Chapter Seven: Evasive Maneuver

It did not take Anakin long to reach Padmé's apartment. He was driven to a frenetic pace by this slowly increasing sense of dread. He knew something horrible was about to happen, and he knew he couldn't stop it. The only thing he could do was get away from it, and fast. This was the only time in his entire life that he wasn't totally in control, and it antagonized him to no end. But he never had the chance to worry about it, and question whether his life was fair, because he was too concerned for Padmé's safety.

Thankfully, it was nearing midnight when Anakin reached the apartment, and Padmé was never at the Senate building at such a late hour. Especially now that she was pregnant. She worried more for the baby than she did for herself, but even she knew that, if she didn't care for herself, she was doing even less for her unborn child. So she slept as much as she could, and ate more than ever, and surrendered much of her work in the Senate into the hands of her assistants and handmaids. She was more than ready to let others take up the political field, and so was Anakin.

As such, Padmé was just settling down on the couch for a late-night holo-film, comfortable in her nightgown and robe, when Anakin's speeder came to a stop on her private landing deck. He had to walk through the entirety of her apartment in order to reach her, so he had enough time to get calmed down. He pushed his hair back from his forehead, where it had fallen without him knowing it. He straightened his tunics and brushed a hand quickly down them to make sure they were in place. Not that Padmé ever cared how his clothes looked. Then he forced his face to relax and told himself to speak in a relaxed, controlled voice. The result amazed even him.

"There's been a change of events," he said calmly as he strode into the room where Padmé was. She looked up from where she sat, unalarmed, as his voice and posture had given her nothing to be alarmed about, and only slightly perturbed by his words. "We're leaving Coruscant tonight. A sort of… extended vacation. I think we both need one." He tried to smile, and apparently his attempt worked, because Padmé laughed softly.

"And what of the Jedi?" she asked, standing up slowly and coming to wrap her arms around him. "Won't they know you're gone?"

"Obi-Wan knows about us, Padmé," Anakin said in a soft voice, kissing the top of her head. "And we just told Master Yoda."

Padmé looked up, this time clearly alarmed.

"It's alright, my love," Anakin smiled, trying to reassure her. "He's guessed, or known, all along. He's happy for us. And disturbed. He advised me to come back and take care of you. And I think, to do that, we should leave Coruscant." His brows narrowed slightly as he looked at her, giving her very little room to maneuver. "Tonight."

"Now Anakin," whispered Padmé, trying to bring a voice of reason into his increasing insanity. "I can't just up and leave. I need time to prepare. It would be unsightly. Plus the Council will want to know about you. Master Yoda and Obi-Wan don't make up the majority, you know. It's not like either of us to do something like this. Unless you have a good reason."

"I do," was Anakin's hurried reply, and he dropped his pretense, startling Padmé by the frantic look in his eyes and his tone of voice. "I know something is going to happen. Something bad. One of us is in danger. Or both. Or all three of us. Come on, Padmé, I know I'm right, and I know there's nothing I can do about it. Please, please just listen to me. Come away. Or I'll carry you out of here myself, with nothing but the clothes on our backs. Please, Padmé, believe me."

For a very long moment, they just stood there. Padmé stared long and deep into Anakin's eyes, believing him more and more as she did so. Anakin, in turn, tried as hard as he could to calm himself. He took several hard swallows before Padmé let in a breath and stepped back from him.

"I believe you, Ani," she whispered, then she brushed past him and started toward their bedroom. Anakin felt his heart start to beat again as he turned off the holo and secured the room. Then, as Padmé packed her bags, he went through the entire apartment, securing doors and windows, putting things away, and backing up the security cameras, after which he disabled them. He didn't concern himself with the packing. What few changes of clothes he had were right there in Padmé's closet, and she would see that they were packed.

When the apartment was secure, Anakin set about to locate a ship for them. It would not do to take Padmé's personal skiff, as it would be recognized nearly everywhere they went. If someone was after them, which he knew was the unsettling truth, they would find them all too easily that way. So he set to work on one of Padmé's datapads, to see what other form of transportation he could find. It would have to be a subtle ship, plain and unadorned, but fast, and with a clean hyperdrive. Price wasn't an issue, but Anakin knew they'd have to go cheaper. If they paid a lot of money for a piece of scrap metal with chipped paint, he knew it would do as good a job as if they'd taken Padmé's skiff from the very beginning.

