Author's note: This chapter contains Adult content. If you're underage or not comfortable, please wait for/move on to the next chapter
"General Skywalker we're receiving an encoded transmission!" a young lieutenant called out.
Anakin had been restlessly pacing the bridge for the past hour, putting everyone else on edge.
"It's Senator Amidala sir."
He leapt down into the communications pit, not bothering to wait for her message to be beamed up onto the bigger screens. His breath stopped as she appeared, whole and healthy. Her eyes were alert, alive. As always he studied her and her surroundings. Rex was at her back, armed and watching not Padmé but the men around her. Protecting her. Anakin actually smiled the relief was so intense.
"Master Skywalker," her voice addressed him formally and for a moment his heart jumped as he watched her image shake.
"What's happening?" he demanded from the trooper next to him.
"It looks like their ship is under attack," the entire communications team began scrambling to clear up the transmission.
"Where are they?" Anakin wanted to know, studying the message for any other useful signs. There was nothing, only that she was onboard a ship and Rex was watching her back,
"The Separatist army is massing and we've come under fire," she was steady and sure, looked straight at him.
Not afraid. He smiled at her image, calming because she was calm.
"It may be slower than anticipated if we need repairs but we will meet you at the rendezvous point," Padmé conveyed with determination.
"Yes we will," he echoed softly though she couldn't hear him.
The clawing need to see her again settled, reassurance that she was alright was enough to placate his frayed nerves and he leant back against the bulkhead as her gorgeous dark eyes glittered, seeming to look right at him.
"Wait for me," she ordered. That was private. Just for him. His wife issuing an order to her husband. Then the transmission ended.
The smile didn't go away. He stood against the bulkhead for some time pondering what he'd just seen, his gaze unfocused and his heart rate slowing.
"General?" the Lieutenant asked carefully.
"I'm alright," Anakin reassured, shaking his head. "How long ago was this sent?" his tone had changed, the darkness slipping away as he became the General they'd all given their lives for.
A few button taps and a curt "one hour ago. That's the end of the recording."
"Any other information included?" Anakin thought to ask, looking over his shoulder and down to the screen.
"Their coordinates at the time of the transmission." The lieutenant frowned then looked up and over the boardwalk to a clone in another area "Charts!" he called loudly then gestured.
The clone named Charts came towards them, then studied the coordinates on the screen. "Half a parsec out from Mandalore," he identified immediately.
"Mandalore?" Anakin asked with confusion, looking back again as Charts brought up a map of the galaxy and plotted Padmé's last position against the Mandalorian systems. "But they've been neutral," he pondered. "Why would the Separatist army be massing there?"
The Captain wandered over, glanced warily at Anakin then joined them. He studied the positioning as well. "Who is even in charge of the Separatist army now?" he looked to his bridge officers and finally the Jedi. "Dooku and Grevious are dead."
Anakin folded his arms. "The Sith Lord," he realised, looking the Captain straight in the eye. "Palpatine."
"The Emperor?" Boyle asked, astounded. "But he was head of the Clone Army. He was the one who Ordered 66. Why would he control both armies?"
The background murmur of the Defiance's bridge crew came to a deafeningly loud halt.
"He controlled both armies," Anakin repeated it quietly in sickened realisation. "This entire time. He could have stopped the war at any moment he chose, and he prolonged it."
He raised his head and looked around at his bridge crew. All the same face, yet all independent thinkers, men who'd chosen to be different. In that moment it suddenly struck him. What they'd done. What they'd done for him.
"Thank you," his voice caught and he cleared his throat. "All of you. Thank you. You chose to save me when I didn't know I needed it." He looked back at Padmé's image. "I don't think I've appreciated just how massive this operation must have been. To smuggle Padmé and I off Coruscant, to hijack two Republic Cruisers." His eyes wandered over every manned station, just a tiny portion of the men on board this ship, dedicated to a cause they couldn't even define. "Thank you. Every single one of you. I won't let you down, I promise."
He jabbed his finger at the stars streaking past the viewport. "Palpatine has kept us at war to further his own agenda and nothing more. Thousands of friends have died unnecessarily. It stops today. I don't know why that Separatist army is massing near the biggest conglomeration of neutral planets but there must be a reason. And we're going to stop it."
A cheer of support rose from the men down around him in the pits, and their officers further up on the boardwalk joined in heartily.
"We may only be two ships, but we will defeat the Emperor and return peace to the Republic!" his fierce battle cry was met with the rallying call of his loyal army.
