Chapter Twenty-Six
The waiting area located just outside the Healer's Hall was equipped to comfortably sit at least a dozen beings, but for some odd reason, the senator's handmaiden chose to slump against the wall, and allow her body to slide down to the floor. I joined her there without a second thought. She was obviously troubled, her knees bent, her head falling forward into her hands. I hesitated but finally found enough courage to place a supportive arm about her shoulders, pleased she did not shrug off my embrace, and actually seemed to relax into it.
I knew handmaidens underwent extensive training in combat and weaponry, not unlike Jedi training, minus the Force. Therefore, the young woman beside me was strong and confident. However much like I had just a few hours ago, I understood how Dorme felt at the moment: Completely helpless. I had managed to assist my Master in realizing the problem, but his recovery was entirely up to him, and there was nothing I could do to help.
"Everything's going to be okay," I consoled her, noting my Master had begun his ritualistic pacing. I would suggest he have a seat, but I knew he wouldn't, so I saved my breath.
"You really think so?" Dorme lifted her head to look at me, swiping away tears which had begun rolling down her face; tears I had the sudden urge to wipe away myself, but decided not to at the last second.
"Bant Eerin is a highly regarded Healer, and one of Master Obi-Wan's closest friends," I assured her, adding a smile with my words. I released a sigh when her head landed lightly upon my shoulder. I had the sudden and somewhat irrational need to protect her, or at least make her feel better.
"One good thing about this is with a Mon Calamarian as a Healer, you can count on the senator's skin being pleasantly supple and hydrated by the time therapy is complete."
I waited with some trepidation to see if my lame attempt at humor had been successful or not, and relaxed when I felt a shudder of laughter shake Dorme's frame, and was able to make out a small smile lift the corners of her mouth.
Six hours! It had been six hours since I had walked out of the healing room, and I hadn't heard one word from Bant. It would be morning soon!
What was happening?
My own session had lasted less than half an hour, and I began to worry there had been a problem. However, I tried not to let my mind get carried away with assumptions, as it had the tendency to do lately, but rely upon the Force to guide my thoughts.
The Force was relatively silent regarding the matter, and so I waited, watching my Padawan with keen interest as he comfortably dozed the night away with the Senator's aid resting against him.
I, on the other hand, kept up my vigilant pacing, a habit which had driven my own Master crazy.
"You should use times of distress to meditate, Padawan," he would often tell me. "Allow the Force to ease you stress and clear your mind."
The idea sounded practical and made perfect sense, but my heightened concern would not allow me to sit still for that long. I had actually improved in that area as I had aged, but in regard to this matter – waiting to discover whether Padme had regained her memory, was too stressful to sit and ponder the workings of the Force. I had to move and keep moving or else the darkness inside would catch up to me and steal away everything I had worked so hard to gain.
"Obi?"
I hadn't heard her voice at first, and wondered how many times she had repeated my name. I wondered if Bant was perhaps not wanting to wake up Anakin and Dorme, but then I saw her expression and realized how exhausted she must be.
"How's Padme?" I asked her immediately upon my approach.
"There's been a…complication," she explained. "Obi, I need your help."
I followed Bant into the room to find Padme in the exact same position I had left her in hours before. She looked rested, calm, and at peace, and I wondered what could possibly be wrong.
"It appears," Bant began, placing a hand lightly upon Padme's forehead, "Senator Amidala has entered a realm of absolute bliss. One she does not wish to leave."
"Have her memories returned?" I asked the foremost question in my mind.
"Yes, but that's the problem," Bant told me as she sunk into the nearby chair. "She is lost in that memory and has chosen not to leave it. Obi, I can no longer communicate with her. She's simply shut me out of her mind."
I couldn't wrap my head around the implications of that concept. I was bewildered and confused at the same time, trying to understand exactly what my friend was telling me.
"So, she's essentially put herself into a coma?" It was the best I could come up and thankfully, the sign of approval on Bant's face told me I had come to the right conclusion.
