Part XIV

Ben took long strides to the door of their quarters and used his palm print to gain access. As the door closed behind him, his hastened motion was brought to a halt as Rey lay completely nude across their bed. Her skin was more pale, winter on Dantooine would soon be melting into spring and he longed for the tanned glow of her toned legs. Even though now the freckles that dusted her nose and cheeks were more pronounced and he wished to trace each with his fingertips, kiss each with his lips, memorize each with his dark eyes.

His cowl and surcoat were being shed from his body without any thought as he left a trail of black robes towards the sleeping quarters. By the time he reached the bed, only his boxer briefs remained and he crawled over her supine body.

"Will you help me with something Ben?" Rey said looking at him with such longing.

He groaned as he could only hope that it involved his face buried between her thighs. So he reached down, running his warm palms along her curves as he dipped his head and kissed along her collar bone and between her breasts. "Anything, my love," he finally spoke, nipping at her tender flesh with his teeth.

"Great!" Rey said as she pushed at his shoulders, sat up fully and called her datapad to her hand with the Force. "I was wondering if you could help me understand some of the figures that Mr. Triblen sent over earlier this week."

Ben was gobsmacked as he too sat back, looking from Rey who was prattling on about population numbers of some world in the Parmel sector and the large situation in his shorts. He swallowed, "You really want to go over your food assistance project…right now?"

"Yeah…" she looked up at him with her most innocent face, "Why? Did you have something else in mind?"

As the gears in his head started to turn, he sighed, giving her the sense that he was giving in. "What did my agricultural counselor have to say?"

Rey frowned just slightly, secretly hoping that he would have put up more of a fight, but looked back down to the datapad, "He says that in some sectors, the issue isn't food shortages per se, but it is getting perishables…fresh foods to the planets before they rot…" She squeaked as Ben grabbed her ankle and pulled, causing her to lay back again. "What are you doing?"

"I'm hungry," he smirked before kissing up the inside of her thigh. Looking up at her over her mound he asked sweetly, "Would you deny a starving man?"

Her lips fell open and her breathing picked up, "No…I would not."

Ben pushed against her thigh, spreading her legs further before stretching out on his stomach between them. "I'm still listening…please continue," he said as he planted kisses to the skin where her legs met her core.

She whimpered, but went on, "Many of these 'food desert' worlds are living strictly off of rations and protein bricks."

He wrapped his lips around her clit and hummed in response, the throaty moan that she produced made him smile against her bud. "So what do you propose?" He asked, running his thumb between her folds, feeling the moisture starting to pool at her entrance.

Rey quickly realized that her plan to tease him had backfired in the most spectacular fashion. "I uh…I…" she groaned as he slid his thick thumb into her. "Kriff, Ben."

"Surely you have thought of something…" he teased as he continued to lap at her core.

Her breath caught as he replaced his thumb with his middle and ring fingers and started to stroke at her inner walls. "Maybe…ugh…since these worlds are in mid and outer regions…oh Gods…" she tried to take a few calming breaths but he was working her body with precision. "Since they were overrun with cartels and smugglers…" the sheets were gripped tightly, "and you put a stop to them…" her back arched off the bed as he sucked on her clit.

When he felt her legs start to shake on either side of his head, he pulled his lips from her and halted his fingers, "Finish your thought."

Rey popped her head up from where it had been thrown back, her expression pained as her core throbbed for release. The small mounds of her breasts rose and fell with heaving breaths. "Only if you promise to finish what you started…"

In reply Ben curled his fingers within her and slightly pulled forward, compressing the spongy tissues at the front of her core. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her body involuntarily jerked. "I promise…" and he stilled again.

"Transports carrying food were being boarded and robbed so the cartels could double the price and sell it back to the same worlds it was intended for…but now that the cartels are being policed, we could offer TIE escorts…" he wiggled his fingers and she bit at her lip, "to ensure that relief goods get to the people and not the crime bosses."

