Rey

I heard the door swing open and turned to face him, watching his face drain of color as his eyes swept over my body, to the marks there.

My own voice sounded foreign to me when I asked him, "What's the matter, Ben? Can't stomach what you've done?"

Genuine horror clouded his russet eyes, and he shook his head. "I didn't-"

I cut him off, assuring him that he did, showing him my arm as evidence.

He held a shaking hand up, the horror on his face turning to panic and disgust as he looked at himself, the defensive wounds crossing his arms and chest, and the blood smeared on him.

"I don't give a shit if I am your mate." I heard myself say. "I will never love you. I will never forgive you for making me seal the Bond."

The look on his face was the same as when I told him that I wasn't his anything, before the Battle of Hoth.

When I'd used his own insecurity against him to keep him away.

The memory made my own chest ache.

He watched, with wide, pleading eyes as I ignited my lightsaber, and told him, "I'd rather die than be Bonded to you!" Then he screamed as I sank the blade into my heart.

I opened my eyes, hearing his screams echo down the Bond.

He was sick, dying. I could feel it with the trace amounts of Force that had returned to me. But, our Bond, where it had been thrumming vibrantly between us days ago, was now nothing more than a whisper.

The night before they'd taken me, I had been in his arms, and his fingers had been between my legs. And now, these horrific nightmares were my only comfort that he was still alive.

I'd answered all their questions, telling them that I had been saved by Ben Solo and that I'd chosen to stay with him. I'd repeated myself so many times I wanted to scream. I left of my own free will. He didn't make me do anything. He wasn't controlling me.

They'd just chosen not to listen.

The first couple days, I'd been sick, spiking a high fever. I'd stayed in bed, not because of my own illness, but because I was using what scraps of power I had left to try to reach him.

One day three and four, I tried to escape. I'd gotten to the hanger once before they caught up to me, and escorted me back to my room.

On day five, I felt him wake up, and I was able to relax, focusing on exactly how I was going to get back to him.

But, that night, his conditioned worsened.

The more power that returned to me only meant that I had to watch helplessly as he grew weaker.

I couldn't wait any longer. I barged into Leia's private chambers that night without knocking, finding her seated at a small desk.

She looked up from the book she was reading, concern knitting her brow.

We just stared at each other for a long moment before she said, "You came to ask me for the antidote to the serum." She marked her place in her book with an old piece of ribbon and closed it.

I nodded. "And, to prove to you that I've been telling the truth."

She sighed, looking exhausted, and shook her head. "Rey, I know you believe that he's Ben, but-"

"He is Ben." I assured her, and when she shook her head again, I lowered my shields, sending my memories of the past few weeks into her mind.

Of waking up in his arms after Hoth and asking him to stay with me. How gently he soothed the bandage over my wounds with trembling hands.

Say the word and it's done, he'd promised when I asked him if I wanted to go back. How he'd told Ciir'sae that I did not need his permission to leave. The feel of his hand in the small of my back as we walked to the house on Naboo.

The way he'd looked at me that first morning when I'd been wearing next to nothing. How badly I wanted him to kiss me when he laced me into my dress.

Training with him. His smile, his laugh, the way his body moved when he wielded his lightsaber.

His nightmares. His panic attacks. The consuming guilt he felt every moment of every day.

Dinner with Ciir'sae. How jealous he'd gotten, and how hard he'd had to work to not act on it. The gentle kiss he'd planted on my forehead that night.

His immediate instinct to protect me from Finn, and the fact that he didn't move, because it was my decision. And how hed sent reassurance to me, despite the fact that his heart was breaking.

The last time I saw him, when he was finally, finally, going to tell me the truth. How he didnt care about himself in the least, and focused on building a shield around me instead of fighting back.

And, the Bond. A constant tug toward Ben. Toward home.

I left my shields down, watching as she brought a shaking hand up to cover her mouth.

Her brown eyes, the eyes that she'd given Ben were wide, and rimmed with tears. "Oh," She breathed. "You've done it, Rey." Two fat tears slid down her cheeks. "You brought him back."

She stood, and pulled me into a tight hug. "Thank you." She cried.

She pulled away enough to look at me. "I'm so sorry, Rey. I thought-"

"I know what you thought." I assured her.

She sighed, and shook her head again. "I wish I had known that you and Ben were mated." She turned toward a nearby cabinet and opened it, pulling two syringes out.

I cocked my head to the side.

Mated? That's what I'd said in Ben's dream. That I was his mate. But, I'd thought it was nonsense, and hadn't paid it any attention.

"What did you say?" I asked, as she turned back around, smiling as fresh tears washed her face.

"The Mated Bond is the most precious gift the Force can bestow." She explained. "So rare, and so precious that there are galactic laws in place protecting mated couples. If I had known you and Ben were mated, I wouldn't, i mean i couldn't have taken you from him."

My head was spinning. Mated. We were mated. Ben Solo was my mate.

That's what he'd been hiding from me. What he'd refused to tell me all this time.When he was researching shielding, he'd found out that we had a Mated Force Bond.

He knew.

And, he'd kept it from me.

Leia's forehead puckered. "Rey?" She asked.

I looked up, and sucked in a lungful of air, realizing that I'd stopped breathing. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears, and it drummed a steady rhythm of Mate. Mate. Mate.

She handed the syringes to me. "I hope that you two can forgive me." She said.

I took them and thanked her, and she pulled me into another tight hug. "Tell my son that I still love him." She whispered in my ear. "And please, bring him home."