Cody learns to love

9

Cody was having a pretty good day, all things considered. He left Boba, Wooley and Echo with Waxer and went to the office. Boil joked that Cody looked like Waxer before he had his morning coffee and that maybe they really were secretly siblings. A lot of people at work joked about that since Waxer and Boil looked like copies of Cody or any accurately old Fett sibling. Cody didn't think it was funny. He knew how likely it was that they really were brothers.

Boil was kind enough to make him coffee, his third cup that morning. Whenever someone told him he should reduce the amount of caff he drank daily, Cody dismissed them. It was starting to get back to him now. Fox has taken liking to coffee and Cody's attempts at limit Fox's income of caffeine were usually met with Bly's and Rex's stories of how much coffee Cody drank when he was his age. In Cody's defense, when he was Fox's age, he was studying, had a part time job and was caring for four children, one of which was an infant.

"If anything happens today, they escaped because of a faulty camera, not because I slept like three hours."

"Sure thing, boss," Boil gave him a mock salute. And just as Cody turned back to the security camera, some idiot fell into the fountain in the middle of the mall.

"Looks like we are going fishing," Cody sighed.

It was few seconds later that he discovered what of a headache exactly was Quinlan Vos.

A few brain cells lighter Cody left the mall about eight hours later with Boba in a pram and Wooley and Echo in tow. Later on the way they were joined by Kix and Jesse. And Cody, just to boost his mood, decided he was going to leave Bly in charge of the house and take Boba for a check to the doctor. He should've probably done that already. And when he was going there, he could take Fives too.

Bly wasn't exactly happy. Fives wasn't either and nor was Echo, both looking forward to spending some time with each other after the long day of separation. They were giving Cody a headache with how they shared everything. 

They were home for half an hour and Cody felt like he didn't get to say anything besides: 'Echo, you can't drink from the same mug with Fives when he is sick.' or 'Fives, you can't just give Echo the lollipop you just licked when you are sick!' or 'Echo, darling, take your own spoon and don't lick Fives'.'. 

Getting out of the house with only three kids was a relief. True, original plan was two kids, but Kix refused to stay behind. In contrast to all the other children, Kix loved visits to the doctor. It was interesting, really. The other kids described the doctor was 'so, so scary Cody, like a dragon' or that he looked 'like Wolffe when he is about to bite someone'. Once, Kix voiced a suspicion that it was a different doctor because whenever he goes to the doctor's office, there is a nice man that answers all his questions and always praises him for being a good boy before Kix leaves.

"Do you think the doctor would look at me too?"

"You are not sick and it's not the time for your regular check-up just yet."

"Maybe I am sick and just don't know it! There are illnesses that have no visible symptoms. Maybe I have osteoporosis!" Kix said cheerfully. Yeah, this kid was weird. And it was so adorable Cody couldn't bring himself to care.

"I'm cold, Cody," Fives complained.

"That's because you have a fever. Don't worry, we will be at the doctor's office in no time," Cody knelt in front of Fives just to adjust the collar of his jacket so it was covering his whole neck. He made sure Fives was wrapped in at least three layers of warm clothes before he let him leave the house. "See, we are almost there."

Cody's life was officially even more fucked than it was before. While Boba was fine and Kix did not, in fact, have osteoporosis, Fives had strep throat. Kix was entirely too smug about that. Fives was too young to understand. And Cody had a packaging of antibiotics and a child that was to stay at home for two weeks. What was he going to do? He was a busy man, he didn't have time to deal with that.

He wondered about that the whole way back and the whole time he was preparing dinner. The good thing about dinner with so many kids was that you didn't have the time to get lost in your thoughts.

It started innocently enough, with Echo saying he missed Fives and that Fives must have been sad and bored alone in the house.

"I wasn't alone. There was a nice Togruta lady and she was really fun. She told me stories about her brother and he is really cool but stupid at the same time."

Rex choked on the fried chicken. Cody fixed Fives a glare. "Fives, it's rude to call people stupid."

"But he really is! Ahsoka said he fell into the water fountain in the mall once!"

Rex was choking on laughter. Bly was also smirking, as well as Wolffe. Fox's lips curled upwards in the subtle way he always smiled. Cody finally understood what kind of guy this Skywalker really was. He did know something about people falling into fountains. And he didn't want his little brother anywhere near to them, thank you very much.

"Wow! What else did she say?" Jesse asked eagerly, no doubt plotting a glorious swim in the water fountain already. Cody was going to have to talk to Rex about his choice of friends.

"She asked if Rex had a girlfriend," Fives said as a matter of fact. Now it was Cody's turn to choke on laughter.

"What. Did. You. Tell. Her?" Rex asked slowly. His cheeks were burning. So much blackmail material... Maybe Cody wasn't having such a bad day after all. He will have to try and ask this Ahsoka to babysit again.

"That Bly has a girlfriend."