I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update, real life got in the way. I want to thank all of you for all of the kind reviews you have left.

Chapter 7

Anakin was not beside her when she woke the next morning, his side of the bed cold from his prolonged absence. Padmé knew she would likely face more mornings without him next to her than she would with him, but his absence still managed to pierce her heart. She sighed heavily as she sat up, holding the sheet to her chest in an attempt at modesty, and was surprised to see his form standing on the balcony, surprisingly grateful that he had not slipped away entirely.

She rose from the warmth of her bed and tugged on her discarded robe before going to join him in the early morning sunlight. The day was still new enough that it held a slight chill but Anakin seemed oblivious to that as he stood bare-chested and at peace. She found herself unable to disturb his obvious meditation and instead took the time to truly admire his form. A blush tinted her cheeks at the remembered passion they had shared the night before and she had to admit that he was perfectly formed in every way.

"I'm glad you think so," Anakin said, his eyes still closed but a slight grin was pulling at the corners of his mouth.

"I thought you said you couldn't read my thoughts," she replied, embarrassed that he had overheard what she was thinking.

"I didn't read them," he answered, "You're just broadcasting them rather loudly."

She was even more embarrassed by his statement. "Is there a way that I could not broadcast what I'm thinking so loudly?"

"I could teach you," he said, finally turning around to face her. "Something tells me that would be good skill for you to learn." He motioned for her to come closer and she willingly stepped into his arms, nuzzling her face against his chest as he enveloped her. "I'm sorry I didn't stay in bed, I was restless and I didn't want to disturb you. You seemed so peaceful."

She looked up at him, trying to read the expression on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Who said anything was wrong?"

"I know you well enough by now to know when something is bothering you."

"It's nothing to worry about," he lied and she knew it. "I'll tell you after we've spoken with the Queen."

"Is it that bad?"

"Kind of."

"Tell me."

He sighed and pulled away from her, stepping up the balcony railing and leaning heavily against it. "I have to leave Naboo tomorrow morning."

"So soon?"

"The Jedi want Obi-Wan to help lead the peace talks with the Separatists and because I am still his Padawan they think I need to go with him."

She frowned and moved closer to him, a light hand resting on the one clenching at the metal railing. "You must do your duty Anakin," she murmured, bracing herself for a volatile reaction to her words.

Instead his shoulders slumped and his grip relaxed enough for her fingers to slip through his, he hung his head and exhaled loudly. "I know," he sighed. "But it doesn't make this any easier."

"You're right, it doesn't," she agreed sadly. "But right now we must do everything we can to restore peace; that has to be our priority."

He turned towards her enough to slip his arm around her waist and pull her closer to him, his other hand coming up to gently cup her face as he looked down into her eyes. "Do you ever wish that we could just… leave everything and be normal?" he asked as his thumb lightly traced over her cheekbone.

"We wouldn't be the same people if we were normal," she said. "And part of what I love about you is how… not normal you are."

He frowned slightly at her confession. "Thank you, I think."

"Anakin, I love you for who you are," she said, leaning in closer with her hands resting on his chest. "Even if you can be incredibly infuriating at times. I wouldn't change you if I could."

"But would you still love me if we were nothing special?"

"I don't think I would have a choice," she answered. "I get the feeling that there is a very strong connection between us that is pointless to fight, no matter who we are."

"Then you feel it too," he said, a hint of relief in his voice. "That's the Force telling us that we belong together. I felt this connection the moment you walked into Watto's shop, like I was seeing an important part of my future, and it got stronger the more time I spent with you."

She swallowed hard and looked away from his piercing blue eyes, her hands fisting on his chest before relaxing again. "What we have is rare, isn't it?" she asked softly.

"I don't think anyone has ever loved more than I love you."

"That's not what I meant Anakin and you know it."

"There is a very strong connection between us and it has only gotten stronger since we admitted our feelings," he said. "The best way I can explain it is to say that we're bonded and it will take some exploration to truly understand what that means for us."

"I trust your judgment Anakin, you know these things better than I do," she said as she lifted her eyes back to his, and he felt his heart begin to race at the light that shown from them. "As for now, it's early still, come back to bed." He followed her back into the room without second thought.

