This story has the most reviews I have ever gotten! Thank you all so much! I am already about halfway through the next chapter and this one is more... a calm before a storm. And just as a side note: the medical research is very hard for me to understand so while I try to be as accurate as I can be, I am the farthest thing from a surgeon, and some of the things that happen, or symptoms are more... so I don't have them doing transplants and aneurysm clippings all the time (since that is the only thing I know I am confident I understand).

Happy reading!

-DFD

Chapter 7

Padme sipped at her latte that Anakin had brought her that morning. He couldn't stay long since the ER paged him a 911. She was so focused on her charts she barely noticed Dorme walking over to her, "I think you've been avoiding me," She said.

Padme looked up from her chart, "That's not true, I've just been busy."

Dorme rolled her eyes, "Of course you have been. So, tell me; is he as good as he was before?"

Her eyes widened a moment before they narrowed on her friend, "We haven't gotten that far yet." She said, "We're taking things slow- dating."

Dorme let out a loud sigh, "Really? And how do you think that will work out with both of you like you do?"

Padme smirked, "We've already been on one."

She quickly ripped the tablet from Padme's hands despite her protests and put it behind her back, "Details. Now." She ordered, "What did you do? What did you wear- what did he wear? Was it romantic? Oh! Did he bring you flowers or chocolates? Just- tell me!"

Padme shook her head at her friend's excitement, "It was just dinner at the Manarai and it-"

"Are you serious!" Dorme cut her off, "Manarai- THE Manarai. Spelled M-A-N-A-R-A-I?" Padme nodded her head, "Wow, that's… so romantic. Was it a lovely as they say it is?"

"It is… its just-"

"What could possibly be wrong? That man is putting maximum effort into wooing you! Stop dancing around and just go make beautiful babies with him!"

Padme glared at Dorme, "Be glad I don't have a scalpel on hand right now." She said, heaving out a sigh, "You remember Palo, right? When I was dating him and the three of us were hanging out you felt like a third wheel. You felt out of place, like you didn't belong there and it just felt awkward." Dorme nodded her head with a knit in her brow, she remembered Palo. He was a bigger flirt than Anakin- every time he spoke to Padme he would spew out some complement to her or a joke to make her laugh. Dorme hated him for making it feel like she shouldn't be there, "That is sort of what it felt like at the restaurant. I mean, none of us are like that."

"Your parents are." Dorme muttered, "Speaking of them, have you told them you're with him again?"

She let out a groan, "I've been avoiding that particular conversation." She admitted, "My family is still pretty bitter about me getting married without telling them. And they are still mad that I divorced without telling them too, so…"

Dorme held up a thumb, "Say no more, I get it… you realize you have a secret relationship monopoly, right? Secret marriage, secret divorce, now secret dating- and all with the same guy." She wiggled her brow at her.

Padme groaned and reached behind her to grab the tablet, yanking it hard to get it away from her, "You're impossible."

[][][][]

Ben watched Anakin from the computer he was sitting at. He should be looking into a possible approach to remove a tumor in the lung without performing a lobectomy, but he can't help but think Anakin is too quiet today.

"You going to stare all day?" He asked. Ben rose from his seat and made his way to where Anakin was sitting. He had his feet crossed and resting on the table, his arms were crossed as his eyes were focused on the scans in front of him, "Kid was impaled on ten metal rods." He said, pointing his finger at all the puncture holes, "He was messing around in a construction yard and fell from the second story. Lucky to be alive."

Ben nodded his head and stroked his beard pensively, "Is he awake?"

Anakin nodded, "For a bit. Still drowsy from the surgery."

"How'd the date go?" He asked. Something told him it did not go exactly as planned.

Anakin shifts in his seat, "It was alright," He said, "Not perfect- which I get why it wasn't… now at least," Anakin sighs, "I'm trying too hard." He admits, "I don't know why I thought that was a good idea." He scratches the back of his neck, "I should have known she isn't into that stuff. She never has been."

Ben gives a shrug, "You wanted to be romantic, nothing wrong with that. You've also never really dated too much- not like this anyway."

He takes his feet of the table, "Yeah…" He runs his hand through his hair.

"There's something else," Ben states simply.

