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[neverjedi]

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[justasmallfry]

This worried Anakin more, it showed on his face. That sounded worse than a broken nose.

"Can I help?"

[neverjedi]

"Yes."

Not with the actual healing, but he could help. "Can you sit beside me while I lay down and breathe with me for a little while?" It'd work as a focal point for him and it would maybe also help Anakin.

[justasmallfry]

"You mean like in our lessons?" Anakin asked.

[neverjedi]

"Just like our lessons, but this time a little different from me. Like I said, I will probably feel further away. That's a good thing, though." He really wants Anakin to be okay. And not panicked by feeling him... drop away.

[justasmallfry]

"Okay," Anakin said, driven mostly because he really desperately wanted to help Obi-Wan get better.

"I can do that." He nodded this time, just to drive home how much he wanted to do this.

[neverjedi]

"Okay." He knew he still looked terrible. Felt horrible in fact, though cooling off was helping. He took another drink from the bottle, tightened the lid carefully and then laid down as gingerly as he could without showing too much pain on his face.

Once he was down he held his hand out and closed his eyes.

[justasmallfry]

"Okay, Obi-Wan. I'll be here when you wake up." And Anakin had every intention of doing that.

He placed his hand in Obi-Wan's and started the breathing exercises Obi-Wan had taught him. He felt the connection between him and Obi-Wan, and him and his mom. And even something with the machinery around him. And he felt that connection with Obi-Wan change. He tried not to let it worry him - this is what Obi-Wan said would happen - he just tried to focus on the breathing exercise.

[neverjedi]

"Thank you, Anakin."

He closed his eyes and focused on his own breathing but also Anakin's presence until he was sure Anakin was okay. Then he used that light connection and turned the meditative trance to something deeper.

Once he let it happen his mind and body pretty much took over. He'd lost a lot of skills as a slave but healing? He'd gotten much better at. His focus turned deeply inward, his breathing slowed way down and his pulse followed. His awareness of anything around him faded to near nothing and all his attention and focus turned to healing those broken ribs to the point of at least being stable.

It was quite a few hours and at some point he rolled over onto his (uninjured) side and slid from healing to just sleeping.

[justasmallfry]

Life passed like it always did in Mos Espa. Pilots came and went and the jobs did. Slaves were bought and sold. The races happened regularly. Anakin was getting rather good at them by now. He'd yet to finish first, but more often than not, he did that by design. He rarely crashed anymore, and he aimed for second place to let Sebulba have his glory so Obi-Wan wouldn't suffer more. Watto knew never to bet on Anakin, at least not winning. So Watto wasn't angry either.

Though Watto did get angry when his racer got damaged, like last race. Sebulba was feeling sadistic that day and made it his goal to just force everyone out of the race. It was one of those rare times when Anakin didn't finish - he didn't crash, he'd stopped the racer in time before it did something like blow up. But Sebulba had damaged one of the engines and it was out until Watto could get the part to have Anakin fix it.

Anakin had been bummed that he couldn't race for a while. He was still not finished on his own racer.

But soon...

Before soon arrived, however, someone - or rather three people and a droid did.

Anakin would remember that day forever.

Because Padme was the most beautiful person he'd ever seen. He was nine, but his crush was instantaneous. He'd hoped Watto would haggle with the older man she was with longer just so he could talk with her more.

And when they left, it was hard for him to focus on what Watto was saying, at least until his slave master got to the point where he let Anakin go for the afternoon. Anakin didn't know the reason, but he didn't question it.

It was with a light heart that he left to head home, along the way stopping to see the other slaves he'd made a point to usually see in his free time. Obi-Wan was out, now, and he was a bit worried because the talk in the town was that there was storm on the horizon. He hoped Obi-Wan, wherever he was at, would make it back to his quarters safely.

Anakin wasn't far from home when he ran into Padme's group again- Jar Jar was lucky that Anakin had helped him first, because he sort of went mind-fuzzy when Padme joined up again.

And he almost missed it!

That flash of metal when Qui-Gon's poncho moved to the side. Because of the fuzziness in his head it took Anakin a moment to put the image all together. An actual Jedi, here in Mos Espa. He knew what they were based on the talk of the pilots and what little Obi-Wan confirmed. He couldn't believe his luck.

Without hesitation - and Anakin would have offered even if Padme wasn't there and Qui-Gon wasn't a secret Jedi. All he knew was that they needed help, they couldn't make it back to their ship before the sandstorm arrived, and he had a home near by. Of course he offered them shelter.