"Very good, my love," Ben cooed and started to rub his fingers deep within her again.

"Gods, Ben," she breathed and gripped his hair in her hands, bringing his lips back to her bud, "just make me come…"

His chuckle vibrated his tongue against her clit and her hips jumped. He snaked his free arm under her leg before running it up her body and pinching at her dark blushing nipple. The pulling from within her, the sucking of his lips, and the pinching of his fingers proved to be too much for his precious Rey and she peaked, calling out his name and cursing in Teedospeak, just as a Jakku Empress should.

Before she could come down from her high and while she lay boneless and sated, Ben slid his hard length into her still quivering heat and the most lovely of moans escaped her lips. Now it was his turn to curse at the feeling of seer tightness and words that his Uncle Chewie taught him fell from his lips and into the crook of her neck.

Even in the bond, it had been two weeks since they came together and Ben knew he wasn't going to last long. So he shifted her hips, catching her right leg behind the knee and pressed it up to her chest as he made swift and deep thrusts into her.

Rey wasn't sure when her first orgasm ended and the second began, but as her body tighten and her lungs forgot how to take in air, Ben rutted in deep and grunted out his release. After a long moment as his heart slammed against his ribs, he slid out of her and rested his head upon her chest, listening to her heart hum with just as much force.

She reached up with pleasure heavy arms, carding her fingers through his hair and started to hum the lullaby that she had on Mygeeto. Ben sank deeper on to her body and before long she felt the soft puffs of breath as he drifted to sleep.

Allowing him to sleep as long as her body would allow, Rey stroked at his hair and back for over an hour before pushing at his shoulder, "Ben..." she whispered. When he grunted in reply she pushed again, "I have to pee...you will need to let me up."

Ben just grunted again and lifted himself up slightly so she could slide out from under him. She grabbed her bag on the way to the fresher and her bladder was thankful for some relief. Looking in the mirror she appraised her body, not as thin as when she had left Jakku, but still toned from hours of training per week. Turning to the side she ran her hands over her lower abdomen...thinking...wondering...considering...before shaking her head and taking the small bottle from her bag. She used water from the skin to swallow the little white pill and she patted her lips dry with a dark gray towel.

Back out in their quarters, Ben had managed to wiggle himself under the thick quilt and Rey carefully slipped in beside him. His strong arm came around her waist and he pulled her back to his chest, nuzzling into her neck. "You still taking those pills?" His voice was laced with sleep. He had continued to supply her with them, still with the understanding that it was her choice.

"I'm not ready yet," she said out into the emptiness of their room.

Ben just grunted, slightly disappointed but knew that they had plenty of time to start a family in the future. So, for now, he just spread his wide hand across the skin that stretched taut between her hip bones, thinking about one day when it would grow with their child.

They both slumbered, each dreaming of a child with dark hair and hazel eyes.

Minutes...hours...days later Ben woke to the sound of the comm by the chamber door. Sluggishly, and still nude, he walked to the door and clicked the button on his end, "Yes?"

"Sir," Davin's voice came through the speaker. "We will be exiting hyperspace soon."

"Thank you," Ben answered simply before clicking the comm back off and wandering back over to the bed.

He knelt down on the floor, watching her sleep for just a moment. Her lashes fell thick across her freckled cheeks and her slim nose was perhaps the cutest thing he had ever seen. Her lips were rosy and maybe just a bit swollen. Her chestnut hair was a mess and he almost laughed at the partly sex rumpled and part bed head state of it. Brushing some of the strands from her forehead, he kissed her temple.

Rey whimpered with sleep. Their bed was comfortable, and warm, and smelled like him, and was theirs. She would be the only person to share this bed with him. Perhaps one day he would make love to her on this bed as her husband. Just maybe one day they would conceive their first child in this bed. Until she met Ben, Rey had no idea how important the place she lay her head could be.

