AN: Sorry for the delay, I've been too busy with schoolwork to update lately. Here's the next part of the story. Please R&R.
I was worried about Luke being at the recommencing of the trial. He was still really sick, but I had promised him that I'd get him there no matter what had happened before hand. Yasmine had come to visit us when we were just about ready to walk out the door of the med lab.
She took the news about us leaving the med centre to Father. And it was some time before 21-B allowed me to leave with my brother.
We were the last two to be admitted into the courtroom. Finding seats at the back, I guided my brother to sit down.
The court case started again and the last witness was called forward. The handmaiden looked very similar to my mother, I could tell. My birth mother, Padmé. Bail had told me that my mother had been a handmaiden for a Queen of Naboo, or something like that. Could one of my mother's friends have survived?
But when her name was asked for and given, it meant nothing to me. Then Father called her "Ami." That confused me a lot. Especially when the handmaiden had called him "Ani" earlier. I sensed a connection between them, but didn't know how to explain it.
And then it hit me. The connection was plain as daylight. The woman on the stand was my mother! I gave off a half sob and left the courtroom.
My mother was alive. She was alive! All I believed about her was stripped away. My mother was alive and she didn't make any effort to find me or talk to me. She had left me with Bail and had me believe that she was dead.
I was crying by the time I got back to my quarters. Han had not gone back to the trial and was waiting for me there.
"What?" he asked when he saw my tears.
"Leave me alone," I told him. "I need to work this out by myself."
"What's happened?" he persisted.
"My father's on trial, okay?" I spat back at him. "Go away."
Han left me, surprised at my reaction. I was just as confused as he was, though. Why had my mother left me on Alderaan with Bail?
I couldn't work it out.
It was a long time before I heard a knock at my door. "Leia?"
It was Luke. "Come in," I called to him.
He did. "We're called to a high ranking meeting. We both are wanted."
ZI nodded and wiped my eyes. "Sorry for walking out like that during the trial."
"You couldn't help it. It was a shock for you, let alone me."
I nodded again. "It was. I had thought… no, I had believed that Mother had died."
Luke didn't add to that thought. Instead, he came and sat by me and pulled me into a hug. "This is hard for the both of us. I know I'm finding it difficult."
"Me too, Luke," I agreed. "We better go."
We exited the room and I suddenly realised that Luke had come to get me. "What happened with the trial?"
"Vader got tried and was found guilty of all those crimes against his name."
"What's going to happen about Father? Are the going to execute him?"
"They will if he remains in the mask."