Sorry it's so late everyone, IRL commitments got the better of me unfortunately. Thank you all for your fabulous reviews, it's great to see you all enjoying the story as much as I am continuing to enjoy writing it!

CHAPTER 2

Two days. It had been two days, and he hadn't stirred – not a flutter, a sigh, a twitch, nothing. Padmé rubbed her eyes, raw but no longer red from tears, and she took her husband's still, limp hand once more. Two days she had sat here, waiting for any sign that Anakin would return to her, and still there had been no spike of life, not from the monitors and not from him. Besides the occasional healer attending to her husband and the equipment, giving her looks loaded with compassion and perhaps a tint of dislike, and Obi-Wan bringing her food and water, Padmé had blessedly been left to simply be with Anakin alone, something she was truly grateful for. Had the Jedi Masters chosen to not allow her in, holding their lofty ideals of attachment and love above a grieving, worried wife's head, she might have broke. But, the shock of the discovery of her and Anakin's three year old marriage as well as the lives she carried within her, it seemed, was enough for Obi-Wan, her protector, to lead her to Anakin's bedside undisturbed and unhindered, though she knew they spoke of Anakin's indiscretion when a ways outside the room and out of earshot.

It had been two days since Padmé had truly, fully become a wife, exposed for the whole of the Temple to know, and even behind these closed doors that's how she felt: exposed. Even if Anakin had wanted to reveal everything in times of stress, Padmé knew that exposure would have left them naked and vulnerable to the judgment of the strict Jedi, a feeling she was really not enjoying facing alone. Her self-consciousness was enough to drive a shy blush to her cheeks – however unconscious the reaction – and her hands to her belly protectively. At least she and Anakin had Obi-Wan on their side.

They were so lucky to have the unexpected and unwavering support of Anakin's former master. Padmé had been shocked by his ultimate acceptance, remembering Anakin telling her how Obi-Wan, quite a few times, had chastised him for his feelings for her. However, if her wildly facetious husband was to truly be believed, Obi-Wan and Mandalore's Satine Kryze had been close, so close, in fact, that they bickered like an old married couple. Padmé smiled at the thought of Obi-Wan "by the book" Kenobi having a secret affair of his own. Insane! Considering his show of support for Anakin and Padmé's marriage, however, even after his initial disappointment and shock, perhaps there had been an opportunity missed for the Duchess and the Jedi.

Padmé sighed as she changed her grip on Anakin's hand and looked into his face, looking for all the world to be asleep and no more. He looked so young, younger than his wife already thought he looked anyway. His face held neither worry nor stress in its rested state, and though his skin was slightly paler than normal, Padmé marveled at the inherent handsomeness of her beautiful husband. Two days. Two days of pondering everything from Obi-Wan's possible affair to what life would be like without Anakin Skywalker in her life, a thought that had caused the now dried tear stains on her husband's thin healer's gown and the starchy sheets. It was a thought that Padmé refused to ponder once she realized how far her despair had dropped her, and though she was practical and rational, she refused to give up on Anakin until the heart monitor fell flat. He would live, and she was determined to help as long as she could.

The past two days she had done everything – talked to him, read to him, she even tried singing to him though she knew it probably did no good. Sola got the singing voice in the Naberrie family, something Padmé had always envied. In the end, Padmé decided to simply sit with him when she found herself running out of things to say, and she would do so until she thought of something new to try.

Two days, but nothing. If talking, reading, singing, or sitting didn't work, Padmé didn't know what to do. She did all these things because she had heard that perhaps coma patients could hear outside stimuli even if they couldn't react to it, but it simply wasn't working. Padmé absentmindedly massaged a painful ache in her lower back next to her spine as she thought of what she could do. She squeezed her husband's hand as she hit the knot of pain, and let up as the pain did. She had been having back pains for a few hours now, but not enough to disturb her too much. She wasn't naïve, she knew that twins usually came early, and being within the first few weeks of her eighth month, Padmé had a sneaking suspicion that she didn't have much longer to wait. But, she vowed that even if she went into labor here by her husband's side that she would stay with him until she was forced out.

Padmé smiled sadly at the thought of her latest discovery: their twins. The moment Obi-Wan had told her, she had had to shake her head at her own ignorance. It was so obvious now – Anakin swearing he had felt a foot where there should have been a head, being bigger than she had expected, it all fell into place with Obi-Wan's double declaration, and as she sat quietly at Anakin's beside she had begun reading up on what to expect as well as ordering double what she already had on her list, though the sadness that tainted the joyous news could only be described as grief of such strength because her husband didn't know that it almost banished any joy from her heart. They were to be parents twice over, and Anakin may never know the exceeding joy she knew he would feel as he cradled both of his children safe against his chest.

