Summary: Some smut, a fond farewell, and Leia. POV Ben.

A/N: Guys, I'm so, so sorry for the slower updates. When I started out, the goal was once a day. But then this story ran away from me and just kept going, and once a day became every two, and now it's shifting to every three to four. I'll try to tighten it back to two, if I can. In the meantime, thanks for being patient with me! I also got a wee bit distracted writing a Reylo/Lady and the Tramp crossover one-shot. It's being posted to my Twitter timeline (at little_womp_rat) but I'll also put it up here when it's done. It's clean. No smut, because...Disney. Lol.

CHAPTER TWELVE:

In Transition

TWENTY-TWO WEEKS: BELL PEPPER

"Where are you? When are you getting here?" Ben asked, leaning on the tower of boxes containing Rey's canned goods. He put the phone on speaker and set it down on top of the stack so Rey could hear too while he stuck each box with green circle stickers.

"I don't know. I just heard the worst thing from my mom." Poe's voice cut in roughly from the device.

"What happened?" His concern surged, for both his friend and Shara and Kes, Poe's mother and father, who had been like second parents to him growing up. He gave Rey a startled glance. "Is everything okay?"

She sat at her counter, wrapping jars of peaches in protective paper. Her brow knit together in sudden worry.

Poe sounded annoyed, not distressed when he spoke again. "No, it is not okay. She told me what your mother told her, which is that you guys found out you're having a girl."

All the initial concern vanished, replaced by mild irritation. "Why would you say it like that? Geeze, Poe, I thought something happened to your parents."

"What? No? They're fine," Poe said in confusion.

Ben sighed and rolled his eyes. "Okay, so why is that the worst thing? Do you not approve of girls?"

"Of course I do! It's great! But it's also terrible because you guys were supposed to do a gender reveal party. I didn't want to find out this way! Do you know your mom is going around just blabbing it to everyone?"

"Yeah, it's not a big deal. And what the devil is a gender reveal party?" Ben asked. He glanced at Rey again to see if she knew, but she just gave him this wide-eyed shake of her head, as baffled as he was. Honestly, it sounded like another one of Poe's made up traditions he liked to invoke to get everyone together under some theme.

Poe groaned into the phone. "Buddy, you are so poorly prepared for this dad gig. Get on social media once in a while. See what people who aren't sixty years old are doing these days, particularly people in your boat, about to be parents. Get on Instagram and check out some gender reveal videos."

"I'm not going to do that."

"You should. They're great. Ideally you two wouldn't know either, so we could all react to the surprise together. But you guys ruined that part."

"Why the hell would I want to share that moment with any of you?"

Poe sighed in exasperation. "Because your community loves you, Nosferatu, and sometimes it's fun to feel how much everyone loves you. Celebrate together. And it can be any kind of gimmick that suits you. Like some people hit a hollow ball full of pink or blue powder so it explodes on impact. Or some people get a cake with white frosting and pink or blue inside, so when you cut a slice, we all get to see. Although that one might be too wedding-esque for your taste. Or you open a box of pink or blue balloons. Let's see...there's smoke bombs but I heard about a couple who started a forest fire with that. Oh! Maybe—"

"Poe," Ben interrupted, shaking his head even though his friend couldn't see it. "We're not doing that."

"I know, the smoke bomb is bad-"

"No. I mean, we're not doing any of it."

There was a note of silence from the phone. Ben and Rey glanced at one another, amusement humming between them. She grinned. He rolled his eyes.

"Solo," Poe said with obvious annoyance. "You can be a real killjoy."

Ben didn't deny this. "I can."

"Why don't you want to do it?"

"Because it sounds ridiculous. Why can't we just tell people? Or better yet, let my mother go around telling people?"

"Because that isn't fun. You have no imagination. I'm going to call Rey. She'll agree with me here because she understands fun."

"Hi, Poe," Rey chimed in with a huge grin. "Right here, actually."

"Oh! You guys are — together — great," Poe sounded surprised, and then disappointed. "So you heard. Will you please tell Ben that he's being a giant pain in the ass and that this would be a great way to tell everyone your good news?"

