When Padme's alarm bleeped to life early the next morning at 5 AM for her morning run, Padme groaned, rolling over to slap the off button. She missed the first few attempts, but she eventually found it and the room lapsed into silence.
Yet again, her dreams were plagued with random, strange images. She opened her eyes to look at the reality of her darkened room, hoping that by doing so, she would be able to rid her mind of the images.
Faintly she could hear Anakin's alarm blaring too, and she knew that she had to change into her running attire quickly if she wanted to be on time. She learned quickly that Anakin was quick to do…well, everything. She didn't want to give him any reason to tease her later.
She sat up in bed…but as soon as she did, a wave of nausea slammed into her, and her vision swam. She tried to ignore the feeling, hoping that it was just her body adjusting to waking up, but when she moved to get out of bed, the feeling intensified.
She had to get to the bathroom. NOW.
She practically tripped in her rush to get out of the bed and run to her bathroom where she promptly threw up into the toilet, her body quivering with what she recognized now to be fever.
She stayed like that for a while, emptying the contents of her stomach until she had nothing left to give and she merely knelt there, waiting to see if she was completely finished. Distantly, she heard a knock on her bedroom door before it opened. "Padme?" Anakin asked quietly, and she assumed he was looking around for her.
"Don't come in here," She moaned, and sure enough another wave of nausea hit her and she was hurling her guts out.
Anakin apparently didn't understand the meaning of 'don't come in' because he was suddenly at the bathroom doorway, turning the light on. Padme winced as the light hit her sensitive eyes. "Oh Force," He muttered under his breath. If she wasn't worried that she would throw up again, she might have asked what he meant by that unfamiliar phrase. He was at her side in moments, holding her hair out of her face.
"I think it's a little late for that," She grumbled, wincing at the thought of Anakin touching whatever had gotten into her hair. "You shouldn't be in here. I don't want you to catch whatever this is."
"I don't care if I catch it," Anakin immediately replied, "How long have you…" she threw up again, "been like this?"
"Just now," Padme groaned.
"Well I think it's fair to say that we're not going running."
Padme couldn't help but laugh at that, which only made her sides hurt. "Stop making me laugh."
"Sorry." They waited for a while, before finally Padme was sure that she was finished. Anakin helped her to her feet and over to the counter where Padme washed her mouth out. "You need to go to the doctor." Anakin said seriously as he watched to make sure she wouldn't need his direct assistance again.
"No, no," Padme said, waving her hand dismissively, "I'm fine." She could see Anakin's skeptical look in the mirror.
"You are clearly not fine." Anakin said, "You look like a Sarlacc decided to spit you out." When Padme gave him a confused look, he looked at her apologetically. "Sorry. Something I made up."
"You have a strange imagination."
He shrugged. "Either way, you need to go see Doctor Organa."
She turned the water off and turned to face him. "What I need is a shower and to sleep." She winced, knowing that she was going to miss school and would fall dreadfully behind.
Anakin frowned. "Why did I have to go see him then if you won't even go yourself? That's a little hypocritical," He pointed out.
She didn't want to admit that he had a point, so she countered with, "Because you were hit by a car and you have amnesia. I just have the flu. He's just going to tell me to get rest."
Anakin scowled, but his eyes softened. "Can I at least call him later to get his opinion?"
Padme paused, studying Anakin a little more closely. Although he seemed calm on the exterior, she could see worry in his bright blue eyes. Finally she relented, nodding. "Okay, and if he says I need to go in, I will. But for now I'm going to take a shower and go back to bed, okay?"
Anakin looked her over, as if he was expecting her to pass out at any moment. When he seemed satisfied, he nodded. "If you need me, I'll be in the living room." He said, "Don't hesitate to call for me."
"But school…"
"I'm still going to school," He assured her, holding his hand up to stop her. "But until then I'm going to take care of you." When she still hesitated, hating that she was so weak, he stepped closer, putting a hand on her shoulder as he stared into her eyes. "You took care of me, now let me do the same for you."
