A/N: Hey everyone. Here's another chapter for you. Now here's soemthing interesting. I have managed to write a whole nother 3 chapters for me to type up and post. Now you can all wait another week for the next one, or if you like, I can post them a couple of days at a time. What do you think. Let me know in your reviews people. if i dont get people telling me, then i'll just leave it for a week. Hope you like this chapter, and please Read and Reveiw! - Anakin's Girl 4eva xxx

sewardsfolly - Glad you enjoyed the last chapter. Unfortunatly, no more arguing Padawan's in this one, but still interesting I hope. :-) xxx

Hopeless4life - same as above, glads you enjoyed it. And i'm sorry but I must wait a while before I update or I wont get as many people reveiwing will I? Take a look above and tell me what you think. Enjoy and reveiw! xxx

My room is growing dark, slowly removing all presence of light and replacing it with cold, unforgiving shadows. Since he left I've been alone, drowning in darkness, wishing that he would return and help me, but I don't expect him to…not after what I have done to him. During all the years we have been together he's always been right beside me, caring for me, looking out for me in ways that my mother would have. He cared for me like a father, not just a mentor… but today it has become different. I ruined the special bond we have, I did the unthinkable, and something I never dreamed of doing, not even when I was most irritated with him. I hit Obi-Wan, I hit the person that took over from my mother and became the only parental figure in my life…who remains as the only parental figure in my life, and I didn't even apologise.

I meant what I had said in the bar. Obi-Wan really is a father to me…so why do I blame him for the awful things that I have done? Why has it taken so long for me to finally realise that he is my family now and that I may have just ruined our relationship in a way that cannot be repaired.

I close my eyes and sink back into the pillows, but I don't sleep, I can't sleep, I haven't been able to sleep in 10 years, not properly. Sleep always brings darkness, and darkness always brings nightmares, continuing the torture and pain of my life, knowing that my mother cannot hold me again, knowing that Obi-Wan will never trust me again…knowing that the woman I love finally accepted my love, but being so terribly afraid that the love she felt will disappear as soon as she sees who I have become...a humanoid, part man, part machine.

I hear the door creak open, but my eyes remain closed. The force dampener clasped firmly to my wrist sees to it that I can't tell who has come in the room. I hate losing control of the force, it's like losing control of a sense that I know is there, but is so desperately out of my reach…like myself...I know that I'm here somewhere, but I don't know where.

The dark fog begins to cloud my mind again, and I become afraid. I can't fight the dark without the light, but I can't find the light either. I needed Obi-Wan to stay, to protect me, to guide me through the dark fog that now is building up in my chest and head, making my head pound and my chest constrict.

But a nervous whisper sends the dark slinking away into the background, and a slight touch to my cheek makes me open my eyes, squinting against the sudden brightness of the room. Then a blurry image comes into view, a blurry image with long, soft brown hair and worried eyes. I blink again and I see her clearly, and the dark is gone, and the light she emits to me holds it back.

"Ani…"

"Padme…"

My bottom lip quivers and tears well in my eyes. She breathes my names again and wraps me softly in a loving embrace, seating her self on the bed next to me, and pulling my head in close to her shoulder. I wrap my human arm around her and hold her tightly, clinging to the light that is starting to waver under the dark's slow advance back into my head. I breathe in her sweet scent and feel her gorgeous brown locks sweep my face, collecting my tears. She slowly pulls away and gently runs her hand through my short hair, and I realise how desperately I want to kiss her, to run my hands through her hair and whisper soft words to comfort her and reassure her.

"Ani…Oh I've been so worried. How are you feeling?"

"I don't know…I'm so confused Padme."

"By what?"

I look away from her and down at the sheet that covers my arm, forcing back the bile that rises in my throat.

"Everything. I don't know who the enemy is anymore. Everyone seems to be against me…they're taking me to places I don't want to go…."

"Anakin, no one is against you. Everyone here is trying to help you…"

I can feel the dark cloud rising up again as my anger starts to seep through my panic and fear. I have to make her understand, she has to understand what these people are doing to me.

