Cody learns to love

The one chapter where Fox gets found

  Obi-Wan Kenobi wouldn't consider himself a great man. He was a literature and history teacher on high school in Little Keldabe, a workplace he first chose because it was the only school willing to employ him with no experience and later chose to remain because Little Keldabe was nothing like the scary district everyone said it was.

  He was sitting in the library until night once again. He had it approved by the librarian as long as he promised to make sure everything was in place and the library was locked before he left.

  Obi-Wan got ready to leave. He took the two books he decided he wanted to read and returned the rest to the shelve and got ready to turn off the lights and lock the empty library. Only, he noticed, the library wasn't empty.

  There was someone sitting in the corner with detectives. One of the Fett boys, Obi-Wan recognized the dark curls. Probably Fox, he couldn't imagine Wolffe willingly spending time in a library.

  "Fox?"

  Fox startled at the sound of his name and turned around. "Mr. Kenobi. I'm sorry."

  "You have nothing to apologize for, my dear. I know how easy it is to lose track of time but you should probably go home. It's getting late."

  "I don't want to go home," Fox said then flinched as if he didn't mean to say it.

  Obi-Wan didn't know what to think about that. He never noticed any signs of abuse on Fox or Wolffe but then again, he wasn't exactly looking for it. He didn't really know anything about the Fetts, only that there was a lot of them. There were Fox and Wolffe at the high school and a Bly Fett graduated the year Obi-Wan started working there. Anakin was working with a Rex Fett in the workshop and his friend from primary school had two other Fetts in her class. How exactly were they related, Obi-Wan didn't know. "Is there a specific reason for that?"

  Fox shook his head.

  "Are you sure? If anyone is hurting you, you need to tell someone."

  Fox looked him in the eyes for the first time. His eyes were red but it was hard to tell if that was from exhaustion or crying. "No. Cody wouldn't," Fox said with conviction. Whoever Cody was, they must be important.

  "Then why don't you want to go home?"

  Fox shrugged.

  "Fox, I can't leave you here. You can go home or you can tell me what the problem is and I will do my best to help you. But you can't stay here."

  "I can't go home."

  "Why not?" Obi-Wan asked. He sat down on the floor so he was more or less on eye level with the boy. He patiently waited for Fox to answer.

  "Cody doesn't want me."

  "Cody is your parent?" Obi-Wan asked carefully.

  That was a wrong thing to say. Fox looked at him as if it personally offended him. "Cody is my brother."

  "And he is really important to you," Obi-Wan said. It was more of a statement than a question and Fox didn't protest. "What about the rest of your family? Are you close with your parents?"

  "I never met my mother," Fox shrugged. "And Jango decided parenting wasn't for him when I was two."

  Apparently, that also wasn't a good thing to say.

  "Cody took me. And the others," Fox continued. "I thought he wanted us," Fox sniffled.

  "Of course he wanted you. He wouldn't take you if he didn't. Cody must love you very much."