"She had a seizure last night." Ben's eyes widen, "Cliegg said it was the worst one yet. Said she was running around the apartment shouting my name." Anakin paused a moment, rubbing his eyes, "I went over to try and calm her down… she didn't even know who I was this time. She was looking for ten year old me."

Ben placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry," He said.

He shakes his head, "Don't be." He said, leaning back in his chair, "Besides, she's doing better today. Owen texted me when she calmed down and said she doesn't even remembering it happening."

Ben nodded his head, "That's… good. But is it really wise to avoid it like you do?"

He gives a shrug, "Probably not," He admits and lets a smirk cross his face, "But you're the wise one. I'm just the pretty one." Ben rolls his eyes, "I'm going to go check on my human sish kabob." He said, rising from his seat and leaving.

Ben shook his head as his friend left. He always did that whenever his mother came up in conversation. He gave little pieces of information before he found some excuse to leave. It was tiring trying to get him to talk, but he wouldn't talk to anyone else so until he confided in someone completely, he would listen to whatever he needed to talk about.

[][][][]

She smiled at the cook in the cafeteria as she finished grabbing her lunch. Padme looked around the large room to see if Anakin had finally arrived. Her smile widened when she saw him sitting at a table in the back, his arms dangling from the chair as he leaned back with his legs stretched out under the table. She made her way over to him, placing her tray down and sitting across from him, "I take it you're having a good day, "She said, taking note of the relaxed look on his face.

He groaned, leaning forward to rest his head in his hand, "Far from it, actually," He said, reaching to grab one of her french fries, "Luminara's patient is having a baby with atrioventricular septal defect."

Padme raises a brow, "And that's a problem because…?"

"She isn't the problem," He says reaching for more fries, "Her kids are. She has four boys and they are running around like gremlins. Dad is MIA, and Mom is obviously doing something really important that I would never bother her about. So, Ahsoka and I have been trying to monitor the baby's heart while the boys were yelling and screaming and throwing stuff at us."

Padme smiles at his story, "And you just left Ahsoka to handle this?"

He points a finger at her, "She's an intern, they are meant to handle all the crap we don't want to. Why do you think we always send them to run labs or check urine outputs? Because we don't want to do that. We're surgeons- we live to cut."

She rolls her eyes at him, "I almost feel sorry for her." She raises a finger to stop him from objecting, "Almost." She said picking up the white paper bag on her tray, "If I really felt sorry for her, I'd be giving this to her instead of you." She passed him the white bag and eagerly opened and glanced inside.

"Did this come from the coffee cart near the neuro ward?" she nodded, "Have I ever told you how much I love you?" He asked, as he pulled out the bear claw and took a large bite out of it, "I swear the neuro patients get better stuff than the cardio patients." He says with his mouth full of the pastry, "I mean, can't they at least give us these? They're letting me poke around in their chests. Most of the time you're just… sticking a clip into their head."

Padme kicks his leg under the table, "Excuse me, I do more than just clip aneurisms," She argued, ""I'll have you know I resected a spinal tumor today." He smiles at her and she smiles back, "You're just making fun of me."

He laughs, "I'd be much too frightened to tease a neurosurgeon," She rolls her eyes and snatches the last piece of the pastry out of his hand, popping it in her mouth, "Now that's just mean."

She shrugs, "You deserve it."

Anakin reaches across the table and takes her hand, brushing her knuckle with his thumb, "When do you get off today?"

"Late." She groans, "I'm here until ten. What about you?"

He shrugs, "Depends when the mother of gremlins has her baby. I hope its soon not sure I'll survive those kids all night."

Padme shakes her head, "Poor you." She said with little sympathy.

He smiles and opens his mouth to speak but his pager starts to beep before he can. Glancing down he sees it's Luminara's patient, "Speak of the devil." He groans, lifting her hand to his lips and pressing a soft kiss to her knuckle, "Back to the trenches," He says grabbing a handful of her fries before leaving.

She shakes her head as he leaves and finishes her meal in silence.

[][][][]

Ahsoka ducked her head as one of the boys took his toy laser gun and pointed it at her head. The loud buzzing from the toy made her eardrums ring. She groaned as she tried to read the monitor with all the havoc they were causing. Barriss, Lunimara's intern stood next to her, monitoring the mother. She was much calmer and seemed to tolerate them better than she did.

