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•8•

Eight whole months had gone by with Padmé carrying her third child. She was now heavily pregnant, and every task was difficult, including cooking.

She was always busy at home because Anakin was always busy at work being a Jedi Master. He was gone a lot of the time, even more than he used to be.

Padmé attempted to lean down and get an appliance from one of the lower cabinets, but she struggled. She couldn't lean down far enough without hurting herself and the mixer that she was trying to get was too heavy.

Just as she was getting frustrated, someone laid their hand on her lower stomach from behind. It gave Padmé the chills. She knew it was her husband, and sure enough, Anakin was standing behind her in his Jedi robes and boots.

"Need help with that?" he asked. He reached down and lifted the appliance onto the counter, closing the cabinet.

"Thank you," Padmé said, forcing a small, exhausted smile. A stray curl fell from her headband and onto her forehead. She blew it from her face, but it fell back to where it was before. Anakin laughed and tucked the curl behind her ear, pulling her towards him. Her stomach created a small gap between them, but Anakin took his wife's face in his gentle hands and looked into her eyes. "You are so... beautiful," Anakin whispered. Padmé smiled a small smile as Anakin set his hand on her stomach. He felt the hard kicks that the baby delivered, and he laughed to himself. He had never really paid attention to how active the twins were before they were born.

"Daddy!" Leia said with excitement as she ran up behind her father. Her parents broke apart from each other, and as soon as Anakin turned around to look at his daughter, she grabbed onto his legs and wrapped her arms around them. Anakin smiled and pried her off of his legs, lifting her. "Come here, Princess." He kissed the side of her head. "How was your night last night?"

Leia shrugged while shaking her head at the same time. "I dunno. Good I guess. How about your night last night?"

"Eh. Okay. I got to teach some younglings."

"Why didn't I go?"

"Because, you went the day before that."

Before Leia could say anything else, Padmé interjected, moving to a different subject, "Leia, we need to fix your hair."

By the expression on Leia's face, Anakin could tell she was not looking forward to that. Right away Padmé put some sort of gel on her fingers, rubbed them together and carefully ran them through Leia's hair. "So, Anakin. Why were you gone last night? I missed you."

"Right. Uh, well... there was a threat at the Temple, and they advised the Jedi to stay there. I'm sorry I couldn't contact you last night. I turned my comlink off."

"Ani, how many times have I told you not to do that?" she asked. Leia's expression was twisted with pain. Her curls were getting pulled.

Someone let out a strange noise that seemed to be mixed between a groan and a gasp. Looking down the hallway and back towards the other rooms, Luke was discovered the one who made the noise. Good thing he looked happy.

"Daddy!" He ran out in his pajamas and slippers, and Anakin lifted him as soon as they reached each other. "Daddy, you're home! Why were you gone last night?"

"I had to do some things at the Temple."

"Mommy was sad that you weren't home. She was walking all around and crying."

Anakin knew that Luke could sometimes stretch the truth, being a four year old. He looked over at Padmé, and she smiled a little, as if she meant to say, I wasn't crying. I was... upset.

Anakin turned back to Luke. "Mommy was crying? How come?"

"She missed you!"

"Are you sure she was crying? Or was she really just... upset?"

Luke nodded, "Upset."

"Ah. That's what I thought."

Anakin and Padmé exchanged glances, smiling at each other. I knew it. I knew you weren't crying.