Count The Cost (what if Amidala and Obi-Wan were married)

Let's see if I can find pg 39

 

Amidala had pulled Obi-Wan away from the boys as soon as he arrived.

"Where are Gracie and Tanya?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Leona is treating Gracie. Tanya is with Anakin. She didn't want to leave his side. And Marco needed an assistant to help him treat Anakin." Amidala told him.

"Anakin's hurt?"

Amidala quickly told him what had happened. "I'm afraid this is one more thing for him to use to put distance between us."

"We need to move Luke before Anakin comes out of the shock he must be in. If Anakin is anywhere near him he will know about-"

"Don't worry, my Love. When Bil Tim told Marmee they were bringing Anakin to the infirmary she contacted Williamm's wife. She has Luke now in one of the hidden houses. When I can't feed him she can."

Obi-Wan's relief was evident but quickly passed as he thought of Anakin. "There was a time I would have known Anakin was injured the minute it happened. Now? I ?I've failed him." Obi-Wan looked down. "Even though he is no longer my apprentice I should have felt something."

"Ben."

"No, Ami it's true. I feel like I did when I failed Qui-Gon. Why didn't I run faster? Just a few seconds faster." Obi-Wan looked into his wife's eyes. "Why didn't I see how Anakin felt about you? Why did I neglect you? If only?" He looked away again.

Amidala took her husband's chin and made him look at her. "Stop it Ben. You're doing it again. Blaming yourself for what happened. We all 3 carry the burden of what happened. We all 3 were pawns in away of someone we thought we could trust." That got Obi-Wan to stop berating his actions. "The Sith Lord is Chancellor Palpation."

"I knew it had to be someone powerful and close to us. I never thought it was him. All I ever saw was a politician. At least we don't have to worry about rescuing him from the Sith." Obi-Wan joked dryly.

"I guess not." Amidala agreed. "Ben listen to me." Amidala told him about rescuing Gracie. "Now he knows his secret isn't hidden I wonder what he will do. Thing is it's only my word against his. Will anyone other than my family and the people of the O'Shawn believe me?"

"My fellow Jedi, maybe. But it's his move next. He's already disbanded the Jedi. The only ones who can stand against as Sith. Whatever anouncement he makes in a month will be interesting. But I'm afraid it will not be good news for the Galaxy. I don't want to sit here any longer. Let's go see Gracie."

Obi-Wan started to rise. Amidala laid a hand on his arm. "No, Ben we can't."

"Ami, I know what they did to her. That A. B. Horence showed me a holo of it. I wont be shocked by her appearance."

"Ben, do you remember how I was after you rescued me from the Rebellious One?"

"Yes. You didn't want anyone to see you except a few healers and me."

"Right now Gracie feels the same."

"But - "

"Ben give her some time. I saw her in her prison and she doesn't even want to see me. Leona and a couple of nurses are the only ones she is letting see her right now. If she had her way no one would see her. Leona said as soon as she got Gracie examined and into a bacta tank she would come talk to us. When Gracie is ready to see us she will ask us to come. Trust me."

They heard the boys laugh quietly. Amidala glanced back at them. I wonder what they are talking about.

Obi-Wan smiled at his wife. "Even with all that's happened, at their age, it's probably sports, speeders, weapons or most likely girls." He looked back over his shoulder at the 2 boys. "From the slight blushes on their faces, it's girls."

 

shamlessly upping

 

great post!!!

 

I completely understand Gracie not wanting to see anybody. And it seems very true to the character of Obi-Wan for him to blame himself for everything that happened. Good thing Amidala is so sensible!

 

shamelesly wonderful! you capture feelings so well GIJ

Up.

 

Oooh...

I have got to see what else happens to Gracie!

 

Hi everyone sorry it's takeing me so long to get my post up. Our house inspection went fine. I hope to have a post up tomorrow.

 

I'm so glad it went well!

 

Marc Naberrie sat in Leona's new office in Otta Gunga. As soon as Gracie was put into Leona's care Amidala told him who the Sith Lord was. For what seemed like the millionth time Mark had started going over information Leona had on the strange deaths of the Jedi before the Temple was destroyed. Only this time he was looking for a direct connection to the Chancellor. Mark had been able to narrow the list of possible Siths to about a dozen or so. Like Obi-Wan all he had ever seen in the Chancellor was a Politician.

Then the MESSAGE came. Before William's people showed up Marc had been worried about his wife, daughter and new granddaughter. Spending so much time with Leona had made him realize just how much he missed Angelic. The message had sent him into the state he was now. Sitting and staring into space. He re-played the conversation in his mind once more.

