"One of you had better have lost a limb - or worse - otherwise I'll take one myself for waking me up at this hour." Pei's voice rumbled through the medical bay, her cloaked figure trundled in after it, dark eyes narrowed to little more than glittering ebony strips. Anakin shuffled on the spot.
"It's Emily," he said, stepping back as the Sullustan approached the medibed. Obi-Wan didn't look up as Pei approached; he was too focused on where the back of his hand gently pressed against Emily's pale cheek, the colour and warmth drained from her skin, the glow of her lifeforce feeling cold and dimmed as he brushed his mind over it with the Force. She trembled a little and sighed, shaking her head before opening her bleary eyes up to stare at the ceiling.
"I'm fine," Emily croaked, sounding the furthest thing from it.
"What happened?" Pei snapped, a stubby tanned hand reaching down to settle against Emily's forehead as Obi-Wan withdrew his own. He looked up at Pei's face, a frown wrinkling her brow as she focused; he wasn't sure what to say, how to explain any of this.
"I think she's had too much to drink," he said, though it sounded a little lame when said out aloud.
If Obi-Wan truly thought it was only alcohol, he would have taken Emily to her room and had MEL scan her instead, maybe even have found a hydration tonic for her to drink before she slept, comfortably leaving her in the care of the medi-droid until morning. This was different; when Emily had entered the Chancellor's crimson chambers to speak with him, she'd been a little unsteady on her feet, yes - and emotional - but otherwise she was flushed and healthy, her spirit a warm pulse of light. When he shuffled her out to the transporter only minutes later, her skin was freezing against his palm, her body pale and trembling even with Anakin's cloak wrapped around her shoulders and his hands trying to rub the warmth back into her limbs. Whatever had caused so immediate a decline, surely it was more than a few too many glasses of wine?
"How much and of what?" Pei said, walking over to the wall panels and hitting some buttons, triggering the blue light of a scanner to shimmer in the air above Emily's prone body. She flinched back and groaned, closing her eyes against the radiant beam as it swept over her.
"Three or four-"
"Glasses?" Pei interrupted, her voice sharp with irritation. Pei Pelri did not appreciate her sleep being disturbed, that at least remained unchanged from when they were younglings. "Obi-Wan, I swear if you got me out of bed for-"
"Bottles, Pei. Three or four bottles of Toniray wine."
"And some other drink," Anakin added. Both Pei and Obi-Wan turned to stare at him. "I'm not sure what it was. I think Senator Organa gave it to her."
"When did she…" Wait, why was he asking Anakin? Obi-Wan leaned over, placing his hand on Emily's shoulder, still swaddled in his padawan's dark cloak with an additional silver thermo-blanket tucked over it. "Emily, what else were you drinking? How much did you have?"
"Alone," she whispered. That was another worrying thing Emily had been doing since they'd left Five-Hundred Republica - she'd been drifting in and out, mumbling incoherently. Half the time Obi-Wan couldn't make it out, but when he did, it was words like that.
Alone.
Nothing.
Gone.
"Did it not occur to either of you two half-wits, that you should maybe have stopped her from drinking four bottles of wine?" Pei said, scowling at them. "Wasn't that the entire point of you both being there in the first place? To watch out for her?"
Obi-Wan didn't know what to say to that. Pei was right, that was entirely the point of both he and Anakin accompanying Emily to the event. And instead of watching over her, intervening when he should, Obi-Wan had lingered back and done little more than agonize over his own feelings. How long had he stood out on that balcony, replaying every second in his head, wrestling down the swelling tide of emotions and recriminations threatening to drown him? It had felt like hours. Then he'd watched a tear streak down her cheek, and it had nearly undone him all over again. And when he saw Emily and Palpatine…
Obi-Wan gulped down a mouthful of air. "What do the scans say?" he asked, entirely trying to avoid Pei's accusing stare. He felt her eyes sear into him for a few more seconds, before she turned to the table and picked up a datapad. Obi-Wan lowered his gaze to Emily's face. Her breathing was steady enough, and he thought that she looked a little better, though it was hard to tell with her face washed out from the blue light of the scanner.
