Conversation V: Duty to a Friend
"Obi-Wan," Padme said in surprise as she opened the door, hunching forward reactively over her swelling belly. She didn't think he would notice though her draping robes. "Are you looking for Ani?"
"No," Obi-Wan shook his head and frowned. "I was hoping Satine was here."
"Oh," Padme glanced at the open doors of the guest room. "No she's not."
"Do you mind if I wait for her?" Obi-Wan asked. Padme's mouth went dry.
"No," she heard herself say. "It's alright. Come in. Is something wrong?"
"Yes, have you been watching the hollonet?" He asked, walking past her into the high, airy apartment lit by the late afternoon sun.
"No. I haven't."
"Well, don't." Obi-Wan said, his voice was more bitter and angry then she'd ever heard the usually calm Jedi. "After Satine's last speech in the Senate they were anonymously informed that her sister was involved in the splinter group of Death Watch that started this Civil War."
"The media will crucify her!" Padme quickly forgot her own troubles. She hurried across the room to the couch and turned on the hollo projector. The small distorted voices of the news anchors buzzed in the air like a swarm of hornets repeating the name Kryze and Mandalore over and over. After only a few moments Padme had to turn it off. She put a hand over her mouth and shook her head.
"This is awful."
"To be honest," Obi-Wan said for where he stood by the large open veranda, "we should have expected it. There's nothing we can do about it now."
"But this almost surely destroys any chance of Satine getting aid from the Senate, it's too easily swayed by appearances."
"And the voice of the Chancellor. She was never going to get anywhere without his support and she didn't have that to begin with."
"The Senate is more than just one man," Padme advocated though her voice lacked the conviction that had made her such a respected Senator. Obi-Wan only looked at her pityingly.
"Will you talk to the Council?" She asked but he was already shaking his head.
"They will not hear the matter again," he said softly.
"That's terrible. What will she do?"
"I don't know. That's why I'm here."
"She'll be happy that you came," Padme said with a small sad smile. Obi-Wan was watching her curiously and she blushed, the robe had not been enough.
"Forgive me, Senator but…" Obi-Wan shifted anxiously, "… are you pregnant?"
Padme pressed her lips together into a thin line and nodded.
"My congratulations to both of you," He said joyfully and she stopped resisting the grin that spread over her face. "How long?"
"You and Anakin were away for nearly four months," She reminded him.
"So we were. I wonder why Anakin didn't tell me?" Obi-Wan thought back to their conversation after the Council session, in his friend's defense he realized they had more important things to talk about. Just thinking about what the Council had asked of Anakin and of him upset his inner peace. It worried him, more and more, he was failing to maintain that careful balance. Padme also seemed worried, she was looking away and biting her lip.
"What is it?" Obi-Wan asked her.
"It's Ani, he said… we didn't need help but…"
"What? Padme, please, you know I would do everything in my power to help the both of you."
"Yes, I know." She nodded. "It's his dreams."
"Prophetic ones?"
"Yes, like the ones he used to have about his mother."
"Yes… he told me about them… and how she died."
"He did?"
"Yes… all of it."
"I didn't think he ever would. Your opinion means a lot to him."
"And I think no less of him. It took great courage for him to tell me. I will not say I was not disappointed but it was as much with myself as it was with him. It was the council and myself who failed to recognize his abilities and prepare him. We are as much to blame as he is. But you said he was having dreams again, similar ones?"
"Yes… about me. He… he believes that I will die in childbirth." Padme was putting on a brave face, her expression carefully neutral but looking deeper with the Force Obi-Wan could sense she was frightened by Anakin's dreams and saw them as inevitable. "I'm just worried about what will happen to him… to our child…if he's right."
"Padme, the future is always in flux. Anakin may only be seeing one possible future, do not give up hope." Obi-Wan crossed the room to sit beside her. "Have you told him about your fears?"
"Fears that he's right?" She asked in shock at the proposal, "No. It would only burden him."
"And what of your fears of what might happen if he loses you, to him and to his child, your child?" Obi-Wan asked. Padme just looked at him with large dark eyes tearing up at the dark unbidden thoughts. Behind them a soft beep and a hiss preceded the doors opening and Satine's return.
She walked in dressed in regal deep blue, eyes circled with shadows and hands clasped before her. She looked up at the two of them and her thin pale brows pulled together in worry.
"Satine," Obi-Wan said, standing, "how are you?"
"I feel better than both of you look," She replied, approaching them, eyes on Padme's hunched shoulders and watery eyes. "What is wrong?" She became suddenly fearful. "Is it the baby?"
"No," Padme said with a wave of her hand, "it's nothing."
"It is certainly not nothing," Obi-Wan replied curtly.
"Then what is it?" Satine demanded.
"Anakin has been having visions of Padme dying in childbirth."
"Visions? I though Jedi predicting the future was a myth."
"No, not exactly. Some powerful Jedi, Jedi like Anakin have been know to see visions of possible futures, he's done it before."
"But surely…" Satine's gaze fell from Obi-Wan to Padme as she trailed off. "What can we do?"
"There isn't much we can do unless we know why Padme is going to die in childbirth."
"Please stop saying that," the young mother begged, her voice wet with unshed tears. "I… I don't want to think about such things." She turned away.
Satine dropped quickly to the couch beside her friend and wrapped a comforting arm around the shorter woman.
"We should take you to a doctor," Satine said.
"No. They'll ask about the father and I can't…" Padme looked quickly between them, "I can't do that to Ani." Satine looked up at Obi-Wan, her eyes two chips of blue glass, hard and sharp. Then she smiled, satisfied with herself for whatever it was that struck her. Obi-Wan was simply thankful to avoid the tears he'd expected to find in the Senator's apartment.
"We'll put all the paperwork under my name," Satine said resolutely.
"What?" Padme gasped.
"We simply pass you for me and place all of the necessary paperwork under my name."
"But we don't even look alike?" Padme protested.
"We'll go somewhere safe, where we can control the information. I'll take you to my brother on Kalevala. Our family doctor there will be able to give you the best of care and there will be no record of it here in Coruscant. We can record the father as one of my former aids on Mandalore, I was there about five months ago. I know you had wanted to have the baby back on Naboo…"
"No, no," Padme cut off her friend. "It's fine. It's… a relief actually but… Satine, are you sure? You'd be giving up your duty here and it might lead to awkward questions later."
Satine tossed back her head of blond curls in a regal dismissal. "It has been clearly proven to me that I will get nothing accomplished by waving my lips at this congregation of deaf charlatans. Now that my name has been made synonymous with a former Death Watch sympathizer there is nothing more I can do for my people here." Less formally she said, "Your kindness has been one of the only things that has kept me going this long, Padme, and I would be a poor friend if I did not help you when you needed me most."
"Thank you, Satine."
"I approve of this plan," Obi-Wan said, feeling forgotten by the women, "but who's going to tell Anakin?"