Epilogue

Disclaimer: I do not own anyone here; they all are a part of the SW franchise.

The sun was shining, the sky was largely clear, (though it was supposed to rain tomorrow, but so far there was no sign of that), and Ben was worried.

"Dear, stop fussing," Rose said gently. "You're worrying the baby!"

Ben looked down at the two-year-old Anakin Organa-Solo-Tico, (so far, the boy was shorter than his last name was) and exhaled. "Sorry dear – it's just that it's Hux and Phasma-"

"Isn't that my que-?"

"I knew them for far longer than you did-"

"So-?" Rose did not complete her question slash inquiry slash statement, as the aforementioned other couple appeared on the scene. Moreover, they had a pet with them, too!

"You were saying?" Ben couldn't help but to ask his wife even as both of them stared at the animal in question with some sort of an unholy fascination; Anakin, (named after his late grandpa, because of course he was), was just fascinated instead.

"Don't push it, or you'll be the one sleeping on the couch instead!" Rose told her husband sternly, before whirling back to Hux and Phasma: "And with what body part were the two of you thinking, bringing a dangerous animal here?"

"Come on, Prickly is harmless!" Phasma said brightly.

"It's a porcupine, and Anakin has just turned two! What made you think that it would be safe-?"

The other couple blinked and stared at the baby in question, as if it was a brand new thing in their life, (which was not quite accurate, not lately). "…Oh!" They both said, finally. "Oh. That might have been a miscalculation on our part. We're guessing it's too early for having one of your own for a family pet?"

Ben carefully did not look at Rose. Rose was intently trying not to channel her inner Paige – even now, after a couple of years of…everything, Paige was still the more extravert Tico sister by a wide margin.

"Ah! Hux! Phasma! There you are!" Surprisingly, it was Ms. Leia Organa-Solo, (the proud grandma), who appeared on the scene to diffuse it. "And who's your new mascot, eh?"

"Excuse us," the couple in question said brightly and used the distraction to vanish from the scene.

Rose sagged. "I don't want to fight them or anything!" she all but wailed, "but the baby! The spiny porcupine! The prickly spines! Everything! It's a disaster, together!"

"I know dear," Leia sympathetically patted her daughter-in-law on the shoulder. "Hux and Phasma are sorry-"

"I know, I know, it's just that, um," Rose exhaled and relaxed, some. "Can we start again?"

"…Dad and uncle Chewie have the cake ready?" Ben suggested helpfully from his flanking position.

"Good idea," Rose noticed it, gratefully. "Can we go and take Anakin there?"

"Just a bit, dear," Leia replied apologetically, noticing with some bemusement that the baby Anakin was already apparently recognizing the concept of cake. "It's not quite ready yet-"

"Is Uncle Luke coming?" Ben asked suddenly, in an odd tone of voice.

"I don't know dear," Leia admitted. "You know that I love your uncle regardless of what differences the two of you may have, but no one can deny that his ideas of time and timing are odd – sometimes he's in a rush, sometimes too slowly, and almost never truly on time, eh?"

"Did he at least call?"

"Mmm," Leia said dismissively, clearly not really wanting to elaborate.

It was then that Rose's cell phone rang. "Yes?" she spoke into it. "Oh, hello grandma. Oh, Ben's uncle Luke is picking you up, alongside Paige and Poe? How wonderful! See you all soon!" She closed the phone and gave the others a look. "Just for the record, if Mr. Skywalker causes my grandma to be late – well, later than if Paige and Poe were picking her up – she'll make him wish that she had flayed him."

Ben looked at his mother. Leia shrugged. "Luke is a grown-up man," she said simply. "He can look after his own ass – don't give me that look, Ben!"

"It's funny," Rose said to no one in particular, "but Ben and his uncle are very similar – you would've thought that the two of them would've gotten along-"

"They don't get along because they are so similar, dear," Leia began to maneuver her son and his family towards the party table. (Her husband and Chewie were some distance away from it, working on the family's BBQ closer to the lakeshore). "It happens sometimes. Are you and your sister-?"

"We're sisters, we get along, we use some space between each other, nothing more," Rose said simply, using the fact that their son distracted Ben again for cover. "Anything else…you'll have to talk to grandma Maz. Maybe it was different when our parents were alive; I do not remember any of those times. Please, talk to my grandma about that."

"Fair enough," Leia nodded and looked up at the sky. "Hm. The weather is getting worse, I can sense it." She looked askance at Ben. "No comments?"

"Hux and Phasma are back, and this time their gifts aren't alive," her son said simply.

Immediately, both Rose and Leia stopped in their tracks and turned for a better look. Ben used this to push Anakin down the grounds towards Han and Chewie, who had finally seen them, and were very happy to do so – judging by how smudged and smoked they were, they may've had an ulterior reason, but Ben didn't care.

"And what's up with you?" he asked them simply.

"The barbeque refuses to fire up," Han matched his son voice for voice. "Your uncle's not here-"

"He is picking up Rose's grandma and the rest of her family. Did you see the porcupine?"

"…I think that we saw Phasma and Hux leave it with her parents," Han nodded. "Someone's not going to be happy."

"…As long as it isn't Anakin, we'll make it," Ben looked further down into the lake proper. Winter's ice was completely gone now, and there were first water fowl on the water. Baby Anakin was happy. Rose was happy. Ben was happy, (and so was the rest of his family).

Life was good.