When Padmé's bags were checked and re-checked, and finally closed and locked, Anakin had already located four vessels that fit his criteria. He'd called the owners of all of them to get the docking numbers and to make sure they stayed in dock until he arrived. That way, if one ship didn't work, he'd have backups. The idea was, if everything went well, they wouldn't have to wait around for a good ship to come along.

If you can honestly call these hunks of junk 'good', thought Anakin dismally, suddenly missing his personal starfighter, and trying hard not to think about it.

"I'm ready," said a voice, tired and slightly irritated, and Anakin lifted his head and met Padmé's eyes, exhausted and bloodshot. It was late, and she'd not even gotten a wink of sleep.

"You'll get sleep, love," smiled Anakin, reaching for her and rubbing her back comfortingly. "As soon as we get out of here, you can sleep as long as you want."

"I'd better," sighed Padmé, then forced a small smile to match Anakin's. "I do trust you, Ani. I'm just tired, that's all."

"I know," he answered, then handed her the datapad to put into her safe keeping and picked up the bags. Padmé called for Threepio, who had spent the past couple hours grumbling about how he simply couldn't understand human behavior, and told him to follow Anakin. Then she unplugged Artoo from the charging socket, where he'd been stocking up on enough power to keep him going for months, and directed him after Threepio, then took one last around her apartment, trying not to brood too much, and followed them.

Anakin swallowed his impatience, knowing how hard it was going to be for Padmé to follow him on this crazy trip, and waited for her as she made her way toward the speeder. With one last glance at the veranda where Anakin had contemplated his dream the night before, Padmé swallowed hard and turned away. It was the hardest thing she'd ever done, but when she saw Anakin smiling at her, hand extended to help her into the speeder, her heart beat a little faster and she felt the thrill she often did when off on an adventure. And she returned the smile and took his hand.

The spaceport where Anakin led them was crowded even at such a late hour, a fact he was glad of, because it showed that they weren't the only crazy ones out there. He parked the speeder in a dark, secluded area of an underground parking garage, far from where the docks were that held the ships he had an eye on. He half wished someone would just steal the speeder, or that Captain Typho would find it and know enough to keep his mouth shut. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to know it was Anakin Skywalker's speeder, and Anakin cursed his popularity when that thought crossed his mind. He picked up the bags and pushed that thought away, knowing he could do nothing to prevent it, and followed Padmé as she started on the long walk to the first space dock.

The first ship they saw was a beauty, but not to look upon. The paint and body problems were perfect for their guise, and the price was as dirt cheap as you could go for a ship, any ship. But the hyperdrive sputtered and choked, and given even a few hours, Anakin could have gotten it in working order, but they didn't have a few hours, even for that, so he had to pass.

The second ship was in slightly better condition than the first, but not by much. It's hyperdrive, too, was an older model in perfect working condition, but Anakin knew too well how precarious the older hyperdrive models were, and he couldn't be sure how well it would handle lightspeed, so he had to pass on that one as well.

The third was better than the first two. Padmé was impressed by the fact that it wasn't missing any parts on the outside, or even had that many dents, and that the inside actually had comfortable accommodations. Anakin was impressed by the fact that the hyperdrive was in perfect working order, recently cleaned, and was stronger than many he had seen. The only reason it was being sold for a dirt cheap price was because the primary shields had the tendency to flicker, and the autopilot didn't work. Anakin knew he could fix both, either while in lightspeed or once landed. It wasn't an issue, as long as the ship could get off the ground and get them into lightspeed.

"We'll take it," he said, laying down the designated price in cash, so it couldn't easily be tracked, and the deal was made.

While Anakin started up the ship and made sure all the systems were in working order, Padmé disappeared into the rear section to arrange their things. They only had four bags. Two were filled with Padmé's clothing, cosmetics, and other such things, with Anakin's clothes folded neatly in a spare corner. The third bag had odds and ends from Padmé's apartment that she simply couldn't bear to leave, along with important papers and several datapads. She wished she could get some things from her parent's house on Naboo, but Anakin had insisted that they stay as far away from Naboo as possible, and she had to agree. It just wouldn't be safe.

