Hello! WOW! The excitement I got for this story was so unexpected I could hardly believe it! As a special one-time thank you for the support, here is the next chapter! Which is conveniently posted on the same day as the Season 12 finale of Grey's Anatomy.

Thank you for the support, and Enjoy!

-DFD

Chapter 2

By the time Padme walked through the front door of her apartment it was well past midnight. With a loud groan, she kicked off her shoes and slowly made her way to the bed, which she was more than happy to fall face-first into. She buried her head in the pillow eager to get what little sleep she could before she had to go back to work in six hours. Since her residency ended she was beyond relieved her nightshift days were over. She wasn't sure how she did it, going from the night shift straight into morning rounds for four years; but she did. And now she can spend her nights at home in bed and only leaving it if the interns are killing someone.

As she turned to rest more comfortably on her side, she found that her thoughts were drifting back to her early days of residency. It wouldn't have been that bad, if those memories didn't have to do with the one cardiothoracic surgeon she didn't want to think about right now. Padme groaned as she remembered reuiniting with him after not seeing him for ten years. They first met when he was nine and she was fourteen. Padme's family vacation had gone terribly wrong when the car broke down. Anakin lived with his mother in the trailer park across from the mechanics shop and they had graciously let them spend the night. He had been so sweet it was almost sad to leave in the morning, but they exchanged email and wrote to each other once every few weeks or so for a couple years. When the emails stopped it wasn't really surprising. They had only met once and she was sure they both had more important things to do than talk to one other. She never thought she would see that boy again.

But she did. When they were reunited ten years later he had ended up in the ER after his right hand was almost cut off. She was about halfway through her intern year at Naboo General Hospital by this point. He was just as surprised as she was to have run into each other. Anakin had joked about the wound saying it was just a scratch, but clearly it wasn't. Anakin's friend and roommate, Obi-Wan, or Ben as most people called him; told her that he had gotten in a fight with someone named Dooku who pulled a knife on him. Either way, Anakin needed surgery so they could avoid amputating the limb. He stayed in the hospital a few extra days after as a precaution and in that time Padme and Anakin got caught up and enjoyed the other's company. He told her he was in his second year of medical school and hopped to start residency after the next year. She told him about her hectic schedule with being an intern and how she barely has time to breathe. It was the first time in a long time she really felt like Padme and not just Dr. Amidala.

The day he was released was the start of a new page in both their lives. When she brought the discharge papers for him to sign, he asked her out, and she surprised herself by saying yes. Between his classes and her almost impossible schedule, they started dating. It wasn't always ideal with her sometimes being called back to the hospital as often as she was, which sometimes resulted going to work pantieless or sleep deprived. But it was worth it. And for the times when there were no interruptions, they were perfect; just the two of them acting like young love-struck teenagers. She would have traded everything for those moments to last. And at one point she thought she would always have them. But they were not meant to last.

Padme shook her head to rid herself of the memories. It was in the past and now was not the time to cry over something as trivial as a young love. She had to go to sleep now so she is well rested tomorrow. She squeezed her eyes tightly as she forced thoughts of Anakin out of her head. She forced herself to think about anything else- her surgeries for tomorrow, her nieces, Grey's Anatomy- which she thought was ridiculous and unrealistic portrayal of a surgical residency- anything. Eventually she is able to finally sleep. But in the back of her mind she asks herself how is she going to deal with Anakin tomorrow?

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A cup of coffee is placed next to her on the counter at the nurse's station, "You look like shit." The distinct baritone voice of Anakin says as he comes to lean against the counter, his own cup of coffee in his hands.

Padme rolls her eyes and looks up from her chart, "That's something every girl wants to hear in the morning." She said sarcastically.

Anakin let out a light laugh in response, "Well, you know I've always had a way with words." He joked. They both knew he was far from a wordsmith, "Anyway, figured you could use a little pick-me-up: vanilla latte with a shot of hazelnut." Padme looks down at the hot drink, surprised he remembered her favorite coffee, "It's Starbucks," He said in a small singsong voice, turning the cup around so she could see the green logo.

"Wow, big spender."

"I know; they cost an arm and a leg for the finest bean water." He said dramatically.

She tries to roll her eyes at him but she can't help the small smile that graces her lips. "You're a dork." She says, picking up the cup and walking away.

"I will always be your dork though," He said to her retreating back.

