The rest of the Yelnina family kept their distance. Padmé trusted them for the moment, because she knew if anything happened to her it could destroy them completely. If they hadn’t been in that position politically, they would never have offered to take care of her while she gave birth in the first place. Many thought them responsible for Senator Okiltine’s death, though Padmé herself didn’t believe it. But she thought Moré might have guessed who was responsible for the death of her father, because she avoided being in the same room as her wife’s patient.
A least one member of Padmé's family visited each day, though they all refused the Yelnina family’s repeated offerings of lodging. When Briné came in announcing, “You’ve got a visitor,” Padmé pulled herself up expecting to see her sister, or her parents, or even her nieces.
Instead a man came in alone wrapped in a cloak and hood, and when he removed it she exclaimed in astonishment, “Obi-Wan!”
After their last meeting she had hoped never to see him again. Not because she was angry at him, even though she was a little, but partly because it wasn’t safe for him anywhere near her, and also because she was sure he had no good news to bring her.
“Obi-Wan Kenobi?” Briné turned and stared at him in an awestruck manner that could not be making the Jedi Master comfortable.
“Mind your patient,” he told her, and she blushed and went over to Padmé, who ignored her, keeping her focus completely on her visitor. “It is true, Padmé,” Obi-Wan asked her, “that you’re having twins?”
“It’s true,” she answered very quietly. “Boy and girl.”
There were other things they couldn’t talk about in front of Briné. Such as that two days after Padmé left the Yelnina family’s care, there would be an accident and all three of her and her two children would be presumed dead. Then they would probably all be split up. She knew already that one of them, probably the girl now, would go to Alderaan to become a Senator’s daughter, and she hoped that by already knowing that, she would convince Obi-Wan to tell her where he decided to take the boy as well, even though Padmé’s knowing had been that Senator’s doing, not his. At least Briné probably wouldn’t tell anyone Obi-Wan was here; she considered his presence here to be a matter of medical confidence.
But they could not rely on the rest of the family keeping quiet. He could not stay long. In fact Padmé was surprised when he did not leave immediately, but came further into the room, knelt down beside her, and said, “Padmé, Anakin is now gone completely.”
“What do you mean by that?” She would assume he meant Anakin was dead, but somehow she was convinced otherwise.
He shook his head. “I’m starting to think...no, I can’t say anything for sure yet except that the person who Anakin was doesn’t exist anymore.”
“No!” Padmé seized his arm. “No, you’re not keeping me in the dark like this. Tell me everything! Tell me!”
But just then they heard footsteps down the corridor, and Obi-Wan yanked himself free and ducked into the closet.
“Briné!” It was Moré; she looked ecstatic, and for once ignored that Padmé was in the room. “Briné!” She swooped down on her wife and kissed her. “Tessé just got back, and you’ve got the position! You are officially Ambassador Briné Neldonin to Otoh Gunga.”
“I thought ambassadors weren’t required to change their names,” Briné commented, though she looked very happy.
“Well, they don’t always, but you really should. It’ll look weird if you don’t.”
“Really? I’m not needed here at the moment, so let’s go talk to Tessé about it.” And she hurried her wife out of the room.
“Tessé really isn’t available right now...” Padmé heard Moré protest before the door closed.
Obi-Wan emerged from the closet, then took a moment to gather himself. Padmé waited.
“When I came here to bring you this news, I believed Anakin to be dead. I believed, in fact, that I had seen him die.” Padmé was kind enough not inform him that she could tell that he was leaving out that he’d killed him, or at least tried to. “But if he were dead I would on some level sense it, and I think you would as well.”
“Yes,” Padmé agreed, “I would. He isn’t dead.”
“In which case...he may appear in another form.”
“I’ve heard the rumors,” Padmé said. “Of some new dark minion of the Emperor. You think...”
But then Briné came back in, and she said, “We are going to be interrupted a lot from here on in. By Tessé, by Moré, by...”
Obi-Wan got the message. “Good luck. I don’t know if I’ll be able to see you again.” He kissed Padmé on the cheek and left.
“You really shouldn’t allow yourself to think too much about whatever he told you, not in your current state,” Briné advised her.
“I can’t help it.”
“Try anyway.” She set up a monitor and worked in silence.
Padmé tried by changing the subject. “So you’ve been made an Ambassador now?”
“I’ll take up the position after you’ve given birth. I know what you’re thinking, and I admit it was their idea. But I like it, and Boss Tuni was for it as well; we’d met already.”
“How?” She asked before she realized it amounted to an accusation which she hadn’t even intended to make, which Briné had perceived anyway.
And it amounted to an accusation because Briné started, “Well, I went with Moré and Tessé when Tessé was trying to get his support for her getting the Senate seat...” then drifted off, then for good measure added, “I helped her get it. I charmed him. I was wide-eyed and innocent. It was only a month ago.”
And now Tessé just might have the Senate seat if Doshar Rostatin really was forced to give it up, and that would put the Yelnina family out of danger, which meant that she had to have safely had the twins by then, or at least keep everyone away from her except for Briné. Because she trusted this young woman, though for how long she could trust her was another question.