A/N: I do not own Star Wars. I am merely playing with some of the characters.
Another familiar character enters the fold...
Chapter Three
What have I done? What have I done? The mantra repeated itself incessantly inside his head as he continued his drive back to the apartment. His heart beat wildly inside his chest and he could feel sweat forming along his brow and under his arms. His body smarted where the unnamed thug had hit him, though the pain was strongest in his hands. They still hadn't quite recovered from the fight that had landed him in this mess. Only pure adrenaline kept his grip steady as he continued on his course.
Occasionally, Ben glanced in his rearview mirror at the girl lying across his backseat. She was still unconscious, though he didn't know if he felt relieved by that or not. If she woke up in his car, she might panic and assume the worst. Would he let her out of the car if she demanded it of him? If it meant she'd go to the police and report him as a kidnapper when it wasn't true, screwing up his life past the point of no return? Of course, if he refused to let her out of the car, wouldn't that technically make him a kidnapper? His head swam with thoughts he didn't know what to do with. All that mattered was getting her home before any of that had a chance of happening.
When he parked in his designated spot back at the apartment complex a few minutes later, his thoughts turned to his next obstacle. How would he get Rey inside without anyone noticing? A quick glance at his phone told him it was nine-fifteen. Late enough that most people would be home, but still early enough that residents would still be trickling in. He was about to open his door and get out when another car pulled in. Ben held his breath, suddenly paranoid that the man he'd left behind had somehow followed him, but he released it a second later. It was only the old man who lived in the apartment below his.
Once the man disappeared from sight, Ben steeled his nerves and got out. Rey was still out cold, so it made picking her up and carrying her that much easier. He cradled her carefully in his arms, hit the lock button on his car keys, then somehow managed to maneuver them into his pocket without dropping his burden.
Ben definitely did not consider himself to be a religious man, but he prayed to all the gods he could think of as he slowly made his way inside the apartment building. The lobby was deserted, which meant the guard currently stationed at the door had taken a bathroom break. Normally this would irritate him, but now he was only grateful as he made his way across the lobby to the elevator bay without interruption.
There was no way he was going to carry the girl up ten flights of stairs to his upper level apartment. There would be too many opportunities to encounter someone and he still did not have a cover story if his luck broke and he ran into someone. Plus, he didn't think his aching body could handle her weight for that long. She was skinny, but she was still a fully-grown human.
The elevator dinged its arrival and Ben braced himself to be met with someone, but when the doors opened he saw that the elevator was empty. He turned to step inside the elevator sideways so that he didn't knock the girl into the frame, then punched the button for the tenth floor with his hand, immediately cursing as it caused his hand to flare in even more pain than it already was. He nearly dropped Rey as his hand continued to spasm, but he managed to hold on to her.
The ride seemed to go on for an eternity. As they passed the fifth floor Ben's heart nearly stopped when he felt Rey begin to stir in his arms. She moaned softly, though her eyes remained closed. Ben didn't know if she was beginning to come to or if she was simply dreaming, but he prayed she stayed under just long enough for him to get her to the safety of his apartment. He was under no delusions that she wouldn't scream if she found herself in the arms of a stranger, carried to an unknown destination.
The doors dinged open once they reached the tenth floor, and Ben wasted no time exiting and making his way as quickly and carefully as he could down the bright hallway to his unit.
"Hey, Ben! Another long night?"
The words stopped him cold. He should have known she would be roaming the halls.
He braced himself, not knowing what else to do, as he slowly turned around to face the unnaturally tall blond. Phasma Parnassos had once been one of the most successful female wrestlers of all time. She'd been forced to quit due to an unfortunate leg injury a few years ago, but she hadn't let retirement stop her from intimidating everyone around her. She was only a few inches taller than Ben, but she made those inches feel like feet as she used her full height to feel taller than she really was. Ben never let the brooding female intimidate him, which turned out to be a mistake because she seemed to admire him for it and never kept her feelings for him a secret.
"Hey, Phasma. I'd love to stay and chat but I'm a little busy at the moment," Ben said as casually as he could, wincing as Phasma locked her stony gaze on the girl in his arms.
