"More?" Rey felt dread beginning to build in him.
"Much more." He said and trodged over to sit down on the edge of the bed. He dropped his head into his hands and sighed. "I promised myself that once I had given you the fleet and got people to agree to talk to you I would show you everything. I'm sorry I didn't show you sooner, I just… I needed time with you."
"Ben, whatever it is…" She walked over to sit beside him and took his hand in hers. "I can handle it. I love you. Apparently, I always have, and I definitely always will."
They shifted around to face each other on the edge of the bed, each with one foot still on the floor.
She said encouragingly. "What happened next?"
"We took you back to Yavin with us. You slept the whole way there, curled up on my lap like a pet. Everytime I tried to put you down you'd wake up and scream at me." He smiled wistfully. "You were a wild little thing. So fierce!"
"Show me." She said with a frown.
He slipped into her mind and she slipped into his. 'This is a good one.' He said and smiled as the memory began to play in their shared conciousness.
"No!" She bellowed, clutching two tiny fistfulls of his hair. "Nooooooo!"
Ben's scalp was on fire where she jerked at his hair.
Luke laughed from across the room. "You might need a bigger tub."
"She'll fit in this one." He grumbled back.
"I don't think she's ever had a bath before." Luke was enjoying this way too much as far as Ben was concerned. "You might need to get in with her so she's not so afraid."
"I am not getting in the bath with her!" Ben was shocked and mortified at the prospect.
"Your clothes can be dried, but her dirt isn't going away on it's own." Luke pointed out. "You're both dressed, anyway, think of it like swimming… in warm water." They had both agreed that if they were going to have to take care of a little girl it wouldn't hurt to wash her in her clothes, especially this time, since her clothes were just as dirty as she was.
"Swimming? She might go for that! Can I take her down to the stream? To swim? I'll take the soap along." He asked, full of hope.
"In the dark? No way, too dangerous." Luke shook his head. "The tub will have to do."
Ben tried again to pry her off of him, but she wasn't having it. "No-No! Ben!" She clamped his temples between her chubby little baby hands and her eyes bored into his. In an instant he saw a muddy watering trough with a bloated bird carcass floating on it. The bird's eyes were covered in a milky film and he could smell the rank odor pouring off of it. A moment later the picture shifted and it was her floating face up in the tub with white milky film over her eyes.
Ben was shocked. "Luke?" He said, scared half to death but trying hard not to show it. "Something wierd just happened."
"What?" Luke didn't sound concerned.
"She just showed me why she's scared." Ben said shakily.
"What?" Luke walked over to where Ben stood with Rey's hands still pressed to his temples.
"Can you show Luke?" Ben asked her, trying hard to sound like what she'd just done was a good thing.
"No." She pouted. "My Ben."
"Can you show Ben, again?" Luke asked encouragingly and Ben felt his uncle probe his mind.
The image flashed through Ben's mind again and Luke frowned. "Did she just show you something? Your mind went black."
"Black?" Ben started shaking.
"It's like your mind disappeared for a few seconds." Luke said, fear evident in his voice.
"Ben?" She asked. "Scared?"
Ben was scared, but he didn't want to admit it in front of Luke any more than he wanted to scare her so he tried his best to smile. "No, I'm not scared of you." He hugged her to him for a moment and looked at Luke, his mind screaming 'what's happening?'
"Later." Luke said quietly. Then louder he asked Rey "How about if Ben gets in the water with you? Would you like that?"
An image flashed through Ben's mind of him sitting cross legged in the tub with her in his lap. "Ben!" She said affirmatively.
"She showed you something, just now, didn't she?" Luke said as if he'd discovered something new. "I felt a tremor in the force just then."
"She wants me to get in with her." Ben confirmed.
"Well, get her cleaned up, I'll go see if I can find something dry that she can put on when she gets out." He hessitated. "Do you think she can change on her own?"
"I hope so... Just get her one of my shirts." He said to Luke and then to Rey, "I have to put you down to take my boots off, alright?"
She looked heartbroken but nodded and allowed him to set her on her feet long enough to take his boots off. "Me up!" She demanded.
"You down." He said. "You need yours off, too."
She tilted her head at him.
He mimicked her and pointed to her feet.
"Shoos!" She said and plopped down to thrust one little foot toward him. "Shoos Ben!"
He squatted down and took her shoes off for her then tickled her feet while she giggled and squirmed.
When Luke returned Ben stepped into the small wooden tub minus only his boots and sat down, crosslegged in the tepid water. He lifted her into the tub and settled her on his lap.
It didn't take her long to start to enjoy the water, but getting some in her nose while splashing cured her of that pretty fast. She howled the whole time he soaped her up and even louder when he wet her hair and soaped it up too.
By the time he had her rinsed off he was covered in soap and bearing a whole array of scratches and a few bite marks. He passed her off to Luke and splashed water on his face to get the soap out of his stinging eyes.
"Maybe we should look for a nanny for her." Luke yelled over the sound of her screams as Ben stepped dripping from the tub.
"Yeah!" Ben agreed, wiping a trickle of blood from the back of his hand onto the leg of his pants.
"When we finally got you changed I had to get changed too, and I could hear you screaming from two huts over the whole time I was gone." He smiled wistfully at the memory. "You wouldn't even lay down unless I laid down with you, but once I did we both fell right to sleep."
He looked at her then and his smile dissolved. "That was the first time I saw him..." He took a deep breath. "I should have told you sooner..."
