[ She was going to ask how so, but something was different in how he said it. There was a genuine question here, something he was struggling to say in a way he hadn't been yet this conversation, and Padme pauses, waits for him to keep talking, her brow furrowing more and more as he speaks.

Her hand doesn't leave his, but her eyes drop from his downwards. Consuming me. ]

As if your life was leaving you, but you did not know why, only that you were so very tired. [ She doesn't meet his eyes when she says that, soft and gentle and still tired, even now.

Leia would not do that willingly, though. Would she? Kylo himself had said he did not believe she was in control.

Padme had once not thought Anakin capable of destroying an entire village for his mother's death, but she had been wrong on that score and many more, in the end. Beyond her control, maybe, the power of the Force -- Padme wants to say that she cannot see Leia causing harm to someone and not regretting it, but that only brings to mind Leia's fierce anger towards the Imperials. If she placed Kylo thoroughly enough into that group. --

Padme's free hand rises to her throat for a moment, a tic that has become so unconsciously settled in that for a long moment she doesn't even realize it's resting there as if in protection. As soon as she does it drops again to rest against the couch, clenched into a fist now. ]

I'm so sorry. It's not --

I do not believe that was her intention, either, but that does not change the gravity of it having happened at all, much less it being out of her control.

[ She couldn't even save Anakin, who she was so close to for so long. How can she hope to save Leia, when they only barely know each other? ]

Nor does it change how difficult it must have been for you. How long has it been?