He is flirting with her. Why is he flirting with her? After everything, why? She knows he has always had feelings for her since the moment they met. He even proclaimed he would marry her someday not even an hour after meeting her. But after everything, she can't for the life of her understand what he hopes to gain by playing this game. Padme walks down the hall to visit her first pre-op of the day. Dorme comes running up along side her.

"Hey, when did you have time to stop at Starbucks?" She asked, "That line is just horrible in the morning."

Padme raises the cup up, "Oh, yeah, Anakin got it for me."

Dorme raised a brow, "Really?" she said, her lips curling into a devilish smile.

"Don't." Padme scolded, pointing a finger at her, "There is nothing going on between us. And nothing will. Last time we were… impulsive, naïve, and practically children."

"Padme, you were twenty-four! That is hardly a child!" Out of all her friends at Coruscant Memorial Hospital, Dorme is the only one who knows anything about her relationship with Anakin. After her residency at Naboo General finished and she accepted her fellowship at Coruscant Memorial, she had practically begged her for the details her texts avoided.

"Point is, last time we both got hurt and I'm not looking for that to happen again. I'm not even looking for a relationship." Padme replied.

Dorme shook her head, "And that is why you will fall head over heels for him again."

She glares at her, "I will do no such thing."

"Yes you will. You will fall for that beautiful piece of ass and go crawling back on your knees begging him to… fuck you into the couch until you forg-"

"Dorme!" Padme could feel the blush rising to her cheeks. At once she regretted ever telling her anything about that incident.

"Alright fine!" Dorme conceded with a smile, "But I know it will happen. Or at the very least, you'll beg him to forgive you for Clovis." Padme sighed and Dorme continued, "I know you regret what happened and he left before you guys could fix things."

"I know." Padme said. Her gaze falls the floor.

Dorme wraps an arm around her shoulders, "Hey, come on, if he's buying you coffee, he can't be that mad at you still, can he?"

She shakes her head and raises her eyes to meet hers, "He's doing more than just buying me coffee, he's flirting with me- or at least I think he is." Padme lets out a light laugh, "I mean, who says 'I will always be your dork' and mean that totally platonically?"

"Wow. Three years and he still isn't subtle about how much he likes you."

"Dorme! This is serious!" Padme scolds, "Is he flirting? Is he joking? You know how hard he is to read sometimes."

Dorme laughs, "Oh, Padme, its obvious he still has feelings for you!"

Padme shakes her head, "I will not give into him again."

"Would it really be that bad if you did?" She asked as they came to stop in front of a patient's room, "You're right that you were both young and impulsive. But it's been three years! You've both lived and learned, would it really be that bad if something happened?" Dorme gripped Padme's shoulder tightly, "Don't you remember how happy you were back then? You told me no one ever made you feel as good as he could. And when it ended you were so miserable. Honestly you were like that smelly old guy that would ask if he was going to die today." They both cringed as they remembered that particular patient. "Do yourself a favor and just let things happen. Don't force some romance to happen, and don't push him away again." She suggested, "Let what happens, happen." Dorme gave her a smile before continuing walking down the hall.

Padme took a moment to think about what Dorme said. Maybe she was right, but maybe she was wrong. If she does as she says, they risk getting hurt again. And she isn't sure if she can handle that again. On the bright side they are in different specialties so they shouldn't have too many run-ins in a normal day. For now, she can't worry about that. With a deep breath and a glance down at the tablet displaying her patient's chart, she composed herself before entering the room with a smile, "Hello Mrs. Jandi, I am Dr. Amidala, let's go over your surgery."

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Anakin stared at the spot Padme stood mere moments before for several seconds before he shook his head and grabbed a tablet to pull up his own charts. If he is being honest with himself, he didn't even know he was going to flirt with her, it just sort of happened and it felt way to natural not to. He didn't even know she worked here until he looked up the hospital when he was looking for a job. When he searched the hospital name, he saw she as one of the neurosurgeons and despite being listed under the name 'Amidala' he knew it was her. He had always known her as Padme Naberrie. So seeing her under a different name obviously got him curious; had she gotten remarried? His curiosity got so bad he actually Googled her and found her Facebook page. No husband was listed, no boyfriend- nothing. Her pictures were mostly of work colleagues, her family- mostly her nieces, Ryoo and Pooja. She was single. It took a while for the thought to sink in and to understand what that means. For one, it meant that that bastard wasn't good enough for her. For another, there was hope that they could get some closure. He wasn't sure she would want to talk to him, but he had to hope she would. How could he not? She will always be the only woman he could ever love. And hope was something he has had so little of lately he needs to hope just one good thing could happen.

