Return

•4•

"Anakin!" Padmé screamed as she plummeted to the sand. He leaned over the edge, trying to jump out, but Obi-Wan was yelling at him and keeping him on the gunship. She reached her arm up towards him, but hit the ground with a sickening crack. After that, everything was black.

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

Anakin paced the hallway in the medical center quickly, awaiting his wife's reappearance.

"Anakin, please sit your rear end down on a bench. Your pacing is driving me up the wall," Obi-Wan instructed.

"I won't have everyone tell me what to do. I'm a Jedi Master."

"I am too, and Master Yoda tells me what to do. Just sit."

Anakin obeyed, yet still tapped his foot quickly. The med droid stepped out of the room to confirm she was okay to see.

Anakin shot up from his seat, but Obi-Wan interrupted.

"Anakin, just one thing. Don't tell her anything too personal. She'll become scared easily."

"What do you mean?" But as soon as he walked in the room, he found out.

The droid explained that the Senator lost her memory. They didn't know if it was temporarily or permanently.

Obi-Wan and Anakin stepped towards her slowly, but she scooted back in the bed as far as she could. Anakin noticed her wrists were banded to the sides of the bed.

"No! Stay away! Stay away!" she cried.

That was her exact reaction when he had come home after the three years he had been gone. Anakin shook his head. "We're here to help you, Senator," he insisted.

"Senator? Who's a senator?"

"You are."

Obi-Wan excuses himself quietly from the room and exited.

"I am? No. I can't run a galaxy," she cried.

"You don't," Anakin said. "Senators don't do that." He walked forward and kneeled next to her. "I'm your Jedi protector."

"Jedi?"

"Yes. We're on your side."

Her eyes remained wide and she stared into Anakin's. He couldn't shake the feeling it just wasn't her. "Jedi aren't allowed to love," she said.

"That's...correct."

The medical droid removed the IV from her arm and disposed of it.

"You act like she's a prisoner. Take the wristbands off," Anakin said. The droid wouldn't respond, so he cut them himself and freed.

"What's your name?" she asked as she rubbed her wrists.

"Anakin Skywalker. Your name is Padmé Amidala." He helped her up from the bed, and at the next thing he noticed, his heart stopped. Padmé screamed.