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Cody was stunned when he saw Quinlan after several months where they had no opportunity to cross paths.
Quinlan had lost weight, he actually looked exhausted, and he didn't act half as cheerful as Cody was used to. He was hardly even talking, and Quinlan was normally a chatterbox.
"You look awful," Cody blurted, then cursed at himself for saying something so stupidly impulsive.
Quinlan jumped and then shrugged. "I've been busy," he replied quietly.
"Well, if there's anything I can do to help..."
Quinlan gave him a smile. "I don't think so, but thank you."
Cody kept any suggestions for hang out low energy and low pressure.
Quinlan was a good friend, a fun friend. He took care of himself, and was self aware enough to actually get help when he needed it usually.
Cody had thought he'd never have to worry about Quinlan the way he worried about Obi-Wan.
.
A warning in the Force. Everything turned red, he was hurt. His own troopers turned on him. On all the Jedi. All the Jedi... were dying.
And in the background, all he could hear was a high pitched sinister laugh as he watched Cody kill Obi-Wan then turn his way.
Quinlan woke with a gasp. He breathed heavily as he calmed down.
It was a familiar nightmare.
Every time they thought the war was at an end, but they didn't have the Sith, something would happen, and Jedi would die. The clones turning on them was one of the most common ways. But the droids suddenly being more efficient popped up more than once.
Quinlan sighed and rubbed his eyes before checking the time.
Four hours. Well, considering he'd been averaging three hours of sleep, often less, that was better than usual. Quinlan got out of bed to start his day very early. He meditated for two hours, just to be sure he had processed and let go as much as he was capable of.
Then he got a big mug of caf and started looking over his notes on Sidious so far.
His guest bedroom looked like the home of a conspiracy theorist with the boards and his attempts to connect everything he could.
He had no idea what could be a clue and what wasn't. They had little to nothing about Sidious, beyond what they had picked up based on his planning, and even then, it was hard to know how much was Dooku's planning, and how much was Sidious.
Quinlan knew he needed to take a break from this. He knew he needed more sleep.
But he couldn't not with the images of his family dying around him, not with the echoes of 'good soldiers follow orders' in his head.
The Force was trying to tell him something, but Quinlan had no idea what it was. He didn’t even know why the Force had chosen him; he usually did not get visions. Certainly not ones so persistent.
The only thing he could sus out was that they could not expect everything to end just because the war ended. In fact, the end of the war seemed to trigger the death of the Jedi Order. Which meant that they had to get Sidious. They couldn't end the war without Sidious, or it would mean their deaths.
But they were getting closer and closer to the end of the war.
The trading wins with the Separatists was over, and the Republic was gaining down. All they had to do was take out the CIS leadership, and they would have the war ended.
This could happen any day.
Quinlan was ready to tear out his hair.
He knew he looked awful. But he couldn't let this rest.
He had mentioned the nightmares to a few people, made sure to clarify he was certain they were from the Force, but they were too stressed, too busy with the war to get into even a debate on what it was about.
Quinlan was alone in this. Just like every other Jedi in this war.
The Jedi who were closest to each other were the Council, but even they were isolated and struggling to keep themselves afloat.
Quinlan couldn't blame them for not wanting to think about the implications of what his nightmares were saying. Of course they didn't want to think that they would have to drag out the war longer, that anyone could betray them. Of course they had only the usual wisdom; their brainpower was stuck on other things.
But Quinlan was so, so exhausted. He tried working himself harder on his missions, tried to work himself into sleep to avoid the nightmares.
It didn't work. The Force wouldn't let him rest. It seemed to be getting more frantic. This couldn't happen.
The Jedi could not die. Everything would fall apart.
And Quinlan was the only one doing anything about it.
His failures were starting to sneak into his normal nightmares, the rare nights he could not feel any influence of the Force.
Quinlan stared at his wall of connections and dropped onto the bed and screamed into a pillow.
What was he missing? It had to be super obvious.
His alarm went off. It was time for him to get ready for the day.
Quinlan reluctantly took one last look at the board before going to get another large mug of caf and getting started.
He had to get back to work. He was heading out with the 212th, traveling part of the distance with them. He was sure it was going to be interesting.
If he wasn't so exhausted and stressed.
He made it onto the ship on time.
Obi-Wan gave him a sympathetic look, almost as tired as he was, and more stressed. Running the Jedi Order and the GAR was hard.
Quinlan was glad that was not him. He would have broken under that pressure within a year.
He retreated to the guest rooms he would be using and flopped onto the bed, mind whirling with half formed thoughts and connections.
He dozed off.
"Good soldiers follow orders," Cody intoned as he lifted his blaster and shot Quinlan.
