With Padmé's nightmares (visions?) and Anakin's as well, it had been rare for himself and Padmé to find a moment to breathe, a moment of respite. But here, tonight, they found it. Padmé was lightly dozing, not asleep though heading for there, and he himself was comfortable as he found his fingers running through her hair, playing with her dark curls.

He knew nightmares were too likely lately, so perhaps it was selfish when he opened his mouth to provide her with a little bit more chances of rest, and himself from having to see her once more in tears. "I've been thinking about what to name our baby."

It took a moment for her to respond. "Oh?"

Anakin nodded. "Were you going to think of one for her?"

Padmé snorted, and Anakin marveled at the fact that he had managed to make her smile when everything around them felt like it was falling apart. "What makes you so sure it's a girl?"

"You've felt her kick." He smiled. "With a kick that hard, it has to be a girl." He may have slightly been projecting how much he wanted a daddy's girl at that moment, but he didn't care.

Despite the fact that he couldn't see her face, he could only imagine the grin Padmé was wearing. "Well, my motherly intuition still says he's a boy, and since I'm the one of us with the Force, I think that means I'm right."

"I have it too." Anakin shook his head. "Just because I'm not a Jedi doesn't mean it won't tell me things either."

"If you're so sure of that fact, then you can name her if she's a girl. And I'll name him if he's a boy." He could hear the smug tone in his wife's voice. She was proud of herself for coming up with that pseudo compromise to a nonexistent fight, and he let her be. They deserved something to smile about in all this stress.

Anakin moved one of his hands to her stomach, attempting to feel for the baby once more. "Leia. If she's a girl, she'll be Leia." The name had Padmé humming in approval the moment she heard it. "Did you have one in mind?"

Padmé nodded. "An old Nabian name, Luke. It means light."

Anakin laughed. He was sure that Luke would be the light of his life once he was born. The name was fitting. "Perfect. I couldn't imagine a better name for him." Not that he would ever concede that point to Padmé, their baby was totally a girl.

They lapsed into silence after that. Despite the brief moment of cheer, Anakin could sense that Padmé was thinking, even now as they attempted to find a moment to just be happy. "What is it, Angel?"

"Ani…" Padmé sighed, realizing very quickly this wasn't a conversation he'd let her back out of. "I'm worried. Not just about the dreams, but what if...do you think our baby will be raised in a war?"

Saying yes was unimaginable. Saying no felt like a lie. "I have faith in the Jedi, and you, to end this war. Once Grievous is captured, we'll have peace." Anakin tried to ignore the guilt he felt at the war he was planning on starting himself.

Padmé started tracing patterns in his hand. "Just the Jedi?"

Anakin sighed. "I'm worried, I'm not going to lie. The Separatists are on the run, but...the Chancellor still hasn't called peace talks." He weighed his next words carefully before adding on. "And there are some of us in the Senate...we don't like how the Chancellor is handling things. He was careful not to name names. Only he would be implicated in the delegation if his wife told anybody. "I don't trust Chancellor Palpatine to do what's right even after we capture Grievous."

Padmé remained silent. He almost thought she might've fallen asleep but then she rolled over in his arms, turning to face him, her expression unreadable. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

Her evasive answer was enough for Anakin to know that she wasn't on his side when it came to matters of Chancellor Palpatine, enough for him to know that maybe his feelings earlier were right. "Then let's talk about something else. Or, we can talk about nothing at all."

He gave her a kiss as a distraction before holding his wife in his arms.

He might have been able to convince her for a brief moment that things were okay, but his own promises were starting to ring false to his own ears as he tried to ignore what his wife might become.

When Obi-Wan had come to Anakin's rooftop apartment, he'd expected the Senator to come right to the door to greet him. Instead, he ended up seeing the gold plated protocol droid the boy had built as a child. "Oh, General Kenobi, was Master Ani expecting you. He does seem to be out of sorts lately so it's possible he might have forgotten to mention it to me. I do worry for him, you know"

"Hello Threepio." He tried to smile. It wasn't his fault that Anakin had programmed the droid to be a neurotic mess. "He won't be, but I'm sure he'll be willing to take the time."

"Of course, let me wake him up. It'll be just a moment." C-3PO began to head for a room in the back, and Obi-Wan watched him go in confusion. Wake Anakin up?

The Senator appeared moments later, letting out a yawn as he moved out of the way. The dark bags under his eyes were no more reassuring than Padmé's behavior had. "Obi-Wan, good morning."

"It's long passed morning." Obi-Wan shook his head. "Are you alright, Anakin?" The fact that Anakin had been at home and not in the Senate should have been the first sign that something was wrong, if he was honest.

Anakin nodded, but given he yawned again seconds later, it wasn't reassuring. "It's nothing important."

"Anakin."

"Really, Obi-Wan, I'm fine." Anakin smiled, and though he sensed Anakin was lying, three was little more he could do about it. He seemed unwilling to discuss it further, therefore it was better to discuss his actual reason for visiting instead.

