Disclaimer: All characters belong to George.


The steps he took down to the main level of the house seemed like an eternity. With each small step it seemed that he had lived his whole life, time after agonizing time. And then he saw her. She was standing at the foot of the tall staircase, wringing her hands slightly. She dropped her hands to her sides when she saw him, her expression unreadable. He was now the same level as her and stopped moving, taking in her beauty. He could have stood looking at her for a lifetime. He studied every detail of her face as if he was going to paint her from memory. He noticed that Obi-Wan had made himself scarce, mumbling something about fixing a droid. Padme finally blinked and looked away from him. Tears glistened in her eyes and one rolled down her cheek. Oh how he wished he could touch that cheek, wipe the tear away with his thumb as he had so many times before. It took every ounce of self-restraint he had in his body to keep his hands to himself.

"You know," she said quietly, looking away from him. "A year ago, if I were to make a list of things that were never going to happen, you Force choking me and becoming a Sith lord, abandoning your family would have been right at the top," she said, her eyes shining with more tears.

"Padme," he finally said, his voice coming out hoarse. "I…I don't know where to begin. I'm sorry." She pressed her lips together and shut her eyes, her head still turned so she didn't have to look at him.

"I only wanted to save you," he said, his voice quiet. He walked a little closer to her, testing his boundaries slightly.

"By almost killing me and then abandoning me?" She said, looking him straight in the eyes now. Her brown eyes were fiery, the tears replaced by anger.

"It was not my intention to do that. I felt that I had no one to turn to, not even you. You pushing me away made me crazy, it made me do things I would never do and am so ashamed of," he said. "It's not that I'm blaming you at all, this is my fault. I would have run from me too." Tears slid like raindrops down her face, she didn't try to hide them anymore. He felt wetness on his own cheeks too, but he still continued. "I hope that you believe me when I say that what I did will plague me for years, but I'm trying to make it better. I'm trying really hard. I want to restore the Republic, the Order. But mostly, I want to be in my child's life and yours. I don't know if you can ever forgive me, because I can never forgive myself, but I hope that I can at least be a presence for our baby." He reached out to touch her arm but the minute his skin came in contact with hers she flinched away from him as if his hand was white-hot. His heart gave a small, painful twinge. He should have expected as much from her.

"Anakin," she said, sniffing and wiping her face. She tried to regain control, hyperventilating slightly from her sobs. "I believe you and I could not support you more in your plans to restore the Republic. But I cannot be in a relationship with you," her tears began again when she spoke of their relationship. Her words stung, but they were better than what he had expected. He was anticipating more anger, less understanding.

"I always sensed darkness in you, but I never once believed you would turn on me," she said flatly. He bowed his head.

"You left your children, Anakin. The life we had planned all because Sidious manipulated you."

"Children?" he asked suddenly, looking up. She blinked, realizing what she had said. It hadn't been her intention to tell him like this-or really to ever tell him at all. If he was lying, she had just put the two most important people in the universe to her in great danger. She hesitated for a heartbeat before she finally decided that he already knew enough.

"I was pregnant with twins. A boy and a girl." Anakin's heart leapt, but he tried hard not to smile. He was speechless. Nothing made him happier than having a child, let alone two.

"Oh," he managed to say after a minute, attempting to keep his expression impassive. He knew it wasn't working, his grin finally coming to surface on his face. "What are their names?"

"I don't want to talk about this right now," she said dismissively.

"Padme," Anakin said, taking a deep breath to stay calm. "They're my kids too." She laughed. It was no the bubbly laugh that had always made Anakin's heart beat faster and smile for no reason. It was cold and merciless; he had never heard something so awful come from Padme.

"Your children? You haven't even met them," she said, practically jeering at him. Despite her laughter, she looked even sadder. He gritted his teeth. It was hard to keep the anger he had been so used to acting on under control, but he knew he had to if he had any chance with Padme.

"I want to try to make things better," Anakin said. "Can I meet them?" If it was possible, she looked even more miserable. She took a sharp, shaky breath in and rubbed her hand down her face.

"They're asleep," she said quietly, her eyes closed.

"I'll be quiet," he said hopefully. She opened her eyes long enough for Anakin to see them roll.

"Fine," she said, turning around and walking towards a closed silver door. He assumed that she was walking to the nursery, so he followed close behind her. The door slid open with a whoosh and Padme walked in, not bothering to see if Anakin was following her. Two cribs sat in the middle of the small, dark room. Because of his excellent night vision, Anakin could see that one crib was pink and one blue.

