Dr. Sivi walked into the room and smiled at Rey. "How are you feeling?"
"Hungry." Rey said, making Ben laugh once. He stood next to her with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Excellent." The doctor said, pulling a small flashlight out of her pocket and shining it in Rey's eyes. "Everything is starting to look normal again, I think we just need to get that tube out and give you some real food, you'll just need to take it easy for a few days. And, a bland diet, we don't want to irritate your esophagus."
Rey nodded her understanding.
Dr. Sivi pocketed her flashlight. "I'll send your medication home with you. It is an injection that will need to be administered at least an hour before eating."
"I'll have to get a shot in my stomach everytime I eat?" Rey asked.
Dr. Sivi frowned. "Afraid so. At least until the end of the first trimester. Or risk your symptoms returning."
"That's not a risk we will be taking." Ben said, his voice grave.
"Also," The doctor said. "I'd wanted to wait until Rey was awake to tell you." Ben and Rey looked up. "When I did the ultra sound, I found two sacks." She told them, and they stared at her, waiting for her to continue. Dr. Sivi blinked. "You're carrying fraternal twins."
She'd expected a reaction. A smile, a gasp, tears maybe, something. But, they looked at her as if she was telling them old news.
"Ok." She said. "Let's get the tube out, and if you can hold down anything, I'll discharge you."
The nurse showed Rey how to give herself her medication and waited an hour before giving her a glass of water and a sleeve of crackers. They'd waited another hour before they disconnected her tubing and let her leave.
She changed into a clean dress Leia sent her, and put on the matching slippers, before taking Ben's hand and walking to her rooms, her fingers woven with his.
When they reached her door, he held it open for her, walking in and letting it close behind them.
Rose had brought them food from the mess hall. It looked like some sort of stew with root vegetables, a bowl for each of them, two slices of cake with a white sugary glaze, and a jug of blue milk.
They sat at her dining table and Rey took an experimental sniff of the stew, testing to see if the smell of gravy and herbs would make her stomach turn. It didn't, thankfully, but that didn't affect her sudden lack of appetite.
Ben shoveled a bite from his bowl into his mouth and chewed slowly, watching her as she used her spoon to cut a piece of a potato into smaller bites, then moved onto another piece.
"What's wrong?" He asked, after he'd swallowed and she still hadn't taken a bite.
"How long have you been here?" She asked, looking up at him.
"Two days."
"Two days?" She exclaimed. She'd missed two days with him? More than that, really, because she'd closed their Bond for two days before he'd taken her to the medical bay.
"What have you been doing?" She asked, and he ignored her. She rubbed against his mental shields and saw him flinch as he pushed her away.
"You don't want to see that." He warned her, his haunting brown eyes going to hers and she frowned, meeting his gaze.
"I want to know everything I missed for the past four days." She insisted but he didn't budge. "What could possibly be-"
"I completely fell apart, Rey." He admitted, silencing her immediately. She blinked, her eye brows pulled together. "I thought you were dead, not once but twice and I fell apart." He took a breath, his chin trembling. "And, I can't relive that." He looked at her, his eyes pleading for her to understand.
She nodded, lowing her gaze, but, she still wanted to know everything that had gone on. "If I ask you, will you tell me the truth?"
"I always tell you the truth." He pointed out, and then sighed when that answer wasn't enough for her. "If you eat." He conditioned, nodding to her bowl.
She dipped her spoon into her stew and took a bite, chewing as she stared at him.
"Fine." He said, turning in his chair to face her. "What do you want to know?
She swallowed what was in her mouth, choosing her first question carefully. "How did you get here?"
"I ripped the tracking system out of a TIE Fighter." He told her. "And, subsequently, also damaged the mapping sequence and the navigation." He sighed, and brushed his hair out of his face with his fingers. "And, flew here."
"Without navigation?" She asked, impressed.
"I didn't say it was easy." He noted.
No, she didn't think it had been easy. In fact, it must have been damned near impossible. She chewed on her bottom lip, noticing how his gaze went to the motion. "When are you going back?" She asked.
He raised his eye brows, looking down at her bowl, then back up to her.
She loaded stew onto her spoon and put it in her mouth, chewed, then swallowed.
"We," He stressed. "Are leaving for Naboo as soon as you're strong enough to make the trip."
Rey's heart fluttered. "We?"
He nodded.
She knew this had been their plan, but there was so much she didn't understand, her mind a jumble of so many questions she didn't know where to begin.