"If they want to help me so much, why do they keep on humiliating and hurting me? Obi-Wan walked out on me…I need him…and these people that are meant to help with my pain…they destroyed me…I'm…"

But I can't go on; just thinking about what they have done to me makes my stomach turn. The image of that horrid droid part still presents itself in my mind, haunting me. But it's not just in my mind, it's with me forever, it's with me until the day I die….

Eventually I realise that she has left my side and has crossed over to the other side of the bed, nearing my mechanical hand, reaching out to pull the white sheet back.

I quickly reach over and grab her approaching hand, stopping her in her attempt to view for herself the very thing that is causing me so much grief that is complicating my health and my mind. The only glimmer of hope I have left to fight with is the knowledge that Padme loves me, that she returns the feelings that I have felt for 10 years. To have her change and leave me again…for us never to be with each other…it made me want to curl up and die right here and now.

But she wants to see, her soft gaze and gentle touch tell me that…and I trust her…I trust her not to leave me. I pull back my hand and rest it lightly on my stomach, starting to panic a little as the dark edges closer to me again, and edges closer to my chest.

Slowly, she pulls the sheet back and I see the flicker of shock and horror pass across her face, only for a second, but it makes me react. I reach over sharply, but yelp as the IV in my hand pinches me sharply. She leans over now, wiping my brow with a cold, damp washcloth, trying desperately to calm me down, to get my breathing back under control.

"Anakin, please. You're clearly hurting enough as it is, I don't want you hurting anymore."

"I've always hurt Padme, and I always will."

"NO! Anakin! Don't you see? You don't have to go through this alone anymore. I am here to help you and Obi-Wan is too, you should know that. I love you…what I said at Genosis, its all true, I don't want to leave you…you are my life."

I look up at her startled, looking deep into her eyes to search for some kind of sign that she is lying, searching for the hint that all she is doing is comforting me, but I can't find anything. So that leaves me with just one option…

"You…you love me? Are you sure?"

"I've never been surer about anything else in my life."

"But...everything that's happened…how can you love me after what happened on Tatooine?"

"I love you even more considering everything that has happened. Anakin…I didn't realise how much you meant to me until it was nearly too late to do anything about it. Do you really think that now that I have that chance to make something of it, I'm just going to turn away and leave? On Tatooine you endured something that would be hard on anybody. You retaliated and no-one can blame you for that. It doesn't make what you did right, but you are only human."

"But what about my arm? I won't ever be the same again."

"Oh Anakin don't talk like that, of course you will! Your arm is our symbol of love. It's the symbol of everything that we have had to go through to find this love, to be together. What you have had to go through in order to keep you promise to your mother, to make her proud, which she always was Ani. I'm not ashamed of it and neither should you be."

I realise now how close we are….how tantalisingly close Padme's soft lips are. I lean forwards, reaching up with my flesh hand to press gently against the back of her neck, willing her to lean down towards me. At first I feel her resist, but she soon relaxes and leans down to deliver a small touch to my trembling lips. She pulls back ever so slightly, resting her cool forehead against my burning one. The beauty of her just an inch away from my face unlocks something in me, and I grab hungrily at her lips with mine, an offer she doesn't refuse. We are locked in a loving embrace, become one single person radiating a passion so strong it is undeniable and I feel as though it could go on forever, for eternity. But I tense as I hear footsteps, very faint but becoming louder. I break away sharply and give her a long, meaningful look, and because we are still one, forever one, she understands perfectly.

She seats herself in a chair and pulls her long, elegant cascade of hair into a loose bun at the back of her head. Laying a calming hand on my mechanical one, she smiles, willing me to look at it, but I refuse, instead looking at her. I can't feel her warm touch and it unnerves me inside, but in a way I can feel it's there and it sends a new jolt of electricity through my soul, awakening it from its unconscious state and bringing it back to the surface where it takes a much needed dose of light, happiness and freedom.

But my gaze is torn away from her when the door is opened and a new figure enters the room. I smile weakly over to him, glad that he has finally come to see me, but I suddenly get the feeling that something is very wrong, as Padme shudders and scowls, and the dark cloud that was drowning me awakens and starts to creep back to clutch at me again.