Chapter Eighteen
"So did you have a nice time last night?"
Padmé looked up from her breakfast, shaking herself from her thoughts. "Yes, yes we did," she told her mother. "It was nice to get out and have some fun."
Jobal nodded as she poured Padmé some tea. "So when are you due?" she asked.
"I beg your pardon?"
"When is your baby due," Jobal replied.
"Oh," Padmé replied, looking back down at her breakfast. "I'm not entirely sure I am pregnant, Mom," she admitted. "Anakin seems to think I am."
Jobal frowned. "I don't understand," she said. "What do you mean he seems to think so?"
"Anakin is Force sensitive, Mom," Padmé explained.
"And this gives him some sort of insight that most of us don't possess?"
Padmé nodded. "Yes, simply put. If the Jedi had trained him, he would undoubtedly have become the greatest Jedi ever. Palpatine saw that potential in him, that's why he took him in when he was a child."
"I see," Jobal replied. She hesitated before saying what she wanted to say next. "Padmé, do you think now that Anakin realizes what sort of man Palpatine is, he will become a Jedi?"
Padmé sighed. "I don't know," she replied. "He is very bitter about what happened when he was a child. But now that he knows the truth about the past, who knows?"
"Good morning," Shmi said as she entered the room. She sat down beside Padmé. "How are you feeling this morning?"
Padmé was rather surprised by the question. "I'm fine," she replied. "Why do you ask?"
Shmi smiled. "I just remember not feeling too well when I was expecting," she said.
Padmé sighed. "Well, I don't really think I am expecting, Shmi," she replied. "In fact I was just telling my mother that very thing."
Shmi nodded as she poured some cream in her caff. "Anakin says you're pregnant?"
"Yes, he's totally convinced of it," Padmé replied with a smile.
Shmi smiled. "Then you can be certain of it," she told Padmé. "Anakin is never wrong when he feels strongly about something, Padmé. His insight is uncanny."
Padmé was about to reply when Anakin walked into the room. She looked up at him and smiled, flashes of the previous night jumping to her mind. He read her mind and smiled back at her. "Good morning," he said.
Jobal and Shmi looked up. "Good morning," they replied.
He sat down across from Padmé. "How is my Angel this morning?" he asked.
"I'm wonderful, thank you," she replied. "You?"
"The same," he replied with a smile.
Jobal and Shmi merely watched the two of them, both of them delighted to see the obvious adoration their children bore for one another.
"You two ought to get busy with making arrangements for the wedding," Jobal said. "There's a lot involved, you know."
"We are going into Theed this morning to engage the services of a cleric," Padmé told her.
"What about a guest list?" Jobal asked. "The wedding is only a few days from now, shouldn't you be sending out invitations as soon as possible?"
"We don't want a big wedding," Anakin replied. "Our families are all we want."
"But you a prominent public figure," protested Jobal, addressing Padmé. "Surely you want to invite some of your colleagues."
Padmé shook her head. "No, Anakin is right. We want our families and that's all. I don't want my wedding turning into a media event."
Shmi smiled, pleased to hear it. "Tell us what we can do to help, Padmé."
Padmé turned to her. "Well, there are a few things that need to be arranged," she said. "I've made a list, actually. Should I show you?"
Jobal and Shmi looked at one another with a smile. "Yes, I think that's an excellent idea, Padmé," Shmi replied. "Good thinking."
Anakin and Padmé left for Theed shortly after breakfast. Padmé wanted their marriage to receive the ancient blessings as were the custom of her planet; Anakin simply wanted to make her happy. And so they arranged to have a holy man preside over their wedding, and asked him to be at the lake retreat two days hence.
"Have you thought about what you would like me to give you for a wedding gift?" Anakin asked as they walked through the busy streets of the capital hand in hand.
"No," Padmé replied. "We call them devotion gifts here," she told him.
"Devotion gifts," he said. "An appropriate term."
"It is, isn't it?" she said. "What would you like?"
"You're all I want, Angel," he said, lifting her hand up and kissing it. "I don't need anything else."
"But it's tradition," Padmé replied. "As sweet as that is for you to say," she hastened to add. "It's good fortune for the bride and groom to exchange gifts."
Anakin smiled. "Good fortune? You hardly strike me as the superstitious type, Padmé."
"I'm not," she agreed. "But I like observing traditions. It makes me feel connected to the people I came from."
"I guess I don't really have any traditions," he replied. "I never knew any relatives other than my mother."
"Well then we'll just have to start our own traditions, won't we?" she said with a smile.
Anakin nodded. "I suppose so," he replied.
"Oh look, I love this place," she said as they approached a small outdoor bistro. "Shall we stop for something cold to drink? It's such a hot day."
"Of course," he replied. "If you call this hot," he teased.
She smiled. "Well, for a non-desert dweller, yes, it is, exceedingly hot."
Anakin laughed. "As you say, milady."