Ben heard the soft roar of her mind. "You eat, I'll explain." He offered and she took another bite of stew. "I've given my mother every relevant detail about The First Order." He told her. "They're looking for me, and if I know Hux, given a few more days, he'll find me. When he does, he'll attack, and she'll be waiting for him, along with her allies." He leaned closer to her, his eyes reserved. "And, when that happens, I have to have the three of you as far away from here as possible."
She noticed how fluidly he'd accepted the fact that she was carrying twins, and it unnerved her, but she said nothing as he continued. "Poe has been given intel on the weak spots of the fleet. If the battle goes as planned, there won't be much left of The First Order, and I'll surrender to the Republic."
Rey dropped her spoon. He'd said it so casually, as if it were the only logical step. "Surrender?" She echoed, her eyes wide with horror.
Ben leaned back in his seat, the chair creaking with the movement.
"You can't surrender, Ben, they'll arrest you." Rey bit out.
"No," He explained. "My mother made it a condition of my surrender that in exchange for the withdrawal of power, my war crimes be pardoned."
Her throat ached at the thought of losing him in a battle he didn't have to be a part of, or being arrested by a Republic that he didn't have to face.
"I can't just walk away, Rey." He said, softly, hearing her thoughts as if they were his own.
"Why?" She asked, her voice breaking.
He leaned forward and put his massive hand overs hers, staring at them as he spoke. "If it were just us, I would flee to the smallest dot in this galaxy and spend the rest of my life running if it meant being with you." He looked up, locking her gaze. "I love you that much. But that's not a life I can bring children into."
He was surrendering for them. So they could have something as close to normal as possible. And, he was willing to sacrifice himself to do it. She tore her gaze from his and looked down at their hands.
"If this goes to plan," He said. "I'll come home to the three of you, and we will finally be able to just be together."
She huffed in irriation when he referred to her and the twins she carried as "the three".
"Why are you being like that?" She asked.
His forehead puckered. "Like what?"
"About the...babies." She clarified, not able to say it out loud just yet. He stared at her in confusion, and she sighed, frustrated. "I am terrified." She admitted, and his face fell. "I was terrified when I found out I was pregnant with one baby, and I'm even more afraid now and you, you have no reaction at all."
Anger flashed in his eyes, but it quickly disappeared as he stared at her intently.
She went on. "I don't understand how you can just say the three of me as if this isn't going to alter our lives forever, when we just found out less than four hours ago."
"How would you like me to react?" He asked, his voice low.
She looked down at the full bowl of stew in front of her, remembering the day she'd told him, the swirl of emotions that he'd poured into her through their Bond. The happiness he was unable to contain, the fear mixed with the joy. And, when they'd found out it was twins, he'd simply accepted it and moved on, casually throwing it into their conversation now, that is was the three of her.
He sighed, her memories flooding his mind. "When we agreed to meet that first time," He said, slowly. "I didn't plan on making love to you, and sealing the Bond. I wasn't prepared for what it would do to me, or how it changed my life, but it happened. And, I don't regret it."
She raised her gaze to his, seeing the intensity of the truth in his words and nearly unraveled.
He swallowed, she saw the muscles in his throat move. "We didn't plan this pregnancy, and it's twins. We didn't plan on twins, but twins happened. And, I'm not prepared. And, I know that this is twice as complicated now, but-" He shook his head. "I don't regret it." His eyes glistened with tears that never fell. "And, I'm sorry you can't see that I am happy, and I am excited, and that I am absolutely terrified."
There it was, and she recognized the magnitude of his confession, seeing the vulnerability in his eyes. He'd laid his chest bare. But, in doing so, Rey understood. He wasn't surrendering because it was logical, or made the most sense, but because what had happened between them, and what they'd created meant more to him than his pride, or his title. And, he was sacrificing the only life he'd ever known, for the new life growing in her.
She jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck, roughly capturing his lips with hers, and sat in his lap, straddling him between her thighs. Ben melted against her, fanning his hands out as he rubbed her back, the tips of his fingers dragging across the fabric of her dress. They'd been apart for so long that Rey had forgotten the almost electric shock of the Force when their lips met. She gasped, throwing her head back, as Ben's lips trailed kisses down her jaw, to her neck, and lightly lapped at the tender flesh there. She moaned, her fingers knotting in his hair.
And he abruptly pulled away. "Are we even supposed to do this?" He asked, panting.
Rey, in a moment of clarity, remembered all the reasons they shouldn't, none of which she cared about at the moment.
She shrugged. "The doctor didn't tell us we couldn't." And, Ben looked at her with the amused patience she adored before standing up, with her in his arms, and carried her to the bed.