Chapter 14

Padme was running a little behind schedule, after her meeting with the Emperor. It was all because of a couple of Senators, who could not make up their minds, on what they wanted to export from their home worlds.

“ Hey Padme, I was wondering if you care to have dinner with me?” Maria came up to Padme.

“ Oh, hey, Maria. Sorry, I can’t tonight, because I already have plans for dinner. Um . . . maybe we can get together next week?” Padme continued to walk quickly down the hallway.

“ Oh. The reason why I was asking is, tonight Jon was going to be here and as well, as my mom. I thought it would be nice to have you there for dinner, before they go back to Naboo and Delaya.” Maria had to almost jog, just to keep up with her cousin.

“ Well, am so sorry that I will have to miss them this time around, but I had this dinner planned for a few days. Tell you what, the next time they come to Coruscant, please give me a couple of days advance notice, and I will make sure that I will be there.” Padme stopped at her office door and unlocked it.

“ I am sorry that it is a very short notice, but mom just got a call back home, because dad just got sick. Jon is only here for a couple of days and of course, it was mom’s idea. I told her that you already have dinner plans, but you know how mom is.” Maria stopped next to Padme and watched her unlock the office door, before they enter the room.

“ Light on! Oh, he is? Yes, I do know how your mom is and I think it is a family thing, because my mom is the same way. She really doesn’t like the word NO. Lights on!” Padme walked across the room to the other door that leads into her office and unlocked the door, then entered the room.

“ Yes, I do believe it is a family thing too. Um . . . where is Jeanie?” Maria looked around the room and noticed that they were the only ones in the office.

“ She has the day off, since I have meetings most of the day and really don’t need her. I give her the day off on the days of my meetings. Now, where did I put that chip?” Padme went over to her desk, unlocked the top drawer and began looking for a chip that she wanted to give to Anakin.

“ I did notice that you do have meetings in the middle of the week. Those are the days that I see Jeanie in the Senate Sessions, when there is little issues that are being discussed in the Senate. Of course, most of the stuff is really useless, mostly for us the people of the Empire.” Maria watched Padme looked around her desk, as if she was looking for something that she had to keep hidden.

“ I know there are times, when my morning meetings are over in time to let me attend those Sessions. Yes, most of the stuff is very useless, but there are times they are useful, because it is the time you will see, who is really the corrupted Senators; the ones that only think of themselves and not for the good of their people or home worlds. Found it! Now, I really need to hurry, if am going to make it to dinner on time.” Padme found the small chip that she was looking for, closing the desk drawer up and locking it back up, before standing up.

“ I did notice that too. Well, I guess I will have to tell mom that you already have plans, and that she should have sent out an invitation about for dinner a few days in advance. She told me ‘ Oh, Padme, knows it is a family thing and she will be here for it’ and I have told her a few times, but she would not listen to me. So, now I guess, she will have to listen to me, when I tell that you are busy and have other plans.” Maria backed out of the door way.

“ Lights off! My mom is the same way. She expects me to drop all my plans, all because she wants me to have lunch or dinner with the family, but there were times that I couldn’t. I know it really upset her, but really was not my fault that I could not be at the family events, because I am trying to better their lives.” Padme shut and locked her office doors, before heading towards the outer doors.

“ Oh, I have been at a few of those family events that your mom did that. Yes, she was upset and she was saying that your life was more important than family, and all you care about is your work. I think she really knows deep down, that what you are doing is very important and she is very proud of you.” Maria followed Padme to the outer door of the office and stepped into the hallway.

“ Lights off! Yes, I know all about those comments that she has made about my life and at one time, it was way important than being there for a birthday, or a dinner party that she was giving to some rich family that was visiting Naboo.” Padme stepped out into the hallway and locked the office door, before she started heading for the turbo-lift.

They stepped onto the lift and headed to the landing platforms. They stopped at Padme’s air speeder and the driver opened the door for Padme.

“ Most of those people were so boring. Well, good night and I will see you tomorrow.” Maria hugged Padme goodbye, before heading over to where her air shuttle was located.

“ Evening,, Pete.” Padme smiled at the older man, who took her hand and helped her into the shuttle.

“ Evening, Ms. Padme. I hope that you had a great day so far.” Pete asked as he got on board and closed the door, before going to his seat at the front of the shuttle.

“ I guess, you can say it was, ok. How is your wife doing today? I hope that she is feeling a lot better” Padme sat down in her seat, buckled up and waited for the shuttle to head off to her apartment.

“ That is good to hear. She is doing a little better and she told me to tell you thank you for the soup. It has made her feel better.” Pete started up the engine and then, the shuttle began to lift off the ground.

“ That is great news. Tell her it was not a problem and that am glad that it made her feel a lot better. You know, if you guys ever need anything, please just ask me and I will do anything to help you and your wife out.” Padme smiled at the older man.

“ That is very kind of you, Ms. Padme, thank you. You know that you are the only person, who works here that really cares about other people. I have noticed that most of the Senators here, only care about themselves.” Pete smiled back at the young Senator.

