Who: Padme, Anakin, Ahsoka What: Padme got sick with a disease from her dream universe, Anakin panics When: Backdated to Mid October Where: Padme’s place Rating/Warnings: Low for swearing Status: Complete
Anakin wasn’t the best cook in the world, but he could manage a light breakfast of toast and juice. Food that someone coming down sick would appreciate not for its complexity, but for sustenance. He’d spent the night at Padme’s place and in the morning she’d complained about not feeling good. Without hesitation, he’d offered to take care of her for the day.
He carried the plate into Padme’s bedroom and set the juice down on the bedside table and patiently held the plate for her.
“See if you can eat any of this or drink any of the juice.”
***
Padmé couldn't imagine opening her eyes, let alone drinking anything. When she'd gone to bed, she'd felt fine -- great, even. Anakin had spent the night, she'd fallen asleep cuddled up next to him...it was perfect.
And then her first set of new dreams in how long hit her, and hit her hard.
Government plots. Treachery. Chemical terrorism. Biological warfare. Clones. Anakin. Being married.
It was too much, and when she woke up, she knew she was sick. Head pounding, eyes tired and sore, she'd managed to communicate to Anakin that she didn't feel well. Thankfully, he'd managed to get away from his master, and spend time with her. She always cherished these moments, so few amd far between.
On top of that, her head was getting more and more muddled. "Anakin, shouldn't you be heading back to the temple? C-3PO can help me, I don't want you to get into trouble…..not while we're both on the same planet for once."
***
Anakin wasn’t instantly worried. Average fever dreams were confusing on their own. The Dreams of this place were bound to make any ill-weakened facilities falter.
He set the plate of toast down next to the juice and crouched down so he was close to Padme.
“Hey,” he said softly, brushing a strand of hair behind Padme’s ear. “We’re on Earth. Do you want me to make you some ice packs?”
***
Nothing was making sense. Her bed felt wrong, her room looked wrong… and didn't Anakin look different? Where was his long hair? The braid had been gone for a while, but the longer waves she'd grown to love…strange.
"Earth?" Padmé tried to prop herself up on her elbows before realizing she had no strength. She really could do with a med droid right about now
"Is that in the Hattar system?"
She shivered suddenly. "And why is it so cold? Ani, I know you have all sorts of exercises you have to do as a Jedi, but my love, I don't have the mastery over my surroundings like you. Can you turn up the heat?"
***
“No, Earth is-”
Anakin stopped, concerned, because Padme was so hot to the touch, not cold at all. And she seemed very confused about where she was. He didn’t have a lot of experience with nursing severely sick people. He was good with a common cold or the flu, but he’d also never had to deal with someone being sick in the OC. Did that make a difference?
“I’m going to call Ahsoka to help,” he said, not sure if Padme would catch any of that. But he had his phone out already, calling Ahsoka.
***
"Hello?" Ahsoka sounded out of breath, like she'd had to run to get her phone. "Hey Anakin. What's up?"
She had in fact had to run, since she'd left her phone out in the kitchen and had been in her room, and she figured it was better for her to grab it than risk Raven picking up, since Raven could be ... blunt ... and she wanted to properly introduce her friends on her terms.
***
Anakin got right to the chase. “Hey, do illnesses get weird around here?”
***
“Uhm.” Ahsoka, if she’d had actual eyebrows, would have had them disappear into a non-existent hairline. “Yes and who’s sick?”
***
“Not the answer I wanted to hear, Ahsoka,” Anakin said, getting more worried by the minute. “It’s Padme. Can you- Can you come over and help?”
***
“Trust me, I wish that I had the answer that you wanted to hear.” Ahsoka could think of a dozen different diseases including one major one that had nearly killed her. Her breath hitched at the mention of Padme’s name. “I’m on my way. I’ll take R7, he’ll have a lot of files we can look through to see if it’s anything from our dreams.”
***
“Also not an answer I wanted to hear,” Anakin said. If it was from their dreams, what if it didn’t have a cure?
“Get here fast,” he said, ending the phone call.
He turned back to Padme and placed a hand on her forehead to check - of course nothing had improved.
“Hey, Ahsoka’s on her way over,” he told Padme. “She’ll have something to help you.” He hoped.
***
Padme was already dozing off when Anakin came back into the room. Having him with her though made her feel better. She wasn’t used to having him there for hours on end. Usually, with the war and his Jedi duties, it was fleeting.
“Ahsoka…” She murmured her friend’s name, her eyes closing and drifting back to sleep before her eyes widened suddenly. “Ahsoka? Anakin, you told her? You shouldn’t have. My health is not worth our marriage being revealed. You need to leave!” She was starting to get panicked. “I’ll call her, I’ll tell her it was a mistake, that I’m fine.” Padme tried to get out of bed, but found she could barely move her limbs. “Go!”
