"I can't stand him anymore!" Padmé exclaimed as Sabé helped her into her bulletproof jumpsuit. "Last night I actually tried to work things out, you know, have a nice little moment together, but that stupid droid kept following us everywhere and Anakin kept saying 'what's the big deal?' I swear, sometimes I wanna… Argh!" Sabé and Dormé exchanged knowing glances and handed Padmé her ammo belt.

"Are you sure you wanna do this today? You're a little worked up," Sabé commented.

"Anakin is out of town for business, today is the best day to do it," Padmé pointed. She buckled up her high boots, all the while muttering about how she had to shut down R2 in order to get out of the apartment that morning. "And I can't believe I have to wear this to the desert… I'm going to boil!"

"Padmé, you know we don't have cool suits. Though one would come in pretty handy now that you're going to Tatooine…" Dormé pointed.

"Thanks a lot, Dormé."

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"What's the fastest way to get a divorce in this planet?" Anakin mused out loud. Obi Wan glanced at him and then at the road.

"You want me to drive?" he offered.

"You can't drive," Anakin sighed.

"Yes, I can! That four-speeder crash last week? That wasn't my fault, I was—I was FLYING, I was cruising, baby" Obi Wan said defensively.

"Don't 'baby' me." Obi Wan scratched his beard and Anakin glanced at him. "And give up on the beard thing, will you? Yes, you can grow facial hair, you've made your point, now shave it," he ordered.

"Are you jealous of me because I'm a grown man who can grow facial hair?" Obi Wan puffed his chest.

"A grown man with facial hair who lives with his mother…"

"A bounty hunter who feathers his hair…" Obi Wan countered.

"For the last time, I don't feather it! The waves are natural," Anakin pressed.

"So are the highlights?"

"That's the sun."

"Right, the sun…" Obi Wan muttered. He glanced at Anakin once again and noticed his knuckles were turning white for holding the stirring wheel so hard. "She's really driving you crazy, isn't she?"

"You have no idea…"

"So? Kill her," Obi Wan shrugged. Anakin sighed loudly.

"Nah, I can't."

"Because she's a good cover, right?" Kenobi said. Anakin glanced at him and half nodded, half shrugged.

"The cover, right. Right." Obi Wan fought the urge to smile.

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Anakin got off in the terminal and Obi Wan excitedly switched to the driver's seat, glad he had been given a guy's job. Anakin leaned on the window, securing his bag around his shoulder.

"If I find one little scratch on this thing I'm going to kill you," he threatened.

"Don't worry, I have it all covered. I know exactly how this thing works," Obi Wan said, pressing a button on the board.

"No, wait!" Anakin warned. But it was too late. A blade came out from the door, cutting the side of Anakin's forearm. Anakin tried not to cry out to evade any uninvited witnesses. He shot a hard look at his friend.

"Sorry…" Obi Wan smiled sheepishly.

Anakin shook his head and paced off to the transport, tying a scarf around the cut on his arm. He gave his ticket to the security droid and took a seat on the back to avoid the other passengers and any unnecessary questions. Strangers loved to start small talk during long trips, and Tatooine was two standard hours away. After this morning and last night Anakin definitely wasn't in the mood for stories.

A few minutes later the transport took off. Anakin shot a longing glance at his custom made speeder and cringed when Obi Wan had a bumpy start. Anakin looked away, unable to endure it any longer. A little girl turned on her seat and stared at him curiously, like he had goo all over his face. Anakin smiled. He had always liked children. The little girl smiled prettily at him and Anakin stuck out his tongue. The little girl turned to her mother and burst into tears. Anakin looked away and whistled to appear innocent.

Everything was peaceful until the transport made a hard right and then returned to its lane.

"Watchee where yousa going, witch!" the Gungan driver shouted out the window.