"Actually, at the risk of being un-fun, I have to tell you that I'm with Ben on this."

Poe cried in dismay. "What? Why?"

"It just sounds silly, honestly. But if you want to have a party, we can just have one. No need for a reason. We'll even go around telling people while we're there."

"That's so boring," Poe sighed. "What is wrong with both of you?"

"She's being generous," said Ben. "I don't even think we need a party for this. Can't we just put it on the group chat?"

"No!" Poe gasped.

"Actually, that's a good idea," said Rey, laughing. "We could do it right now."

"No, Ben, Rey, come on, you're killing me with this. Please, please, just let me help you find the right idea."

"Get your own baby to announce, Poe," Ben remarked.

Something was happening that piqued his interest far more than this conversation. The sun filtered through the drape-less windows and bathed the apartment in a warm golden glow. It made Rey's hazel eyes sparkle. She kept tugging her bottom lip between her teeth as she wrapped jars, sometimes her tongue poked out to wet them. Her smiles at Poe's silliness dimpled there at her cheeks, and her nutmeg hair was starting to fall out of the messy bun she wore to keep her hair off her neck. Ben realized how distractingly pretty the scene was, and Rey was, and suddenly he wanted to do something about it. A hunger stirred in him. A content cat waking up a nap, realizing desirable prey was right here.

"I hate you guys," muttered Poe. "But at least you can't stop me from throwing you a shower. That's happening."

"Fine, but you'll have to fight my mother for it," Ben said dismissively. He was done with Poe. He wanted to kiss this gorgeous girl on the other side of the counter now. She met his glance and blinked, grinning in surprise by what she saw there. Her eyebrows raised in silent question.

Ben nodded.

Their friend was still talking. "She can plan her own, and I can work something out for just us, like we did for Paige."

"Poe," Ben said, interrupting him again. "How soon will you get here?"

"Thirty minutes?" sighed Poe. "Maybe more. Nah, probably more. I haven't showered yet."

Ben gave his phone a perplexed look. "Why would you shower before moving furniture?"

"Some of us aren't cave dwellers, Benedict Smellybatch. Some of us think it's fine to shower twice or three times in a day. I bet you don't even wash your legs in the shower, do you?"

"Yes I do. Clean up all you want, Dameron, just as long as we get this done today."

"We will. Chill out. I'll be there soonish."

"Fine."

Ben hung up and immediately stepped over to Rey, taking the jar she currently held in her other hand and set it on the counter. He pulled her to her feet and stepped in to catch her lips in his, arms winding around the small of her back. She crooned softly in the back of her throat, a surprised, pleased sound that made his heart thump.

"Wow," she laughed when he pulled back by an inch. "That feels like you want this to go somewhere."

"I do."

"Kind of sudden, isn't it?"

"You're just — you're always beautiful, but right now in this light...I can't pay attention to anything else. Do you not want to?"

"Yes, I do. Of course." She hesitated. "But Poe?"

"—Is going to take forever," he said in a low rumble, running a lock of her stray hair through his fingers. "We've got time."

"But my bed is already disassembled." Her glance flashed over to the pieces of the frame lying in a tidy bundle by the door. "And you threw away my mattress, or else we could have put it on the floor."

Yes, he had happily thrown that nasty old thing away. Ben would throw away a lot more of her junk if she'd let him. Or donate what was salvageable. Keep only what actually mattered. The problem was that Rey thought everything mattered. So for now, a storage unit would do.

"You still have a mostly acceptable pullout couch," he murmured, dipping in to taste her again in a languid, indulgent kiss. "Which, given the circumstances, seems an appropriate farewell to this place."

She laughed softly against him, "Very appropriate."

It was really all the go ahead he needed. He left her briefly, efficiently tearing off the cushions and lifting out that shitty pullout bed he'd slept on for two weeks, unfolding it. She hadn't replaced the sheets on it, apparently, because a worn, saggy, threadbare, mattress greeted him. Ugly and shabby. But it didn't matter. They'd thoroughly ruin it now, stick it into storage, and someday when he'd convinced her that he would provide comfort and security, that she didn't need to cling to these thrift store vestiges of her old life, they could get rid of it. Maybe burn it, as some kind of symbolic gesture to the universe. Or something.

