"You shouldn't be here," were Satine's next words, her eyes twitching restlessly towards the door.

She might as well have stabbed him with a knife.

"Why?" he asked calmly, tilting his head and hiding his pain behind a carefully placed mask, "Satine, what happened?"

He tried to reach out to her with his hand, but she immediately backed away frantically - like a frightened animal - making him pause. His hand hovered outstretched between them as he tried to read her expression.

Confusion. Fear. Panic.

Slowly, he took his hand back, rolling his wheelchair a little away from her. "... did I hurt you?" he breathed softly, watching as she pulled her knees to her chest and lowered her head.

He had never seen her like this before. Not even in her year on the run.

Satine gave him no answer.

"Please talk to me...," he begged, trying to make himself as unthreatening as possible. His throat tightened as he struggled with his emotions. "...I swear you never have to see me again if you don't want to...," his voice wanted to fail him, "...but please tell me what happened."

His cheeks stung and it wasn't until he ran his left arm over them that he realized tears were streaming down his face.

A sob escaped Satine's mouth and Obi-Wan would love nothing more than to hug her - but he didn't dare move - not if he had hurt her.

I don't know if I can live with that.

"Do you want me to go?" he finally asked, his heart splitting in his chest.

Her silence was only confirmation for him. Pursing his lips, he squeezed his eyes shut briefly before forcing them open again, taking one last look at Satine.

She still hadn't moved.

"Okay, then... I'll leave you alone now," he muttered his voice rough, "I'll send Korkie in."

His broken arm ached as he used it to move the wheelchair back, not trusting himself to have the Force under control at the moment. The pain plaguing his body was the only thing keeping him anchored in reality - even if his pain was no longer just physical.

He was halfway to the door when Satine suddenly spoke. "No...," she croaked, "...don't go."

Obi-Wan stopped and turned around, noting how Satine had unfurled, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Okay." He turned his wheelchair around again, making a face as his pain intensified in the process.

The painkillers must be wearing off.

Satine continued watching him with hawk-eyes, her gaze burning almost worse than the burns on his skin .

"I killed them all," she said suddenly, her face blank.

Obi-Wan fought to remain calm. "Who did you kill?"

He watched as her jaw worked and her fingers dug into the fabric of her clothes. "Viszla...," she eventually choked out, turning her gaze back out the window, "... and all the men he had with him."

Slowly it dawned on him how they had escaped from Concordia.

He slowly approached Satine again so that he could stand next to her. "Have you told anyone?"

She could hardly look at him. She had made him believe that he had hurt her.

But she knew there was no one she could trust more than Obi-Wan.

Satine fixed her gaze back on the skyline, catching his reflection next to hers in the window glass.

He didn't look like he should have gotten out of bed. Dressed in these blue clothes - most likely stolen from one of the nurses in the hospital - barely hiding the many layers of bandages that covered his skin, he seemed like he had dropped everything to get to her.

She knew he had done exactly that. Had neglected his own health because he was worried about her.

It's not fair.

"No one knows," she finally confessed, "But it's only a matter of time before they start asking questions and find the bodies."

Next to her, Obi-Wan ran one of his hands over his face. "Satine, only you and I were on the scene."

"What are you implying?" she asked carefully, now finally daring to look at him. There were bruises and scratches disfiguring his face, ginger hair singed in places from the fire. But his eyes were unclouded, shining bright with sincerity.

He reached out his hand again and this time she didn't shy away, letting him intertwine their fingers. She could not feel his skin - covered as it was with white bandages - and she dared not squeeze it for fear of hurting him.

Obi-Wan looked at her intently. "Tell them it was me."

Her ears started buzzing. "...what?" she blurted out, as if she hadn't heard him correctly.

"I said-."

Satine cut him off with a shake of her head. "Obi, do you know what you're saying? They're going to banish you from Mandalore-."

"I know."

"-You would be branded a murderer-."

"I know, Sat-."

She finally snapped. "They can fucking kill you for it!"

Her chest heaved up and down as she said this and she had to close her eyes, swallowing hard to regain her composure.

A pair of hands placed themselves awkwardly against her cheeks, the plastoid around one of his hands resting coolly against her skin. "Satine, look at me."

It was difficult for her, but she did as instructed. His thumb stroked her temple gently. "I know what I'm offering, dear. But they'll either blame you or me...," he paused, "I think that's where the decision will come easy."

Her eyes grew wet with tears. "I can't do that, Obi."

He continued to hold her, not letting her pull away. "You can and you will, Satine. Your people need you... you have achieved so much."

"But it all feels like a lie!" she removed his hands from her head, "How can I claim to be a pacifist when I- when I..." She broke down sobbing.

For a moment Obi-Wan said nothing, the only sound in the room her sobs.