Anakin sprung up from the pit back onto the boardwalk, nodding to the Captain. "When do we next fall out of hyperspace? I want everyone prepared in case we meet with our own welcome party."
"A wise precaution. Two hours until the next turning point."
"Ready all fighters and charge all gun banks." Anakin looked to the over-manned bridge. "In the meantime we need to start working on a plan, for how we're going to undo this travesty and remove the Emperor. We need to think beyond the rendezvous with Saviour."
Heads bobbed in general agreement. He wished his own was so hearty. To be truthful with himself it was hard to think beyond seeing Padmé safe. He'd been into dangerous situations with her before, knowing she was crafty and good with a blaster. But she'd also been fit and manoeuvrable in those earlier times. Now she was very pregnant with their child and he worried about her. Worried that she was vulnerable, that she would find herself in one of those tricky situations and be unable to extract herself.
"Can you spare some men from each team, Captain? We should start coordinating in the briefing room."
The Captain agreed and soon Anakin was walking determinedly for his war room. Planning the end of the Sith and the end of the war.
"Incoming cruiser, identify yourself," the communications were being routed to the announcement system and every person on board paused, held their breath as they waited for the response. If it was Saviour their mission had succeeded. If it was any other Empire vessel, they would be captured and court-martialled or forced to kill their brothers to survive.
Padmé's heart was already melting at the sound of Anakin alive and well coming over that transmission. Her gaze looked out the forward viewport to the sister ship they were coming up on. To where Anakin was even now waiting for her.
"This is Saviour executing Order 66-S2," Yularen answered.
"And this is the Defiance , who successfully executed Order 66-S1. I'm alive," they heard Anakin's grin through the com system.
A cheer rang out, loud and sure, on the Saviour's bridge as he announced that their mission had succeeded.
"Padmé?" he asked hesitantly into the open channel, thousands of crew members listening in.
"I'm fine Anakin," she assured him.
He said nothing further to her but his next words clipped with anxiety.
"I'm coming over right now. Skywalker out."
The com channel abruptly shut off and Padmé started her trek off the bridge. "If you need me I'll be in the hanger bay," she called behind her.
"Thank god for that," Yularen muttered at her retreating back.
Padmé hurried, moving as fast as her unbalanced body could carry her. She made it down to the hanger bay with a few minutes to spare, watching on eagerly as the massive doors drew back and stars appeared between them.
A single transport came screaming in a moment later, barely having touched down when Anakin was vaulting out of it.
"Padmé," he cried, excitement mixed with relief as she flew to him.
They clashed and he swept her into his arms. Crushed her to his chest in agony, days of high tension and fear cracking as he held her to him tight.
"Oh Anakin," she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him desperately. Digging her fingers into his skin. The reality of how close Anakin had come to death only now settling on her.
They weren't alone in the hanger and for the very first time neither of them cared. There was not a chance of being discovered, no, they were obviously being watched. Anakin forsook their reputations and dropped his head, kissing her hard, passionately. Padmé reached up and pulled him closer, her mouth possessing his while her fingers grasped his hair and they twined together.
Reuniting after they'd both come so close to assassination.
"I love you," he pulled back for just a second to gasp the words he had been afraid he'd never say again. Blurting them out so that even if they died in the next moment, Padmé would have heard them.
"I love you," she whimpered back, desperately reaching for his mouth again with hers.
They hungrily took one another, mouths kissing in frantic reunion.
"I was so worried," she whispered, running her hands down the front of his chest then reaching up to kiss him again.
"I know how you feel," he said in a private whisper then took the kiss she offered.
Their attentions to one another became more physical until a throat cleared behind them. They stopped kissing but didn't pull apart. Anakin lifted his chin away from Padmé to glance over the top of her head, but kept her held tight to his chest. For a moment he pressed his lips into the crown of her head. He didn't let her go. Every person on Defiance and Saviour had taken on this mission voluntarily, and every single one of them now knew that he and Padmé were married.
He would kiss his wife now, no matter where they were, because for the last time he had come too perilously close to losing her and himself.
"Captain Rex," he allowed Padmé to turn in his arms so they could both face the trooper who had appointed himself her bodyguard.
The man who had served and led with him over how many years and Anakin was still stunned by what he'd achieved these last few days. What must have taken months of planning given the number of troopers involved and the coordination of thousands.
"You saved a Jedi, a Senator and our baby. From a Sith Lord and a death sentence." Anakin was in awe, looking his longtime comrade dead on while for the first time he held Padmé in his arms and someone else watched on. Rex stood still and stoic as always.