"Very well, I'll leave you to your being alright for now then." Obi-Wan shook his head. "I didn't come here to nag you about your health anyways." Though it might be on his list of tasks in the future. Leave it to his Padawan to fall in love with somebody who had as little ability to care for himself as she did.

"That's a shame, I was enjoying the lectures." Anakin, as though sensing this would be a while, chose to sit down on the couch. "What is it that you wanted?"

"It's about Padmé."

The moment the words left Obi-Wan's mouth, Anakin immediately bolted upright with alarm, his posture becoming stiff and unyielding. "Why would you be coming here about Padmé? We're close friends and I know she's pregnant with my child but the baby doesn't mean anything like that. It was one night, we were–"

"Anakin, please don't tell me the same story that Padmé did." Obi-Wan pinched the bridge of his nose at the boy's protests. "I know that isn't why the two of you were with each other that particular night."

The way Anakin looked at Obi-Wan reminded him of a frightened animal, and Obi-Wan didn't blame him. There was no way this had been the conversation Anakin had been expecting. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You and Padmé both have feelings for each other." He'd known from when Padmé had told him in Geonosis, and he had a feeling that they had chosen to continue acting on them after all. "It's obvious in how you both act. Whenever she's in the room it's like nobody else matters, and Padmé…whenever your name is mentioned her eyes light up." It was painfully obvious for anybody who knew these two to see exactly how they felt, and unfortunately for both of them, he knew them very well. "For her sake and yours, I've pretended I didn't know. She deserved something...someone, who made her smile during the war. And if Padmé decided not to end things with you, I trusted both of you to make the right decision."

Anakin frowned, as though really taking in what Obi-Wan said. "So you just...ignored us the entire time."

"I wouldn't take away her happiness. That wouldn't be right of me. So long as I kept pretending not to know, the Council couldn't do anything, and I wouldn't have to report it to anybody." Not that he would, even now. Obi-Wan wasn't visiting Anakin as Master Kenobi, he was visiting as Obi-Wan, an old friend.

"What changed then?" Anakin asked.

Obi-Wan sighed. This was the difficult part. "Padmé did." Anakin shifted forward, both interested in what Obi-Wan had to say and terrified to learn more. "She's been angry and terrified over her dreams, and I fear I've only done something that could make it worse." Obi-Wan hesitated on the next part. What he was about to reveal to Anakin was council business, not something for the Senate. Could he even reveal it?

The choice was taken out of his hands by Anakin's question. "What did you ask her to do, Obi-Wan?"

"Spy on the Chancellor." Once the words were out, there was no taking them back. Anakin sat in silence, a surprisingly lack of judgement on his part as he let Obi-Wan continue. "The Jedi suspect that he may not be nearly as innocent in all of this as he lets on, and Padmé's the only one close enough to him that we could ask."

Anakin was silent, struggling to come up with the words to ask what he needed to know and taking in what the council had asked. "You're worried this could push her over the brink."

"You've noticed as well?"

Anakin shook his head. "Of course I noticed. She's been doing terribly since returning back to Coruscant, especially with those dreams. She isn't going to be in the right mental space to take on a task like this." Obi-Wan remained silent, weighing his words, but before he could respond, Anakin spoke up again. "But I don't disagree with the council...something had to be done."

"But you wish it didn't involve her?" Obi-Wan could tell exactly where he was going, and Anakin nodded.

"I'm worried about her too, but I have faith in her to do what's right. Don't count Padmé out just because she's not doing well, Obi-Wan, she's strong."

"Oh I don't doubt that." Obi-Wan chuckled, seeing how fast Anakin went to jump to Padmé's defense. "But that doesn't do anything to make me less worried. I told you before that Padmé's...different now. Normally I'd trust her to do exactly as you say, but I can't help but think that if she doesn't get the help she needs…she'll become something unrecognizable."

Anakin shook his head. "I'm sorry Obi-Wan, but I don't want to talk about this."

Obi-Wan figured as much. "I'm sorry as well. I didn't mean to upset you. Both you and Padmé have been going through a stressful time. I don't need to add more to it."

Anakin let out something that looked like a cross between a sigh and a yawn. "Thank you, Obi-Wan. I'll walk you out."

Obi-Wan smiled. "No need, I can see myself out." He paused for a moment. "Do not think I wish to destroy what you have with Padmé, Anakin. If I had, I would have acted long ago." Whenever he saw the two of them, he saw himself and Satine. To ask them to break it off would be unfair.

"I know you wouldn't do that, because you love her too." Obi-Wan turned back, startled, and for a moment found himself held in place by Anakin's tired, blue gaze.

It was something that Obi-Wan had long since stopped denying. His Padawan was his closest friend, his daughter, and, eventually, sister as they grew closer. He couldn't bear to lose her, just like Anakin couldn't. Anakin would be right, he couldn't lose sight of that.

Padmé walked into the uppermost box in the Opera House with a feeling of foreboding that she couldn't ignore as she attempted to kneel next to the Chancellor. "You wanted to see me, Chancellor?"