"I can see that," she said dryly, taking a step in his direction. Ben forced himself not to take a step back. It would only cause her curiosity to grow. "Who is she?"
Ben didn't notice the hint of jealousy in Phasma's voice and was overcome by a sudden desire to set Rey down and throw the towering blond down the stairs. He took a breath to fight back his mounting anger and said the first thing that came to mind: "She's my cousin."
Phasma raised an eyebrow, and Ben was relieved to see that some of the jealousy had left her voice as she said, "Really? I can't remember you ever talking about a cousin."
"Yeah, well…she's just visiting and at the moment not feeling too well, as you can probably see."
"She looks like she just got her ass handed to her."
Ben had no good answer for that, so he began to turn back around in the direction of his apartment. "Like I said. Not feeling too well. I'll see you later."
"You need any help?" He heard Phasma call from behind him, but he didn't bother with a reply as he made his way to number 1066. He winced as he shifted Rey to one arm in order to fish out his key from his pocket, immediately regretting it as his body felt a new stab of pain. He knew Phasma continued to watch him so he made no show of his discomfort, but the moment he and Rey were both safely inside he deposited her carefully on the dark blue sofa in the living room then cried out as his body reacted to the loss of the weight he'd been carrying.
His first stop was the kitchen, where he quickly rummaged around in his freezer for an ice pack. He cursed himself when he didn't find one, and instead took out a bag of frozen vegetables he was relatively sure had been there since he'd moved in more than two years ago. He sat down at his small kitchen table, letting the vegetable bag rest on the sorer of his hands and laid his head down, letting the relief wash over him.
The relief was short lived, however, when a soft groan came from the girl he'd left lying on his sofa.
Ben raised his head and peered at Rey, who was slowly regaining consciousness. He braced himself, waiting for the moment when she realized she was in an unfamiliar environment and began screaming or crying. But she did neither. He watched as her eyelids fluttered, then tried to struggle open. Her lips parted, but instead of a scream she whispered a word.
"A…Atkin?"
She tried to struggle her way to an upright position, and that was when the pain of her injuries caught up to her. She cried out, immediately curling into a ball on his couch, and Ben was out of his seat before he had time to think about it.
The girl winced with every breath she took, and she lifted a shaking hand to her face, right to the bruise that was beginning to form on her left cheek where the man had punched her. She gasped at the pain the slightest touch brought her, and tears began leaking from her eyes.
"Here."
Of all the things Ben imagined himself saying to her when she woke up, 'here' had definitely not been one of them. He cursed himself, but there was no going back. He held out the bag of vegetables to her, regretting it when the sudden movement caused her to flinch and startle back, which only seemed to bring her a fresh stab of pain.
Rey made no move to take his offering. Instead she stared at his arm, following it with her eyes up to his shoulders, neck, and finally his face.
That was when the screaming started.
Hating himself for it, Ben rushed to her and covered her mouth with his less pained hand. The last thing he needed was to give Phasma a reason to break through his door and demand to know what was going on. But he didn't have time to think about that as he felt a sudden sharp stab on the palm of the hand covering the girl's mouth. He pulled it away, realizing instantly that she must have bitten him.
"Help!" The girl shouted, struggling once again to get to her feet. "P-Please!"
"Stop!" Ben snapped as he dropped to his knees and brought one hand back across her mouth and the other on the back of her head so she couldn't struggle away from him. "And don't even think about biting me again! Just let me explain, okay?"
Rey definitely didn't look convinced, but she nodded once, glaring hatefully at him as he slowly took his hands away.
"You were in a fight. Do you remember that?"
Though she still glared at him, he could tell she was struggling to remember the events of that night. Her brow pinched together, causing her to wince at the pain even that meager movement seemed to bring her.
"The…the last thing I remember is…" More tears fell from the girl's large brown eyes as she mentally pieced together what had transpired in that alley. She seemed to deflate a little, and when Ben held out the vegetable bag to her again, she accepted it. She raised it slowly to her face and gasped in pain as it made contact with her bruised cheek.
