Just a reminder that I'm American. Pants are not underwear. My husband is English, however, and this is a constant battle in our home. This is my story, so I write American-like! :-)

I will be traveling to England next week to spend Christmas with the hubby's fam. I plan to update while I'm there, but just in case England doesn't have Wi-Fi (it does, I know it does) or something that prevents me from updating, just know that I'm not abandoning you like Rey's parents. I've just left my country for a bit!

Rey didn't have to turn around to know that Ben was in her room. She wasn't even concerned that she was wearing a practically see-through nightgown. When she did turn to face him, he was eyeing her hungrily. She missed him. She missed this. This power she seemed to have over him.

Ben, who never seemed to be self-conscious about his appearance, was dressed in only a pair of soft grey sleep pants. He wasted no time in closing the distance between them. He pulled her to him, crushing his lips to hers. She didn't put up a fight. She wanted this. She wanted him.

Rey gripped his arms and began walking backwards to her bed, pulling him along with her. He broke their kiss to push her down onto the bed.

"What do you want from me?" he asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" She answered his question with one of her own.

Ben smirked. "If I'm going to apologize with my body, what do you want from me? I can make love to you. I can fuck you. I can give you an orgasm with just my mouth."

"All of that," Rey told him, excitement coursing through her body.

Ben nodded and climbed on top of her to resume kissing her until she was out of breath. Suddenly, he was inside of her without her even realizing he had removed his pants. It felt amazing.

She moaned loudly, not caring of anyone heard them. "I love you," she whispered.

"I know," he replied.

Rey groaned and buried her head under her pillow. She didn't know if, at the moment, she preferred him killing her or fucking her in her dreams. Normally, she'd definitely appreciate a good sex dream, but now all she wanted to do was have sex with him. That was not an option! Rey was a forgiving person, but she wasn't that forgiving! She didn't want to play games with him, but she did want him to suffer... at least a little bit. More importantly, she didn't know if she wanted Ben back in her life beyond what they needed to do to remove the remnants of those loyal to Snoke and his ways of governing. Sex would definitely complicate things, and it would most likely end with her immediately taking him back. She decided to blame her pregnancy hormones for making her so damn turned on just thinking about him without a shirt on!

She needed to stay strong. She desperately missed him, missed them. The way he patiently continued to teach her how to read, how they'd make each other laugh over something completely ridiculous, him playing with her hair, her playing with his hair... the little things that wouldn't mean anything to anybody else. But those small comforts, little daily declarations of love through their actions, meant everything to her. That sense of belonging.

Rey rolled out of bed and pulled her clothes on. She had been transitioning into darker clothing, opting for shades of grey, green, brown, and dark blue. She had heard that darker colors had a slimming effect. She didn't want anyone to question the sudden change in her clothing choices when she started showing, so she thought she'd start with the wardrobe changes while her stomach was still flat. Well, mostly flat. Her pants had started to get a teeny bit more snug in the waistline.

She really had no symptoms of being pregnant besides the tighter clothing. Maybe her boobs were a little bit fuller as well, but both of these things could be explained away by her having access to food whenever she wanted it. The only change that she definitely had to make in her usual habits was getting food in her within a certain amount of time after waking up. She could no longer skip a meal, especially not breakfast. She had learned that not eating was the only thing that made her feel sick to her stomach, and she had only thrown up once due to this fact.

Thankfully, the dining hall was mostly empty when she arrived. Based on the other people enjoying their breakfast, she could tell that she was one of the first ten people in the room. Rey was happy that she had her choice of several options and not just what was leftover after the breakfast rush.

"Hey," Conni whispered as she plopped down next to Rey.

"Hi..." Rey replied with food in her mouth.

"How's it going? You doing ok?" Conni continued to whisper and glance around the room.

"Why are you whispering and being all shifty? Are you avoiding Poe?" Rey asked, also glancing around the room.

"Am I... what?! No." Now Conni sounded confused.

"What are you doing?"

"Well..." Conni scooted closer to Rey and made one last glance around the room. "He could be lurking."

"Lurking?" Rey repeated while successfully holding in her laughter. "Ben doesn't really lurk. He does the opposite of lurk, actually... He kind of storms around."

Conni nodded, but Rey could tell that she was still unsure. "He can't, like, just appear right?"

Rey smiled into her cup of caf before responding. "Oh, yeah. He can definitely do that! That is one thing we will have to watch out for... He could just appear in that chair right next to you."

