Cody wakes up in a medical bed to a splitting headache and the sticky feel of a bacta patch on his forehead. It's not the medbay on the Negotiator, and for a moment he's confused as to how he ended up in what seems to be the Jedi temple.
Then it all comes rushing back to him, and he sits up sharply, trying to disentangle himself from the various tubes and wires chaining him to the bed. Order 66. He has to warn the Jedi about Order 66.
"Cody!" Obi-Wan says, rushing over to push him back down against the pillow, and, huh, Cody hadn't even noticed him in the room. "Please lay down, you've just had surgery."
Cody doesn't remember needing surgery, but he'll worry about that later.
"Obi-Wan," Cody pleads, trying again to sit up, "The Chancellor, he-"
"I know," Obi-Wan cuts him off, "Fox has everything under control."
"The Chancellor wants all the Jedi killed; he has some way to force people to obey, I don't know how it works, but it-"
"-was a control chip," Obi-Wan interrupts, brushing a hand against the sore spot on Cody's head. "Yours is gone now. I don't know how Fox found out about them, but he did, and just in time. He reported the discovery to Master Windu two days ago, and the healers were already through with removing the chips from the Guard when Palpatine tried to give the order to Fox. Nobody was hurt, and the Jedi are in hiding so that Palpatine doesn't suspect anything amiss with the Guard before he can be dealt with."
A chip. A kriffing microchip had been stuck in his head, and he had nearly killed the love of his life because of it. That's… not something that he wants to think too hard about right now; he has about a thousand questions about how that's even possible that he needs answered before he can even begin to really process it, but Obi-Wan isn't likely to have those specifics.
"Fox held us at blaster-point," Cody states instead, raising an eyebrow at Obi-Wan.
"It was set to stun. Until you claimed me as a Sith, Fox didn't know that you had been able to overcome the chip, or how you would respond to seeing Master Windu." Obi-Wan takes Cody's hand in his own. "I'm quite grateful for your quick thinking on that entire issue, my dear."
"You're grateful that I hit you so hard that I gave you a concussion, and then tried to mislead you into thinking that you had fallen to the Sith?" Cody asks, somewhat dubious. Cody hadn't seen any other way to protect Obi-Wan, true, but he can't imagine it was a pleasant few hours for Obi-Wan.
"So that is how I got the concussion. I had wondered." Obi-Wan smiles, which Cody thinks is a strange reaction to the circumstances, and then gives Cody's hand a squeeze. "Cody, you saved my life. And no matter what had happened, I would never blame you for something that happened while someone else was controlling your mind." Obi-Wan says, eye flicking to the bandage on the side of Cody's head. "Palpatine is the only one who deserves blame in this situation." Obi-Wan's voice is firm, leaving no room for argument, and Cody relaxes fractionally.
"What's going to happen now?" Cody asks. If Palpatine is trying to eliminate the Jedi, they potentially have a second war on their hands. As if the separatists weren't enough to deal with.
"I'm afraid that's not something I have an answer to at the moment. The Council would like to recall more of the troops under false pretenses, so that the chips can be removed, but so far all attempts at communication have gone unanswered, which is rather worrying."
Cody sits abruptly, dodging Obi-Wan's attempt to nudge him back down. "I ordered a GAR-wide communications blackout after I knocked you unconscious." In the event of such an order, each ship was to relay the order to the next ship or ships on the communication tree, and power down all comms and comms equipment until further notice- which would have to come in person for each ship, since he'd been too out of it to leave any sort of check-in instructions. He'd justified it to himself- or, more accurately, to Palpatine's control chip- as a way to make sure that the Jedi couldn't escape.
Obi-Wan's face lights up, and he uses his free hand to type out a message that Cody can't see. Probably an update to the council, Cody suspects.
"You're amazing," Obi-Wan says, and then leans forward to kiss Cody.
The kiss lasts for longer than Cody would have expected, given the relatively public status of the medbay, but Cody certainly wasn't complaining. The feeling of Obi-Wan leaning against him dissipates some of the tension and fear that hadn't quite gone away even at the sight of Obi-Wan alive and well in front of him; there's a difference between knowing the truth and feeling it, and Cody leans further into the kiss, desperate to reassure himself that Obi-Wan is okay.
Obi-Wan seems equally intent on proving to himself that Cody is Cody again, because he practically climbs into Cody's lap, bringing them as close as the IV's and monitors will allow.
And even when Obi-Wan does finally pull back from the kiss, he still doesn't let go of Cody's hand, instead bringing Cody's hand up to press a quick kiss to the back of the knuckles. Cody can't help but smile at the display, and he's glad that no one is around to see the blush that he's sure is on his face.
The chair that Obi-Wan had been sitting in before Cody woke up moves across the room then, stopping just behind Obi-Wan, and Obi-Wan sits down in it without taking his eyes off of Cody for even a second. Their hands are still joined.
"You're not usually that demonstrative when anyone could walk in. Are you sure you don't still have that concussion?" Cody keeps his tone light, but he is concerned. Obi-Wan has never been prone to public displays of affection before, and Cody had hit him hard enough to knock him out for over an hour.
