sparky // a padawan story

chapter 44. recovery.

White.
That's all I see when I wake up.
My eyes begin to flutter open at the sound of a quiet, soothing voice beside me. I glance to my right to see Obi-Wan sitting on a small, uncomfortable hospital chair, reading off the pages of his favorite poetry book. A searing sting dances across my midsection, up to my neck and finally lingering at the bottom of my right cheek, near the small Padawan braid behind my ear. I slightly gasp in pain. Obi-Wan's eyes shoot up from his book as he marks his page and closes it, sitting it on the chair he stood up from to sit on the edge of my bed. He carefully takes my hand in his and gingerly moves a strand of my hair in the front of my face to the side by my ear.
"Well would you look at that," I say, voice tired and crackly. "I live to see yet another day."
He sighs in relief at my voice. "Hardly."
"Where am I, anyway?"
"Jedi Temple medbay."
"...And who are you again?" I ask, feigning confusion.
"You don't re—? ...Wait. That's not funny!" he scolds while I start to laugh, but I wince at the sharp pain it causes the upper part of the gash. "Oh, dear. Here." He hands me pain medicine. I take it with a sip of water from a straw from a cup Obi-Wan held towards me and grimace at the peculiar taste.
"It's a little funny."
"No, it's not, Arlo. You scared me half to death."
"More than that one time I jumped through Grievous' spinning lightsaber? Or jumped off a building into traffic? Or—?"
"Arlo. I'm trying to have a serious conversation."
"...Right. Go ahead, then."
"I'm assuming by the way you're joking around that you don't understand how serious this was. You were out for 4 and a half days."
My eyes widen. "...What?"
"Just be glad you woke up. Because... well, it's really didn't look like you were going to at first. Our ship was destroyed and theirs crashed, so I had to carry you around while Hondo to look for Maul and Savage, waiting for our rescue ship. I told myself the reason I went looking was to see if they had died from the crash, but honestly... I feel like I just wanted... revenge. I almost let my emotions take control. Which, mind you, we should never do. The Negotiator came to pick us up, they sent you into emergency surgery. I waited outside the whole time until Cody made me get up and move around. When I came back, you were unconscious in a bacta tank. We finally got back to Coruscant, and then you just... lied here asleep for a few days. And believe it or not, sitting in a room with your unconscious padawan is quite boring. So I started reading to you, sang a little. Talked about nonsense. When I had to go to Council meetings, I made sure Anakin or Ahsoka was here with you. One time Cody and Boil ended up watching you in here. Padmé and Satine even came to visit you once, when Anakin told them you were hurt after he ran into them after a senate meeting. It was bad, Arlo. Horrible, actually."
My jaw falls slack. "I..."
"I know, Arlo. I'm sorry."
"What? Why are you sorry?"
"This shouldn't have happened. I knew something was off the whole time. I should've known. I could've stopped—!"
"Quit thinking about the what if's. I'm still alive. It happened. And you couldn't have stopped it or else I know you would have."
"I—"
"That's exactly what you would tell me and you know it."
"I... yes. You're right. It is."
"So how long am I stuck in this place?"
"A few more days."
I groan. "That's a few more days too many. I'm bored already."
"How about I go get Anakin and Ahsoka so you can see them?"
"Yeah, I'd like that." I try to sit up but to no avail. I fall back on the pillows and scrunch my face in pain.
"Here, let me help." He lets go of my hand and stands to try to help me move.
"I don't need help, I—" I try to painfully sit up again. "...Yeah, I need help."
He slowly moves me into a sitting position on the hospital bed while adjusting the pillows into a more comfortable position. "Is that comfortable?"
"Yeah. Thank you."
"Don't mention it, dear. And now is not the time to be your usual stubborn self. If you need anything at all, ask, because right now you can't do it yourself. You need to focus on recovering as quick as possible, okay?"
"So you basically want me to whine and complain until I get what I want?"
"If that means that you're not gonna hurt yourself more by trying to do things on your own, then yes."
I sigh. "Fine."
"Good. I'll be right back." He exits the hospital room, leaving me alone. I touch my hand to where the gash was on my cheek, and I feel the bandages over it. I lightly trace them down my neck, then I look under my hospital gown and find that it goes down to the left of my stomach. Though it's covered in bandages, I can still see that the wound is thick across my midsection and gets thinner the farther up it goes. This should've easily killed me. So how in the everliving Force am I still alive?
