Rating: PG
Series: Set in the same universe as the _Interludes_ series.
Summary: Obi-Wan must hide the infant Luke from his father.
Rock-a-bye baby, the dark and the light
Somebody's baby is born for a fight.
Rock-a-bye baby, the white and the black
Somebody's baby is not coming back.
Great eagles, over rutted gorges, ever
Light, unrepentant celestial angels sweet--
Over water, now sea,
Sea to Atlantic raging, water and reef, salt
Invading dry opalesque narwhal tusks.
I touched young Luke Skywalker gently on the forehead, and reached out with the Force. The infant laughed, his breath soft against my hand. "The Force is strong in this one," I murmured, and Amidala drew in a breath that sounded like a sob.
"Take him, then," she whispered. I picked up the boy and cradled him against my shoulder, then stood there, helpless against her grief. Anakin, her husband, was gone, and now her son would be gone, too. The pain that she felt was tangible, moving in the Force like a living thing. She studied her hands, her long fingers twisting about each other as though she were afraid if she unclasped them, she might do something desperate.
No one would blame her, least of all me.
"I'll never see him again, will I?"
"Your son--yes, if you live another twenty years. Your husband--never, I believe. I am sorry."
She nodded and her fingers tangled themselves even more tightly together. I reached out and touched her shoulder. "We can't keep them together. If he finds you, he'd have them both."
"I know, Obi--Ben. I know." She bent her head, and I felt cold fear, spreading like ice inside me.
"Bail Organa is a good man, Amidala. He'll take good care of you and Leia." My voice was soft, but every word seemed to wound her. I felt as though I were watching her bleed, red wetness flowing from her battered body. She who I never thought I would see broken lay dead before me, but her flesh hadn't enough sense to stop moving and breathing. Hadn't enough sense to give her peace.
She didn't respond. I leaned over and kissed her gently on top of her head. "Be well, my friend."
She unclasped her hands and touched Luke's face with trembling fingers. "Be well, Obi-Wan. Be well, my son."
I left her sitting there, silent and pale, a shadow of the woman she had been, carrying guilt she did not deserve to carry. She had been the innocent agent of Palpatine's rise; she had been the wife of the man who was now the galaxy's most deadly and feared killer; she was the mother to his children, who would either save their world or join their father in destroying it.
Luke Skywalker laughed in my arms as I approached the ship where my brother and sister-in-law waited. "Moisture farming? On Tatooine? Ben, you've got to be kidding," Owen had said when I contacted him two weeks ago.
"Owen, do you want Vader to find the child?"
He'd sighed, and I'd heard Beru murmuring to him. "Fine. We'll take the kid."
I know my brother, and I know he'll protect Luke with his life. I know, also, that it will come to that: that one day, Owen will die protecting him-- and I will die not much later. But I foresee that Luke will be nearly a man, then, and that he will rise up against his father and return peace to the galaxy.
I wonder if Vader sees the same future. If he knows that he has a son and a daughter. If hiding Luke was one more task I failed to complete, if Vader sees a future where he destroys a young boy-pilot with desert-bleached hair, leaving Obi-Wan Kenobi as broken and defeated as he left Amidala.
Beru took the boy from my arms when I boarded the ship, and I went forward to speak with my brother. He turned in the pilot's seat to look at me, his eyes worried.
"You don't have to say it, Owen."
"You look like hell, baby brother."
I sat down and rested my head in my hands. "Owen, am I doing the right thing? She's lost so much."
He touched my shoulder lightly. "If Vader found him, he'd either kill him or...well. You're doing what you need to do."
I looked up at him. "Sometimes you remind me of my master."
He grinned and began to take the ship out of the hangar. "Someone has to look after you."
"No," I replied, "someone has to look after Luke. I can take care of myself."
His voice was gentle when he answered me. "Yes, I know. Don't worry." His hands were steady on the controls, his voice as calm as though he, not I, were the Jedi. "Beru and I know that his life is more important than either of ours. You have my word on that, Ben."
"I know." I shucked off my outer robe and took over copilot duties, and together Owen and I took Luke--son of Anakin, son of Vader--home to Tatooine.