"I found him leaning against the tree in the Corner Garden," Qui-Gon reported calmly. The Council had summoned Obi-Wan to meet with them concerning his third repudiation. When he hadn't answered, and when it had been discovered he was not in his quarters, various Knights had been sent to find him. Those Knights stood around the perimeter of the room, behind the Council members. Behind Adi Gallia stood a female Foilani he didn't know. He noticed her because she looked angry, and yet he could not feel her anger in the Force. Maybe she always looked like that. "He did not notice me until I spoke." He paused a little before going on, pushing the Foilani Knight from his head. "All is not as it seems," he said finally.
"What mean you?" Yoda asked.
"The boy was so weak he couldn't get up." He paused, staring blankly out the large windows, reviewing the scene in his mind. "He is injured and wary. He looked like he'd been stepped on. Not literally, of course," he added. "He would not go to the Healers, although he needed to. And there was a feeling..."
The Council watched him quietly as he gathered his thoughts. The look of hopelessness and pain in the boy's blue-grey eyes had certainly struck him as odd, especially if he were as rebellious as Toman had said. "He was too thin," he said finally.
Yoda watched him narrowly. "More to say, you have," he said.
"I don't think the boy is the only one at fault," Qui-Gon admitted. "But I have no proof right now that such is the case. His relief and other feelings hid his despair, and I have never felt that kind of despair from an Initiate. His control of the Force is no better than an eight-year-old's, but it must have been better once, or he would not have been chosen." The Foilani he'd noticed shifted slightly, and her frown deepened.
"Notice this, we did," Yoda said softly.
"We're not so sure the fault doesn't lie entirely with Obi-Wan," Mace continued after a short pause. "His friends have found him aloof, and even cold."
Qui-Gon nodded. He didn't agree with them, which was nothing new, but he didn't have enough information to refute their judgment, and he could not have said why it mattered.
"Since found him you have," Yoda said, "continue this investigation you must."
It took him by surprise, but he nodded, wondering if he only imagined the gleam in the Master's eyes. "Yes, Master Yoda. Of course." The Foilani's frown deepened even further.
He left the council room alone. He didn't go straight to Obi-Wan's quarters, didn't want the boy to feel like he was checking on him, so he went into the food hall to find out for himself who the boy's friends were, by observation. He felt he could not trust Obi-Wan's former Master, and although the feeling surprised him, he did not doubt the Force.
To his surprise, however, he did not see the boy among the students at dinner. He wondered if he'd missed him, and began asking around to find out who Obi-Wan's friends had been. It took most of the meal, moving among the students, before he found Bant, a small, Mon Calamari girl who was only picking at her food. He sat down in the empty place across from her. Her eyes shot up, firm and almost angry, but they softened and she flushed slightly when she recognized him. "You were saving this seat," he said gently.
"It's Obi-Wan's," she said. "He won't be down tonight, but I wanted to pretend he was there."
Qui-Gon leaned forward. "Why won't he be down?" He was almost afraid of what she had to say, hoping that the boy hadn't taken his words to mean he should stay in his quarters until called for.
"We were supposed to meet for dinner," she said, and that eased his mind a little. "But when he didn't meet me, I went to get him. He looked tired when we'd made those plans, and I thought maybe he'd fallen asleep." She swallowed, and a miserable look crossed her face. "When I got to his room, he didn't answer, so I went in. He was..." She hesitated, and Qui-Gon waited in silence. "I couldn't wake him up," she said finally. "It looked like he'd fallen just inside his room. So I called the Healers, and he's there, now. I don't know when they'll release him."
Qui-Gon did not quite manage to hide his dismay. He'd known the boy wasn't well, and should have insisted that he go to the Healers. There was nothing he could do about it now. "I understand you and he are friends," he said quietly, determined to continue gathering information.
"We have known each other a long time," she said, and smiled shyly at him. "He is one of my closest friends."
"Have you noticed a difference in him?"
She paused, and then nodded slowly. "He has been distant," she said, "but he told me once that it was not because he was not my friend."
Qui-Gon lifted an eyebrow. "What did he mean?"
"I don't know. But he has not been happy for a long time." She finally set her fork down, giving up entirely on eating.
"Thank you," he said gently to her. "I may need to speak to you again."
She nodded, looking so miserable and lost that he wished he could help her. Instead, he got up and left the food hall. He simply could not still the feeling that something had gone horribly wrong, that somehow, the Jedi had failed this boy. He did not like it.
He strode through the Temple purposefully, keeping his thoughts calm. The boy's mind had been full of spikes when he'd tried to touch it, and he did not wish to force his presence where it was obviously not wanted. Obi-Wan had wanted to keep someone out of his head. Even if he didn't know how to do that.
Theela, one of the Healers, met him at the door. "You are here to see young Kenobi," she said.
"Yes," he said. "What is wrong with him?"
She looked almost angry. "He was dehydrated and malnourished. His knee should not have been walked on; it has been twisted and may not heal well." She glanced at Qui-Gon, eyes narrowed. "We find humans too thin as it is," she said carefully. He nodded, aware of the feelings of the Hjem. They were a large people, and even Qui- Gon, one of the largest of the human Jedi, was considered a runt. Theela towered nearly a foot over him. Were he a Hjem, Obi-Wan would probably not be allowed to live. "Even for a human, he is thin. Master Carina says he's growing, and many boys his age look like that, but she also agreed that he was too thin." Theela fixed her eyes on him sternly. "You may see him," she said. "Be careful."
He nodded and followed her into the side room where Obi-Wan lay. He was still, covered lightly and sleeping, but from the feel of the Force in the room, the Healers were keeping him asleep. He glanced at Theela, questioning.
"When he woke up," Theela said, "he panicked. We could not reason with him."
That made sense. His comment about going to see the Healers had not gone over well with the boy, either, and he remembered that panic had indeed been in the Force around him. He moved further into the room, looking closer. The boy's hair was brown, with a faint red tint that became more obvious in his braid. His face was thin, almost sunken in, and Qui-Gon wondered, with a grimace of anger, the last time he'd been allowed to eat until he was full.
"Good that you are here," Yoda said behind him, and he turned to see the Council Member hovering in his float chair in the doorway. "Take the boy, you must."
"Take him where?" Qui-Gon asked, startled.
"From the Temple he must go, where it does not matter. Find his center, he must. Help him, you can."
Still confused, Qui-Gon nodded. "I will arrange it immediately."
Padawan he did not have, Qui-Gon thought as he quickly and carefully folded the boy's meager belongings and packed them in the travel bag he'd found with the clothes. His lips twisted slightly as he realized his phrasing, but they straightened again as his thoughts continued. It was a relief to him; he did not want another Padawan. But he did not know about teaching when there was no bond involved. That it was done was obvious - it was done in the Temple every day - but he did not know if he were the right one for the job. Yoda obviously believed so, and Qui-Gon shook his head. There was no telling what Yoda really thought, especially with that suspicious gleam in his eye. He was just glad he knew a place to take the boy, and that it was available right now.
He was on his way to the transport to meet his student and be on his way when he passed the female Foilani Knight again, the one that had looked so angry when he'd been reporting what he'd found. She nodded as he passed, but he couldn't stifle the shiver that traveled his spine as he walked away from her. Before he rounded the corner to the transport bay, he glanced back. She was staring after him, eyes narrowed, anger on her thin face.
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