"Arlo!" I hear Ahsoka shout as she runs into the room.
"Careful, Snips!" Anakin says, running right behind her.
"You be careful too, Anakin," Obi-Wan scolds as he walks in behind him and sits back down on his chair, putting his book he sat on there before on the side table.
Ahsoka leans down and gives me the gentlest hug possible. "I'm so glad you're okay, Lo."
"Yeah, you scared us there, Arlo," Anakin says as he ruffles my hair.
I laugh and smile. "Sorry for that."
"Ah, don't be. We knew you'd pull through," he tells me.
"Really? Because I should probably be dead. I mean, look at it."
"Don't say that, Arlo," Obi-Wan scolds. "I'm serious."
"I'm serious. How in the galaxy—?"
"Stop it, Arlo."
"Yeah, Lo, no more negativity," Ahsoka says.
"Yeah, Arlo. Look at the positives. You look like a total badass now," Anakin states.
"Anakin, she almost got chopped in half," Obi-Wan says.
"Yeah, and imagine how intimidating she's gonna look to her enemies now! They won't want to bother her ever again. That's why everyone is so scared of me," he tells me while he points to his scar. "Badass."
"That's... definitely not it, Anakin," I say.
"Yeah, Master, that's not it at all," Ahsoka agrees.
"He probably got while shaving or something," I joke.
Ahsoka laughs. "Maybe he was trying to impress Padm—!"
"No, no, no, no. I got it in a battle with Ventress. I was not shaving, and I was not impressing anyone," Anakin argues.
"...I've always imagined that he got scratched by a cat," Obi-Wan mutters. Ahsoka and I burst out laughing while Anakin pouts. Luckily it doesn't sting the wound near my face this time, as the medicine has already began to kick in. I smile to myself as we continue to poke fun at each other, quickly lifting my spirits. I have the best family ever.
—
"Arlo, it's just soup. You haven't eaten all day, and you need to at least get something in your system before you go to bed."
"But it hurts," I groan. "Sometimes it gets tingly when I talk, too."
"Then stop talking, and eat." A tray with a bowl of soup sits on my lap in bed. They took the heart monitors off of me earlier before I got a bunch of visitors. Master Yoda came to say hello, and Masters Plo, Fisto, and Windu, Barriss, Ahsoka (again) with the whole group of younglings we lead for the Gathering, Cody, Boil, Rex (with Ahsoka once again), Padmé (with Anakin and R2), and Madam Jocasta, in that exact order. All the chit-chatting had worn me out, and the pain meds eventually began to wear away, leaving me in my sore state now. I slosh the soup around the bowl with my spoon. "Quit playing with your food. If you don't eat it soon, it's gonna get cold."
I put the spoon back on the tray. "I don't want it."
"I don't care if you don't want it, because you need it. Tell you what. If you eat just a couple bites, I'll go grab that one fuzzy blanket from my room, and you can use that instead of that white sheet."
I sigh. It's freezing in here, and I really like that blanket... "Fine." I pick up the spoon and carefully start to eat it, moving as little as humanly possible so it doesn't hurt me.
"Thank you," he sighs. "I'll go get that and a few more books, okay?" I shoot him a thumbs up with my free hand as he stands and exits the room. I take a couple more small bites then put the spoon down. For some reason, I feel... angry. At Maul. For putting me in this situation. But more, for putting Obi-Wan in this situation. I push the emotion to the back of my mind as he walks back in. He sits the books and blanket at the end of my bed and takes the tray from my lap, putting it on the side table. He takes off the white sheet used as a blanket and replaces it with the dark brown, fuzzy blanket that's usually placed beside his couch in his quarters, and tucks me in with it. He places his books in a stack next to the tray on the side table. I lay down with a small wince and rest my head on the pillows. "You okay?"
"M'okay."
"Tired?" I nod. "Get some rest. You've got another boring day stuck in here ahead of you." I groan at his comment. "I know. You'll be out of here before you know it, though. Now goodnight." He turns off the light and sits back down on his chair, and rather than hearing him scream at me to stay awake as I drift to sleep, I hear him softly singing.
—
A few days pass and I'm still stuck in this hospital room. And needless to say, I'm bored out of my mind. Luckily, I'm starting to feel a bit better. My meals have increased from just soup to soup and bread, because it's getting easier to eat. I can move around a little, but still can't completely sit up without help. Visitors trickle in and out every once in a while, but Obi-Wan hardly ever budges from his seat beside me. He reads from his favorite books, and mine, too. When he has to leave, he tells me what happened while he was gone. He retells stories of his own adventures, eats his meals with me, sleeps in the old chair by my bed (though I try to get him to go back to his own room so he can actually get some sleep. Every. Single. Night.), and he even found a holochess board for us to play on (and he was impossible to beat).