"In a matter of speaking, yes," she confirmed as we continued staring at the silent patient.
Was I supposed to come up with an idea? I wondered as the silence dragged on. What was she waiting for?
But then the Force responded to my stress and told me to be patient. Funny, how the Force sometimes had the same voice as my Master.
"I have an idea," Bant finally spoke up, leaning forward just as I sat down next to Padme on the lounge chair. "But I'm not sure if it's going to work."
"Tell me," I insisted. I would try anything to get her back.
"You could try to contact her."
It was my turn to look at someone as if they had gone to the Dark Side. "Me?" I stammered in disbelief. "I'm no Healer. I don't have any idea how to enter someone else's psyche, or what to do once I get there."
"I'll teach you."
I recognized the determination in her voice, even after all this time, and realized the decision was made.
"We must begin soon, before the doorway completely shuts and the senator is lost to us."
"Very well," I agreed, allowing Bant to place my hand upon Padme's forehead, palm down. I then closed my eyes as she told me and focused on the sound of her voice.
"Find her life aura in the Force. There are three present in the immediate area. Yours is blue, mine is green, and the senator's is purple."
"I see it," I told her aloud, once I'd discerned hers from the three. It was right there, glowing in front of me like a beacon, taking the shape of her physical form.
"Now, try to access it. Open yourself to her spirit, and allow her to draw you in."
I attempted to do as Bant told me, but my progress was muddled and the pathway became unclear. The purple hue was dimming before my eyes no matter how hard I concentrated on it.
"Come back," Bant's disappointed words implored. I did as she told me, but was full of despair when I emerged.
"What does that mean? Can we not save her?"
"Wait," Bant asked of me, and it was one of the most difficult things I'd ever had to do in my life.
"I want you to try again," she said within a few minutes, "but this time, I want you to connect with her emotionally first. Let's see if she will respond to that instead."
"What exactly do you want me to do?" I asked, as Bant's face turned pensive, a deep line embedded between her large eyes.
"Kiss her."
I had to repeat the command, to make sure I'd heard her correctly.
"Kiss her?"
"Yes," Bant confirmed. "She has locked herself into a memory of you and she, uhm, becoming quite entangled."
I grinned as her normal salmon color turned a slightly more pink shade.
"If you participate in part of that memory, she may not be about to separate the two and drop her guard unaware."
"I see," I said, although I didn't. The path of a healer had not been mine to take, and I was thankful for that. I didn't have the patience for it.
I focused once again on Padma's aura as I closed my eyes, although this time, I lowered my mouth to her sweet, soft lips, caressing them ever so slowly as the purple strand before me grew more and more intense, and then suddenly, I was with her.
Bant had warned me Padme's situation was different than my own. When I had regained my memories, they had passed in and out of my vision as vague recollections. Even Padme's form was somewhat transparent, her touch fleeting as if it were supernatural. There was no mistaking my subconscious from reality.
This…this was vastly different. It was as if I were actually back on Tosuna, in her room, with the sound of ocean waves hitting the beach outside, accompanied by Padme's moans of pleasure as she squirmed beneath me, urging my body to keep moving.
I was somewhat distracted by the surreal experience, but quickly overcome by the heat of her, the softness of her skin, her smiles, as well as her flavor as she pulled me back down to taste her lips once more.
"I love you," I heard her speak between sighs. "Let's stay here forever."
I punctuated her suggestion with a thrust of my hips, and remembered I too shared the same desire. We'd had this discussion during our holiday; talking about how we wanted to stay in bed all day, day after day, and forget about our troubles back on Coruscant.
It was a tempting notion, which I was struggling with once again, as I fought back my pending release, instead focusing upon the fingernails which scraped down my bare back.
"What harm would there be if you stayed here in her arms forever? Safe, secure, and loved. Experiencing passion, in the peace and tranquility of Tosuna. You were happy with her there. You could be once again."
