CHAPTER TWELVE.

Phoenix and Obi-Wan walked quickly to the med-bay. He kept close by her side. After Jax had left, Phoenix didn't even feel like talking. She didn't want to be on Coruscant and she realised how much of a giant mistake all of this had been. Every doubt sprung to the forefront of her mind and she felt like sobbing. The pain in her hands and feet was worse than before. She hadn't even bothered to put on shoes before she left the apartment leaving dirt to get between the cuts on her feet. 

The glass was - thankfully - no longer in her feet but it didn't stop the discomfort. Obi-Wan went first when they reached the med-bay and explained the situation before they were led into a private room. Phoenix sat on the edge of the bed and Obi-Wan stood by the door as the droid moved in and out, deciding what supplies to get.

After the droid left to gather supplies, Obi-Wan walked over to her. He moved to sit beside her as she stared down at her hand. Her fingers pressed into the cuts despite the pain it caused. It was an odd fascination.

"Phoenix." He said as he looked to her. She turned her face upwards, wiping a few tears off her cheeks. It was important for her to look strong in front of him, especially him. She pushed a fake smile onto her face but he could see the sadness behind her eyes. He had only heard some of the conversation between the couple but he disliked it all the same.

"I'm fine, Obi-Wan. He is like this, my soon-to-be-husband," Phoenix said, trying to put up a brave face but her shoulders slumped at the confession. Obi-Wan could tell that she was exhausted with it all, "He doesn't understand what freedom means and he hates that I got her place," Phoenix muttered as she turned to look at her hands again. Her fingers pushed into the small cuts again. Obi-Wan tentatively grabbed her hand, forcing her to stop. He placed her hands on her knees and she tried to keep them there.

"I need to ask what you saw of the assassin. Any details to help me understand what happened," Obi-Wan said, ignoring the way his body lit up at just the touch of her skin. He hated that he had missed her and she hated that he did that. It reminded her of every single reason she loved him and reaffirmed - in her mind - that she shouldn't marry Jax. But she had to marry him. She couldn't call off the engagement now.

"I didn't really see anything. I was doing my speeches, daydreaming and then a blaster shot through the window. It narrowly missed my head, it was most likely refracted by the glass which is why it didn't hit me," Phoenix gestured vaguely towards her head as she spoke before she dropped her hand again, "The whole window shattered from the blaster shot and so I hid under the desk. They came through the window and I could barely see them. They were dressed in all black, tall, I couldn't tell their hair colour but the mask reminded me of the one that the assassin wore when you were chasing them on your last night on Mith," Phoenix said as she trailed her fingertips across the inside of her wrist. Obi-Wan went quiet at the mention of his last night on Mith and Phoenix shook her head softly.

"There was certainly a resemblance in the mask," Obi-Wan responded. Phoenix nodded and she turned to look at him again. He still looked as perfect as he always did. He was sitting in the stark white lights of the medbay but his eyes still reminded her of home. His hair had grown out and his beard was new but she liked the new addition. He looked put together and she felt the odd compulsion to run her fingers through his hair but she didn't.

She held herself back but there was a slight change in Obi-Wan's features. Phoenix briefly wondered if he'd heard that thought. If he knew what she wanted to do but she wasn't sure. She knew that the Jedi could read minds if they desired but Obi-Wan had never expressed that he could read hers.

But before any more words could be exchanged, the droid returned. They had bacta patches, a pot of bacta and a few other materials. Obi-Wan got up from the bed and stood by the door, standing guard. The ever-watchful Jedi protector. She tried not to look at him as the droid treated her wounds.

The droid poured the bacta pot into a tub that it had brought in. The bacta was diluted before it was placed on a table and pushed in front of Phoenix. She was ordered to place her hands inside and did, watching as the bacta seeped into her skin. It stung at first and she winced, closing her eyes but the pain withdrew after a few seconds.

Once her hands were sufficiently soaked, the tub was placed on the floor and was ordered to put her feet in. She did so and the droid passed her a cloth. She wiped off the excess bacta mixture as the droid used thin pieces of clear tape to pull together the cuts on her face. There was nothing else necessary for them since the skin would heal nicely on its own. 

The droid left the med-bay, ordering Phoenix to keep her feet in the bacta for a few more minutes before she could take them out and leave. The room grew awkwardly silent as Phoenix stared down at her feet in the bacta bath. It was an odd sensation but she tried not to think too much about it.

"Why did you leave me that night on Mith? You knew my habits of late-night walking," Phoenix muttered as she finally lifted her gaze to meet Obi-Wan's. He didn't know how to answer at first, he stayed silent before he moved to sit beside her again.

