((Kaia: Thank you so much! I really enjoy writing it and I love hearing what ye think! I hope ye won't be disappointed where the ginger fella is concerned! ;) ))

Finn was confused. A human pregnancy was foreign to him. It seemed the indoctrination of the First Order did not include reproduction. Fascinated, his head dipped down to listen but there was nothing to listen to.

"So…. There's a person in there?" Normay giggled at Finn's endearing curiosity, he had been especially curious at the announcement that she was pregnant. Which had just happened. Finn, Poe and Rey sat close together since sitting space was short in their tiny living area.

"There's two, Finn, love." May answered with a sweet smile; obviously she had never seen him before she arrived at the Resistance base, while she was on Finalizer and Starkiller he was just another Stormtrooper.

Until he defected. She'd cleaned up that mess too. Mainly Kylo Ren's blood off the med bay floor. But he was sweet, gentle, caring and enthusiastic. It seemed to be a trait that ran through the entire Resistance.

"How?!" He breathed, agonizingly confused and his face contorting to show it.

"Don't!" She pointed a pale finger at her partner who was about to speak. "He's precious and innocent and he's goin' to stay that way!" She clearly didn't see the smugness on Poe's face that suggested otherwise.

Finn didn't seem to realize that exchange was about him. He was still too immersed in the bump and how it worked.

"There has to be some sort of insemination process…."

"Oh there's an insemination process alright."

"BEN!"

A scavenger, a pilot, a psychologist, an ex-Stormtrooper and a former war criminal all sitting in the same room; fawning over the same bump. It sounds like the start of a strange joke but they had come a long way. They had all been terrified of Ben at some point; even Normay, his soon to be wife and mother of his children.

And yet, here he was with those he had hunted, terrorized and tortured; accepted and loved by the people he had been determined to destroy. That was before he realized he needed the light in his life; a light that had become known as Normay Vance.

"Finn?" The ex-Stormtrooper looked up from the covered, rounded flesh to the man he had once called 'Sir' on the few times he'd been addressed by him. He saw that mischievous smirk and knew then and there that whatever Ben was planning, he wanted to be a part of it.

"You put your Captain in a trash compactor. How would you like to help me fuck up your General?" Finn instantly sat up bolt right.

"Damn right I do!"

"What are you doin'?" May surveyed her partner suspiciously with an arched eyebrow. If Hux was involved, it couldn't be good.

"You said that when you hit three months, everyone could know."

"I did but shouldn't you tell your mother? How pissed would she be if the wrong General found out first?"

"I'll tell her, don't worry. In fact, I might just do it as soon as we've visited the General…."

"I know the Stormtroopers talked." Ben began with purpose as he and Finn strode towards the holding cells. "I know there were rumours about May and Hux. Those were true. Well, most of them. I mean, some of them were bound to have been exaggerated."

"There were rumours about you too." Finn informed him dryly with an arched eyebrow which caused Ben to slow his pace and cast his companion a curious glance.

"Were there?"

"Hell yeah. Troopers said they saw the General's doctor down in the med bay lookin' cozy with Kylo Ren. Helmet off."

"What?!" Ben hissed incredulously, stopping; Finn stopped a few paces ahead and turned back. "Seriously?!"

"Seriously! Was it true?" He had assumed they were more secure than that. Then again, there were cameras all over the Finalizer and Starkiller. It was how May had come to have a split lip and a bruised eye in the first place.

"Well…. Yeah, I mean…. We were friends…."

"Friends huh?" Finn teased with a small smirk. "That why you walked off that ramp holdin' her hand?"

"You were wasted as a Stormtrooper, you're far too observant." Ben replied, their pace resuming. "But yeah, friends. I stalked her for a while until I could talk to her and the rest, as they say, Finn; is history."

"Kylo Ren had trouble talkin' to a lady?! Friendzoned?!" The other male howled with almost painful laughter. "Damn, that's a good one!"

