In the Arms of the Angel
The bacta patches itched, but Padmé resisted the urge to scratch at ther back and arm. She knew the healing fluids had to work their magic and considering all that she had gone through, she was fortunate to have walked away only needing a few patches and care for the bruises and bump on her head she suffered falling out of the transport. Poor Obi-Wan had been in a bacta tank for his lightsaber slashes, while Anakin...
The young Senator winced. She had been with Anakin when he got the news that even the vaunted Jedi healers were unable to save his arm. He'd only nodded to the healers, but with his remaining hand, he gripped hers tightly. "I'm here for you," she'd whispered to him. How much could he take, losing his mother and now this? "You have to be strong."
"I am strong, Padme." He'd looked at her with ice-blue intensity.
The young Senator paced the med center hallway, awaiting word of Anakin's condition. The door to his recovery room slid open and a 2-1 medical droid stepped out of the doorway. "Jedi Skywalker is able to receive visitors now," the droid said.
"Thank you." Padmé anxiously went inside. The door closed behind her, leaving her and the young man reclined on a medical pallet completely alone.
Anakin was moving and flexing his cybernetic replacement, staring at it with fascination and bewilderment. Since he wore only a set of long sleeper pants, Padmé could see where the replacement neatly fit into a cuff on Anakin's arm, just above the elbow. He then looked up to see his visitor. "Padmé," he said with surprise. "I didn't think they'd let you in so soon..." He quickly put on a med center issue robe, obscuring most of his new arm.
"Ani," Padmé said, coming up to the pallet. She gently caressed his cheek and leaned over to give him a warm, deep kiss.
Instinctively, he reached up to embrace her with his natural arm, until he felt the bacta patches on her back. "I'm sorry, I should be more careful," he said, moving his arm back down to his side.
"No apology necessary, my love," she said, smiling at him warmly. She sat down beside him on the pallet and reached out to stroke the metallic fingers peeking from beneath the robe's wide sleeves. "Don't be ashamed," she whispered. "All that matters is to me is that you're alive and we're together." The relief that washed over his face almost broke Padmé's heart, as though he'd worried she would not love him anymore with the cybernetic arm.
But she had given up fighting her feelings back on Geonosis. There was no going back. She knew what it could cost them both to love a Jedi Padawan but she had come to realize denying her love would cost them more.
Taking a deep breath she asked, "Would you like to accompany me home to Naboo? As my protector and more?" She looked at him directly in the eye. "I know Master Obi-Wan probably has to give you permission, but I think it would be good, for the both of us." Anakin needed time to heal and...she needed to be with him.
He grew pensive as neither spoke for several moments. "What's going to happen after that?" he finally asked.
"To us?" she asked. "Or the Republic?"
"Perhaps I meant both. I know you believe in peace, Padmé, but I think the time for diplomacy has ended. There will be a war."
"I know," Padme said with resignation. "You'll be in the thick of it, won't you?"
Anakin nodded. "You'll have your duties. It pains me to have to leave you alone because you're still a target of the Separatists, especially now. It pains me to be apart from you at all."
"Me too, Anakin. But what can we do?"
"I have a duty to the Jedi, you have a duty to the Republic and your people. But we also have a duty to each other." Anakin held Padme in his gaze and took her hand in his real one. "Padmé, I don't know how long this war will last and I don't know what will happen to either one of us. But if something does happen, I want to die belonging to you, heart, body, and soul."
Padmé's amber brown eyes widened. "Anakin..."
"Master Obi-Wan knows how I feel about you. He wants me not to give in to what's in my heart, but I can't do it. I won't do it. I know the Force has brought us together and that's above any Jedi rule."
"I know that now, Ani. Love is beyond any rule."
Anakin got up from the pallet and to her suprise knelt before her, his eyes fixed on hers, looking as nervous as she'd ever seen him.
"Then will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Will you marry me, Padmé?"
Padmé's breath caught in her throat. Not long ago, Padmé would have dismissed his proposal as impossible, even dangerous. But those were in rational days, when one could afford the choice between love and duty. Things were different now and in these times, when it was abundantly clear life was too uncertain, one had to act from the heart and not from the intellect. Padmé's heart wanted more than an affair with Anakin; she wanted something deeper, purer. Something that would properly honor their love.
"Yes, I will," she said, her eyes brimming with tears. He rose to his feet, embraced her, and they kissed, her tears mingling with his.