Author's note: this story contains childbirth.
If you are triggered, this is your warning.
oOo
The communicator on Leia's night stand flashed red, alerting her with a shrill ring.
She sat up, coming fully awake, and pressed the activator, though she knew who would be on the other end, and what he would say.
Ben's long face was clouded with anxious worry, his eyes wild.
"I'll be right there, Ben." She assured him. "I'm on my way."
"Hurry, please." He begged, and the link ended.
She got out of bed and threw on the clothes she'd laid out, stepping into her shoes before leaving the apartment she now called home.
When she returned to Naboo, the Queen had asked her to serve as Senator. Leia, with the First Order destroyed and democracy restored, had agreed, and moved into the housing provided.
Ben and Rey, after his trial, moved into the Amidala estate a few blocks down the way.
When she made it to the hospital, she was ushered upstairs to the maternity ward and spotted Ben seated next to a closed door. His head was in his hands, and the light glinted off the metal of his wedding ring, a sight that Leia didnt think she'd ever get used to.
He looked up when she went to him, and pulled her to him, holding her tightly as his shoulders shook.
Leia combed her fingers through his hair. "How is she?"
He sat back. "The pain started at 4 this morning, but she thought that they were Braxton hicks so she didnt wake me up until after 7 when she-" He looked up, his forehead puckered. "Lost her plug?"
She nodded, both to tell him that she understood and that he'd said it right.
He took a shaky breath. "She said that her contractions were never consistently four minutes apart, but when we got here, they checked her, and she was nearly five centimeters dialated."
Leia nodded again. "Where is she now?"
He looked at the closed door. "She's changing and I came out here to-"
"Fall apart." She finished for her son.
To his credit, Ben didn't even look offended. "Yeah." He admitted.
"Ben!" Rey yelled from inside the room and he flew up, throwing open the door and ran inside.
Rey was in a hospital gown, clutching the bed railing with white knuckled hands. She was pale and her hair was up, unruly pieces sticking out everywhere.
Ben was by her side immediately, giving her his hand to clutch, and gently reminded her to breathe.
She let out a breath and groaned in pain.
Leia stepped out of the room, giving them their privacy, and took the seat her son had emptied.
The hours dragged on, and she was dozing in her chair when Ben ran out of the room, frantically alerting the nurse that Rey had asked for the midwife.
They rushed in.
"She wants you there too, Mom." Ben panted, and Leia didnt hesitate to go to her, taking the younger womans hand and soothing her sweat dampened hair away from her forehead.
"Where's Ben?" Rey pleaded, weakly.
"I'm here." He assured her, taking her other hand.
The bed made a loud clang as the nurses disassembled it, and the midwife put her gloves on before instructing Rey to put her feet in the stirrups on either side.
Ben didnt speak, he didn't move, he barely breathed, holding his breath any time Rey pushed. Leia watched him pale, and quickly moved to stand behind him, prepared to catch him if he toppled over.
After several rounds of pushing, Rey screamed and fell back onto the bed, as the midwife held up the first twin.
"It's a boy!" She announced, smiling widely.
Ben kissed Rey's temple and rested his forehead against hers. "Its a boy." He whispered.
"Is he ok?" Rey muttered, lifting her head up to look at him.
"He's perfect!" The midwife promised, and handed him to a nearby nurse, who took the child to be cleaned and swaddled.
Rey was instructed when she needed to push again, and within minutes, the second twin was born.
"Its a girl!" The midwife told them, holding the baby up for them to see.
A nurse pulled the closures of Reys gown, and the babies were placed on the bare skin of her chest.
Leia felt Ben shake next to her and realized, through her own tears, that he was crying, bent over Rey as she cradled their twins.
"I love you." He said into her hair, kissing her again and again.
Rey looked up at him, smiling, the glow of new motherhood already blossoming on her face. "I love you."
She looked under his arm. "Leia!" She called. "Come on! Come'ere!"
Leia obeyed.
Rey looked at the boy on her right side. "This is Adriel." She announced, and looked at the girl on her left. "And, this is Andra."
An hour later, Rey had been cleaned up and put into a fresh gown, and the twins were brought to them after being weighed and measured.
Adriel weighed in at five pounds, six ounces, while his sister weighed four pounds, eleven ounces.
Both were perfectly healthy, but would be closely monitored as a routine precaution.
Ben brought food for Rey and she ate it as if it were going to disappear, as she always did, then she had fallen asleep.
"Mom," Ben called, and Leia looked up at him. "I want to hold the twins, will you help me?"
She nodded and stood, as Ben pulled his shirt off and sat in a nearby rocking chair.
Leia unwrapped the blanket around Adriel and picked him up, turned, and laid him on Ben's bare chest. She did the same with Andra, then draped a blanket over the three of them.
She stepped back, watching as her son laid a soft kiss on one tiny forehead, and then the other.
Her heart swelled so that she thought it would burst. She had nearly given up hope of ever getting to witness this moment. Thought the possibility of her son returning to her was nonexistent.
She whispered a silence prayer of thanks to the Force, as silent tears spilled down her face.
Her son, her Ben, was lost in the faces of his newborn sleeping twins, and was bathed in light.