"I was under a lot of pressure and Qui-Gonn, my Master, had discovered us. When you appeared in the market, it changed everything and I knew that I couldn't carry on," He confessed. Phoenix frowned as she looked at him. It was stupid to be bringing up these questions and maybe it was cruel, to herself, to Jax or even to Obi-Wan to be talking about this but she had to know. It had been plaguing her for years.

"You went against the Code for me," She said and he nodded his head, "Do you regret it?" Obi-Wan was mildly stunned by the question. It was a dangerous one, incredibly dangerous and on some level, she recognised that but she was far too curious to just discard it. She wanted to know, she had to know.

"I don't know. I was a child. I was confused." Obi-Wan said becoming an expert at avoiding the truth. He said he disliked politics but he was better at avoiding answers than any politician she had ever known even including herself.

"I was never confused. I thought you loved me," Phoenix muttered as she stared down at the floor. She pulled her feet out of the tub and shuffled back, wiping her feet with the towel that the droid had given her. The silence permeated between them as he looked at her, watching her as she wiped the bacta solution away. 

Under the harsh lights, he admired her. Her eyes were as beautiful as the day they had met and although they had grown weary and hid sadness behind them, he still adored them. He adored her and her fiery nature. Her unrelenting attitude and her complete stubbornness but he knew he could never say it. He was older now, he knew better. He should have known better but every part of him wanted to reach out and confess. He wanted to take her face into his hands and give her everything Jax should be but he couldn't.

"Jax's words were cruel. Your mother wouldn't want you to give up on your dreams," He said as he looked into her eyes. Phoenix looked up as she placed her feet on the ground. The confusion etched across her features, "She would want you to follow your heart," He added. Phoenix chuckled and gently shook her head. That was the one thing that she could never do and as she stared at him, she realised how similar they were.

"I know she would but I can't follow my heart. Not in career, not in love. I'm a Senator. I don't marry for love, I marry for status. I was stupid to think I could do anything else," Phoenix responded with a half-hearted shrug. She then stood up from the bed. Her legs were a little shaky but she got her footing and walked without any pain. 

"Your mother would argue differently," He muttered in response and she chuckled. Her hand ran through her hair before she let her eyes close, she was completely exhausted. She didn't want to think about this. She didn't want to think about him and them together. She didn't want to think about anything at all. Her head already hurt as it was.

"The assassin, they were strong. They had good reflexes, they were faster than the door and I think they may have bruised my back when they threw me into the desk. Could you check?" She asked. Obi-Wan nodded and he stood up, he gently lifted up the back of her shirt and unveiled a nasty bruise. It was already dotted black and purple. He winced for her.

"I'll get the droid." Phoenix nodded in response and she felt his hand linger for a moment. His fingertips briefly brushed over her skin and it sent butterflies bursting through her stomach. She closed her eyes, trying to forget the warmth of his touch as he disappeared to find the droid.

She knew that it was wrong to still love him and it was wrong to still want him but she did. Obi-Wan also knew it was wrong. He was a Jedi and attachments were strictly forbidden. Even if he had discarded those ideas in his youth, they were still part of his Code and he could not break it. He knew that he couldn't.

But everything in him desperately wanted to, he adored Phoenix in ways he shouldn't. Even the Force seemed to push them together but he couldn't listen to that. The Council would not care if the Force had urged them together, he would be removed from the order regardless so he just had to pretend. He had to act like he didn't feel anything he did.

-

Her night was once again sleepless. She knew that she could try and sleep again but it felt impossible. The weight of the world pressed against her chest and the nightmares plaguing her as she tried to get a few more blissful hours. But they weren't coming and she had no reason to keep trying after waking up three times.

The first time she had woken up was when Jax had returned but he had ignored her presence. He changed and got into bed without a word between them so Phoenix turned back over and tried to sleep again.  She fell back asleep again but the next two times she woke up from more increasingly horrific nightmare. Not that Jax woke up to the noise.

Her wakefulness quickly led to overthinking and thoughts of Obi-Wan running through her head so rather than worrying herself further, she decided that maybe just trying to find out who her assassin was was the better use of her time. She crept out of the bedroom and picked up her datapad before she placed herself down on the couch. It swallowed her up and gave her the comfort she craved.

Then as the night carried on, she began to search for any sort of information she could. There were a few things that she had privileged access to due to her status as a Senator and she felt good. It felt good that her position gave her power so when she spoke to a couple of night guards at nearby buildings, they helped her find out if there were any suspicious characters on the streets. Though part of her wondered if the Jedi by her side also helped her gain access but she didn't think about it too heavily.