Rey came over, perching on the arm of the couch while he replaced the cushions, sliding them up against the back, arranging them to his satisfaction. He kept glancing at her, the fire licking through his veins coming to settle somewhere in his face. It really was a lucky thing that her extra blood flow made her more keen than usual, because something about the way she looked these days inflamed him. Ben had never before looked at the roundness of a gravid woman and been aroused, but god it did powerful things to him to see Rey in that state.

At her last appointment, Doctor Holdo had admonished Rey to try to gain a bit more weight. A certain amount of body fat was good for pregnancy, she said. Ben wasn't sure how Rey would manage it, because for as long as he'd known her, she ate like a sugar-and-bread-addicted horse and yet still was only ever the same size. He assumed it was some byproduct of her severe malnutrition growing up. But somehow, her body had responded to the doctor's request. All her hard lines and sharp angles were softer now.

Ben loved it. He loved her before, and he loved her now, and he thought it exciting to rediscover her body over and over again in all its changes.

When he was satisfied with his arrangement, he went to her. His hands wrapped around her waist. She tipped her face to him, pulling herself up so she could reach his mouth.

A month ago, at the dinner at his parent's house, Ben couldn't think of anything worse than going on that business trip. He didn't want to leave Rey in the midst of the subtle shifts happening between them. Nor did he want to leave her alone in the midst of her physical distress either. She might not have classified it as distress, but from his perspective, every facet of pregnancy looked like it should count as distressing.

But he was forever grateful now that she had made him go. Rey wasn't the same person when he got back. For one, she sported a visible, irresistible bump (one he wanted to touch all the time.) And for another, all the walls he'd always sensed around her were gone. It thrilled him. It unnerved him. He'd decided while he was away that he couldn't be as patient as he thought anymore. He needed to act. So coming home to discover this new Rey was terrifyingly opportune. And he began to take risks. Like kissing her.

God, he was so glad he'd kissed her.

Everything had changed then. And now it was all so, so very close to what he'd ever dreamed of. So close he could taste it.

Rey wore this yellow sundress that made her skin glow in a rich, toasted tan, and hugged her bump perfectly. Ben wanted to tear it off her. But given the expedited nature of this impromptu debauchery, he decided to work with it instead. He took hold of the sides of her skirt and backed towards the couch, pulling her to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck instinctively. Their lips met in a slow, smoldering burn that promised to consume everything.

She didn't even know what she did to him, but every time they fell together like this, Rey made Ben feel like a god. Made him feel omnipotent.

Another of innumerable reasons why he loved her. And here again came the head rush, the dizzying euphoria when he remembered that he was allowed to feel that now, and allowed to say it.

"I love you," he whispered, savoring the feel of those words tumbling out into the open.

"I know," she crooned happily, a blissful grin breaking over her face.

After, when the flames had burned themselves out and he rested in the soft yellow fabric of her dress, in the space between her bump and her breasts, her fingers running through his air affectionately, he marveled. It didn't matter that it had been several weeks since she'd started cuddling after, he still wasn't used to how good it felt. That he could finally hold her, or she him, and bathe in the drug-like high of intense intimacy and togetherness, it still felt more like a fantasy than reality.

Ben's hand brushed up the swell of her, possessive and adoring. "Is she moving?" he asked softly.

"No," she sighed. "She's always quiet after. I think maybe it puts her to sleep."

Ben was glad she couldn't see the way his cheeks grew warm under this comment. As much as this pregnancy was doing strange things to her libido, and by extension his, and as much as her changing body turned him on, he really couldn't let himself think too much about it in the heat of the moment. Because…it was weird. And he knew, logically, that nothing they did could touch or disturb the baby, but it still freaked him out if he thought about it too long. So he didn't. He focused on Rey, and only Rey.

His hand trailed over the bump, his mind drifting away from this moment and into some blissed-out place. Her fingers scraped lightly over his scalp, eliciting a pleasant shiver from him.

Neither of them spoke for a few minutes.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked so softly.

