Precipice by shadowsong26

Captain: Chapter 2

"No," Luke said, with all the finality a toddler could muster.

Padmẻ sighed internally. Every morning, at least for the past week or so, had started out this way, because her beloved son, in all his infinite two-year-old wisdom, seemed to have decided that shoes were the ultimate evil and must be avoided at all costs. She'd let him get away with it a couple of times-which she was now deeply, deeply regretting-because it didn't really matter all that much on a regular day. Because on a normal day, he spent most of his time in the apartment anyway, with one of her handmaidens babysitting while she was at work.

But today, she had a rare morning off, and since the other thing Luke was certain of this week was that butterflies were the single most amazing thing in the entire galaxy, the plan was to use that time to go to the park and chase some together.

The problem was, of course, that this plan required shoes.

Why is it, she thought wearily, that I can draft a law, beat back an invading army, run a kriffing planet, but not convince my two-year-old child to finish getting dressed?

"Lulu, sweetheart," she tried wheedling, "if you want to come to the park to play with Mommy, you have to let me put them on."

Luke pondered that for a moment, and Padmẻ was almost starting to hope he'd caved, when, "No," he declared, sitting on the ground and blinking up at her, as if to say 'your move, Mommy, but I bet you can't beat that.'

All right. New plan. "Well, then, I guess I'll just have to go by myself," she said, setting the shoes down and starting to get up.

"Nooooooo!" He latched onto her legs and stared up at her with his giant, sad blue eyes. "Mommy, butterflies! "

"Shoes first," she said.

He frowned, then brightened as inspiration struck. He wriggled over to the side and, trying to block her view of it with his tiny body, kicked the shoes under the bed. "Uh-oh. All gone!"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Really?"

He gave her his most winning smile. "Butterflies?"

She sighed again, but before she could respond, Sabẻ tapped on the door.

"Sorry to interrupt," she said.

"By all means," Padmẻ replied, as Luke tried to take advantage of her brief distraction to shove the hated shoes further under the bed. "Nice try, Lulu, I saw that."

Sabẻ bit back a grin. "Senator Organa's here," she said.

Padmẻ frowned. Bail didn't usually drop by unannounced like that-he appeared to, frequently, so it wouldn't raise red flags if there was an actual emergency, but that was carefully-choreographed, staged spontaneity. This was real.

"Mommy?" Luke said, peeking up at her. Probably picking up on her worry-which, as she had learned from reputable research and frequently reassured herself, was something all, or at least most, small children could do.

So she smiled at him, and ruffled his hair. "Nothing to worry about, sweet boy. Mommy just has to go talk to Uncle Bail real quick. That's all."

"'Kay," he said, but he wrapped himself around her legs again.

Very gently, she pried him off. "Why don't you play with Aunt Sabẻ for a minute, hmm? I'll be right back." She met Sabẻ's eyes briefly and nodded at the half-hidden shoes. Hopefully, she'd have more luck with them.

And hopefully Bail's news wouldn't be that perfect combination of awful and actionable that meant the park trip had to be cancelled entirely.

Sabẻ nodded back and scooped Luke up before he could start clinging again. "All right, precious child, what are you trying to hide from Mommy? Can you show me?"

Without waiting for Luke's response, Padmẻ slipped out into the sitting room. "Good morning," she said, when she caught sight of Bail, standing off to one side with his hands clasped behind his back, staring out the window.

"Padmẻ ," he said, turning around to greet her with a smile. "I'm glad I caught you." His tone was carefully light-ready for a few seconds of innocent small talk while Dorme, who was on counter-surveillance duty today, double-checked the equipment.

"You almost didn't," she admitted, gesturing him to a seat. "We were planning on going to the park, but my son refuses to put his shoes on." She sighed, and moved a slightly-toothmarked baby book aside before sitting down herself. "Does your daughter ever give you trouble like that?"

He shook his head. "No, she doesn't have a problem with shoes."

"Clear, Senators," Dorme interrupted quietly.

"Thank you," Padmẻ said. "Bail, what happened?"

"Senator Alavar was killed last night," he said.

Padmẻ sucked in a breath. Yet another member of the Two Thousand, who had walked back their position but stopped short of fully recanting. Nee Alavar had been a friend, if a distant one-not part of their network yet, but Mon had been in the process of sounding her out for active recruitment. "Hell," she said. "Are we…?"

He shook his head. "No chance of compromise. It was quick."

"Right," she said. "How did he stage it this time?"

