WHAT IS REAL

XLVII

Vader rushed through the house and up the stairs to their room. The sight that greeted him was not a good. Padme lay on the bed neither looking at anything nor seeing anything. Her hair, that was usually soft and full of curls, was matted and stringy. Her usually youthful skin was pasty and as pale as death. Jennifer came in with some soup and gasped when she saw him but she suddenly burst into tears. "I am so sorry, My Lord. I can not help her. I have tried but she just lays there barely eating only sleeping. I can not wash her hair any more. She is too weak to hold herself up. Can you help her?"

"I will try, Jennifer." he said so softly she barely heard him. Then he turned to look at her and saw that she too was pale and fraught with worry. "You go to bed now. You will not have to care for Padme again until I leave."

Jennifer knew she was dismissed though Vader never actually told her to go. She was glad to leave the room, though later she wondered at the fact that Vader did not seem angry with her. He had seemed almost distraught as he was looking at Padme.

Vader sat down beside Padme and took her hand in his. She did not respond. He kissed her hand but still nothing. "Padme, can you look at me?" he asked in a tender voice that he had not used in long time. Still nothing. Vader crawled in bed with Padme and because he was travel tired he soon fell asleep.

He woke up in a different room though. At first he did not know where he was but he soon figured out that he was at the lake house in the bedroom he had slept in before he and Padme had been married. Why am I here of all places and how did I get here? Vader wondered. Padme was no where to be seen, but he heard noises outside the house so he ventured from the bed and went out to the porch. What he saw really confused him? The sight that greeted him from the porch was a very young Padme and a boy Anakin. 

They were engaged in conversation, but the strangest thing was that Watto's shop seemed to have come outdoors. It was nothing but the counter with Anakin sitting on it and Padme standing there, but he would recognize that place wit his eyes closed. "By the force, what is going on here?" Vader yelled.

"Well I should think you of all people should know what dream was, Vader." Vader jumped at the voice almost as much as he jumped at who said it. Qui Gon.