Conni's eyes grew wide. "Rey! Isn't this something we should have been warned about? Or, at least, you should tell Poe!"

"I. Am. Joking. The only time he can just magically appear is during one of our force bond sessions, which don't seem to happen anymore. And no one else would be able to see him, and he couldn't see anyone besides me," she explained.

"So, no lurking. No magical appearances. Is there something that we should know about?"

"He has really nice handwriting," Rey said seriously. Her joking smirk gave her away, however, as Conni playfully slapped her arm.

By this point in the morning more and more of their fellow inhabitants were filing into the dining hall, Rose and Finn among them. They took their seats at the table, oblivious to the conversation going on.

"Are you hitting Rey because she agreed to talk to... you know who?" Finn asked. "Because I kind of want to smack some sense into her!"

"Love you, too, Finn!" Rey said sarcastically and threw a bit of bread at him. "And stop calling him things like that. Just say Kylo or Ben! It's more weird to not use one of his several names."

Conni nodded. "It is. Makes him seem more ominous..."

"Who?" a newly familiar voice sounded from behind Conni.

She shot Rose, who was sitting across from her, a look that communicated: why the hell didn't you say that Sven was behind me?!

"Hi!" Rey greeted the newcomer brightly, mainly to deflect from their current topic of discussion.

"Can I sit with you guys? Seems I'm the first one of my tribe up and about this morning."

"Uh... Sure! Sure sure sure. Have. A. Seat!" Rey kept with the bright and cheery act, while three sets of eyes shot daggers at her. She knew this, so she avoided these gazes.

"Ah, thanks!" Sven sat on the other side of Rey. "It's weird to sit alone, or it is for me, at least. I'm more of a people person. Mmm, this is good bread! Fruity!"

They were all staring at Sven now. This huge, beautiful, darksider man just enjoying some bread. Like a child. Rey glanced around and noticed that they weren't the only ones giving Sven their attention... Several ladies, and a few men, were also checking Sven out, but in a completely different way. Rey really couldn't blame them. He wasn't her type, but she could appreciate that Sven was probably the most handsome, and downright sexy, man that any of them had ever seen.

"So, do you guys do anything for fun? Like dancing? Drinking? And the such... I haven't really had fun in a while, so I thought I might try it out," Sven comfortably initiated small talk.

"Um, no. We're not really into having fun either... You know, fighting the First Order and all..." Rose replied, completely befuddled as to why this social, seemingly nice guy could ever be part of the First Order.

"We do sometimes drink and dance, though," Conni corrected Rose's statement, giving Sven a friendly smile. "We haven't really done that much fighting for a while." Sven's charms obviously worked on Conni.

"Since Crait," Finn reminded them with a hint of bitterness in his voice, "when the new Supreme Leader tried to destroy us and failed."

Sven just nodded while shoving more bread in his mouth. He was wise enough to let Finn get out his aggravation without interruption or trying to defend his Master and friend. "So... drinking? I could really go for some Corellian whisky... or wine. Either one, really."

"You know this is the beginning of the day, right? Most people don't start drinking until the evening... " Rose pointed out.

"Yeah...but we're not really doing anything, are we?" Sven replied, mischievously.

"We have work to do, Sven," Rey told him kindly. "We're repairing a bunch of old ships, trying to get them ready in case we have to fight, well, Hux, at this point."

"Ok," Sven agreed, "I'll help with that." Rey wasn't really asking him to, but she wasn't going to turn down help either. Especially strong-man-who-also-can-use-the-force (who wasn't Ben) help!

"Great!" she said genuinely, while the glares of her friends returned.

Ben wasn't sure why Sven was taking him and Pogba back to the hangar, but they had nothing else to do at the moment so he thought he'd humor his friend and follow along. Once inside the hangar, however, he knew exactly what Sven was up to: trying to get him and Rey back together.

He spotted Rey immediately. She was on a ladder cleaning the windows of a ship, while Finn and a man he had never seen before were hosing down the underside. Poe was marching around giving orders, well...politely suggesting what should be done. Rose and Conni seemed to be useless, as they were just sat at a table 'cleaning' scraps.

"Why are we here?" Pogba asked skeptically before Ben could.

"I said I'd help. You two aren't doing anything, so you can help too," he gave them a triumphant smile.

