A ripple across the training bond that Obi-Wan shared with his padawan awoke him from his sleep. The boy was experiencing another nightmare. His second since turning thirteen just a few months ago.
Rising quickly from the sleeping couch in the common room, Obi-Wan moved to Anakin's bedside to arouse the youth.
"Anakin. Wake up." Obi-Wan laid a hand gently on his restless apprentice's shoulder.
Anakin's eyes flew open at his master's touch and he gasped in several breaths, breathing rapidly before bringing his heart rate under control.
"Another nightmare?" Obi-Wan asked as he dabbed the sweat from the lad's brow with the sleeve of his tunic.
"Yes." Anakin admitted, trying to relax. "About my mother."
Obi-Wan waited for his padawan to catch his breath and regain his orientation before the younger boy sat up in the bed, running his hand through his sweat-dampened hair.
Over the last four years, Obi-Wan had realized that Anakin was much more attuned to the Force than any Jedi he had ever encountered; even himself. Along with that connection, came the gift of foresight. An ability to see things in the future. His last dream about his mother had been vague shadows of pain, but the fearful and concerned expression his apprentice now wore led Obi-Wan to believe that this vision had been much more explicit.
"When we visited her last quarter, did she mention being in any kind of trouble?"
"No. That's just it, Master. She seemed happy. But this dream," Anakin grimaced and closed his eyes as the vision replayed in his mind, "revealed suffering and death. Master, I think she's going to die."
"Anakin." Obi-Wan laid a hand upon his padawan's arm. "A Force vision does not necessarily mean that what you have seen will come to pass. It is merely a possibility of what can happen, if certain events go unchanged."
Obi-Wan looked on his apprentice and thoughtfully stroked his beard. "I tell you what. We'll go visit her again and make sure everything is all right. I'll see if we can take some leave after this tenth. You've got a break in exams coming up, don't you?"
"Yes." Anakin sighed, still looking distraught, glancing up at Obi-Wan with a persistent worry shadowing his features.
"What is it?" Obi-Wan asked him softly.
"Do you think that maybe there's some way that we can get her off Tatooine, so that she wouldn't have to be a slave any more?"
Obi-Wan sat up straight, contemplating the implications of such an action. Finally deciding that no harm could come from saving the poor woman from such a hard life, thus saving his padawan from worry, he shook his head. "I don't see why not."
When Anakin's expression changed to one of extreme relief, a broad smile appearing on his features, Obi-Wan felt a flood of joy emanating along their bond and he knew in his heart that he had made the right decision.
He tucked his apprentice back into bed and left the room, sliding the door shut behind him. Instead of going back to sleep himself however, he sat up the rest of the night trying to figure out how to save Shmi Skywalker.
He didn't have enough credits to buy her, and he couldn't just go to Tatooine and kidnap her. He supposed he could gamble for her, but the chances of winning such a bet certainly could only happen once, and Qui-Gon had already taken advantage of that.
When the rays of the Coruscant sun began to warm the room, he had still not figured out what he was going to do. And he had less than a week to do so.
In two days' time, the answer to his problem knocked on their door.
He opened the door and was surprised to see Senator Amidala standing there.
"Hello Master Kenobi." She greeted him with a smile and a tilt of her head.
Obi-Wan sighed in relief. So it was back to formalities. Good. "Senator Amidala." He bowed in return.
"Is Anakin here?"
"No he isn't. He's in class right now. Would you care to come in?"
"Care for a drink?" He asked next as she moved about the room, taking in the various mementos and décor on display.
"No thank you. I can't stay long. I came by actually to talk to you."
Uh oh, Obi-Wan thought as he swallowed the lump that had suddenly appeared in his throat.
Padmé reached into a pouch that hung from the band around her waist and withdrew a velvet bag, handing it to Obi-Wan.
"Anakin told me that you are planning on going to Tatooine in order to save Shmi. I know that you don't have the money to buy her, so I would like to offer my help."
Obi-Wan took the bag and opened it. Inside were at least twenty-five thousand Tatooine credits; enough to purchase Anakin's mother from Watto, the Mos Espa shopkeeper who owned her.
"I don't know what to say." Obi-Wan finally stammered out as he felt the Force's persuasion to accept her offer.
"I do." Padmé responded before she swiftly approached the unprepared Jedi.
Too focused on the credits he held in his hand and how this gift had eradicated all of his problems in rescuing Shmi, he was caught completely off-guard when Padmé grabbed his face with both hands and pulled his head down to press her lips against his.
Eyes wide open, he stood still and allowed her soft mouth to move against him, slightly nibbling now, and much to his dismay, he found himself leaning forward to increase their pressure.
Surprisingly also adding to his dismay, the kiss ended and Padmé leaned back and opened her eyes in order to gauge his reaction. She wasn't sure what she expected him to say, but she wasn't about to let another chance like this slip away. It had been four years since her last.
But Obi-Wan didn't say anything. He dropped the bag full of credits he held to the floor and grabbed Padmé by the arms, pulling her almost roughly to him, claiming her mouth once more, but this time, with the pressure and depth that he craved.
The frustrations of the past four years, thoughts and dreams of her that he could do nothing about, he poured into the kiss, until Padmé whimpered from the intensity of it.
Obi-Wan pulled back, gasping for breath and lowered his forehead to hers, overcome with emotions he had suppressed for too long.
"What.." he gasped. "What did you want to say?"
"That I love you. That I've loved you all along." She whispered hoarsely before she was nearly suffocated in his embrace.
"Oh Padmé." Obi-Wan moaned into her hair. "I…."
Should he say it? Would he damn the entire universe if he did?
Cradling her face in his hands, Obi-Wan opened his mouth to speak the words he wanted so much to say, but was interrupted by an abrupt swirl of green light flashing before his eyes.
And then Padmé faded and the light grew brighter, and he realized with despair that the Force was transporting him back.
And he didn't want to go.
"No!" He screamed into the wave of color lapping about him. "I didn't get to tell her! No!"
He stumbled and found himself kneeling on a sandy outcropping over a rocky cliff's edge and discovered he was back on Tatooine.
"No." Obi-Wan sobbed as he fell face forward into the sand.
