Spoiler: This is an excerpt from Longing
He has so many things which he ought to be doing instead, he knows, but he just – he can’t. He can’t think about that when General Skywalker has gone off somewhere on her own. He worries about her, worries about how this has affected her. Being involved on a mission which brings her face-to-face with slavery again couldn’t have been easy.
She’s in a storage closet, one which is rarely used, and it took Cody several hours before he stumbled across her location totally by accident. She’s sitting on the floor in a corner, back pressed up against a crate, knees pulled to her chest. She looks small, vulnerable, scared almost.
It’s so… strange to see her like this, to see her falling apart inside. Her head is bowed, hair falling loose and hiding her face from sight. Cody doesn’t need to see her face, though, to know that she isn’t alright. He stands in the doorway, uncertain how to think or feel, uncertain if he should go in or leave her.
“General,” he whispers at last, feeling his heart hurt for the woman he loves. He steps closer, and the door slides closed behind him, leaving them alone in the relative dark. There’s only a dim light overhead, a light which is always on, but she never turned on the lights here.
“Cody,” she replies, her voice just as quiet, but it’s strained.
He doesn’t need the Force to know that there’s a turmoil in her, demons from her past tormenting her. Hesitantly, feeling horribly out of place, he moves closer, crouching next to her. What does he even say? What should he say to her? Does she even want him to say anything?
“What happened?” he asks at last. He will not ask if she’s alright, will not give her any reason to think that she needs to go back to hiding her feelings and closing them off. He has seen her do it so many times, and he wishes that she could confide in someone the way she encourages so many to open up to her.
“Zygerria happened,” she replies blandly. There’s a tremor in her voice, a faint wisp of… some unnamable emotion, perhaps pain, which is hidden under the sarcasm.
Talk to me, Cody wants to say to her. Tell me what’s weighing on you so heavily.
She can only struggle with this so long on her own before she can’t anymore. She might be a Jedi, but she is still human, and more than anything, Cody wants to help her.
