Rose saw the desperate look on Hux's face, how his furrowed brow eased into a blank expression of defeat and hurt. Poe seemed to see it too.
He cleared his throat. "It's yours, isn't it?"
Hux pressed his lips together and nodded.
Poe turned back to Rose. "Rose, listen-"
"Don't you even dare to suggest to keep this charade up," she hissed. "Just because we're not- not so open and comfortable to show our affection it doesn't make it less valid!"
Poe's eyes went wide. "Of course not. I just didn't notice that you guys were together. But then again Finn always tells me that I'm not very observant about… these things."
She saw from the corner of her eye how Hux perked up, he hesitantly stepped closer to her but still keeping his distance. She got up and took his hand and put it on her belly. "Can you feel it?"
His dejected expression changed into a surprised one. "I-"
"It's ours, ours alone." Then she reached up and pulled him down for a kiss, fully aware that Poe was still watching them. She tried to take it slow, to ease their relationship into public knowledge - she thought it was enough but of-kriffing-course it wasn't.
"I'm sorry, Armitage, that I'm so slow on the uptake. I love you and I want you to know that. Let's go back there and show them that too."
He brushed over her cheeks with his thumb, smiling at her. "I love you too and I would like that very much."
She kissed him again. "After that we can go back to the lab to fix the air filters."
He laughed, "Sounds perfect."
"Oh stars! You're both horrible!" exclaimed Poe. "That's not the right way to end such a romantic moment! Go outside and watch the night sky or something!"
They returned to the hangar and watched the last ten minutes of the game. She felt nervous but she still kissed him for all to see after the game had finished. He was tense and the kiss was over fast.
"Stars, that's awkward," she whispered, "I don't know how Poe and Finn do it."
He brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "We don't have to be them, Rose. I just- I'm just happy that we're together."
He looked so vulnerable, soft and beautiful in this moment that she kissed him again, this time it wasn't a hasty kiss but a tender, lingering one. She let go of him and ran her hand through his hair. "I know and I'm sorry in advance for being a klutz."
"Well, I don't know if you've realised it yet but I'm not exactly a smooth operator myself."
"It's scary, isn't it? I mean… all of it. Admitting liking somebody even if it means getting hurt, deciding to have a child. Sometimes I wonder if it's only me who is horrified about all this."
He took her hand and kissed it. "You're right, it is scary. But I'm here, I will always be here."
"So am I, you're stuck with me now, Armitage. And you know that Tico women can be pretty strong-headed."
He smiled. "I hadn't noticed."
Months went by and Rose had to admit that it was getting harder to keep up her usual work schedule with all the appointments in the med bay, the workload and of course with the increased frequency she had to visit the fresher as her belly became bigger and the baby started to squeeze her bladder.
Hux offered to rub her swollen feet and he always kept his word and by the Force, the man was nothing if not perennial. She had to admit it was becoming her favourite time of the day when they retreated into her room after dinner. He rubbed her feet as he read something on his pad while she was doing relaxing calculations on their upcoming projects on the bed.
To her surprise she hadn't gotten any dirty looks when she couldn't hide her pregnancy anymore with wide shirts and with Hux constantly by her side there was little doubt in her mind that it was quite clear who the father was. But even Mircah didn't glare, he just looked at her with somewhat mild interest.
Her mother and Poe on the other hand didn't only display mild interest - quite on the contrary they were excited about every bit of news. Her mother started to write down all the family recipes for the little one as if the child would starve without it. Poe kept fantasizing about how he would teach the child to fly before it could walk, much to Thanya's chagrin.
When Rose was bent over particularly complicated circuits from one of the fighter's fuel injectors - not an easy task with her large bump - she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. She grabbed the hydrospanner so hard that her knuckles turned white as a wave of pain passed through her. Crap, labour pains already? She took a few deep breaths and focussed on the circuitry - she would finish this quickly and then call Armitage. Or rather the droid with the wheelchair they built a couple of weeks ago. She gritted her teeth and set the screws on the motherboard tight before the next wave of pain washed through her. Okay, perhaps this wasn't the time to finish this.
"Armitage?"
"Hm?" He didn't look up from the blueprint he was working on.
"Armitage!"
The urgency of her tone made him jerk his head up. "What is it?"
"Get the droid, I think we need to get into the med bay."
He paled, jumped up and activated the droid right away. Then he helped her into the chair while she held her belly, with a groan she sat down. "Kriff!"
"What is it?" he asked alarmed.
"I forgot to solder the motherboard properly. Ah, whatever - I can finish later."
"Shall I call your mother?"
