"Oh, good, you're back," his mother says in a falsely cheerful tone as they enter the family room. Han and Luke are seated, on opposite ends of the room, he can't help but notice, with his mother between them.

Luke's face is mottled from the blow his dad had landed and Han's arms are crossed over his chest. He seems like a morose teenager forced to be here, while Luke still has that sad, contrite expression. But instead of making him angry, Ben feels a stab of sorrow. Luke is family.

His uncle's eyes keep trying to catch Han's, and the pleading Ben finds in them makes him remember how close the two men used to be and he frowns. He didn't really want to come between them.

"We need to work this out before we all try to go to Kamino. It will never work if we don't trust each other," his mother says, every inch the military commander she used to be.

Still feeling so light, so right, after his singular experience with Rey, Ben sees how he has to forgive his uncle. He was dealing with a strength of malevolence that no one could be expected to foresee. How could he have known that his nephew was being twisted like that? Ben had never found anything in the histories indicating that it was even possible.

If he holds on to his anger, there will be a fracture in his family and he's certain that they need everything they can muster to meet this threat. The bond with Rey is still flowing strongly, and she must have picked up on the flavor of his thoughts, because she turns to him and smiles encouragingly, squeezing his hand.

Ben takes a deep breath and declares, "I agree with Mom. Luke, I accept your apology."

"Just like that?" Luke says with shock.

"Rey reminded me what really matters. The future I have with her. I know you did the best you could, and if you'll stop looking for the dark around every corner, I can work with you."

His expression dims and Luke responds with, "Work with me," in a flat, morose tone.

"That's all I have. For now. Is it enough?"

"I just … I want you to know that I never meant for you to feel so isolated."

His anger flares back up. What did Luke expect would happen if he suppressed their family ties? But then a wave of Rey's love washes over him and he takes another long breath. "I understand that you didn't mean to hurt me."

The forlorn Jedi looks stricken, but he nods in acceptance.

Leia comes over to Ben and takes his other hand. "Thank you, Son." They're all looking at him, as if he holds the answers.

Ben suddenly feels exposed and he wants the focus to be on anyone but him, so he just shrugs. Leia smiles, then lets his hand go. She turns back to her brother and husband and gestures between them. "Now, about you two—"

"He deserved it," Han growls.

"Han, I never actually did anything to Ben," Luke argues.

"Nah, you just made him feel like he wasn't even family. Sure, you didn't actually try to murder my kid, so everything is hunky dory!"

"Han—" Leia tries to break in.

"No!" he shouts, getting to his feet. "How can you be so damned calm about this?"

Leia's lips purse. "I'm not. I gave him quite an ear full while you were sulking. But I think we need Luke. We don't know what we're walking into on Kamino."

"I can handle it," Han grumbles.

Going to her husband, Leia takes his hands and stares up at him. "Remember how well we work together? We took down two death stars. We need him. And he needs us."

Han's jaw works, and he looks away, straight at Ben. It feels so good to have his father defending him so fiercely, but, as always, his mother is right.

"Dad … thank you. Truly. But the real enemy here is Snoke. He's the one who did this to me. He's the one who did this to all of us."

"Han," Luke begins gently, also standing. "Let me make this right. Let me be the uncle to Ben I always should have been."

It pulls at something deep inside to have Luke refer to himself, voluntarily, as his uncle.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Han nods once, tightly. "If it's okay with Ben, then I guess it's okay with me."

"It is, Dad," Ben agrees, a bit surprised at the peace winding through him. It could simply be his bond with Rey, but somehow, he doesn't think so.


"Alright, I've heard from Kamino, they want another shipment of orchids," Han says as they all sit around the kitchen table.

Rey's face grows pinched. "Do we really have to bring more?"

"Well, they'd notice if we don't have 'em," Han points out.

"Couldn't we use the mind trick?" Rey suggests.

Luke breathes out and shakes his head. "You can never know for sure if a mind will accept your influence."

But Ben knows that's not true. It's only that you take the chance of damaging someone if you go deeper. Dare he share this knowledge? He'd learned it from Snoke, and the only mind he's broken into is Rey's …

Then she takes the choice from him. "Ben can do it. Especially with my help."

Luke's gaze sharpens, and Ben watches as he visibly forces his face into bland curiosity. "I'd like to know more about this."

"I'm … I'm particularly skilled at the mind," Ben admits, not willing to look at anyone. "I can do it, but … I think it's dark."

