Sure enough, when the night time synchronization of Supremacy fell, the shadows began to stir.
"I'll be back." Keir promised with a tender kiss to his daughter's forehead, having already dotingly said goodbye to his granddaughter. "There's some stuff I gotta take care of but then I'll be right back. You need anythin', you let me know."
Lights low and atmosphere tranquil, Lucilla could rest for the night. The low humming of the incubator a few feet away would lull her to sleep, assuring the first-time mother that all was as it was supposed to be. Safe in the knowledge that her child did not need her (not yet, at least and not in the same way that Lucilla needed her baby), she could muse in peace until sleep finally claimed her.
The last time she had seen Orion had been the morning she'd left for Coruscant, when she walked (or in her case, waddled) with him to the bridge for his duties to begin. He'd kissed her like he always did, touched the bump like he had a habit of doing and watched her leave for the apartment again, cradling her belly.
But now, after this massive shift in circumstances that should have seen him rush and stick to her side, he was nowhere to be seen. If he was to be believed in the things he told her, the adorations he bestowed on her with "when the baby comes", he would have been there and Lucilla would not be left questioning.
In that resolve, she had no choice but to believe what her father told her. And why would he lie? They had always spoken quite highly of each other, her father and husband, despite being from different worlds; Keir would have only spouted his recent venom with truth and Orion was not present to counter it.
He had, in Lucilla's, mind cemented his apparent guilt with his actions; or lack of them. If he truly didn't feel the way her father said he did, why wasn't he there with her? With them? He'd been to the vast majority of tests and scans, those were nothing by comparison.
If he wasn't reviled at the idea of having a daughter (an ill one at that), why wasn't he keeping vigil at the incubator? He had the power to do so, the Supreme Leader would have understood, why did he leave her to do this alone? Of course, her father had been an invaluable source of reliability, comfort and support but his daughter wasn't clinging to life.
Yes, he had sent her flowers but when challenged with what he'd sent his child, Mitaka didn't stress that they were for both of them; or that he wished his flesh and blood would recover soon.
It boiled down to him not being there. Nearly twenty-four standard hours since she'd had an emergency caesarean section and her husband had deemed it unimportant enough to stop in and check on her. Baby (grudgingly) aside, why didn't he want to see her? His wife? The one he'd gone to extraordinary lengths for to ensure she had whatever she craved? In everything, not just a child.
The temptation was there, to contact his private com and request his presence. Would he refuse? Surely not. He would be in his off-duty hours, without the excuse of work, there would be no reason for him not to answer her summons; if he was innocent of her father's accusations, that is.
Unsure what triggered the sudden, furious realization, Lucilla's nostrils flared and her fists clenched.
Why should I have to?! He shouldn't need to be summoned! He should be here, unrequested and completely of his own volition! Because he wants to be!
Before her aggravation could rouse any further and she could continue to stack curses against her husband, Lucilla felt strangely serene. Said serenity guided her to melt into the depth of plump pillows (not standard to everyone else on board) and away from consciousness. After that, the little dove knew no more.
How long had she been out? She couldn't see the chronometer on the wall and her com device lay just out of reach on the bedside table. The ward beyond her room was still dark and there was no daytime hustle and bustle typical of a functioning medbay. With that in mind, Lucilla supposed she hadn't been out long.
A new habit called her to check the incubator; it was instinctive by now as her maternal instincts reached new levels that she would have thought impossible during her pregnancy. Particularly when one has a sick, premature child that requires extra care and attention.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust but when they did, she discovered something out of the ordinary hulking over the incubator; her waking mind took a moment to process it. Instead of alarm, she reacted with disdain; she had expected this.
"I knew it wouldn't be long before you turned up."
Ren's chocolate eyes heightened, oblivious to her waking; he put that down to being distracted by something so utterly worthy of being distracted by. Unperturbed by his presence, Lucilla sank back into the waiting embrace of her pillows and closed her eyes once more; the serenity was gone but now she knew where it had come from.
