From The Ashes//anidala

5

FROM THE ASHES

Chapter 5

Padme awoke to the sounds of broken glass. She sat straight up in bed, thinking someone had busted through some of the glass windows. She turned on the light, but didn't see anything broken. She noticed that Anakin was not in the bed beside her and got up to go look for him. She found him in the kitchen, down on all fours on the floor, fumbling for and picking up pieces of a broken dish. She went to him, helped him to his feet and put her arm around him. "Careful, you'll cut yourself.What happened?"

"Since it's just the two of us here, I was going to try to set out some breakfast for you. I thought I could do it, I was wrong."

"Anakin, it's four in the morning!"

He turned away from her voice, a look of total despair on his face. "I thought it was daylight. But I guess I can't tell anymore. I used to at least be able to tell dark from light, now I can't even do that. Whatever they did to my eyes I don't think it helped, it hurt. I'm blinder now than I was when it first happened." His head hung down, and he failed in his attempts to hold back his deep sobs. "I can't get used to it, Padme. I never will. It's terrible. I hate this... endless dark."

Pained to hear this, she stared into his eyes, the clouded corneas over the once beautiful blue beneath. "I'm taking you to the med center today." She demanded.

"Oh, no, no more of that, I've had enough of being prodded by droids, being told bad news. Just let me stay here and hide, forever." She put her arms around his neck. "I want what's best for you, and that's to come to the best med center in the galaxy."

"Oh, I get it, you still hope I can be 'fixed', you don't want a blind, burned husband with bad lungs.."

She put her fingers over his mouth. "It's not like that at all! I told you I love you no matter what's wrong with you. But I love you enough to try to help you if there is a chance.."

"There isn't, they told me.."

"Let's give this center a try, please?"

"Oh, okay, I am helpless and at your mercy, you and Obiwan can drag me around on a chain.."

"Anakin stop that! But I will use a chain if it's the only way I can take you there. It's too early now, come, let's go back to bed."

"Yes, my master, I submit myself to your will, my master." He mumbled, and she couldn't help but laugh.

Later that day, she and Obiwan took Anakin to the largest med center on Coruscant. The droids then applied their own brand of treatment to all of his burns. Next, they examined his lungs. "The burns have left scars in there, too, would you mind trying a new kind of treatment for your lungs? It is quite uncomfortable."

Anakin was agreeable. "Not as uncomfortable as having to carry around that monstrosity they gave me at the other place, or the horrible breathing exercizes I have to do when I use it."

The specialists at the Coruscant medical center were upset Anakin had not been brought there first. Obiwan had intended to go there, but went to Naboo in fear of trouble at home that turned out not to be a threat after all.. The specialist droid looked into Anakin's eyes and shook his head metal head on his narrow pole of a neck. "There is so much scarring, if we had gotten to him immediately, he'd be healed, but now, I am afraid it's too late." Anakin was devastated by this, as were Obiwan and Padme. The hospital on Naboo had done the wrong thing, and now the chance to save his sight was gone.

Anakin couldn't stop the tears from coming. "You're telling me, I could have been healed, but now, there's nothing you can do?"

"I am sorry Master Skywalker. I can try to give you our special treatment and see if the scarring clears up any, but once it's this far gone, it's usually too late."