"Be careful of the toys on the ground, some of them make noise," Padme said quietly, picking a few of them up. Anakin looked down and noticed the multicolored toys on the ground. They were animals and small everyday objects designed to make sounds that were entertaining to babies.

"Let me," he whispered, picking up the toys with the Force and putting them in a small basket in the corner.

"Thank you," she said stiffly, briefly watching the toys gather together in mid air and float to the basket before walking over to the pink crib. She looked down at the small baby and smiled for the first time since Anakin had arrived. He cautiously walked up next to her, hoping she wouldn't stop him. His stomach flip-flopped when he looked down at the sleeping baby. She looked so perfect, so peaceful. Her small thumb was slightly in her mouth and her long, dark eyelashes rested on her pink cheeks.

"She's…" Anakin said, unable to pick a word to describe her.

"I know," Padme said softly.

"What's her name?"

"Leia," Padme said. Anakin smiled and reached down to stroke the small amount of hair on his daughter's head.
"I remember talking about that name. It was my favorite," he said, smiling at Padme. She gave him a withering look and shrugged, "I liked it too. It seemed to fit her." She adjusted the green blanket covering Leia and moved on to the blue crib. Anakin smiled down at Leia, wishing he could hold her. A blood-chilling cry erupted in the room. Anakin nearly reached for his lightsaber before he realized that it was the other baby. Padme picked him up and quickly walked out of the room. Anakin looked back at Leia to make sure she was still asleep and followed Padme, making sure to shut the door. He followed the sounds of screams and found Padme standing in the small, sand-colored kitchen, holding the baby to her shoulder and making shushing sounds.

"This is Luke," she said over the noise. "He doesn't sleep very well." She began swaying back and fourth slightly in an attempt to calm the screaming child. This had no effect on his cries except to make them a bit louder.

"Could I hold him?" he asked, practically yelling. She faltered for a heartbeat, looking him up and down. She sighed when Luke began pressing his head into her shoulder, his tiny fists grabbing at her hair.

"I suppose," she said, gently prying Luke's hands away from her long brown hair. "Be careful." She put him in Anakin's outstretched hands and the baby immediately quieted, his blue eyes looking in awe at the new person holding him.

"Wow," Anakin breathed, looking down at Luke in amazement. He smiled down at his son, who then smiled back at him, giggling. Padme quirked an eyebrow, "He likes you."

"He's great," Anakin said quietly. Padme couldn't suppress the happiness she felt at seeing her son finally in his father's arms. She realized too late that he could easily sense her feelings and did her best to block him out. However, he beamed up at her, realizing how happy she was. Her smile vanished and she glared at him again, crossing her arms.

"Padme, I'm sorry," he said.

"I don't want to hear it," she said angrily. "You can't just come back after doing such terrible things and expect me to support you or even be cordial to you." She took Luke from him after she noticed that Luke had peacefully fallen back to sleep and walked into the nursery, tucking him into his crib. Anakin followed her hotly.

"We're not done talking," he said.

"I am," she said, brushing past him as she walked out of the room.

"You have lived your whole life not hating anyone and you chose to start now with your husband?" he said as he walked quickly behind her. She stopped and turned to face him, anger radiating off of her. Though she was much shorter than him, in her anger she seemed to tower over him.

"No, I have never truly hated anyone before. However, I have never truly trusted or loved anyone as much as I trusted and loved you. I thought you felt the same about me," she said, her voice steady despite the raw emotions running through her.

"I do. Don't you see that my love for you pushed me into the darkside?" he asked, desperately trying to make her understand.

"So it's my fault?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"No, you know that's not what I mean," he said angrily. "You know my experiences with dreams. You know that I saw you dying in childbirth. I couldn't-," his voice cracked and he took a deep breath, pressing lightly on his eyelids. "I couldn't deal with you dying. You're my world, Padme," he said, his voice quiet. He put his hands on both of her arms. Thankfully, she didn't pull away this time.

"I never stopped loving you," he whispered, taking a step towards her and leaning down slightly.

"I," she said, stepping closer to him as well. She leaned up as he leaned down and their lips brushed together, lightly at first but then passionately. He put his hands on her hips and she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck, pulling him even closer. Suddenly she pushed him away, her face red.

"I can't," she said quietly. "I just can't right now." He was painfully reminded of the day so many years ago on Naboo when they had first kissed. The same bitter hopelessness nagged at his heart as he looked down at her, his hands at his sides.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed it," he said quietly, unable to mask the pain in his voice. She felt a twinge of guilt as she saw his pain, but she did nothing about it. His expression was that which one might assume when hearing of the death of a close friend. She resisted the urge to hug him tightly, as she had so many times in the past. Instead she hugged her arms around her and tried not to look at him, focusing her attention at a point on the beige wall.

