We will be back to Anakin's story next week. Wanted a brief clip of Padme and Shmi
Padme POV
Back on Coruscant- Evening
Being a single mother was hard. I know Anakin was off fighting the war to free us from the tyranny of Palpatine, but I wanted him here with me, in my bedroom. As I laid in my bed, my thoughts drifted towards Anakin.
"Anakin what are you doing?"
"I bet I can ride those," he said with a grin.
"Their wild!"
"Shh!" he said. He jumped on the shaak and started riding it looking like a wild man. "Whoa!" he cried.
I laughed at his idiotic attempt to be impressive. He rode it for a second with a small amount of skill, and he had to be using his Jedi powers to do it. But, the Shaak bumped him off and he fell onto the soft grass. I was not worried until the shaak ran over him.
"Anakin?" I cried.
He tried to get up, and collapsed back to the ground.
My legs took off towards my fallen knight. What if he had been injured severely? Did he have broken ribs? Hemorrhaging?
"ANI?! Ani, are you alright?" I cried. When I reached him, I saw that he was shaking, and heard a small sound. He was crying. I gently rolled him over.
Anakin howled with laughter. He was fine. At first I felt a rush of relief, and then I was furious.
"You!" I said, slapping him on his chest.
Still laughing, Anakin grabbed me, and pulled me on top of him, and we went rolling down the hill.
"Ah, Anakin," I squealed with delight.
He laughed.
"Help!" came a cry.
I bolted out of bed. What was wrong?
"Help! Please!" came a cry.
"Shmi," I whispered. She was staying in the guest room and helping with the kids while the Qui-Gon and Anakin were away. I got out of my bed and flipped on the lights. I raced to the guest room.
In the bed, Shmi was thrashing. I flipped on the light and approached her slowly. She was sweating like crazy. I grabbed her and it was cold and clammy.
"Shmi," I said, shaking her gently, "Shmi, hon wake up!"
"Huh," said Shmi.
"You're safe. You're in Ani's home. He is on a mission, and I am here with you with Ashla and Jinn."
She blinked a couple of times. Then she sat up and looked around. "Qui-Gon went with Ani to get that rotten Palpatine and we are taking care of the kids."
"Yeah," I said, sitting on the edge of her bed. Her answer was correct, but she looked as if she was about to break down into tears. "What is going on?"
"Nothing," she said. "Anakin does not need this. He is doing so well."
"What does that even mean?" I asked.
Tears sprang from her eyes. "I created Darth Vader."
"What?"
"Anakin wanted to protect me and when he couldn't he-" she started to sob.
"Shmi Skywalker-Jinn you listen to me. Palpatine took the love a boy had for his mother and twisted it into a need for power. That created Vader. This is Palpatine's fault and no one else's. Now what is wrong with you?"
Shmi took a deep breath, "Only Qui-Gon knows. He agreed to keep it a secret to respect my wishes. When I regenerated I could not heal. I went to doctor after doctor to see what was wrong with me, and no one knew what was wrong. Finally, we went to a doctor who said that my body was fine, but my mind was damaged by the life I lived as a slave and the way the sand people killed me. He had a name for it, but later Qui-Gon explained he thinks I was traumatized and my body is reacting by putting me in pain. They were going to try to medicate my mind and not my body, and see if it helped. It does, but the medicine makes it hard to do the work in the Senate, so I only take half of it. But I think I am getting so bad I might need to start taking a full dose every so often."
"Was the name PTSD?" asked Padme.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"You know how Ani thinks everything is his fault. I thought this would make him worse."
"Shmi, Anakin had a lot of pain in his life, losing you, me, Luke, Leia. But he did not become a Sith because those things happened. He became a Sith because he did not know how to deal with those things happening. Stuff is going to happen to Anakin a lot. Ani and I fight a lot, he is not always the Jedi he is supposed to be, I had trouble giving birth to Ashla and Jinn, Ahsoka lost her baby, but if we shield him from that we are depriving him from living."
"I know what he did to the Sand People. And he did it twice. He was on Tatooine for a mission and killed a bunch of random Sand People because he could. That is on me."
"No it's not. That is on him. You have to stop looking at him as a little boy. He is a man who is capable of making his own mistakes. Anakin has a horrible past, filled with pain and sorrow. But that is not your fault. Imagine what it would make him think if his mother suffered and did not tell him because she thought he did not have the strength to handle it."
"Oh no. That's not true at all. I just don't want to cause him pain."
"He can handle it."
"It's not fair."
"Your right. Nothing in Anakin's life is fair. But you know what there is not a damn thing we can do about it. So we can either pity him and keep secrets from him or we can respect him and tell him the truth. So what are you going to do?"
"I think I will talk with my son."