"Under the circumstances, this probably won't bring you much comfort, but remember... you saved my life," he said softly at one point, now averting his own eyes, "I know you didn't have to do that... and yet you did."

He looked her in the eye again. "So accept my offer, Satine... please."

"That doesn't change what happened."

"Nor should it. But I don't want you to throw away your future."

Satine huffed and wiped the tears from her face. "You really expect me to let you take the blame?"

The look on his face brooked no argument. "Yes."

She wanted to wipe that look off his face.

Did I really make the right decision?

Obi-Wan tilted his head, furrowing his brows. "What do you think?"

"Nothing."

Of course, he saw through her lie immediately. "You're having second thoughts, don't you?"

Shaking her head in disbelief, she studied him closely. "How could I not have them?"

Something shifted on his face and she thought she recognized something like hurt. „Would you have preferred to make a different decision?" he asked heavily.

How should I answer that?

"I-I don't know."

Obi-Wan nodded stiffly, suddenly looking even paler than he already was. "Okay... I should," he faltered briefly, "I'd better get back to the hospital. If you can still hold back your statement, Anakin's picking me up in three days... Then I'll be gone."

His broken arm slipping off one of the wheelchair wheels, he began to roll back hastily. She could see him tense his face in pain in response, his left arm twitching briefly as if to reach for the hurting limb.

Before he could move away any further, Satine jumped up, catching him on his unbroken knee. "Wait... please don't go."

She could practically feel him closing himself off from her, sealing his emotions away. "You want to tell me something else?"

I hate it when he does that.

Suddenly it was like she was at a loss for words, her voice sucked away into the endlessness of space. "I... yes."

"Okay," he breathed, his bright blue eyes turning stormy gray.

"You should know one more thing...," she finally began, and he looked at her so expectantly that it hurt all the more to tell him now, "Korkie, he's-... he's my son."

He blew out his breath and gave a small smile that did not reach his eyes. "I know."

She did not understand. "...how?"

"Korkie made a mistake when he came to visit me in the hospital," Obi-Wan offered, his voice cutting the thick air between them, "... and I'm not blind, Satine."

Then he knows everything.

"So-...," she began, but Obi-Wan wouldn't let her finish.

"I figured so much, yes." He looked at her as if she had betrayed him.

All the ideas she had secretly imagined over the years flashed before her inner eye.

They would all be a happy family together. She as Korkie's mother, Obi-Wan as his father.

Instead, she had woven a construct of lies - out of protection, as she had always argued - taking her son's father away and sending the man she had loved to war instead.

He always wanted to be a Jedi. Who am I to take his future away? ...right?

"Does Korkie know?" he asked detachedly.

"Yes," she admitted and it was so incredibly difficult for her, "I told him when he was little."

All emotion had gone from his face, only his eyes betrayed him.

He's sad. So abysmally sad.

"Can I go now?" he asked hoarsely.

"Obi-Wan please, let's not part like this..."

"Not part like this?" he croaked incredulously, "Satine, there's never been a place for me in this family!"

His words rung with truth and it made her recoil. "...When I asked you sixteen years ago if I should stay, you said no," he continued, his voice trembling, "Damn it, if I had known I had a child, I would have left everything behind... If I'd been given the chance."

"At the time of our parting, I didn't know I was pregnant... and you- you seemed happy," Satine argued back, even if it was a weak point of argument, "I saw how much you wanted to be a Jedi Knight... when you asked me, you were so close to achieving your goal. Did you really expect me to take that away from you?"

"I wouldn't have offered if I hadn't wanted to," he lowered his gaze, a tremor wracking his body, "Tell me, why did you choose not to tell me for 16 years, day after day?"

He looked up again, his gaze steely. "Why are you telling me today when it might be the last time I see him?"

"I'm sorry," her throat constricted painfully, "I guess I was just scared..."

If that was even possible, his face crumbled even further. "Scared of what?"

Scared of what? What were you afraid of, Satine?

She couldn't give him an answer.

Taking her silence as an answer, Obi-Wan began to turn around again and the only thing she could do was stop him.

I can not lose him.

Her hand shot out before she could think about it, curling firmly around his arm. Obi-Wan flinched violently in response, shouting in pain.

Satine instantly let go again. "Blast, sorry, I- I...," she hiccupped as she watched him curl around himself, face contorted into a grimace of agony, "I didn't mean to..."

The roaring in her ears reached new heights. Suddenly there was blood on her fingers again - so much blood, why always so much bloodshed? - and she was back on Concordia surrounded by dead Death Watch soldiers.

He wanted to be angry, wanted to rage, but somehow he couldn't - all that remained was unspeakable sadness and disappointment. His breath was stolen from his lungs.

Is the idea of having me as a father so terrible that I have to be deprived of my son?

The certainty stabbed deep into his heart, tearing something he did not know how to deal with.

Obi-Wan had to get away from here, rebuild his walls - hide himself again.

