Rey watched Ben through the thick walls of a bacta tank.
He seemed to hover before her. There was a glow to him, almost angelic, that had nothing to do with the means of his suspension.
He was alone now. Cast out from his order. The last of his bloodline. The only member of his family.
Except for her.
Rey laid her palm flat against the glass and could swear she saw him turn toward her presence.
'I will be here,' she promised. 'Night and day. However long it takes.'
A calm she had never felt from him before crept back across their bond. Rey smiled.
It would be a long road. But one worth taking.
The first days were touch-and-go - but not from a medical standpoint. His rate of healing was impressive, but expected for a Jedi. No. It was being able to hold back the throngs of enraged Resistance members that was difficult.
Word had spread, as it always did, of the arrival of Kylo Ren as a prisoner.
Rey wished he could have just kept his helmet on a few more blasted days, then his face wouldn't have been plastered in the minds of every Resistance fighter.
There was respect among the upper ranks for his connection to the late General. To their credit, they had not yet made any moves to try and convict him of his crimes.
But it was a matter of time. And he still had not regained consciousness.
That didn't mean his mind was not active, though.
Sometimes there was a roiling pit of rage. Sometimes there was despair, loss. And sometimes, when Rey meditated at his side, there was a peace indescribable. Beyond what she could ever have achieved alone.
'You deserve this,' she would assure him. 'We both do.'
She could feel him wanting to believe her more each day.
Poe finally visited, but Rey knew at once that it was not a purely social call.
"Hey," he smiled at her tenderly and placed his hand on her shoulder. He paid no mind to the man sprawled out on the bed at her side.
Her jaw clenched as she fixed her eyes up at the pilot. He withdrew his hand, instead crouching to her seated height.
"You know what's coming," his voice took on a harshness that perhaps she needed.
"They want him executed publicly." Possibly the desire had not been vocalized by all, but she knew it was there.
Poe sighed.
"There's nothing I can do about it."
She knew he wasn't lying about that part. But she was also fairly certain he would never try.
"Why do you care what happens to this monster?"
It was a fair question. One without a simple, convincing answer.
"I need him," was all she could manage in the ghost of a whisper. Poe pinched the bridge of his nose.
Rey drew in a shaky breath.
"Do what you must," she echoed the words - the permission - Leia had given her. And it was a promise that she would do the same.
Poe drew himself back to his full height. Observed her and her unwavering attentiveness to the man that had wrought such misery and destruction.
He nodded and left the infirmary without another word.