He lifted his head, giving her a sheepish smile. "Contemplating my awe."

"Your awe?"

"That you're — you're making this." He dropped a kiss onto her belly. "I can't wrap my head around it."

"You know how it works," she giggled.

"Hm, I know the mechanics," he pressed his lips to the soft yellow fabric draped over her stomach again. "But it's something else to watch it happening. To watch you do this."

"I don't feel like I'm really doing anything. It's happening without me," she dodged.

"You're doing a lot. And I'm in awe."

"Don't you get any credit? A cake is only as good as its ingredients," she joked.

He smirked. "That's not strictly true. And are you comparing my daughter to a cake, Rey?"

"You —" her breath left her in a rush, when she sucked in again, she tried again. "You compare her to fruit…and potatoes…and squash varieties…all the time."

"A bell pepper today," he said.

She laughed a blissful, husky little laugh. "If I weren't in love with you before, I'd be a goner now."

He chuckled, rolling onto his back and pulling her in to nestle against his body, her head tucked onto his shoulder. Comfortable, deeply satisfied silence settled between them for a few minutes. And then —

"Poe will be here soon," she reminded him softly.

"Screw 'im."

She laughed again. "You weren't saying that yesterday when you asked for his help."

"Shoulda called my dad," he grumbled. "He wouldn't have asked questions."

"Wait," she lifted her head and gave him a surprised look. "You were hoping this would stay a secret? Why'd you call Poe, then?"

"I wasn't thinking. Poe's my moving buddy," he said.

It hadn't occurred to him not to call Poe. Ben was larger-than-average, and because of that, people always wanted to rope him into helping out with their moves. He'd grown up among the kind of people who always hired movers, but somehow he still got dragged into it. And Poe, being another stripling teenager, had got dragged right along with him. Ben couldn't even imagine how to haul furniture around without him now, because they were that good at it. They didn't argue about how to fit an unwieldy couch through a narrow door anymore, they knew each other well enough that they just did it.

The only time he'd moved furniture without Poe's help had been that escapade out to Lando in the desert, because Poe had been out of town, and Rey was strong enough to help him. He was glad about that time. It wouldn't have been such a great memory when the truck broke down if it had been anyone but Rey out there with him.

"Honestly, it's exhausting trying to keep stuff from them anyway," she said, rubbing over the soft cotton shirt stretched across his chest. "It's fine if he asks questions."

"You know that they're all going to crow about how they knew it this whole time."

"They will. We can't stop them, and it'll happen eventually anyway, so it doesn't matter. Let them know. In fact—" her hand stilled over his heart and he turned to see a coy look crossing her face. "Let's mess with them. Shock them."

"What does that mean?"

"When he gets here, we'll show him. Just follow my lead."

Ben huffed in amusement. "That sounds dangerous."

She grinned. "Trust me."

He did.

The knock on the door reported Poe's arrival a mere five minutes after they got themselves and the couch put back together. The timing made Ben feel smug. He sauntered back to Rey's bedroom to grab a box of books, leaving her to go to the door, smirking to himself all the while.

"Hi Poe — and Finn!" He heard her exclaim. "I didn't realize you were coming too."

"I figured if hauling furniture was involved, the more hands the better," came the husky voice of Finn.

Wrong, Ben thought mildly, but did not interject when he emerged with the box. It was good of Finn to come anyway, and Rey seemed genuinely happy to see him. Ben gave them both a nod as he set down his burden.

Finn looked around at all the boxes and disassembled furniture, his eyes widening. "Whoa. I thought we were gonna trade out your nasty old couch for something newer, not moving your whole apartment!"

Rey shoved his shoulder. "It's not nasty!"

"It definitely is," Ben chimed in.

She shot him a loaded look. They didn't need to speak to communicate what both were thinking about. Her cheeks reddened. He suppressed another smirk.

"So you're finally getting out of this hellhole, huh?" Poe said with obvious approval. "Good for you."

"It's not a hellhole," protested Rey. "Did you guys just come over here to insult my stuff and my home?"

Poe laughed. "Well it's obviously not going to be your home anymore."

