Well, my sister had her baby boy YAY! Spent 14 hours in a waiting room while she waited for a c section and this is what I did during that time. Updates may be a little slower from here on out, but I will try to get them out when I can.

Enjoy!

-DFD

Chapter 11

Shmi remained in the hospital for several weeks after deciding to go through with the surgery. As the operation was extremely high risk, Dr. Farr decided that they needed more time to come up with a complete surgical plan while they continued to monitor the tumor daily. Shmi's husband and stepson visited everyday but Padme saw Anakin less and less as the days became weeks. He still stayed in her apartment, but the time that they once reserved for spending time together became time spent apart. Their relationship had obviously hit a massive bump that it seemed they wouldn't get over until all of this ends.

When Padme returned to the bedroom after changing she saw him pulling his shirt off and climb into bed silently. It has been like this for three weeks and she is tired of the silence between them. "Anakin," She tries, but he merely shifts to lie on his side facing away from her, "Anakin, please talk to me." He still remains silent and she sighs as she gets into bed as well. He still won't talk to her, "Ani-"

"What do you want me to say?" He asks, shifting to lie on his back, his gaze focused on her ceiling.

"Just say something," She says, "I hate this rift between us."

"There wouldn't be one if you weren't so determined to operate on my mother."

Padme lets out a tired sigh, "I can't say no now," She argues, "The surgery is in two days. Farr and I have been working on this for weeks-"

"And despite your best efforts, she could still die," His voice is laced with venom as he says the words, "I know you think you're doing the right thing, but you're not." He turns his head to look at her, "My mom doesn't know what she's getting herself into. She has a brain tumor, how do you know she isn't making this decision because of the tumor?"

"Because I talk to her everyday to assess that." She says, "I've been a neurosurgeon for four years. I know when a tumor is talking and this isn't that." Padme shifts to rest on her elbow, "She asked me about surgery. I gave her the information I had, asked her all the questions I had to and explained the risks." She explains, "believe me, she knows what she is doing."

Anakin shakes his head before turning away from her. He is done talking for tonight. With a sigh, her head falls back to the pillow, staring at the ceiling. She hates what this surgery is doing to her relationship but how can she tell Shmi 'no' after everything the woman told her? The tumor is hurting Anakin and in the weeks Shmi has been in the hospital she has seen how bad Shmi can get. And with her and Anakin not being on the best of terms at the moment, it makes it difficult for her to get him to open up to her like he had about the scars. She missed that. She missed how much he wanted to trust her. She takes one last glance at Anakin's back before turning away and going to sleep.

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Padme stood next to Dr. Farr as they looked over their plan for the last time. It was the day of the surgery. The plan they had was the only thing they could come up with considering all of the blood vessels and brain matter the tumor invaded. This approach provided the least amount risk but was still aggressive enough to remove it. "Are you ready?" Farr asked.

"Of course."

Farr moved to stand in front of her, "Are you absolutely sure?" He knew things were rough between her and Anakin- everyone knew. Dorme had asked her more times than anyone if they had broken up. They haven't- not officially anyway, it was just complicated right now.

"Ono, I can do this." She said.

Farr nodded, "Then lets get her prepped.

When she arrived at Shmi's room, Anakin was sitting beside her while the interns finished prepping her to move to the OR. Padme heard him ask her to reconsider but she refused. When Shmi's eyes met hers, Anakin turned to see her. She could tell he was on edge and she would be lying if she said she wasn't as well. The interns started to move the bed out the door and Padme followed along side it with Anakin spending what might be his last moments with his mother. Padme ignored their conversation. It wasn't her place to listen to what they were talking about.

Reaching the line that separated the rest of the hospital from the OR, Shmi gripped her son's hand in hers. She smiled up at him, "I know you don't like that I'm doing this."

"You don't have to do the surgery," Anakin said, "You can back out now if you want."

Shmi shakes her head, "If they get this tumor out, that will be the best possible outcome," She says, "But if I die-"

"Don't, please."

Shmi squeezes his hand tighter, "If I die… it is because it is my time to go. You have to let go of me if that happens. Promise me. Promise me you will let me go, and you will move forward with your life." She brings her hand to his jaw, "You are my beautiful boy and I love you. I have loved you from the moment your heart started beating, and I want you to have the life you always dreamed of." She smiled at him, "Save the lives you can. Get married. Have children, and grandchildren. Live. Don't dwell on my death. Promise me."

Anakin nods his head, "I promise." He leans down and kisses his mother's cheek, "I love you, mom."

She wraps her arms around his neck; "I love you to the stars and back." When she pulls back she squeezes his hand one last time before she is pushed into the OR.

Padme stays behind a moment and looks up at Anakin. She reaches out and touches his arm, "We'll do everything we can." She says. He stuffs his hands in his pockets and nods his head before backing away and making his way to the waiting room where Owen and Cliegg are.