"I'm sorry I have sad news for you. We have lost Mother Naberrie in an accident." His son-in-law said. "I will send Mother Naberrie's ashes as soon as I can."

"Ashes? What happened?" Mark remembered how hard it had been to get those words out.

"We were having a dedication of the Palace. We had the cornerstone set to be slid into place. A droid lift malfunctioned. The cornerstone slipped from position. It hit some other stones. It all happened so fast. Mother Naberrie managed to push Lysse and Adell out of the way but was hit by large debris."

Mother Naberrie. Angelic had always disliked the title. Over and over she had informed her son-in-law.

"Please call me mother or some form of it. If you are not comfortable with that just call me Angelic. Mother Naberrie makes me sound like I belong in a monastery."

Marc had felt the same way about being called Father Naberrie. Lysse's husband had insisted it was improper to call them anything else. Marco and Troy's wives Beit and Mai Zie had no problem calling them mother and father. Beit was from another planet. Mai Zie was Gungan. Yet they thought of the 2 women as daughters. But Lysse's husband? Jacques Avarice was, even after all these years, still Lysse's husband.

Marc and Angelic had liked the young man from the start. He seemed honest and hard working. He was well educated and from a wealthy family. His family was more formal than theirs. A typical wealthy Naboo family. The only thing that wasn't in his favor was that Dedrea had introduced him to the family. He was also Dedrea's 2nd husband's nephew. Jacques had pursued Lysse with a passion and had won her heart.

~ "When did I stop calling my mother 'Mother' and start calling her Dedrea? The day she announced her engagement to that man Coven Avarice. Father hadn't been dead a week and she tells us she is getting married again." Marc shook his head. Nothing had been said but, they all stopped calling her mother and grandmother. Dedrea had become this stranger's wife. Only contacting them when she wanted something. Looking back Marc realized his mother had been distancing herself from him for most of his life. It was his grandmother who had helped raise him. He knew the reasons Dedrea had felt betrayed by his father. Even though his father had not really done anything wrong. It was a lack of forgiveness Marc never understood. He wanted her to be different. He had memories of a kinder woman. For many years he had hoped to see her again. With her remarriage Dedrea had in essence slammed a door in his face. ~

"Father Naberrie, are you all right? Do you want to call someone to be with you?"

Marc wondered how long he had been silent. He rubbed his forehead. "You said you would send her ashes. Why didn't you put her body in a stasis field to send it home? I know she would have rather had a funeral here ."

"We have limited power sources." Lysse's husband said indignantly. "We could not justify such a waist of energy. This way is much more convenient and sanitary."

Something was wrong here. A thought Marc couldn't quite verbalize yet. ~ "Convenient and Sanitary." ~ Yes t

 

Oh oh oh! You must post MOre!

PLEASE

 

interesting.

 

nooooooooooooooooooo

 

Up up up

 

Sorry double post

 

Hi, I've been on vacation but haven't had much time for writing. I don't know where the week has gone. I also haven't got done most of what I wanted to. I realized after I posted that Marc's name wouldn't be Naberrie. He's Amidala's cousin by her father's sister. But as far as the story goes I am going to leave it that way. Because I don't want to have to come up with another name or change it. I'm leaving it that Uncle Henry, Aunt Dedrea's husband took the Naberrie name instead of her taking his. To honor her father who helped him so much and because the Naberrie name had higher standing than his own. Dedrea didn't object because appearance and prominence mean's everything to her. That all explained on with the story.
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"Marc? Marc. Marc! What's wrong?"

Marc shook his head and looked up a Leona.

"Marc" Leona said more softly. "What is it?"

Marc started to speak but found he couldn't.

"It's all right Marc take your time."

Mark swallowed the large lump in his throat. "Leona, it's Angelic she's ? she's dead."

Leona collapsed in a chair near the desk. "Dead?"

"Yes my son-in-law just sent me a message. He said Lysse and the baby are injured too." Marc played back the message. Leona was as stunned as he was.

After a few moments Marc forced himself out of his worry. "How is Gracie?"

Leona sighed. "I'm not sure. I mean I have her in a bacta tank and she is sedated so she will heal physically. I just don't know what her mental condition is. I was headed to see the family when I saw you sitting in here. I didn't need the Force to feel something was wrong. What are you going to do?"

Now Marc sighed. "I think I will go with you and listen to your report on Gracie. I need to tell the family about Angelic. Troy and the girls were coming to the waiting room to find out about her. I understand that Bil Tim, Mi Na and there spouses are coming too. They should be there by now. I don't know if it is best or not but it will be easier on me if I can tell everyone at the same time. Is Marco still operating on Anakin?"

