Who: Ben, wee Greg and Rosie, and Open to anyone at the Temple Where: Temple Garden When: Sunset, March 5th What: Meditating
Ben felt more relaxed on the station and on the island he somehow knew than he had ever done previously. Perhaps it was because he knew there was no way the Emperor or Vader could reach him. He was outside of time, and in a safe place. And since his time of returning to his own timeline was completely out of his control, he had decided that the best thing he could do was to accept things as they were and take the chance to rest (and to fix his ship).
Helping to move all the various things and creatures from the island to the station had only helped. Nothing that required hiding or running for his life or being shot at or trying to establish a fledgling rebellion or avoiding former friends and allies or any of that. Just physical labour and working with animals. It was wonderful, really.
Now he was sitting in the garden by the Temple, meditating as the sun began to set. The heat was warming, rather than the oppressive baking heat of Tatooine, and the Force was tranquil here. It wasn't still in turmoil after the deaths of thousands of Jedi a few years earlier. Meditating was a joy once more and he sank deeper into the Force than he had managed since before the war had begun.
And then he realised that he was not on his own. He gradually swam back up through the Force, and opened an eye to see who had joined him. He couldn't help but smile. A little boy was sitting in front of him, carefully picking blades of grass from beside him with one hand and chewing on the fingers of the other, and a dog was curled up behind him. The dog looked like it... she. She looked like she was asleep, but Ben knew she wasn't.
"Hello there, youngling," he said, opening both eyes now.
"H'lo," the little boy replied around his fingers, and offered him some grass.
"Thank you very much." The grass then began to float out of the little boy's hand, and started to spin slowly in front of him. This caused a lot of giggles and a few soggy hand-claps.
"More grass, Ben?" the little boy then asked, and Ben simply shook his head, no. Then he tilted his head to the side a little as he studied the child. He was one of Sunila and Jake's boys, that much was obvious, but which one?
"I have a puzzle, little one. Will you help me?" he asked, and continued when the little boy nodded. "You know I'm Ben. But I'm unsure of your name. Are you Jake? There are a lot of Jakes here."
He was answered with more giggles. "No, silly! 'At's my daddy!"
"Ah, I see. And you can't be Ben, because that's me."
"Uh-huh." The little boy got to his bare feet and padded over to stand beside Ben, grabbing hold of his old robes with a soggy fist.
"And you're not Kylo Ren, because he's much taller than you,"
"Yep!"
"So I think... you must be... Kytana?"
"No! 'At's my geegee! I'm Greg!" Greg could hardly speak for giggling now, and the dog (Rosie? How did he know that?) was wagging her tail at this point.
"Not Alex?"
"No!"
"Or Sunila?"
"'At's my mommy!"
Greg then put his hand on Ben's forehead and showed him a picture in his head. It was a fairly simple one, of himself sitting cross-legged instead of kneeling.
"Would you like me to sit like that instead?" Ben asked, and Greg just nodded, one hand back in his mouth again. Ben did as he was asked, and wasn't all that surprised when he suddenly had a lapful of Toddler.
"Who meditates like this with you, youngling?"
"Daddy. I sleep, he does what you do." Greg then yawned and squirmed about to get comfortable.
"That sounds like an excellent plan," Ben said, even as he reached out with the Force towards the other people who were at the Temple.