After making love to the sounds of a new day starting on Naboo, they spent the morning and most of the afternoon sequestered away with the Queen and her closest advisors. Every detail of the battle they had survived was recounted, from both parties, and opinions given by Padmé on the tasks that lay ahead for the Republic now that a full scale civil war had been avoided. The Queen was pleased that the Republic was not going to war but disappointed that her Senator had chosen to participate in the battle, hardly accepting the truth that Padmé herself had chosen to go to Geonosis and no blame lay at Anakin's feet.

It was late afternoon before the Queen excused them, thanking them for taking the time to fill her in. They returned to Padmé's quarters long enough for her to change into something more comfortable before slipping away to go visit her family. She was surprised to discover that she was more anxious about facing her family with the news of her engagement than she had been about facing the Queen and explaining why she had disobeyed orders to stay on Naboo and out of trouble. Beside her Anakin seemed just as anxious, nervously smoothing over his tunics every few seconds and a part of her found comfort in that.

Before they could make it up the front steps her nieces came shooting out of the house, nearly knocking her over with their enthusiastic welcome. Sola emerged next, a relieved expression on her face when she saw her baby sister hugging and kissing the girls, but that relief faded into a knowing smile when she spotted Anakin. She ushered the group inside before she tightly embraced her sister as their parents came to join them just inside the door.

Anakin hung back and watched the Naberrie family greet their beloved daughter, a lump forming in his throat at the thought that he would never receive such a welcome from his own mother. Padmé glanced at him from where she stood wrapped in her father's sturdy embrace, frowning at the pained look on his face, instinct telling her what he was thinking about. She slipped from her father's arms and moved to her fiancé, gently taking his hand in her own and giving it a loving squeeze. Squaring her shoulders she turned back to her family, surprised to see the knowing, almost expectant looks on the faces of her mother and sister and a slight frown on her father's.

"Anakin and I have some wonderful news we would like to share with you," she announced, "Anakin has asked me to become his wife."

"That's wonderful news dear," Jobal said, delighted that her daughter had finally found someone. She stepped forward and embraced her youngest daughter again before hugging the young man standing behind her. "I'm so very happy for you both."

"Thank you mom," Padmé said as she was being smothered by her sister and the girls again.

"I knew you liked him," Sola teased.

"I love him," Padmé corrected, glancing up at Anakin with a warm smile on her face.

"You hardly know each other," Ruwee finally spoke, his arms crossed over his chest. "How do you know this isn't some infatuation?"

"With all due respect sir," Anakin said, "I have loved your daughter since I was ten years old."

Ruwee's frown deepened at Anakin's words. "I thought Jedi weren't allowed to love."

"We aren't," Anakin replied reluctantly. "But the Force has been telling me since the moment I first saw Padmé that she and I were meant to be together. We're connected."

"I'll just bet you are," Ruwee huffed. "Are all Jedi as smooth as you are boy?"

"Father!" Padmé cried. "How dare you imply such a thing about Anakin."

Pooja maneuvered her way around all the skirts to stand at Anakin's side and reached up to gently tug on his hand, drawing his attention down to her. "Are you going to be my Uncle?"

Anakin swallowed hard and knelt down to pick her up. "Yes I am little one," he said softly. "Your Aunt Padmé seems to want to marry me for some reason."

"You're brave and cute, that's why," Ryoo replied from where she stood on the other side of the young Jedi. "At least my Mom says you're brave."

Anakin blushed at the little girl's words and saw Padmé bite her bottom lip to keep from laughing. "Thank you," he said. "You're rather cute yourself, both of you are." Ryoo shyly twirled her skirt and Pooja buried her face in Anakin's shoulder at his word, which only made the adults laugh.

"Well, little sister, I think you've made quite the catch," Sola teased as she watched Anakin interact with her daughters.

Padmé smiled and nodded her head. "I know," she whispered. "I'm lucky to have him."

Ruwee was still grumbling in the corner, hating the fact that his family seemed so enamored with the young Jedi and ready to accept the idea of Padmé marrying him. He could not fault the boy for bravery and he had kept his daughter safe, for the most part, but he was still a Jedi and forbidden to marry. Jobal seemed to sense his sour mood and took her place at his side, smiling like a proud mother when she saw her future son-in-law kiss the top of their daughter's head as she snuggled up against him.

