Precipice by shadowsong26

Original Author's Note: Note that there is some discussion of medical issues. Also, I am not a doctor, and this is pulled from vague research and watching a lot of hospital soap operas. Please do not take anything described in that portion of the fic as sound medical information/advice.

Aftermath: Chapter 7

It was over a day before Padmẻ was allowed to see her husband.

To be fair, most of that day was spent hooked up to monitors herself, with the med droids and Kallidahin on the asteroid base making sure she and the twins were all right. So, she doesn't mind the delay (much), especially since they helpfully provided her with updated scans as soon as she asked.

Anakin was doing better. Or, she thought he was, anyway. She wasn't exactly a medic, though she did have some basic first aid training, but based on the notations she could decipher, all the broken bones had been set correctly, and were holding; the burns and lacerations had been tended, and there were no signs of serious infection.

But his condition was still listed as critical, and there were a couple of serious problems that meant that he still might...

The first problem was, while the medcenter had bacta, they didn't have enough for a full immersion tank, so they'd had to prioritize, and Anakin would be down for a while. Down, and in pain, with open wounds and shattered ribs. But he was alive, and he was healing, if slowly. And slow was-well, slow progress was still progress.

The bigger problem, though, was blood.

Anakin had lost a lot of blood, and the Kallidahin didn't exactly keep human blood around for transfusions. For all that humans were the most common sentient species in the Galaxy, they were few and far between in this sector. And neither she nor Obi-Wan matched Anakin's blood type. Probably Bail didn't, either, or they would have gotten him to donate before he left.

There were stopgap solutions, and the medics here were employing each and every one they had access to. It was enough to keep him alive, but there wasn't really any substitute for an actual transfusion. She had been repeatedly assured by the droids doing the bulk of the work tending him that he was stable now-still critical, but stable-but the low blood volume made him significantly more vulnerable to complications. And just because nothing else had gone wrong yet...

Between that and the horror stories Bail's med droid had fed them about Anakin trying to get up, when he had briefly regained consciousness on the way here, they were keeping him sedated for now. Just until he was a little stronger.

So, as soon as she and the twins were cleared, Padmẻ collected them and moved into Anakin's room. As much as it hurt to see him like that, she wanted to be there when he woke up. When the medics had tried to object-on the grounds that very young crying infants might disturb him-Obi-Wan had sided with her.

"They might help," he'd said quietly.

"Really?" she'd asked. They hadn't talked about it yet, but she knew that her children-that Anakin's children-would be strong in the Force. And she knew what that meant. She'd had several months to think through what that might mean-though this particular scenario hadn't exactly occurred to her.

But they were so small, and he was so hurt, and she didn't want…she didn't want that kind of pressure put on them. Not yet. Not ever."Hope always does," he said, with a faint smile.

Well. That was okay, then.

Then he'd found his own corner of Anakin's room and very courteously passed out.

For her part, Padmẻ slept on and off-when the twins did, mostly; miraculously, they were both pretty consistently sleeping at the same time, and she prayed to every deity she knew that they continued to do so. When she was awake, watched the displays monitoring Anakin's vitals, tried to plan her next move, and tried to get to know the babies.

Luke was quieter than Leia, most of the time, but once he got started crying it was at least ten times harder to get him to stop.

Leia knew exactly what she wanted at all times and had about as much patience as her father did, but as easily as she became upset, she was just as easy to soothe-once you figured out why she was crying, anyway.

It's easy enough now, anyway, Padmẻ thought, at one point. But in a few months, her needs are going to get a lot more complex.

But then she would get them to sleep, side by side in the little beds the Kallidahin had found for her; or one of them would yawn, or cling tight to her finger, and she would feel a deep, unshakeable warmth at the base of her spine and think-I made them. These are my children. My perfect, beautiful children.

She wanted to remember every second of these first few days with her children, when they were new and precious and perfect and just needed her love. Before everything got dark and complicated again.

