Secrets and Suspicion (Book 1)

Dreams

Padmé had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room after Anakin left. She was so tired from waking up so early that morning. She continued to sleep soundly as she was having a dream. A strange dream....her dream was about two small children running around her apartment. One was a boy with dirty-blonde hair and the other was a brunette girl. They both looked alike, and appeared to be the same age. But the very strange thing was that Anakin and Padmé were getting them ready for some kind of training, acting as if the children were their own. The apartment had an extra bedroom built onto it, but it was still the same Coruscaunt apartment that Anakin and Padmé live in now. It was extremely peculiar. The dream ended with them sending the children off to training. She woke suddenly, by a sharp pain in her stomach. That's strange, she thought. She sat there for a minute, thinking she was just alarmed by the weird dream and should calm down. But when she attempted to get back up, she had the same pain, but this time it was even worse. She groaned. One more try to get up, and she gave up. She laid careully back down on the couch, feeling hopeless. She ended up falling asleep again, for a long time. This time, Padmé had a dream that she was in a dimly-lit room, with Anakin sitting beside her. She was in a bed, and while Anakin was sitting next to her, he seemed to be more upset than usual. He was... crying. He could get emotional at times, but not usually so emotional that he would shed tears. He was pleading, "No, no, don't leave me," is what it sounded like. And after that, he kept repeating, "Padmé, Padmé.......Padmé...."

She woke up to a gentle shake of her shoulder and the same thing being said to her-- "Padmé.....Padmé..." But this time, more forcefully instead of longingly. She realized it was Anakin, and she also realized she missed work and it was dark outside. That's just great, she thought. "Anakin, you're back?" she asked, surprised.

"Yeah, well it's a long story... we set out on a mission to go destroy Grievous's new base on Florrum, but then we got attacked by a whole fleet of pirate ships, so we decided to retreat. Our plan wasn't developed enough, anyway. So, that's why I'm home now..."

"Are you okay? How many did you lose?" Padmé asked quickly, alarmed.

"We left in time so that no one got hurt."

"Oh, good." she sighed in relief. she attempted getting up to embrace him and forgot about her pain from earlier. "Ouch!" she whispered, cringing. She sat down again, trying to relax. She had grown confused.

"What's wrong?" Anakin asked, rushing to sit down next to her on the couch.

"Nothing," she sighed. "I've just had some pain in my stomach for a while today. I'm fine, thank you."

But no matter what she said, Anakin still held the same, worried look on his face. "Maybe you should just relax for now. I'll get you a drink. When was the last time you ate?"

"Well... I think it was breakfast this morning?"

He looked over his shoulder at her from the kitchen.

"Well, I've been sleeping all day," she said.

"What? Why? I thought we got enough sleep last night!"

"But remember how early we woke up this morning? I was tired."

"Yeah, but all day? Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, Anakin, I'm quite alright."

"Okay," he said in his 'If you say so'  tone. "You're just not like that."

She just remembered that she missed work today, but oddly enough, she didn't miss any meetings or anything very important. She prayed that he forgot about her having work today. There was no way she was going to tell him about that. He'd have a fit about it.

"Here." He walked into the living room and brought her some tea. "I'm going out to pick up something for you." He went to their room and came back with something small in his hand. "If you need me, call me on this." He handed her a comlink that was similar to another one he was holding. He used a separate set for the two of them so no one could hear anything they were saying, and it wouldn't be linked to the other Jedi. "If you start having more of these pains, you should start carrying this around the house. I wired them so that we can only talk to each other, and no one else. I'll be back soon." He leaned down and kissed her, then walked up the stairs and out the front door.