"Hmmm, blood alcohol levels are point two-three-seven. It's high, but not dangerously so."
"Why is she so cold then?" Anakin asked. "Her skin feels like ice."
"Well, Emily's blood sugar levels are low," Pei said, tapping away at the datapad. "That often happens, so not unexpected. Electrolyte balance is outside the normal range as well. I suppose we're seeing exactly how Emily's physiology reacts to excessive alcohol consumption - which, given how much she's had, I'd say she's coping surprisingly well. No vomiting. No incontinence. No terrible attempts at singing. I've seen far worse - and from a smaller amount of alcohol too."
"So she's going to be alright?" Anakin asked. Obi-Wan inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
"I expect so, although how she'll feel in the morning remains to be seen. I'll give her a recovery injection, to sort out the blood sugar and electrolyte issues. We'll keep her here overnight, with the droids monitoring her. That should be more than enough. I'll comms you if anything changes."
Obi-Wan nodded, walking over to draw up a seat, settling himself down into the padded cushions. Anakin remained standing at the side of Emily's medibed. She seemed to have fallen asleep now; Obi-Wan could make out the faint flicker of her eyelids as she quietly dreamed.
"Obviously I need to be less subtle," Pei said, her voice sharp with irritation. "That was me telling you two to get out of here and leave me in peace. So shoo! Go and sleep - or wake up and irritate some other poor Jedi in the Temple - just get out from under my feet."
"Oh, sorry!" Anakin said, flushing a little. "I'll go back to my room. Goodnight, Masters." He bowed, and then stopped abruptly after only a few steps towards the door. "You will wake me up if anything happens?" he asked, sending a worried glance at Emily.
"Yes, yes." Pei waved a dismissive hand. "Now off with you."
Anakin bowed again and left the room. Obi-Wan didn't move. He could feel Pei's gaze burning into his forehead.
"Force give me strength," she muttered, coming to stand in front of him, her short body looming just enough to block Emily from view. Obi-Wan blinked up at her mildly. He only noticed now that Pei wasn't wearing her Jedi robes under her long cloak, but was wearing a thin, pale cream nightgown instead. Bare, velvet brown toes scratched against the durasteel flooring. They really had dragged her out of bed for this, when they'd sent a comms on their way back to the Temple.
"Now I get the feeling you're just trying to annoy me," Pei said, scowling down at him.
"Not at all," Obi-Wan replied. While there was a deep respect and friendship between them, Pei and Obi-Wan were both Knights of the Order, and Obi-Wan was under no obligation to bow to her irate demands. More to the point, he had absolutely no inclination to either. He had resolved to spend the rest of the night here, keeping an eye on Emily himself. It's not like he had any prospects of rest, even if he did retire to his chambers; not with Emily lying here alone, and the hot churn of tonight's events still roiling in his chest and pounding through his head. No - better to stay here where he could keep an eye on her, and perhaps, if he was very lucky, he might find enough calm to meditate on the jumbled mess of the last few days, and put his thoughts and feelings into some kind of rational order.
Above him, Pei's eyes narrowed, then she gave a heaving sigh. "Fine - just give me two minutes. I knew when my comm went off that I'd get no further sleep tonight…" Pei trailed off into a low muttering monologue as she moved about the room, rummaging through drawers and clattering over tables. Obi-Wan ignored her. He now had an uninterrupted view of Emily's sleeping face. She was still little more than a mound under Anakin's cloak and the blanket, her pale face peeking out the top, curled hair spread out around her. Now that the scanner lights were off, he could see that she wasn't as pale as before. There was a hint of colour now in her cheeks, a subtle tinge of pink coming back to her lips.
