Two days later…
"When are you going to place the order for my TIE?" Rey asked through the simcap headset as she drove headlong toward Ben's simulated fighter at full speed.
"Pull up!" Ben shouted and flinched as she passed overhead within inches of disaster. "Are you trying to get us both killed?"
She rolled her eyes and said with mild annoyance, "No. I was shooting down the guy who was about to shoot you down."
"Oh." He flipped his fighter up on it's side and did a tight U turn to fall in beside her. "A little warning would have been nice."
"If you had been paying attention you wouldn't have needed one." She frowned. It wasn't like him to let his attention wander. "Why are you so distracted?"
"I don't know." He admitted. "Something's off."
"What kind of something?" She had a sneaking suspicion.
"I don't know. Something doesn't feel right." He said ominously.
"Is it about the conference?" She hoped.
"No, that went way better than I'd even hoped for." He said dismissively.
"The datadiscs?" 'Anything but what I think it is?' She thought to herself. Their minds were disconnected, as usual in the normal events of everyday life, as both relished their privacy too much to stay connected all the time.
"I don't think so. I just have this feeling like I'm missing some very important piece of information but I don't even know about what." He truly couldn't figure it and it was annoying him to no end.
Rey worried her bottom lip a moment before saying, "That must be bothersome." In a less than successful attempt at sympathy. The truth was she knew what was bothering him, but wasn't quite ready to talk about it just yet.
"It is." He grimaced and tapped on his control panel. "Lets see how we do against a dozen. Join with me."
"I'd rather not." She said as a dozen X-wings appeared in front of them.
"You'd rather not?" His confusion was evident in his voice. "Why not?"
"We can do this without joining, it's only a dozen." The false note in her voice was evident in her own ears, she hoped it didnt carry over the coms equipment.
He tapped a few more buttons, their screens went blank and both simcaps opened with a hiss. He ripped off his headgear. "What aren't you telling me?" He demanded angrily as she removed her coms equipment.
"What makes you think I'm not telling you something?" She asked defensively.
"You've never once refused me access to your mind. Not once." He moved to tower over her, pointing in her face he said, "You're hiding something."
She blanched.
"I knew it!" He spun away from her, took two steps then turned back towards her. "What is it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." She said looking guilty as sin.
He stepped in and grabbed her by the bicepts. He felt so betrayed that anger sizzled through his nlood hot and sharply. "Stop lying to me!"
"You're hurting me! Let go!" She demanded instantly becoming angry herself.
He let go of her and raked both hands through his hair, staring at her with a wild look in his eyes. "Are you leaving me?"
"What?" She gasped. "No! Never!" She stepped in and wrapped her arms around his middle.
"Promise me?" His voice was so heartbreakingly pleading that she broke down and decided to tell him the truth.
"Ben, it isn't like that at all." She said gently and reached up to cup his face with both hands. Gazing into his eyes she smiled tenatively and said, "I'm pregnant."
His whole demeanor changed in a second. He went from anxious, scared and near tears to completely blank. His eyes grew as round as saucers his mouth gaped open, "Pregnant?"
"I had it confirmed in medbay this morning..." He was still gaping at her by the time she finished speaking and that made her nervous. "Are you upset?"
He blinked at her a few times, his mouth opening and closing like a fish.
"Say something, damn you!" She snapped angrily.
"A baby?" He said after long enough to make it uncomfortable. "Seriously?"
"You are upset." She wanted to cry.
"Upset?" He blinked owlishly. "No."
She reached out to his mind and slipped inside easily.
He wasn't feeling a thing. Nothing. It was like his emotions were switched off completely.
She frowned. "Are you ok?"
"I think I need to sit down." He said then stumbled and tripped against the side of his simcap.
"You're not ok!" She gasped and helped him to get sat down on the floor with his back against the simulator capsule. "Breathe." She said soothingly. "Just breathe."
She heard her voice echo through his mind, 'I'm pregnant... I'm pregnant… I'm pregnant'
"Don't you dare faint on me!" She demanded.
Suddenly, without warning, his emotions switched back on.
Disbelief, followed by terror, zinged through him then disappeared in a burst of joy. "We're having a baby!" He whooped. "A baby!"
He scrambled to his knees and kissed her belly. "I can't believe it!"
She laughed a little hysterically as the stress of the last few minutes faded into a shared sense of joy.
"Is it a boy or a girl?" He pressed his mouth against the fabric of her flight suit. "Hello in there."
"Stop that!" She giggled. "It's way too soon to tell if it's a boy or a girl and I'm pretty sure it can't hear you."
"When?" His eyes were huge and glassy when he looked up at her.
"Uhm… well, if the tests are right… we've got about 8 months to wait." She smoothed the hair back from his forehead and leaned down to kiss it.
"I bet it was the shower!" He beamed, wrapping his arms around the backs of her thighs and standing up, holding her so that she was head and shoulders above him. "I knew that bright light had to mean something!"
"I think you might be right about that." She giggled. "Put me down, people are staring at us."
"We're having a baby!" He yelled then grinned up at her. "There, now they know we're not crazy."
