Star Wars: A Long Drabble Ago

A Queen's Handmaidens

A/N: In which Sabé knows . . .

  Kneeling before the bench, she allowed herself to do something she so seldom did. She wept. Openly and freely, Sabé cried in mourning, in loss, in profound grief so great that only few really understood. Pain stabbed at her heart and the wound it left bled freely. Sabé doubled over in pain, her tears dripping onto the bench before her. She took a handful of the fresh flower petals and sprinkled them over the bench, picking up a bottle of oils and spilling that over the petals. "My queen," she cried, scattering more petals and spilling more oil and incense. "My queen, I hope I served you faithfully. I tried. I did all I could, Padmé."
  Padmé. Padmé had died. How it was even possible, Sabé didn't understand. She hardly even remembered being told, only that she'd denied it, been shown the body and fell to her knees, overcome with racking sobs. Obi-Wan had told her, she tried remembering the details and recovered this memory. She'd been at the Naberries' house, sitting at the kitchen table with Padmé's sister Sola, her husband Darred and their two girls Pooja and Ryoo. Ruwee, Padmé's father, had also been sitting with them. Jobal, Padmé's mother, had been in the kitchen when Obi-Wan had come. He'd asked if Jobal was there and Ruwee called her out. Yes, now it all rushed back to Sabé, every fine detail.
  "I'm afraid," Obi-Wan had started, ruffling Pooja's hair as she ran into the kitchen, laughing, Ryoo right behind her. "I've come with some awful news. This isn't easy, but I must tell you."

  "Well," Jobal had smiled gently at him, offering him a chair and passing him a bowl. "Relax, now, Master. You needn't worry. We're all friends here."
  "Jobal, you don't understand. This news is about Padmé. There . . . there was an attack on the Jedi Temple. Padmé was visiting with Senators Organa and Bibble when Palpatine sent clone troopers to attack. It was a massacre. They were killing all the Jedi. I'm afraid that . . . in the mess . . . Padmé was killed."
  Their minds had run over the simple sentence. They'd denied it by skipping around it by focusing on the other details. "Are Senators Organa and Bibble okay? Did they escape?"

  "Yes, yes, Darred. They did. But, again, Padmé didn't survive."

  And then it struck on them like lightning.

  She knew the others had given up. Rabé, Eirtaé, Saché, Yané and Fé had all given up, moved back to their respective homes elsewhere on Naboo, abandoning their handmaiden titles. They would try to forget her, Sabé knew, as they had tried encouraging her to do, but Padmé had been her closest friend and was not someone Sabé simply could so easily forget. She hadn't been sure what she ought to do now, but she knew she couldn't just move on. So soon, so fast, it would only hurt later. She considered staying on Naboo to help the Naberries, but Breha had called her, asked her if she wanted a job working for the Organa House on Alderaan and caring for a girl they'd adopted.