"Sky Guy better show up soon." She groaned and Barriss smiled.

"Come on, the kids are harmless," She argued.

One of the younger boys threw a ball and it hit Ahsoka in the head, "You call this harmless?"

Barriss shrugged, "I'm a little biased." She said, "I want to go into neonatal or PEDS."

Ahsoka groaned, "That would do it."

"I take it you're more of a cardio girl than."

"Without a shadow of a doubt." Ahsoka said with pride, "Sky Guy's been a great teacher- he's let me in on several transplants."

Barriss nods her head, "I can tell he favors you. He hasn't given anyone else the same treatment he gives you."

Ahsoka shrugs, "Yeah well, I am a pretty impressive surgeon." She boasts. Through the window of the room she sees the tall stature of Dr. Skywalker just before he enters the room. He ducks his head slightly as another boy throws a toy at the wall next to him. He glances at the toy then back at the boy before composing himself and walking over to her, ignoring the chaos, "Thank God you're here," She said, "They are driving me crazy!" She hisses so the mom can't hear her.

"Why do you think I went to lunch?" He asks, looking at the monitor, "What do you got?"

Ahsoka points at the heart on the display, "I think we need to get this baby out soon. Heart rate is elevated and that means too much blood is flowing into the one cavity. If we get it out now, we can split the cavities so it will pump blood better. Waiting risks the heart bursting before it's born."

Anakin nods his head, "I completely agree." He said, turning his head to Barris, "Have you paged Dr. Unduli?"

"I have. But one of her other patients needed a C-section. She's in the OR now."

Anakin looks back at the monitors before turning to the mother, "Mrs. Drayson," He starts, "The baby's elevated heart rate has me concerned it will not survive a natural birth. I would like to take you in for a C-section so we have a chance to fix your child's heart chambers."

Mrs. Drayson was sweating and her breath was hard as she entered another contraction. Anakin took hold of her hand to help her through it and waited for it to pass. As her grip loosened on his hand she took a deep breath, "Do what you have to, Doctor. Just save my baby."

Anakin nods his head, "I will do everything I can." He said, "Page OB, tell them we're coming down."

[][][][]

By the time they got down to the OR Luminara had already finished with her patient and scrubbed in for the C-section, which went by with no complications. With the baby safely out, it allowed Anakin and Ahsoka to take the baby into the next OR to fix the little boy's heart.

Anakin cut into the baby's chest easily and retracted just enough to see the heart. In order to do the repair he has to open the heart and apply patches to the holes in the valves so blood flow is normal. He makes the first cut into the heart and isolates the valve to measure how big the patch needs to be. Taking the patch he applies it before moving on to the next valve. He is able to move relatively fast through the valves and Ahsoka is impressed with how precise he is. "Alright, let's see if this worked." He says as he finishes suturing the heart. Glancing down at it he watches it beat slow and steady, "I think we're done here," He says with a smile. The heart monitor starts to beep erratically, "What?" The heart starts to bloat as the heart beats faster and more blood fills the organ, "The patch failed," He hisses taking the scalpel and cutting into the heart again, "What happened?" He asks himself as he tries to fix the patches, "What is going on?"

"He's going into V-fib," Ahsoka warns.

"I'm still inside his heart. I can't defibrillate. Push one of Epi." Anakin hurries to try and fix the lose patch as the nurses start the timer. He doesn't have long until he has to call it. His brow is sweating as he rushes. He can't figure out why the patch failed and how he can fix it. The long sounding beep signaling the loss of a pulse starts to echo in the room as everyone stops what they are doing. Anakin's hand is still on the boy's heart. He waits several seconds before pulling his hand back and looks up at the clock. There is nothing he can do, "Time of death, 2:45."

[][][][]

Anakin and Ahsoka were silent as they walked to the mother's room. The boy should not have died. The patch should have held. He should have been faster. He should have been better. Anakin closed his eyes as he tried to clear his head. He could not go in there and blame himself for what happened. Patients die. It happens. They die because of errors, they die because surgery is stressful, they die because they die. Sometimes there is nothing that can save them. And this is one of those times. They pause outside the room and glance inside and see the mother resting with her other sons playing in the room.

Ahsoka looks up at him, "What do we say to her?" She asks.