Finn was giving a little tap on Rey's belly. "Does this mean you found a place big enough for you and Peanut?"

Rey batted his hand away. "Yes, I have."

Ben stepped back to her room to double check, then returned to her side and brushed his fingers over her shoulder to get her attention. "Everything's out of the room now except your dresser. We can start hauling things down while you finish the last of those jars."

Rey smiled, and in a movement so quick he didn't see it coming, leaned up on her toes to kiss him. "Thank you," she said softly. "I'm sorry I'm not more help."

Ben understood what she was doing then. He let the kiss linger, and then pulled back chuckling. He tucked some of her hair behind her ear as he slid a hand around to the small of her back. "Don't be sorry. That's why I called Poe. No heavy lifting for you, little mama."

She blushed, as she always did when he called her that, and pecked him one more time before trotting back over to the kitchen to resume her task with the jars.

Ben turned to face the two men gaping at him. He folded his arms over his chest. "Okay, here's how we're going to do this. Finn, Poe and I have a system, so why don't you tackle boxes. Green stickers go into the back of my dad's truck downstairs, blue stickers into the U-Haul. But start with the greens. Poe, you and I will do the couch first, then dresser, then the rest of the big pieces. Those are all going in the U-Haul before the blue sticker boxes."

"Whoa, whoa, wait," Poe said, shaking his head. "You want to just gloss right over that?"

"Yeah," agreed Finn. "That was new. You guys have done some weird things, but you've never done that."

Ben glanced between them. "What do you need to know so we can get started?"

"Are you guys…" Finn gestured helplessly between them. "Together now?"

"We are," Rey chirped from the kitchen.

The two men screeched like raptors and suddenly Poe was shoving his fist into Ben's shoulder.

"I knew it!" he cried. "I knew it!"

"Sure you did," Ben laughed. Poe had known more about Ben's feelings for Rey than anyone else over the years. He wasn't exactly Ben's confidant, but there had been a few honest conversations. His sense of triumph was expected, yet it made Ben roll his eyes anyway.

"Since when?" Finn asked, abandoning them to hurry over to Rey. "How long?"

She shrugged. "Just a couple weeks."

"This is great news," Poe exulted with a wide smile. "The best news. So does the divided stuff mean some of it's going to storage and some of it's going to your house, Ben?"

"Yep, exactly."

Finn's jaw slackened and he gave Rey a further stunned look. "You guys are moving in together?"

She laughed lightly and put a hand on his arm, giving him a little shake. "Finn, it's fine. Don't sound so scandalized. It's not like we're rushing into anything."

Poe scoffed. "Yeah, you two rush about as fast as glaciers move."

Worth it, thought Ben.

But Finn didn't look convinced. He was giving Rey this concerned, flabbergasted look. She just shrugged and turned back to her jars. "I know what I'm doing. I love him, and we're going to be a family. The three of us."

God, Ben could honestly combust hearing her say it out loud, especially to other people. She didn't sound nervous or unsure at all, and she wasn't trying to hide it. She sounded cool and confident and happy. It blew his mind. It made his heart throb with a peculiar ache, like he couldn't trust that this happiness really belonged to him. Like the cuddling, he kept expecting to wake up and realize he was back in the friend zone. For years, he'd watched her dodge relationship after relationship, hunger for belonging but flinching from commitment. And for all that time, he had kept his secret and concealed his affections because he did not believe she could ever return them. But now she did. And it was so close to being everything he'd ever dreamed of, he couldn't quite convince himself it was real.

He could feel Poe watching him with a knowing smile.

"Let's start with the couch," Ben said to him.

"Hell yes, let's start," said Poe, rubbing his hands together. "I so support this."

"You guys sure I can't help with the big stuff?" Finn asked.

"We have a system," said Poe, echoing Ben's earlier explanation. He squared himself on one end of the couch, Ben maneuvering into position on the other. "It's okay."

"Stay here with me," encouraged Rey. "I'll just finish up these jars and then I can help—"

"No," Ben cut in, the words grunting out of him as he lifted his end of the heavy pull-out couch. "When you finish you can sit right there and wait for us to be done."

"I can carry the lighter stuff!"

"No."

