Title: HSU: Snapshot Moments
Author: Julia
Rating: TAG (teeth-aching G for sap)
Archive: sure, I'll send the txt
Follows: Laure's Vampire fic? Anything, really
Dedication: to The Wench, just because. The muse hopped in here this morning and dropped it, giggling. Go fig. ;)

~*~

Qui-Gon looked a bit suspicious as his gaze tracked from the envelope to the grrl standing in front of him bouncing on her toes, waiting rather impatiently.

"You aren't trying to blackmail me, are you?"

"Quigs!" Julia exclaimed in annoyance. "Open the bloody envelope." She rolled her eyes at him and continued bouncing, making faces at Cara who giggled. "C'mere you, and let Papa open the envelope."

Qui-Gon relinquished his daughter to the Ho, opening his mouth to lecture her on how to hold a baby, only to close it again when he saw she was more than capable of doing that just fine, thank you.

The Look she gave encouraged his decision.

Lecturing Ho's was a dangerous business, but he was Qui-Gon Jinn.

He had negotiated treaties with Hutt Spice Lords. He had fought in space battles against pirates. He had squared off against draigons. He had been the Jedi Order's finest swordsman!

He had raised three padawans and knew when it was prudent to just...be.

This, then, was truly why he was called..."Mastah".

Well, except by Dande, but that's a *whole* other story, now isn't it?

"Where's your bellybutton?" Julia widened her eyes in mock surprise as Cara gurgled, hands flapping in excitement. "There it is!"

This was a side to the grrl he hadn't seen. He almost stared as she gave a motorboat kiss to the baby's neck.

Cara chuckled then proceeded to drool all over her shirt -- and part of Julia's -- in duplicating the lip-vibrating sound.

"Hmm...Cara darlin...we'll work on that, yah?" Julia looked down at her now wet shirt with a mild grimace. "Good thing I don't go for those designer labels." She gave Qui-Gon another Look. "Yo, Quigs? The envelope?"

Ah, the envelope. Qui-Gon nodded and turned the manila envelope over to push up the flap.

"Don't get your fingers all over them. Looks like you two were out in the garden, maybe..." She made another face at Cara who gave a baby grrl shriek that was guaranteed to deafen anyone in a two mile radius. "Whoa..." Julia blinked. "Picking berries?" She had forgotten that small babies had Large Lungs.

"Hmm? Ah, yes, Wishpuff is partial to berries in her breakfast." The Jedi Master smiled fondly. "And Cara and I had to sample them to make certain they were ripe enough."

"Of course." The Ho nodded knowingly.

Qui-Gon absently wiped his hand on his shirt, leaving a smudge, then pulled the contents of the envelope out. "Oh...."

Image after glossy image; of himself doing a kata in the garden, hair loose and shirtless; of Dande laughing, face upturned to the sun; of Cara sitting on her father's shoulders, gleefully pulling his hair; of Dande and the Diva, heads close together as they dished in the garden; Obi-Wan and himself wrestling on the grass after the younger Jedi had teasingly called him old; another of Obi-Wan and himself, arms around each other in comfortable cameraderie; a family shot of himself, Dande and Cara taken at some HSU event.

The last one was of Qui-Gon and his two former padawans. He stared at it for a long moment before looking up and shaking his head. "When... Where did you...?"

The Ho shrugged, offering a secret smile. "Saw you three after some sparring, male-bonding thing, and that was the *only* shot of you three all smiling, standing together that came out." Julia shifted Cara to a hip and flapped a hand. "Xani is a pain in the..." She remembered Cara, and edited on the go. "Pain in the gluteous and opened the darkroom door when I was processing them."

Qui-Gon arched an eyebrow in a very familiar way, leaving Julia to wonder, did the padawan teach the master that, or...?

"You stapled him to the wall, I hope?"

"Yes, and spray-painted him from the neck down with red so that maybe, just maybe, he'd remember that a red light means 'STOP'."

"Ah.." Qui-Gon grinned, carefully replacing the photos back in the envelope. "I suppose a red light does mean something else to him. Perhaps he got the idea?"

"Hasn't been back since." Julia grinned, kissed Cara's berry-stained cheek and passed her back to him. "Back to Daddy, poppet." She waggled her eyebrow. "Kilted man at two o'clock!"

She was gone before Qui-Gon could do more than open his mouth.

Bother. Wishpuff would ask him if he said thank you...

"Cara, perhaps if we were to pick a bouquet of roses before we went in to distract your mother?" The baby gurgled her approval.

She liked pulling the colourful petals off!

"Well then." He kissed the top of her head. "Off to the gardens with us!"

~*~ Finis