Quick updates: I will try! (not try, only do, I know) As school ends, expect more updates over the holidays, which I think is best for everyone and school. We'll be bored over break, and get to read lots of AU!
Chapter 4: A Rocky Start
Naboo. The most beautiful planet in the galaxy, if you were Padme. Finally gazing out of the windows of her ship, and seeing her planet, made her heart ache. She'd been gone from the planet she served for so long. She had forgotten how the waterfalls sounded throughout the cities making a constant thrumming background.
She leaned up higher on her elbow, on the bunk she'd slept on. Although she'd only slept an hour, she felt almost well enough to take on seeing her parents.
But that would wait. She and Anakin were going to the lake country first. Where they'd fallen in love, gotten married. They'd set up a home there. Perhaps there was hope for the future. Her fears were falling behind her.
They landed and Anakin came to find her, still at the window looking out-now at a hangar bay. She was obviously not looking at the view.
"Padme?"
Padme jumped in her bunk, then turned to him. She smiled. " Oh, Ani. I'm sorry."
She started up on the pallet, but Anakin hurried over and helped her up. "Here," he said offering his arm. She used it and grunted her way up.
"I had started to wonder if I had just gotten fatter than normal women, but now two babies makes sense."
"You're not fat," Anakin laughed. Padme stopped and looked at him incredulously.
"I am too. You don't have to say things like that to make me feel better. I'm stronger than I look."
Anakin stared at her, she looked back at him with just as much intensity. He continued his study then turned to the door.
"Well tough-girl, are you coming?" He turned back and looked at her with an eyebrow raised.
She huffed and walked to him slowly. "I'm tough, but that doesn't mean I'm not scared."
He nodded. "I know. I can feel it. But you don't have to worry anymore."
"Now that I know we'll be in the lake country first, I'm not as worried."
They walked through the halls and out into the hangar bay. Anakin took some luggage and handed it to C-3PO. "Here, 3PO. R2?" He called up into the ship. "Are you coming?"
They heard a series of whistles and beeps that Padme assumed meant yes. Sure enough, R2 came rolling down the ramp with Captain Typho and the handmaidens behind him.
"Well, m'lady. I guess this is where we part."
Mottee ran down the ramp and hugged Padme. "Oh, m'lady. We'll miss you terribly."
Elle was right behind her. "Please take care of those babies. We want to know when it happens."
Padme nodded and hugged Elle back. "I'm sorry it has to be like this. I love you both."
With nothing more to say, the maidens moved off with Typho, back into the ship. They would return to the Queen's service, awaiting another assignment. Typho had been with her since her career as Senator, while Mottee and Elle had only been with her since her latest term of office.
Anakin placed his hand on Padme's back. "C'mon." She continued looking back at the ship while he led her out of the building and into the sun.
The sound of waves hit her again, the waves of water falling down the cliffs in Naboo. She didn't know if she could keep herself from crumbling inside, right there. Only Anakin's hand was keeping her anchored to the present, and to her sanity. She pulled it off her back and put his hand in hers.
When they arrived at the lake retreat house, it was the same as it was when they married. Anakin blinked in surprise but then remembered what Padme had told him before…
"Nothing ever changes on Naboo, Ani."
Anakin was laying next to her on the bed in her apartment. He'd just come back from his latest mission and Padme was thrilled. She finally had her husband home. The last visit had been too short, and now he'd changed. She'd remarked as much.
His hair was longer, his pad wan braid gone, and he had more muscle to him. But his eyes frightened her. They were harder than the Anakin she'd married. And it worried her.
"If we went back today, it would still look the same."
"But why? Things here change all the time." Anakin reached up and brushed a hair off her face. She ducked her head shyly.
"Well, tradition, I suppose."
"Are you lying to me?"
"No! Ani I swear. I was there for winter solstice, it's not changed at all!"
"You're teasing me!" Anakin began tickling her and rolling her around on their bed.
"No, Ani, I swear!"
Anakin smiled down at her, wondering if she was thinking the same. Her brow was furrowed.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
She looked up, distracted. "Oh," her face cleared, "Yes, uh...I'm sorry?"
Anakin released her hand and rubbed her back up and down. "We'll be Ok."
They continued their walk to the small river nearby. These small canals were used to get too and from different locations. When they reached the dock there were two men waiting for them on a small gondola. The tiny boats could only hold so much, so Padme and Anakin went on one with a small spindly looking gondolier, and R2 and 3PO were taken to another with the luggage.
Anakin handed her down gently and she seated her self in the back of the barge where there was a backrest. Anakin folded his long legs beside her and sighed. He put his hand on her stomach and his other arm around her shoulders. Padme glanced at his face then turned hers into his shoulder.
The gondolier began pushing on the long pole and rocking the boat. These men had been picked by local security enforcement to take them safely across. They could be trusted.
"Grahaz aleithu," Padme called to the one on their boat. Anakin gave her a quizzical look before she explained it was Nubian for Thank You.
"And you thought you were special because you knew Huttese," she smiled at him.
"I never knew that Naboo had a language other than Basic."
'Yes," Padme pushed the hair out of her eyes, "In remote places like here, you get some people who only speak it, and very little Basic. But every Nubian knows the world-language, if not Basic." Her eyes scanned the waters, and the swans landing gracefully beside them. They were not going very fast, just enough to make waves.
"I never heard anyone speak it here before."
"We didn't have much interaction with the locals before. We were trying to keep a low profile."
"And we're not now?" He grinned at her.
Padme felt a couple of quick jerks in her womb, then the world reversed positions.
Padme found herself in the freezing water of the lake. She sputtered and looked around her. Finding nothing but a capsized boat, she screamed, "Anakin!"
