"I don't want to go to preschool, Mommy! I want to stay with you! I don't want you to leave me too!" Luke clung to his mother's legs.
Padme carefully pulled his little arms away from her legs. "I won't leave you, Sweetie. I'll come back at the end of the day. You're just going to stay here and play with new toys and make new friends. Preschool is nothing to be afraid of."
"I wanna stay with Mommy!" Luke grabbed his mother's legs again.
A little girl trotted up to them, "Hello. Are you new?" she spoke to Luke.
Luke cowered behind his mother's legs. Padme smiled at the girl, "Yes. Luke's just a little nervous. Aren't you, Luke?"
Luke didn't answer.
"It's Ok, Luke. Lots of kids are scared on their first day." The girl held out one hand to Luke. Luke took it nervously.
Padme smiled at the girl, "What's your name?"
"Rana. It's nice to meet you Mrs.…?"
"My name is Padme. It's nice to meet you too, Rana."
Rana took Luke's hand and dragged him into the preschool. Padme waved goodbye and left. Luke shot his mother another how-could-you-leave-me look and submitted.
All day Padme seeped in the guilt of leaving her son at the daycare. When she returned, twenty minutes early, she was happy to see her son happily building towers out of the blocks. Rana was sitting next to him and embellishing the tower with extra decorative blocks in specific colours.
Much to Padme's dismay, Luke was using the Force to place the top bricks. None of the other students seemed to find it odd. They were all playing their own games in other areas. Only the teacher stared. Padme hurried over to her.
"Ma'am I apologise, my son doesn't know what he's doing. He thinks that everyone can do that."
The teacher stopped staring and turned to Padme, "You are aware that your son shows some very prominent signs of being a Force sensitive and you didn't turn him in to the Empire?"
"So they could kill him? He's an innocent four year old!"
The teacher flinched, "Not so loud! I managed to convince the other kids that Luke's normal. They won't tell their parents, most of them have already forgotten. I don't agree with all the Empire's new rules and certainly not killing children because of the way they were born. Luke's safe here, but you should stop him from using the Force before the other parents return."
"Thank you." Padme hurried over to her son.
Luke hopped up, "Mommy!"
"Hello, Luke. I promised you that I would come back. Would you like some help putting on the top bricks?"
"Yeah!" Luke held out one of his bricks. Padme picked him up so he could place the brick himself. As soon as they'd finished their tower Padme and Luke said goodbye to Rana and went home.
The entire ride home, Luke gushed about Rana. By the time they got home, Padme knew that she was Luke's age. She lived in town. Her best friend was a gungan (but Luke wanted to be her best friend). Her mommy was always busy and her daddy wasn't around anymore. She liked to sing and draw. As far as Luke was concerned she was the best thing that had ever happened to the galaxy.
"I'm glad that you made such a good friend, Luke. Was preschool as scary as you thought it would be?"
"No! Preschool was fun! We built towers and drew pictures and we sang and Teacher read to us." Luke smiled happily.
Padme smiled and took her son's hand and led him inside. "Come on, Luke. I made your favorite for dinner."
Luke followed her inside, still babbling happily. Luke sat down at the table and Padme served him. As they ate, Padme asked him about every aspect of preschool she could think of. Luke managed to use Rana in every answer.
Luke's friendship with Rana grew quickly and soon Padme was half convinced that Luke thought that he had found his lost twin. Rana was at Luke's house or Luke was at Rana's. They were inseparable. Rana thought that Luke's Force sensitivity was very cool.
Unfortunately for their friendship, Vader was acting differently recently. Padme had kept her husband under careful surveillance since they had been separated. At first, Vader had been a fairly good enforcer, not hurting anyone when he could help it. Recently, Vader had started murdering at random. It tore Padme apart to see her beloved Jedi turning into a monster.
Padme had heard that Vader would torture people at random if he was in a bad mood. He would destroy families if they offended him in the slightest. He had torn small children from their rebel parents' arms and had them tortured so the parents would cave.
Luke's nightmares and random hysterics had gotten worse and more frequent too. Some days he would race into Padme's room looking over his shoulder as though something was chasing him. Or he would run to his mother sobbing that 'Daddy hurt' or that 'Daddy was scared'. It was the latter that really scared Padme. Her husband had always been well known for being fearless.
Other times Luke would be his completely innocent self.
When Padme had entered her son's playroom and found her son on the floor clutching his head and screaming as though he was in pain, she broke. Padme held her son and kissed his forehead and comforted him until he was all right again.
"Luke, we have somewhere very important to go."
Luke hiccupped and looked up at his mother, "Where?"
"We're going to go see Daddy."
The pain that had been so clear in Luke's features instantly vanished to be replaced by a wide smile, "We're gonna see Daddy! We're gonna make Daddy feel better and Daddy can protect me from the Black Man! Wait 'till I tell Rana!"
"Oh, Luke, I'm sorry, but Rana can't come. Rana will be safe here, but it will be hard for us to get to Daddy. The Emperor must not know that we are going or he will be very angry. Daddy's close to the Emperor."
"But Daddy could protect Rana. He could help her and her mommy so that she doesn't have to work anymore." Luke looked at his mother with huge eyes.
"Maybe when we get to Daddy safely we can get Rana to join us, but I don't want to put her in the danger we'll be facing on the way to Daddy."
Luke looked very sad, "Do I at least get to say goodbye?"
"Of course you do, Luke. I need to ask her mom if she can house sit for us." Padme smiled, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to call someone."
"A good idea, this is not, Padme." Yoda's flickering image scolded her.
"I know that you don't approve. I didn't call to ask for permission, I just thought that you ought to know. You will still have Leia as your Jedi hope. I intend to take Luke to meet his father. I believe that Ani may change when he sees Luke." Padme cut the transmission.