His offer was so genuine, and the concern in his expression and voice was so sincere that Padme found it impossible to resist. "Okay," She said with a sigh, "But don't fuss too much. It's not like I haven't been sick before."
Anakin winced, as if she'd brought up some painful memory. "Yeah," He said, "Right. Go shower and get back in bed. I'm going to make some calls."
"Anakin, don't worry too much, it sounds like she has the flu," Bail said on the other line. Anakin had called his office as soon as it opened, and he'd refused to take no for an answer by the receptionist. "If she's still not doing well in 24 hours, then bring her by. But for now she just needs to rest as much as possible."
Anakin frowned, not liking that answer one bit. He hated seeing Padme so sick. He wished he could take it away, but he knew that even if it was possible, it would fall under the Dark Side's realm. Anakin wouldn't make that same mistake again.
"Okay," Anakin sighed, hating that there wasn't more that he could physically do to help her. "I'll keep you updated."
"Good," A pause. "And how are you doing? Any luck on remembering your past?"
At that moment Anakin didn't care about himself. He cared that the woman he loved was sick and he was virtually helpless to take away her pain. "No," He grumbled, trying not to snap at the man.
"I see," Bail sounded troubled by that, "Perhaps you should come in soon so that we can do some more tests."
"Maybe," Anakin said, not wanting to commit to anything. It wasn't like Bail was going to actually find anything of interest anyway. "Thanks for the help." Or not.
"Anytime."
Anakin disconnected the call and leaned back against the couch, his mind whirling as he tried to decide what to do next. He had already made her soup, made sure that she had everything that she needed in her room (such as school books, her laptop, and extra blankets if she got cold), and essentially pestered her to stay in bed when she'd tried to convince him that she had to go to at least one of her classes. When she worried that she may have gotten contagious germs over the rooms she had been in the night before, Anakin had dug out the Lysol and sprayed the whole house down for her so that she could rest without worrying about other people getting sick.
He knew though that she was still awake. She wouldn't stop worrying about falling behind in school. He wished he could convince the school to cancel classes for the day so that she could rest easy, but he didn't have the use of the Force to try to convince him. He had already texted Obi-Wan to ask if he would be willing, but he'd gotten a firm no and a lecture about using the Force for unselfish purposes.
"I'm not being selfish though," He grumbled to himself. He really was concerned for Padme's health, and not just because he was afraid of losing her. He loved her, and he didn't want anything bad to befall her ever again.
If he couldn't convince the school to cancel, then maybe…
He stood abruptly, going back to Padme's room where she sat against the cushions looking at something on her laptop. "Padme?" He asked.
She looked at him and smiled a bit. "Hey," she said and his heart ached to see the dark circles under her eyes.
"Doctor Organa said that if you aren't better in 24 hrs, I'll need to take you to see him." Padme nodded, no surprise on her face. "And…and I want to make sure you're caught up on your classes." He finished.
Now surprise did flicker across her face. "How?" She asked.
"If you give me a list of where your classes are and what time they're at," He said, "Then I can go and take notes for you."
At first Padme was speechless, as if it had never occurred to her that someone would do that for her. "But what about your classes?"
Anakin shrugged. He wasn't about to explain that his galaxy had advanced past the classes he was currently taking. "I'm ahead. I have all A's in them. I can prove it if you don't believe me."
"Oh no," she shook her head, "I saw what you can do. I believe you." She still hesitated though. "You really don't need to…"
"I know," Anakin interrupted, "But I want to. Like I said, I want to take care of you like you have for me." Because I love you, he added mentally, and I want you to be relaxed and happy.
Padme, still looking at Anakin like he'd suggested something completely unheard of, slowly nodded. "Okay then," she said, reaching over to grab a pen and some paper to write down the info. She paused before she did so, looking at him. "Thank you," She said, "That really…that's a really, really nice thing of you to do."