It may have been wrong of him, but as the Force warmed around them, he took a glimpse of her mind, seeing just the outline of her waking thoughts and his heart swelled. When her eyes blinked opened he stroked her soft cheek with his calloused fingertips, "Come shower with me. I want you on the bridge when we come upon the system."

Still too tired and sated to deny him, she just took his hand and let him pull her into the fresher. He washed her, her eyes lulled closed again but this time with the lovely feeling of his hands across her heated skin. He went down on one knee, running lathered hands down each of her legs and pulling his thumb through her curls and between her lips, grazing her clit and opening as he placed a kiss to her lower abdomen

For just a moment, Rey wanted to throw the rest of the damned white pills out of the airlock, but as much as she belonged to the man before her, he had been right in saying that pieces of her still resided with the Resistance and if she was going to bring a child...their child into this galaxy, it wouldn't be with millions of parsecs separating the mother and father. So she just stroked at the right side of his face, down her mark, and looked forward to one day...

Ben washed quickly before they both exited the fresher. Rey finally started to believe that they were going to a warmer planet when Ben pulled breezy and lightweight clothing from her side of the closet. He also draped a new pair of cream colored arm wraps into her hands, "Only if you want," knowing that the wraps were somewhat of a comfort to her.

Rey dressed in the soft linen outfit as Ben slid into something similar to Jedi robes but in black, foregoing his surcoat for the more tropical climate that awaited them.

They both felt the ship shudder as it came out of hyperspace and he leaned over to place his hands at the small of her back, "We should get going," before he started moving them towards the door of their quarters.

Walking the short distance to the bridge, Rey started to feel her excitement rise. The view out of the ship's windscreen was breathtaking. The system they were in was littered with planets and moons, each looking more green and inviting than the next.

"Welcome to Endor," Ben whispered against her ear as he watched the look of awe settle over her face.

Rey was not ignorant to the significance of this small system and it's heavily wooded moon. What she was unsure of is how Ben felt that Kylo Ren was born here and not at the academy or under Snoke's mentorship.

She would let him share that in his own time, for now, she was enjoying the sweeping passes they were making between Endor and it's moon and she took in all of the splendor of the scenery.

"Take us down to the surface," Ben commanded. Arlan shifted the course of the shuttle and they broke atmosphere headed down to the surface of Endor's Sanctuary Moon.

Rey pressed herself to the console between the pilot and copilot seat, amazed by the sheer size of the trees that grew on the surface. She mused that perhaps only the Wroshyr trees on Chewie's home planet of Kashyyyk could rival their size. If Endor didn't orbit another planet by the same name, Rey could hardly think to call the inhabitable world a moon.

With the wings of the Command Shuttle folded up, Arlan was able to land within the heavy tree cover and Rey was actually impressed with the other woman's skills at the controls. Surprising enough also, it did not bother her that one of Ben's guards was female, she found instead that she was proud of him for not being misogynistic.

"Go open the base and get settled in, Rey and I are going to be out for most of the day," Ben said as he reached for Rey's hand to lead her from the shuttle.

"Sir," Cale said more questioning than accepting of the order. After the failed attempt on the Emperor's life, the guards had hardly been out of earshot of their leader.

Ben turned back to his guard unit, knowing that they had been instructed to not leave his side, but he was now superseding that order because the time and story he would share with Rey on this day was only for her. But he still enjoyed frustrating his guards as much as possible, the Solo prankster in him still lived on, so he turned to Rey again, "My dear…what do we do if we come upon a foe?"

Rey saw the glint in his eyes and the sweet mocking tone of his voice, so she fixed her face into an innocent expression before shrugging, "Cut them in half with our sabers…we seem to be very good at that."

He wasn't sure if he should go pale or laugh at her response, but he just pressed his lips together to swallow down a snort, "Good girl," he cooed instead. Turning again to Cale, he nodded his head, "See…we will be fine."

