(A/N: Okay, so I'm having problems with updating... Sorry again everyone! But at least I update once a week, right? I always have problems updating during the summer (oddly enough!) because weird, unexpected things happen that I don't plan for. I'm actually better at updating during the school season, because I have more of a schedule. Thank you all for putting up with me!)

Chapter Six: A Talk with Wuh'lin

When Obi-Wan woke up, he was in a room he didn't recognize. After a moment, he realized that it must be the hospital wing of the Temple, where people went when they got injured. He suspected that they had probably been trying to revive him. He peered around at the people there, trying to get his vision to focus.

There were a few young padawans like himself that appeared to have some kind of virus. Also, to his surprise, there were a lot of Jedi Knights there. Most had bruises and cuts, though one blue Twi'lek had a broken arm. A blur of green that Obi-Wan recognized as Kit muttered something to her that sounded suspiciously like 'Welcome to the Jedi Order.' Obi-Wan realized a moment later that these must be all of the Jedi that were injured in the race. He hoped fervently that they all blamed it on Qui-Gon.

Hold that thought—where was Qui-Gon? Obi-Wan scanned the room, but there was no sign of that particular Jedi. He grinned—Qui-Gon was most likely meeting with the Jedi Council right now. He was probably in huge trouble.

Suddenly a voice right beside his ear said, "Ah, Obi-Wan, you're awake."

Obi-Wan jumped so high that he nearly fell off of the hospital bed that he was laying on. Qui-Gon stood directly behind the bed, smiling neutrally. Obi-Wan glared at him, slightly pouting. "Didn't you get into any trouble?"

"Trouble?" Qui-Gon raised his eyebrows. "For what?"

"For…for getting everyone hurt! And for racing without permission! And—and for any damage you might have done to the temple!"

"No permanent damage was done to the temple. No one was hurt too badly, and the council was too busy to bother about unauthorized races. So therefore, I got off easy."

Obi-Wan crossed his arms and muttered, "No fair."

Qui-Gon laughed and, taking a hold of Obi-Wan's shoulder, steered him out of the room. As they walked through the twisting passageways, Qui-Gon filled Obi-Wan in on everything he had missed while he was unconscious. "Unfortunately, you missed your lessons," Obi-Wan brightened considerably, "But never fear, I picked up all of the assignments and homework you missed for you to do tonight."

"Goody. Thank you so much." Obi-Wan mumbled. Qui-Gon just had to ruin everything.

Finally, they made it back to Qui-Gon's quarters. Qui-Gon turned to Obi-Wan and explained, "I have to work on something, so I won't be around. Don't get into any trouble. I'd suggest working on your homework. There's a lot of it." He motioned to a pile of data pads on the table. Obi-Wan's eyes went wide. It was nearly a foot tall! He shot another glare at Qui-Gon, who shrugged. "Don't look at me; I'm not the one who assigned it all. If you have any trouble, seek me out. I'll probably be in the archives somewhere." He turned to go, and then stopped. "Also, I took in last night's homework to your teachers, and I didn't see any essay on ten planets with two facts about each. I think that when I get back, you have some explaining to do."

With that, Qui-Gon turned and walked out of the door. Obi-Wan just stood there for a moment, and then turned to his homework. With a groan, he started on the first assignment. What a lousy arrangement—he spent the whole morning throwing up, and now he had to do a bunch of school work. This was turning out to be a terrible day.

xxxxx

Hours later, Obi-Wan was still laboring over his school work. Most of it was stuff he knew and liked, but there were also harder things on subjects that took longer. Finally, he had everything done but a few essays. One of them he finished in no time. The other two, however, must have been something they learned about in class that day, because he didn't know anything on them.

After struggling with his memory for a little while, he decided to go down to the archives. He definitely wasn't going to ask Qui-Gon for help—as if!—but he figured he could probably find the information he needed down there.

It only took him a few minutes to gather everything up and make his way down to the archives. It was nearly empty today, and after creeping around for a little while Obi-Wan spotted Qui-Gon in a corner, deep in discussion with Jocasta Nu, who was in charge of the archives. Taking a mental note to avoid that corner, Obi-Wan walked to the other side and skimmed through the archives, searching for something on the history of Coruscant. A few seconds later he found what he wanted and read over it, committing it to his memory.

When he was sure that he knew what he was going to write, he turned and hurried away, intent on getting out without Qui-Gon spotting him. As he rounded a corner he nearly ran right into a male Twi'lek who was coming the other way. There was momentary confusion, and then the Twi'lek smiled and patted him on the head. "Sorry about that. What's the hurry?"

Obi-Wan lifted his gaze up and blinked innocently. "Nothing. I just can't wait to get back to work on my school stuff."

