"I better get back to the palace," she whispered to herself. Suddenly, a hand clasped over her mouth.
"Not yet you won't..."
She fought ot see the man. He had a black face mask on and a very deep voice. He reached into his pocket and a knife flashed in Amidala's face. She screamed as best she could through the man's palm. She opened her mouth wide and brought her teeth down on his hand.
"Ouch! Damn! Now that wasn't too nice!"
Amidala squirmed around as the man pulled her under the path and into a drainage pipe.
"Squirming around isn't going to help anyone. You can't escape from this so just-"
Amidala managed to tear his hand off of her mouth.
"Let me go! Please! Do you want money or-or...just what do you want?!"
He didn't answer. She saw him pull the knife down to the bottom of her dress. She quickly kneed him in the face and the knife cut her thigh.
"Jeez!" yelled the masked man as he tied a rope behind her hands and placed tape on ehr mouth.
As he prepared a rope for her feet she kicked him in the face. The knife landed on the ground. Amidala started to crawl out of the pipe. The man grabbed her foot and she leaned back, tiliting the knife upward. It sunk into the man's stomach and he quickly released her. She jumped up onto the path and knew the man would probably live until morning. She ran as fast as she could down the path. The cut in her thigh caused her to limp badly. Her cut dress slammed into her legs with every step. All she could think about was getting to Anakin.
Anakin Skywalker emptied his glass of juice and looked at the door. Amidala still hadn't shown up for dinner. Obi-Wan sat a few chairs down from him in the Royal Dining Hall. Anakin was facinated by the design of the palace. He looked up at the forty foot ceiling and wished Amidala would hurry up. Dinner was getting donw with and soon people would be retiring to their rooms and lounges around the palace. She was seldom late unless she was putting on a fancy dress of some sort. She had never been this late though. He took pride in showing people he cared about her. He stood up and walked towards the door.
"Anakin!' said Obi-Wan.
"What?"
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to look for Amidala," replied Anakin.
"Maybe she is sick or just didn't want dinner," said Obi-Wan.
"I'll just take a second," said Anakin.
He wasn't sencing that anything was wrong and apparently neither was Obi-Wan. His master nodded that Anakin could go look.
"Obi-Wan can really be a wet blanket," whispered Anakin to himself. He stepped into the hall and looked out the window so he wouldn't have to go outside. At first he saw nothing. Suddenly, something caught his eye. Someone was running, well, sort of running, towards the palace. It looked like Amidala but he couldn't quite make her out from so high above the street. He ran to the stairs and walked down each level to the bottom. At the east entrance he was stopped by a guard.
"It's getting late. People in the palace are only permitted out in the case of an emergency," said the guard.
"It is an emergency!" yelled Anakin.
"What?"
"No time to explain!"
"...Fine."
Anakin jumped out the door and ran along he path away from the palace. He could hear other footsteps too. Sududenly he saw a figure fall into the bushes. Anakin ran to the fallen person and discovered it was "Amidala!" Her face was red and she was bawling her eyes out. Anakin carefully pulled the tape off of her mouth and untied her hands.
"Anakin! Anakin!"
She was crying so hard Anakin could hardy make out what she was saying.
"Ami, calm down...tell me what happened," said Anakin in a quiet voice.
Her crying slowly calmed down.
"I was walking towards the palace and this man with a knife and a mask dragged me into a pipe under the path and tied me up and he cut me my leg and I managed to egt away and I accidentaly stabbed him. After awhile he caught up with me and tried again. He still didn't accomplsih much but he ripped my clothes and cut me some more. Then I pulled the knife out of his stomach and he's laying about a mile back," Amidala managed between sobs.
Anakin was shocked beyond belief. He wanted to ask if she was serious but knew she had to be.
He looked down and saw her ripped dress. She had a few small cuts. Other than that she wasn't injured.
"Anakin...please don't tell anyone!"
"Do you think that's a good idea?"
"Yes...people will just think...I don't know..."
Anakin understood. He could tell she was shocked. She had a tough time walking too. He was incredibly nervous. He put one arm on her back and another under her knees and carried her through a back entrance to the palace. With a little force pursuasion on the guards and people in the palace, they were in her room in no time. He set her down on her bed and kneeled next to her on the floor.
"How bad are your cuts?" asked Anakin.
She pulled up one side of her dress revealing her cut hip. Anakin immeditaly got up and soaked a towel. He knew she didn't want him to do it so he handed it to her and went to the other side of the room.
"Anakin..."
He started to turn around but didn't.
"Yeah?"
"I hope you don't think...well..."
Anakin walked over to her and found she had never started to use the towel.
"Ami...what would I think? What do you think? I think some idiot out there just hurt the smartest, funniest, nicest, most amazing girl in the world. That's what I think," said Anakin started to get carried away, "and you know what I've been wanting to say to that girl since I met her?"
Amidala's eyes twinkled.
"What?" she said so softly Anakin hardly heard it.
"I love you. I love everything about you. I just want to hold you tight and kiss you forever."
Anakin knew this was an awfully bad time to say this. He should be offering her ointment and bandaged and comforting her...not saying he loved her.
She slowly started to cry again.
"Anakin, I've been waiting so long for you to say that," said Amidala.
Anakin could hear his own heart beat.
"I love you so much, Ani."
Anakin paused and simply said, "Angel."
He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips against hers. Everything fit into place. They both felt so happy. They both started crying as they managed to keep kissing each other. Amidala pulled back for a second.
"I'll be right back."
Anakin saw her reach in the cupboard and put ointment on her legs. He knew she was going to slip out of that dress pretty soon so he got Obi-Wan on the comlink.
"Master...I have a situation? What's going on? You know what we talked about earlier. I think I'm going to make a fool of myself."
Obi-Wan started to get mad. Anakin hung up and saw Amidala walk out.
"Hey."
"Hey."
Anakin was amazed at the site. They both stared at the bed but neither acted.
"Do you have any idea..." asked Anakin.
"Not a clue!"
"Do we really need to do this?" they both asked at the same time.
"Let's take a rain check," said Anakin.
He turned towards the door.
"Anakin...I'm a little...shaken up and...well, scared. Could you please....sleep here tonight?" she asked.
"...Sure," said Anakin. They both got into bed and held hands through the night.