And, whatever she did now, whatever she and Anakin decided-and it would be their decision; even if they decided...even if they decided that the twins had to go away, with Obi-Wan or Yoda or one of the other survivors (because there had to be other survivors). Even if, it was still their decision. The twins were theirs for at least six months, whatever happened after. That was how this worked. And she would make damned sure it worked that way still.

Three days passed like that, with no visible change in Anakin's condition, though the scans the medics took every four hours showed gradual, continuing improvement. Padmẻ, despite her fears, managed to settle into a routine that wasn't really a routine, because newborns didn't exactly keep a regular schedule. Wake with the twins; tend to them; check on Anakin; maybe talk with Obi-Wan a little bit; sleep while she could; repeat.

And then Bail and Yoda joined them.

Unsuccessful.

Padmẻ was no Jedi; she couldn't sense these things. But she didn't really need the Force to read the answer in Yoda's grim quiet, or the slight slump of Bail's shoulders.

Palpatine remained in power.

A part of Padmẻ felt obscurely guilty for that-maybe if Obi-Wan had stayed on Coruscant, had gone with Yoda to attack him, it would have played out differently.

But if he hadn't been with me, if I'd gone into labor in hyperspace with only Artoo to help…

If he felt the same way, he didn't telegraph it in any way. Not that she could see, at least. And she tried to console herself, she hadn't really had any part in that decision.

But I could have refused his escort.

She tried not to think about it too much. They were all alive, and wishing she'd played her hand differently, those last few hours on Coruscant, wouldn't undo what had been done. No more than going over and over her very first visit to the Senate, thirteen years ago, and wishing she hadn't listened to Palpatine then, could change things.

Move forward, she told herself. The situation is what it is. Simply wishing won't make it any different. And we're all alive. We can fight back. It'll just...it just might take some time. And that hurt to acknowledge, knowing what Palpatine would be able to do in the meantime, but there wasn't much else they could do. Fight as hard as they could and pray it didn't take too long.

Obi-Wan left, to go sit with Bail and Yoda in the conference room and try to plot strategy. Padmẻ joined them as soon as she got the twins to sleep-she left Artoo on watch; there was no one else she trusted who wasn't otherwise occupied-and found that the others had come to more or less the same conclusion.

"Appear, an opportunity will," Yoda said quietly. "Patient, we must be, until then."

"But in the meantime, we can't simply sit by and do nothing," Obi-Wan said.

"I agree." Padmẻ found a seat at the table, next to Bail. "There are enough in the galaxy who will refuse to accept what Palpatine has done. We can fight."

But Bail shook his head. "I don't think it'll be that simple, Padmẻ. He has resources. He has the army. He has the capital. He has most of the Senate-you know what it's like. Even among those that don't actively support him, too many of our colleagues are more concerned with protecting themselves, or, more charitably, their individual constituencies. Even if they don't like what's happened, they won't risk active resistance."

"There are those who will."

"Not enough," he said. "We need time, to build a strong enough coalition."

"But if we just sit by and do nothing in the meantime, he'll become too entrenched," she pointed out. "The longer we wait, the harder it'll be to undo everything he's done."

"Correct, you both are," Yoda said. "Patient, we must be, but complete inaction, we cannot risk. Resist, we must-but in small ways. A long road this will be-difficult. Dangerous. Slow. Your coalition, you will build in the Senate, and limit expansion of this evil from the Core, we will."

"Sabotage," Obi-Wan said.

"Yes."

It made sense, Padmẻ knew, even though she felt like it wasn't anywhere near enough. Bail had a point-they didn't have the resources to do much else.

But it would take years. And then even longer, to fix what he would break while he had absolute power.

Power she had given him.

And that was what kept sticking at her, what kept undercutting the optimism she tried so hard to maintain. Not that she didn't think they could do it-they could, they would-or even how long and hard a fight it would be. She had never been afraid of a fight.

But the fact that it was her fault...

The guilt that she had made Palpatine's empire possible, wouldn't go away.