The bistro was quite crowded, as many patrons sought the shade of the large outdoor umbrellas as refuge from the noonday sun.
Anakin and Padmé sat at a small table enjoying a cold drink. Anakin listened while Padmé listed all the things that still needed to be taken care of for the wedding. He wasn't really listening, but made a good show of it. He really had no clue what was involved in planning a wedding, and decided to hand over the decision making to his more than capable fiancée. As she spoke, his mind started to wander; the fact that she was wearing a sundress with thin straps over her bare shoulders didn't help matters. Nor did the fact that whenever she leaned towards him he was able to catch a generous glimpse of the pink lacy bra she wore. No, his mind was definitely not on the menu of their wedding feast, or the fact that she wanted her nieces to be flower girls, or the special blossom wine they simply had to have for the toast. Rather, it was the silkiness of her skin, the delicate scent of her hair, the sensual curve of her hips, the utter perfection of her…
"Anakin, are you listening to me?"
"Yes, of course I am," he lied.
She lifted a skeptical eyebrow. "Oh? So what did I just say?" she challenged.
Anakin thought fast. "You ….were….talking about….flowers?"
She shook her head. "Nice guess," she told him.
"Am I right?" he asked with a devilish grin.
Padmé couldn't help but laugh. "What am I going to do with you?" she asked.
Anakin leaned over and whispered something in her ear that made her face turn pink and warm.
He pulled back and looked at her, the same grin on his face.
"You are so bad," she told him.
"Well you did ask," he replied.
"Padme? Padme Naberrie is that you?"
Both Anakin and Padmé looked up to see a man of about thirty years of age standing beside their table. He had dark wavy hair and was impeccably dressed.
Padmé looked at the man, shielding her eyes from the sun. "Palo?" she said finally.
Palo smiled. "You remember me," he said, pleased that she had. "Well? Don't I get a hug after all this time?" he asked, holding his arms out to her.
Padmé looked at Anakin briefly as she stood up. The expression on his face left no room for misinterpretation. He watched as Palo gave Padmé a hug that was, in his opinion, far too prolonged and far too close. He could feel the darkness swelling within him as jealous rage surged through him.
"Take your hands off of her," he finally said in a voice full of barely contained fury.
Padmé and Palo looked down at him, Padmé stepping away from him at once.
"I beg your pardon?" Palo asked, shocked by the man's seeming lack of manners.
Anakin stood up slowly, using his massive physical presence to intimidate the man. "I said," he repeated, "take your damn hands off of her."
Palo's eyes widened in fear and shock. "Padmé, who is this man?" He asked, not taking his eyes from Anakin.
Padmé, who was also shocked by Anakin's behavior, looked over at him. "This is Anakin Skywalker," she said. "My fiancé."
Palo looked back at her. "Your fiancé?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes, her fiancé," Anakin spoke up. "You know, the man she's going to marry? Get it?"
"Anakin, please," Padmé said. "Palo is an old friend. We've known one another since childhood."
Anakin merely nodded, not taking his eyes from Palo.
"Well," Palo said at last, the tension too much for him to stand, "I guess congratulations are in order," he said, forcing a smile. "I hope you're happy, Padmé," he said. "Truly I do." He looked back at Anakin. "I hope this is the man you truly want," he added, the doubt evident in his voice.
"I am happy, Palo," she replied. "Anakin is just rather….protective of me," she explained, looking at Anakin.
"That's one way of putting it," Palo muttered.
"If you have a problem with me, just come out and say it," Anakin challenged. "If you're man enough."
"Anakin, please," Padmé said at last, growing annoyed with his primitive, possessive behavior.
Anakin looked at her, sensing her embarrassment. Realizing that he had gone too far, again, he relented and took his seat, his eyes never leaving Palo.
"That's alright," Palo said. "You're worth being protective over, Padmé. I wish you all the best." He was about to kiss her cheek, but thought better of it and simply walked away. Padmé sat down and looked at Anakin.
"That was really out of line," she told him.
"So was the hug he gave you," he retorted.
"Anakin, why do you see every man who looks at me as a threat?" she asked in exasperation. "You know my heart belongs to you and you alone. Don't you trust me?"
"Of course I trust you," he replied. "It's them that I don't trust."
"Palo is a friend, I know him," she explained. "You can trust him."
"You knew him as a child," he pointed out. "People change. You ought to realize that, Padmé."
"I don't like being patronized, Anakin," she returned. "You don't own me, Anakin. If I want to say hello to an old friend, you have no right to stop me."
He narrowed his eyes. "Saying hello is one thing," he retorted. "Getting physical with them is quite another. How would you feel if someone from my past walked up to me and hugged me? Wouldn't that bother you?"
Padmé didn't want to admit to him just how much that would bother her; in fact, just the thought that he'd had lovers before her was very difficult to think about.
"Just as I thought," he said, seeing her thoughts clearly.
Padmé sighed. "Can we just drop this?"
"As you wish," he said, watching her as he took a drink of water.