“ I was taught that if you do something good for others, then something good in return will happen to you.” Padme watched, as they entered the evening air traffic.

“ That is a good lesson to live by. I just wish that most of the Senators around here would live by that, but they don’t.” Pete steered them in and out of the traffic.

“ Yes, that is something that the Senators should have learned, before the fall of the Republic, but I guess that was one of the things that did cause it fall, in the first place. The other thing was total greed, and now, that is all we have in the Senate, greedy people who want nothing for their home worlds Like you said, they only want things for themselves.” Padme sat back and closed her eyes, so that way, she could start relaxing some.

After flying through the wonderful air traffic, Pete lowered the shuttle out of the stream of the evening traffic and started heading closer to the private landing platform that belong to the young Senator. Pete landed the shuttle and shut off the engines, before getting up from his seat and opening the shuttle door. Padme opened up her eyes, just as Pete stepped out of the shuttle and put down the small steps and waited for Padme to come to the door.

“ Thank you, Pete. I will see you in a few days.” Padme took a hold of the older man’s hand, as he helped her out of the shuttle.

“ You are welcome. Sure thing. See you next week and you have a great evening and the rest of the week and weekend.” Pete said, as he bowed his head to the young Senator.

Padme nodded her head in return, before turning away from the older man, who got back onto the shuttle and took off to his home and wife. Padme walked into her apartment and headed for her bedroom. She changed her clothes, so that way, she can start dinner. Thirty minutes later, Padme was just putting the finishing touches on dinner, when there was a chime coming from the door. Padme went to the door, opened it up and saw a very handsome young man standing in front of her.

“ I hope am not late. Oh, this is for you.” Anakin held out a vase of flowers that came from Naboo.

“ No, you are on time. I was just putting the final touches to dinner. Thank you, they are very beautiful. Please, come inside.” Padme took the flowers from him and sniffed them, before stepping aside so Anakin could come inside.

“ Man, that smells so good. I am starving, because I forgot to eat lunch today. All I could think about, is having a very quiet and peaceful dinner with someone that I care about.” Anakin came up to Padme and gave her a kiss.

“ When did you get back to Coruscant? Thank you. I just got home myself after a long day of meetings, so you can say that, I just threw something together really quickly. Please come inside and relax. Oh, hold on for a second. Shades down and dim lights!” Padme pulled away from Anakin and called out to the house computer to close the window shades and dim the lights, so that way, if the news droids flew by the windows, it could not see inside Padme’s apartment.

“ I just got here about ten minutes ago. Gee, I missed all the fun today. So, let me guess, the news droids are bugging the famous people again?” Anakin followed Padme to the kitchen and saw her reach into the oven and pull out one of two plates that were inside keeping the food warm.

“ Wow. Well, welcome home. I believe things would have been interesting, if you had been there. I believe that even Palpatine was somewhat bored with the Senators that were at the meeting today. The only reason he did not kill any of them was because you were not here to do it for him. Please, have a seat, because dinner is served.” Padme put the second plate down on the serving tray.

“ Ok, that sound great. Just to sit down and relax. You are right about one thing, he would have had me kill someone at the meeting, all because he did not want to deal with that person’s demands or he was just tired of hearing that person whining.” Anakin sat down at the small table and Padme put the plate down in front of him, before she put her plate down in the space next to him.

Padme put the tray down on the small hutch that was behind her, and then taking her seat next to Anakin.

“ Would you like tea, juice, Corellian Cider or Corellian wine.” Padme hit a button that called one of the service droids to the table.

“ I think wine sounds good to me.” Anakin said to the droid, as it stood between him and Padme.

“ I will have the same thing.” Padme also said to the droid.

The droid turned around and headed for the small bar area and began pouring the wine for the young couple.

“ Dinner was amazing, Padme. I do wish I did not have to eat and run, but I need to get back to my Palace and get back into the suit.” Anakin started to feel small bits of pain in his chest.

“ Oh, dear. Let me guess, it is time for you get clean air into your lungs? Ok, I understand.” Padme noticed that Anakin was starting to breathe, just a little bit harder and having a hard time getting air into his lungs.

“ I know that you also want to go to bed and go to sleep.” Anakin leaned down and kissed Padme, before he went to the door.

“ Yes, I would like to go to bed and sleep, because I really haven’t been sleeping good for the past couple of days. I hope that the rest of your night is good. I'll see you next week.” Padme came to the door, opened it up for Anakin and she returned Anakin’s kiss.

Anakin left Padme’s apartment and headed home, to a long pod, which he could lay down in and pure oxygen would flow into the pod and into his lungs.

“ Lights off and lock down the whole apartment!” Padme told the computer as she headed for her bedroom.

She walked into the room and then began getting ready for bed. Once she had her nightgown on, she headed to the bed, got into the bed and pulled the covers over herself.

“ Lights off and close shades!” Padme called out, before closing her eyes and falling asleep.