She'd fought it.
Fought the dizzying fog that threatened to slip her into unconsciousness again. Because he'd begged her, "Just stay with me."
Yes, she wanted to say. Anything. But, she just stared up at him, as he carried her into the emergency wing and laid her down, gently. How was it possible that he was always so gentle with her?
She stared at the fine lines around his eyes, and the worried creases in his forehead. He was pale, which was impressive considering his complexion, and there were deep purple bags under his eyes, that were rimmed with red, as if he'd been crying.
The Bond groaned, low and deep, and she felt the shutter that ran down his spine as his eyes went to her, horror etched in his russet orbs. He'd called her name, and she wanted to answer him, but her tongue was cemented to the roof of her mouth. She heard him say her name once more, before he faded, and the Bond snapped.
Rey reached out for him with her mind. But, their Bond was just gone, without the slightest whisper that it had even ever existed.
She remembered the nurse using a syringe to inject something under her ribcage, directly into her stomach and then the dark, dense, smokey fog won.
She'd been searching for him since, wondering through the nothingness, finding flashes from time to time, but not knowing what was him and what were her own dreams. She saw the cockpit of a TIE Fighter, space and stars. She saw Leia, her grey-brown hair braided high on her head. She saw food. Not the dried portions she'd lived off of most of her life, but real food, like what she'd been given on base without having to work for it.
And now, through the haze, she saw the familiar lights of the Falcon. She walked toward them, seeing that the ramp was down, and the engines were off.
"Ben?" She called, stepping onto the ramp, tensing when she heard footsteps approach, and Ben stepped into view, with his hands raised above his head.
His hair was longer, and he wore a cream colored tunic with blue pants and black boots. Rey looked him over, and to his upraised hands. "What-" She started.
"The Dread Pirate Captain Jack has commandeered the ship." He told her, as way of explanation, making the crease between her brows grow deeper. She opened her mouth to ask if he'd gone daft when a small boy walked up to him, holding a wooden sword. He was tiny, no more than five years old, dressed similarly as Ben, with black smudge rubbed on his face as a beard, and his ebony hair sticking out from under the brim of a pirate hat.
Ben waved his arms about in mock horror. "Oh no!" He bellowed. "The Dread Pirate Captain Jack!"
"We have the gold!" The boy told him.
"Impossible!" Ben huffed. "I have my first mate guarding the gold!"
The boy pointed his wooden sword to Ben's left, and he pivoted to look. Rey stepped forward, craning her neck to see, and found Chewie, also in a pirate hat, holding a toy chest.
"A mutiny!" Ben gasped. "The Queen will not stand for this!"
The boy turned to look at her, and Rey gasped, as she stared at her own face, grown young, her square chin and strong jaw, her straight nose, her delicate cheekbones, and Ben's soulful eyes stared back at her.
The boy groaned. "Is it time to go in?" Ben scooped the child up into his arms and covered his face in kisses. The boy cackled. "Yes." Ben said, in his normal voice, sitting him down on his feet. "Go wash up for dinner."
The boy ran passed her, but stopped at the end of the ramp.
"Your majesty." Ben said, taking Rey's hand, and bowing at the waist to kiss her knuckles. "Thank you for sparing me from the Dread Pirate Captain Jack." He looked up at her through his hair, a smile playing the corners of his lips. "Whatever can I do to repay you?" He raised an eyebrow suggestively, making her stomach erupt into flames, the heat blazing lower, and she bit her bottom lip.
Chewie roared, grumbling about them getting a room, and turned to return the hat and chest to the toy bin.
Ben stood, pulling her to him, and kissed her, wrapping his arm around her.
"Bleh!" The boy grimaced, doubling over the ramp and loudly pretending to hurl.
Ben laughed, his smile going all the way to his eyes, and kept his arm around her, as he walked down the ramp.
Rey awoke slowly, first realizing she wasn't on the Falcon, that The Dread Pirate Captain Jack had been a dream, then all at once, opening her eyes to take in her actual surroundings.