Anakin's face heated a bit, but he was pleased to see her happy. "No problem." He said as she handed him the list. "Just focus on getting better, okay?"
Padme smiled, and for a moment she no longer looked sick but rather the same beautiful angel he had always known. "I'll try."
He smiled back softly before he turned and left, determined to help her in any way he could. Even if it meant sitting through classes he knew would bore him to death.
He would do anything for her.
Padme stood in the back of some kind of chariot with the younger Anakin standing next to her. Her hands were cuffed in front of her, and glancing over at Anakin, she saw that his hands were also bound. She wanted to ask what was going on, but like in all of her dreams, she couldn't voice what she was thinking. Her body seemed to move on its own.
The chariot led them into a massive stadium full of strange looking aliens that Padme was 100% sure that her subconscious couldn't have come up with on its own. In the center of the stadium was four large stone pillars, and a man was chained there with his hands above his head. From this distance, Padme couldn't tell who it was, but as they got closer she realized that the man looked like Ben, but with longer hair and a thicker beard.
The chariot stopped in front of the other two pillars and Padme and Anakin were led off the chariot and towards the pillars. With dread, Padme realized that they were going to be chained up too, and from the frenzied crowd, she didn't think this was your average execution. That had to be what this was, right? An execution of some sort. Some gladiator-style execution with aliens rooting for their death.
She was terrified, and had she had control of her actions, she would have been screaming and pulling to get away. But in the dream, she calmly reached up and pulled a pin out of her belt and used her mouth to position it so that she could…what, pick the locks? Did she even know how to do that? Either way, the pin was positioned in her hand as the alien creature chained her hands above her head.
Ben said something to Anakin, and Anakin said something back, but Padme wasn't paying attention. Her hands were already working at the locks around her wrists, moving as if they picked locks all of the time.
Above them, another group of aliens and an older man stepped out onto a dais. The lead alien held up its arms and with a somehow amplified voice (for Padme didn't see a microphone), it said…something. It was spoken in a very guttural alien language, so it offered no help whatsoever in determining what was going on.
She figured it out soon enough. At the far end were three gates, all of them opening up. The first creature through was what looked to be a very strange rhino with two horns on the side of its head. The crowd went into a frenzy at the sight of it, and soon it was not alone. A giant praying mantis (at least that was what it looked like) emerged screeching from his gate, its voice sounding like nails on a chalk board. A cat like creature leapt from the other gate, taking out one of the aliens that was jabbing him with an electrified stick.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Anakin said from beside her. Nah, really? She wanted to say, but she currently was now using her mouth to get the cuff from off of her wrist.
The creatures were herded forward by aliens on top of…other aliens, complaining at being prodded. She didn't have much time, but she finally got the cuff off. She whirled around and began to climb up the pillar effortlessly, as if she climbed vertical pillars every day. She was at the top in no time, and she began working on the other lock to get completely free.
The praying mantis thing began to attack Ben, while the rhino thing charged at Anakin. She almost opened her mouth to call his name, but before she could Anakin leapt up into the air, flipped, and landed on the rhino's back as if he were a cowboy in some deranged trick rodeo.
She might have tried to figure out how he moved so smoothly and effortlessly (especially since 24 hours ago he couldn't even run two miles), but the vicious cat thing jumped onto her pillar, digging it's claws into the stone as it climbed towards her, jaws snapping. Fear threatened to overwhelm Padme, and as it reached her, she used her only weapon, the chains, to smack it away from her. It backed away a little, but her hit only seemed to enrage it more. It climbed towards her again, and she tried to hit it again, but this time as it went down it raked its claws across her back, leaving three gashes across her back.
She screamed, closing her eyes as pain radiated through her body, and…
Padme woke up with a scream, lurching up into a sitting position so fast that her vision blurred and her stomach twisted in such a way that she was out of her bed, still feeling the rake of the creatures claws on her back, and running to the bathroom to throw up.
