Secrets and Suspicion (Book 1)

An Urgent Request

Anakin closed the front door with his foot, taking Padmé's face in his hands and kissing her. Clearly, they weren't aware or didn't care about Ahsoka, Luke and Leia all sitting in the living room down the steps.

"Want to say hi to Mommy and Daddy?" Ahsoka asked the twins where they were all sitting below the stairs in the living room.

She picked both up in each arm and walked over to the bottom of the steps leading to the front door. "Or we can say hello to Mommy and Daddy kissing?" Ahsoka said. "Hey! Master! Hello?"

Anakin took his lips off of Padmé's and lifted his head. "What?"

"We wanted to say hello to you guys! Right Lukey and Leia?"

They smiled, and Luke laughed.

"What's so funny, little dude?" Anakin said, walking down the stairs.

"Oh, he's probably just laughing at the lipstick stain on your cheek!" Ahsoka pointed out.

"What?" He reached his hand up to his cheek and wiped it. Sure enough, his glove now had light pink lipstick on it. Of course, he thought. The one time she wears lipstick.

Padmé walked down the small flight of stairs, coming up behind Anakin.
"Thank you so much for watching over the kids, Ahsoka."

"Don't mention it, Padmé. I love to." She looked between the Anakin and Padmé. "So, have you guys not seen each other for a while, or..."

"We have," Anakin said, taking Luke from Ahsoka.

"So why-"

"When you're married, you'll understand," Anakin said, glancing at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's supposed to mean, when you're married, you'll understand."

"Oh, so you're encouraging me to break rules of the Order."

"No! No, no, don't be like me. Seriously, don't."

"He's a bad roll model, so yeah, I would suggest to not do the things he does," Padmé admitted.

Anakin handed Luke back to Ahsoka and walked over to the couch, jumping down on it. He laid down on his back. "Ahhh," he sighed. "I haven't done this for a while."

Padmé smirked. "Yeah, right."

"What? It's true that I haven't relaxed in a while."

She walked over to him, in front of the couch, looking down at him.

He looked up at her. "Can you take your lipstick off?"

"Why?"

"Because. You're not at work anymore, and it tastes weird."

"Fine. Whatever, I'll take it off." She walked to the bathroom, and two minutes later, she was back. "Better?"

"Way."

When she least expected it, he wrapped his arm around her back and pulled her down forcefully, trying to scare her. She screamed. "Ani!"

"C'mon, I'm just having a little fun."

"That scared me!"

"I know." He pulled her closer to him. He kissed her cheek. "I love you," he breathed into her ear.

"I love you too." She turned around to face him, their faces close. She was on the edge of the couch, but Anakin moved her and they switched sides. Padmé turned her head to kiss him, but there was a loud thump noise, and crying followed it. Padmé shot up, and Anakin fell to the floor, making another loud noise on the floor. "Ah," he groaned, cringing. Padmé jumped over the back of the couch, and ran to Luke, who had bumped his head into the wall while trying to walk. Padmé leaned down and picked him up. Ahsoka and Leia were in her room playing.

"Aww, are you okay, Lukey?" Padmé kissed his small forehead, comforting him.

Anakin propped himself up on his elbows, holding his one hand over the left side of his stomach.

When Luke was better, and his sobs had subsided, Padmé walked over to Anakin. At first, she thought he was joking around. "Anakin, what are you doing on the floor?" She walked close enough and saw his face. He was cringing, his teeth gritted.

"Anakin, are you okay? What's going on?" she asked, panicking and seeing his hand cupped over something on his side. His bullet wound. She just remembered. "Take your hand off of your injury."

He obeyed, and when he did, his glove was bloody and so was a patch where his wound was.

"Anakin..," Padmé spoke tremulously.

"I know," he said in a pained voice.

"Ahsoka," Padmé called. "Can you get the stretcher from my ship? Quickly."

"Yes, ma'am," Ahsoka emerged from her bedroom, carrying Leia out and placing her on the floor next to Padmé.

Padmé put Luke down next to Leia and leaned over Anakin, breathing fast. A whiff of her flowery scent rushed towards him. "Anakin, please, be ok."

He gave her a small smile.

"How can always find happiness during pain?" she said, a tear running down her cheek.

Ahsoka pushed the stretcher in, and she and Padmé did their best to lift him into it. They pushed it out of the house and into her ship. She had instructed C-3PO to watch the twins briefly.

Once he was in the ship's bed, the medical droid started tending his wound and the diagnosis.

After 10 minutes of waiting patiently, Padmé listened to the droid explain the diagnosis. Ahsoka had gone back inside to check on the twins and the two droids.

"The General will be able to recover in a week's time. It seems that he suffered a bullet wound, and that there was some kind of infection in the wound. This may have been caused by the type of blaster. A 3966 poisonous rifle is what it would have been. There are germs that can cause a terrible disease that are carried in the lasers that are shot. Here is the medicine that he will have to take daily, day and night." He handed Padmé a box of the vaccinations. "Some symptoms of the medicine could be a high fever, extensive bleeding in the wound area."

"Thank you."

"To stop the bleeding, it is easy. You just simply blot it with a towel, and it will eventually stop."

"Yes, thank you so much."

The droid left Padmé and Anakin in the ship. All of the sudden, Anakin's eyes fluttered open from his resting. "What's going on?" he asked, touching a hand to his head.

"Everything's okay, Ani."

"What happened?"

"You have an infection from that bullet wound you got. It's easily curable, though."

He let out a deep breath. Padmé leaned over and kissed him. "Want to go back inside?"

He nodded and got up, cringing.

"Are you okay?" she asked with a worried look on her face.

He nodded again and walked down the ramp with Padmé to the balcony.