"The helmet was the problem." Ben recounted playfully then faced his friend before he entered the code into the keypad for the holding cells. "Cause she didn't touch Hux after she saw my face."

"Still haven't shaved." Ben observed the ginger male, lips pursed into an almost mocking grimace of concern. When Finn stepped into the cell behind Ben, he physically recoiled. That was the General?! General Hux?! Hux simply rolled his eyes and breathed an impatient sigh without removing his gaze from the spot on the wall he was fixated upon.

"Come to show me wedding pictures, Ren?" There was a soreness to the tone and Ben had a feeling his earlier hunch about Hux barely surviving on thoughts of Normay were correct.

"He just called you-"

"I know." Hux looked up towards the source of the unfamiliar voice. He knew him, very vaguely. He just didn't know how.

"And who is your friend, Ren?"

"I'm surprised you don't recognize him." Ben replied, unfazed. Unlike Finn. "You were always meticulous about your Stormtroopers." That was how he knew him. The file he and Phasma had pulled up the day the pilot escaped. Aided by this man. Hux tipped back his head and adjusted himself slightly on the bed to get a better look at Finn which unsettled him even more.

"FN2187." It came back to him now. The bred in instinct to stand to attention and reply with 'Sir' almost won out but Ben's presence held him fast.

"Hux." He tried to sound casual but the nerves were still present.

"So…. Your first visit was to inform me about your engagement to Normay…." It seemed even saying the words posed a challenge for the ginger male. While he held no love or even sentimental attachment for her; she was still something that had been taken from him. And he had clearly stated a number of times to both Ben and Normay that she was his. The marks on her neck the day Ben had met her had been put there for that purpose.

"And this visit was to, what? Parade a glitch in the Stormtrooper program? The only weak link in thousands following my father's formula?" It occurred to both Ben and Finn that it was strange for Hux to mention any kind of family. That had had been a child, that he had probably wet the bed and cried for his mother; the things children did. Most of the time it felt like he had just appeared fully formed or was made like a droid.

"No, actually." Ben chimed in and Finn was happy to let him do the talking. "Was just making sure you're eating and exercising. I might have a word with my mother; see if we can get your portions increased and your walk time lengthened. You're looking a little….. Peaky?" Finn glanced to his friend. On edge and all as he was, he wanted to see this.

"Oh and May's pregnant." If anyone else's head moved as fast as Hux's did at the last word, they almost certainly would have broken their neck.

"What?!"

Ben and Finn exchanged glances. This was that they'd come for. Before either of them could respond, the General spoke again. This time, he leaned off the wall beside his bed and let his bare feet brush the cold stone of the floor.

"Liar! She told me she couldn't!"

"Bump seemed pretty real, didn't it?" Ben addressed his friend as if Hux hadn't spoken. Finn didn't respond, he was too busy warily watching Hux. "I didn't realize you'd had that conversation, General?" Ben continued with an eyebrow quirked; how had that come up?

"How many times did I fuck her raw?!" Hux snarled and Finn blatantly flinched. Ben remained unperturbed. He knew the content of her relationship with the General. He also knew better than to get riled up whenever Hux spoke about it in disgusting terms an attempt to demean the love of his life.

"How many times did I give that bitch every drop?! Every time she wanted it inside and I gave it to her! And not once did that tramp suggest any kind of protection! According her, we didn't need it!"

"You're getting awfully worked up about this, General." Ben replied with an almost jeering calm while Finn tried to recover from the barrage that hadn't even been directed at him.

"That fucking bitch lied!"

"Funny, it's only you she lies to." Ben didn't bother to explain about the fever and how the most recent one seemed to have undone everything the first one had complicated. His tone and quirked eyebrow almost, almost made the General leap for him. But if his previous visit was anything to go by, Hux would be painfully restrained in a matter of seconds before he could do any real damage.

"Anyway, we have to go but it was nice seeing you and make sure when you're curled up there tonight that you're thinking of me cuddled up with your girlfriend."