"You watch it, you Nerf Herder!" the other driver replied from her speeder. She stepped on the gas and disappeared a couple of hundred feet away from the transport. "Gungans…" Padmé muttered to herself. She was tempted to stop to see if her speeder had suffered any damage but she was already three minutes behind schedule.

Anakin leaned back on his seat and shrugged off the issue.

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Padmé had parked her speeder behind a dune and was now setting the scenario for the assignment. Jabba the Hutt would be attending the annual Boonta Eve pod race in the Boonta coliseum. In order to get there he had to fly from his palace through the desert and finally into the city. Padmé's plan was to create a bomb perimeter in the route and get him. So far she had planted 15 wave grenades and she had 5 to go. Wave grenades were discrete and guaranteed no onlookers, which gave her enough time to clear the scene and disappear without leaving any clues of her time there.

When the perimeter was finished, Padmé returned to an abandoned surveillance shack, eaten by rust and long years under the sun. It served as the perfect operation center at the moment, offering protection to her lap-pad, which contained all the codes and detonators for the grenades. Padmé checked her watch and congratulated herself with a smile. She was twenty-five minutes ahead of schedule. She wondered what she could do with the extra time and a series of possibilities flashed in her mind. She used her hand as a cap to cover her eyes from the sun.

//I could really use a tan//, she mused. Before she could entertain the idea for too long she remembered her husband. It would be awfully strange for his wife to leave home looking as white as Hoth snow and coming home with a lovely tan. She sighed in resignation. Once again, her husband was spoiling it for her.

Now that she was alone and had no one to play cynical with she could allow herself to be honest about her feelings for Anakin. Lately he seemed to annoy her more than he pleased her. She tried to think of the last time he did something selfless, but nothing came to mind. He provided a good cover for her job, but was it worth it to sacrifice her happiness for professional reasons? What kind of happiness could a bounty hunter have, anyways? She couldn't marry a regular man for romantic reasons alone; her partner would inevitably have to be part of her cover, or worse, know the truth about her job.

Padmé resigned herself to her reality and went back to work.

-----------------------------------------------

Not too far…

"Woooooooooohooooooooooo!" Anakin shrieked, dodging another dune in his Sand Speeder. //I've got to get me one of these// he thought. As stressful as his job could be it certainly had its perks, and driving through the desert in a new speeder was one of them.

Padmé heard the sound of an engine coming closer. She put her hand over her eyes and looked ahead. Sure enough, there was some idiot driving a speeder and heading straight to the bomb perimeter she'd carefully created.

"Great, just what I needed…" she muttered to herself, wondering if she should wait and see if the idiot turned or continued his course. Unfortunately, his route continued to be the same. It'd only be seconds until he reached the perimeter. Padmé reached for a blaster in her boot and aimed at the speeder. "Sorry…" She was about to pull the trigger when the speeder suddenly stopped.

Anakin got off of the speeder and unzipped his pants, whistling as he relieved himself. He checked his watch. Right on time. Jabba the Hutt's cruiser would be here anytime now.

"I can't believe this guy… Is he spelling his name or something?" Padmé wondered out loud. She turned to the right and her focus went straight back to her task. Jabba the Hutt's desert cruiser was coming. She looked back to the guy in the speeder and realized he was retrieving something from his vehicle. Something rather large that looked pretty heavy. //What in Sith's hell…?//

"Sabé? Sabé, it's Padmé. Was there anyone else assigned to this job?" Padmé asked into her comm. link. "Hello? Anybody there?" she insisted.

"Sabé, here. What's wrong, Padmé?" came the reply.

"There's some guy with a laser bazooka aiming at the desert cruiser. Do you have any information of other hunters coming to this place?"

"No, you were the only one assigned to the job. Who do you think it is?" Sabé asked, confused. Padmé realized there was no time to find answers because Jabba was getting closer and closer to the perimeter.

"I'll get back to you", she ended the call and reached for the detonator.

Anakin looked through the aim of his laser bazooka, his target locked. Only a few seconds now…