I currently sit in the room alone. He said he'd be back in a minute. I pick at the end of the bandage on my cheek. It slightly stings, but I choose to ignore it.
"Arlo!" Obi-Wan exclaims with a smile as he pokes his head into my hospital room. "Hey, stop picking at that!"
"But it's annoying me."
"I don't care because that's not good for it. Anyway, I have a surprise for you." I groan as I try to sit up, but completely fail. "Oh, be careful, Arlo. I'll help you up, but first, surprise."
"I swear if you bring in all the homework that I missed, I'll kick your ass once I can move again."
He rolls his eyes. "If you don't watch your language for once in your life, I can tell them to leave."
"No you won't. You're too... what's the word... proper, for that."
He sighs, exasperated. "Do you want me to let them in or not, Sparky?"
"Well, yeah. I wanna see who it is." He opens the door completely and walks in, followed by Satine and Korkie. I smile.
"Good surprise, right? No schoolwork," Obi-Wan says as I wrap my arms around his neck so he can hoist me up into an upright position. I flinch, as it slightly burns.
"I'm definitely surprised," I say as he adjust my pillows so I can lean back, then he sits just by my feet on my bed. Satine and Korkie sit down at my right on the two guest chairs, Satine on the chair closer to Obi-Wan and Korkie by me. "Thanks for coming to see me."
"Of course, dear. We're glad you're starting to feel better," Satine says. "Do you know how much longer you'll be in here?"
"I don't know. Obi-Wan?" I turn to Obi-Wan, he probably knows.
"If everything's healing correctly, then hopefully by the end of the week," he answers. I groan in annoyance while Satine and Korkie softly laugh.
"It's so boring in here. And I can hardly move."
"How've you been passing time?" Satine asks.
"Sometimes people come to talk, and Obi-Wan reads to me." I look at Obi-Wan, who looks down and smiles. Satine looks at him fondly, and Korkie and I share a knowing glance.
"Well, Arlo, I need to go get your lunch and medicine," Obi-Wan says as he stands.
"Ugh."
"I know it hurts, but you have to eat, Arlo."
"No, I'm starving, I just don't want the medicine."
"You are the most whiny person I have ever taken care of, little one."
"That's because you told me to be, remember?"
Obi-Wan sighs. "And I'm starting to regret it."
"I'll help you, Obi-Wan," Satine says as she stands up. He nods in thanks and the two of them leave, leaving Korkie and I alone. We sit in silence for a moment.
"You scared me," he suddenly says.
"Yeah. I'm sorry." I sigh. "I remember what I said that one night. That you wouldn't have to worry about it. But—"
"It's okay, Arlo. What, do you think I'm mad?"
"...Yeah?"
He chuckles and shakes his head. "I'm not mad at you, Arlo. How could I be?"
"...Really easily?"
"You're impossible. No, I'm just glad you're okay." His hand reaches out and lightly rests on top of mine. He stares at our hands for a moment, almost as if he's refusing to look at me.
I laugh softly as I try to lighten the mood. "I can tell you're trying to avoid looking at it. I really don't care if you do. I know it's ugly-looking."
He looks up at me. "It is not ugly, Arlo. Don't say that."
I roll my eyes. "Ugh, fine. It's badass and it really brings out my eyes. That better?"
"Yeah, that's— wait, was that sarcasm?"
"Not at all," I say in the most sarcastic tone that has ever come from my mouth.
"...Kriff, I can't stand you," he chuckles. "But, really, I don't think it looks bad. Like, it definitely looks like it could've killed you, but it doesn't—"
I giggle at his rambling. "I know what you meant, Korkie. But it does look pretty awful. It's worse than the one on my arm, and I thought that one was horrible. Wanna see it?" I pull up my hospital gown sleeve and slightly lean over with a small wince to show him the odd white scar from Mortis.
"Oh, don't hurt yourself, Arlo," he says as he stands and helps me lean back onto my pillows. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me."
"You make that rather hard to do sometimes, you know."
"Oh, I'm fully aware."
He chuckles lightly. "Of course you are." Silence falls over us again as he sits back down in his chair.