"Absolutely not!" Luke shouts with a forbidding tone.

"For the last time, he's not dark!" Rey cries out. "But if it's used for good, how can it be wrong?"

"Exerting your will on another isn't right," Luke argues back.

"But it's alright on a weak mind? I've used the mind trick countless times. It doesn't make me dark," Rey fires back.

"Well, that's different. It's mild. What Ben is suggesting could permanently damage them."

Han snorts. "Luke, buddy, we're probably gonna have to kill them to get out of there with those orchids. I think blitzing their minds first is the least of our problems."

Luke's eyes grow unfocused and his gaze slides to the table. There's an air of defeat and shame throbbing from him and he shrugs slightly. "Fine. I don't like it. But fine."

Ben looks over at his mother, who is just regarding her brother sadly. There's something unsaid coursing between them. He decides it's simply their bond, but when he catches his father's eyes, they too look concerned.

"Luke … the death star, it had to be done," Han murmurs in a surprisingly soft tone.

"I know. I just … so many lives lost … so many lives taken."

Leia soothes her hand along his arm. "So many lives saved."

He nods and finds Ben's eyes. "We'll do it your way."


Rey is preparing her orchid to travel while Ben simply enjoys her company. There's something especially soothing simply being with her. Not talking about something grand, not caught in the wild fire of their desire for each other.

He takes in a deep breath, feeling a kind of centering that's new. Is this how other people feel all the time?

Once her orchid is boxed up safely, she turns to him and gives him one of her luminous smiles.

"What?" he asks, wondering why she's so pleased with him.

"I'm … I'm proud of you."

Her words wash over him and he stands a little taller. Making Rey proud, it's a heady feeling, one he's not accustomed to. And he has no idea what to say.

She saves him from gaping by winding her arms around his waist and going on her toes to kiss him. He's not sure he'll ever quite believe that he gets to have Rey in his arms, feel her lips against his. But he's grateful to every god of every world for her blessings.

Rey pulls back and looks at him intently. "I mean it. You … you handled everything with Luke so well. I know he hurt you, but you're giving him a chance. You amaze me, every day, you amaze me.

He still can't find words, so he just pulls her close and holds her to his heart. The heart that belongs to her.


It's a long haul to Kamino, so they leave in the evening allowing them to sleep through most of the journey.

As they're heading up the ramp, Ben keeps looking around for his uncle's trusty droid. Rey is already aboard and Ben awkwardly asks, "So, uh, where's R2?"

"I left him in charge," Luke says in a serious tone, making Ben stop dead in his tracks.

"What?" he asks dumbly.

Then Luke's face breaks into a huge grin. "Oh, kid, you always were easy to tease. R2 stayed to help out Tai. He's a steady young man. He and the other older apprentices will be fine without me."

It strikes Ben that Luke would never have left him in charge, but then the bitter thought floats away. With Snoke in his head, it would have been a foolish choice. His uncle may have been wrong about the source, but he had been struggling with the dark.

As if he knows what he's thinking, Luke says, "I would be proud to have you follow in my footsteps, become a Jedi Master in your own right."

Ben's eyes blink quickly and he's surprised at the warmth in his chest. "Thank you. That does mean a lot … but I don't think that's what I'm supposed to do," Ben says. Leaving the temple, though under difficult circumstances, has opened up his life considerably.

"You and Rey could come back to Yavin 4, complete your training." There's an earnest hope in Luke's bearing that makes him waver for just a moment. But then he remembers his father, seeing the galaxy with Rey, and there's no choice to make.

"I think we're building something new, Luke."

He nods and smiles softly. "Yes, I think you are. And isn't it about time you started calling me Uncle? I'm not your master any longer."

Ben's lack of anger confuses him, and he waits for the rage, but it doesn't come. Instead he just smiles. "Yeah … yeah … Uncle Luke."


Everyone has bunked for the night, his parents in the captain's quarters, Luke in the main cabin, and he and Rey in his childhood berth. He has to hold her especially close, but he certainly doesn't mind.

"Thank you," she murmurs into the crook of his arm. They're lying with her back to his front and he has one arm under her head and the other snugly around her waist.

"For what?"

"For earlier … for helping me understand, really understand how you feel about me. I needed that in a way I never really knew." Then she sighs out. "I haven't … I haven't been fair to you."

