Falls the Shadow

Chapter 5

Revelations

Padmé arrived back at the Villa, tired but more than a little relived to get back to Anakin. To her surprise, Pavot, the villa overseer, greeted her at the landing, concern evident over her face.

"OH Gods!" She thought. "What has he done now?"

"Miss Padmé," she began. "Please don't be too concerned, Guérisseur is with him now... your young man will be quite alright after a good rest..."

"Guérisseur? The healer?" Padmé gasped. "What do you mean AFTER a good rest? He was SUPPOSED to be doing just that..."

They fairly raced up the stairs to the suite, Padmé catching snatches of conversation that told her enough. He had been found in the back garden, (resting). Probably had fallen off the veranda where people had seen him working out. (What the hell was he doing up there?) Cuts and bruises, probably felt a lot worse than it looked (hopefully).

She entered the room quietly, and as quickly as she could, very nearly dashed into the bed chamber.

Anakin was laying face down on their bed, apparently asleep while Guérisseur and his assistant Lírio appeared to be finishing up their treatment. Padmé cleared her throat and felt a twinge of jealousy as Lírio stroked the top of his head. She was about to say something… anything, when Lírio looked up and smiled.

"There now young man," Lírio chuckled softly. "Your lady friend is here now; will you just go to sleep?"

Anakin mumbled a reply and turned his head towards Padmé. To her horror, he had now added a black eye to his assortment of injuries.

"Oh Ani..." she said faintly as Guérisseur rose, shaking his head.

"It's not as bad as it looks. A few recent wounds reopened, and a lot of bruising but no broken bones or new really serious injuries." He cast a look at the restless Jedi and pursed his lips. "He should be insensible to the world; we gave him enough Hebetate to drop a Bantha because he just would not be still, but as you can see..."

Padmé made her way to the bedside and sat next to him, taking his bandaged hand into hers, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks.

"Ani..." she whispered softly."I'm here..."

Guérisseur handed Padmé a small vial of violet liquid. "There's a little more here if he needs it for pain, although by looks of things he has his best medicine right here." He smiled at her and shook his head again.

"Never seen the like of it. He managed to fight off the sedative so much I thought either he had developed a resistance to such drugs or he's a damn Jedi..."

"Or both"...thought Padmé bitterly and she rose to see Lírio and Guérisseur to the door, thanking them and promising to contact them in a few days if Anakin failed to show signs of improvement.

A low groan from the bed brought her attention back to him. She carefully sat down on the bed, tenderly touching his cheek.

"Angel?" he asked, his eyes were closed and his voice was thick and sleepy. "Is that you?"

"Of course it is..." she said softly."Ani, beloved... what were you thinking? What happened?"

"Orders..." he mumbled.

"Orders?"

"We were to take the stronghold... staging area... we thought..."

Padmé realized that in his drugged stupor, he was referring to the events that had brought him back to Naboo. She knew that he would probably never tell her what had really happened down there and doubted he'd remember telling her later if she asked him now...

"Go on..." she whispered."Tell me everything."

His face twisted in consternation, and he seemed to draw himself up and closer in. She knew it was causing him pain to remember this but perhaps by getting it out, by having him say something, she might be able to grant him some relief from this pain.

"Talk to me..." she said quietly, and when he tried to turn away she used a different tact.

"Commander Skywalker," she ordered him as quietly as she could, but trying to maintain a sense of authority in her voice. "Report!"

At last he sighed, "60 Jedi, at least two hundred clones... down to the surface... we didn't know... we should have..."

"Know what?" she pressed, suddenly afraid.

He groaned the pain evident in his voice.

"Tell me!" she demanded trying to keep the shaking out of her voice and knowing now she would have to see this terrible nightmare through to conclusion.

"A trap... tactical blunder on the part of command. Miscommunications..." he moaned softly. "Ambushed... ships fired on the stronghold before we could retreat... our own ships... hit us from behind thinking we were part of the Separatist..."

Padmé gasped, chilled to the bone.

"Was hit from behind, shrapnel I think... 60 Jedi... maybe 17 of us brought back to the Medical Frigate... think 5 of us lived... OH GODS! Oh GODS!!!" and he began to weep.

Slowly, carefully, Padmé crawled into bed next to him and taking her weeping husband into her arms, she loved him as best she could.

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Pavot was about to knock when she heard the soft, plaintive weeping emanating from the room. She knew that the young man was on leave from the wars and that something terrible had happened to him there. Walking away, she decided that the message that had probably taken a few hours to arrive from Coruscant could definitely wait a little while longer.

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