Palaces, Promises
"She was… very beautiful," Leia reminisced in a far away voice, staring into the shadows of Endor's forest moon, unmindful of Luke's questing gaze. "Kind, but… sad…"
Day after day, the sun kept shining, the grass whispered softly, the mountains glistened like crystals in the blue sky. Every day, Bail Organa dealt with the trappings and politics his inherited status had given him, barely having time to notice such things.
It was only when he was back in the marble-bound halls of his home that he could relax.
"Daddy!"
Leia hit him right above the knees, nearly throwing him over before he regained his balance and swung her up in his arms, making her shriek in delight. "Daddy, Daddy!" she exclaimed as he swung her gently back down to the floor. "What's 'doption?"
What a question to receive his first moment home. "Why do you ask that, Princess?" he asked with a smile, trying to hide the worry her question induced.
Her response was even more startling. "I found a paper," the dark-haired five year old replied importantly. "It says 'doption for Leia, but I couldn't read more."
Thank goodness for that.
"Was I 'dopted?"
Never mind.
"Leia," he began, slipping his hand into hers and leading her down the hall, "you know what adoption is, right?"
She nodded promptly. "It's when the daddy and mommy send their baby to live with someone else."
Well… "Yes, that's true," Bail admitted, "but what else do you know?"
Leia frowned, the motion scrunching up her little face in an adorable pout. "Do I have to know?"
Bail chuckled. "No." Stopping in the middle of the hall and crouching down to look her in the eye, he told her, "Yes, you were adopted. You know that means Mommy and I aren't your real parents, right?"
Leia nodded. "Mm hmm. My mommy had brown eyes." She pronounced it 'bwown.' "She was pretty, too. And sad."
Bail nearly stopped breathing in shock. "Who told you that?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Know it," she replied cheerfully, then skipped off through a door to find her mother, leaving him shocked in the middle of the hall.
Leia couldn't possibly remember – she had only been a year or so old at the time, after all, but again she was a Jedi's daughter – when her mother, wounded by a shot that should have hit him, lay dying on her sickbed. She had been so calm, even though her death seemed imminent and her survival would uncover her façade as Sabé, Breha's handmaiden of the same time Leia had been with them. Bail never could have guessed that faking her death would mean he had to cover her true one.
She had only been worried about leaving Leia behind, and had requested the little girl be brought to her. Leia had been half asleep at the time, rubbing sleep-filled eyes before looking into her mother's. Then she had reached out one tiny hand to touch her face.
Padmé Amidala Skywalker died the next day.