By the time she was finished, the feel of the gashes had dulled to the point where it was a mere tingling. Still, right after Padme was done washing her mouth out, she lifted her shirt and checked her back in the mirror for gashes.
Nothing. Just familiar, smooth skin.
She tried to breathe deeply to calm her racing heart, but she was unsuccessful. "Just a dream," she whispered to herself, "Just a dream…"
A dream that she felt.
The door to her bedroom opened. "Padme?" Mindy's voice called, sounding worried.
Padme lowered her shirt, leaning against the bathroom counter. "You shouldn't come in," she called back, "You'll get sick."
"But I heard you scream," her voice was closer, telling Padme that she had ignored Padme's warning. What was with her friends and their inability to heed her warnings? She was already certain Anakin would get sick. She didn't need to get her best friend sick too.
Nevertheless, Padme shakily exited the bathroom. Sure enough, Mindy was standing outside of the door, a worried look on her face. "It's nothing," She said, heading back to her bed. "Just a bad dream."
She climbed back under the covers and Mindy sat down on the edge of her bed, looking at her worriedly. "Are you still having those alien dreams?" She asked.
Hesitantly, Padme nodded. "Yes. Most of the time they're just random images, but sometimes it's a whole coherent scene." She stopped, debating on exactly how much information to tell her. Would she think that Padme was going crazy? Maybe she was.
"What was this dream about?" Mindy asked quietly, her eyes serious.
After a moment of deciding, Padme realized that she had to talk to someone about them. She told Mindy what had happened in the dream, including how real the claws on her back had been. "That's the thing that frightens me the most," Padme finished, "You aren't supposed to feel anything in dreams, and yet this was so…so real."
She expected Mindy to make a joke about how Padme was such an expert on getting scratched across her back by a giant cat alien thing, but Mindy was uncharacteristically silent. This only made Padme more worried. "Have you talked to Anakin about these dreams?" Mindy finally asked, "He's in like every one of them."
Padme blushed at the thought of telling Anakin that she dreamed about him almost every night. That didn't scream desperate at all. "No, and I'm not going to."
"Why not?" Mindy asked, "What if…"
"What if what?" Padme interrupted, "They're real? They aren't. There is no possible way that there are aliens and that I've…I mean, I would remember something like that, wouldn't I?"
"Yeah," Mindy said, though she looked hesitant still.
"Besides, that's totally crazy." Padme said, more to convince herself rather than convince Mindy.
"Yeah…" Mindy sighed. "Look. I have to get to class. But…if you have any more of those dreams, let me know okay?"
Padme didn't see how Mindy would be able to help her, but she nodded anyway.
Anakin entered the house late that evening, completely, mentally exhausted. He didn't know how Padme spent every day in classes like that. He hadn't even understood over half of what was being said, but he'd written down everything that sounded remotely important. He had also made sure he wrote down or gathered her assignments and now his backpack was drooping heavily from his shoulder. Obi-Wan had tried to meet up with him so that they could talk about the 'Palpatine' problem, but Anakin found himself so busy that he'd missed their appointment.
He felt bad of course, but he couldn't help but act on the need to take care of Padme. Even on his way home, he had purchased a bunch of stuff from the drug store that claimed to help people with the flu. He had a large bag full of stuff in his free hand.
He headed to Padme's room, half afraid of what he would find. Would she be worse than this morning? Or would she be better? He hoped she would be better.
When he entered her room, she was sitting propped up with pillows, watching some TV show on her laptop. When she saw him come in, she paused it and smiled tiredly. "Hey," She said.
He looked her over—she still looked pale, but the circles were gone from under her eyes. "Hey," He said back, going to her bed and placing both bags on it. "I took lots of notes for you and got your assignments," He said, pulling those out of his backpack, "And I got lots of stuff to make you feel better from the drug store." He pulled that stuff out of the plastic bag.
