o O o
As Padme approached the address she had been given there was no sign of the boy or of a speeder. 'I am a little early no need to panic… yet.' Padme thought to herself as she found a quiet corner out of sight to wait. Padme was starting to worry when an old beat up looking speeder eased up to the platform. The young boy Padme had spoken to in the depths of Coruscant stepped out blinking at the bright light of the surface. Padme stepped out of her concealed position. "I was starting to get concerned."
"Fin'in' a speeder is easy, fin'in' one tha owner will part with is a li'l tricky." The boy said gesturing to the speeder. "She's no' much to look at but she runs an' has a fairly clean sheet." Padme could sense that the boy was telling her the truth at least as far as he knew it.
Padme looked the speeder over as best as she could. It wasn't the fastest hunk of junk but it would be faster than walking. "It seems satisfactory." Padme said handing him the second half of his credits and accepting the keys from him. The longing look on his face told Padme that they would soon be taken from him. 'They are keeping him alive but that is about it.' Padme thought as her heart went out to the boy. "If you will meet me back here in twenty-four hours I will have another deal for you and you alone. A very lucrative deal, which will greatly improve your lot in life, if properly handled. No one else can know about this."
The boy nodded eagerly, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "Yes, ma'm. I'l be 'ere and tell no one 'bout it."
"What should I call you?" Padme asked remembering another boy, one who was and is again a slave.
"Names Bao Ma'm." He said obviously pleased that she would want to know who he was and not just what he was.
"Good, see you tomorrow Bao." Padme said closing the speeder's door and starting the engine as she worked the boy in to her plan. 'Qui-Gon should approve since he was always picking up 'pathetic life forms'.' Padme thought to herself as she slipped the aging speeder into the lines of traffic.
Between the top speed of her aging speeder and the traffic of Coruscant the trip seemed to take forever. As she parked her speeder Padme's stomach growled at her. 'I guess I need to get something to eat first.' Padme thought entering a small quiet diner in Coco Town and sitting in the far booth.
The server droid rolled up. "Can I help you?"
"A friend of mine suggested I try your spicy vegetable soup. He said it's 'to die from'." Padme said just loud enough to be heard in the nearby kitchen.
A few minutes later a huge four-armed Besalisk came lumbering out with a bowl of soup and two glasses of Jawa juice. Setting the soup and one of the glasses in front of Padme he squeezed himself into the booth facing her. "Haven't had a request for this recipe in a long time." He said taking a drink from his glass. "I hear that the last person that ordered it is dead."
"That's what they say. My friend said that he first heard of this on Ord Sigatt in the Outer Rim and that you were someone that could be trusted, Dex." Padme said trying to eat what she had ordered. "I need a safe place to lay low for a couple days."
"I've got a spare room in the back. And since you like my soup I'll let you use it. No questions asked. I hope our friend is taking care of himself. His kind are quite rare these days." Dex said sliding out of the booth.
"I hope so too. I've lost too many friends of late. I am glad to be able to make a friend. Names Akaiyo." Padme said holding out her hand to Dex.
"Nice to meet you… Akaiyo. I'll tell Hermione to let you in the back if I'm not here." Dex said releasing her hand and making his way back to the kitchen.
"Thank you," Padme said to his retreating back.
o O o
Once Padme left the diner she started flying around Coruscant trying to pin down the location of where Leia was being held. It wasn't easy to navigate traffic, stretch out with the Force and remain shielded all at the same time. There was a wisp of a familiar presence on the planet that she felt drawn to but this was not the time or the place for that reunion. Hours past before Padme was able to narrow in on her daughter's presence. The one good thing was that her speeder blended right into this part of Coruscant. Finding a place to park she just hoped that the speeder would still be there when she returned. Pulling a hooded cloak on and checking her blaster one last time she set out on foot. Finding a running turbo-lift Padme started making her way deeper into the city planet and toward her baby daughter. 'In this case I wish Leia didn't take after me. This would be far easier if she was not trying to hide.' Padme thought as she finally found the right level. She found herself in another old buried alleyway surrounded by old boarded up stores.
Looking around she noticed a faint light coming from one of the storefronts and as she got close she could hear the sound of a holo-vid playing inside. Peaking through the crack in the boards Padme could just make out one of the kidnappers sound asleep in front of the vid-screen. Smiling she reached out with the Force and deepened his sleep making sure he would not be easily awakened. Once that was done she reached out trying to ascertain the location of the other kidnapper. She found him on a cot in the back passed out drunk, dead to the world.
'The Force is definitely with me.' Padme thought as she used the Force to unlock the door to the hideout. Taking a deep breath and releasing her anger into the Force. 'I have to stay calm and focused. I am here to get my daughter not revenge. Justice will be done though.' Padme thought with a mischievous smile as she slipped inside. First thing she did when she got inside was to take the kidnappers travel I.D. and confiscated their blasters' power packs. That done she made her way to the third sleeping presence.