He reads through the chart as he finishes his coffee with a smile and leaves for the patient's room. Nothing beats an early heat transplant. As he approaches the room he sees Ahsoka standing outside of the room, "Good morning Snips!" He greets.

Ahsoka wrinkles her nose at the name, "Why do you call me that?" She asks.

Anakin shrugs his shoulders, "'Cause it suits you." He says with a grin.

"In that case I'll just call you SkyGuy."

"What?" That's a name he's never heard before. He hasn't been here that long but he knows there are some that call him 'General' or 'G.I. Joe' behind his back. But SkyGuy is definitely unique.

Ahsoka shrugs, "It suits you."

Anakin throws his head back and laughs. "If you're any good at cardio, I might just have to keep you around." He says, gesturing with his head for her to enter the room with him. Ahsoka gives him the basic rundown for the case: 41-year-old male has been on the transplant list for several days now. He suffers from heart disease and waited for months before he got a new one but unfortunately his body rejected the heart so he has been waiting for a new one. Anakin asks Ahsoka to explain how this heart transplant works, which she answered with only one minor error; better than most would answer though, so he will let her scrub in with him.

Ahsoka follows Anakin through all of his pre-ops and answers all the questions he throws at her; from how to diagnose a condition to how to proceed with a specific surgery or what to monitor; she answered them all to the best of her ability. Eventually, the time for the heart transplant came and she knows she should go to finish charting the patients as she normally does with the other attendings but as she turned to go do that, he stopped her.

"And just where do you think you're going?" He asked; his brow was slightly raised.

"Uh, scut?"

Anakin shook his head, "You're going to throw away a heart transplant just to do paperwork?" Ahsoka is speechless; he wants her to help on a heart transplant? She's just an intern. Anakin lets out a sigh, "But I guess if you don't want it, I can always find someone else-"

"No!" She shouted too quickly, "I mean, I would love to do a heart surgery, it's just… I'm an intern…"

He gave her a blank look, "Yes, and this is a teaching hospital. And I am your teacher. And I say not only will you be scrubbing in, but you will do more than just retract and whatever Dr. Amidala normally has you do."

Ahsoka couldn't help the smile that crossed her face, "You mean… I can actually do something?"

"Of course! What kind of surgeon just stands there and does nothing?" Anakin flashes her a smirk "follow me." He says as he leads her to the OR.

Standing in the OR getting ready for her first cardio surgery is beyond thrilling. Ahsoka looks to her right to look up at Dr. Skywalker. She can't help but smile, in her year there had only been one intern to be given the chance to help in a surgery and he choked during the procedure. Ahsoka swore she would not make that mistake.

Anakin looked down at Ahsoka before stepping back, "Why don't you make the first cut." He says. He is smiling behind his mask, she is sure of it.

"Really?" He nods his head and Ahsoka moved closer to the patient. Looking down at the chest she shifts her weight once or twice before looking to the scrub nurse, "Ten blade." She ordered and leaning over the body she presses the blade into the chest.

Anakin watches over her shoulder as she makes the first cut. He helps walk her through how to make the opening and how to spread the ribs so they can get at the heart. When it is finally visible he takes over. The new transplant heart is prepped and in a matter of minutes the old one is cut out and replaced with the new one. Ahsoka watches as he applies to sutures with precision only experience can get. Anakin orders the patient to be taken off bypass and they wait for blood to start to circulate through the organ. "Come on." He whispers, giving the heart a gentle poke. When the heart monitor starts to beep erratically signaling V-fib he lets out a curse under his breath, "Paddles." He orders, taking the metal rods in in both hands and places them on either side of the heart, "Charge to ten. Clear." With a slight jolt the heart is filled with electricity before it slowly starts to normalize.

"That is so cool." Ahsoka says. With the heart now stable, Anakin instructs her in closing the patient up. She cannot help the smile on her face when they leave the OR. She has never felt such a high before. Not only did she get the chance to perform a surgery, she held a heart in her hand. A heart- one of the most complex organs in the body- the organ responsible for pumping blood to every part of the body; she held it in her hands. The cloud she is on right now is indescribable. She will have to strongly consider specializing in cardiothoracics from now on.

