A few more weeks passed, and I was immediately notified by Captain Typho when he landed the senator's ship on Coruscant. I'm especially grateful he did because she had been poisoned on Cato Neimoidia. I flew as fast as I could to get to the medical center to see her.

Present as I walk in the room were Typho and Threepio. I rush over to the pale senator the moment I see her. "Padmé, what happened? Are you okay?" I ask her. She wasn't able to speak as I turn to Typho and ask him a question. "How was she poisoned?"

"Leya, I'm okay," Padmé reassures, saving Typho from answering. "Senator Dod poisoned me when he suspected I was spying on him and Senator Clovis. He was right, of course, but still. I'm fine. Anakin gave me the antidote on the flight here. I don't even know why I'm in the medical facility."

"With all due respect, Senator, you're still weak and need to recover," Typho adds.

"Yes, Captain, thank you. Can you give us the room?" she asks. Typho nods to her and leaves without another word. Padmé looks at me and says, "I think we both need to stop being poisoned."

"Sometimes we can't always help it," I reply as I take a seat in the chair next to the bed.

"How have you been? I'm sorry we haven't been able to talk as much" Her brown eyes grew sad. "You are my best friend, and it feels like we've grown apart. I can't help but feel like it's because I made you leave my side."

"Padmé, it's okay," I reply. "I understand why you don't want me as your handmaiden, you don't need to apologize. Although, I would like for you to let me join you occasionally. I would sleep better knowing you had someone looking out for you."

Padmé grins at me. "I would like that. Maybe you'll stop me from getting killed."

I chuckle a little. "I'd hope so, otherwise I wouldn't be doing my job very well. But does that mean I start as soon as possible? I'd really like to get out of my apartment for something other than being notified you almost died."

The senator raises her eyebrow at me. "You're saying you haven't done anything interesting?" she inquires. I swear, it's like she can see through me. Padmé would make a wonderful Jedi if she was Force-sensitive. I shrug and glance around the room, uncomforable with her staring at me. She then gapes at me. "Oh, my gosh, you have done something. Did you meet someone?"

Is it technically lying if I don't agree or disagree? I don't reply to her, which in her mind is an automatic yes. Instead I decide to randomly find my dress interesting. Padmé groans. "Come on, Cattleya, I need detail."

I cock an eyebrow. "Like what?" I ask.

"I don't know." She takes a pause. "What's he like?"

How to describe Obi-Wan? "He's, uh, he's funny and caring and traditional."

"And?" Padmé had an expectant look on her face.

"I seriously don't know what you're looking for," I tell her honestly. "Are you looking for physical descriptors or something?"

She laughs a little. "Anything other than him being funny. If you like him, of course he's funny."

"Wow." I was hoping this would be easy, but obviously things don't work out that way. A sense of nausea starts to creep up, but I ignore it as I picture Obi-Wan. "His hair is always perfectly styled, even though he doesn't try. He has the most beautiful blue eyes. He can make me laugh even when I'm down. I'm happy when I'm with him."

Padmé's smile shows she is both happy and content with what I said. "And you still wanna spend all your time with me when you have a man like that? Sweetie, you're not supposed to run when you find someone you wanna be with."

I scoff with a taunting grin. "Like you with Anakin?" She blushes. My stomach decides to act up more, but I ignore it again. Why am I feeling sick? Maybe I ate something bad.

"That's different," she says. "He's a Jedi and I'm a Senator. Neither of our careers would turn out well if anyone found out. And you only know because we were all about to die."

I snort at her claim. "Yeah, okay. You two are incredibly obvious. And I know something interesting went down when he escorted you back to Naboo during your time off."

I felt the burning begin to climb my throat. "We got married." I stand abruptly and run to the bathroom. "Leya?" Leaning over the toilet, my insides make an appearance outside. I hear rustling from the hospital bed and footsteps coming towards me. "Oh, Leya."

She kneels beside my retching body and pulls my hair back as I grip the outer part of the toilet bowl. It's cold just like my skin even though I'm sweating. It continues for another minute or so before I'm just sitting there like I was shot by a blaster or poisoned. "I'll be right back," Padmé informs. "Don't move."

Her graceful body stands and goes back into the hospital room and comes back carrying a cup. She fills it with water from the sink and then hands it to me. "Drink," she orders. I lift the cup of cool liquid to my lips and drink it. "You know, when I imagined telling you I married Ani, I didn't think you'd have this negative of a reaction to it."

I attempt to laugh at her joke, but it just hurts my throat which still burns. "It's not that," I reassure in a raspy voice. "I felt sick even before you told me."

Padmé rubs my knee, taking a seat next to me on the floor. "Well, I swear if you got poisoned again, I don't know what to tell you." I roll my eyes at her. "Has this happened before?"

I think back to the past few days. "Yesterday morning, but nothing else."

Her brown eyes look into mine. "Anything weird happen?"

My eyebrows furrow as I look at her. "Like what?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe an aversion to smells?" she suggests.

Is this a common thing? I wonder if it's serious. "Do you think something's wrong?" I ask. "I thought maybe I just ate something bad, or I got the flu."

"Did you smell something that you usually wouldn't mind, but it made you feel sick or gag?" Her eyes bore into mine, and I don't understand her insistence on this.

I vaguely gesture with my hand in the direction of the cafeteria. "I passed the cafeteria earlier and was disgusted when I smelled them cooking meat."

"You love meat," she points out.

"I know."

Without warning, we hear the door to the hospital room open and close. "Milady?" Captain Typho calls out.

"We're in here!" Padmé replies.

"Can I come in?" he asks from outside the door.

"Yes," Padmé answers.

The door slides up and Captain Typho stands in the doorway. "Is everything okay?" he inquires, gazing at us sitting on the floor.

"We're all right, captain." She then turns to me. "Have you felt more tired than usual lately? Or maybe had to use the restroom more often?"

I look at her strangely. "Both. Can you tell me what you're thinking?" I ask. I take a quick glance at Typho still hovering in the doorway.

She doesn't speak to me, but instead looks up at Typho. "Can you get a medical droid in here?" she requests.

"Padmé." She doesn't respond.

"Can I ask what for, milady?" Typho inquires.

My longest friend then turns to me with complete seriousness. "Cattleya, I think you're pregnant."