Read a lot of these proposal stories back in the day when the prequels were coming out, but I was 13 and couldn't write! Finally, now it's my turn on a take...Not sure how many chapters it will last... 4, 5? Reviews make me write faster and better : )

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." -MLK

Padmé Naberrie Amidala

Hyperspace, somewhere en route to Coruscant

I feel two things right now: 1. My overwhelming, all-encompassing concern for you and 2. The eyes of Masters Kenobi and Yoda upon us.

It's because I haven't left your side Anakin. Nothing could take me away and no one has suggested I do otherwise. Yet I sense the heavy disapproval wafting in our direction from across the ship. No, I can't fool myself; I recognize my rushing to your side, my fierce embrace of you following your confrontation with Dooku did not go unscrutinized. It unnerves me a little, the Jedi Masters' hyper-attention to you even amidst the chaos of battle, but I remind myself to dissect the priorities of the Jedi Order at a later time. Instead, I turn my focus back to you.

There are tiny, iridescent pearls of sweat on your forehead and I'm wishing I had a cool towel to wipe them away. For hours now you've been unconscious in some sort of Jedi-healing induced trance. Med-droids have you hooked up to countless cords and cables pumping force-knows-what into your veins. The monitors blink and click rhythmically in time to the *plink, plink* of your bacta-drip and I realize my hectic breathing from earlier has finally slowed in tune to its mechanized pattern. There are so many devices connected to you. I can't help but grimace at the sight of more machine than man.

Oh Ani, you've been hurt horribly, but you are strong. You're life has been full of suffering...some suffering I've been with you through and some I can only sympathize with. Your afflictions in the past few days alone has been more than most experience in a lifetime.

The loss of your mother. The loss of so many Jedi brethren. The loss of your limb.

In this moment, there's nothing I can do but stay next to you and privilege your unconscious body with my presence, hoping, praying that I can soothe you like you said I could. You've always been so honest with me so I don't doubt that it's the truth. So I am thankful that you're unconscious, thankful that you're resting somewhere far, far away. True, it's a certain kind of torture, having you here but not really having you here. I'm not too lonely or selfish to wish for your company in your present pain; your physical wounds are great and your emotional wounds undoubtedly greater. I beg your body and spirit to heal. Heal, please heal, get better, come back to me, come back to me with the same bright spirit. Come back and love me again. I promise to love you back…my mind plays this mantra on repeat.

Your cot is low to the ground where I sit next to it with my head leaning against the wall. I usually enjoy my time in hyperspace. Despite the recycled air and the constant chill of a ship cabin, a space commute is typically a time when I am able recover between travels to Coruscant, Naboo, or the other myriad of planets the politician's life has shuffled me between. On the contrary, today there will be no rest for me. A war breaks upon the horizon of the Republic and it has broken the body of my love. Thus the hours crawl by slowly and my mind wonders...

"You love me! I thought we decided not to fall in love. That we would be forced to live a lie. That it would destroy our lives."

"I think our lives are about to be destroyed anyway and before we die, I want you to know."

Well, Ani we're not dead. Just cut up, bruised, worse-for-wear but alive. Life is truly remarkable.

No, I did not tell you I loved you because it was the easy thing to do. I didn't do it as a last favor or boon before impending doom. I once told you that giving into our love would be to live a lie. I was wrong; our love could never be a lie. It is our truth. And I couldn't let that truth die within my transient body.

I reach a hand behind my back and lightly finger the scratches. I wince. I refused medical care, insisted every med-droid attend to you and the Jedi first. Besides, my adrenaline up to now hasn't let the pain invade my senses. I fought with a passion against that nexu and droids so that our love would have another chance to live.

Love.

Today I have felt many things-panic, injustice, fear, resolution, anger, aggression, determination, and yes, love. Since I have allowed my heart to feel for you, it also threatens to crumble and break for you. I guess that's the rate of exchange for love.

Unexpectedly, Master Obi-Wan begins to approach us. I prepare to argue for the sake of staying here with you but before I can say a word he crouches down besides me and takes a blanket from beneath his cloak. He hands it to me and exhales. "Padmé, you must try to sleep. We still have several hours until we reach Coruscant." His is both compassionate and authoritarian, like a kindly parent. Indeed, I've heard my own father and mother use the same tone with me as child.

I shake my head in tired, forlorn agreement. Without saying a word I accept the utilitarian blanket and watch him walk off. Maybe I was mistaken about his perceived judgment…so I lay it over my legs and bare midriff and will myself to rest. I instead drift in and out of fidgety un-sleep.

Sometime later the low hum of the ship's interior is interrupted and there is increasingly hurried shuffling between the clone crew and Jedi passengers. Quiet mumbling is replaced with louder conversation and orders are given for landing. We must be nearing the capitol. I'm anxious. They're going to take you away from me soon.

When you do come back to me, after the Jedi healers at the temple fix you up, fit you for a mechno-arm, I'll be waiting. War is coming and we'll both need each other to fall into when things go well and lean against then they go wrong. I believe deeply that the Order is where you belong. It's what Shmi would have wanted. Yet, the Jedi cannot give you what I can; how can they begin to offer what they've never had themselves? A family. A home. A lover. Yet they do give the structure and purpose to your life that I doubt I could deliver on my own. My heart may be light with love, but this head remains grounded.

Our transport descends upon a landing dock at the Jedi Temple. As I expected, there is rush of action upon the disembarkation. Several clone troopers come to carry your cot away to the Temple. Come back to me, soon, soon, please...

Amidst the chaos, I feel the artificial wind on Coruscant blowing into the ship and it stings my watering eyes. The sight of you leaving me is the last thing I see before yellow light blurs my peripheral vision, I hear an unfamiliar ringing, and all goes black.

Feedback-good, bad, ugly, constructive? Cliff hangers resolve faster with comments ; ) Anakin's thoughts to come...