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Padme wiped her brow with the back of her hand when she left her surgery. She closed her eyes to compose herself as the gurney came out the other door, the sheet pulled over the patient's head. She lost him. It was suppose to be a simple aneurism clip. But it burst before she could chip it and it bled out too quickly. When she looked up she saw Anakin apparently just got out of surgery as well. By the look on his face and how excited Ahsoka was she knew their surgery went much better than hers.

Ahsoka walked over to her, the smile on her face would have been contagious if she hadn't been upset about her loss. "Dr. Amidala." Ahsoka greeted.

"Ahsoka, I take it your surgery with Dr. Skywalker went well."

The girl nodded her head enthusiastically, "Very well, he let me make the first cut and hold the old heart. It was amazing!"

Padme raised her brow, "Not many attendings let interns help like that." She pointed out.

"I know! I thought I was just going to do scut or stand and hold things but I actually did it! And it was amazing!" Ahsoka folded her arms behind her back and cleared her throat, "And uh, how did your surgery go?"

Padme shook her head, "Burst aneurism. There was nothing I could do."

"I'm sorry." Ahsoka looked back over at Anakin who was finishing the final notes on the patient's chart, "I uh, I should probably see if he wants me to talk to the family."

"Yes, you should." Padme gave the girl a smile as she left. Padme let out a long sigh as she went to sit on one of the benches. If there was only one thing she hated about her job, it's the number of patients she loses. Neurosurgery has one of the highest mortality rates in the field. On average she loses twenty percent of patients every year. She is used to losing patients and most times she is able to work past it but sometimes it just feels like she should have been able to do more.

On the other side of the bench facing the opposite way, she sees Anakin had sat down. "You okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine." She said, looking up long enough to notice Ahsoka had left, most likely to tell the heart transplant family about the operation.

Anakin stared at her for several long minutes. He took in how she rested her elbows on her knees and how her hands folded over her floral patterned scrub cap. With a sigh, he rested his hand on her shoulder in a comforting gesture.

Padme shook her head, "What are you doing?" She asked. She had to know, right now what his intentions are with her. She would have just let things play out like Dorme suggested but she is upset right now and she has to tell someone that their family member is dead and she knows dealing with this uncertainty is just too much for her to have everyday for who knows how long.

Anakin furrows his brow, "You just lost a patient. I'm trying to be comforting." He said as though it were the simplest answer in the world.

Padme shook her head again and shifted to face him, causing his hand to drop, "No, that's not what I mean." She said, "Why are you here? Of all places, why here? And why are you… buying me my favorite coffee, and flirting? I just- I want- no, I need to know what exactly you want from me."

Anakin is silent for a while but eventually he gives a shrug, "I love you." He said simply, "I didn't come back for you, I came back because I needed to be closer to home." He pauses for several moments and she is uncertain what she should say, "I can't help that I still feel something for you," he says with a shake of his head.

She looked away from him, "You shouldn't." She said, "We only end up hurting each other in the end."

Anakin gave another shrug, "You're worth it." He said, "I want you. But more importantly I want you to want me. And I don't mean to quote that lame 90's song that is always in those stupid romcoms you made us watch." He said with a smile, "But if you don't want me, I'll understand. I'll back off this time if you tell me to."

Padme let out a sigh; she knew exactly what he was referring to. When her ex-boyfriend Clovis was in town he wanted to meet up with her and she had invited him over when Anakin had class. The two of them talked and caught up since they hadn't seen each other since college. Clovis didn't know she had gotten married, he was under the impression she was still single. So when he leaned in for a kiss, she had been caught so off guard she couldn't stop it. To make matters worse, Anakin came home at that point. "There were more problems than just your overprotectiveness." She pointed out, "We rushed into things too fast. We didn't trust one another. It wasn't meant to work."

He shook his head, "Then lets actually take the time to work that stuff out. From what I can tell Clovis isn't in the picture so we can at least try. What's the harm?"

"I don't want to get hurt again."

"Neither do I." He said, reaching forward for her cheek, gently turning her head to face him, "But I'm willing if you are."

Padme pulled away, and cleared her throat; "I have to go talk to my patient's family." She said, not wanting to talk about this any more. Rushing to her feet she left quickly. Now she really needed to talk to someone, and maybe Dorme isn't the best person for the job.