Sorry for the long wait! I've been a bit out of the writing mood but I think it's starting to come back.

Happy Reading!

Chapter 7

"Mom!"

She'd barely stepped through the door before she caught sight of Luke running full speed towards her. Padme dropped to her knees to meet her son's excited hug. "Oh, I missed you so much!" She said, kissing the side of his head before pulling back from the hug and cupping his cheeks in her hands.

"Was the storm bad? Did you fly through it?" She laughed as her son blurted out a million questions at her. "Can we go home now?" He asked. "Pooja wants me to play dolls with her!"

Padme shook her head and ruffled his mop of blond hair, "In a little bit, Sweetie. Your aunt and I want to talk for a little while." Luke groaned, nervously looking back up the stairs where his cousin's room was. "Just play with her for a little bit. You know it's just because she wants to spend time with you." He whined and looked like he was going to complain again, but he just sighed and started to sulk all the way back up the stairs, calling his cousins' names as he went. Padme smiled as she stood back up and looked over towards her sister standing in the archway to the living room.

Sola was only a few years older than Padme and still fairly thin despite being three months pregnant with her third child. The two sisters shared a silent smile before embracing one another in a tight hug, "I'm sorry you had to keep him an extra day," Padme said.

Her sister scoffed and pulled back, waving her apology off, "Don't worry about it," She said. "You gotta work, you gotta work. Besides, he's my nephew and the girls just adore him."

"Too bad it's not the same for him," Padme muttered.

"He's a boy! He's still at the age where he thinks they're gross." Sola looped her arm through hers and the two of them walked through the living room towards the kitchen. "Good thing is Darred is pretty good at entertaining him when he gets back from work," She said as she motioned for Padme to sit while she grabbed two teacups and the hot kettle steaming on the stove and brought them over to the table. "Though I'm not sure what his bosses will say if they find out a ten-year-old helped design that new urgent care building," She joked, putting the kettle back on the stove and returning with a tin of tea.

"I'm sure he had a lot of fun with that," Padme said, pulling a tea bag from the tin and dipping it in the water.

"He finished that model he brought with him," She said. "Had to figure something out so he wouldn't go crazy here playing with my little girls."

"I'm really sorry—"

"Hey, hey, I told you not to worry about that!" She said.

"I can't help it," She sighed, "You know I would be with him more if I could—"

"I know. But even putting work aside, raising a kid alone is a tall order for anyone."

Padme smiled as she brought the tea to her lips. Her sister was a Godsend in every sense of the word. She wasn't sure what she would do without her. Of course, she had their parents but, sometimes it felt like they judge her for her choices. They love her and they absolutely love Luke but… she was very young when she had Luke and there were so many opportunities she missed because of the timing of everything. Once he started school, they had tried to talk her into going back to college. But financially that just was not an option. She still had loans from her last attempt at school to pay off, loans she had to take out so she could get a place to live, she still had normal expenses to take care of and she couldn't keep her job and go to school at the same time. It wasn't that she didn't want to go back to school and make the dreams she had carried most of her life a reality, but it was just not a good time. And the longer she waited, the less point there was in going. She had a good job. It was not even close to what she wanted to do, but that happened to a lot of people. And with her parents, sometimes it just felt like they couldn't understand that.

"How was your extra day in Seattle? Sola asked after a moment, "Did it rain the entire time?"

Unintentionally, her mind flashed back to her breakfast with Anakin. Despite the rain that seemed to have a constant presence in the city, it did little to dampen the good mood their conversation put her in. "It was off and on," she said with a shrug, "I got out before the low-pressure system hit."

Sola raised a brow at her as she placed her cup down on the table and pointed at Padme's face. "What is that about?" She asked, her lips curling into a sly smile.

"What?"

"That!" She said, jabbing her finger towards her face, "That blush," She whispered, letting out a gasp, "You did something! Or someone perhaps?"

Padme rolled her eyes, "Don't be ridiculous!"

"Uh-uh," She said with a shake of her head, "You forget how well I know you, dear sister! Tell me everything!"