Palpatine gave her a smile. "Of course, it won't take long. I do apologize for the venue. The news came at the most inopportune time. I'd already bought my tickets." He turned to the other Senators in the box. "If you could excuse us for a minute. And Padmé dear, do sit down. I won't take long, but a woman in your condition shouldn't be on her feet for very long."

Padmé nodded, taking a seat next to him. "What was it that you wanted to ask about?"

"It's good news, something we could all use a little more of." She perked up the moment Palpatine answered that. "Our clone intelligence units have discovered the location of General Grievous. He's hiding in the Utapau system."

Perhaps it had been that she had been talking to Anakin about the war's end, or maybe it was that she'd been so tired, but she let out a sigh of relief. "We...we can capture him. We can end the war." Her child would be born to a world where the final days of the Clone Wars were coming. Nobody could threaten her family if the war was over, nobody would want to.

"We can." Palpatine nodded. "Normally, I would ask the council to select you for this assignment, but given you are indisposed…" He trailed off. "Well, I hope they can find a Jedi as skilled as you on such short notice."

Immediately, Padmé would have suggested Obi-Wan, her master being as skilled as her, but despite how likely it was for him to go...she couldn't have it be him. She needed him here for as long as he could be. "I'm sure whoever they pick will be strong. Many Jedi have faced off against Grievous in the past. They'll be successful now too."

"I'm less certain. You know I'm not able to rely on the Jedi Council." And she did. Her mind went back to their last conversation in his office, where the Chancellor had told her of his misgivings. Then the council and Anakin shared theirs in return and she...no, she couldn't think of that right now. "If they haven't included you in their plot, they soon will."

Padmé shook her head. "Their plot?"

"You must sense what I have come to suspect. The Jedi Council want control of the Republic. They're planning to betray me."

Every word Palpatine said felt like a punch to the stomach. "The Jedi don't want power, Chancellor. They just want peace. It's what we're all taught since the creche, to provide peace wherever possible and follow the Force's will."

"Padmé, search your feelings. You know, don't you?" Despite Palpatine asking for an answer, Padmé didn't respond. How could she respond. No matter how much what he said lined up with how the Jedi Council was acting, it couldn't be right. Yoda, Mace, Luminara, Obi-Wan. They were her friends and family. They couldn't be planning a betrayal of the Republic like that. It seemed he took her silence as confirmation, for Palpatine continued. "They don't trust me, or the Senate. Or the Republic or democracy for that matter."

Padmé stayed silent for a moment, finally figuring out precisely the conclusion Palpatine had come to. "This is why you thought the Separatists might have invaded the Jedi."

He nodded. "It is. And you agree with me."

"I…" Padmé sighed. "I don't disagree. It just...it can't be the entirety of the council who are acting only in self interest. Some of them must be good."

"Some of them are, I'm sure." She wasn't sure whether she was happy or not that he was willing to concede that point. "But remember back to your early teachings. All who gain power are afraid to lose it. Even the Jedi."

"The Jedi use their power for good. They try to bring peace to the galaxy."

"And yet, all they have done is participate in this war. A war that brought them right into power in the Senate" Palpatine didn't flinch, didn't even hesitate as he answered. "Good is a point of view, Padmé. The Sith and the Jedi are similar in almost every way, including their quest for greater power."

"Even if Jedi are gaining power, they do it to protect the people." Even Padmé could admit her argument sounded weak to her own ears. "The Sith only want that power for themselves."

"And the Jedi don't?" Once more, Padmé couldn't argue. The two fell quiet, Padmé trying to ignore the nervous feeling that built up the more they talked.

"Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?" She shook her head. She'd never heard of it before. "I thought not. It's not a story the Jedi would tell you. It's a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a dark lord of the Sith so powerful and wise, he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life."

A Sith Lord...a Sith Lord creating life? It went against everything they'd been taught at the Temple, that Sith Lords could only destroy. It didn't make sense. Before she could ask for elaboration, however, Palpatine continued. "He had such a knowledge of the dark side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying."

"I don't understand." Padmé shook her head. Why would that kind of power be on the dark side? She knew the importance of letting go like all good Jedi, but wouldn't something like this be good? "That's...it's not possible."

"The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural." It wasn't an answer, but…

"If he could do something so powerful...what happened?" There had to be a catch to it. It was too good.

"He became so powerful, the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power." Just like the Jedi. "Which, eventually of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew. Then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. It's ironic, he could save others from death, but not himself."

Padmé remained silent. She had a lot to think about and she wasn't sure...she couldn't…

"Tomorrow night, I'd like to request you to come to my office, Padmé. I have some things I need to take care of that I could use your protection for. Some Senators, who may wish me harm."

Padmé shook her head, taking her out of her distracted thoughts. She could attend the meeting. She nodded, "Of course."

"Very good, then you should go get some rest. I'm sure this is no place for a woman in your condition."

She stood up from the chair, but paused as she went to exit, a moment of hesitation. That ability...and given her nightmares. "Where would you go about learning something like this."

There was something deliberate in Palpatine's answer as he turned to face her, the first time in their entire conversation. "Not from a Jedi."