"An armload of coats?"

"Rey." He and Poe staggered over to the door and began to puzzle it through.

She sighed, but there was a laugh in it too. "So bossy."

The next couple hours were spent emptying Rey's apartment piece by piece. Poe peppered Ben with questions while they worked — what happened, when did it change, had Ben said the L-word, how she reacted. He wanted to know everything. Ben gave him the main pieces of information. Meanwhile Finn and Rey talked, presumably about the same thing. She followed him as he hefted boxes out to the truck, abiding Ben's insistence that she not do any work herself.

When all the big stuff was out, he and Poe started hauling boxes with Finn, and Rey went to scrub out the fridge. It went very quickly then, and soon the three men left to take the stuff to storage and Ben's apartment. When they came back, Rey had already finished scrubbing down everything that needed to be scrubbed.

Weary but satisfied with their work, they all four stood in Rey's barren apartment and surveyed the emptiness. The same that she'd lived in since graduating. The same one Ben had slept in several times, and spent sickness and quarantine in. The one they'd made another human in.

A melancholy sort of mood settled over the place.

"Okay," Poe said softly. "I think we'll go and let you…say your goodbyes. Do you guys have plans for dinner? Can we maybe get together with everyone at Maz's and share the good news? Not a gender reveal party—" he added hastily at their expressions. "Just a little gathering to celebrate you guys finally coming to your senses."

Ben glanced at Rey, who was looking a little misty-eyed and distracted. Still, she gave him a subtle nod, so he accepted the invitation for them both and agreed on a time to meet. He thanked them both and showed them out.

They stayed there in the silent apartment for a while. Ben hung back while she wandered around, looking pitiful and lost. Rey had a hard time letting go of things. He knew this. She tended to cling. He couldn't blame her, not after what she'd been through, so he let her grieve this change with the space she needed. Watching her drift like a ghost through the remains of her life gave him a flicker of guilt, though. He was the one who had overturned her comfortable world. He was the one stealing her away from her safe, secure domaine.

Eventually she finished and made her way back to him, brushing tears away.

"Are you alright?" he asked her gently.

"Just emotional. It's so annoying that I cry over everything." She sniffed, smiled. Leaning up, she kissed him briefly. "Let's go home."

"You sure you're ready?"

She nodded. "I'm sure."

They took the truck back to his parents' house. Ben expected to just drop it off, switch back to his car, and then head home, but apparently fate had other plans. As he pulled up, his mother's car glided in next to him. He looked over and she was grinning at him through her window.

Rey laughed. "That's amazing timing."

"Amazing," Ben sighed and got out of the truck, going over to open Rey's door for her. He took her hand as they went to greet his mother. She already knew. That day, after the ultrasound, when Ben called to tell her about the baby, he'd told her too that he and Rey had decided to be in a relationship. She was delighted to learn she had a granddaughter on the way, and as for the other piece of news, well, she said she wasn't surprised and she whole-heartedly approved.

Now she greeted Ben with a quick hug, and then turned her attention to Rey, giving her a much tighter embrace. They'd hung out a few times. Rey had gone to sit in on a couple of Leia's lectures. Leia had taken her out to get her hair done and for some "much needed pampering," according to his mother. Ben liked that they were becoming close.

"I'm glad I ran into you both!" she said happily. "Did you get everything moved?"

"We did," Rey told her warmly.

"This dress looks so good on you," Leia sighed. "You're like sunshine. Don't you think so, Ben?"

He snorted. "Yes, she is. But I already told her I liked it, Mom, you don't have to trick me into it."

Rey grinned, her cheeks pinking in that lovely way he always admired. "He did."

"Good." Leia patted his chest. "We raised you to be a gentleman. Sometimes I wasn't sure it was working. You were so sour there for a while. But looks like you turned out okay."

"Mom," he complained.

Rey laughed. "You all talk about him like he was a terror before."

"He was," his mother said, eyes widening. "I'm grateful you didn't know him then."

Ben sighed. Rey squeezed his hand and gave him a shy smile. "I bet we still would have been friends."