Padmé shook her head, astonished how the same man who could show such tenderness and affection could also demonstrate such primordial, territorial tendencies. Clearly the darkness that had been a part of him for so long still lurked within him. She would be a fool not to realize that. But he has come so far, she reminded herself, in such a short time. It had taken a decade for Palpatine to change the good-hearted boy Anakin had been into the Sith killer he became. No doubt the journey back to the Light would not be an easy one, nor a short one. But he had embarked upon it already, of that she had no doubt.
"I had a dream about the baby last night," Anakin told her, deciding to change the subject.
Padmé looked up at him, amazed at how quickly he could switch gears. "Oh? A good one?"
Anakin nodded. "I was teaching him how to build a lightsaber," he told her.
"Him?" Padmé said with a smile. "So now I'm having a boy?"
"I'm not sure any more," he replied. "Sometimes I get the feeling it's a girl, sometimes I'm sure it's a boy."
"Maybe it's one of each," she suggested.
Anakin looked at her. "You're teasing me," he said with a smile. "You still don't believe me."
Padmé laughed.
"I have an idea," he said. "Why don't you get a pregnancy kit? Just to prove it to you once and for all."
"Okay," she agreed. "Let's go get one now," she suggested, calling his bluff.
"Good enough," he said, signaling the server droid. "Then maybe you'll stop questioning me," he added with a smile.
Padmé shook her head. "You are too much," she said as the droid brought a credit pad over to the table.
Anakin laughed as he signed the bill. "I know," he said. "Let's go."
Padmé was able to purchase a pregnancy kit in a pharmacy nearby, though she felt terribly self-conscious about doing so. She hoped fervently that no one she knew would see her whilst making her purchase, and was relieved when they finally left the store, her package stowed safely away in her handbag.
"Happy now?" she asked him.
Anakin smiled. "You'll see," he told her. "And then maybe you'll know better than to question my insight."
"I'll never hear the end of this if it turns out positive, will I?" she teased.
"When it turns out positive, my love, when," he replied. "And no, you won't."
Palpatine had just left the senate chamber after a most momentous session. The senate had voted him emergency powers in light of the increasing Separatist threat. His first order of business was to order the creation of a grand Army of the Republic. You lose, Senator Amidala, he thought with a smile. My apprentice has done an excellent job of distracting you…now it's too late for your pitiful attempts to derail my plans.
As the Chancellor was walking into his office, he was struck with a strong tremor in the Force. He stopped; resting a hand upon the wall for support, for the strength of the surge he felt was considerable. Lord Vader is angry, he thought to himself, pleased. Perhaps the beautiful senator has displeased him in some way….she will learn soon enough not to cross a Sith. He smiled as he imagined his trusted protégé punishing his new acquisition, showing her who her master was. Palpatine had been adverse to the idea of Anakin taking a wife at first; but upon further reflection, he decided that it would only strengthen the hold the Darkness had on him already. Lust was a powerful emotion, a dark emotion; and where Amidala was concerned, Anakin was rife with it. Possessiveness, lust, control….all these things would only serve to make him a stronger Sith. And so yet again, Senator, you have proven useful to me. Once you have borne Vader an heir, your usefulness may be at an end, however, we will have to wait and see…
Jobal and Ruwee were in the garden behind the house when Anakin and Padmé returned. Anakin immediately ushered Padmé into her room, anxious to prove that he was right.
"Let's see," he said as she fished the package out of her bag. She handed it to him and sat down on the bed while he read the instructions.
"Seems straight forward enough," he said as he opened the box. He emptied the contents onto the bed. "I'll need to prick your finger for a sample of your blood," he said.
Padmé held out her hand and winced slightly as he used the hypodermic to prick the end of one finger.
"Now what?" she asked.
"Now we insert this into here," he replied, putting the sample into a small device. "It says if the window turns blue you're pregnant."
"And if I'm not pregnant?" she asked.
Anakin smiled as he carried out the test. "Still doubting me, are you?
Padmé laughed as she picked up the package. "Yellow indicates a negative result," she read. She looked up at him. "It will be yellow then."
Anakin held the device in his hand as the chemicals did their work. "So sure, are you?" he remarked as he watched the window for any sign of change.
"Yes," she said, though her certainty was staring to waver.
"Well maybe this will convince you," he said, turning the device around to show her. The window was completely blue.
Padmé was too shocked to respond for a moment, and then reached her hand out to take the test from his hand. She stared at it, unable to believe what she was seeing. And then she looked up at him. "I'm pregnant," she said softly.
Anakin nodded. "Yes, I know," he replied with a smile.
Padmé stood up, her whole body trembling. "I…I can't believe it," she stammered. "I'm pregnant, I'm really pregnant!"
"Told you so," he teased as he embraced her.
Padmé hugged him back, elated and yet overwhelmed at this turn of events. "We're going to have a baby, Ani," she said.
Anakin kissed the top of her head as he held her close. Not one baby, Angel, two…