***
“Hey, it’ll be okay,” he tried to be soothing, but was probably missing the mark.
Anakin didn’t know what to do, he just sat by Padme’s side until he heard Ahsoka knock on the door. And when he heard that knock, he bolted for the door.
He was already explaining before the door was fully open. “Okay, she keeps talking like we’re back in our universe… somewhere. She thinks we’re going to get in trouble. And she has a fever and is weak. And I don’t know what to do.”
It should be apparent he was close to panicking.
***
Ahsoka stepped inside, followed by her little R7 unit. She’d already tasked him with researching potential sicknesses from a galaxy far far way. “So.. fever and weak? Has she mentioned anything else? Planets? Other symptoms?”
There was one in particular she was worried about, and she looked past Anakin, trying to see if Padme looked at all ...blue.
***
“No planet specific,” Anakin answered. “She just doesn’t know we’re on Earth, or what Earth is. She keeps going on about me not getting in trouble with the Jedi for being caught with her.” He at least understood that part.
He went to Padme’s side. “Padme, Ahsoka’s here to help.”
***
By this point, Padme could barely hear over the rush of blood flowing in her head. All she could determine was yes, Ahsoka would help and would be amazing, and if Anakin wasn’t worried, Padme couldn’t get worried either.
She lifted her hand to wave and suddenly stopped. “Oh. How pretty.” There was a blue, a clearer blue than she’d ever seen before, an oddly beautiful one, coursing through her veins. The pale skin of her hand was almost translucent in comparison, and she lazily moved her hand through the air, focusing on the trails caused by the movement.
“Do you think I could be green next?”
***
Ahsoka studied her, listening as R7 beeped off a number of possibilities before she sighed. As much as she had not wanted to admit it, she was pretty sure she knew what it was. “R7 list off the symptoms for the Blue Shadow Virus…”
While the droid generated a holographic display about the virus, Ahsoka explained, sounding much more calm than she actually was. “A Seperatist scientist in a secret lab on Naboo attempted to revive a water-born plague that we thought had been eliminated, making it airborne. Padme, myself, and a number of clones were exposed when we attempted to stop him, but we managed to lock the lab down before it could escape into Naboo.”
Any more than it had at any rate. Ahsoka was pretty sure it had taken years to clean up the river.
***
“Oh,” Anakin said, not quite following because he wasn’t at that point in his dreams yet. “Okay.” He let that process for a moment. And then he had questions.
“Wait, what do we do? How did Padme get it… here?”
***
Ahsoka raised one of her not-eyebrows. “How did I turn into an alien? It happens. There have been epidemics before but I don’t think anyone has died. Padme will be fine.”
She projected confidence into her voice and even into the Force. “Worse case scenario, we need to find the same thing we used to make the cure in the dreams.”
***
Anakin was following fine until that last part, and then a hole opened in the pit of his stomach. “Wait- how do we find the same thing to make the cure? We’re here. Dreams are… there.” Wherever the dreams were. “We can’t get there!”
***
“Honestly, we might be able to get it here if we can recalibrate the sensors on my star fighter,” Ahsoka mused. “Most of the time with a dream illness the cure is available, you just have to find it. I know it’s the root of a carnivorous plant, we have those on earth and we can try that as well.”
She put her hand on Anakin’s shoulder. “No one has ever died from a dream disease in Orange County. Palme will be fine.” At least, not that she knew of.
***
Padme would be fine. She wished she could let them all know that. There was a certain peace at being so sick -- her brain couldn’t comprehend what was going on in the slightest bit. Instead, she was warm, really warm -- or was it cold? She could go for cold.
And the blue. The blue was everywhere. It was dancing around the air, coursing through her veins, jumping into her ears. The sound of blue was wonderful, and it made her wonder if this was how dogs felt. Or whales.
Or gungans. She’d always wanted to be a gungan. They seemed to have a good life, living under the water, in those beautiful cities, those bubbles…. Oh a bubble.
She glanced up at Ahsoka and Anakin and gave a happy sigh.
“Anakin, I still think you’re foolish for being here but I know it’s because you love me and I love you. Ahsoka, did you know I love Anakin? I always wanted to tell you. Secrets are so hard….I don’t like secrets. Anakin, does this mean we can be open, finally? It would be nice to wear a ring... “ Her eyes were feeling very heavy, and she snuggled into her pillow, one leg out from beneath the blankets to cool her down, another leg covered to keep her warm. “Or maybe have a proper wedding … my parents will be so disappointed to learn we eloped….”
Padme trailed off. It was getting harder to stay awake and really, why should she? Sleep was nice, and when she woke up, Anakin would still be there. When was the last time she could say that?