Quinlan shot up with a gasp. He drew his knees to his chest and cried. What was he missing? He couldn't keep doing this to himself.
He needed help, but there was no one available. There wasn't even anyone working on the problem of the Sith anymore because Sidious hardly ever appeared, and if it weren't for Dooku's occasional references to him, there was no reason to think Sidious was there.
Quinlan didn't blame them. There wasn't much to go off of, mostly just what Dooku told them, and that could all just be made up.
Although... What had he said?
Quinlan dug out his notes on that. He had dismissed the details early on because it made sense to.
But what if Dooku wasn't lying? He could have been trying to scare and warn Obi-Wan. He always did like Obi-Wan as his grandpadawan.
The Sith controlled the Senate.
Quinlan sat up straight and went into his notes document again, frantically looking over everything.
All the problems they had been running into with the Senate... the stonewalling, the rules that hadn't existed just years before...
That could all be explained by the Sith having an in with the Senate in some way... and being able to control it to some extent.
Quinlan slot that in on his theories to draw connections to. He could now narrow down suspects. Someone connected to the Senate is someone who would have interactions with multiple Senators, but more than a few of the Senators making those decisions had never been seen talking with anyone who looked questionable. They'd never even been seen leaving the general area that the elites of Coruscant preferred.
Just as he finished making some additional notes on how to narrow it down and look for a common denominator, he got the notice that it was time for dinner.
Quinlan stretched and checked his appearance. He grimaced. Cody was right. He looked awful. Oh well. Nothing he could do about it. He didn't think he would be able to sleep until they got Sidious.
.
Cody paced anxiously. Quinlan had gone off on his mission and then days later had needed extraction.
He'd slipped up, and gotten caught. He was hurt.
He got the intel, but didn't finish the mission as directed.
Cody was pretty sure Quinlan slipped up because he was so exhausted.
And now Quinlan was in surgery with the medics because one of his injuries was that bad.
Cody hoped Quinlan was okay.
Obi-Wan was reporting to the Council and planning their next move.
When Quinlan came out of surgery, Cody was right there to sit with him.
They were still on downtime, as their current job was patrol.
Cody waited for Quinlan to wake up.
He didn't expect Quinlan to have a nightmare.
Quinlan started shifting, frowning and making the occasional distressed noise.
"No..." he whispered. "Not again..." He shifted more.
Cody squeezed his hand gently. "Quin, wake up, you're safe."
Quinlan shot up, gasping, then he winced as he fell back onto the pillows. "Ow..."
"It's okay, Quin. You're safe. I'm here."
Quinlan gave him a weak smile. "Hey, Codes. Good to see you. I'm sure I look awful."
Cody snorted. "You had to have surgery. No one looks good after surgery. Want to talk about the nightmare?"
Quinlan shook his head. "It's a recurring one."
"So that's why you're not sleeping."
"...you noticed."
"Quin. It's obvious. It's okay if you don't want to talk about it, but I've been worried. So's Obi-Wan, though he's been too busy to follow up on it. I swear he's busier every week despite how well things have been going."
Quinlan sighed. "I... I'm failing at finding the Sith and it's haunting me," he admitted. "The Force is haunting me. They caught me because I was so exhausted I had a moment of double vision and... Yeah. It's a miracle I was able to get out of it as well as I did."
"I'm sorry. Sounds rough. But I don't think you're a failure."
"...why not?"
"You're still trying. No one else has found the Sith, so why should it all be on you?"
"You make a good point."
"Get some sleep."
"You're not going to get the medic?"
"Do you need painkillers?"
"...no..."
"It's the middle of the night, you can get some more sleep, and talk in the morning."
"...I usually can't sleep after that nightmare."
"Well, you're not alone, are you?"
"...no..."
"Then try? You need all the sleep you can get while you're hurt."
Quinlan sighed. "You're not wrong... Why do you care?"
"You're my friend, aren't you?" Cody responded, offended. "And... I care about you. I want you to get better. I know you're doing the best you can. You're not a failure, I can promise you that, Quin. It's just taking you a while. You're amazing at what you do. I'm sure you'll figure it out."
Quinlan gave him a soft smile in return. "Well, you're pretty great too. Thank you. This... this means a lot to me."
"No problem."
"Can you join me?"
"Of course."
Cody slid into the bed carefully and got into cuddling position.
Quinlan relaxed and fell asleep rather quickly despite the nightmare.
Cody watched him sleep for a bit before falling asleep himself.
.
It took many sleepless nights, and more nightmares before Quinlan finally figured it out.
Cody was the first one he told, who sleepily told him he was amazing, great job, and then "I love you, but please sleep."
Quinlan never let him live it down.