Author's Note: This one is for laloga, who requested a bit of Cody and Obi-Wan friendship. Hope you like it!
Smile
Pool.
Cody glared down at the nurse blocking his path.
She was small, she was human, and she was in his way, her arms outstretched and her face scowling. "You are not allowed in, Commander!"
"Those are my men in there," he shot back, managing to keep his voice from snarling.
"And your men are in surgery, where you are not allowed to go! Unless you want to go charging in there and distract the doctors from keeping your men from bleeding out?"
Cody ran a dirty hand through his hair, trying to keep from snapping at the woman. The last sixteen hours had been brutal, for everyone, and he was glad of the presence of the Republic's Mobile Surgical Unit, with its' doctors, nurses, healers and shield generator. The glittering pink-lavender dome of protection was working at full strength, even after the recent bombardment it sustained. It was the safest place for kilometers in any direction, and with the medical facilities, it was the best shot the injured had of surviving.
Usually, though, he wasn't blocked from checking up on the status of his wounded troopers. He tried to stare the nurse down, giving her his most intimidating glare, but she neither flinched nor budged, and her only response was to plant her fists on her hips and continue to return his glare with her own scowl.
Before either one of them could resume their shouting match, a new, calmer voice interrupted. "Commander. Let her do her work." A hand clamped down on his shoulder, and Cody turned to see General Kenobi standing wearily beside him. At the sight of the General, Cody eased his stance, straightening and backing slightly away from the agitated nurse.
"General – "
"Let it go, Commander. She'll let us know when we can go in." General Kenobi looked at the nurse, who was eying the pair suspiciously. General Kenobi's more relaxed posture and tone seemed to reassure her, and she eased as well, nodding once. "Come on."
It wasn't an order, Cody knew, but it was a little more than a request, so Cody followed the General down the hallway, sending a parting glare in the direction of the nurse, who returned it with an equally stubborn scowl.
Cody followed General Kenobi down various hallways, walking quietly and slowly. Personnel were running more often than not, most of them medical staff. Though the battle was over, and it was downtime for the soldiers, it was peak time for the rest of the RMSU, with technicians trying to make repairs and healers working to patch up the wounded.
He was nearly down from the adrenaline rush of battle, and his hands were still shaking slightly. They were rock steady during the fight itself, but once things calmed and he had enough time to think about what he'd just been through, they always shook for awhile, as though trying to make up for the lack of nerves during the battle itself. Cody grimaced and clenched his hands into fists, trying to help ease himself through the calming period.
Kenobi stopped walking, just inside an archway, and Cody stepped up beside him, looking around.
It wasn't fancy. There was a scattering of booths along one wall, and a handful of tables across the floor. One wall was taken up by a bar, with a droid tending to it, washing plastisteel glasses. A few troopers had also found the place, and were hunched in little clusters at the tables, wearily picking at food. A handful of technicians and other RMSU staff sat in their own corners, nursing glasses of whiskey or ale.
Cody made an odd face, then glanced at the General, wondering what was going on. "A cantina, sir?"
Kenobi sighed, then stepped in. "Most Rimsoo have one, so that the staff have somewhere to socialize when off duty. It's as good a place as any, to wait."
Cody trailed after his commanding officer, still unhappy about the whole situation. He tucked his helmet more tightly against his hip, checking over the tables of troopers as he followed Kenobi. Though the Rimsoo staff had alcohol, he was pleased to see his men were sticking to food and non-alcoholic drinks. It was too soon after battle for that level of relaxation, even if they rarely had opportunity to simply sit and have a drink. There could be a fresh set of attacks any time. As he walked past, troopers lifted their heads and saluted, both himself and General Kenobi.
"Have you ever played, Commander?" General Kenobi asked, and Cody switched his attention from the troopers to the General, who was lifting a cue from a rack and considering a pool table speculatively.
"Sir?"
"Pool."
"No, sir."
General Kenobi smiled and handed him the cue stick, which Cody regarded for a moment as though it might try to bite him. "Sir, I don't understand. Shouldn't we be waiting closer to the medical unit?"
Kenobi shook his head. "Our proximity to the operating room won't have any effect on the outcome. I think it's best we let the healers do their work in peace. Hovering never did anyone good." He selected a cue for himself, then flipped a switch on the table, causing a set of holographic pool balls to flicker into place, fluctuating for a moment with blue static before settling into a neat pyramid shape. "Why don't you go first?"
