The warmth of the body lying next to her, the hunger pangs now a memory, and the fatigue of a day's work helping conceal their ship should have been enough to lull Padmé to sleep, but instead, she lay awake listening to the crackling of the fire and the sound of Obi-Wan's breathing.
Her mind was working through the complexities of her situation. No longer hers – theirs. He was involved because of her!
Why hadn't she told them? Told him? If she told him now, would he understand? Would he judge her? Think ill of her?
Padmé was aware of Obi-Wan's feelings about politicians. He didn't trust them. And she had given every reason not to.
"Obi-Wan?" She whispered, noting a tightening of the arm wound about her waist.
She leaned forward to press her lips to his, feeling his mouth vibrate with a quiet hum as his eyes drifted open slowly.
"Sorry to wake you."
"You can wake me up like that any time." He replied with a grin before placing another soft kiss to her receptive mouth. "Anything wrong?"
"I need to tell you something."
Finally! Obi-Wan thought as he leaned up and propped his head on his open hand.
"I think I may know why I was framed." She began, watching his face steadily. "I was working on a list of senators who had suspected separatist ties, essentially traitors to the Republic."
She noted his eyebrows raise slightly.
"As a loyalist, it is my duty to expose them. Do you understand?"
He simply nodded his reply.
Not very reassuring, but she continued on. "I was going to turn the list over to Chancellor Palpatine as soon as I had confirmation on a couple of leads."
"May I ask who's on this list?" Obi-Wan wasn't sure she would answer and inwardly sighed with relief when she did so.
"A dozen senators, including Looruya and Dio."
He appeared to be pondering over this information before finally speaking. "Where is this list?"
"On my personal datapad in my office at home."
"Did anyone else know about this?"
"Not that I'm aware of. Maybe Dormé, but I trust her completely."
"Of course." Obi-Wan replied , his feelings telling him that the senator's personal assistant was probably above suspicion. She had been with her since her reign on Naboo.
"I'm sorry I didn't mention this before."
Obi-Wan raised her chin with a single finger until her eyes one more met his. "Why didn't you?"
"I suppose I didn't want you to think I was a devious, backstabbing politician. I know how you dislike politicians."
"Not all of them." He replied with a gentle swipe of his thumb across her mouth. "In the morning, we'll contact Master Yoda and let him know about this list of yours."
In the morning, removing the camouflaging tree limbs and palms away from their cruiser revealed that during the night, some type of native species had taken residence amongst the brush. Something with teeth and an appetite for wiring.
"They were small enough to enter through the hatch." Obi-Wan commented as he crawled out from underneath the belly of the ship. "Some of the cables are chewed completely through. I just hope the navigational and hyperspeed systems are working."
"If not, can you fix them?" Padmé followed Obi-Wan up the ramp and onto the vessel.
"I can splice some of the cables to fix some systems, but others may not be salvageable."
Padmé waited on board the ship, looking over the sabaac cards that lay abandoned on the lounge table. Just a few days ago, they had been on board just beginning to explore their friendship, and now….
Their relationship had advanced quickly. She just hoped, not too quickly.
She looked up as Obi-Wan entered the area, brushing off the dust from his leggings and wiping the grease off his hands. "I've managed to save navigation and hyperspeed, but I'm afraid long-distance communications is out."
"And that means…?" Padmé prompted him.
"That means, we're going back into Coruscant essentially blind. I can't contact Master Yoda, but we've got to get back. If we're going to clear your name and find the person responsible, we've got to recover that datapad."
"But all it shows is a list of possible traitors. I'm afraid it's not going to help our case much."
"Maybe not. But it's all we've got."