"I owe you a debt of gratitude. I owe you everything," Anakin didn't skirt the issue.
The man who had saved that everything looked a little embarrassed, and clearly didn't know what to do with the gratitude.
"No more than you've done for me countless times, General," Rex tried to wriggle out of it, even as Anakin was shaking his head.
"You are far more of a hero than I could ever hope to be. Thank you."
Captain Rex nodded once, changed the subject by cocking his head towards Padmé. "Now that you're here I officially resign my post as bodyguard."
Anakin smirked, pulling Padmé's back close to his chest and possessively running his hands down her body. One along her side, the other over the fullness of their swelling child. Rex followed the movement with some fascination, watching the back of Anakin's knuckles drift in a slow, barely there exploration of the curve. A smaller female hand came to cover his black leather glove and both their palms flattened.
"An assignment I'm pleased to take on," Anakin grinned roguishly.
Their fingers linked together in determined resolve.
"We need to plan, sir," Rex immediately switched to military tactics, his speciality, and turned to lead the way to the war room.
Padmé turned too, but in Anakin's arms. She grinned up at him, cupping his rough cheek, and knew there was no planning in the immediate future.
"Captain," she stopped his retreat.
Rex turned, surprised to find neither was following.
"Since I last saw Anakin we've both narrowly escaped death. I'd like to see with my own eyes that he's unharmed," she was explicit. "We'll join you in the war room tomorrow morning."
"Lady Skywalker," he spluttered in protest at the huge delay.
Anakin picked up on the moniker and perked considerably, his hand rubbing her shoulder with eager anticipation.
"Lady Skywalker is it?" he was grinning at Rex. Then he turned down to Padmé and approved "Oh I like that."
"In the morning," Padmé reiterated to the Captain, squeezing Anakin's hand. "We're retiring to my quarters. Now."
Anakin strode past Rex with his hand tucked into Padmé's and an anticipatory smug grin spreading across his features.
"Are you feeling alright?" Rex heard Anakin ask Padmé as his arm slid around her waist and she was tugged into his side. He realised it was the first time anyone had thought to ask her that in the three days since this saga began.
Anakin was drenched in sweat, naked, and caressing Padmé's bare thigh while she rode him when the beeping of his personal com tried to interrupt them. She looked toward it, slowing as if to answer.
"Ignore it," Anakin instructed, looking up at her with determination. "Keep going."
"It could be important," she reached for it.
He caught her hand, placed it back on his own shoulder and put both his own hands to the damp skin of her smooth bare back.
"Nothing is more important than this."
Padmé scowled at him. "The Separatist fleet could have just dropped out of Hyperspace and we could be about to die." She reached for the com again.
Anakin captured her fingers, entwined them with his own and drew them to his mouth. No com call was interrupting them.
"Then I will die a happy man, with you wrapped around me. Now we aren't finished."
He placed his lips to the curve of her shoulder and kissed once, twice. Then began mouthing a slow wet trail. Padmé forgot the com. She whimpered and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Started moving in slow circles again. Dropped her head to the side when Anakin's mouth sucked lazily at her collarbone while his fingers dug into her back.
His com stopped beeping. She whimpered a soft plea and pressed herself down into him. Anakin groaned and thrust back, right up into her with his utterly bared body. Padmé's hands clutched at his filled-out biceps then let her watering mouth follow and began sucking at his skin.
Her com started beeping. Her lips froze, then she went to pull away.
"Ah!" he stopped her, catching her hand again.
"Ani," she protested, trying to withdraw her fingers from where he'd now twined them with his own.
He pressed his forehead to hers and hissed "they know what we're doing. You can answer when my cock isn't inside you."
She cried out, starting to lift away, needing to escape the gravity well of that particular body part's insatiable power over her because her own belly was desperate to keep him inside. He took a firm hold of each of her hips so she didn't move another muscle. "Uh-ah," it took everything he had not to finish right then and there. "Not like that," he promised her.
Then he thrust up into her, hard. A groan escaped him and then he caught her desperate whimper up in a hungry kiss. Cupping her bottom and pulling her hips even closer so he could love her.
"It's clearly important," she tore her soft lips away, though her words were slightly breathy in that distracted way he liked. "We should," she swallowed at the feel of him burrowing into her. "Respond."
"We will," he agreed mischievously, intent on the flashing changes of gold to toffee in her eyes, reactions to him in her. "In a little while."
"Ani," she tried one more chance at being serious.