She shook her head and sighed heavily. Sola was not going to let her get away. She never did. Even as children the moment there was even a hint that she may have a crush on someone, Sola pounced, determined to figure out who it was and to size them up and give her tips on how to woo them. For the most part, it was annoying but there had been times where it was useful and she could always count on her to help her get out of awkward dates and the like. "It wasn't anything," Padme said, ignoring the skeptical look on her sister's face. "It was dinner with a co-worker and then we met for breakfast before we left for work."

"Uh-huh… And?" She goaded.

Padme rolled her eyes, "We stayed in separate rooms," She said, hoping that would shut her down.

It didn't. "Was he cute?"

She gave a shrug, "I guess…" He was, but Sola didn't need to know that.

"Are you going to see him again? Do you have his number?"

She gave another shrug, "We work for the same company. I'll probably run into him again there."

"Yeah, but are you going to see him again?"

The meaning behind her words was clear. But she honestly didn't even know if she would see him again. He'd sent her a text before takeoff hoping she'd have a good day, she replied wishing him safe travels. He texted her a sobbing emoji when Mace Windu ended up on his flight crew. And they exchanged a few more texts while his flight was delayed. Thinking about it rationally, the very idea of seeing him again didn't make much sense. The logistics of it were tricky at best and impossible at worst. They live in different cities, their schedules are never set and vary each month, he works as much as the company can legally allow him to work and she works the company minimum. Maintaining any relationship beyond cordial co-workers was just asking for trouble. And yet, despite that, she couldn't help but smile when she thought about their conversations. He was a bit arrogant and cocky to be sure, but he had that boy next door kind of charm that just… worked.

I don't know." Perhaps it has just been too long since she has seen anyone romantically. Maybe the lack of an intimate relationship is just skewing a simple dinner into something more… Padme shook her head. Anakin is nice and everything, but he isn't the only nice guy there is. maybe it is about time she try that dating app thing Dorme swears by.

"Hmmm…" Sola brought her cup back to her lips in a poor attempt to hide the smile on her face.

"What?"

She gave a shrug as she traced her finger around the rim of the cup, "Oh, it just sounds like when you say you don't know, you mean, 'I'm calling him once Luke is down for the night.'".

"What? No!" Padme scoffed. "You're being ridiculous! I barely even know him."

"I said you'd call him, not meet up somewhere for a one-night stand." Her lips curled up as she added, "Though, I'm not opposed to the latter."

Padme blanched as her sister laughed and reassured her she was only joking. Out of the two of them, Sola had always been the more… explorative and had taken much pleasure in teasing her when they were younger but as they grew older there were still times that teasing side came out. Padme heaved a sigh and shook her head. The patter of running children upstairs made the small hanging light over the table sway lightly and both mothers glanced up watching the light with small smiles on their faces. They heard a playful scream from one of the girls followed by giggling and a small argument over the rules of their game.

"Never a dull moment with kids," Sola remarked. And she couldn't help but agree.

By the time Padme decided it was time for her and Luke to go home, her son threw his hand back in a quick wave to his aunt and cousins before slinging his duffle bag over his shoulder and bouncing down the front steps towards the car. She shook her head as he started to pull on the still locked car door before sighing as she hit the button twice to let her son get in.

"Well, I'm glad he had such a good time," Sola said, sharing a laugh with Padme before giving her a hug goodbye.

Luke was already buckled in the backseat and the moment she started the ignition, the excited boy began telling her about his weekend and the torture of playing a bunch of girly games with his cousins. Padme listened intently as he spoke, glancing back at him through her rearview mirror. Despite how bad he made some of the games seem, she could tell that he still liked playing with his cousins. He liked to make them laugh and with him not always playing by their rules, it seemed to add an element of surprise that only added to the fun they all shared. "The entire weekend couldn't have been all bad," She said, laughing at the exaggerated way he let his head flop back on the seat.

"It wasn't," He admitted, "Aunt Sola made some cookies and in the middle of the night we all snuck down to eat them. She never found out it was us," He said, his voice dropping to a whisper.

"Well, who'd she think it was?"

"Uncle Darred," He laughed, "You should have seen the look on his face!"

