Cody learns to love

The one chapter where Cody tells the boys they have two sisters

  When Cody got the call from the coruscanti social services that he had two traumatized and abused sisters in the need of a new home, he wasted no time and went to the Coruscant Guard station the social worker directed him to.

  Later, he would message Rex to pick up Fives and Echo, who were fortunately finally back in day care, and Kix and Jesse and Bly to pick up Wooley and Boba from the play area in the mall. He instructed them, Wolffe and Fox to be quiet when they came into the house and that they needed to talk.

  Now, when Bly finally came with Boba in his arms and Wooley toddling behind him, they were finally all gathered in the living room. It was time for Cody to tell them the news.

  "Okay, so, I have some news," he said. He had it planned. The announcement for everyone including the children now, then Fox and Wolffe and their rooms, then Rex and Bly and the reconstruction of the house. "We have two sisters."

  The predictable 'what's came, so Cody explained: "I only found out today. I already met one. Her name is Emerie and she is thirteen. She is sleeping in my bedroom right now, it was a long day for her. And the other one, Omega, is about Boba's age and I will be picking her up tomorrow."

  "That's cool, we have sisters," Echo's little face lit up. "We will watch holo princess movies together."

  Cody chuckled. "Of course you will. Only, listen, everyone. You have to be really, really nice to them both, okay? They come from a really bad home and they will need a lot of help with adjusting and they will need you to be patient and kind. Can you do that?"

  All the kids answered yes, just as Cody knew they would. They were all good boys and they were going to love their sisters. "Okay. Why don't you go to your rooms and play for a bit now? I have to discuss a lot of boring adult stuff with Bly, Rex, Wolffe and Fox."

  "Why Fox?" Echo asked. "He's not old yet, he doesn't have to listen to boring adult stuff."

  Fox leaned closer to Echo and whispered loudly into his ear. "That's because I'm a secret spy and if the boring adults wanted to do something fun behind our backs, I will make sure to stop them," he joked but Cody could see his distress behind the mask of 'alright'. Fox never took well to changes and Cody winced when he remembered he was going to change Fox's life some more.

  "Okay," Echo seemed to take Fox's joke seriously. "Keep an eye on them."

  "I will," Fox promised and after that, the children finally disappeared upstairs and into their rooms. That meant Cody had to continue with the bad news.

  "Okay so... we have a problem."

  "No shit," Rex rolled his eyes.

  Cody decided to ignore him. "Wolffe, Fox, I will need you to bunk together for a few weeks and Emerie will stay in Fox's room for the time being. It's only tempor-"

  Fox cut him of by abruptly standing up and running up the stairs. Cody knew he wasn't going to like the news. Poor boy. Fox needed a stable life, with the minimum of changes, but that was impossible when a new sibling appeared every once in a while.

  "I will go after him," Cody sighed and ran after Fox.

  He found the boy curled up on his bed, with his head forced down to rest on his knees and his hands covering his ears. Fox looked seconds from breaking down. That was, what, almost the third time in the last few weeks? Fox hasn't had this frequent outbursts since primary school.

  "Fox," Cody approached carefully. "Fox. Fox'ika listen to me," Cody gently pulled the shaking teanager close to him and started playing with his hair gently. He knew that trying to pry Fox's hands away from where they were firmly covering Fox's ears would be no use sa he just continued stroking Fox's hair. He needed Fox to calm down, or, if necessary, have his emotional outburst and then calm down.

  Fox burried his head in Cody's chest. He was silent but Cody could feel warm tears soaking his t-shirt. So this was one of Fox's silent outbursts, the ones where he just shook and silently cried, tuning the outside world out. It usually lasted about an hour and ended with Fox passing out.

  "Shh..." Cody pressed a kiss to Fox's dark curls, so similar to his own. "Get it all out, Fox'ika. Shh... I know, I know, I'm sorry. Shh, ner ad'ika."

  Cody was right and in a little over an hour, Fox passed out eventually. Cody gently laid him in his bed and threw the blanket over him. He wanted to stay with Fox but he had other things to do. He kissed Fox's forehead one last time before heading downstairs where Rex and Bly were somewhat handling the situation.

  "Cody," Bly looked at him the second he went through the living room door. "Can we talk?"

  "Sure," Cody shrugged as e followed Bly to his room. "What's this about."

  "I'm going to move out," Bly announced.

  "You don't have to, Bly, we will solve this somehow. If I start rebuilding the garage now, we can have it done in a month or two-"

  "No, Cody, I want to move out," Bly cut him off. "I will be forever glad that I could live with you for, well, my entire life and I thank you that you made sure I always had a place with you. But I'm an adult now, it's time I move out. We've been talking about moving in together with Aayla. This only speeds things up a bit."

  "Are you sure that's what you want? If you aren't ready to move out, we really can figure it out."

  "I'm sure. It would happen anyway in a few months. I mean, I already spend a lot of time in Aayla's apartment and we've been dating for years so it's only time that we finally moved in."

  "And?" Cody asked, because he could tell that there was something his little brother wasn't telling him.

  "What? There is nothing more to it."

  Cody just raised his eyebrow at Bly and his bad lying.

  "Look, I- we wanted to announce this some time later but... Aayla is pregnant."

  Okay, that was quite a revelation. So not only Cody found out he had two sisters, he also found out he was going to have a little niece or nephew. What an eventful day. "Congratulations."

  "You aren't going to remind me that condoms exist?"

  "No. You are an adult, Bly, you and Aayla are in a stable relationship and have been dating for years. You have every right to want children and I'm happy for you."

  "Thank you, Cody," Bly hugged him tightly and Cody returned the embrace.

  "You know you don't ever have to thank me, little brother," Cody reminded him.

  "You are the best, Cody," Bly smiled at him as he pulled away. "I will text Aayla that I will come over and you can let Emerie sleep in my room. I will move the stuff later."

  "You just couldn't tell me all this before Fox got a seizure, could you?"

  "Yeah, sorry about that."