"Will you at least help me reassemble the Republic?" he asked, deciding it was better to change the subject than to focus on the sore silence.

"Of course," she said quietly.

"So you'll go to Coruscant with me?" He asked. She sighed, "I suppose I have to. I have a lot of ideas as to how to restore it."

"I'm sure your ideas are better than mine," he said, half-smiling at her.

"Would we tell the public about our past relationship?" she asked.

"I don't know," Anakin said, grimacing at her point of saying 'past.' "I don't know if I'll be brought to trial, convicted or something. I don't want your career to be put in jeopardy or the kids to face a sort of danger."

"If I had any influence in it I would try to make sure you don't get tried for anything," she said.

"That's not fair. I don't want people to hate me forever. Maybe if I get punished like I deserve it'll help public opinion."

"You should wait and see how they feel once it gets out you killed Palpatine," she said.

"Oh, hello," Obi-Wan said as he walked into the kitchen.

"We were just discussing the Republic," Padme said.

"Yes, we should probably talk about the Order as well," Obi-Wan said, glancing at Anakin. He saw the flash of anger in Obi-Wan's glance and hung his head.

"I'm going to go to sleep," Padme said. "We'll discuss more-at least about the Republic-tomorrow."

"Goodnight," Obi-Wan said, smiling at her.

"Night," Anakin said. She nodded to each of them and quickly left the room.

"So, which Jedi are left?" Anakin asked quietly.

"Not many. The Empire did a good job of exterminating them," Obi-Wan said pointedly. Anakin visibly flinched, biting the corner of his mouth.

"I'm sorry," Obi-Wan said, seeing Anakin's face.

"No, I deserve it."

"Will you still be a Jedi?" Obi-Wan asked. Anakin laughed mirthlessly, "I don't think that would be allowed."

"Very few are left. The ones that are are mostly masters who may be…sympathetic," Obi-Wan said, stroking his beard. "I would certainly vote you back in."

"Why?"

"Because you've obviously reformed. Yes, you destroyed the Order but you're also building it back up, which is something no one else could have done. You killed the Emperor and thus the Sith."

"Well, I agree but will anyone else?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." They sat quietly for a few minutes, Anakin thinking of what might happen to him. Would he be arrested and tried? Would he ever become a Jedi again? And, most importantly, would Padme ever take him back?

"She's missed you," Obi-Wan said, practically reading Anakin's thoughts.

"What?"

"Padme. She's missed you desperately, despite her attitude now," Obi-Wan said. "We would sometimes talk about you. Each time she insisted that there was still good in you. She was right."

"I'm glad you think that," Anakin said slowly, not really sure what to think himself.

"I hear her cry every night."

"She doesn't seem to want me back now," Anakin said bitterly.

"She's just stubborn, you know that better than I. She's afraid of getting hurt again, it's going to take time," Obi-Wan said knowingly. Anakin smiled at him, giving a questioning look.

"We've had some pretty in-depth talks," Obi-Wan admitted. Obi-Wan smiled slightly as he saw Anakin's face darken, "I know what you're thinking. It never got past friendship-not even close. She loves you too much."

"Will you go to Coruscant tomorrow? I need to go back. I'm a little afraid of some of Sidious's supporters catching wind that he's been killed and I have no intention to carry on his regime."

"What are you going to say?"

"Well, tomorrow I'm going to officially announce his death. Say that Tarkin and the other advisors killed him and I was forced to execute them."

"Simple," Obi-Wan said skeptically, his eyebrow quirked.

"Very few people want to question me," Anakin said darkly, his fist clenched. "But it would be easy if I weren't there, which is why I need to get back."
"You can sleep here but I'm afraid we don't have any other beds," Obi-Wan said impassively.

"Floor is fine," Anakin said. "I remember sleeping worse places during the Clone War."

"Indeed," Obi-Wan said, looking at his hands. "I suppose I'll go meditate and then sleep. Goodnight." Anakin nodded and watched him leave. It wasn't that he expected them to take him back with open arms, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Padme was his wife, the one person in the world who was supposed to support him and love him no matter what. She was hardly speaking to him now. Why couldn't she just take him back? She obviously had feelings for him still; he could sense it. Plus, he wasn't the only one who went for that kiss-even if she had pulled away. Her feelings for him were still definitely there. That wasn't the issue, though.