"Hmm. Have we met before? There's something oddly familiar about you." Obi-Wan shook his head. He was quite certain that they had never met… at least in his memory. The Twi'lek smiled and shrugged. "Perhaps you just reminded me of someone. I'm Wuh'lin, by the way." Held out his hand, and Obi-Wan stared at it.

Several moments passed, and then Obi-Wan stuttered, "W-Wuh'lin?"

The Twi'lek smiled again. "Yes, that's me. Is something wrong?"

"N-no! Of course not. I've just heard of you." Wuh-lin… Wuh-lin was the one who wanted to go to Estéril with Qui-Gon! "You see," Obi-Wan quickly made up a story, "Qui-Gon Jinn is my personal hero," (he tried not to gag as he said this), "And I heard that you were one of his friends. Aren't you?"

"I suppose you could say that."

"And I heard that Qui-Gon was going on a new mission to someplace called Estril…or something like that."

Wuh'lin just gazed at him for a moment before saying, "How did you hear about Estéril? That's confidential information that no padawan should know about."

Oops. "I…I heard it from an older Jedi. I guess I wasn't really supposed to, but I couldn't help listening! I don't know much, though." He looked downcast, then suddenly brightened. "Could you tell me more? I won't tell anyone that you did, I swear! I'm just so interested." He gave Wuh'lin another innocent but eager look.

Wuh'lin appeared to consider for a moment, before saying, "Well… I suppose it wouldn't really hurt if I told you a little bit more. But you have to promise that you won't tell anyone about it."

"I won't!"

Wuh'lin grinned. "Very well. Like I said, I can't tell you much, but there is a rebellion against the Jedi on Estéril. The Jedi Council has selected Qui-Gon to go undercover to root out the problem."

"All of the Jedi they could have picked and they decided on Qui-Gon?" Obi-Wan didn't exactly understand this. If there was a rebellion against the Jedi going on, why send Qui-Gon? He'd just make them hate the Jedi even more, right?

Wuh'lin cocked his head slightly. "I thought that Qui-Gon was your hero."

"Oh! Oh, right, he is, it's just…well," Obi-Wan forced his voice to sound worried and concerned, "What if he got hurt?"

Wuh'lin chucked. "Don't worry about that, Qui-Gon can take care of himself."

"But apparently he can't keep control over a single, devious little padawan." A dry voice said from behind Obi-Wan. He gulped. Uh-oh…caught again.

Wuh'lin looked up at Qui-Gon, confused. "Do you know this padawan? He claims that you're his personal hero."

Obi-Wan heard Qui-Gon laughing behind him, and his face grew red. He shot a glare at the male Twi'lek for letting the Jedi Knight know about his little lie. "Your personal hero? Really? I never knew. I'm sorry about this, Wuh'lin. I thought he was still back up in his room."

"His room?" Wuh'lin asked, confused.

"Ah, forgive him, he must have forgotten to introduce himself. This is Obi-Wan Kenobi, the padawan I've taken on this month. I believe you've heard of him?"

Wuh'lin smiled with surprise. "Obi-Wan? Really? The Obi-Wan?" he looked down at the padawan and added, "Did you know that Qui-Gon was the one who named you? I wanted to call you Fabian, but apparently that was a stupid name…"

"You named me Obi-Wan?" the young padawan turned on Qui-Gon, who smiled amusedly and nodded. Obi-Wan glowered—he had just found yet another reason to not like Qui-Gon.

"Well, at least you aren't Fabian." Qui-Gon said reasonably.

"Fabian is a nice name!" Wuh'lin exclaimed in mock indignation.

Obi-Wan decided to take this time to sneak stealthily away, but without even looking in his direction Qui-Gon grabbed his shoulder. "Maybe sixty years ago it was!" He countered Wuh'lin, who just laughed.

Finally, Qui-Gon looked at Obi-Wan and said, "Now, young padawan, just how much did you squeeze out of Wuh'lin about the Estéril project? Your personal hero wants to know."

(A/N: Once again, I'm sorry it took so long to update. The next one should be soon… but then, I say that every time…don't I? ((grins guiltily))

Oh, also, someone said that they liked the story, but Obi-Wan doesn't really act much like Obi-Wan. I definitely agree… one of the things that happens in this story is that Obi-Wan slowly changes into the person he became. You should see small changes in him as this story goes along… if I write it well enough ;)Thank you for all of the reviews! And, for whoever asked, there probably is going to be a sequel, (that involves one of the planets mentioned in the last chapter), but don't worry about the sequel yet… it's going to be a while until this one is finished :) Thanks again, everyone! Please R + R!)

Hilary