"So what've you been up to?" I ask him.
"Oh, not much. It's boring."
"Tell me. I love Obi-Wan's stories, but I've already heard just about all of them."
"You want a story?"
"Sure. What's the most interesting thing that's happened since we last saw each other?"
"Well... I guess when Amis and I got a detention at school for passing notes."
My eyes widen. "They locked you all in a detention center for that?"
He laughs. "What? No, Arlo, that's not how detention works. It's like, you break the rules, so they punish you by putting you in a classroom with a teacher and making your write lines."
"...So no prision?"
"No prision." He laughs again. "You all really don't have detentions?"
"Well we definitely don't call them that."
"What do you call it, then?"
"I don't know. I've only really gotten in trouble in class once after becoming Obi-Wan's padawan, but it wasn't my fault so he got me out of it."
"I find it extremely hard to believe that you've never gotten in trouble before."
"Hey!" I exclaim while laughing. "I'm actually pretty well behaved!"
"No, you are not," I hear Obi-Wan says as him and Satine enter my room once again. Obi-Wan places a tray of soup and bread on my side table as Satine sits back down by Korkie. "That's hot, so let it cool down. Take the medicine for now."
I groan as he hands me a glass of water and two pills. I swallow them quickly with water and grimace at the taste. "It still tastes like bantha fodder."
"Well let's not offend the banthas," Obi-Wan jokes as he sits down on my bed again. Everyone laughs but me. I give him a long eye roll instead.
"So is it true Arlo doesn't get in trouble during her classes?" Korkie asks.
"It surprisingly is. The only time she seems to misbehave is when it's life or death," Obi-Wan answers. Everyone laughs once again, and even I giggle this time.
"Maybe it's because I just like annoying you," I joke. "Now can I eat? I'm hungry."
"If you keep the swearing to minimum," Obi-Wan retorts.
"It's not like you can just deny me food, Master."
"Yeah? Try to pick up that tray on the table on your own."
"Okay."
"Wait, Arlo, don't actually do that—!" He quickly stands up and tries to grab the tray before I do, but I beat him to it by picking it up carefully with the Force and moving it over onto my lap. I snicker as I pick up the slice of bread and dip it in the soup.
I grimace as I swallow the bite I took. "That's hot. And it hurts."
"Well, I did tell you it would be hot." He takes the tray and puts it back on the table. "Wait for the medicine to kick in." I nod as I unconsciously pick at the bandage again. The three of them speak in unison. "Stop that!"
"Don't mess with it."
"Oh, Arlo, careful with that."
"But it's—"
"Annoying, I know, I've heard. If you really want I can see if we can get it off now?" Obi-Wan suggests. "It would be better than you constantly messing with it."
"Please."
"Alright. I'll go ask." He pats my shoulder softly as he exits and leaves me with Korkie and Satine.
"I really am glad you're okay, Arlo," Satine says. "I'm not sure what your Master would've done if you weren't. Or Korkie, for that matter—"
"Auntie—"
I giggle. "Keep going, Satine, I think I wanna hear this."
"He begged me to let him come to Coruscant when I called to tell—"
"I didn't beg!"
"He was here within 2 hours after I told him and he's asked every day to come visit, too."
I feel my face go red. "Oh?"
"I might've suggested it once or twice."
I smile. "Well, I—" Obi-Wan walks back into the room with a medical droid. "Oh, we're taking them off right now?"
"That's what I said just minutes ago," he says. I roll my eyes at him.
The medical droid stands on the opposite side of the bed as everyone else. "The skin should be together but it is still sensitive. So this will probably hurt."
"Of course it will," I mutter. The droid starts to peel off the bandage on my cheek, and I only wince slightly. It goes down to my neck, and he pulls it gently, so it peels off all the ways down to my chest without having to reach under my shirt. The droid moves my covers slightly and lifts the hem of my shirt up to where the rest of the bandage was. He gently takes bit off from where he left off and across down to the thickest part of the wound, where it really starts to sting. I shut my eyes and bite my lip to keep myself from letting out a colorful string of curse words.
"Done," the droid finally says. I open my eyes and look down at the wound. It's jagged and a pinkish color, freshly put together. I notice Obi-Wan look away from it sadly. The droid pulls my hospital gown back over the shorts that I wear underneath. I touch the part of the scar on my cheek. It's rough and the skin is uneven.
I take a shaky breath. "So how long until it looks, I don't know, slightly less disgusting?"
