AN: I was so glad I finally got to see the Season Finale, but I can't believe I have to wait to fall (I don't know how they normally do it-i started watching it in about September.) I'm so impatient!
Anyway, I wrote and finished the one-shot. It's called "Understood"...hope you enjoy! :)
Battle worn, head hanging in exhaustion Obi-Wan walked though the ship. He listened to stattaco of his steps and the Force guiding him to his former apprentice's confused array of emotions, centered around a very pain-vibrant Ahsoka. He sank into the Force and felt Anakin's sharp fear stabbing him like a knife, and along with it was confusion, discontentment, and and odd sense of hurt, of giving up. Concerned, Obi-Wan stopped in front of Anakin's door and breathed in deeply before walking in. Anakin sat, sleeping heavily his hand on Ahsoka's shoulder. She was whimpering slightly.
Obi-Wan sat down across from Anakin and after a moment, spoke softly, "Anakin? What happened?" His eyebrows skeptically went up as Anakin stirred.
"Master," Surprised by the pain in Anakin's voice, Obi-Wan leaned forward slightly, "Will she wake up? I mean, is she heavy sleeper?" His thumb pointed vaguely towards Ahsoka, who slept on in her uneasy state.
"Now she won't." Anakin's voice was edged with bitterness as he glanced at her, "She can't hear, Obi-Wan." Obi-Wan sat back abruptly, his gray eyes narrowing in shock. He processed what that meant for Anakin, and of course, the small Togruta. It wasn't good for either of them, master or apprentice. No matter how much Anakin hadn't wanted a Padawan, how much he ducked the council's suspicious looks, or how he didn't need another attachment - well, now it was too late for that. Obi-Wan's neck craned slightly, inspecting the girl's maimed montral. He could possibly help heal. It was likely to change the position she was in now.
Obi-Wan met Anakin's eye, and seeing a faint edge of hope scrawled across his face, gave a flat, concentrated smile. Obi-Wan clasped Anakin's shoulder before standing over the girl, "I'll do my best, Anakin." His hand came out slowly - too slowly for Anakin's interests - and he focused every muscle of his being on Ahsoka. An aching shoulder, secondary by very little to her montral, the deep, raw pain in the montral, and a burn on her back, and a steadily rising fever. The Force swelled as he concentrated first on the montral. It was complicated, her being a Togruta. He didn't have montrals, so the pain throbbed and swooshed in his ears.
But it was working. Maybe he wasn't Vokara Che, but he was a healer. Ahsoka gasped in her sleep as the pain radiated off of her, leaving even Anakin in it's wake. With a small motion, Obi-Wan beckoned for Anakin to help.
"I can't, Master. I'm not a healer." He said, but he stepped beside Obi-Wan anyway. Lips barely moving, Obi-Wan said, "Just let her know your there." He hesitated, fearing that what he said next would hardly help Anakin's case, "Let her know you're there. She trusts you. Let her feel your love." Anakin hardly had any trouble doing so. Obi-Wan could feel it roll off of him in waves. They would rise, but never fall.
Obi-Wan hoped they never would.
The Force tied them together, all three of them. They shared Ahsoka's pain, bound together as if the will of Force wanted them to remain together, a trio, a team, forever. It gave Obi-Wan hope for Ahsoka, hope for un-Jedi former apprentice, and even hope for himself. Anakin had formed him into the being Qui-Gon had once said he could be. Obi-Wan would save Ahsoka's hearing, a small gesture of gratitude for Anakin that he would never know.
The moment ended too quickly, leaving a dull rush in Obi-Wan's ears. He watched Ahsoka stir, Anakin leaping slightly to her side. "Anakin, it won't be perfect yet. I'm not Vokara Che." He barely got a nod from his warning.
Suddenly terrified, Ahsoka shot up, glanced at her two visitors and said, "M-master, my head hurts." Her pain-pinched expression melted in shock as realization sunk in, "I can hear?" Obi-Wan smiled faintly - her words were enough of a thank you.
Ahsoka was, to put it plainly, stunned. Her blue lips parted, showing the hereditary predator teeth from her ancestors in a small, thankful smile. Her head throbbed against her temples, but she wouldn't complain. That just wouldn't be right - but something else left her uneasy. It was Anakin. He had done most of the work. Whether Obi-Wan felt it or not, she had resisted his healing techniques at first.
But Anakin had opened up to her, allowing her to come to him. Relief faded, though. They had an attachment - not romantically involved, never that - but something else. They were too close. Ahsoka knew that, always had, but she had never thought it was so big. She knew why she was Anakin's Padawan. She was to dissolve his attachments - good luck, Master Yoda. I know him better than you think.