Most of the information she had been given led to one dead end or anything but then there was some hope. One of the buildings nearby had a security tape of a girl holding the very mask that Phoenix remembered so clearly from that same night. There only seemed to be one angle where the girl had an obscured face but there were some details. Her platinum hair with mint green stripes made her pretty obvious. It felt like a bad hair colour to choose for an assassin but clearly, she was an amateur.

With the footage, Phoenix felt happier and she put it to rest for the night. She was glad that the businesses around the Senate stayed open for most of the night. It was lucky. But now she could focus on her sketching and putting her energy into that. Only stopping briefly to get a caf since her eyelids wouldn't stay open. Not that she could sleep, no matter how exhausted she felt, sleep would not come so the caf would be her friend.

The caf finished brewing as the sun finally broke the horizon of Coruscant. The soft rays began to shine through the window, warming her face from the cold of the night. The wooden floor was always cold especially in the morning and as she stood in the kitchenette, sipping her caf, she watched the sun. It slowly rising on the other side of the planet, the rays eventually reaching her toes and warming her up completely.

She heard movement a few moments later and her gaze flicked to the door. The door didn't open though so Phoenix went back to her caf. Eventually going back to the armchair that swallowed her up. She took the sketchbook out and continued to work on the landscape. It was nearly done and she loved it. She was debating whether to use some watercolours to really bring it to life but she wasn't sure yet. She would  have to find the watercolours first.

As she hummed and sketched, the door to the room opened. Jax appeared but didn't say anything. He crossed the room and grabbed a protein bar. It was the bars only he ate so she never bothered to look at what they were. He picked them up and then walked towards the door that led to the corridors of the Senate building. Saying nothing as he disappeared out of the living room. Phoenix watched and let out a sigh, gently shaking her head before she rested it on the armchair.

There was muffled talking outside that lasted a little over five minutes before there was silence and then there were more footsteps. It was a good 5 minutes before Phoenix could focus on sketching again. What had Obi-Wan and Jax talked about? Was Jax angry? Was Obi-Wan the one that approached? She had no idea but she let it happen. It played on her mind but it was half an hour before the door opened again.

Obi-Wan walked through this time and she cocked an eyebrow at that. She hadn't expected him to even come in. She had been relieved of Senate duties for the day and all her meetings had shuffled to different times. She was exhausted and shaken from the assassination attempt and despite her denial that she needed shuffles, Palpatine insisted and she gave in.

"I came in because I wanted to apologise for what I was saying last night," He said as he looked at her. She looked at him and tilted her head slightly. It was no doubt a comment that Jax made that brought him to this conclusion. Her silence only made him continue, "Although we have past history, we should not be discussing that and I do not want to confuse you further. I am here to protect you and nothing more," He said, ever being diplomatic. She nodded and then gestured for him to sit on the couch which was a few feet from her. He moved and sat down and she pulled up the security tapes that she gained access to. Quickly, she passed her datapad over with them playing.

"I talked to some of the night guards around here and one of them managed to catch the assassin on the security footage. Just watch," Phoenix said as she leaned over and pressed play on the video. There was a lot of quiet for a moment with a few people milling around and then she walked onto the camera.

The helmet was in her hand and her hair was that platinum blonde. She seemed to turn her head as if she was searching for someone before she then pulled the mask onto her face. Obi-Wan watching, finally glad to have some sort of lead on who it was.

"I don't know how helpful it is but I don't think there are many people on Coruscant with mint green streaks in their hair," Phoenix said and Obi-Wan smiled and nodded. He pressed a few buttons and sent the video to his own datapad which he promptly pulled out. She took hers back and went back to her sketching as he began to do a couple of things on his datapad. The look of concentration spread across his face.

"I recognise the hair but I don't know why. I've arrested plenty of assassins and I don't know if she is one of them," He muttered. Phoenix looked up at him, hoping that maybe he would know. It would make this entire situation so much better. Jax would hopefully not ignore her and they could go back to how they used to be. That's what she wanted, for them to go back to how they were. Even if she was confused about her feelings, it was better than this loneliness.

-

NOTE; hello hello, an update on time today haha, honestly my schedule is so messed up but here's another chapter!! we got more changes for phoenix and some reveals about who has been attacking her, nothing major yet, it's only twelve chapters in after all. also there are twenty-six chapters for this book! so we're close to hitting the halfway mark now. i hope y'all have been enjoying it nonetheless