Office hours [all day]

[sith_happened]

Anakin had thought he'd hit "post entry" three hours ago was in his office today, rereading "What to Expect When You're Expecting."

He remembered the last few weeks of Rory's pregnancy being, well, more filled with kidnappings the last time.

Weirdly, that wasn't in the book!

The door was open.

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[brat_inslayage]

So for Kennedy, it had been a pretty kickback day in her office-- checking in on the Cleveland contingent, brainstorming training ideas, planning a trip to track down a couple of newly-located Slayers in the area over the weekend, all that. Then Andrew had started bombarding her with questions about Fandom and alternate realities, which had only been mildly annoying until it turned into one-sided (guess whose side) speculation about knowing other people's futures.

That had touched a nerve and also reminded her of something she'd been meaning to do, so she stopped responding to his emails, got up, and headed down the hallway.

"I think I might kind of get the weirdness that is being a Skywalker in Fandom now," she said without preamble, standing in the doorway.

[sith_happened]

Anakin glanced up with a small smile. "How so?" he asked.

[brat_inslayage]

"Timelines," Kennedy answered shortly. "Remember that whole lesson you did about what to do if you know someone's future? Turned out to be way relevant."

[sith_happened]

Anakin winced despite himself. "How so?"

Someone saying those words in that tone generally didn't follow up with, "And they married the idiot anyway."

[brat_inslayage]

"Oh, more ways than one," Kennedy said in a light tone, the lack-of-weight-ness of which sounded like it took some effort. "Like the Xander from Fandom asking me to warn himself, when I met him, about crazy priests going after his eye."

She leaned against the doorframe. "Which he still has, by the way. One hand, not so much."

[sith_happened]

"Ouch," Anakin said sympathetically. "Been there."

[brat_inslayage]

"You--" Kennedy glanced toward his hands, assuming he meant he had a prosthetic now, and raised both eyebrows. "Wow, they don't make replacements anywhere near as good in my world."

[sith_happened]

Anakin decided to skip the whole "and also I'm a clone" thing. "Well, lightsabers," he said instead. "There's a lot of amputations."

[brat_inslayage]

"Kinda figured," Kennedy replied. "Which is why I was going to ask if you knew who I could hit up to get him a decent replacement."

She didn't say it was because it was basically her fault, but the sense of guilt was fairly readable.

[sith_happened]

"Of course," Anakin said. "I'll put you in touch with my son, who has his own prosthetic hand."

And whose fault was that, Anakin?

[brat_inslayage]

"Thanks... oh my god, it runs in the family?" So not the most tactful thing Kennedy could've said, but at least she realized it and looked apologetic.

For a moment, anyway.

"I remember," she went on, because she'd been thinking this over for a while, "you asking us what we'd do if we knew how someone's future was going to turn out. And I remember you asking me if I'd try to save Tara's life with that knowledge, if I knew something was gonna happen to her. So now I gotta ask if you picked that example at random."

[sith_happened]

Anakin looked slightly abashed. "It might not have been the most hypothetical of scenarios, no."

[brat_inslayage]

"You knew." Safe to say Kennedy didn't sound happy about that. "When you asked me that, you knew. I thought it was harsh hypothetically, but man."

[sith_happened]

"It got you thinking about it without me having to be explicit," Anakin said. "But I'm very sorry it happened in your timeline."

[brat_inslayage]

"Yeah, finding that out was..." Kennedy's jaw tightened for a moment as she looked down at her feet, then back up stubbornly. "Doesn't change my answer, you know. Actually I feel kinda validated."

[sith_happened]

"Good," Anakin said. "I don't try to judge the answers unless it was along the lines of putting babies on spikes. I just wanted you to be able to think before reacting to some of life's more challenging situations."