Leona had smiled when Marc called his 2 daughters-in-law "the Girls".

"Yes, it will be sometime before he is through. Anakin is blessed to have a surgeon who's been trained on Alderrann. Alderrann has the most advanced technology when it comes to artificial limbs in the Galaxy. Done right you can hardly tell the difference between a prosthetic and your own flesh. It takes some getting used to but after awhile you forget. Done wrong. Not taking care to make sure everything is just right, it can put you in a living hell the rest of your life. Or until it is removed and another attached the right way. Most people don't want to try with another one if the first is bad. Their fear of the pain makes it more difficult to attach the next time. It's like their brains have learned this is painful and wont let the nerve endings forget."

"Ahh that explains why I see people with missing limbs. If it's that painful I can understand why they opt for going without. Come on let's go talk to the family. Then I'm going to contact Williamm. I think the company Jacques mentioned was his family's. It was the same last name anyway. Williamm said they had a special code between them. I want him to work out a message for me. To see if Jacques is telling me the whole truth. I have a bad feeling about Lysse."

Marc's instincts had been right. They arranged themselves so only Marc, Marco and Troy could be seen on the signal.

They had found out from Williamm's brother that Lysse was not in an infirmary. She and the baby were in hiding. Lysse was also, if they understood the code right, leading a "Rebellion" against the King. Angelic was dead when they found her. But not from the fall of the debris. They had sent back that help would be coming but it might be a year or 2. Marc thanked Jeremy and reminded him to stay true to God. William said the phrase would let Jeremy know the ones trying to st

 

Arrrg! This is doing it again
where I post and it says there's an error
I repost it still says there's an error
then it shows up on my thread
but not on the first page as I posted.

 

wow. poor gracie. //shudder//

 

I agree! Poor Gracie! Poor Obi-Wan, too. Well, at least he's not green and bald anymore, but still.

 

That was terrible what happened to Gracie. I hope she'll recover. Some really great posts!

 

I had another post written but decied I need to include this part of the story and not just skip over it.


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It was a perfect spring day. The River Sprites sailed, dove and sang over the river and falls. Over what used to be Theed. Obi-Wan waited at the landing pad. Amidala was with Luke trying to get as much time with the child as she could. Amidala still believed they needed to send Luke away. Obi-Wan had reluctantly come to completely agree with her. He would have been with them but Kryztan had asked to meet with him away from Otta Gunga. Kacey was with Obi-Wan. The boy had never seen Theed. Obi-Wan wanted to spend time with him and also didn't really want to meet Kryztan alone.

It was strange to see Theed almost devoid of structures. The fountains were still there, the city's streets, side walks, alleys and some of the gardens and statues. Seems the new government didn't want to take reminders of the Naboo's history to the new planet. But no houses. No Palace or government structures. William had told them when they went to remove the native stone fountains they couldn't figure out how. It was almost as if they had grown from the foundation of the earth. The Inn stood out now. Odd that with other buildings surrounding it Obi-Wan had never noticed the intricate stone design of the building's outer walls.

Looking down river Obi-Wan could just make out the Naberrrie Ecallaw plant. One of the few businesses left of the Naboo. It was silent today but in a few weeks it would come to life. Most of the year it was basically used to store the native products it produced 2 times a year. In the fall the Naboo and Gungan both gathered the Ecallaw nuts and hulls for their own use. Some of the poorer of the Naboo gathered hulls, by land owners permission, that they sold to the Naberries. The oils from them were extruded. The oil and some of the hulls were used to make popurri and scented candles. Most of these had been sold to the Naboo for holiday use. But because of Luke Naberrie places like Alderann, Coruscant and even Corellia bought them. The Ecallaw filters were made from hulls gathered in the spring. After they had, what Marc called, 'fermented' on the ground.

"That's what we call it but it's really not the right description. The hulls need to rest on the ground. Animals eat the nuts out though the winter until other vegetation has grown enough for them to eat. The hulls are left behind. We gather them after our spring planting is done. Then basically all we do is wash the dirt from them and put them into a linen bag. The bag is put in a disposable filter form. Originally they were sold only as air vent filters.

My great great grandfather found another use for them. Bacta was hard to come by for us. It was expensive. We were a small out of the way planet. We didn't have much money to buy it with or goods to trade for it. He knew the power of the Ecallaw hulls to clean the air. So he tried running used bacta fluid though the hulls. At that time it was just a by product that was being thrown out. In fact no Hill person would go into a tank because of how it was disposed of. Just pouring the bacta over the hulls took 50% if the impurities out. So he tried different things and finally found a filter and process that made the bacta 100% pure. Some is lost in the process. But most of it is reusable."

