Hello Byrd!! Thank you so much for the prompt (from this list) and happy early birthday to you!!!
I hope you enjoy!
***
It’s hardly a secret that the General takes on more than any man can physically handle. But Obi-Wan is no man, now is he?
At least, this is what he seems to think of himself.
Cody knows better. He knows his Jedi is flesh and bone like the rest of them. He is strong, yes, but not invincible, though telling him this is only ever met with a scoff at best or outward denial at worst. It doesn’t even come from a place of arrogance. He does maintain an added layer of strength thanks to his gifts with the Force, as long as he doesn’t push himself too far.
This time, things might have gone a little too far.
Cody sits with his head in his hands, waiting at his General’s bedside. The med bay is miraculously quiet — though the cause of this particular miracle lies unconscious with an IV attached to his arm.
He doesn’t know how long Obi-Wan has been here — just that he’s been unconscious for hours now. Cody spent the majority of those hours relaying the events of the battle to the Jedi Council and explaining their co- councilor’s absence. How he sunk so deep into the Force, it nearly swallowed him whole. How he kept an entire droid battalion at bay to protect his own. How he saved everyone, just maybe not himself.
How the last thing Cody saw was a quiet look of regret laced with the contented smile of a man who knows his life is coming to an end but does not fear it.
Cody kept that one to himself.
The look on Obi-Wan’s face flashes in his mind over and over again. Everytime he blinks, he sees the regret. The acceptance. It somehow unsettles him more than the few occasions he’s seen genuine fear cross Obi-Wan’s expression.
But neither expression unsettles him quite as much as the stillness. Obi-Wan lays as still as death but not quite so permanent. Cody knows better than most that death shows no mercy once she claims her souls.
Luckily, she seems to have sidestepped Obi-Wan.
This time.
It terrifies Cody to think that she’ll be back, and maybe she won’t be so willing to turn a blind eye.
He knows exactly what Obi-Wan would say to these thoughts. “Death awaits us all, but through the Force, there is no death. Not really. We let go. We move on. We accept what is and avoid what isn’t.”
He always makes it sound so simple when it is anything but.
Trapped in his thoughts and worries, Cody is grateful when Obi-Wan’s fingers twitch just slightly. Cody waits with bated-breath for Obi-Wan to rise fully to consciousness.
It’s slower than waking from a night of rest. Cody knows Obi-Wan is waking from an experience he likely should not be waking from at all, so he remembers his patience as Obi-Wan comes to.
Shining blue eyes reveal themselves, at first in a squint and then in lazy blinks.
“Cody?” Obi-Wan croaks, his voice cracked from disuse.
“Yes, General, it’s me.” Cody still feels a flutter of joy when Obi-Wan recognizes him and each of his brothers instantly without fail. No other nat-borns, save the Jedi, have ever been able to lay claim to such a feat, and the miracle of being known still resonates with him.
“How did it end?” Obi-Wan murmurs.
“I’m sorry, Sir?” Cody asks in confusion.
“The battle. Did we win?”
“Yes,” Cody says in disbelief. “We won. You saved us.”
“Good,” Obi-Wan says. “Casualties?”
“None. But…”
“But?” Obi-Wan raises an eyebrow.
“You were almost one. A casualty, I mean.”
“Ah.”
“Is that all you have to say?” Cody doesn’t bother hiding his incredulity.
“Would you like me to say more?” Obi-Wan is keeping infuriatingly cool. Even and diplomatic as ever with the undercurrent of a bite.
“Why did you do that?” Cody asks. The look of regret flashes behind Cody’s eyes again and he winces.
“What are you referring to?”
“You know what you did. And you knew what you were doing when you did it. I saw the look on your face, you cannot look me in the eyes now and tell me you didn’t know what you were doing on that battlefield. Like you didn’t know the risks.” Cody’s latent anger rises ever closer to the surface.
“The men were losing. They needed help.”
“And what about you? You needed help too.”
“I am a General and a Jedi moreover,” Obi-Wan says, strength returning to his voice — the voice that calms the innocent and frightens the evil in equal measure. He shoves his titles at Cody like an excuse. Like it separates him from his own humanity.
“You’re allowed to need help, Obi-Wan,” Cody implores.
“But I am not allowed to let my men die,” Obi-Wan snaps back. “The 212th. Your brothers. You. I must protect as many lives as I am able. This is the way of the Jedi.”
“If the way of the Jedi is to die senseless deaths, then I want nothing to do with them.” Cody stares down the ice of Obi-Wan’s eyes before softening his stance. “But I know that this is not the Jedi way.”
Obi-Wan’s eyes flare and Cody thinks maybe he pushed him too far, until the rigid lines of Obi-Wan’s body go soft once more as he loses the strength to keep up with the pace of the argument he set.
“I have work to do,” Obi-Wan says.
Cody scoffs. “No, you don’t. You need to sleep.”
“I can’t just sleep, Cody!” Obi-Wan snaps. His face immediately collapses in regret. “Cody, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to shout. That’s not… I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright, General,” Cody says. He pauses and lets the tension hang in the air for a moment before asking, “Why can’t you sleep?”
Obi-Wan rubs at his eyes and Cody politely averts his gaze.
“There’s just too much” Obi-Wan says. “Too much and it all falls on my shoulders. The men, the bureaucracy, the death, all of it. And… and I shouldn’t be bothering you with it all. It’s my job, not yours, now, please Cody, let me out of here.”
“First of all, it’s not my decision to let you out of here, but if it was, I wouldn’t let you. Secondly, as I said before, you are allowed to need help. Especially now, when all you should be worrying about is rest.”
“I can handle this, Cody.”
“I have no doubt in your abilities, General, but your responsibilities can be shared. You can share them with me.”
Obi-Wan looks into his eyes. Cody always has to remind himself not to shrink back from the piercing gaze that seems to see right through him. He stands his ground and returns it, trying to convey honesty in his expression and hoping that Obi-Wan’s strength has returned enough for him to sense it in the Force.
Cody wants to squirm under the silence, but he knows his general and he knows this is exactly the reaction he’s looking for. He wants Cody to speak first.
But Cody can play this game too. He’s a soldier after all — a staring contest doesn’t frighten him.
Even so, he knows how stubborn Obi-Wan is. “I just want you to be more careful with your life, Sir. I’m just… I’m worried about you.”
Obi-Wan’s features soften. “That’s not what I want. I don’t want you worrying about me. You have other things to worry about.”
“Then make yourself a priority.”
“So you don’t have to?” Obi-Wan smirks.
“You’ll always be my priority,” Cody replies, calm and cool and not at all how Obi-Wan was expecting him to respond it anything can be gathered by his surprised expression.
Obi-Wan clears his throat. “Cody I… I hate this war. You know I do. I wish it never started. I wish I had nothing to do with it.” He pauses and picks at invisible lint on his robes before looking back up at Cody. “But I don’t regret it bringing you into my life. I need you in my life. I’m a Jedi, I’m not supposed to need anything but… I can’t say that I’d be alive right now if this war hadn’t brought us together.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Cody says, unsure what to do with this uncharacteristic display of emotion. “I need you too.”
Cody continues to sit by Obi-Wan’s side and fill him in on all that has transpired, but in the back of his mind, he thanks whatever higher power is out there for bringing them together.
They came into this war together, and one way or another, they will end it together.
Of this, Cody is sure.
lingi-15