"Mom!" he called when he burst through the door, excitement rolling off of him in waves. "I brought some people with me, they needed help 'cause they couldn't make it back to their ship before the storm got here! Oh! Obi-Wan, you're here, too!" Oh, good, it was good to know his friend wasn't out in the storm.

[neverjedi]

Obi-Wan had not managed to stay out of an inhibitor collar by reaching too deeply or obviously into the Force. He hadn't cut himself off from it, but he was discriminating in when, how, and why he used what little he had learned.

Mostly, he used it to stay alive and to try to teach Anakin a bit. So that, ideally, Anakin could stay alive in those kriffing pod-races.

He wasn't aware Anakin was approaching and excited. He was aware that there was someone with him. He had no idea who was going to walk through the door with him.

He was talking to Shmi and helping her put food together when Anakin and company arrived. He turned in the direction of the door just as it opened. One look and he recognized Qui-Gon and in that second he flashed through relief, happiness, and then straight to betrayal and anger.

A second, maybe two, and then he shielded as well as he could. "I am and it looks like you're bringing home more strays."

He was still staring - glaring really- at Qui-Gon. Shielded in the force but openly hostile in expression.

[justasmallfry]

Anakin laughed, and missed everything because his mind was on all the various things he could show Padme, his projects, the skills he could do... he grabbed her hand and pulled her into his room, R2 and Jar Jar followed.

Leaving only Shmi to notice the change that came over Obi-Wan when he saw the man.

Shmi was a kind woman, but she was no stranger to the cruelties of people. She didn’t assume Obi-Wan felt what he did for no reason, she’d known him long enough by now to earn her loyalty. Obi-Wan was her friend here and peer. Which was also at the heart of why she could do nothing. Her rights as a slave, Obi-Wan’s rights, and Anakin’s rights especially, did not equal this strangers rights as a free man.

She did the only thing she could do and that was minimize the tension as best she could - and as a slave, it was a skill she was long practiced at. As she slipped passed Obi/Wan further into the kitchen, she subtly squeezed his arm. She was still here for him if needed, but Obi-Wan was free to pretend other was. There was no other way to give privacy in such a small space.

Of course, all this did not escape the observant eye of Qui-Gon.

Ever since he’d landed on this planet he had felt something in the Force. Not anything dangerous or they wouldn’t have taken the risk. Just a familiarity that was curious but long ago set aside on his part so he couldn’t quite place it. They had a mission to complete and if the Force granted him time to figure out the puzzle of this feeling, he would take it, but it wasn’t an urgent feeling, not strong enough to make him deviate his course.

Not until the door opened.

It would seem patience with the Force had brought him the answer.

There were many things he could say, clearly there were things he should say, but he saw the constraints of time. What will be will be.

He went with a simple greeting, “Hello, Obi-Wan.” There was no pretending after that greeting that they didn’t know each other.

[neverjedi]

He appreciated Shmi's discretion and grace. It was something he could only hope to someday achieve a fraction of.

Today was certainly not going to be that day.

He didn't so much as blink at that greeting, though after another silence just long enough to be obvious incline his head slightly.

"May I take your cloak?"

Perfectly soft, measured, and polite and appropriate for his station - but he was still ... furious.

[justasmallfry]

It wasn’t as if Qui-Gon couldn’t tell Obi-Wan was upset to see him, or that ‘upset’ was too kind a word for what feelings were stabbing at him in the Force.

But from Qui-Gon’s perspective, there was no other way but through.

They each had their reasons for their choices, and Qui-Gon had long since processed his feelings on the matter. And had let them go. What his former Padawan chose to do with his feelings - oh Qui-Gon certainly had his opinions about that - but Obi-Wan was no longer his charge to instruct. Which made those feelings none of his concern. Plus, he was focused on the task of transporting the queen to Coruscant.

The fact that Obi-Wan just happened to be here was curious, paths crossed as the Force willed it. But until such time that the Force revealed why, this was ultimately irrelevant to the mission.

“That won’t be necessary,” he said, dogging the barb in the offer.

“Is there any way I can be of assistance?”

[neverjedi]

"As a matter of fact there is," he said, evenly. "You can get Anakin and his mother off this foresake rock. When you've completed your mission, of course, though ideally before his force abilities are discovered."

[justasmallfry]

Qui-Gon was rarely caught off guard.

This was one of those rare moments.

Anakin had extended him and his party a generous offer, but truth be told, if the sandstorm hadn’t rolled in, Qui-Gon would not have thought about the boy long after leaving the junk shop.