"What are you doing here, Ren?"
"I came to see her." He, unlike Orion, kept his voice low and reverent, the twinge of almost pained awe quite uncharacteristic. "And you." Also unlike Orion, his priority seemed to be the baby and Lucilla was a sweet second thought; as she should have been.
"She's sick."
"She's strong." He corrected, hypnotized, and having the courtesy to the little being to strip his glove from his hand before reaching in to touch her; Lucilla did not see the gentility, the care and attentiveness he did so with. "She's beautiful."
"Appreciative and all as I am of that, Ren, it's her father that I need to realize it." Came the despondent murmur from the bed that the Knight didn't overly react to, too enraptured by the tiny hand he coiled his own around.
"Oh but he does." Absentmindedly, the dark, brooding male immersed himself in the smaller pulse of energy that entwined itself with his; enough for his response not to dictate any great thought on his part. That was Lucilla's cue for her eyes to open and her upper half to tilt forward, her features burning with curiosity. Ren paid her no heed; not when he was so overly fascinated by this delicate, trusting creature.
"He spoke to you?" The note of hope was only natural; despite the evidence she'd seen and heard to the contrary. Again, Ren divided his attention and it was his turn to be curious; much to Lucilla's confusion.
"Who?"
"Orion!" She pressed with a taint of desperation, but the male seemed genuinely bewildered and at a loss. "Did he speak to you about her?!"
"Why would he do that?"
"So how do you know how he feels about her?!" Frustrated and still heavily dosed with hormones left over from the pregnancy, Lucilla felt her nerve begin to fray and her composure crumble. The obvious answer lay in the Force but if she knew Ren, she couldn't be so sure.
The blue-eyed beauty watched (as much as the low light would allow, at least) with unease as Ren's expression melted into something akin to bemusement; she had no idea why but it couldn't be good. He removed his hand from the incubator, slowly and placidly so as not to disturb the little one inside. Able to move freely, he turned from the humming container and swept the limited floorspace of the recovery room towards Lucilla's bed. Naturally, only beginning to recover from surgery in her lower quarters, the new mother was unable to move; despite her apprehension of the approaching shadow.
"Why does it matter what he feels?" Somewhat taken aback by the question, she barely became aware of the sag in the bed as Ren perched himself by her hip. He waited while she tried to formulate an answer; it wasn't a difficult question but the asking of it seemed… bizarre.
"He's her father!" She protested eventually, knowing there was not a more complicated response to that strange inquiry; even though Ren watched her with an intensity that might suggest it. "I want him to love her! It shouldn't matter what she is!"
"You seem very confident in that."
Darling features contorted in confusion, Lucilla could do nothing but stare. That made no sense. Why wouldn't she want Orion to love their daughter? It was a given that every man should fawn on his little angel the way her father did on her but…. Orion didn't. As far as she knew, her husband hadn't even seen the baby. Or maybe…. Maybe Ren meant that if he didn't love her of his own accord that she was above his love.
And Lucilla was beginning to agree. He gave her all the time to ponder it, happy to simply scrutinize that captivating face while she did.
"I…. It should be a given…. Girl or boy, it should not-"
"Not that." Ren intercepted; calmly but firmly and seeking Lucilla's eyes with his own probing ones. "You seem very confident that he's her father."
First, Lucilla was speechless; dumbfounded, even. Had those words really left his lips, the ones he licked almost expectantly? They had, she'd heard them. Then, she reclaimed incensement but redirected it to the man sitting too close to her.
"How dare you?!" The antagonised hiss broke the stalemate and Ren's eyebrows raised until they met and knitted at the top. Had she been physically able, Lucilla would have thrown back the covers, hauled her tidy form out of the bed and furiously paced while she spat her poison; offended, did not cover Lucilla's rage. Unfortunately, little dove was confined with a Force user breathing down her neck. "You absolute cretin! Who do you think you are?! Making such accusations?! I was never anything but faithf-!"
