Dreaming through the noise.

“General?”

Obi-Wan looked away from the center of the small fusion lamp as Cody stirred, tentatively sat up, pressing his back to the wall of the rocky outcropping Obi-Wan had hidden them beneath.

“You’re awake. Good.”

“Sir—“

“Comms are down. I did manage to get a short encrypted message to the Resolute by using the battledroid’s power cell, before it burned out and...”

The commander was listening, Obi-Wan knew, but in that compartmentalized way of many military personnel Obi-Wan had met, taking the new information and sorting it into place to be fully examined later.

Cody’s face was pensive in the low light of the lamp and then he flinched. “My leg! It was broken,” he said quietly, reaching to touch his shin over the thin blacks.

“It was,” Obi-Wan said. “I healed it. Your armor is just there.” He pointed past the tabard he’d taken off and folded to pillow Cody’s head.

“You healed me?”

“I—yes. The wounds on your face, though… I’m afraid those will scar. My energy went to healing your leg.”

Cody chuckled, the sound warm and throaty. “Scars are just decoration. Saves me gettin’ the tattoos some of my brothers have elected to try.”

Obi-Wan smiled faintly. It felt strange, such a gesture, alien in this new world of Republic armies and Jedi taking up the mantles of Generals.

“Right, then.” Cody stood, testing his leg before pulling on his thigh gauntlet, knee pad and boot. “I’ll take watch. You get some rest, General.”

“Jedi need very little sleep.”

Cody turned to him. The lamp highlighted the sharp planes of his face, eyebrows arched in a way that Obi-Wan was beginning to become familiar with as the commander’s “I will not put up with nonsense, be it from Jedi or my brothers” face.

“General, before this mission, there was the relief effort on Biitu, and the skirmish in Oktaro. By my estimates, you’ve slept 12 hours in the last standard week. And that’s assuming you’ve actually slept when you’ve disappeared into your quarters. Jedi or not, you could do with the rest. So sleep. Sir.”

“You do pay attention,” Obi-Wan said, almost to himself.

“Comes with the territory, sir.”

“Yes,” Obi-Wan said, slowly. “I think I’ll meditate.”

“That as good as sleep, sir?”

Something in Cody’s tone made Obi-Wan tell the truth. “It’s a stop-gap measure. But it will serve until rescue comes.”

The commander looked like he wanted to say more, but pressed his lips into a thin line and gave a short, clipped nod. “Very well, General.”

( Read On )