That the boy was Force sensitive had slipped his notice.

That wasn’t what surprised him. There were many individuals throughout the galaxy that the Jedi missed, especially in the outer rim planets where people lacked the health care system the Jedi relied on to locate new Force sensitive infants. It was a sad reality, but reality nonetheless.

No, Qui-Gon was taken aback by Obi-Wan’s bluntness and request.

“Where would you have me take them? They’d have no place at the Temple.”

[neverjedi]

Qui-Gon could be taken aback by whatever he liked.

"His mother is a competent adult. I am quite sure she would like some input into that decision. I am not suggesting you take him to the Temple." His voice is mostly flat, but there's something a little harder coming in around that last sentence, then gone again. "You are mobile, free, well respected, and armed. Rescue the kid and his mom. Or give me a line of communication to the Council and I will make the arrangements myself."

[justasmallfry]

“What do you think that would accomplish?” Qui-Gon asked. “You no longer have any standing in the Order by choice.”

[neverjedi]

"I no longer have any standing as a person, which was not by choice but was the direct consequence of my own decisions." That he...still doesn't really regret, actually. He's still mad as hell, but that isn't the point, either. "Anakin and his mom didn't do anything to deserve this. This is a place slaves go to die and he is a child - who still needs his mother. Jedi are supposed to be compassionate. You're dragging around one stray already so I know you are still that. Help them."

[justasmallfry]

"Obi-Wan, you do not know the nature of my current mission. I do not have the resources with me to accomplish what you are asking of me even if I had the time to devote to this request." He didn't have the resources necessary to accomplish even his own mission.

[neverjedi]

"I'm not asking you to do anything right now. I am asking that you do something I remember you doing very well and, when you've finished whatever Jedi business you are on, that you go the the Council and, if necessary, argue with them about doing the right thing."

He's not even flinching anymore, he's just determined and tired and feels... surprisingly old, all things considered.

[justasmallfry]

Qui-Gon certainly had always hated the fact that the Jedi turned a blind eye to the pockets of slavery that thrived in the Galaxy. He didn't agree with Master Yoda that sometimes, for the greater good, some had to suffer without their consent. He'd butted heads with the Council on more than one occasion about this.

Obi-Wan was right about that.

However, that didn't change his circumstances.

"At the moment I cannot even leave the planet," Qui-Gon said. "Making a promise now would be short sighted." He changed tactics. "We are currently all stuck here under one roof, arguing will get us nowhere."

[neverjedi]

He lets it go - for now. Not being able to leave the planet is a problem and--

Well, powerlessness is a thing to which he has become accustomed to.

There is a more immediate issue, though.

He waits a beat to make sure Qui-Gon is finished talking and-. "I can, with some help from the Force, make it through the storm as far as my... accommodation." It was a shack and effectively a closet, but. "I am going to go bring what supplies I have there. If nothing else I can supplement food, water, and add a few blankets so you and Anakin aren't left any more lacking than can be avoided."

[justasmallfry]

Qui-Gon was relieved when Obi-Wan let the topic drop. It just made everything easier for, in Qui-Gon's opinion, everyone all around.

And thinking the matter was calmly put away, and that making it through the night was the focus, he offered, "Do you need any help?"

[neverjedi]

"No."

He pulled his sleeves down from their rolled up position, and headed out the door. He'd be gone for probably fifteen minutes then back with additional food, water, and blankets - and sand driven into his hair and clothes, but that was hardly unexpected.

He simply took it all to Shmi and got busy helping her get food on the table. Silently.

The storm outside, however, got much, much worse while they did.

[justasmallfry]

When Shmi poked her head in to tell them dinner was ready, Anakin jumped up without any more prompting. Truth be told, he was perpetually hungry, so eating was always something he looked forward to. Even if they had to leave C-3PO for a bit.

Completely unaware of the triangle of tension between the adults he sat down and took servings of food and passed things around as they were put in front of him.

He picked up talking where he'd left off in the other room.

"I'm going to finish Threepio. I just have to wait for parts to come into Watto's shop that he doesn't want or won't see missing so he won't get mad. But I know they'll show up some day."

Padme, more adept at noticing people, was instantly aware something had happened between the three adults while she was in the room with Anakin and Jar Jar. She was also wrapping her mind around the reality of something she'd previously thought impossible.

She figured the least she could do was thank Shmi for her hospitality. "Thank you for putting us up for the night, Ms. Skywalker. You and your son's generosity is much appreciated. And yours as well, Mr. Kenobi. You didn't have to help us. I know it's an imposition."