He pressed his forehead to hers. "Padmé," he countered with the beautiful sound of her name. Then kissed her. Until they were both senseless and there was no movement towards personal coms, only the intimate movement of her ripening body and its potent impregnator moving together.
He dipped his head and caught one of her soft nipples in his mouth, tugging until she gasped and her hands shot into his hair to hold him still.
"General and Lady Skywalker to the bridge," a ship wide announcement broadcast into every room, every corridor, every blasted turbolift that made up the Saviour.
Padmé broke her mouth away hurriedly and Anakin struggled to keep her to him calling out a frustrated "no no No!"
"Just what is going on?" Padmé didn't have to wait for her answer.
"An Imperial vessel just dropped out of hyperspace."
That gave Anakin pause. "Here?" he asked confusedly. She started to pull away again and he caught her upper arms. Let his gaze linger as he looked over her luscious form, glistening and flushed a delicious pink, and committed it to memory. Then let her go.
"Alright," he gave her one more hard kiss and they both came away breathless. "To be resumed later."
Padmé pulled away and the withdrawal of his body from hers was painful. He had to groan, wincing when she was finally free of him. He lay there for one split second recovering then snatched up his com and contacted Yularen.
"Give us two minutes."
"Short minutes," Yularen allowed.
Padmé was already in her gown and twisting her hair up when he struggled from the bed and started tugging his clothes back on. As they were rushing out the door he caught Padmé around the waist and hauled her into him, planting a single passionate kiss on her swollen mouth. "I love you and we will live through this," he promised her fiercely.
"See that you do. We weren't finished," she returned just as fiercely, pecked his lips.
Then they hurried from their quarters and bolted for the bridge.
"That was three minutes, not two," Yularen criticised without turning around.
"Next time," Anakin was striding towards him. "I don't answer a com, and I'm alone with Padmé, assume we're busy," he stopped next to Yularen looking out the front viewport and surveyed the scene.
"It's been fourteen hours since you landed in the hanger bay!" Yularen protested. Then his tone became amused as he greeted "It's good to see you alive General Skywalker."
"It's good to be alive, and be reunited with Padmé. A few more hours wouldn't have hurt," he answered distractedly as he studied the ships before them.
Defiance was still drifting close by off to their starboard, though she'd formed up alongside in the last few minutes. They now both had their forward guns readied towards a third similar looking vessel, clearly another ship built for the Grand Army of the Republic. Not anymore though, now every ship but theirs served the days-old Empire.
"This wouldn't wait," Yularen observed the third ship simply drifting.
"No," Padmé agreed softly, appearing at their sides. "Have you tried to contact it?" she asked the admiral.
"And let you miss the fun?" Yularen's wit made her smile.
"An incoming communication sir," the communications officer spoke up.
Anakin turned towards the young man and nodded.
"This is the Grand Army of the Republic's Negotiator executing Order 66-K," came the clear announcement.
"Admiral Kilian!" Yularen called out in surprise, immediately recognising the deep accented burr.
"66-K?" Padmé looked thoughtful, then turned to Anakin. "Do you think other soldiers may have come up with a rescue mission of their own? Could it be –?"
"Obi-Wan," Anakin breathed, suddenly feeling the presence nearby. He sagged in relief for a pain he hadn't known he was carrying. "Confirm it," he snapped to Yularen.
"This is Admiral Yularen on the Saviour executing Orders-66-S1 and 66-S2. We have Skywalker."
Obi-Wan's voice filled their bridge and tears flooded Padmé's hormonal eyes in happiness at the sound of it. A single, hopeful, demanding snap of "Anakin?"
"Yes Master," Anakin responded quickly, his own joy irrepressible. "They kidnapped me," he paused to grasp the hand at his side "and Senator Amidala from Coruscant."
The bridge beneath him cheered themselves and the daring deadly mission they'd triumphed.
The smile in Obi-Wan's voice was a beam that could be felt across the kilometres of space that separated them. "I was captured off Utapau," he boasted. "It's good to hear your voice my friend."
"And yours," Anakin was sincere.
"Obi-Wan," Padmé joined in, squeezing Anakin's fingers. "Now that we're three ships instead of two we're even more obvious and word will start travelling back to the Core. We need a plan."
"Agreed, though make that four. Apparently we've another en route, another executing order 66-K. I'll be over shortly. And Senator? It's good to hear your voice."
"Yours as well Master Jedi," she soothed.
"Yularen, what's the state of your supplies?" Admiral Kilian's voice replaced Obi-Wan's.