Cale at least waited until his Emperor's back was turned before rolling his eyes and looking over at Davin as if saying, 'We are so fucking dead, man…', for it was well known that if harm should come to the Emperor…or heaven forbid, the Empress under their guard, it would be their necks.

On their way out of the shuttle, Ben passed Rey a ration pack and she sowed it away in the leather pouch that hung off her belt and was fastened to her right thigh. Her saber was firmly attached at her back and she stepped off the ramp onto the soft soil of Endor.

The air here was clean…fresh like after a heavy rain. She was dwarfed by the trees and she doubted that even if she joined hands with Ben, they could encircle one of the massive trunks. Off to her left, she could see what looked like moss covered stone.

"It's an old Imperial base," Ben explained coming down off the shuttle behind her. He held out his hand, "Come with me."

She took his extended hand and they started to walk off into the woods. Rey was glad to be anchored to him since she couldn't stop looking around her at the towering trees. Everything was so green and the canopy so thick that she could no longer see the cloudless blue sky. After about half an hour of walking, Ben rounded a large tree and then started to ascend a set of stairs built around the hulking trunk.

Rey followed him up the spiraling staircase, "What is this place?"

"An old Ewok village…many of the natives combined their numbers into larger villages and abandoned some of these outlying ones. They feared another invasion and felt safer in greater numbers."

She didn't dare count the number of stairs they climbed and she was also thankful that scrapping in the large Destroyers had made her not affected by heights, but she was slightly out of breath as they came to a platform perhaps a few hundred feet from the forest floor. Fearlessly, Ben grabbed on to a railing that she mused was older than them both and he swung into a seated position, his legs from the knees down dangling over the edge. Not to be outdone by him, Rey took up residence next to him, the bottom rail came to her mid-chest and she rested her elbows upon it, sighing and looking out on the maze of bridges that linked trees together.

"This is amazing, Ben. Thank you for bringing me here…" she decided to try and ease into the true reason for their visit.

He read between the lines and leaned back, propping his arms out behind him to hold him in a reclined position. "I first came here when I was twenty-four, about a year after I left the academy."

Rey looked back at him and his gaze was far off into the trees, so she just turned back as well, looking off into the distance and listened.

"My parents never told me about Vader. They would whisper behind my back that I was too much like my grandfather, but I thought it was a good thing to be compared to Anakin Skywalker, but they were seeing the dark that cut through my light." Rey looked over her shoulder at him quickly and he smirked, "I wasn't born evil…"

"I know that," Rey said quietly before shifting her body and laying her head in his lap, still looking out at the forest.

"Snoke was in my mind for as long as I can remember, always telling me that he could make me as great as my grandfather…I thought he wanted to make me a great Jedi, but he stoked my anger and pain, so by the time my uncle tried to kill me, I was so easily seduced by the Darkside." He absentmindedly stroked at her hair.

"When Snoke told me my true heritage I felt even more betrayed. I stopped being a child at the time my parents thought it appropriate to leave me on my own for a month…I was fourteen. But they could never be bothered to tell me the truth about our family. All the times they whispered that I was like him…like Vader…they were scared of me. I was a boy and they were scared of me, of what they already assumed I would become."

Rey took the hand that had halted on her shoulder and placed a soft kiss to his wrist, hoping he would understand that she was there to love him, not judge him. It seemed to work when she heard his breath shutter.

"No one came looking for me after the academy, Luke had told them that I was already too far gone and my mother believed him and didn't even put up a fight for me." He sat forward some so he could look down upon Rey's face, "When you stood up to Snoke…when you told him that he underestimated me, that was the first time someone has ever come to save me, the first time anyone has fought for me. I hope you know how important that moment was to me."

"You're worth fighting for," Rey had turned her head to meet his gaze and lifted her right hand to stroke the channel down his cheek.

