Date night! Yay! I've been waiting for this chapter for a while and had a couple ideas as for how this turned out. Settled on this one in the end, hopefully I get to use some of my other ideas later in this story.

Also for those not up to date on Grey's Anatomy, I may/may not have spoiled something from the season 12 finale... tried to make it as ambiguous as possible, but not sure how well that worked.

-Happy reading!

-DFD

Chapter 6

The day of the date finally arrived. As her days normally start now that they are officially dating, Anakin approaches behind her at the nurse's station, his left hand grips her waist while his right casually places a vanilla latte with a shot of hazelnut on the counter next to her while he leans his head down to place a soft kiss on her cheek. Padme turns her head to greet him and he flashes her a charming smirk, "Hey," He greets. Padme returns the greeting but looks back down at her chart. She feels him rest his head on her shoulder, "Anything good today?" He asks.

Padme smiles, "Glioblastoma," She says, tapping a key to pull up the CT.

Anakin reaches over and slides through the scans, "Its as big as a baseball." He says and she laughs.

"Yeah, it's going to be a long surgery." Padme let out a soft sigh, if this was as bad as it looked, it could take anywhere from four to eight hours to remove.

Anakin ran his hand along her side, "Yeah, but at least you have something to look forward to after." He said, placing another kiss on her cheek, "I got an endobronchial carcinoid this morning. If I delay any longer Windu will steal my intern."

Padme rolled her eyes, "You do realize Ahsoka needs more than just cardio and general, right?"

Anakin gives her a smirk, "Of course, which is why you have her tomorrow." Moving away from her he leaned over the counter to grab a tablet, flashing her a smile, "See you tonight," He said as he walked away.

Padme turned her attention back to the scans she had, rereading the chart before she too headed towards her patient.

[][][][]

By the time Ben walked out of his first surgery of the day, he saw Anakin leaving his. "Morning," He greeted.

"How'd it go?" Anakin asked.

Ben gave a shrug, "As good as any." He said, sitting on the bench, "Honestly, don't people realize eating grease every meal is slowly killing them?"

Anakin laughs, "Well if they did, we'd lose about twenty-five percent of our patients."

Ben rolled his eyes before he raised a brow at him, "And… you have that date tonight, right?"

He smirked, "Yeah, been looking forward to it ever since she said yes."

"More like ever since you saw her again." He corrected, "Where exactly are you taking her?"

Anakin didn't argue- he couldn't, "Not telling." He said, "I know how gossip works around here, I'm not about to spoil the surprise."

Ben put a hand to his chest as if he was hurt by his words, "And you think I would break your confidence?"

"No, because you know if you do I'll tell Satine that you're into her."

He narrowed his eyes, "You wouldn't."

"I would." A devilish smirk crossed his face, "In fact, I have a surgery with her later- baby born with the heart outside. I'd bet she'd love to know how you stare at her when she's not looking."

"Alright!" Ben let out a sigh, "I get it." The silence between them lasted for several minutes as they just sat, "How's Shmi?"Anakin's shoulders stiffened at the mention of his mother, "I heard she's getting worse-"

"Don't, Ben." Anakin warned, "Just, don't. I get enough of this from Cliegg. I don't need it from you too."

Ben shook his head, "I know you don't like it. I don't either- Shmi is a magnificent woman and it is terrible what is happening… But you need to be there for her. She needs you."

Anakin shakes his head, "I can't." Leaning forward he runs his hands over his scrub caped head, "She has Cliegg and Owen to help-"

"She needs her son." Ben argues.

Anakin takes a deep breath as he stands, "I got to talk to the family," He said, "I think we'd better drop it so they don't think I killed their brother."

Anakin turns and starts to leave, "Does Padme know?" He stops in his tracks, but remains silent. She doesn't know.

[][][][]

Padme lets out an exhausted sigh as she enters the attendings lounge at the end of the day. She was ready to go home and curl up in bed and just sleep. Glancing at the spot she normally keeps her stuff, the thought of spending the rest of the night in bed dies and is replaced with the anticipation for her date- their first real date. Padme smiles as she pulls the dress she brought off the hanger and goes to change into it. It was an ankle length strapless black dress with a slit up the side. Padme smiles, as she looks herself over. The black heels she is wearing with the dress add an extra three inches to her short stature, which isn't much when she stands next to Anakin. Her hair is arranged in a lose chignon and she wears a pair of simple silver dangling earrings.