  "I heard about Padmé's death," the queen had told her, settling a hand on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how awful this must be for you."
  She'd accepted the job, packed her things and left Naboo quickly in the rush of things as chaos ensued and Palpatine declared himself Emperor on all the HoloNet channels. She'd said her goodbyes to Jobal, Ruwee and Sola and had arrived just after Bail had. Breha had, after a long private discussion with her husband, shown Sabé to her new room and gone back to Bail and the new baby.
  Now, here she was, kneeling before a bench, crying her sorrows out by herself. The Alderaanian viceroy had just returned and Sabé waited patiently to be called back in and given her new jurisdictions. When her comm finally rang, she jumped from her spot and hurried to meet the queen and viceroy. She found them in the living room, just the two of them, worry painted in their expressions, shown in the creases in their brows. "Queen Organa," Sabé announced her entrance, politely standing just behind the entry way. "You called me here."
  "Yes, Sabé," Breha smiled, motioning her to come in. "Thank you. Bail and I just thought we'd discuss the details of your new job here. We've adopted a child and we would like for you to act as a mentor when she's older. Plus, your services as a babysitter would also be appreciated. Our cook Memily has the time to watch over her, but hen she doesn't . . ."
  "Of course, my Queen."
  "Would you like to see her?"
  "Of course." Bail held a small child in his arms, a tiny baby with dark hair and eyes and, as much as she wanted to soak in her own self-pity, Sabé couldn't help but smile at the baby girl. And, for a moment, she idly wondered whether Padmé's child had been a girl or boy, but she quickly threw aside the idea to admire the precious girl in Bail's arms. He handed the girl to her and Sabé smiled at the child, rocked her gently when she started to cry. She put a finger to the child's hand and her fingers slowly wrapped themselves tight around Sabé's own finger. "How old is she?" Sabé asked. "She looks like she's just a newborn."
  "She is. And her name is Leia. Leia Organa now that we've adopted her."
  "She's beautiful."
  "Isn't she?"
  Well, a few years came to pass when the little girl had more of her own personality and Sabé couldn't help but love the girl so. Whenever she was around Leia, an odd feeling always tickled at the back of her mind, but she never thought much of it. Until, she really looked at Leia.
  "Sabby!" she heard a shrill scream from down the hall and quickly spun around to see little Leia dashing towards her, her arms held out to catch Sabé in a hug. "Leia!" She caught the girl in her arms and swung her around, carefully dropping her back on her feet. "Remember not to run in the palace. Now, what's all the screaming for?"
  Leia pouted her lips, crossed her arms and told her frankly, "It's Fess again. He won't leave me alone."
  Sabé cast a long look down the hall to Leia's bedroom and sighed. The poor girl had a stalker who followed her any and everywhere, but her parents seemed not to care or bother about the man much. "Still?"
  "He's sitting on the bench outside and, sometimes, he looks at me."

  "Well, I'm sorry, Lelila. Why don't we head to the gym downstairs where he can't look at you." Sabé took the small girl into her arms and carried her downstairs, grabbing a basket of Memily's treats from the kitchen on the way. Then, she sat Leia down beside her and the two had a feast of muffins and breads with Memily's delicious spreads.
  Leia, four years old and fiercer than any politician Sabé had ever met, carefully unwrapped a muffin's wrapper, scowling as her dark brown curls of hair continuously fell in front of her eyes. Impatiently, she blew them out of the way and growled when they fell back. With a laugh, Sabé reached over and pulled her hair back to begin braiding it. "Thank you, Sabé," Leia said.
  "You're welcome, sweetie." In all honesty, the older woman held a certain fascination for the little girl's hair. Dark, curly and soft, it reminded the once-handmaiden of her own queen's hair. It reminded her of simpler, better times when she and the queen's other handmaidens, all of them close as sisters, would sit in a circle surrounding their queen and do her hair, makeup, help her dress. Sabé's fingers stopped their work in Leia's hair as the memories inevitably started to play.
  She remembered first meeting Padmé, meeting the new Nabooan queen at her family's home in Theed with Sio Bibble. The young teenager had been standing in the living room as her older sister did her hair. Embarrassed, her cheeks had flushed. "Sola! It's fine. Thank you. Now, please stop."

  Sola laughed, giving her sister's hair one last touch before she let her go. "She has Mama's hair," she told Sabé and Bibble. "Long, curly and hardly tamable."
  And then, Sabé was sitting with Padmé in her own living quarters as the funny feeling Leia always gave her started to tickle her mind again. This second scene had been only several months before Padmé's death and the two had been talking about . . . simpler times. "I wish we could be little girls again," Padmé said with a smile. I wish things could be that simple again. I wish we could be here talking as little girls about our families when we're older, not about the war, right now."
  Sabé had laughed at her friend, taking the comment as a joke and plunging to say in a higher voice, "My daughter will be named Maré."
  Padmé had smiled at that, but kind of frozen as though she was taking the question seriously. "What about Leia?" she asked. "Isn't that pretty?"

  Breaking out of the reverie, Sabé noticed with a start that the tickling feeling in her mind was gone. And that tears were now leaking down her face, spilling onto Leia's hair. Leia.

  "Sabé?" the child asked. "Are you okay?"

  "Yes, Leia. I'm fine. Leia. Leia." And Sabé finished her work, hugging the child. "Has anyone ever told you that you have a very pretty name?"