Secrets and Suspicion (Book 1)

Emergency

Anakin deflected battle droids' shots furiously with Ahsoka alongside him. They were back on Felucia fighting Grievous. Anakin felt like every battle they fought was against Grievous now.

"Ahsoka! Be aware of your surroundings!" Anakin yelled over the blaster shots. The lasers shot back and forth towards each other, lighting up the night sky.

"I know!" Ahsoka replied.

The blue blade of his lightsaber deflected several shots, bouncing back and hitting countless battle droids.

"I can't take this any longer! Can't we just move forward?" Ahsoka pleaded.

"Patience, Snips! I'll give the signal when we can push on!"

"Anakin, where are you?" Obi-Wan's strained voice came through his comlink.

"50 clicks to the East from the rendezvous!"

"Good. That means I'm about 5 clicks away from you! I'll be there soon!"

"Sounds great!" Anakin said, swinging his blade.

"Steady!" he said, directing his troops. "Now!"

They all sprinted toward the Separatist troops, lightsabers swinging and slashing battle droids. Obi-Wan's troops came close behind.

There were several small groups of battle droids left, and now all that was left was a few small Separatist shuttles.

Anakin ran to the nearest one, and Ahsoka ran to the one not far behind it. Troops shot at the shuttles, but no damage was done.

"Blast it!" Anakin yelled. "These are ray shielded! "Ahsoka, taunt the droids inside so they'll pop the hatch. After that, you know what to do!"

"Got it, Master!"

After a minute, the droids in all of the shuttles opened the hatches and the Jedi jumped in and disabled the shields. When they jumped out, troops shot at them so that they couldn't be used again.

Anakin's comlink beeped and he ran behind a tree where it was a bit quieter. He held his lightsaber in front of him while it hummed quietly. He clicked to answer.

"Anakin," Padmé's voice came through.

"Padmé!"

"I need you to come, right now," she said breathlessly.

"What? Why? You know what, who cares why? I'm coming!" He clicked off and ran out from behind the tree, towards Rex.

"Rex! Send reinforcements! There's something in Coruscant that I have to tend to!"

"Yes, General," Rex obeyed. He lifted his arm and spoke through his comlink.

Anakin jumped onto a gunship, reaching up and grabbing the handle at the top. He gazed off into the sky of blaster shots, the sliding closed. Sweat trickled down his forehead and he leaned against the wall, drumming his fingers.

The pilot looked back, expecting directions on where to go, and Anakin saw him.

"Coruscant," he said.

The pilot nodded and drove into a Jedi Cruiser. Admiral Yularen awaited him.

In 5 minutes, he was up where Admiral Yularen was. "Admiral, we need to get this Cruiser into hyperspace, now!"

"Activating lightspeed." Admiral Yularen commanded the clones on the lower deck to do as he said.

All of the stars outside of the windows turned into blue streaks as lightspeed was activated.

"Coruscant is our destination; Oddball reported. Is that correct General?"

"Yes, it's correct," Anakin hissed. Sweat continued to trickle down his forehead.

"Are you all right, General Skywalker? You seem a bit on edge," Admiral Yularen remarked.

"I'm fine," he snapped.

Admiral Yularen turned back towards the window, curious about Anakin's temper, though he was used to this sort of behavior from him. So rash and reckless, he thought.

***********************************

"Breath, Senator," Riyo Chuchi comforted Padmé.

Padmé was unable to contact anyone else, and Riyo was one of her closest colleagues. Ahsoka hadn't been available. Riyo wasn't the type of person to ask who the father of the baby was, but Anakin would be here soon. But his recklessness would be likely to get the best of him. He would probably not even pay attention to who else was in the room, and kiss Padmé or something.

"R-Riyo," Padmé stuttered.

"No, Senator, don't strain yourself to speak," Riyo said soothingly. Her strong accent was calming.

"No, I need to tell you something. I... the father is a Jedi. My husband." The words felt weird on her tongue, my husband.

Surprisingly, Riyo didn't seem too shocked.

"I... I hate to say this, but I suspected that you and General Skywalker were closer than everyone thought. Remember when those bounty hunters invaded the Senate building? When he woke up, he made a small gesture that... well, that gave it away."

Padmé weakly laughed. "He's bad at that..." She started to whimper in pain again.

"Se-" Riyo began to say.

Just then, Anakin sprinted into the room. She was lying in their bed.

"Padmé!" He kissed her on the lips. "Angel, I came here as fast as I could."
He turned around and saw Riyo. "Senator Chuchi?" His face turned bright red. "What are-"

Padmé cried out in pain again. Anakin whipped his head around, and Riyo rushed to her other side.

"Her water broke!" she reported.

"We need to get her to a medical facility, now! Riyo, I'm not gonna ask, but I'm sure you know the deal here by now. Get help!"

"Yes, sir."

He turned back to Padmé. He leaned forward and put his hand in something wet. He groaned and shook his hand out. He picked her up carefully, and he almost fell over; she was not nearly as heavy as before.

He groaned again. "Shh, you're gonna be okay." He kissed her forehead.

She continued to sob.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you, too," she breathed.

She took a deep breath, and then passed out.

"No! Padmé!" Anakin took her delicate face into his hand. "Padmé! Wake up! Padmé, don't leave me..." A tear trickled down his cheek, and he sat down on the edge of the bed, with her limp body draped in his arms. He held his head low, feeling hopeless.