It has been a long time since she has been on a date like this and to do it with Anakin is something she never expected. He always was a romantic, but he didn't like fancy restaurants. His go-to place was always the one that had no dress code and where he could order a steak that was at least the size of a large dinner plate. Padme on the other hand, had grown up going to fancy restaurants for special occasions and was more accustomed to appreciating the quality rather than the quantity. For Anakin to suggest the go out for a nice fancy dinner, it was further confirmation of how serious he is about this.

Anakin walked through the door not long after she finished getting ready. His eyes trained over every inch of her before he settled on her eyes- the smile on his face wide, "You're beautiful." He says.

She smiles back, "Thank you." She takes him in as well- charcoal suit with a navy tie- his hair even fixed so it wasn't as unruly as it normally is, "You're not half bad yourself."

He smirks and holds his hand out to her, "Ready?" She smiles and takes it as he leads them out of the hospital. She can't help but notice how he subtly glances at her when he thinks she isn't looking. It makes her smile, seeing how he can't seem to stop. He leads her to his parking space where a car sits instead of a car, "I convinced Ben to lend me his car tonight," He explained as he opened the door for her. He was being a complete gentleman tonight it seemed as he closed the door before getting in himself.

On the drive to the restaurant, Padme tried to get him to tell her where they were going but he held firm and kept his mouth quiet even as she ran off the list of possible places he could take her. Anakin merely smirked as she was not even close to where he was taking her. Pulling into the lot he catches her wide eyes as he turns the car off, "You can't be serious." She says but he keeps the smirk on his face, "You can't- how? The Manarai?"Anakin nods his head and Padme can't believe it. The Manarai is the most high-end restaurant in Coruscant. Padme hasn't even been here before. It's almost impossible to get a reservation.

Anakin leads her into the restaurant and the waiter immediately takes them to a table on the top floor by the window. The restaurant is dimly lit but the light from the city shining through the floor to ceiling windows ensures it isn't too dark. Padme glances at the menu and she has a hard time believing he would pick this place. The menu is only two pages and one of those pages is just wine. The other page has an entire section dedicated to caviar and then an extremely short list of entrees. And most of the names are written in French. Looking up from her menu she tries to gage how he feels about the place. He is focused on the menu but she can tell he isn't reading it.

Before she can ask if he wants to go somewhere else the waiter comes over and asks if they want wine. Anakin smiles at her before he orders a wine- a seventy-five dollar wine. She can't help but wonder what he is thinking. The waiter returns moments later with the wine and a bucket of ice. When he asks if they are ready, Anakin gestures for her to order. He looks like he is okay with all of this- that he wants this. Looking down, she orders one of the only things she can pronounce- asperges blanches. He orders poissons de tuiles d'or. Left alone to finally talk, Padme asks one of her burning questions; "How did you manage this?"

Anakin shrugs casually, "Wasn't easy, but this guy in my platoon, Rex, he has a lot of brothers- and I mean a lot- four of them were in our platoon- anyways, one of his brothers knows the chef. So I asked Rex to ask his brother to ask the chef for a reservation… and lets just say I kept calling them until they said I got it."

"And you wanted to come here?"

He smiles, "I figured I'd give it a chance."

Padme raised a brow at him, "Ani, you really didn't have to-"

"I wanted to." He cut her off, reaching across the table for her hand. She smiled and let their fingers weave together.

The food that was brought to them was very good- beautifully presented and had a nice balance of flavors. The two of them engaged in simple small talk that for once didn't drift back into work. She asked about some of his friends from the army, he asked about what she does outside of work they talked about the little things that make up their lives- the simple and mundane; from their favorite television show to whether they were a cat person or a dog person; it was nice… but it was far from perfect. It didn't feel right for them to be there. It was sweet that he went through with the effort to get them there, but it just wasn't them. They weren't the people who needed a five-star restaurant with caviar for a romantic dinner. They didn't need a long wine list, or entrees that could be finished in two bites. She would have been happy if he just took her to the small Italian restaurant down the street from the hospital. She didn't need a place this fancy- that was something her parents did.

