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Anakin didn’t come out of his quarters aboard the Resolute for a full 48 hours when they all finally settled for their journey home. Not that Obi-Wan expected anything less, considering what they had all just gone through on Zygerria. He himself had to meditate almost hourly to keep himself in check. He noticed Ahsoka spending as many waking hours as she could practically glued to Master Koon’s hip. The Jedi master mused that she would have gravitated towards Anakin, had he made any appearances. Obi-Wan couldn't even walk past Anakin’s quarters without feeling his tumultuous emotions leaking into the Force. It had been a long time since Obi-Wan had felt his former Padawan so unbalanced but he couldn’t bring himself to pry, not without a reason or an excuse. Not after the week they had all experienced.
It was on the morning of their third day in hyperspace that an excuse presented itself in the form of Captain Rex.
“Captain, is there something you need?”
The clones’ barracks were several levels down from those of the Jedi generals and despite Anakin’s closeness with his men, it wasn’t typical for Rex to be loitering in the hallway outside his general’s quarters.
“I uh, had the General’s comlink. Asked me to keep it for him for a bit. Think he wanted some peace and quiet after all this.”
Obi-Wan couldn’t help but notice the way Rex absently rubbed his neck. He’d been feeling similarly sore for the past two days. He doubted any of them would manage to get over this whole debacle fully by the time they reached Coruscant.
“But it’s been going off constantly for about an hour. I didn’t want to bother General Skywalker, said I could answer it for him, but the transmission’s asking for a security code. Seems important.” Obi-Wan tried to shake the feeling that Rex wasn’t telling him the whole truth.
“Did you ask Ahsoka? I believe Anakin has the unfortunate habit of supplying her with his codes.”
“Tried the Commander when the message first came up. The code she knew didn’t work.” An awkward moment of silence passed between the two men before Anakin’s door slid open. He looked... well he looked awful. Bags hung under his eyes, what clothes he did have on were rumpled. His exposed chest was littered with bacta patches, bruises, and small scrapes. Obi-Wan reflexively cringed as he felt a renewed pain from the lines maring his own back. Anakin’s glassy gaze looked questioningly between the two men. Rex immediately tried to cover with formality.
“Sorry to bother you General, but your com’s been-”
Before Rex could finish, Anakin lazily swiped the comlink from his hand and looked at the readout on the front. His eyes immediately grew wide and Obi-Wan almost physically felt his sharp concern in the Force.
“What’s wrong Anakin?”
The young Jedi continued to stare at the readout for precious seconds before jamming in his code with surprising speed. The blue outline of a woman materialized.
“Thank the goddess you finally picked up!”
“Sabé? What’re you doing on the emergency frequency?”
In the half second it took for Obi-Wan to rack his memory and recall that this woman was one of Padmé Amidala’s handmaidens, a pained groan was heard in the background of the holocall. The handmaiden’s entire form seemed to sigh.
“Well, first off General and I’m sorry that this is the first time you’re hearing of this I swear to the goddess I told her to tell you months ago but she wanted to wait till you were home,” another groan. “Congratulations, you’re going to be a father,” another groan, “rather quickly it would seem.”
Obi-Wan spent the next two days aboard the Resolute staying with Anakin and trying desperately to ignore the Member-of-the-Jedi-Council part of his brain. His padawan spent hours pacing back and forth in front of the private holoterminal they’d secretly commandeered to keep in touch with Padmé’s staff whenever they had updates. At the end of the first day, Rex and Ahsoka turned up with blankets and sleeping mats to shove into the small ready room. When they left to acquire food for the pair, Obi-Wan was sure he heard Ahsoka mention something about winning a bet.
Very early into the next morning, the four of them were all there when a baby’s first cry rang out and Anakin himself started crying. Rex and Ahsoka actually cheered so loudly that they almost missed the sound of the midwife calling out.
“You’re not finished yet Senator.” They all whipped their heads towards the console.
“What?” Despite the horrible situation they had just endured and the utter insanity of their current one, Anakin almost sounded like his old self. It was Sabé who turned to address them.
“There’s another baby.” Her voice displayed the same shock Anakin’s had but with much more elegance.
Another fourteen minutes passed and Anakin was suddenly, and resolutely a father to not one but two incredibly healthy children. The two additional Jedi and clone captain felt intrusive as the new parents, both tired in their own way, named the boy Luke and the girl Leia. So they departed, leaving Anakin to spend the entire rest of their trip happily locked in the ready room, his presence in the Force far brighter than before.