"Look, even I appreciate that you're trying to help Ben get some because he's been a miserable-"

"I'm right here..." Ben interrupted Pogba, thoroughly annoyed.

"See?! This is the point! Let's start those baby steps to win your girl back!" Sven was still way too optimistic.

"They're not going to want our help," Pogba finally got his point across. "Especially not his help." Pogba nodded at Ben.

"Too bad. We will force our help upon them. They will appreciate it in the end," Sven refused to back down, still smiling too much in their opinion.

Ben sighed, resigned to Sven's scheme, and followed Sven further into the hangar. Pogba followed like a good knight.

"Watch the hoses, guys!" Poe instructed. "Let's have minimal goofing around this time, shall we?" Finn and the stranger mumbled their agreement.

"Yeah!" Rey spoke up. "I'm the one getting all wet up here!"

"Just your pants..." The stranger tried to defend their actions but trailed off due to how wrong his statement seemed, especially with a firm look from Finn. "That came out wrong," he told him.

Finn turned his hose on the man and sprayed him in the face. Ben saw it happening before it actually happened, which caused him to race towards Rey. The man stumbled back into Rey's ladder, Rey was knocked off balance, rolled her ankle, and fell off the ladder. Ben was there to catch her. For a second, Rey tightened her grip on him and pressed her forehead into his chest.

"Rey! Are you ok?!" Poe appeared at their side, taking Ben's line.

Finn and Anders, finding out the man's name now that Ben heard Poe berating them, just stood in ashamed shock. Finn was truly horrified that his actions had almost seriously hurt his friend, and Anders thought that any of these three men- Ben, Poe, or Finn- were going to kill him.

"I'm fine. I just need a break," Rey assured everyone. Then she addressed Ben, "you can put me down now." He noticed that she said this gently, with no hints of anger or annoyance towards him touching her.

Although putting her down was the last thing he wanted to do, Ben complied with her wishes and gently placed her on her feet. "Maybe, for now, you can find something to do on the ground," he suggested.

Poe nodded in agreement, "that's exactly what I had in mind. Stick to the ground, Rey. And, take that break."

"Maybe you can show us something we could do for you," Ben gestured to his knights, continuing to lightly press his luck with Rey's patience.

Poe again agreed to this plan, so Rey reluctantly showed the newcomers something to do. Once she felt that they had fully understood what she was asking of them, she hobbled over to a chair and table of to the side of the space to rest her rolled ankle. Sven nudged Ben when no one was looking and whispered something about him being her hero. Ben rolled his eyes but couldn't help a smirk.

Rey got restless, and though she new she should stay off her feet, she decided to take a leisurely stroll around the hangar. She didn't like feeling useless, so she acted as if she was helping Poe survey everyone's work. She paused, however, when she heard her name whispered.

"...is a nobody. Yeah, she has power, but he's the Supreme Leader and is even more powerful. Besides, as Leia's son he's practically a prince!" A female voice explained.

"Yeah, but she's literally a Rey of Light and he's, well, he's done a lot of bad things. He doesn't deserve her," a male voice countered.

Apparently these people were disagreeing on hers and Ben's love life. She was going to make it known that she overheard them when a second female voice chimed in.

"He doesn't deserve her?! Honey, you have that backward. He's the one with power, money, connections, resources. Plus, he's fairly attractive. That body...damn! She's, well, she doesn't have anything to offer that he doesn't already have."

"You may have a point there, but the girl has heart and works hard. Can't really beat that!" The male continued his side of the debate.

"I do feel sorry for her- it's sad that he threw her away like the trash she is!" the first female laughed while the second joined in.

"You're wrong, though. She left him because even she knew that she wasn't good enough!"

"You two are just jealous that everyone- and everyone who's important- likes Rey," the man continued to defend her.

"Of course everyone- well, all you men like her. Opening her legs is how she brought down Supreme Leader Ren..."

"How dare you!" Rey shouted- she couldn't hold back anymore. The three stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at her, shocked. "You don't know anything about me!"

Rey's outburst was drawing unwanted attention for all involved in this argument. She glanced around and noticed that almost everyone was staring, including Ben, and she spotted Poe heading their way. She didn't feel like talking about what she had overheard, so she began backing away from the conversation. She turned and quickly walked, well, hobble-walked out of the hangar.

Poe glared at the three, as far as he knew, troublemakers on his way to catch up with Rey. He sped up to a jog to easily put himself next to her as she kept walking.