With his lips close to her ear, he asks, "What do you mean?"

Then she's turning in his arms and looking into his eyes with a sad sort of guilt. "I don't … I don't let you in like I should. You share everything with me."

Ben keeps his expression neutral and only says, "I know you need time."

"No … you give me so much, all the time. You deserve to have just as much from me."

"Rey, no. You give me everything, your love, your attention—"

"But not my full self, not my experiences … especially with … him."

Ben breathes in sharply, and though he's been desperate for her to open up to him, he's suddenly not sure he really wants to know. They've reached such a close place and he doesn't want to take any chance of ruining it.

"When you're ready," he says gently.

She takes in a long breath and nods. "I think … I think I am ready. I have been, I just haven't known how."

"Why not?"

"Because … for a long time it felt like I was betraying him, in some way."

That hurts, but Ben doesn't let it control him. "Why is that?"

"He … you … went through so much more and just like you let me see you, he let me in. And even though you're the same person, it doesn't feel like mine to share. Well, it didn't."

"What changed?"

"You hold nothing back, you never have. You deserve all of me. He deserved it, too. I can't give all of me to him, but he's you. I think … I think I forgot that. You were two different people; in some ways you always will be. But watching you fight so hard to reclaim your family, to conquer your rage. Just like he fought … for me."

Ben nods for her to continue and her eyes grow unfocused. She kneads at his bare chest and takes another deep breath.

"When we met … I hated you," she admits quietly. "Then Han … I never thought I could forgive that."

"But you did."

"No, not really. But you, he let me see Ben. I was facing who I was, the pain of everything … my parents and he sat with me through the bond. Even after I'd scarred him badly. He let me just talk, the way you do … then he told me I wasn't alone. No one had ever done that for me before."

He has a queer feeling in his belly at that. He's beginning to see the intimacy between them and he's surprised that his jealousy is dormant.

"Across the galaxy, I reached for him and he reached back. I think I fell in love with him in that moment."

"He really is a different man from me, isn't he?" Ben asks, no longer questioning the acceptance in his chest.

"Yes … and no. You're … you're who he should have been. You're who I hoped he could find in himself again. But I hate that I was never able to see that journey."

Ben doesn't know what to say to that. Part of him wants to point out that that won't happen now, that she's saved him from that fate. But her eyes are far away, and she's clearly lost to the future.

Quietly, she keeps speaking. "But … but I've seen a different journey, and it's enough to know that he would have healed because you're both so strong. Being with you, it's allowed me to know him, too."

"Tell me … tell me who he was," he entreats.

She snorts and makes a crooked smile. "Well, he was an arrogant bantha's ass, for one."

Ben smiles back and Rey settles into his arms more fully and finally begins to speak. To let him in.


"He killed Snoke for you?"

Rey shakes her head. "No … I mean, yes, but he did it for himself, too. He wanted to be free."


"He wanted to turn you to the dark side?" Ben asks, confused. He can't imagine wanting to change Rey.

"He said he did … but I think … I think what he really wanted was … me."

"Of course he did. Rey, I know I don't have half the experiences that shaped him, but I do know how you make me feel. I would do anything to have you by my side. Fall to the dark, run to the light. If he thought that was the only way to have you with him, well …" Ben trails off.

Rey nods. "I wondered, but I could never be sure."

"He loved you. I promise." And just like that, something inside him shifts and he realizes he'll always be Rey's second love. And that … that's okay. Right even. They might be the same person, but they aren't the same man.

Rey shudders and her eyes have filled with tears. "I kissed him, touched his face, and he smiled. And then he … he died. Oh, gods, Ben, his smile. It haunts me. I never got to tell him."

Stroking her cheek, Ben says with a confidence that comes from the very cosmos, "He knows, Rey. He knows."

She lets out a quavering sob and he kisses her temple, cradling her close to his chest. "Do you know?" she asks with a shaky voice.

"I do. We do."


A/N: Thank you ArtemisBare, who is always one of my touchstones, but has been particularly wonderful since shelter-in-place began.

Thank you, Readers! I have missed you so much. I'm sorry the current world events sapped my muse for such a long time. I have no idea when I'll be writing now, but please know that I'm thinking about all of you. I really hope everyone is healthy and safe. If you need someone to talk to, please come by my tumblr, perrydowning, and drop me a line. I'm a pretty decent listener and we all have to stick together. All my love.