation possibly facing them in the future as their children grew was interrupted by the beginnings of a sharp cry from down the hall. Anakin slowly released Padmé and sat up, his wife following suit as the parents listened for the telling tones that gave each twin away.

"It's Luke," Anakin said, reaching out towards the twins' nursery, seeking out the reason behind his son's unrest. "He's hungry." Padmé sighed and reached for her nightgown, lying forgotten beside the bed. She went to get up, but Anakin stopped her as he reached for his sleep pants, equally rumpled on the floor. "It's all right, Angel, I'll get him. You stay here." He stood, settled his pants over his hips, and was almost to the door when Padmé's voice paused him mid step.

"Leia will probably wake up with him. Bring them both in." Anakin smiled knowingly.

"All right."

He made his way silently but quickly to the nursery, the colorful mobiles still dancing moons and stars over each of his children's cribs, tinkling with an undefined melody. Anakin quickly glanced into Leia's to assess her state of wakefulness and almost immediately regretted it, for, as soon as she saw her father, his little princess' cries added to her brothers'. Sighing with a sheepish smirk, Anakin reached in and picked her up first before going to Luke's crib beside his sister's. Though Leia somewhat quieted at the feel of her father's warm skin against her body, Luke continued to squirm in hunger as Anakin deftly slid his arm underneath his son's tiny form and pulled him up onto his opposite shoulder.

"It's all right, Luke, here we go," he whispered to his screaming son, and he quickly reentered his bedroom. Padmé, now dressed and fully propped up for a feeding session, reached out for Luke as her husband brought the hungry infant to her side of the bed. He sat beside her on his side as she settled Luke into her arms and began feeding him, his cries quieting almost immediately as he held his mother's gaze while he ate.

"I swear he eats just like you."

Anakin smiled and chuckled contentedly as he continued to send soothing pulses though the Force for his daughter, who was surprisingly pliant and quieting under his touch. This was the moment he had been wanting from the day he had made his Angel his wife, the moment where he would be able to be with her unconditionally, no secrets, no deception, no lies. His heart warmed as Padmé glanced up at him briefly before turning back to Luke, and he looked down at Leia once more, kissing her head gently as he saw that she had returned to sleep in his arms, at least for the moment. For the first time, everything was right, and Anakin felt more at peace than he ever had since leaving Tatooine for a life unknown.

That's it! Thank you all again so much for reading, enjoying, following, favoriting, and reviewing my first foray into the world of Star Wars fanficiton in quite some time. This story has meant a lot to me as it and the characters continued to develop into so much more than I thought it was going to be. This Anakin has become so important to me, and he will always be with me.