Padme looked at the coke cans, crackers, and Jell-O as she opened up the notebook with his notes. "You did all of this…for me?" She asked breathlessly, looking at the detailed notes he'd created and organized.
"Of course," He said as if it was the obvious thing to do. He knew that it wasn't, but…
"But why?" She asked, flabbergasted.
"Because you're my friend," Because I love you, "And I want you to get better." And I wish you never got sick again. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," She said, "I only threw up once since I last saw you." A strange look passed over her face, but she didn't say anything more.
"And your fever?"
"It's lowered," she said, and this time she smiled, making his heart clench.
He wasn't thinking straight. Maybe it was because of his worry for her. Maybe it was because he was exhausted from everything he'd done that day. Maybe it was because he usually had a hard time focusing whenever he was around her. But he blurted, "How is it possible that you're so beautiful?"
He regretted the words as soon as he said it. He couldn't believe he'd just blurted that out…but she smiled, clearly not taking it seriously. "Stop teasing me Anakin," she said, "I know I look like crap."
No, you really don't, he wanted to say, but this time he made sure to keep his mouth shut. Instead he gave her a lazy grin as if he'd meant to tease her, and she laughed. "Well. If you need anything else, you know where I am." He said, deciding to make a quick break for it. He stood, about to leave, when her voice stopped him.
"Thank you Anakin," When he looked over his shoulder, she was smiling sweetly at him. He had to look away quickly to avoid turning around and going back to her side.
"No problem," he said, before hurrying out the door.
As soon as he closed the door, he leaned against it, sighing as he mentally kicked himself for being so stupid. Years of being Darth Vader had not improved his flirting skills, apparently.
"You're hiding something." Anakin tensed, turning slightly to find Mindy leaning against her door, staring him down with narrowed eyes.
"Excuse me?" He asked, trying to think about anything that he had done recently to make her think that way. He didn't think she was from his galaxy, but it wasn't like he knew everyone there. Was she remembering something? Or was she just suspicious because he'd lost his cool over the weekend and in general acted odd?
"You heard me," She said. "I told you that if you hurt Padme I would hunt you down and make sure you regretted it. I am serious about that." Her eyes narrowed further, and for the first time in a very long time Anakin felt a shiver of actual fear lace up his spine. "I don't know what you're hiding, but trust me when I say this: I will find out what it is. And if it puts Padme in danger…well I'm not sure yet what I'll do, but it won't be pleasant."
Again Anakin marveled at her audacity to threaten him. She had no idea of course that he was one of the strongest Sith Lord's to ever live, if not the strongest. But he suspected that even if she did know, she would have threatened him anyway. It was both frightening and impressive at the same time. "Got it." He said.
"Good." She seemed satisfied, and she opened her door. "Good night Anakin. Don't let the bed bugs bite."
Woohoo! Another chapter done! This was definitely more of a relationship building chapter, and I loved writing it. When I was sick I totally came up with it, thinking about what Anakin would do if Padme were sick. Well, here's the result. He's certainly calmed down since Episode three, but he still over reacts a bit...in a cute way.
Okay so I had some absolutely fantastic reviews! Some of my reviewers gave some REALLY cute ideas for future chapters, and I may totally use some of those ideas... you guys are so fantastic!
Also, I'm making a playlist on Spotify for this fanfic. Music inspires me to write, so I have a playlist for everything I write. It was music that inspired this story, so... I'm making a playlist. Idk how to share it, but if y'all are interested I'll figure it out. Otherwise, if there was a particularly inspiring song for a scene, I'll just write it. The overall theme for this story though is "When the Darkness Comes" by Colbie Caillat. I can't stop listening to it when I write. Great song!
I hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween! ONLY TWO MONTHS UNTIL EPISODE 7! And this month Star Wars Battlefront comes out and I'm crazy excited for that...but I asked for it for Christmas so you don't have to worry about me disappearing because I get distracted by that.
Anyhow, be sure to review! Love you guys!
~Sarah