Sola had mentioned that little incident earlier. She knew very well that the kids were responsible for the missing cookies. Pooja had a very hard time that morning not smiling or keeping her voice down, the telltale signs she thinks she got away with something she shouldn't have. But, instead of scolding them like any parent would, she decided to play the "Cool Aunt" and place the blame on her poor husband.

Padme made the final turn into the driveway and pulled into the garage slowly before turning the car off. Luke was the first out of the car and he opened the trunk, heaving her suitcase out and wheeling it out towards the house. Closing the garage, she walked towards the door to the house where her son was waiting for her. She smiled as she placed a kiss on his cheek, "Such a gentleman," She praised, laughing at how his face scrunched from the motherly affection.

The lock on the door jammed like it always did. Her hand on the doorknob, she pulled hard on it as she twisted the key until it clicked and the door popped in. The floorboards creaked as the two of them entered the dimly lit mudroom. Luke pulled her suitcase through the door but left almost in the middle of the room before walking through the rest of the house, not even seeming to care that no other lights were on. Padme relocked the door and set about turning the lights in the house on, wheeling her suitcase into the living room. She could see the kitchen counter through the archway and noticed the small pile of mail from the days she had been gone. Sifting through it, she checked for the check from Palo she was supposed to receive. Bill, bill, credit card advertisement, bill… still no check. He was late again. While over the years he had gotten better at providing child support, he was still far from timely. There were still times she would go three months without seeing a cent but her expectations for him were low so it wasn't all too disappointing. In truth, he really didn't need to send anything as there was no legal arrangement for child support nor did she really need his money but every month he always promised to send a check. And it always did help every now and then with expenses when she wanted to take extra time off or those few times when money was tight.

Padme left the mail on the counter, deciding to handle the rest tomorrow. Grabbing her bag, she wheeled it into her room and hoisted it on top of her bed before retreating into the master bath to change into something more comfortable. As pretty as her work uniforms were, comfort always seemed to be low on the requirements list and it was always a relief to get out of it. With a heavy sigh, she returned to her bedroom and unzipped her bag and began to unpack as she did almost every night. The routine was so ingrained in her that she didn't even have to think about it, she just did it. The uniforms she had worn were placed into a large laundry sack she would drop off at the dry cleaners, the rest of her clothes went into the laundry hamper in the bathroom, her shoes were returned to her neatly organized closet shoe rack, she checked her toiletry bag and added what she was running low on to a shopping list, and then she made her final check of her flight schedules to make sure she had her dates, times and locations correct and up to date. It wasn't often that things would be changed too much but she had learned early on that checking the company portal daily was better than finding out at the last minute that she got moved to a different flight on the other side of the airport.

Her shoulders popped lightly as she stretched. She could hear Luke down the hall in his bedroom, glass jars clanking lightly as he shifted through his large collection of paints and modeling tools. Padme slowly got to her feet and slowly pattered down the hall to see what he was up to. Peeking in, she saw his bed was no longer the pristinely made bed it had been when she left but rather a war zone of clothes thrown haphazardly all across the comforter and she couldn't even tell what was clean or dirty in the mess. On top of the mess, sat a neatly packed bag of modeling tools that had obvious signs of use. The handles had splatters of paint and little glue bubbles stuck to the fine wood.

On the other side of the room, Luke sat at the desk, his feet crossed under him as the small desk light shined down on the green model plane in his hands as he turned it in the light. "Is that the model I just got you?" Padme asked from the doorway.

He nodded and motioned for her to come closer. She smiled as she pulled up a stool and sat next to him. "It's a B-29 Superfortress," He said, his eyes never leaving the plane as his finger spun one of the four propellers. "They used them in World War II for bombing runs. Cool thing is this was one of the planes they used to model planes for commercial flights."

Padme leaned her elbow against the desk as she listened to all of the history and technical details that seemed to spill out of him faster than she could comprehend, simply taking joy from the pride he felt in his ability to retain all of the information and the excitement he felt as he reenacted some of the flight maneuvers with the model and in the back of her mind, she wished it could be like this every day.