Author: I'm just playing around with these. I hope you have as much fun reading them as I had musing over them. Oh, yes. Padme is...slightly different. I do it for a good purpose, I swear! I hate how weak they make her seem. She has to have some backbone if she was a Senator and a Queen, damn it.

Padme was, to put it mildly, pissed.

'Fall in love with me, kiss me, have sex with me, marry me, all fine and good. But you will not abandon me or your children.'

She had left Luke and Leia in Obi-Wan's care so that she could hunt Anakin down and make him accept responsibility.

Which was the reason she was stalking down the corridors of an Imperial Starcruiser being snarled at by officers and regarded impassively by the Stormtroopers. Doors opened in front of her and she involuntarily took a step back against the closed doors. It wasn't the sudden starkness or the mass of people working the controls that made her uneasy. There were two people standing a ways in front of her, both exuding a sense of power and malignance. Her eyes narrowed and her stomach dropped to her heels. She wasn't so sure about this...

An image of Luke and Leia's faces swam up into her mind and she glared at the two people. Her children would not grow up not knowing their father. She looked more carefully at the two people swathed in black, had either a) not noticed her or b) were ignoring her. She came up with a crude, uncivilized, but highly effective and embarrassing plan. She took a deep breath, and the ghost of a satisfied smirk tugged at her lips.

"ANAKIN SKYWALKER, YOU WILL ACCEPT YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES AS A FATHER AND COME HOME TO YOUR FAMILY, ASSHOLE!"

The taller of the two figures before her jumped and whirled around, and whispered a harsh,

"Padme?"

She was momentarily frightened, but the body posture of awkwardness, chagrin, shame, and anger (not at her, thankfully) told her that the man encased in the imposing black suit was indeed her husband.

"Yes, Anakin. It's me."

There was a long pause filled with longing and tension. Anakin turned around and decked the man-

'Palpatine,' Padme thought in distaste-

who was standing beside him.

"Liar!" He snarled and whipped out his lightsabre, igniting it, his body vibrating in rage. How dare he lie to me!

Padme strode up next to him and placed a gentle but firm hand on his arm, and shook her head.

Anakin lowered his lightsabre with apparent regret, and turned it off. Padme turned and began to unceremoniously drag Anakin towards the door. He regained his stride quickly, and walked next to Padme.

"I thought you...?"

"You definitely did try to murder me, and it was a close call." She looked up at him, rebuke in her eyes and voice. "But...I couldn't leave out children alone."

"Children?"

Padme smiled faintly. "Children. Twins. Their names are Luke and Leia." Her voice was soft, gentle, and loving, and her hand relaxed on his arm.

Anakin smiled, excited to see his children, but almost froze in mid-step when he experienced a horrifying revelation.

"Padme..."

She looked up at him, confused at the sorrow in his voice.

"Yes?"

"Luke and Leia...they'll never know what I really look like. All they'll ever see is...this," he said, his voice filled with disdain and anguish.

Padme smiled wryly. "I think they'll learn to love you, you brute, no matter what you look like." There was a pause, and with rebuke in her voice, "If you fulfill your duties as a father and husband."

"Are the children with you?"

"No, I left them with Obi-Wan."

She felt Anakin stiffen in anger and she stopped in front of him, blocking a doorway.

"That's another thing. I will not allow there to be any tension in that house. Not with the babies there! You and Obi-Wan will make up. Or else I toss you both out on your own, and never allow you to see your children again."

She was bluffing, but the subtle change in his body posture assured her that he would try. She knew it was going to be a difficult, tense situation, but she would make it work. She would not have the two men she felt closest two constantly bickering and on the edge of violence. She turned on her heel and the doors to the hanger opened before her and she and her husband entered the bay, the doors closing behind them, cutting off the confused looks of the commanders and clones.