"You were just as surprised as anyone." He breezed, seemingly entranced by the brewing storm in the bed; enamoured by it. "You told the medic you'd been careful; which was true, you had-"
As quickly as it came, Lucilla's inflammation subsided while the realizations began to slot into place; what he really meant. He was confident in his explanation, speaking it like gospel and the demeanour to support it without taking his eyes from the General's wife; said wife had paled enough to become lost in her hospital bedsheets. It couldn't be. It wasn't possible.
"You didn't account for me, and what I can do. All without touching you, being in the same room as you…." Revolted, Lucilla had no choice but to listen; her chest heaving and her gaze roving while she tried to look anywhere else but him and restrain the urge to vomit at the same time. Violated all over again and in a way she could never have imagined but trust Ren to concoct it.
"When I found you in the corridor-" He said, aggravated urgency in his tone and his ungloved hand springing forth to snatch hers; to snap her focus back to him. She scarcely complied and out of little else than fear. "I knew. I knew I was successful under the Supreme Leader's guidance and I was overjoyed…"
"I would have told you then, I wanted to tell you then…." Ren swallowed, passion quelled, as if sobered from his frenzy by the memory but no less intense and Lucilla no less horrified. "You bore my child. Devoid of the intimacy of the act, I know but…. Our fire burns in her veins. She's fighting and striving like we have. Her very existence is a testament of our devotion to each other…."
After that, Lucilla's attention span tapered off to save her. Ren paid no heed to the unemotional staring through him of a woman whose mind had shut off to protect her sanity. Nonetheless, she roused at the soft, considerate kiss to her knuckle.
"As much as I would love to stay, there are preparations to be made." Lucilla said nothing, nor did she give any indication that she'd heard him. Ren began to resume his usual, towering height but not before planting an uncharacteristically benevolent kiss to the top of Lucilla's dark head. "When you are both well enough to be discharged-" He paused in an almost submissive bow of his head, hovering to let the subservience to the mother of his child sink in. "My quarters will be at your disposal. And so will I."
With those adoring, parting words: Kylo Ren was gone.
How long did she sit there? Marinating in disbelief?
The wall opposite her bed, the sanitary durasteel, had become a point of fascination and a point of monotony or maybe a point of…. nothing at all. She stared, unblinkingly, at nothing while her fragile mind tried to piece everything together.
It did make sense; as much as it agonized her to acknowledge. She and Orion had been painstakingly careful so there was no other explanation as such only…. the unthinkable; that Ren had used the fine balance of energy between all living things to do something so utterly despicable to her.
It might also, depending on what he knew, explain why Orion was keeping his distance. She wouldn't put it past Ren to goadingly taunt his colleague with it and, more to the point, Orion to believe it; especially when he had discovered them in the corridor. The method was somewhat irrelevant.
Then, it snapped and dawning came crashing onto the little dove.
Scrambling through the darkness in sheer panic that grated fast on her nerve, Lucilla jammed the pad of her dainty finger on the touch symbol for assistance. The seconds ticked by and no one came. So she did it again. And again.
Flustered, distressed and overwrought, she went to attack the symbol once more before-
"Miss Lucilla?" The protocol droid that "manned" the medbay desk during the ungodly hours rang in the speaker. "Is there something I can assist you with?"
"Get me Dr Craven!" When it came to speaking aloud, the emotions gushed and fizzed and Lucilla lost control, sobbing into the speaker. "I need Dr Craven! Now!"
"Dr Craven is on her off-duty hours at present, Miss Lucilla." The droid explained with robotic patience. "She will be active again at 08-"
"Get her out of bed! I need her!" It was unlike Lucilla to be so demanding and importunate but now, she was willing to indulge in this once off for this incredible turn of events. Frustrated by the lack of compliance and compassion (what else could she expect from a droid?), Lucilla unravelled into complete devastation. "This is an emergency! I need a paternity test!"