When the meal is over, Anakin pays the bill, she tried to get him to split it, she saw the prices on the menu and knows it is well over a hundred dollars but he waves her off, proclaiming that it wouldn't be a date if he let her pay. She didn't like that but he paid all the same. The ride to her apartment continued the light conversation dinner had. She was quite surprised to find that he too watched Grey's Anatomy when he could. He claimed it was because Cristina Yang is a cardio goddess- but she was no longer on the show but clearly still watched it so it was an obvious lie.

"I honestly can't believe how the season ended," Anakin said with a shake of his head, "I mean, come on; who even cares about Maggie?"

Padme raised a brow at him, "She's the head of cardio! I'd think you'd love her character."

Anakin rolled his eyes, "No one will ever be better than Cristina Yang." He argues, "She had everything from the snarky quotes to the raw talent. No one can beat that."

Padme shakes her head, "Well, I can see why Maggie likes Riggs; he is pretty cute." She says with a sly smile.

Anakin glances at her, "You're already dating a cardio surgeon. You're not dating another."

"Why? Jealous?"

He scoffs, "Because you think he's cute you think I'm jealous?" She shrugs, "No reason to be jealous. He's not real." He answered before a smirk crossed his face, "Besides, I'm probably bigger than him."

Padme's head turns sharply to him, slapping him on the arm, "You had to go there, didn't you?"

Anakin laughs as he pulls up to the front of her building, unbuckling his seat belt and shifting to look at her, "No, but its probably true."

Padme shakes her head before he leans in and presses a kiss to her lips. Her eyes close at the contact. Brining her hand to cup his jaw she pulls him closer as his hand comes to support the back of her neck. When the kiss breaks she keeps her hold on his jaw while she leans her forehead against his, "Ani…" She says, her voice is soft, as she can't let him think everything was perfect- if he did than he would just do it again.

"What is it?" He asks, his voice full of concern, "What's wrong?"

Padme shakes her head against his and opens her eyes to look at his, "Nothing is wrong…"

"Than what's with that tone?" His brow is knitted in confusion and Padme runs her hand along his jaw before pulling back.

"Why exactly did you pick that restaurant?"

He raises a brow, "Because it is the nicest place in the city."

Padme shakes her head, "Just because it is the nicest place, doesn't mean that it will be the perfect place for us." She says.

"Are you saying you didn't have a good time?" His eyes widen, the fear is shown clearly in his eyes.

"No, no, that's not it," She says, taking his hand in hers, "It was… nice."

"But?"

"But…" Padme weaves their fingers together and he squeezes her hand gently, "But it was better when we were… just us." She says, "That place… the food is great, I can't argue that. But that place just isn't us. We aren't the people who own successful businesses or have a family name that will get us everywhere. We don't have a house for every season-"

"You have three houses-"

"Point is," Padme lets out a sigh, "I am my parent's daughter, but I'm not them. I don't want the things they have. If I did, I would have gone to business school and not spent the last eight years learning how to cut people open." She brings her hand to his jaw and rubs it affectionately, "I don't need the nicest things to be happy, I don't need to eat at a restaurant that costs as much as a neuro consult… I just need you." Padme gives him a smile, "We could have gone out for ribs or to that nice moderately priced teppanyaki place Dorme recommended and I would have been happy with that."

Anakin looked down at their linked hands, "I'm sorry it wasn't perfect." He said.

Padme shook her head, pulling him in for a chaste kiss, "Its alright, Ani." She said, "I still had fun, let's just save places like that for when my parents are around."

Anakin smirks, "Fine by me." He says, "I felt like a fish out of water in that place," He admitted, "Who would have thought trailer trash would ever end up in that type of place."

"You're not trailer trash, Ani."

He smiles at her, "I'm whatever you say I am." He says, leaning his forehead against hers.

It's cheesy, but he's always been cheesy and it does make her smile. She rarely ever plays along with it, but this is one of those times when she does, "Then just be Ani."

Just to clarify the Grey's Anatomy thing: the opinions are not all mine. I like Maggie and I LOVE Cristina, and Riggs is cute but I'm still on the fence about him... Apparently I have a thing for cardio surgeons; not complaining.