She grabbed him by his sleeve. "I'm in pain, Armitage, but I'm going to get up again to strangle you with my bare hands if you dare call my mother. In fact I want you to keep her out until- well, arghhh, until it's over."
"Of course," he replied. "Let's get to the med bay."
Dr. Kalonia and Armitage helped her to get on the bed in the back of the med bay. The labour pains grew in frequency and intensity as Kalonia scanned her. "Everything is going perfectly," she said.
"Perfectly?" panted Rose with thick pearls of sweat on her face. "It hurts worse than a blaster wound."
"Do you want analgesics?" she asked. "Remember, this doesn't hurt the baby."
"Yes," panted Rose. The pain was now almost unbearable. Kalonia prepared a hypospray and injects her, in a matter of moments the sharp agony recedes and all that remains is a dull pain.
Only now she realised that she had been holding Hux's hand and that he had a pained expression on his face from her hard grip. She relaxed a bit and he bent over and kissed her on the forehead.
"Deep breaths, Rose," said Kalonia, "try to push with the next contraction."
"I'm doing my best here," hissed Rose with gritted teeth. "Okay?"
Dr. Kalonia smiled, not by the least offended by her harsh tone. "I know."
"I'm sorry, doc, I just-" the next dull pain came over her and she pushed.
Rose lost count of the time, she pushed with each contraction and suddenly it was over. Before she had time to realise what happened she saw how Kalonia cut the umbilical cord with a scalpel and wrapped a towel around the crying baby; then presented it to her. Sweat was burning in her eyes, mixed with tears of joy when she saw her baby for the first time. It had a small shrivelled red face, a tiny nose and a small shock of bright ginger hair.
She took it in her arms and laughed, ecstasy and joy flowing through her. It looked like a naked womp rat but it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
"Congratulations," said Kalonia, "it's a boy."
.
-o-
.
Hux's hand still hurt when he took the baby from Rose so that Dr. Kalonia and a med droid could check on and clean her up. He stood next to the bed and stared in awe at the little boy in his arms. He noticed of course the colour of the hair but for the first time in his life he understood what Rose had meant when she had told him over and over again that she adored ginger hair.
He felt so much pride and love when he looked at his son that it almost hurt in his chest. His son, his son, he thought over and over again with a wide smile plastered on his lips.
Never had he imagined that a miserable excuse for a human being like him could ever be able to be part of something so miraculous and wonderful.
"Rose, Rose look at him," he whispered. "He's so perfect."
She laid in the bed, exhausted and pale. But she managed to give him a grin. "Of course he's perfect, you drew the blueprints and I assembled it."
He gave the baby back to her and gave her a kiss on her forehead. "I love you."
"I love you too."
She gave the boy a tender kiss. "And I love you too, little one."
"He looks a lot like you in the morning," Hux said with a chuckle.
"Shut up," she said with a laugh. Then she squinted. "Hm, I hate to admit it but you're right. This is exactly the face that stares back at me in the mirror."
"I love your morning face, you know that," he said and kissed her sweaty forehead again.
"You better love it, because you will see a lot more of it once our little battery is charged and ready to go."
Kalonia pulled the gloves from her hands and covered Rose with a sheet. "The sheets were changed and everything else is taken care of."
From outside the room they could hear voices, most prominent among them Rose's mother's.
"If you'll excuse me," Hux said quickly and walked towards the source of the cacophony of voices. Thanya Tico threw her hands in the air as soon as she saw him. "Where is my daughter? How is she? How's the baby?"
Behind the quartermaster stood Finn, Rey and Poe. They all beamed at him.
"She is resting," said Hux. "Everything is fine - the boy is also fine. Dr. Kalonia said so herself."
"It's a boy?" asked Poe and slapped his hand on Hux's back. "Congratulations! What's his name?"
"We haven't decided yet."
Rey pushed something in his hand and at second glance he saw that it was a knitted lizard. She hugged him so hard that he had trouble breathing. What was it with the Rebels and their hugs?
"On Jakku we used to give new mothers sand lizards as gifts, there are no lizards on this planet so I made this instead," said Rey. "Please give it to Rose."
She let go of him and he pressed out. "Yes, of course, Rey."
"You guys are horrible," said Finn, "everything's fine so let's go - I'm certain they need to rest, right Hux?"
Relieved he nodded. "Yes, thank you."
Thanya shot Finn a nasty glare. "I'm certain that I'm allowed to see my grandson, thank you very much."
"Thanya, please." Hux said. "Rose needs to rest, please understand."
She crossed her arms and huffed. "Fine." Then she pointed her finger at Hux. "But I'll be back!" With that she stormed off.
"You know, she will be back," said Rey. "She's quite stubborn."
