AN: Thanks for all the feedback guys! I've enjoyed my first foray into this.
Anakin arrived at Padmé's apartment in near record time. He entered and went to the box that held his padawan's braid.
"Anakin, where have you been, I've been worried about you," Padmé said, "The Chancellor called me to see if I knew where you were, why did you cancel your meeting with him?"
"Can you help me with this Angel?" Anakin asked, as he was having trouble putting the braid back into his hair.
"Why are you putting that back on Anakin, what's happened?" Padmé asked, her confusion mounting.
"I was meditating, Padmé. For the first time in my life I've experienced the Force as Obi-Wan does, for the first time in my life I'm clear, I know what I have to do right now, I haven't passed all the trials, I'm not a Knight yet," Anakin said knowing he was just confusing her more.
"I don't understand. You've been stripped of your knighthood. How can the Council do such a thing with all you've done for the Republic?" Padmé asked, her anger starting to overcome her confusion.
"No, Padmé, the council has nothing to do with this, no one but you knows about this," Anakin said as she started to place the braid in is hair.
"I don't understand, why the braid then?" Padmé asked, her anger cooling.
"Its just something I have to do, and I need your help," Anakin said.
"You need my help?" Padmé asked surprised that her husband needed her help with a Jedi thing, "Wouldn't Obi-Wan be a better choice since this a Jedi matter?"
Anakin could sense his wife was pleased that he'd come to her for help, but her happiness at that was colored by concern that he was looking in the wrong place for help.
"Under other circumstances, you'd be right, my love. This is different," Anakin said.
"I don't understand, Anakin. I want to help if I can, but I just don't see how I can be more help with Jedi matters than Obi-Wan." Padmé said.
"You know about the trials?" Anakin asked.
"I know about as much as any non-Jedi, maybe a bit more considering who I married," she said, letting a little humor out as she realized whatever was wrong it wasn't as serious as she first thought.
"Ok, there are three trials a Jedi must go through to attain Knighthood. They usually go in this order, first is the trial of the spirit. The padawan's Master invokes this usually. In my case, it just sort of happened, not unheard of, but unusual. Obi-Wan tried to get me to talk about it when it happened, but I was so bothered by the images I saw I couldn't bring myself to talk about them with him." Anakin said.
"Will you tell me about this trial?" Padmé asked.
"Not right now, there'll be time later. The second trial is wisdom; I believe I have just only now passed that trial. The third trial is of courage, and with this trial I need your help." Anakin said.
"I don't understand Anakin, you're known as The Hero with No Fear, how can you not have not passed the trial of courage with all you've done during the war?" Padmé asked.
"Because, my love, I don't fear battle, I don't fear physical injury, the only thing I am truly afraid of is losing you. I think the dream is the Force starting my trial of courage. I need to face the possibility of losing you." Anakin said.
"But you aren't going to lose me, Anakin," Padmé said.
"What you believe is not a factor in this, Padmé. This is my trial, whether it is a sensible fear or not, I have it and I must face it." Anakin said.
"Ok, so you are supposed to save me from my fate? Is that how this is supposed to work?" Padmé asked.
"No, I have to do something much harder than that, Padmé. I have to do nothing to ensure your survival. No doctors, no medical droids, and no modern medicine what so ever can help. That is the reason I have to ask you to help me. In order to pass this test your life will be put in jeopardy, and I will not do that without your permission. So I ask, Padmé, will you help me?" Anakin said.
Padmé looked at Anakin, and Anakin looked at her and closed his eyes, a tear fell from his eye.
"I'm sorry for putting this burden on you, my love. If I didn't feel it was important, I wouldn't." Anakin said.
"I know, Anakin. I will help you. What do we have to do?" Padmé said.
"We have to leave Coruscant, the temptation to take you to the hospital would be too much to resist." Anakin said.
"Then we will go to Naboo, my family would love for the baby to be born there," Padmé said.
"No, Naboo is too advanced, we'd have the same problem as here, plus I wouldn't want to have to explain to your parents why I'm not taking you to the hospital, especially if things don't go smoothly," Anakin said.
"Then where?"
"The last place in the universe I want to go," Anakin said.
Anakin and Padmé arrived at a seedier spaceport. They had packed light. Anakin looked around.
"Well, which one looks like its in most need of my skills?" Anakin asked.
"Hmmm…how about that one over there?" Padmé asked pointing to a freighter that looked like it had seen its better days about the time Master Yoda was a padawan.
"A challenge, my love?" Anakin asked.
"Well, if you aren't up to it…" Padmé said.
"I didn't say that," Anakin said as he started toward the decrepit freighter.
It took them fifteen minutes to find the so called skipper of the junker. He was filthy, had a long greasy beard and was about the same size as Dexter, quite large for a human. Anakin looked at Padmé and back at the skipper.
"Could you use some help?" Anakin asked the skipper.
"What kind of help, up worlder?" the disheveled man asked.
"With repairs." Anakin said.
"Not hiring any hands, no money to pay them, so save your hard luck tale for someone with money," the old spacer said.
"Not looking for money, just passage." Anakin said.
"Yes, we're looking to get to Tattoine. I'm expecting and we have family there. My husband is a wonderful mechanic," Padmé said.
"If he's so good, why aren't you just booking passage on a liner?" the skipper asked.
Padmé looked at Anakin realizing he was sharper than he looked. Anakin patted her hand.
"Yes, we could have booked passage, truth is I've done some work for a bounty hunter, he wasn't happy with it or something, now he wants me dead. So we need to get off planet undetected," Anakin said.
"Why wasn't he happy?" the skipper asked his suspicions obviously raised.
"Bad piloting, he needed a scapegoat for his boss and his boss put a contract out on me," Anakin said, sounding as embarrassed as he could muster.
"Bad luck. You sure you are as good as you say?" the skipper asked.
"If I'm not as good as my word, you can leave us here. Not that you'd be going anywhere yourself in that thing," Anakin said putting out his hand. The skipper took it and the deal was made.