He knew, even before he saw Obi-Wan running towards him looking frantic.
"Where is she?" he asked, grabbing the older man by the shoulders. Obi-Wan wouldn't meet his gaze.
"I…I went to go and find her, but she wasn't in my room. I think she's been kidnapped," Obi-Wan forced himself to say. Anakin's face paled and he clutched Obi-Wan's shoulders harder, in an effort to keep from falling over. Obi-Wan looked at his apprentice sadly.
"I know how much she means to you. We will find her."
"You will never know how much she means to me," he said coldly.
She was the breaths he took each day, and now she had been violently torn from him. He could already be too late, she could be…He let out a sob as he thought of the baby. The life they had created together, never having a chance to really live.
"Force, please not the baby too. Take me instead," he whispered. Obi-Wan's mouth fell open in shock. Baby…?
"Anakin, is the Senator-" he forced himself to finish his sentence.
"Is she…pregnant?" he asked in disbelief. Anakin turned and glared at him.
"What do you know?" he asked in a low voice. Obi-Wan's head was spinning.
"I…I knew you cared for her and that you sometimes stayed at her apartment. But…a baby?"
"You might as well know master. We are married," Anakin said quietly, while desperately trying to come up with a plan that would save his wife and baby. Obi-Wan just stared at him.
"When?" he asked in shock. Anakin looked at him with cold eyes.
"After Geonosis," he replied. Obi-Wan sat on the window's ledge. His apprentice had gone off and married a renowned senator, then got her pregnant? It was too much information to take in all at once. Obi-Wan knew he was getting too old to put up with Anakin's…surprises.
"Anakin," he started, but he stopped when he saw the look of utter sadness and hatred in his friend's eyes.
"I will do whatever it takes to save her. I don't care if I am expelled from the Jedi Order. She is more important." He looked Obi-Wan in the eye. His former Master sighed.
"I know you…love her Anakin, but we must go about this in a rational way."
Anakin's eyes went wide.
"Rational? My wife, who is carrying our baby, has just been kidnapped, and you want me to be rational?" he asked angrily. Obi-Wan winced. He was still adjusting to the fact that Anakin was married, yet alone going to be a father.
"Anakin, we just have to think about what she would want us to do. Does she want you to go about killing every being that steps in front of you?" he asked skeptically. Anakin's eyes darkened.
"If that's what it takes," he said determinedly. Obi-Wan sighed.
"Do you have any idea who could have taken her?" he asked. Anakin's jaw clenched in anger.
"Bail," he hissed. Obi-Wan looked at Anakin.
"Bail Organa?" he wondered aloud. Anakin nodded.
"Anakin, why in the Force didn't you tell me?" Anakin looked at him
"You wouldn't have believed me if I told you that the polite, handsome, and well-esteemed Organa was attempting to harm a Senator from Naboo," he replied. Obi-Wan felt a pang of guilt. Anakin was right. He put a hand on the young man's shoulder.
"Let's go save your family."
----------------
"Anakin, we've been looking for her for over a month. I don't mean to discourage you-"
"Then don't," Anakin said through clenched teeth. He wouldn't take that answer. It was all too familiar…
I don't want to give up on her, but she's been gone a month. There's little hope she's lasted this long…
He shook the thought out of his head. This was so much more than what had happened almost two years ago. He would save Padmè, and she would live, and they would go to Naboo and raise their baby in peace. He glared at Obi-Wan, before pacing across the floor of Obi-Wan's Temple quarters. Obi-Wan sighed.
"Can't you sense her?"
Anakin shook his head.
"Usually I can feel her, but they're keeping me away from her, using some kind of block." He looked Obi-Wan in the eye.
"If we don't find her soon…" he choked. His eyes blurred with sudden tears, and he couldn't finish his sentence. Obi-Wan chewed his lip. He was running out of ideas, and he could tell that Anakin was going to have a breakdown if they didn't find the pregnant senator soon. They had looked in the down-levels, the Senate buildings, everywhere, and they still hadn't come close to finding her. Obi-Wan racked his brain, searching for more clues.
"Where else could she be?" he said, mostly to himself. Anakin put his head in his hands.
"I don't know. I…We've tried everything and-" he stopped abruptly in mid-sentence, when he noticed something under the sleep couch. He bent down and picked up a small capsule, covered in crude carvings. Obviously the being who had carved on the tube was not too familiar in Basic. He could just make out the word 'Odaria' when Obi-Wan snatched the capsule from him. The older man carefully placed it under his nose and sniffed lightly, immediately erupting into a fit of sneezes.
"Odarian…spices of some sort," he sputtered.
"I'm highly allergic," Obi-Wan explained after the sneezing had ceased. Anakin's head snapped up.
"Aren't they illegal on Coruscant?" Anakin asked. Obi-Wan nodded.
"Well yes I do believe that…" His eyes went wide as understanding dawned over his face.
"Force," Obi-Wan whispered. Anakin grinned.
"I heard that a few months ago there was a large bust of Odarian dealers near the down-levels. I'm sure someone knows something about who sold that," Anakin said, his eyes sparkling in determination.
"Oh I think I might know of one," Obi-Wan said with a roll of his eyes.