"Really?" Luke demands when they arrive home and he sees Poe's small flask of peppermint Schnapps. "Get in my car, Dameron. I'm driving you home."

"Ben didn't drink. That's why he drove," Rey says quickly. At the scene, Ben agreed to go home with his mother.

"Glad to know you've got some degree of responsibility," Luke says sarcastically, and tears spring to her eyes. She hadn't thought it was a big deal.

Poe shuffles out, head hanging. Finn wraps his arms around Rey, but she pulls away. She wants to be alone.

School is cancelled. Rey wakes to the rich scent of Luke's chocolate chip pancakes, but even they can't lift her spirits. "I'm sorry," she whispers.

Luke nods. "I know. You just—I've already talked to Finn about this. You can't do that again."

"I won't," Rey promises as Luke slides a plate of pancakes towards her.

Why would something like this happen to Han? She doesn't believe for a second that he's guilty. Why couldn't this happen to Unkar Plutt or that Snoke, even? Why do the nice people in her life always have to suffer?

She spends the day trying to study as she watches as gray clouds roll overhead, boiling in preparation of another pending snowstorm. Luke's out for most of it, and when he arrives back late in the afternoon, his face is grayer than the sky.

"Oh no," Finn says as Artoo prances over to Luke, who picks the cat up and holds him.

"The chromatograms of the accelerant used in the chem lab appear to match the one found in Han's car."

"What does that mean?" Finn demands. "What even are these chromathings?"

"They're—" Rey starts, but Finn waves her off.

"I don't really care. I just want to know what this means for Han." Finn tosses his phone away from him as he peers up at Luke.

"It means, they can't let him go. Not yet. The type of accelerant used matches the accelerant used in this fire, and in the one in the gymnasium. Interestingly, not the one from the summer, though." Luke scratches Artoo behind the ears.

"There's no way he did it," Finn declares. "Like, why would he? They don't even have a motive."

"Everyone knows that." Luke sets Artoo down, and the cat winds itself around his ankles. "It'll never hold up in a trial. I don't think. It's just going to take a little longer."

"Was what Han said true? Last night?" Rey asks, grabbing a blue throw pillow and holding it against her chest. "About an anonymous tip?"

"Yes."

"God, it's like a set up!" Finn says. "Like someone's actually framing him. It's crazy."

"Who would even want to do that?" Rey demands, her mind already flitting through possibilities. Not that she knows Han well enough... but he was kind to her. He helped get her away from Unkar. He helped get her with Luke, where she actually feels like she has a family.

Something cold and ghastly grips Rey's chest.

Luke shakes his head. "Let's leave that to Lando and Chewie." He glances at the clock. "I've got to get ready for tonight's board meeting."


I love you.

I know.

Ben hasn't been able to get out of bed all day. Mom came in earlier to ask if he needed anything, if he wanted to talk.

"No. Go away," he groused, rolling over.

"Ben," she tried again, reaching for him.

"I said go away!" he screamed, and she did.

I did this. Ben wants to hurl, but his stomach won't even indulge him with nausea. He's so calm on the outside, and yet he feels so terrified. He's drowning and no matter how hard he kicks or claws for air, he won't make it, and there are no lifeguards around, so he might as well give in, let the water fill his lungs and carry him down to drown.

Ben grabs a pair of nail clippers and pulls out the small file, nicking his right wrist. He drags it up his arm, waiting for the sting to graze him with relief, but it doesn't come.

Ben howls into his pillow and stabs at his arm until blood, a lot more blood than he intended, pours from his arm. Shit.

He scrambles up, grabbing an old t-shirt from his overflowing dresser and wrapping it around his arm. Please don't let me have hit an artery.

If you had, it'd be spurting, Ben reminds himself. You'll be fine.

Traitor.

Ben shivers as he leans against the wall and worries over whether his lightheadedness is all his imagination or from actual blood loss. Tears, actual tears, eke out from the corners of his eyes.

He'd screamed in genuine horror last night—or was it? Was it all acting? Ben can't even tell. He's a mess. He's being torn apart.

His phone buzzes with a text from Rey. How are you?

Fine, he responds, but he's not fine.

He can never go back.

He crossed a line and a gulf opened up behind him. His father can never know. This will always be between them.

He deserves it. And it's temporary, Ben tells himself.