"What happened in there?" he inquired.

"I don't want to talk about it," she replied shortly.

He gently took her by the arm to stop her movement. She turned to face him, crossing her arms. She huffed but gave in to his unspoken plea for the truth. "Those girls were saying mean things about me. Not that any of it was untrue..." she muttered.

"I'm sure it was untrue, if it was mean and about you. There's nothing that anyone could fault you for... except for maybe your taste in men!" Poe smiled and nudged her with his elbow. "Speaking of, I can send... Ben... to glare at them if you'd like!"

Rey could tell that it was difficult for Poe to call Ben by his real name, but she truly appreciated the effort. "As appealing as that sounds, and trust me I would love to do that, I think it would cause more trouble in the long run."

"Well, since that disruption drew almost everyone's attention, they may get a free glare off of him anyway!"

"Rey? Is everything ok?" Ben, of course, had to follow her out as well.

Poe looked from Rey to Ben and back to Rey. "Well. I, uh, think I need to go give some people a talking to..." And he hurried off before Rey could beg him to stay. She was certain that he had sold his soul to Leia and had agreed to help push her back together with Ben.

Ben still stood patiently waiting for an answer, though he had taken a few steps closer as Poe left.

"Nothing serious," she told him. "Just some mean words from some, apparently, jealous people."

"What did they say?" he pressed further for answers.

"It doesn't matter."

"It matters to me. It has upset you."

"You've upset me plenty of times. This is something I can handle."

"But I'm sorry. I doubt they are. They'll pretend to be, of course, because Poe will make them play nice."

Rey exhaled out of her nose in frustration. "I'm tired of people basically calling me a slut. I'm very much the opposite. "

"I know..." he said with a wink.

Rey rolled her eyes. "And everyone thinks, or rather, knows I'm a nothing piece of trash scavenger. They're more willing to forgive you than to accept me! I guess that's the perks of having Leia as a mother!"

"It is," he agreed. "But none of those people, except your actual friends, matter. What they say, what they think, what they do- it doesn't matter. The people who love you matter. Focus on us," he said, taking her hand. Ben gazed into her eyes lovingly as he added, "and I'll follow Poe's talk up with a stern look." He broke into a devious smirk.

"Oh, no! We're still working on your image. You can be redeemed into the handsome returned prodigal son to our illustrious leader. Turn on that Solo charm and everyone will be awaiting your orders by the end of the week!" she teased him. "I, however, will be doomed to be gossiped about for the rest of my days. It's one of the pains of being female. Take us, for example... I get called a slut, and people actually feel sorry for you because you lowered yourself to be with me."

"I'd happily lower myself to be with you every day," he said pulling her into a hug.

"Wow. We really need to work on that Solo charm. It's going to definitely take longer than I thought..." She smiled and stepped backwards out of the quick hug. "This doesn't mean all is forgiven and everything is fixed between us," she added to make their situation clear. Rey had allowed conversation and had been nice- nicer - to him, but she didn't want him to think he was off the hook!

"I know, but I am asking you for a fair chance to earn your forgiveness and get back to us being together...like we're meant to be."

Rey nodded. "Ok. I'll give you a chance," she agreed.

Quite suddenly, Rey gave into her hormones and grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him down into a fierce kiss. He acted on instinct, and pure joy over this interaction, and wrapped his arms around her.

Rey broke their mini makeout session to breathe and to utter "I hate you less" against his lips. After another breath she added, "but I love you for keeping your promise."

Before he could reply, her lips were back on his. They continued their passionate kissing for several minutes, Ben felt like it was hours. Rey pulled away again, poked him in the chest with her sharp finger, and said, "This never happened," before marching away in the direction of her room. He was left to ponder what did just happen?!

I'm basing Rey's pregnancy on my own, since that's what I have experience with! My fellow pregnant friends, there were two, hated me. I really didn't show until about 19 weeks, and even then I looked like I had just eaten a big meal. Week 27 was when I actually looked pregnant. I never had "morning sickness," exactly. I had the food issue. I needed to eat or I'd feel sick. My only food aversion was mushrooms. The only change in more was that I became more emotional- I cried at a commercial because it had a cute puppy in it... I was still teaching Boot Camp and Spin classes up to my due date. Well, past it actually, since little dude was 10 days late and had to be evicted. ;-)