A/N Y'all asked, I listened. :) Once again I apologize for the delay. Your patience and feedback is so much appreciated!

"H-he's coming back?" Padmé stood in the doorway wrapped up in a gentle fur robe. She seemed like a sort of wayward ghost that had stepped out of a dream.

Alejandro sucked in a mouthful of air. There were so many reasons he had to be furious right now. This wasn't supposed to happen, he was supposed to be dead and stay that way.

"It appears that your Jedi friend has found him." He hoped the tone in his voice wasn't too bitter and disappointed sounding. "I'm surprised. The mountain range is so unforgiving and - "

Padmé waited to hear no more. The next moment she was shoving a pair of boots on her feet and flying down the stairwell. She was oblivious to the freezing winter cold that would await her outside. All she knew was that her Jedi was returning.

"Easy Anakin, take it easy." Jesse panted as he tried to keep up with his friend.

Anakin paid no mind. Not when he was this close. The thought of him being too late was more painful than he could take in right now. Please be okay. Just be okay.

The dim light from the castle door was feet away. Anakin felt his heart leap and then fall when he could make out an inky figure standing there. Fear stabbed him in the chest. Alejandro would kill Padmé himself before he allowed Anakin to be the one to save her. There was no remote chance of him seeing her if he was aware of the return.

"Anakin! Ani!" The figure took a few steps and stumbed out into the blinding snow. Anakin's eyes widened and he galloped a few more strides faster than he knew he could do on only one good leg. He wanted to cry out to her. Tell her he was here, tell her that he still cared. But there were no words left to say anymore. All he could do was show her.

Anakin slide to a halt in the snow nearly crashing directly into Padmé's pale and partially frozen body. He picked her up out of the drift she had collapsed into and got a good chance to see her eyes once more.

"Oh Ani. I-I knew you were coming back. I'm so sorry I forgot."

Anakin put his fingers to her lips and shook his head. Instead he just held her. He let his presence be enough to tell her everything that was beating down on his heart.

Caci and Jesse stopped when they had reached the bottom of the steps. Caci wasn't much a believer in non-traditional medicine. But even she had realized at this point, that something had compelled Padmé enough to tear herself from her bed and make it out here.

She took a step forward but Jesse grabbed her arm. "Come on Caci, I think this is exactly the cure that they both need. If you ask me, we wasted our time coming all the way out here."

"There are so many reasons why that makes no medical sense whatsoever. But I'm not concerned about them. Its the one who's watching us."

She gestured up to one of the above windows. Jesse followed her gaze and could clearly make out the dark figure above who was staring down on them all.

What passed by immediately after their reunion Padmé and Anakin were almost oblivious to. If Caci hadn't pulled them both in out of the cold and placed them directly in front of the fireplace both of them surely would have frozen solid out there lost in each other's face. Alejandor came down to join them. He remained as cool and collected as ever, Caci observed. But there was something new about that hateful glare of his. The way he moved, the way he walked, everything helped to decode the secret message inside his mind. The Jedi physician wondered if his affections for Padmé ran even deeper than she had previously thought.

"Flower, I don't think its good for you to be out of bed so long."

Padmé turned around and seemed to notice Alejandro's presence for the first time. "Oh, Jandro. Gracias, that is very considerate of you. But I'm much more worried for Ani than I am myself."

Anakin shook his head and tugged on Padmé's arm. "What is it, Ani?"

He pointed to the wolf, back to her and nodded. She smiled and half laughed. "Now Anakin, that is very kind of you of course. But I really am alright. I think that seeing you here has helped me more than all the hours of rest I've had. Isn't that right Caci?"

"I'm not even going to give that ridiculous induction the dignity of a response. But just the same, I do think I need to have a better look at you, Anakin."

Anakin rolled his eyes.

"She's kinda right, man," Jesse said. "I don't think your leg is supposed to look like that. Let's see what happens when I poke it."

"How about we don't."

"His leg?" Padmé said through a gasp. "What's the matter with his leg? Ani how badly are you hurt?"

"I have men who can - "

Padmé looked away from Anakin fully for the first time and glared. Alejandro sighed and said nothing more.

"Its okay Caci, do whatever you need."

"I think that it might be best if you do go to your own room, Padmé. Let me look him over without distractions."

Padmé frowned and was about to protest. But Anakin quickly gave her a reassuring smile and nodded. "O-okay Ani. If you're sure you don't mind."

"I'll escort you back my dear, if that's okay."

"Thank you Jandro, you're very kind."

There was a new stiffness in her voice that Alejandro didn't like. He contributed it all to that cruel shifer. He was only conflicting her further than she already was.

"I-I can't believe he's back," Padmé said as they reached her room. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what my dear?"

"That he was lost. Jandro, I don't think he ran away on purpose."

Alejandro smiled sadly. He reached his hand out and put back a lock of her hair that had fallen out of place. "Reality is not how we want things to be, nor the way they might seem. It is simply the way that things are. But in your case, it is most fortunate that your Jedi friends came by to pull him out of that mess."

Padmé pulled back from the wolf rey. Her heart was about to run wild again. There was so much confliction, so much pain that she felt. What was wrong with her? Or rather, what was wrong with all of this?

Alejandro came back down to where the Jedi and her companion, whatever he qualified as, were finishing up with Anakin.

"He's much better when he's quiet," Caci sais to no one in particular.

"I suppose you'll want a room for him," Alejandro said.

"Unless its asking too much," said Jesse.

"If it was not for the senator as my guest, I wouldn't allow such a sacrilege to take place in my palace. But since it is only for her own peace of mind, I will allow him a room for the night."

Jesse looked to Anakin with one of his huge victory grins. "Hear that buddy? Told ya I'd get you in."

Even in his own room and under some decent medical care, Anakin still didn't feel safe about this situation. Yes, Padmé was safe. That was his one peace of mind. But there was still soemthing more. He sensed an underlying confliction scarring her heart. She seemed to happy to have him back, but was she in fact happier with a wolf? What if he was wrong about all this? What if she didn't want him back at all? His quesitons were answered when the door opened at some unheard of hour.

"Don't move shifter," this time Alejandro sounded more like a hissing snake than a barking wolf. "I'm not coming here wtih my best interests nor your worst. I've come to speak to you about flower."

Anakin held his breath as Alejandro pulled out a few papers and threw them across the bed. "I thought you might like to know who it was that drove her to the brink of death only mere hours ago. And I wanted to let you know who could have prevented it."

Anakin looked from the papers to the wolf and cocked his head. Alejandro rolled his eyes.

"You don't understand anything shifter, do you? I'm asking you to help me keep Padmé safe, forever."