He presses against his wound, trying to staunch the bleeding, and also drinking in the pain to satiate his internal torment. But he feels thirstier than ever.


"Reckless… it's his brother-in-law who's been arrested, if he suspected he wouldn't have pushed it… too soft…"

Really, after reading the paper, Rey's not shocked when Luke arrives home and announces that he's stepping down as principal, effective immediately. "Mr. Snoke will be standing in. And school is on tomorrow."

Ben's tutor, Rey realizes. At least he'll be happy.

Or would Ben be? Could he be, with his father languishing in jail without bail?

Rey crawls into bed, her mind spinning with all the conversations she's had with Ben about Snoke, about how Snoke would be a better principal than Luke, about how awesome Snoke's tutoring is, about how his father means nothing to him.

Dad!

He screamed last night, Rey tells herself. He couldn't have faked that.

Horrified at the direction her thoughts have taken, Rey curls in on herself. It doesn't make sense. He wouldn't.

I'm getting coffee with my father.

Surely coffee would provide the perfect opportunity for Ben to stash that accelerant in Han's car. But he couldn't have lit the fire. He was with them.

Snoke could have.

Did he use me for an alibi? Did I provide him one?

It's one in the morning, and Rey tosses and turns, hoping to shed these thoughts, fling them out of her mind. Instead, they cling, whispering and invading. She has no evidence. And she hopes she's wrong.

Please be like Han, Ben. Don't be like Unkar.

Luke still gets up to make her and Finn omelets in the morning, which makes Rey feel worse. Finn, too, is quiet and eats as if he's not really tasting anything.

"Have a good day!" Luke calls as Poe beeps the horn outside.

"I can't believe it," Poe says as they slide into his car. "Like, I seriously can't. It's not Luke's fault."

"Or Han's," grumbles Finn.

Rey presses her forehead against the cold glass window. Poe drives slowly, as snow is already starting to fall.

When they arrive, she spots Ben getting out of his car. "You two go in. I want to talk to Ben," Rey says, marching over to him. The snow stings against her chapped hands, and she realizes she's forgotten her gloves.

"Ben!"

He turns around, dark circles under his eyes.

"We need to talk," Rey says, biting her lip. "Over here." She catches him by the arm and drags him around the side of the building, towards the athletic field. From there she can see the charred brick of the gymnasium, the ruined theater center. She can't see the chemistry lab, but that doesn't matter. She sees the shadows under his eyes and knows that's all the evidence she needs to confront him. "Did you do it?" She fights to keep her voice low and steady.

Ben plays with his black leather gloves. "What are you talking about?"

He did. Rey shakes her head, struggling to breathe. "I know. What you did. To your own father." Tears sting her eyes. "You lured him into meeting for coffee with you. You put that accelerant container in his car."

Footsteps echo behind them. Finn.

"That's insane!" Ben defends himself, and for a split second Rey hopes—but no. She sees the way his gaze shifts, the way he clutches his goddamn arm. "I didn't light that fire! I was with you!"

"You used me," she spits.

Ben throws his hands up in the air. "Why would I do that to my own father?"

"I don't know," Rey sneers, speaking louder to ensure Finn can hear. "But I'm betting it has to do with that tutor of yours. Snoke."

Ben's lips harden into a flat line. "Well, he's acting principal now, and he'll be a better one than Skywalker. You'll see." His voice softens, as if he's pleading. "You need a better principal—the school does, and you do especially—"

"He's a monster!" Rey shouts, her voice cracking and echoing and she doesn't care who hears. "And you're a monster!"

Ben stumbles back as if she's hit him. "Rey—"

In the past she would have hit him. Punched him, kicked him, like she settled all her fights in Jakku. He deserves it. He's ruining everything, every happiness you thought you'd have.

But she doesn't want to be that girl anymore. And she can hear Finn breathing behind her, and she remembers that Ben hasn't taken every happiness from her.

She walks away.

"Rey, please! This is crazy! It's not true! Don't—"

"Leave her alone," Finn snarls. Finn believes me, Rey realizes.

"Rey—"

"I said leave her the hell alone, asshole!"

There's a thud, and Rey whirls around to see Finn falling to the snow, his hand over his nose and Ben's hand curled in a fist.

