Chapter Six
Anakin sat silently on Padme's veranda. He was trying his best to meditate but found it difficult to get past the overwhelming distraction that was currently sleeping in her bedroom. He knew he shouldn't let her get to him, but being near her again after all that time…was more than he could handle. She was intoxicatingly beautiful, more so than he had remembered, which surprised, pleased, and scared him all at the same time. He was intentionally avoiding her at all costs and had vowed to himself that he would only speak to her unless absolutely necessary because he knew deep down that if he starting having conversations with her, he would start to warm up to her again. And that was the last thing he wanted and needed. He was finally getting recognition around the Jedi Temple not to mention his recent Knighting, and he could not afford to let himself get involved with her again. But most importantly, he didn't think that his already bruised heart could handle another beating from her.
He sighed and allowed himself to continue his present train of thought. She was gorgeous, and still had those soulful chocolate eyes that he could always lose himself in. He sighed yet again. What had he gotten himself into? While he was grateful for the solo assignment, the fact that the assignment was Padme was far from ideal. Still, he wanted her to be safe, and since someone had to protect her, it might as well be him. In truth, he didn't really trust any other Jedi for the assignment.
Suddenly, his eyes flew open. He sensed another life form in Padme's room. Within seconds, he sprinted to her room, light saber ignited, and burst into the room. His eyes immediately centered on the bounty hunter who had a blaster pointed at a very frightened Padme.
The bounty hunter's eyes widened with shock when his eyes collided with Anakin's light saber and started firing almost immediately. Anakin easily deflected the shots and pushed them directly at the bounty hunter. Soon, the bounty hunter was hit by his own blaster shot and Anakin deactivated his light saber. He stood over the fallen bounty hunter for several moments, trying to find some incriminating evidence as to who had hired him but looked up when he heard a whimper from the bed.
He immediately walked over to the bed and winced at what he saw. Padme was curled up into a ball, crying and trembling uncontrollably. It was that moment that he realized he had never seen her cry before and he knew he couldn't do anything but comfort her.
"Are you alright? Did he hurt you?"
Padme looked up at the soft voice and the only thought she had was that those were the first words she had heard him speak since he had arrived. She shook her head in response and sat up from the bed, pulling the covers around her.
Anakin nodded, relief shining in his eyes. "Can I get you anything?"
Padme shook her head again, unable to find her voice from the trauma she had just experienced.
"I'm going to call someone to get him out of here. Until then, you can sleep in my room if you want."
Padme shook her head again. "No, I wouldn't want to take your room. I don't think I could get back to sleep anyways."
Anakin bit his lip subconsciously and nodded, having known that she would feel that way.
"It's alright, I can sleep on the couch."
Padme managed a faint smile and he fought the urge to smile back. He ushered her out to the sitting room before making his call. After security was notified of the situation, he slowly sat a cautious distance away from her on the couch. He watched her carefully and noticed that her chest was heaving rapidly and her eyes were boring into a spot on the floor.
"I didn't let it bother me before…I never saw the bounty hunters…they were never even in the same room as I was…I don't even remember seeing a body…but now, just a few minutes ago…one was pointing a blaster to my head. Another split second and I would have been dead. But you…you saved me…you didn't have to…" She trailed off and focused more intensely on any particular spot on the floor.
"This is my assignment, to protect you." He was still staring at her, almost as if he was looking directly into her soul and that frightened her. He was doing his best to hide his concern, to make her think that she was just an assignment to him, when in truth, he didn't know what he would have done if he had burst into her room a split second too late.
"But, I don't think you can stay on Coruscant. All of the assassination attempts have taken place here, right? We need to relocate but, I'm not completely sure where you would be safe."
Padme bit her lip in thought. He certainly had a point and now that there was a price on her head, there weren't many places in the galaxy where she could go unnoticed. Except…
"We could go to Naboo. The Lake Retreat there is unoccupied, at least, I think it still is. We would basically go unnoticed there and no one would be the wiser, we'd have to alert Queen Jamilla of course, but that is probably our best option."
Anakin nodded, running Padme's suggestion over in his head. That could work, it could definitely work. Now the only question was: how were they going to get there unnoticed?
"I agree. If you're safe anywhere, it's there."
Padme nodded in agreement.
"Our only problem though, is how to get there undetected. If we take any of your ships or the Council's for that matter, every bounty hunter in the galaxy will know. We need a ship that will keep us anonymous and allow us to keep a low profile until we get to the Lake Retreat."
"Well, there is one way. We could take a regular transport."
Anakin raised his eyebrows at the suggestion, surprised that she would be so clever. But then again, he had always known that. She was never one to lay down and surrender.
"We'd have to be under cover." He replied.
"Of course. I'll leave that up to your expertise. I will need tomorrow morning to make preparations with Queen Jamilla and the Senate, but after that, I think we should leave as soon as possible."
Anakin nodded in reply and took his leave to start preparing for the trip. He sighed to himself after he had put some distance between them. He had absolutely no idea how long this assignment was going to take and he was ready for it to be over for he knew that what had just occurred between them was a step in the wrong direction. They were on speaking terms again, at least where her security was concerned. But it wasn't just protocol speaking terms, it was almost conversational. He found himself aching to hear her voice again and he wanted to hit himself with disgust.
Shaking his head, he resigned himself to Padme's guest room to get everything ready. There was still one little detail that needed to be worked out and he already had one nagging idea that he refused to allow to resurface. But the more he thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense, even if the very thought of it made him cringe. There was only one way that the both of them could go on a regular transport, remain unnoticed, and still allow him to protect her.
Biting his lip and trying desperately not to wince as he typed, he added their names to the passenger list of the transport to Naboo they would be taking.