Would they have been? There weren't many kids around him growing up from low socio-economic backgrounds. He'd never known any foster kids. But Ben was busy trying to shrug off his cushy upbringing back then, so if he had known someone like Rey, he probably would have tried to be associated with her somehow, to prove to himself and the world that he was more than just the son of influential parents. And he suspected Rey would have had the same magnetic pull over him, all fire and sun and resilience. He would definitely have wanted to be her friend. She might not have liked him, though. He wasn't the easiest person to like back then. But he wasn't when they met either, and she still made a friend of him anyway. So maybe.

"So does all your stuff fit in Ben's condo?" His mother was asking Rey when Ben surfaced from this speculation.

She shook her head. "No, some of it went to storage."

"To storage?" Leia sounded intrigued. "Until when?"

Rey shrugged. "Until we need it, I guess."

She thought he'd been joking about finding them a bigger place. He wasn't. He had a few options he liked a lot. He just needed to tell Rey about them and get her opinions before he scheduled something. But Ben dithered, because it felt backwards. It felt like he was skipping a step. Probably it was his grandmother's ring burning a hole through his dresser. He knew they didn't need it to buy a house together. They didn't need some arbitrary traditional arrangement to be a family. He just needed to get over that little hangup, because everything else was perfect. Better than perfect.

"Well, do you two want to stay for dinner?" Leia asked, smiling a little too knowingly at him. "Artu was going to make sushi."

"No sushi," Ben said, frowning. "You should know that."

"Oh, I forgot you came out with mercury poisoning," she retorted dryly.

Rey rolled her eyes at him, laughing a light, exasperated thing. "Actually, Leia, we're meeting up with some friends for dinner. But thank you for the offer anyway."

"But tomorrow, though," she encouraged. "Tomorrow is Sunday."

Ben hadn't been able to get out of these weekend dinners since telling them about the baby. His mother was more adamant than ever, and Rey always wanted to go. He couldn't really say no to her. Especially not now, when he was so much closer to making her part of his family than ever before.

"We'll be there," he told his mother.

She nodded in satisfaction. "And if you're willing to share them, I'd love to hear your name ideas. I can't wait to know what I get to call my little daisy girl."

Rey glanced at Ben. He shrugged. "We don't really have anything to share or hide on that front."

"You can't decide or you haven't talked about it?"

"We haven't talked about it," Rey said with a sheepish smile. "Right now it feels like we have forever, so we keep putting it off. It's…a lot of pressure."

"No, no, no pressure! It's supposed to be fun!" Leia shook her head. "Each of you get on one of those baby name websites and make a list of ones you love. Then you come together and talk about it. It's thrilling!"

"Did you do that?" Ben asked. "Before you settled on mine?"

"Well, we didn't have websites. We had books. And no. I already knew what I wanted. Your father didn't have particularly strong opinions about it, so it was an easy discussion. If not very exciting."

Rey cocked her head in consideration. "It could be interesting to try. I've never looked at lists of names before. I have no idea what I'd like."

Ben's phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished it out and glanced at the screen while his mother threw out a few ideas ("Rachel? After Rey? Maybe Padme? After Ben's grandmother? Or any flower names! Flower names are always sweet. Posie, Lily, Violet—") It was Poe, informing him that everyone had confirmed, so they couldn't flake, and to be there at seven. He checked the time and then nudged Rey.

"Hey, we should go so I can shower before dinner."

"Okay," she said with a little smile.

Ben's mother gave them each a brisk hug of parting. "Alright, then. I'll see you tomorrow. In the meantime, think about it! Get ideas! I don't want you two to still be floundering and my granddaughter to be nameless for the first few days off her life. You think you have time but you'll see! I've had friends whose babies did really go days, even weeks without names."

"We'll talk about it, Mom," Ben assured her.

They exchanged final goodbyes, he gave her the keys to the truck, and then they were off again, in Ben's own car this time. Rey wore this lingering little grin, like her own thoughts were highly amusing. Ben held the steering wheel under one paw, taking Rey's hand in his other. Her fingers laced into his.

A/N: (I have decided what I will do with the name. Muaha. You'll just have to wait to find out.) Next chapter up on Saturday!