Rey lunges at Ben, kicking him in the chest and slamming her fist into his face, not caring that he's bigger and stronger. He hurt Finn!

"Rey, no!" Poe's arms grab her, holding her back. "What the—"

Where did he come from? Rey wonders as Poe clutches her and Ben looks up at her in shock, sprawled on his back in the snow. More snow spews from his mouth as he coughs.

"All of you!" rants the outraged voice of Mr. Ackbar. "In the principal's office. Now!"


"You can go back to class, Mr. Dameron," Snoke informs him.

"Um, okay." Poe stands, glancing at Rey, Finn, and Ben, the latter two of which are both holding ice packs on their noses.

"As for the rest of you," Snoke continues. "Your mother should be here soon, Ben Solo. As for you two, your guardian is on his way."

Rey wilts in her chair and Ben cringes. This is not going to be a good scene. But at least if Snoke's here, Rey can't blast off on her crazy theory. He hopes. Not that anyone would believe her, he reassures himself. She has no proof.

"I'll speak with you first." Snoke waggles his index finger at Ben, who gingerly rises and enters the office that, until recently, had been his uncle's.

"So," Snoke says, his voice irate. "Just what did you think you were doing? It's my first day, Ben, and I will not let you ruin it for me!"

He can't tell Snoke. There's no telling what his tutor, his principal, will do if he finds out Rey suspects the truth. "I'm sorry. It was… a dumb fight."

Snoke snorts. "Indeed it was. You may be my star pupil, but that doesn't mean I can show you any favoritism. Not after sentiment brought Luke Skywalker down."

Ben pinches his arm. "I know." He'd hoped otherwise, though.

"I'm suspending you for today," Snoke informs him. "You will go home with your mother, and you will study, and you will be prepared for our session tomorrow."

Ben nods, but the stigma—suspended—mauls at him.

"And Ben," Snoke adds as he rises, signaling that the meeting is over and there will be no negotiation. "You did well the other day."

Ben's mind explodes with hope, with pride, and with disgust and shame.

He hasn't just lost his father, and probably his mother. I've lost Rey. She hates me.

Uncle Luke and Ben's mother burst into the office at exactly the same time, both of them wearing identical expressions of concern and rage.

"You are to take him home," Snoke tells Mom. "He's been suspended for the day."

"Suspended?" Mom clenches her fists. "Ben, as if there's not enough going on!"

Ben rolls his eyes and stalks out the door without allowing himself another glance at Rey.


"Come in, all of you," Snoke grumbles, glaring out the office windows at Mr. Ackbar, who waves happily at Luke.

Finn pries himself off the bench he's sitting on, nose throbbing. Ben packs one hell of a punch.

Finn's never seen Luke look so pissed as his foster father marches into Snoke's office, nostrils flaring. He beckons for Rey and Finn to take the two red chairs. Luke stands behind Finn, hands gripping the back of the chair.

"There will be a one day suspension for both of you, in accordance with fairness," Snoke announces immediately. "Today, you're going home. I will not tolerate any fighting on this campus." Snoke looks specifically at Rey. "I've seen your school records from Jakku, Miss Kenobi. Your I.Q. may be high, but that will not guarantee you a place at D'Qar High. If I catch you beating up one more—"

"In all fairness, she was defending me," Finn cuts in. To hell with manly pride. "Ben punched me, so she kicked him. And punched him."

Rey glowers at Finn. Finn shuts up.

"I don't care about the personal circumstances," Snoke snaps. "All I care about is that my students are safe. And that means no fighting, no matter your intelligence or who your foster father is. If you're really so smart, you'll take heed."

"We'll take heed," Rey says quickly.

"We shall see." Snoke stands back up. "You're dismissed."

"Luke—" Finn tries as they leave the building. Snow and cold splash them in their faces. "I'm so sorry, I—"

"You heard Mr. Snoke. You can't mess up again," Luke says as he unlocks the car. "Get in."

"Ben was just being insufferable," Rey adds, giving Finn a pointed look as she ducks into the backseat. "We didn't mean for it to escalate."

Why doesn't she want me to tell?

No proof, Finn realizes. Although even though Ben denied it, somehow Finn knows it's true.

What kind of monster would do that to his own father? Finn wonders. How could he?

You alive? Poe's texting him.

One day's suspension, Finn replies.

