"Get up, commander. I'm not going to leave you here." Kenobi stepped in front of Cody, his lightsaber creating an impenetrable shield around them.

"Respectfully, sir, I can't. Let me cover your escape. Get to the top of the ridge and call in air support." He said, dragging his wounded leg behind him as he crawled over to an outcropping of boulders.

"Not without you." Kenobi said flatly, keying his commlink.

Cody was getting increasingly more frustrated. "I'm expendable, you're not." Kenobi actually glared at him.

"You may be expendable to some people," he picked Cody up with the force and tossed him over his shoulder like a bag of wet rations. "But not to me. Cover out backs. Evac is at the top of the ridge."

Cody hissed slightly in pain and at being manhandled like this, but obeyed his orders with a grumbled "Sir yes sir."

"Understood, Cody?" Ahsoka asked again, jolting him back to reality.

Cody nodded, trying to make his voice work. "Understood." He croaked back. Ahsoka threw her arms around him unexpectedly, making him flinch.

"Rex and I both love you very much." She said quietly. "It's been a hot second since I've seen him that scared." She pulled back.

"When will he be back?" Cody asked.

"Not for another hour or so. We really need to get a speeder if we end up staying here long term. Not to mention Rex and I will have to start work." She sighed, presumably shaking her head.

"On a positive note, I'm really glad you're here. It'd take a lot for Rex to admit it, stubborn as he is, but he misses his brothers." She said. "With you around he seems... happier. He blames himself for the cruiser crash."

"I know. He told me what you did for those men." Cody turned his head her direction. It took her a long time to respond.

"I wish I could've done it for more of them. We couldn't find all the bodies. But... even still. I know how we get rid of the dead we manage to recover." Her voice sounded too old for the seventeen year old she was.

"What do you miss with the..." Ahsoka trailed off.

"Blindness?" Cody filled in, part of him noting the blatant change of subject.

"Yeah."

Cody thought about it for a second. "Honestly? Being able to read. Most of what I got were reports, but my uh... Kenobi snuck me a couple holonovels." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"What were they about?" She asked, sounding genuinely interested. Cody shrugged.

"A couple ones of actual magic, like people being able to control wind and fire with their minds... a couple pirate adventures, the odd romance. Anything he finished and thought I'd like, really." Cody shrugged.

"Huh. Why those? You had plenty of adventures of your own." She pointed out.

"I uh... I guess it was fun to read something that you knew was going to be alright in the end. That even if bad things happened, the hero always saved the day." He said softly. He hesitated. "Could...could you read to me? At least until Rex gets back?" He asked sheepishly.

Ahsoka seemed to light up beside him. "Of course! Hold on, I'm going to grab a datapad." He felt the couch shift as she bounded up raced away surprisingly fast for somebody almost into the second trimester of pregnancy.

She came back a second later and plopped down next to him. "Alright, tell me when to stop. Red Rising, by Pierce Brown, Steelheart, Brandon Sanderson, How to Train your Dragon, by Cressida Cowel, Gone, Michael Grant, The Green Ember, SD Smith, The Lightning Thief, By Rick Riordan, Divergent, By Veronica Roth, Guardians of Ga'Hoole, Kathryn Lasky, Black Beauty, By Anna Swell, Mind Forged, T Michael Ford-"

"There. That one." Cody interrupted her. "That one was one of the books I was loaned. It was my favorite."

"Ok. I'll pull it up." He could here her tapping on the datapad. "Alright. Prologue...."

Ahsoka read until her throat was tired. She didn't notice Rex slip in through the door and sit next to his brother, a bag of groceries at his feet.

Ahsoka paused in her reading and cleared her throat. "Sorry, I'm just going to get a drink of water." She apologized, standing up and finally noticing that Rex was home. She kissed him on the cheek and grabbed her glass of water, setting it by her feet. She moved to turn the datapad off so they could talk when Rex stopped her.

"No, keep going, please." He begged. "I want to see what the She-Devil teacher looks like under the mask. I'll bet she's as pretty as he described her eyes." He said. Cody shook his head.

"No, if you'd ever read something like this then you know that there's probably something more to her than that if she wears a mask always." He said. Ahsoka put a hand over his mouth.

"Shhh! No spoilers! Just because you know what'll happen doesn't mean we do!" She chastised him. "I still want to know how she and Rosa met." She sighed, taking a drink of water.

"Well? Read on!" Rex said excitedly. Ahsoka laughed into her cup and picked up the datapad once more.

A/N ~ Day three gajillion of trying to raise awareness to the most underrated books out there. Mind Forged and it's sequels are some of the best books I ever read, yet there is no fandom. No art other than cover art, nothing on YouTube, nada. Actually, a lot of the basis for Rex and Ahsoka's romance comes from what I learned in these books, even though the romance was a side plot. If you need a good series to read with a writing style that heavily influenced mine, check them out.

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