Chapter 16

It has been two weeks, since that dreadful day, when Padme lost her best friend, bodyguard and decoy. She has learned that she was right all along. Count Dooku was behind the assassination attempts, but she had a feeling that he was not the true master mind behind them. There was someone higher above him; someone very powerful.

“ Ok. Everyone, this will be a wrap for the day and we will meet again next week, at the same time.” Senator Bail Organa looked at the small group of people sitting around his office.

“ Ok. I will see you next week then.” one of the other Senators nodded in agreement, in meeting for next week.

“ Um . . . yeah. That sounds good to me too. Well, I better get going. I do have a small dinner party that I need to get ready for.” Padme just nodded absent minded to her friend, who nodded back at her. “ Ok. I too have go, because my wife has invited a couple of friends for dinner.” Bail Organa looked at the small group and getting up from his seat.

The other people also stood up from their seat. They all walked out of the office and into the waiting room, where the Senator said good bye to everyone and they all left the room.

“ I will see you later tonight, a dinner.” Bail looked over to Padme and he could tell that her mind was not with them today.

“ Oh . . . yeah, sure. See you in a couple of hours.” Padme looked up at the older man and gave him a smile, just as they stopped at the Turbo-lift.

“ Are you ok, Padme? I have noticed that you seemed to elsewhere the last couple of days.” Bail looked at the younger woman, as a worried look came across his face.

“ Yes, I am fine, really. I just have a few things on my mind. I was thinking about going to Naboo, for the rest of the week.” Padme saw the doors of the lift open up and to their amazement, there was no one on the lift.

“ Ok. If you cannot be at our next meeting, you can join us on the Holo-cam or skip the meeting all together.We will be going over the same items, before we make a decision on what we want to do.” Bail nodded for Padme to step onto the lift first.

Once they both were on the lift, Bail hit the ground floor button and the doors shut. The lift began to move downward towards the hanger bay. The lift stopped and the doors slid open and both Senators stepped off the lift and went their separate ways. Padme walked across the hanger bay and kept a look ou as she walked over to where her air speeder was waiting for her.

“ Good evening, Milady. We have clearance for takeoff, once everyone is on board. We should be at the apartment in five minutes.” the pilot nodded to Padme, as she stepped up to the air speeder.

“ Good evening, Ralph. That is good to hear, because I would like to soak in the tub, before the small get together at the Organa’s, in a couple of hours.” Padme nodded back and then took the older man’s hand, as he helped Padme get settled into the air speeder.

Once she was settled into her seat, the pilot took off. True to his words, they were at her private landing platform in about five minutes. Once they had landed, the pilot helped Padme off the air speeder and she walked into her apartment. Then, she made her way to the refresher and her hot tub.

Five hour later, Padme was laying in her bed and her thoughts kept going back to the conversation that her and Anakin had, while they were on Naboo. The conversation was about their feelings for each other, but then they thought it would be best, if they just stay friends. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that she did have feelings for him. She also knows that it is impossible for them to have any kind of relationship, because of their lives; hers as a Senator and his as a Jedi. They also both knew that if they did have a relationship with each other and the Jedi Council found out, they would expel Anakin from the Jedi Order. They both knew there was a Jedi Master looking for a very good reason to do just that too. She laid down in bed, rolled over and faced the windows and saw that the blinds were slightly opened.

“ Shut all blinds, and turn out all lights too.” Padme called out to the house computer.

Pulling the covers over her body, she let out a heavy sigh. She got settled in to the bed, before closing her eyes and began to drift off to sleep.