"How could she ever be with someone who's so evil?" that nagging voice in his head said. He pushed the unwelcome thought out of his brain. She had ignored her more rational, political instincts before when she had married him in the first place, but would she do that again? He sighed and looked around. The room was nearly identical to the kitchen in the house he had grown up in. Though it was standard Tatooine design with sandy beige walls, a small table and chairs, and basic appliances, it had little things reminiscent of Padme's house on Naboo. Small holos of Luke and Leia were in a pile on the table. Brightly colored paintings and small tapestries decorated the plain walls. Red and orange placemats sat in front of each chair on the table and pink shimmering candles were placed in the middle. The doors had intricately designed curtains over the openings. There was no doubt that Padme was trying to make this into as much of a home as she could. In a way, it was comforting that she was still the same person he remembered her being, always trying to make the best of bad situations. He picked up the pile of holos and flipped through them slowly. He felt a twinge of guilt in the back of his head as he saw the twin's images. Where he started, the babies were as they were now, six months old. They were sitting outside on a purple blanket in the sand. The moving picture showed them laughing as Artoo spun in circles around them, beeping musically. As he went through, he seemed to be going backwards in time. Luke and Leia got younger and younger. He smiled sadly as he realized how much of their short lives he had been absent for. He had never had a father himself and Padme becoming pregnant was completely unplanned-but the few times he had thought about what would happen if they had kids he had hoped that he would be a good father. He'd been a pretty bad one so far, he thought. He flipped past a holoimage of a sleeping Leia and nearly dropped the whole pile in surprise. Instead of Luke and Leia, he saw an image of himself smiling up at him. The holo-Anakin was standing on the balcony in Varykino that he and Padme had been married on. The sun was setting in the background, turning the sky a beautiful shade of orange that seemed to glow. His arms were around Padme's waist, hands crossing over her stomach. The hologram Anakin would alternate looking at whoever taking the picture-he assumed it was C-3PO-and down at Padme, who was beaming up at him. Slowly, he remembered when this picture was taken. It was a little over a year ago when Anakin was on leave from the war. They had ten days to themselves, but Obi-Wan had pulled Anakin away early to search for Asajj Ventress. This was back when her love for him shone like a star in the sky. He thought it could never burn out. He smiled wryly as he realized that this must have been around the same time Luke and Leia were conceived. In many ways, this was the beginning of the end of his old life. He yawned and put the holos down, rubbing his eyes. He made a mental note to look at the holo of them when Padme was around; he was interested in her response. He walked into the small living room, which was connected to the twin's room. He could feel Padme's Force signature in the room next to them. Someone had left a folded blanket and pillow on the floor for him. It must have been Padme because it was folded so neatly-Anakin remembered that Obi-Wan was never one for tidiness. He unfolded the blanket and lay on the floor, positioning the pillow underneath his head and arranging the blanket over himself. The pillow was firm, the way he liked it. It made him a little happier telling himself that Padme must have remembered this preference and given the pillow to him accordingly. He tried to make himself relax and he shut his eyes. Sleeping had been a challenge lately. After nearly an hour of trying to calm his noisy mind, he was in the realm of half-sleep, half-consciousness. He was lying in soft, green grass looking at up a blue Naboo sky. Something was rustling around him and saw that it was Padme running through the grass toward him. She was wearing a flowing yellow dress that came off of her pale, smooth shoulders.

"Ani," she called, smiling at him. He opened his mouth to call out to her but was jolted awake by a baby's cry. Panic swept through him as he imagined the type of danger his children could be in and he bolted into the room. He immediately relaxed when he realized no one was in the room. The cry was coming from the pink crib. Leia was bawling so Anakin picked her up gently and took her out of the room.

"Shh, Leia," he said, rocking the baby. "What's wrong?" He couldn't tell what she needed. Desperately trying to think back to the holobooks on parenting Padme had given him, he went through everything it could be. She wasn't hot, didn't need changing and didn't seem to be calmed by him holding her.

"She's hungry," Padme said. He hadn't heard her come into the room and nearly jumped in surprise. It was rare that he let his guard down so much he couldn't sense someone's presence.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"I can tell," Padme said, taking the baby from Anakin and going into the kitchen. He followed her and watched as she took a bottle of blue milk from the cooling chamber and fed Leia.

"I was looking at the holos," he said quietly, gesturing to the square images.

"Oh, yeah," Padme said absently, smiling down at Leia.

"I liked the one of us."

"That was so long ago," she said coldly.

"Not really," he said, moving closer to her. She glared at him, still holding the bottle to Leia's mouth.

"Yes, well, I barely remember that," she said, her expression growing icier. His face fell. That was one of the best times of his life and he knew it was hers too. She knew how much saying that would hurt him.

"Oh," he simply said. Without another word, she walked out of the room. He heard a door whoosh open and closed three times, meaning she was back in her room and Leia back to sleep.