"Poor and growing more dire by the hour. Our ship took damage in a recent firefight." The officers took over with the pressing issue of how they would continue to feed their mammoth crews and repair their ships while the Jedi and his Senator turned away.
"There will be no avoiding Obi-Wan finding out now," Padmé was the one to say it as they made their way to the turbolift. "Everyone on this ship risked their lives to rescue me because they knew of us."
Anakin nodded uncomfortably. Then his back straightened. His fingers caressed her hand as he conceded "the baby is obvious now, too big to be hidden. And I don't want it to be."
They came to the turbolift well just as the doors slid open to reveal a commander and two troopers inside.
"Lady Skywalker," the Commander bowed his head in respect as he stepped out of the turbolift and his men followed.
"And there's that," Anakin grinned at the trooper's retreating back, watching the man enter the bridge. "Why are they calling you that?"
They both stepped in and the door slid shut.
"Captain Rex was addressing me as Senator Amidala even as the Chancellor announced the death of the Republic. I refuse to serve in a Senate of oppression under an Emperor and in my frustration ordered him to stop referring to me as such. He asked what form of address I preferred. Then he picked one."
The car began falling away towards the hanger bays.
"Clearly word travels fast, even on a ship of this size."
Anakin turned to her, his eyes soft with appreciation as he wondered "so now everyone openly refers to you as my wife."
"I suppose," she wouldn't meet his gaze.
"Then I am the luckier man for it," he placed his fingers under her chin, tilted her head up and kissed her softly.
"The galaxy is a different place than it was a week ago," she told him quietly when he pulled away. "If you and Obi-Wan are truly the only two Jedi left –"
"I know, I know," he held up his hand to soothe her agitation.
"He needs to know everything," she pointed out. "Too many lives depend on it."
Anakin's head bobbed silently. Then he met her eyes and firmly reminded "our baby" he swallowed, laying his hand to her middle "is a blessing. The ten thousand troopers on our two ships know that. Obi-Wan will see it too."
Their lips brushed in brief final resolve, then they exited the turbolift and made their way along the corridors to the hanger bays. They waited side-by-side, not touching but clearly a united force, for Obi-Wan's arrival. Word had spread and even down here they already knew another ship had joined them. A buzz echoed while Padmé and Anakin waited.
When the transport appeared it wasn't barrelling in at quite the same rate Anakin had, but it was moving fast. The shuttle touched down, and Obi-Wan was already waiting at the top of the ramp when it began lowering. He rushed off, embracing Anakin firmly.
"It's good to see you my friend," he was painfully relieved as he took in the sight of the boy he'd raised, still alive despite the massacre of their people. And felt utter relief.
"Obi-Wan," Anakin clasped him tight. The feeling was mutual.
"We have been very lucky," Obi-Wan reflected, turning to Anakin's side.
"Senator Amidala I'm so glad..." he trailed off as he actually looked at her. His brow furrowed and, trying to connect what his eyes were seeing with what he knew to be true, the usually smooth-talking Jedi stumbled with an awkward "I'd not realised it has been so long since we've seen each other."
Her pregnant tummy made it obvious quite a lot had changed since he'd last set eyes on the Senator.
"That," Anakin decided to just get the revelation out of the way. "Is mine."
"Anakin!" Obi-Wan admonished, the reaction coming without any thought. "Are you out of your mind? The Senator has a death warrant on her head! How could you be so reckless?"
"The death warrant is a much newer problem," Padmé pointed out. "This started long before the Chancellor began making his final moves."
"My question still stands," Obi-Wan folded his arms angrily.
For once, Anakin was calm.
"We've been married for quite some time," he enlightened his friend. "Wonderful things happen to married people."
"You know there are ways to prevent that? For gods sake we are at war!" the shouting continued.
They were attracting a lot of curious eyes from other members of the crew.
"What if you don't want to prevent it?" Anakin lifted an eyebrow.
Padmé startled at that too. "Anakin," she chastised him openly.
He looked between his two opponents, his closest confidants, and sighed, giving in. "Look, it's done."
His eyes drifted to their captive audience of maintenance crews and pilots, then gestured with his head. "Can we continue this conversation in private?"
The three of them stayed silent as they crossed the vast hanger and made for one of the turbolifts. Only when the doors had shut behind them in privacy did Anakin round on his friend. "Whether you approve or not Padmé and I will have a child soon. And our very complicated existence as fugitives from the Empire will become even more untenable. So we have to sort this out. Now."