Now he took her hand, nuzzling his pronounced nose into her palm before pressing his lips to the pulse point on the inside of her wrist. He would never deserve her, but he sighed and placed her hand back around her middle before they both looked back out over the forest. "I made Snoke tell me everything he knew about my grandfather and that led me to Endor for the first time. I know it seems silly, like going to a cemetery to talk to the dead, but I thought that if I came here that I would somehow be able to feel him, be able to ask him what to do.

"I spent six weeks here, living out of my shuttle and also in the Imperial base. I spent days walking the forest, steeping myself in Darkness, trying to be worthy of my bloodline. Anakin was born of the Force, I am only here because the Forced willed it."

"Do you think I'm a child of the Force," Rey asked offhandedly.

Ben stroked at her hair again, "I don't think so, I saw both of your parents in the vision, but I wouldn't be surprised if you came from one of the Master lines."

"Master lines?" Rey questioned turning her head in his lap again and looking up at him.

"A Kenobi, Palpatine, Jinn, Revan, or Billaba perhaps."

"But not a Skywalker," she teased.

He laughed, "I never asked Luke if he truly lived by the Jedi code, but it wouldn't be the first time my family has engaged in taboo behavior."

Rey's face screwed up, "What?"

"Leia and Luke kissed like three or four times before they knew they were siblings…a few of those times right in front of Han," he had to continue to chuckle at the ridiculousness of his family.

"Ugh," Rey groaned. "Let's just thank the Force that we aren't related."

Ben shrugged, "Luke could have a love child he never knew about…we could in all possibility be cousins…"

Rey now sat up, gripping on to the railing to steady her rapid movements, "That's not funny Ben, we've had sex…lots and lots of sex…" Rey thought she might hyperventilate.

He smiled, "Yes…lots and lots of sex, and that is perhaps why I am the luckiest man in the galaxy." He leaned in to kiss her and she moved her head back a slightly mortified look on her face. "We aren't related Rey…I'm just messing with you."

"How are you so sure," she looked at him with suspicion.

Sighing and leaning back on his arms again, he started, "Families…blood lines, have a special connection…"

"Like our bond?" She was becoming more terrified.

"No, our bond is something completely different and rare, usually only between Master and apprentice and developed over time with trust and understanding of one another, but ours was instantaneous as if the Force couldn't wait around for us to finally get it right."

"But the family bonds…" Even if she was not a Skywalker, she could still have family out there and she wanted to know if she could connect to them somehow.

"It's like a warm feeling…the connection is unconditional. My mother said she could feel my emotions…my signature, even before I was born. That may have been why my mother kissed Luke, she felt a kinship bond and mistook it for love."

"You still aren't helping, Ben."

He finally took her chin between his thumb and forefinger, "We are not related, but if I had to guess, I think you came from a Sith line."

She jerked her face out of his grip, "How do you figure?"

"Like me, you are gray, you do not fear the dark, you embrace it, use it, then return to the light. It may have been diluted over many generations, but you have Darksider blood in your veins."

Tears started to form in her eyes and Ben now took her face between his palms, "The possibility of a Sith bloodline doesn't make you inherently an evil or dark person, it doesn't make me love you less, it doesn't make you unworthy…" he sighed as her expression started to crumble. "It makes you strong and special and fierce and powerful. It makes you incredible. There is no one else out there like you and I am so lucky to be loved by you."

When she still hadn't replied he pressed his lips to hers for just a moment before becoming very serious, "We are not the sins of our parents…of our grandparents…blood of the past does not define our futures." His grip on her face tighten just slightly, "Do you understand?"

She could only nod as tears slid between his fingers as they were pressed into her cheeks. Rey pulled at the collar of his tunic, bringing his lips back to hers. "Promise me…" she said into their kiss, "That if the darkness ever calls to me…that you will pull me back to the light." Tears continued to stream down her face.

"My love will always be the compass that will lead you home."

AN: God, the fluff kills me sometimes but I do love it. I hope you all feel the same.