"She's going to marry him whether you approve or not, you know," Jobal said softly.

"I know," Ruwee sighed, his rigid posture relaxing a bit. "He seems like a decent enough fellow."

"But," his wife prodded knowingly.

"But he's a Jedi. They'll never be allowed to love each other, at least not openly."

"He also happens to be the only man that has ever made our daughter smile like that," Jobal said, drawing his attention to the loving smile that lit their daughter's face when she glanced up at Anakin as he leaned down to brush a soft kiss against her lips. "He makes her happy."

"They hardly know each other."

"They have time to get to know each other better; they never said they planned to get married immediately."

Ruwee sighed heavily and slipped an arm around his wife. "Am I just being an overly protective father?"

"No, you're just being a father," she said, kissing his cheek.

"Can you forgive me, love?" he asked and his wife just laughed.

"All is forgiven," she said warmly. "Just make sure Anakin understands your worry, the boy looked terrified at your reaction."

After the commotion of their announcement died down, Jobal made her own announcement about the preparation of a feast worthy of such an important event. She had tried to push Padmé to take time to relax but her youngest daughter insisted on helping and she was unable to deny herself the company of both her children. Ruwee had seen the moment as a chance to get to know the man that his daughter intended to marry and asked him to take a walk with him.

From the window over the sink in the kitchen, Padmé watched her father and Anakin walk around the lush backyard her mother prided herself on. She scrubbed firmly at the trolo root in her hands as her anxiety over her father's reaction returned. Jobal and Sola were intensely aware of her stress and shared a knowing look behind her back.

"I think it's clean," Sola teased as she moved to stand at her sister's side.

"What?" Padmé asked and then glanced down at the root in her hands, embraced by her overreaction. "Oh…" She placed the root on the cutting board she had gotten out.

"Relax, Father isn't going to kill him or anything," her sister said, giving her a loving squeeze. "He probably just wants to interrogate him for answers about your relationship." Padmé's eyes widened in surprise and Sola suddenly knew just how intimate the relationship was by the color that stained her cheeks. Interesting indeed.

"It's nothing he needs to be worried about," she said, slipping away from her sister to begin slicing the root. "Anakin and I are both in our right mind and we both understand just how… crazy this whole thing is. But I love him, I do."

"No one doubts that, dear," Jobal put in from where she was preparing the Shaak steak that would go into Padmé's favorite pasta dish.

"He has you all tied up in knots, doesn't he?" Sola said, fascinated by her sister's nervous reactions and pleased to see that she could act like a normal woman in love.

"I don't need to have you interrogating me, Sola," Padmé said as she finished slicing and took the cutting board over to the pot her mother had set next the heating unit. "Our relationship is personal, not something that I have to tell you every detail of."

"But we wouldn't mind hearing the juicy details," Sola teased, her eyebrows rising suggestively.

"Sola stop it," Padmé replied, growing more and more frustrated by her sister's antics.

"She's just curious dear. We all are," Jobal said. "Six weeks ago he was just your Jedi protector and now you're planning to marry him."

"He was more than just the Jedi protector six weeks ago," Sola said. "She was just as tied up about him then as she is now but now they have a relationship."

Padmé drifted back over to the window and watched the animated conversation between her father and Anakin. "I was scared about what I was feeling," she admitted. "I'm not scared anymore."

Sensing her daughter's mood turning introspective, Jobal asked, "Do you have an idea for when you would like to get married?"

"Anakin wants to wait until he has been Knighted… The Jedi Council have ordered him to return to Coruscant tomorrow to help his Master begin the peace talks with the Separatists and we don't know when we'll be able to see each other again."

"So soon? Don't you both need the time to recover from the events on Geonosis?" Jobal asked.

"The Jedi apparently don't see surviving a battle and defeating a dark Jedi as something to recover from," she replied bitterly. "Anakin needs the time to recover emotionally, he's been through a lot these past few weeks, but they don't believe in emotion."

"It's not like you've had easy too," Sola said. "You had three attempts on your life before the battle, surly you can at least take the time to recover from all of that with family."