"I think our twins might be ready to see the galaxy, Ani," she finally whispered as her back spiked in pain again, determined to say anything, do whatever she could to keep her mind from the ache in her back. She laced their fingers together and leaned forward slightly so she could run her fingers through Anakin's loose curls. She stroked his scalp in a soothing manner, just how he liked it, the way his mother used to.

"This isn't how I imagined it, Ani." Padme sighed, her tears threatening to return as she continued. "You were going to be on Naboo with me when it happened. It would just be you and me, together, welcoming our children into the world with love. The room by the gardens would be all done up. I'd even put up the mobiles of starships and planets and stars that you wanted. It would be perfect." Padmé swallowed a small sob as her imagined safe haven was shattered by his silence. The pain in her back intensified and she shivered.

"Gods, I love you, Anakin Skywalker. Please don't leave me. Come back!" She planted her forehead on their entwined hands and kissed his fingers, feeling tears she didn't know she had any more of fall onto the sheets. "Please come back, please…"

A new beep she was unfamiliar with pulled her from her grief stricken musings and she looked around for the source. Anakin still hadn't moved and she sighed, convinced she was hearing things. The beep sounded again. She knew it wasn't her comlink, it was the wrong noise, and so she glanced at the heart monitor. Its rhythm hadn't changed from the slow yet steady pace, and Padmé, hoping beyond all hope, looked up, up to the brain activity monitor. The spiking line she saw displayed caused her own heart to skip a beat as she simply stared at it. The activity wasn't constant, but it was a relieving change from the nothingness that had read there for two days.

Catching her breath, pushing back the worsening pain, Padmé reached for her com. "Obi-Wan!" she exclaimed as soon as he connected, skipping any formalities.

"Padmé, is everything all right?" he asked, tired confusion lacing his response.

"Come quickly! Anakin, he's… he might be…" She didn't need to say any more.

"I'll be right there," he said after releasing a shaky, relieved sigh.

As he ended the call, Padmé turned back to her husband just as an uncomfortable ache made itself known in her lower belly. Her eyes flooded, the reality of the inevitable finally hitting her: she was having their babies, and Anakin wouldn't be there. She pulled Anakin's hand entwined with her own to her lips and gave it a deep, hopeful kiss before leaning forward and softly brushing her lips to his unresponsive ones. "That's it, Ani," she whispered, "please come back to me."

The monitor spiked and she smiled, allowing herself to believe that he had heard her, or at least felt her through whatever tenuous connection to the Force he may have even in sleep.

Moments later, Obi-Wan burst into the room flanked by two healers and followed by Master Windu. His eyes flew instantly to the still spiking brain monitor and he put his hand on Padmé's shoulder and squeezed as the healers moved to Anakin's side. One began checking the equipment itself while the other placed his hand on Anakin's forehead and closed his eyes, searching for hope through the Force that the young Jedi Knight might be waking up. After a few quiet moments, he opened his eyes, glanced at his colleague, and turned to the trio watching him with anxious stares.

"He's not waking up yet, but his brain does seem to be stabilizing," he said.

Padmé breathed a sigh of relief, heavy with emotion as she placed her free hand on her stomach as another pain built up. Before she could say anything, however, Mace beat her to it.

"But he will wake up eventually?"

The healer nodded. "It appears so, yes." Padmé smiled.

"Can you tell when?" she asked, and he regarded her with patience and compassion. Though she was an outsider, one that given her circumstances shouldn't be here in her capacity, she was beginning to feel a bit more acceptance from the Jedi, a fact she was pleased to note.

"We can't quite tell what caused his state in the first place, Senator, so unfortunately no. Master Skywalker will just have to come out of it on his own. Perhaps then, when he wakes, will we be able to know what happened."

"Thank the Force," Obi-Wan sighed from beside her. Rubbing her belly thoughtfully, Padmé couldn't help the slow, relieved tear that made its way down her cheek. Anakin was going to be all right, something that until a few moments before she thought was simply the dream of a distressed spouse. But he was going to be all right.

The pain peaked, stronger than all the others as it lanced across her belly, and Padmé hissed at the sudden force of it, squeezing Anakin's hand unconsciously and not noticing Obi-Wan's concerned look as he knelt beside her. He watched her as she breathed through the pain, and when she met his gaze not a word needed to be said. More tears fell from her eyes as she took one last look at Anakin, the man who should be there, relinquished her husband's hand and took the hand of the man who would be there as Obi-Wan helped her to stand.

"Can you walk?" he asked quietly, and she nodded as he led her from the room, nodding to Master Windu before leaving the master to speak further with the healers. As Obi-Wan, her protector in the absence of her husband, led her to a speeder, stopping once when the pain struck, one thought screamed its way through Padmé's head: not now.