Chapter 10

Persistence

Rey had spent the past two days scavenging (again) for food and suitable, temporary remedies for Ben's injury.

Ben was sitting, propped up against a tree near the water. His wound was infected, and his sickly pallor was beaded with sweat. He felt like he was on fire. In a foggy daze, he distinctly remembered three Rey's telling him to hold on, and that she would be back soon.

'Three Rey's?' He knew that couldn't be right. If he was hallucinating, that meant he was dying. Rey had been gone about two days. If he had enough strength, he would have laughed. She probably up and left, just like everyone else in his life had. Dying didn't seem so bad after all. It's not like he had much to live for anyways.

His head lolled to the side when a branch snapped and he jerked his head upward. Partly panicked, and partly curious he opened his eyes.

The sight almost took his breath away.

"Ben?" Rey bit her lip. She had a sack full of various fruits and vegetables and nuts that she had found in the mountains. She walked and knelt beside him. "You need to eat something." She pulled what looked like a weird sort of apple and handed it to him.

Ben looked up at her. 'Thank you,' he whispered into her mind.

She gave a quick nod. Opening her mouth to say something, she appeared to change her mind and abruptly closed her mouth.

Ben studied her face. She was much better at concealing her emotions and thoughts than he was. She wasn't perfect though.

Rey shuddered internally. Ben looked horrible. His pale skin was even more pale than usual, and his face was slick with sweat. That was not a good sign. She leaned forward, throwing caution to the wind, and placed the back of her hand up against his forehead.

Her heart sank. He was burning up.

Ben froze. When she touched him, he held his breath. Rey's eyes widened for only a millisecond. She thought he had just died. He had stopped breathing. She removed her hand and scanned his face. Heat rose to her cheeks when she realized that she had stopped breathing too.

"You're burning up. I'm going to go get water so we can try and stop the fever. I promise I'll be back in five minutes or less. Stay here, and stay awake."

Ben sighed. The first part he could do, no problem. The second part would be more of a challenge. He was exhausted and his head felt weird. It was cloudy.

"Okay."

Rey grabbed a handful of berries from the bag and jogged towards the shore.

When she got towards the edge of the water she was absolutely fascinated. Never in her life had she seen so much clear, blue water in her life. She grabbed a strip of rags from her sleeve and dipped it in the cool water.

Rey relished the feeling of the abundance of water swirling around her forearms. With a pang of regret and longing she gathered the damp rags and turned her back to the shore.

To her relief, Ben was still awake. Ben saw her and scowled.

"That was not less than five minutes. You were gone for seven."

Rey couldn't tell if she was annoyed or amused. Or perhaps a combination of both.

She murmured a half apology and placed the cool rags on his forehead. Once she was sure they wouldn't slip off, she sat down next to him and turned to face him.

Ben was nervous. Whatever she wanted to say earlier, she was going to say it now. He didn't even need the Force to figure that out. She kept opening and closing her mouth. Plus, she wouldn't stop fidgeting. Sighing, he took the rags off of his head and turned his torso to face her. He winced, but then schooled his face into the typical blank mask of Kylo Ren.

"Ben." He wouldn't look at her and he definitely didn't like her tone of voice. "Ben," her voice cracked. "Who gave those to you? The scars." Rey remembered when she had first attempted to heal him, and she saw all those scars for the first time. At the time, she had wanted to vomit.

"Funny." He bit back. "You didn't seem to care before. You can't possibly judge them either, considering the biggest scar I have is from you." Ben had made sure that every word had sounded biting.

The words hit her like a slap in the face.

'She's just like everyone else. She has nothing to say for herself.' He waited.

Silence.

She leaned forward on her knees, and reached out, tracing the scar that cut across his already striking features. His skin tingled underneath the two soft fingertips that started at the top of his face, and slowly went their way down to where his shirt covered the rest.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. A single tear escaped her watering eyes.

'I'm sure you are,' he almost bit back. Surprisingly, he held his tongue.

"I don't walk to talk about them."

Rey looked defeated for a moment but a look of determination hardened her eyes. Ben sighed. She was a persistent girl. She had to be, if she wanted to survive on Jakku, and if she really believed he could be turned. He knew he wasn't going to win this one, and he was too tired to put up a fight.

"But I know that you won't rest until you find out."

Rey stopped. "So, you won't talk about them. You'll show me?" Her eyes widened in disbelief, curiosity, and a little bit of fear.

Ben gulped and nodded.

He sat up a little straighter, adrenaline making him feel a lot better.

'Are you ready?'

Rey swallowed and nodded her head. She closed her eyes and reached out with both her mind and her hand.

As she grasped his hand, he projected all of his memories of this topic into hers. She would feel the phantom pain of the real pain he had felt. In an instant she was whisked away into the memories of the past of both Kylo Ren and Ben Solo.

A/N: Mostly Reylo chapter. I've had this chapter planned out since the beginning. The next chapter will either follow these two again, or go visit the rest of the characters. I'm still working on the plot for the majority of the characters, which is why the next chapter will probably be solely focused on them again. Thank you for your continuous support. Don't forget to review, follow, favorite, etc. Happy reading!