"Agreed," Obi-Wan nodded his head firmly. Then he turned a less confrontational gaze on Padmé and said what he should have said to start with. "It is good to see you Senator."
"Don't call her that, she doesn't serve a corrupt Emperor in an Imperial Senate," Anakin grinned at her teasingly, repeating her explanation.
"Oh? What title are you going by?"
"Just Padmé is fine," she assured. At the exact same moment Anakin pronounced "Lady Skywalker."
The turbolift doors opened and both Obi-Wan and Padmé shot him dark looks.
"What?" he defended, leading them towards the briefing room. "Captain Rex came up with it. And I like it."
"Padmé it is," Obi-Wan's narrowed gaze was turning even more lethal on Anakin.
Anakin folded his arms defiantly and cut off that storm before it could be unleashed with one of his own. "Have you informed the Duchess of Madalore you're alive?"
Obi-Wan startled at the abrupt change in conversation. "No. Why?"
"I just think she'd like to know," Anakin's stride became a self-satisfied saunter.
"Well she can't," Obi-Wan retorted. "I'm a fugitive from the Empire with a battle cruiser under my command and a death sentence on my head. It's very dangerous for anyone to know I'm alive."
There was silence and then Padmé tentatively offered "to not know if someone you care about still lives, that is the worst form of torture," she shot a quick glance at the husband who had spent months on the Outer Rim without coming home. That one look quite meaningful.
"The Duchess puts her people first. She won't have time to think of anything else as the galaxy falls into turmoil," Obi-Wan gave his final justification, indicating the issue was closed.
"I stood beside her at your funeral two years ago," Padmé reminded. "And though you turned out to be alive," she turned to him sadly to relive the funeral he had not attended. "Satine truly mourned for you, as only a widow does. To lose you twice may not fracture her publically but you more than anyone know that it will destroy her inside. Send her a covert message."
"Or better yet, bring a fleet," Anakin waved his arm to indicate their small trio of ships. "Pretend we're there to fight the Separatists."
Padmé and Obi-Wan both looked at him strangely as they entered the briefing room. Not understanding their looks, he prompted "the Separatist Fleet is massing half a parsec from Mandalore's border."
The two of them look flabbergasted.
"It was your ship that encountered them," he reminded Padmé.
"That was near Mandalore?" she asked in disbelief.
"According to your coordinates, yes. You didn't know this?"
"I only knew we were trying to calculate a second jump vector. At least four droid carriers had arrived before we managed to escape. We have to do something! If the Separatist army conduct an incursion into a neutral system then the neutrality is void and the Empire can move in!"
Anakin looked a little confused. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I voted on the neutrality bill. I helped Satine draft the original wording." Her eyes narrowed. "Certain unfriendly federations removed key paragraphs and managed to get that version through the Senate. If one Separatist fires a single shot on Mandalore then their neutrality no longer exists."
"Meaning Duchess Satine is in great danger," Obi-Wan worried.
"And the people of the two thousand neutral star systems she speaks for," Padmé emphasised.
Obi-Wan rubbed his hand over his face in tired disbelief. "And here I thought this would be a good day."
Two soft black Jedi boots appeared on the table and casually crossed over one another. Padmé and Obi-Wan's eyes turned to Anakin as he relaxed back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head.
"You should have married her when you got the chance," Anakin lamented casually. "My wife is safe with me here."
"Your wife," Obi-Wan mocked. "Is pregnant and on the run."
"At least I know she's safe," Anakin didn't give up, emphasising that point. "And I can protect her."
"You're not helping," Padmé told him.
"I'm not trying to," Anakin grinned back at her. "I'm pointing out," he turned his smug grin on Obi-Wan "that I'm right. And that I'm a very lucky man."
His feet disappeared from the table top and he stood.
"You two sort out the Mandalore problem while I go find Admiral Yularen."
He pressed his lips to Padmé's cheek and in a quiet whisper asked "try and get him to contact the Duchess. He often misses her, now is the chance to do something about it."
His hand squeezed her shoulder and then was gone.
Obi-Wan had studied the interaction closely. "Padmé," he began seriously. "As a friend, are you sure you've made a wise decision here? Anakin's life is about to get even more complicated than it already was."
"I know," she agreed with him. Then firmly announced, without hesitation "He's worth it. Being with Anakin has been the most wonderful part of my life since the Separatist War began. The arrival of our child won't change that."
Anakin had been lurking in the corridor, and heard those final words. He grinned to himself, and went to retrieve the Admiral for their war council.