Reaching out with the Force she slipped Leia into a deeper level of sleep, then undoing the simple latch that kept her daughter confined she entered the storage closet. Picking Leia up off the cold floor Padme wrapped her up in a soft blanket she had brought. Holding her daughter for the first time Padme found it hard not to get lost in the moment. Her emotions trying to engulf her as she looked at her little angel. She could feel as Leia's dreams change now that she subconsciously recognizing her mother's presence, knowing she was safe. When Padme felt that she just about broke down crying but she knew they weren't safe yet. So shifting Leia so her head was on Padme shoulder she slid out of the closet and latched it closed behind her. When she left the only sign that she had been there was the absence of the things she took with her.
Reaching the speeder Padme secured Leia in her crash webbing in the back seat and set their course for Dex's Diner. It seemed to take even longer to get back to the diner because that was time that she could not hold her daughter. Part of Padme wanted nothing more than to bundle her baby off to Naboo. To keep her daughter with her and raise her in the Lake Country knowing that it was one of the places where Vader would never go. To never be separated from her family again even if she would never see the rest of her loved ones. Yet she could not give in to that selfish desire. Her sense of duty insisted that he try to reclaim the man she loved and perhaps keep others from suffering the darkness that the Emperor had plunged the galaxy into.
Pulling up to the diner Padme quickly retrieved Leia and a small satchel from the back and made her way into the nearly deserted diner. Making sure that the blanket was covering Leia she made her way to the back. Dex held the kitchen door open for her and showed her to a small sparsely furnished room.
"Is there anything I can get ya?" Dex asked quietly.
"Something easy to eat. Maybe some oats and fruit… Do you have any pallies? She likes that." Padme said barely taking her eyes off her precious bundle.
"I'll see what I can rustle up. No one will bother ya here." Dex said lumbering out of the room.
Shifting Leia where she had a free hand Padme started running a tub of warm water in the private 'fresher. Realizing that she had forgot the bath salts Padme reached out and called them to her through the Force. Making sure that Leia was still sleeping deeply she started undressing her. Her anger flashed for a moment when she found bruises on Leia's small dehydrated body. Leia started to squirm and she forced herself to calm down. Padme started singing the lullaby that she had heard Beru singing to Luke. "Though planets twilight and stars gone dim still lovers meet at a journeys end." Once Leia had settled down she washed her and got her dressed in fresh clothes.
After a few minutes sitting there holding Leia there was a knock on the door and Dex came back in with a tray of food. "I thought you might be hungry too."
"Thank you Dex." Padme said wondering what she would have done without Dex.
Once Dex left Padme carefully brought Leia as close to wakefulness as she dared. Making sure that she would be able to safely eat but would register it as a dream not reality. As she fed Leia Padme made sure her hair obscured her face. This way even if Leia remembered her she would not be able to identify her.
Leia smiled sleepily at her between bites. "Who are you?"
Padme paused for a moment at a loss as what to say. "I am an Angel sent to keep you safe. No more bad dreams, go back to sleep little one." Padme said starting to sing the lullaby again. Once Leia was full and sound asleep, Padme knew she could not put off returning her any longer, lest she never let her go. Bundling her up in the blanket once more she carried her back to the Organa's Coruscant apartments. Padme used the Force to escape detection as she entered the secure building and up to the Organa's floor. Realizing that the Organa's were still awake she made her way to a small balcony and sat holding her little princess while she could.
In some ways it seemed to take forever for the Organa's to turn in for the night but the time passed all to quick for Padme as she prepared to return her daughter to her guardians. Slipping into their quarters she made her way to Leia's bedroom adjacent to her parents and slid her into bed. Softly singing the lullaby it took over an hour before she finally forced herself to leave. Padme's heart was breaking as she somehow made her way back to her speeder and back to Dex's safely.
Collapsing on the cot in the back room she gave way to her tears. After her sobs faded and she spent all of her emotions for the moment she felt a familiar presence.
/I am proud of you Padme. It was a good plan though I know it was not an easy on to carryout./ Came Qui-Gon's reassurance.
/She is safe and will most likely think it was all a dream./ Padme answered her voice an odd combination of relief and sadness.
/Sleep./ Qui-Gon said using the Force to give the distraught mother some well deserved peace.
o O o
Across town Leia woke up looking around her room confused. 'It was a bad dream.' Leia thought slipping out of bed. Quietly she made her way to her parents' room. "Daddy I had a bad dream," Leia said sleepily knowing that her Daddy would know what to do.
Bail's eyes blinked open sleepily then widened in surprise. "Breha, wake up. Leia's had a bad dream." Bail said scooping Leia up into the bed between them. Part of him feared that this was all a dream, that he would wake up and Leia would still be missing.
