Back From the Future: Episode VI The Clone Wars - Ariel_Sojourner

Anakin is Frequently Interrupted and Padme's Furniture is Appropriated

LXXXIX.

When Threepio opened the door to 500 Republica, Anakin did not stop to greet him, but immediately rushed inside calling anxiously for his wife.

Padme at first thought she was hearing things. As her due date approached she sometime thought she could hear Anakin calling for her, but when she looked around he was never there. When she came out of her bedroom searching for the phantom voice this time she found she could actually see him. For one moment, Padme feared that she missed her husband so much that she was now imagining his physical presence.

He reached for her and took her face carefully in his hands, staring at her in wonder.

"Anakin?" she asked in astonishment. He was real. He was home. This wasn't her imagination. She would never imagine him looking so worn, pared down to just muscle and bone, on edge, like he was ready to snap at any second.

Resting his forehead against hers, he whispered, "You're alive! You're safe and alive. Oh, thank the Force."

"Of course, I'm safe," she assured him, hugging him tight, not sure what was going on. "I'm safe and you're here," she said resting her head on his shoulder and then stiffened in realization. "You're here," she repeated again in bewilderment. "How are you here? The Chancellor said you were on the Outer Rim leading the siege at Cato Neimoidia." Anakin avoided her gaze. She put two and two together. "You left? You left your post? Anakin, what's going on?"

"I've—I've been having dreams, visions, like—like with my mother," he confessed brokenly. "I didn't know what to do. We were ordered to stay out on the Rim, but I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. I had to come. You're in danger Padme, the children are in danger. It's not just a dream. I had to come," he said urgently.

She knew that look in his eyes. She knew what it meant when he had dreams. She had been there when he returned from the Dune Sea carrying Shmi's body. This was serious. "Of-of course Ani, of course. What did you see?" She asked in growing dread.

Anakin shook his head, unable to even give voice to the horrible visions. Padme took his hand and led him over to the couch and they sat together.

After a long moment, she asked, "Does anyone know that you left? Does Obi-Wan?"

His eyes flashed in a way she hadn't seen outside of battle, certainly never here, never at home alone with her. "Obi-Wan is on some mission for the Council," he said bitterly, but then a small smile tugged at his lips. "Ahsoka is in orbit with the Dauntless and the Negotiator."

"The Dauntless?" She said in growing realization. "Then—"

"I have help," he said as if hardly believing it. "I didn't come alone. The 501st and Luke, they're here too. They're securing the building. Ahsoka got ahold of Master Plo and he is on his way with the 104th. They know about the dreams. They believe me. They want to help me save you."

She reached out and stroked his hair, trying desperately to calm him. The tone of his voice scared her. "Anakin, save me from what? From whom? What did you dream?"

"Kix is here and we've got a medic droid. I'll comm him to come up. We need to get you checked and then, if there's still time, we need to move you someplace safe, get you off planet." He brightened unexpectedly. "The midwife on Naboo knows we are on our way. I even drew up a birth plan. There's your favorite candles, the ones that smell like the flowers on Naboo and music--"

"Anakin I can't just leave," Padme interrupted. "You've been away for so long, you haven't heard the news. Anakin, we've got the votes, we finally have the votes! Tomorrow we're going to vote to end this war, to open negotiations with the Separatists and stop all the fighting. It's taken me months to get enough support to override the Chancellor's military authority on this, but I can do it. I can get this to end and then we can go to Naboo together and we'll have peace. We'll finally have peace."