Frantically, pushing through the murky waters, and trying to keep afloat, Padme began swimming towards the shore. A yard or so in front of her, was a rocky bank. Before she could reach it, her foot hit something, and that something tugged. She inhaled some of the water, then sputtered.
As the hand tugged, Padme struggled. Her weight made her want to sink, sink deep into the water and give up. But the quick tugs finally made sense. Ani. They weren't the angry pulls of an assassin, but her beloved.
Finally she stilled in the water, just in time to hear C-3PO dozens of yards behind her. His cries of, "milady," made her smile, shakily.
Anakin's hand continued to hold her ankle, and the gondolier popped out of the water.
"Collenna, aleidraha meravigesse?"
"Yes, um, sheahs. Grahaz aleithu."
He nodded and took her hand, attempting to help her reach the shore.
C-3PO's boat continued closer, ready to pull her in, when she was pulled under.
"Collenna!"
She fell further into the water, just as a large body burst past her to the surface. She waited. Five seconds, then ten. The top water was disturbed, there was thrashing. Suddenly another pair of feet appeared above her, directly where Anakin was. Placing a hand on her stomach, she waited another five seconds, then began to ascend.
She pushed herself away from the commotion, then towards the surface. She gasped when she hit air. Frantic hands pulled at her.
"Collenna, Collennna!"
She was being handed up. C-3PO stood above her, shouting. Her ears were filled with angry shouts and water. As she braced herself to climb into the boat, she glanced back at the noise.
Anakin was in the water, grappling with a seedy looking man. She flopped into the bottom of the boat, coughing. C-3PO tried to help her up, but she pushed him away.
She turned to the boatman.
"Circle them."
He cocked his head then shrugged.
"NOW!"
His eyes grew and he nodded. He steered them towards the two men, fighting in the water.
The other gondolier hopped in, frantically chattering in Nubian. Padme shushed him, then yelled to Anakin.
"Your light saber!" She looked around her frantically, as the men fell under the current. She gasped.
Moments, then seconds went by. R2 whistled low. C-3PO, was for once, silent. The men panted and searched the waters for disturbance.
A bright blue light flashed from out of the water. Padme gasped and fell back on her hands.
Anakin surfaced, light saber lit and ready to strike. He heaved out a few breaths, watching the water, then turned. He looked at Padme, sadly, then turned the light saber off.
For the next minute, sounds of swimming and heavy breathing filled the air until finally-
"Oh, Master Ani! Are you quite all right? We had thought-"
With a swift move, Anakin shut C-3PO down while leaping into the boat. The men looked at him fearfully.
Padme shivered, mostly from the cold, then pulled her ands over her chest.
"Are you alright?" Anakin slumped down next to her.
"I'm fine. Are you and the babies alright?"
"Cold. But fine."
"Tell them to stop staring at me, and row on." Anakin wiped a hand on his face, then replaced his saber on his belt. Padme complied, then grabbed his hand.
"Ani, what just happened?"
After a few moment silence, and the start of their ride to the lake house, he replied,
"Someone knows we're here."
He stood up and looked around him. The boatmen stared at him fearfully, but continued their rowing.
"I'm sure it was a bounty hunter. But…when I used my light saber…well…" He looked at her sadly. She nodded.
Anakin's head jerked, as if he'd snapped out of a trance, and he knelt by her.
"Hey, you said you're cold." He pulled his wet cloak around her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She was tense.
"Don't be frightened. We just have to be extra careful now."
"Because of the bounty hunter?"
He shook his head, then tipped her chin up. "No, because I used my light saber. Although this isn't exactly a public place, anyone could've seen." He glanced back and the gondoliers. "I have no doubt they can keep their silence, especially if talked to by a senator…" He grinned, then smiled sadly. "But we made a lot of commotion just there. We need to beon our guard."
They'd finally reached their destination, shaken, but ready to leave it behind them.
With his arms protecting her, Padme quickly explained the secrecy they'd need to the boatmen. They nodded eagerly and shook hands with them, before shoving off. They only glanced back once, scared, then moved on into the sunset.
Anakin turned C-3PO back on, and led them up the stairs into the retreat house. Padme panted and grasped her side.
"Ani," she managed before he caught her.
"I know. I've got you." He held her, and they made their way into the house. When they reached the foyer, C-3PO commented that he'd take their bags up, and R2 knowingly followed. It was then that they finally both looked at each other.
Anakin laughed nervously, and looked at their feet. They were dripping wet. Padme laughed with him.
After a few moments more, Anakin began to trek upstairs.
"Well, we wanted quiet, and it is…now. Oh the disturbances you make, milady."
"Me?" She hit his shoulder then sniffed. "Put me down, I don't want to be carried."
He complied, but only when they reached the bedroom they'd first shared as husband and wife. She quickly scrambled up.
"You'll wet the bed."
"Will not. Haven't done that since I was four."
She scowled at him. "Har har. Good going Jedi."
"Please, Senator, no calling names." He only half-laughed, "I'm hardly that anymore.
She walked over to his silent figure. Putting a hand on his, then placing it on her belly, she sighed. "I'm not a Senator either. So I guess our titles will have to be dropped. Although technically, you're still a Jedi."
He looked down at their hands. "All I want to be now, is your Anakin. And theirs."
"And so you will be. But if we don't get out of these clothes soon, we'll all freeze."
Padme left the room, waddling slightly, from the cold or the weight, he didn't know. He wasn't used to her yet. Wasn't used to being around her all the time. He felt he'd missed it. Missed the first swell of her stomach, missed her first excitement at finding out, and missed on their intimate moments.
She peeked her head in the door.
"You coming? I think I'll take a bath."
But he could make up for it now.