Cody frowned at the pool table, then the cue in his hands. He softened the frown into a skeptical look at Obi-Wan, who was patiently waiting for him to take the first shot. Frustrated, he set his helmet aside and looked at the rectangle of the table, the triangle of the pool balls, and the one, floating white one intended as the shooter.
He understood the concept of the game. Hit the triangle with the shooter, try to knock all of one set of pool balls into the pockets in the corners. Don't hit the black number eight ball in until last. It was not an order to play, but it was more than a request, and he didn't really feel able to tell Kenobi this wasn't what he was in the mood for. General Kenobi was a General, and a Jedi, and talking back wasn't allowed.
Fiddling with the cue for a moment, he tried to figure out the best way of hitting the shooter with the glowing, mechanized end of the stick. He settled into an awkward pose, and ended up pushing the cue's tip forward too slowly, the shooter rolling forward and barely impacting the pyramid hard enough to form a break. Cody grimaced. How was this supposed to help the wait?
Kenobi chuckled, taking up a stance on one side of the pool table and taking more careful aim, leaning forward and placing the tip of the cue between the knuckles of his left hand, while powering the stick with his right. There was a brief flash of light as the cue came into contact with the holoball, and a pleasant cracking noise as the balls scattered across the table. One of the side pockets-sensors lit up brightly as one of the striped balls bumped into it and flickered out of existence.
"Seems I'm stripes," Kenobi commented, smiling faintly as he took up another stance, aiming at another striped holoball. He fell into the same pose he had the first time, taking careful aim, and sending the white shooter bouncing off one of the sides to knock a second striped ball into one of the pocket-sensors.
Cody frowned. It was all angles, geometry, math and knowing how much force to apply. He tilted his head to the side as Kenobi set himself up for a third shot. This was getting embarrassing. It was just a game of pool, but Cody didn't want his new General to think he was incompetent in anything. He watched stiffly, and watched a third striped holoball flicker into nonexistence.
"Something wrong, Commander?" the General asked, preparing himself for a trickier shot across the table.
"You're very good at this, sir."
Kenobi paused and looked up, raising his eyebrows before chuckling. "They're holographic, Commander. It's very hard to use the Force on something that isn't really there."
It took Cody a moment to figure out what his General was suggesting, and he straightened in alarm, trying to keep a look of horror off his features. "Sir! I'd never suggest you were cheating, sir."
General Kenobi laughed, and his fourth attempt failed, the holoball winging the edge of the pocket-sensor and rolling idly back out towards the center of the table. "I know, Cody. I'm not suggesting you were. Try to calm down, at least a little. We're all exhausted. I'd suggest meditation, if you were a Jedi, but seeing as you're not, this is the best I can do. Your concern for your brothers is admirable, but you're no good to them winding yourself up to a point where you're shaking, angry and distracted."
Kenobi nodded towards Cody's hands, which were gripping his cue stick almost hard enough to make it crack. Cody stared at his hold, at the dirty gauntlets, rimmed around the edges in dried blood. His armor was stained; he hadn't been a shiny since Geonosis, but other than General Kenobi, he was in charge. Every call he made was on his own head, every wounded brother hurt because of where he placed them in the line, of what orders he gave out.
For the second time that evening, he felt a hand come down on his shoulder, belonging to General Kenobi. The General looked no better than he did, battered and dirty, his ginger beard and hair matted from dirt and some of the drizzle they'd run through hours earlier. The General, though, was giving him a small, determined smile. "You did well today, Commander. You should be proud."
Cody knew he'd been trained nearly since birth to lead. He'd done the best he could during the day, and no one was left behind, even though a few came back only for burial. Praise on Kamino was near to non-existent, the sergeants occasionally barking out that they were acceptable, passable, or improving. On rare occasions, there would be instances of being told, "Good job."
Cody knew Kenobi was regarded highly among the Jedi, and now, he suspected he knew why. It was not only his fighting capability, demonstrated clearly earlier during the day, but also this. His commendation of Cody's efforts was a sign of a good leader; bringing him here to try to cheer him up, to support him, even though he was just a clone and the General was a Jedi, was the sign of a good man. It was something equals did, brothers did, friends did.
"Thank you, General," Cody said quietly, and managed, for the first time that day, to smile.
This is supposed to take place fairly early in the war, not long after Cody is assigned to Obi-Wan. So, an opportunity for them to become friends as well as colleagues and coworkers. Hope you liked it, laloga!
A RMSU is a Republic Mobile Surgical Unit, called a "Rimsoo" for short.
~Queen