Love in the Dark

Chapter 12

Anakin was pacing inside a relatively large room, contracting his hands into fists and glancing every now and then towards the sofa bench behind him with brooding eyes. Padmé lay there, a medical droid facing her and tending to her wound. After one last look, he finally sat down, resting his elbows on his thighs and holding his head in his hands. The droid turned the woman around on her back and proceeded to one last overall examination. It checked that the torso bandage was correctly put, not too loose but also not too tight on her body. Finally, the robot turned and moved away from its patient.

"There you go Sir, good as new." The medic droid said in a shrill voice, catching the attention of the anxious man that had been here the entire procedure.

Anakin got up from where he was waiting and approached towards the bench.

"Well, of course when I said good as new, I mean that she will be alright," the droid continued rambling on, "she won't die. Well, at least for now. Yes. You humans, always so fragile..."

Skywalker didn't pay any attention to the droid's words, and went right past him, fixating on his wife. "Were there any other problems?" he asked, looking up and down her body.

"Nothing major, although there is another relatively recent wound on her left shoulder, right above the humerus. It is a good thing that the blast shot did not hit it, though it came close."

Anakin raised an eyebrow at the droid's words, delicately touching the wound.

"I would presume it was a gash, from some sort of weapon." the medic continued on, "But no worries, it healed nicely, by whoever cared to it."

"And what about the shot?"

The droid sighed, "As for the blast shot, I'm afraid it will leave quite a big scar. I had to add some skin and-"

"I didn't ask for details". Anakin grunted and closed his eyes. He wished he could kill that stormtrooper all over again.

"Leave us." Vader commanded, while he kept his eyes on Padmé.

The droid let out an indignant noise and started grumbling while going away: "Of course, always dispose of the droid. No one cares about the droid. No one asks the droid to stay. No one ever thanks the droid. No one-" and the door closed behind the fussing med.

Anakin was thankful for it, as he had been stopping himself from shushing the medic, reigning in his anger. This wasn't the place to have an outburst. Not with her in the room. And wounded at that. But he had to admit that a part of him embraced the annoyance, like something nostalgic as Anakin was reminded of another golden droid. Threepio. It had been a while since he had thought about the protocol droid. He wondered where his creation was. Maybe Padmé knew. After all, he seemed to be the only one who had been kept in the dark here. They had kept so many secrets from him. He felt wronged.

With a sigh, Anakin shifted his eyes towards Padmé's sleeping visage. He crouched down so that he was at the same level as her. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her face. A face that he hadn't seen in such a long time that he felt like he was in a dream. She looked...so peaceful.

Hesitantly, he stretched his arm towards her but he stopped his hand. There was something about a person when they were sleeping...they seemed so vulnerable in those moments that the person facing them almost couldn't touch them, for fear of waking them and disrupting this moment of peace. Anakin felt that feeling, but this made him yearn for her even more. He, also, wanted to be at peace.

He took the glove off of his good hand, and leaning close to her, he cautiously took some strands of her slightly curled brown hair, holding them delicately in his bare fingers. How he had missed her, how he had missed the softness of it...all of his memories came flooding back, back when they had lived their married life, when he would often caress and play with her hair affectionately, while Padmé did with his. He could hear her laugh and see the enamoured look in her eyes as she looked at him. He couldn't wait for her to wake up, so she could look at him that way again, so he wouldn't have to feel so lonely anymore. He noticed the necklace around her neck and took it in his hands, reminiscing about the past. "It's really you. You're really here..." he whispered, stil having to remind himself that his wife was well alive.