She was on her back, with blankets covering her lower half, but she could move her legs, she found when she wiggled her toes. Tubes were taped to her right arm in two different places, and there were bandages where she didn't remember being injured. She looked at her left hand, finding wires, but also seeing Leia seated at there bedside.
"Rey?" Leia said, sitting up, weary wrinkles around her eyes.
Rey reached out for Ben, unable to find him.
"Leia." She said, her voice cracking twice. "I can't find Ben."
Leia brought her hand up, and spoke into a device on her wrist. "She's awake." And then stood up, her gown rustling with the movement.
Rey looked around, the movement of her head tugging at a tube that went up her nose. "What's this?" She asked, bringing a hand up to touch it, but Leia stopped her.
"It's a feeding tube." She told her, and Rey looked up at her in confusion, the machine that was connected to her beeping a warning that her heartrate was rising.
"A what?" Rey demanded, and something solid hit the metal of her door with a loud thunk, the force of the hit flinging it open, and Ben stumbled in, looking around wildly, until he found her.
Rey gasped, her eyes wide, and they both panted as they stared at each other.
Leia silently excused herself and slipped out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Ben crossed the room in two strides, his hands going to either side of her face, and she was surrounded by his darkness, his scent, his power. She signed, feeling whole again, after being apart from him for so long, as he pressed his forehead to hers and inhaled deep.
"You're here." She breathed, bringing her hands up to touch his cheek, to brush his hair out of his face, to grip his shoulder, her throat tight. "You're really here."
"I had to." He said, shaking his head. "The Bond pushed me out, I couldn't find you. I had to get to you, I had to make sure you were alive." He kissed her, hard. And everything crashed into her. The dread he'd lived with for the past few days, how exhausted he was flying across the galaxy to get to her, not sure what he'd find when he landed. Anger. Dark, swirling rage. He once thought it was impossible to be angry with her, but, after what she'd done, he was furious. And, relief so deep it radiated in his bones.
He let her go and stood up, quickly. "You scared the bantha fodder out of me!" He yelled, making her flinch.
"I'm sorry." She said.
"Usually, I find your stubbornness quite fetching but you almost killed yourself." His eyes weren't angry, not now. They were pleading, begging her to understand what she'd done. And, she did, the gravity weighing on her.
"I'm sorry." She said again, weakly.
He sighed, and looked away, shaking his head. When he looked back at her, it was the same look he'd given her on Crait, when she'd closed the doors to the Falcon. He was broken, his bottom lip trembling. "You can't do that to me." He begged. "I'm not-" He sighed again, and she saw his throat bob as he swallowed. "I'm not strong enough to lose you again."
She lifted her arms slightly. "Come here." And he obeyed, laying as much of himself as he could on the narrow bed, resting his head against her stomach as she combed her fingers through his hair. Their Bond coursed through them, the Force buzzing like electricity, as it always did when they were together.
"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you." Rey signed. "And closed our Bond." He lifted his head to look at her. "And, scared the bantha fodder out of you." She smiled.
"Thank the Maker that the baby is fine." He sighed, looking down at his giant hand resting on the soft curve between her hips.
Rey nodded in agreement. "And, we need to start thinking of boy names, because I'm not a fan of Jack."
Ben went rigid and looked up. "Boy names?" He echoed.
Rey nodded again.
"Why boy names?" Ben asked, his voice uneasy.
"Because I've seen him." She told him. "I had a dream, just before I woke up, of you and him playing with Chewie-"
"In the Falcon." Ben finished for her, sitting up.
Reys eyebrows pulled together. "Yes, in the Falcon. Why?"
Ben was looking at his hand over her stomach with a mixed expression of terror and wonder.
"What is it?" She asked, fear quickening her breath.
"Because I've had the same dream." He told her, and looked up. "But, in my dream, it's a girl."
He dreamt of a girl. She dreamt of a boy with her face, and his hair and eyes. Either the Force was playing a decidedly not funny joke on them, or...
"It's twins." Ben whispered