"It completely damaged the skin, so that is highly unlikely."
"So... it's like this... forever?" I feel a bit of anger bubble up in me, but I push it away.
"Yes. It may begin to look a bit lighter or thinner, but for the most part, it will be like that." I don't respond, but I look over at Obi-Wan once again.
"Thank you," he tells the droid as he walks out, then goes silent. He stares at the floor, troubled by something.
"Well," I sigh, "guess I'd better get used to it."
"It'll be okay, Arlo," Korkie says. "You will."
I give him a small smile. "Yeah."
Satine looks at Obi-Wan worriedly, then back at me. She stands from her chair. "Well, I have a meeting to go to, so we should probably be off. Once again, Arlo, I'm glad to see you're doing well," she says with a smile.
"Thanks again for coming, I've missed you all. See you soon, then?"
"Of course, dear."
Korkie reaches out and gives my hand a squeeze. "I'll see you then."
"Yeah. See you then." The two of them wave as they exit. Obi-Wan sits in his usual chair and puts the tray back on my lap. "Obi-Wan, you look like someone just blasted your puppy into oblivion."
"Don't worry about me. I just feel bad, is all."
"Why would you feel bad?"
"This is my fault—"
I groan. "Here we go again. I mean this in the nicest way possible when I say shut up. Like, seriously. Shut up. I don't blame you at all, so quit blaming yourself. It is what it is, it's happened, it's done. We can't change it. You couldn't have done anything, so please, stop saying you could have. A lot of things could've gone different for the worse, but it didn't. Quit clinging onto the what if's. Because they didn't happen. I'm here, and by some miracle, I'm alive. I'm getting better every day, I'll be just fine. So let's leave it at that."
Obi-Wan sighs. "But he only hates you because of me. I'm the one who drug you into this mess in the first place."
"Maybe that's why he didn't like me at first. But now I think I just made too many leg jokes. Apparently that's a sensitive subject."
He tries to hold back a laugh, but can't. "I've never understood how you manage to find some sort of humor out of every situation. If I'm being completely honest, I thought you'd be more angry about this."
"Oh, I'm pissed. And if I have to, I'll reign hellfire upon that son of a—"
"Arlo. Don't talk like that."
"Right. Sorry. Anyway, I haven't really had any time to completely process the anger yet. And I've mostly tried to hide it. For your sake."
He sighs. "What did I tell you about hiding feelings, Arlo?"
"To not hide my feelings. But you can usually tell when I am."
"...I admit I've probably been a bit caught up in myself the past few days."
My face scrunches in confusion. "But all you've done these past few days is take care of me. How is that being caught up in yourself?"
"I meant caught up in my own feelings, and not paying enough attention to yours. Because, well, I'm angry, too. It wouldn't have been the first time he took someone I loved from me."
"Well last I checked, I'm still here. Unless I'm just hallucinating."
He chuckles softly. "You're not hallucinating, dear."
"Exactly. So please, stop putting it all on yourself. You'd think for someone who meditates so much, you'd be far less stressed."
"But—"
"It would make me feel a lot better about all this, Obi-Wan."
He sighs. "Alright. I'm sorry—"
"Quit apologizing. And... I believe I owe you a thank you."
"For what?" he asks with a confused look on his face.
"For taking care of me, obviously. I would've gone mad if you weren't here."
"Why would you thank me for that?"
"Why wouldn't I? If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't even be alive right now."
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, while it was happening, you were acting like I was dying, and I wasn't completely sure what was really going on, so I knew I had to hang in there for you. I remembered what you said before we went to Raydonia, that'd he'd do whatever to hurt me for a reaction from you, and I'd be damned if I actually let him get away with that. I was never really scared of dying until then. I didn't want to leave you. Now that that's clear, will you read more of that one book that Barriss brought me? I'm starting to get invested."
"I... um, yeah. Yeah, I can do that. Don't let your food get cold and gross, though." I nod as he picks up the book and I begin to eat. He skims through the pages to to find where we last left off.
"Hurry up, old man," I say as I take a small bite out of the bread.
"Patience, little one... oh, here it is." He smiles fondly at me, and I feel myself relax as his soothing voice begins reading off the words of the book.
—
no one:
arlo, right about now: i lived, bitch
this next chapter should be a fun one, too, and then we're going into, in my opinion, the saddest couple of episodes in the whole series. how fun 🥰
thanks for reading! -a 🪐