"Who was he?" Ben asked after a few minutes stretched by in silence. He didn't dare get up from where he crouched, lest the girl think he would try to hurt her.
But her thoughts seemed to remain back in that alley as she replied softly, "Atkin."
Well, now her first word made a little more sense to him, though it angered him that the first person she thought about was the person who had left her in this condition. "Who's Atkin?"
"He's…" Rey looked conflicted for a minute before her gaze snapped back to reality and she met his gaze. The hateful glare was back, but it wasn't as intense as before. "I know you."
Ben sighed, knowing he wouldn't be getting more answers out of her tonight. He decided not to push her; she'd been through enough already. "We met at the shelter yesterday. I volunteered and you came in late."
"No. I've seen you somewhere before. Not at the shelter."
Ben frowned, trying not to wince as he did so. Now that the adrenaline was leaving his system, the pain of his own injuries was starting to catch up to him. "I think I would have remembered meeting you before now."
"No. We…" She trailed off, obviously trying to remember a time Ben was sure didn't exist. He knew he would have remembered having met this girl before.
"It was probably someone who looked like me." Ben brought himself up to stand upright, which his knees gladly thanked him for. Rey followed his movements and watched him suspiciously as he walked back to the kitchen to retrieve another frozen bag of food out of his freezer.
"Are you going to let me go?" She finally asked once he'd settled himself back at the kitchen table.
"That depends," Ben replied tiredly, turning in his chair to face her. "Are you going to run to the cops with some story about how a man kidnapped you off the streets and brought you to his home to recover?"
Rey shifted the bag of vegetables to the other side of her face, which, Ben noticed suddenly, was also turning a violent shade of black and blue. This man Atkin, whoever he was, had really done a job on her. "I haven't decided yet."
"In that case," Ben said, forcing himself back to his feet. "You'll just have to stay."
Rey regarded him suspiciously as he held out his hand to her. "What?"
"You can sleep on the couch if you want, but it's not very comfortable and I have a spare room that no one ever uses."
"No thanks. I'm staying here."
"Like I said, you could, but that asshole…"
"Atkin," Rey corrected him sharply.
"…did quite a job on you," Ben continued as though he hadn't been interrupted. "You'll be able to leave sooner if you give your body a proper chance to heal, which it won't have if you keep it so cramped."
"The fastest way for me to heal would be for you to take me to a hospital."
Ben shrugged feigning nonchalance. "We could do that. But then you would have to answer questions about who did this to you and where you were, and something tells me you don't want that."
Rey glared at him once more, then sighed, looking more defeated than he'd ever seen someone look. "Fine."
Ben felt like an asshole as he watched her struggle through her pain to stand on her feet. He'd been met with a harsh "No!" when he'd offered to help her. Once she'd gotten to her feet she limped on both legs as she followed him into the short hallway that led to both the bedrooms and the bathroom they'd be sharing. He noticed she used the wall for support and ignored any offers of help he gave her.
It felt like days had passed when Rey finally made it to the spare bedroom, working her way slowly to the bed. "I have a spare set of pajamas. I'll be right back with them."
He heard her mumble, "Of course you do," as he went into his room to retrieve them. They weren't anything special. A black set of silk pajamas his parents gave him as a Christmas gift back when he was in college. He'd never worn them because he knew his college roommate at the time would have teased him mercilessly for them, and overtime he'd simply forgotten about them. Now he was grateful he'd never had the presence of mind to throw them out because they would be soft on Rey's skin as she recovered.
Ben couldn't have been gone for longer than a minute, but by the time he returned to the spare room, Rey was curled up in the center of the full-sized bed, fast asleep.
He considered waking her. The whole point of moving her off the couch and into the spare room was so she could spread out. But he refrained from doing so. He didn't have the heart to jolt her out of what little comfort she'd been able to find for herself.
Moving as softly as he could, he left the pajamas on the small oak dresser that sat in the far corner of the room, then moved back to the doorway. He took one last look at her slumbering body, then shut off the light and closed the door gently behind him.