"Oh, Ani, what did you do to deserve this?" Padme looked at her husband who was slouching in a chair, wounds very visible.
"I have no idea." Vader moved again, trying to get comfortable. He did in fact have a rather clear idea of what he'd done, he just wasn't anxious to tell Padme. He had spared the lives of a few rebels. It had been nothing really, but it had been enough to make Palpatine very angry.
Padme put Luke on the floor and helped Vader back to his feet then led him up to their room. She helped him lie down on the bed and Luke hopped up next to him.
"So, what did Palpatine do to you?" Padme asked, starting to wash one of the wounds with a damp cloth.
"Just Force lightning, the rest is from the actual fighting." Vader moaned and tried to roll over.
"Just Force lightning?" Padme rolled him back onto his stomach.
"Daddy's gonna be okay, right?" Luke asked concededly, staring at a blaster wound in his father's back.
Vader rolled onto his side and pulled his son into a hug, "Yes, Luke, I'll be fine."
Padme sighed, extracted her son from Vader's embrace and rolled him back onto his stomach. "Luke, go find Laasya and tell her to make each of you a sandwich, I'll be a while helping Daddy. And tell her not to use the stove!" Padme called after her son, who had hopped off the bed and was starting in the direction of the kid's playroom.
"Anakin, quit moving," she added when their son was out of sight.
Vader stopped moving, "Sorry."
"Why do you put up with this? What is so wonderful about having him as a master? He treats you so badly." Padme finished cleaning and bandaging her husband's wounds and started to rub his back gently.
"It's good to have someone to take orders from when you don't know what to do."
"You think you know what to do most of the time, don't you."
"Yeah," Vader flinched slightly as Padme's hand ran across an especially sensitive wound.
Padme quickly pulled back from the wound, "Sorry!" then, more calmly, "Ani, you have to do the right thing. If you're doing this just because you're afraid to make your own decisions, then it's very selfish."
Vader sighed, "That's all I've ever been good at it seems."
"Don't talk that way, Ani. You can be self-sacrificing if you feel that it's necessary." Padme returned to smoothing the knots out of Vader's muscles.
"Well, unless he threatens our kids I don't think I'm likely to feel that it's necessary. He promised me that if I disobey him he would threaten them, though. Did you hear he took the Organa's five year old daughter prisoner so they would do as he said?"
Padme went rigid. Leia! He has our daughter! "Ani, if he has Leia then he does have our daughter! I promised the Jedi that she could be trained as a Jedi, but if the Emperor has her prisoner… he's been torturing her hasn't he?"
Anakin rolled onto his back, "What?" he managed to ask before he felt the pain of rolling onto his wounds and his head snapped back.
"Leia is our daughter! She and Luke are twins! You have to do something!" She helped him sit up, rubbing his neck.
"That blasted sleemo!" Anakin snarled.
"How long has he had her?" Padme asked.
"About the same as you've been here, maybe a week. Oh, Force, I hate to think what he might have done to her by now…"
"Leia… oh, Ani, what kind of mother am I?" Padme started to cry.
"I'll get her back. I promise." Anakin kissed her cheek and stood up, putting his shirt back on.
Padme pushed the tears of horror out of her eyes, "No, Ani. If you go now it'll just prove that you are willing to try to free "political prisoners". You have to wait until you're doing better before you try anything."
"Padme, you know as well as I do that I can find extra strength when my family is in danger. I'll be back before you know it." Anakin kissed his wife one last time before he slipped out into the streets.
Padme moved down to the kitchen in a daze. Her daughter was in danger. Her husband was being his normal reckless self and putting himself in danger to save her. Yoda would be furious that she'd told Anakin. Stepping into the kitchen, she saw something that took her mind off it instantly.
"Laasya! What are you doing?" she exclaimed. Laasya was sitting at the table with Luke trying determinedly to spread custard pudding on a slice of bread.
"I'm making a sandwich. Luke said that you said that I should make sandwiches. Do you want one?" Laasya gestured to a pile of mutilated bread.
"I meant jam or something. Give me that knife and any bread that isn't a sandwich yet, okay? I'll make something else."
"But I want pudding sandwiches!" Laasya retorted.
"I think there are more than enough sandwiches for you. Are you sure there isn't something else you'd rather have?"
"Gumbols!" Luke said. He was very fond of the gungan delicacy. More than once, Padme's visitors had laughed about his odd tastes in food, but he didn't mind.
"Yes, Luke. I know what you like. I want to make something for Laasya, though."
"I want sandwiches." She crossed her arms.
"All right, enjoy." Padme pulled the knife out of her hand and pushed the pile of bread and pudding back to her. She went to the oven and put in some of her son's favorite food. She would cook for herself, her husband and her daughter when the latter returned.
After the children had eaten, Padme played various board games and whatever else they asked her to. Finally, she had to put them to bed, doing her best to deflect any questions about where daddy was. After that, there was nothing to do but wait.
When the knock came on the door at about midnight, Padme practically flew to open it. Anakin stumbled inside, practically asleep on his feet, a young girl cradled close.
"Ani!" Padme hugged her husband and took the girl from his arms, "Oh, no. Is this Leia?"
"Yes. I think she'll be all right. She just needs rest."
"She looks so-so… broken." Padme rocked the slowly bleeding form of her daughter carefully.
"He had no decency at all. Which reminds me, I'm going to need your diplomatic skills."
"What? Are you saying…?" Padme caught sight of the blush on her husband's face.
"Well, he wouldn't let me take Leia and he was hurting her so…" Anakin smiled sheepishly.
"I'm not upset! Not at all! Ani, I'm so glad!" In Padme's arms, the broken child moved a little bit. "Leia?"
Big, brown eyes blinked up at Padme. "Who are you?"
"I'm your mom, Leia. You're going to be all right. You're safe now."
"But-but Mom's on Alderaan." Leia protested weakly.
"I won't hurt you, I promise." Padme corrected herself.
"Okay," Leia yawned and pressed against Padme.
"I'm going to take her up to the kid's playroom. They have the spare beds in there for play dates. Would you grab a medkit?" Padme carried her daughter up the stairs and into the playroom, carefully stepping over the toys that had been left on the floor.
Anakin quickly retrieved a medkit and followed his wife. Leia was still on the bed and Padme sat over her, carefully untangling the girl's long hair.
"Here you go, Padme." He passed her the kit and Padme carefully started to bandage the girl's wounds.
Leia moaned and woke up. She stared helplessly at the grown-ups who stood over her. The man sat back and let the woman do what had to be done, but he was clearly worried. Leia smiled slightly as he tried to reach in to help with the bandaging and was promptly shoed away.
"How do you feel, Leia?" the woman asked.
"I'm hungry." Leia mumbled.
"Ani-would you please go find some cereal or something?" the woman turned to the man. He hopped up and ran out of the room.
"Are you really my mom?" Leia looked up at the older woman.
"Yes. The Organa family adopted you when you were born for fear something like this would happen. Tomorrow you can meet your twin brother. Does that sound all right?"
"Yeah. Is that my Daddy then?" Leia was too tired to really question any of it. Besides, it felt true.
"Yes. Welcome home, Leia." Padme put the medkit down, and then hugged and kissed her daughter.
"Mommy," Leia pressed her face against her mother.