The Jedi and many other infirmaries had implemented the filters for cleaning bacta. Other filters had been developed in the last few years but nothing worked as well as the Naboo Process. Obi-Wan shook his head. It could have been called the Naberrie Process. Their name would have been recognized by medical personnel all over the Galaxy. But the elder Naberrie like most of his race did not want that kind of glory. He chose to give credit to his whole planet. They may not know exactly where the planet Naboo was. But they did know the value of the filters.


"Father what is that over there?

 

Great post! I love the history Obi-Wan told.

 

Oh Glad is June! Perfect! I almost fell off my chair when he said the lilac bush smelled like Gracie! We all know what that means!!!!

 

Unresolved issues with Kryztan? Kasey is not to interfere with what he sees? Hoo, boy, I can see something interesting coming up!

 

Kryztan and Obi-Wan met half way between the ship and the garden. They nodded to each other but said nothing. Kacey watched from the tree. He felt he should know the stranger. Images began to form in Kacey's mind. Kryztan and Obi-Wan were still staring at each other. Neither man had moved.

Finally Obi-Wan inquired. "Why did you want to meet here?"

"Since Dex helped me get back on my feet I have asked and received forgiveness for my actions from almost everyone I hurt. You and I have differences we were never allowed to settle. It is way past time we did."

"Are you asking my forgiveness?"

"I know I should. A part of me wants to but? Tell me. Do you still harbor bitterness over what I did? You don't have to answer I can see by your face you do. I hate to admit but my pride is still injured that Jemmy chose you over me."

"Even if you asked me to forgive you I'm not sure I would. Every time I see a young woman who would be Emma's age it's like it all happened yesterday."

"I understand."

"So what do you want to do about it?"

"What we both wanted to do 20 years ago."

"You're not serious."

"Perhaps you have a better idea of how we can resolve this? You're the Jedi peace maker."

Obi-Wan tilted his head. "You're the mind healer. Doesn't it seem a bit strange that 2 grown men would resort to this."

"Maybe that's why I think this will help us resolve our problems. Males of any species can have delicate egos. No matter what their training. What I did was wrong. I don't know why I became so obsessed."

"You don't?"

Kryztan looked away and then back at Obi-Wan. "In my head I suppose I do but my heart doesn't want to believe it could be that simple. Perhaps this will force me to accept that it was."

"Our masters wouldn't let us do it 20 years ago. If they were still alive they still would think this a bad idea."

"I agree. So would the women in our lives."

It hit Obi-Wan then. "That's why you wanted to meet here away from the Swamp and the O'Shawn. That's why Kyleen isn't with you."

"Yes. But Kylenn was occupied. She may join me in a few days."

"You've been out of the Order a long time. It wouldn't be fair."

"I don't think so. I still meditate. I have continued to do katras. It helps me keep a mental edge for when I council people. I also still spar with Kylenn. You and I used to be fairly evenly matched. I heard you were injured recently. Have you fully recovered?"

"Yes, I've recovered."

"Good I wouldn't want to have an unfair advantage."

"Still you haven't raised a lightsaber in battle in long time."

"Are you refusing."

"No. It's just ?We need you to help Gracie. You wont be able to do that if you're dead."

"The child adores you. If we still are at odds I won't be able to help her. She will sense your turmoil and distrust of me. She wont be able to trust me. For me to help her she has got to trust me. You know that. You've been were she's at now. Do you think you would have recovered if you hadn't been able to trust the mind healers? Jemmy never would trust the mind healers. Even the ones she liked. Last I knew she still believed she was a jinx."

"Gracie doesn't think like that."

"No. But from what Leona has told me Gracie has other issues that will be just as hard to over come."

"I know." Obi-Wan looked around. "We can't do it out here in the open. Do you know about the Chancellor?"

"You mean Emperor Palpatine?"

"What?"

"Just before I got off the ship there was an announcement. Seems with all that has happened the Senate has voted to change the structure of the Republic. It will be an Empire now. And the Chancellor has direct control over all military activities to settle any dispute."

"I expected as much just not so soon. The Chan - Emperor is still here in Theed. His people have commandeered the Inn and he is on his ship. I wondered why he hadn't returned to Coruscant yet. He must have been waiting for the vote to take place when he wasn't there."

"Yes he can claim he