When Ben knocked on the door of his mother's office, he found she wasn't alone. Luke and Chewie were turned in their chairs to view the intruder but Leia called him in.

"I was just about to send for you. Sit down." It didn't sound like he was in trouble but the male entered cautiously and sat down beside Luke even though the relationship hadn't really been the same since the incident with May.

"There have been some resurgences of First Order loyalty in some pockets of the galaxy. Mostly in cantinas or at least that's where it seems to be starting." Leia filled Ben in on the content of the meeting prior to his arrival.

"We don't know how. It could be rogue Stormtroopers hoping to start from scratch to revive the Order under their own rule but that's doubtful. They're conditioned to follow orders not give them. General Hux is still in our custody so unless there's someone else we don't know about, we need to find out."

"It could be something more sinister but we won't know until we can hear what's being said first hand. Luke is going to Javyar's Cantina on Taris, Chewie is going Maz's on Takodana, I can't really send you there after what happened…."

Ben shifted both uncomfortably and with relief. He had torn up that place, or rather Kylo Ren had. It was where he had first seen Rey and brought her back to Starkiller.

"You." She brought him back out of his daydream. "Are going to the Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine. Bring your saber, you're gonna need it. You leave tomorrow."

Ben started to worry. This was the exact opposite of what he needed. In all the months he had been sitting idle, why did this only come around now when he was glued to May?!

"How…. How long will I be gone?" Leia stared him down with an arched eyebrow.

"A few weeks? A month or so? It depends on how long it takes for you to come up with something. Is there a problem, Ben?" Ben's eyes flickered to the side; Luke and Chewie were watching him.

"No. No problem…."

"Perfect." Leia's ruling was final when she went back to a holo she had been looking at previous to the meeting so Luke and Chewie left. When she looked up again, Ben was still there. "Something wrong, Ben?" Her attention went back to the holo but not completely.

"Mom, I can't do this!"

"And why's that?"

"Because…. Because May's pregnant." That got her attention. She looked up but seemed too stunned to say anything so Ben kept talking. "Three months. Twins." The General's holo was forgotten on the desk. She was on her feet and beside Ben's chair quicker than his eyes could move. Even when he was sitting and she standing, she was barely taller than him so she was at the perfect height for a bone crushing hug.

"My baby!" Leia whimpered, her cheek resting against her son's head with her arms still around him. "Oh that's wonderful!"

"Mom, are you crying?"

"Of course I'm crying!"

"Tatooine."

"Yeah."

"Jesus Christ." Ben sat in bed and watched his partner changing. While before, her nakedness would have distracted him (and still did); his focus was on the bump that he knew he was going to miss. "And you have to go?"

"Looks like it. And Chewie's taking the Falcon to Takodana so I don't even have that comfort."

"A few weeks…. Maybe more….."

"That's what she said." Finally changed, Normay climbed into bed and into Ben's waiting arms.

"You'll be as quick as you can, won't you? You'll be able to find stuff out quicker with your Jedi mind thing, right?" Ben laughed quietly at her explanation before pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"Right." She never really did seem to have a grasp on the Force. "Went to visit your ex today."

"Eww, don't call him that."

"He misses you."

"Oh does he?"

"That's what I gathered from all the screaming when I told him you were pregnant."

"You're such an asshole."

"He's the asshole."

"Don't call him that, love. Assholes are useful." Ben crumbled into another laugh. He didn't think he could be without her for a few weeks. Especially not in her condition.

"I'm just thinking…."

"Does it hurt?"

"Shut up. What if you came with me? You know how to get around people, get into their heads just as well as I can. Double up and get home as quick as we can." She thought it over and it seemed to answer all their problems. That and it wouldn't hurt to get off the base for a while, just the two of them.

"That's not a bad idea actually. Someone's goin' to have to watch your ass in Mos Eisley."

"You won't be going to Mos Eisley."

"What?!" She pulled back slightly to look at him with something akin to mild fury and disappointment.

"You're carrying two babies, you're not going."

"We'll see about that."