"Ahsoka?" Anakin's voice was surprisingly gentle as he sat beside her. The cot dipped under his weight a bit, making Ahsoka have to brace so she wouldn't fall against him. "Can you hear all right?" Ahsoka thought he sounded dimmer than usual, and she readily told him so. She hardly thought it fit to make Anakin distrust her yet again. If it wasn't too late - she hadn't obeyed his orders.
"Master, I'm sorry." Ahsoka's tone took on a soft edge as she spoke. The fiery pain of the blaster was scorched to her head, left to burn and burn until she died. He had been so afraid. But, as she had always known: She was fearless, and he wasn't.
An odd, startling discovery, somewhat discerning, but so true. They were alike, but they were different. How...odd, though. "Master..." Her thoughts mingled and mixed, making her feeling disoriented and slightly ill. The electrostaff; now she remembered. That must have been it. Ahsoka drew in a ragged breath, cleansing her thoughts, and looked at him with her wide blue eyes, "Are you mad at me?"
She watched him think. He lost all focus and looked almost vulnerable for a moment. "Ahsoka, I wish you'd listened to me. But at your age, I would've done the same thing." Ahsoka felt the surprise vividly stripe the Force, that is, until he turned to her with a stern look in his eyes, "Snips, if you think you're out of trouble, believe me, you're not. I'm not letting you into battle again for a while." Ahsoka looked at him sulkily, even though she was hardly in the right condition to leap back into battle
Finally, she spoke, repeating her apology, "I'm sorry, Master." She knew she sounded weakened, which was suitable after an injury, but not such an emotional downfall. Vader. It's Vader. He'll kill you, too.
No, he won't. Not anybody. Not ever. Ahsoka shuddered slightly. She was fearless. Stubbornly, she glanced at her master again, and seeing he couldn't suppress a look of concern, she sighed, "You know I'm fine, Master."
He hesitated, Ahsoka could see the will to say something about the lie. But, much to her surprise, he dropped it. He shrugged, looking tireder than ever. Worn-out, and worried. And he was angry with her, but he must have known that something really wasn't ride inside of her. Saddened by his concern when it would only affect himself, she said again, "You don't have to worry."
And he glanced at her with hollow eyes, and she had the feeling that what he said had been said to himself many, many times. Obi-Wan, and faint inkling of someone else, somebody she knew, but couldn't place: "Snips, I do have to. Because you never do."
It was late; nobody could actually tell the difference between day and night while they were hung in the stars - but by the way Ahsoka had to struggle out of sleep, because a blue blade was held right at her throat. She felt like the Force was strangling her from hope and filling her with despair. When she finally opened her sticky eyelids, Ahsoka had to cup her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. And when she did she felt something wet on her cheeks. Her lips parted in an 'o'. Tears.
Had she screamed? Ahsoka anxiously swung her legs over the cot and went to the 'fresher to wash her face. She hoped she hadn't made any noise, hadn't sent any big distress waves into the Force. No matter what she did, her Master could always find her true thoughts.
Water ran over her lekku, cool and wet. Ahsoka shivered with pleasure. The Med droid, at the very least, had given her permission to wash herself off. It would be so...tormenting not to after a battle. She relaxed a bit before going back to her cot, and when she did, she crossed her legs and closed her eyes. Meditation, a thing the Jedi did, or must do. It drove her crazy until Padme's near death with Aurra Sing. But now she let her head tip back, and dissolved into the Force...
All the doors were open, except one. He - the monster - had left it alone for some reason. Ahsoka went in, wondering whatever could be so special about that room. But she didn't need to be told. She already knew.
She was in her Temple room, her hands closed around some object. They were Holoimages, precious things that Jedi Council hadn't allowed her to keep, so Anakin had told her to give them to Padme. She hadn't. Anakin and her together on a long-ago training mission. That was fun, her sitting in the tree, him, careless with the Force, using it to make her come down. He had played Youngling games with her like they were children. Then they had watched the sun sink down below the horizon. But that seemed to far away now. She slipped the images into her pouch and stood up, taking her lightsaber - there was only one.
She leaned against the door frame, letting the monster feel her sorrow, her river of pain. "You forgot a room." She said mockingly. And he turned so she could see his yellow eyes.
Ahsoka's eyes flew back as she backed into the wall, gasping for breath. Her montral screamed at the sudden impact, but Ahsoka, needing to hear her own voice, muttered, "Oh, just shut up." She sunk onto her cot, eyes closing. She would sleep. She had to, because otherwise her master would see. And that could never be good.
As she drifted off, she didn't notice a shadow crossing the room. Her Master had slipped in just as she had fallen against the wall. In her shock, Ahsoka hadn't noticed, and she didn't stir as he checked her montral, or see his frown.