His memory flashed with the image of Emily in the Chancellors arms, limp and trembling. No matter how much he tried to push it from his thoughts, or ignore it entirely, every detail seemed to be seared into his retinas. It wasn't even the image so much that concerned him, but his reaction to it. Obi-Wan had stepped into the Chancellor's chambers with no greater thought than to let him know of the last guest leaving - and perhaps to hint that it was time for Emily to return to the Temple. Instead, he had been forced to face something so much darker.
Anger. Possessiveness. For just a fraction of a second, both had swept through him with such a ferocious intensity, it'd felt like his lungs had been set alight. Through the burning haze, all he could see was Emily in Palpatine's arms, her hands clutching at him, pulling him close, as his face hovered inches from her own. Then, almost as soon as it had struck, the crimson-edged darkness had receded. Suddenly, it wasn't two lovers caught in an embrace; it was Emily, swaying on unsteady feet, all colour blanched from her skin as she looked around in confusion. It was Palpatine, helping to hold her shaking body steady, concern creased into every line of his face.
Obi-Wan knew only too well all the faults in his character; it was the duty of a Jedi to acknowledge one's flaws - to spend their life dedicated to constant correction and self-improvement. As for Obi-Wan's? He knew he could be overly sharp and easily irritated - at times judgmental and severe in his disapproval. But blinded - no - enraged by jealousy? That was something he'd never felt before; and just the memory of it left a bitter revulsion in its wake. No easier path was there to the Darkside, than to look upon another soul as something in your possession. It made his stomach churn to think that he had, even for a second, been overtaken by such a feeling. It went against everything; his beliefs, his training - even the very idea of who he was as a person and as a Jedi.
A gasp pulled Obi-Wan from his thoughts. Emily twitched, face twisting before it smoothed over again back into sleep. Pei stood at her side, and he watched as an injector was withdrawn from her right arm. Pei pulled the covers back up over Emily's torso, setting aside the now empty cylindrical plunger. Then, with a long-suffering sigh, she dragged a chair across the floor and set it directly in front of him, close enough that when she sat down, their knees almost touched.
"Out with it then," Pei said, wrapping her cloak tightly around her, until she was entirely covered from her neck to her toes.
"With what?"
"With what's rumbling around in that usually empty skull of yours. Whatever your thoughts are, they've been rattling away ever since you returned, loud enough that I'll likely be able to hear them from my quarters - and then neither of us will get any rest tonight."
"It's…nothing," he replied reluctantly, the words coming out stilted even to his own ears. This wasn't something he could talk about, not even to Pei, for all the time they'd been friends. What would he say to her - to anybody for that matter, if he were to talk about it? How he'd very nearly abandoned the Jedi Order tonight, just on the prospect of a kiss? How he'd felt a rush of emotions so dark, he was worried that he couldn't trust his own judgement anymore?
"It's to do with Emily. Something happened tonight, didn't it?" Pei said. There wasn't any accusation in her voice, or in the mild - entirely unsurprised - expression on her face.
"Yes," Obi-Wan admitted, his voice little more than a whisper. He dropped his eyes to the floor, where the brown edges of Pei's cloak pooled against the sterile silver-grey tile.
"And?"
Obi-Wan grasped for words. He knew that she was prompting him for more details, but all he could hear was a question asking him what he was going to do. What action was he going to take? He knew how he felt about Emily - what he had experienced and the terrible path it could lead him down - so what now? What was his solution? Obi-Wan could only think of one.
"I need to speak to the Council, as soon as possible."
"The Council?" Pei said, and now she did look surprised. "Why?"
"Because Anakin and I have completed our primary assignment, which was to teach Emily to speak Basic and to help her integrate into the Temple. We've done all that and more - there's nothing further that she can learn from our instruction…"
He paused, looking over to where Emily still slept soundly. His heart ached to look at her, knowing what he was going to say.
"And Anakin and I need another assignment - a long one - as far away from the Temple as they can send us."