"That's the problem," Bail said. "He didn't. "

She blinked. "He-you mean he had her openly murdered? "

"It gets worse," he said grimly, pulling out a datapad. "I have a reporter contact on Lorrd. They were able to get me this."

After a quick glance at the bedroom door to make sure Sabẻ still had Luke safely shut away behind it, Padmẻ nodded for Bail to play the footage.

It was, as he had said, quick.

Senator Alavar was walking down a street in a flickering, low-quality security hologram. She was accompanied by another Human, a man who may or may not have been an aide. And then-

A shadow flitted across the image; Senator Alavar crumpled in its wake, her head lolling at an unnatural angle, and the aide started to scream.

Oh, no.

Padmẻ swallowed. "Play it...play it again?"

Bail replayed the video.

On second viewing, she saw the shadow-a tall humanoid heavily cloaked in black, moving with preternatural speed and grace, and melting away as suddenly as they appeared.

"Oh, no," she whispered.

"I know," Bail said quietly, and shut the datapad off.

Padmẻ sat in stupefied silence for a long moment. Her first, selfish thought was- Luke. Luke, oh, hells, if that-if that creature comes here, will he still be safe? Obi-Wan and Master Yoda had done something to shield him from Palpatine's notice, but if that was too tailored to the Emperor, if…

Stop it. Stop panicking. I doubt it is, they must have-they must have recognized this possibility. They would have planned for it. And, worst case scenario, I can always have him stay with Sola for a little while. It'll be all right. He'll be all right.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Can I have a copy?" she asked, her voice shaking only a little. "Elle's good with holovids, she might be able to clean up the footage. Give us a little more detail about…about this being."

He nodded. "Of course."

There wasn't much chance, given the quality they were starting with, but all she could tell right now was that the-assassin (apprentice? Assassin, stick with assassin, that's less devastating) was humanoid, but not human. The proportions were all wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on exactly what didn't line up right. Hopefully, Elle would be able to tell them more.

"What do we do, in the meantime?" she asked. What could they do?

"I...don't think I should leave this at a dead drop," he said. "It's too much. Too important."

Right. Of course. Because that would be the next step-assassin or apprentice, the Jedi would have to know.

Her heart fluttered a little bit. "You want to make direct contact?"

"If I can," he said. "And if you approve."

They'd talked about the possibility, two years ago on Polis Massa. Padmẻ herself would be too closely watched. Bail had a little more professional distance, at least so far as anyone knew. If direct contact had to be made (beyond handwritten letters left at dead drops; letters she couldn't bring herself to burn like she knew she should; a part of her wondered if he was burning the ones she had Bail leave), it would have to come from him. But they had to agree to the breach in protocol.

"I think this situation calls for it," she said. "Let me...let me know what you hear?"

"Of course," he said, and stood up. "I have some routine documents to send you, I'll include the video with them. You remember this week's code for the filename?"

"Yes, of course," she said. It was their usual code. They were still on enough of the same committees-for refugees, for education, other basic services-that a flurry of data going between her office and his was a perfect cover. "Will you let Mon know?"

"As soon as I get a chance," he said. "After I speak with our other friends."

Even here, even where they knew they were safe, there were some words they didn't dare speak.

"Of course," she said. "Good luck."

He smiled, and let himself out.

She stayed on the couch for a moment more, picking up the baby book and turning it over and over in her hands.

Butterflies, she reminded herself. Act normal. Just be Mommy today. Put on your smile, put on his shoes, and go out and chase the butterflies. Right now, that's all-you can't do anything else right now. So do that.

"Dorme," she finally said.

"Yes, milady?"

"We need a contingency plan. A cover story, if I send Luke to stay with Sola for a while."

She nodded. "Motee and I have a list of possibilities. We can narrow it down and finalize when you get back from the park?"

"Good," she said, then stood up. "Think Sabẻ got his shoes on?"

"I think Sabẻ is probably two inches from screaming and absolutely covered in fingerpaint," Dorme said dryly.

"...yeah, that's probably more likely," she agreed, and smiled-a real smile. "I'll go rescue her."

"Good luck," Dorme said, then turned back to her equipment.

Shaking her head, Padmẻ headed back to the bedroom to do battle with Luke and his shoes and his stubborn, toddler brain once more.

Original Author's Note: lol what even are children.

Um. Yeah, sorry for any...there are no tiny ones in my life right now, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of how Luke is being written here. Apologies for any major errors. 3

~shadowsong