"It was nothing the healers couldn't handle," Obi-Wan assures, tilting his head to show Cody the lack of bruising. "As for someone walking in, well... I imagine Master Windu and Commander Fox are already aware of our relationship after our display in the hangar, and the healers likely know as well. I wasn't particularly subtle about my concern for you when I woke up." There's a blush creeping onto Obi-Wan's face, and Cody would love to know how exactly that conversation went down.
"How much trouble are we in?" Cody asks instead. Belatedly, Cody remembers that it's not wholly out of the realm of possibility that Windu could have sensed some of the things that Cody hadn't verbalized during that exchange, regardless of whether Windu knew Fox well enough to have picked up on the implications of Cody's warning to Fox concerning the 'evidence'.
"I haven't asked," Obi-Wan says, his expression turning serious, "But less than what you're imagining, I'm sure. The GAR doesn't have any formal rule forbidding fraternization, nor does the Order. I don't expect the council will be pleased with me for withholding this from them for so long, but I don't know what exactly will come of that."
Cody suspected that the GAR's lack of anti-fraternization rules was by oversight, rather than intention, but neither he nor Obi-Wan had had any inclination to question that particular bit of good fortune.
"I'm sorry," Cody says, "I know this isn't how you wanted the council to find out about us."
As far as Cody was aware, Obi-Wan had, in fact, drafted about eight different plans for telling the council, but all of them had been meant for after the war's end. Telling the council meant risking one or both of them being reassigned, and neither of them were enthused about the possibility of leaving the 212th in someone else's hands. Not that Cody couldn't see his brothers accepting new command, either; the 212th was fiercely loyal to Obi-Wan, just as Obi-Wan was fiercely loyal to them; their battalion just wouldn't have worked as well with anyone else. And in a war, 'not as well' meant 'more losses', which none of them were prepared to accept.
"You have nothing to be sorry for," Obi-Wan says. "If anyone should be apologizing, it's me. If I hadn't-" Obi-Wan stops abruptly, mouth clicking shut and pressing into a tight line as he considers his next words.
"Hadn't what?" Cody asks, "Been too concussed to come up with a better plan? Because you already said that we're blaming Palpatine for that."
Obi-Wan is silent for a long moment, and his voice is quiet when he finally speaks. "I should have turned myself in to the council when I first realized that I had become-" Obi-Wan swallows, his eyes directed more at Cody's bed than Cody himself- "attached. Instead I allowed that attachment to grow to the point that I could easily be passed off as a Sith. I put you in danger. If I had actually fallen-"
"Obi-Wan," Cody cuts him off, and reaches out his free hand to tilt Obi-Wan's head back up, making him meet Cody's eyes, "You are not in danger of becoming a Sith. I was very deliberately twisting facts in a desperate attempt to not have to kill you. You are no more a Sith than General Windu is a farmer."
Obi-Wan closes his eyes, and leans further into Cody's touch. "Mace was pretending to be a farmer by wearing a costume, and a quite frankly terrible one at that. My attachment to you isn't an act, and I've already broken the Code because of it; while the demands of the war and our concern for our men are certainly part of why I've not admitted to our relationship, I can't deny that the thought of being separated from you is something that terrifies me. My concern is that that fear has clouded my judgment on this, that I've been fooling myself so that I wouldn't have to deal with the consequences if the council decided that that was the best option."
Cody's heart clenches at the thought of being sent away from Obi-Wan. "For what it's worth, I don't think that's the case." Cody takes a breath, gathering his thoughts. "If fear was really clouding your judgment, would you have been able to give me that order on our last mission?"
Obi-Wan's breath hitches, and Cody leans forward, pressing his head to Obi-Wan's before Obi-Wan can answer, or think too hard about the danger that Cody had been in. "And what good would it have done to turn ourselves in?" Cody asks, stroking Obi-Wan's cheek with his thumb.
Obi-Wan's only answer is a pained sound and a shake of his head.
"You would be dead," Cody answers, "by the hands of whichever battalian you were reassigned to. Whatever Jedi was assigned to the 212th would be dead, and without the communications blackout, any other Jedi assigned to any ship would be dead. And the same would be true if we hadn't started a relationship, as well, because none of what happened today would have worked. Just this once, breaking the rules was the right decision."
Cody pauses, thinking over his last sentence. "And if you ever tell Anakin I said that, I'm never sleeping with you again."
Obi-Wan snorts, recognizing it for the empty threat that it is. "Even if that were true, I love you for you, not for your body. But no, I won't tell Anakin; that's the last thing that he needs to hear."
It's quiet for a moment, and then Obi-Wan sits straight and says, "We are very lucky that all of this has ended up working out as well as it has."
"We are," Cody agrees easily, thinking briefly of the many ways that the day could have gone very badly very quickly. If things had gone even the slightest bit differently, well, they might not both be sitting here at all. It's not a fate that Cody wants to give much consideration, and he's thankfully prevented from dwelling on it any further by an insistent knock at the door.
Obi-Wan glances down at their entwined hands, and then gives him a questioning look.
Cody nods once, and tightens his grip. They haven't lied about this yet, and they aren't about to start now.
Obi-Wan smiles. Cody smiles back.
"Come in," Obi-Wan says, loudly, and turns his head to face whoever is about to step through the door.