Cody learns to love

The one chapter where Obi-Wan takes care of things

  Obi-Wan didn't regret his decision to take the kids to the park with him. Even if he had to engage in four separate conversations at once. He could multitask.

  "Which one is your favorite?" Echo asked suddenly. Apparently, Obi-Wan wasn't as good at keeping up with multiple conversations as he thought. He had no idea what was Echo talking about.

  "I'm sorry, Echo, I didn't hear what you were talking about earlier."

  "Holo net princesses. Which one is your favorite?"

  "I don't think I have a favorite holo net princess. But you can tell me about your favorite princess. Maybe I will like her too."

  "I really like Jennie the fairy princess. She has a pet dolphin!"

  "Really? And what's her story?"

  "An evil pirate stole her magic wand so she had to ride her dolphin to get to the pirate's ship. But he escaped in a small boat but Jennie found him and then he tried to use the magic wand against her but the wand likes Jennie too much and it burned his hand instead and he dropped it. Jennie cursed him and he became a statue and can't move."

  "Wow! That's quite a story. And why do you like this princess so much?"

  "She does real cool stuff with her magic wand. Look!" Echo pretended he was holding a wand. "Fives! I'm making you fly!"

  Fives played along, jumping as high as he could. "I'm flying!"

  "No you aren't," Emerie pointed out. She didn't seem to understand that it was a game. Poor child...

  "You are spoiling the game!" Fives yelled at her.

  Emerie would probably either apologize or yell back but Obi-Wan stepped in before she could say anything. "There is no need to get angry, Fives. Emerie just isn't familiar with this type of games. Why don't you explain it to her."

  "Everyone knows how to play games," Fives argued. "If she doesn't know how to play games, she is stupid."

  "That's not true, Fives. I think you should apologize to Emerie."

  "No," Fives pouted.

  "This isn't very nice of-"

  "Look, the park!" Echo announced that they were nearing their destination. He didn't seem to mind that Obi-Wan was talking.

  "Who is last is a loser!" Jesse shouted as he ran off in the direction of the park, closely followed by the twins.

  "You aren't racing with them?"

  Emerie shook her head. "I don't like running. Fives will laugh at me for being slow but I don't care."

  "He shouldn't be telling you mean things like that."

  "He doesn't mean it. Or at least that's what Fox said. But he always tells the kids to stop when they say things like this."

  "And he is right to do so. They shouldn't be saying it. Can we walk a little faster? I don't want to lose sight of them."

  "Okay."

  They caught up with the younger children who stopped at the nearest playground. They seemed to be chasing each other around. Obi-Wan thought the playground safe enough to let them run wherever they wanted as long as he could see them.

  "You aren't going to play?" Obi-Wan asked Emerie. Cody never told him how old she was but judging by her appearance, she had to be at least twelve. Children usually didn't play games like this at that age from what Obi-Wan knew but Emerie's behavior was unique in a way that could be considered childish.

  "It doesn't look really fun. Games with Fox are better."

  "You play with Fox a lot?"

  "Yeah." Emerie nodded enthusiastically. "We are best friends."

  Obi-Wan wasn't sure if Fox was aware of that. From what he's seen during the two times he visited the Fetts for dinner, Fox didn't seem very interested in talking to Emerie. But maybe Obi-Wan just read the situation wrong. "You are lucky to get along with your brother."

  "They are all great. But Fox is the best. He taught me how to play sabacc."

  Obi-Wan wasn't sure that sabacc was a game meant for children. It was very popular among gamblers, the sort of game that could be played in almost every canting in the lower levels of Coruscant. He supposed that if there weren't for all the gambling around it, sabacc would be just a game like any other. "Do you like it?"

  "It would be more fun if Fox didn't win every time. He said I will get better at it."

  "Practice makes perfect."

  "Cody said that once too. Do you think it's true?"

  "I think it is. You can never get better at anything if you don't practice it."

  They spent some more time chatting like that. Emerie turned out to be a pretty good conversation partner. They talked for almost an hour before Obi-Wan decided that it was time to take the kids back home.

  When they came back, Fox opened the door. He had Omega in his arms. "Quiet, Cody is asleep," he warned them.

  "But it's not late. Why is he asleep?" Echo didn't get it.

  Fox shrugged. "He was tired."

  "But I want to tell Cody about the game we played," Fives complained.

  "You can tell him in the morning, Fives. Now let's get you all ready for bed. I will tell Cody how good you were," Obi-Wan promised. He remembered everything COdy showed him the last time. "Let's get your teeth brushed."

  "No!" Fives and Echo groaned in unison.

  Obi-Wan was really glad he learned the arts of diplomacy. Because that was how he got the children to brush their teeth, shower and change into their pajamas, that all without shouting. Fox also helped, he got Wooley ready for bed before they even came back from the park and then helped Emerie. She could do everything by herself but needed someone to remind her what the next step of her bedtime routine was. Fox still managed to avoid talking to Obi-Wan in the process.

  Needless to say, Obi-Wan managed to get the children to bed. It exhausted him and he didn't understand how Cody could do this every day. But just managing it was enough for now. And they didn't even wake Cody up in the process.

  Only he spoke too soon. Boba chose that exact moment to start crying. He was supposed to be asleep. Why could nothing go how it was supposed to with children?

  Obi-Wan hurried to Cody's room where Boba was crying in his crib. Cody was getting up already. Obi-Wan pushed him back to the bed. "I've got it, Cody. You can go back to sleep. I will take care of Boba, I promise."

  Cody would've never agreed to it if he was awake but he was more than half asleep at the moment and just lay back into his bed. Obi-Wan took Boba to the living room. He didn't want Cody waking up more.

  "Shhh..." Obi-Wan rocked Boba gently. "Let's not wake up your buir."