The words were spoken within my mind, in a voice which resembled my Master's, but it couldn't have been. Qui-Gon would have never chosen passion over duty. That much I knew about him. He may have been a rebel, but he was never irresponsible.
The voice, therefore, could only be coming from one source. I should know. I'd been carrying it around with me for weeks. Ever since my mind had been raped by the Dark.
We were in danger once again, unless I did something about it.
"Padme," I coaxed the vision beneath me to open her eyes. "Padme, this isn't real. This is just a memory. We need to leave. Come with me."
Her hands immediately grasped my buttocks and squeezed, her mouth clamping onto the skin between my neck and shoulder. "No. I want to stay. I want to stay with you here forever. You promised!"
"I know what I promised," I answered her, struggling to bring my body under control and withdraw from her embrace, but her grip was strong, and her gaze compelling. "And I'm going to keep that promise," I declared, literally pushing her up and away from me, holding her at arm's length.
"I'm leaving," I announced boldly, hoping my intuition was serving me well. "If you love me like you say, and you want to be with me, then follow me. I love you, Padme. I won't leave you again."
I held my hand out as a gesture, hoping with all my heart she would accept the offer. She gazed at the pale digits for what seemed like an eternity but finally placed her hand in mine, although I noticed it was shaking.
"Hold onto me," I told her, pulling her against me as we rose from the bed and drifted through the dark window. "I won't let you go."
When I became aware of my surroundings, I still held onto Padme's hand, and opened my eyes to behold a most beautiful but intimidating sight. Padme was awake, but staring at me with a look bordering somewhere between confusion and madness.
"Padme?" I prompted a reply, only to receive an extension of her glare.
Soon, however, her stony façade cracked, and then crumbled at which point she flung herself into my arms. I held her as she sobbed, her body wracking with the sudden release.
"Thank the Force," I murmured into her hair while holding her tight. "It's okay. I'm here. I've got you," my words rambled forth, reassuring her I wasn't going anywhere.
"Obi-Wan?" she sniffled, pulling away slightly, though not completely from my arms, but just enough to look up into my face. "What happened to us?"
"I'm not sure," I replied, withholding the rest of the sentence I wanted to say – the promise I wanted to make to her which spoke of finding out exactly who was responsible and making them pay. But it was too early to speak of revenge, and the fact Jedi aren't allowed to seek it in the first place.
However, I was going to seek out justice, and I was going to do it soon.
"Tell me something," I asked, taking the opportunity to caress the softness of her cheek with the back of my hand. "Do you remember Tosuna? Everything that happened there?"
Her mind wandered, her countenance sobering. "I remember the resort, the beach, Dane, the massages, but everything gets fuzzy after the bathing ritual."
"Same here," I assured her, again drawn to her lips, which I lightly nibbled upon.
"Something else I remember," she recalled, her mouth curving into a wicked grin. "I remember you."
"And I you," I agreed, matching her smile, which was immediately swallowed up in a kiss; one which expressed our shared elation, although it quickly escalated to a declaration of emotions, and most likely would've advanced to something far more passionate if it weren't for the presence of Bant, who was attempting to make herself known by a loud clearing of her throat.
"Bant Eerin," Padme said once we had resurfaced, and she turned to notice the healer, whose face was nearly as flushed as ours. "Thank you. Thank you so much!"
Bant grasped the hand which Padme thrust out, though keeping the other firmly around my middle I noticed. I wasn't sure how long this overpowering desire to hold one another was going to last, but I was enjoying every second of it.
"I was only doing my job," Bant humbly replied. "If you want to thank someone, it should be those two," her head motioned toward the double doors. "I'm sure they're worried about you both."
"Dorme," Padme uttered, turning a solemn face back toward me. "I've treated her something awful. I remember that as well. I owe her an apology as well as my gratitude."
"Let's go then," I suggested. "Both she and Anakin are in the waiting area."
I just hoped they were awake by now.