Then the fourth bag. It hadn't needed packed. It already was. It was a collection Padmé had been putting together through the duration of her pregnancy thus far. And it was probably the most selfish thing she'd done her entire life, which was a fact that made Anakin smile and made Padmé blush with pride.

This fourth bag was comprised entirely of things for their baby. Whenever Padmé had had the chance, she would go shopping. Something had always told her to do this. Maybe it was the war, and how it had everyone on edge. She sometimes wondered what might happen, but that was impossible to do, since anything could happen. And therefore, she thought it might be wise to have things together for the baby, simply if things didn't turn out as planned. She never knew what that might look like, until now.

So now there was an entire bag just for the baby. There were blankets and cloth diapers, since Padmé never could get her head around using disposable ones. There were little one-piece outfits, and shirts and pants, and plenty of little socks, and four pairs of shoes, and everything had been bought with the utmost care and thought put into it. Padmé knew the baby would grow, and planned the clothing around that knowledge. Therefore, she had a good supply of newborn clothing and outfits that would fit a larger baby as well. She was very proud of her planning techniques. Anakin couldn't understand it.

Then, among the clothes, there were bottles and pacifiers and little squeaky toys, which Anakin had eyed skeptically when Padmé first showed this bag to him a couple days earlier. And a warm wool hat, and a little teddy bear, which had been Padmé's when she was a baby. And there was a front carrier for mobility, and a specially designed hammock for the baby to sleep in, so Padmé needed worry about buying a crib, and if there is anything I might have missed, rest assured it was in that bag. Or, at least, that's what Anakin's opinion was. And, of course, there was an emergency delivery kit, which Padmé had gotten on the off-chance that the war would force her into a situation which was barely suitable for childbirth, and in that situation, she'd find herself in just such a predicament. Anakin had felt a twinge of fear upon gazing at that item, and wished they'd have access to medical facilities, as much for his benefit as for Padmé's.

With the four bags, Padmé had a small bag of her own, with anything and everything they might have need for on their trip. There were permits, datapads, false identification cards which had helped them before, and, of course, food, for Anakin. Thankfully, when Padmé stepped into the galley, she found enough food to last them both for a little while. But she wasn't hungry. Not when she was about to drop dead from exhaustion. So she continued her search around the rear section of the ship, while Anakin revved the engines and called out his preparation for takeoff. She barely heard him.

Then she stepped through a doorway and found herself in the Captain's stateroom. The bed was big enough for two, and that's all that mattered. Wishing only to test whether or not it would do as a bed for her and Anakin, Padmé lay down and stretched out. She let out a great, contented sigh, felt the ship lurch forward, and was immediately asleep.

Anakin had no need for Padmé's assistance in the cockpit. Artoo was serving as his copilot, with Threepio ordered into the back to shut down, as he had become a nuisance. There had been no challenge as the beat-up hunk of metal left the atmosphere around Coruscant, and as soon as they were clear, Anakin mumbled a string of wishes under his breath and pressed the hyperdrive lever. The ship didn't take it smoothly, but it took it, and held it, much to Anakin's surprise. Then he let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, nodded toward Artoo, checked the systems one last time, and retired to the rear of the ship, where he set about to find Padmé.

When he found her, Anakin couldn't help but smile. Padmé was fast asleep, curled up on the bed in the Captain's stateroom, her cloak still on, clearly forgotten in her exhaustion. And she still had her shoes on, too, which made Anakin chuckle, since she was always getting on his case for putting his boots up on her nice clean bed. But the worn-out look on Padmé's face was enough to sober Anakin up instantly, and with a loving smile, he sat down beside her and carefully pulled her shoes off, setting them aside.

"Ani?" asked a sleepy voice. "How long until we get there?"

"Several hours," he answered, leaning down to kiss her cheek as he unbuckled her cloak and pulled it off her shoulders. "Just get some rest and don't worry about it."

"I'm not worried," said the voice again, slowly falling back into the state of the subconscious.

"Of course you're not," whispered Anakin, kissing her cheek again. Then he threw the cloak on the floor and wrapped his arm around her, and without warning or wasted time, he was soon fast asleep.