Anakin pinches the bridge of his nose and lets out a tired sigh, "You don't say anything. She just lost her baby, the best you can do is be quiet and let me deal with this." With that said, they walk in and Mrs. Drayson smiles lethargically at them.

"How is my little Diric?"

Anakin walks over to the foot of the bed, his hands folded in front of him, "We did everything we could." He said.

Her face dropped and she shook her head, "No," She whispered, "no, no no!"

Anakin shook his head, "I'm sorry, your son is dead-"

"You said you could fix him." She said between tears, "You said it was a simple fix."

Anakin pauses, "It was. But complications happen… The patch we applied could not hold and he coded before we could fix it." She brought her hand to her mouth as she cried and shook her head, "I'm sorry for your loss." He said, turning to leave the room with Ahsoka close behind.

"He shouldn't have died." Ahsoka said, "You did everything right. I don't get it."

He shook his head, "Don't dwell on that." He said, "Every surgery has some level of risk. A surgery can have a 1% mortality rate and it's only a matter of time before we find that 1%." He rubbed his hands along one of the airplanes on the scrub cap in his hands, "Point is, you learn. You move on and be better next time..." He shook his head, "Why don't you go and check on Mr. Kaarz and see how he's adjusting to his pacemaker. I have to finish charting for the Draysons." Ahsoka nods her head, and walks away silently as he makes his way to the x-ray display room grabbing a tablet as he passes a nurse's station. Closing the door firmly behind him he lets his back lean against it, closing his eyes and lightly tapping the back of his head to the door, he forces himself not to be bothered by the surgery. With a deep breath he pushes off from the door and takes a seat in one of the chairs in the room. Leaning back he starts to type up the surgery and the outcome.

[][][][]

Padme was almost done with her work. She just had to finish telling her residents what they had to do on the nightshift and what to keep an eye out for. For the most part, she didn't see any reason she would be paged to come back and she was grateful for that- she was exhausted today. Smiling as she handed the tablet to the nurse she started to make her way to the attendings lounge where her stuff was waiting. Passing by the X-ray display room she smiled when she saw Anakin sitting in there. He was leaning back in a chair going over a chart. Knocking lightly on the door she entered and pulled a seat up next to him. Instead of the bright smile he often gifted her with when their eyes met, he had a deep furrow in his brow and his eyes were focused completely on the chart in front of him.

Placing a hand on his shoulder she rubbed it gently, "What's bothering you."

He let his eyes meet hers and he shook his head, "Nothing…"

"Ani."

He let out a heavy sigh, "Kid's dead." He said, "The patch on his mitral valve failed and he bled out before I could fix it." He shook his head and dropped the tablet on the table, "It shouldn't have happened," He said, "There was no reason this should have happened."

"I know," She said as she reached over to grip his hand and squeeze it tightly. Padme understood what he was saying. It is always stressful when a patient dies for no reason. Surgeons can understand if the patient has a preexisting condition that puts them at a higher risk, they understand if a mistake was made- they can understand the science behind a loss. For those cases that defy it, they search and search for answers and never find it. And it haunts them. It is hard to forget a case like that.

Anakin shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I've gone through this so chart so many times… I can't figure it out." He said reaching for the tablet.

Padme grabbed it before he did, "There's nothing to figure out." She said, "You're not the only one fighting for that baby's life. He was fighting too."

Anakin nodded his head, "I know, I know," He let out a tired sigh, "It's just… its harder when it's a kid." He said.

She squeezed his hand tightly, "It is." She agreed, "But there is going to be another sick kid tomorrow and they will need the best cardiothoracic surgeon to make them better." She said with a smile.

Anakin stared at her for several moments. What did he do to deserve her? She is perfect- beautiful, intelligent, ambitious, caring, and she knows exactly what to say. She truly is an angel. He smiles at her and nods his head, "You're right… of course your right," He says bringing both his hands to rub his tired face.

"Come on," She says, standing and holding her hand out to him. He takes it and together they walk out, "You really need to get home and sleep."

He smiles at her and follows her to the attendings lounge where they change out of their scrubs before walking out to her car. He presses a light kiss on her lips and watches as she drives away. He stays in the lot for a few minutes, his hands stuffed in his pockets before turning to go back into the hospital.