"Angel?"

Padme sobbed in relief when he spoke. She had been so afraid
when he had rejected her touch. She had been so afraid that she had
finally found him again, only to be left with a shell of the man she
loved.

She threw her arms around him and lay her head on his chest.
She could hear his heartbeat through the thin shirt he wore. It was
weak and far too slow, but it was there.

She stayed there for what seemed forever and not nearly long
enough. His arms encircled her. They were thin and no where near as
strong as the arms that had once held her, but they were his and for
that she wept harder.


He caressed her hair. It was longer than her remembered. His
fingers tangled in the long tresses. His arms tightened around her. He
lay unmoving as she sobbed into his chest.

He stared up at the ceiling. He was in their bedroom. His eyes
followed the familiar swirling pattern of the blue paint.

Tears slipped out of his eyes and down his cheeks. Closing his
eyes he drifted off into sleep, secure in the knowledge that he had
his angel back, and this time she was real.








Obi-Wan stood on a balcony overlooking the beautiful lake on
whose banks the Naberrie family home sat. The setting sun sent fingers
of pink and gold over the water creating one of Obi-Wan's favorite
sights.

He was not looking at the lake now. He didn't notice the
beauty. All he saw was Anakin's broken body lying in a pool of blood
and human waste. Blue eyes clouded by drugs and unseeing.

Obi-Wan knew that that sight would never leave him. Every time
he closed his eyes he saw it. He hadn't even slept since he'd found
Anakin in the cold, dank room on Mandalore. He was too afraid.



He was still standing on that balcony an hour later when Sabe
came. She stood in the shadows watching him. His posture was not that
of a powerful and sure Jedi Knight. No, he stood like a broken man
who had lost something very dear to him.

Which he nearly had, she thought, but now Anakin is back.

Suddenly seeming to become aware of her presence Obi-Wan
straightened and turned around. Sabe stepped out of the shadows and
joined him at the edge of the balcony. He turned back around and they
watched the night in silence.

Finally, Sabe sighed in annoyance. The dumb Jedi is too
stubborn for his own good. He won't even ask me about Anakin. Turning
she studied his face. It was a very different face than the one she
had first seen when Padme was still queen. He had grown out his hair
and the braid was missing. His face was no longer clean shave. In fact
it was exactly the opposite. Obi-Wan had been lax in trimming his
beard since Anakin had disappeared. Maybe now that he's back he'll
start trimming it again, Sabe thought, or even shave it all off.

"He woke up." Obi-Wan straightened at the news. Sabe smiled
and looked back out over the lake. She could feel Obi-Wan's eyes on
her, burning with annoyance and impatience. She closed her eyes as a
cool breeze washed over them both. Obi-Wan growled in annoyance. She
struggled to hold in her laughter.

"He hasn't said much. Padme refused to leave his side. They
just keep staring at each other." Her voice lost the hint of laughter
and her face became serious again. "He acts as though he thinks she'll
disappear the moment he looks away." Obi-Wan looked at the moon. It
was full.

"We can't know what he's been through in the last two years."
Sabe nodded and left Obi-Wan to his musing. She didn't hear the words
he utered after she had gone.

"And I'm not entirely sure I want to."