Poe replies with an old picture of Beebee-Ate looking sorrowfully at an empty bowl of food.

When they get home, Luke orders them to study. Both scurry to obey, a lump growing in Finn's throat. Because he thinks of this place as home, and he's still afraid Luke will ask them to leave.

Finn pulls out calculus and tries to force his brain to concentrate. It's not working, so he pulls out his phone and reads Poe's latest texts.

What will you do with your one wild and precious day off?

Finn sends Poe a picture of his calculus book right as Luke walks in. Finn stuffs his phone behind the book, although he's certain the guilt on his face gives him away.

"How's your nose?" Luke asks. "I brought you some ibuprofen."

"It's fine. But I'll take some." Because, truthfully, it throbs.

Luke hands him two little burnt orange pills and a glass of water. He takes a seat on the edge of Finn's bed.

"I'm really sorry," Finn blurts out. "First drinking, now fighting—it's not me. I mean, I don't usually do this stuff. I'm sorry—"

"Finn," Luke cuts in. "You don't have to keep apologizing. Once is enough."

Finn presses his thumb against the edge of the water glass, watching his print form and fade. "You still seemed mad, though."

"Well, I was. I'm still not particularly thrilled. But you've done your part and apologized. The rest is up to me." Luke offers him a smile.

Finn nods. He's never had someone talk to him like this.

"You know I'm not ever getting rid of you or Rey," Luke clarifies. "I can tell from your face that that's what's bothering you, isn't it?"

"It's just—" Finn stops himself, trying to form a coherent sentence out of the jumble of words rolling around his mind. "You've lost your job."

Luke shrugs. "Maybe."

"Well, for the time being. And Rey and I are just added stress, and we're being used against you in the press—like, are you only keeping us because you feel like you have to? Like out of obligation?"

Luke's jaw drops. "Of course not! Finn—"

"You shouldn't feel like you have to keep us. We're both—we've been through a lot. We'd survive." Even as he says it, Finn knows he's baiting Luke, wishing for his foster father to reassure him that he's got a home, a real home, and he and Rey are worth it.

Luke peers at him. "Finn, I care about you, and about Rey. I…" He blows out his breath. "What have you been through?"

"Considering a lot of kids in the system, nothing too tragic." No abuse. Nothing like that. "Just being shipped from home to home after a couple months, a year at the most. No one ever wanted me, not for long."

Luke looks at him like he actually wants to hear. He's not like the social workers Finn's had, who said they cared but either lied or were too busy to put caring into action. And so Finn describes his various homes, how every time when he got his hopes up, they'd only be crushed months down the line. How he watched others, older than him and then younger than him, get adopted, and how he wondered—still wonders—what's wrong with him, what makes no one want him, not even his own parents?

Luke wraps an arm around him, his hand clutching Finn's shoulder like he's actually a father. "Finn, I promise you that I will not send you or Rey away. You've both got a home for as long as you want it, even when you go off to college. I'm not lying to you." His eyes fix on Finn's, and Finn wants so desperately to believe it, to hit a plateau of belief instead of believing Luke for the moment and then swinging back over his canyon of doubt, like he's been doing.

"I know you don't fully trust me," Luke assures him. "That's okay. I'm not a perfect foster dad, I know, but I'll do the best I can. If I can forgive you your shortcomings, try to forgive me mine."

"What if I go out and get drunk? What would you do then? Not that I'm planning on it, but—"

"Finn, you're a teenager. You and Rey are both teenagers. I don't expect perfection from either of you. Although the next time I catch either of you drinking, I will ground you."

No one's ever told Finn that he doesn't have to be perfect before. He's tried so hard to be genteel, quiet, studious and kind, and it never brought him any fruit except his own peace.

Which is worth it. Maybe.

For a moment, Finn's mind darts back to Ben, and he wonders if Ben feels the same pressure. Be perfect. Only in an academic sense.

But Ben's never had to beg to be liked.

"Have you thought about seeing a counselor?" Luke asks. "I saw one, when I was younger and felt abandoned—his name was Yoda. I still remember him. He helped me work through my own issues—I was so angry with my father, and with my life, and with Leia for being my sister. And don't start worrying about me paying for counseling. Trust me, I of all people know it's worth it."

"Yeah… yeah, maybe," Finn says, and before Luke can move away, he gives him a hug.