"Leia?" Breha said in shock as she hugged her daughter tears streaming down her face.
Leia was confused by all of the emotion swirling around her. Both her Mommy and Daddy were crying and if one wasn't hugging her then the other one was. "Wha's wrong? Why you cryin'?"
Bail pause for a moment if Leia thought it was all a bad dream he didn't want to say anything to make her think otherwise. "Mommies and Daddies don't like it when their babies have bad dreams." Bail said locking eyes with his wife.
Breha nodded her understanding. "Leia, do you want to tell us about your dream?" Breha asked, wondering how their daughter had gotten home, it almost seemed like a miracle.
"Two mean men toot me but an Angel said she would make the bad dream go away." Leia said sleepily. "She was nice. I was cold and hung'y she held me and gabe me somepin' to eat. Pallies, I like Pallies. Then she sang me to s'eep. Then I woke up in my bed." Leia said falling asleep in Breha's arms.
"I wish I could thank Leia's guardian Angel for giving her back to us." Breha whispered.
"So do I. I am going to go call the authorities and check the security logs." Bail said slipping out of bed and grabbing his robe. First Bail had to inform the authorities that his daughter had been returned by a… third party. He knew they would want to talk to Leia but he was not going to allow it. It was in Leia's best interest to continue to believe that this had all been a bad dream and go on with her life, even if that meant that the kidnappers got away. He was truthfully more interested in thanking whoever had returned Leia than who had taken her. Yet, there was no record of any unauthorized personnel entering the building. Finally Bail gave up and returned to his bed and his family for what remained of the night.
o O o
The next morning
Padme did not want to wake up. She had been dreaming of holding her twins and was now awakening to the nightmare that was her reality. It took a minute for her to remember where she was. 'Dex's,' she thought tossing back the blankets she remembered falling asleep on top of. 'I have one more appointment.' Padme thought dragging herself to the 'fresher.
Coming out of the back room she was ambushed by Dex. "Breakfast is almost ready." He said leading her to the empty counter in the kitchen. "Will you be leaving now?"
Padme smiled at Dex. "I have one more thing to do then I'll be leaving Coruscant. I don't know where I'll go next." Setting her bag of meager belongings at her feet.
"I have caught wind of someone like our friend that could use a hand." Dex said setting a plate in front of her. "She had trouble with her hyperdrive and missed the end of the war. She had nowhere to go once she got her hyperdrive fixed. She now needs help relocating herself and her young family."
"I know a little about moving, but I don't know if I will be able to get away." Padme said looking at the kind Besalisk.
"She is at Cloud City. Anyone with engine trouble would come to her husband's attention. Just mention Ord Sigatt." Dex said leaving it up to her.
"I hope she is safe. There are far to few of her kind." Padme said picking up her bag. "Thank you Dex. What do I owe you?"
"Stay safe and if you see our friend tell him to do the same." Dex said pulling her into a four-armed hug.
"If I see him I'll tell him. He knows how to take care of himself and he better be careful or he'll have to answer to me." Padme said with a smile. "Good-bye, Dex, be careful my friend." She said leaving the Diner having a funny feeling that she would never see him again.
Climbing into her speeder Padme was torn about what to do about the Jedi that Dex said was in trouble. If she got involved she might end up endangering her future plans, but how could she turn her back on her.
'First things first,' Padme thought heading toward her rendezvous. Pulling up to the platform Padme noticed that Bao nervously step out of the same hiding place she had used the day before.
The boy ran up and climbed in the back seat. "Go please," he said ducking down and peaking out of the window. "I hope you were no' jus' getten' my hopes up. 'Cause I can'na go back now."
"Are you okay?" Padme said glancing back at the boy as she got them out of the neighborhood as quickly as she could.
"Coulda been worse. They did no' think I had anyw'ere to run ta." Bao said locking eyes with Padme in the rearview mirror. "So how you goin' ta change my life?"
"I need you to deliver something." Padme said reaching in her bag and tossing the boy a ration bar and a package. "I did the hard part already you get to keep the reward." Pulling the speeder to a stop she turned and faced Bao as he finished inhaling the food. "You go to the address on the package and ask to speak to Senator Bail Organa's Aide. Tell the Aide you have another present from an Angel. That should bring Bail running. Give Bail the package no one else. Got that?" Bao nodded. "Good, now get up here and get on your way." Padme said slipping out of the speeder.
"Where are you goin'?" Bao asked in surprise.
"No one knows where Angels go. The speeder is yours now, Bao. Take care of yourself. Maybe someday you can act like an Angel and help someone else. Sometimes it just takes one act of kindness to change everything." Padme said walking into the nearby crowd and disappearing. If all went right she would be off Coruscant before Bail got the Angel's latest gift. Putting on her cloak Padme swung around toward the spaceport.
o O o