"So I've heard," retorted Hux dryly.
He returned to Rose who was holding her- their son, who started to whimper. She pulled her shirt down and gave him her breast. She stroked the baby's head as it suckled.
"Rey wanted me to give you this," he said and put the knitted lizard on the nightstand. "She said that it's a tradition on Jakku."
"It is, but usually they bring live lizards for a stew that is supposed to help the body heal."
He crooked his eyebrow. "Lizard stew? Really?"
"On Hays Minor they used to serve cave fern soup after birth, so who am I to judge?" She looked at the hand knitted lizard with its colourful threads. "It's nice, isn't it."
He realised that he hadn't even thought about the possibility that there were presents. "I didn't know about gifts. Was I supposed to bring something too?"
"No, of course not. There are no rules for this."
He took a chair and sat down beside her and watched them with a smile. "Do you want me to look up our list with names? If I remember correctly it was quite long in the end."
"I don't think there's a need for that," said Rose as she set her eyes on the baby at her bosom. "Doesn't he look like an Aidan?"
Hux was surprised to discover that she was right, he had no idea why but looking at the baby he realised that it was indeed a fitting name. "He does."
The next couple of days Rose was still on bed rest and Hux was excited to take care of Aidan. He started a diary to keep tabs on his development, noted time and date when he had to change the diaper.
Ebrima cornered him one day in the Cantina and forced him to promise her to make sure Rose was resting enough. So he transferred all the work schedules on her pad and asked her to check his calculations instead of letting her do them herself.
He noted with satisfaction that she seemed well rested - at least in his opinion. Judging from the glares Ebrima gave him he wasn't sure if she shared his assessment.
He had also been re-reading his notes on child-care and followed the suggestions to the letter. That included getting out of the base so that Aidan could get some fresh, unfiltered air.
Rose lay in her bed, pad in hand with her eyes closed, snoring quietly as he dressed Aidan in a onesie and put him in a hovering forklift refitted to be a pram… Hux had fine-tuned the stabilisators himself.
He put a bottle of warm water and a box of left-overs in his grey bag and headed out. By the time he had arrived outside Aidan had fallen asleep. Hux sat down on the tree trunk and squinted his eyes as the sun shone brightly. He pulled the hood of the pram a bit down and took the box out of his bag.
As usual Millie appeared in a matter of seconds with her tail held high, it was trembling slightly as she hurried towards him.
"Mrrrau! Mrrrrraauuuu!" she protested as if she hadn't gotten food for at least two months.
"The snow is gone now, you are supposed to hunt for your food," said Hux as he put the box down on the trunk.
As Millicent devoured the food he checked on Aidan and made sure that the blanket was covering him well. According to studies, 23.4% of babies need more warmth than others. He hadn't concluded yet if Aidan was also part of that percentage but he was certain he would find out if he kept collecting data.
He pulled his pad out of this bag and activated it, typing in the time and the temperature of the weather. It was a warm spring day, 14.3 degree Celsius. The blanket probably added another 5-
"Enjoying the day by doing some math?" rang a voice out.
Hux blinked and looked up. Mircah and two of his friends were passing by and slowed their step until they stopped completely.
Hux wasn't sure what the appropriate answer was so he decided to tell the truth. "It's not mathematics. I'm just keeping track of the weather to know about the right temperature for Aidan."
One of the pilots accompanying Mircah, a female Cathar, laughed. "You were right, Mircah. This guy is unbelievable - more droid than human."
Hux frowned but didn't reply, perhaps it was better to ignore them.
"I bet he's drawing a progress chart for AH-0002," sneered the other pilot, a light-skinned human man.
Hux got up and snarled, "Don't call him that! His name is Aidan Tico!" Millie was startled by the sudden movement and jumped down, hissing with her ears pulled back.
"Easy, man," replied Mircah, lifting his hand.
"He's not like me," hissed Hux. "He- he will be better than me. Much better."
The man smirked. "That's not so hard, is it? I hope you write that down, Hux. So that you can store it in your memory banks."
"You know this is supposed to come naturally, right?" added the Cathar. "Who needs charts and statistics to be a parent?"
"That's enough, guys," said Mircah to his friends, tone firm.
Hux clenched his hands to fists. "You don't get to make fun of my love for my son!" He hissed, ignoring Mircah. "Are you so dense that you think I don't know how pathetic this is? I don't know how to be a father! And keeping track of everything, gathering data is the only reliable way I know. It's all I have ever known!"
The pilots just stared at him and scoffed. Mircah gave him an odd look before they all left.
Hux sat back down on the tree trunk and realised that his hands were trembling.