A hand around his arm - around his burns - held him back and his vision whitened out in response. He couldn't help but give voice to his pain, no longer having it in him to hold back.

Satine immediately let loose, saying something, but he couldn't hear her through the roaring in his head. Squeezing his eyes shut, he tried to breathe through the pain.

It felt as if he had been doused with fuel again and set on fire. He first felt hot and then unbarebly cold. Letting out a wheezing sound, he opened his eyes again, settling them on the sleeve of his shirt.

The blue fabric was now stained in a dark shade of red.

I'm bleeding.

And he knew he needed help to dress the wound.

Despite the stinging in his arm, he forced himself to calm down.

Deep breaths, Obi-Wan.

Finally, having calmed down enough, he turned to Satine. She was staring at her trembling hands, looking absent-minded.

Perhaps I have been too harsh.

Swallowing his pride and pain, he reached for one of her hands, pulling her back from where she apparently had been trapped. "Satine?"

Her blue eyes were wide as she looked at him. "I- I'm sorry..."

She tried to pull her hand away, but Obi-Wan held it tightly, noticing the blood - his blood - covering her fingers.

He knew how much she hated blood.

He quietly took a corner of his tunic and began to wipe it off delicately, only stopping when there was not a trace of red left.

When he had finished, he let his hands sink back into his lap. "I'm not going to say it's alright, Satine," he finally began, "because it's not. I-I can't understand your decision and I don't know if I can forgive you for it."

His voice echoed through the deathly still room. "But I want you to know that my offer still stands."

Satine straightened in front of him. "... I should have told you then, I know that now. But I didn't make the decision lightly, Obi-Wan. The risk of the wrong people getting the information was just too great."

She clenched her jaw. "You probably know that better than anyone."

He did.

Her eyes found his bloody sleeve. "We should take a look at that."

Obi-Wan shook his head. "The doctors at the hospital can take care of it."

Sighing, she squatted down in front of him so they were at eye level. "I know this won't change anything between us, but... please let me help you."

He was so force-forsaken tired of arguing. „Okay."

She carefully pulled the tunic over his head and slowly slipped it first over his casted arm and then over the one that had started to bleed. Her gaze lingered on his bandaged chest.

"How bad is it?" she asked softly.

"Bad," Obi-Wan told her the truth dismissively, "I have to have skin grafts in most places."

He could feel her shock spreading through the Force. Normally he would have tried to reassure her, but he didn't even have the strength to put a smile on his face.

"...How bad is the pain?"

"The medication stopped working a few hours ago."

Satine stared at him with a worried expression, visibly struggling to process his words. "Let me..." she hesitated briefly, "Let me get the medkit. There should be bandages and painkillers in there."

Before he could say anything, she hurried into the adjoining bathroom and rummaged through the drawer under the sink before she found what she was looking for. She came back with a small box in her hand and was already opening it on her way back to him.

"Okay... we can work with this," she muttered to herself and pulled out a blister of painkillers, pressing two pills into her palm before holding them out to him, "Here, these should help at least a little."

Obi-Wan eyed the pills suspiciously for a second, wondering if they would help at all, but finally swallowed them. "... thank you."

Satine tipped her head, already pulling out Bacta patches, ointment and bandages from the kit. When she had everything, she looked at him expectantly. "Are you okay with me doing this?"

He silently held his arm out to her. "I'm afraid you'll have to unwrap the whole arm."

She let out a breath, gently taking the limb. "Okay, if I hurt you... you'll tell me immediately."

Methodically, she began to unwind the bandages, slowing as she reached the innermost layer that rested directly on his skin. Though she continued carefully, Obi-Wan couldn't help but grit his teeth as the fabric separated from the sore skin.

The worst part was when Satine reached the bleeding part. He let out a pained grunt, making Satine halt her movements.

He noticed how she stared at the red, destroyed skin, evidently getting sick form the view.

"You can still call one of the medics..."

Satine quickly shook her head. "No, it's... it's alright."

She thinks my injuries are her fault.

The last piece of bandage finally came off. The bleeding spot luckily wasn't big but deep enough that it had bled enough to be worrisome.

"Just put fresh bacta on it and then rewrap the arm," Obi-Wan advised, noting Satine's hesitation.

It was enough to rip her out of her stupor. She did as instructed, carefully covering the wound with bacta and then wrapping the whole arm first with bacta-soaked bandages and then with a layer of dry, white bandages.

"Are you going to stay?" she suddenly asked hesitantly, as if she were standing on a landmine, "At least for today?"

"I don't think that's-."

"For his sake," Satine added, "He can't help my decision."

Obi-Wan studied her eyes closely, only finding sincerity there.

She loves her son.

He knew his heart would probably be torn into shreds, but there was only one right answer.

For my son's sake.

"Alright."