Yoda, across the table, looked right at her, one of his ears twitching. "The blame for this, place where it belongs: with the Sith, no others. Blind, we all were-but for Sidious' actions, this does not make us responsible."

She flushed and inclined her head, acknowledging the point, even if she didn't quite believe it yet.

"What about…" Obi-Wan hesitated. "What about the children?"

Padmẻ stiffened, and started to answer-she hadn't expected this from Obi-Wan of all people-but Master Yoda beat her to it.

"Hmm. Wait, we will," he said. His eyes flicked over to Padmẻ. "A decision for the parents, this is. Training-in time, yes. Need it, they will. But perhaps not in the traditional way." He sighed, and it was as if the weight of all his near nine hundred years settled on him in an instant. "Too long have we relied on tradition and nothing else. Complacent, we have grown. Adapt, we must, if to survive this, we are."

For a moment, the four of them were silent.

"I agree," Obi-Wan finally said. "But that wasn't...that wasn't what I meant. Not entirely, anyway." He glanced over at Padmẻ, silently asking her forgiveness for botching this.

She nodded. "What, then?"

"If Palpatine knows-and I think it would be unwise to assume he doesn't-he will come after them."

"Oh," she said.

She hadn't thought of that-but now that he mentioned it…

I won't let him, she thought. I will not let that monster warp my children.

"Hide them, we should," Yoda said. "But where, and how…"

Padmẻ stood up. "We can't talk about this now. Not until-Anakin has to be a part of this conversation." Because they were right. The children would have to be hidden, and if that meant her and Anakin going into hiding, too, spending the rest of their lives on the run, one step ahead of Imperial patrols-

Maybe. It would be a hard life, and even harder because we'd have two small children, and we've never actually lived together before, so we'd be learning how to do that at the same time. As much as we love each other, as much as we've always dreamed of living together, being together-well, neither of us is exactly adept at compromise. And, with everything else such a mess around us, it would be…it would be hard. But we could do it. If it meant keeping the children safe...we would make it work. But if we run, if we hide...if we do that, we won't be able to help. And there is so much work to do.

She'd told Obi-Wan that she planned to remain free to act, and she still did. She had laid the groundwork with Motee for just that purpose. It had been a promise-to her friends, to herself, to the galaxy as a whole. To fix what she had accidentally helped break.

But it was one thing to plan, and to promise, and another to have the problem actually in front of her, to be confronted with the reality of-

"I'll discuss it with Anakin," she said, interrupting her own increasingly bleak thoughts. "When he wakes."

"Whatever you decide," Obi-Wan said, "I will help you keep them safe. I promise."

"Thank you," she whispered. She closed her eyes briefly, collecting herself, then sat back down at the table.

Bail took his cue from her, and shifted the topic to practical considerations, things they could do right away. Contacts they could cultivate, possible locations for drop points, sources for supplies, potential safehouses, ways they could communicate securely.

That, at least, she could help with-she and Anakin hadn't spent three years secretly married without learning some creative ways to slip messages past eavesdroppers.

By the time the twins woke again a couple hours later, Padmẻ was less uneasy. Those unanswerable, uncomfortable questions about her children and her own role in events to come, were still there, but she was doing something. Even the guilt seemed a little more manageable, at least for the moment. And Yoda had a point-while she had played a part in setting the stage, Palpatine's choices, his crimes, were his own.

So, there it was. Anakin was still unconscious, her children were still in danger, and this was only the start of what would be a long, hard war, but they could do it. This rebellion they had started, in a too-white, too-sterile conference room in a hidden hospital on an isolated asteroid base; the four of them, and Anakin-they would see this through. They would make things right. Padmẻ had faith that there was light at the end of the road. She refused to give up on it.

Now they just had to hold together, to stay alive long enough to reach it.

Original Author's Note: Sorry for the late update-this chapter gave me a lot of trouble. It still feels a little messy, but I decided it was time to put it out there and move on, otherwise I'd keep fiddling with it for another week or two...

Anyway, here it is. Thanks so much for sticking with me through this story so far!

~shadowsong