"I don't know if I can take so much time away from the Senate. So much has happened."

Just then Ruwee entered the kitchen looking thoroughly disgruntled and Anakin followed with his head bowed as if in shame. She hurried to him and slipped her arms around his lean waist, her head resting on his chest as she tried to offer him whatever support she could from her presence.

"The boy was say that going to Geonosis was your idea," Ruwee said.

"It was my idea," Padmé said. "We were on Tatooine when his Master's distress call came in and we were the closest to Geonosis."

"Why were you on Tatooine in the first place?" Jobal asked.

Padmé tensed, she didn't want Anakin to have announce his mother's death so publicly, and he stayed rigid in her arms, his own arms barely tightening around her.

"I was having nightmares about my mother and they finally got to the point where I had to go to her, Padmé insisted on coming with me so that I wouldn't get in too much trouble with the Jedi for disobeying my original mandate. We got there and her family told us she had been taken by a band of Tusken Raiders, a nomadic people on Tatooine, right before my dreams had started. I went after her and I was able to find her but she… she died in my arms," Anakin explained, unable to look at the Naberries as he spoke and choosing to ignore the gasp that came from Jobal and Sola. "I was distraught and when my Master's distress signal came, Padmé thought that going to help him would get my mind off of what happened. Neither of us expected to be involved in a full fledged battle."

"But you were," Ruwee said gruffly.

"And I will forever regret putting Padmé in that kind of danger. We walked right into the hands of the people that wanted her dead."

Padmé brought a gentle hand to his cheek and made him look into her eyes. "I made the decision to go Anakin, this is not something that you have to blame yourself for," she insisted. He nodded weakly but she could still see all that haunted his eyes.

Ruwee awkwardly cleared his throat when he received a threatening look from his wife that guaranteed at least one night of sleeping on the couch if he did not make amends. "I'm sorry for your loss," he said. "And I'm sorry I accused you of lying."

"Thank you," Anakin said.

Jobal turned to the young couple and smiled pleasantly, although it was still a bit strained. "Why don't you two go take some time to yourselves," she suggested. "We'll call you when dinner is ready."

Padmé gently took Anakin's hand and lead him from the kitchen just as Jobal was preparing to address her husband. Sola was right behind them, giving their parents' some space so she could go keep an eye on her own troublemaking daughters. Anakin flinched slightly at her side when they heard her mother's normally calm voice raised in indignation at the behavior of her husband.

"I'm sorry," Padmé sighed when she shut her bedroom door behind them and leaned back against it. "I honestly never expected him react like that. I knew he would be over protective but never…" He cut her off with a passionate kiss that seared her senses as he pinned her to the door with his much larger frame. She gave into him immediately and practically melted against him, open and receptive to his heated advances.

"I've been wanting to do that all day," he breathed against her ear when he pulled away enough for them to try and catch their breath.

She laughed weakly, emotionally drained by the last few minutes, and simply held him tighter to her. "I love you," she whispered.

"How long do you think it will be until dinner?"

"Possibly an hour. Why? Are you starving?"

"I was just thinking if we had the time we could slip off to have our marking done," he said, gently lifting her left hand to his lips and kissing her ring finger. "Maybe that would help calm your father down."

She glanced away from his entirely too handsome face and tried to re-gather her thoughts. "There is an old artist from my family's village a few blocks away that did the marking for Sola and her husband," she said. "It wouldn't take us long to get there and the ceremony itself is rather quick."

"Do you want to?" he asked.

"I don't know when we'll get another chance before you have to leave."

"Is that a yes?"

"It is," she said, slipping her fingers through his as she tugged him back through the door. "We should hurry while my mother is still upset at my father."

Sola sat on a stone bench near the playhouse she and Padmé had spent their childhood using when she heard the front door open and shut. She glanced over the fence and saw her sister and future brother-in-law hurrying down the street, wrapped in hooded traveling cloaks and giggling like naughty school children.

"Where are they going?" Ryoo asked from the top of the play house.

"They're just going for a walk," Sola replied, though she had a feeling she knew the real reason they were slipping away and it made her smile at the secret knowledge.