Author's note: This is my first Star Wars fic in a LONG time. I hope you enjoy- reviews are always welcome :)
Téreó (v): From the Greek word τηρέω, which means "to observe; to watch over somebody".
She watches silently, because it's all she can do.
She doesn't feel the dry heat of Tatooine, she sees it in the sweat on the young man's brow. Padmé knows that nobody can see her. Her heart sinks at the thought. She moves, though she's not sure how, towards the baby in the arms of the young man's wife. Padmé wants nothing more than to hold her newborn son just one more time, but she knows she can't. She knows that Luke is safe in his Aunt's embrace. She reaches out to touch the thin tuft of downy hair on her son's head, and he squirms in his blanket. Could he feel that? Padmé feels the smallest flicker of hope at the thought.
"Luke," she whispers, as she leans down to give him a kiss. She feels herself pass through Beru, and Beru shivers. Padmé sighs slowly. She backs away a little when Beru's husband wipes the sweat from his brow and comes to join his wife and nephew. Oh, how she wishes she could raise Luke herself, but Padmé knows that now, her son is in good care. She knows she should leave and let Luke grow up on his own, but she can't break her gaze from the child. Her child.
"Luke," she says again, louder. Nobody hears her. "I love you."
She thinks she sees Luke squirm again.
"I never wanted to leave you," she continues. "I saw your face, and I fell in love. You are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I just didn't have the strength to keep my eyes open. Luke, I'm so sorry."
Luke's wide, blue eyes stare back into hers.
Padmé's heart breaks all over again.
Every day, she watches him grow.
Every day, her heart breaks more and more for the boy who will never know her.
In the daytime, she watches him play in the sand and pick the insects off the plants. She wipes his tears when he falls and scrapes his knee, and she always kisses it better. In the night, she sings him to sleep, and she always make sure to watch over his dreams.
Her little Luke is growing up so fast.
Many years have passed, but time no longer has a meaning to Padmé. Luke has rushed home to find his house burned to the ground and his Aunt and Uncle lying outside, dead. Padmé saw it coming, but the fact has no effect on the pain she feels for Luke. She watches him as he stands there. She knows he can't believe what he's seeing, and she would do anything to trade places with him.
And even though she knows Luke won't feel her, she wraps her arms around him. Her son is the only one she can touch without passing through, and at this moment, she is more thankful for that than ever. She buries her face in the nape of his neck, and runs her fingers through his sandy blonde hair. She senses the hopeless feeling inside his chest, and she squeezes his hand tightly.
"I'm still here," she says. "They're gone, but I'm not."
She knows Luke doesn't hear her.
"Luke," she whispers. "don't feel hopeless. For the love of the Force, please don't give up. Go with Ben, wherever he wants to take you. Trust him, Luke. I do."
She sits in the corner of the cockpit silently, all the way to Alderaan.
The first time she ever goes to Bespin, she sees him. Luke's father. She quells the rage that bubbles up inside her, and decides that she will do whatever it takes to help her son win this fight. She knows that Luke has no idea who the man truly is, but he will soon find out. And she'll be there for every second of it. She tries to push past the man she once called her husband, but now she's not so sure if he's a man at all any more. She floats through him, and shivers with disgust at the hatred in his heart. But there's something else there, something she never thought he'd feel. It's almost like the love Padmé feels when she looks at Luke. Even so, she tells herself, there is no way she is letting Anakin get to her son.
When he tells Luke the truth, Padmé wants to scream. And she does. The terror she feels inside Luke nearly tears her apart, and when he climbs out the very edge of the pole, she wraps her arms around him protectively to keep him from falling down the bottomless pit of Cloud City's core. She fights the urge to kill Anakin when Luke's hand, still gripping his lightsaber, falls thousands of feet down, never to be recovered.
"It's not my job to kill him." Padmé tells herself. "It's my job to protect Luke."
Padmé's pleased to see that Luke's cybernetic hand is working. He was so brave during the procedure, and she couldn't be more proud. She silently thanks the medical droid on board, and gives Luke a kiss to the top of his head. She watches him in adoration as he heads for the window and puts an arm around the princess.
"Leia," Padmé says with a smile. Her daughter has grown so beautiful, and Padmé falls in love all over again.