Ben wakes up and he can't breathe.

It's been two months since he returned with Rey to the Resistance. Two months of glares and whispers and muttered threats.

It helps that Rey vouches for him, and that he did technically help save the galaxy. Rey likes to remind her friends of that when there are too many fingers pointing.

Chewie's support also helps. No one wants to argue with a both an angry Jedi and a Wookiee.

Still, he knows they don't trust him. He keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop. Someone is going to poison him, or stab him, or choke him…

He reaches up to his throat and finds it's his sleep shirt cutting off his air, pulled tight from his back. He can't get up. He can't get away. And he needs to use the fresher.

Which, admittedly, should be the least of his worries, but it's a little pressing on his mind.

He angles his neck—painfully—in an attempt to see behind him, what is trying to choke him using his sleep shirt of all things—

—and is met with a tousled brown head, hair falling out of three buns.

Rey is in his bed.

He does a double take.

Rey is in his bed.

How did she get in here? And how is he going to dislodge her?

He tries to reach back to jostle her shoulder, and only succeeds in tightening his noose as she groans and curls closer.

"Rey," he whispers as loud as he dares. Still nothing.

Finally, he cranes his neck and contorts his arm, reaching until he meets her fingers, and gently pries them from his shirt. Rolling away as soon as he's able, he places a pillow into her clinging grasp and is gratified to see her smile in her sleep as she accepts the trade.

That was fun.

He rubs the ache out of his neck and shoulder as he heads to the fresher.

When he returns, she's still there. He sits on the edge of the bed and shakes her awake. "Rey. Rey, wake up."

She groans again and blearily opens her eyes. "G'morning."

"Good morning. You're in my bed. Why is that?"

She blinks lazily at him. "You were keeping me up," she mumbles, before rolling over.

"What do you mean?"

"Nightmares. You were keeping me up," she repeats in the same tone. She reaches blindly behind her to grab at him, succeeding in snagging his shirt again and pulls him towards her. "Sleep now, talk later."

"O-okay." He curls around her and allows her to take his arm and drape it across her middle, mostly because he's hearing her say, nightmares, keeping me up, over and over and his heart sinks because all he'll ever be is a dark spot to her—

"Shhh," she whispers, loudly. "Stop that. Just sleep."

He doesn't think he'll get any more rest, not with her right here, but he closes his eyes anyway to humor her.

Something keeps poking his shoulder and he wishes it would stop—

He hears a giggle and opens one eye to find Rey facing him, her hand inches from his arm.

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

"Is it?" He stretches and notes the sunbeams in his room have moved. He must have fallen asleep, though he doesn't remember doing so.

It was one of the quietest naps he's had. He doesn't remember his dreams at all. Funny, he doesn't remember his dreams from last night, either.

But he does remember Rey saying he was having nightmares.

"When did you come in here? How did you even get in?"

"Sometime in the early morning. And I have the code to override your lock."

His eyes widen in surprise. "Do a lot of people?"

"Just me," she smirks. "And it's a good thing, too."

"Because of the nightmares?"

"Exactly."

He knows he has been having nightmares regularly. There are still many things he's seen he wishes he hadn't, or worse—things he's done that he'll forever regret. He doesn't always remember them, but the bad ones…

"I'm sorry I woke you," he mumbles.

He gets a flash of something across the bond, something like amusement tinged with concern, but before he can ask, she places a hand over his. He forces himself to focus on her eyes and not the fact that they are inches apart, in the same bed, and she is touching him. "Don't worry about it, Ben," she smiles. "Now, should we get something to eat?"

He nods and follows her to the mess hall.

He's piling food onto his plate when he hears them, two Resistance pilots a few spots down from him in the line.

"…help, but the screams…"

"They're awful, I know. I hope the Jedi can figure out a way to make it stop."

"It sounds like he's being murdered almost every night. Which is ironic, considering how many people he's killed."

"Thankfully, they didn't last too long last night."

"A little sleep is better than none at all!"

He's frozen, listening, his ears and cheeks burning. Are they talking about him? It's paranoid to think so, but at the same time…

They duck out of line and he makes eye contact with one, who immediately looks away and whispers to his buddy. Both glance back at Ben with identical expressions of pity and disdain before hurrying off, and he wants to sink into the floor.

Numb, he traces a familiar path to the table he usually shares with Rey and her friends, and slips into the seat next to Rey.

He has to know. He has to know if they were talking about him.

"Rey?" he says in a low tone.

"Hmm?"

"Do I scream at night?"

She stills, spoon halfway to her mouth, before slowly nodding.

The whole base can hear when he has nightmares. His shoulders slump and he pokes at the food he no longer has the appetite to eat. "That's why I was keeping you up," he grumbles.

"That's part of it," she admits, looking uncomfortable. "I can also sense it, through the bond…" She trails off and shifts to face him. "I went to your room to help. I didn't know what to do, but you quieted down when I was there." She shrugs. "So I stayed."

He doesn't remember the nightmares because he didn't have any while she was there.

He lets out a breath. "Thank you, Rey."

She grins. "I'll always have your back."

"Sometimes literally," he says, thinking of how she was clinging to him, and she laughs.

"Wouldn't want you to get too comfortable."

He finishes his meal feeling lighter than ever. How he got so lucky to be Force bonded to this brilliant woman, he'll never know.

But they're in this together, and he's never been more thankful.

A/N: Happy Star Wars Day! This little one-shot could be considered a deleted sequel scene to one of my other fix-its, "He Knew What He Had to Do" or "Home", or stand on its own after TROS. Ben lives and May the Force (4th) be with you!