Padme watches him leave before turning back to the OR and making her way to the scrub room.

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The first two hours of the surgery were fairly standard. She and Farr cut into the scalp and pulled it back enough to reveal the top of the skull before removing the top of it to get access to the brain. From there Padme injected the tumor with a glowing dye to give them a better idea of what they are looking at. There was no doubt that this was the largest grade IV astrocytoma's she has ever seen. Carefully, Dr. Farr cut delicately into the brain matter to retract it enough to reach the tumor. Padme stood off to the side while Farr did the brunt of the work. With the tumor now visible, they examine the margins of the tumor and see where it is invading before going in and starting to cut.

The surgery is long and encounters several roadblocks from delicately avoiding arteries, cutting around vital neurological systems to clearing the optic nerve; the two of them do the best they can to keep her alive. With ten hours already passed and only half the tumor removed, Padme knows they are falling behind. She had taken over for him about five hours ago; stepping aside she lets Farr move back to pick things up. He moves slowly, trying to cut around the nerve and get as close as he can. "I can't get around it." He said, "If I keep going, I risk hitting the blood supply, but if I move laterally I risk severing the optic nerve." Farr pulls his hands back and reexamines where he has been. There is no way around it. Farr shakes his head, "I'm moving laterally," He concludes moving in make the cut. The heart monitor starts to beep erratically as a large spurt of blood comes out of the brain, "Damn it." He hisses as he tries to stop the bleeding as the heart monitors in the room started to beep erratically.

[][][][]

Anakin sat with his head buried in his hands as he waited in the waiting room with Owen, Breu and Cliegg. Ben had stopped by between surgeries a couple times to check on him but Anakin paid little attention to what he said. Most of the people who tried to talk to him he ignored in favor of listening to the rain that had started to downpour about three hours into the operation. His gaze shifted every hour or so between the door, his watch and the floor. Every time the doors to the OR opened his eyes shot up hopping to see either Farr or Padme with news of his mother. But he had been disappointed every time. This time when the doors opened and he saw both of them, he jumped to his feet and made to meet them about half way, his stepfamily following closely behind.

Padme opened her mouth to speak and it took her several seconds but he already knew. He took a hesitant step back, "Ani…" She started, but he only took another step back, "We did everything we could." She said with a shake of her head. Anakin took a deep shaky breath before he turned and started to walk quickly away. "Anakin," She called as she followed him to the doors but he ignored her as he walked out into the rain. She followed him as far as the curb, ignoring the ice-cold rain that soaked through her scrubs, "Anakin!" She called again, watching as he mounted his motorbike and sped away.

Padme ran her hands through her wet hair when she walked back into the hospital. She saw Owen and Beru hugging Cliegg as he mourned for Shmi silently. Padme closed her eyes a moment to try and reign in her emotions before she made her way back up to meet with Farr. She found him in the room where they had started planning this operation. He was packing up scans and research materials, looking over each piece as if trying to find something they missed that would explain why it didn't work before putting it away.

He saw her out of the corner of his eye, "I'll finish up here," He said, "You should go home."

She shook her head, "No, I don't mind, really," She said,

Farr placed the book in his hand in a box before turning to her, "No, you need to go home." He said, "I shouldn't have asked you to scrub in on this." He said, "Not because you aren't a good surgeon- you are, one of the best even… but I put you in an impossible position between work and your personal life." Farr slumps down into a chair and runs his hands up and down his face, "You were right that the tumor could be removed… but I overestimated our ability to do it."

Padme sighed as she leaned against the wall, wrapping her arms around herself, to try and warm up, "It's not your fault." She said, "I could have backed out and I didn't," She took a deep breath, "We can play the blame game for the rest of our lives but it doesn't change the fact that we lost."

Farr nodded his head and folded his hands in front of his mouth, "You should still go home." He said, "Or go find Dr. Skywalker; he shouldn't be alone right now."

Nodding her head, she left the room and went to gather her things and head out. Walking out to her car she tried calling him only to get his voicemail. She left a message for him to call her back and tried to figure out where he would go. There were several bars in the area she knew he liked to go to. With each bar she drove to she tried to call or text him but he never read any of her texts and she kept getting voicemail.

After about two hours of driving around the city looking for him, she made her way home hoping he was there. When she walked through the door, she found his key to the apartment sitting on the side table. In her bedroom she found that all of his things were gone and his cellphone was sitting on the nightstand.

He was gone.

Honestly, I had to make him do something that is almost as surprising as killing a tribe of sandpeople and leaving seemed to be the most appropriate given the history I put him through. This isn't even the worst thing I have planned for them... I realize now I have some weird fascination with torturing Anakin... no idea why, he is my favorite character and for some reason I like to make his life Hell... Bright side: It gets better... eventually